Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Love Live.

Hello everyone,

This is my first ever fanfiction written. Not just the first for Love Live, but first ever. There may be some bumps as I get used to things, but I hope everyone is able to enjoy the story as it unfolds. Of course, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated here, as I may end up writing in a way that isn't very entertaining due to my lack of experience. Please help me on this front.

As for this story - This will be a chapter-oriented work. TsubaHono is my favorite LL pairing, and I wanted to write my own story about them after consuming a bit of TsubaHono fanfiction by some of the amazing authors on here. With the nature of not having too much material on Tsuba's personality, things may get a bit OOC at times, but hopefully I'll be able to improve on this front in the future. I hope I can get across some of the same feelings that I felt while I read those stories.

Thank you for reading.

"..oka?"

"..noka."

"Honoka!"

The leader of µ's eyes suddenly widened after she was brought back to reality, and she scanned the classroom for a second before noticing an irritated Umi and a smiling Kotori. She grinned sheepishly and let out a quiet laugh, trying to hide her embarrassment at getting caught zoning out.

Umi crossed her arms and tilted her head quizzically. She was used to Honoka zoning out and being a bit of a ditz sometimes, but she couldn't think of a reason as to why she'd be distracted now.

"Sorry, it's time for practice, right?" Honoka apologized and stood up from her desk quickly, full of newfound energy.

"Wait, what were you-?" Umi started, but cut herself off after she saw Honoka's usual smile, deciding she was worried for nothing.

"You're right, let's go," she smiled softly and held out a hand to Honoka, who quickly took it along with Kotori's.

"Three – four – five – six – seven- eight – Okay, stop!" Eli quickly announced, then smiled a bit as the entire group of µ's resonated in their exhausted sighs.

Honoka quickly found a spot to sit on the rooftop, leaning against the railings as she gulped down her water bottle. Practice for Love Live was tougher than usual, and it was only going to get worse from here on out. She let out another sigh as her thoughts drifted elsewhere, drowning out the happy chatting of her group.

Honoka thought back to the events that ended a few days ago. The days where she was able to practice alongside A-RISE and even got to give their preliminary performance at their school. Sure, she was immensely grateful for the opportunity given to µ's, and practicing with their rival group and at a different location than usual was fun in itself, but her main concern was something else. A certain short-haired brunette, the leader of A-RISE, Kira Tsubasa. When she was dragged into the school by her on that day and given tons of praise in front of her whole group, it seemed normal at the time, but as she replayed it in her head over and over she became increasingly embarrassed.

Why? Why were her thoughts filled with Tsubasa? She and her group were the reason Honoka came up with the school idol idea, but surely that's not all there is to it. Maybe it's..

"..Honoka!"

Honoka jolted as she was forced out of her thoughts once again, and then looked up at the worrying gazes of the 8 other members of µ's. She looked flustered as she tried to search for an explanation for her odd behavior, but her scarlet cheeks weren't from being tired from practice.

"Um-!" Honoka started to attempt an explanation, but stopped as the mischievous girl with long, purple hair crouched down in front of her.

Honoka nervously looked into Nozomi's eyes, but Nozomi simply smiled in response.

"Hm, maybe we should just call off practice for today?" Nozomi suggested in a playful manner as she looked back at the rest of µ's, who were surprised to hear those words.

"Nozomi! What do you-" Eli started in a mix of surprise and irritation, but Nozomi quickly stood up and brought a finger to Eli's lips, shushing her with a wink. Eli could only feel and appear flabbergasted in response as Nozomi quickly turned her attention back to Honoka.

"You're not this distracted usually, Honoka-chan. There's something else you want to do right now, isn't there?" Nozomi asked with a friendly smile, and the other members of µ's relaxed after they understood.

"If our leader's this distracted we won't get much done anyway," Maki said as she looked away with a 'hmph!'

A nervous brunette was fidgeting, but then received a friendly light shove from Rin. "Come on, go go!" Rin said energetically as she looked expectantly at her friend, Hanayo.

