Nico ran towards Promise Publications. She accidentally woke up late after having a few drinks last night, causing her to nearly miss her train. She'd been working at Promise for a week now, and her friendship with Nozomi had grown since they often worked together. So, last night, she invited Nozomi over for drinks and a movie, though Nozomi had a higher tolerance for alcohol than Nico. Once she got in the doors, she felt her phone vibrate. A new email.

Miss Yazawa,

You have been reassigned to a new shoot.

Please report to set E-4.

Promise Publications

"Reassigned?" Nico didn't understand why she'd been reassigned. Her original shoot was with Kotori and Honoka. Sighing, she walked along, heading to set E-4.

"You imbecile! Your inexperience ruined the shoot!"

"You're the one who wouldn't sit still, Honoka! Have a few too many energy drinks again?"

A crowd had built up on the first floor. Nico wiggled her way through, landing in between the Kurobane sisters and Nozomi, finding out the causes of the fight. It was Honoka and Kotori, who appeared to be yelling at each other over a shoot that occurred yesterday.

Nico had recently found out that the relationship between the two had soured a couple weeks into working at Promise. They absolutely hated working together, each believing that the other ruined every shoot they participated together in, though no one knew why. The rotten feelings had been around for two years now.

"Both of you need to stop. Now." Everyone looked to the direction of the voice, the crowd parting slightly. A dark blue-haired woman came through, her hair coming down past her waist, her piercing eyes the color of amber. She wore a white trench, a dark blue dress underneath, black high heeled boots, and several silver necklaces. Nico had never seen her before.

Honoka and Kotori both bowed, "Miss Sonoda..."

"Both of you are making a scene, something that is unacceptable here at Promise Publications. If you have a disagreement, you should handle it in private, not in front of others."

"Yes, Miss Sonoda..."

The stern woman turned around and walked away, her heels clacking against the floor. Nico had never met the woman, Miss Sonoda, before, but she remembered her name. She was a CEO, a door on the 13th floor bearing her name.

"Hey, Nozomi, that was one of the CEOs, right?" Nico whispered. The crowd was dispersing now, Honoka and Kotori still slightly bent over.

"Yeah, Umi Sonoda. She comes from a very traditional family, which is why she talks in such a formal way. Kosaka and Minami started arguing after she visited a shoot of theirs."

"Wait, do the CEOs pit models against each other?"

"That's not something to discuss here, Nicocchi. You should get on your way, I have a shoot with Koizumi."

Nico did as she was told, continuing on her way to set E-4. Thankfully, it was on the first floor, allowing her to get there quicker. When she arrived, the set was still being arranged, but appeared to be a stone path, a green screen behind it, and the assitants were installing fake trees.

"Hi! You must be Nico!" Nico almost screamed, jumping and turning around.

"H-Hoshizora?"

"Mhm! But call me Rin!" Rin held her hand out, Nico shaking it. Rin seemed quite energetic, and much less professional than Nico thought on her first day.

"Do you know what we'll be doing?" Nico asked.

"I think it's just a random set of designs that came in, but since Setsubun is around the corner, they're making it about that. We get to throw beans at each other! It'll be so fun!"

Once the assistants finished putting the trees in place, one of them hurried over with two bags of clothes, handing one to each of the girls. Nico paused for a moment upon opening the bag.

It was the dress Eli had her try on.

She shook her head and quickly put on the clothing, thanking the gods that she happened to put on the same set of black underwear as the week previous. She straightened the dress out and glanced over at Rin. The energetic young woman had on a light blue pencil skirt, a blue gingam dress shirt, a beige cable-knit vest, and thigh highs that were a subdued purple in color.

They both went over to the set after being told their hair and makeup was fine, and had demon masks put on their heads. Rin was handed a small bag of roasted beans and they walked onto the set.

"You trust me, right, Nico?"

"Sure, why?"

Rin threw a bunch of beans at Nico, giggling. Rin seemed naturally charming and playful, causing the photographers to instantly fall in love with her. Nico tried her best to shield herself from the beans. After a bit, they switched, with Nico throwing beans at Rin. Nico couldn't help but smile and laugh, the photographers taking several shots of Nico giggling. Finally, they both sat down, eating beans together, smiles wide. Once again, the cameras went wild for their smiles.

