Author's note: Eli/Umi AU. Crossposting at AO3. 2 chapters max. A product of another writing exercise or drill. Teen and up audiences for now, but who knows?

Thanks to a certain someone who gave me an idea that made this story possible.

"Congratulations on the big win!" a purple-haired woman exclaimed while entering the little office.

"Thank you." A blue-haired girl looked up to the busty woman from her seat. The blue-haired girl is Sonoda Umi, a topnotch lawyer who recently won a case: proving the innocence of an idol duo accused of murdering their own manager.

"Nya, nya, nya! Umi-chan's all over the news!" An orange-haired girl came in to the office as well, cheering for Umi's win. "The young lawyer who saved Saint Snow!" She is Hoshizora Rin: a newly hired assistant on probation in the law firm where Umi works for. She's "a ball of energy," as Umi would always call her.

The purple-haired girl is Tojo Nozomi. She had been Umi's assistant for 2 years. Under Nozomi's tutelage, Rin has learned the ins and outs of the industry. She has seen intense court room drama, felt the adrenaline when she gets tapped by Nozomi when evidences during discovery pile up, and get too much for the busty woman to handle.

The orange-haired girl even got to help Umi and Nozomi in certain cases, including the murder accusation towards Saint Snow.

Rin got into idols because of her childhood friend, Koizumi Hanayo. When she learned that Saint Snow's case would be assigned to a lawyer from their firm, she became ecstatic. All the more when she found out the lawyer the idol duo hired was Umi. Rin's knowledge with the idol industry truly helped in narrowing down suspects and eventually proving the innocence of both Sarah and Leah Kazuno.

"Seriously," Umi sighed as she adjusted her seat. "I have long suspected the cops missing something. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have figured that out."

"It was nothing, nya!" Rin said happily. "Rin was glad she could be of help to Umi-chan and Nozomi-chan!"

"Umi-chan, I received this email from Sarah-san." Nozomi's phone displayed the email and Rin's eyes enlarged the moment she read the subject:

"EXCLUSIVE INVITATION FOR SAINT SNOW'S NEW ALBUM LAUNCH"

"Tickets for two, Umi-chan." Nozomi said with a smile. "Saint Snow is inviting you as an expression of thanks."

"You know I'm not into that kind of stuff…" Umi flinched.

"Then take Rin with you." Nozomi smirked. "It'd be a shame if you don't go." Rin's eyes gleamed at the mention of this. "I want to see Saint Snow with Umi-chan, nya!"

Umi knew where this was heading to. Pop idol genre isn't her type of music, but seeing Rin with almost pleading eyes was something she couldn't resist. Even though Rin wasn't her direct assistant, Umi treated her much like a little sister, as she never had any.

"Oh, all right, kid." Umi groaned, feeling a little defeated. "I'll go the album launch with you. Just behave yourself, okay?"

"For reals, nya?!" Rin eyes shone with excitement. When she saw Umi nodding her head, she jumped for joy and headed straight to Umi to hug her, making the blue-haired girl almost fall from her chair. Nozomi smiled at the sight. Even though Rin is already part of the workforce, her childish side does come out, which is quite adorable.

"Oww, Rin! Let go! You're tackling me." Umi was laughing shakily.

Just as she said this, a figure came in to Umi's office.

"Congratulations on your win, Sonoda-san!" The older woman stood in front of Umi's office table, with the young assistant still hugging the blue-haired lawyer. "The whole courthouse was talking about you."

"Thank you very much." Umi muttered, with Rin finally letting go of her.

"Hoshizora-san seems to be overjoyed." The woman noticed the little scene Umi and Rin were at and crossed her arms.

"Ah, speaking of overjoyed," Umi interjected. "Rin's so glad Saint Snow was proven innocent at last. She's been of great help to me in winning the case."

"Is that so?" The older woman's eyes furrowed a bit, scrutinizing the orange-haired girl. Rin's facial features looked a little nervous. This older woman happened to be the owner of the law firm, who is a practicing lawyer herself and had been handling multi-million lawsuits. With that little scene from earlier, would this cost her employment? But Umi was there to save the day.

