It was clear to Setsuna that Haruna was currently talking. However, as to what her classmate was actually saying, Setsuna hadn't the faintest idea. The swordsman tried her hardest to pay attention and listen to the other girl's words, but nothing seemed to be sinking in. It wasn't that Haruna was a boring person; in fact, several of Setsuna's classmates seemed to be quite amused by what she was currently saying. Rather, listening was hard for Setsuna at the moment since she found the slender fingers that were tenderly caressing her chin to be rather distracting if not just downright arousing...
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Perfect Night
Happy Birthday Secchan!
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Just minutes ago, Setsuna had actually been listening quite closely to Haruna from her place on the floor of Asuna and Konoka's dorm room. At least, she had been listening closely until Konoka sat down on the couch behind her. Once Konoka parted her legs and shifted forward so that Setsuna was nestled comfortably in between them, Setsuna knew it was pointless to even try to listen to Haruna anymore. The young healer had then proceeded to rest her chin on Setsuna's head, drape her arm over Setsuna's shoulder, and use the fingers of her other hand to gently tease the skin beneath Setsuna's mouth.
Setsuna shivered slightly as Konoka's fingers turned their attention upon the underside of her chin and Konoka's thumb started to caress her lower lip. She was still vaguely aware that Haruna was talking but the words just refused to register in her mind.
"That's okay, though," Setsuna thought to herself, somewhat dazed by Konoka's touch. She closed her eyes in order to let her senses focus better on the actions of Konoka's fingers and to block out Haruna's voice. "If Haruna-san had any idea what this feels like, then I'm sure she wouldn't mind me not listening to her..."
"SETSUNA-SAN!!"
Upon hearing her name shouted in her ear, Setsuna jumped about a foot off the ground. She quickly opened her eyes to find a smirking Haruna looking back at her.
"See?" Haruna asked, turning to look at the other girls seated around Asuna and Konoka's coffee table. "I knew she wasn't listening to me." She returned her gaze upon Setsuna and gave the swordsman a look of mock exasperation. "Jeez, Setsuna-san!" Haruna exclaimed loudly so that the entire room could hear. Setsuna anxiously looked around the dorm to find that the two dozen or so pairs of eyes scattered around the room were all fixed upon Haruna. The swordsman sighed and cringed, knowing that what came next couldn't possibly be pretty.
"Can't you listen to someone and be fondled by your girlfriend at the same time?!" Haruna finished loudly, smiling deviously at Setsuna.
Asuna and Konoka's dorm room exploded with laughter as Setsuna looked down and sheepishly shoved her hands into the pocket of the sweatshirt she wore over her school uniform. Her cheeks were growing warmer and warmer with each laugh and she found herself wondering why she had ever let Konoka talk her into telling people about their relationship. Including the current day, it had only been about a week since Konoka and Setsuna became a couple and somehow, in that short span of days, all the girls of 3-A had heard the news.
Setsuna was in the process of coming up with a good response to Haruna's teasing when Yue interrupted her train of thought.
"Are you ok, Konoka?" Setsuna heard Yue ask in a concerned tone. The laugher quickly died down and Setsuna turned around to find Konoka standing with her fingers pressed gently to her closed lips and a frown upon her face.
"Ojou-sama!" Setsuna exclaimed, delicately supporting Konoka's chin with her hand. She peered into the mage's frowning face and asked, "What's wrong?"
"I think it happened when you suddenly jumped up," Yuuna observed from her seat near the coffee table. Beside her, Makie added with a sympathetic smile towards Konoka, "Which means you probably hit her in the chin with your head." The mage nodded at each statement, causing Setsuna to wince guiltily.
"And I think...she bit her tongue?" Asuna guessed, eliciting a furious nod from Konoka. Setsuna hung her head, angry at herself for being so careless. When she looked up again, still cradling Konoka's chin in her hand, she frowned apologetically at her girlfriend and gently caressed her cheek with her free hand.
"Hey," Setsuna softly apologized to Konoka. "I'm sorry I hit you. I'll try to be more careful, ok?" she promised, giving Konoka a quick kiss on the nose.
