*Disclaimer: I do NOT own Love Live!

"Come on Honoka, there's no point in hiding it from us."

Not quite ready to give up yet, Honoka looked away from the angry Umi and looked to her other best friend. Though not much more luck with her either, as Kotori gave an almost pleading smile.

"Please, just tell us what's going on," Kotori begged.

Honoka sighed, looking away from her friends to her phone lying on the desk. The screen was unlocked to her messages, with a specific message displaying on the screen. It was something meant only for her, yet due to her usual clumsiness, her two friends had seen the message.

"I-it's nothing," Honoka said, not quite as convincing as she was hoping to sound.

"Honoka, it says 'Everyone is waiting. I can't wait to see you again, too.' You don't expect us to believe that it's just nothing, do you?" Irritation was clear on Umi's face.

"Honoka-chan, it's okay if you're seeing someone. We won't stop you," Kotori said as reassuringly as she could.

"As long as you two are doing indecent things," Umi added.

"It's… it's not that simple," Honoka said, struggling to find a way out of this uncomfortable situation.

"Please?" Kotori begged once more.

Honoka felt herself close to cracking. But as much as it hurt to keep secrets from her best friends, she knew it was necessary. In a final desperate attempt to keep it, Honoka grabbed her phone and bag off the desk. "I'm sorry!" was her parting words as she ran out of the classroom.

Despite the fact that Umi was already standing, she couldn't react in time to stop Honoka. They watched as the ginger was out the door and already making her way down the hall in mere seconds. Umi sighed, while Kotori placed her hand on the archer's shoulder to try comforting her.

"Come on, let's head to the clubroom," Umi suggested.

The two gathered their bags and left the classroom. It was very quiet between them as they made their way through the halls toward Muse's clubroom. They were going to be a little late for practice at the casual pace they were going, but that was one of the last things on their mind right now.

"There you two are," Eli said as the 2nd-year pair walked in. She was about to berate them for being late, but noticed the missing ginger. "Still no luck?"

Both shook their heads. "She ran off before we could get much out of her," Kotori told the group.

"Though, she's definitely hiding something," Umi said.

"What makes you so sure?" Nico asked.

"A message on Honoka's phone that she really seemed to wish we didn't see," Kotori responded. "'Everyone is waiting. I can't wait to see you again, too,' is what it said."

"Aww, Honoka has a secret lover," Nozomi said playfully.

"This isn't the time to be joking, Nozomi," Eli said. "Besides, we don't know if it's actually like that. It could just be an old friend."

"Or friends, since the message says everyone," Maki pointed out.

"But if that's the case, why would Honoka-chan hide it from us?" Hanayo asked.

"I hope it isn't anything bad," Hanayo said.

"Well, this isn't really the time to be worrying about this," Eli decided. "Let's get on with practice. Maybe after, we can think of ways to talk about it with Honoka."

"I'm home," Eli announced as she closed the door behind her.

She removed her shoes and set them neatly aside before making her way to the couch. She dropped her bag before unceremoniously collapsing herself onto the couch. Arisa gave her older sister a curious look from her spot on a nearby seat.

"Still nothing?" the younger girl asked.

Eli shook her head. "Honoka didn't even show up to practice this time."

"I see… Then, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know… We may need to corner her or something so she can't run away again. Although I'd rather not pressure her like that, we're running out of options."

Arisa wasn't one to be rude, but she noticed the notification light on her phone blinking. It was on silent, so it hadn't interrupted Eli while she was talking. Noticing her sister wasn't look at her, Arisa subtly unlocked her phone and opened up the message.

"I see…" she said in response to Eli. "Maybe she'll open up to you all soon."

"We thought so, but it's been a week already since she started acting strangely."

"Keep at it, Onee-chan. I know you'll be able to get through this."

"Thanks Arisa. I sure hope this gets sorted out soon."

Arisa stood up from her seat. "Well, I should probably go and finish my assignments."

That got Eli's attention. "You haven't finished yet?"

Arisa shook her head. "No, I came out here to take a break and grab a snack."

Eli nodded, finding that reason to be acceptable. Arisa was lucky for that, as lying wasn't one of her favorite things in the world to do. With her phone in hand, she made her way to the hallway. As soon as she was sure Eli couldn't see her anymore, she quickly crossed the remaining distance to her room. She made sure to close it behind her before bringing her phone up again.

I'm home, is what the message read. Arisa smiled.

