Setsuna woke with a start, reaching for Yūnagi and throwing her sheets to the side as she leapt to her feet, automatically jerking her head from side to side to find the source of the disturbance that woke her up.
Her sword was halfway drawn before her eyes fell to the beds.
Frowning, and feeling horribly embarrassed, Setsuna slid Yūnagi back into its sheath and walked over to where Tsukuyomi was sleeping so restlessly. Somehow, over the course of the night, Tsukuyomi had rolled into the wall, and she was now shivering so badly that her head was banging against the wall.
Setsuna pressed her forehead against the side of the top bunk and watched the girl sleep.
This was the third night in a row this had happened. The first time, she’d been able to get back to sleep easily enough. Last night hadn’t been so pleasant, and she could already tell this was going to be even worse.
How can she sleep like that?
Setsuna reached out her hand hesitantly, just barely brushing her fingers against the sheets Tsukuyomi wasn’t using. It was strange seeing the other girl so vulnerable. So uncomfortable. Even last week, passed out and her entire arm covered in blood, she’d looked more at peace. A little too at peace honestly, but at least she didn’t look like—
Well, like this.
Setsuna thought back to her earlier conversation with the headmaster. Unsurprisingly, it had gone well. Ignoring the incident with the pencil, Tsukuyomi had behaved herself almost perfectly since the last meeting. Setsuna would have preferred it if she backed off in her feud with Asuna, but really, it hadn’t been a bad week.
Except for Tsukuyomi’s sleep and heat issues.
If she ever wanted a full night of sleep again, she needed to figure out how to fix that problem. Preferably in a manner that didn’t involve too much blood.
And if that turned out to be the only solution…
Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
Setsuna sighed. She should probably at least move Tsukuyomi’s head before the girl woke up.
Taking a deep breath, Setsuna ducked her head under the top bunk and reached out to move Tsukuyomi away from the wall, belatedly realizing that a sleeping Tsukuyomi might not respond too well to a disruption like that.
Setsuna practically jumped out of her skin, barely avoiding hitting her head on the top bunk, when she touched the girl and Tsukuyomi’s entire body stilled. She froze and fought back the impulse to move away from the bunk beds and back to her own. Ki or no ki, she did not want to deal with Tsukuyomi attacking her. Especially not in such an enclosed space.
Soon though, she realized that her roommate wasn’t awake. She had just stopped shivering.
Setsuna blinked in surprise. For the first time in a week, Tsukuyomi looked completely relaxed in her sleep. And, more significantly, she wasn’t moving a single inch. The only movement Setsuna could feel came from a heartbeat.
Breathing a little unsteadily, Setsuna moved her hands so that they were on either side of Tsukuyomi instead of holding her. Only a handful of seconds later, the shivering started back up again. Setsuna stared, fascinated, before she heard the noise the wall was making.
Setsuna moved quickly and readjusted her hands so they were once again gripping Tsukuyomi. She shifted the girl’s body a few inches away from the wall, very, very glad that Tsukuyomi wasn’t awake to see how uncomfortable this was making her. She’d had too little sleep to deal with this, and the last time she’d felt so much of Tsukuyomi—
It didn’t help that she could swear the space between the top and bottom bunks was shrinking.
Setsuna closed her eyes and moved her hands back onto the mattress, leaning heavily against them. She was only imagining it. Not that knowing that particularly helped, but it wasn’t as if she was really trapped.
Deep breaths. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in—
“Setsuna-senpai?”
Setsuna’s eyes flew open. She looked down at Tsukuyomi, her face starting to burn when she realized just how she was arranged above her roommate. The awakening girl was blinking up at her, obviously thinking very oddly of Setsuna’s position, but not quite awake enough to understand what was going on.
“I—I, uh—you see—um—I was just—the wall—” Setsuna stuttered, fumbling about for some explanation that could possibly excuse her presence above Tsukuyomi. “Good morning?”
Tsukuyomi’s flickered over to the window. “It’s still dark out.” She looked down at where Setsuna’s hands were. Then she looked back up, smiling in an odd, slightly predatory way that made Setsuna feel very small. “Of course, if you want to do something to me with the lights out, I’m more than open to—”
Setsuna jumped back, this time hitting her head very solidly against the top bunk before she escaped the small enclosure that held Tsukuyomi. Fresh air finally swooping into her lungs once more, Setsuna felt some of the tension in her shoulders relax slightly.
