"I think this line might actually work better if we moved it to the second verse," said Chika, pointing to a small string of lyrics in her notebook.

"Wrap up the old before starting the new," observed Riko, nodding in agreement. "I think you're right. Let me mark that down..." The redhead grabbed a pencil, scribbling in the margins of her sheet music before letting Chika write down her own notation.

The two school idols were cloistered in the redhead's room, working to create their newest song for performing at the next round of Love Live. Or rather, the next next round of Love Live. The next elimination round was in just under two weeks, and the song they were planning on singing for that particular venue had been finished for a while now. The next couple weeks was supposed to be focused solely on costume creation and choreography.

As everything tended to be drawn from the song, Chika and Riko always needed to be ahead of the curve so everyone could maximize the amount of time they had to work. After all, with nine school idols in one group, there was a lot that needed to get done. It was a good system, and had already seen them skyrocket past Saint Snow two months prior.

Chika hummed in consideration as she flipped to the next page. "Now let's talk about the chorus!"

"Eh?" Riko cocked her head in confusion. "Didn't we already finalize the chorus a few minutes ago?"

"What?! Um... yeah," said Chika, furrowing her brow in thought. "...B-But I had some more thoughts on stuff we could do with it! So... can we revisit it?"

"If that's what you think is best," replied Riko with a gentle smile.

"Great!" chirped the ginger. She flipped backwards in her notebook to find her recent notes on the song's chorus. To her concern however, she couldn't find them. "Did... did I not write anything down?"

"Didn't you?" asked Riko. "I'm sure you did somewhere. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully."

Chika looked back through her notebook, flipping past pages of lyrics and annotations, all the way to the stuff they did for the previous song they worked on, and beyond that, eventually coming to the front cover. She found nothing.

"I guess... I didn't?" she offered with a helpless shrug. "Can I see what you wrote down?"

"You told me not to worry about it and just wrote everything down yourself," replied Riko.

"What? I did? ...Then did neither of us really write anything down?"

Riko could only give a nonchalant shrug, much to Chika's surprise. "I suppose not," remarked the redhead. "But here's a better question. Why are we here?"

Chika stared at Riko. She blinked. Once, twice. "To write a song for Love Live," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Sure, sure," acknowledged Riko dismissively, "But why are we here now?"

"Huh?"

"Chika, our days as school idols ended years ago. Neither of us even lives here anymore."

"But we have to save Uranohoshi!"

"And we did! Remember how, after graduating, Mari gave Yoshiko the position of headmaster?"

"I..." Chika frowned. Riko's words rang true, but the memories just weren't there. Small slivers and fragments came to her, of still-life images colored in grayscale, but nothing more concrete. She shot Riko a pleading look, practically begging for an explanation she couldn't find on her own.

Riko giggled. "Oh Chika... It's actually quite simple, if you think about it. You dream of Ruby when you're feeling scared, you dream of Dia when you're feeling angry, you dream of Hanamaru when you're feeling hungry, and you dream of me when you're feeling forgetful. So now the question is: What did you forget?"

Chika blinked. "What did I...?"

Just then, everything started shaking. Chika gave a yelp as she grabbed onto her chair, but Riko merely kept smiling serenely, even as her bookshelf fell over, spilling volumes upon volumes of yuri manga onto the floor.

"Riko! How can you be so nonchalant about this earthquake?!" cried Chika as she dove beneath Riko's desk for shelter.

"Because it's exactly like I said, Chika. This is all a dream." The walls began buckling as chunks of them started falling onto the carpet. Riko frowned. "Still, the dream is ending soon, and I wasn't able to help you remember whatever it was you forgot. I'm sorry."

Chika opened her mouth to respond, but the building supports gave way and the ceiling came crashing down on them.

