Alright, this is my first Azumanga Daioh fan fiction. I am very excited to see what everyone thinks. I'll say right now that the perspective changes quite often between the girls (mainly Osaka and Chiyo-chan). There is a strong possibility that I may turn this into a chapter fic. That will however, depend on a number of things. The first is that I will need time to develop the story because I originally was going to do this as a one-shot but it is open enough for more and I do have some ideas that I am toying with. The second is that if I would add more, it wouldn't be for a while because I'm currently in college and my schedule is quite busy right now (I was lucky to get this done), but once I finish I will have lots more time to work on it. In other words, updates won't come for at least a month (maybe sooner if I can get some work done on it). I have another chapter fic that I am working on but that one will be ending soon (I think). The final reason is whether or not I get enough reviews expressing interest in more. As much as I want to write more, I don't know that I will and if there is not a strong desire for more, than I might not (this doesn't mean that I won't add more if only one person reviews because if I have ideas then I will update). If and when I do update, I'm just going to say that the updates probably won't be near as long as this post. If you look at my other fics and see how long each post is, that is probably my average length. THIS IS THE LONGEST SINGLE POST FOR ME!

As for this story, I don't know how well I portrayed the characters so they may be a little OOC but hopefully that isn't too bad. Like I said this is my first Azu fic and if it continues, it will probably get more serious and have less humor attempts. Also, this is rated T but will probably be lowered. Now, I have rambled on long enough. Read, review, and enjoy.

Loving Chiyo

Walking into Yukari-sensei's class, Osaka absently strolled over to her seat behind Chiyo-chan and sat down. Another week was beginning for Osaka and as usual, she found herself pondering over Chiyo-chan's pigtails once again. As many times as she tried, Osaka could never explain her fascination for Chiyo-chan's pigtails, but she figured they were dangerous if they could gather so much attention so easily. Osaka guessed that the cause had something to do with Chiyo-chan's cuteness. For as long as she could remember, every one of her friends would fall trap to the power of the pigtails, and someday it will cost them big. It's a good thing I'm here to stop them. I'm the only one who hasn't fallen prey to their power. Osaka thought as she continued to explore the vast potential of pigtails during class.

Chiyo-chan suddenly felt eyes on her and turned around to locate the source of her uncomfortable feeling. She only needed a second to find that the prying eyes belonged to her best friend, Osaka. "What's wrong Osaka? Is there something in my hair," Chiyo-chan whispered to her friend while avoiding trouble with Yukari-sensei.

Osaka looked into Chiyo's eyes and suddenly felt a strange warmth rise into her chest. For only a second, Osaka found herself lost in Chiyo-chan's eyes as she struggled to find a response to the girl's question. Only then did Osaka realize that she was blushing and shyly shook her head to respond to Chiyo's question. "No, nothing." Osaka whispered back and drooped her head until her gaze rested onto the notebook that lay open on her desk.

Osaka could feel the presence of Chiyo's eyes on her and waited until Chiyo-chan turned back to the front before Osaka looked back up. Was that the power of the pigtails? Osaka questioned as she continued to stare at the two egg-shaped balls of hair that sprouted from Chiyo's head. The image of Chiyo's concerned look from just a moment ago reappeared in Osaka's mind and she felt herself blush again. The picture of Chiyo's cute, luring eyes would not leave Osaka alone and the more she tried to stop her thinking of Chiyo, the more images of Chiyo entered her mind. A slow headache crept up onto Osaka as she attempted to relieve her mind of Chiyo-chan and now found herself clutching her scalp.

Caught up in her thoughts, it took several minutes for Osaka to realize that Yukari-sensei was calling on her. "OSAKA," the teacher screamed one final time and when Osaka glanced up at Yukari, she asked, "Are you feeling alright? You're holding your head like it's ready to explode."

Glancing around the room, Osaka noticed that all her friends (along with the rest of the class) had focused their eyes onto her. Even Chiyo-chan had turned around in her seat to check on her best friend. Seeing Chiyo-chan looking at her again, Osaka felt her cheeks flush and quietly answered Yukari, "I'm fine but my head hurts and my chest feels weird."

"Then head to the nurse's office and get some rest! I don't want sick kids in this classroom," Yukari-sensei scolded.

