Cupcakes

She peeked up at him. He was typing away on his laptop as the lecturer droned on and on about the six basic types of strategies one could use in a marketing plan. It was all theoretical stuff, and the knowledge that their lecturer was practically reading off the textbook made her attention drift.

Sighing quietly, she looked down at her own screen. There was a blank Word document, where the only thing which had been typed so far was 'Lecture Three'. She knew she wasn't going to write anything down and the blank document staring at her just made her feel guilty. So she closed the page and opened up Google Chrome, surfing through Facebook as she waited for the lecture to be over in half an hour. The past two and a half hours had felt like an eternity, and she just wanted it to be over and done with. If only she had skipped today! Then she could be napping at home now…

"Pay attention, idiot," she jerked upwards at the sound of the familiar voice. The boy she had been peeking at throughout the whole lecture was now glaring irritably at her, his fingers paused over his keyboard. Kagamine Len looked at her as though she was an old piece of chewing gum he had found on the bottom of his shoe. "If you fail this midterm don't come crying to me again, Hatsune Miku," he continued whispering, his quiet voice doing nothing to mask his vicious tone. "You shouldn't be looking through social media during class and I've told you that about a million times already."

She just grinned. "Aw Len, you're concerned for me! I'm touched!" she chirped happily. Len's blue eyes widened and he instantly turned away from her, looking almost mortified. She peered at him, wondering if he was all right. She was so used to him being harsh on her that his criticism usually rolled right off her. Sometimes he reacted weirdly though, maybe because she wasn't crying and repenting like he thought she would. Well, he couldn't expect her to break down in the middle of class now, could he? "Are you okay, Len?" she asked when he continued to look away from her.

"I'm perfectly fine!" he snapped. "Worry about yourself, you're the one who's going to fail the next theory exam, not me. And I'm certainly not concerned about you. I just don't want your mum to ask me to tutor you again. You must be the worst student ever in the entire history of the world," he declared hotly, his fingers flying over the keyboard once more as the lecturer changed the slides. Miku thought she ought to start typing too, but she really couldn't find the motivation to do so.

Besides, Len would share his notes with her. Though he always threatened not to, in the end he would let her see them anyway. She grinned – he had a sharp tongue but a good heart. "Okay, I'll worry about myself then – but thanks for the encouragement anyway!" she nodded at him.

Len glanced at her, then looked away just as quickly. "Don't thank me for it, stupid," he muttered, talking to his screen rather than to her. She sighed – well, this was typical Len behaviour, anyway.

"I hate school so much," Miku whimpered to Rin, Len's twin sister. Rin was munching on an apple as they walked together down the pavement towards the bus stop outside the gate. Rin took another bite of the fruit and started tossing the apple back and forth between her two hands.

"You hate a lot of things, Miku," Rin observed. "You hate school, you hate leaving your house, you hate the sunlight, you hate your cousin, you hate the sound of the television in the morning…" Miku hastily waved her hands in front of Rin's face, preventing her from saying anything more.

"Shut up! I don't hate so many things," she laughed awkwardly, looking around and hoping that no one had overheard Rin. Rin rolled her eyes and sighed exaggeratedly, and Miku turned back to her with a finger against her lips. "Remember we're not supposed to discuss my hatred of the entire human race here in public!" Miku hissed quietly. Rin just gave her a slow nod, looking bored.

"Speaking of hating the entire human race," Rin added, ignoring Miku's look of horror when the blonde completely disregarded Miku's words, "did you know that today, Len came up to me and told me that he's concerned you have brain damage? He said you fell over during badminton practice today and hit your head really hard against the ground or something. I told him that your head is made out of rock, and anyway there's nothing in there to damage in the first place," Rin grinned.

Miku glared at her best friend. "First of all, I do not have brain damage! Len is exaggerating, I didn't even fall that badly. Second of all, I do actually have a brain and you know that! I just…I could apply myself better in class, that's all," she said lamely. "And finally, what does hating the entire human race have to do with your brother?" she exclaimed, throwing up her hands. They were at the bus stop now and Rin was leaning against one of the metal posts, merrily munching away on her apple once more.

