Hello and welcome to a NicoTori story. As such, it is custom for me to make a story on a new pairing. This will be a little difficult since I don't know much about Kotori but with a brief summary of her personality, I will try my best. It'll be AU but I'll try to stay close.

With that, let us begin.

"Blah" — Speech

'Blah' — Thoughts

[ Blah ] — Text

*Blah* — Sound effects in speech

(Blah) — Author's notes

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of Love Live! School Idol Project.

Kotori hums softly as she scribbles costume designs in her art-book. After a while she raises her head up and looks to the window on the side; the sunlight colors the sky in an orange hue. She takes a moment to bask in the sight before she tucks her ash-blonde hair behind her ear and then goes back to work.

Kotori was so lost in her work that she doesn't notice the door opens and a raven-haired teen walks inside. Her hair was made into twin-tails and her red eyes lock onto Kotori. She makes her way behind Kotori and looks at her work. "They look great Kotori."

Kotori jumps at the unexpected sound and turns her head. "Ah! Nico." After calming down, she pouts at her. "Don't scare me like that."

Nico chuckles, "Sorry. You're just so into it. So how come you're here alone?"

The designer sighs and goes back to her book. "I decided to stay here so I can focus."

"Ahh." Nico sits down next to her and looks at the work. "Whose costumes are these?"

"It's Eli's and Nozomi's."

Nico looks at the picture and then points at Eli's dress. "Make it a darker shade of blue because it'll bring out her eyes and it's a great contrast to her hair. She is our cool president from Russia." She shifts her finger to the other dress. "You could put more designs on the dress and put ribbons on her arm bracers. This will give Nozomi a mystic aura." Nico's voice turned dry, "She is the fortune-teller."

Kotori was silent as she goes over Nico's advice. 'Would it work?' But as she thinks it over, pieces start to come together as she imagined the new dresses. Kotori looks at Nico, "How did you make it work?"

Nico looks proud at that statement, "I'm not called the Number 1 Idol in the Universe for nothing. I gotta have a sense a fashion to catch the eyes of my fans. It also helps that I know Eli and Nozi very well."

Hearing that last statement, Kotori looks over the other dresses and starts second-guessing her work, 'Did I make a mistake? What if it doesn't fit well?' While Kotori has talked to everyone, she was never the one to initiate it and get to know them. 'Um, Nico." Kotori shifts the book so the older teen can have a better view. "Can you look over these for me?"

Nico puts her fist up near her head; the thumb, index, and pinky finger sticks out. "You can always depend on Nico-nii." And so, they looked over the designs together. Nico would point out some changes here and there; the changes were minor, but they made so much of a difference. The only things Nico didn't change were the second years. "Umi, Honks, and yours are really good."

"Thank you."

Nico squints closer at Kotori's dress, "You know, yours looks a lot like a maid's outfit. It kinda reminds me of Minalinsky."

Kotori twitches at the name, but Nico is too busy looking at the designs. 'Does she know? Did she saw me? What do I do what do I do?' Kotori stops and takes a deep breath, 'Calm down, maybe she doesn't know it. Let's take it safe and go from there.' "I-I heard of her but what do you think of her?"

Nico looks back at Kotori, "I heard that she's really great and kind with the customers. I've been looking all over the place so I can meet her," Her eyes dimmed for a split-second, "But I've been busy." She shakes her head, "Enough of that, do you want to start on the costumes?"

Kotori nods, "Mm-hmm."

"Alright." Nico stands and makes her way to the supply closet. "Let's get started so we can finish early. And if we do, this Number 1 idol might just model for you."

Kotori giggled softly; she was glad to depend on someone other than Umi and Honoka.

. . . . . . . . .

Cafe

Kotori sat down and sighed; there have been a lot of customers coming in today. Now that she has break-time, she thinks about last week when she was sewing costumes with Nico. 'That was really fun.'

Then a maid was walking toward Kotori, "Hey Kotori, there's a customer who wants to see Minalinsky."

"Oh?"

"I can get someone else to serve her but she really has been persistent."

"It's okay. I'm also almost done for the day anyway."

"Alright, her table is at the far corner."

