This idea has been in the back of my head for the past couple of weeks, and today's the day it gets released! In commemoration of Afterglow releasing their first single, That Is How I Roll, in three days from now, as well as Afterglow's very own guitarist, Aoba Moca, celebrating her birthday today, have this oneshot!

The plot of this oneshot originally brainstormed with ReiTheMegaMawile. The cover image is the cover art of the upcoming single.

Disclaimer! I do not own BanG Dream!, nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.

"Bye, Moca!"

"Bye, Moca-chan! See you tomorrow!"

"Bye-bye…"

Aoba Moca waved at her two childhood friends who remained on the bus while she was getting off here. While this wasn't Moca's usual stop, she had to take an earlier leave due to road construction blocking any stops that are closer to her house. This, however, meant that the young guitarist could enjoy a nice late-afternoon stroll home.

It had been a rough couple of days for them all, but Moca couldn't say that she wasn't content at where she had gotten. After hours of relentless practicing, and a couple of jabs thrown about (mostly at the bassist by the guitarist herself), the band had decided to do something all of them knew would have happened eventually.

Record and release their first single.

Moca had to suppress a smile when she remembered the look on Tomoe's face when Tsugumi suggested the idea at first; she was still out in public, after all. The poor drummer had only just recovered from a fever but looked as if she was about to lose consciousness right then and there.

'But still being in public also means that I could take another little detour,' Moca thought to herself as she looked around to determine where exactly she was.

With her mind set, Moca turned to a smaller road and walked until the end. With a smile on her face as she saw the familiar building, the young guitarist opened the door to an unfamiliar sight.

The store was decorated completely differently from what Moca remembered it to be, and she simply stood there gawking openly for some time. Posters depicting stars and a very very high tower covered the walls of the store, but it was the one poster right in front of the entrance that kept Moca's attention. Which was a feat in and of itself.

The poster in question depicted a girl who, Moca guessed, couldn't have been much older than she was. The girl had pink hair and could give her senior Lisa a run for her money in terms of the length of the hair. But it was the words on the poster that caught Moca's attention the most. It was almost as if she recognized the girl from somewhere…

Tearing her gaze away from the poster girl, Moca forced herself to remember why she entered the music store in the first place.

When she turned around, she was met with another nice surprise. A CD case on her nose.

Rubbing the painful area of skin, Moca bent down to pick up the fallen object and to take a look at the offending item. The album jacket depicted that same pink-haired girl that was depicted on the posters, this time wearing a black shirt with white dots and a red skirt as well as knee-length red-colored shoes.

What was interesting was that there was another girl, who looked like she was in her early-twenties on the cover art as well. She had even longer black hair than the girl that Moca has been seeing all around the store, and was wearing a white sundress.

"Po…la…ris…" Moca muttered to herself as she read the title on the top. Contemplating whether she had heard about it before, as that name did ring a bell for her, Moca was about to walk up to the shop clerk when she found her standing next to her.

"Ah, the new album of Meigo-san! Excellent choice!" she said as she picked the album from Moca's hands and walked off to the register. When Moca didn't follow her, she turned around to cock an eyebrow, "Something wrong?"

"Who is this… Meigo-san…?" Moca asked carefully, recalling that there were two girls depicted on the cd jacket and just wondering who she was in general. The name seemed so familiar.

"You haven't heard of Meigo Arisa-san?!" the shop clerk exclaimed in shock, turning to Moca fully. When Moca shook her head, she groaned, "Meigo Arisa-san is the number one rising star right now! Here, this one is on the house. Go and listen to it and you'll see what I mean!"

"But—" Moca tried, uneasy at being given the album for free, but was interrupted once again.

"No buts!" the reply was shot at her, shutting Moca up. Realizing that she was fighting a losing battle, Moca just accepted the plastic bag with a soft thank you and left the store.

"So this Meigo Arisa is that good?" Moca muttered to herself as she began her walk back home. Originally going there to get general inspiration for their upcoming album, it would appear like she would only have the songs of this Meigo Arisa to listen to.

They better have been worth it.

"I'm home~!" Moca called inside after she unlocked the front door. A futile effort, she knew, but old habits died hard.

Taking her shoes off, Moca left to go to her room and to try out those songs that she was promised would be amazing.

Moca's room was on the second floor, and to anyone just entering it for the first time, the room itself would appear to be fairly small. This was only an illusion caused by the many items filling the floor, ranging from old notebooks to broken tennis rackets, with the owner of the room having cleared enough stuff to the side to create a small path between the door and her bed.

Taking out her laptop from its case and her headphones by her cushion, Moca promptly plopped down on the bed. She rummaged through her bag again to try and find the CD case when she saw it already lying on her bed.

This was it. This was the moment where Moca would find out how amazing of a singer this Meigo Arisa person really is.

Careful so as to not damage the disk, Moca put the CD into her laptop, plugged her headphones in, and played the first song on the list.

When one of Moca's bandmates arrived at her home three days later, she was met with a joyful melody that reverberated through the house. While she instantly knew what it was, if Himari's squeals of delight when that album got released not too long ago were anything to go by, Ran was surprised to hear it here. Moca had teased Himari to the moon and back about it, so why…?