"Awwwww..." chorused the room as a whole, causing Setsuna to quickly pull her hands away from Konoka out of embarrassment. She felt her blush renew itself but tried to ignore her classmates' disruption. "Does it hurt?" she asked the mage.
Konoka nodded as she slowly took her hand away from her mouth. Setsuna watched curiously as the healer's frowning expression melted into puppy dog eyes and the swordsman continued to watch as the mage proceeded to stick out her tongue.
"Will you thiss it and make it betther thor me, Theythan?" Konoka asked while holding out her tongue, trying her hardest to look cute.
Setsuna was stunned by Konoka's request and began to blush from head to toe. From all over the room, she could hear an assortment of stifled laughter, suppressed snickers, and muffled squeaks of surprise. But most of all, she could hear their silence in anticipation for Setsuna's response.
After several moments of silence in which Setsuna neither spoke nor acted, Kazumi leaned toward her and whispered loudly, "Hey, Sakurazaki-san? She just said ‘Will you kiss it and make it better for me, Secchan?'" the reporter translated, not because she thought Setsuna hadn't understood, but because she felt like adding fuel to the already burning fire.
"Whooooo!" Misa yelled from atop Asuna's bunk bed. She lifted up the plastic cup she was holding and cried, "I didn't know we were having that kind of party!"
Laughter broke out across the room and eased the tension caused by the previous silence, especially for Setsuna. Still incredibly red in the face, she finally looked at Konoka again and gave her an expression that clearly asked, "Do you want to?" Konoka smirked as she pulled her tongue back in her mouth. Her seductive expression gave Setsuna the confirmation she needed and the mage leaned into her protector to receive the kiss she had requested.
Setsuna blushed again on top of her current blush as Konoka placed her hands on Setsuna's chest. Rather than pull away, however, Setsuna wrapped her hands around Konoka's waist and pulled the girl closer to her. She closed her eyes as their faces came together and the feather light touch of Konoka's lips were finally upon her own. She slowly opened her mouth and sighed an inward sigh of content as Konoka parted her own lips in response. Her unheard sigh deepened as Konoka slipped her injured tongue into Setsuna' mouth. Giving it the careful attention that it deserved, Setsuna gently brought her own tongue to meet Konoka's and continued the healing kiss.
Setsuna felt like she was suffocating in the best possible sense of the word. Her mouth was on fire and her lips were tingling in a wondrous way, bound by desire to her girlfriend's lips, and Setsuna hoped that the kiss would last forever. For that reason, it was Konoka who pulled away first much to Setsuna's disappointment, stopping their kiss amid the raucous catcalls and tumultuous applause.
"Good show! Good show!" Misa, Madoka, and Sakurako cheered from Asuna's bunk bed. They toasted their plastic cups together and drank from them. On the bunk below them, the twins were leading several of their classmates in a chorus of "Do it again! Do it again!" much to Setsuna's embarrassment.
"Hey look! Setsuna-san's blushing again!" Haruna taunted, pointing at Setsuna and making the redness on the swordsman's cheeks grow darker. She was in the middle of a loud cry of "Whoooo!" when from either side of her, Yue and Nodoka each grabbed an arm, pulled Haruna to the floor, and attempted to cover her mouth.
Konoka ignored all of the friendly teasing and jumped to the aid of her easily embarrassed girlfriend. "Come on now. Stop teasing her," she ordered the girls in the room. Konoka wrapped a protective arm around Setsuna waist and pulled the blushing girl toward her. "It's Secchan's birthday, so be nice to her!"
"Oh right," Kazumi said as she scratched her temple sheepishly, practically forgetting that the reason why everyone was currently gathered in Asuna and Konoka's dorm room was to celebrate Setsuna's eighteenth birthday. "We'll be good, right everyone?" she prompted the party guests. Good naturedly, they all agreed to stop teasing Setsuna, though without the expected reminders that she would only be off limits until tomorrow morning.
"Thank you," Setsuna softly whispered, pulling away from Konoka's hold and stepping behind her. She draped her arms tenderly across the mage's stomach and rested her head in the crook of Konoka's neck.