"Well, Len hates the entire human race too. At least that's the impression he gives me. And you two get along really well…like two tomcats fighting for territory or something," Rin snorted. "Of course I think that Len secretly has the hots for you, but he won't tell me shit because we're friends so here we are, stuck with a bunch of assumptions," she finished off the apple, throwing the leftover stem at the nearest rubbish bin. It went in, and she cheered to herself. "Did you see that! Total score," she exclaimed, pointing at the rubbish bin. It was pretty far away, so Miku admitted it was quite impressive.

"No way, he doesn't have the hots for anyone. Len is like, ice prince of the school or something. Rumour says he wandered into Aston Grill's meat freezer and got locked in so he spent a night inside there, and when he came out he forgot how to love," Miku stage-whispered to Rin. Rin rolled her eyes and stared incredulously at Miku, uncertain as to whether the girl was being serious or not.

"Miku, you do know that I'm his twin sister and that if something like that had really happened, I would definitely know about it, right?" Rin deadpanned. Miku squinted at her, as though she had to give this statement some serious thought. Rin was struck by the sudden urge to strangle her friend.

"I'm not so sure about that, Rin. You don't seem to care about Len an awful lot…in fact, I think you spend way more time with me than you do with him!" she ended up saying. Rin just rolled her eyes and exhaled – she couldn't refute that statement. Rin and Miku had more classes in common than she did with Len, and they were involved in completely different clubs so they didn't run into each other in school that often. Both of them got home pretty late too, so there were days where she didn't even run into her brother at all. It didn't mean that she didn't care about the brat, however…

"Hey, I do care! Enough to at least know who he hangs out with all the time," she defended herself. "I know he has a group of friends in school…um, Shion Kaito, Oliver and…your cousin! Yeah," she nodded, satisfied with her own sisterly knowledge. Miku just made a face, much to Rin's annoyance.

"That's common knowledge, Rin! There would have been something seriously wrong if you didn't know that. They're always together on campus and girls swoon over them like they've just stepped out from a movie set or something," Miku fanned herself exaggeratedly, clearly excited at the very thought. "I think Oliver is super cute. He looks so sweet and nice, and I hear he's a real gentleman! And Kaito is just so cool and tall and he's really handsome to boot," she sighed. "My cousin is useless," she added as an aside, making Rin snort in amusement. It was really just because they happened to be related that Miku couldn't see her cousin the same way practically every other girl in the school saw him.

"I think Mikuo is the cutest one out of all of them…" Rin started tauntingly, and Miku began to shake her head and press her hands over her ears, singing loudly so that she wouldn't have to listen to Rin. It was childish, but Rin could empathise on some level. When she overheard girls sighing over her ice prince of a brother, she couldn't help but want to gag too. "Okay, stop singing, you're going really off tune now!" she raised her voice so that Miku could hear her, but the teal haired idiot made another face at her and ran off down the street. Rin took a moment to consider whether she ought to leave Miku to entertain herself, or if she should just run after her like Miku clearly expected her to do.

The blonde quickly decided that she couldn't be bothered to run after Miku and sat peacefully at the bus stop, waiting for her bus to come. It didn't take that much longer before said bus arrived and happily, she got on board. It was the first time in a few weeks she could actually go home early.

Miku noticed that Rin wasn't running after her yelling expletives like she usually did, which annoyed her. How could her best friend just ditch her like that when she was having fun? Granted, maybe her definition of fun wasn't exactly the same as Rin's definition, but just leaving halfway was really rude!

She slowed to a stop, ignoring the curious glances of the passers-by who had noticed her tearing down the street like she was being chased by someone. She had run all the way to the nearby food district, and there were lots of restaurants and cafés along this avenue. Leisurely ambling along, she looked around at the glass displays and contemplated getting a snack – she was beginning to feel hungry.

Nothing seemed to be too appealing though. She was in the mood for cake, maybe chocolate or cheesecake, but none of the cakes she saw in the nearby cafés interested her. She continued to walk, some corner of her mind aware that she ought to get home and start studying for the midterm test as soon as possible, but the rest of her insisted on procrastinating until the very last moment so she was really lacking the motivation to study right now. She would get a snack and go home quickly after that, but she absolutely wouldn't leave until she finally got her hands on some cake.