Embarrassed and in an uncomfortable amount of pain, but finally able to breathe a little more easily, she focused her gaze on something other than the oddly smiling girl. She ended up speaking very quickly to the ceiling while walking backwards.
“I think I’m going to go for a run,” Setsuna said stiffly, trying to hold herself with as much dignity as she could. The room felt incredibly cramped, and she was sure she’d manage to blush herself to death if she stayed in close proximity to Tsukuyomi. Going outside sounded good. Being able to move sounded even better. She brushed some hair out of her eyes, a little surprised to feel how sweaty her forehead was. “You can, um, go back to sleep now.”
Setsuna spun around and threw open the door, slamming it into the wall before grabbing the handle and shutting it securely.
She was a good way down the hallway before she realized that her shoulder felt lighter than she was used to.
Wait—Yūnagi!
Setsuna ran back to her room as fast as she could, swinging the door open and immediately searching the floor for her sword.
Tsukuyomi’s hand was less than an inch away from it.
Acting quickly, Setsuna just barely managed to grab Yūnagi before Tsukuyomi could get her hands on it. Tsukuyomi eyebrow twitched slightly at the development before smiling innocently at her.
“I thought you said you were going running?”
Setsuna glared at her.
------
Tsukuyomi didn’t know if she should laugh or cry in frustration. So close. She had come
so close to being able to play with her Senpai’s sword. It probably wouldn’t have lasted long, and she doubted she could really use it for much as long as the wards kept her trapped in the room, but that wasn’t the point! For the first time in weeks, a sword had been within her grasp, and someone took it
away.
On the other hand, watching a completely panicked Setsuna run back into the room and dive for her sword was incredibly entertaining. Especially considering everything else that had happened this morning. Tsukuyomi didn’t think Setsuna knew up from down by the time she left the room.
Come to think of it, at the moment, she wasn’t sure she did either. The last time Setsuna was so delectably close—on top of her even—was when she realized she couldn’t kill her Senpai.
What a pleasant sight to wake up to.
Way too early for her taste, but it was still nice. Really, really, nice.
It made Tsukuyomi wish, just a little, that she could reach out and touch Setsuna without completely losing her head; that she could have the pleasure of her Senpai’s touch without worrying about how enchanting killing her would feel.
Tsukuyomi yawned and crawled over to Setsuna’s nest, pulling the warm sheets over her body and closing her eyes. She didn’t mind at all if Setsuna wanted to wake her up like that, but honestly, she needed to do it later in the morning.
------
After running around the school a few times, Setsuna was feeling even worse about fleeing the dorm room than she had in the first place. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had embarrassing conversations with Tsukuyomi before, and it wasn’t like she’d never been trapped—
Setsuna and tightened her grip on Yūnagi, fighting off the embarrassing rush of panic flooding her senses.
She should have just put up with the noise. It wasn’t like she was incapable of sleeping through it. It was incredibly annoying, and Tsukuyomi might’ve woken up if it continued, but she should have just let the girl suffer. Her sleep was always disturbed. That was nothing new.
Setsuna sighed. Out here—without Tsukuyomi grinning at her—where she could feel the breeze against her face and see how unending the sky was, leaving like that seemed ridiculous.
She walked over to a nearby bench and sat down.
She couldn’t say she hated Tsukuyomi as much now as she did a few weeks ago, but she was starting to really resent how much sleep the girl was costing her. It was incredibly unfair that of the two of them, the person with incredibly disturbed sleep was the one getting the most rest.
There had to be something she could do about that.
“Setsuna-san!”
Setsuna looked down the path her stress relief had brought her to. Asuna was running towards her, waving her hand.
“Hey! What are you doing out so early?”
“Just—exercising. What about you, Asuna-san? I thought you slept in on Sundays.” Setsuna could dimly remember Konoka telling her that. Something about a job?
Asuna grimaced. “Yeah, usually. But Negi wasn’t sleeping too well, so he ended up waking me up.” Her face darkened briefly, making Setsuna wonder if the other girl had an experience similar to her own. “I didn’t really feel like going back to sleep after that, so I decided to go running.” Asuna joined her on the bench. “But hey, you didn’t really answer my question. Why were you up so early to begin with?”
