Wow, guys! Thanks so much for all the awesome reviews! I really love hearing what parts of the story you guys liked, and while it's never easy to receive critique, I really do appreciate you guys pointing out what I can do better, because it makes me a better writer :) I've gone back and edited this for run-ons and such, so it should hopefully read a little easier :)

Even the Stars Grown Older

Seven: The Road to Comuket

Sakurako woke slowly, still half dreaming as she stretched her back and pulled her legs close to her chest. Her arms tightened around something firm and warm, and a soft, contended mewl escaped her lips. The blonde nuzzled closer to her makeshift body pillow, burying her face further into something plush and sweet-smelling.

And then Sakurako's body pillow shifted, before jerking violently against the blonde, and suddenly she was completely awake. Even at her questionable state of consciousness, she was fairly certain that pillows couldn't sneeze, nor did they have arms that could tighten around her waist when they did so. That and after more than ten years of friendship, she recognized Himawari's loud, yet feminine sneeze. As the reality of her sleeping arrangements finally dawned on her, Sakurako felt her face heat up all the way to the tips of her ears.

Said bluenette groaned and pulled Sakurako closer to her, apparently still 90% asleep, and the blonde flushed even deeper as she realized just what she'd been burying her face in. She pulled her hands up between herself and Himawari, poised against her chest, ready to shove the bluenette away... And then stopped at the last second, amber eyes drifting subconsciously to full, slightly parted lips. Her gaze then drifted to the bedside table, where a bottle of asprin and a cup of water waited, and she frowned. The bluenette hadn't had a sip of alcohol besides the initial shot that Kyouko had forced on them. Sakurako was certain she hadn't thought far enough ahead to prepare herself for the headache she was bound to get (and felt looming over her, especially as her thoughts gradually became more concrete)… Did that mean…had Himawari prepared these for her, knowing how she'd feel in the morning?

Himawari was apparently still too asleep to have noticed Sakurako's movements, and just wrapped her other arm around the blonde, pulling her closer.

Sakurako hadn't taken much time to really look at her frienemy since…well, ever, really, and suddenly she found herself wondering how the hell she'd managed that for so many years. The bluenette had matured ridiculously gracefully, especially in comparison to Sakurako herself. Though that bit hadn't been much of a surprise, even Sakurako had to (reluctantly) admit. What had come as a surprise to the blonde was just how desirable Himawari actually was, big picture, both physically and personality-wise. Sakurako hadn't noticed before, but the attention Himawari had immediately garnered at Nanamori High by both male and female students alike had forced the girl to acknowledge that her friend was at the very least more attractive than the majority of the population. Still, she'd never actually looked at Himawari as anything more than a rival or her own personal tutor/slave.

But Himawari wasn't just attractive, and there was no other word for it—Sakurako had checked—she was beautiful. She was taller than a good portion of girls at their school, but not nearly so tall as to be awkward. The bluenette had also grown more proportionate, her hips catching up to her breasts, and her body filling out enough so that said breasts no longer appeared disproportionate, without adding a lot of excess fat in other areas. She'd grown out her hair, and it now reached her chest when braided. It had also grown darker with age, now a rich navy as opposed to pure blue. She was as stupidly kind to everyone (except Sakurako) as ever (which was really starting to annoy the blonde because it meant everyone was always going to Himawari for everything, which meant the bluenette had less time for her). On top of it all, she seemed to be growing more intelligent with every passing year, juggling her own college-level courses with a 4.0, all the while keeping Sakurako at a steady C+ average. And the only reason it wasn't higher was because Sakurako was just flat-out lazy, something Himawari had (reluctantly) grown to accept.

Himawari grumbled something about 'stupid tomato stealing my chicken' into Sakurako's sleep-mussed hair. The bluenette had apparently made the short leap back to sleep. Somehow the fact that Himawari was so perfect in everything else but was so completely out of it right after she woke up only added to her attractiveness… Not that Sakurako was attracted to her at all, of course. Just because Himawari had everyone else fooled with her sickly-sweet façade didn't mean Sakurako was dumb enough to fall for it. The great Sakurako-sama was incredibly perceptive, after all.

With that thought, Sakurako's left eye twitched—how dare Himawari make her think about stupid things that she didn't even care about? Sudden irritation sparked within her, and the blonde finally completed her action from before and reeled back, shoving her hands into her best frienemy's chest, near her sternum. The action propelled Himawari away from her and right off the bed, eliciting a squeal from the girl in question as she was violently awoken.