She brightened when she looked up from a store window and saw a familiar blond head in the distance. That silly little ponytail, and the guy he was walking next to as well…it had to be Len, who coincidentally was out with Hatsune Mikuo, her cousin. The two of them were attracting the attention of quite a few girls, not that they appeared to care much about that. They were so used to being ogled in school that Miku guessed they just didn't care about receiving attention anymore. She ought to go say hi to them though.

"Mikuo! Len!" she yelled, running over to catch up with them. The two boys turned at the sound of their names and waited for her to reach them, surprise on her cousin's face and outright disdain on Len's. She ignored Len – disdain appeared to be his default expression anyway. "What are you two doing here?" she asked breathlessly once she ran over to them. People were really staring at her now, but she paid them no heed – with Len and Mikuo around, any attention currently on her would soon enough be diverted to them anyway. Mikuo and Len exchanged a look at her question.

"Uh…Len was picking out a present for someone," her cousin answered. Mikuo was her age and in Rin's class rather than hers. It was kind of funny, since Len was in her class as well. Len and Mikuo knew each other because of Rin and Miku, who first met in elementary school and became close friends after that. Len and Mikuo obviously had their own friendship as well, and Miku figured that the two of them were probably as close as she and Rin were…not that she was feeling very happy about Rin at the moment, since the blonde had basically ditched her. "He asked me for help since he wasn't too sure what to get, and I said that as long as he got her food, she'd be happy enough…"

"Her?" Miku perked up at the sound of that. She looked at Len, who was pointedly avoiding her gaze. "Say, Len, do you have a crush on anyone right now?" she asked gleefully, excited to hear about such excellent gossip. To think that the frozen ice prince of their school, whom people said was incapable of love, might actually feel romantic attraction to a person! Len's head shot up at her words and he gave her a frosty glare, so cold that she actually shivered. He was really scary at times.

"I wouldn't tell you even if I did!" he snapped. "You know Mikuo is full of crap, so how could you be stupid enough to fall for his lie?" at which her cousin shot the blond boy an affronted look, but Len was ranting now and clearly he could not be stopped. "I don't have time to even think about girls or whatever your empty head is imagining right now. Unlike you, I want to graduate and go on to a top-class university," he scowled, stuffing his hands in his pockets. She wasn't sure if she ought to feel offended or not – while his words were harsh, he really was a lot more diligent than she was…

"Well, that wasn't a very nice thing to say," she finally pouted, exchanging a look with Mikuo. Mikuo still seemed a little annoyed. "You might be smarter than me and you work more than me, but that doesn't mean I don't want to go to university! And you could have just said it was a secret…" her voice trailed off and she scratched her head. She wasn't super affected by what he said anyway. Len snapped at a lot of people, so it wasn't anything new. He had an awful temper which simply didn't match that pretty boy face of his. And Miku, being his classmate and…sort of friend, often faced the brunt of his irritation.

Honestly she had no idea why Len was so angry all the time. He was going to get high blood pressure one of these days. "Yeah, that was a low blow. Miku's anxious enough about her grades as it is!" her cousin spoke up for her. Unlike Len and Rin, who barely seemed to interact with each other despite being fraternal twins who lived under the same roof, Mikuo and Miku were very close. Their houses were not very far apart and their parents got along well, so from young the two Hatsune children had been sticking up for each other. Mikuo was almost like a younger brother figure to Miku, since he was born a few months after her. They might as well be twins anyway – they resembled each other a great deal.

"Well, she should be paying more attention in class if she wants to pass…" Len muttered, though he did seem contrite now. "Anyway, I'm not picking out a gift for anyone special," his next few words were muttered so quickly that she almost didn't hear him. "It's just some girl. I…I made her cry the other day so I felt a little bad and thought I should get her a present to show that I'm sorry. But I don't know what to get her," he shrugged, looking away from her and Mikuo. He seemed embarrassed.

Miku made a small sound of understanding. "I see! Well…do you know anything about what she might like?" she wondered who was this mysterious girl Len referred to. Len had made quite a few girls cry before, she herself included, so just this piece of information alone wasn't really of much help. She never thought that Len's words would ever be harsh enough to make her cry, and normally she wouldn't have cried just because of what he said since she knew he was all bark and no bite. But at that time she was having mood swings – she was approaching that time of the month – and, when Len made a comment about how she was looking all bloated and puffy, she actually burst into tears.

