DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN AIKATSU

Momo's POV

"And that's why Hiro-nii isn't allowed in the kitchen alone anymore." Char laughed loudly as Fumiko finished her story. I was absentmindedly listening as I was more focused on the booklet in hand. Char, from the front seat, leaned backwards in my direction.

"How is it Momo-chan?" I flipped through a few more pages.

"Overall its well planned. It still needs details sorted out today though since some plans that are kind of confusing. There's few other problems I want to bring up as well." I closed the booklet of the plans to Char's concerts.

"Are you sure its okay that I'm coming along? At least Momo can contribute to the conversation." Fumiko questioned beside me.

"Of course there is. It's still a secret that you two are performing with me but as featured guests you can still pitch in your ideas." Char reassured. I handed back the booklet to her as I had already made a mental note of everything that was inside it. Today we were going over last minute details of her concert, only a week was left.

"Momo-chan, this is my first solo concert, so I'm hoping you'll input as much as you can today. I'm kind of nervous that things won't go well. The most important thing is that my fans enjoy it." She handed me back her booklet. I hesitantly took it, holding it tightly.

"I'll try my best to." I hugged it close to me. To be honest, even though I've usually been the smartest when it comes to these kinds of situations, this week I wasn't. My partners were crazy powerful individuals.

Over our time together we had gotten way more comfortable with each other. Fumiko more so than I. She was the acting force that kept things from being quiet. After every practice that we had she was the one to crack a joke to relieve some of our exhaustion. Char was nothing short of her title though. She would monitor out every movement without any flaw in her being able to instruct us on how to fix it. On top of performing with us, she had a full hour concert to fill by herself. She really showed off how much one year or more of experience could differ a new idol.

Compared to those two, I didn't have that many merits besides my brain. That's why I have to really prove myself today.

"I believe in you Momo-chan. Charlotte wouldn't have agreed to letting you help me if she didn't truly think you were up to this. Even last night she seemed really excited to see how you would do today. Charlotte may not seem like it but she really likes to compliment people."

"I don't know if its right to ask this but how do you and Takahashi-senpai keep contact?" Fumiko shyly asked.

"I've heard stories about other people with split personality so just know that this is only one case. It's strange though since Charlotte has my memories but I don't have any of hers. So if I need to know anything she'll make a note on our phone. That's how we would interact most of the time. I was actually really surprised when she requested to have you two join me. I trust her more than anyone though."

"Well I'm honour the chance to perform with the both of you. Please don't take offence when I requested for Charlotte-senpai over you."

"Up bup bup, I haven't taken any offence but you still haven't earned my approval. Charlotte's deal was that after the concert I would be saying if you can perform with her. I have to admit I do want to see her on stage as well." She looked forward as we were pulling up to the building.

We went straight to the meeting room as one of the last few to arrive. We bowed respectfully to all the staff before taking our seats. I held tightly onto the booklet as the meeting was going to start soon.

I took deep breathes watching the multiple presentations happen. There were slides filled with multiple pictures of the venue, merchandise, outfits, stages, everything needed for a concert. These were run by professionals. People who have done concerts a hundred times more than I have even been.

"Momo-chan, you said that you had a few suggestions. What do you think?" Char directed the attention onto to me as the last slide finished. I cleared my throat first.

"There's only a few issues that I thought of. Can you, please, go back to the slide of stage design?" They went back a few slides to the main stage design. This was the stage that was going to be used throughout the entire concert. Mostly its kind of a stage that Char would have when she's not performing. An intermission stage where she would get a second to catch her breath and interact with the fans.

"It's too blue in my opinion." The room went silent in awkwardness. All preparations made for today had been carefully thought through in order to be finalized for next week. For me to bluntly state it as a person who was only introduced to the content today, it was rude to put simply.

The stage backdrop had her name Char written out with thin, line calligraphy in a light blue matching her hair with a light shadow behind it. On the two side screens were the visuals of falling blue and white sparkles. They were probably going to replace these with live video feed of Char when she was speaking to the audience. The only problem was that from the beginning or anytime that Char isn't on stage, these was the set that was going to displayed.

