Nagisa lay on her bed, her hands crossed under her head. She had been tutoring Chiyo every day for the past two weeks. After their study sessions, they had always done something fun, for example eating in the cafeteria or taking a walk. Chiyo's next math test was coming up next week, and Nagisa was racking her brain for something nice she could do with Chiyo afterward, as a small treat for her hard studying. Maybe a picnic by the lake would be nice.

"What's up?" Tamao asked from her desk, where she was writing an essay for French class.

"Huh?"

"You're smiling. I haven't seen you smile for days. So what's up?"

"Oh, Chiyo-chan's math test is next week and I just decided to treat her to a picnic by the lake afterward."

Tamao smiled. "That's a sweet idea, Nagisa. Chiyo-san will really like that."

"You think so?" Nagisa asked happily.

"Yes, I'm positive."

Satisfied, Nagisa looked at the ceiling again, remembering the time she'd spent with Chiyo over the days. The young girl was so cute when she was pondering over a math problem or when she was looking at her tutor in deep concentration.

Nagisa was torn from her thoughts by her ringing cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, sugar! It's me!" Shizuma's voice sounded excited.

"Shizuma! It's great to hear your voice!" Nagisa felt happiness course through her body.

"Listen, I've got an idea. I have a study-free weekend ahead of me. Do you want to come and visit?"

"I'd love to! I don't have much to do this weekend and I really want to see you."

"Wonderful! You can take the train from the village and I'll pick you up at the station in Tokyo. Oh, I can't wait for the weekend to come! I'll send you a ticket."

"I can't wait either. But it's Wednesday already and I'll leave Friday right after class, so it's not really that long."

"Okay, I've got to go, sweetheart. I'll see you Friday! Bye!"

"Bye, honey!"

Nagisa hung up, a huge smile on her face.

Tamao was putting her papers into her schoolbag. "Was that Shizuma?"

"Hai. She invited me to come visit this weekend. Is…is it okay if I go? Without you?"

Tamao turned to her friend and smiled. "Nagisa, of course it's okay. I have absolutely no time this weekend, I have so much to do. Besides, she invited you, not us."

"Well, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you came along. And Miyuki would be thrilled." Nagisa said haltingly.

"Miyuki has exams next week, she'll be studying. It's really okay, Nagisa. I hope you have a great time."

"Okay…if you're sure…" Nagisa still sounded doubtful.

"Nagisa, stop it. Go visit your sweetheart, have a wonderful weekend and tell me all about it when you come back on Sunday, all right?"

"Okay, I will. Thanks Tamao."

Friday afternoon took its time to arrive, but it finally did. Tamao and Nagisa made their way to the train station, enjoying the sunny day.

At the station, Nagisa went to the ticket booth and picked up the ticket that Shizuma had bought for her, then went to join her best friend on the platform.

Tamao pulled a thick envelope out of her pocket.

"Can you give this to Miyuki?"

"Sure." Nagisa tucked it into her travel bag, just as the train arrived.

"Thanks for coming with me, Tamao."

"Don't mention it. I enjoyed the walk. Have a great time, say hello to Shizuma and give Miyuki a kiss, okay?"

"I will. Bye, I'll see you on Sunday."

"Bye, Nagisa!"

The girls hugged, then Nagisa boarded the train and found a seat by the window. She had planned to spend the trip reading, but she ended up day dreaming about Shizuma, checking her watch every few minutes to see how much longer she'd be on this train.

As the landscape sped past her and her thoughts were occupied with a certain silver haired beauty, Nagisa's eyes slowly drooped until she slumbered peacefully.

"Dear passengers, our train is now approaching Tokyo central station. Next stop: Tokyo central station!"

Nagisa awoke with a start. Tokyo. That was her stop. Quickly, she jumped up, gathered her things and moved towards the door. In a few minutes, she'd see Shizuma. An excited shiver ran through her body and her stomach felt as if she'd had live ants for breakfast.

'I can't believe how nervous I am,' she thought to herself. 'I've known Shizuma long enough not to be nervous. But maybe I'm just excited.'

The train slowed down until it finally stopped and the doors opened with a hissing sound. Nagisa was the first to jump out. She glanced around, looking for an impressive mass of silver hair. Suddenly, a figure ran toward her and a pair of arms wrapped itself around her.

"Nagisa! You're finally here! Oh, I missed you sooo much!" Shizuma screeched.

"Shizuma! You startled me! I missed you, too." She drew her girlfriend into a tight hug.

"I thought the day would never end. My classes have never been so awfully boring." Shizuma kissed Nagisa deeply, which caused the ants in the redhead's stomach to go into overdrive and move southward.

"I would be perfectly content to stay like this all weekend," she murmured.

"You can't be serious, my love. I've got a nice apartment room, with a big, comfortable bed in it…and we've been invited to a party tonight." Shizuma whispered in between kisses.

