Chapter 18

It's been a week since the girls had come back to Astraea Hill and resumed their studies, Marinel walked through the shaded forest to avoid the sun with Tamao, hand in hand.

"So how does it feel love?"

Tamao looked at her, "It doesn't feel all too different, the bites did hurt though."

"I'm sorry about that," She giggled, "I did warn you."

"So why did Claudette help?"

Marinel stopped by one of the trees, "I wanted to see if mixing her blood with mine did something else."

-"What do you mean?"- Tamao asked her.

"If I gave you only my blood, then you'd just age really slowly. But if you had a bit of mine and a bit of Claudette, then I had to wonder if I could make you live forever like me without the vampire nastiness."

-"I see."-

"You walk in the sun, you don't hunger for blood and you don't have fangs, I'd say it worked love. I can feel it did." Marinel smiled, "If I had known about this sooner, then maybe Lydia would still be here."

-"It's not your fault Eve-chan."-

They resumed their walk, "So," Marinel looked ahead, "We still have ways to go for school, and at least now, I won't be alone."

-"Neither will I,"- She pulled out her notebook and began to scribble on it.

"Are you still doing that?" Marinel asked.

-"Of course, I have to record every cute thing you do."-

Marinel looked at her confused, "But I didn't even do anything cute!"

-"I know, but now I got to write down that we're going to get married!"-

Marinel choked on her spit, "What?! We haven't even talked about that love!"

-"Well you making me live forever counts, we just have to make it official."- she giggled.

"Well… I suppose you're right."

Tamao's eyes were filled with so much love, -"Reeve Suzumi Tamao! I love the sound of it!"-

Marinel chuckled nervously, "Ah ha yeaaah." Tamao wrapped her arms around the young vampire's.

-"I'm so happy!"-

"As am I love," Marinel could see the strawberry dorms in the distance, "So should we ask everyone if they want to live forever with us?"

-"It couldn't hurt to ask."-

"Claudette has already agreed to it, I've asked her ahead of time."

-"That's great, I'm glad to hear she liked the idea."-

Marinel giggled, "She loves her new friends."

Tamao smiled, -"Speaking of Claudette, where is she right now?"-

"Oh I believe I have an idea love."

Tamao looked up at her, -"You can't be serious."-

"Oh yeah."

-"But… the sun is out."-

Marinel only smirked, "Won't stop her."

Claudette brushed Nagisa's red hair gently, and Nagisa shuddered with Claudette's touch whenever her fingers grazed her skin.

"You okay." She asked.

-"Yeah."- Her face began to blush, -"Are you sure you aren't afraid of being here with the sun still up?-

"Not at all." Claudette then gently turned Nagisa around, "So my cute Nagisa," She began, "I'm just going to ask you."

-"Eh?"- her face got red as Claudette inched closer.

"Want to be my girlfriend?"

-"EEH?!"-

Claudette laughed, "What? Am I too old? That's it isn't, oh my heart." Claudette clutched her chest and fell to the floor, unable to contain her giggles, "Nagisa has rejected me! I'm dying!" She laid motionless on the floor.

Nagisa was silent till she finally laughed.

Claudette sat up, "So its no isn't it."

Nagisa shook her head, -"I actually want to be with you, I know its only been a week but I want too… first time I saw you, I felt strange in my heart but now I know what it means."-

Claudette smiled, "I'm glad to hear that," she embraced Nagisa, and the cute red head returned the embrace lovingly, sure it would be a while till their first kiss but until the time comes, it would be worth it.

The door opened up and a small blonde girl walked inside to find her best friend, -"Yaya-chan?"- Hikari walked into the room and found Yaya, having a nap but that's not what surprised her, it was who she was sleeping next too, -"Tsubomi-chan?"-

It was indeed Tsubomi who was holding onto Yaya, it was such a cute sight to behold and Hikari could only smile then gently closed the door to let them sleep.

The room was quiet, the only sounds were of a pencil writing on paper and a girl deep in focus. Chikaru had for the first time untied her ribbons and placed them on the side of the desk as she worked designing a new outfit.

She put her pencil down, and leaned back to stretch. It's been a long day for her, all day she had been running around and helping out with various clubs and setting things up for them.

Her focus was broken when the door opened up and a certain blonde walked in the room and made a straight line to Chikaru.

-"Shion,"- Chikaru smiled and Shion wasted no time taking her in her arms and kissing her, that moment was all Chikaru needed and she felt like she was melting in her arms.

Shion then walked around behind Chikaru and began to rub her shoulders, -"Oh my, you feel so tense."-

Chikaru moaned softly, -"It's been a busy day."-

-"I can tell."- Shion leaned in closer, -"So what are you working on this time?"-

-"Some new designs for my costume club."-

Shion grabbed the sketchbook, -"It looks great."-

Chikaru then gave off a sly smile, -"I'm glad you think so, because I'm going to make you wear it."-

-"Wait what?!"- Shion snapped her gaze to her.

-"Did you think I took your measurements for fun."-

Shion was speechless.

-"Don't worry, I'll make sure it'll be really cute for you."- Chikaru laughed, stood up and embraced her shock stricken girlfriend, -"I'll be gentle."-

Shizuma finally put down the few papers she was working on, -"Well I'm surprised Shizuma, I didn't think you would even come in today to finish this."-

-"Didn't want to give you a hard time."- Shizuma replied as she leaned towards the desk.

