Set across Ayano's third year.

Ayano walked down the dirt path with a spring in her step.

Silly Toshinou Kyouko. Ayano thought to herself, humming a jaunty tune. How careless of her to have left her Maths book in the classroom. I really had no choice but to return this to her. Wouldn't want to let her grades slip any further, after all. Ayano ignored the fact that Kyouko probably still held pole position in their class. She should be so grateful that she has such a good friend in me. Ayano definitely wasn't grinning right now. Nope.

Spotting the familiar black roof ahead, the violet haired girl raced ahead, throwing open the side doors and exclaiming her favorite phrase.

"Toshinou Kyouko!"

The empty silence of the clubroom was greeted her.

Confused (and slightly dejected), Ayano left Kyouko's book on the table, then turned around to leave. Sliding the door behind her, she started the slow walk back to the Student Council room.

"Alright, they're looking good!" That voice - it could only belong to one blonde.

Ayano's head whipped around, trying to locate the source of the sound. Hearing footsteps and shifting bags, Ayano went around to the back of the clubhouse.

What she found was… unexpected, to say the least.

Her favorite blonde was squatting down, tending to a… sunflower? Akari stood beside her, holding a green watering can. Kyouko gestured towards the rest of the patch, and Akari proceeded to water the rest of the lot. Was this Akari's idea? Well, it would've been the first productive thing the Amusement Club did, anyway. They looked decent enough - eight fully grown sunflowers, arranged in neat rows, planted behind the clubhouse. Wait, was that even…

Ayano, suddenly realising her own presence (she'd spending too much time around Akari, evidently), cleared her throat.

"Good afternoon, Ayano!" Akari turned around and gave her a cheery wave. Kyouko, on the other hand, remained fixated on her plant.

"Kyouko, you left your homework in the classroom!" Ayano started on the blonde (whom she was slightly irritated at for the lack of a greeting), "Try not to be so careless next time!" Kyouko turned around to face Ayano.

"Well, I knew you'd help me take it from the classroom, Ayano." Kyouko teased.

Ayano felt her cheeks heat up - she couldn't deny the statement, after all - and promptly turned her train of thought towards more pressing matters, such as…

"...Is this even legal?" Ayano had read the school rulebook cover to cover (Student Council Meetings could get really boring sometimes) and she was fairly certain that 'digging up a plot of land to plant flowers behind a tea room used by a group of students running a semi-illegal club for their own amusement' would be considered under the illegal section.

Fairly certain.

"No," Kyouko said, putting a hand up to stall Ayano's response, "but we really didn't think anyone would care: we're planting flowers."

Unconvinced, Ayano raised an eyebrow.

"...okay, we didn't think anyone would find out." Kyouko admitted.

Ayano huffed. Kyouko and Akari could only offer up sheepish grins as their means of an apology.

"How long has this been going on for?" Ayano asked out of curiousity, trying to make it seem like she was being professional.

"It was Kyouko's idea, actually." Akari said, "A couple of weeks ago, she came in with a bunch of gardening equipment and some sunflower seeds and told us all to get planting. I was surprised at first, but she's really enjoying it." Akari shot Kyouko a knowing smile, and the blonde let out an embarrassed "Akari!"

Ayano was doubly shocked at the (adorably) embarrassed Kyouko, and the fact that it was Kyouko's idea in the first place. Of all the four girls in the Amusement Club, Kyouko was definitely the last person she'd have guessed would be into gardening.

In a way, it was strangely cute, and it accentuated the refined side of Kyouko that Ayano rarely saw.

"Well, I suppose…" Ayano considered the potential repercussions of what she was about to say, "...if no one else finds out, it should be alright. None of the teachers even come around here anyway, and-" Ayano tensed up as she felt a sudden pair of arms wrap around her, and she noticed a very cute blonde hugging her close - wait, was she being hugged by Toshinou Kyouko?

Her cheeks were positively burning now, and Ayano tried her hardest to keep her mind off of the strawberry scent of Kyouko's hair or how soft and warm Kyouko felt against her. All too soon, the blonde pulled away, and Ayano was sorely tempted to step forward and wrap her arms around her again.

"Thank you, Ayano!" Kyouko said sincerely.

The violet-haired girl, whose thought process was now very slow, tried (and failed to) reply to Kyouko. She could only stammer out a quick "You're welcome!" as she tried (and failed to) hide her full-face blush, pacing hurriedly back to the Student Council Room.

Kyouko waited until Ayano was out of earshot. "Well, that's one issue out of the way."

