Chapter 4

"Hey, Nico-chan, hurry up!" Maki called impatiently as Nico dragged her feet up the stairs.

"You just got back into this," Nico was whining, "how are you already so much better than I am?"

"Because I'm quicker than you," she responded hotly, sticking out her tongue.

The corner of Nico's mouth twitched. "You need to stop hanging out with Honoka and Rin as much. They're a bad influence on you."

"You're just jealous that I'm faster now!"

Nico scowled at the childish tendencies. "No, I'm upset you sound like a snobby seven year old. Stop spending so much time with Honoka. Hang out with Umi and Eli for a change."

"I hang out with them all the time!" she huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the shorter third year.

"Okay, okay," Nico relented, not wanting to deal with the girl's newly found short temper. She was regaining her qualities and memories piece by piece; she was in her challenging phase.

The rooftop came into view and Nico noticed several of their friends already gathered out in front. Nozomi stood with Eli, Umi and Honoka.

"Oh!" Honoka had spotted them. "Nico-chan and Maki-chan!"

Maki's face lit up. "Hi, Honoka!"

Nico's scowl worsened. "Why don't you say hi to me like that?"

The response was immediate; "Because Nico-chan is a sour-puss."

"Geh!?"

"Maki," Umi walked up to the girl, "do you think you're ready to start practicing again?"

"Yes!" Maki squealed, hardly bothering to contain her glee. She'd been wanting to dance and sing and get back into the groove of things ever since she'd started regaining her memories.

"She's been doing very well with her strength training," Eli reminded them, "so I think she's ready to start practicing our dance moves again. I think we should stick to our older songs for now. Learning all new songs would be a bit difficult for her right now."

"Well," Maki looked sheepish, "technically, all of them are 'new songs' to me at this point…" she trailed off, a forlorn expression etched on her face. "B-but! I promise I'll try and get better soon!"

The others arrived shortly after, commencing their practice. Maki was surprisingly able to keep up with them the entire routine, only tripping up every once in a while.

"I remember this song; at least, my body seems to remember it."

They carried on this way until Maki's body couldn't handle it any longer. She'd been training and exercising herself, but she just did not have the energy or stamina she had before the accident.

This carried on for several weeks as Maki regained her strength. Love Live was approaching rapidly, and everyone was feeling quite nervous; Maki especially. They had apparently been unable to join their first Love Live, and this was the last time they would be able to join with all the members together. Maki didn't want to ruin this for them all.

As the weeks went by, she remembered more and more. She remembered meeting Hanayo and Rin, Nozomi pushing her at their training trip, everyone deciding to go home together that day… She remembered more with each passing day.

Love Live was approaching, and she needed to be able to do her best. Her body improved along with her memory, slightly recovering each day. Suddenly, one day, a random memory sparked in her mind.

"Next time I'll win you a panda!"

"A panda?" she murmured, picking up her bag and making her way to the nearest arcade.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Maki, what did you call me here for?" Nico asked as she saw the girl approach her. They were at their typical meeting place in the park; Nico had been pretty surprised when the younger girl called her there.

"We made a promise."

Nico gave her a quizzical look. "I promised you a lot of things; which one are you talking about, in particular?"

Lavender eyes twinkled in raw glee and cherry lips smirked smugly. She took something out of her bag and Nico narrowed her eyes in confusion. A panda bear?

"You said Toru needed a friend; so I got you this."

It all hit her. Maki wanted to go to more arcades and amusement parks. She wanted to play the claw machine and DDR machines with her and the others. Nico wanted to win more plushes for the girl who was always seemingly uninterested in anything and everything.

"You… but I was supposed to win it for you."

Maki shrugged. "Maybe so, but either way, I like this better. If you have Alice and I have Toru, we'll always have to be together so they can see each other!"

Nico blushed brightly. "Alice?"

Maki's gleeful expression grew bashful. "Do you not like it?"

"No… I love it," she smiled and took the panda into her arms. "I guess you're right. Alice and I just can't leave you two alone, now can we?"

Maki grinned and touched her forehead to Nico's.

"Nope!"

Hey guys so I know I've been dragging this one on for an eternity and I really should have ended it a while ago. I know the ending was pretty abrupt but I at least wanted to finish it before I completely lost interest in it. I hope to start on some new fanfics and start publishing them here and on tumblr as well. Thank you all for reading! Don't forget to watch me and to leave a review! I really appreciate it. Thanks everyone!