Author notes: Happy valentines (3 days late)!
Notes regarding the delay of this chapter and more at the end, now enjoy.
July 2
"Say, I forgot to ask you yesterday..." Konata took her chocolate cornet off her mouth to talk about a new subject. "Are you guys also coming over for Kagami and Tsukasa's birthday?" She asked looking at a direction in which both Ayano and Misao could be seen.
The short-haired girl's eyes lighted up while chewing her food. "Ah , this year we might make it!" Then swallowed even faster than usual and continued, now looking at Kagami. "Last year our families went to a nearby shrine so we had to accompany them..." She said, referring to both her family and Ayano's, who nodded confirming the statement.
"That's good, I guess..." The older twin kept eating, trying to sound indifferent at the news, making Misao drop her shoulders.
"Aw... I thought you'd be more excited." The brunette looked down and faked a sniff, expecting a certain reaction from Kagami, which she got.
The purple-haired girl did a quick motion with her hands. "N-no, no! I am looking forward to it, it's just that-" Before she kept explaining, the little jester of the group interrupted and continued for her.
"It's just that I can't express my true feelings~" As if she studied in a drama school, Konata exaggerated a desperate tone similar to how her friend was talking in previously.
"No, you keep your tsundere references out of this!" As the twin-tailed girl was about to smack the bluenette in the head for adding weird dialogue, the brunette saw another opportunity.
Misao smirked and looked up, about to keep up with the banter to annoy Kagami. "Was what the Shorty said true, Hiiragi!?" She adopted puppy-like eyes as she asked.
"No! Don't take what she says as-"
Not letting her friend continue, the brunette looked down again and sniffed, hiding her eyes with her hands. "I knew it..." This made Kagami more hasty to explain herself.
"N-no! I mean, the way she phrased it-"
"How many times have you said no already!? Which is it, Kagami!?" Konata did a determined expression and leaned forward her body across the table to get as near to the girl's face as possible.
Again, without letting Kagami pronounce a single word, the fanged girl imitated the bluenette and also leaned forward to overwhelm her friend. "Yeah, which is it, Hiiragi!?" Both girls then kept repeating 'Which is it?' like a chant.
While having her face red from anger and for having both girls so close to her face, the quick-tempered girl snapped. "Ah, damn! You two are so annoying!" She turned her head to the side and pushed their friend's heads with a weak grip, making them lean back chuckling and make a high-five for the success.
As the rest of the group's activity was reduced to eating and giggling because of the energical exchange, Miyuki was the first to compose herself and end it to start a conversation in where everyone could probably be involved. "Izumi, are you perhaps thinking of making us all go shopping after school for presents like last year?" By 'us all' she meant the original group of four, which had gone sightseeing last year for possible gifts, even though in the end Konata only bought anime merchandise nobody saw before.
"Going shopping, you say? Let us in!" Misao stopped chuckling and elevated her hand enthusiastically to list herself for the meeting, making the rest of the girls nod except for Kagami, who was hearing silently with an annoyed expression due to her previous burst.
Ayano also smiled radiantly. "It sounds fun, but keep in mind that Misa and I have club activites and we don't get home until 5:00" Her tomboy friend dropped her shoulders again upon hearing that.
This made everyone think of going on the weekend except for Konata, who paid no mind. "No problem, then we'll go when you guys are ready!" She grabbed back her cornet and munched it like a termite feeding off of wood, making Misao, who was looking at her with gratitude due to what she said, also start eating as she remembered she still had some meatballs.
Tsukasa finally spoke up, shyly saying what was in her mind. "O-or we can probably go on either Saturday or Sunday so we have more time..."
The brunette quickly swallowed. "Nah, think about it, if we go on Saturday, that means we'll have to go back just the next day without you twins to buy what we saw. That'd be pretty tiring and we'll waste our whole weekend on trips. And if we go on Sunday, we'll have to buy stuff with you there and it's gonna ruin the surprise, y'know? So if we go to sightsee and make lists of possible things to buy today and we buy them on Saturday, that'd be better." Misao said analitically, making Konata shocked at how intelligent she seemed to be when talking about stuff nobody would ever think too much about.
"As expected of Misakichi... You aren't as dumb as I thought." The bluenette said proudly putting her palms together.
"Eh... Not really. I mean, what if we just go buy the stuff today and done? Instead of sightseeing." Kagami felt confused as to how the brunette didn't think about that in the first place before her long speech, and how Konata complimented before thinking of that too.
"Uh... But you'll see what we're going to buy!" The fanged girl answered, repeating a part of what she said before.
