A/N: This story takes place in the manga-verse, so some canon elements may seem out of place if you are not familiar with it.
"Hello, everyone! Welcome to the first annual UTX Idol Club dating game! It sure is going to be an exciting event! I'm your host, Kira Tsubasa! As you know, I'm the center of the massively popular idol group, A-rise!" The small stage where the game was set up was at a perfect height to allow most of the crowd gathered for the UTX cultural festival to see what was going on, even at a distance. The student council had originally planned to give the area to one of the other clubs when they found out that the Idol Club was planning on doing some sort of weird game instead of a concert, but in the end Tsubasa had managed to convince them that what they were doing would be popular enough to warrant the extra space.
The entire area around the game stage was packed with people interested in seeing what would happen. In keeping with recent tradition, students from all of the local area schools had been invited to attend the festival, so there were many students from Otonokizaka in attendance, as well as their families. Almost everyone in the crowd had been handed a number card right before the event started, but no one knew what they were being used for. The unusually large numbers were partially because of curiosity and partially because Tsubasa was such an enthusiastic host.
"Okay, everyone, here's how this works. I personally blackma- …er…I mean 'convinced' three lovely young ladies from our sister school, Otonokizaka Academy, to be the prizes for our game. There will be three rounds, and each round, three people randomly selected from the audience will come up to compete for the chance to win a date with the prize. Everyone should have a number card, so if your number is called, come up on stage!" The stage was set up in a very simple way. There were four chairs, with a divider separating one chair from the others. There was a microphone on each chair, so as to avoid any unnecessary brawling over who gets to speak next. On a table in the back were various items, such as a blindfold, handcuffs, Tsubasa's favorite hat, and a pool noodle. The host herself stood off to the side, far enough away from the props that she wouldn't knock anything over accidentally in her excitement.
"Ready everyone? It's time for round one! The prize for this round is the amazingly beautiful and talented Otonokizaka Student Council President, Ayase Eri!" The pretty blond girl that came up on stage at the announcement looked distinctly embarrassed about her introduction.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into doing this…" Eri managed an awkward smile for the cheering crowd and took her seat in the single chair, picking up her own microphone and turning it on. She scanned the crowd while she waited for Tsubasa to get the blindfold, smiling more genuinely and waving to her younger sister and her friends who were in the crowd watching. Her line of sight was abruptly cut off by the blindfold, which was tied loosely, but with enough force to completely block her vision.
"Now that our prize is securely blindfolded, we'll call up our first contestants. Can I get numbers five, eighteen, and eighty-two up here?" The numbers that had been drawn out of the hat were set aside so that the same players couldn't be called during the next round. Tsubasa hummed a little to herself while the crowd milled about, trying to see who had been chosen to participate.
The first contestant, holding a number five, was the playful and mischievous Toujou Nozomi. The purple-haired girl grinned in absolute delight when her number was called and hopped up onto the stage, giving Tsubasa a peace sign and sitting down in the first chair with a devious smirk. Tsubasa returned Nozomi's gesture with a knowing look and a conspiratorial wink. Eri shuffled her feet nervously, finding the waiting unnerving because she could hear people moving about on stage, but no one was saying anything.
"Alright! This is going to be so fun, nyah!" The second contestant, number eighteen, was a bundle of barely controlled energy, who burst onto stage, stumbled into the row of chairs, and promptly fell over, taking her chair with her on the way down. Tsubasa winced at the crash, while Nozomi hid her quiet giggles behind her hand. Eri sweat-dropped a little, immediately recognizing the voice and knowing the ensuing mayhem could only be caused by her adorable underclassman, Hoshizora Rin.
"That's the sort of enthusiasm I like to see at these events! However, please try not to damage the furniture, as we are still on probation from the sports festival incident." Rin had the decency to look a little sheepish as she put the chairs back in their line and sat down. Nozomi caught her attention and gave her a huge grin and thumbs up, which Rin returned happily.
"I believe there has been some sort of mistake." The dry comment came from A-rise member, Toudou Erena, as she came on stage, holding a card with a large eighty-two on it. Tsubasa just shrugged and gestured for her to sit down. Erena looked like she was going to protest for a moment, but then sighed and took her place in the final seat.
