#honestly it would be almost cuter if the baby just babbles something that sounds sort of like his name

[meownotgood]

Aki havin a kid and their firdt word being his name, how would do you think he would react HELP

perhaps you and aki have a bit of a lighthearted bet going on about what your kids first word is going to be... aki swears that "dad" is going to be the first thing, and he tries to get your little baby to say it at every opportunity — to little success, unfortunately. but imagine his shock when one day, he's just playing with them and they end up sounding out his name instead.

aki literally demands you come with him this instant, he drags you into the baby's room because he has to show you what they just said, it's extremely important. he tries to coax them into saying it again... and when they finally do, aki is ecstatic, he's grabbing your hands and he's saying, "you heard that, right?! she said my name! I wasn't even teaching her to do that..."

[a-gay-bloodmage]

—If you’ve killed an Archdemon, you can deliver a baby!—

Pairing: Alistair x Female Cousland Warden 

Pairing Type: M/F

Words: 2,103

Warnings: Descriptions of childbirth, lots of pain, King!Alistair and Queen!Cousland, pretty fluffy with a good scoop of angst, some good ol’ elf hating in good ol’ Ferelden, (personal interpretations of) high fantasy genetics

"If you've killed an Archdemon, you can deliver a baby!" Alistair's voice was next to her, breaking through the sounds of her moans and occasional screams of pain. Andrea had been in labor for hours, since the sun came up until sundown. The Royal Bedchamber was lit by slowly melting candles, the usually calming orange glow providing no comfort. She couldn't help but feel incredibly worried, terrified that something was wrong. The midwives kept telling her to push, push, push, the head nurse encouraging her on. She heard Alistair's hand slightly crack, she was gripping him so tight she feared she'd broken something.

"Almost there!" The head nurse said, "come on, your Highness, push!"

"I am!" Andrea yelled back, the torture of birth unbearable. She'd never been the best with pain, and this was horribly different than fighting.

"You're okay!" Alistair said, gritting his teeth through the pain of her hand gripping his. "Come on, love, you've got this!" With one final push, she felt the child push out, the head nurse quickly making another midwife cut the umbilical cord and hand her a slightly damp blanket. Her breathing was heavy, but the relief of the slowly subsiding pain was most welcome.

"My baby," she whispered, her voice hoarse from screaming, and her eyelids drooping in fatigue. "Is my baby okay?" The head nurse gasped, and the look of shock on the other midwives faces made her eyes fly open in a panic. "Is my baby okay?" Her rough voice rose in fear, leaning forward despite the pain. The midwives didn't respond, and they seemed frozen in shock.

"What's wrong?" Alistair asked, he, too, growing incredibly concerned. "Tell me, is it okay? Why is it so quiet?" She began to shake, fearing the worst, until she heard the small gurgle of a child.

"Give me my child!" She demanded, knowing now that it was alive, she wanted nothing more than to hold it. "As your Queen, I demand you to!" The nurse handed the child over with shaking hands.

"It's a girl," she said, her elderly voice slightly trembling. Andrea took her in her arms, not caring about whatever the nurses had been fearful of. Her baby was alive, and she seemed perfectly healthy. Andrea bent down, giving her daughter a gentle kiss with lightly closed eyes.

"What in the Maker's name...?" She heard Alistair whisper, and she turned to look at him.

"What?"

"Look at her ears," he gasped, his light brown eyes as wide as the midwives'. She looked as he said, and felt her own eyes widen.

The child was an elf.

A proper, actual elf.

Her ears were pointed, and her infant lashes were long, her tiny frame certainly smaller than any human child.

Her child was an elf.

The princess of Ferelden was an elf.

She gently touched the child's ear, and her eyelids fluttered open, blinking as she adjusted to the dim light of the world. They sparkled in a beautiful yellow-green hue, the pupils wide as she stared up at her mother, tiny pink lips open in a sort of surprise. Almost as if she knew that her mother was different than her.

