Of love and the taste of mikans.

I love you.

It was a normal evening on the beach of Uchiura where Chika and Riko spent a lot of their time together. Riko was sitting on the sand, while Chika was dancing, feet in the water, saying... something... about training tomorrow in preparation for their future concert.

It was hard for Riko to focus at the moment.

The evening sun was reflecting unto Chika's pink eyes while also creating in the water multiple spots of lights – not unlike the ones on the stage they performed on as idols – and Riko was, simply put, mesmerised by the spectacle unfolding before her eyes.

"Riko-chan?"

Chika words, accompanied by a concerned look pulled Riko back towards the present.

Right. Training. Concert.

She had to focus on something, anything, other than the woman before her eyes.

But she couldn't.

"Riko-chan, are you all right?"

"Chika... I want to be with you, always."

She blurts out the words without thinking. For an instant, she almost regret pronouncing them. And for an instant, it seems these words are resonating in the whole area, accompanied only by the gentle sound of the waves crashing on the beach.

Chika looks at her, with an inscrutable expression. Looking like she's processing what Riko just said, or waiting for... something.

"I-I... mean..." Riko start to stutters, panic slowly taking hold of her brain.

"I shouldn't..."

She looks down at the sand and close her eyes while tears start to form at the corners of them. She feels like the stupidest woman in the world. Of course Chika didn't...

Suddenly, sounds of footsteps in the water. Before Riko has time to see what is happening she feels herself being tackled into a hug. With a yelp, Riko falls unto the sand and when she finally opens her eyes again she find Chika nuzzled against her, hugging Riko like if her life depended on it.

Out of instinct, or out of pure yearning perhaps, Riko close her arms around Chika tightly.

A few moments of silence, until Chika's head move and two bright eyes fix themselves on Riko's.

"I want to be with you too, Riko-chan."

Riko close even more tightly her arms around Chika.

For a short instant, everything feels right in the world.

They stay like this for a few minutes and then spend a few hours more talking, laughing and in a few instances teasing each others.

Chika cheering for Riko next piano competition, even suggesting a few melodies the redhead could play, while Riko was snorting imagining the prestigious crowd of these classical competitions being enthralled by what was definitively the beat of a new Aqours song brewing into Chika's mind.

Faster than the two realized, night was there. But they didn't care. They were together and that was the only thing that mattered for the both of them, right now.

At some point – after some arguing ending in Chika pouting because Riko forbade her from going swimming in the middle of the night – both of them end up fighting an imaginary battle between Riko-beam and Chika-beam, a battle ending on an inconclusive result except for the both of them falling head first into the sand, laughing.

"You're a weirdo." Riko say between two fits of laughter.

"Say the one yelling in the middle of the night Rikooo-beaaam." Chika answer while trying – in a losing battle – to straighten her hairs.