Chapter Text
Can I live with You Two, Please?
A 'Love Live! School Idol Project' fanfiction by Yuuki.
Disclaimer: I do not own Love Live. If I did, ChikaxYou would be a real thing already.
Coming from a high-class family made Maki's behavior more or less refined. So when she barged into their apartment without bothering to knock at all, Umi and Eli couldn't help but raised an eyebrow. Not to mention that, that Maki, the tsundere, the stubborn Ojou-sama was seriously begging. They rarely saw that side of Maki, if not for the first time.
Something is off.
"Well, come in first and we'll hear you inside," Umi said. Maki nodded but she took a moment to steady her breathing.
"Except she's already inside," Eli said jokingly before she stood up and went to the kitchen.
Umi rolled her eyes unamusedly. "Yeah, yeah, Ms. Obvious." She waited for Maki until the redhead took off her shoes before giving the junior a pair of slipper.
After wearing the slipper, Maki followed Umi to the living room. "I didn't bother you two, did I?" she asked as she sat on the couch.
"Not at all," Umi smiled reassuringly when she saw Maki shifted uncomfortably on her seat. She sat on the carpet and rest her hands on the table in front of her, "I'm starting to get bored with Ayase-san's face anyway. A visit from a friend is pretty much appreciated," she added with a louder voice so Eli could hear her. The corners of her mouth formed a small grin.
"Well, I'm glad we feel the same, Sonoda!" Eli shouted back from the kitchen, annoyed.
Umi laughed but Maki just facepalmed, "What's that? I don't understand."
The two of them then waited for Eli in comfortable silence. While Umi continued the book she'd been reading before Maki came, the redhead herself looked around the room while drinking a cola she'd just grabbed from the table. It'd been months since the last time she was here but the apartment was still as comfortable as she could remember. As expected from the two most responsible students in Otonokizaka's history.
But a more thorough observation would tell the guests more than that. Every little detail in the apartment showed that the residents treasured the time they spent there. For the people who knew Umi and Eli well, a glance should immediately tell them that the pair organized their room in such way that they could really spend their time there relaxing. They'd made the apartment their home.
It would be nice if she could add herself in, Maki thought.
After some page of Umi's book and few gulps of Maki's drink, Eli showed herself. "Pasta, girls?" she asked, still wearing the apron, a tray on her hands.
"Much appreciated," Maki responded quickly. She'd just realize how hungry she was.
"Weren't you eating out with Rin and Hanayo just 30 minutes ago?" Umi asked.
Maki moved to the carpet, took a plate from the tray, and put it in front of herself before she answered, "Yeah, except I left before I got a chance to eat anything." She didn't even wait for Eli who went to the kitchen again to gulp down her portion. "Why don't you put more tomatoes in it?" she demanded as soon as she saw Eli entered the room again, this time bringing cans of cola.
Eli's lips twitched as she tried to take Maki's plate. "Say anything more and I'll let you starve, you ungrateful child. And just for you know," she pointed to the cola Maki drank. "That's mine."
"Well, sorry," Maki shrugged without showing any regret at all.
Umi just facepalmed at the scene. "Well, glad to know your appetite is still there," she said. "By the way, did something happen with Rin and Hanayo? You said that you left early," Umi added carefully, afraid that something may really happen.
"Maybe, yes," she answered. But because Umi started to look worried, she quickly added, "No, don't worry. None happen between me and them but something did happen to me because of them."
"I don't understand."
"I'll tell you the story," Maki pointed her plate of pasta, "After I finish with this."
Umi sighed. "Whatever."
Nishikino family ran a hospital and it was an indisputable fact that Maki would inherit it someday. Because she knew that, she had been studying hard since she was a child to live up to the expectation. Did she hate it? Not in the slightest. She loved her family, she loved Nishikino hospital, and above all, she loved studying. So why would she hate it? She was always an introvert anyway, so even if all the studying reduced her time outside, it didn't bother her at all.
But as she grew up, it changed. She came to know photography, and she began to like it. She started to like the piano lessons that she always thought as a bother. The starry sky which she saw during her family trip to a beach made her love stargazing. She still loved studying, but as she grew up, she began to find other hobbies that she loved as much as studying.
Her meeting with μ's meant a lot to her. Not only because she met great friends—and girlfriend—and the musical activities they did, but also because some of the members have the same hobbies with her. Even for some that didn't, their hobbies somehow matches.