"We're not kids anymore for surprises... I think it's better that way, so I can make sure you don't get us weird things."
Both Konata and Misao had blank expressions at the solid argument, before the bluenette talked again. "So... Yeah, you're as dumb as I thought, Misakichi." She looked at the person in question with a disappointed look, ignoring the fact that she previously agreed with her.
"Wha!? I thought we were allies!"
As the final bell rang, Kagami passed by the classroom where Konata, Miyuki and her sister were located to go home together. After she greeted the three girls, she spoke to Konata in a casual tone, who was resting her chin on her desk, looking tired. "Hey, I'm going to stop at the bookstore today." Of course, she was, in her way, asking if she wanted to come along.
Konata, still in the mood for annoying Kagami, hid her smirk and pretended not to know her intentions. "Hmm... yeah?" She stood up preparing to walk out of the classroom with everyone.
The twin-tailed girl was confused by the answer. "Yeah?" She repeated her friend's words as she also started leaving the classroom walking in between Tsukasa and Konata.
"And so what?" The bluenette tilted her head expecting Kagami to reveal what she actually meant.
"W-what? I'm just telling you." The tsundere looked at the hallway's floor to evade Konata's gaze, just when she saw, on the corner of her eye, that the otaku started doing a motion with her arm and stopped walking.
The group of friends looked at Konata, then at the direction she was waving at. Almost at the other end of the hallway, Ayano and Misao were walking towards the other set of stairs. While Ayano was waving and smiling gently, the latter was sticking her tongue out at the bluenette, walking backwards with a playful angry expression, most likely because of their last exchange in lunch. As the other three girls stopped walking and started waving too, the brunette did a last quick wave, then before she turned around, a boy rushing from down the stairs collided with her, sending both to the floor and making the male student almost fall down the steps.
While Miyuki and Tsukasa looked in concern, Konata couldn't help but let out a loud chuckle. "Man, she sure has an habit for crashing on things." The contagious laugh also made Kagami giggle, although a lot more slightly.
"I don't know if it was that funny..." The twin-tailed girl thought after recomposing herself as she watched how the bluenette seemed to be having the laugh of her life.
Thus, after that scene, the four girls went ahead to exit the school and start walking towards the station with the sound of their usual everyday chit-chat and some references made by the otaku that only Kagami could understand. However, before long, Konata asked a question directly to the tsundere. "So? Weren't you going to the bookstore? We already passed it." Was her sudden question.
"Ah?" Kagami looked back and noticed that indeed, she hadn't noticed that she already passed through where the bookstore was located, but continued walking anyways. "Y-yeah, I guess I forgot." She knew, but tried not to think too hard about how the reason why she forgot was because Konata hadn't said she'd accompany her.
Of course, the otaku knew what was going on in the purple-haired girl's head. "Aw, and here I was so excited to go with you..." She complained and smirked watching her friend's expression.
"Ah? Who said you'd be coming along too?" Kagami stopped walking and her eyes darted as she questioned Konata.
"Huh? I thought you wanted to ask me to go with you earlier... Guess I was wrong then." The bluenette shrugged indifferently and accelerated her step, expecting that action to make Kagami finally reveal her intentions.
"H-hey, I didn't say you couldn't come!" The twin-tailed girl quickly added, accelerating to the shorter girl's side. "I-I was just going to turn back, so let's go." She said almost as an order as she stopped walking again to go back.
Konata couldn't help but giggle. "Well, see you later!" She waved towards both Miyuki and Tsukasa, who were now going to walk to the station by themselves.
"Okay," The younger twin smiled. "Take care of my sis!" She then looked at her pink-haired friend and nodded.
"Have fun, Kagami, Izumi." Miyuki bowed and started walking again with Tsukasa, leaving the two friends to themselves.
While the twin-tailed girl was still wondering how her friend read her so easily (despite her being quite obvious), Konata had already started darting towards the bookstore, hurrying her to start walking too.
"Ah~, This place's so peaceful." Konata smiled in relief just after entering their destination.
"What's that all of a sudden?" Kagami questioned the uncommon mood of her friend as she reflexively walked towards the light novels section in the store, but stopped at the side of the otaku when she looked at the Manga section.
"I mean that there isn't a guy that looks like Winfield trying to sell me rare stuff in this shop." The bluenette had started looking at the newest volumes available, either not finding anything of interest or something she already bought. Needless to say, this shop wasn't well-versed in manga compared to Animate.
