Author's Note: No, I didn't forget about this story again. But I'm having a serious writer's block here and I have had no inspiration. Been suffering for about a month now give or take a few days. Someone needs to come up with the cure for this serious chronic disease that is slowly killing our writers. End writer's block, find the cure. Anyway, enough of my ramblings, here's my attempt at chapter 3. By the way, for those of you haven't read the prequel to this, "One Hot Summer", Shino is Shizuma's twin brother who is also engaged to Miyuki. You'll see why I mentioned that later. Read, Review, Rejoice!

Chapter 3:
Just Another Day

The midday sunlight peeked through the window and glimmered over the peaceful, red-headed form that breathed ever so gently. Her eyes tried to open but her mind still needed a bit more rest. Slowly she pried her eyes slightly and inhaled deeply and then, just as slowly, she winced her eyes back shut. How she loved the sweet, smoky aroma of her home.

Wait, smoke?

Nagisa took another deep breath and her eyes shot open.

Is that smoke!

She quickly rolled over to alert her lover only to be shocked when she realized that Shizuma was gone. She got up frantically searching the room for her missing lover but to no avail.

Nagisa bulked up some courage and ran downstairs to the source of the problem, the kitchen. The thick smoke was too dense to see through, but Nagisa could hear coughing on the other side of the kitchen.

"Who's there?" Nagisa called.

"Is that you Nagisa?" replied a familiar voice made almost unrecognizable by the dense fog-like smoke.

"Shizuma!"

Nagisa felt her heart leap as she realized her missing lover was actually in the heart of the smoke. Nagisa covered her mouth and pressed herself against the kitchen wall. She felt around, moving as close to the wall as possible. Finally she found what she was looking for and she thanked God that her family decided to invest in a fire extinguisher for the home. She grabbed the extinguisher and sprayed wildly towards the source of smoke.

"Nagisa!" Shizuma called followed by a few coughs. "Nagisa stop!"

The panicking red-head began to calm and she placed the extinguisher back on its rack. The smoke was cleared up and she could clearly see her silver haired goddess, although now covered in foam. Nagisa quickly ran to embrace Shizuma.

"Oh my God, Shizuma I'm so glad you're safe." Nagisa squealed as she hugged her older lover.

However, surprisingly Shizuma didn't seem to react the way Nagisa expected. In fact, Shizuma practically pulled away from Nagisa.

"Look what you did!" Shizuma pointed toward a charred frying pan on the stove that was engulfed in foam with a spatula in hand.

Nagisa curiously dug under the foam, but all she found was something that was black and hard like coal, obviously the cause of the smoke and could have easily turned into the cause of a fire.

"You ruined my breakfast." Shizuma mumbled.

"Eh! You were actually going to eat that!"

Shizuma scratched her head with an awkward chuckle. "Cooking's not really my forte."

…

After a few minutes of clean up, Nagisa fried a few eggs sunny-side up for Shizuma. As a safety precaution, Shizuma had to wait in the living room for breakfast, or at least anywhere that was a safe distance from the kitchen.

Within a few moments Nagisa emerged from the kitchen carrying a platter with the eggs and some tea. She rested the tray down on the coffee table in front of Shizuma and placed a kissed on her girlfriend's forehead. She giggled, "You should stick to what you're good at."

Shizuma took a sip of tea and sighed. "If I do that, how will I ever get better at anything?"

Nagisa had a puzzled look on her face. "What do you mean?"

"Nagisa, do you think I was born playing the piano, or dancing, or speaking French?" Shizuma slammed her hands on the table and eyed them intensely. "No! I had to get up and learn, that meant practicing. I had to build myself up with my own two hands. Sometimes they'd be trembling, numb, and sometimes it hurt to move even just a finger. But no matter how much I screwed up, I kept at it until I got to a level I could be proud of. And now, it's the job of these hands to build a future for myself."

Suddenly Shizuma felt small, soft, but warm fingers intertwine with hers. She looked at Nagisa and received an inviting and reassuring smile. Nagisa locked their hands together and brought them close to her chest.

"A future is hard to build. That's why I want to build mine together with you. Sometimes there are things two hands can't do alone. That's why you don't have just me, but all our important friends too. Miyuki, Shino, Tamao, Amane and Hikari, Tsubomi and Yaya, Kaname and Momomi, and everyone else from the Strawberry Dorms. We all love you Shizuma."

"Nagisa…"

"And we don't love you because of what you can do, we love you because it is you. Our irreplaceable Shizuma Hanazono. Don't worry about what these hands can't do because they'll never be able to do everything."

Shizuma could no longer fight them. The tears somehow snuck their way out. She breathed almost inaudibly. "Baka. How's saying all that supposed to make me feel better?"

She said that, but she couldn't hold back that infectious smile Nagisa passed on to her. It was so sweet, so innocent, so warming, comforting, inviting. It always wiped away the negative feelings. Shizuma loved that smile.

Nagisa moved Shizuma's hand and put it around her shoulder, then moved in closer. She leaned in close enough for them to be able to feel each other's hot breath on their lips. Shizuma couldn't take it anymore, so she closed the gap between them. She grabbed Nagisa's lips with her own, hungrily nibbling and sucking at them before diving her tongue into Nagisa's mouth. She licked, explored and by all means, dominated.

