Summary: Auditions can be a little messy.

Nico needed things to go smoothly this morning. So she should have skipped the coffeeshop. But Nico also liked a little verbal skirmish to warm her up before any big project and Nozomi was always good for that. So Nico had stopped in for coffee, the bucket size, and the scone of the day, saffron ginger apricot, a rare flavor. And the usual side of harassment.

Actually, Nico thought, leaning against the refrigerator case, waiting for Nozomi to pack up her to go order, this wasn't harassment. Nozomi's tone lacked confidence. Nico's big sister senses pinged. But with Nozomi, Nico had curiosity, but no sympathy.

Nozomi was holding the coffee just out of Nico's reach, "Have your staff meetings here and I'll supply the drinks, free."

Nico knew she looked smug, "What do you need Nico to do?"

Nozomi seemed furtive, but then met Nico's glance, "I just want to make sure you're not torturing poor Maki. She sits here and tears her hair out over your script. You must have written terrible things."

Nico noted the information, unasked for, that Maki came here with Nico's script, and went back to her interrogation, "So it's not Maki...Eli, you want Nico to drag Eli in here."

Nozomi frowned, "She hasn't come in for Cheat Day yet. And she seems so worried when I…"

"Stalk her?"

Nozomi smacked Nico's hand, "I saw her at the library a couple of days ago. She was frowning a lot."

"I think that's a dancer thing."

Nozomi acknowledged that possibility with a head tilt, "Just come here for a meeting. One meeting."

"Nico will consider it."

"I'll text you the next time Maki's here." Nozomi jumped to a conclusion.

Nico didn't appreciate it. "Nico needs Maki near a piano."

"Ooohh…"

Nico's snarl stopped Nozomi's tease.

"My auditions." Nico glanced at her wrist, "are in an hour. And then Nico will be working crazy hours to stage a holiday show. Nico won't have time for coffee, conversation, or anything else."

Nozomi put her hands together, pleading. "One meeting, Nico, that's all I ask. I'll owe you."

"Maybe. And maybe don't drool so much over Umi when we're here." Nico grabbed her coffee and the goodie bag and headed out the door.

###

Kasumi's phone exploded. Her favorite song. So a friend, Kasumi grabbed the phone.

"Good morning, cutie. Kasumin is here for you."

"Kasumi?" Shizuku's voice sounded worried, "It's 9:05. Why aren't you here half an hour ahead of your appointment?"

"It can't be 9:05. Kasumin's alarm was set for…" no, Kasumi realized, she'd set her phone for 7 p.m. and not changed the alarm...she hadn't worked last night so she could be fresh for the auditions and now she was going to be a bit too fresh for auditions.

"I bought you a breakfast bar. Hurry here."

"Kasumin thought Shizuko would be happy her biggest competition…"

"It's not a competition if you don't make it here. I'll ask Professor Yazawa if you can…"

"No, Shizuko, you can't do that. I don't want Nico to know about me sleeping late; it won't look good. And Kasumin always looks good. Kasumin will be there in ten minutes."

Kasumi ended the call. Shizuku frowned at her phone. Asking for more time would be the safe, sensible option, but Kasumi preferred the riskier option of rushing to save face. How impulsive. Shizuku would have to chide Kasumi after their auditions, where Shizuku would prove that careful preparation beat impulsive charm.

###

Nozomi found herself watching for blonde heads. It was annoying. There would be a perfectly charming, perfectly cute flirting opportunity in front of her and a flash of gold would catch her eye, distracting her. Could she really want to see Eli that much?

###

Done. Maki pushed back from the piano, closing her eyes as she sighed and slid the pencil through her hair, to rest next to her ear. The dance for Fezziwig's party had been easy enough. Take an English traditional song and punch it up. She'd glanced at the script. Fezziwig had a DJ not a fiddler in Nico's version so Maki tossed in some synth loops. No lyrics so it wouldn't help Nico at auditions, but Nico hadn't specified anything beyond "finish a song by breakfast" so Maki was covered. Sun was up. What time were auditions? Were they a morning thing? Would Nico be at the theatre. Maki could run in, drop off the song, and then crash for a nap at her studio. She'd have to double check her calendar and make sure there were no appointments for the rest of the morning. Maki already knew the musicians she'd be working with for A Christmas Carol, so no auditions were necessary. She'd have to get them together in the next couple of days.

