This takes place after the Love Wing Bell event in season 2.

This is a collaboration fic with Flipomatic. Yay.

The main ship is RinPana with a side of NicoMaki.

In Rin's opinion, the fashion show went extremely well. The crowd loved their performance, and they even received an additional round of applause afterwards backstage. Rin can't contain how excited she is to be able to lead the group and to do it while wearing a dress. She heads to the changing room with a large grin plastered to her face.

Most of Rin's friends are already inside, and Rin can see her own happiness mirrored on their faces. Nico slides in behind her a few moments later, shutting the door so everyone can change.

Rin bites the inside of her lip at the thought of parting with her newest outfit. It's not every day that she can wear something like this.

Though… Rin's thoughts shift to the rows of unworn skirts and dresses in her closet at home. Those aren't as fancy, but they'll still be good. She can try on all the cute clothes she wants when she gets home, but first she needs to get out of this dress.

A meek, yet comforting voice rings out as if hearing her thoughts, "Rin-chan, let me help."

A soft hand rests on her shoulder, with another tugging down the zipper clinging to her back. Rin twists her neck so she can grin over her left shoulder. "Thank you Kayo-chin!"

Hanayo smiles softly in response, her eyes focused on her task. Rin's neck starts to strain from the positioning, so she turns her head to face forward again, allowing herself to linger in the moment. It's always nice when Hanayo's this close.

"This suits you Rin." Hanayo breaks the silence. She pauses for a moment before drawing in a shaky breath, "I-I think you'll make a cute bride." Rin's heart speeds up at the compliment. The idea of her being cute is a new one, so Rin doesn't expect the praise. Still, the thought of her being a bride… Rin can't quite imagine it. Hanayo finishes unzipping the dress and steps away wordlessly.

Rin spins on her heels, eager to finally be face to face with her best friend. "Kayo-chin!" Hanayo has only taken one small step backwards, so Rin closes the space between them with a single stride. She reaches out and quickly grasps Hanayo's right hand, drawing it up between their bodies. "Thank you! But Rin's not getting married." Rin rubs her thumbs along Hanayo's knuckles thoughtlessly as she continues, "Besides, Kayo-chin would be the cutest bride of all!"

"Oh…" Hanayo glances down at their joined hands; Rin can't quite make out her expression.

A voice cuts across the room and distracts Rin, breaking her focus on Hanayo. She looks over to find Maki staring at her with slightly narrowed eyes. Hanayo slides her hand free from Rin's grasp, but it hardly registers since the cat lover's attention has completely shifted. "Oy Rin, your flowers…" Maki gestures broadly with her hands towards Rin's right side.

Rin glances down, and sure enough, she's still hanging onto the flower microphone she was given for the performance. "Woah!" Rin practically drops the mic from shock. "I forgot I had these!" Rin spins abruptly on her heels, shifting her back to her previous position. "Kayo-chin, can you please zip me back up?"

Hanayo doesn't respond, but after a moment Rin can feel gentle hands sliding the zipper back into place. The room remains strangely silent as she completes her task. Rin only know she's done because the grasp on her back is suddenly released. She takes the opportunity to dash out of the room, making sure to shout a quick thank you over her shoulder as she goes.

After numerous bows and apologies to the event staff, Rin finally returns to the changing room. Most of her friends are still lingering inside, but the most important one is missing. Rin peeks inside one of the changing stalls curiously, "Where's Kayo-chin?"

Rin turns to look at Eli, but the older student refuses to make eye contact. She shifts to Maki, who shakes her head and lets out a long sigh, "She went on ahead."

"Oh, okay! That's fine!" Rin chirps, deciding to not let it bother her. Hanayo probably has homework or plans. They can always catch up later.

Maki interrupts her thoughts by crossing the room, a slight frown tugging at her lips. Her eyes shift to the ground when she speaks, "Let me unzip that for you."

Rin complies, and after a few minutes she finishes changing back into her normal clothes. Nozomi and Eli have already left, but Maki is still standing nearby.

"Ahem," Maki clears her throat. "Wanna get drinks? At the café."

"Sure!" Rin agrees in a heartbeat; she's definitely been craving those café cookies lately. The two of them head towards the exit, but Rin finds her path blocked by the group's smallest member.