"I told you she'd find out eventually." Akari chided the blonde.

"And I told you she'd be fine with it." Kyouko replied, returning to her work on sunflower #7.

The next time Ayano wandered over to the flower patch, she was reminded of something:

As enthusiastic and 'dedicated' as Toshinou Kyouko could be, she was still, at the end of the day, Toshinou Kyouko.

Gone were the bright, cheery sunflowers - six badly wilted plants stood (well, kinda stood) in their place instead. Ayano couldn't even begin to guess what those flowers were supposed to be.

"Oh, Ayano!" She turned around to see Kyouko greeting her, her face slightly flushed, the tone of her voice betraying her embarassment to the violet haired girl. The blonde visibly cringed upon seeing the results of her latest endeavour. "Yeah, that… didn't turn out too well. Turns out some flowers need regular watering, and fertiliser, and all that stuff Yui kept telling me was important."

Ayano sighed out loud.

"I'm probably just going to pull them out today." Kyouko mirrored Ayano's sigh, "I tried really hard to save them, too." Kyouko wore a small, sad smile, as if bidding her friends goodbye. Ayano instantly felt guilty at her previous exasperation - she'd never even considered Kyouko would have an emotional attachment to her flowers. She briefly considered comforting the blonde, before Kyouko, snapping out of her trance, walked over to a small box of tools sitting by the garden plot, and pulled out two spades.

"Since you're here, mind helping me do this? I understand if you can't - you're always busy with Student Council work, so-"

"No, it's alright. We weren't doing anything today, anyway." Now that was a blatant lie; there was an increasingly growing stack of school trip forms gathering on her section of the desk. Ayano figured she could afford to put it off for one more day, though.

The Student Council President, putting off her own schoolwork to pursue her love interest. How wonderfully ironic. Ayano thought, in amusement. Chitose would approve, at least.

She put on the pink gloves Kyouko had handed her, and got to work. They worked in (relative, in Kyouko's case) silence, the only conversation being Kyouko teaching Ayano how to properly pull up flowers. It wasn't until she pulled out the final plant that Ayano recalled the question that had been ringing in the back of her mind.

"Kyouko?"

"Yeah?" The blonde held out a plastic bag, and Ayano dumped the remains of the half-dead plant along with the rest of its kin.

"What flowers were you even trying to grow, anyway?"

She never got a straight answer out of Kyouko for that one.

Either way, Kyouko had definitely learned from her previous attempt, because the new flowers growing in the Amusement Club's unofficial garden were, well, flowering. Which was definitely an improvement.

Gone were the wilted… flowers (She'd definitely find out what those were some day), and replacing them was three clusters of small blue flowers. Hydrangea flowers! Ayano thought to herself, thinking of the ones that her mother grew in their backyard. While Kyouko's latest attempt was certainly a step up from her previous one, she was still clearly an amateur - two of her plants were wilting, though maybe not as badly as the last ones. Still, the additional care the blonde had showered onto the plants was evident.

If only she'd pay that much attention to me.

….wait, did I just think that?

She'd really been spending too much time with Chitose.

"Pretty impressive, aren't they?"

The sudden voice coming from her side caused her to let out a startled cry, twisting her body to identify the newcomer. A mop of bright pink hair, along with a startled face (In retrospect, her startled cries were loud) that Ayano recognized as Chinatsu.

"Oh, it's just you." Ayano sighed in relief.

"Of course it's me. Who else were you expecting?" Chinatsu asked, tilting her head quizzically.

Toshinou Kyouko. "No one, no one at all!" Ayano hoped her face wasn't an incriminating shade of red.

"Hm." Chinatsu narrowed her eyes in slight suspicion, but decided to let the subject drop. She turned her gaze towards the flower bed.

"I still don't really know what she's getting at." Chinatsu's confessed.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just…" Chinatsu gestured wildly with her hands, "Kyouko. Gardening." Ayano couldn't bring herself to disagree. Still…

"Maybe she just needs a new hobby?" Ayano shrugged. In retrospect, there were much worse things for the blonde to start getting involved in.

"No, I can definitely tell she's on to something. I can see it in how much care she puts into each and every one of these." At this, Ayano snorted.

"What?" Chinatsu asked.

"No, it's just… you saw how her last attempt turned out." The pinkette shrugged.

"Well, it was a shot in the dark. All of us kind of figured it wasn't going to work, anyway."

At that moment, Ayano realised where, or rather whom, she could get her answer from.