"Hello, my child," Andrea whispered, her long, inky black hair falling to the side of her face. "Donella Andrea Eleanor Theirin," she said, her voice still hushed. "You're even prettier than I dreamed you'd be." She didn't care about the way her baby's ears looked. It didn't matter. Here she was, holding the princess of Ferelden, her baby, who was cuter than anything she'd hoped she'd be.

"An elf cannot be royalty," the head nurse whispered. "It is against the law."

"I am the Queen," Andrea said, looking up at the woman with a scowl on her face. "And I declare that law voided."

"Your Highness-"

"Leave my chambers," she commanded. "All of you. I wish to be alone with my King and your new princess."

"Yes, your Highness," the woman bowed, exiting the room with the other midwives in tow.

"You're so very quiet," Andrea whispered, looking down at her child. "Donella, sweetheart, do you know your mother?" The newborn simply gurgled and opened her mouth slightly, eliciting a small laugh from her mother. "Isn't she beautiful?"

"She is," Alistair said, sitting down on the bed next to Andrea. "But still, an elf," he shook his head slightly. "I don't understand how."

"Your mother was an elf, yes?" She asked, leaning on her husband's shoulder. He nodded. "I have reason to suspect that my grandmother was born of an affair with a servant." Alistair stared at her.

"Do you think that...?" She nodded.

"Perhaps these elven traits are akin to magic," she said, "and they lie dormant until they meet another to form a child." He shook his head.

"I honestly care about any of that right now," he said. "She's healthy and beautiful, we can question her ears later." His voice carried a small laugh in it. She smiled, glancing from her husband to her daughter. He placed a large finger against her chubby infant shoulder, making her squirm slightly. It was only a matter of time before she began to cry, though her voice held a strange calmness even through her wails. Andrea gently bounced the infant, cooing and babbling as she pressed Donella against her naked chest. The heavy breasts provided a cushion for the tiny elven child, who seemed utterly dwarfed against her busty and heavy-set mother, and her muscled warrior King of a father.

"I can't believe you made our baby cry!" She laughed quietly.

"Damn, sorry," he grimaced.

"Just a jest," she smiled, holding the princess close. "I'm most certain she will love you just as I and the rest of your people do." She moved the child slightly, letting her suckle at her mother's breast, instantly quieting her. Andrea took the time to grab a soaked cloth to wipe the evidence of birth from the newborn, cleaning her of the blood and water of the womb.

"Andrea?" Alistair's tone worried her.

"Yes, dear?"

"As much as I love her, I'm afraid that the people, they won't accept an elf as a princess," he said. She knew it was coming, but the words still broke her heart.

"I know," she nodded, her voice breaking. "I know." He held her hand, gentle, as he spoke.

"And then there's the matter of announcing her birth," he said. "I'm afraid that it'll be incredibly complicated." Her response was cut off by a slight knocking at the door. Alistair stood up. "I'll go shoo whoever it is off, don't worry." She nodded. He went over to the door, and as soon as he opened it, a large mass of muscle and fur shoved past him into the room. The massive warhound jumped into the bed at her feet, his stubby tail shaking his entire rump as he panted, looking at the new baby.

"Prince!" She scolded, though her voice held the undertone of a laugh, the jolt on the bed disrupting the baby's feeding. Donella began to whimper before starting to cry again, upset at being bumped away from her mother's breast. "You ask before you get on the the bed! Now shoo!" Prince whined, sadly jumping from the bed. He looked up at his master from the cold, stone floor, his eyes begging to be allowed back on the bed. She hushed the crying child, guiding her back to the breast. "You may get on, but be gentle." Prince happily jumped back up onto the bed as Alistair sat down next to her.

"Does he really need to be on the bed with our newborn infant?" Alistair asked, sighing.

"She's the princess of Ferelden, it's only natural she be exposed to the wonder that is the mabari." It was no secret that Andrea loved that dog like a child, and that she certainly loved him more than Alistair did. Donella soon turned her head away from her mother's bosom, and Andrea promptly put the child over her shoulder to burp her. Prince watched in curiosity as the baby was bounced, tilting his head as she let out a quiet little burp. Andrea held her, shifting her legs to set up a small barrier between the baby and the dog, allowing Prince to look over her legs at the tiny child. His big brown eyes were wide in confusion, though he could probably smell the scent of birth on the two.