Maki rolls her eyes and groans in annoyance. "What do you want?"

The question has the third year grinning from ear to ear, "Did Nico just hear that there will be drinks at a café?" Nico leans forward off of her heels in an attempt to be eye to eye with Maki.

"Not for you." Maki attempts to push past the smaller member, but Nico shifts into her path.

"Come onnnn, you need a little more Nico-nii in your life." Nico winks and raises her free hand to form her usual pose. "It'll be fun!"

Rin doesn't really mind either way, so she waits while Maki stews over the idea. The redhead lets out a defeated sigh. "Fine…"

Rin's favorite part of the café is their vast selection of cookies. They have sugar, chocolate chip, macadamia nut, and a whole bunch of others that Rin hasn't even tried yet. Maki seems to be in a weird mood, so Rin goes for the more serious sugar cookie. She can go back for more fun ones later. She also gets a regular coffee with 1 cream and 4 sugars. Coffee can never have too much sugar.

She joins Maki and Rin at a round table, eyeing Maki's chocolate chip cookie and questioning her own choice.

Maki doesn't notice, taking a few moments to stare into her drink. She clears her throat, "So Rin, you're probably wondering why I called you here?" She speaks stiffly, as if unsure of her words.

It seems obvious to Rin. "For drinks!" She hoists her drink in a pseudo toast.

Maki grimaces slightly, "Well yes… but there's more to it than that."

Rin doesn't let her first failure stem her excitement. "Cookies?"

"No Rin."

From her corner of the table, Nico chimes in, "Wow you're bad at this." She gestures towards Maki with her half eaten cookie.

"Shut-up." Maki snipes back before returning her attention to Rin. "Anyway, what happened today?" She asks a strange question, one that should be obvious.

Then again, Rin's been wrong twice already. Maybe she should think more carefully about her responses. "Uhhhh… We had a concert?" Rin doesn't think this is a very fun quiz.

"And?" Maki taps the table impatiently, causing Nico to snicker behind her coffee.

Rin's not quite sure what they want her to say "Anddd…? I wore a dress? And… now we're having drinks? And cookies?" That's gotta be enough right?

Maki sighs deeply, "What about between the performance and the drinks?"

Did anything happen between the performance and the drinks? A few seconds pass and it comes to her. "Oh! I forgot to return my flowers!"

Nico pipes in, "Warmer."

Maki ignores Nico's comment, "Do you remember speaking with Hanayo?" She pushes for some detail, but Rin's still not sure what she's implying.

"Kayo-chin? Yeah, I speak to her all the time." She did leave without Rin today… that was kind of weird.

Maki doesn't give her time to think, immediately pressing further, "You spoke with her after the concert right?"

"Yup!" Rin nods.

"And what did you talk about?" Maki's expression is pained at this point, Nico on the other hand is giggling silently.

Rin is also tired of this conversation, "Uhhhh, I don't remember? Something about dresses I think? Why? Are you guys interested in weddings?"

The giggling abruptly stops as Nico spits out her drink. Next to her, Maki turns a shade similar to her hair color and splutters, "T-That's not what we're here to discuss." She coughs heavily and uses the moment to take a sip of her coffee.

Nico raps her knuckles against the table gently to draw their attention, "Lemme try."

Maki scoffs, "Be my guest." Maki sits back in her seat and crosses her arms.

Nico leans forward and makes eye contact with Rin. "When you spoke with Hanayo, she complimented you on your dress right?"

Oh yeah, that did happen. "She did! Kayo-chin is so nice like that."

"Right, and when you responded you…" Nico motions with one hand for Rin to finish the sentence.

This one is easy, "Complimented her back of course!"

"And?" Nico leans forward even further.

And? There isn't anything else. "And nothing?"

Nico groans, "Not 'and nothing'. Urghh. I'm tapping back out. Go Maki." Nico reaches out to tap Maki on the shoulder but the taller teen leans out of her reach.

"I can't…" Maki protests and raises her cookie as a form of defense.

Nico points with her index finger and retorts, "You're the one who called this meeting."

"Yeah but…" Maki frowns at the table. "Maybe we should call Eli."

