The Light in Her Eyes
Summary: But now she drowns in tears she's cried, yelling her name into the rain. NicoMaki Magical Girl!AU. Contains minor swearing.
A/N: im dumb and its 10 pm might as well write something gay and potentially ooc
heavily inspired by the star guardian lore from league of legends, but you dont have to know it to read
also guess who isnt sure what honorifics to use, so i just made maki the only one who calls someone with an honorific— nico since thats what i read in the secret short cuts
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"Nico-chan?" Maki called out to the other who was peacefully looking at the stars across them, sitting at the edge of the cliff and swung her feet every now and then. Nico looked at the redhead, tilting her head and asked,
"What's up, Maki?" Maki paused for a while, giving no response. She opened her mouth and asked a simple question, "What's it like, being a Star Guardian?" Nico let out a giggle, "It's pretty cool! Nico-nii Nico-chan gets to save people from dumb things like a Cloud Drake, or some bullshit Umi called it. They do weird shit because dumb people try killing it, but c'mon they're the ones we protect, not the other way around!" She replied, gesturing her way through this statement.
Maki couldn't help but just stare at Nico while she spoke. She's aware of what a Star Guardian does, and hearing it from Nico itself made it funnier than hearing Eli say it. She loves every aspect of Nico, but she never got to bring herself to say it to her. She was just…mesmerizing.
"—Oi, Maki, are you listening to me?" The redhead snapped out of her thoughts, letting the train crash or fall of the bridge it was on. She simply nodded, a small white lie in hopes it wouldn't bother Nico. "But yeah! It's pretty cool y'know, you get a cool cute costume that obviously Umi wouldn't like because it's a skirt. Although if you were one, you might as well get shorts! You wouldn't look too bad in it." She grinned.
The apples of Maki had a subtle pink dust on top of it, and retorted to the other's comment, "Shut up, Nico-chan."
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"Hey, Honoka?" The redhead turned to face the leader of the group during a supposed meeting but everyone ended up chattering away.
"Hm?" The other responded, chewing on the rice ball one of the members had prepared for the meeting. "What is it?" "How do you become a Star Guardian?"
She was glad no one else heard it but her, because Honoka dropped her rice ball. Thankfully it's not like she laughed, but if she had dropped food, then it had to be a sensitive topic. Honoka stood up from her seat, and quite reluctantly called out to the group, "Hey guys! We should probably get on with the practice, don't you think? The next LoveLive! is right around the corner!" Everyone had looked around at each other, wondering why she had just stated this just now, but nodded anyway and all stood up, talking as they headed off to the roof, and so did Honoka.
"—Maki, what did you ask her?" The Russian blonde asked, causing Maki to face Eli. "On how you become a Star Guardian…? You are one, right, Eli?"
Eli paused.
"Did you know that Honoka's sister and my sister— Yukiho and Alisa were Star Guardians as well?"
"At such a young age?" Eli nodded. "Yeah, they were pretty good Star Guardians too." She replied, averting her gaze down to the ground, and then shook her head. "Anyways, Maki, we should head on and practice with the group, don't you think?" The redhead pondered on what her upperclassman had told her, and decided to ignore it for now. "Yeah."
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"Nico-chan?" She called out to her, jogging to catch up to her under the rain. Nico stopped walking, turning her head to see her jogging. "What do you need, Maki?"
Maki panted for a bit, letting droplets of rain fall and roll on her back. Nico pouted subtly at this, and hovered her umbrella on top of Maki to block her from the rain. The other looked up at this, only to see Nico smiling.
"What are you smiling for?"
"I was trying to be nice." She pouted, and took the umbrella back for herself. "No— Nico-chan give me back the umbrella!" "It's not like it was ever yours!" She joked.
These were the kind of moments Maki wished she always had with Nico. She really is weak.
"C'mon then, Maki. Don't want you getting soaked. I'll walk you home, Nico has to protect you~!" Maki rolled her eyes jokingly, "Shut up, Nico-chan, you're making me want to vomit." "You're no fun." She playfully slapped the redhead. "I'm lots of fun, Nico-chan. You don't know what you're missing on." "Hey—! I thought we were friends! Why would you do this to me, Maki?!"
Yep, hanging out with Nico and walking home with her was fun.