"I'm sorry I worried you," Andrea said to the mabari, "I was yelling for quite a long time, wasn't I?" She remembered clearly the sounds of the worried hound coming from outside the chamber's doors, the beloved dog begging and howling to be let in to help his master with whatever monster she was fighting. "But look! Isn't your new princess beautiful?" The dog seemed to smile, his tongue lolling out happily. He resting his heavy head on her quilt-covered knees, sniffing at the air surrounding the baby. Donella had fallen asleep cozied up against Andrea's heavy chest. The fireplace popped as it burned by the bedside, the sound of rain hitting the window as it started up. Andrea leaned back against the mass of pillows, her hair a mess and her face still red from the struggle of giving birth.

"Here," Alistair said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'll slip a cloth on her." She gave the child to her husband, his large features so incredibly gentle as he slipped a cloth onto the tiny infant so she didn't soil the bedsheets. She wiggled around in her sleep, but thankfully didn't wake as she was places back into Andrea's arms. She gently laid Donella on her back, resting against her mother's large breasts as a cushion. "I'll stay awake to make sure nothing happens," Alistair whispered, placing a kiss on his wife's head. "Get some rest." She nodded weakly, falling asleep in a few moments. He leaned against the pillows of the bed, watching his wife and daughter sleep, accompanied by the ever vigilant mabari warhound. The dog had already seemed to be attached to his beloved master's new child, and Alistair knew that not a hair on that child's head would be harmed as long as her Prince was around. He looked back to the child, and noticed that her eyes were open, staring at the King on the bed. She was slightly squinting, her new eyes still weak. The pupils were large, the ring of beautiful yellow-tinted emerald shimmering in the candlelight. He gave her a smile, not sure if he should say anything. Her little pink lips were opened, her tiny breaths quiet.

"Hey there, Donella," he smiled, slightly nervous that he'd make her cry again. She blinked, seeming to acknowledge his words. He was glad she was a girl, in honestly, or else she likely would've been named Maric Alistair Theirin, as Andrea was always one so hung up on tradition. To think that his formally elf-dismissing, noble-to-the-core wife would birth an elven child utterly baffled him. It was one thing to have a bastard sitting on the throne, but another thing entirely to have an elf even come close to the crown. "Whatever happens," he said to the tiny infant lying upon her mother's chest, "I will be sure to love you." She whined slightly, the quiet gurgle of the child giving off an aura of something peculiar. I swear to the Maker, do not let this child be magic! He shook his head at the thought. She spit slightly, and the spell broke, the child going back to being simply that, a child. He smiled, looking down at his daughter. My daughter, he thought, a grin breaking out onto his face. I never thought... he leaned down to give her a feather-light kiss on her brow. Her head drooped slightly to the side, her breathing slowing as she fell asleep again.

He knew that he was running out of time, as all Wardens eventually did, but seeing the tiny child asleep on her mother's bosom gave him comfort to know that even though there would come a time when he went down into those tunnels of eternal darkness, to die as all like him did, that there would be someone to stay behind, to comfort Andrea as she lost her husband to the abyss. He heaved a heavy sigh, tilting his head back. He pushed the thought away. No sense dwelling on the future.

All things would come to pass in time.

[carib0us]

Better Together 06: Better Together

Riko paused. She was, in fact, tempted to hang up, clear the call out of the list, and go back and deal with one crisis at a time. If, in fact, Maki could reassure Nico where Riko had failed, after seven years apart, that was fairly depressing, and didn’t bode well for their new relationship, no matter how you looked at it. But the former idol was correct: eventually, she’d reach Nico, and it wouldn’t help if Riko had lied about it.

Summary:

Old Maki and Young Maki square off over Nico.

“Please tell me Nico is alive, whoever you are that is answering Nico’s phone.” The voice on the other end seemed frantic.