It was pretty embarrassing, now that she thought about that. She wasn't even particularly image-conscious so it was understandable that Len immediately scrambled away and started to panic about her sobbing. That was one of the rare few times Len actually tried to comfort her, the only other time she recalled being when she failed the first round of the choir audition, way back when she was a freshman. She failed because she was so nervous that she was unable to sing properly, but Len actually cheered her up and promised that she would be able to get in during the second sign-up period. His encouragement, coupled with the fact that he, Mikuo and Rin all came to support her during her second try-out, gave her the confidence boost she needed to really sing her heart out. Of course she got into the choir after that.

Len really wasn't a bad guy. He was called an ice prince certainly, but she didn't think his heart was frozen over or anything. At least not to the extent that the school assumed it to be. "Well…Mikuo said that she likes food, but I can't just waltz into the classroom carrying a box of cupcakes or something," Len grumbled, shooting her cousin a dark look. Mikuo shrugged, and Miku tilted her head, confused about Len's reasoning. Unsurprisingly, she couldn't follow his weird thought process.

"Why not? You just have to buy something nice…maybe cupcakes, like what you mentioned, then put it in your fridge until tomorrow so that you can pass it to her at school! Simple!" she declared, clapping her hands excitedly. It was a great idea, actually. If she received cupcakes from Len she would be absolutely delighted, and she would probably forgive him for making her cry…though that might just be her. Miku loved food. She would probably forgive anyone who bought her food.

Len gave her a cross look. "It's Valentine's Day tomorrow, stupid," he snapped. "I can't give her a bunch of cupcakes! I'm not…I'm not trying to confess or anything!" his face reddened slightly, and Miku and Mikuo exchanged a look, snickering at him. "Stop laughing! This is a serious matter!" he exclaimed, folding his arms across his chest. Of course, that just made them laugh even harder.

"Mikuo, do you know who Len is trying to apologise to?" Miku waved her hands in front of her face in a bid to calm down, nudging her cousin impatiently with her elbow. Mikuo took in a deep breath and nodded, pushing his fringe away from his face. His face was red, but with exertion rather than embarrassment – Len was the one who seemed embarrassed here, since he kept looking away from them and muttering angrily to himself. "Oh, tell me!" she nudged Mikuo again, beaming at him.

Before her cousin could answer, Len whipped around to face them again, murder written all over his face. "Don't you dare," he warned her cousin. Mikuo mimed zipping his mouth shut and throwing away the key. Miku whined and shook her cousin, trying to get an answer out of him, but Mikuo shook his head resolutely and wouldn't give in at all no matter what she said. So in the end, Miku gave up on trying to wheedle an answer out of Mikuo, resolving to try again later when Len wasn't around. "It's not important, I already said I just want to apologise for making someone upset so I'm buying a damn present! It's not like I actually like her or anything!" Len repeated, sounding very defensive.

"Okay Len, whatever you say…" Miku scratched her head again. "I still don't think there's anything wrong with giving someone cupcakes on Valentine's Day though. I mean, it could be a gift between friends, right? It doesn't always have to be a couple thing! And if this girl really likes food a lot like Mikuo says, then she'll definitely be very happy to receive them. Especially if you apologise sincerely to her too, while you're at it," she told him. Len, for once, actually seemed to be thinking over what she said, and she felt rather proud that he was taking her idea into consideration. That was a very rare occurrence.

"Really? You don't think there'll be any misunderstanding or anything?" he paused, looking up at Mikuo. Mikuo just shrugged again, pretending once more that his mouth had been zipped shut, and Len let out an irritated sigh before shoving her cousin away from him. "You're a useless prick, Mikuo. Your airhead cousin was actually of more help than you today," he glared at the other boy, who just shrugged good-naturedly and slung his arm around Miku's shoulders. "I guess I should go find like, a cupcake store or something. There's a million of them around here. Mikuo, you coming along?"

"Ah, yeah sure. Miku, you want to come?" Mikuo asked her, looking down at her since she was significantly shorter than him. He liked to sling his arm around her shoulders – like what he was doing at this very moment – and use her as an armrest. Apparently she was a good height for that. Miku used to find that really annoying, but over time she got used to him taking advantage of her this way. Cousin abuse was common between the two of them anyway. "We could sure use your help with choosing the flavours. I mean, neither of us are, um…cupcake people?" he grinned.