"U-Um.." Hanayo fidgeted a bit more, but then looked straight at Honoka with focused eyes. "You've helped me out a lot, so if there's something bothering you, you don't need to be so considerate of us..." she trailed off and her eyes wandered again, wondering if she was overstepping her boundaries, but looked back at Honoka after catching a bright and patient smile from Rin.

"We'll be here to help you when you need it, so take care of yourself first instead of worrying about us," Hanayo finished with a nervous sigh and quickly received some congratulatory pats on the back from Rin, who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Well if you're going, then I'll just need to take your spot as the center," Nico warned quickly with a soft smile.

Honoka looked around at the calming smiles of the other 8 members of µ's, then finally relaxed.

"Everyone...thank you!" Honoka said happily before quickly running down the stairs from the rooftop.

The rest of µ's smiled again, then they all quickly turned their heads after they heard a loud clap, their eyes now resting on Nico.

"Alright, let's go!" Nico said quickly, then started to walk toward the rooftop exit.

"Huh? Go where?" Umi and Eli replied almost in unison, confused at Nico's behavior.

"Ah! We're following her, right?" Kotori pieced together as everyone else looked at her with surprise, excluding Nico, who had a sly grin.

"Ehh?" the others responded in unison.

Honoka wasn't sure that the issue was as big as the rest of µ's seemed to think it was, but she did need to clear up why she was feeling this way. Having her head filled with Tsubasa was only going to worsen µ's performance, and that was the one thing she wanted to avoid most of all.

Before she knew it, she was standing at the gates of UTX High School, her hands clutching her knees as she attempted to catch her breath.

Even though the practice for µ's was cancelled, she still had to run all the way here, so the only people still on campus were those with club activities. Was she too late? Did A-RISE even practice today? As she thought of a ton of different questions, the murmurs around her started to grow louder.

"...Excuse me..." Honoka looked up after she heard a timid voice, before noticing a cute girl in a UTX uniform in front of her. It was only then that she noticed a small crowd gathering, whispering to each other.

"C-Can I…have your autograph?" the timid girl asked quietly as she bowed and stretched her hands out towards Honoka, presenting a notebook and a pen.

"Eh?" Honoka uttered, completely lost.

The crowd became more rambunctious as time went on, and Honoka was at her wits end as more and more people approached her, but a rift started to appear in the small crowd.

Suddenly, Honoka was face to face with the source of her troubles, Tsubasa. The crowd started to whisper about the meeting of these two, and began to get even more excited now that their own school's idol showed up.

Tsubasa's face looked serious as she looked into Honoka's eyes, expecting some kind of reason for suddenly showing up at their school. She hadn't had many interactions with µ's, but maybe they're actually the type of group to try to pull away A-RISE fans? Maybe Honoka was sent here to try to get dirt on A-RISE? Maybe...

"U-Um…" Honoka murmured with a blush, trying to avert her eyes from Tsubasa's piercing gaze.

"I...uhm, this isn't..." she trailed off as her blush became deeper, then Tsubasa showed a relaxing smile.

"Of course not," Tsubasa muttered under her breath, then quickly grabbed onto Honoka's hand.

"Come with me!" she exclaimed happily as she pulled Honoka along with her, almost reenacting the same scene from that day a few weeks ago as some fangirls squealed at the sight.

Honoka managed to not trip as she was suddenly pulled along, but she soon smiled. Being near Tsubasa was fun for her.

But why?

Meanwhile, the 8 other members of µ's, all wearing shoddy disguises poorly put together, were standing far from the gate of UTX High School with their jaws dropped.

"What...just..." Umi tried to collect her thoughts.

"Honoka, she…with..." Maki attempted to comprehend it as well.

"Tsubasa-san?!" the group responded again in unison, on the same page.

The door to the club room burst open, and the two other members of A-RISE turned their heads to see an out-of-breath Tsubasa and Honoka. They weren't surprised through, as the only reason Tsubasa knew about Honoka being at UTX was the fact that they could see the school gate from the window of their clubroom.

Anju and Erena stayed quiet for a moment, letting Tsubasa and Honoka recover. However, Anju smirked when she looked down and saw that their hands were connected.

"Getting friendly already, huh?" Anju said as she twirled a curl in her hair with her finger, giving Tsubasa and Honoka a coy look.

