I really wanted to join in on ChikaRiko week this year, but as it tends to, real life got in the way of writing. Still, I loved the prompts/themes and I intend to complete the week's worth of writing no matter how late I might be.

Enjoy!

Day One: Distance / Sunset

Distance was a word Riko Sakurauchi knew all too well. There was a distance between the keys of the piano and her fingers - relatively small, but there, and always an opportunity for a mistake. There also loomed a distance between Tokyo and Uchiura: physical, definite, and heartbreaking. Of course, there was now the melancholic gap of space between her and Chika, that crushing and invisible distance she felt existed between the two girls.

She hadn't seen Chika in two weeks (a distance in time) and despite her best attempts Riko worried with each passing day whether or not her move had been the right one. Outside of her small Tokyo student apartment she spied citizens finding their way home while the late afternoon sun tinted the world in heavy, sad, golden hues. Masses of people moved from school to work, from work to home, or from home to the nightlife of Tokyo, whose bartenders, food stand-owners, and denizens were just beginning to set up the night's festivities. Riko, twisting a strand of wine-red hair round a finger unconsciously, observed all of this with a sigh. She missed the quiet of Uchiura and its slow sea-side lifestyle. Her initial move during her second year of high school had been difficult; the difference between Tokyo and Uchiura was night and day. Still, she learned to love and appreciate her new home and the friends it gave her. She was surprised to find that only two years passed since then; she felt like she'd lived in Uchiura her whole life. Now that she once again lived in Tokyo, adjusting to the city proved to be near torture.

"I miss Chika." She whispered into the echoing expanse of her empty apartment. She walked back from the window she'd looked out of and stood before the keyboard in the corner of the room. This was why she was back in Tokyo, and so far away from her Chika

"Congratulations!" The orange-haired girl yelled as she wrapped her arms around Riko in a tight hug. They sat beside one another on Riko's soft pink bed and the remains of an official-looking manila envelope lay at their feet. The summer night swelled around them in a bubble of warm silence that made RIko feel like her and her girlfriend were the only people in the world.

"Thank you but...oh it's, uh, it's nothing Chika." Riko tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled up at the girl beside her. Her eyes were met with a concerned pair that seemed almost too somber to belong to Chika Takami of all people.

"What do you mean, 'it's nothing'? This is great! A full ride to such a well-regarded music college is amazing!"

Riko opened her mouth to respond, but said nothing. She reconsidered her words as her eyes traveled around the room in her home there in Uchiura. "I'm not going to accept it, Chika. I'm going to - "

"What?!" Chika sprung back in place as if to get a better look at the girl, while searching Riko intently for any sign of a joke or a lie. "Why?" she asked, her voice lower now, because she found no little clue or sign of deception.

"Going back to Tokyo and leaving you here is...is...it feels wrong. It's impossible." The redhead placed a hand on Chika's knee for support as she leaned forward to rest her head on the girl's chest. They were both quiet for a long moment until Chika spoke up. She ran a hand through Riko's hair slowly.

"Do you remember our first year as idols? How you had to leave at such an important time to enter that competition?"

"Of course." For a moment Riko felt herself transported to that wonderful morning when Chika proved just how selfless she was, and just how much she cared not only about her own dream but about Riko's as well. It was the first time Riko ever admitted her love to the girl in front of her.

"I meant what I said back then. You should follow your dream! You should prove to yourself - to everyone! - just how far you can go."

The night breeze stung Riko's cheeks slightly where tears were leaving trails in their wake. "I'll be very far." She admitted, "And it'll be intense. I don't know when I'll even have time to visit or anything."

"That's alright!" Chika smiled so brilliantly even through her own fresh tears. She pulled Riko in for another hug and rubbed circles in the girl's back. "We'll make it somehow. This is too important for you to just give up, Riko!"

Over Chika's shoulder Riko stared, unsure, at the keyboard against the back wall of her room. If she listened closely she could hear the nearby ocean rushing up against the shore not too far away.

A month passed since she accepted the grant, and two weeks since she moved back to Tokyo. Just as she was afraid of, she hadn't seen Chika at all in that time. The distance and loneliness were getting to Riko like a bad flue; the pain seemed to emanate throughout her body from her very core. Mindlessly wandering away from the piano in the corner of her room Riko moved back towards the window. There was an itch in the back of her mind she couldn't figure out and, without thinking, Riko stuck her slender arm out of the window and into the daylight.

She waited a few moments before pulling her arm back through the window with a surprised blush. This wasn't Uchiura. Chika wasn't mere feet away, standing on her own balcony and extending her arm over the railing for just the slightest brush of Riko's fingers. She wasn't launching herself over the space in between their homes to land, smiling and bright-eyed, into Riko's waiting arms.

No, Chika was back in Uchiura, an impossible distance away.

Sitting on her bed with her legs pulled up to her chest and her head resting on her knees, Riko watched the late afternoon pass into twilight. There were compositions to write and songs to practice, but the girl couldn't muster the energy to begin her classwork at all. A strange panic buzzed in her stomach; she felt restless but exhausted, fretful but drained. This wasn't right at all. Being stuck in Tokyo, being so far away from Chika...it wasn't right. A moment passed in an eternity, and then she was bounding up from her bed, throwing on a coat, grabbing her phone and purse, and was nearly out the door without a thought or a breath. She paused when her hand touched the doorknob like she was shocked with static electricity.

"I've got to go see Chika." She thought, though she did not turn the knob. "I have to get to Uchiura. To...to..."

The girl turned then and looked once more out of that single window in her small apartment.

Sunset blazed scarlet and rust in the sky like the heavens themselves were on fire. It was a beautiful view, a breathtaking one, and for yet another moment Riko found herself transported back to Uchiura in all but body - she was on the beach during the sunset, on her first day in the small town, meeting Chika Takami for the first time.

After taking a deep breath a smile grew on her face. She stepped back from the door and returned her things to their proper place. This was crazy. Chika wanted her to achieve her dream. What was running back to Uchiura going to accomplish?

An idea popped into her head then. There was one composition she wanted to work on. It sat in the built-in music stand of her piano, and without missing a beat Riko sat down in front of it.

The difference between Tokyo and Uchiura was night and day. She had accepted that a long time before. But what rested between there, between day and night? What existed beautifully in their midst? Twilight. The sunset. Red and orange. Her and Chika.

Riko pulled out her phone and dialed the girl. Barely a single ring passed before Chika picked up.

"Riko? How are you? What's up?" Came the breathless voice from the other side.

"I wrote you a song." she smiled, "It's called Higure. Sunset"

"You wrote a song for me? Riko, that's amazing! I-" but the girl placed the phone down onto the keyboard softly. She missed Chika's last words, though she had a feeling she knew what they were. The distance between her and Chika didn't seem so bad when it was just the distance between her fingers and the keys.

Set to the background of a burning sunset - one she was sure Chika could see even far away in Uchiura - Riko took a deep breath and began to play.

Thanks for reading!

Reviews, criticisms, and responses are all welcome!