Sakurako huffed and yanked the covers over her shoulders, turning her back to the other girl, intent on going back to sleep and forgetting all of this. Slowly, though, the temperature in the room began to fall, and Sakurako felt a shiver run down her spine. A shadow loomed over her, blocking out the sparse light seeping in through the window. "Sa-ku-ra-ko000…"

Instinct kicked in and the now terrified blonde sat up and faced a furious Himawari, chest puffed in misplaced self-righteousness. "If you don't want to be kicked off the bed, you should keep your fat chest to yourself," she huffed, ignoring the hypocrisy of her own statement. "Geez, you're so clingy."

Himawari flushed an intense magenta, and something Sakurako didn't recognize flashed in her hazel eyes. Unfortunately, whatever it was, it did nothing to lessen the rage (augmented by Himawari's typical morning grumpiness) that had been present when Sakurako had first turned to face her. "You…," the bluenette began, eyes narrow and lips pursed as if she couldn't quite believe Sakurako had actually kicked her off the bed, "you are dead." She finished with a strange chuckle, running a hand through her thick, loose hair that was tangled with sleep. Seeing Himawari looking so improper would have been funny, if Sakurako weren't currently fearing for her young life.

"H-heh…you're funny, Himawari," Sakurako laughed nervously. "You're not really mad at me, right? It was funny, right?"

Himawari crawled closer to the blonde, eyes flashing, and Sakurako paled. She had a sudden, ominous feeling she'd be needing that asprin for more reasons than one.

Sometimes even she wished she thought before opening her big mouth.

Nobody questioned it when Sakurako arrived to breakfast (Himawari swaying beside her in her usual morning slump) with a large lump decorating the top of her head. Everybody just assumed (rightfully so) that the blonde had done something stupid again, and it was too early in the morning to make any kind of deal out of such a common occurrence. It seemed to be the general consensus that husband-wife comedy wasn't funny before eleven am.

"So, it should probably take us about three more hours to get to Comuket," Yui stated over her sparse breakfast of half of a hotel waffle (straight from the batter cup—ah, luxury) and an orange. Next to her sat Chinatsu, who looked almost as bad as Himawari, and was threatening to fall face-first into her bowl of cereal.

Taking care of the pinkette was usually Akari's job, but the redhead had been preoccupied inside her own head since the night before. More pity might have been spared on Chinatsu was it not (mostly) her fault that Akari was in this odd state to begin with, a fact the majority of the girls appeared to be aware of, save for the pinkette herself, Sakurako and (possibly?) Kyouko.

Actually, Akari's odd behavior was the main reason Chinatsu looked so terrible to begin with—that and the fact that she'd split the remaining alcohol with Kyouko (who looked ridiculously perky) and Sakurako (the main cause of whose suffering was impossible to tell). The pinkette had been up for most of the rest of the night (until well past two in the morning) worrying about her normally plucky, upbeat friend who never seemed to dwell on anything negative for more than a minute or two. It was obviously Kyouko's fault (as was pretty much everything, in Chinatsu's humble opinion), as the blonde had been the one bothering Akari the night before to begin with. (She was steadfastly ignoring the fact that Akari had seemed to perk up after her kiss with the blonde, and if anything returned to her odd behavior after her kiss with Chinatsu herself).

Still, Akari didn't usually let anything get to her, and now…the redhead hadn't looked the pinkette in the eye since that game of truth or dare. Even when they had gone to bed last night, it almost seemed as though Akari were purposefully positioning herself as far from Chinatsu as possible. This was weird in and of itself, because while Akari almost never initiated any cuddling or affection, she never pulled away or seemed to mind at all when the more outgoing Chinatsu did so. It had hurt, just a little bit, and her wounded pride was just injured deeper when a passing Himawari squeezed Akari's shoulder and the latter didn't jump two feet in the air and jerk away.

Like she had the night before when Chinatsu had tried to initiate contact.

(Although from the majority of the girls' perspective, Chinatsu's subsequent glare at the bluenette looked a lot more like possessiveness than it did hurt. This was exemplified when the pinkette reached under the table and rested her hand on Akari's leg in an unspoken challenge poorly disguised as casual affection. But it was normal to feel threatened when somebody else got too close to your best friend, right? It wasn't as if it had to mean anything more—Chinatsu would know if it did, obviously, having been in love with Yui for the entirety of her middle school life. And she really was worried about Akari, which was totally why she kept holding on even when Akari jumped like Chinatsu was some kind of random creep tried to pull away. Except she wasn't nearly as determined as the pinkette, nor as strong, so she didn't get very far.)