"Mmhm, anytime..." the healer murmured, placing her arms on top of Setsuna's and tightening the swordsman's embrace. She turned slightly so that she could press her forehead against Setsuna's and smiled at the other girl. Setsuna started to lean in and steal another kiss from Konoka, but then quickly pulled back in surprise.
"Wait, I thought you hurt your tongue," she said, noting Konoka's unhampered speech. "How can you...?
"Well what can I say, Secchan?" Konoka replied as she winked at her girlfriend. She ran a finger across the swordsman's soft lips and smiled mischievously. "Your kisses are incredibly good..."
"Awhoooo!" came the rowdy response to their intimate scene. Shouts of "Go Setsuna-san!" and "Go Sakurazaki-san!" started up, earning the entire room a reproving yet smirking glare from Konoka.
"Okay, okay," Haruna relented, peacefully holding up her hands. "No more. We're done." She glanced at the clock on Konoka's desk and her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Oh wow, we really are done..." she trailed off quietly, nodding to Kazumi who stood up and began to yawn audibly.
"Man, it's getting late! I guess it's time we get going," the redhead reporter announced as she headed toward the door. She gestured toward the other party guests to follow her, which they did without complaint.
"Guys..." Setsuna said slowly, checking clock. "It's only 11 o'clock. Since when do we end parties at 11 o'clock? We usually go past dawn, and then some."
"Oh, well, uh... we all need to get up early tomorrow..." Misora began, looking around the room for assistance, "You know, clubs and stuff, and um, I have track!"
"We have cheerleading practice!" Misa, Madoka, and Sakurako announced together, coming to Misora's aid and igniting a rush of other various club activities being announced by the rest of the class.
"Martial arts training!"
"Swimming!"
"Library exploration!"
"Equestrian club!"
"Gymnastics!"
"Drama club!"
"Soccer!"
"Strolling club!"
"Basketball!"
"Shrine duties!"
"Astronomy club!"
"Astronomy club?" Setsuna repeated incredulously, looking suspiciously at Chizuru. "In the morning?"
"Aha, well you see..." Chizuru began slowly, smiling brightly as always despite the sweat beads growing on her forehead.
"They like to look at the sun sometimes!" Ayaka supplied, causing the entire room to stop mid-departure and gawk at her with expressions of disbelief. "Yes, well, you know how those astronomy nuts are," she continued, laughing nervously at Setsuna's increasingly suspicious gaze. She pushed Chizuru and Natsumi out the door in front of her and they chorused "Happy Birthday, Setsuna-san!" before leaving. The rest of the class left in a similarly odd manner until only Asuna, Konoka, and Setsuna remained in the dorm room.
"That was weird..." Setsuna observed once everyone was gone.
Asuna flopped on the couch and stretched her arms above her head. "Who cares? I'm just glad they all left. They were making such a freaking mess in here!"
"Sorry about tha—" Setsuna started to apologize, but Konoka quickly cut her off.
"Don't worry about it, Secchan! We just wanted this to be a great party for you!"
"Yeah, I didn't mean it like that," Asuna said, sitting up and waving a dismissive hand at what she had just said. "We loved having your party in our dorm. It was a lot of fun, not to mention that your own dorm room is a single room that wouldn't have even fit half of the class."
"Still, sorry about the mess," Setsuna apologized, starting to pick up the many cups that littered the coffee table. "I'll help you guys clean up befor—"
"Hey!" Asuna exclaimed, sitting up and knocking the cups out of the swordsman's hands. They fell back onto the table with a hollow clatter and rolled onto the floor, taking several other cups with them. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Me? What do you think you're doing!?" Setsuna cried, giving Asuna a confused look. She reached down to pick up the fallen cups. "Jeez, you're lucky that these cups were empty."
"No!" Asuna scolded, slapping away Setsuna's hand. "No cleaning for you," she ordered firmly, pushing Setsuna across the room until she fell backward upon Konoka's bed.
"Fine, fine," Setsuna relented, pulling herself up into a sitting position on the bed, "but what am I supposed to do now? Watch you two clean?"
"Nope, you get to wait for Konoka to bring you your birthday gift," Asuna smiled, looking over at Konoka. "And you get to watch me clean," she added with a wink at Setsuna.
