The usual disclaimer: I own nothing, so please don't sue me.

Anyway, this world needs more Nodoka/Yue fluff, so here goes:

A truly useful artifact

When Nodoka woke up Sunday morning, the first thing she saw was arguably the most beautiful thing she had ever seen: Yue's face. She was wide awake almost at once, but didn't move or say anything. She just looked at Yue for a long time, enjoying her beauty. She slowly and carefully brushed a few strands of Yue's long hair away from her face. Nodoka smiled. To be able to reach out and touch Yue's hair like that, was something she had feared might never have become more than a dream. And it was oh so very close to have remained that. Worse, it had been very close to have been impossible to look at Yue at all. Nodoka shuddered a little by the thought. They had been separated from each other when they visited the Magic World together with Negi and the rest of Ala Alba and Nodoka had nearly been killed on several occasions. Yue had been safer, at least initially, but had lost her memory due to an unfortunate accident. If she had also lost her Ala Alba wing, they would probably never have found her again. Nodoka felt sick by the mere thought. Perhaps, then, Yue would have regained her memory many years later, only to discover herself in an alien world and all her friends from earth long gone. Worse than death? Maybe, maybe not, but certainly not a pleasant fate. Nodoka played with a strand of Yue's long hair. Her hands wanted to touch Yue, holding her hands, but then she might wake up, Nodoka realized. She wanted to make this moment last for as long as possible.

Her mouth shaped the words: "I missed you for so long," but not a sound came over her lips. She didn't want to wake up Yue and to be honest, she was too embarrased to say it out loud. Her mind began to reflect on how she ended up in Yue's bed in the first place.

They had returned to the Mahora Academy just a few days ago and everything had naturally been somewhat chaotic in the first days, since they had been away for so long, so yesterday evening was the first evening they spend alone in their room like they used to so many weeks ago. It felt like many years. They had just been sitting on Yue's bed and talked with low voices about how wonderful it was to come back to a safe place, if you could call Mahora Academy that. They had laid back in the bed and looked up at the ceiling and just enjoyed being in their room, not having to fear anything unexpected and dangerous and just being together again. Somehow, at that point, Yue's right hand had found Nodoka's left hand. Or perhaps it was Nodoka's hand that had found Yue's? They couldn't really tell, but it remained a fact that suddenly, their hands had found each other. Strangely, it took them several seconds to notice this fact, and when they finally did, they didn't jump up or anything else you might imagine. They were both quite shy girls, especially Nodoka, so they blushed a bit, but that was all. They turned their heads towards each other and noticed how much the other was blushing.

"Yue?" Nodoka's voice was just a whisper.

"Yes?"

"I, I, I'm so glad I'm back here, with you by my side..."

"..."

"Uwaah! I, I, I mean.." Nodoka sat up, holding her hands in front of her mouth. Her eyes were the size of teacups. She was blushing like a lobster.

Yue also sat up and slowly took Nodoka's left hand again, holding it with both hands.

"I know what you mean." She smiled.

"Y- y- you do?"

"Mmm. You mean as friends. I'm also glad to be home, here with you."

She looked at Nodoka, who promptly blushed. The truth was, Nodoka had come to realize just how much Yue meant to her, while they were lost and separated in the Magic World. She had been thinking of Negi and the rest of her friends every day, but she had been thinking of Yue almost all the time, or so it had felt. Yue was not just a friend to her anymore, but something more. Perhaps a VERY good friend? Nodoka had some trouble with that. She had tried to think about all her other friends, but thinking about them had not made her heart race as much as it did when she was thinking about Yue. She had used to think of Negi the same way, but to her great surprise, that was no longer the case! Since that day in the streets of Ostia, when they had been reunited for the first time for so many weeks, Nodoka had finally been sure that Yue meant something special to her. Since then, the feeling had grown stronger and stronger. She now blushed very often, when she was around Yue, something that caused quite a few embarrasing moments and awkward situations, since this was not normal behavior for her. Especially when Paru was around. That girl could smell love several miles away, it seemed... So far, she had managed to keep Paru's suspicion at bay with a few harmless lies, mostly because Negi had been around on most occasions. If Paru found out that Nodoka had feelings for Yue, all hell would break loose. That girl was a rumourmonger if there ever was one and a pervert and scheming troublemaker that could run with the best of them. She wouldn't miss a chance to embarrass Nodoka to death if she found out about!

When Yue had finally regained her memory, everything had seemingly been back to normal. She interacted with everyone like she had used to, including Nodoka. She also appeared to be totally unaware of the fact that Nodoka blushed everytime they were around each other. She certainly never mentioned it. Sometimes Nodoka just wanted to scream. She was too embarrased and shy to tell Yue about her newly developed feelings towards her and she was also not sure how she would react. She had just got her friend back from the edge of the abyss. She couldn't risk loosing her again, or even risk denting their friendship the slightest. She stared into the air in front of her.