"I must rephrase myself. For Char-senpai, the colour on her isn't only blue. Her aura contains purple, pink, and white, she has the Orchid Torte Coord as her school dress, characteristically wears a violet hair pin that, sometimes, gets replaced on stage by another accessory. What I mean to say is that as only blue, it can be distracting or misleading. For our stage, at least, we plan on using our Torte Coords for the first song. None of which has any blue that it's drastic change in my mind. By combining more of her other colours, it shows that this concert truly belongs to Char-senpai."

I saw a few people nodding their heads, others still looking at the presentation in an effort to imagine it. "I agree with Momo-chan. Now that I think about if I stand in front of that screen, my hair can easily blend into it."

She gave out a tiny laugh at the thought. This lessen the tension in the room, letting the others open up to the idea. "She has a point. Maybe we could take something like her idol aura as the main focus then. Redesigning her name could be interesting as well that we could put it like a logo on some merchandise. It could be nice. I want to hear more."

I relaxed seeing them all agree in way or another. "There's only three other concerns that I have. One is the PV. It was recorded during a back set, if I were to take a guess. Correct me if I'm wrong though."

I was referring to the promotional video that was going to be played in between her stages. This would give her time to go backstage to change outfits. There were set two breaks over an hour and a half concert. As a soloist this didn't give her a lot of room to move much from schedule. That's why we had to plan out for everything.

The first PV, standing for promotional video, was going on after 5 six songs and before our stage. They had played it once just a few minutes ago to see if there were any glitches in editing. Since with all the plans that Char had, there couldn't a be a second wasted in trying to fix something. This one had a short video of her photo shoot for this concert. It was perfect for fans to be able to get, somewhat of an insider, on how the things worked behind the scenes.

"I think it would be interesting to cut in an interview. Even a voice-over would be suffice considering the time strain. A project showing Char-senpai's process coming up to this point of the concert wouldn't be right without the thoughts from her, herself. Yes, there an opportunity during intermission for her to speak out to the fans, but you have to think about timing. Often what happens is that idols will like to thank fans for taking their time out to their concerts. So we can combine her pre-thoughts and any thing she'll like to say to the PV and her feelings of gratitude to the concert."

"Oooo I like that. Honestly this was kind of boring since it was just instrumental music in the background. Char-chan has a really pretty voice not just for singing. Hearing her talk while watching her do a photo shoot would be like a double shot." Fumiko said finally pitching in something.

"You guys may have been able to pick this up but Fumiko-chan here is a fan of mine too. I should do as my fans would find interesting. If its not a problem for the video editors." We turned our attention to one the media managers.

"Hmm, it would require a simple cut-in. Though I think our team would find it easier with the voice-over option. This would let us play around with placement of where to implement the speaking. It would also save us the time needed to set up an interview setting. I do, however, want to leave it up to Suzukawa-san for the questions and recording."

"Me?" I was in shock that they asked for me.

"It was your idea. I'm sure you can come up with a few questions that would be matching the theme. We'll send you a copy of the video so that you can think more about that. Recording on your phone in a quiet room would be enough. End the end, if you don't think you can handle it then you can always tell us and we'll take it over again. How's that?"

"I'll try to come up with a few then. I'll try to send the questions to Char-senpai and the crew beforehand just to double check it again. Thank you for the opportunity."

"How about the next two problems?"

"Well the next one was actually something that Fumiko brought up. If you look at the concession stands, there's something that stood out to her. I'll leave it up to her to explain as this isn't something that I found."

Fumiko got caught up for a second when everyone was looking at her. Quickly she remembered what she had said in the car before I hand been handed the booklet. "I remember a few months ago Char-chan said that she was a really big advocate for healthy eating. Doesn't all the fast food and desserts kind of go against that? Like yeah it tastes good but with fans I've seen a lot of people try to eat healthier because of her. What if they go to the concert but since basic concert rules say no food entry, we can't bring our own snacks. All they have left is those food trucks beforehand."