Osaka quietly got up and nonchalantly walked out of the door, being careful not to look at Chiyo-chan so she wouldn't fall for the pigtails' trap. She walked towards the nurse's office and slowly began to feel her headache dissipate. Even the warmth in Osaka's chest had begun to calm down, but after all the thinking I've done, I think I deserve a rest. Osaka chuckled to herself and said, "I'm thinking even when I should be thinking about resting. But then I'm still thinking so it won't help me at all." Osaka felt her headache returning and decided to stop worry about thinking and focus on sleeping as she arrived at the nurse's office.

After knocking on the door, Osaka heard the nurse's voice, "Come in," to which she calmly entered. The nurse turned in her chair to face Osaka as she entered the room. "So, what did you need to see me for," the nurse politely asked.

"Yukari-sensei told me to come here and rest,"

The nurse calmly smiled and motioned for Osaka to follow her to the back of the room where a curtain (similar to that of a shower curtain) blocked off part of the room from view. Unveiling it revealed a small bed covered in white sheets. "You can rest on this. I'll draw the curtain so no one bothers you. Just let me know if you need anything." Osaka thanked the nurse to which she received the reply, "Anytime."

Osaka laid down on the bed and the nurse shut the curtain. The walls were shrouded in white and covered in posters of all sorts. From the wall that was visible to Osaka, she found five posters hanging up on the walls. One listed all sorts of cancers and diseases that Osaka never expected would be seen in a school. Another poster focused on nutrition and the other three pictured various body parts with diagrams of muscles and bones.

Before long, Osaka found herself drifting into sleep as the white swirls on the ceiling tiles calmed her eyes.

Glancing around, Osaka found herself in a wide open field of grass. Nothing could be seen for miles except clouds and hills upon hills of grass. Even though the sky was a bright blue, Osaka found no sun in the sky.

Osaka looked around and began walking aimlessly. She quickly noticed that no matter how many steps she took, it always appeared that Osaka hadn't moved one inch from her original position. A sudden sound caused Osaka to turn around. While she couldn't see anything, a strange sound similar to that of flapping wings grew louder with each second that passed. Within seconds, a black spec could be seen getting bigger and bigger in the clouds. At first, Osaka thought that it was a storm cloud developing, but realized that storm clouds don't have faces; at least, she hoped they didn't.

The black spec took form and soon it was clear what flew towards Osaka. Chiyo-chan, using her pigtails as propellers, flew through the clouds and was on a collision course with Osaka. Chiyo-chan swooped down like a bird and quickly angled herself back into the air, narrowly missing Osaka's head. "Catch me Osaka," Chiyo-chan playfully hollered as her figure began shrinking into the clouds.

"Chiyo-chan don't leave me," Osaka shouted and ran after the flying child. Laughing could be heard from the clouds as the girl began to disappear from sight. Osaka slowed down as her legs started to tire but kept on moving in hopes of catching Chiyo-chan.

Suddenly, the figure began to grow. Chiyo-chan had started to slow down. "Oh no! They're getting tired," Chiyo's voice could be heard in the distance.

With new found strength, Osaka forced her legs to move faster and soon caught up with the flying Chiyo-chan. She immediately noticed that Chiyo was losing altitude and knew the game was soon to be hers. Osaka eyed the puttering pigtails as they spat and sputtered the last of their energy and dropped Chiyo a mere four feet to the ground. She was shook up, but alright. Osaka rushed over to her friend who was sprawled up in the grass. "Here, let me help you up," Osaka said as she offered Chiyo-chan her hand.

Chiyo-chan gratefully accepted the offer and was instantly lifted to her feet. She quickly dusted herself off and said to Osaka, "Thank you so much. Since you caught me, you get a prize!"

"YAY," Osaka calmly celebrated as she casually applauded her victory.

Osaka then rested both her hands onto Chiyo-chan's shoulders and lowered her face so that it was leveled with Chiyo's. Closing the gap, Osaka could feel the small girl's breath lightly tickling her face. She took one last glance at Chiyo-chan just in time to see the girl close her eyes in anticipation. Osaka slowly closed the gap between the two girls' lips until only a fraction of space remained between the two. She smacked her lips once before . . .

"AH MY GOD!" Osaka exclaimed in her lax voice, finding herself back in the nurse's office.

It didn't take long for the nurse to come rushing over and ask, "What happened? Are you alright?"

