I don't own these characters.

Trouble

Kagura was in trouble. Now, for someone like her, it was not a unique occurrence. She tended to get excited and she often leaped before she looked, which was known to bring problems into people's lives and it was no different for her. But, she was not in trouble because of her impulsiveness, for once in her life. She was in trouble because of a bad habit that she had, though.

Last night, she had been over Sakaki's place for a "study date," which pretty was normal for them now. Sakaki had taken it upon herself to try to improve Kagura's grades; and, boy, did they need improving. Kagura thought it was nice of Sakaki to try and help her bring her grades up, even though Tomo tried to insist that Sakaki was only doing it because she did not want a dumb girlfriend and she had the nerve to say that with a huge grin on her face, like it was all right. She was lucky Kagura did not punch her in her big mouth for that. Sakaki had not even known how to react to the wildcat's statement and just looked shocked and aghast, but later on she had assured Kagura that was not her reason for trying to help, which the swimmer believed.

Kagura did not think their study dates were because Sakaki thought she was stupid. If anything, it was so that Kagura could stop borrowing her notes, not understanding them, and messing up any sketches that she came across in the notes. So far, the dates had saved many doodles in Sakaki's notebook from Kagura's wandering hand, but last night things changed.

She had not meant to do what she did, namely take a pen to one of Sakaki's favorite cat magazines. She could not help it, though. She had been so bored! Sakaki had left the room because her mother called her and she did not come back for almost five whole minutes, five minutes too long in Kagura's opinion. To pass the time, the athlete had flipped through one of Sakaki's many cat magazines that was within her reach, but she was not as interested in felines as her tall girlfriend was. It just so happened she had a pen in her hand while going through the magazine and she had not even realized what she was doing until she heard the tiny gasp of shock from Sakaki.

Kagura had looked up when she heard the sound and saw how hurt her girlfriend looked. Why does she look like she's about to cry or yell? Once she saw the expression of anguish on Sakaki's face, she had looked down at what she was doing. It had dawned on her then that she drew all in the magazine. She seemed just as surprised as Sakaki and she quickly capped her pen. She had grinned sheepishly at the taller female and muttered a sincere, heartfelt apology, not totally sure what else she should or could do. The real shock of the night then happened; her apology had not been accepted. And that was why she was she was in trouble and also why she walking to school alone instead of with her girlfriend.

Kagura sighed in despair. What am I supposed to do now? How was she supposed to make up for defacing one of Sakaki's precious cat books? She needed to do something, especially since she did not want to lose her girlfriend.

She knew way better than anyone else how much Sakaki loved cats and, a lot of the time, it seemed that the closest she would ever get to a cat was through her magazines and books considering how much those felines in the neighborhood loved nothing more than to take bites out of Sakaki's hand. So, how was she supposed to make up for ruining one of those cat books? She had her doubts that a solution would ever come to her. Damn it, she wished she had been paying attention last night and had not drawn all in that magazine.

"Will she break up with me over this?" Kagura muttered with a frown. Sakaki had not said as much, but Kagura was not sure if down the line, Sakaki would break up with her. After all, her apology had not been accepted, Sakaki refused her calls, and did not come out of the house to walk to with her when she went to pick the taller girl up.

On the way to school, she noted how much she disliked walking alone. There was no one to talk with. Well, more like talk to. When she walked to school with Sakaki, she did most of the talking. It was just the way she was and most of the time she liked to talk about bikes, which she knew was not something that Sakaki was interested in. At least Sakaki listened, though, and she appreciated that, even though she never said so. She liked that Sakaki at least listened to her no matter what she said.

She could not even start a random competition with Sakaki since she was alone. It was boring. She did not recall walking by herself being so boring, but she guessed because it was a while ago since she had to walk alone that she just was not used to it anymore. She always walked to school with Sakaki and she walked home with the longhaired girl, too, if she did not have any practice for the swim team. Even if she had practice, Sakaki would wait around for her and they would walk home together. If she had some place she needed to go when they were not in school, she would call Sakaki and they would go together.