"I was meaning to ask - that last attempt, what flowers were they supposed to be?"

She never got a straight answer out of Chinatsu for that one.

It'd been a week since then, and as much as Ayano would love to strut down to the Amusement Club and obtain some real answers, schoolwork - both from her classes and the Student Council - had been piling up. It wasn't anything she couldn't manage, but it did mean that she barely had any time to herself.

Most of it was spent daydreaming about someone, anyway.

Either way, she finally had a good excuse - reason, Ayano tried to tell herself - to go down to the clubhouse. She glanced at the empty table in front of her. By some coincidental miracle, Akari, Chinatsu, Yui, and even Kyouko had all gotten sick at the same time. For this reason, the blonde had decided to pawn the job off on her, contacting her via text message:

Hey Ayano! Could you do me favor and water the flowers I've got growing now? You should be able to find all the tools for yourself, they're all in the shed. Thanks!

The violet-haired girl rose from her table, the sound of the school bell still ringing in her ears, and threw her bag strap over her shoulder. She gave Chitose a quick wave and walked out of their classroom, heading towards the Amusement Club's room.

Ayano wondered why Kyouko asked her, of all people, to help today. Would the blonde call Ayano her second best friend, right next to Yui? For that matter, would Ayano herself call Kyouko her second best friend, next to Chitose?

...Ayano would certainly like to, at any rate. Toshinou Kyouko, despite how she presented herself, was a lot more intelligent than anyone gave her credit for - both academically and emotionally. No one else (well, maybe Yui?) had noticed it, but in retrospect Kyouko really was the glue that bonded everyone in the group together.

And Ayano, who hadn't had many friends before, found a really good friend in Kyouko. Putting her crush for the blonde aside, Ayano did admit to herself that Kyouko was a really good friend. The blonde had invited her (well, kind of, anyway) to Comuket that one year, despite the fact that they weren't really close friends. And when she found out that Ayano didn't enjoy herself, she didn't invite her the following year (much to Ayano's chagrin, of course). That incident was actually the first of many that Ayano, upon self reflection, realised something about herself:

She really needed to be more honest with her own feelings.

The familiar flower beds were in sight now, and they (thankfully) contained healthy, growing shoots. She must have planted them a few days ago. Ayano thought to herself.

She lifted the lid of the small blue box by the wall, pulling out the green watering can.

Crushes were something Ayano had absolutely no experience in. She didn't even really know who she could talk to about them. Sure, there was Chitose, but frankly the girl's strange fantasies (and subsequent apologies) kept getting in the way of any meaningful conversation. She couldn't talk to Himawari or Sakurako about it because… well, if there was anyone that was truly clueless in love, it would be those two. Talking to Yui about it would probably be pretty awkward, too.

So that left her back at square one: trying to understand her strange attraction to Toshinou Kyouko.

"Once again, sorry, Ayano."

"Once again, it's fine, Chitose. Take care of yourself!"

The white-haired girl bowed apologetically, before taking her leave, heading straight home. Ayano waited until she was out of sight, then sighed loudly, leaning against a nearby wall. She was definitely not looking forward to checking and logging all the Club Equipment forms. She never exactly appreciated just how much paperwork Rise had done for them last year.

The quiet girl was practically a saint in her eyes now.

She was planning to take this Friday's after-school time to trudge through it all with Chitose and the other two, but Chitose had come down with hay fever at the last minute.

And then there were three.

Sighing, Ayano slid open the door to the Student Council Room, dropping her bag to the floor and greeting Himawari and Sakurako, who had already begun working on the pile of forms sitting in the center of the table. Sitting down, she closed her eyes, mentally preparing herself for the arduous task ahead of her.

"Oh, yeah, Ayano," Sakurako rummaged through a box behind her, "Earlier, Kyouko came by and told me to give this to you." Ayano raised her head wearily to see...

...A bright yellow carnation?

Taking the offered flower, she noticed there was a note attached to its stem. Flipping the card open, she read:

Hey, Ayano! Look, I actually did it!

Ayano paused to look over the flower once more. It was… very well grown. If she didn't know better, she'd have thought Kyouko dropped by their neighbourhood florist.

Anyway, consider this a thank you flower for watering the plants last week. This was the result of that, anyway, so I guess you deserve this flower.

Also, stop getting so stressed out! It doesn't suit you. Come down to the Amusement Club sometime, okay?

Love,

Kyouko.

Turning pink at the last part, Ayano mentally tried to convince herself that it was just a platonic 'Love,'. Evidently, Sakurako noticed her embarrassment.