Returning to her calmer state, Osaka answered, "Yeah, I just had a dream."

"Oh really, what was it about," the nurse asked as she opened the curtain, pulled her chair up to the bed and sat down.

Osaka placed a finger to her lips and wandered into thought for a minute. "It was about Chiyo-chan. She was using her pigtails to fly."

"Really," the nurse asked, "I had Chiyo-chan in here last week and those pigtails really did look like wings. What happened next?"

Osaka couldn't really understand why the nurse was so interested in her dream, but she didn't particularly care at the moment and so she continued, "She flew around and I had to chase her, but then her pigtails ran out of gas and . . . and . . ." Osaka struggled to remember what happened next.

"Did you forget?"

Failing miserably, Osaka sadly glanced up and said, "Yeah, and it was something really nice. I wish I could have slept a little longer." Osaka surprisingly felt a blush creep onto her face, but she couldn't understand where it was coming from and chose to ignore it.

The nurse gently patted Osaka on the head and said, "Maybe next time. Now you better get back to class; you've missed enough of it as it is."

Osaka nodded and again thanked the nurse before she walked out of the office and headed back to class. For a while, her thoughts trailed back to the dream as she vainly attempted to remember what had happened that made the dream so enjoyable. She couldn't think of what it was at all, except that she wanted to finish it. "Ah this is so annoying," Osaka said as she approached Yukari-sensei's classroom.

Opening the door, Osaka stepped inside and found her friends talking amongst themselves. As Osaka approached her friends, the small group looked up and noticed her.

"DEAD GIRL WALKING," Tomo shouted at the top of her lungs which was quickly followed with a swift blow to her lower jaw by Yomi.

"Shut up,"

Reaching the group of desks where Sakaki, Chiyo-cha, Yomi, and Tomo were gathered, Osaka asked them, "Where's Yukari-sensei? Shouldn't we be in class yet?"

Yomi pushed her glasses up against the bridge of her nose and answered, "Yukari-sensei ran out of the room ten minutes ago to yell at Nyamo-sensei about something."

Tomo snickered and added, "It had something to do with 10,000 yen and sake!"

Osaka retained her blank look and responded with an unenthusiastic, "oh."

Chiyo-chan looked worriedly at her friend who seemed to be just fine. Still, Chiyo wanted to make sure and asked, "Are you sure you're alright Osaka? You were acting a little funny before you went to the nurse's office."

"Osaka's always acting funny," Tomo blurted and received a sharp uppercut from Yomi once again.

"Shut up!"

Osaka closed her eyes and waved it off, "I'm fine. I was just tired is all."

Chiyo's face remained frozen on Osaka's, "Is that so?"

Osaka opened her eyes and stared down at Chiyo. Her chest tensed up again and she felt her heart begin to race as she stared into Chiyo's cute brown eyes. Osaka found herself frozen in place as she stared at Chiyo-chan. "So cute," Osaka whispered.

"What," Chiyo asked confusedly. She wasn't sure she had heard Osaka correctly, not that Chiyo minded being called cute, but coming from Osaka was a rare thing.

Once again, Osaka felt a blush creep up her face and she quickly ran to her desk to hide it from her friends. "Sorry I have something I want to work on," Osaka nervously explained as she hurried back to her desk, almost tripping over her chair upon arrival.

"Osaka . . ." Chiyo whispered while she stared at her best friend in concern. Turning back to her friends for guidance, Chiyo realized that they had ignored Osaka's stranger than usual strangeness and went back to discussing how Kaorin had gotten the short end of the stick by being in Kimura-sensei's class.

Deciding to talk to Osaka herself, Chiyo-chan slowly walked over to Osaka who sat hunched over her notebook, writing something. "Osaka, what-cha doing?"

Osaka frantically covered up her notebook and looked up at Chiyo-chan. She appeared nervous just having Chiyo-chan standing in front of her. "N-Nothing."

Chiyo took her seat in front of Osaka and turned to talk but before she could say anything, Yukari-sensei barged back through the door and she looked pissed about something.