"Do I have to ride in the same car as Himawari again?" Sakurako whined, cradling her aching head. Even she wasn't certain whether the worst of the pain came from her hangover or the blow Himawari had dealt to her head.

The bluenette's eyes narrowed in annoyance, though said annoyance barely concealed the hurt behind it. Huffing, she folded her arms over her chest and raised her chin in false superiority. "Please don't," she replied haughtily. "In fact, I would much rather ride with Yoshikawa-san than a bumbling brat such as yourself."

From across the table, Chinatsu raised her eyebrows suspiciously. She had been (and still was) fairly certain that Himawari had been annoyed with her for whatever stupid reason over the entirety of their trip so far, and was positive the bluenette hadn't forgotten about last night. Himawari's last words to her from the night before rang in her ears, and she swallowed thickly, suddenly filled with a combination of curiosity and dread. There was no doubt the bluenette was trying to annoy Sakurako, but Chinatsu was equally certain that Himawari meant to talk to her about whatever problem she had with the pinkette. It wasn't as if they could ignore it forever. Steeling herself to the inevitable, she met Himawari's gaze and raised an eyebrow, refusing to back down from the challenge.

Next to Himawari, and surprisingly not oblivious to the non-verbal communication occurring between the bluenette and Chinatsu, Sakurako's grip on her fork tightened as she stabbed it mercilessly into her toast. What did Himawari love so much about Chinatsu, anyway? Besides that, surely she knew what a bitch she was, especially over the course of the past few days? Sakurako huffed loudly, causing Himawari's eyes to flit to her for just a moment.

The bluenette's right hand twitched in her lap, as if her instinct was to reach out and touch Sakurako, who was obviously upset by her declaration, and was doing little to nothing to hide it. But she stopped herself, clenching the hand into a fist in her lap. If Sakurako wanted a fight, who was Himawari to deny her? Still, as hazel eyes returned to her own plate, something in her stomach clenched, simultaneously sapping her appetite and leaving her with the distinct urge to hold Sakurako—just to be closer to the girl. She bit her lip, hard, refusing to look at the blonde. It was happening more and more often recently, and it could be stimulated by just about anything; a glance, a huff, a stupid comment… And God help her if Sakurako smiled or laughed, genuinely. At those times, it was all Himawari could do not to throw her against a wall and hold her impossibly close and kiss her (and kiss her).

Himawari sighed heavily, stirring at her eggs with no intent of actually consuming them. Absently, she wondered how many years' worth of built up, belligerent sexual tension was acceptable to retain in one body before it became hazardous to one's health.

They did end up splitting into different groups for the remainder of the car ride, as neither Sakurako nor Himawari were willing to swallow their pride and admit they'd rather ride with each other. Besides that, the bluenette really did have a bit of an alternate agenda. She figured it was high time she had a little talk with a certain increasingly disagreeable pinkette.

She and Chinatsu had never had issues getting along in the past, and Himawari did love the girl dearly as a friend. It was just that with recent developments and Akari's increasingly obvious feelings for the oblivious pinkette, the bluenette wanted to know what exactly Chinatsu was doing, or if she was even aware she was doing anything at all. Her behavior would have been perfectly acceptable a while ago, back when Akari seemed content just to be the sweet, reliable friend, but now…

Even if Akari herself wasn't aware of it, Himawari wanted to make sure that Chinatsu's affectionate and possessive tendencies weren't doing more harm than good. Sweet, innocent Akari deserved nothing less than the best after everything she'd done for them all over the years, as she was sure Chinatsu would agree. It was just that she wasn't entirely sure if Chinatsu was really aware of what she did to the redhead, or if the pinkette would be able to separate her own needs from her desire for Akari to be happy. The last thing she wanted poor Akari to have to go through was being inadvertently led on…although the pinkette's recent behavior had Himawari becoming gradually more convinced that this may not be the case at all.

She just had to come up with a clever way of broaching all this to the pinkette without her noticing. Easier said than done, Himawari knew. For all her attitude and her deceptively flighty nature, Chinatsu was very likely just as intelligent as Himawari herself, as the bluenette had discovered after recently provoking her less charitable side. Which reminded her, first things first…she had to get back on the pinkette's good side. Not that she liked being on such odd terms with Chinatsu, but usually she might have let things mend themselves…

Himawari sighed and leaned back against the soft, warm leather seat as Ayano slid into the driver's seat and turned the key. This might prove to be a long three hours all around.

I hope you guys liked this chapter! Please remember to leave me a review! Reviews are food for my soul o.O