Strawberries and Cream, an Ichigo Mashimaro fic

Itoh Chika loved her sister.

That was a fact of life for Chika. Despite her sister's weird habits and smoking, and the fact that she also got on her little sister's nerves at least once a week, Nobue-onee-chan was always there for her little sister. They got along well enough, and truly cared about each other in ways that only became more apparent as they both aged. It was only in the past year that she had finally agreed to try to quit, as a birthday present to Chika. The younger Itoh could only stand and gape for a few moments, until Miu ruined the mood- as usual, and started making fun of Nobue Miu stated that she would indulge regardless- and that the present was something that wouldn't cost her money. Chika had thought about that one for a few seconds, before her onee-chan got furious and said that "of course I will quit!"

This seemed to only strengthen Nobue's resolve.

It was now nearing the end of October, and Nobue's birthday. After nearly forgetting the previous year, she found it oddly impossible to forget this year. The only question was, what to do.

"Ne, Miu-chan, what is a good idea for Nobue-onee-chan's birthday this year?" Chika asked suddenly on the way home from school.

Miu seemed to think for a moment. "An ashtray!"

Chika put her hand to her face. "Miu, we did that last year, remember? And besides, Onee-chan doesn't smoke much anymore, so it would be weird."

"A passenger jet!"

"Now you're not even trying." Chika sighed.

"I don't knooooooooooow... a vibrator?"

"MIU-CHAN!!!"

"What? It was a valid question!"

"Nobue-onee-chan doesn't do that... it's onee-chan! Geez!" she replied, blushing hard.

Miu wasn't even fazed. "I bet the older students all do..." her mind seemed to switch tracks a bit, as Miu's often did- to truly terrifying degrees. "I bet she thinks of me when she plays with herself!" A bit of a blush stained her cheeks now, but it seemed more purposeful than in Chika's rapidly reddening face.

"MIU!!!"

"Okay, okay, you too."

"GAH~! That's not what I meant at all!"

"Do you think she thinks about Matsuri-chan and Ana-chan instead? I bet she does, that pervert. She does favor them, you know."

"Okay, we're not having this conversation. Matsuri-chan and Ana-chan haven't even had... ah... sex-ed yet. They get it this coming year."

"Don't blame me for the failures of the school system!"

Chika proceeded to tune Miu out at this point. She cared a great deal for her friend, but Matsuoka Miu had a way of pushing everyone's buttons to the point where it just wasn't worth talking to her anymore. And while Nobue might get annoying once a week, Miu managed it several times a day. It was an odd friendship, and she knew it.

oOo

A day closer. Nobue's birthday fell on a Sunday this year, so there would be time to prepare something.

"Matsuri-chan, Ana-chan... do you have any ideas what to get onee-chan for her birthday?"

Matsuri let out a little 'eep' sound, quickly looking up at the calendar on the wall.

"Ahh... we have a few days left..."

"When is it?" Ana asked.

"The 17th. It's a Sunday."

"Oh, good then. Well, we could bake a cake, and make cards, and... um... make something for her?"

"We made Nobue-onee-chan an ashtray last year."

"But now she doesn't really smoke..."

"Chika-chan, is there anything that we could afford if we put our allowances together?"

"Ehh... not really. Onee-chan might like a CD or something, but I don't really know what she'd want."

"Let's ask her!"

"Matsuri-chan, that makes no sense."

"Oh. Right..."

"Shall we look in her room and see if there's anything we can think of? She's still at work, right?"

"Yeah. Okay, let's try that."

The trio walked into Nobue's room. Whereas Chika's room was generally kept reasonably clean, Nobue's was in fairly poor shape. Chika knew that her parents had asked Nobue to clean her room soon, but it wasn't quite bad enough to make it an ultimatum just yet. Ana seemed a bit distraught by the mess, Matsuri had been around longer and knew that it was normal enough. They went over to the bookcase and looked through Nobue's haphazard pile of CDs.

"It's hard to really get a feel for what to get her, looking at this. I don't think we listen to a lot of the same music," Chika noted.

Ana agreed. "There's a lot of different types of music here. That might mean she likes everything, or maybe she's just particular."

Matsuri shook her head. "Nobu-onee-chan once told me that she likes what she likes. We were discussing a movie I'd seen, but maybe that applies to music too."

Chika sighed. "I guess this was a bust. What now..."

Ana looked around again. "Chika-chan, does your sister's room usually look this way?"

Chika shrugged. "It depends. She'll probably have to clean it soon, but mama hasn't made it an order yet. She just said it has to be cleaned soon."

Ana shared a glance with Matsuri. "Would... she want for us to clean it?" Matsuri's eyes went wide, and she nodded happily.

Chika was surprised. "Onee-chan hates cleaning... I bet she'd like that! But how would we surprise her with it?"

Matsuri and Ana both shrugged.

Miu chose that time to burst into the room, laughing. "Aha, and now I have an answer that will amaze and bewilder you!"

Chika sighed. "Okay, genius, what's your great answer this time? ...and if you continue talking like you did the other day in front of Matsuri-chan and Ana-chan, I'll tell your dad!"

Miu sweatdropped. Chika didn't threaten to involve her dad unless she was really serious about something. Still, she recovered quickly. "You see... Nobu-onee-chan is going to be away most of the day on her birthday!"

Chika gave Miu a funny look. "And how would you know that? Onee-chan hasn't said anything to me about it."

"Well, I overheard a conversation she was having earlier, where she agreed to go see her friends during the morning hours. She won't be back until 3."

"But our parents are leaving for Kyoto at 5!"

"That still leaves two hours."

"I know.. but... oh, never mind."

Ana clapped her hands together. "Okay, then we should all meet here in the morning so we can help clean her room, right?"

Chika smiled. "Yeah. I'll work on baking a cake, too."

Decision made, the Strawberry girls went back to Chika's room to play for the rest of the day.