Osaka sighed in relief when Yukari-sensei came in because it removed Chiyo's attention from her. Osaka stared back down at her notebook to where she had been contemplating why Chiyo-chan was causing her to act so strange. Her pigtails could be trying to do something to me. They're evil and they probably know I'm onto them. But they look so cute on Chiyo-chan. Osaka thought and shook her head at the sudden outburst of a statement in her mind, what am I thinking, that's probably how the pigtails control people. They swallow people in their cuteness. Osaka continued her thoughts without even a glance towards the front where Yukari-sensei was teaching. Her head starting to hurt again from the thinking and so Osaka threw her arms onto her desk and exclaimed, "I don't get this at all."

Everyone silenced at Osaka's sudden outburst and it only took a moment for the girl to notice that all eyes were on her. She confusingly looked around the room until she found Yukari-sensei which Osaka almost mistook for a raging bull. "THEN HAVE CHIYO-CHAN EXPLAIN IT TO YOU! LORD KNOWS YOU'RE NOT GONNA ASK ME!" Yukari-sensei had no more than prepared to bury Osaka when the lunch bell rang. "Thank god," Yukari-sensei proclaimed as she grabbed her books off her desk and left the room as fast as she could.

Chiyo happily removed the lunch she had prepared from her book bag. Tomo and Yomi had already gathered over by Sakaki-san's desk when Chiyo turned and noticed Osaka slowly digging through her book bag. "Osaka, hurry up and get your lunch so you can eat with us."

Osaka kept her face preoccupied with the contents of her backpack so as to avoid looking into Chiyo-chan's eyes. "Actually I think I'm going to eat on the roof today," Osaka calmly said, but without her usual, relaxed tone. She surprisingly sounded a bit tense to Chiyo who watched in shock as Osaka left her desk and walked out of the classroom.

Chiyo-chan remained silent when she finally managed to join her friends at Sakaki-san's desk. Grabbing a chair and sitting down, Chiyo-chan quietly began to eat her meal. The other three noticed the awkwardness of the situation and waited for the child to say something. The awkward silence seemingly blanketed the entire classroom until Chiyo-chan laid down her chopsticks and glanced up at her friends and asked, "Does anyone know what's wrong with Osaka? She doesn't seem herself today and I'm really worried about her."

"She's been looking rather stressed around you today," Sakaki said to Chiyo-chan in her usual, quietly calm voice.

"Don't worry Chiyo-chan," Yomi said as she gently laid a hand on Chiyo's shoulder, "I'm sure Osaka is just spacing out again. She's probably thinking about you as the president of the U.S. again."

Chiyo-chan stared hopefully into Yomi's eyes. She desperately wanted to believe that. "You really think so?"

"No, of course not," Tomo interjected.

"WHAT?"

"Tomo, shut up!"

Ignoring Yomi's threat, Tomo continued her cruel game, "I bet Osaka is mad at you about something. You probably upset her so much that she's getting ready to jump off the roof right now! Just think of it, SPLAT!" Tomo's head suddenly smashed into the floor from Yomi's hard fist striking her jaw.

"Chiyo-chan, you don't listen to a word this scoundrel says!"

Even though Chiyo knew Osaka wouldn't do such a thing and that Tomo was just playing with her, the statement still bothered the young girl. Thoughts of Osaka jumping from the roof flashed through Chiyo's head and words became caught in her throat. "I-I . . . I HAVE TO GO TO CHECK!" Chiyo-chan stood up so fast that the chair she was sitting in tipped over from the force. Chiyo dashed out of the classroom, leaving the voices of her other friends far behind. Don't jump Osaka! Don't jump! Don't jump! Don't jump! Chiyo's mind raced as she found the stairs and hurried up the stairs two at a time. For all the effort she threw into it, she couldn't get to the roof fast enough.

Finally reaching the top of the stairs, Chiyo-chan was about to burst through the door when she heard Osaka's voice. She's still here. Osaka is still here. Chiyo-chan thought to herself and slowly opened the door a crack to see Osaka standing near the edge of the school and looking across the landscape.

Deciding to see what Osaka was up to, Chiyo quietly sat on the tiled floor and allowed the door to remain open just a crack, enough for Chiyo-chan to hear every word from Osaka. "Why would Chiyo-chan be doing this to me? I never did anything to deserve this, did I? I wish she would just leave me alone."