"We have all of our contestants in place, so now we can begin! For fun, we're going to have Ayase-san continue to wear the blind-fold until after she chooses her date! Now, each contestant will have to answer three questions and at the end, Ayase-san will pick who she likes best! Good luck to our contestants!" The crowd cheered and clapped loudly, while Tsubasa stretched leisurely, waiting for Eri to ask the first question. As the cheering died down, all three players perked up expectantly. Eri swallowed nervously. She didn't know who two of the competitors were, having only recognized Rin's voice so far. She knew that this could go wrong in so many ways and prayed that whoever they were, she hadn't ended up with a couple of people who would give her totally embarrassing answers.
"So um…question one…Where would you take me for our first date and what would you do to make it romantic?" Eri had chosen the questions herself, opting for ones that seemed 'safe', even though Tsubasa had wanted her to ask some that would cause outrageous reactions from everyone. Despite that, she was still worried that someone might manage to take her innocent questions and come up with an indecent answer. She could think of at least one person she knew personally who was a master at that sort of thing.
"Contestant number one, what is your answer?" Nozomi waved Tsubasa over and whispered something in her ear. Tsubasa listened intently, with an intrigued look on her face, before nodding in agreement. "That's a great suggestion! Instead of answering directly and risking the chance that Ayase-san will figure out who her suitors are from their voices, we will have them answer on this portable whiteboard I just 'happen' to have here and I will read it!"
Eri listened to this announcement with a surprised look on her face. Now she definitely wouldn't be able to figure out who else was participating before she had to make a choice. Tsubasa retrieved the whiteboard and a marker from the table, while Rin practically bounced out of her seat in anticipation of her turn and Erena just looked impatient. Nozomi took the white board from Tsubasa and quickly wrote down her answer to the question with a pleased expression.
"Okay, number one wrote 'I will take you to the new aquarium that just opened up, so that we can see all the adorable sea creatures. I will hold your hand the whole time so that you don't get pulled away from me. Of course I will make sure you have a wonderful time.' Aww, that's so sweet. Don't you think so, Ayase-san?" The crowd 'aww-ed' at the first answer and there was a lot of clapping and yelling. Nozomi handed the white board and marker to Erena and listened expectantly for Eri's response.
"I wouldn't mind…" Eri had to admit to herself that it sounded like the perfect first date. Not very many of her friends knew that she had been meaning to go see the aquarium since it opened, but hadn't been able to find the time. She had been thinking of asking Nozomi to go with her, but worried about whether her childhood friends, Honoka, Kotori, and Umi, would try to tease her about wanting to go with the other girl.
"She approves! Let's see if contestant number two has a better answer. 'We would go to a small, cozy café and talk about our interests.' That's certainly short and to the point." Erena frowned at Tsubasa, who just smiled at her apologetically. From the audience, someone shouted 'Cozy is plenty romantic enough!' causing Erena to at first look surprised and then really happy. She mouthed a 'thank you' to the person and then, realizing she still had the white board, attempted to hand it over to Rin.
"Rin would go with you to all of the food stands and we'd try all of the yummy food, nyah! oh, wait…that's what Rin is doing with Kayo-chin after this…" Rin had completely disregarded the white board, jumped to her feet and loudly declared her intentions. The entire crowd sweat-dropped and Eri couldn't help how she smiled and laughed at her junior's answer.
"That sounds like a wonderful plan, Rin. You should write your answer down next time, however." Rin's eyes became round in surprise when she realized that she had given herself away. She didn't feel bad about it for more than a moment, because as she sat back down, she caught the adoring look that Hanayo was giving her and her normal happy smile spread across her face. She was really looking forward to going around with her dear Kayo-chin later.
"Wasn't that exciting folks? Now for question two!" The crowd showed their approval by cheering and whistling. The white board was retrieved from the ground where it had ended up during Rin's energetic declaration and handed back to Nozomi.
"If you were secretly in love with me, how would you confess to me?" Eri didn't have much hope that she would receive any really good answers from this question. The obvious answers were the love letter, which she received way to many of to consider exciting, the up-front love confession, also something that she had experienced quite a bit, and the 'I would never confess' approach. She could tell that her cheeks were heating up a bit under the blind-fold, feeling the slightest bit embarrassed by the question topic, even though she was the one that chose it.
"Nice question! Number one writes 'I will bake a huge chocolate heart for you and engrave my words of love and devotion onto it.' Wow, it looks like Ayase-san likes that answer, if the drool is anything to go by!" Tsubasa gave an approving thumbs up to Nozomi, who just looked smug. The crowd cheered again, which almost drowned out Eri's protests that she absolutely was not drooling. Even though she claimed that, Eri still surreptitiously wiped a hand across her mouth to make certain.
