First things first: I have not read the Christmas (a.k.a. limited Cool Saaya 4* event) event story before writing this. So if there are any similarities between that and this, that will be completely unintentional. If there are any inconsistencies between that and this, that will be completely unintentional as well.

For my favorite girl of the franchise, Yamabuki Saaya. The cover art is the untrained art of the 4* that I will never ever get. Because it was a limited gacha. And I have no way to get more stars for another shot at her. But that's all beside the point, and probably not why you came all the way here, so enjoy this oneshot, everybody!

Disclaimer: I don't own BanG Dream!

It was a cold and gloomy afternoon. It has always been cold for the past couple of days, the brunette knew this, but today somehow felt like it had gotten a handful of degrees colder. The recent fall of snow in the town was bad enough that everybody was warned to stay indoors, having effectively locked everybody inside. This, however, only proved to further annoy and aggravate the seventeen-year-old.

Yamabuki Saaya had locked herself inside her room an hour or two ago, silently wondering when the snow would let up; but by the looks of things, that time was still a way off. Saaya sighed dejectedly, returning back to her notebook that was lying open in front of her.

It wasn't really the fact that it was snowing that was the cause of Saaya's sadness. No, the truth was that the brunette absolutely adored it and would always look forward to the next winter. With an almost defeated smile, Saaya recalled all the times when she had taken her siblings outside during winter and the three of them were playing in the snow.

What was making Saaya upset was that she had a reason to want to leave the warmth and comfort of her home. Kasumi had dragged everybody together to plan a Christmas party at her house, only needing two-hundred-and-forty-seven tries to convince Arisa, and Saaya had really been looking forward to it. She had even prepared the perfect outfit for the day and, after the insisting pushes of her parents, had gone out to get presents for her fellow bandmates as well. Presents that, by the looks of things, would remain with her for the foreseeable future.

'So why does it have to be today that it snows like this?' Saaya thought to herself with a sigh. Right before Saaya was about to zone out again, she heard a knock on the door that startled her back to reality.

"Coming!" Saaya called out, jumping back on her feet and about to rush to the door. She stopped herself mid-stride, however, when she saw her reflection in the snow-covered window on her left.

"Ah!" Saaya cried out, noticing just how bad of a mess her hair was. Hurrying back to her desk where her comb and mirror were, Saaya hurriedly tried to tidy up her hair while simultaneously calling out to whoever was on the other side of the door, "Just a minute!"

It took Saaya longer than she would have liked to admit, but a handful of seconds later and she was finally satisfied. Straightening out a couple of folds in her clothes and Saaya nodded proudly to herself, only now feeling like she was ready.

Putting on her usually bright smile, Saaya opened the door…

Only to find someone who she completely hadn't expected waiting on the other side.

"Hi, Saaya, I hope I'm not intruding or anything," the cheerful greeting was accompanied by a kind wave of a familiar face for Saaya. The person giving the greeting, Saaya's old friend Umino Natsuki, was wearing a blue-colored wooly dress, clearly having thought of what the weather was like. Natsuki looked cheerful if a little exhausted from the walk here.

All that Saaya could do was look at her friend in shock, not knowing how to respond to her greeting as she hadn't expected to see here today. At the same time, Natsuki had no idea how to continue the conversation, feeling rather unsettled by Saaya's lack of response. As a result, the two girls ended up in an awkward and prolonged period of silence that neither of them knew how to break.

Eventually, Natsuki raised a shaky hand, "I-I'm sorry if I've come at a bad time; I just happened to be in the area and thought that I should be dropping by for a visit. I-I'll be on my way if you don't want me here, Saaya…"

Natsuki had already turned around on her heel, looking surprisingly defeated right before she showed Saaya her back, and was about to walk off when a firm hand on her wrist stopped her.

"Natsuki!"

It wasn't the hand that caused Natsuki to stop. It wasn't the rumbling of her stomach that did, either. It wasn't even that she was being called that did it. It was the tone that Saaya used to call the vocalist of CHiSPA, sounding desperate… helpless… urgent…

Natsuki knew that she couldn't ignore this plea, and even if she could she had already said that she had come all the way here to visit Saaya. There was no going back now, and Natsuki knew this.