"Looks like we're getting ourselves a new assistant," The law firm owner said with no emotion.

"Eh?" Rin felt nervous when she heard this. She started feeling like her dreams would come crashing down on her. What's going to happen if she loses her job? Umi and Nozomi were on standby, readying themselves for the worse.

"Don't look so nervous, Hoshizora-san," The woman chuckled. "I was referring to you. You're considered a permanent assistant starting today. You'll be assigned to one of the lawyers and you'll get to meet her tomorrow." A plastic card was handed to the orange-haired girl, which Rin looks at intently. This wasn't a dream—she was given access to her new boss' office, which was across Umi's.

"Congratulations, Rin-chan!" Nozomi tapped the younger girl's shoulder.

Rin bowed and gave respects to the law firm owner. "Thank you very much!"

The law firm owner left Umi's office with a smile. Rin hugged Umi first, followed by Nozomi as she couldn't help but feel really happy about this news.

"I knew you'd be considered, Rin." Umi stood up and winked at Nozomi who felt relieved and started giggling. "And you thought the boss would kick ya out, huh?"

"I really thought of it, nya."

"Oh," Nozomi's phone buzzed again. She swiped the screen and saw another email. "It's from the boss. She wants to discuss with you this case involving that freelance singer."

"I thought that's being handled by another lawyer." Umi's right brow raised.

"Looks like there'd been a change of plans. Go see the boss and find out yourself." Nozomi pushed Umi out of her own office.

"Don't forget Saint Snow's album launch on Saturday, nya~!" Rin exclaimed.

"I won't." Umi said as she walked away from her office, while Nozomi went back to her front desk and Rin headed to the pantry to munch on cereal.

"Why are you requesting me to take this over? The case seems to be doing pretty well." Umi scanned some of the documents.

"Well, the lawyer this client hired will be on maternity leave." The law firm owner explained. "She's ready to guide you through what you need to know."

"The father of the child wants to gain custody because the client's allegedly a bad influence?" Umi read through one of the documents. "What is this exactly?"

"Not sure. That's something you have to know from the client herself." The older woman said with no emotion. "After you've been oriented about the case, you'll meet your new client and discuss strategy. Are you up to this?"

"Yes." Umi said.

"Thank you, Sonoda-san. You've handled cases like this before, so I know you'd be able to win this."

Umi excused herself and returned to her office. Nozomi came in and wanted to know juicy details about the conversation.

"So? What happened?"

"I'm taking the child custody case over," Umi answered the busty woman's question. "The lawyer in-charge is going on maternity leave."

"Figures," Nozomi exhaled. "The good side there's that it won't be hard since the case is doing well."

"This kind of case is more intense than a murder accusation." Umi thought out loud.

"Come on, Umi-chan!" Nozomi nudged the blue-haired girl. "As if you're new to this kind of case. You've won custody cases before."

Umi's eyes narrowed as she remembered what she read earlier. "I just need to know exactly what the document meant."

Two days passed and the day of the album launch came. Umi and Rin decided to meet at the train station so they could go to the venue together.

"Umi-chaaaan!" Rin called out to the blue-haired lawyer, who luckily sees the orange-haired ball of energy within the crowd.

"You're quite early." Umi smiled as she noticed Rin came 15 minutes early.

"Of course! This is Rin's once in a lifetime opportunity to see Saint Snow, nya!"

"I'm glad this is making you happy." Umi chuckled.

"Rin's going to take selfies for Kayo-chin to see!"

"That's your childhood friend, correct?" Umi inquired.

"Yup!" Rin exclaimed. "I'm sure Kayo-chin will feel envious about this. It'd been hard to get tickets to the album launch and here we are, invited there for free, nya!"

Umi laughed at Rin's outburst. "Well, let's get going. The train's here."

