Miki puffed out her cheeks in irritation. "Miki's telling the truth, you know! Miki really did meet a super cute girl and she said she was coming to this concert. Miki will prove it to you."
Her friend frowned, folding her arms against her chest and tilting her head to one side, clearly contemplating what to do about Miki's stubbornness. "It's not as though I don't believe you, you know. It's just if your meeting with her really went as you told it I don't think she'll actually want anything to do with you for the rest of eternity."
"What?" Miki blinked, actually looking hurt by the comment. "Why?"
"Well, it's just that you can be kind of oblivious sometimes, you know?" Hibiki tapped her temple a few times with one finger to emphasize her words. "I don't think just telling her up front that you're flirting with her and then going ahead and calling her a really obnoxious nickname will score you any points."
"It wasn't obnoxious. It made sense," Miki protested.
Hibiki sighed. "That's the thing, Miki. Even if you think it does it doesn't mean other people will." And then, obviously unwilling to continue on this topic, the black-haired girl glanced around and said, "Geez, where's Takane? We can't get in line without her... I knew we should've picked her up."
"Wait, what's that supposed to mean?" Miki said, oblivious to or just ignoring Hibiki's attempt at a subject-change. "If it makes sense it makes sense!"
"Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. Just not in a good way. Look, it's kinda hard to explain, especially to you, Miki."
"Okay, now what's that supposed to mean?"
Hibiki just shook her head. She wasn't the best person to be talking to Miki about this kind of stuff, anyway, but she knew things would be worse off if she left it to Takane. Turning her attention back to the long line, she wondered once more just where their silver-haired friend was. The longer they waited out of line, the longer they'd have to wait in line, and then the later they'd be to the concert.
"Do you think we should call her?" she asked the blonde.
Miki, of course, wasn't paying attention, instead studying a poster of Ryuugu Komachi rather intently. Hibiki ignored this, as she knew that Miki greatly admired the idol unit. That was the main reason Hibiki and Takane had decided to buy the concert tickets as an early birthday present for her. Sure, they'd been insanely expensive, and sure, Takane was actually the one who'd paid for the majority of it, but Miki was their friend and besides, the blonde had needed some cheering up after she accidentally got her (now former) boyfriend hit by a truck.
"Hibiki, that's her," Miki suddenly declared.
Hibiki snapped her head up to look at her. "What, Takane?" She visibly deflated when she saw Miki pointing at the poster. "Okay... what?"
"That's the girl Miki saw earlier today," she clarified. Tapping the smiling picture of Iori Minase, Miki said, "This is Deko-chan. Who knew she was actually Iori-chan, huh? Looks like even idols need to take a break once in a while."
"Miki... are you okay?"
Miki was silent for a moment, and then turned back to Hibiki, her face suddenly expressionless. "You still don't believe Miki, do you?" she said, her voice lowering into a broken, almost bitter tone. "Miki's not lying, you know. Miki really did see Iori on the street today."
Hibiki sighed. This was really the last thing she needed right now... Locking eyes with the green-eyed girl, she said in a clear voice, "Alright. Okay, look, Miki. You are aware that you're one of my best friends, right?"
The blonde didn't respond, instead staring dully at the ground. But Hibiki didn't miss the quick glance upwards Miki had given, indicating that she was at least a bit interested to hear where Hibiki was going with this.
"Well, you are. So I believe you. I believe that while you were taking a walk today you ran into Ryuugu Komachi's lead singer and flirted with her and agreed to meet her here. I really do." Hibiki paused for a moment to let this sink in. "Now, my question is, what are you going to do about it? So you met Iori. What makes you think that she's going to acknowledge that? Especially now, when she's back in her home turf, surrounded by tons of guards and everything. At this point, what does it even matter if you saw her or not?"
"Deko-chan wouldn't do that," Miki protested.
"How do you know? You talked to her for five minutes and she didn't even say good-bye to you by the end of it all."
"Miki will prove it to you."
"How?"
"Miki will, okay?"
Sensing that pushing this topic wouldn't end well for either of them, Hibiki let it drop. It didn't matter what Miki was thinking right now, so long as it wasn't too insane. Right now their first priority should be finding Takane. And that's what she told Miki as she walked away to find their silver-haired friend, adding a hasty order to not move so they wouldn't waste any more time looking for each other.
And when she returned after finally finding Takane amidst the large crowd of people (at least the taller girl had had the decency to apologize for being late) Hibiki supposed she should have suspected that Miki wouldn't be there.