Rico was startled, but able to answer with her last name and the information that Nico was neither dead nor hospitalized. The conversation went downhill from there. Nishikino-san was clearly angry when Riko told her Nico couldn’t answer her phone right now. Her explanation for how she even knew Nico was also not well-received.

“… So, my song is stupid. Is that right? Then why were you playing it in Akihabara, again?”

“I don’t really know, Nishikino-san …”

“Exactly. When you play a song and you don’t know why, it’s not a stupid song. From the sound of things, you should actually understand it very well. It’s not a la-la-la Polyanna song about love, it’s saying love hurts. Love takes courage. Do you want to know the background?”

“Don’t we have more urgent things …”

“Nope. So please listen, Sakurauchi-san. I had just finished middle school, I was looking over UTX in front of the marquee, and I met what I took to be a first-year middle schooler. She looked at me for a long time, then finally got up her courage to speak to me. She started rattling off information about the new school idol group at UTX, and also babbling about how any day now she’d have an idol group just as good. Pretty soon, she asked me a very personal question, namely, did I think it was weird if a girl suddenly decided she might like girls? Not asking for herself, but just a thought that had occurred to her. Well, I admit I had just been having the same thought, my last year in middle school, and looking at her more closely, she might even be a 5th or 6th year at elementary school, so I took pity on her.  Are you with me so far, Sakurauchi-san?”

“Ye-es…” Riko said. She obviously knew who the girl was.

“There was something so fresh and alive about her enthusiasm, and it made her even cuter. Too cute. In a lot of ways, Honoka reminded me of her, later,  when she wanted to recruit me to write songs for her and her friends. I even found myself thinking, whichever girl she had a crush on, I hope she appreciates this cute, earnest little thing. That very night, at home, I sketched out Aishiteru Banzai. It felt, a bit, like I was writing about me as well as the little girl from UTX. I even was honest enough with myself to admit I wished she was a bit older and about to go to UTX with me.”

“But!” Riko couldn’t help saying.

“Please stay with me, Sakurauchi-san. Well, my parents and principal Minami convinced me to go to Otonokizaka. By that point, the song meant a lot to me, and I thought of that girl whenever I played it. I was warming up for some composing by playing it when Honoka heard it. Later on, when Nico was so jealous and trying to sabotage our group, was when I found out I had met a high school second-year! So, instead of being precocious, she was maybe a little late in life to be realizing she liked girls. She recognized me, of course, and immediately started hugging me all the time. Just based on one meeting! Where we hadn’t even done the basic courtesy of exchanging names.

You have to realize that everything had changed in my impression of her. Even if I wanted to have some sort of relationship with her beyond school, what kind it could be escaped me. Far from the enthusiastic, excited girl I had met, I saw this hikikomori and internet troll who didn’t seem to be doing anything but throwing darts at people who could do things. Even setting that aside, come what may, we’d have less than a year to associate with each other.  So, I wrote it off. I had written one song for her, and that would have to do.”

“Ah,” Riko said. Clearly, a lot of this phone call was going to be Nishikino-sempai telling her, Riko, the facts of life.

“So now, we can get to what you want to talk about - why am I calling, what are my intentions. A and B. Am I right?”

“Yes, very  much so.”

“Okay, since you didn’t immediately say Nico is in the hospital or anything, I will assume she’s physically unharmed?”

“Well, yes, but.”

“Why I called? It’s irrational, but I felt like Nico was in mortal terror. That’s, honestly, why I called immediately.”

“Ah. Really?” They were that much in tune?  After all that time? None of this was making sense. “Umm … that is amazing.”

“So, it’s true? Then, is she safe, physically, after all?”

“Well, yes, merely terrified.”

“So it’s ‘merely terrified,’ is it? I never knew Nico to get as upset as it felt in my gut she was over a spider in the kitchen. She probably has a good reason.”

“Well, yes, but.”

“Wait, are you her girlfriend? Ah .. wait a second.

… Are you the Sakurauchi Riko of Aqours, by any chance? You’d almost have to be.”

“This is Sakurauchi Riko, yes, and yes, pretty much her girlfriend ….”