"Yes, Saaya?" Natsuki asked, trying to suppress the hopeful tone in her voice so Saaya couldn't hear it. This little bit of effort on Natsuki's end, however, could have been close to useless as it was already written all over her face.

"Sorry, Natsuki, I just wasn't expecting you to come visit me today so I didn't know how to react," Saaya admitted with a sheepish smile. A smile that was returned by Natsuki who realized that she had, in fact, come unannounced. With a determined nod, Saaya continued, "But I'm sure that if mom or dad let you in that it is okay for you to stay for a bit longer."

"It was actually Jun who let me in," Natsuki admitted to which Saaya couldn't help but smile in response. Even so, Saaya knew that her parents wouldn't mind one guest all that much. Not with how much her mother had been pushing her to bring her friends over lately.

"Let's go down and ask my parents directly," Saaya said, about to lead the way downstairs with her friend to do just that when a sudden breeze caused a chill to run down her spine. It was only then that Saaya realized just how thinly she was dressed, and by the looks on Natsuki's face, Saaya knew that she had only just noticed this, too.

"Go and get something warmer to wear," Natsuki offered, motioning to Saaya's wardrobe right behind the brunette. With a smile, Natsuki turned around to head down first, but not before adding, "I'll wait for you downstairs, Saaya. Don't take too long, okay?"

Before Saaya even had the chance to respond to Natsuki, she was already founding herself all alone on the second floor of the Yamabuki Bakery. It took Saaya quite some time to realize this, but when she finally did she couldn't help but smile.

"That Natsuki… she never changed, did she?" Saaya muttered to herself as she stared at the staircase that she saw Natsuki walked down on. It was only several minutes later that Saaya remembered why she was given some alone time in the first place, and hurriedly went back inside to open her wardrobe.

Saaya was mulling over her options for a long time, not knowing what kind of look she wanted to go with. She was about to just grab whatever was the first thing that she found, but that was when Saaya's eyes landed on the neatly folded sweater that was tucked away in the corner. A sweater that Saaya didn't even remember she had but was eager to see how it would look on her.

Grabbing the beige-colored sweater and a stack of different kinds of pants, Saaya went on to look in front of the mirror as she looked at how each and every one of them would look. It didn't take her long to make her decision, thankfully, and she was happy and thankful that she wasn't very picky in terms of her outfit.

Now fully dressed, having put on a jet-black pair of pants to match with the light color of the beige sweater, Saaya nodded confidently to herself in the mirror and went downstairs.

"I'm sorry it took me so long!" Saaya called out an apology in advance, treading down the last couple of steps carefully so as to not slip before she finally reached the living room.

For the second time that night, Saaya found herself speechless when she saw who was waiting for her. It wasn't just Natsuki who had decided to give Saaya a surprise visit; all of Saaya's fellow bandmates in Poppin' Party were there, too.

Saaya could even have sworn that she heard her brother shout something from the other room, but she couldn't quite understand what it was that he had said. At this point, though, Saaya couldn't care much about what her siblings were doing. All of the brunette's attention was on her friends.

"Aw, Saaya, come on… why did it take you so long to get ready?" Kasumi whined, resting her head on top of her arms that she had placed on the table. This action from the vocalist resulted in her getting scolded by not just Arisa but Natsuki as well, one being harsher in her scolding than the other.

"Not that I don't like seeing everyone here…" Saaya trailed off, her words being more than enough to break apart the heated argument between Kasumi and Arisa, as she looked at every visitor before continuing, "But what is everybody doing here?"

"Well… remember how I said that I was in the area and thought that it might be a good idea to be dropping by?" Natsuki trailed off, feigning innocence as she twirled her spoon around in her cup with her fingers, "The truth is… I ran into your bandmates and we ended up chatting when this snowstorm started to pick up. Your place was the closest safe, warm place away from the snow so we ran here as fast as we could."

"I still have an icicle in my hair," Arisa complained as if to emphasize Natsuki's point, trying to gently pick away at the offending frozen object and free her hair from the ice once again. She failed to do so, however, and it had reached the point where Rimi decided to walk over to her and pluck it out for her, "Thanks, Rimi."