"Thank you." Kotori goes out of the door and makes her way to the table. She sees there is one customer sitting on the table, but said customer has the menu blocking her face. Kotori picks up her skirt and puts one leg behind her to perform a curtsy. "Hello and welcome to The Wonder Zone. I'll be your maid for today."

The menu hits the table. "Holy crap."

'Oh no.' That voice sounds so familiar. 'No no no no.' Kotori cranes her head to look at the customer; it's Nico Yazawa. 'Nooooo!' The both of them still as a statue as they stare into each other's eyes.

Nico shook her head and coughed into her fist. "Ahem. S-So you're Minalinsky."

Kotori stands back up with her cheeks lightly pink from this embarrassing situation. She fidgets the hem of her apron. " I-Yes."

"I see." They both lapse into silence. Before it gets too awkward, Nico picks up the menu again. "So, I would like uhh..." She points at the menu, "Omurice."

"A-Alright. What would you like to drink?"

"Just water." Nico offers the menu. "Here."

"Thank you." Kotori grabs the menu but Nico holds firm.

"We need to talk after this."

Kotori gulps, "O-Of course. You'll my last customer so we can talk after."

Nico nods and releases the menu. Kotori walks over to the kitchen. "The customer ordered one omurice."

The chef nods, "You got it."

Kotori walks to a table to get a glass and a pitcher of water. She then walks back to Nico's table. "Here you go." She places the glass down and fills it.

"Thanks." Nico takes a sip and they fall into silence. Nico traces her finger on the table and cradles the glass. "So uh, how's your day been?"

"It's been busy but nothing too stressful."

"Cool cool."

Before it got any weirder, the chef calls out to Kotori, "One order of omurice."

"Ah. I'll be right back." It didn't take long for Kotori to go and come back with one plate of omurice. She places the plate down and grabs a ketchup bottle. "I'm so sorry about this."

Nico raised her eyebrow. "What? Why?"

Kotori used the ketchup to write 'LOVE' on the omurice. She then puts the bottle down and cups her hands into a heart shape. "Love love, I hope you can feel my love through this meal." Even though Kotori is smiling, her face is flushed beet red.

Nico wasn't faring better; she has face in her palms and the tips of ears are red. "Holy crap..."

'Please end me.'

30 minutes later

After that debacle, the duo makes their way to a nearby park. They sit down on a bench to get comfortable and Nico starts off. "So why did you become a maid?"

Kotori's lips quirked, 'Straightforward as always.' "At first I liked the maid outfit since it's so cute. But after listening the customers say that I make their day better, I liked it. After that, I enjoyed being a maid."

Nico nodded at those answer, "I see."

Kotori clasped her hands together, "Please don't tell anyone about this."

Nico raised her eyebrow at the sudden request. "Alright? I wasn't planning to tell anyone."

"Really?"

"In return, you get to be my maid."

"Eh?"

Nico was grinning. "After that embarrassment, I realized how cute you look in that maid outfit and I want Minalinsky all for myself."

Kotori blushed. 'Oh no.'

. . . . . . . . .

And so for the next two weeks, Nico would visit Kotori at the cafe. Sometimes Nico would make the maid do embarrassing stuff while other times they just sit down and talked. Even at school, Nico and Kotori would hang with each other more often. And after every meeting, Kotori wants to spend more time with Nico.

Fast forward to now...

Kotori is sitting in the club room staring down the object in her hands. That object is a box of strawberry-flavored pocky.

She slams the box on her forehead, 'Arrgh! Why did I buy them? There's no way I can give these to Nico.' Kotori runs her fingers on the box. 'Would it be too weird if I bought her favorite flavor?' It wasn't that hard for Kotori to find that out; Nico buys a lot of strawberry-flavored sweets on her cafe visits.

Kotori sighs as she tore the box open. 'I might as well destroy the evidence.' She pops one stick in her mouth when the door suddenly opened; the noise made her jump and the candy fell on the table.

"Yo Kotori." It was Nico. She walks around and notices the sweets. "Oh hey, strawberry pocky. Don't mind if I do." She picks up the stick and pops it in her mouth.

'Oh my god!' Kotori blushed red and buried her face on her hands; her heart going into doki overdrive. 'We kissed.' It was an indirect kiss but Kotori's mind is turning into mush to notice the difference.

"Ah, that was sweet." Nico places her bag on the chair and turns to Kotori. "Thanks for that."