“I sense a big ‘however’ there, Sakurauchi.”

“Well, it’s very new and I am just now getting over a heartbreak over the leader of Aqours. And this is Nico’s first time dating, as well as mine. I give you one guess who she’s been obsessing over.”

“Ah.” It was Maki’s turn.

“And the reason she’s terrified is that we are at a ryokan together and I am underage and she thinks the innkeeper here is going to blackmail her, and I don’t think that’s true at all.”

“All the more reason for me to talk to her, then. I can give her peace of mind on some things that have, no doubt, been distressing her. Sakurauchi — Riko — can you promise me you won’t try to go after your group leader again and leave Nico stranded?”

“I don’t think it’s likely, but at this point? I can’t promise anything, truthfully.”

“Then, as for my intentions, I can’t promise you anything, either, Riko. You might as well get Nico. Sooner or later, I’ll get through to her, and it would be better if you are honest with her the whole way through.”

Riko paused. She was, in fact, tempted to hang up, clear the call out of the list, and go back and deal with one crisis at a time. If, in fact, Maki could reassure Nico where Riko had failed, after seven years apart, that was fairly depressing, and didn’t bode well for their new relationship, no matter how you looked at it. But the former idol was correct: eventually, she’d reach Nico, and it wouldn’t help if Riko had lied about it.

“Yes,” she said, resigned.

When they got to the little dining nook where the four of them were to meet, Riko was waiting at the entrance with Nico's phone.

"Nishikino-san is on the phone. She called because she was worried about you. She sent a lot of frantic texts, too. That's why I took the call. " That was all Riko said, as she handed it to Nico.

"M-Maki-ch-chan?" Nico heard herself stuttering and couldn't bring herself to care.

"Nico-chan!" she heard. "Please tell me you're okay, baby." Since when did Maki talk like this to Nico? She seemed extremely worried.

"I have to speak privately," Nico said to the other three, apologetically. She left, not seeing Riko's crestfallen expression.

After she closed the door, she told Maki she was upset, but physically unharmed.

"The new girl - that Aqours girl - she told me most of it. Can you tell me what the note said, honey?" There it was, again.

Nico summarized it for Maki, who said "Let me think, and don't say anything for a second, okay, Nico-tan?"

After a very long pause, Maki said, "I agree with the girl. I know how much all this means to you, honestly I do. I am so, so sorry you had to go through this. Ummmm I had another reason to call. I felt like I could feel your fear, to be honest, Nico. And it made me think, what if something happened to you before I could tell you all the things I was keeping from you? Would I ever have peace of mind again?"

Nico waited, then said, "Umm what things, Maki-chan?"

"Well, first of all, you were right. All those years ago. I wanted to say yes. I wanted to be with you. All those cruel things I said - well there was truth under most of them, but it wasn't how I felt, it was how I thought I could convince you to give up on me."

Nico told Maki she had to sit down. She did so, on the floor, with her back against the wall by the doorway.

"Nico, I was fifteen. Well, barely sixteen when I actually broke your heart, but the point stands. Whenever I tried to picture our future together, now that you were back on track to do what you loved, it was one nightmare after another. We couldn't possibly go to the same school after Otonokizaka, but you weren't even necessarily going to go to school, let alone planning to, say, go to a school that suited you that would be in the same region as one I could go to and not get disowned. I always saw you trying to juggle us and that and everything and failing. And you might even blame me. And I would have to juggle everything too, and we might both fail, and might both blame each other. I thought - no, I knew - you'd hate me for how I rejected you, but that was better than us ending up hating each other."

Nico didn't know how to feel. Not at all.

"Nico honey, the girl. Is she good to you? Does she make you happy, baby?"

"She is good to me, and I think I am happier than I was, if that makes any sense."

"Yeah, it does. Too much. Ummm ... look. About us."

Nico had an immediate lump in her throat. Us?

"The reunion is in three years, but practice will probably start the fall before that, if I know Umi, Eli and Honoka as well as I think I do. And we may meet up sometimes before that. We should also keep in touch from now on. At least once a month I want some communication from you, and I'll do the same. The way we sometimes avoided each other is actually more telling than if we'd stayed close, you know."