They both changed quickly and stretched. Nico noticed a deliveryman coming in, bringing in quite a few boxes, but she assumed they were for the next shoot.

"I hope we can work together again sometime, Rin."

"Me too! I'm super excited! Let's hope it's another fun shoot, like today's!"

The deliveryman came up to them, "Delivery for, uh… Hoshizora?"

"That's meeee!" Rin pumped her fist in the air.

"And, uh, Yazawa?"

"That's me, Nico Yazawa."

Rin got a whole stack of boxes, the girl jumping up and down in joy. While Nico didn't get quite so many, she did get quite a few. Thankfully, they were enough to carry. A yellow envelope rested on top, addressed to Nico in beautiful cursive, but Nico decided all of it could wait until she got home.

At least I was only assigned one shoot today, I won't have to lug all of these packages around.

Nico picked them all up, leaving Rin to fawn over her own presents.

"Nicocchi! Nicooooccchiiiiii!" Nozomi ran through the hall towards Nico, causing the shorter girl to almost drop all of her packages.

"Nozomi!"

"Nico, why are you lugging all of these boxes around?"

"They came at the end of my last shoot, I don't know what they are yet..."

"There's no way you'll get home with all of this on the train, you know."

"I don't exactly have a car, Nozomi."

Nozomi waved Nico off, "I'll drive you home then. Anyway, did you see?"

"See what?"

"Promise Magazine!"

Nozomi shoved the magazine in Nico's face. Nico set all of the packages down, opening the magazine up. On one of the first few pages was a picture of three women. Nico was about to ask if they were supermodels or something, but then she realized who the women were.

Eli Ayase, Umi Sonoda, and Nishikino.

Nico hadn't met the woman named Nishikino yet, though she felt like she knew her name, but the three looked amazing. They were against a light gray background, all wearing the same sparkly black evening dress, slits up both sides, and sat with their right legs crossed over their left legs. Eli was in the middle, wearing light blue high heels, her hair tied up in a ponytail. Umi was to the left, in profile view, with dark blue high heels, her hair strewn across her shoulders. Nishikino was to the right, also in profile view, with red high heels, her red hair parted in the back and brought to the front, amethyst eyes staring into the distance.

"Beautiful… Were they all once models?" Nico asked.

"No one knows," Nozomi responded, "look through the actual magazine, Nico!"

"Oh, right." Nico started flipping through the pages.

The Kurobane sisters were featured first, in a cathedral setting, modeling the latest lolita fashion, frilly umbrellas in hand. Rin and Hanayo's train shot was also featured, the one where Rin lost her hat and cherry blossom petals went flying everywhere. Jennifer and Reine Seiki were also featured, wearing mint and brown dresses. An Indian model, Rakshata, was featured in traditional wedding clothing from her country. Then Nico's eyes settled on the page. It featured the shot of her and Nozomi wearing just panties and socks, the one that the photographers were so specific about.

"We're in… Promise Magazine."

"We're in Promise Magazine!" Nozomi squealed. The two girls hugged each other and jumped around, giggling and cheering.

"Anyway," Nozomi started, "are you finished for the day? I can take you home."

"Yeah, thanks, Nozomi."

They both headed out to Nozomi's car; a pitch black Prius. Nico headed to the trunk, but Nozomi told her to just put her boxes in the back seat and sit in the front. Nozomi's car smelled like lilac and lavender.

"Hey, Nozomi, how do you know so much about the CEOs?"

"I've been here for a year and a half, you pick up stuff as you go along."

"You just seemed to know a lot about Miss Sonoda..."

"Everyone knows certain things about each of the CEOs, but not everything. The gaps are filled in with speculation and gossip."

"Hmm… who is the red headed one?"

"That's Maki Nishikino, the only daughter of a famous doctor and his wife, who's a nurse. She's got a lot of money, owning part of Promise and being the heir to several hospitals. They say she constantly donates money to medical research and stuff, but no one knows for sure."

