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It was in the middle of practice when Kokoro practically kicked the door down, her personal army of black suited women and a very out of breath Misaki in tow.
Until that point, Aya was forcing herself to learn the newest dance routine to the newest Pastel*Palettes song, while her other band members were slowly learning their instruments (with the exception of Hina, who got her part down in a matter of minutes). It had actually been a pretty uneventful day, with only practice on the schedule that day; it was a Sunday, so there was no school, and she wasn't even scheduled to work that day. She was determined to learn this dance, no matter what.
Of course, all those plans changed when Kokoro did a literal somersault over to Aya to hug her, almost knocking her off her feet.
"K-Kokoro-chan!" Aya finally said after the initial shock of almost falling, "What are you doing here?"
"Hi, Aya!" Kokoro said, content with not answering the question right away and instead kissing her cheek. She was used to this, because Kokoro would eventually explain her more-than-likely crazy plan. There was never a dull moment with her, though.
"Maruyama-san, I'm so sorry, she just took off running after practice and I didn't have any time to catch up by the time I saw where she was," Misaki said between gasps for air. She was sweating, her tank top practically drenched, and she didn't look all too stable, having to grasp onto the railing for support.
"Wow, Misaki-chan, you look terrible!" Hina said, not maliciously, but Aya had to shoot her a look. Well, as much of a look as she could when her personal blonde octopus refused to let go. Not that it really mattered, since Misaki's glare was pretty much akin to a sniper round. Luckily, Maya and Eve were over in a few seconds to help the poor girl with water and some cool towels. After confirming that that Misaki was not in fact going to die, she turned back to Kokoro.
"Why did you run all the way over here? Did something happen?" Aya asked.
"I had a great idea! I wanna do a duet with you!"
"Huh?"
"A duet! Hello Happy World featuring Aya!" Kokoro said, as if that explained everything. "I already have the song picked out and everything!" As if on cue, as soon as she said that, the suits removed the demo disc from the CD player, replaced it with a CD labeled with something in English, and pressed play.
The song that started playing was a very heavy techno song, but was undeniably catchy. The drop caught her off guard, hitting her in the gut a little bit harder than she anticipated, like a drop from a roller coaster. She didn't notice until the end that she had been bouncing along to it, and it took until the very end, when the speakers sang "king" and Kokoro sang "queen", that Kokoro had been singing along with it. She hugged her even tighter, in sheer excitement.
"It'll be perfect!"
The instructor, finally recovering from the shock of non-studio people barging in on practice, tried to get a word in, but was stopped by the bodyguards.
"There's no need to worry, ma'am," one of them said. "We have already obtained the rights to cover the song, and we are currently creating advertisements to promote it. The higher-ups of the studio already are aware, too; all we need is Aya's permission." It was truly terrifying at times how much power the black suited-women had. They were the ones who single handedly made sure Pastel*Palettes were free from the company's "no dating" policy, and while she didn't have proof, she was almost positive they were also the reason the tabloids never seemed to release stories about Aya dating Kokoro, despite Kokoro being unafraid of, say, kissing her on a crowded subway.
"The song is called Over "Quartzer", I think we'll sound perfect together!" Kokoro finally unattached herself from Aya's side, but grabbed both of her hands in excitement, interlocking their fingers. No matter how many times Kokoro did this, Aya blushed every single time. Her blush got even deeper when Kokoro kissed her fingers. It took her all her power to finally form words and not just tears about how cute her girlfriend is.
"B-But I don't know the song! I don't know anything about the song!" Doing covers wasn't anything new to either of them. Covers helped the band practice, gave them more exposure, and hey, it was fun covering her favorite anime openings. But most of the times, she knew the songs. This one was completely new.
"Then follow me!" Kokoro let go of one of her hands and started running at full speed. Aya was able to catch herself before Kokoro tipped her over, but the force was still almost enough to dislocate her arm from her shoulder, and her yells of "Kokoro-chan, wait!!!" were fruitless. She would be yelling that her change of clothes were being left behind, but she was positive that the suits would somehow fix that, along with the sudden cancellation of practice.
Dating Kokoro was like a game of Mad Libs sometimes. On some days, she would whisk her away onto her personal cruise ship, so they could dance alone in a huge ballroom, accompanied by a full orchestra, playing a beautifully composed version of Melt. Sometimes, she'd rent out an entire theme park for the bands that played in CiRCLE and spend the entire day riding every single ride in the park, ending the day with dinner in one of the Ferris wheel cabins. Some days, it would be an impromptu concert in a playground, with silly made up dance routines and children trying to copy them.