In her second year, she collaborated with Kotori to make photo-book of RinPana, which turned out great because of Kotori's talent as a designer, RinPana's charm, and of course her own talent as a photographer. In her last year of high-school, she composed songs for Honoka and Nico's debut as pro idols, which turned out to be quite a hit. She used an alias of course.
When she had free times, sometimes she went stargazing with Eli and Umi, often to the mountains. And even though visiting power spots with Nozomi didn't count as her hobbies, she enjoyed the senior's company.
But she knew that sooner or later the time she could spend on her hobbies would become less and less the older she became. So she thought that at least, for the four years she'd spend in the university, she wanted to enjoy her hobbies as much as she could and live as she wanted. With that on her mind, she decided to move out from her house. While her parents didn't limit how much time she spent on her hobbies, she still felt that living with parents at her age wasn't free enough. She still had to suppress herself to a certain degree, after all.
After spent a month convincing her parents, they finally gave their consent on one condition. She must live with her friends that her parents knew well. In other words, she must live with a μ's member. Maki didn't take that as a problem as Rin and Hanayo were also accepted at the same university. She could always ask one of them or maybe both of them to live together. So she put that matter off for another month, as she busy prepared the necessary documents for her university and things for moving out.
But that was where her problem began. Just before she wanted to tell Rin and Hanayo about renting a house together, guess what? They told her that they started GOING OUT. In the front of the newlywed couple who was giggling and flirting—not like it's different than the usual though—nonstop, she could only resent her decision to put things for too long.
Asking them to live together now was practically near to impossible.
"And that's," Maki gulped down her remaining cola before she ended her story, "What brings me here." She stood before signaling Eli to scoot over on the coach.
Eli nodded and said, "Well, that's a problem," before giving her place to Maki and sit beside Umi on the carpet.
"Wait," Umi interrupted before Eli and Maki could talk further. She tilted her head in confusion and asked, "I don't see any problem, though?"
"Really?" Maki growled in disbelief before she started to explain it to the dense Umi. "Now, Umi. Imagine you want to live with Honoka and Kotori—"
But Eli cut her off before she could finish, "Err, I think you should use another example. Honoka and Kotori aren't dating."
Maki rolled her eyes at Eli. "Fine. Then you and Nozomi—"
"Neither are we."
"Geez," Maki frowned. "Fine! Imagine you live with me and Nico," she said while trying to hide the apparent blush on her cheeks. "And now imagine we're hugging each other when you're home."
"No, that's not helping Maki," Eli retorted when she saw Umi tilted her head again. "Umi, imagine they're kissing when you're home."
In one quick motion, Umi stood up and pointed to Maki, "T-That's shameless! How could you?"
"That's only an example!" Maki defended herself.
"Even worse, Imagine they're having sex when you're home," Eli added, though the shit-eating grin that showed on her face implying that it was mainly for teasing, not for the sake of explaining anything.
"MAKI!" Umi yelled.
"ELI!" Maki yelled.
"UMI!" Eli also yelled but soon bursting into a laugh. "Gosh, you're exaggerating, Umi," Eli said, still laughing. "That's completely normal for a couple, you know. And that's why it's a problem for the third wheel."
Maki glared at Eli, "Though I don't like the example you gave, you're right. It'd be very awkward if I caught them when they're in the middle of doing, well, something." She paused a bit to turn her attention to Umi, "Now, do you finally understand?"
"I do," Umi growled as she tried to return her face to its normal color. "So, because you can't live with them, you want to live with us instead?"
"That's the point. I'm sorry if this is so sudden, but I don't have any other choice," Maki said, almost desperately. "Honoka and Kotori are out of question, as they still live with their parents. I can't trouble Nico because she's already busy taking care of her family and career. And Nozomi isn't even here."
"I'm sure Nico will be happy to take you in though," Eli teased which ignored by Maki. But the blush on the redhead's face didn't go unnoticed by both seniors.
"A-Anyway, I really don't have any other choice," Maki said. "Besides, I think I can learn many more things from you two more than from the others," Maki added sincerely. Well, Honoka or Rin would give her headache for sure instead of things to learn.
Eli looked at Umi for a moment before nodded. "We actually want to welcome you here. But, you see, we only have two rooms here. I don't mind sharing room with you, but..."
Eli didn't continue but Maki knew. It's about their privacy. Teens like them tended to have things that they didn't want others to know. "I know that already. But what should I do?" Maki grumbled. "At this rate, I have to spend my entire life with my parents."