Because of course the blonde wouldn't want to do one little thing in return to make her life a bit easier. Of course not.
/~/~/
"This is your ticket?"
Mami waved a hand. "Yeah, but since I'm the younger Futami it doesn't really matter whether I have it or not. That's why it was okay to give it to you!" Then she grinned sheepishly and added, "It's also why Daiki was giving you such a hard time just now. Sorry, I didn't really see that one coming."
Yayoi shook her head. What was she supposed to say? No, it's all your fault that I was confronted by a scary man. No way, not after Mami had been so nice to her all day! But really... why was she being singled out by someone so famous? It didn't make sense. Earlier today Yayoi had just been your average person trying to make a living, and now here she was backstage to a Ryuugu Komachi concert talking to the twin sister of one of the idols of aforementioned unit.
"More importantly, I should be thanking you... Futami-san. I know this is a really big honor for someone like me and I really appreciate it but-."
"Ehh? Yayoicchi, you shouldn't be thinking about it like that," Mami leaned forward suddenly, her tone scolding yet her eyes still playful. "You're my friend so of course I'd invite you over! Also, don't call me that, it's so formal." She rolled eyes to emphasize her point. "Just Mami is fine, don't you think?"
Just Mami? Even though they'd only met a few hours ago? That was way too informal! Especially since this was Mami Futami.
The other girl seemed to take Yayoi's silence as a bad sign, as her grin quickly disappeared to be replaced by a more worried expression. "Ah, well, I guess if it's too weird you can just forget about it... But I mean, we are friends, right?"
"Of course we are," Yayoi responded sincerely, because even if the situation was unbelievable she didn't doubt for a second that she and Mami were by this point at least close acquaintances. Which is to say, friends. And besides, the scared look that had suddenly appeared on Mami's face had been almost painful to see, as though the younger twin had honestly been terrified that Yayoi didn't like her.
Although, of course, that thought alone was ridiculous, because despite only knowing her for a short time Yayoi had already decided that Mami was a very hard person to dislike.
"Mami-chan, do you sing, too?" Yayoi finally said, thinking that a change of subject would be nice.
By those words alone Mami seemed to have regained her energy. It must be nice, Yayoi thought, being able to bounce right back so easily. It clearly didn't take much to make the other girl happy.
"Sure I can sing," she replied, once again waving her arms around to gesticulate her meaning. "Ami and I are twins, after all! Hey, you know, I was thinking of trying out to be an idol, too. Just like Ami! Yayoicchi, you wanna try out with me?"
"E-eh? Well, I've never really thought about it before-."
"Really? You look like you'd make a great idol," Mami suddenly grabbed Yayoi's arms, lifting them up and then turning the shorter girl around so that she could examine her. "Not that I really know about this kind of stuff. But I bet you'd be a good dancer! Have you ever tried out stuff like that?"
"Not much..." Yayoi knew she had good stamina and energy but she'd always directed those towards her jobs, moving things around and such. She'd never considered using those traits for an arts activity. "I've been pretty busy since getting out of high school so I guess I never got a chance to think about it."
Mami actually looked surprised by this, but that was quickly replaced by a more determined look. "In that case, Yayoicchi, you should try it out. I'd bet anything that you're a great dancer! Here, follow me."
And with that she grabbed Yayoi's hand and dragged her away, dodging through stage workers and racks of costumes and carts as she ran. Turning a corner, they dashed through a hallway and very soon stopped in front of a room. Without even knocking, Mami burst in, announcing, "This is Yayoicchi! Show her one of your dances!"
And so Yayoi met the members of Ryuugu Komachi.
Two of them, anyway.
/~/~/
Ami promptly burst out laughing, which Iori did not appreciate one bit.
It was bad enough that Azusa had gone missing only half an hour before their concert began but now Mami just had to drag her new girlfriend into the room demanding for Iori to dance like an entertainer?
Well, she kind of was an entertainer but still.
"Does it look like I have the time for this?" Iori growled. "We have to find Azusa!"
Mami pouted. "Iorin, that's not a good first impression. Here, let's try again."
She closed the door.
Iori hung her head.
Mami burst in, announcing, "This is Yayoicchi! Show her one of your dances!"
The orange-haired girl next to her looked completely bewildered. Iori almost felt sorry for her that she was being forced to go along with Mami's eccentrics. No, in all honesty, she did feel sorry for her.
"Yo, Yayoicchi!" Ami was more than happy to begin. "I'm Futami Ami, Mami's sister. Nice to meet you!"