"Ohoho, is Ayano getting a love confession?" the blonde teased, crudely wiggling her eyebrows.

"It's just a thank you note!" Ayano retorted defensively, pulling away the aforementioned note from the blonde's grasp and storing it (and the flower) in her bag for future… inspection.

"Really? Are you sure it's not a-" the blonde was cut short by the bluenette beside her lightly smacking her on the side of her head.

"Stop bothering her and get back to work!" Himawari chided, before taking on a thoughtful look. "Though if I remember correctly, carnations are supposed to represent love…"

Ayano pointedly ignored the bluenette's statement (and her own rapidly beating heart) and grabbed the top paper off of the sizable stack of forms.

What about during lunch? It's the only time I'll be able to make sure I can talk to her! But, no, there's no way I could do it right then! I could do it after school… but what would I even say? "Hey, Kyouko, can we talk together, alone, in a corridor for a while? Yes, I know it's Valentine's Day! That doesn't mean anything at all!"

Ayano cringed. She probably would end up sounding like that. Sighing internally, she looked at her schoolbag, and the red box of chocolates that lay within.

"Worried about something?" Chitose asked, clearly spotting the source of Ayano's frustration.

"I don't… I don't know when, or how, or…" The violet-haired girl buried her face into her hands, this time letting out an actual sigh. Chitose patted her on the back, trying to reassure her friend.

"You're thinking too hard about this, Ayano." Chitose supplied helpfully, "Just go up to her and do it! It's not like you're trying to confess your feelings to her - they're just chocolates!"

"Not helping."

Despite this, Chitose's words did reassure her - and she resolved to approach the blonde at lunchtime. Okay, after school. Actually, tomorrow didn't sound too bad…

Ayano shook her head, trying to clear away the insecurities. Nope. Lunchtime.

The rest of the day flew by fairly quickly - consisting mainly of Ayano running though a whole host of potential situations in her head, and how she would react to each one of them. Finally, after eternities upon eternities (or maybe just four hours) the lunch bell rang out loud, motioning students to break off into their respective groups.

Ayano took a deep breath, and grabbed the red box of chocolates from her bag, straightening the yellow ribbon on it. It's do or die time, Sugiura.

"Toshinou Kyouko!" Ayano didn't notice this, but the frequency in which she usually said her favorite phrase meant that instead of, well, saying them like a normal person, she half-shouted them out of pure reflex. As a result, instead of only getting the attention of one lovable blonde, Ayano ended up attracting the attention of the entire class.

Twenty eight pairs of eyes bored into the violet-haired girl who, by some absolute miracle, was still too focused to realise any of this.

"Oh, Ayano! What's up?" At the very least, Kyouko herself was equally unfazed.

Ayano hesitated from a moment, before holding out the box to Kyouko, exclaiming, "Happy Valentine's Day, Kyouko!" Ayano congratulated herself for not stuttering. Kyouko's eyes lit up (Jesus, this girl is adorable, Ayano thought to herself.) and she accepted the box, stuffing it into her bag. A loud cheer erupted from the rest of the class, accompanied by the sound of rushing blood from right behind her. Ayano, finally coming back to her senses, looked around.

...What just happened?

"Well, I guess I'll have to give you your Valentine's present now." With a grin, Kyouko took Ayano's hand in hers, and walked out of the room amidst the applause of their classmates.

"Where are we going?" was the only question Ayano could think of, still severely confused by her classmates' reactions.

"You'll see!" Kyouko said with a flourish.

Ayano, who was much too busy burning the memory of the blonde's fingers interlaced with hers into her mind, didn't take notice of their path, until…

"The flower patch?" Kyouko finally stopped in front of the flower bed, which right now was filled with dozens of multicolored tulips. Kyouko bent down to inspect one of them, before pulling out a stray weed.

"Yeah, it's my newest project! I didn't tell the other three, but I'm planning to give everyone tulip flowers for Valentine's. Anyway," the blonde said, standing up, "since you were the first person to give me a Valentine's gift, I suppose I should return the favor, too. So… pick whichever one you like!"

Looking over the patch, Ayano settled on a yellow tulip. Kyouko bent down to cut its stem, presenting the flower to her much in the same manner Ayano had just five minutes ago.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Ayano!"

It'd been exactly a month since then.

The tulips were Kyouko's magnum opus in floristry; soon after she'd distributed the lot, she patched the hole up, replanting the grass and refilling the dirt. As a result of a three day joint effort of the Amusement Club and the (now far less busy) Student Council, there was barely a difference - it was as if none of it had happened at all.

