A/N: Written as a Love Live Reddit 2017 Secret Santa exchange gift for MikanOrangePawaaa.
With the overhanging realization that the end of the year would be upon them soon, Honoka had thought about what they should do. Every moment should be cherished between her and her beloved friends in Muse. Out of all the things in the world there was only one thing that could bring their club of school idols together in the icy month of December.
Honoka sat up straighter in her chair. On the other side of the table, Nico leafed through papers, taking out a bookmark in one of her books. Honoka didn't know what she was doing but inspiration struck.
Honoka bolted upward in her seat.
"Nico-chan!" Honoka yelled. She pounded on the table in the clubroom, eyes flashing determinedly. She glanced around herself, pleased that none of the others were there to hear their conversation. For today, it was them while the others were busy.
Nico flinched. The lid of the book in her hand slammed down on the page. Looking forlornly at the lonely blue bookmark in her hand, she scowled.
"W-what!? Stop yelling so suddenly," Nico reminded her irritably. She shuffled through her papers again.
Nico had homework to fill out. She didn't need Honoka bothering her at that moment, but she didn't mind the break in silence. In fact, it was strange that Honoka had been so quiet for the last twenty minutes. What had she been thinking about?
To her dismay, Nico wasn't impressed with her. But Honoka would bring her other to her side eventually.
"I know what we should do," Honoka said excitedly.
Nico blinked. "Should do about what? The next song and choreography we need done in a few weeks?"
Silly Nico. Those things could wait for some fun,
Honoka pushed herself out of her chair. She twirled around in a circle. After all, she was an utter genius. "Do about making things even more fun around here. Let's have a Christmas party! Eat cake, open presents, talk about whatever. All the fun stuff."
Nico wasn't sure if cake was even served for Christmas events. It didn't seem like a bad idea in theory, but she thought of all the accidents that could happen with food. She shuddered. Usually, she was strict about that sort of thing in the clubroom. "Sounds like trouble if you ask me."
Honoka pouted. She wasn't going to give up for that reason. "No, it's not," she declared. "I think it'll be super, super fun! And—and! One of us can dress up as Santa for Maki and she'll be super happy."
Maki, star-eyed and amazed, would love to see Santa. It was the full-proof plan, although Nico doubted she would be that engrossed in one of the Muse members playing Santa unless they played their role so well they didn't sound out. Maki would probably be critical if someone messed up the role! But she wouldn't say that she didn't want to see it.
Nico didn't want to be the one dressed up. On the other hand, Maki would praise her for being amazing and her childhood idol. Was Santa technically an idol? He was to most little kids, anyway. Nico could snicker at her later for believing she was the best.
Nico sighed. Besides, she didn't want to reject her. She should accept whatever she was planning. Everyone knew that they couldn't avoid Honoka when she decided on something for herself.
"Shouldn't we ask everyone what they think?" Nico asked. Doing that was default around the club. The others would have their preferences this-and-that. Everyone would have a role to play whether that was about food, games, or especially presents…
Honoka waved her hands frantically. Nico was trying to blow down every shred of suspense in this entire plan, wasn't she? "No. That'll ruin the surprise. We'll tell them after we get a few things prepared, okay?"
Nico knew this would turn out chaotic, but...
"Then…" Nico frowned and absorbed the scene around them. "How do we decorate this place?"
The room was sparse minus the bookshelf with idol research material, the colorful posters on the walls, and the pamphlets and paper scattered on the table. It was rather ordinary for a clubroom. Nico never thought much on the matter, but decorating it up might put some color it didn't have normally.
"That's easy," Honoka said. Her imagination started to run away by express. She paced the room and started to point. "We'll put streamers everywhere." She indicated the walls, windows, and the chairs. She stopped in front of the bookshelf and spread out her arms, grinning triumphantly. "And we'll take everything off the bookshelf and put decorations and cute plushies and make it really Christmas-y, and-"
Nico cleared her throat. Honoka's blood went cold.
Nico shot her a deadpan expression. "Honoka, do you know how long it took me to put all of these research materials on these shelves?" Wide-eyed, Honoka started to open her mouth. Nico beat her to the punch and pointed accusing between her and the shelves. "It'll take ages to put them back up where they belong in the first place. Ages. Everything is alphabetized, I don't want to store my best books in dusky boxes for too long, my CDs need to be out to give me all the inspiration I—"
She indeed had opened a can of worms…
Honoka turned, sheepish. In a way, she hadn't thought about things being that complicated with Nico's idol merchandise. Nico's tone only made her realize that she might have had problems before.
"Well…" Honoka shift uncomfortably. She was losing this battle, terribly. "If you're worried about dust… At least you can dust up there on the highest shelf? And starting from scratch might… be good…" She trailed off at the sharp look Nico shot at her.
Nico stood and put her hands on her hips and glared. There was no way she would not let Honoka force that much trouble upon her. Where would they even put so many books, CDs, and magazines? The boxes in the room weren't exactly empty, either.
Getting the hint, Honoka clenched her fists.
"Hahaha." Nervously, Honoka tapped her feet. She didn't relish the idea of putting every book back from once it came down from the highest shelves. "Okay, that is a bad idea. I couldn't help. Knowing these idols is yours and Hanayo-chan's responsibility."
Nico was proud Honoka was aware of that much. She nodded her head, pigtails flying proudly.
"But!" Honoka reasoned. She placed her hand on the ledge. "There's still room, so we can put stuff in front of them if we can move over the books enough and squeeze them between everything."
"Alright," Nico said. She could live with that. but there was something even bigger left to deal with than some decorations. "What about the tree?"
Honka was stumped for a moment. The room wasn't quite that big for a full-sized tree, but if she had to decide something concrete… Wasn't it normal to have a big tree with wide branches? A tree Muse could decorate together with ornaments and candy canes and stuff like that. Honoka raced next to the window and nodded at the spot around there.
"In front of the window," Honoka said.
Nico hummed thoughtfully, but she wasn't sold on it. "I don't know. It might be a tight squeeze…"
"That's okay, we'll make it happen!" Honoka wasn't going to sweat the small details.
Nico pointed to the middle of the table. "How about a small tree? It could fit right in the middle, see?"
"But we can't all decorate a little tree…" Honoka said, crestfallen. Nico didn't understand the holiday spirit.
"Then… we'll hang things from the window, and the ceiling," Nico decided. "We can do a lot with that."
Honoka's mind burst into a million bright lightbulbs. She was right! In fact, she was so excited that she didn't want to wait anymore. She bounded towards the clubroom door. "I want to go look for the tree right now! See you later, Nico-chan!"
The door slammed behind her. Frozen, Nico watched after her, amazed at her full-blooded. enthusiasm. It wasn't anything new, but… Her eyes landed on her difficult homework and she gulped.
How could Honoka selfishly leave her here!?
"Honoka, wait!" Nico called after her. She started the chase to catch up. She wasn't quite in the Christmas mood quite yet. However, she did want to spend time with everyone, and she had to make sure that Honoka was making decisions that wouldn't make the room look too overdone. In that case, break the entire club budget. Besides, she wanted to see if they had any cute Santa hats that weren't just tradition white and red and might be cuter.
Maki telling her she was the best for Christmas was present enough. She didn't need anything else.
Later, when Honoka calmed down, they would tell the rest of the club. But for now, Nico would start getting some ideas. Only by going shopping herself would she get ideas for cute presents to give.