"Um, Nodoka..."

"..."

"Hey, Nodoka!"

"...."

"Nodoka!"

"Uwaeh!"

She jumped a little. She had not heard Yue speaking to her. How very embarrasing.

"Going to buy a juice. Want something?"

"Eh, ehm, a- an orange juice, please."

"The Green Peppermint Cola is quite good."

"Um, just orange juice, please."

Yue let go of Nodoka's hand and got up from the bed. She smiled and left the little dorm room. The door shut with its familiar and reassuring "clack" behind her. Nodoka's mind continued to try to figure out what Yue was feeling towards her. There had to be a way to find out.

And there was, of course. She was a mage...

Ooooh no! No way! No, no, no, no!

She was not going to do it!

No! It was immoral, spying on your friends like that!

But, but was there any other way????

But what if she found out? No! She couldn't do it!

But..... Yue had gone to the hall to get juice from the vending machine. She had a few more minutes... A quick look couldn't hurt? She brought out her pactio card.

"Adeat!"

Her artifact, the Diarium Eius, appeared in front of her. She held it with both hands and looked at it. She swallowed something and then slowly opened it, just to rapidly shut it close again! P- perhaps she needed to be absolutely sure of her own emotions before she spied on Yue's? She opened the book again, with her eyes closed.

"Sh- show me my true feelings.... towards... Yue."

The last few words were barely audible, but that wasn't neccesary to make the book work. In fact, she hadn't needed to say anything at all. She slowly opened her eyes, then shut the book with a bang. The drawing was crude, as they always were, but the picture of herself and Yue engaged in a very hot kiss was unmistakable. A very surprised-looking Negi looked at them in the background. There had been text as well. She opened the book again, with shaking hands. She read some of it.

"...Yue, I love you. Please love me back! I don't care what the others think! I really want to kiss you, Yue. I bet your lips taste like - "

"Uwaeh!"

She couldn't read the rest. She closed her eyes. This was SO embarrasing! She looked at the front of the book. She had to ask it to reveal Yue's thoughts. She had to! She couldn't take it anymore.

"Sho- show me Yue's true feelings towards me."

She held her eyes closed for a long time now. Curiosity and suspense was almost killing her now, but she was also so afraid to look that she was sure she was at the verge of a heartattack. What if she was rejected? She didn't now what was worse. Asking Yue in real life and be rejected, or being rejected by the book, which couldn't tell a lie and was always brutally honest, since it always showed people's true feelings without fail. In the end, curiosity won, as it always does. She opened her eyes...

The drawing was crude, just like the last one, but different, of course. It showed Yue, sitting on a toilet. Ah, so that's were she was at the moment, but that wasn't the important part. That was what was above her: A drawing of them both engaged in a kiss that was in no ways less deep than the one shown when Nodoka had asked the book about her own thoughts. Nodoka wanted to scream again, but this time from relief and joy. She began to read the text:

"How do I tell her? I always act so cool, but it's killing me! I want to be with her! I want to kiss her! I bet her lips taste like the best juice in the world! But she loves Negi, damn it! Screw him! She has kissed him! I want to kiss her too! How do I tell her? How do I do it? How.."

And so on. Nodoka read it over and over again. A tear formed in her left eye and began to roll down her cheek. She stared at the drawing and read the text. She didn't even hear the door open. As always, when she was reading, the rest of the world didn't really matter, only in this case it really did.

"What are you reading?"

The voice had a cold tone to it.

"Uwaaaah!"

Nodoka tried to close the book, but Yue had a firm grasp around its edge. She had suspected something fishy as soon as she saw just what book Nodoka was reading and the look on her face.

"The Diarium Eius? Who are you spying on? Me?"

The words hit Nodoka like a whip. This was one of the things she had feared and because of her carelessness it had happened.

"I... I..."

She tried to hold on to the book, but Yue's glare seemed to rob her of all power. She felt everything leave her. Her hands were powerless. She let go of the book. Yue took it and looked at what Nodoka had read. Her face turned dark red.

"This is it," Nodoka thought. "Now she's mad at me and I loose my best friend."

She seemed to completely forget what she had in fact just read. She closed her eyes and waited for the verbal assault. She therefore didn't see the change in Yue's face when she read Nodoka's thoughts, which were still shown on the facing page.

Yue felt like something evaporated inside her. A large rock, perhaps. She slowly lowered the book and looked at her friend, who sat on the bed with her hands in her lap and tears slowly running down her cheeks. Correct that; they were no longer just friends from that moment, Yue realized. She carefully placed the Diarium Eius on the table next to the bed and sat down to Nodoka's right. She turned to Nodoka and began to caress her wet chin. Nodoka opened her eyes and looked at her, somewhat bewildered. This was not the reaction she had expected. Yue smiled and whispered:

"Your artifact is truly useful."