"We can't really cancel the food trucks last minute. I can see what you're saying though. This one will be a bit more difficult to solve." I shook my head at one of the workers.

"Not as much as you think. We don't necessarily have to cancel on the planned food trucks and we don't have to arrange for a lot more to show up. Fumiko has openly admitted to calling them a nice treat, even it its just every once in a while that it won't throw anyone off too much. More options are just more welcoming. Starlight Academy chefs are always on top of healthy recipes and sudden changes. We can easily arrange for a few small bentos to be sold or ask for their advice on possibilities. Even in English speaking countries there is a saying that 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away' as an one apple itself contains many natural fibers, sugars and has been proven clinically to be even boast diet. So something small like selling a few fruits is an improvement."

"I have to say that even though an idol has to take care of their diet, even we have times we have a few hamburgers here and there. It's all about balance. We can even tell the fans before coming to concert so that they aren't too hungry during the actual concert."

"That's right! Waiting for a concert can exhaust some people too. Queuing takes a lot of time if you don't go at an early time. Even then it can still be packed. We, fans, rely a lot on near by stores to manage through the day. Food and water is something we often worry the most about after all the ticketing and merch sales are got."

The main thing that prevented these workers from thinking all these things were their positions. They have to create a thousand concerts that they have the general idea of how things should go. They know that artists need time in between and so they set up an intermission. They know that fans will try to arrive at the venue early so they prepare everything in advance for everything to run smoothly. Yet, they didn't know the little details about Char like Fumiko and I did. I knew that Char's image and Fumiko knew all the information that has built up to that point. Every fandom and performer were different that even with professionals, there will always be adjustments.

"I'll try to look further into that. We should definitely inform the ones attending on the confirmed vendors so that if we can't figure out something in time, they can bring a few things themselves. Of course emphasizing as long as they don't bring anything into the venue." Fumiko seemed happy at that as a fan in that situation before.

"Last concern?"

"Oh this one I'm not even sure on." I opened the booklet that had all of Char's plans. I flipped to the page that had the set list with the coords listed next to them. I point to the song after our stage. "I may be imagining this but did you draw in a question mark, only to erase it?"

"Ah that. I was actually re-thinking my outfit for that stage. I don't think that I would able to get the outfit in time though. The one I wanted to change it to would be hard to get so I erased it."

"Nonsense! It's your first solo concert. You should be able to dress as you wanted. Changing it wouldn't impact us that much. What were you thinking about?" Char nervously laughed about that.

"Something from the new collection from Magical Toy." The room filled with nods and 'ahhhs' of understanding, including me. Fumiko leaned into me.

"What's wrong with that?" I leaned back in.

"Magical Toy's top designer is hard to get a hold of. He's never in one place for a long time that it's like chasing a wild goose. It's only because of that free spirit that makes his designs are so whimsical. Even muses have to go everywhere to talk to him. And that's only the tip. If it's something from his new collection it means that it hasn't been released to the public. Designers are very protected about new lines so showing it during a concert would be attenuated."

"I understand. It was just a thought. Since it's a pop type brand, it'll fit the song better and as a new design it'll definitely be something the audience has never seen before."

"Well why don't we ask him?" I chuckled a little at the workers' reactions. Fumiko was not bound by any logical safe means.

"As first years we have more free time on our hands to go exploring. We can try to talk to him. If Char-senpai still wants it that is." I offered. Char thought of it for a little. She blushed a little.

"If I can be a bit selfish, then yes. I wouldn't want to trouble the top designer though. I still have a coord planned for it. If he's adamant on revealing part of his line beforehand, then I'll accept that."

"Great. Then that settles all the concerns that I had to say. I'm sorry if I came on pushy." I gave a courtesy bow to them. They all shook their heads with small smiles on their faces.

"I'm actually impressed that you two were able to contribute. I expected nothing less than the best from the idols that Char-chan picked. She, herself, was a remarkable first year. Idols this year are going to be interesting to watch. I'm looking forward to the concert even more."