As the moments went by, emotions got deeper, temperatures got higher, and raw passion replaced self-control. Shizuma was now laying on the couch with Nagisa on top of her, straddling her waist. They were still lip locked together.

Shizuma's hands were exploring underneath Nagisa's blouse, unsnapping her bra skillfully. Nagisa broke their kiss and was pulling her blouse over her head. Suddenly, midway through, they heard a snap and the jingle of keys sliding out the door. Nagisa pulled her shirt back down and hurried to try to fix her clothes and disheveled hair. Shizuma ,who normally made no attempt to check and fix her appearance after a moment of intimacy, was struggling to fix her hair and pull it back into its normal style.

Nagisa hurriedly hopped off of Shizuma. Sadly though, while coming down she hit her foot on the coffee table and lost balance. Shizuma, being the person she was, attempted to catch Nagisa but ended up pulling herself down as well.

The reason why couples are supposed to get their own place is because its hard to explain when you get caught by your lover's parents while you have their daughter in a rather "compromising" position. Its even harder to explain when that same lover's mother is a knife wielding demon in angel's clothing.

Nagisa's parents had just come back from visiting an old friend they hadn't seen in a long time. Mr. Aoi needed a little fresh air and reminiscing to get over the little "discussion" plus the fact that his daughter thinks he's the worst dad in the world now (So he thought anyway).

The first thing they saw as they entered the house was Shizuma on top of Nagisa on their living room floor. At that moment, Mrs. Aoi raged inwardly, killing Shizuma off hundreds of different ways all in her mind. She nearly broke the keys, though only bending them slightly before loosening her vice-grip.

Shizuma gave what was possibly the most common 'Caught red-handed' phrase. "This isn't what it looks like!"

"Really. Then what is it then?" Mrs. Aoi growled slightly.

Shizuma picked herself up while Nagisa leapt up. Apologetically, Nagisa explained, "Please don't get mad at Shizuma. I fell and she tried to catch me, but in the end I only ended up dragging her down with me."

Mr. Aoi sighed a heavy sigh of relief. "Oh is that all." He was in such shock, he was willing to latch on to anything Nagisa said that didn't involve she and Shizuma having sex.

Hearing what her husband said, Mrs. Aoi feigned understanding. "I see. Well 'accidents' do tend to happen sometimes."

This time it was Shizuma who breathed a slight sigh. "You have no idea how glad I am that you understand."

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?" Mr. Aoi assured. "You know, I'm pretty sure she got that clumsiness from me. Why just the other day, I slid down the stairs on my way to work!" He laughed.

Shizuma joined in the laugh to be nice, though she had no idea what was so funny about falling down stairs. Just walking up them is enough work. Then she turned to Mrs. Aoi. "I'm especially glad that you understand."

"Oh, and why is that?"

"Well, you just seem so cold towards me, I just figured…"

"If I seemed that way to you, believe me it was unintentional." Mrs. Aoi lied with a smile on her face.

At that moment Shizuma's ringtone went off. She took it out her pocket and checked the caller id. 'Miyuki'.

"Sorry, I'll take this outside."

Shizuma brushed by Mrs. Aoi and felt a cold chill, though she ignored it for the moment. She rushed out the front door onto the front porch, closing the door behind her. Shizuma looked at the phone and smiled before flipping it open.

"This is Domino's Pizza, how may I help?"

"Don't screw around Shizuma I know it's you."

"You're never any fun Miyuki-chan." She purred.

"You're too laid back."

"Nothing wrong with that."

"Listen are you looking for another lecture or do you actually want to know why I called?"

"And here I thought you only wanted hear my voice again because you missed me so much." Shizuma cooed.

"…Are you satisfied now?"

"For the moment."

"Is it possible to hear a smirk through the phone?"

"You know me so well."

"Too well. Anyway, Shino and I just got off the plane and we wanted to rendezvous with you guys. Sound good?"

"Great! We could eat at this new place that opened nearby. It's supposed to have the best pizza around, but I can't remember what it's called."

"If you can't remember what it's called, how can I know where to go?"

"Easy. We'll just meet somewhere else first and go there together."

"Okay then, where'll we meet?"

"A place in the area we both know very well."

Miyuki laughed. "I understand, I'll tell Shino then. By the way, how're things going with Nagisa's parents?"

"Don't ask."

"That bad?"

"We'll talk about it later."

"Fine then, just don't get yourself killed before we meet."

"No promises."

Miyuki laughed. "See ya later Shizuma."

"Let's hope so. See ya Miyuki."

Shizuma clicked off her cell phone, pocketed it, and went back inside the house. Nagisa was waiting on the couch in the living room, while her parents both were upstairs.

"Who was it?"

"Just Miyuki-chan." Shizuma said walking towards her.

"Oh, why'd she call?"

Shizuma walked behind the couch and wrapped her arm around Nagisa's shoulder from behind. "Do you have any plans later on?"

Author's Note: (Trying to make you forget how long update took) I read the Strawberry Panic manga online, or at least the first volume since I couldn't find the second volume, and it was almost totally different from the anime. Read it yourself if you don't believe me! Kaname, Momomi, and Shion all look totally different and Shizuma and Nagisa enter the Etoile election together instead of Nagisa and Tamao. The first volume is only like 12 chapters long, but still was interesting.