Author's note:

Right so here's the next chapter in this story, I apologise for the massive delay but juggling hobbies and exams can be a challenge at times. Anyway I am reasonably happy with how this chapter turned out and hope that you guys enjoy reading it. As always your opinions on this piece are much appreciated. Until next time (which will hopefully be sooner rather than later).

-TayloredPhoenix

Music:

Right so this is a new thing that I may keep going or may not, I wrote this entire thing listening to either "Summer Breeze" or "Play Your Joker" by Giyo. I feel as though either of these or any downtempo track goes well with this however that could be my music taste getting the better of me entirely so feel free to ignore this segment.

Disclaimer:

I do not claim rights to the Little Busters franchise, all rights reserved to Key and the respective owners of the series.

Story start:

Kurugaya was sat on a school desk her head resting on Riki's shoulder looking out the vast glass panes in front of them that made up the windows of the building. The sun had taken on a deep orange hue setting the sky alight with a gentle orange haze dancing across the few remaining clouds that could be found hanging in the sky. The vibrant light bled through the windows saturating the entire room and the couple inside with its warm glow.

Bliss. Out of the many words that Kurugaya had in her considerable vocabulary this was the one she decided best suited the situation. Riki had his arm wrapped around her waist and was resting his head atop hers, both closed their eyes having already taken in the beauty before them, all that was left now was to wait for nightfall.

Riki, true to his word, had organised for Kyousuke, Masato and Kengo to set off fireworks at nightfall. Of course the tradeoff being the trio wanted details on how things went with Kurugaya and how they ended up together.

With everything organised Kurugaya and Riki had broken their way into a classroom on the top floor looking out over the sports field. There could be trouble but the pair had long since given up caring about that, the moment that ultimately brought them together was being repeated and this time of their own volition.

Half an hour passed like this, not a word said, simply being in each other's presence was enough. Finally the sun had set and the stars were aglow taking centre stage in the sky up above. Riki lifted his head from Kurugaya's, both turned to face each other and smiled peacefully.

"Any minute now and they'll launch the fireworks," Riki commented.

"Knowing those idiots any hour is a more likely scenario," Kurugaya added chuckling.

Riki smirked and opened his mouth to reply but before he could the night sky exploded with colours. Streaks of light could be seen shooting straight up into the sky before exploding outwards in a flash of brilliant, vibrant light. The room was basked in greens, reds, blues, yellows and every shade of colour imaginable in between.

'They've really outdone themselves this time,' Riki thought to himself.

He turned his eyes away from the light show to find Kurugaya staring intently at him, he returned her gaze getting lost in the pools of violet that were staring straight back at him. The sound of the exploding fireworks became dull, distant even, his focus became undividedly drawn to the beauty before him. Before he knew what was happening Kurugaya's lips gently caught his own, surprise was the first reaction that popped to mind but he shut it out instead closing his eyes and returning the kiss.

There was one final boom accompanied by a bright red flash at which point Riki and Kurugaya finally broke apart breathing slightly heavier than before. Kurugaya lowered her head slightly her face having taken on a bright red colour.

"So I suppose now would be a good time to say I love you." Riki spoke gently.

It shouldn't have been possible but Kurugaya's face managed to go another shade brighter on the red spectrum. "Riki, before I met you I was emotionally detached, I drifted day by day not feeling anything towards myself or those around me. I understood emotions but they were not something I could ever relate to, I put on a mask resembling happiness to ease the minds of those around me. You changed all that, emotions that I had long since assumed were non-existent started surfacing around you, in that world I felt happiness, anger and misery for the first times in my life but most importantly I felt love. I suppose this is just a roundabout way of saying I love you too."

As she finished speaking Riki pulled Kurugaya into an embrace with an uncontained smile on his face. "You know as much as I would like to stay here all night with you we'd best be heading back."

"Oh I bet you want to spend the night with me," Kurugaya said with her trademark mischievous look.

"Wait that's n-not what I meant at all!" Riki stammered.

"Hahaha you're cute when you're flustered, come on let's get going."

