Disclaimer: I do not own Azumanga Daioh.

Cute
By Silver Sailor Ganymede

Sakaki had always liked cute things. She often thought that it was because she herself wasn't very cute. (After all, if she were cute then people wouldn't think of her as though she were some hardened street-punk, would they? They never knew that it was really cat-bites that had caused her to have her hands bandaged so many times.) Contrary to popular belief though Sakaki really did like cute things.

Chiyo-chan was cute, especially considering she was so small even for her age, that and the fact that she was so smart yet so young, looking even younger than she really was. Osaka was cute; her mad statements and fixations and spaced-out demenour simply added to this fact. Tomo and Kagura were cute with the way that they were forever pretending to be the greatest ever rivals when it was plain to Sakaki, albeit probably no one else, that the two were in love. Then there was Yomi, perfect grades, good at sports – though not so much as Kagura – and nice looking – though she would deny it herself: Yomi, to Sakaki, was probably the cutest of them all, no matter how much she would deny it.

Sakaki had made up her mind recently to convince Yomi of how cute she really was, but she wasn't too sure of how to do this without making herself conspicuous. It was then that she remembered that Yomi's birthday was coming up and decided to get her something special, something almost as cute as she was. It took Sakaki a while to find something that was both cute and something that Yomi would like, but in the end she found the perfect thing and it had been under her nose the whole time; it just took Chiyo's help for her to find it.

On that day she had been out for a few hours when she bumped into Chiyo, who had just been grocery shopping at the time. Chiyo smiled when she saw Sakaki, who smiled back at her.

"Are you out shopping too?" Chiyo asked Sakaki, who nodded in reply. "Have you got Yomi a present yet?" Sakaki shook her head.

"I don't know what to get her," Sakaki replied.

"I can help you if you want," Chiyo chirped up, "It'll be fun."

Sakaki nodded in thanks; she really didn't know what to get. They wandered around the shops for a while until they eventually ended up in a strange shop that sold all sorts of unusual stuff. Still Sakaki couldn't find something she thought Yomi would like: she was giving up hope of ever finding something when something finally did catch her eye. It was a glass snowglobe, the white 'snow' fluttering round in-side of it around an angel; it was a typical winter scene, just the sort of thing Yomi would love... at least she hoped so.

---

On Yomi's birthday they had all gathered in Chiyo's house, as it was by far the largest of all their houses and thus the best place to hold a party. Osaka was snuggled up, half-under the kotatsu and mumbling incoherently about chiwawas, androids and vampires. Tomo was jumping around the room like a maniac as Kagura watched on, bemused by the other girl's hyperactivity. The others were simply gathered around the table, Yomi looking pleasently surprised by the pile of presents on the table.

"Come on, sit down, baka, Yomi's opening her presents!" Kagura called over to Tomo, who quickly ran back over to them. Osaka blinked, opened her eyes, then fell back to sleep again.

It seemed like a long time to Sakaki before Yomi opened her present, which was somehow the last one. She twirled the snowglobe in her hands and smiled.

"How cute," she said and Sakaki felt herself blushing slightly. It's a pity Yomi didn't notice really; then she would have known that Sakaki felt the same way about her, but then again Yomi never noticed things like that; she was blinded to it, just like the angel in the globe was blinded by the snow: you see Yomi thought Sakaki was cute, no matter what Sakaki thought of herself; perhaps one day they might notice, perhaps.

"Who wants cake?" Chiyo asked.

"Ah want cake!" Osaka sat up quickly and banged her head of the edge of the table in the process. "Ouch."

"Baka," Tomo rolled her eyes.

"Look who's speaking," Kagura shot back.

Well even if they hadn't noticed yet, they probably would soon enough; after all, why not have fun while they were waiting?

"Let the party commence!" Tomo cheered as she and Kagura grabbed a struggling Yomi and marched her round the room, singing happy birthday. Sakaki smiled; Yomi was going to have a fun birthday after all.