Looking flustered now, Yayoi hastily bowed and said, "Takatsuki Yayoi, pleased to meet you."
"Hm~ You're just as cute as Mami said," Ami said approvingly. Mami nodded at this. Winking, Ami added, "It's your first time seeing us live, right? Hope you enjoy the concert~"
"Um... thank you..."
Now all eyes were on Iori. The self-proclaimed leader sighed and walked over, nodding in greeting as she introduced herself. "Minase Iori. Thanks for coming. I'd love to introduce our third member to you as well but unfortunately she seems to be missing right now."
"Azusa-oneechan always gets lost," Mami explained. "It's like her character trait!"
"Ritsuko-san, our producer, is out looking for her right now," Iori continued. "In fact, I think I'd better go assist her. It'd be terrible if Azusa wound up on the other side of the city by the time our concert began. Ami and Mami can dance for you if you're that interested in learning."
Yayoi seemed a bit taken aback by her attitude. Iori wondered if maybe she was being too serious. Usually to the public she played a happy flirtatious young girl, but right now she was stressed and didn't really have the energy to put on that mask. She made a mental note to apologize for that later, assuming Yayoi showed up in her life again.
"Iorin's nature is to be uptight, don't worry about it," Mami told Yayoi. "Ami and I are more than good enough to test you out!"
"T-test?" Yayoi repeated. This was clearly news to her.
Iori rolled her eyes. "You'll have to get used to this if you have someone like Mami for your girlfriend. Anyways, I'm off. Later."
Yayoi promptly turned a bright red, an adorably embarrassed expression coming over her face. "W-wait, what?"
"That was a joke," Iori felt the need to explain, waving a hand to emphasize her words as she passed the other girl. "Relax."
"Oh... I'm sorry."
Iori didn't respond, as Mami promptly wrapped the girl in a one-armed hug and started talking about who-knows-what. The Ryuugu Komachi leader instead walked outside the room and proceeded a search for the missing member. Not that she really knew where to look in the first place. She also highly doubted that Azusa would be in the building anyways.
Well, anything to get out of that room. Being stuck with Ami had been bad enough but if Mami was going to show up with some random girl it would just get unbearable. Maybe she should call this a walk instead. Akin to the one she'd taken earlier. Wow, she must really be stressed today if she had to take two breaks from her fellow idols. At least here she didn't have to wear a disguise. This was her home turf.
And best of all, no annoying blonde.
/~/~/
"Miki thinks... Miki is lost."
Miki didn't really know where she'd taken a wrong turn. After sneaking in past the big scary guard she'd just gone with her gut instinct while avoiding any workers, and anyone who did see her was just some guy easy to seduce. Miki had big boobs and it'd be a waste not to use them after all~ Hibiki always told her to quit it but Miki does what Miki wants.
She was getting off topic. Basically, she had no idea where she was and even less of an idea where Deko-chan would be.
Plus, Hibiki had probably already found that she was gone. Miki winced at the thought. Hibiki wasn't particularly scary when she was mad but Miki still didn't like making her best friend upset. But maybe if Takane was around she'd be able to calm down the other girl. Takane just had that effect on people. And besides, it wasn't as though Miki was breaking any laws by doing this, and she'd probably be back soon enough... So yeah.
"But still... this probably isn't good..."
Miki turned another corner, relieved that there weren't any workers there, and continued walking. "Maybe Miki should call out Deko-chan's name? That might work. Ah, but she wouldn't respond if Miki said 'Iori' 'cause she doesn't know that Miki knows her name yet."
It wasn't as though it would hurt anyone.
"Okay then..." Miki took in a deep breath and called, "Deko-chan~ Miki's kind of lost so if you could help Miki out Miki would really appreciate it!"
"You have got to be kidding me."
Immediate response? Score! With a grin, Miki turned around, delighted to see the girl from earlier standing right in front of her. Iori didn't look nearly as pleased (more like surprised and horrified) but whatever. The important thing was, mission accomplished!
"Miki didn't expect that to actually work. Can Miki try that again some other time?"
Haha, I'm so happy with how many reviews this story has by now. Ah~ I'm really grateful to all of you. I hope I can continue writing to your satisfaction!
By the way, did you hear the news? A new Idolmaster game for the PSP is coming out. It's called Shiny Fest and, similarly to SP, there are three different version with different idols in each one. Iori, Ami, Azusa, and Ritsuko return in it!
Well, anyways, thanks for reading :3