Her phone pinged. Hanayo.

H: Free for lunch?

M: I'll probably be sleeping through it.

H: Free for breakfast?

M: What's up?

H: Your mom.

M: Ignore her.

H: She's worried about you. So is Rin.

M: Rin is not a parent. She needs a new hobby.

H: o(-_-;*)

M: I have to drop off a song for auditions.

H: Dinner tomorrow?

M: Maybe. I have a lot of work to do.

H: Let me know.

M: Okay.

Work. It wasn't an excuse. It was a gift. A lifeline. A blessing. Music. Music Maki, the resident composer, had to write. Music to be offered to artists. Music Maki wanted to write. Not classes she was attending to meet family expectations. Or someone else's hospital she was on track to take over. Music was what had led her even the few steps out of the Omine induced gloom. Music had saved her, Maki having dived in to express the ENTIRE depth of what she was feeling, and discovering that music would support her, embrace her with an atmosphere that would give her life and breath even on her darkest nights, in a way that medicine never could. And then Hanayo had nudged her into applying for this new program and music was the only thing Maki HAD to talk to anyone about and there were hours, almost days, when Maki wasn't thinking about the embarrassed, sick feeling in her stomach when she struggled to figure out which signals she'd missed, which conversations had ended too soon, which couches she should have slid a little further down. Now, whenever there was someone in the room, the piano was there too, a loyal friend and partner and a way to express all the questions that would ease her struggle while not demanding direct answers from anyone who heard. Maybe one or two listeners had been attuned enough to pick up Maki's mood, but the conversations were always about the music, never about what had prompted the choice. So Maki could proudly claim a safe zone as she recovered life after heartbreak and medical school.

###

"Hey, Eli." Nico knocked peremptorily on the doorframe of Eli's studio. She was surprised to find it open. Eli was staring at herself in the mirror, one arm sweeping to the side.

"Hi Nico." Eli completed the movement, then pirouetted to face Nico.

"Pretty. Put that in the program."

"Working on it." Eli grinned and grabbed a towel, wiping the sweat off her face, "Don't you have auditions?"

"In 10 minutes. Nico's excellent support staff is signing actors in and handing out music. Everything is under control."

"So you stopped by to say hi?" Sure Nico was friendly, but that seemed...inefficient, Eli decided that was the correct adjective.

Nico shook her head, "No time for that. We need to have a meeting and Nozomi's bugging me to have it at the coffeeshop." Nico stared at Eli for a long minute. "You haven't stopped by so Nozomi wants Nico to do her a favor." Another long pause as Nico watched Eli's face for any reaction, "We can do it in Nico's office instead. Or Maki's studio. Nico's going to spend more time in that part of campus. It's pretty."

Eli's pulse rate had picked up, matching the pace of the sudden spout of internal dialogue in her brain. Nozomi asked Nico for a favor. And that favor involved Eli. Who hadn't stopped by the coffeeshop. But maybe wanted to. And maybe Nozomi wanted her to. And maybe that was…

"Eli?"

"Okay."

"Okay? So you're good for the coffeeshop?" Eli nodded and Nico continued, "Great. Nico will see if Maki's free tomorrow afternoon."

"Great." Eli's voice splintered.

Nico looked exasperated, "Nozomi's a little too nosy for Nico, but she's a good friend."

She must be, Eli thought, if Nico stopped by on the morning of auditions. To make sure that Eli was okay with it. Eli's mood brightened. It had been a lonely fall, but maybe with winter, there would be more company.

"Thanks for checking though, Nico."

Nico shrugged, "We have to watch out for each other."

"See you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Nico snorted, "But you might want to wear some puffy layers over your leotard for protection."