"Until Nico marry you," Eli corrected.
"Until Nico marry me. Yeah, sure. It means I have to wait for a dozen of years until she quits idol. Great."
Eli and Umi knew exactly how desperate Maki was. No matter how much Maki loved her parents, living with them at her age didn't give her the freedom she wanted. She'd back to that home, after all, so this was the only chance she could experience the joy of living with friends and doing her hobbies as much as she could.
After minutes of silence, Maki let out a frustrated sigh and groaned, "I give up. I just can't see a way out of this."
"How about asking your other friends?" the blonde questioned.
Maki snorted at that. "Yeah, as I have tons of friends I can just ask one of them," she said sarcastically. "Thanks, Eli, that's very helping."
"You're welcome?" Eli shrugged, not affected even a bit by Maki's rudeness.
They let the silence fell between them again. Maki sighed and leaned to the couch, an arm on her face. Well, despite everything, at least she was happy for Rin and Hanayo. She couldn't imagine what if she asked them to live together a month ago. Maybe they would hold themselves for Maki. She'd hate herself for it.
"I actually think of a solution," Umi mused slowly. Hearing that, Maki literally jumped from her position before looking at Umi with hopeful eyes. "But I don't know whether you'll agree with me or not," Umi added, looking at Eli.
"Let's hear it first," Eli replied.
"How about we move to a bigger place with more rooms?"
Eli widened her eyes in surprise. "Umi! That might be it!"
"But..."
Toward their junior who let out a small voice, the senpai pair could only raise their eyebrows. They waited a minute but Maki didn't say anything else. The redhead only stood uncomfortably while twirling her hair. They realized that she was looking away from them. "Anything wrong, Maki?" Umi asked.
"No, I'm grateful for the idea," said Maki with a small voice. "But is it really okay? I mean, don't you love this place?" she continued.
Eli laughed before looking at Umi who was smiling. "Of course we do," said Umi softly. "But Maki, you know? We love you more than we love this apartment."
"If it's helping you, we don't mind moving out at all. I mean, it's not like we own this place in the first place," Eli chimed in.
"So? How does it sound, Maki? Do you still want to live with us?"
Maki knew that her friends love her. But hearing it directly made her extremely happy but embarrassed at the same time. She wanted to express her grateful feeling properly, but even after a minute of silence, the best she could give was only, "I do. Thanks."
The tsundere Queen didn't change at all since high-school. Facing the blushing Maki, Umi and Maki gave Maki big smiles and said, "You're welcome."
BONUS (1)
After picking out the places they wanted to check the next week, Maki decided it was time to go home. Right before she opened the door, she turned to Umi and Eli who saw her off and said, "Just want to make sure here. You two aren't gay for each other, are you?"
Faced with the surprise question like that, Umi and Eli looked at each other before saying in harmony, "Me? With this Sonoda-san/Ayase-san? No way!" and soon burst into a laugh. Maki swore she never saw they laughed as hard as that before. "I'll take that as a no," Maki muttered as she opened the door.
Legend said that Sonoda-san and Ayase-san were still laughing until now.
BONUS (2)
After Maki went home and they started to prepare for dinner, Umi asked Eli. "Are you really okay with Maki living with us?"
"Why am I not okay with that?"
"I don't know. Maybe because you don't get to live alone with only me anymore?" Umi teased, though because Eli was stirring the stew all she could see was the blonde's back.
It did Eli a favor though because she knew her expression was showing a little bit of regret.
BONUS (3)
After having the dinner and taking a bath, Umi entered Eli's room. "Eli?" she called as she pushed the door. Eli was in the middle of doing her homework, it seemed.
Eli didn't turn away from her homework but she gave Umi a quick response to let the bluenette knew that she was listening. "Hm?"
"Can I sleep here?"
"Sure."
After hearing Eli's answer, Umi closed the door behind her and crawled into Eli's bed and put her pillow beside Eli's.
"What's wrong?" Eli stopped writing and turn to Umi. The times Umi wanted to sleep together were the times when she felt sad.
"I... Actually, I'm sad we have to leave," Umi whispered.
Eli smiled gently. "Don't worry," she said, before returning to her homework. "We'll find an apartment as great as this one, and you'll love it as much as you love this place."
"Thanks Eli," Umi said to Eli's back. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Umi."