I'm glad you're home safely. How were they? She typed up her reply. Once she hit send, she walked over to her bed. On one foot she did a half spin and then fell backward onto her bed. She enjoyed the nice, cool feeling of her bed for a few moments before a reply came.

They were fun and cute as always! Oh, of course there's nothing as cute as you~ That definitely got a blush out of Arisa, despite how many times she's been told that.

Mou, you're always saying things like that Honoka-san.

H: Hehe, but it's true you know. Ari-chan is the cutest thing in the world to me!

Though Arisa had been smiling, it had faded slightly as she typed her next response.

A: I'm sorry about earlier. I should've waited before I messaged you.

H: Ah, don't worry about it. I should've been more careful with my phone.

A: Are we still on for tomorrow?

H: Of course! I've been looking forward to this all week! Arisa smiled, practically able to hear the ginger's excited voice.

A: I'm excited for tomorrow as well. It's going to be a big day.

H: Yup! Ah, I have to go help my mom with the store. I'll talk to you later tonight.

A: Okay, talk to you later!

Arisa locked her phone and let her arms fall to her sides. As excited as she was for tomorrow, she still had to find a way to get through tonight. And because she didn't actually leave any of her assignments unfinished, she had nothing to do. That is, until she heard a knock on her door.

"Arisa," she heard Eli's voice on the other side. "Would you like to help me with dinner tonight?"

"Okay!" she called her reply. She smiled as she got herself up off her bed. Looks like I found something to do.

Kotori thought today was going to be a nice and relaxing day. She expected to stay at home, do some of her assignments, and maybe even get some housework done. What she wasn't expecting was a sudden call that had her quickly get ready and rush out of the house. But here she was, walking along the sidewalk to a part of town she didn't visit all that often.

"There she is," Eli said, being the first to notice Kotori.

"So now we're all here," Nico said.

"What's going on?" Kotori asked.

"Umi-chan says she saw Honoka-chan here," Hanayo said.

"Really?" Kotori looked to the building they were outside of. "What is this place?"

"I'm not sure… But I am sure that it was Honoka I saw walk in here," Umi answered.

"A secret rendezvous spot, perhaps?" Nozomi couldn't help but joke.

Eli rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's go find out."

The building was a very normal looking building. No signs on the outside, so they had no real idea what they might potentially be getting into. What they walked into was a very normal lobby area. There was a woman on the far side of the room behind a desk, who smiled as she noticed them walking in.

"Welcome," she greeted with a smile. "Can I help you with something?"

"We're looking for a friend of ours," Eli told the receptionist. "Has a girl with ginger hair walked in here?"

But before the woman got to say anything, the door off to their left opened. "Onee-chan!"

They all turned to the new but familiar voice. It was Eli's younger sister, Arisa. She was dressed in a white button-up shirt and a blue skirt. Around her neck was a lanyard with what seemed to be a nametag on the end of it.

"Arisa? What are you doing here?" Eli asked.

"Ah, great timing!" Arisa happily declared, seemingly ignoring Eli's question. "Come on, follow me everyone. There's something you all need to see!"

Arisa didn't wait for an answer and disappeared through the same door she just came through. The other Muse weren't sure what to do or what to make of the sudden development. They looked to the receptionist, who smiled and gestured for them to follow the younger girl. Without any other choice now, they followed through the door Arisa came from. On the other side they found themselves in a fairly long hallway, with Arisa already about half the distance down. They began catching up to her, as Arisa turned around and stopped, seemingly in front of the room she wanted. Arisa waited for the Muse to catch up before she opened the door, revealing a very surprising scene.

Within the room was a variety of animals. Dogs, cats, and birds were scattered around the room, which was actually larger than they were expecting. Some younger looking animals were in pens separated by species, but otherwise most of them were outside. You would expect chaos for having dogs and cats free in the same room, but that wasn't the case. In fact, a good amount of the animals were near the center of the room. And sitting there, with a puppy in her arms and dogs, cats, and birds flanking her on all sides, was their ginger leader. Like Arisa, Honoka was dressed in a white button-up shirt and blue skirt, and had a lanyard with her name and picture on it.

"Honoka-chan?" Kotori asked.

Honoka turned her attention from the puppy she was holding up. "Ah, everyone! What are you girls doing here?"

"We should be asking you that," Eli said. She looked around. "What is this place?"

"A pet daycare!" Arisa cheerfully answered.

"Pet daycare?" Rin repeated. "I've never heard of something like that, nya."

"They're not very popular since people usually leave their pets at home. But those who want their pets to have company while they're away, well they come here!"

"Wait," Umi said. "So then, you two…"

"We're volunteers here," Honoka finished for her friend.