That snaps Kotori out of her reverie. "Ah-Um-I-S-Sure."

Nico raises her eyebrow at the weird behavior, but then ignore it for other matters. "Practice got canceled. The first years are busy with their teacher, Eli and Nozomi are doing some paperwork, and I think Umi and Honoka are helping them out."

"Oh."

"I came here to drop off my stuff and go help Eli and Nozomi. You can come with me."

"Ah no thanks. I'll stay here and wait."

Nico shrugs and walks out of the door. "Suit yourself."

Kotori waits until Nico's footsteps fade away and then sighs. She places her hand on her chest and can feel her heart calming down. She stands up and walks close to the window; the sky is orange today. 'Just like that day.' Kotori sighs again, "How can I tell Nico I love her?"

"Uhh..."

Kotori tenses up and slowly turns her head around. It was Nico frozen at the doorway. They stare at each for several moments before steam exploded out of Kotori's ears and her face turned red. She crouched down and buried her head on her hands. "Ahhhh!" Luckily her hands muffled most of the scream.

That sprung Nico into action. "I uh that was-" Nico takes a breath to collect herself. "I was going to get my phone from my bag." Nico walks a little closer to Kotori. "Look, it seems this wasn't part of your plan so we can just—"

Kotori stands up and turns fully to Nico. "No, I need to do this." It was now or never. Kotori takes a deep breath to calm her nerves. "I always admire how confident and straightforward you are. Other than Umi and Honoka, you're the one who talked to me the most. Even though it was embarrassing you found me out, I enjoyed being your maid. After that, I wanted to spend more time with you but I was too afraid. I was afraid of what you would think and I don't even know if you like me back."

Kotori takes a shaky breath, "But I love you Nico."

Once Kotori was finished with her impromptu confession, Nico walked up to Kotori and placed her hands on Kotori's shoulders. "I guess it's my turn huh? Right, you know the time we made those costumes?" Seeing Kotori nod, Nico continues. "At first I was interested in you. You weren't strict as Umi or... impulsive as Honoka. I figured this would be a good chance to know more about you. You know, I was kinda glad that I found out your secret. It made me feel selfish that I'm the one who knows this about you. After that, it felt nice to meet you at cafe."

"I like you Kotori, but not at the same level as you do."

It felt like a hammer struck her heart at that statement; Kotori closed her eyes and turned away, willing the tears not to come out.

Nico grabbed her chin and gently turned Kotori back to face her. "Hey, I wasn't done. Can you look at me please?"

Kotori opened her eyes and finally noticed how Nico's crimson eyes shine like rubies in the sunlight.

"I want to do this proper so..." Nico smiled, "Kotori Minami, will you go out with me?"

This time tears of joy flows out. "Yes!" She surges forward and hugs Nico.

"Whoa." Nico takes a step back to take the force and slowly hugged Kotori back.

"Oh." Kotori separates from Nico to walk over to the table. She picks up the pocky and offers it to the twin-tails. "Here. I wanted to give this to you earlier and..." She mumbles the rest.

"Hmm?" Nico takes the box. "What was that last part?"

Kotori blushes and looks away. "...We kissed."

Nico flinches and blushes too. "What?! When?"

"That pocky you ate."

"But that was on the table."

"I had it in my mouth but I dropped it."

Nico shakes her head, "*Sigh* We're such dorks to get worked up about this."

Kotori giggled at that.

Nico offers her hand, "C'mon lets go somewhere."

Kotori smiles and accepts Nico's hand. "Alright."

.

Fin.

Happy Birthday Kotori! Chirp!

Now let's go over some stuff:

- I actually have no idea why Kotori wants the maid job.

- The cafe name was just a random spin on the episode title.

- That pocky scene was inspired from a couple pics I saw of these cute couple.

From what I've seen of Kotori, she isn't shy; while she can hold a conversation with people, she isn't one to imitate it. She follows the flow and let other people make the choices for her. From what I read, it also seems that Kotori takes people's feeling into then leads her having a hard time expressing herself to others. So yeah, this is how I see Kotori.

I actually found it enjoyable as I explored Kotori's character through research and doujins.

Well see ya next time.

Thank you for reading

Constructive criticisms are appreciated

Bravo Tango out.