I sat on the park bench watching Fumiko run around with a few kids. She couldn't help herself as she fit in right them. Unfortunately, I had to recall her since our awaited guest was going to be coming soon.

"Fumiko, Charlotte-senpai said she's almost here!" She immediately froze in spot that the kids looked at her funny. She bid them a quick good-bye coming next to me.

"So I know that I said we should try the Magical Toy's top designer ourselves but do you really think its a good idea to be going with Takahashi-senpai. I'm mean she shares the face of the top idol; we wouldn't want to attract attention to ourselves." I ignored her obvious attempt to avoid Charlotte.

"That reminds me, I need to give you a mini disguise for today. We wouldn't want people to see us hanging out with Charlotte-senpai before our performance. And don't worry, I think you attract more attention than she will. She doesn't have a natural idol aura to attract people like you or Char do." I pulled out a mini hair brush and hair tie. I gestured for her to sit next to me on the bench. From the distance I could see Charlotte coming out of her car. I waved at her as Fumiko sat next to me.

"Afternoon Charlotte-senpai. How was your schedule?" I could see Fumiko visibly stiffen beside me.

"It was fine. Though I wish that Char would relax a bit. If you don't mind I'm just going to go the washroom before we get going."

"Go right ahead. I was just about to give Fumiko a little disguise so take your time." She nodded, heading to a nearby store. I took the hair brush to comb out the few knots in her hair. The moment I turned her around, she let out a large sigh.

"I don't get how you can be so relaxed around her. I always feel so..." She shook herself.

"Cold?" I put my brush back taking out a thin scarf out. "Well even I have to admit that I was like that when I first met her too. I'm pretty sure everyone was. She has a very strong presence. But it was because of the clip that you showed me that made me want to perform with her. That's why I learned not to be afraid of her."

I braided in the gray scarf into her long hair giving a darker look to her bright orange hair. I tied her hair with a regular hair tie snapping a quick picture so that she could look at. She was hesitantly touching at it. "How'd you do that?"

"Looked it up last night and asked to borrow some accessories from Snapshot. Your hair is pretty bright along with your personality. If we want to remain on the down low, its best to blend those qualities in." I watched her shake again. Knowing what that meant I didn't even bother turning around like her.

"Good timing. I have a small disguise for you as well." I took out a small case handing it behind me as I was taking out 2 hats. I felt her take it out of my hands.

"Thank you but there's no need. No one ever recognizes me." I set my bag aside, standing up.

"It doesn't hurt. I think it'll be best if you at least try opening that case though. If I may?" I showed her the light violet fur beret in my hands. She was a bit worried but allowed me to. First, I removed her usual violet flower bobby pin. I clipped the little flower to her shirt's pocket so that she would still have it on her. I fixed her hair a little, before putting on the small hat. I adjusted it so that it wouldn't fall off for when we started going. Once I finished she opened up the case that I gave her.

"Glasses?" She took out the thin black rimmed glasses. She looked at them for a bit noticing the plastic lens.

"They're purely for looks glasses. I guessed that you would want something that covered your eyes a little. They are the dead give away between you and Char-senpai. The beret is clearly to tie everything in." She looked shocked for a second before a light pink dust barely appeared on her face.

"I still don't understand you Suzukawa-san." I put on my black and white baseball cap, adjusting it so that I was most comfortable. I didn't have eye catching features like Charlotte and Fumiko besides my golden eyes. So just by wearing a hat that covered the top half of my face while being practical was the best option for me.

"I get that a lot. More about my vocabulary though. Do I have your approval?" She put them on and looked into her Aikatsu phone's reflection.

"You look really cute Takahashi-senpai!" Fumiko chimed in. I had a hypothesis about covering Charlotte's eyes. When I had first met her it was those teal eyes that made me nervous. I just had to cover them for Fumiko to ease up. Charlotte must have noticed that too.

"Shall we start our clown search then?"