Nodoka couldn't speak. Not a word. Yue's face was very close to her own and she was smiling. Her eyes smiled too. Yue placed her right hand on Nodoka's left shoulder and gently pushed her backwards. Nodoka felt even more powerless than before. Resistance was impossible. It was also not needed and even unwanted. Yue leaned in over her, balancing on her left arm. She began to caress Nodoka's left chin with her right hand again. Yue's long hair fell down on each side of her head and made it feel like Nodoka was looking up a sort of tent.

"Truly useful," Yue whispered.

The only thing in Nodoka's world right now was Yue's face. Her own body felt numb, except for her heart, which felt like it was several sizes too big and trying to supply a bluewhale with excessive amounts of blood. Yue's face got ever closer and Nodoka's heart beat faster and faster.

When their lips finally met, Nodoka felt like she was being electrocuted through them. Not that she had tried that before, but this was probably how it felt. And the kiss was just on the lips.

Yue looked at her for a second, and their lips met again. This time, Yue's tongue licked Nodoka's lips. Nodoka gasped in surprise when they separated.

"Taste..." Yue said, then she dived in again.

This time, the kiss was deep. Very deep. Nodoka moaned in surprise and, to her surprise, in passion. Her arms suddenly moved all by their own and hugged Yue like never before. She held her tightly and let herself ride with the feelings the kiss had awakened. Yue in turn had her hands in Nodoka's hair. The third kiss was a very long one. When they finally had to stop, they lay down in the bed and looked at each other.

"You taste... a bit like strawberries, I think."

"St- strawberries?"

"With a definite hint of hazelnut."

"Ha- hazel.."

"Unusual taste. Very delicious!"

"Yue..."

"I think I'll check again, just to be sure."

"Yue!"

But Nodoka's slight protest was drowned in another long kiss. Later, long after Saturday evening had turned to night, they undressed and found their Japanese pyjamases. They snuggled for a long time before finally falling alseep in each others arms.

Fast forward to now.

Nodoka blushed heavily when she thought about last evening. And they hadn't even done *that* yet... She blushed even more, when she thought about them doing... it. She then relaxed a little and let a finger glide ever so gently over Yue's chin. It was so soft and warm. Nodoka couldn't understand how she had managed to live until now without something as wondeful as Yue so close to her. They had been very good friends for years. Close enough you might think. Wrong! Nodoka suddenly felt she had been missing having Yue so close for her whole life. Again she let her finger glide over her chin.

"I really love you, Yue," she whispered.

Yue opened her eyes. Nodoka gasped. Yue smiled and gently grabbed Nodoka's hand. She snuggled closer to her and let Nodoka's arm and hand fall down behind her back. She hugged Nodoka and looked into her eyes.

"I really love you too!"

Nodoka never even got the chance to reply. They started kissing again and this time, that was just the start. Months of yearning and pain had finally stopped and the result was inevitable. Once Yue had taken the initiative, Nodoka was more than willing to follow...

Later, after they eventually had to get dressed and take something to eat and all that, they sat by the small table and chatted a bit and sometimes they just sat in silence, because there was nothing to say. Not that it bothered them. It was not an inconvenient silence. The dorm room was only a small one, so naturally, the table wasn't very large. It was also of the Japanese variety, with very low legs, were you sit in seiza when you eat. If you sit on your knees, you can lean in over the table and kiss whoever sits in front of you. Naturally, Yue and Nodoka had figured this out a long time ago, and now they had to try it out. It worked! There was only one downside to it. It was not possible to explain your actions as anything else. You did not end up in that position by any kind of mistake. That was quite unfortunate, as that was the exact moment Paru, of all people, had decided to come barging into the room without knocking. That girl had no manners at all.

"Hey, Yue! Nodoka! You never guess what I just... Ah!"

She gaped for a moment, then...

"AHA! Ooohh!"

She clasped her hands together and then immediately turned around and ran out the room again. For a millisecond, they looked in utter terror at the place where she had just been standing. Then they both let out a yell:

"PARU!"

Yue and Nodoka's voices were in perfect sync.

"Shit!" Yue swore badly. "We got to stop her!"

"H- how?"

Yue jumped over the table and grabbed a mop that stood in a bucket in the corner. She held it horizontally and jumped up on it. She held her legs up and the mop floated with her in mid-air.

"Come on!" she yelled to Nodoka. "Get on the mop! We got to catch her before she can tell anyone!"

Nodoka jumped up behind Yue, who immediately let the mop show what it could do. It took off like a rocket and they narrowly avoided hitting a ficus on the other side of the corridor.

"Ieeeeh!"

Nodoka screamed in fear. Yue screamed in desperation and excitement.

"Yaaah! There she is! PARU! You're not getting away!"

But whether she did or not, is really a story for another time.

Astrojensen