"A real college party? Wow!" Nagisa's eyes sparkled.

"Yeah, a real college party. Come on, let's go. Miyuki is dying to see you and I think she's home from her classes by now."

Shizuma took her girlfriend's hand and started walking towards the parking spaces. Nagisa noticed the older woman's outfit for the first time: tight jeans hipsters, a tight t-shirt, which showed her bare midriff and had a v-neck, and a sexy pair of heeled, white ankle boots.

"Did you come straight from class?"

"Yeah. I had an English lit. class that ran a little late. I drove like a madwoman to make it here on time." Shizuma smiled.

In Nagisa's opinion, the t-shirt showed way too much cleavage for a day in class. The entire outfit was too sexy, come to think of it. Shizuma had looked stunning in her Miator uniform, which covered a lot of the body, and she had had almost all the girls of Astrea Hill lusting after her. Nagisa wondered if anyone beside Shizuma was paying attention in her classes, if she always went to school dressed like that.

'Good grief, if I spoke this out loud, I'd sound worse than my grandmother,' she thought the next moment. 'I know Shizuma loves me, and won't look at anybody else. I have no reason to be jealous. I should be happy that I have such a beautiful, sexy girlfriend.'

They arrived at Shizuma's car and climbed in. While the former Etoile negotiated Tokyo traffic, Nagisa chatted about what was going on at Astrea Hill. After a short while, they arrived at an apartment building, in front of which Shizuma expertly parked the car.

"Here we are."

The girls climbed out and made their way to the apartment. As Shizuma stuck the key into the lock, the door opened to reveal Miyuki.

"Hi, Nagisa! It's so wonderful to see you!" Miyuki hugged the young girl.

"Miyuki! I'm really happy to be here!" Nagisa hugged her back. "I've got something for you, from Tamao." She pulled the older girl's head down and kissed her lips tenderly.

"Thanks, Nagisa." Miyuki said. "Could you please return her the same?"

"Sure, I will." She rummaged through her travel bag, then handed the blue haired woman the envelope. "This is for you as well."

"Thanks." Miyuki took it, then glanced at her watch. "Oh, I've got to run. I have a study group. I guess you'll be at the party when I get back, so I'll see you tomorrow."

The former Miator school council president grabbed her bag and left the apartment, leaving the other two young women by themselves.

"How about giving me a tour of your home?"

"Okay. This is the hallway. Come on." Shizuma took Nagisa's hand and led her toward a door, pulling her through it and drawing her close.

"And this…is…my…bedroom." She whispered in between kisses, steering Nagisa to the bed.

An hour later, Shizuma rolled onto her back, groaning and pushing strands of hair away from her sweaty forehead.

"I missed this."

"Me, too." Nagisa kissed her girlfriend softly and snuggled close to her side.

"But, love, we have to get up and get ready for the party."
"Do we have to?"
"Don't you want to go? You were so excited."
"I do want to go. But I'd love to stay here and…continue."

"Oh, Nagisa, we have all night when we get back…and tomorrow…and tomorrow night. Anyway, we can take a shower together."

"Okay, you have a point. Let's go."
After a long, erotic shower, Nagisa found herself back in Shizuma's bedroom, rooting through her bag, searching for an outfit that would be appropriate for a college party. But the perfect outfit was not to be found.

"I can't go to the party, I have nothing to wear!" Nagisa wailed.

"You can borrow something." Shizuma's voice came out of her walk-in closet.

"You've got to be joking. Your pants are way too long and I haven't got enough chest to fill your shirts." Nonetheless, Nagisa shuffled into the closet.

After a long search, she settled on a black, loose-fitting off-the-shoulder shirt, decorated with rhinestones, a pair of black leggings and her own shoes. While Nagisa was in the bathroom, fixing her hair and makeup, Shizuma finally got dressed herself.

"Okay, I'm ready to go." The redhead walked back into the bedroom, finally happy with her appearance, and gasped.

Shizuma was wearing a white men's shirt, unbuttoned and tied at the waist, over a black, tight tank top, with a short black skirt, about as long as the skirt of Spica's uniforms. On her feet, or rather her legs, were black thigh-high heeled boots.

"Good, then let's go."

A short taxi ride later, they entered the apartment in which Shizuma's friends lived.

"Hi, everyone! This is Nagisa." The former Etoile introduced her girlfriend.

"Nagisa, this is Ryo," she pointed to a tall, young man with a haircut like a manga character, dyed blue, and startling dark eyes, "this is Suki," a young woman with short black hair and brown eyes, "this is Kenji," a young man with a brown ponytail and brown eyes," and Johnny from Australia," a tanned man with bleached blond hair and light blue eyes, "and this is Ran."