“I had the same problem as you.”
“Did you?” Asuna frowned. A vindictive gleam flashed in her eyes. “The psycho isn’t causing you trouble, is she?”
Setsuna shook her head quickly before Asuna got any ideas. “No, nothing like that. Well actually yes, I suppose she is, but it isn’t like she’s going out of her way to cause trouble. Her sleeping habits are just—peculiar. It’s hard to get used to.”
“Figures,” Asuna muttered darkly. “She can’t make anything easy.”
Setsuna smiled a little at that, privately agreeing with the assessment. The way Tsukuyomi acted sometimes, it almost seemed like she lived and breathed to cause the people around her as much trouble as possible.
“Speaking of that, I hate to bring it up, but aren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye on her at all times?”
“Technically, yes, but it’s probably safe to leave her on her own for a while.” Of course, that’s what she thought last week too, and she came back to their room to find Tsukuyomi covered in her own blood, but—
Setsuna suddenly felt really, really stupid about overreacting the way she did.
“You know, I should probably get back.”
Asuna snickered. “Yeah, no telling what kind of trouble she’ll get into without you around.”
They both stood up and started walking towards the dorms, though Setsuna couldn’t work out why Asuna was going back with her. She got her answer quickly enough.
“Konoka mentioned yesterday that she was going to invite you to have lunch in our room today.”
“Really?” Setsuna asked. A little spark of happiness inside her ignited, and she found herself grinning broadly.
Asuna smiled back. “Yeah, really. I guess you’ll have to bring Four-Eyes with you, but she thought it would be nice to spend some more time together. I know we have Eva’s resort, but that isn’t really the same. We’re usually training too hard to talk or anything.” Asuna hesitated slightly. “And—you know, Konoka won’t say it, but I think she’s starting to miss being able to spend time with you.”
Setsuna flinched. “I haven’t meant to spend less time with her, it’s just—”
“Tsukuyomi, yeah. Don’t worry about it, she knows. It’s just hard for her to think about it logically all the time since she loves you so much.”
Asuna winked, and Setsuna felt her face go hot.
------
“Do we have to?”
Tsukuyomi followed Setsuna along down the hallway, pouting.
“I thought you’d be happy to be allowed to leave the room on a weekend?” Setsuna’s lips twitched, clearly holding back a smile. “And yes.”
Tsukuyomi sighed and started staring at the parts of the floor her feet were passing over.
The world, she decided, hated her. It was so obvious now. First, it let her fight with Setsuna end in a draw with nobody dead. Then her survival guaranteed that she’d be imprisoned.
Then the most difficult seal in the world to break was placed on her so she wouldn’t escape, and thanks to her prolonged stay at Mahora, she realized she was in love with someone she really, really wanted to kill (though she couldn’t quite work out just how bad the love part of that was).
And now, she was being forced to endure lunch with the Konoe girl.
Tsukuyomi couldn’t work out how she had piled up so much poor karma. True, she used to murder people, and maybe enjoyed it a little more than was really suitable for such a distasteful act, but she hadn’t done that in years. Now, she always made sure to kill people for reasons beyond just wanting them dead.
…Granted, she’d come close with Konoka, but nothing actually happened, and just that one act couldn’t possibly be enough to bring her so much grief. Besides, if that was the root of it all, wouldn’t the world want to keep her away from Konoka?
Tsukuyomi wanted to kill something. She wanted to kill something very, very badly, and she wished Setsuna didn’t have such a solid grip on Yūnagi. Did she really have to put up with this? Couldn’t she just stay in the room and try finding something she could use to pick locks?
Something told her that Setsuna probably wouldn’t consider that an appropriate use of her time.
Tsukuyomi sighed and gazed gloomily over at her Senpai. Setsuna was smiling, and there was an undeniable bounce in her step as she walked. She was obviously very happy about getting to spend extra time with her partner.
That settled it. When she got out, Tsukuyomi was murdering Konoe Konoka.
It was bad enough she had to watch Setsuna staring at her every time they were in the same classroom. Yes, Setsuna clearly liked Konoka. That was painfully obvious, but did she have to have it thrown in her face all the time?