Nico started to promise she'd do that. She didn't know or want to analyze why she felt disappointed.

"But that's dodging the subject, I know it is. You have a girlfriend now -- finally. My parents are making me go to o-miais. But everything is uncertain, isn't it? I've discussed this with the girl. If you end up breaking up with her before the reunion, and I am not engaged or something, then let's agree to meet up and try to work our relationship out. Is that okay?"

"Ye-yes." Face it, Nico couldn't say no to that.

"And at the reunion, we'll have a heart-to-heart conversation, just the two of us. Anything before that would be unfair to Sakurauchi. I'm going to be selfish, and tell you this straight out, though: it's not for sure that that group leader Chika won't come after her, after all, someday. Or that she'll stick with you if she does. Are you aware of that?"

Well, Nico was quite aware of that. It wasn't disloyal to admit that to Maki, just factual.

"Or that I won't have a change of heart and beg you to leave her for me, if I am going to continue being honest. Or that you'd refuse me if it happened in reality. So she's in much the same situation as you, I think.  We'll all be in limbo for two or three years. I think that's inescapable. But I couldn't live with myself any longer, thinking of you suffering and thinking you'd been to blame or you were crazy back then. So, I wanted to get some peace of mind, for both of us. I really did love you, Nico, and I think I always will, to a degree. But I also feel like I did so much to you that I no longer really have the right to just swoop in and claim you. I really want you to do what's best for your heart, Nico, even if it isn't with me. You don't think of yourself enough, that way, and it's going to hurt you in the long run. I want you to be happy and healthy, no matter what. Also, I have followed your career, and everything you've done, ever since you graduated. That's why you saw me twice at dramas you were starring in. Rin and Hanayo picked up on that, but they don't blab to the others. Sometimes, they bugged me about you, but I'd point out what I'd said and done, and they'd grudgingly agree I might be right not to do anything now."

So that's why Rin and Hanayo both brought up Maki all the time to Nico. It wasn't careless insensitivity, it was a hint. Oh.

"I think you're right, Maki-chan, but now I have to have another talk with Riko. I hope it doesn't spoil our week here. We both agreed to an extra week here, on them, and I want it to be nice and relaxing for both of us."

"Then tell her as much as you see fit, and in whatever way you think is best, Nico," Maki suggested. "You will always have my love with you, and I mean by that, I will always be happy knowing you're still in the world, and doing okay. All right?"

Nico started to cry, and Maki obviously heard her. "It's okay, Nico. I'm crying too. You should go talk to Rico. I won't say 'goodbye,' just 'talk to you later.'

"Talk to you later, Maki-chan."

"Talk to you later, Nico-chan."

When Nico came back, it was pretty clear they'd had the kind of conversation Riko was dreading. She had to be fair, so she imagined what she'd have said if Chika had been calling her, while Riko was having a crisis. If she'd broken up with You over Riko, and was begging her to come back. Seen through that lens, the NicoRiko relationship was all too fragile. In fact, if they hadn't been tried by fire here, she thought she'd have simply bitten the bullet and told Nico goodbye. Not without some goodbye sex, if possible, she acknowledged. She really, really liked sex with Nico. And she had no experience to tell her if it was simply that she really liked sex. But now - now they'd been through something. And they'd pulled through together, as a unit. She'd seen Nico at her most vulnerable, and it was, frankly, adorable. If this was Nico saying goodbye, she'd be rude and put up a fight.

It wasn't, but it wasn't perfect either. Well, what had been, so far? They were cobbling love together with the crumbly remains of two pure hearts, after all. The first good sign was Nico agreeing to stay the rest of the week with her. It was miraculous she had, or could make, the time. And it promised at least a week of goodbye sex, if that's where everything was heading. Riko was learning to make the most of what life gave her. It looked like Nico was, too. They had a long conversation with the innkeeping couple, and Riko sussed out that the younger woman thought "Takami Maki" was really Nico's little sister, Cocoa. So, she wasn't a complete airhead after all. And her wife clearly knew the whole story, and was eager to reassure Nico, so that was fine.