"Volunteers? Since when?" Maki asked.

Honoka was about to answer, when the puppy in her arms realized that it wasn't getting much of Honoka's attention anymore. The puppy started licking Honoka's face, causing the ginger to giggle. As if in response, two of the dogs around Honoka started barking, and one of the cats tried to climb in between Honoka and the puppy.

"Almost a month now," Arisa answered for Honoka. One of the cats near Honoka seemed to notice Arisa's voice, and walked its way over. The younger Ayase happily picked up the cute feline.

Honoka somehow managed to buy a bit of time from the surrounding pets. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you all sooner, but I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Surprise?" Umi repeated. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to earn some money so I could take you all out!"

"Huh? Take us out for what?" It was Eli's turn to ask.

"I wanted to celebrate everyone's hard work during the Love Live competition."

"Wait, so that message we saw yesterday…" Kotori began to ask.

"That was from me," came a voice from behind them. They all turned to see the receptionist from earlier. "A lot of these pets get dropped off here often. And as you can see, they've taken quite the liking to these two young ladies. I have as well. They're my favorite employees, since they're both really kind and really good with the pets."

"I guess we were worried for nothing," Nico concluded.

"Worried?" Honoka repeated.

"We thought you had some secret lover you didn't want us to know about," Nozomi said.

"Eh?!" Honoka's surprise startled the closest cats and dogs near her.

"Nozomi…" Eli facepalmed at her friend's antics. "Anyway, we're sorry we were suspicious of you. But maybe next time you could just tell us?"

"Eheh, sorry Eli-chan," Honoka apologized.

The rest of Muse decided to stick around for a while after to play with the pets. While they were there, Honoka and Eli managed to coordinate the plans for when Honoka would take them all out. They picked a location and set the date, aiming the time to be around dinner so that it worked out with everyone's schedules. With plans set, they spent the remaining time playing or relaxing. It wasn't until they started getting tired, namely Rin and Nico, that the other Muse decided to leave. Arisa walked them out, as Honoka was once again busy being fought over by the pets for attention. Arisa waited until they were out the door and a reasonable distance from the building before she turned to her manager.

"Thanks for the help earlier."

"Anything for you two," the woman smiled back. "Aside from another unexpected visitor, the rest of the day should go uninterrupted until the pets get picked up."

Arisa nodded. "Thank you."

"Just don't get any love stains on your uniforms or anything, alright?"

Arisa's face went incredibly red in an instant at her manager's implication. She wanted to say something, but was suddenly finding it very hard to speak, and all that came out of her mouth was a useless jumble of sounds. The woman laughed.

"I'm sorry, but I just had to. Your innocent reactions are just adorable." She motioned to the door. "Hurry up now, she's probably waiting."

Arisa managed to nod before she went back through the door and nearly ran the distance down the hall. She stopped outside the door, giving herself a few seconds to recompose herself. Once she felt ready, she opened the door and stepped inside. A little to her surprise, most of the pets were off in different parts of the room, only a few still near Honoka. As she started walking over to her, the pets seemed to notice the ones to Honoka's left moved aside to leave a spot open. Arisa sat down, resting her head on Honoka's shoulder and tightly hugging her arm.

"Finally," was the only word the left the young girl's lips.

Honoka chuckled. "There's always something, isn't there?"

"It sometimes feels like nothing wants us to be together," Arisa pouted.

"Hey, we're together now, and you know what that means…"

Arisa looked up, ready to receive the ginger's kiss. It was a deliberately slow and sweet kiss by Honoka, knowing how surprisingly impatient her young lover got. And sure enough, Arisa lost her patience. She released Honoka's arms in favor of throwing hers around the ginger's neck. She shifted her body onto Honoka's, placing her left leg between Honoka's while making sure Honoka's left leg was in just the right spot between her own.

As the kiss became more and more passionate, the last of the pets surrounding them wandered off to different spots in the room. They had decided it was probably a good time to take a nap, which was true. They had already picked up on the scent, long before either girl had discovered the fact for themselves. They knew where this was going, and they knew they'll get some more attention after the two girls had some bonding time.

Hey everyone, nobodD here!

Surprise! A really quick update X3 I'm not sure why, but this story just clicked into place so quickly. Usually it takes me some time to work out scenes and dialogues, but this one nearly wrote itself. Anyway, just a proper HonoAri story like I said I'd do. Not really much to explain here.

Hope you enjoyed. Let me know you're opinions if you could, please. And of course I'll see you next time~