Weekends were horribly boring and made her feel claustrophobic enough to delight in walking to class on Mondays, but… it was just her and Setsuna. Having lunch in Konoe’s room meant that it was her and Setsuna and Negi-kun and the princess and Konoka.
She liked Negi well enough, and being around the princess had its uses, but she liked being alone with Setsuna.
Tsukuyomi came to a halt when she realized there was a wall a couple feet in front of her feet. She looked up at the door glumly. They had arrived. Oh goody.
“Tsukuyomi?”
“Yes Senpai?”
Setsuna had her serious face on again instead of a smile. Tsukuyomi’s mood brightened a little. “I know you don’t want to be here, but please behave yourself. I know you’re capable of control when you really want to be, so…”
Another point against the pleasures of love. Setsuna was looking at her with the most pathetic expression Tsukuyomi had ever seen on her Senpai’s face, and ridiculously enough, that seemed to mean she couldn’t say no to this request.
“Fine,” Tsukuyomi muttered. “I’ll behave.”
Setsuna smiled at her. “Thank you.” Then she rapped her knuckles against the door and Tsukuyomi resigned herself to soon acting politely around the girl she dearly wanted to murder.
Konoka opened the door quickly, and the murderous thoughts only grew when Tsukuyomi had to watch her hug Setsuna hello. Setsuna seemed far too happy at the physical contact.
When Konoka finally let go of Setsuna, she smiled a little stiffly at Tsukuyomi, who really did try to smile back. “Tsukuyomi-san, hello.”
“Good afternoon Konoka-sama. Thank you for inviting us to lunch,” Tsukuyomi said mechanically. She could see Setsuna rolling her eyes, but her Senpai didn’t actually say anything, and Konoka didn’t seem to notice anything odd.
This was going to be a long lunch.
------
When Konoka started picking up the dishes, Setsuna immediately volunteered to help, mostly to spend time with her partner, but it also occurred to her that she wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire of Tsukuyomi and Asuna’s impending argument.
Tsukuyomi had done an excellent job of behaving herself—when it came to covering up her obvious dislike of Konoka. She was a little less excellent about keeping herself from annoying Asuna. Setsuna didn’t know why Tsukuyomi was so enthusiastic about bothering her friend, and she was sure she didn’t want to know, but she wished Tsukuyomi was better at restraining herself.
Konoka leaned against the counter, biting her lip to hold back her laughter at the sounds coming from the table. It seemed one thing Asuna and Tsukuyomi could both agree on was that they didn’t want Negi trying to calm their tempers.
Not that Tsukuyomi was really objecting to anything other than Negi trying to ruin her fun. Setsuna sighed. Oh well. It was still going better than she had any right to hope for.
“Thank you for coming over,” Konoka said warmly. “This is nice.”
Setsuna gestured over at the arguing pair. “Really?”
Konoka nodded. “Really. I know we’re around each other a lot, but it feels like we haven’t had fun like this in a while. Probably since the day we made our pactio. I’ve missed you.”
Setsuna felt her chest tighten at the way Konoka was looking at her. There was something warm and loving in those eyes, and she didn’t know what to do about it. She looked away awkwardly, positive that her face was glowing bright red.
She felt a hand slip into her own, and she squeezed it softly, too embarrassed to react in any other way. Somehow, without even looking at her, she could feel Konoka smiling.
“Thank you, Set-chan,” she whispered.
Setsuna just nodded faintly and held onto Konoka’s hand for dear life.
------
Setsuna sat against Tsukuyomi’s bed, listening to the girl shivering and whimpering in her sleep. Things really were getting worse. Even without bumping into the bed or the wall she had managed to make enough noise to wake Setsuna up. And it was still relatively early.
If she wanted any sleep tonight, she needed to think of some way to keep Tsukuyomi from shivering.
She’d figured out a way to do that this morning, hadn’t she?
Setsuna pressed her forehead into her knees, feeling pressure starting to build up behind her ears. Tsukuyomi. Why did Tsukuyomi have to make everything so complicated?
Only this wasn’t complicated, it was simple, and the idea made her feel like she was going to die from embarrassment.
Setsuna shifted her head so she could see Tsukuyomi’s shivering form on the bed. At least tonight she wasn’t sleeping so close to the wall. That would help.
