"Ni~ co~ cchi~"
Nico looked up, startled. She could barely see over all the idol merchandise piled into the box she carried in her arms, but there was no mistaking who was at the door.
"Nozomi?"
Nozomi laughed gently. "Mm-hmm! With Elichi, too."
Nico peered around her box, and sure enough, Eli was there with her. She gave Nico a smile, and a little wave. As pleasant as a surprise this was, old habits died hard, and Nico narrowed her eyes. She set the box in her arms back down on the table as she let the two in.
"What are you two doing here?"
Eli gave Nico a smile of gentle, exasperated fondness that had somehow become familiar to Nico over the last year. Nico felt the tips of her ears turn red, looking past her and back at Nozomi. "Were you going to ask anyone for help with... all of this?"
They looked around the clubroom. Nico had planned on leaving some of the posters up, had already promised a couple of the extra DVD box-sets to Hanayo, and Kotori was getting the Minalinsky merch that she'd acquired, but Nico would be taking the rest of it home with her.
'Most of it' was already halfway into boxes on the floor and on the table. There were still more items in the cabinets that lined the wall. Eli walked over to one, taking a heavy anthology from its spot among others like it on the shelf. Nico restrained the urge to yell at her not to touch them; they were arranged chronologically!
Eli leafed through the pages curiously, peering down at glossy images of idols smiling up at her. Nico frowned. "... I didn't want to bother anyone with it. Besides, it's not like I couldn't do it myself."
"But wouldn't that take you a long time? Not to mention a lot of return trips." Eli asked, looking up from the book and at the rest of the series on the shelves. The table still had several DVD cases and box-sets lying around.
"It would," Nozomi agreed, tapping Nico on the forehead with a tarot card. "And I'm sure that all that manual labor wouldn't be good for our super idol Nico-chan's delicate, lady-like hands."
Nico flushed, cheeks puffing up as she tried not to frown. "Hey, I'm not that delicate!"
"No~? Are you sure~?" Nozomi teased, grinning. Everyone knew that Nico was probably the toughest one in u's, but Nico would never admit to it. And now Nozomi had backed her into a metaphorical corner.
"W-well, maybe a little bit..." Nico allowed. And then she smiled sweetly, voice jumping up in pitch. "- But you know, when it comes to matters of great personal importance, it's one of Nico-nii's charm points to be extra resilient and determined, right? Nico!"
Eli chuckled lightly, amused and vaguely impressed as always at how she managed to jump into character so quickly. Nozomi just tweaked her on the nose for good measure ("Hey, ow!") before Nico could launch into a longer spiel.
"I'm sure you could do it on your own, Nico," Eli said, "But you don't need to put yourself through all that extra work. We're happy to help."
Nico lowered her hands from where she held her standard pose, still troubled. "You guys don't have to go to the trouble..."
"But it's no trouble at all, Nicocchi," Nozomi reassured her, "And if it bothers you that much, then just think of this as me paying you back for your help at the shrine for New Year."
"... I guess I could buy that," She replied slowly, "But what about you?" She frowned at Eli. As far as Nico was concerned, Eli didn't owe her anything.
Eli just shrugged. "There's too much here for the two of you alone, but between the three of us we'll manage to bring it all out in one trip." They were wearing her down, but Eli wanted to wait until Nico gave in. Nozomi had already moved past them and picked up a checklist that was lying on the table. She hid a smile; it was a spreadsheet with all of the items in the room that Nico would be packing away: alphabetized and categorized by type and by idol group.
Nico sighed.
"... Fine." She marched over to Nozomi and took the clipboard back, then jabbed her in the chest with the corner. "But we do it my way 'cause I don't want anything to get lost!" She strode past them and back towards the fanbooks that Eli had been peering at earlier. "Maybe you'll learn a couple of things while you're here, too! Not that it matters, but this is a complete collection of official fanbooks about all the idol groups from Akiba to date, so it's really important that these all go together in the right order when we pack them away, and..."
Nico was refusing to look back at them, but they could see her ears turning red from where they stood. Nozomi and Eli exchanged a smile behind her back before stepping towards their friend to obligingly listen to her rattle off instructions as they put things away in the fading light of the afternoon sun.