"Is it really okay to call him a clown though? He's a top designer we have to be respectful, don't we?" Charlotte and I looked at each other before I chuckled a little.

"Marcel-san is a literal clown. One of the things he does is go around doing magic tricks to people so that they smile. He loves making people happy and you'll defiantly see that when we find him."

"Where do we start though? He could be anywhere."

"Well I talked to his secretary this morning before class. They said that we should just look in areas of loosely dense people. Also stay on the look out for random sparks of colour. I thought this park since its close by the office and has a lot of people after school time but doesn't seem like he's here. Anyway the wind takes us is the most probable. So Fumiko lead the way."

She didn't even question me as she spun in circle. She stopped facing one direction with a smile on her face. "I like this way."

"Okay, then off we go." I collected my bag off the bench following Fumiko's random choice.

I was getting a sense of deja vu again with having a somewhat silent Fumiko on one side of me and Charlotte on the other. Now that I think about it, Fumiko has never really talked to Charlotte. Meanwhile, Charlotte has all her memories of Fumiko from Char. 'Great, same situation different reason. This one is going to be a confounding dynamic.'

We walked a few blocks without any sign of our target. I kept track of where we've been on the map in my head. There is no logical way that Fumiko was leading us but she still managed to keep going everywhere. Charlotte didn't say a signal word besides short sentences as in 'sure we can go this way.' She wasn't nervous around us like Char was. It was more like she didn't care too much about getting along with us. She wasn't going to build a wall around her but she wasn't going to try.

I think it was because we weren't meant to get along. When I looked at Char I saw Shouta, a person who wouldn't know where to start in a relationship. When I looked at Charlotte, I saw myself. A person that didn't mind if it never started. That's why I wanted to get to know her beyond her overwhelming presence.

"So Charlotte-senpai, I know Char-senpai said that you were the one to interested in joining us today. Any particular reason?" I am clearly not good at breaking the ice.

"You were impressive yesterday at the meeting. The both of you. Char was pretty nervous about it that's why she brought you two along. I wanted to see how you two would be today as well. For myself that is."

"Momo did most the talking though. She didn't even have time to think about everything since Char-chan only showed her the plan yesterday."

"I'm well aware." Fumiko awkwardly didn't know how to respond to such a short, blunt answer.

"Speaking of which I finished with my questions for PV interview. I was going to send those to the media directors when I got back to my dorm. I'll send them to Char-senpai as well so that she can get an idea of her answers once I get the approval."

"Char trusts you enough. I don't think anyone would reject of the questions you come up with." I shook my head laughing a bit.

"That won't stop me from checking first. Concert planning is a bit more complicated than understanding equations in a textbook, I'll say that. I'm glad it gave us the opportunity to do this as well. That includes a possibility to get to talk to you more." I watched out of the corner of my eye as the way Charlotte walked changed a little.

"I don't really see why you're so persistent on me. I know that people are afraid to have me around. No pair of glasses will change that."

I stopped walking to grab her arm. The two of them were shocked. "I'm not afraid of you Charlotte-senpai. I admit in the beginning 100%. Not anymore. I gave you those glasses so that you don't have to worry about it. I'm serious about performing with you. And its not just to prove anything. I want to see you on stage even if not with me. And I know Char-senpai thinks the same way."

Charlotte looked at my hand still around her arm then up to me. She opened her mouth to say something when a colourful flower came in between us. I instinctively let her go to back up at the new arrival. "Marcel-san!"

The clown did an exaggerated bow to us. When he straightens himself he turned his one flower into two. He must have seen the tension between us and tried to ease it. Fumiko held onto my shoulder from behind looking at it. "Wow how did you do that?"

He waved his finger in front of her. A magician will never reveal their secrets. He clutched a closed fist in front of her face, opening it to present a foam heart. Fumiko clapped for him taking it easily. "Marcel-san we've been looking for you."