As Umi and Rin went to take their ride, the blue-haired girl's eyes got locked into a blonde woman who was getting off the train. They happened to have smiled at each other, which caused Umi's cheeks to blush. Time slowed down at that moment, peeking into each other's eyes seemed like forever. It was as if their gazes became frozen at the moment. The blonde woman continued walking, her eyes closed momentarily as she thought,

It's nice to see you again after all these years.

"Uh…" Rin didn't know how to start the conversation without getting awkward. "Umi-chan's…kinda blushing, nya."

"W-what?" Umi was pulled out from her short reverie.

"After that foreigner passed by," Rin said childishly. "Umi-chan's cheeks went red."

"Stop that, Rin!" Umi put a hand to cover the orange-haired girl's mouth.

"Nya!" Rin tried to struggle and got the blue-haired's hand off her mouth. "I don't blame Umi-chan, though. That woman's very beautiful, nya."

The train ride was uneventful, save for Umi who had the image of the blonde woman stuck in her mind. I have a feeling I know her from somewhere.

The album launch venue was crowded as the two would expect. But upon showing the tickets, which happen to be VIP's, they were let in without question. Some of Saint Snow's fans recognized Umi as the savior of the duo, asking for selfies and photos. Umi entertained a few before Rin pulled her inside.

"They're performing one of the songs from the new album, nya!" Rin's eyes brightened. "Rin can't wait to get the CD's signed!"

Umi giggled seeing Rin's enthusiasm in all of this. With due respect to Saint Snow, Umi thought their songs are catchy and interesting to boot. The song came to a finish and everybody gave the duo a round of applause for their performance.

"Good evening." Sarah spoke, there is a bit of tiredness in her voice but she sounded happy nonetheless. "We thank everyone for coming today. As you all know, it had been a rough ride for me and my sister Leah due to the recent legal battle we were in."

The crowd silenced themselves as they had all their ears to what Sarah was about to say.

"We never lost faith that we'd get through the hardship together. And with the legal battle over, we included some songs that we both wrote during the experience." Sarah closed her eyes and continued, "That for everyone who's about to lose faith, may these added songs remind you not to give up and keep pushing forward!"

Rin's eyes brimmed in tears while she listened to the older Kazuno's speech. Umi on the other hand, smiled at the thought that the two had been able to use the experience to inspire others through their music. Guess pop idols aren't just for being cute after all.

"Of course, let's not forget to give credit to our legal team, headed by Sonoda Umi-san." Leah extended her hand and the spotlight focused on where Umi was sitting, which made the blue-haired girl stunned. "Her competence is what kept our faith alive to have justice served. Thank you very much, Sonoda-san."

The crowd clapped their hands in appreciation, which made Umi blush a little. Rin wrapped her arms around Umi's shoulders. "Umi-chan's great, nya!" Giggles from the crowd were soon heard.

After the speech of the Kazuno's, Umi and Rin were led inside the VIP banquet. Rin took the opportunity to take selfies with the duo for herself and with a fansign that read, "Hi Kayo-chin." Umi felt a little helpless. With Nozomi not around, the energetic Rin became hard to contain by herself. Maybe this is the reason why the blue-haired lawyer's quite soft with the new permanent assistant: she was similar to her roommate, Kousaka Honoka, who is another ball of energy she had to keep up with.

The album launch was a success. Umi got home around 11pm, her roommate was already fast asleep. Before getting into bed, she took a final look at her phone's calendar:

Meeting with custody case client and lawyer at conference room 2, Monday, the 20th.

Monday it is, was Umi's final thought before turning off the light.

Notes: The part where Saint Snow being accused of murder was based from a TV show episode I watched years back. To those who can recall, maybe any one of you can pinpoint what that show was. Obviously, their case was used as the way to introduce "Lily White In One Law Firm."

Also, I don't know why I have the tendency to name a chapter based on a single event within it. Kinda funny. xD

Anyways, the next and final chapter will come out next week. Hope you enjoyed this little something so far. :)