Wondering where it came from, Ran opened the door with the spare key and followed her ears.

This led her straight to Moca's room.

'Why would it be here of all places…?' Ran mused with a small frown when she noticed something else. She heard words, but not from the original singer. Ran knew that this could only mean one thing, but she was still hesitant to accept this theory of hers.

With her curiosity peaked, Ran quietly opened the door handle… and had to immediately cover her mouth to stop the laugh from escaping her lips.

But the damage had already been done.

"Ran…"

A surprisingly embarrassed Moca dropped the marker that she was holding and backed away quickly as Ran tried to regain her breathing.

The room was much more of a mess than it was the last time Ran was there, with pillows and blankets thrown about to make somewhat of a makeshift stage in the corner. Moca was standing on said makeshift stage until Ran came in earlier, but had now retreated to the wardrobe behind her.

"Whatr—What is Ran doing here?" Moca exclaimed with wide eyes, in a much higher pitched voice than she normally had. Then, with a softer voice that resembled her natural voice a lot more and much meeker, she added, "Did Ran hear?"

Ran, while originally considering the possibility of playing dumb, knew better. She knew that Moca would see right through her. Of course, the only person who could ever see right through her was in front of her right now.

"Yeah."

Ran's voice was soft, almost as if she tried to remain inaudible for her friend, but that hope was soon shattered when she saw the change in Moca's posture.

Moca, for her part, managed to hide it quite well. As a matter of fact, Ran noted mentally, it would probably have fooled anyone. Anyone who didn't know Moca very well, that is.

"But I'm glad that I did."

This caused Moca to look up in shock as she turned to her friend of over a decade. But before Moca could say or do anything, Ran spoke again.

"You were really good, Moca," Ran began, catching Moca off guard with the compliment and flustering the slightly shorter girl in the process. Smiling warmly, the vocalist continued, "Let's make sure you get a big part in that song and—"

"Don't make fun of me, Ran." Moca interrupted in a dangerously calm tone as she tried to move away. Unfortunately for her, there wasn't a lot of room for her to move away to, and she realized this too late.

As Moca was rubbing her sore behind from that fall, she heard the words that she wanted to hear but did not expect to be hearing.

"I was being serious."

Looking up in shock, the look on Moca's face voiced the question that she couldn't formulate. Ran smiled.

"I really like what I just heard, and I am sure that Tomoe and the others will, too," Ran kept smiling as she walked closer to Moca, who remained on the ground wide-eyed. When Ran was close enough, she bent her knees slightly and offered her old friend a hand, "Let's show them!"

"Ei, Ei, Oh!"

"That was amazing, Moca!"

"Moca-chan! That was beautiful!"

All that Moca could do was chuckle lightly at her friends' reactions.

It had been an hour since Ran had successfully convinced Moca to leave her home, and the two of them had regrouped with the rest of Afterglow not long after. Since the studio they normally practiced in was already closed, they all agreed to meet up in the Udagawa residence.

And Moca had just finished singing the song that Ran heard her sing in her room earlier.

"You really think so?" Moca asked, slightly bewildered and overwhelmed by the positive response that she got from her friends.

"Of course, Moca-chan!" Tsugumi was the first to speak, clearing up Moca's doubts as the others nodded in agreement. Then, a bit more somber, the keyboardist added, "I feel bad now… I've known you for so long but I didn't know you could sing like that until today."

"Cheer up, Tsugu!" Himari said as she patted Tsugumi on the shoulder. With a smile, she added, "We all learn new things from each other every day, after all."

"Ran!" Tomoe called out suddenly, grabbing the attention of everybody in the room but Ran's especially, "How about we switch my solo with Moca?"

This shocked everybody, though one person was visibly more affected by this than the rest.

"Tomo-chin…" Moca muttered as she eyed the taller redhead, "You don't have to."

"I know I don't, but I've been uneasy with the part that was assigned to me," Tomoe admitted with a somewhat sheepish grin, "But with Moca being able to sing like that, it should make more sense that you take that part."

"That's a good idea, and we still have time to change it, too!" Himari chimed in as she took out her phone to check the date, "If we start to practice this new structure tomorrow, we should be ready for the recording. We should still be able to make it!"

"Let's do it!" Tsugumi exclaimed enthusiastically, eliciting nods of agreements from her friends, "Moca-chan will do Tomoe-chan's parts, and Tomoe-chan will do Moca-chan's part."

"All in favor, do it with me!" Himari cheered as she pumped her fist in the air with each cheer, "Ei, Ei, Oh!"

Three other voices repeated after her, although less enthusiastic as the bassist's original call and without the fist pumping. This, however, did not dampen Himari's spirits.

"With that settled…" Tsugumi trailed off, as Ran and Tomoe nodded in understanding. Moca, not knowing what was going on, could only stare wide-eyed as Tsugumi turned back to her, "We know you don't want something big, but none of us wanted to do nothing for today."

