Chapter Text
“What’s everyone doing during the break?”
Tsukasa asked the question during lunch, giving Kagami just enough pause for her cherry tomato to slip from her chopsticks onto the ground. She scrambled, her arm just barely reaching the floor no thanks to the bar of the desk, and snatched it off the floor before it could be squished by a passerby.
Sitting back up, she was greeted by sympathetic smiles from her friend and sister, and one far less sympathetic smirk from her best friend, currently trying not to burst into laughter. Of course. If she had done something embarrassing in the dead of night, completely alone, Konata would find a way to hear about it and tease her over it. With how she tended to show emotions in a way that Konata understood like a second language, that might not even be an exaggeration.
It was the third time this week she’d dropped food; apparently she’d been more on edge than she realized. More than she should've been for that matter: tests were over, meaning they only had a few days before summer break began. It should've been easy to relax, she figured. The tomato, while unsquished, was covered in dirt. Three second rule nothing, this was going in the trash. Great.
Konata’s threatened laughter subsided, and she turned to acknowledge Tsukasa’s question. “I don’t have that much planned. It would be awesome if we could go to the beach again though, that was so much fun last year.”
‘“So much fun,” she says.’ From their reactions, Miyuki and Tsukasa seemed to agree with her. The way Kagami remembered it, they’d spent the day nonchalantly floating in the ocean, ate questionable stall food, and not much else. Aside from a perilous car ride that she never wanted to re-experience. ‘We all shared a room on that trip… would we do that again? Not that there’s anything weird about it, but I don’t want to think about what would happen now if-’
“Also, Kagami and I are going to Comiket again.”
The name triggered a response for both Hiiragi twins. Tsukasa recoiled aghast, like she did whenever Comiket was invoked, and Kagami felt her eyebrow twitch involuntarily, her train of thought interrupted. “Am I now?” She half-growled. “You seem so sure of something I did not agree to.”
“Well, I’m not gonna put Tsukasa through that again.” ‘So she does know how much of a pain it is.’ ”And I already asked Miyuki-San, and she said no, so…?”
Kagami could feel a vein pop. So? So what, so you just know that I’m never gonna say no to you?
The way Konata eyelashes batted and lower lip pouted was particularly pathetic and definitely didn’t cause Kagami’s heart to skip a beat or two. “Won’t you? We had so much fun last time…”
Her definition of ‘so much fun’ was something Kagami just couldn’t wrap her head around. “Absolutely not. Why don’t you take Tamura-San and Patricia? They seem like they’d enjoy it.” She continued eating her lunch, gesturing with her utensils as they continued to talk.
“They’re already gonna be there! Hiyorin got a stall this year and Patty is helping her.”
“Good for them.” Kagami dismissed. “Maybe you should help them too. Get some business experience instead of just going to spend a bunch of money.”
“Funny, if I remember right, only one of us has a job Kagamin.” The begging act had faded, and Konata’s shoulders now slumped, her face displeased. “Come on! Dad’s not gonna be able to make it this year, and I need more bodies!”
Kagami sighed again. If she hadn’t given up the pleading by now, she wasn’t going to until Kagami relented. Honestly, there was no point even considering arguing any further.
If she had made the assumption that Kagami would never say no to her, she maybe wasn’t exactly wrong. But if she was going no matter what, she could at least bargain a little.
“IF you want me to go,” she spoke, “I’m not letting you copy even a single answer for the summer homework.”
Luckily for her, she held substantial bargaining power. Konata paused to consider, no doubt weighing the heavy cost of the demand. It wasn’t a sight she was used to, seeing her seriously considering outcomes, her inner debate of whether or not her hobbies were worth it visible right on her face. The way her lips pursed and brow furrowed was almost cute, a thought she did not wish to pursue any further at this moment. After a bit, Konata took a breath. “I’ll take that deal, but!” She cut herself off. “I won’t copy any answers, but I don’t wanna do it all alone. If you come over, then we can work on all of it together. If I have you on standby then I can ask for help if I need it. No copying. I promise.”
Kagami gulped, an instinctual response to the demands, while also emptying her mouth of rice that had stuck around. “Somehow I feel like you still come out ahead in that deal.”
Doing all of her summer homework alongside Konata… That would mean a lot of time spent together. A lot of time inevitably spent taking breaks, talking about random happenings, more agonizing time spent in close proximity with the girl that had been driving her crazy lately. On one hand, she absolutely was not getting the value end of the arrangement. But it also meant spending more time with Konata during their last summer break as high school students. Entrance exams would take over all their time once the fall rolled around.
Their last summer break… She had to make this one count, right?
“Please?” She begged again, her hands clasped this time. “It’s our last summer vacation in high school, don’t you want to spend it together?”
What was that she said about Konata knowing her feelings like a second language?
There was no denying it: she’d lost. With a huff, she delivered another clump of rice into her mouth. “Fine.”
Konata grinned as if the victory was preordained. “Yay! I knew you still loved me!”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”