She had tried her best to avoid flying solo that morning, but Sakaki was not even talking to her. She had gone to the tall girl's house like she did every morning and Sakaki even answered the door, but shut it as soon as she saw that it was Kagura. Kagura felt like her heart fell into feet as the door shut on her. The swimmer had quickly apologized through the door and requested that they walk to school together like always. Her morning apology had fallen all deaf ears just like her apology from last night and her request was clearly shot down like enemy aircraft. She wished Sakaki did not like cats so damn much and she would not be in her current mess. Well, she liked to think she would not be in her current mess anyway.

Okay, she amended her thought; she wished she did not have to draw on every damn cat that she saw. She would not have done it if Sakaki had just come back sooner than she had last night. She would not have gotten bored if Sakaki had just come back in after about a minute or so and none of that would have happened. After all, it had never happened before on any of their other study dates and there had been plenty of those. Not all of those dates included studying either, which became a concern of Kagura's. Those dates might be over.

What if Sakaki wanted to break up now? She would certainly hate that. She liked being with Sakaki, which was obvious since she spent most of her free time with the tall girl. She also liked being near Sakaki and touching her and everything. She liked doing things with Sakaki or even doing nothing at all. She just liked being around the longhaired female. She was not sure why, but it made her feel calm and nice inside.

Sakaki liked her just the same in return, though, right? Well, Kagura liked to think Sakaki felt the same, which would explain why they were girlfriends. Hopefully still girlfriend. Despite shutting the door in her face, Sakaki had not broken up with her that morning, so that had to be good, right? And, Sakaki had to like her since Sakaki had not broken up with her.

Sakaki seemed to like being around her just as much as she liked being around Sakaki. Sakaki always invited her to go places if she left the house or requested that she come over. At least half the time, Sakaki was also the one that started any affectionate exchanges between them, like hugging and kissing. They seemed to like each other just the same, Kagura assured herself. So, Sakaki would not break up with her for something as silly like her drawing in the cat book… right? She hoped so.

What would she do with her free time if she could not spend it with Sakaki? She did not have much free time to begin with and she liked it best when she could just lounge around with Sakaki. She really, really did not want to lose that. So, now she was pissed with herself for having drawn on all of those damned cats because now she had to worry about Sakaki breaking up with her because of it.

"I need to do something before she does break up with me," the swimmer mumbled.

She would have felt better about their relationship's survival if Sakaki had at least accepted the apology that morning or last night. She could have said she needed some time alone or something, but if only she had accepted the apology, Kagura would have felt more secure in everything. Now, she had to worry about possibly losing her girlfriend to a simple mistake. I'm such an idiot.

"I guess I'll see how she is in class," Kagura muttered to herself. She hoped by the time school started Sakaki was at least speaking with her.

-8-8-8-8-

Sakaki stared out the window, as she had a habit of doing when she was in class. She was not daydreaming like she usually did, though. She thought about last night and what happened between her and Kagura. She was still kind of mad about it considering the fact that Kagura had just scribbled in one of her favorite magazines, but she thought that maybe she had been too hard on the swimmer.

She had not spoken to Kagura, after all. She still did not feel like talking to her girlfriend. She felt like Kagura had toyed with her emotions last night by just drawing in her book like that. It was very disrespectful of Kagura and she really just did not even feel like looking at her at the moment, but it seemed like a bit much when she thought about it. She did not want to hurt Kagura's feelings too much, especially since she knew it had been somewhat a mistake. It was hard to consider such deliberate actions a total mistake, even if Kagura said she had not realized what she was doing until it was too late. She just wanted to get it across to Kagura that she was upset and, hopefully, it would mean Kagura would never do such a thing again. Well, there was that, and she really just wanted to fume for a little while. She was entitled, right?

