Hello everyone! This is only a brief (okay, it actually ended up really long) opening containing facts and headcanons to help lay down the foundation of the plot. I don't think I'll change anything about this chapter once the first real chapter is posted, but if someone asks me about a specific fact and I decide to add something in, I'll make sure to inform everyone about any additions.

Note, this will technically spoiler a few 'backstories' of the characters, so if you want to be surprised by it, then just skip to where I talk about the birth dates.

This fic is an AU based on the very first version of Aqours in the magazine, and will mostly focus on You's perspective, with some chapters focusing on another character's. In this universe, Yoshiko and Dia are both second years, while You is a first year (Everyone else stays in their anime years). Just from that, I thought that a few things would have changed from the anime, while some would stay the same.

-Kanan, Mari, and Dia are still childhood friends, but because they're in different years, the original Aqours with only the three of them never formed.

-Mari still left to study abroad in her first year. I imagine this going a lot more peacefully compared to the anime scenario. She wanted to stay for her friends, but she didn't have a good excuse other than that (in the anime, her excuse was that she was a school idol). After some gentle persuasion from the school and her family, as well as from Kanan, she decided to do it. To put it simply, imagine that she's Kotori, and Kanan is Umi during the last few episodes of season 1 in the first LL.

-During her second year, Kanan became the student council president. However, she's inactive when the new school year starts. She didn't go to school for a while to help her family run the diving shop (reason for doing so is the same as in the anime).

-Dia, depressed that her other childhood friend is abroad, became more reclusive and shy, similar to her childhood self. During this period, Dia discovered idols.

-Kanan, Chika, and You are also still childhood friends, no changes there.

-After You graduated from junior high, her family took her on a celebration on her dad's ship. Because of this conflicting schedule, Chika didn't go to Tokyo like she did in episode 1.

-Instead, she discovered idols in her first year, after befriending the reclusive Dia. A few weeks after they became friends, Dia invited Chika to her house, and didn't have time to hide the posters and other memorabilia in her room. Luckily, Chika didn't judge her, but instead became interested in them.

-So during the holiday between their first year and second year, the two would meet up often and chat about idols and other things, with Dia leading most of the conversations because she's been in idol hell the longest. A few weeks before school starts again, Dia showed her START:DASH, followed by the last few songs of ยต's (Angelic Angel, SUNNY DAY SONG, and BokuHika). This is what prompted Chika's sudden idol craze.

-Chika, being the genki orange that she is, managed to get another close friend during her first year, Yoshiko. After an odd introduction during the first day of school, Yoshiko didn't go to school for a few days. Since she visits Numazu often to hang out with You, Chika volunteered to lend her notes (they're Dia's notes) and give her the homework she missed. They became close, and Yoshiko talked about her fallen angel thing to Chika. Without hesitating, Chika said that it was completely fine and accepted it.

-When Yoshiko returned to school, she and Dia also became friends. She doesn't get idols, and DIa doesn't get the fallen angel thing, but they both accept each other's hobbies. Dia begins to open up thanks to their help, while helping them study whenever they have an exam coming up.

-This also helps her become close to Ruby, which means she dotes on her even more.

-Ruby discovers idols after Dia does, but before Chika. She was the first person Dia told about her hobbies, even before their parents.

-Riko transferred to Uranohoshi in her second year, no change there.

-Hanamaru and Yoshiko still went to the same kindergarten, although now there's a one year gap between them.

-Hanamaru's first meeting with Ruby is the same like in the anime.

-Because of her sister's friendships, Ruby has met Kanan, Mari, Chika, and Yoshiko before high school started.

And that's it! That's a lot, and we're not even at the first chapter yet. With most backstories being changed slightly, this means that we'll only very loosely tie-in with the anime. Some episodes, if we try to adapt them, won't change much (Hanamaru's episode, for example), but some won't make much sense unless we make massive changes (Yoshiko's episode, KanaMariDia's episode).

Once I write a few chapters here, I definitely want to write actual prologue chapters involving the things I've listed. Chika's first meetings with Dia and Yoshiko, Mari leaving Uchiura but this time with less angst (or maybe more), Riko's time at Otonokizaka, childhood YouChiKanan, etc.

Also, because of the way Japan's school system works, that means Mari is the oldest, born on June 13. The year after, Kanan was born on February 10, Yoshiko was born on July 13, Chika was born on August 1, and Riko was born on September 19. The year after that, Dia was born on January 1, You was born on April 17, and Ruby was born on September 21. Hanamaru is the youngest, being born the year after on March 4.

This is fine, except for one problem. There are only 8 months and 20 days between Dia and Ruby's birth dates. I'm not quite sure how to fix this. Assuming that they're blood-siblings, I can either say that Ruby was born prematurely, or that she was born in the same year as Hanamaru, and was moved up a grade at some point. I'm going to go with the second one, because if I decided for the first one, it would mean that Dia would still only be a few days old when their mother got pregnant with Ruby.

So with the updated birth dates, Ruby is the youngest person in Aqours, born on September 21 and on the same year as Hanamaru.

As of right now, the only ship that I've decided on is ChikaDiaYoshi. I wanted to write something for this particular pairing because they're the current radio hosts, similar to NicoRinPana. But they don't interact a lot in official sources, and unlike NicoRinPana where their chemistry is already somewhat canon (NicoRin are part of the idiot trio with Honoka, RinPana are childhood friends, and NicoPana are both massive idol fans), ChikaDiaYoshi is slightly harder to see (Chika and Dia are both idol fans, but they don't talk about it a lot in the anime). I feel like this AU gives the three a lot of extra history together, which is why I've decided on it as the first pairing I want to write!

Other ships I might include in the future are KanaMari, YouRiko, and RubyMaru, although these ones are still very tentative. There's a lot of interesting potential between all of them. KanaYou as childhood friends? MariRuby with an overprotective Dia watching them on their dates? RikoMaru because of their shared interest in books? There's a lot of room to explore here, which is why none of them are tagged. Once I've decided on which to actually write, I'll add them ASAP. (Update 10/29: Final pairings that have been decided ate KanaMari, YouRiko, and RubyMaru.)

With that out of the way, I'd like to thank everyone who's reached here for reading all that! This is my first time writing any sort of fanfic, and I kinda feel like I'm in way over my head, but I hope that the product, when it comes out, is enough to satisfy everyone!