A silent tear fell from Chiyo's cheek and hit the tiled flooring. Slowly lifting her hand from the ground, Chiyo-chan closed the door without any noise being made. Osaka's voice drifted out her ears and into her mind. Another tear dusted Chiyo's right hand and she buried her face in her arms. "It was my fault after all." Chiyo lifted her head and stared at the palms of her hands, "What did I do to make her so mad? How do I make up for it?" I wish she would just leave me alone. Osaka's words reverberated through Chiyo's ears. "I'll do just what she wanted me to do." Chiyo-chan, using the stair railing for support, lifted herself back to her feet. Before heading down the stairs, Chiyo gave one last look to the door she had been eavesdropping with, "I'm sorry Osaka. I don't know what I did to you but you don't have to worry. I'll leave you alone." Chiyo-chan then grabbed hold of the railing and made her way back down the steps, as slow as her feet would go. She didn't really want to talk to her friends at the moment, and besides, she didn't want them to see her cry.

"Maybe she's trying to make me sick," Osaka said to herself as she looked across the vast amounts of buildings surrounding the school. "But why would Chiyo-chan do that? After all, it can't just be the pigtails." Osaka pondered her question in serious thought for minutes on end. While lost in thought towards the answer to her question, Osaka walked over to her lunchbox and pulled out a juice. She took a sip and allowed the cool liquid to slide down her throat. Suddenly, Osaka's chest heaved and she released a small hiccup. Osaka stood dumbfounded for a minute. "THAT'S IT," Osaka calmly shouted as the perfect answer struck as a repercussion from the hiccup. "Chiyo-chan is getting revenge on me for giving her the hiccups!"

While Osaka was convinced that she had come up with the correct answer, she felt a sharp pain in her chest like her heart was trying to shout, "YOU'RE WRONG!" Then for some reason, her mind suddenly wanted to remember more of that dream she had had at the nurse's office. But before Osaka could delve into thought about what was causing this new strange behavior, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.

Chiyo-chan unlocked the bathroom stall that she had been sitting in for the majority of the lunch period. She had spent a good portion of that time crying simply because she didn't know what else to do. Finally, Chiyo thought that she could hold herself together and approached the sinks. Turning on one of the faucets, Chiyo-chan let the soothing cool water fall into her hands. Chiyo splashed some water on her face and wiped herself dry with some nearby paper towels. I can't let Yomi and them see me like this. They'll go after Osaka when they shouldn't. I'm the one to blame here. I just wish I knew why. Chiyo thought to herself as she stared into the mirror, looking over her reflection. Aside from her puffed nose, it was rather difficult to tell she had even slipped a tear. "Okay," Chiyo whispered to herself and left the bathroom.

Entering the classroom, Chiyo found herself bombarded with questions from her friends. "Where have you been," Yomi demanded, "We thought you were coming right back."

"Yeah, we thought Osaka might have pushed you off the . . ." Tomo's voice lost all volume at the sight of Yomi.

"You want to say that again TOMO?!"

Seeing Yomi's contorted face, Tomo-chan knew she had taken the joke too far and quickly shook her head.

"It's okay Yomi, Osaka and I were just . . ." I wish she would just leave me alone. Chiyo's mind still ached from the cruel words of her best friend and so she fell into silence. She didn't know what to say to the others, and so Chiyo-chan returned to her desk. She knew her friends were probably worried sick about her but she didn't want to talk at the moment. Maybe I can talk to Osaka about it after class. The door to the classroom suddenly opened and in walked Osaka. Chiyo-chan's face lit up at the thought of being able to talk to Osaka before Yukari-sensei returned (even though she was really late). Chiyo saw Osaka take one look at her, Osaka's face then turned beet red, and she hurriedly found an empty desk on the opposite side of the room.

Seconds afterwards, Yukari-sensei entered the room and commanded, "Take your seats. We have three more hours to get through all because gym is cancelled!" Muttering, Yukari-sensei continued more to herself than to the class (even though the class could hear everything), "Stupid Minamo, having an afternoon fieldtrip with her class cancels gym and so I have to teach longer."

Chiyo tried laughing at Yukari-sensei's problems but to no avail. Then, she felt someone sit down behind her and quickly turned her head, praying to God that she would see Osaka sitting behind her.

"Hi." Sakaki-san had seated herself behind Chiyo-chan.

Even with Sakaki behind her, Chiyo felt lonelier in the classroom than she had ever felt in her life. She turned back to face the front and at least try to pay attention to Yukari-sensei's class. This way, she could have at least tried to get her mind off of Osaka.