So, she would let her anger run its course and just be mad for a while. She knew it would not fix her magazine, but sometimes people just needed to angry. Right now, she just needed to be upset and she sat there, staring out the window, being as irritated as she wanted to be. She also wondered if she could somehow replace her magazine.

When the classroom door opened, Sakaki did not even bother to turn her head away from the window to see who came in. Usually, she never turned her head anyway, favoring staring at the clouds rather than watching who came into the room. Besides, she typically entered with the person that she would want to see anyway and she also did not want to see that person at the moment. Since she did not want to see that person, it was a good thing that she had kept her eyes out the window.

-8-8-8-8-

Kagura entered the classroom and her gaze immediately searched for Sakaki. She saw the taller girl in her usual seat. She wondered if she should approach Sakaki or not. She hesitated for a moment, but then marched over to the longhaired female, hoping Sakaki would at least acknowledge her presence. She would love for Sakaki just to talk to her.

"Um… good morning…" Kagura said in an unsure voice, in a lower tone than anyone knew she could manage, for lack of a better opening. She figured if she could make it pass the greeting, she could try apologizing again and then maybe everything would be all right again. She hoped so because she disliked the insecure and anxious feelings building inside of her body, gnawing at her guts.

Sakaki kept her eyes glued out the window. She would rather pretend like Kagura was not there at the moment. It would keep her from saying something she knew was mean and she was not that type of person, especially when it came to Kagura. So, to avoid hurting Kagura's feelings, she continued staring out of the window. If anything, she felt like she was being kind.

Kagura's feelings were hurt, anyway. It was really inevitable, but Sakaki had not thought about that. The athlete had to swallow down a sad whimper. She turned around and marched away before she showed anymore of pain than she had. She would hate to end up crying right there. She threw herself into her desk and wondered just what she could do that would set things right. Maybe someone would have some advice for her or something, but she had to be careful who it was that she asked because her relationship with Sakaki was not exactly public knowledge and she preferred things that way. She did not want a bunch of people knowing about her personal life, especially not when she screwed it up so nicely.

It did not take Kagura long to figure out who she should ask about her predicament. After all, since Tomo had a bad habit of making her presence known, especially once she got around Yomi, it was not hard to figure out who to ask. If Tomo could remain in a relationship with Yomi, then one of them had to be loaded with good advice on how to keep a mate, not that their relationship was any more public than Kagura and Sakaki's relationship. But, the point of the matter was that they were together and they had to have some secret on making up for that to happen, Kagura figured. So, Kagura thought she would ask them about it when she got the chance.

-8-8-8-8-

"Hey, Yomi," Kagura said as the taller female walked over to her while Kagura and Tomo were about to see which one of them could eat lunch the fastest. Yomi waited for one of them to choke one day to get them to stop doing something so stupid, but knowing them, either choking would not be enough to get them to quit or they would just find some new stupid thing to take the lunch-eating contest's place.

"Hey, Kagura. What are you going with this idiot? Don't you usually have lunch with Sakaki?" Yomi asked, not that having lunch with Sakaki meant that Kagura could not race Tomo in eating. Sakaki was not around at the moment, though. She stepped out to go to a vending machine for something to drink. Yomi wished Sakaki was there because then the two of them band together and hopefully get their girlfriends to stop acting like morons.

"Oh… well, she's a little mad at me right now," Kagura answered while looking down at her desk with a sorrowful expression painting her face. She scratched her cheek with her finger briefly.

"Mad at you?" Yomi echoed as if she could not comprehend such a thing, which she did not. She had never seen Sakaki angry and she could not really imagine it.

"Yeah, but now that you bring it up, maybe you two can help me," Kagura said, pointing back and forth between her two classmates.

"Sure, we can help, especially me," Tomo declared confidently, even though she did not know the problem or how her assistance might be required.

"Well… you two are together, right?" Kagura asked. Yomi nodded to answer that question and then Kagura continued, but with her attention turned mostly to Tomo. "In that case, what do you do when you piss Yomi off to stay together?" she inquired in a dead serious tone.