With that the couple walked out hand in hand splitting off at their respective dorms but not before Riki gave Kurugaya a peck on the lips in farewell.

At her reaction Riki couldn't help but smile, "Looks like I'm not the only one that gets flustered," he said leaving her standing in shock as he walked off to the boys dorm.

Riki arrived back at the dorm to find the usual crew gathered around their make shift table, as he walked through the doorway the 3 boys looked at him expectantly. Riki raised an eyebrow at them.

"Well?" Kyousuke started asking.

"It was perfect thanks guys."

"We know that, with my muscles how could anything have gone wrong," Masato spoke in his usual loud manner.

"I believe what the idiot is trying to ask is what happened?" Kengo added in a level tone.

Riki's face started turning a little red as he thought back on the events that had transpired, "W w well we sat on one of the desks holding eachother, watching the fireworks that you set off, quite contempt simply being there, is that enough for you?"

"Hmmm," Kyousuke started, "what did you think of the final firework? It's one I've been saving from my travels for a long time." He smiled slightly as if recalling how he came to get his hands on it in the first place.

"Eh-hehe," Riki rubbed the back of his head awkwardly with his eyes closed, "I think I owe you an apology on that one Kyousuke." He paused thinking of how to word what was to follow, "By that point Kurugaya and I were a little distracted."

Everyone's eyes widened along with Riki's as he realised the implications of what he had said, "I only meant kissing, don't take that the wrong way!"

Everyone's eyes remained wide "You're a legend Riki," Kyousuke said.

'Were they listening at all to my second statement?' Riki wondered.

"By the way, you still haven't explained why you two are together in the first place, I'll make the assumption that is was something I was unaware of in 'that place'?" Kyousuke asked.

Riki sighed, "no way around it I suppose, during our time in that place Kurugaya somewhat unintentionally created a dream world that came about due to a wish of hers. June the 20th became the never ending day, each time it looped Kurugaya and I would meet in the broadcasting room and interact like what I assume a normal couple would. Each loop, however, was forgotten by everyone besides me, Kurugaya only remembered due to notes she left herself. When the dream faded and Kurugaya left that place only I remembered what had happened, even I was supposed to forget but how could I?" He looked down a little embarrassed.

Kyousuke nodded surprisingly unphased compared to the other 2 and Rin whom Riki hadn't even noticed had been silently sitting there the whole time.

"I see, that explains some of the deja vu surrounding this whole scenario, I am curious though, what kind of wish was powerful enough to partially control my own world?"

"..." Riki's face turned red, "Do I have to tell you?"

"Yeah," Kyousuke said with a grin on his face.

"She's going to kill me if she finds out," he sighed, "she wished for Little Busters to never end, she wanted to keep experiencing the emotions that were new to her but more specifically she wanted to experience love." At the final statement Riki had averted his gaze from everyone out of pure embarrassment.

Again they were stunned, 'the invincible Kurugaya san only wanted to experience love?' seemed to be the collective thought.

Rin broke the silence "Ah love, that, tell Kurugaya I say good luck!"

'She has no idea what she's on about,' Riki thought.

"If you guys don't mind could we please bring this interrogation to a close, I would quite like some sleep before tomorrow," Riki stated.

That seemed to snap everyone out of their state of stupor.

"Alrighty, however, this conversation is to be continued…." Kyousuke said with a cheeky smile as he, Kengo and Rin rose off the ground and made their way to the door. Riki could only nod as the group left. Masato, seemingly tired from his day of what Riki could only assume was muscle training had fallen into bed above him and was somehow already snoring. Riki pulled out his phone to put it on charge before sleeping and found a message.

Sender: [ Kurugaya ]

Subject: [ Tonight ]

Message: [ Thanks for tonight young man, I've never felt this way, I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow ]

'Back to young man huh?' Riki thought to himself with a slight chuckle, he replied in kind.

[ I should be the one thanking you, have good sleep and see you tomorrow, Yuiko. ]

Riki smirked, that should get a reaction, although it did feel good to use her first name. A reply came through, [ …. Only you manage to make me lose my composure like this ]. Riki smiled, he couldn't wait for tomorrow to come.