"I should apologize to Osaka," Chiyo-chan whispered to Sakaki. It seemed like quite the random statement but Chiyo-chan didn't know what else to say. Her eyes were glued to the sleeping Osaka on the other side of the room and couldn't help but feel guilty for whatever it was that she did.

"No," was Sakaki's only reply.

"B-But it's my fault . . ."

"No."

Chiyo-chan turned around in her chair to face Sakaki-san, "Then what is it? Osaka can't stand to be around me. She gets all embarrassed and won't look at me. What did I do?"

Sakaki then noticed that Chiyo-chan's eyes were starting to well up with tears. "Don't worry. I'll talk with Osaka at the end of class. But it's not your fault."

Chiyo nodded and stifled a cry. "T-Thank y-you."

Sakaki nodded her response which also let Chiyo know that she could return her focus to the class without worry.

Class dragged on for the rest of the day and when everyone else had left, Sakaki walked over to Osaka who still slept in her seat. Sakaki was surprised that Yukari-sensei hadn't thrown chalk or something at the snoozing girl but today must have been an exception.

Sakaki poked at Osaka to try to wake her up, "Osaka, wake up. School's over."

For a moment, there was no response, but finally, Osaka stirred and opened her eyes. "Ah, Sakaki-san, what are you doing here?"

"School is over."

Osaka glanced at the clock and gasped. Sakaki was right. She had slept all afternoon. "Thank you Sakaki. I would have been here all night if it wasn't for you." Osaka pulled herself out of the desk and walked back over to her original desk and grabbed her book bag.

"Osaka, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure what is it," Osaka asked obliviously as she sat down next to Sakaki-san with her book bag in hand.

"Why are you avoiding Chiyo-chan?"

Osaka blushed at the name and squirmed in her seat. She didn't know how to react. The entire afternoon nap was an attempt to lose focus of Chiyo-chan and now the little genius was right back on her radar. "W-Why do you ask?"

"Osaka, Chiyo-chan thinks you're mad at her."

Osaka tried to act casually but she still blushed. "No I'm not mad. I just don't want to get sick."

Sakaki stared at Osaka with a dumbfounded look on her face, "What?"

Feeling the inevitability of explaining things to Sakaki, Osaka took a deep breath and said, "I've been feeling weird around Chiyo-chan. She must be trying to make me sick after I gave her the hiccups."

Remembering the suggestion Sakaki had given Osaka that time, she shook her head at Osaka, "No."

"How do you know?"

Sakaki was surprised by the question and even though logic could easily prove the reason why Chiyo-chan wasn't intentionally making Osaka sick, Sakaki couldn't explain it. Instead, Sakaki asked, "How have you been feeling around Chiyo-chan?"

Osaka's heart raced as images of Chiyo-chan flashed through her head. "W-Well, my heart goes really fast like a subway train and if I look at her, I can't move my eyes. I get headaches when I try to stop thinking about her and just thinking about Chiyo-chan makes my chest feel warm." When Osaka finished, she glanced over to Sakaki who was now redder than she had ever been. Sakaki held her hand over her mouth while her cheeks continued to turn crimson. "Did Chiyo-chan get you to?"

Sakaki shook her head and though barely able to talk, was able to say, "It's love."

Osaka confusedly repeated, "Love?"

Blushing profusely, Sakaki-san added, "You're in love with Chiyo-chan."

Osaka's chest felt warmer than it did that morning and her hear raced (probably faster than a subway train) through her entire body. The answer had presented itself and Osaka didn't know how to react. All she knew was that she had gone a dark crimson as well. "I lo-love Chiyo-chan?" The words sunk in as Sakaki nodded in agreement. Attempting to regain composure, Osaka said more to herself than to Sakaki, "I-I guess that's better than Chiyo-chan giving me cancer or some other disease."

Sakaki nodded but only for a second, "What?"

Getting to her feet, Osaka walked over to the door to leave the classroom, turned to Sakaki and said, "Thanks Sakaki." Osaka turned to leave but stopped once more and said, "Don't tell Chiyo-chan about this. I don't know how to feel about this yet, okay?"

Sakaki nodded and waved Osaka off while she remained in her seat. "Cancer?"