As usual, the twin-tailed girl had zero idea of what the bluenette was talking about. "Who's trying what?" She said with a tired tone.
"Anyway, what were you looking for?" The shorter girl put the last manga she picked up back to where it was, and looked curiously at Kagami.
"Ah, Tsukasa got a good recipe book here, I was looking for one with sweets and such." Kagami said also reminding herself of the real reason for her visit. Thus, she started walking towards a section where reference and study books rested.
"You're gonna buy a book for Tsukasa, then?" Konata smirked as she asked a seemingly meaningless question.
"Uh? No, it's for me." Her friend responded casually, before she started getting suspicious at what the meaning of the question was.
"No, Kagamin, you can't cook! You're gonna burn the house up...!" The jester started shaking Kagami's unifom strongly as she pleaded mockingly, annoying her as usual.
"Oh, come on! Even I can do well sometimes." The short-tempered girl pushed the bluenette away and started looking for her book in silence.
As Konata didn't have much to look at, she was quick to complain about that specific section in the shop. "Man, all these look so bland..."
"That's because you are used to all those colorful sparkly manga covers of yours." Kagami sighed. "You'd do well to take a read at some of the stuff here sometimes." She said with a slight bit of concern for her friend's uninterest at doing anything productive.
"Boo..." The shorter girl started giving quick glances to random directions, not stopping at any actual sight because of the colorless covers of the books that didn't get her attention, until a certain predominantly green item in the encyclopedia section catched her eye.
It was an animal encyclopedia. As she grabbed it and looked through the cover more carefully at all the different species featured next to each other in it, her sight stopped at the image of a bat, which made her slowly start giggling. This made Kagami turn around to the commotion. "What's so funny?" She asked turning around to where her friend was holding the book.
Konata responded, still laughing. "Look, look!" She then turned her body around and extended her arms to show the cover of the book at the girl. More specifically, she pointed her finger at a small picture of a bat opening its mouth and showing its fangs. "It's Misakichi...!" She said with an overly dramatic tone.
Kagami's shoulders shook slightly at the sudden image. "Damn, that's creepy..." She quickly averted her gaze from the awful look of the animal.
"Uh? You think bats are scary? I think they're cute." Konata tilted her head at her friend's reaction.
"Those things!? Cute?" The twin-tailed girl almost shouted before the shorter girl hushed her for being loud at a bookstore, so she continued in a lower voice. "Don't they suck blood?" She asked with disgust at the idea.
"Don't be naive, Kagamin. I'm pretty sure that's just fiction. How can they suck blood with that puppy-like face?" Konata moved her hand dismissively and went back to put the book where it was, not before keeping up with the funny comparison she made. "Let's see... Yeah, the fangs. Well, one of them."
"They're also blind... Well, she doesn't look at where she walks so it's kinda the same." She laughed internally at the similarity, making Kagami wonder what was so funny in those creatures she considered creepy. "Then they're also cute... Yeah, that's- No, wait, cute?" Konata was unsure of that last comparison she had made. "...Uh, that one was outta the mark." She then put the book back to where it was.
After finishing her club activities, Misao and Ayano could finally walk home and prepare for their hangout with their friends. Not long after they had to go separate ways, the fanged girl reached her residence. As usual, she took off her shoes in the entrance then walked to the living room, where she saw her brother and father entranced playing cards in the table.
She went ahead to greet them first since they didn't notice her arrival because of the game. "I'm back, old man!" She palmed her father on the back energetically then waved at her older brother with a "Hey."
"Oh, Misao, welcome home." The slightly hoary man turned his head around to look at her daughter as he salutated, while the son gave her sister a thumbs up, which was his version of a wave.
As Misao had started walking towards the stairs to go and take a bath, her dad spoke to her again. "We were going to play Karuta next. Are you up for being the reader?"
"I'm busy, pops. I'm gonna take a shower then I gotta go shopping with my friends!" She turned down the invitation loudly to make sure she could be heard from her position in the stairs.
Then, after a quick bath, she looked at whatever seemed comfortable for wearing and changed. Now with a white tank top, blue shorts and a pair of flip flops, she opened the wardrobe in her bedroom to find the envelope that contained her savings. In there was quite a good amount, so she decided to take a fourth of what she had to buy presents for the two sisters. "It may be too much... Nah, it's two gifts."
