Gay Girl's Guide to Picking Up Chicks

"H-hey, Rika?"

Rika looked down at the little girl poking her leg. "Yeah, Lena, what's up?"

"How did you meet...?" Lena cocked her head towards the other members of M4. At present, they were decorating the Christmas tree. Marika was perched precariously atop Dalia's shoulders, leaning towards the tree, while Saori supervised (meaning that she was watching with ill-concealed panic, bracing herself for the moment everything came crashing down).

Had any of them been paying a little more attention to Rika and a little less to the tree, they might've been more concerned about what Rika was telling Lena. But as it stood, Rika was left entirely unsupervised.

"Fear not, little Lena, Big Sis Seto is here to help!" She knew Lena wasn't just asking for the M4 Origin Story, she was asking for advice on how to make friends. Granted, my relationship with M4 is a little more than just friends, Rika chuckled to herself. But the skills are transferable, so to speak... Brace yourself, little Lena, cuz I'm about to give you the Gay Girl's Guide to Picking Up Chicks!

Rika led Lena to the couch. "If I had to summarize it, I think I could put it into three main "focuses": food, music, and PARTY!"

"Uhh, aren't those three things all kinda the same?" Lena asked.

"Huh? Oh! Huh... I guess you're right!" Rika nodded thoughtfully. "But that's how I met them..." Her face softened as she looked back at the tree. Marika was leaning even further towards it, Dalia's strong hands firmly grasping her legs while Saori gripped the sides of her head in worry.

Rika chuckled and shook her head before looking back at Lena. It was story time!

"I met Marika first. She was eating alone, so I decided to slide in and shoot my shot! I admit, I was a little nervous, we didn't know each other, but she was all alone, so it felt like the perfect time to talk to her! No one else would interrupt us, or anything like that. Now, I don't remember all the particulars, but I know that we wound up just talking about food and other casual, normal stuff. Nothing too big or crazy or serious, y'know?"

They always say not to unpack or unload all of your biggest baggage on the first date! "I think I recommended her some type of ramen and she really enjoyed it! That was a win for me! And that was also the start of a most beautiful friendship! By the end of that little lunch date, we were already on a first-name basis!" Rika was proud she mustered up the nerve to talk to such a pretty girl and get her first name all in less than an hour.

"Wow, that fast?!" Lena's eyes widened in awe.

"Mm-hmm!" Rika nodded proudly. "Ya girl moves quick!" She flashed Lena two peace signs.

"Who did you meet next?" Lena asked, excited to hear more of Rika's story.

"Saori," Rika chuckled and shook her head again. The purple-haired DJ was sighing in exasperation and shaking her own head as Marika reached a hand down, gesturing for another ornament. Despite her grouchy expression, Saori complied.

Now that she thought about it, Rika's first meeting with Saori bore more than a few similarities to her first meeting with Marika. Granted, the first and biggest difference was that Rika met Saori at a record shop rather than a lunchroom, but the surprise and suddenness was the same.

"I was just looking around for some DJ stuff when I saw Saori in the booth, and she was killing it!" Rika cried, eyes glazing over at the memory, a smile slowly spreading across her face. "She was just so good! Her music was truly captivating, and I just had to get to know her!"

She rushed right over to Saori before she even knew what she was doing, introducing herself and nearly giving Saori a heart attack in the process. She hadn't frightened Marika quite as much, but Marika had been equally surprised when Rika marched right up to her and started chatting. And like Marika, Saori knew of Rika's party reputation. At first, she had a lot of reserves about associating with Rika, but Rika turned on the charm just like she did with Marika and tried to appeal to Saori's obvious love of music.