But when they got back to the room, Nico detailed her conversation with Maki. What an idiot the Nishikino girl was! Well, to be fair she'd been a bit younger than Riko was, now, almost a year. Riko didn't feel in a mood to be too fair, but she had a suspicion she might have fared as poorly in such a high-pressure situation. Still ... when Nico rather bluntly passed on Maki's observation that the three of them would be in limbo for a while because of Nico's and Riko's mixed feelings and equally mixed loyalties, that was disconcerting. She had to console herself with the fact that, for now, Nico was sticking with her. Again, she tried to be fair. She could easily see herself torn between Chika and Nico if the situation had evolved in that direction. Even if she left for Chika, she'd have regrets. Either way, she would. That was obviously Maki's point: they'd have regrets no matter what happened.

Then Nico brought her musing to a halt.

"But I am not sure why you'd put up with me, Riko-chan. I mean, you're super-beautiful, talented. You've already said you'd be content with someone like Yoshiko-chan - that she reminds you of me - and she doesn't have my baggage. So, why ..."

"That is an easy one, sempai," Riko said. She was speaking without thinking, but it was something she'd already mulled over enough, unconsciously. "For whatever reason, you and I are better together than apart. I was all unhappy, and you made me happy. And I did the same for you. We shouldn't poison that, at least for now, by worrying about the future excessively."

Nico took that in. "Then, how should we do this?" she wondered.

"Well, make love a lot. That part isn't optional, sempai. I even want you "visiting" Uranohoshi to "congratulate us" and "consult" with me. I will have my very most discreet friends arrange a place we can have sex, right at the school. I will also visit my friends and relatives in Tokyo a lot, and slip over to your apartment, late at night." Nico just stared at her.

"And music. Let's make music together. I told you, you are inspiring me. I am going to say that, plainly, to Aqours. Nothing that gives anything away. Just say that we met at Akihabara when I was composing and inspired each other, and you generously offered to advise me." She grinned.

It sounded like a great farewell to the idol world to Nico. She started to picture it. Hot little girlfriend, musical prodigy. She wouldn't have to sacrifice anything much to ease the terrible, cold loneliness she now admitted was second nature to Nico by this point. And three years wasn't just a reunion; it was probably just enough time for Chika and You to figure out if they really were lovers, or better off as friends. Reevaluating everything around then would probably have happened anyway - they were just sort of formalizing it. After all, knowing her own feelings for You, Chika had still basically confessed to Riko, and her explanation seemed a little incomplete. Nico had noticed definite harem-building tendencies in Kousaka Honoka -- more than once. Perhaps it ran with the idol leader personality, because Tsubasa definitely had it. Nico was, to be honest, much more of a solo idol, unless the group was as special as µ's had been.

Suddenly, a thought must have occurred to Riko. She excused herself, and said she had to make a quick phone call as she was walking away.

When she came back, she was smirking.

"Who were you talking to, Riko-chan?" Nico asked, puzzled.

"Maki-chan, in fact!" Riko answered, still smirking. What the hell?

"And ..." Riko continued. "She doesn't want Nico-chan doing nude scenes, ever, either. Especially with men! That's a big ewww for both of us! So Nico-chan has no choice, either way."

Riko laughed at the expression on Nico's face. As absurd as it might seem, she and her older version might end up being friends, after all of this resolved itself, either way.  Then, as she observed Nico relaxing and trustingly cuddling up to her, instinctively, and Yuriko doing the same with Riri, the latter looked back and winked at Riko. And maybe not just Maki, she thought to herself.  Against all the odds, she could repeat to herself the fantasy she'd had when she proposed this to Nico, but now with conviction.  Best trip, ever.

Notes:

I hope people enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. I am glad a conclusion came to me before it meandered around too much. I like it when a story is just the right length, and this one was.

Yuriko and Lily Nishiyama were inspired quite loosely by Ichi and Yamamoto from Amano Shuninta's debut work, Yukemuri Sanctuary.

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