Alright, so here's chapter six! Thank you all for your awesome reviews! I hope that the pace continues to be adequate, and I am actively trying to pace it out better now, because the last thing I want is for it to seem rushed xP Sorry it's been a while since the last update; I've been busy with finals and being slowly killed by some horrible plague I've managed to contract Dx But it's up now, so…I hope you all enjoy it! :)
Also, I changed the title back- I decided changing a story's title in the middle of it is just stupid, and it didn't sound good anyway. Sorry about that :P

Even the Stars Grow Older

Six: Jealous Hearts, Confused Minds

Chinatsu was not happy.

Not only had Kyouko ignored her demands to leave Akari alone, but she had the nerve to blame Chinatsu's protests on her middle school crush on Yui? I mean, yes, Chinatsu still looked her way every once and a while, but it was more out of nostalgia than anything. Once the group had been separated for that year in which Yui and Kyouko were freshmen in high school, she'd realized that she really didn't know much about Yui at all. It was her first words to her, Chinatsu decided, that had made her develop such a strong crush on the older girl. I'll protect you. What middle school girl in her right mind wouldn't develop even a little crush on a person who said that to them?

It was her pride, Chinatsu decided, that kept her from forgiving Kyouko even after Akari returned to her seat, looking much happier and upbeat than before. Her pride that had caused her jaw to clench when Kyouko had unexpectedly pulled Akari even closer so that she could whisper something into her ear. Chinatsu was a very proud girl, after all, and the fact that her vehement protests had gone ignored not only by Kyouko but by Akari as well must have been bruising to her ego.

On another note, Chinatsu really wished Himawari would worry about her own idiot of a best friend instead of doting on Akari. I mean, what the hell? Did she not think Chinatsu could do her job? And moreover, that was Chinatsu's job, as in, best friend territory. The pinkette's eyes narrowed.

"Dare," she stated shortly as the bottle neck came to rest on her.

"I dare you to…" Sakurako paused, distracted, much like Chinatsu, by Himawari's concern for (a perfectly fine now, thank you very much) Akari. "Um…kiss Akari!" the dirty-blonde blurted out—anything to get Himawari's attention back on her. And it worked, although the glare the bluenette leveled at her made her momentarily reconsider. But earning Himawari's ire was better than being ignored by her altogether, she decided with an internal shrug. Stupid Himawari, always forgetting she's mine—er, my slave, that is.

Two things happened simultaneously at Sakurako's words. Akari's face instantly went from the beet red it had been for the majority of the game to a ghostly white. Chinatsu, on the other hand, grinned like a lion. That would show Kyouko—Chinatsu would make Akari see stars, and then Kyouko would be humiliated by how much better a kisser she was than the blonde.

Akari opened her mouth to voice what probably would have been a protest, though nobody would ever know, because before her the vibrations on her vocal cords could convert to audible sound, Chinatsu had grabbed the redhead by her waist ('accidentally' batting Himawari's hand away in the process) with one hand, cupping Akari's face with the other, and slammed their lips together for the first time since that fateful day back in middle school. The hand on Akari's waist pulled her closer to the pinkette, making her lose her balance and instinctively throw her arms around Chinatsu's shoulders to avoid falling backwards.

Kyouko wolf-whistled, completely missing the point Chinatsu was trying to make, but the pinkette didn't mind—mostly because she herself had forgotten the point she'd been trying to make. The point was now, for whatever reason unbeknownst to the pinkette, to make Akari see stars just so that Chinatsu could see the look on her face when she did.

After several beats, the pinkette pulled back, pupils dilated, sharp, yet strangely gentle blue eyes scanning the redhead's face almost self-consciously. Chinatsu's chest swelled when Akari met her gaze with her own; the redhead's eyes were glazed over, her mouth parted slightly, the remnants of her unspoken protests dying on her lips. Without quite knowing why she did it, Chinatsu impulsively leaned forward and pressed her lips to Akari's skin once more, though this time on her forehead. The gesture felt like a reassurance, an apology, perhaps—something incredibly tender that made whatever had been growling inside Chinatsu earlier purr like a contented kitten.