"What do you mean by that? I never piss Yomi off!" the wildcat replied, throwing her hands up.

Yomi and Kagura made faces of disbelief. Tomo practically pissed Yomi off hourly. Not a day went by when Tomo did not do something that got on Yomi's nerves. So, what was Tomo talking about? It just so happened that in Tomo's mind, she did not really piss Yomi off. She just did funny things that Yomi missed the humor in.

"You're kidding, right?" Kagura asked.

"Nope. I never piss Yomi off, but if you wanna ask advice about getting out of the trouble, you should ask Yukari-chan. I mean, she pisses Nyamo off all the time and they're still together," Tomo pointed out.

"They are?" Kagura asked in a puzzled tone. She had no idea that their homeroom teacher went out with the P.E teacher.

"You don't have any proof those two even go out," Yomi pointed out, glaring at the shorter girl for a moment. She did not think Tomo should spread rumors about their teachers.

"Why else would Nyamo put up with Yukari?" Tomo countered.

Yomi was set to argue, but for once figured she agreed with Tomo. She knew she put up with energetic wildcat because they were going out and she loved Tomo, unfortunately. She could save herself a lot of stress if she had fallen for someone else, but it would seem that Tomo was made for her. So, if she put up with Tomo out of love, perhaps Miss Kurosawa put up with Yukari for the same reason.

"It's worth a shot," Yomi told Kagura with a shrug. The swimmer did not argue because she was willing to try anything as long as it meant she could stay with Sakaki.

With that decided, they all got up and went to go look for Yukari. They only had to walk down the hallway and they spotted her talking with none other than Miss Kurosawa. The fact that the two teachers were engaged in a conversation did not mean much to Tomo, who just rudely interrupted the pair.

"Oi, Yukari-chan! Nyamo-chan!" Tomo hollered from down the hall as if it was the normal thing to do.

The two adults turned to see who was calling them, even though it was not hard to guess. They were not surprised to see Tomo down the hall, but they were surprised to see her running at them at full speed and they wondered if they should be afraid. After all, there was no telling what that impulsive kid had planned.

"Yukari, we need you to tell Kagura what you do when you make Nyamo mad at you and that keeps her from leaving you," Tomo informed the two teachers as soon as she was in front of them.

The two women and the two girls in Tomo's company could not believe what she just let tumble out of her mouth. They all blanched and drew back from the bluntness of the statement. Tomo, to her credit, looked perfectly fine and did not see a problem with what she just said.

"Tomo, you must be mistaken…" Nyamo started to reply in a nervous tone. She tried to deny she had that type of relationship with Yukari because she did not want any trouble at their work place, but she did not get to make it through the whole statement.

"Just tell us, so Kagura can get Sakaki to stop being mad at her," Tomo stated plainly.

"Trouble in paradise, eh?" Yukari asked in a teasing tone, nudging the swimmer with her elbow a bit to further bother her.

"Yeah, so if you could just tell me what you do when you piss Miss Kurosawa off and get her to stop being mad at you—" Kagura started, but the English teacher cut her off.

"What do you mean? I never piss her off!" Yukari declared as if she was insulted by the very idea. She did not think Nyamo was ever really bothered by her antics, maybe embarrassed sometime, but never enough to be considered "pissed."

Nyamo and Yomi looked beyond shocked that Yukari could say something like that with a straight face. Even Tomo was a bit caught by surprise by Yukari's statement and decided to argue the matter with the English teacher

"Really, Yukari-chan? It's clear to anyone with eyes that you always pissed off Nyamo," Tomo insisted.

"What did you say, you little brat?" Yukari growled, shaking her fist at Tomo.

Kagura sighed in despair, her shoulders slumping. Why did everyone try to make it seem like she was the only person on the planet to upset her girlfriend? She did not know what she was going to do to make sure Sakaki did not break up with her and none of them really helped.