It made Ayano kind of… sad, in a way, to see the flowers go. They had become a regular part of her life - a small bit of life she don't notice until it was gone.

"Sugiura Ayano!" The door to the Student Council room flew open, revealing the one and only Toshinou Kyouko. Ayano was tempted to reply with a 'Toshinou Kyouko!', but decided against it.

Well, at least that was one part of her life that was still there.

"Yo, Kyouko!" Sakurako greeted her fellow blonde.

Kyouko skipped over to the violet-haired girl, placing her hands on Ayano's shoulders. "Would you guys mind if I borrowed your President for a while? I promise I'll return her in one piece!"

Chitose and Sakurako gave her a thumbs up, while Himawari smiled approvingly at the duo. "Go on ahead, we should be able to take it from here."

"Hey, wait- don't I get a say in this?" Ayano mock-protested.

"Nope!" Kyouko motioned for Ayano to get up, and together the two left the room, Ayano turning to slide the door closed behind them.

"So, did you need anyth-" Ayano stopped talking, her mental processes temporarily halted by what she was seeing.

Kyouko had one hand behind her back, the other holding up a white rose for Ayano. The blonde grinned. "Happy White Day, Ayano!"

Oh right. It's White Day today.

"I figured I needed to repay you for those chocolates you gave me, and what better time than during White Day, right?" Ayano tentatively took the rose from Kyouko's grasp, taking care not to lay any of her fingers on its thorns. She slowly turned the flower around, inspecting it. It was nearly flawless.

"Did you grow this yourself?" Ayano winced. I didn't mean for that to come out that way. She's a perfectly good florist. Luckily, Kyouko didn't seem to take any offense at her statement.

"Yeah, I did! It took a ton of tries - growing roses is a lot harder than I thought it'd be! I mean, we planted the sunflowers at first, which turned out fine, and I was all like 'Hey, this is going to be easy!' and then I tried roses and… well, you saw how that turned out. In the end, it took seventeen tries, but I finally got it just right!"

Ayano held the rose close to her chest, blushing intensely. All that, for me? "Thank you, Kyouko." Ayano said softly, a small smile making its way onto her face. Deciding to bail now, lest she embarrass herself further, she turned around, and started walking back, until...

"Wait, I'm not done yet!" Kyouko said, stopping Ayano from taking another step. Puzzled, the violet-haired girl turned to face the blonde once more, who seemed to be struggling with something.

"I… I, um…" Kyouko fumbled over her words, "I like you, Ayano. Will you go out on a date with me?" The blonde rushed through the last sentence, but Ayano, ever perceptive, caught the whole thing.

Or she would have, had her mental processes not have been completely stopped by the first revelation.

"Y-You like me?"

The blonde took on an embarrassed expression. "Well, yeah, sure…" She scratched the back of her head, "I mean, you're kind and dependable. You're always there for me, even when I'm doing something stupid. Even if you don't necessarily show it, you always try and help everyone around you. Plus, I think you're really cute! So, what's not to like, right?"

At this point, Ayano could hear the pounding of her heart against her chest. This was a situation she had only ever dreamed about, something she would be thinking about while lying in bed. Kyouko had always seemed so… unreachable, for Ayano. To her, she would never have the courage to go out and win Kyouko's heart - and a small part of her was resigned to the fact that the Kyouko that would ask her out would forever be imaginary.

But Kyouko was right here in the flesh, and she was waiting for an answer from Ayano.

"W-Well, if you insist…" Stop sounding like you don't want it, idiot. "I-I mean, yes, I would very much love to go on a date, Toshinou Kyouko." Smooth.

"It's settled then. I'll text you later to sort out the details?"

"Y-Yeah."

Kyouko hurried back to, presumably, the Amusement Club room, leaving Ayano to stand there and attempt to internalise what just happened.

A date. Toshinou Kyouko. A date. WITH Toshinou Kyouko.

Himawari was just finished with her work when she was interrupted by a "Kyaaa!~" coming from the corridor outside their room.

"...Is that Sugiura Ayano squealing?" the bluenette asked, not trusting her own auditory senses on the matter.

Chitose smiled knowingly.

Well, that was a blast to write. An excruciating blast, but still.

Yuru Yuri S3's been really good so far, and I hope they keep it this way. And also add some KyoAya but you know that's just me it's not like they've been shipped together for two seasons and an OVA or anything.