Coffeeshop Date

At the coffee shop she liked because the parfaits and ice cream didn't have a big ice cube under them diluting them with water as you ate, if you had to wait, Nishikino Maki waited.

She sipped her cappuccino - the espresso was already gone, it was just foam now. She looked up, and her much younger-looking girlfriend appeared in the opened doorway, almost a half hour late.

"Sorry, something came up with the little ones. Mama had to work, so I made them dinner so they could focus on their homework and studying - they have tests coming up."

She looked a little tired, her red eyes showed a little exhaustion. It was incongruous in someone who still looked like a first-year, especially with her pigtails and red ribbons.

Maki might have questioned her, earlier. Might have complained.

But she knew, now, that getting into a good school was the only way out of the poverty the Yazawa family lived in, for the younger children. It gave a grim edge to her girlfriend's burning ambition to shine as an idol, too. In addition to wanting to make their family, even the ones who weren't around any more, proud. It was also a simple matter of survival.

The kiss she gave Maki was quick and discreet as she sat down and grabbed a menu. She actually knew it by heart but it was a nice tool to distract attention - and it was all done too quickly to see if she was kissing Maki on the lips or the cheek.

The conversation meandered, waxing a bit nostalgic as was their tendency lately.

"Oh, remember the first time I visited your home?"

"Yeah the little ones were all over you. And they bugged me for a week afterward - when is Maki-chan coming again?"

"Even though I was furious about you calling us backup dancers?"

"Yeah, I guess they knew how much Nico-ni likes Maki. Or Yazawas are just weak to Nishikino charm."

Then later:

"I still do it sometimes, you know. The whole Nico-nico-ni! thing."

"Well, don't do it for me."

"When we do the reunion, of course I'm gonna do it. You might like it better than you think."

"Why do you still like it so much?"

"Well, for one thing, our father taught it to Nico-ni before he died. It's one of our few strong memories of him. The littlest ones don't remember but they've been told about it often enough they feel they do."

Maki felt a little guilty, as she always did, but it was a helpless feeling.

Nico had had one blow after another. The parent she was closest to dying, leaving them penniless. Having to become a parent to her younger siblings when she was still a child herself. Not being able to get into a school that had classes or clubs for singing or performing. Her initial trial at starting a group at their school, the years of isolation and rejection and heartbreak. Missing the first Love Live, almost losing everything before the second.

"But we won, we won. Despite everything the universe could do, Nico won," she thought.

"You're smiling."

"Yeah, remembering the Live we won."

"One of the highlights of my life, just being there, let alone having Muse win - and it's one reason I'll always love the Muse girls."

But then, Muse broke up, of course, and Nico had to choose - and she chose a performing college that, even with her scholarship, still required her to work full time. It was only with Maki's encouragement and even bullying that Nico had had a selection of colleges to pick from, naturally. The pressure, the exhaustion must have been tremendous, but Nico never talked about it.

"Now you're sad. Listen. We deserve happy times. I've earned them. You've earned them. I'm happy being with you. I don't over-think it, and you need to stop, too."

"I'm grateful to have you. So grateful. I think some days you're all that gets me out of bed ..."

"It's supposed to go the other way, Maki-chan!" she said with an impish grin.

"Hey, I'm serious. But I still don't understand why you are okay with me."

"Oh, just because you're still obsessing about your past relationship with another girl that I'm just a rebound, fill-in, substitute for?" She traced her hand over the menu as if she were reading lines in a thesaurus.

"No, you know you're more than that to me. But yeah, some of that."

"I'm just fine with you, Maki. Don't sell us short, I think we understand each other better than anyone else in the world understands us, including our families ...

... also, I think I was a little in love with you from the first day we met. Not that I'd have admitted anything. So I'm willing to take the bitter with the sweet."

A waitress came by and they ordered a parfait to split. Maki got another cappuccino and her girlfriend got an Americano. Nobody in Japan with any taste ordered brewed coffee, despite what animes like Gochuumon might imply, she thought.

The waitress was a little hesitant.

"Yazawa-san," she said, taking a breath and gathering her courage. "Just a second."

She went over to the cashier area and pulled out what was obviously the jacket for a 7-inch vinyl pressing.

"Onegai?" she said, endearingly.

"My goodness, Maki, we've found another Kotori!"

"Good thing Umi isn't around," Maki smirked, as her girlfriend signed with the distinct signature she'd practiced and practiced at home (Maki would have rolled her eyes, but she'd gotten over being superior about this stuff early in her time with Nico).

"And you don't need to call me Yazawa-san like that, don't be so formal, you can use my name," Maki heard, followed by a giggle.

"Oh, thank you, then .."

But at that moment the blushing waitress, who'd been neglecting other customers, was called back impatiently to her duties.

"Super-idols get all the girls!" she said happily, looking over at Maki impishly. "Better watch out, Maki-chan!"

"It's because you were so good about there having been 'another woman,' I think ... that's why I love you so much," Maki said, looking very serious."

It still hurts. Physically, I mean.

It's psychosomatic. Maki wakes up and it feels like someone punched her in the stomach. Hard.

"I think for me it's because I love you so much, that's why I am so good about there having been another woman. So we match!"

They smiled at each other.

Then later:

"I'm taller."

"You aren't."

"I am! A centimeter, but it counts!"

"Speaking as a future physician, I can say you've grown 1% if so."

Maki was swatted with a menu.

"I am comfortable, now," she said. "Talking about it. It's not obsessing, any more, and it's not denial that our dreams - that everything ended."

"Hey, Maki-chan, we're in the same boat. I loved her too, never forget. I'll never forget the bond we had during those years when the Idol Research Club was just one sad, lonely person - before you even knew any of us - even Rin and Hanayo. She was a big part of my world. We did a lot together - we went on shopping dates, cried on each other's shoulders, and told each other our secrets. In a lot of ways, she was my whole world. And I only met you through her."

"She never outgrew that girlish cuteness, did she? That restless energy, that innocence, somehow."

"Nope, Maki. That's how I think of her now. As still just a girl, with a girl's fears, and hopes, and wishes. And secrets."

Maki's hand twitched a little hearing that word.

"You look more like her now, you know."

"I don't mind. It's a good look for us Yazawas. It feels like I'm building on her efforts, you know, instead of just tossing them away. And I don't mind looking the way she would have when I get older, either."

"But you're you, and nobody but you, and that's who I love, Cocoro. You and you alone."

"You and me together."

Irrepressible.