"Eli-san!" Chika called out from across the auditorium lobby. As the blonde turned around, she was met with a wide smile from the Aqours leader.

She smiled back. "Hello, Chika. How are you guys?"

"We're great!" She exclaimed. The rest of Aqours was behind her, somewhat jogging to them.

"Goodness, Chika. You really shouldn't be yelling in here," Dia scolded her. "People will start to stare."

"Sorry, Dia-san. I was just excited to see Muse again."

"It hasn't been that long."

"It's been nearly two months, Dia-chan," Nozomi chimed in. "And some of us haven't even met before."

Dia looked at the purple-haired girl confusedly, but as instantly started to panic when she saw four people coming from the crowd.

"You've only met Eli, Nozomi, Rin, and Umi. And you forget about the rest of us?" A high-pitched, sarcastic voice said. The 'super idol' Nico came from behind Nozomi with Honoka (and their respective girlfriends), Hanayo, and Kotori around her. "How could you call yourself a fan?"

Instead of retorting back at the insult, Dia was stood still. She was absorbing the fact that she was meeting the rest of Muse. Not only Dia, but so was Chika and Mari.

Honoka jumped in front of the frozen girls and started to greet herself. "We've heard a lot about you from both your times as school idols and from everyone here! It's nice to meet you now!" She put out a hand, but the three girls just stared at it. Chika was put into a trance when she saw it, from what the older orange-haired girl saw. "Eli-chan and Umi-chan told me a lot about you! It's nice to see that I still have fans."

"I-I…uh…eh…hehe…" Chika was turned into a babbling mess from being able to meet her idol from Muse in person. She hesitantly shook Honoka's hand, which made the older girl laugh.

"Honoka-san!" Ruby called out as she and Hanamaru started to walk over to them. She tackled the orange-haired girl into a hug. "You and Nico-san are back? I thought you had some more dates for your tour."

Nico sighed as she walked over to the two. "I can't believe you didn't correct it yet."

"You could have done it too, Nico-chan!" Honoka retorted back, sticking her tongue out. "You are more responsible for emails and stuff like that."

Nico grumbled as Honoka smirked from defeating Nico (again). "Whatever. We put in the wrong dates when we were messaging you. We actually were three days early from what we sent you. My bad," Nico said as Honoka glared at her.

"That's great, zura! We have to talk soon!" Hanamaru gleefully said, earning a nod from Honoka and Nico.

"R-Ruby! H-Hugging Honoka-s-san!" Dia stuttered out. She was in disbelief that those two were so close that they could be hugging. Mari could only watch with her mouth agape, also wondering how close the two were.

They were taken out of their trance by Kanan, who slapped their shoulders with her hands. "Stop being dummies, you dorks. Hanamaru and Ruby told us that they've met everyone. Except maybe Kotori-san and Hanayo-san."

As their names were said, the couple came over. "Hello everyone," Kotori greeted everyone. "It's nice to meet you all."

"Hello, Hanayo-san!" Ruby said. "I'm excited that I get to meet my favourite Muse member!"

The brunette softly giggled. "Hello, Ruby-chan. I'm also a fan of yours."

"R-Really? That's really cool!" Ruby gleefully responded.

You and Yoshiko were behind them, and the girls soon went into groups to talk. They started to pile into the auditorium, with the girls splitting up into their groups.

Yoshiko, Rin, and Nico were together. Nico talked about her tour, which led to a talk about video games. Since Nico and Rin weren't together, the two of them kept their bond by playing cooperative games. They sometimes played competitive games, such as Street Fighter. As such, Yoshiko chimed in as she had something to talk about (she was a fan of idols since she was one, but it wasn't something that she could talk that much about). Learning about Yoshiko's job, Nico engaged herself into the world of tournaments, as did Rin.

You overheard the two couples (Hanamaru, Ruby, Kotori, and Hanayo) talking about fashion. She was surprised to hear that as she only knew about Ruby's designing for Hanamaru's idol career. She was even more surprised to hear that Kotori and Hanayo were starting up their own fashion line. Despite being a swimmer, You found herself engrossed in the stylish conversation.

Kanan, Umi, and Honoka were talking about how their jobs were. Despite it sounding boring, they all had very interesting jobs. Kanan loved talking about the idol world with Honoka, Umi was interested about the business that Kanan was in charge of, and Honoka loved to hear what happened in the dojo. There was also some light kissing, which made Umi blush deeply and made Honoka and Kanan laugh.

Nozomi and Mari were talking, still having mischievous talks. At least, according to their girlfriends

"They're talking again, huh?" Eli said.

"I guess so," Dia replied. "To be fair, we are too."

"Touché," Eli lightly laughed. "Actually, do you know anything about this?"

"Hmm, not really. All I saw was an invitation from Riko. I know she recovered fast, but to already be performing again? I'm surprised that she could be doing this."

Eli nodded. "Same here. I thought that Maki would be caring for Riko. I guess she took care of her well enough. What are they doing anyways?"

"Whatever it is, Riko wanted me to record it." Dia pulled out her phone, which still had Riko's saved performance from the fateful day. "I'll only record Riko's part."

"I guess I'll record Maki's." Eli said as she pulled out her phone.

The concert started, and the compositions were delightful. Everyone in the auditorium were into every performance and watched with awe.

"Now, we have something special for the final performance," the emcee said. Eli and Dia both sighed a breath of relief.

"I guess that they're going last," Eli whispered.

"Yeah…my arms were getting tired," Dia quietly whined.

"We have an established college performer playing with a highly accomplished doctor. Please welcome Nishikino Maki and Sakurauchi Riko, performing the duet A Red-Hot Love." The emcee walked off and the two girls were walking out to the sound of huge applause.

Eli and Dia started smiling wide. 'This is…so nice,' they both thought about their two friends.

Once the two started playing, it was the familiar fast-paced, happy sounding song that they heard before. It just sounded…better. The happy tone of the song was amplified, and the girls knew that it was because of the connection Riko and Maki shared. Their bond was deepened after everything went wrong, and they knew that it made them stronger as a pair.

They were drawn to the solos the two of them had. To have that much trust in each other to do a solo…they were meant for each other.

Once they were finished, there was thunderous applause from the entire venue. The two held hands as they thanked the crowd, a strong blush on both of their faces from playing their hearts out and for being by each other.

And finished...

I hope that this epilogue is good enough for you readers. I wanted a feel good ending (mostly because I had this planned while I wrote this story). I feel that I keep saying this, but this was one of my favourite things to write. I love the red-headed, piano playing duo of Riko and Maki. To be honest, with All Stars coming out would make the story a bit too easy since they would all be the same age. So, I am very happy with how this turned out.

Please leave reviews that (hopefully) say why you liked the story (if you did. If you didn't, please leave that in the review as well).

Thanks for Reading!