Setsuna stared at Konoka with a surprised expression upon her face. "You mean there's more? Even after all the stuff you already gave me?" she asked, looking at the pile of gifts that sat on Konoka's desk. The mountain of presents consisted of an assortment of different presents given to her by the class, though many of them had come solely from Konoka.
"Oh yeah, there's more," Konoka promised with a mischievous smile. "I need to go pick up your gift, so I'll be back in a bit." She quickly crossed the room and ducked under Asuna's bunk bed in order to give her girlfriend a kiss on the cheek. "Wait for me," she ordered Setsuna with a grin before hurrying toward the door.
Asuna waved at her departing dorm mate as she began picking up cups from the coffee table. "Hurry back," she called. Once they heard the door close behind Konoka, Setsuna watched with amusement as Asuna finished stacking the dirty cups and surveyed the rest of the room. The entire dorm was a sea of dirty plates and cups and Asuna scowled at the mess with disgust.
"Oh screw it," Asuna announced, dropping the cups back on the table. "Negi and Konoka can do this later," she decided as she dusted off her hands and put them on her hips.
"You know..." Setsuna said, slowly getting up and looking around the room, "I haven't seen Negi-sensei in a while..."
Asuna's eyes widened in surprise as this dawned on her as well. "I haven't either..." she realized, looking around the room. "Oh my god! Where did he go?" She quickly turned back to Setsuna with a dubious look on her face. "You don't think that Iincho or Maki-chan could have..."
"Asuna-san," Setsuna laughed, shaking her head. "I really doubt they could have taken him."
"Well you never know," Asuna reasoned. "They probably grabbed him when he wasn't paying attention, like when he was eating his cake or something."
A sudden rustle in the corner of the room got their attention. They girls looked at the large mountain of wrapping paper piled in the corner before glancing at each other suspiciously. Asuna walked over to the discarded wrappings and lifted the entire pile with little effort, revealing a snoozing Negi underneath. She snickered as she put down the wrapping paper behind her.
"You think we should just leave him like this?" Asuna asked. She watched as the other girl partially climbed the ladder that led to Negi's loft and grabbed a blanket from the stack lying nearby. Setsuna tossed the blanket to her and Asuna caught it easily.
"Yeah, we might as well let him sleep," she decided, smiling as she watched Asuna cover up their slumbering teacher.
"Okay," Asuna said as she stood up. "Now that that's done, how about we move your gifts to your room?"
"Now? What about ojou-sama?"
"Well we should make some kind of attempt at cleaning this room. And don't worry, we'll be done moving the gifts before she gets back," Asuna promised. "I know where your gift is, so she won't be back any time soon."
"Really?" Setsuna asked, sounding surprised. "Why is it going to take so long?"
Asuna smirked at her curious friend and wagged a reproving finger at her. "Konoka would kill me if I ruined the surprise, so I'm not saying anything." She headed over to Konoka's desk and began to stack the gifts in her arms. "Can you help me grab some of these?"
Working together, they managed to stack all of Setsuna's many presents neatly in their hands and carry them around the corner and all the way to the end of the hall where Setsuna resided. As they approached the door to the swordsman's room, Setsuna attempted to balance her gifts with one hand and used the other to rummage through one of her sweatshirt's pockets.
"Hold on," Setsuna said as she precariously balanced her gifts and reached into her pocket. "The door's locked, so I need my key."
"Wait a sec!" Asuna exclaimed. She quickly shoved the stack of presents she had been carrying into Setsuna's arms, forcing the swordsman to stop fishing for her key in order to juggle the gifts before they fell.
"Asuna-san?! What are you—"
"Sorry," Asuna apologized, ignoring Setsuna's words. "I forgot something back in my room." She reached past Setsuna who was still working to hold onto the gifts and opened the door. "I'll just go back and get it, so you stay here." She forcefully shoved the swordsman inside her room and closed the door behind her.
"Asuna-san?" Setsuna called, turning around to stare at her closed dormitory door. No response came and she assumed that the other girl had already left. "Everyone's acting so weird tonight," the swordsman thought to herself, still staring at the door. Setsuna turned around in order to put the gifts down, but stopped at the sight of a particular raven haired mage leaning casually against her desk on the other side of the room.