"Let's see, number two answers 'I would write a song for you and perform it in front of a million people, so that everyone could see how much I love you.' Hey, didn't we try to do that so that you could confess to An-" Erena had picked up the pool noodle from the table and started beating with Tsubasa with it. The noodle was made of foam, so the effect wasn't exactly what she desired, sort of just tickling Tsubasa rather than causing any real damage. "Haha…I'm sorry, okay? I won't talk about it anymore!"
"Ahem…and contestant number three, what is your answer?" After getting Erena to settle down, Nozomi ended up with the pool noodle, spinning it around tossing it into the air. Rin took the white board and wrote her answer, thinking hard about what she should say. Eri sat silently, wondering just what she had missed after the second answer. Being unable to see anything was really nerve-wracking for her, and not just because she was missing all of the interesting things going on. The longer things went on, the more her fears weighed on her, even though she was fully aware that it wasn't actually dark outside. She was doing her best to handle it, but she really hoped that the game would be over soon.
"Contestant number three wrote 'I would tell you I love you every day, so it wouldn't really be a secret.' That's a really great answer, don't you think everyone?" Once again, there was a lot of cheering to show that the audience really liked the answer. Rin looked really proud of herself, Erena had a thoughtful expression as her eyes drifted through the assembled people, searching out someone in particular, and Nozomi continued to play with the foam, seemingly oblivious to everything else."
"And now for our final question! What have you got for us, Ayase-san?" Eri took a deep breath and steeled herself to say it.
"If we were to spend some time alone, what would you like us to do together?" Eri crossed her fingers and hoped that none of her suitors would take that the wrong way. From the sounds the audience was making, there were at least some people in the crowd who were already thinking about the question in a profoundly un-innocent sort of way. 'Please don't let them say anything weird.'
"Well, that's certainly going to have some interesting answers. Contestant number one?" Instead of writing anything down, Nozomi gestured to Tsubasa, who leaned over to hear, and whispered in her ear. Tsubasa laughed uncomfortably and when she stood back up, her ears had turned red. "Are you certain you want me to repeat that to her?"
Upon receiving Nozomi's nod of assent, Tsubasa turned off her microphone, went over to Eri and proceeded to repeat what Nozomi said to her in a low whisper. Immediately, Eri's entire face turned bright red and she stood up, pulling off her blind-fold and hiding her face in her hands.
"No more. I don't even want to hear the rest. I'm done!" Eri turned around to leave the stage, but Tsubasa stopped her with a hand on her arm.
"Wait, wait. You still have to choose a winner you know." Eri was about to protest, but she knew that she was the one who had agreed to participate. She had to at least see this part through. The audience shouted encouragement and suggestions about who she should choose until Tsubasa gestured for them to quiet down.
"Fine…I guess I have to go with contestant number one…I hate to admit it, but her answers were actually perfect…" Eri bit her lip while Tsubasa led her to the other side of the partition, so that she could meet her date. Rin and Erena had exited the stage as soon as the announcement had been made, so Nozomi was the only one waiting on the other side. She grinned at Eri's shocked expression, noting to herself how cute the blond looked when she was flustered.
"Nozomi…I…um…" Eri was so bewildered by this turn of events that she couldn't even think of anything to say. Tsubasa was looking at them expectantly, so Eri swallowed her embarrassment and took Nozomi's hand, causing the other girl to give her an affectionate smile. The two of them turned toward the audience, whose cheers could probably heard all the way to the other end of campus, and Eri, in an unusual display of courage, kissed Nozomi softly on the cheek and whispered hopefully in her ear, "Can we go to the aquarium…?"
"That's it for round one! Everybody be sure to congratulate the happy couple and join us again later this afternoon for round two of the UTX Idol Club Dating Game!"
Extra:
"Hey Nozomi, what's this notepad?" Sitting on one of the clubroom tables was a small notepad filled with various notes such as 'Onee-chan really likes chocolate.' and 'Onee-chan mentioned that she can't wait for the new aquarium to open.' As Eri looked through it, an expression of understanding crossed her face. "Nozomi…did you…cheat at the dating game…?"
"You caught me Erichi." Nozomi didn't look at all repentant as she came up behind Eri, hugging her from behind and resting her head on her shoulder. "There's no way I would ever let anyone else have you."