"Don't worry," Yomi said to Kagura. "She won't stay mad forever," she promised the swimmer in regards to Sakaki. She knew she could not stay mad at Tomo forever no matter what the hyperactive knucklehead did and was willing to bet that Sakaki could not stay angry with Kagura for long either.

Kagura nodded, even though she did not believe that. She felt like she needed to do something to ensure that Sakaki did not leave her. She guessed she would just have to think of something on her own.

-8-8-8-8-

Kagura sighed and rubbed her foot against her leg in a nervous manner as she went to ring the doorbell to Sakaki's house. She was not sure if she was even going to be able to see the tall girl, but she needed to try. Imagine her surprise when Sakaki answered the door. Kagura froze.

"Kagura…" Sakaki said in her usual tone. She did not sound angry anymore, but Kagura did not notice because she was so nervous.

"Uh…" Kagura tried to think of something to say.

"Come in," Sakaki offered and motioned into the house with a sweep of her hand.

Kagura nodded to show that she had a functioning brain and she entered the house. Some relief settled in her stomach, but it was still tied in knots. Sakaki shut the door behind her and raised a curious eyebrow when she noticed items in Kagura's hands. They both stood there in the front of the house; Sakaki looked down at Kagura while Kagura looked away.

"My parents aren't here…" Sakaki found herself informing the athlete. She did not really have anything better to say.

"Oh…" Kagura muttered, wishing she could think of something to say, but her mind did not seem to be up to the task anymore. She was just so shocked that she had been invited in instead of having the door slammed in her face.

"What are those for?" Sakaki decided to ask, pointing to the items that Kagura was carrying.

"Oh, these are for you," Kagura replied while holding out the bouquet of flowers that she had in her grip. It had been rather awkward for her when she had gone to buy them because she did not know a thing about flowers and she could not bring herself to explain to little saleslady in the flower shop that she was trying to buy flowers for her girlfriend as an apology. So, to remedy that, she had just grabbed a bunch of flowers that she thought looked nice and put them all together in a bouquet. It seemed logical enough to her, now she just hoped that Sakaki accepted them.

"They're nice," Sakaki said while taking the flowers, which Kagura thought was a very good sign.

"This is for you, too," Kagura said and she held out the other thing in her hand, which was a large cat plushy animal.

"Thank you," Sakaki replied while accepting the plush toy too. She smiled.

"So, please don't break up with me!" Kagura pled suddenly, grasping her hands together like a beggar. "I'm really, really sorry! I didn't mean to do it! I don't want to lose you!" She threw herself into the taller girl's full arms and embraced her around the waist. "Please, don't break up with me," she begged, burying her head on Sakaki's soft neck. She always smelled so nice. Kagura would miss the soothing scent if Sakaki broke up with her.

Sakaki looked down at Kagura with sorrowful eyes. She wrapped her arms around the swimmer while making sure to hold onto her presents, too. She leaned down and laid her head in Kagura's hair. Despite Kagura being rough around the edges, her hair was always soft and Sakaki liked touching it.

"I'm sorry, too," Sakaki apologized.

Kagura did not like that sound of that. What was Sakaki sorry about after all? Maybe she was sorry because she was going to end the relationship anyway. Kagura clung to the taller girl and hoped that was not the case.

"I didn't mean to get so mad about things or make you think I'd break up with you over a magazine. I mean, I like cats and everything, but I like you more," Sakaki explained. It was the plain truth and she felt that it needed to be known to her girlfriend at the very least. She liked Kagura way more than she liked cats and she hoped that would always be the case.

Kagura looked up at Sakaki as if she could not believe what she heard. They were not breaking up, it would seem. Kagura was so overjoyed by that and she grinned widely, showing off her teeth. She then stood up on her toes and planted an enthused kiss on Sakaki's mouth. She was thankful when Sakaki returned the show of affection. Wow, Sakaki liked her more than cats.

"So, I'm not in trouble anymore right?" Kagura asked just to be sure. Sakaki smiled and just kissed Kagura again as an answer.

-8-8-8-8-

The end.

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