"Where is this going?" Moca asked carefully as she eyed her childhood friends, though all four of them remained quiet with identical grins, "Everyone?"

Before anyone could answer her, the door was thrown open and a familiar figure stood in the opening.

"You! It was you who disturbed my great focus!" the figure said in a low yet familiar voice. That was when some of them noticed the bright purple twintails of the short figure, and the identity of the girl was revealed, "Awakened from a thousand-year slumber, I have descended upon this plane of existence! The power that lies within will blast—!"

"Right right, that's enough out of you," a cheerful voice followed as a familiar brunette appeared in the opening as well, gently pulling the purple-haired girl with her by the collar. Upon seeing that all eyes were on her, she smiled, "Hi Tomoe, I brought your sister home as promised. Sorry we're late, we kind of had to take a bit of a detour."

"That's all right, Lisa-san" Tomoe greeted the brunette with a smile as she slung her arm around her sister, "Thank you for looking after Ako all this time."

"Lisa-san!" Moca called out when she finally recognized the brunette, receiving a cheerful wave in return, "Not to sound rude, but what are you doing here?"

"Well, Tomoe asked me to spend the day with Ako, and now I'm here making sure she got home in one piece," Lisa grinned while giving her response, jabbing her thumb in Ako's direction, "Though we had to do something on the way, so we're a bit late…"

"'Something on the way'…?" Moca echoed, confused, as she eyed her senior and colleague. Lisa, for her part, only grinned in response.

The next thing that Moca knew, everything turned black and she felt her body being forcefully moved somewhere. Trying to cry out, she soon found out that something was covering her head, though her hands didn't respond to her commands to try and get rid of it.

After what could have been hours for the poor Moca, she felt the familiar feeling of a chair under her. Once she was seated, she got blinded by a flash of light when the bag was removed off of her head, causing Moca to wince.

"Happy birthday to you~ happy birthday to you~"

When Moca opened her eyes again, she was surprised with the sight of everyone standing in a line in front of her. All of them singing merrily as another figure appeared from behind the line.

"Happy birthday dear Moca… happy birthday to you!"

As the six singing girls broke into claps and cheers, Saaya gently placed the cake on the nearby table. With the candles burning brightly, the same look was shared by everybody present as they all turned to Moca.

"What… just happened…?" Moca asked in a daze to nobody in particular, though seemingly directing the question to the newest addition of the group.

"Well, when Lisa-nee said that we had to take a bit of a detour, she wasn't lying," it was Ako who stepped up first to answer the question. As Lisa nodded almost grimly, Ako continued, "There were construction workers everywhere, and even when we finally got to the bakery we needed to take another detour to get here."

"Sorry about that, or we would've been here earlier," Lisa apologized, leaving a somewhat heavy air in the room.

"Lisa-san and Saaya, and Ako too… and everyone else… you didn't have to…" Moca trailed off with her face obscured.

"What are you talking about?"

Moca looked up when she felt two gentle yet firm hands on her shoulders, only to end up face-to-face with the smiling faces of Tomoe and Lisa.

"You're our precious friend," Tomoe began, her voice gentle and reassuring but also steady and confident, telling the shorter girl that there was no room for negotiations here, "We wouldn't be who we are if you weren't here with us, so stop thinking that we shouldn't do things for you, too."

"Now, Moca," Lisa began as she and Tomoe took a step back and allowed Moca to get to her birthday cake. Specially made for her by the Yamabuki bakery, if the smell and Saaya's presence in the room were anything to go by, "Make your wish."

"My wish…" Moca repeated slowly, almost as if she forgot she had one. Taking a moment to look everybody in the eyes, seeing the same smile on each and every one of them, Moca smiled to herself.

'There can only be one thing I could wish for, after all.'

And with that thought in mind, and having made her wish, Moca took a deep breath and blew.

Two hours had passed and Moca was walking home with Ran, both girls content after a nice and fulfilling birthday party. The two were in a silence that was very comfortable for the both of them, so neither tried to break it.

Seeing a familiar bench a little bit ahead, the two sat down together without telling the other that they would or should. Somehow, both girls already knew.

As the clear skies above them was illuminated with bright stars, and more appearing one by one, the distance between the two grew smaller and smaller. Until finally their shoulders were touching and Moca could rest her head against Ran's.

"With everything considered…" Moca sighed contently, getting the attention from the girl on her side, "Today was a nice day. Thank you for organizing it all, Ran."

"Eh, I—" Ran's flustered response at being found out earned a light chuckle from Moca, allowing Ran to regain her composure quickly. With a smile, Ran closed her eyes before muttering a few more words.

"You're welcome, Moca. And happy birthday."

And that wraps up today's oneshot! The beginning turned a little bit more into a Polaris advertisement than I had anticipated ^^' whoops. I hope you enjoyed it regardless, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!

EDIT (04/09/2017): I added this in the Tumblr post announcing this story, but I forgot to add it here. Blue flowers are symbolic for loyalty and long-lasting friendships (thank you, Namitaa776), which was fitting for the band made out of childhood friends. It's also referencing the BanG Dream! OTP of the writer, which is called BlueFlora.