Disclaimer: I don't own love live!

The ash haired boy walked down the steps towards the 1st floor of, a now almost, empty building. He looked over to his left and said goodbye to the receptionist. He continued on until he reached the front doors and took a few steps out. He took a deep breath in as he closed his eyes. This whole situation is messed up.

He opened his eyes back again and went on his way to where his house was located. The streets were emptier than usual, there was almost no noise going around which was weird considering the building was located in a pretty busy district. Still he paid no mind and continued walking. Until…

"Kotori."

Oh that voice was familiar, it would be a crime to not recognize it. A small grin formed on the ash haired's lips as he turned around to see the owner of the person that was calling him.

"yes…Umi-kun?"

The blue haired sighed and walked towards him. "We need to talk" The taller one took the lead of the way and the ash haired followed behind. Umi took him to an empty park and sat down and offered the ash haired to sit by his side.

There was an uncomfortable silence between them. God, how long has it been since we sat together like this… The blue haired sighed and began to speak. " Wh-" "before you say anything, Umi-kun" the ash haired interrupted. "I didn't know you were back in Japan and I also didn't know that your fiancé was working there." The blue haired looked at him analyzing his facial expressions trying to figure out if the latter was lying or not. "Apparently my mother and met during college and she told my mother if she ever needed anything that she could ask for it. I was in need of a job and my mother tried to help me out, that's all." Umi looked away and smirked. "Quite the time your mom took to ask for a favor, don't you think?"

The ash haired looked at him and sighed "look Umi, I'm not lying. Whether you decide to believe or not it's up to you."

"fine." The blue haired responded convinced. The ash haired looked surprised but decided not to push his luck and opted to not say anything. "What I want to talk to you about it's about something else"

The ash haired nodded, indicating him to continue talking. " H-how..is she doing?" the blue haired asked nervously, he wasn't sure of what kind of answer he wanted to hear but he just wanted to know at least a bit of what his past lover was up to nowadays.

The ash haired smiled. "She's doing well. She successfully managed, with a little help from her parents, to open a restaurant."

If she opened a restaurant then she's gonna establish over there, huh…I guess seeing her again it's almost impossible now…

"Actually, it should still be open right now…" Kotori looked over to his watch and then gave a nod to Umi confirming what he'd said earlier.

Umi's eyes widened, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He grabbed Kotori by the shoulders "eh! Sh-sh-she's here?!" the ash haired nodded.

"what?!...when?! why?! How?!" he shook the ash haired as he asked every question. Kotori managed to pull himself away from Umi and patted him on the shoulder. "Umi, calm down." The ash haired fixed his clothes and sighed. "She told us before, remember? She said she wanted to work in Japan." Umi laughed hysterically and nodded. "You're right! Hahaha, I actually didn't think she was going to come back, after all she mentioned wanting to travel more before opening a restaurant."

Kotoroi smiled. "do you wanna visit her?"

"eh?" the blue haired's expression dropped. He was dying to see her, but last time they saw each other it was a disaster. "you two should try to resolve-"

"Kotori, I'm engaged."

"yeah, I know" the ash haired replied as if it didn't matter. The blue haired got annoyed and clenched his fist.

"I'm getting married."

"Yeah, I- …wait, why?! You don't love Yazawa-san, do you?" the ash haired responded upset.

The moments he had been sharing with Nico were making him slowly forget about the pain he suffered and take interest in the latter, but was this love? He wasn't sure. "I don't know…"

"You don't know?!" this time the ash haired grabbed Umi by the collar and shook him. "What do you mean you don't know?!" he asked mad now.

"Why do you care?!" the blue haired said this time pushing the hands of Kotori away from him. "I don't why I was so friendly to you before, but we're not even friends. Shouldn't you be happy?! Now you'll have her all to yourself!"

The ash haired couldn't believe his ears. "What the hell! I already told you it's not like that!" he took a deep breath and sighed. "Fine! Whatever, you'll end up regretting this, just like all your past decisions!" the ash haired gave a deadly look to the blue haired and walked out the park leaving Umi alone.

"It's late" the blond commented as he took a quick glimpse of his watch. "Yeah, but I'm really hungry" Nico responded, grabbing her back.

After Kotori left they spent about an hour or so doing, well what couples do. The room got darker and the only thing giving them light was the shine of the moon. Eli wouldn't have mind staying there the whole night but a rumble from his girlfriend's stomach made him think otherwise.

"There's this new restaurant that opened about a month ago, I heard from my classmates that the food it's pretty good, wanna go there?" the blond asked, grabbing the black haired's hand.

She blushed a little and nodded. "Sure"

"Welcome!" the owner of the restaurant happily greeted as the blond and Nico entered. "Would it just be you two?" she asked with a wide smile. "Yes, ma'am" Eli responded. She took them to their seats and gave them each a menu. "What would you guys like to drink?" they both answered water and the owner nodded. "I'll give you some time for you guys to decide. I'll be back in a bit with your drinks"

"This place is nice" the black haired commented as she looked around the establishment. The place wasn't very big neither too small. It was just the perfect size. It was a 10 min walk from the company and serve traditional Japanese food.