-"Well I'm grateful."- She stood up, -"I'll see you later Shizuma, I'll go turn this in."-

-"Hey Miyuki,"- She stopped to face her, -"We going out tonight?"-

-"As much as I don't… Yeah we are."- Miyuki gave her a smile and went on her way.

As soon as Miyuki left the room, a familier brunette walked into the room and rushed Shizuma.

-"Momomi."- the kissed, during the last week they had spent together they actually grew fond of each other and eventually Shizuma had asked her if Momomi wanted to be her girlfriend and with no hesitation, Momomi said yes.

-"So the old ball and chain giving you work to do?"-

Shizuma tried not to laugh at the comment, -"Oh come on, don't say that about Miyuki. She means well and I love her like my own sister."- Shizuma made a bit of room as Momomi sat on her lap.

-"Oh I know that, just that she gives you an unreasonable amount of work I mean hell, not even Tomori does that."-

-"Now that is surprising."-

-"right."-

Momomi gave her a smirk, -"So we have time for a quickie right?"-

-"Hmm I think so you perv."-

Momomi playfully shoved Shizuma, -"I am no such thing,"- then immediately kissed her, -"So we still going out tonight?"-

-"Yeah."-

-"What about Miyuki is she coming with us? That girl could use a night to herself."-

Shizuma nodded, -"Yeah she's coming with us, oh and Evelyn wants to talk to all of us before we go out."-

-"Alright,"- Momomi's smirk returned to her, -"Oh and I locked the door by the way."-

Shizuma didn't even need to say anything, she lifted Momomi onto the table and the two began a heated moment of love making.

Later that night, the girls had all gathered in the forest and it was illuminated by a few lanterns that Chikaru had made during one of the Halloween events at school.

Marinel paced around as Claudette sat next to her with Nagisa sitting by her side.

-"So what did you want to talk to us about Evelyn-chan?"-

Marinel looked at Tamao who nodded, "Well, its something I want to ask all of you."

-"What is it?"-

"Well… its one question and you all don't have to agree but I want to ask if…"

Claudette stood up, "If you all want to live forever, along with us?"

-"What?!"- Nagisa stood up next to her.

"Tamao already made her decision to live with me forever."

Nagisa looked at Tamao, -"Really Tamao-chan?"- she nodded with a smile, -"So you're a vampire too?"-

-"Not really Nagisa-chan, Marinel and Claudette both were able to just make me live forever without being a vampire."-

-"I… didn't even know such a thing was possible."- Momomi was shocked.

"Neither did I love, it was just something I wanted to try." Marinel admitted to them, "So… if you all wanted, we could do the same for all of you and we'd always be together."

Claudette turned to Nagisa, "I would certainly love to have you by my side." She ran her fingers down Nagisa's face.

-"Well this is certainly something to consider,"- Chikaru said, -"It sounds wonderful but at the same time…"-

"I know love, I know," Marinel sighed, "It's a lot to think about which is why we don't want an answer yet, think it over and then when you're ready, let us know."

Claudette smiled and held Nagisa close, "We have all the time in the world."

-"We'll definitely give it some thought."- Shizuma knew this was a lot to consider and think about, but like Claudette said, they had all the time they could want to think it over as it was no easy decision.

-"Well I already know what I want, but I'll wait on my answer."- Yaya stood up and held Tsubomi's hand, -"But come on, lets go have some fun, I heard the arcades are going to be open past midnight."-

-"No way! Really!?"- Nagisa cried out in excitement.

-"Well come on lets go, the nights still young!"- Shizuma led the girls down the hill and to a limo that she called earlier to be ready for them.

Claudette followed behind Nagisa, as Marinel and Tamao walked behind them.

"So you think they'll take it?"

-"Too soon to tell."- Tamao replied to her, -"But whatever they choose, I'll always be there for them no matter what."-

"Same here love." Marinel then turned to Tamao and gave her a loving kiss, "Well come on, I'm pretty sure they're already at the limo."

Tamao giggled and playfully pushed Marinel back, -"I'll race you!"-

"Hey no cheating love!" she ran up behind Tamao with a laugh.

The two joined their friends and hopped inside the limo, to get ready to take them to the city for a night of fun. The night was young and they would be sure to spend as much time together as they could and maybe in the future they would consider the offer both Marinel and Claudette had made, but for now they were all happy that they met a wonderful, yet strange friend like Marinel, now Astraea Hill would have a new story to etch within its walls, a story only a certain few would ever know.

THE END

A/N: First off I apologize if this chapter was short, this story was going to end with the previous chapter but instead I wanted to wrap up a few things and now this story has come to a close and I hope you all enjoyed it. Now as much as it saddens me, I will probably no longer write anymore stories for Strawberry Panic for a good while as I feel I have written enough and done a lot of the ideas I had for it for a long time now and I'm going to move on to other things i want to write, but I am truly happy with the ones I've written as I love this series as it was my first Yuri anime and it was beautiful watching it for the first time, i loved it, hell this series is what got me into writing in the first place and how I discovered that I actually love writing stories, and I'm currently writing a new story of something that also means dearly to me but anyway I truly hope the fandom for this series continues to grow. Thank you all for taking the time to read this story, it truly means a lot to me.

I hope you all have an amazing day you awesome readers :D