"What about Miss Ayase? Or Miss Sonoda?"

"Ayase is part Japanese and part Russian. She's the oldest, apparently, and people say she has connections to the Russian Mafia. I… admittedly don't know a lot about Sonoda, she's a private person. Kosaka and Minami though… they're certainly big fans of her."

"Do the CEOs ever play favorites?"

Nozomi quickly braked, the light suddenly turning red, "Why do you ask?"

Nico looked down, playing with her fingers, "It's nothing, forget about it."

Silence followed. Nozomi didn't press any further, just continued to drive Nico home. Once they reached Nico's apartment, Nico thanked Nozomi, grabbed her packages, and headed inside. Too nervous to open the packages, she took a shower.

Nico felt her mind clearing as the water cascaded down her petite, naked body. It slightly reminded her of the lingerie photoshoot with Nozomi, but she shook her head and washed the shampoo out of her black hair, relaxing when the water gently hit her head.

Once dried off and in her pink nightgown, Nico headed back out to her living room, sitting down with a knife to open the packages. The first box was medium sized and relatively flat, something wrapped in tissue paper inside. Nico unwrapped it and held it up; it was a designer jacket from a collection called Sweet Devils, the jacket mostly dark blue-violet with part of the sleeves, the lining, logo, and stuffed devil horns at the top in pink, the zipper silvery with a heart, and black devil wings attached to the back. The jacket probably cost $2,000, if not more. Nico carefully set it down, grabbing the next box, which was fairly small. Inside was a pair of bracelets made of garnets and rose quartz gemstones, which Nico didn't even want to think about the cost of. The third box looked fairly large, containing three sets of lingerie carefully wrapped in tissue paper. Two sets were the first two sets of lingerie Nico wore in her photoshoot with Nozomi, even the socks were included. The third was a very expensive set of black lingerie, the fabric a soft silk with small black lace frills, and incredibly well made. Nico quickly put them back into the box, grabbing for the last box, which was a similar shape and size to the first. The contents were dropped when Nico saw them.

It was the dress Eli had her try on.

It was partially the dress and partially the price tag that made Nico drop it. The dress was priced at $5,500, making Nico want to throw up. She quickly tore into the yellow envelope, revealing Promise Magazine. Nico looked at the floor, noticing a letter that had dropped down at some point. She opened it, carefully reading the print.

Nico Yazawa,

Congratulations on earning a spot in Promise Magazine along side Miss Tojo, it is rare for such a new model to accomplish something such as this. We thought you deserved some gifts for your accomplishment, and spared no expense. Those at Promise often receive gifts for their outstanding work, so this is just a small gift to you.

Your work on the lingerie shoot with Miss Tojo was beautiful, so please accept a few pieces of what you wore that day, as well as a dress we thought would fit you well.

Signed,

Eli Ayase, Umi Sonoda, and Maki Nishikino, CEOs of Promise Publications.

Nico noticed a handwritten message at the bottom, in the same beautiful cursive that signed her name on the envelope.

Nico,

You deserve better lingerie than what you wore that day.

Eli Ayase


I wanted to add a disclaimer that I know very little about the modeling world, aside from what I've seen in movies. I even had to look up how much models make to know if Nozomi would be able to own a car or not. Which, honestly, she kinda doesn't. Someone may have helped her in that department. It's also not very likely that a company would have three CEOs, but let's pretend it works.

None of the girls have the same age gaps as they do in the actual Love Live! universe. This is an AU, quite clearly. Nico is about 22, Nozomi is about 23, Honoka and Kotori are about 24, Rin and Hanayo are probably around 21, Eli is about 29, Umi and Maki 28. The N girls from School Idol Festival (Kurobane sisters, Jennifer, Chiduko, Yuri, Coco, Reine) are various ages. Everyone is legal by American standards.

Some outfits that are mentioned, such as the ones in the Setsubun shoot, are actual cards in SIF. The photoshoots will often take inspiration from SIF.

If you have a request for a photoshoot that you'd like to see that DOES NOT involve the SolGe trio, leave it in a review, if you'd like.

Thank you for reading Promise.