"yeah, and the owner is pretty cool, don't you think?" this time the blond commented. Nico nodded and smiled.

"Have you guys decided on what you would like to eat?" the cheerful woman from before said as she place the drinks down.

Eli and Nico looked at each trying not to laugh, they had actually not looked at the menu at all but didn't want to be more of nuisance as the owner let them in even though she was about to close when they arrived at the restaurant. "we'll have whatever you think your most delicious dish is" the blond said, looking at Nico waiting for some sort of confirmation. The latter nodded and gave the owner a smile.

"alright!" the owner said with a bright smile.

An hour had passed already at the restaurant. The cheerful owner had indeed brought the most delicious dish in the entire menu and the two teenagers rejoiced on the tasty food they were eating.

"so you two are dating?" the owner asked as she took a seat on the table next to theirs. Nico blushed and the blond nodded. "we've been friends since childhood, but only recently started dating." The blond said.

"ahh~ teenage love is the best. You feel like you can accomplish anything and the weight that this world carries doesn't affect you all that much" the owner said sounding melancholic.

Eli chuckled and asked if she had a boyfriend or if she was married by chance. " no, I actually also loved a childhood friend a lot. But, things didn't end well for us…" for a min she looked sad, depressed. The blond regretted asking that question but before he could say something, the cheerful and bright owner came back to herself. "so I wish things for you too to end well" she said with a bright and wide smile.

"thank you. Ms…" the black haired said

"Kousaka, Honoka Kousaka." The owner smiled.

"thank you, Kousaka-san. The food was delicious." The blond spoke this time. They paid the bill and got up to leave the establishment.

"I hope to see you both again, hmm …" Honoka said as the two walked out the doors. "oh we didn't introduce ourselves, I'm Eli, Ayase Eli" the blond bowed politely. "and I'm Yazawa Nico. The food was really good, we'll be sure to come again soon. " The two left the establishment and went back to the school campus.

Meanwhile the owner, remained by the door thinking about where she had heard that surname before. Yazawa…Yazawa Nico, huh?

Meanwhile in the Nishikino residence.

"Maki-kun, are you sure about this?" the cat like boy asked.

They had spent all afternoon practicing a possible scenarios that could happen when the red haired tried to talk to the black haired.

"yeah, I want to be prepare, even for the worst" the red haired said with a look full of determination.

"aah! I know, why don't I just ask Kayo-chin to lock Maki-chan in a room and then you can come and then you both can talk, and she won't be able to run away, nya!" the orange haired responded.

The red haired was dumbfounded. "I still can't believe you opted to help Eli instead of me just because of a girl and I'm pretty sure that's illegal, Rin" the red haired answered.

"RIn, already said he's sorry, nya!" the cat like boy pouted his cheeks and frowned. "I know, I know. It's just…" the red haired looked at his friend and shook his head. "nah, it's nothing. But I'm pretty sure that even if we tried to do that Eli would somehow appear and ruin everything." His eyes widened. " oh how stupid can I be! Haha" Rin was confused. Why was Maki calling himself an idiot and why was he laughing about it? "Rin, I need your help with something else, actually. "

Rin nodded. " Nozomi is helping get sometime alone with Nico-chan tomorrow, it's very likely that Eli will be all over her since early morning, so I need you to help me distract him"

"eh!? Me?"

The red haired nodded and smiled.

"but if Eli-kun sees Rin and finds out that I'm helping you now, then he'll get mad at me and Eli-kun is big and scary when he's mad!" the ginger haired responded, shaking as he imagined already what the blond could do to his body.

"please, Rin. You owe me one…big time…" the red haired was using peer pressure, was it nice? No. Would it work? Most likely. He was already behind on the love battle for Nico-chan's heart. Nozomi had offered to help him and he wasn't going to waste it. She was even going as far as betraying her brother. He would do anything in his power to cooperate and try to win the black haired back. Even if he also felt scared of the blond.

"fine" the ginger answered defeated. The puppy eyes Maki was using should be illegal in Rin's opinion and should be punished by some sort of weird law.

"really?! Sweet, thanks" the red haired replied happily.

"tomorrow, I will get text you the full details of the plan. Nozomi is still hasn't message me and to be honest I don't know how I'll be able to speak to Nico-chan."

"maybe the third strike will work?" Rin said optimistically as he recalled all the failed attempts from before. "yeah, I hope so" the red haired said smiling. Nico-chan, I won't let you go that easily.

A.N.

Duhn duhn duhn

Hi guys it's been a while ^^; . I'm really sorry! I had the most awful writer's block for this story and I really lament making you wait so long.

Today in class we were being taught that even if we feel stuck we should keep on doing whatever we like to do and set ourselves like due dates and stuff so we can accomplish our goals.

I'm not a writer, actually this was on my arts class but it worked just as well. Anyways, I will try my very best to update once a week and not make you wait as long again.

Thanks for keeping up with me, and thanks for reading. Be well