Rimi nodded at Arisa with a smile before she turned to the still shocked Saaya and asked, "Anyway, Saaya-chan, it is okay for us to be here right?"

"Never mind that, let's go go!" Kasumi cheered before Saaya even had a chance to respond to Rimi's question, sounding surprisingly energetic and enthusiastic when Saaya remembered just how whiny she was only a couple of seconds ago.

Kasumi's cheerful words and mood was not met with much enthusiasm in return, unfortunately, causing her to deflate a little, "Everyone? What's wrong?"

Instead of answering Kasumi, Natsuki turned to look at Saaya before asking with a half smirk, "Say, Saaya? How do you keep up with your friends like this?"

"Hey!"

A chorus of laughter followed, all at Kasumi's expense before Tae turned to look out the window. She nodded confidently, stepped aside to allow the others in the room to look outside as well, before saying, "It looks like the weather's becoming a bit warmer. The snow has at least already stopped falling, so maybe we can go for a walk together?"

The other girls rushed over to where Tae was standing to take a peek as well, seeing much to their surprise that Tae was right. As the snow had stopped falling, they could finally see the beauty that was the snow-covered city. The thick blanket of pure-white created a very serene, dream-like picture that more than one of them had to take in multiple times to make sure it was real.

Kasumi and Rimi could be seen gushing over how beautiful it was outside, and even Arisa was mumbling cheerfully along to whatever the other two were saying. Seeing this, Tae joined them to point out several points of interests outside, including how somebody had already made a snowman in the form of a frog that really stood out.

Saaya, on the other hand, was confused on what to do. She really wanted to spend the day with her friends, especially now that the weather was slowly turning for the better, but that would also mean having to leave her home for who knows how long. And Saaya wasn't sure if she was able to afford to do that.

Almost as if she knew what was going on in her mind, Natsuki walked to Saaya's side and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. This startled Saaya enough to be brought back to reality, but not enough to alert the remaining members of Poppin' Party.

"If you're worried about your family, then you really don't have anything to worry about," Natsuki said with a smile, almost mysteriously so as she turned around to nod at someone behind Saaya. When Saaya followed Natsuki's lead, she saw to her surprise that it was the rest of the Yamabuki household who was behind her, all of them with bright smiles on their faces.

It was Saaya's mother who spoke first.

"Saaya, go on," she said with a smile as she never once removed her gaze from her eldest child. While her husband did the same, she continued, "Go out and enjoy the day with your friends. You deserve it, and they have come all the way here just to spend the day with you."

Before Saaya even had the chance to say anything in response, her father had stepped forward and placed both of his hands on her shoulders. Saaya was made speechless before her father, who continued where his wife had left off with a smile, "It's all right, Saaya. Go. I will take care of your mother and siblings."

Not having been left with a lot of options, Saaya nodded timidly before turning around and facing her friends. Her friends who, much to Saaya's dismay, had been following the conversation intently if their grins were anything to go by. Despite this, Saaya, too, had a bright smile on her face as she announced her decision with a nod.

"Let's go!"

The hours after having left the warmth and safety of the Yamabuki household came and went in the blink of an eye, and before anybody knew it was already dark out. Even so, none of the girls looked like they were getting tired anytime soon or wanted to go back home, so they ended up just loitering outside for a bit.

None of them except for Arisa, whose seventh plea to go home died out alongside the thin layer of mist.

Saaya, for one, had to admit that she was having the time of her life right now. It had been a long time since she was last able to hang out with friends so late at night, and she was clearly taking full advantage of it while she could. And even though her mother's condition came back to haunt her mind from time to time, she managed to drown that little voice out by reassuring herself that her father would have everything under control.

Since she didn't know how cold it would have been, Saaya had decided to take out her warmest coat for the day: a bright red-colored trench coat. Alongside this coat, she also wore a yellowish orange scarf that managed to keep her neck and part of her face warm enough to enjoy the night with her friends.

"Arisa!"

Tae's voice rang loud and clear in the otherwise empty park, and while she didn't shout at the top of her lungs she knew that Arisa had heard her. This was just what the guitarist needed, as she had already grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at Arisa.