###

Center stage, all eyes on her. Where Kasumin belonged. Kasumi glanced at the script in her hand. To play Scrooge? Sure, it was a cute Scrooge, and a singing Scrooge, but wouldn't it be better to be Kasumin? Kasumi could feel herself frowning and her audience's attention slipping. Focus. Get back into it. Take that frown and make it Scrooge's frown. Answer Marley's question.

"Because a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"

And don't think about food. Kasumi resisted her sudden urge to kick herself. Sleeping late, leaving no time for breakfast was never a winning strategy. Having Shizuku standing there reading Marley lines looking like a person who'd slept well, had time for breakfast, and enjoyed being insufferably smug about it just highlighted Kasumi's mistakes.

But there was still the song. Nobody could out sing Kasumi. Not even Shizuko.

###

Maki froze, halfway through the door to the theatre. Two actors were on stage, one with fair hair, one with dark. And the Scrooge-Marley duet was suddenly alive, the dance, the history, the concern...everything Maki had put in the music. Not two actors onstage, but Scrooge and Marley, their relationship, only hinted at, found in every note of Maki's score. She had made it gay. And it worked. At least with these two actors.

They stopped and Maki applauded, enthusiastically. And suddenly Nico had erupted from the front row, spinning, a glare on her face, "What the he…" She saw Maki and stopped, was that a groan Maki heard. Nico turned back to the stage, "Kasumi, Shizuku, thanks. Roles will be posted in two days."

The two girls were whispering together onstage, openly staring at Maki. Neither of them were familiar to her, although Maki had not met all the music students but with voices like that, surely they were at least minoring in Voice.

"Nico will be right back." And then Nico was there, dragging Maki out of the theatre, as a blonde student with a clipboard who'd been sitting next to Nico giggled.

"What are you doing here? And you can't applaud like that. This is auditions. No one's been cast yet."

"But they're perfect."

"That's not how it works. And you haven't seen the rest of the auditionees. You just can't hand the parts to the first two people you hear."

Maki frowned, thinking back, "I thought you believed in serendipity. I walk into the theatre, hear two students who are actually putting everything I wrote into my duet, what else do you…"

"A lot, Maki. You're new to this so Nico is being…" did Nico just grind her teeth, "tolerant of your ignorance, but Scrooge has to interact with a lot of characters as well as be reliable and Nakasu rushed in late. And it's Nico's duet."

Maki ignored the question of duet ownership. "Sleeping late isn't a character flaw…"

Nico threw up a hand, inhaled deeply, and dropped her tone to serious, but a whisper, "Nico is the director, Nico is making the casting choices, Maki is directing the ensemble." Nico pointed at Maki, speaking slowly, "Maki picks musicians." The finger swivelled, "Nico picks actors. I don't want your help with that. Got it?"

Maki nodded, mood deflated.

"Why are you here?"

Maki pulled the score sheets out of her pocket, "New song. 24 hour break from nagging."

Nico skimmed the pages. "Fezziwig's dance. Seriously? It's all instruments. You're cheating."

"You didn't specify." Maki winked.

A long stare, Nico's arms crossed, "Nico will be much more precise about what she wants from now on."

Maki nodded, "No misunderstandings."

"No misunderstandings." Nico closed her eyes, sighing, "Please talk to someone about how plays in rehearsal work. Try Umi. Nico is too busy."

"All right." Maki yawned.

"You stayed up all night?"

Maki nodded.

"Dumb." Nico spun Maki around and pushed her down the hall, "Go get some sleep. We have a meeting with Eli tomorrow afternoon. Nico will text you details later."

"Cool."

Maki and Nico were both surprised by the enthusiasm in Maki's voice. Maybe her Christmas miracle had come early, Nico mused. Maki just hummed the duet happily as she walked, thinking about busy days filled with new music and no time to remember past fails.

A/N: Happy birthday, Maki. Was thinking about writing something new, but my inner Maki mostly wants this year's Christmas jam to progress. So here we go.