"Ojou-sama!" Setsuna exclaimed in surprise as Konoka pushed herself off of the desk and started to walk across the room.
"Jeez," the mage smiled playfully, "it took you long enough to get here, Secchan!"
"W-what? What are you doing in here?" the swordsman asked, still trying to balance the gifts in her hand.
"Eh...?" Konoka asked mischievously, slowly covering the distance between them and stopping in front of the other girl. She ran her fingertips against Setsuna's cheek and watched with amusement as the swordsman trembled ever so slightly, almost unnoticeably, from the action. "Do you want me to leave, then?" she whispered, bringing her lips precariously close to her girlfriend's ear.
Konoka bit back her inevitably growing smile as the presents in Setsuna's hands continued to tremble under her seductive strain of teasing. She slowly reached under the swordsman's arms and unzipped Setsuna's sweatshirt, revealing a white school uniform shirt underneath.
"You know," Konoka began as she stepped behind Setsuna and loosely embraced her, pressing herself against the swordsman's back, "it was pretty hard for me to break into your room." She placed her left hand on the swordsman's chest and began to trace circles through the thin fabric of her uniform, giggling softly as presents started to fall out of Setsuna's hold.
"H-how did you get in here?" Setsuna asked in between shuddering breaths as Konoka's right hand lifted the hem of her shirt and began to tickle the bare skin of her stomach. The blood was rising to the swordsman's face again in response to her girlfriend's actions much to the mage's amusement.
"Through the door," Konoka joked before using her lips to gently place kisses on Setsuna's neck. It pleased her to be able to make Setsuna tremble as much as she currently was and she had no plans of stopping any time soon.
"But... but my key, it's... it's in my pocket..." Setsuna argued slowly, pausing for a breath after each of her girlfriend's languid kisses.
"Not anymore," Konoka answered slyly. She used her left hand to gently point Setsuna's head in the direction of her desk where her key now sat. "I stole if off of you during your birthday party."
"But when did you get a chance to—"
"Why do you think I grabbed you so often tonight?" Konoka asked teasingly, blowing on Setsuna's ear and causing every last present to tumble out of her hands except for one. The swordsman's face began to redden from embarrassment, but she smiled at her girlfriend nevertheless.
"You mean that was all just a ploy to get my key? I feel so used," Setsuna whined lightheartedly, causing Konoka to laugh. "Was this all planned out? Is this why everyone left early? Even Asuna-san must have been in on it since she knew my door was unlocked," Setsuna realized, remembering how her orange haired friend had opened the door for her and shoved her inside.
"They all knew I had something planned for you after your party," Konoka admitted, taking the last present out of Setsuna's hands and dropping it next to other fallen gifts. "But as to what I have planned..." Konoka trailed off as she guided the swordsman out of the mess of presents on the ground, "...no one knows and it's only for you to find out..." The mage placed a hand on her girlfriend's chest and gently pushed Setsuna backward across the room so that she fell over onto her bed.
"Now this feels familiar," Setsuna laughed, referencing her earlier experience with Asuna back in the other dorm room. Konoka laughed as well and smirked back at the swordsman.
"Yeah, but I don't think Asuna and I had the same thing in mind after getting you on the bed," she pointed out with a seductive purr in her voice. She leaned over the fallen girl and kissed her quickly, gently on her lips, almost as if she were testing the waters.
"Mmm..." Setsuna sighed, leaning up to catch another kiss. "Ojou-sama..."
"Argh..." Konoka groaned in frustration. She pulled herself off of Setsuna's body and glared at the swordsman. "Why is it always ‘ojou-sama?'" she pouted, puffing out her cheeks. "I didn't say anything after we started going out because I thought you would eventually start calling me ‘Kono-chan', but I can't take it any longer!"
"Sorry..." Setsuna sighed apologetically as she sat up on her bed. She swung her legs over the edge and smiled sheepishly at the fuming girl. "But it's not like I do it on purpose. It's a force of habit."