Riki slowly eased his eyes open allowing them to adjust to the now light environment he was in, the more he came to the more he realised something was different. He blinked his eyes rapidly to get clear up the blurry environment in front of him.

His eyes finally shot open in shock "K k kurugaya what are you doing in the boys' dorm!?" he panicked, in turn waking up Masato.

Masato talked far too excitedly jumping down from the bed, "could it be Riki wants to do a morning muscle training session with me!?"

"I'm amazed that you somehow managed to come to that conclusion in the first place!"

Masato folded his arms smiling as if proud of himself, "thanks."

'That wasn't a compliment,' Riki said internally.

It was about then that Kurugaya cleared her throat finally drawing Masato's to her, his eyes widened and mouth dropped open. Before he could say anything Kurugaya swiftly kicked him in the head knocking him out cold all the while staying leaned over Riki.

"You know it's rude to choose to ignore your girlfriend and talk to some idiot instead," she stated.

"Eh hehe," Riki laughed a little awkwardly, "So, do you mind explaining what you're doing waking me up in the boys' dorm?"

"Am I not allowed to visit my boyfriend without a reason?" She questioned.

'She doesn't see the issue with this at all,' Riki thought to himself in defeat, "well if you get off me we can get on with the day." He stated.

"Young man, do you not realise the situation you are in? You are effectively alone with a beautiful girl leaning over top of you."

Riki smiled, he had grown wise to Kurugaya's attempts at making him embarrassed, "You're absolutely right, Yuiko."

Her face instantly turned red as he pecked her on the lips, he took the opportunity while Kurugaya was frozen in shock to escape and pull his uniform on in the bathroom.

As he returned he found Kurugaya still frozen to the spot, "Hey, Kurugaya you awake there?"

Without moving she replied, "Can you use my first name again?"

Riki smiled gently, "sure, Yuiko", 'this is a really big deal to her huh?' Riki thought to himself.

"I wanted only the person who would marry me to use that name but I guess I'm ok with this," she said with a smile.

With that the 2 stood up and left, most people would be concerned about an unconscious friend but with the amount of times Masato took a foot to the head they doubted there would be any issues.

Riki and Kurugaya had decided that before moving on to new things and getting back into regular activities with the Little Busters they wanted to relive everything they did together in 'that place' in the real world. They had already been to the broadcasting room together and the fireworks had been spectacular the night before. So there they were, ticking off another event, sitting in a cafe, a cafe that offered free refills on the coffee that they were drinking. They had been talking about the Little Busters and what antics they were bound to get up to over the coming weeks.

As they faded into a temporary silence Riki spoke up, "I never did say this last time we were here but you did look very cute that day. It was on my mind but you were being rather thick headed about the rather obvious hints I was dropping that I liked you." He finished with a smirk.

Kurugaya replied with a similar mischievous expression, "Is that so? Well it would have been easier had you just told me. Also last time I checked more people tend to agree on you being cute not so much me."

"Ugh you know I don't like being called that but I guess I can make an exception."

Kurugaya chuckled at his response, they finished up their coffee and walked out hand in hand.

Once they were back on campus they headed to their usual sidewalk cafe with some tea to drink between them. They didn't have long left before sunset again, the day had certainly passed by quickly but they had managed to tick off all the things they had done leading up to them dating.

Kurugaya spoke up, "Riki, before we continue from here I want a promise."

Riki looked over to her, "And what might that be?"

"Don't leave me." Riki looked a little stunned before she continued, "in that world I had to leave you truly believing at the time that there would be no happy ending and for the first time I can remember I felt pure, unfiltered misery. As much as I love the new emotions you have brought about in me that is one that I never wish to experience again. So I'll ask, do you promise not to leave me?"

At the end of her explanation Riki smiled, "Yuiko, I can't believe you need to ask for a promise like that, of course I won't."

Kurugaya was at a loss for words, so instead she moved around behind Riki and draped her arms around his neck from behind. Riki sighed contempt with the current situation, they both remained there to watch the sunset. The future was looking bright indeed and with the past out of the way it was time to see what it held.