I do not, in any way, shape, or form, own Witch Craft Works.

Takamiya had weird dreams; he was totally used to them. Between a dream where his mother informed him that that Kagari was actually his older half-sister (Kasumi was quite happy about it, he remembered), one in which the Tower Witches in his class all transformed into penguins and chased him down before being eaten by Chronoire Schwarz, and the dream where he woke up in a circus and was forced to do parlor tricks in his robe while Kagari took pictures of him, he could safely say that he had experienced enough bizarre fantasies that nothing would faze him anymore.

And so, when he woke up at 3:00 am one spring morning, he dismissed Kagari's presence right next to him as being another dream. Smiling to himself (this was the sort of weird dream he could appreciate), Takamiya wrapped his arms around her, buried his face in her shoulder, and fell asleep again.

There were many reasons why Kagari slept in Takamiya's bed.

Actually, there was really only one, and it had everything to do with the fact that, should there be an attack in the middle of the night, their closer proximity would make it easier for her to protect him. It had nothing to do with annoying Kasumi, although Kagari couldn't quite help but find her reactions amusing. It certainly didn't have anything to do with wanting to be close to him, and it had even less to do with her drawing comfort from his presence.

She was lucky, really, that Takamiya was such a heavy sleeper: the fact that she was able to lie down next to him every night and get up every morning without waking him made maintaining her secrecy much easier. It was also lucky that he went to bed so early, as it meant that she was able to get at least eight hours of sleep a night, even taking into account the fact that she had to both go to bed after him and wake up before him.

She had been doing it for a few weeks without ever once experiencing a problem. Every morning, she would wake up just a few minutes before him, leave his room, and reenter it to wake him up. That little bit of misdirection was as much for his mother's benefit as it was for his, although Kagari had to wonder where exactly the woman thought she slept, since the guest room she had previously pretended to occupy was now filled with the team of Tower Witches who had transferred to her class.

Regardless of Mrs Takamiya's eccentricities, Kagari had an established pattern, one that she was perfectly content with. By the time the first problem with her sleeping arrangements cropped up, she had already been lulled into a sense of security, thinking that, since nothing had happened in several weeks, it was unlikely that anything would in future.

Waking up, Kagari was immediately aware that something was wrong. Her eyes shot open and roved around the small bedroom before coming to rest on Takamiya. Normally, he would shift very little in his sleep, and he certainly never caused any problems for her. That night, however, he had (at some point) wrapped his arms around her in such a way that made it difficult to extricate herself without waking him.

The already difficult task was made near-enough impossible by the fact that Takamiya, whose face was lit up with a childish grin, had snuggled right up to her, close enough that someone entering the room would likely have trouble discerning which body parts belonged to whom.

Kagari took a moment to assess the situation. She usually woke Takamiya within five minutes of waking up herself, which meant that he was unlikely to sleep much longer than that, since his body's internal clock was used to waking up at similar, but slightly different, times each day. In hindsight, she was rather glad that she had gotten rid of his alarm clock, since his waking up at less regular times meant that she probably had a few more minutes to salvage the situation than she otherwise would.

Takamiya's left arm was positioned under her and his right arm over her, his face inches from hers. Any sudden movements would likely, at the very least, make him stir, and might even wake him up entirely. At the same time, she could hardly lie still and wait for him to wake up naturally. Even worse, Kasumi might walk in. The resulting shouting wouldn't just wake Takamiya, it would give Kagari a headache for the rest of the day.

Realising that it was really her only option, she slowly grabbed and lifted Takamiya's right arm a fraction of an inch. His breathing hitched ever so slightly, and Kagari stopped abruptly. There were a few moments of tense silence before Takamiya's breathing evened out, and a few more before Kagari was certain it was safe to move again; she raised his arm another inch or so, then stopped again, listening for any signs that Takamiya might have been waking up. Once she felt safe in doing so, Kagari gently placed his arm on Takamiya's side before rolling him slowly onto his back. With that done, she slowly sat up and climbed out of the bed. She turned to face Takamiya once more, making sure that he was still sound asleep, before she turned back and walked cautiously to the door. As always, she made a point to leave and reenter the room before waking Takamiya, satisfied that she hadn't been discovered.

"You're acting weird this morning," Tanpopo said neutrally, looking at Takamiya with mild curiosity. "You're not usually so . . . chipper in the morning."

"Guess I just had a good dream last night," Takamiya replied, shoveling rice into his mouth. Breakfast was slightly later than usual, and he had to hurry if he wanted to finish in time to help Kagari with the dishes.

"What were you dreaming about?" Kasumi asked eagerly.

Takamiya glanced towards Kagari for a fraction of a second before snapping his gaze back to his meal. "Nothing big," he replied eventually. "Just . . . something I hope happens someday."

And, no matter how much Kasumi and Tanpopo, temporarily united in their quest for answers, hounded him, that was all Takamiya was willing to say.

AN: So I just marathoned this series and fell in love with it. Yeah, it's pretty far from perfect, but I enjoyed it for what it was, even if I did get more than a few Rosario Vampire flashbacks while watching. Anyways, the whole time I was watching, I kept wondering if Takamiya and Kagari would hook up in the end, since the mutual attraction there was almost nauseatingly obvious. They of course didn't, this being an anime that doesn't focus on romance, which kind of annoyed the hell out of me, since the way the series ends doesn't resolve anything, and nothing's really changed since the end of the first episode. If they'd gone the shipping route, they could at least have said "look, they're together now! The story totally had a point!"

Regardless, I quite enjoyed the show in spite of its ending, and I immediately checked to see if anyone had posted any stories for this pairing, which they of course hadn't. Of the five stories posted for it as of the time of this AN, one isn't a story at all, it's a challenge, one has them as a pairing but doesn't include either of them (yet, it's a multi-chapter that has yet to be updated, so here's hoping), one focuses on the Tower Witches, and one is a Takamiya/Tower Witches harem. The last one, which is in French (naturally) actually has them as a tagged pairing, but the fact that I don't speak a word of French means that that's kinda a moot point, at least from my perspective. It's like it's taunting me: "hey, kid! You wanna read Takamiya/Kagari fluff? GO LEARN FRENCH! Mwahaha!"

So, I figured, since I'm posting so much stuff for Christmas, I might as well add a quick WCW one-shot to the mix. This, like the series itself, doesn't definitively say that they get together, and I almost feel like this scene could have been added to the anime without really changing anything. I mean seriously, they spend the entire thing practically screaming "these two belong together," then they refuse to do anything about it! Ah well, such is life, yes? In any event, I hope you enjoyed, although I'll readily admit that this isn't some of my better work. Happy holidays and thanks for reading! Duke out!