"No more!" Konoka cried as she fiercely pointed a finger in Setsuna's direction. She stared dangerously, though not angrily at Setsuna and declared, "From now on, you're not allowed to call me ‘ojou-sama' anymore!"
"Or else what, ojou-sama?" Setsuna asked pointedly with a teasing grin. Konoka countered the girl's carefree attitude about the nickname issue with an annoyed glare that caused Setsuna's smile to falter slightly. Silently, Konoka pulled off the other girl's unzipped sweatshirt and tossed it over her shoulder.
"Hey wait, what are you doing?" protested the swordsman as she reached a hand out for her discarded piece of clothing. Konoka gently pushed the girl down on the bed by leaning into the swordsman with her body and pinned down Setsuna's outstretched arm with her own.
"What's my name?" Konoka asked with an almost threatening tone in her normally kind voice. Whether out habit, out of a desire to tease her girlfriend, or out of an inability to realize the kind of dangerous situation she was walking into, or maybe a combination of all three, Setsuna decided to go with the unsafe answer by letting the words "ojou-sama" escape her lips.
Without a word of warning, still staring intently into the other girl's eyes, Konoka reached down and pulled off Setsuna's skirt in one fluid motion. The swordsman's face flushed almost instantly and she stared back in wide eyed surprise at the daring mage.
"OJOU-SAMA!" Setsuna cried in shock, this time purely out habit. Konoka's eyes flashed dangerously at her girlfriend's outburst, something that Setsuna was unaware of as she frantically sat up and tried to reach for her skirt. "Give me back my skirt!" she panicked as her lost clothing was one again tossed over Konoka's shoulder. She tried to reach past her tormentor, but the sudden sensation of a pair of fingers rapidly unbuttoning her shirt quickly drew Setsuna's attention away from her lost skirt.
"Wait! S-stop it!" she protested, attempting vainly to push away the mage's dexterous fingers. Konoka had opened the shirt and pulled it halfway down Setsuna's arms, exposing the swordsman's wrapped chest and eliciting another outburst of "Ojou-sama!" from Setsuna. However, before more than two syllables of the name Konoka detested could be spoken, the healer quickly silenced her girlfriend by placing a firm finger across the other girl's lips.
Konoka captured the silenced girl's gaze with a stern glare before she removed her tight grip on Setsuna's half-removed shirt. Slowly, making sure that every touch would be felt, Konoka trailed the fingertips of her free hand down Setsuna's bare arms, across her taut stomach, over the smooth skin of her hips, and stopped when she had her fingers hooked in the waistband of Setsuna's underwear. She tugged gently at the fabric beneath her fingertips and watched as the other girl's eyes widened out of a mixture of shock and perhaps even fear.
"Be careful of what you say next," Konoka warned in a low voice, tugging again at Setsuna's underwear, "because one more ‘ojou-sama' out of you means that your panties go flying. Now," she removed the finger silencing her girlfriend and smiled expectantly, "what's my name?"
"K-k-kono-chan! Kono-chan," Setsuna repeated shakily before falling back onto her bed after Konoka released the hold on her underwear. She trembled and breathed deeply as she gazed up at her ceiling, relieved that the threat was now over. "Scary..." she thought to herself, never realizing until now just how dangerous her girlfriend could be.
"Were you afraid?" Konoka asked with an air of amused concern in her voice, leaning over her nearly naked girlfriend. She pressed her fully clothed form against Setsuna's, causing the swordsman to become painfully aware of how little she was currently wearing. Setsuna quickly closed her slightly parted legs and tried to pull her half-removed shirt back on despite lying on top of it. "Or..." Konoka whispered, dropping the concerned tone and opting to use a more seductive voice, "are you just disappointed that you were the only one that had to take off her clothes off?" Konoka wondered out loud, winking at the other girl. "Maybe... you wanted me to join you?" she asked as she began to unbutton her own shirt.
"W-w-wait," stuttered a furiously red Setsuna as she held up a trembling hand to stop her girlfriend. Konoka, however, ignored the other girl's protests and proceeded to finish unbuttoning the rest of her shirt.