Closing her eyes, Setsuna reached out her arm and wrapped it around the crook of Tsukuyomi’s elbow.
------
Tsukuyomi woke up with the oddest feeling of contentment and warmth buzzing in her veins. Dizzily, she opened her eyes and reached about for her glasses so she could identify the source of the wondrous feeling. By the time she managed to get the lenses over her eyes, she almost felt awake.
She looked down at her arm, where the warmth seemed to be coming from, and suddenly felt certain that she knew what a heart attack felt like, because nothing else could be capable of stopping her heart so effectively.
Tsukuyomi stared at Setsuna’s hand around her arm, feeling a blind sort of terror that she’d never wanted to know violating her senses.
Setsuna couldn’t be touching her.
She couldn’t touch Setsuna without wanting to kill her.
I don’t want her dead I don’t want her dead
Tsukuyomi could feel herself starting to hyperventilate, the memory of what happened the last time Setsuna touched her raging through her mind. She did not want to feel like that again, no she did not—
“Tsukuyomi?”
Her head jerked away from the hand on her arm and she found herself looking into Setsuna’s eyes. Some of her fear trickled away, and she tried to grab onto her common sense again. She specifically avoided looking at the area where their bodies were touching.
Then she realized something.
All that fear, all that panic… but all she could feel was Setsuna’s warmth.
Tsukuyomi’s breathing started to even out. She kept her eyes locked on Setsuna’s, wondering if either of them was remembering to blink. She could feel the hand around her elbow tighten just a little.
Has… she ever touched me like this?
Tsukuyomi thought back as far as she could. Every time… even that first time… how brief had it been? Setsuna barely touched her before all of her skin was touching the bandage. And last time… last time the touch was more solid, wasn’t it?
But still—it was still very abrupt, wasn’t it? And intense. It had all completely overwhelmed her.
Tsukuyomi looked down at her elbow, taking in the careful way Setsuna’s hand was gripping her. It was gentle. And constant. Not abrupt at all. Just—there. Warm. Soft.
“I—sorry, I just—you were shivering too much,” Setsuna muttered.
“It’s—it’s not a problem.” Oddly enough. Tsukuyomi’s eyes drifted back to her Senpai’s reddening face. She gulped, suddenly feeling as if the warmth from Setsuna’s hand wasn’t enough. “I don’t suppose you’d mind sharing my bed to help me with that little issue?”
“
No.”
Setsuna’s voice trembled a little, and Tsukuyomi found herself wondering back to the incident that first woke her up in the morning. Setsuna had bolted away from the beds and out the door so quickly… She glanced over at the nest of sheets Setsuna usually slept on, and it clicked.
“I suppose it makes sense that a bird doesn’t want to be caged.”
Setsuna visibly tensed, but didn’t say anything to confirm or deny it. Tsukuyomi sighed and closed her eyes, focusing on the warmth that was doing almost nothing to sate her desire for it by now. She slipped her glasses off and placed them on top of her pillow. Then she rolled off the bed, keeping Setsuna’s hand firmly attached to her and landing on Setsuna’s lap.
Setsuna jumped, nearly dislodging Tsukuyomi. “What—what do you—I—Tsukuyomi!” she stammered.
Tsukuyomi twitched a little at the loss of Setsuna’s hand on her, almost worried that the absence of that one touch would make everything come undone, but then she felt the rest of Setsuna’s body close to her. She relaxed, burying her head into Setsuna.
Warmth. That comfortable warmth was completely surrounding her.
Her Senpai seemed practically stunned into silence at the action, and it took several minutes for the tension in Setsuna’s body to relax. Setsuna rested her head back against the bed and placed her hands on the floor.
Tsukuyomi opened her eyes and looked up at the blur of Setsuna’s face.
“Hey, Senpai?”
“Y-yeah?”
Tsukuyomi thought for a second, remembering what Mana had warned her about, before shrugging and saying it anyway. “I like you.”
Setsuna froze, and Tsukuyomi found it very easy to imagine her eyes widening comically. She smiled a little and decided to spare Setsuna the stress of coming up with an answer.
“But you don’t like me, do you Senpai?”
“…Sorry.”
Tsukuyomi nodded, ignoring how much Setsuna’s answer stung. Instead, she curled closer to Setsuna’s exquisite warmth, letting it lull her to sleep.