When introducing Ran, Shizuma's voice sounded warmer than with the others, Nagisa thought. She looked closely at Ran. She was taller than Nagisa, with a slightly boyish figure. Her skin was a creamy light brown, her hair short and brown, with blond highlights, her eyes a stormy gray. She was quite pretty.

"Ran is in almost all of my classes." Shizuma added, smiling warmly at her fellow student.

"Nagisa, it's really nice to meet you," Ran said. "I've heard so much about you. Shizuma-chan never stops talking about you." Her voice sounded warm and friendly. Nagisa watched, frozen to the spot, as Ran's hand stroked Shizuma's arm.

"I see you haven't exaggerated. She really is extremely cute."

"Why should I lie?" Shizuma smiled again at Ran.

Ryo turned towards Nagisa. "Ran's right. It's really nice to finally meet you. Shizuma told me your parents are abroad. Where are they?"

"At the moment, they are in Australia." Johnny turned. "Did you say Australia? Where exactly?"

Nagisa answered and soon found herself wrapped up in a discussion about Australia with the two boys. She still tried to watch Shizuma and Ran out of the corner of her eye. The two had been joined by Kenji and seemed to be talking animatedly.

After a while, Nagisa realized that the two men had absolutely lost her, their conversation having centered on Australian politics, which was something Nagisa knew nothing about. She looked around the room, which had considerably filled since their arrival.

Shizuma was still talking to Ran and Kenji, so Nagisa went to join them.

"But I really don't agree with you. Poe's stories are really full of metaphors and you can find hidden meanings almost everywhere." Kenji was saying, looking at Ran.

"Yeah, I agree with Kenji," Shizuma said. "Just think about The telltale Heart. The old man is clearly a symbol for…"

Unbelievable. They were talking about their English lit. class at a party. Nagisa continued to roam through the apartment until she found a group of young women giggling about something.

"Yeah, and then we went to the movie theater." one was saying to her friends.

"Which film did you see?"

"I have no idea. Just after the lights had gone out, he opened his pants, pulled me on top of him, pushed my thong aside and…"

Nagisa drifted away from that group, having absolutely no desire to hear stories about sex with men. After listening in on some more conversation, most of them about classes, sex experiences or drug use, Nagisa plopped down on the sofa and entertained herself with looking at the people and imagining what she and Shizuma could be doing if they had stayed at home.

Some time later, Shizuma came to the sofa, carrying two glasses of wine.

"There you are, sweetheart. Here, I've brought you some wine."

"Thanks." Gratefully, Nagisa accepted the glass and drank.

"Are you having a good time?" The redhead looked at her glowing, happy girlfriend.

"Well…I don't know what to talk about with the others." She admitted.

"Oh, just join a conversation, you'll be fine."

Ran entered the room, looked around and made a beeline for Shizuma.

"I found you!" She dropped down on the sofa beside Shizuma, pecking her cheek.

"I think I haven't told you how absolutely hot you look tonight. Doesn't she, Nagisa?"

"Shizuma always looks hot." Nagisa answered without thinking.

"How true…when she sits in class with me, I always have such trouble concentrating."

"Oh, stop it, Ran-chan, you'll make me blush." Shizuma smiled, embarrassed. "And anyway, you look really hot yourself."

Ran did look hot, Nagisa admitted to herself. The tall woman was wearing leather pants, heeled boots, and a black, tight t-shirt with a glittering red dragon on the front.

Ran began a conversation with Nagisa about school. At first, the young girl was delighted, but then, she couldn't shake off the feeling that Ran was silently laughing at her. Finally excusing herself, Nagisa bolted out of the room, looking for the bathroom for a moment of privacy.

She locked the door and leaned against it, closing her eyes and heaving a sigh. This party was a nightmare. There was absolutely no one to talk to, and Shizuma seemed to be having the time of her life. She wondered how much longer she'd have to endure this before she could convince her beautiful girlfriend to go home.

A knock sounded at the door. Nagisa quickly opened, allowing a young man to push past her and vomit profusely into the sink. Shuddering, the redhead hurried away from the bathroom. She found Shizuma, in the middle of a crowd of young men and women, playing her admirers. And that they were: admirers. They were talking, laughing, and flirting with her Shizuma.

Pushing back her shoulders, Nagisa went to join the group, possessively hooking an arm around Shizuma's waist.

"Hey, love!" Shizuma turned her attention to Nagisa, kissing her passionately. Nagisa could tell that her girlfriend was a little drunk. That could be an advantage. Staying with the group for a while, joining in the laughing, talking and flirting, Nagisa succeeded in focusing Shizuma's attention on her. Bit by bit, she pulled the silver haired beauty away from the group, whispering to her how much she would love to be alone now and what she'd like to do.

Shizuma seemed to be in quite a hurry all of a sudden, saying goodbye to her friends and calling a taxi. Nagisa smiled to herself. At least she'd won this round.