"How did it even turn out like this.."

Kagami bit her lip to stop herself from lashing out at her tormentor. It wouldn't do any good to antagonize the person who was, more or less, her host on this cold, winter night. If she was to spend the entire night at Konata Izumi's house, the worst thing she could do was start an argument.

Sure, she didn't want to deal with Konata right now. After all, it was Christmas Eve and she'd rather be doing anything else than playing video games at her best friend's house- not literally, of course- but she still felt a slight bit of gratefulness towards the blue-haired otaku. Her friend may be an enthusiast about all the wrong things, but that didn't change the fact that the girl was mutually her best friend. If Konata was willing to be hospitable, then she should at least return the favor and be a good guest.

But still, she felt a spark of annoyance at the fact that, out of all the other things she could be doing, she was at the Izumi house playing 2p versus video games. Not that she resented Konata or anything, but it seemed like such a.. such a waste of the holidays to spend it with someone she was already around practically all year.

That being said, Kagami wasn't in the best of moods. While most visits to her friend's house usually ended up in friendly rivalry over a video game (even the "study sessions" turned out that way), the air in the room was layered with tension. She was fully aware that the awkward atmosphere was her fault; when Kagami had first arrived, Konata had tried numerous times to strike up a conversation- each time, she received either no response or a couple words. Now they sat in relative silence, save for the tapping of buttons on the console's controllers.

Kagami's eyes glanced at the top corner of the screen, noting her character's status and current health. It was steadily going down, draining like someone had cut a hole in the bottom of a flask of vivid-blue water. Her fingers reactively sped up, going into overdrive as they started to hit the buttons faster and more repetitively as her mind did its best to keep her virtual self from death-

When her side of the screen flashed and took on a grayscale tint, Kagami growled in annoyance. While she wasn't normally one to let video games get to her, dieing against Konata really wasn't something that helped her feel any better about the situation.

"H-hey, Kagamin.. You okay?" The figure to her right asked in a half-whisper. Kagami immediately pushed away her temper at the nervous tone in Konata's voice, knowing that the girl probably thought she was frustrated over losing.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, I'm not mad at you," she replied.

For a moment neither of them spoke. In her peripheral vision, Kagami could see the vibrant greens of Konata's eyes.

"Do you.. want something to drink?" Konata asked weakly.
"There are snacks too.."

"Um.. yeah, sure. Er, let me get them. You can stay here," she said as she got to her feet, motioning somewhat frantically for Konata to sit down. Bemused, the blue-haired girl complied and stayed put.

Kagami kept her back to Konata, but she still picked up on the nearly inaudible sigh coming from behind her. Forcing herself to keep walking, Kagami furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. There was no point to keeping up this uncomfortable atmosphere. Why was she being so frosty towards her best friend anyways? It was Christmas, for the love of-

That was it, wasn't it?

Was she hesitant to interact with Konata because it was Christmas? Kagami wanted to slap herself in the head. She had let her ideas of a romantic night out on the town interfere with her relationship with her best friend; not that she even had a romantic partner, yet here she was dreaming about having one.

Kagami sighed through her teeth, reprimanding herself for being an idiot. Now she had to go fix things up with Konata, or else this awkward tension would continue for the rest of the night.

Grabbing some random drinks from the fridge, she pushed the door closed with her foot and headed back towards the central room.

"O-oh, Kagami.. Did you find what you wanted?" Konata looked up as Kagami walked in.

"Konata, stop it," said Kagami.

"Stop what?"

"You know.. being nervous. Stop it," she said.

"I'm sorry-" Konata apologized before Kagami cut her off again.

"See? Stop."

"..."

Following that exchange was silence. Weighty, tense silence. Kagami placed the tray of snacks and the drink she had brought from the fridge on the surface of the short table, sitting down on the same side as Konata. She snuck a glance at her friend. Her head was turned straight, looking down at an angle, and her hands were out of sight, hidden behind her knees.

"Alright!" All of a sudden, Konata's head snapped up and she turned to face Kagami with a wide smile on her face.
"I'm not nervous anymore."

"Well that was fast.." Kagami muttered, but she had to lessen the smile that made its way onto her face. Something about Konata's happy-go-lucky nature was enough to pick your emotions up into the clouds and drop it back into the sea, over and over again.

"I was just sort of worried about you, Kagami.." Konata started again, the smile that was previously there starting to fade.
"You were so distant.. you were ignoring me and I thought I did something wrong.. Did I?"

"No, of course not," Kagami reassured her.
"It was all my fault, okay? I was confused, because it was Christmas and I thought that this would be awkward, but I was wrong. You're my best friend, Konata, and nothing will change that. So, let's enjoy the night, alright?"

"..." Konata blinked slowly. A mischievous smirk grew on her lips.
"Wow, I already got friendzoned.. Damn."

"Hey.." Kagami glared at her, hiding the satisfaction she felt at having gotten Konata back to her regular self. It was obvious that the blue-haired girl wanted to change the subject so she could move away from the topic of her previous behavior. She decided not to pursue the issue, although she knew that Konata would've actually taken notes as possible if roles had been swapped.

"I know, just kidding. I'm not that sensitive, or that romantic, or whatever," Konata shrugged.
"You know me!"

They shared a quick laugh. Their eyes met, and Kagami smiled as wide as she could- just this one time.

"Hey, Kagamin.. When you said let's enjoy the night, what were you implying?" Konata asked, her voice dripping with innocence.

"Hmm?" Kagami tilted her head, not quite understanding.

"Well, I don't mean to be picky about your taste, but.. This is alcoholic- like, super high concentration, you do realize that?" Konata voice was deadpan as she pointed at the bottle on the table.

Kagami turned to look at the drink she had grabbed out of the fridge while she had been distracted by her own thoughts. When she looked at Konata again, the girl had a devilish smile on her face.

"Are you trying to get me drunk? Is that what's going on here?"

"No, I swear to everything that I wasn't looking! I didn't even know it was alcohol! Plus, why do you even have this in your house?!" She argued, knowing that a reddish-pink blush was starting to tint her cheeks out of embarrassment.

"You're never going to live this down, Ka-ga-min! Oh, repaying my kindness to you by attempting to do lewd things to my inebriated self.. You know, let's actually do that!"

Kagami groaned, burying her face in her arms.

"What the heck, of course not!"

~ [Happy Holidays! -Sym] ~