Chika's eyes snapped open, the ginger inhaling sharply as she felt a pressure weighing down her entire body, coupled with a gentle sensation along the side of her neck. The sound of giggling came from just below her chin, and Chika's crimson eyes shifted down to behold a head of wild brunette hair, You's azure eyes peeking up at her mischievously.

"Good morning," said You as she placed another kiss along Chika's throat.

"Good morning," replied Chika, still in a haze from having just awoken. "What are you doing?"

Her confusion only elicited another chuckle from the brunette. She stopped her kissing and shifted herself so as to look the ginger straight in the eye. "Hey Chika, I have a question for you. Would you rather have breakfast, a bath, or... me?" To encourage Chika to pick the correct answer, she pulled down the collar of her pajama top to expose a hint of cleavage.

"I'd love to have you, but I haven't brushed my teeth yet."

In response, You grabbed the back of her head and mashed their lips together, and logic and reason gave way to passion and love.

A long while later, the two lounged together on their bed in much the same position they were in before their coupling. Chika lay in the center of the bed with You wrapped all around her, the brunette's head cuddled against Chika's neck, their pillows and covers strewn haphazardly across the floor. Just like every other time they'd made love.

Right now, Chika felt like she may as well have been lying on a cloud in heaven. Her body was drained and her muscles exhausted, but the satisfaction she felt was almost cathartic. She was also proud, as over the years, she'd learned to give as good as she got, which was pretty darn good in Chika's definitely unbiased opinion. Inhaling, she breathed in the scent of her lover, savoring its sweetness and familiarity.

You nuzzled against Chika gently, before giving her another gentle kiss. "Happy Anniversary," she murmured.

Chika's eyes shot open for the second time that day, and she sprang up to a sitting position, slapping her hands over her mouth as her satisfaction morphed into alarm. "It's our anniversary!" she all but shrieked in abject horror.

"W-Wha? Chika?!"

Hundreds of scenarios shot through her head about what would happen as well as how to best handle this massive blunder. The best scenarios, with You being upset for a time, only came to pass with one course of action. Heaving a ragged breath, she practically slammed her head on the bed as she bowed to You, prostrating herself for You's immediate judgment. "I'm so sorry!" she wailed.

You, for her part, was only slightly phased. Stunned at this drastic change of pace, she could only blink for the first few seconds as she pieced together what was wrong. But when those pieces finally coalesced, she sighed in relief that it wasn't something serious.

"Chika... It's okay that you didn't remember."

Chika's grovelling paused, and she looked up from the bed with tear stained eyes. "But..."

"I'm not surprised you don't remember," said You, gently wiping away the tears. "I mean, there are a lot of things we celebrate anniversaries for, right? The day we first met, the day we became a couple, the day we started living together, the day of our wedding... It's a lot to keep track of."

Chika sniffed. "Maybe. But if you can remember then I should be able to remember too."

You chuckled sheepishly. "Actually, I don't remember either."

"...What?"

"Yeah, I marked this day as an anniversary when we got our new calendars a few months back, but I completely forgot why."

"Huh. I had a dream with Riko again," admitted Chika. You nodded and hummed, understanding perfectly. "If neither of us remembers, then isn't this just an ordinary day?"

"It can be. But if it's all the same to you, I'll take the excuse just to spoil you." With that, You got out of bed and stretched, turning to Chika with a grin. "And on that note, I did make breakfast before I woke you. So why don't I carry you to the kitchen?"

"Does that mean?!"

"Yep!"

"Yahoo! Naked piggyback rides!" cheered Chika as she jumped on You's back.

The brunette laughed happily as she set off. "Full speed ahead! Yousoro~!"

[END]

AN: If anyone's curious, this particular anniversary is, ironically, the day they first had sex.

Also, for the sake of completeness, Chika...

Dreams of Kanan when she feels guilty.

Dreams of Mari when she feels mischievous.

Dreams of Yoshiko when she feels confident or when she wants to do something ridiculously over the top.

Dreams of You when she feels happy. :)

Or horny. ^_^