"Wait for what?" Konoka asked innocently, leaving her opened shirt hanging alluringly off her shoulders. She started to tug at the hem of her skirt. "Don't you want your birthday present?"
Setsuna was a bit torn at the situation that lay before her. On the one hand, her girlfriend seemed to be on the verge of initiating something incredibly... well something that Setsuna had been longing for since the start of their relationship; maybe even sometime before that. On the other hand, if Konoka did have in mind what Setsuna thought she had in mind, then there was a screaming voice in the back of her mind telling Setsuna that she wasn't quite ready to take this step with her girlfriend yet. Oh, the frustration! The two sides of Setsuna's mind were at an internal struggle within her and she couldn't figure out what she wanted to do. Even worse, there didn't seem to be much time left to make a decision.
"Secchan?" Konoka asked, reaching a hand out to touch Setsuna's cheek. Her skirt now hung partially off her waist so that a glimpse of her panties were visible, a sight that Setsuna tried desperately to look away from. "Your face is so red," the mage noted with concern in her voice. Setsuna averted her gaze downward in order to avoid all the dangerous views in front of her; Konoka's open shirt, the white bra dancing at Setsuna's eye level, Konoka's half removed skirt, and the underwear just visible on her hips...
"Hey, Secchan?" the mage asked again, stepping forward so that she and Setsuna were just centimeters apart. "Here, let me feel your forehead." She leaned forward, placed her hands on the bed on either side of Setsuna to steady herself, and brought her forehead against Setsuna's. "You're burning up!" she exclaimed. Setsuna, however, was unaware at the outburst since her attention was focused on the breasts that Konoka had inadvertently shoved under her downward gaze. The swordsman fell back in surprise, accidentally off-balancing her girlfriend, causing the mage to collapse on top of her.
"W-wait! I can't, Kono-chan!" Setsuna cried, sitting up and pushing her girlfriend off of her. "I-I-I'm not ready yet!"
"Ready? For what?" Konoka asked slowly, sitting up as well. She tilted her head slightly to convey her confusion.
"For—" Setsuna stopped mid-panic at the sight of Konoka's genuinely confused face. "...for sex?" she asked, now unsure of what Konoka had planned for them to do.
"What? That's not what I had in mind," Konoka laughed, nearly falling off the bed. Setsuna appeared confused by this and looked skeptically at her girlfriend.
"It's... not...?" the swordsman asked disbelievingly. "But my clothes... and your clothes. What were you trying to do?"
With a mischievous smile, Konoka reached underneath Setsuna's bed and pulled out a large square box. She handed it to the swordsman with a wink. "Open it." Doing as she was told, Setsuna lifted the box's lid to reveal two pairs of matching pajamas, a pink pair and a blue pair, lying side by side on a bed of white tissue paper.
"Happy birthday," Konoka said as she kissed her girlfriend lightly on the nose. She pulled off her skirt and shirt, tossing them over her shoulder, before lifting the pink pair of pajamas out of the box. With a grin, she pulled the flannel patterned pink bottoms over her panties. "I got these for us since I wanted to have a sleepover with you tonight."
"Sleepover?" Setsuna repeated incredulously, still holding the box.
"Yes, sleepover. Remember how often we used to have those when we were little?" Konoka asked, smiling fondly at her childhood memories. Setsuna smiled as well, recalling how much fun they had as children. "And every time we had one," Konoka reminisced, pulling the matching pink, lacey, spaghetti-strapped tank top over her bra, "you always came without ever bringing a proper pair of pajamas with you."
"I remember," Setsuna nodded, smiling fondly at the memories. "So then these are mine?" she asked, nodding her head at the remaining pair of blue pajamas in the box.
"No," Konoka responded sarcastically, picking up the blue tank top, "they're for my other girlfriend." She took the box out of Setsuna's hands and handed her the tank top. The swordsman quickly pulled it over her head, relieved that she could start gaining clothes rather that losing them.
"But wait... you were teasing me just now, right?" Setsuna asked, not wanting to believe that she had made a big deal about nothing. "I wasn't just imaging things?"
"Teasing you?" Konoka repeated innocently. "I have no idea what you're talking about..."