Nico practically jumps out of her seat at the suggestion, her voice pitching upward. "What? No! We can't do that!" Nico sighs, "I'll never hear the end of it from Nozomi."

Maki crosses her arms with a huff. "Well… unless you can fix this they're our only option."

"I'll try one more time." Nico hones her gaze in on Rin. "Look Rin, when Hanayo left she was crying. What did you say to make her cry?"

Rin had mostly tuned out the bickering, but the sudden mentioning of Hanayo recaptures her attention. "Did you just say Kayo-chin was crying?" Rin leaps out of her seat. How could she not have noticed this earlier? "I have to go!"

Cookies be damned. Hanayo is more important. Rin takes off with one wave over her shoulder.

"Wait!" Maki calls after her, but Rin doesn't stop. She knows exactly where she needs to go.

As Rin's footsteps fade away, Nico quips, "Well that went well."

"This is your fault."

Rin arrives at Hanayo's house in record time. She rings the doorbell hastily and hopes that Hanayo is actually home.

After about thirty seconds, Hanayo's mom opens the door. "Rin-chan!" She sounds surprised but that fades away into relief. "I'm glad you're here. Hanayo is upstairs."

"Thank you!" Rin slides her shoes off in the entrance and dashes up the familiar steps. She skids to a halt in front of Hanayo's door.

Without hesitation, Rin knocks on the door. "Kayo-chin! I heard you were crying. Are you okay?"

It only takes a couple seconds this time before the door pops open. Hanayo has one finger raised to her lips and whispers, "Shhh, my mom will worry."

"Oh sorry! Sorry again that was too loud hahah." Rin steps into the room and bows apologetically. Rin closes the door behind her. "Anyway Kayo-chin, are you okay?"

Hanayo looks away from Rin, holding her hands together in front of her body. Rin wishes she could make eye contact, but Hanayo keeps shifting away when she tries, "I'm ok, thank you." Hanayo pauses and takes a deep breath. "You should g-go home."

"But I just got here." Hanayo isn't making any sense. She said she's okay, but clearly something is wrong.

"Please." Hanayo's plea comes out just above a whisper.

Rin frowns and steps towards Hanayo. "I can't leave you like this."

"It's fine though…" If anything, Hanayo is getting quieter.

Rin places her hands on top of Hanayo's, drawing herself towards her childhood friend. "Really Kayo-chin, I love you so much!" Rin squeezes Hanayo's hands to emphasize her point. "I would do anything to keep you from feeling sad."

Hanayo still won't look at her. From this distance, Rin can see that her eyes are red from crying. Her eyes flicker to their joined hands as she mutters under her breath, "But you won't marry me."

For one second, no one speaks. As another second ticks by, Hanayo yanks her hands free free and crosses the room towards her bed. She stands with her back turned to Rin.

"What was that?" Rin speaks her thoughts out loud, and immediately feels the urge to rush to Hanayo's side. She might not want that though. Hanayo sniffles and Rin's small amount of willpower crumbles.

She only makes it a few steps before Hanayo speaks, "Nothing! It was nothing."

"It didn't sound like nothing," Rin isn't sure how to feel, but she wonders what's running through Hanayo's mind. She takes the last few steps across the room and places one hand gingerly onto her shoulder. "Did you say you wanted to marry me?"

Hanayo tenses under her palm. "I…I just... Earlier today you said you didn't want to get married, and that's fine!" Rin finds her hand slipping from Hanayo's shoulder as she turns to meet her face to face. Her eyes are redder than before. "But if I got married and you didn't, we'd have to be apart." One tear trails from her left eye.

Rin returns her hand to Hanayo's shoulder, shaking her head vigorously. Thinking back to earlier that day, Rin finally understands what Maki was trying to get at. "That's ridiculous, we'll never be apart!" Rin shakes her head again for emphasis, and gently places her other hand on Hanayo's cheek to draw her gaze. "I don't need to get married, because I have you!"

Hanayo leans into Rin's hand. "Rin-chan," she sniffles.

Rin continues on with her previous thought, "So don't ever worry, okay? Cuz we'll always be together." She nods in confirmation. "Nya, but can we wait a few years until we get married?"

Hanayo laughs as if a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. "Yes"

I hope you all enjoyed it!