"Hmm... But Hiiragi's gonna scold me and get mad at me for wasting that much... Ah, but it's like Shorty always says! She's cold and angry half the time but deep down she'll be happy for the gesture! Yeah, that tsun... That tsundere thing, yeah." She closed her wardrobe then went ahead to grab her wallet which was on the bedside table. "I gotta ask for more details on that tsundere thingy, she's always pretty excited when talking about that weird stuff over on lunch... Uh? And what's with that? The point was to learn more about Hiiragi..." Misao questioned her own head before putting the money into the wallet.
After all that, the brunette grabbed her phone which was located on top of her bed and sended a message to her best friend, Ayano, asking if she was also ready for departing. And before the message got answered, Misao went to the living room again to notify her family of her leave.
"Okay, I'm leaving soon!" The family's daughter said loudly as she walked down the steps in the stairs, noticing that both of her relatives were still playing different games on the table. "Hey, don't you have anything else to do?" She muttered expecting it to go unnoticed, and it did.
"So, why do you like going shopping all of a sudden?" The boy with the tailbone-length hair asked his sister curiously while looking at his hand.
"Ah, it's not like that. The Hiiragis birthday is soon, so we're going with them and some girls from other class class to buy presents." Misao answered just before her phone vibrated, meaning that her message got responded. She took it out and read the latest SMS by Ayano, which said that everything was ready and that she'll meet her outside her house to go to the station once Kagami and the rest were ready.
"In the end, we're the only ones responsible in our group, Miyuki." Kagami sighed after complimenting the pink-haired girl next to her, making her sister wonder "What about me?" as she drank her bottle of water.
Only the twins and Miyuki were on the outsides of the station at the agreed time, having been standing the summer heat since more or less 18 minutes without the rest of their friends showing up for the meeting. "You needn't be quick to jump onto conclusions. I'm sure they have an understandable reason for being late, especially if it's an event as important as buying presents for you two." The meganekko smiled sweetly as she stated her opinion, making it impossible for the twin-tailed to argue with such a gentle person.
Kagami kept looking at her phone every now and then expecting a message from any of her remaining friends, until a panting voice she didn't pay attention to the first time started getting closer from her side. Even if it was only a sound, she could recognize the voice anywhere, so as soon as she made the connection, Kagami turned to her right and almost shouted to the near person preparing to scold them. "Konata!"
The sight of what looked like a small boy with a baseball cap and a tank top, looking down and dropping his shoulders in apparent fatigue made the quick-tempered girl blush almost instantly for having confused the person with her otaku friend and shouting at him. "O-oh, I'm sorry! I thought you were someone else!" She quickly apologized before it was revealed that her guess was actually right.
"Uh? Kagami, that's so mean!" Konata said while panting and looked up again, now with her face not being covered by the cap. "All those nights we spent together, but you don't even recognize me now... Oh, and hi, guys." She greeted while smirking, then recieved a slight bow by Miyuki and a wave by Tsukasa.
The angry older twin didn't even know where to start, so she pointed at Konata and blurted out all at once, startling their friends and some people nearby. "Agh! You call ME mean, while you came up with the idea of going shopping and then you show up awfully late! Also, what the hell are you talking about some nights!? Stop saying weird stuff, be serious for a second! Besides, we're the ones that should be sighing and panting for all the time we waited for you getting all sunburned! Look, we even missed the train, while you probably have been playing on your computer ever since you got home!" She tried to resist the urge to smack the otaku on top of her head. "Damn, and then the other two...!"
Before she could finish, the giggling voice of Konata interrupted her. "Look, I'm sorry, but before I got here-"
"Yeah, you should be sorry!" Kagami finished her rant before crossing her arms and averting her gaze from the bluenette in a bit of embarrasment for her outburst. But, as she looked at the opposite corner of where Konata came from, she saw the figures of a certain girl with a headband and a short-haired fanged person walking towards the group with nervous smiles in their faces.
As Miyuki and Tsukasa salutated them normally, they prepared for the twin-tailed girl's second round of shouting, before the bluenette basically jumped towards them and stood in front of them like if she were their representative. "See, Kagamin? If you wanna fight me for being late, you're gonna have to fight us three!" Konata did a declaration of war without consent of her two 'allies', who could only laugh nervously at the scene.
Kagami facepalmed, and before she could answer, Tsukasa yelped while looking at her cellphone. "Sis! We're missing the next train!"
"Oh, thank god..." The twin-tailed girl sighed in relief just after laying her body on one of the local train's seats with all her friends next to her.
"So, why were you two late?" Konata smirked and looked down at both Misao and Ayano, who seemed to be in fatigue, and with a good reason.