And some days, it was being taken back to her house, into a movie theater, wrapped in about seven blankets, watching... well, whatever Kokoro just put on.
Aya had heard of Kamen Rider. She had never seen Kamen Rider, but she remembered a bad CGI bat, that usually showed up right before her favorite show as a kid, Yes Pretty Cure. But other than that, she had only seen Kamen Rider in trailers for movies.
But as it turned out, Kokoro was a huge Kamen Rider fan.
"Oh, oh, the theme song is coming up!" Kokoro exclaimed, not even trying to keep her voice a whisper. Aya wasn't paying a ton of attention to her, she was more focused on the glorified toy commercial playing. So far, the protagonist proved that he was a bit of an idiot, and the pretty girl in the white dress had told him that in fifty years, he was going to become some evil king. It seemed... a bit contrived.
But the bass hit her again, and suddenly, the theme song was playing.
Kokoro started the first verse, bouncing in her seat to the beat of the song, as Aya focused on the visuals. She kind of expected it with how the show started off with time travel, but the aesthetics of the season were all centered around clocks. It was quite a nice opening, all things considered, with the spinning of the backgrounds while the characters walked forward a stand out in her mind. She wasn't too sure about the guy with a book on fire, but she was hoping he wouldn't take up too much of the show.
Kokoro seemed less interested in watching the show, now more focused on watching Aya watch the show. She could see Kokoro's sparking eyes just out of her peripheral vision, glittering with excitement. Aya resisted the urge to kiss her, to focus on the show.
Truth be told, she felt a bit locked out of the loop. The main character, Sougo, had suddenly time traveled back a year, and Japan was suddenly divided by walls? And two characters who she felt like she'd know if she watched any Kamen Rider started to explain the obvious fact that he had time traveled, when the girl in white, Tsukuyomi, came in with a phone gun? It didn't seem to match the aesthetics seen in the suits in the opening, though. And before she had the time to process all of that, suddenly there was an evil seven year old? Who could stop time?
Aya had to admit, she didn't like time travel stories a lot to begin with, so this was just hopelessly confusing. She needed a flow chart just to keep up with the plot of episode one. But she would be lying that, when she stopped asking every question that popped into her head... she was enjoying it. Especially when they finally got to the part she had been the most curious about; the introduction of the man with a book.
He seemed... enthusiastic about the fact that this guy was going to become an evil overlord. Almost too enthusiastic. But the way he was delivering his lines with such sincerity, it looped around from being funny to becoming genuinely engaging. Suddenly, she was wondering... what would she do if she found out she was destined to become an evil queen? Would she have taken the belt? Would she have listened to the retainer who was clearly more excited about the ability to make her evil? Would she let someone like Geiz kill her, just to prevent a bad future? Or if she was in Geiz's shoes, would she be able to go through with it? She would like to think she would be like Tsukuyomi, but would she be the one to help, or would she run away?
She hadn't paid attention to the transformation, or the fight, but suddenly, when she went to rub her eyes, she realized that tears were falling out of her eyes. Was thinking about all of this hitting her harder than she thought? It snapped her back into reality, and she had been crying.
"Aya? Are you okay?" Kokoro was still trying to smile, but she could see her shifting uncomfortably. The episode had been paused.
"S-Sorry, Kokoro-chan," Aya said, her voice thick with tears. "I started thinking and I... I was... Would you save me if I was gonna become a demon queen?"
"Of course," Kokoro said, relaxing a little bit more. "As long as I'm here, you're never going to worry about any of that. You'll be the best queen of all time, and Michelle will be your royal adviser!"
Aya started to giggle. Kokoro didn't exactly get the point... no, she did. She always had a way of distracting Aya from her worst feelings, no matter what. Without even thinking, she reached across to Kokoro and kissed her. It perked Kokoro right up, holding her tightly. Her lips were always so soft, her hands always so smooth as it stroked the back of her neck. Even if Kokoro didn't know it, these small moments where she calmed down just a bit always saved her from her spells of crying. She loved her, she loved her so much.
When they finally seperated, Aya interlocked their fingers again, and kissed Kokoro's fingers.
"Thank you, Kokoro-chan."
Kokoro smiled wide, the light of the theater screen showing the faintest blush.
"I love you so much, Aya!"
Aya smiled, feeling much warmer than the blankets surrounding her.
"I love you too, Kokoro-chan."