Despite the feeling that the moment had gone on for several long minutes, or even hours, in reality, while the kiss had been slightly longer than necessary, Chinatsu's silent exchange with Akari had lasted only a second or two, and the pinkette turned back to face the others, not even caring that Kyouko was grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Chinatsu's arm fell limp, but remained at Akari's side as the girl blinked, still recovering from the shock of the moment.

The pinkette's casual, unwitting gesture of protectiveness did not go unnoticed by several of the girls (excluding Kyouko, who was trying to force another shot on Ayano, and Ayano, who was trying quite valiantly not to notice the fact that she could see right down Kyouko's shirt from the angle at which the girl was sitting). It left the very specific impression of a boy who'd slept with his girlfriend for the first time, though Chinatsu was anything but manly in her white, off-the-shoulder top and baby-green short shorts.

"Alright," the pinkette said, reaching for the bottle with her long, slender fingers that were tipped, as always, with shimmering nails, making sure to maintain casual contact with Akari now that she felt her role as Akari's best friend had been reestablished (that had to be it, she figured, because why else would she feel so accomplished?). It was her job to comfort the girl if she was upset, after all, not Himawari's, and certainly not baka-Kyouko's. After several turns around the group, the bottle pointed at Kyouko, who cocked her head, looking blankly at Chinatsu and pointing to herself, a smile on her face.

The pinkette ground her teeth as a vein on her forehead popped in renewed irritation for the blonde. "Truth or dare?" she ground out, already formulating her revenge.

"Dare!"

The corner of Chinatsu's lip quirked into an evil smirk. "I dare you to let Sakurako-chan sit in your lap for the rest of the game," she responded with no hesitation. That ought to keep the blonde's mouth shut, she thought, as Sakurako bounced happily over into Kyouko's waiting arms, plopping down heavily. Chinatsu felt a stab of satisfaction when Kyouko grunted with the weight of Sakurako and the added weight caused by the fact that the girl had literally fallen into her lap. Plus…

Chinatsu caught sight of a fuming Himawari out of the corner of her eye. The busty bluenette had her hands clenched into fists at her sides, and she appeared to be biting the inside of her cheek to keep her expression composed. The pinkette did catch the twitching of her left eye, though. Now she could worry about her own best friend, Chinatsu thought, the fact that she was really being quite vindictive registering somewhere in the back of her mind.

The truth was that Chinatsu usually had a hard time making friends—all the way up until she'd joined the amusement club and met Kyouko, Yui and particularly Akari, she'd been alone. Well, not technically. But friends would filter in and out quite quickly as soon as Chinatsu's cute, delicate façade wore off, even just a little bit. But Akari had stayed. They all had, really, but more than any of the others, Akari was incredibly important to Chinatsu. She'd stayed through the bitchiness, through all the crazy that was Chinatsu's obsession with Yui; she'd even stayed after Chinatsu had forced her to practice kissing with her against her will. Akari put up with every single one of Chinatsu's flaws and even seemed to love her all the more for them, and Chinatsu couldn't imagine losing her. Somewhere deep inside of her, Chinatsu wondered if it really made sense, even with all the contributing factors, for her to be so possessive of Akari, but the thoughts were quickly shoved to the side. Of course she was possessive of Akari—anyone would be, were they in her position. Akari was forgettable at first glance, but past that…she was the most incredibly accepting, loving person that Chinatsu had ever met. Even though Himawari had only been following her motherly instincts in trying to support Akari through her touch, Chinatsu's mind had immediately gone into survival mode, which, for Chinatsu, entailed keeping Akari close to her no matter the cost.

Part of her (that same part of her that wondered if her possessiveness was normal) wondered if such a reaction to something as unthreatening as a concerned touch was really necessary or even acceptable (where did her rights as a friend end?), but again, Chinatsu didn't overly concern herself.

About fifteen minutes later, Yui called it, which was good for Himawari, who was beginning to turn a rather unhealthy shade of purple as Sakurako (who was like the energizer bunny up until the instant she totally crashed) slumped in Kyouko's arms, nodding in and out of sleep.

"That color suits you," Chinatsu quipped, still unreasonably sore from Himawari's perceived closeness with Akari, who was herself beginning to fall asleep against the pinkette's shoulder, more exhausted by the roller coaster ride of emotions she'd endured tonight than physically tired from the long trip to the hotel. "What is it? Eggplant? Goes with your hair. Maybe Sakurako should cuddle up with Kyouko-senpai more often."