The blob of condensed snow flew in at surprising speeds at the keyboardist, but Arisa had managed to dodge it at the very last second. Unfortunately for Arisa, however, this meant that she didn't watch where she was walking. Her carelessness caused her to step on a patch of frozen grass, slipping, and falling backward in the snow.

"A-Arisa-chan, are you all right?" Rimi asked in a worried voice, running over to where Arisa had fallen down while the other four girls broke out in a chorus of laughter at Arisa's expense. Rimi was about to offer a hand to Arisa to try and help her, but it was, of course, at that very moment that she saw the state in which Arisa was in.

Down a couple of centimeters in the snow… covered from head to toe in it… it didn't take Rimi very long to join the others in laughing, despite trying to muffle it with her hands, much to Arisa's annoyance.

When she realized what she was doing, made even more apparent by the death glare that she was getting from the girl in the snow, Rimi quickly tried to apologize through her laughter, "I-I'm sorry, Arisa-chan."

"Rimi, move," Arisa demanded, already scooping up a large amount of snow in both of her hands and messily trying to make it into a ball. Glaring at Tae, Arisa was about to get her revenge by throwing her ball of snow only to get hit on the side of the head yet again.

The offender this time was Kasumi, who was already rolling on the snow laughing and pointing in Arisa's general direction. Kasumi took a moment to catch her breath, and used this to subtly nod at Tae.

Tae blinked twice, taking her time to think about what Kasumi was planning but when she did she nodded with a smirk. Taking advantage of Arisa chasing after a laughing Kasumi, Tae prepared her next shot and threw… only to hit Natsuki right in the face.

"Oh… I'm sorry, Natsuki!" Tae apologized, sounding genuinely sorry this time as she clasped her hands together. Pointing at Arisa who was catching her breath a bit away, Tae added, "I was aiming for Arisa."

Natsuki, however, didn't take this assault very lightly. Clearing all of the snow on her face in one fluid motion, she gave a battle shout, "It's on now, Tae!"

As Natsuki, Tae, Kasumi, and Arisa were having their own little fun time playing in the snow, Saaya walked over to where Rimi was standing with a smile. Both girls were close enough to follow along with their friends, but far away enough to be safe from getting hit by the crossfire.

"They're sure going at it," Saaya chuckled, having turned her head fast enough to see Natsuki doing a fist pump right after Tae fell over in the snow. Saaya could only guess that Natsuki finally got her revenge from the accidental hit a few moments ago.

"They are, but they look like they are having a lot of fun," Rimi nodded with a smile, having noted that all of her friends were laughing cheerfully despite the threats they were throwing at each other. Turning to look at Saaya, Rimi added, "Doesn't Saaya-chan want to join them?"

"Huh? Me?" Saaya asked, sounding genuinely caught off-guard as she looked at Rimi with a confused look on her face. When Rimi nodded to show that that was indeed what she had meant, Saaya smiled sheepishly, "I'd rather stay here and watch them have fun."

Rimi, seemingly content with the answer that she was given, decided that she shared Saaya's opinion. The two of them fell in a comfortable silence that was only broken by the occasional cry from one of the playing girls.

Seeing just how much fun her friends were having, Saaya couldn't help but feel grateful. Grateful that she had met all of them, grateful that they were all in her life and, most of all, grateful that they were still friends after all the obstacles that they had faced up until today.

'This really is the best present I could have asked for…' Saaya thought to herself with a smile, thanking whoever and whatever was watching her for the opportunity to have these people in her life. Nodding to herself in determination, Saaya had made up her mind.

"Everyone! I'm joining too!" Saaya cried out, throwing her bag to the side of the road and running to where her friends were playing. And, by the sounds of footsteps crushing the snow on the ground, Saaya knew that she wasn't the only one to join the snowball fight.

The six girls ended up playing together in the snow until all of them were exhausted and out-of-breath. Even so, none of them would have wanted to spend this day in any other way…

And that wraps up today's little oneshot. I apologize for the poor quality; I may or may not have rushed this out over a period of one-and-a-half day… I hope that you enjoyed this oneshot nonetheless, though!

Please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!