The short-haired girl took a deep breath to be able to talk, and looked up at the girl in the grab handle. "...Well, you see, we were halfway through when Ayano asked me how much money I brought... So I wanted to take it out and show her..." She then looked down in shame, making it clear what happened next.
Everyone couldn't help but giggle at the tale, except Kagami who facepalmed. "Hey, Shorty, and what's with that outfit?" The fanged girl could finally ask what was in her mind, since they needed to run almost immediately after meeting with their friends. "You look like a guy."
"I don't know how I feel hearing that from you..." Konata said with a smug, then remembered she didn't need her cap inside the train, so she took it off, letting her ahoge be seen again.
"Ah, but I don't mean it in a bad way! You look kinda cool." Misao nodded at her own comment reassuringly, thinking the girl took off her baseball cap because of her.
"So, how much money did you bring in the end, Kusakabe?" Kagami stepped in the conversation to change the subject, making the fanged girl scratch her cheek.
"Ah, well... 9000 Yen." All girls went astonished, except Ayano who already knew. It wasn't exactly a huge amount per se, but everyone had brought more or less half of what the she did, and the twins who didn't need to bring any money thought it was too much.
"Ah!? No way, you're going broke..." The older twin facepalmed for like the fourth time in the day.
"Oh, come on, Kagamin! We know you feel grateful for having such a caring friend! You tsundere~" Konata poked the girl's cheek, making the latter quickly push her hand away in annoyance and getting giggles from the rest of the group.
"Ah, that's right!" "Hey, Shorty." The brown-haired girl signaled the bluenette with her hand to lean closer.
"Yeah?" Konata crouched very slightly since the height difference wasn't much despite her being standing, then leaned closer. Then, all the rest of the girls saw was how the brunette started whispering to the girl's ear, before they stopped paying mind.
"Aya, do you want some water?" Tsukasa gently offered a water bottle from her bag to the orange-haired girl, since she seemed especially exhausted.
"Thank you very much!" Ayano accepted the bottle and took her time drinking a bit, before talking again. "I apologize on behalf of Misa... She did go home running as soon as she noticed her wallet wasn't there, but we still kept you waiting some time..." She apologized directing to both Tsukasa and Kagami. The latter wasn't that mad anymore, since the meeting could take place in the end, despite three girls being late.
"Don't worry, I kinda expected her to mess up somehow, anyway..." The older twin said dismissively, now letting her focus shift on any other thing. But obviously, the first thing that caught her attention was the two girls who were whispering earlier. They were now talking in a low voice instead of whispers, so Kagami tried to hear what was said.
"...Then there's the... dere type, these are... but in an extreme way, you see..." Was all the twin needed to hear before pointing at the otaku and cutting in the conversation. "Hey, hey! What are you telling Kusakabe now?"
Konata looked up at her and answered casually, despite Kagami being especially loud. "Oh, Kagami. She asked me about tsunderes so I was telling her about all the dere type-"
"Oh, man..." Kagami had a gloomy look in her face as she interrupted. "Please, don't let her rot your brain, Kusakabe..." She supplicated to Misao as if she were in danger, before the bluenette laughed it off.
"Hey, Misakichi," She paused before Misao in question looked at her. "See what I'm telling you? She worries so much about you, she doesn't want you to turn into an otaku." She smirked more radiantly than ever.
"No, It's not exactly like-"
"Ohhh! I get it now! You really do know it all, Shorty!" Ignoring the twin's protest, the brunette smiled from ear to ear after her friend explained Kagami's reaction.
"No, she doesn't...!" Kagami tried to argue but gave up seeing how both girls just smiled or laughed, paying no mind. "Damn, what a pair of idiots!" She finished, turning her head towards her other friends, trying to ignore every sound made by the two girls from that moment.
After some seconds, Konata shrugged and kept her lesson going, now in a volume everyone could hear to annoy Kagami even more. "Anyway, then there's the deredere type. I think these are the most wholesome, since they show affection openly and are pretty straight-forward..." She paused to make sure Misao understood, then continued after she nodded. "Kinda like you, for example."
"Huh? What's that got to do with me?" The brunette tilted her head in confusion.
"Like when you said I look cool dressed like this." Konata stated while another evil smirk formed in her face. "Wasn't that a pickup line~?"
"W-wha!? Of course not!"
Author notes: As I was saying, chapter 3 was supposed to be up the 13th, but I did a last read of it and GOOD LORD did it suck, so I scrapped it entirely and wrote this.
I figured I need more time than a week, so probably the chapters will be released in two weeks minimum so I can make sure they are in a decent state.