"Ah!" Honoka exclaimed as she noticed, then pulled her hand away from Tsubasa's. Her cheeks were red, and she snuck a look at Tsubasa to see that she had a faint blush as well. Honoka stared for a moment, captivated.

"Ahem," Erena cleared her throat, bringing Honoka back to her senses as she looked down at the ground in embarrassment.

Tsubasa noticed and let out a soft laugh, then moved to sit down in a chair, seating herself between Erena and Anju.

"So, Kousaka-san. What are you doing here?" Tsubasa asked calmly, and Honoka finally looked up at the three of them.

She knew it from they time they spent training together before the preliminaries, but they really did all look prettier in person. Especially Tsubasa.

Wait, she had to answer their question. Wait...what WAS she doing here? Her legs carried her to UTX on impulse after she was cheered on by the other µ's members, so she never really thought of the answer. She tried to think about it a bit longer, but felt rushed when she noticed all of their gazes on her.

"Well, uhm, Tsubasa-chan-"

Erena started coughing, causing some of the coffee she was drinking to spill, while Anju brought her fingers to her own lips in a sort of 'oh my' expression. Tsubasa was simply wide-eyed.

"Eh, did I say something weird?" Honoka asked with a puzzled, lost expression as she tilted her head.

Erena collected herself enough to ask a question.

"What did you just call her?"

"Her...? You mean Tsubasa-chan?" Honoka asked with innocence, not understanding the issue as Tsubasa blushed a bit and Anju giggled.

"You two are already that close?" Erena asked simply, then Honoka finally realized it.

"Uhm, I didn't mean-!" Honoka quickly sputtered out, trying to fix her mistake, but Tsubasa stood up and smiled at Honoka.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. Can I call you Honoka, then?"

"Y-Yes..." Honoka murmured, still a bit embarrassed by casually addressing Tsubasa. Anju playfully rolled her eyes at the sight.

"Why are you acting cool in front of your idol?" she asked mischievously and Tsubasa jumped a bit in surprise.

Tsubasa slowly turned around with a worried expression to look at Anju, who was smiling sweetly.

"Anju...?" Tsubasa questioned, but already had a vague idea of what Anju was going to do.

"Ah, I can't wait to see µ's next show!"

"Oh, Kousaka-san was so cute in that dress!"

"Hey, do you think I could stop by Otonokizaka with a good enough disguise?"

Anju quoted lines from Tsubasa with a voice full of glee, imitating her actions as well as she said it.

Tsubasa turned beet red and began to make panicked sounds, then quickly ran over to Anju, bringing her hands over her lips to stop her from blurting out even more.

Honoka stared in amazement, not even sure if Anju was telling the truth or not, but by Tsubasa's reaction it didn't seem to be entirely false.

'To think that Tsubasa admired µ's as much as µ's admired A-RISE...' Honoka thought to herself, guessing completely off-the-mark.

"Hey, I know! While you're both here, why don't you go on a date?" Anju quickly blurted out after she wriggled away from Tsubasa's grasp.

Tsubasa was surprised, but glanced over at Honoka to monitor her reaction.

"...what did you say?" Honoka asked with a blank look, confident she had misheard Anju.

"A date!" Anju replied happily and carefree.

"One more time?" Honoka questioned once more.

"A date! D.A.T.E," Anju spelled out, then giggled a bit at how unbelievable it was for Honoka.

Honoka glanced over to Tsubasa, who despite having faint traces of a blush, nodded to say that she'd be fine with it.

"Ehh...?!"

Ending Notes

Hello again everyone,

This chapter was meant to be a basic introduction to the whole cast for people not in the know about LL, while still hopefully keeping true to the feel of the series so veterans of LL will still be able to appreciate character mannerisms.

As I said in the beginning notes, this is my first ever fanfiction written, so if the people here reading this chapter enjoyed the story even a little bit, that'd be amazing to me. If anyone has any kind of criticism to the work on how it or my writing style can be improved, I'd appreciate it a lot.

Most of all, I hope that if you've made it all the way down here, then I held your interest throughout the whole chapter and you're willing to work with me a little more.

Thank you for reading this chapter!