Setsuna laughed unbelievingly as she pulled on her matching flannel pajama bottoms and tossed the empty box over the side of the bed. "Don't lie to me. You were totally trying to seduce me!"
"I'm shocked!" exclaimed the mage with a look of mock horror. "How could you ever accuse me of doing something like that?"
Undaunted, Setsuna grabbed her girlfriend's arm and pulled her down onto the bed. She pinned Konoka onto the covers, surprising the mage with her aggressiveness, and smiled at her appraising.
"What would you have done if I hadn't backed down...?" she asked slowly.
Konoka gazed up at her protector with an expression that Setsuna could not decipher. The swordsman continued to stare down at her, waiting for a response. Slowly, Konoka reached up and gently pushed the hair out of Setsuna's eyes and smiled warmly at the person she loved.
"I wasn't worried about that," Konoka replied, still smiling. "Even without telling me, I knew you weren't ready to go that far." She pulled Setsuna's head towards her own and kissed the swordsman gently on the lips. "I know you even better than you do, Secchan."
Setsuna blushed as she pulled away from her girlfriend, touched by what Konoka had said. "Kono-chan," Setsuna whispered affectionately, drawing a faint pink glow on Konoka's cheeks as well. The mage gave Setsuna's cheek one final caress with the back of her fingertips before she slowly sat up, gently pushing the swordsman off of her.
"Well, it's still early," Konoka said, looking at the clock that sat on Setsuna's desk. She leapt off of the bed and lifted her arms energetically. "Let's get this slumber party started!"
Setsuna glanced at the clock as well, noting that there was still half an hour before midnight. "How about we just go to sleep now?" she suggested, pulling back her covers and nodding coyly toward Konoka to join her in the bed.
"Really?" Konoka asked in disbelief. "But it's only eleven thirty. Even if we weren't members of 3-A, that's still pretty early to be ending a sleepover, don't you think?"
"Yeah, but if we go to sleep now, then I can say that I got to fall asleep on the night of my eighteenth birthday with my girlfriend in my arms," Setsuna explained with a sheepish smile at the girlfriend in question.
"Jeez, that's so corny," Konoka laughed. Nevertheless, she walked across the room and turned off the light before getting into bed with Setsuna. "But I guess I'll have to humor you, since it is your birthday," the mage decided with a playful smile. Konoka sighed contentedly as Setsuna covered them both with her comforter and she sidled up to her warm girlfriend. "So what did you think of your birthday?"
In the darkness, with only the moonlight streaming through her window to illuminate the two girls lying together in bed, Setsuna smiled shyly and pulled the mage closer to her, enfolding Konoka's slender form in her arms. She kissed the other girl lightly on the forehead and gently stroked her fingers up and down the length of Konoka's arms, inducing a small giggle from her. "It was the best birthday I ever had," she responded sincerely. "The whole day, the party, and now tonight... it was all perfect. All thanks to you," she added, gently leaning her head towards Konoka and stealing her final kiss of the night.
"Hey, Secchan... are you sure you don't want to..." the mage suggestively caressed the underside of Setsuna's chin with her finger and trailed the tender touch down the length of her girlfriend's neck.
"I thought you said you were kidding before," Setsuna pointed out with a nervous giggle.
"Well before I was kidding... but fine," Konoka relented, lying back down and nuzzling herself against Setsuna's chest. "Just promise me that we'll pick this up where we left off in about two months, okay?" she whispered, closing her eyes.
"Hmm...?" the swordsman murmured, pulling Konoka as closely against her as their bodies would allow. "What's in two months?"
"My birthday," Konoka responded, smiling into the soft blue pajamas she had given to Setsuna. "And don't think that I'll let you slide without doing anything special for my birthday," Konoka teased as she felt, rather than saw, her girlfriend blush at her implications.
"Y-yeah," Setsuna mumbled, knowing that Konoka was just teasing her. Probably. However, rather than worry about something that was still weeks away in the future, she simply tightened her arms around Konoka and slowly allowed herself to enjoy the present, one which involved falling asleep on the night of her eighteenth birthday with her loving girlfriend cuddled tenderly within her warm embrace.