He blinked looking at us. A light-bulb went off in his head at Charlotte. He then stopped to question the glasses and her flower not in the usual place. "Ah this is Charlotte-senpai. Not Char-senpai. They're a bit different. However, we did come here for a favour for Char-senpai's upcoming concert."

"You understood that?" Fumiko whispered to me.

"He reminds me of Auntie Kaede actually." He clapped at that name with a bright smile. He gestured for me to continue my previous conversation.

"Well Char-senpai has a stage that's really energetic. She already has a coord that she planned out when she heard about your new line. We understand that it is kind of a big deal to ask you for something so huge but we thought it wouldn't hurt to try. As her first solo concert, she really wanted it to be special. If possible we would like to use one of your new designs for one of her stages."

He pointed at Charlotte telling her to continue. She looked at me not understanding. "I think he wants to hear your thoughts."

"Oh just give me a second to switch to Char then." He shook his hands then made glasses with his hands.

"No, wait. He wants to hear your thoughts." He pointed to me giving a thumbs up. She went silent.

"My thoughts? Char is... Char is ...my best friend. There's times when I could not be feeling well and even though she doesn't have the same thoughts as me nor my memories, she would still know. She would write me messages to make sure I would communicate with her if I ever needed it. She'll never hear how much she means to me. That's why I choose to support her from behind. Please, top designer-san, I want this solo concert to be perfect for her."

She bowed to him. I placed my hand on her back telling her to raise herself. He held his hands next to his face, making jazz hands. "I told you earlier. Marcel-san loves to make people smile."

Even without noticing the corners of her mouth went up. He handed us the flowers again. We took them this time and he started to leave. Since he didn't gesture anything we thought that it was a fail when something caught my eye. At the end of the stem of the flower was a card tied to the end. I collected the two seeing that they were a top and bottom card of an outfit I've never seen before.

"It's his new line!" Fumiko practically pushed herself onto my back even more to look at the cards. I caught the sight of the foam heart he gave Fumiko early seeing another card taped on. I grabbed at it seeing an accessory card on it. His magic was truly amazing and made us smile.

We all turned to the direction he was happily skipping down. "Thank you very much!"

We all yelled together. He gave an extra step in his walking before turning the corner. We were all smiling among ourselves probably looking funny to passing people.

I held the three cards in front of Charlotte. "You should be the one to give it to Char-senpai. I think that would only be right."

She took them, careful not to damage them. I watched as she gave the first full smile I've seen from her. A dark purple and teal swirl was hovering around her so faintly that no one even noticed. I could see it plain it as day. 'I knew it. I want to see Charlotte-senpai on stage.'

A/N: I'm excited for the next chapter. I'll be explaining more about Charlotte-Char and why Momo is determined to perform with her.

Trivia: I try to use the honorifics to make it clear whose talking and the relationship between the two of them. Here's a list to help understand.

What people call Momo

Momo-san: Shouta (-kun)

Momo-chan: Char/ To be revealed girl/ Hayate (Snapshot)

Momo: Fumiko (Without honourifics)/ Her parents (Mom & Dad)/ All older generation idols (Aunite or Uncle)/ Butterfly effect band (Sometimes will call her Little Idol)/ family

Suzukawa-san: Charlotte (temporary) /adults

Suzukawa: Kikyo (Inoue-san)

*****: To be revealed boy

What people call Charlotte/ Char

Charlotte-senpai/Char-senpai: Momo

Char-chan: Fumiko (-chan)/ Hayate (-kun)

Takahashi-senpai: Shouta (Higawari) / Fumiko (Watanabe-san)

Charlotte-chan: Hayate (Ceasire-kun)

Char/Charlotte: Each other/ Ayumi

Fumiko: Will mostly call people without honorifics since she likes to be close to people

Hayate: He calls every girl with –chan, expect older woman, minus Rika who he's close to, then he'll say –san. For boys he will say –kun, since this is more used for boys

(Calls Shouta Dobu-kun for small animal, but for simplicity if he didn't give a nickname Momo and Hayate would both call him Shouta-kun)

Shouta: Will mostly call people –san since this is a respectful tone