Chinatsu was well aware of the fact that her catty side was out and scratching, but for some reason, she couldn't bite the words back. Moreover, she couldn't even try—every word that escaped from her lips made her feel just a little bit better, a little bit more in control, though of what, she couldn't say for the life of her.

Himawari narrowed her eyes at the pinkette, but didn't reply right away, which made Chinatsu slightly nervous. Despite her annoyance with the bluenette, Chinatsu had to admit that Himawari was incredibly intelligent—the pinkette had undoubtedly pissed her off with her behavior over the evening, particularly with that last dare, and any time a pissed off genius started thinking…well, it might be time to call it a night.

"I don't think you're really one to talk, Yoshikawa-san…do you?"

Himawari's words were soft, and low enough that only Chinatsu could hear them, but the pinkette felt them like a slap in the face. What the hell did Himawari mean by that? "What the hell do you—" She cut herself off as Akari stirred against her shoulder, cutting the argument (?) short.

"Is it time to go to bed?" Akari asked groggily, clearly just barely keeping herself from toppling over with sleepiness. Chinatsu smiled involuntarily at the sight and stood up, playfully holding her hand out to her best friend to pull her to her (unsteady) feet.

"How forward of you, Akari-chan," she teased, winking at the redhead, who instantly flushed to match her hair.

"W-I didn't…mou, Chinatsu-chan!"

The pinkette threw her head back and laughed as Akari huffed and left the room ahead of her. Chinatsu hesitated just long enough to throw a confused look in Himawari's direction (the bluenette was now raising an eyebrow, which made Chinatsu uncomfortable for whatever reason) before scrambling out the door after Akari, remembering that the redhead had the only card to unlock their room.

Himawari felt her heart preparing to burst out of her chest as Sakurako curled into her, burying her face in the bluenette's breasts, arms wrapped tightly around Himawari's midsection, as if she thought the bluenette may just try to escape.

She knew it would be awkward in the morning, but the tingles still lingering in her system convinced her to let tomorrow deal with that. Besides that, jealousy was still burning in her chest at having been forced to watch Sakurako getting cozy with Kyouko, and she didn't believe she could have pried herself away in this state if she'd tried. It wasn't molten, as it had been when the dare had been given (she'd been sorely tempted to slap the superior smirk off of Chinatsu's face, but had managed to restrain herself), but the image of Sakurako bouncing around in Kyouko's lap was burned into her retinas, and the jealousy was a persistent, dull ache even now that the threat was gone.

As such, Himawari barely fought instinct for five minutes before giving in and wrapping her arms around Sakurako in return, pressing a firm kiss to the sleeping blonde's head. If nothing else, she could always just blame it on the alcohol.

Ignoring, of course, the fact that she hadn't had a single drop since the game began. Sakurako had, along with Kyouko, topped off the rest of the smuggled bottle, so Himawari doubted she would remember any of this in the morning anyway. The fact that she was cuddling with the bluenette (while conscious) was evidence enough of her questionable state of sobriety.

This particular though made Himawari's chest ache-it would be too much to ask, after all, for Sakurako to willingly cuddle with her, or even let her show any kind of affection while sober. It was getting more and more difficult as they grew older, the urge to act on her long-standing feelings for her idiot of a best friend growing stronger and stronger every day. Being the protective and motherly type, Himawari wanted to show affection for Sakurako, but knew that the blonde would react badly, even in private.

She sighed heavily, allowing her head to fall back against the pillow. Sakurako curled more tightly into her, and Himawari's left arm instinctively raised to curl in the chestnut-blonde hair, gently working through the light tangles the girl had managed to acquire over the course of their day.

Really, it was her own fault for falling in love with an idiot.

So, Akari's finally accepted these feelings she's been having in regards to Chinatsu, and Chinatsu's feeling…well, something. I'm sorry for the length of this—I know truth or dare is supposed to be short and sweet, but I keep getting on a roll…I'll try and speed it up next chapter, promise :P

Please leave a review! I hope you enjoyed it! :)