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"Where you guys going, nya~?" Rin asked the Star Guardians as they walked in a separate direction from the rest of the groups on the way home. Nozomi looked behind them, and replied,
"There's another Crimson Raptor summoned, as well as a Infernal Drake and a bunch of other monsters. Don't worry, Rin, we can handle it." She winked.
"Yep! We can do this, after all, Nico-nii can slay the Infernal Drake herself!" Nico proudly stated. "We really need to give them better names, Umi." Eli muttered to the bluehead. Before the other could reply, Honoka responded quickly,
"C'mon guys! We better get going! Nozomi, Eli, you're going together, alright? I'm going to go ahead with Umi. Nico you're on your own." She gave orders to the other 4, which lead to Nico throwing a small tantrum,
"Hey! Since when did you become leader?!"
"Ever since she created µ's, Nico." Nozomi joked. "Agh— Well, doesn't matter! Nico can defeat it with a single blow!" She retorted, changing personas as per usual.
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"Oh! H-How was the mission?" Hanayo asked hesitatingly as the group walked towards the rooftop.
"T'was pretty easy. Nothin' to worry about after all—" Nico replied, arms crossed behind her head, grinning at her accomplishment, which Maki interrupted, "—because Nico-nii was around." In a Nico-esque voice, mocking her.
"I don't sound like that!"
"You do, nya~!"
"Rin—?! I thought we were friends?!"
"Of course nya!"
Maki watched Nico joke with the others regarding her response (or interruption in that matter), asking them if thats what she sounded like. Of course not, she told herself internally. She knows what Nico sounds like, and it most certainly wasn't how Maki did it. It was still pretty funny.
The thought of 'them' stuck in her mind once again. Maki was glad she didn't have to show this to others, and she didn't like this side of her. She was…vulnerable to Nico.
She shook her head.
Even if she wanted to, it cannot be. A Star Guardian and a normal human? A third year and a first year? Their 'relationship' would scream problems, and Maki didn't want that for Nico seeing she already had problems of her own.
She's just going to have to wait for the day she becomes a Guardian to protect Nico.
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Day by day, there have been more missions that they've done. There were few instances were they all had to go together. Sometimes not. Sometimes, they had to get help from others. Every now and then, Maki would see Honoka with Tsubasa. She's never seen any of them fight, so she didn't know what it was like to need help from others.
Did Nico ever need help? She asked herself.
She wished she could easily help her, and perhaps help Nico lessen her problems.
All of the other Star Guardians made it seem really hard, then there was Nico who said it was fun and cool. Maybe Nico was just pretending. What if she always needed help?
One day, Maki's going to be a Star Guardian for Nico.
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"Ah! Welcome back!" Kotori greeted them, as they returned under the heavy pouring rain. Maki turned around to see the Guardians, only to be distracted and look at her hands.
It was…pink.
She didn't turn her head to face them anymore.
"Hm? What's wrong, nya?" Rin hopped over to Maki, shielding her with her yellow umbrella, looking over her shoulder.
"I…I don't know. My hand just started glowing."
This most certainly caught the attention of the Guardians. Maki heard them mumbling to each other,
"Eli, do you think…?"
"I can't…believe it would be…Maki…"
"Nico she…chose Maki?"
Hearing Nico caused her to jog to them, taking Umi's shoulders and holding them gently,
"What do you mean Nico-chan chose me?"
They didn't respond.
"Guys— Where's Nico-chan?!"
Maki noticed.
Shit. Eli thought to herself. How was she going to explain it to Maki?
"Hey! I'm talking to you guys— Where the fuck is Nico-chan?!"
"Calm down Maki—"
"How am I supposed to stay calm?!"
"Let me explain—"
"She's dead."
Nozomi interrupted Honoka's statement. Everyone of µ's except for the 4 froze, gasping. So did Maki.
"Nico she— We were fighting the Baron Nasher," Nozomi attempted to explain. She couldn't either.
"When a Star Guardian is chosen," Honoka continued, looking at Eli reluctantly, "another is killed. For this matter, you were chosen by Nico's…spirit. She chose you, Maki."
"You're a Star Guardian." Umi stated.
In response, Maki started drowning in tears she's cried, yelling her name into the rain.
Nico's dead.