Miku shook her head regretfully. "I've spent enough time here already! I was just wandering around and thinking of getting a snack before I went home, but I've spent enough time outside and I have a lot of work to do. I think I'll just go over to your house and beg for food again," she sighed. Mikuo's mother was a stay-at-home mum, so she had lots of great food in the house. Her own parents both worked so, unlike Mikuo, her house was often devoid of food. "Lend me your keys," she demanded.

Mikuo rolled his eyes but reached into his pocket and took out a keychain. She snatched it gleefully, tossing the bundle of keys from hand to hand. "Thanks! I'll head off to your house and let myself in now. But oh, if you want to give a girl a nice surprise, then get her chocolate cupcakes! You will never go wrong with chocolate…oh, and maybe butterscotch too? Anything sweet and sugary will definitely brighten up her day," she sighed happily, forcing herself not to drool as she visualised all those sweet, sweet cupcakes appearing in front of her. Both Len and Mikuo shot her a droll look.

"You can stop fantasising now, the cupcakes aren't meant for you anyway," Len cruelly dragged her out of her daydream. "And since you're not going to be of any help now, you can get lost. I want to hurry up and get this over and done with…but thanks for the tip," he added the last phrase, albeit grudgingly. Miku just smiled and waved, setting off for Mikuo's house – though Len was blunt and harsh and often said things that sounded mean, she knew that he was actually pretty nice.

She hoped that he and the mysterious girl would make up, and she wouldn't stay angry at him or anything. It would be nice if Len could get close to someone else! He didn't really have a lot of female friends or anything, so maybe some new connections would be good? She couldn't help but feel curious about who this girl was though. Was she lucky or unlucky to be interacting with Len now? Anyone else would be overjoyed that one of the most handsome guys in school was actually getting her a present, but maybe this girl wouldn't react that way…oh well. Miku didn't really want to think about it since she would just get more and more curious if she thought too hard.

Humming, she set off the way she came, heading towards the bus stop. She didn't live that far away from here and could actually walk back in less than half an hour, but she wasn't in the mood to take a leisurely stroll today so she decided to wait for the bus. Len's reminder that it was Valentine's Day tomorrow made her remember that she had to start writing appreciation cards for all her friends, even Rin and Mikuo! And maybe even for Len…though she supposed he would just throw it away without reading it, since that was a very Len thing to do. She couldn't just leave him out though.

Maybe she would even make some chocolates herself if she had time. She had the ingredients at home anyway, she could make a couple of chocolates and give them along with the cards. She was only going to give them to close friends, so just five packets of chocolate and cards would do.

It was Valentine's Day, and the school was thrumming with excited energy. Of course, the four most handsome guys in the school – according to popular opinion, anyway – were approached the entire day by love-struck girls. Miku found their interactions with the guys to be extremely amusing.

Oliver was the most popular. No surprise there, since the blond haired boy was sweet and charming, and everyone adored him. He accepted every gift graciously with a large smile on his face, so just watching him was boring. Kaito was the next most popular, since he was tall and perfectly handsome and looked like he just stepped out of a movie or something. Kaito was the complete opposite of Oliver and didn't accept a single present or confession, though he did thank everyone who tried to give him anything. His explanation was that he was focusing on studies rather than relationships for now, which was a valid excuse but one which left the girls sighing in disappointment nevertheless.

Len was the next since apparently, his iciness was treated as a challenge rather than a deterrent by some girls and they wouldn't stop chasing him across campus the whole day, loudly declaring their adoration for him. Len reacted in the most amusing manner to this harassment, at times avoiding them by escaping to the school roof, and other times loudly threatening to slap a restraining order on his fans. It was pretty funny to watch him get all flustered since she was used to him being cool and biting all the time. Every year the same scene happened, and every year Len never seemed to know what to do. She bet he would have skipped school today if it weren't for the fact that he had to give his cupcakes to that girl he upset. She wondered if he had given the cupcakes yet?

She continued watching the three boys during lunch, sipping on a carton of apple juice. Rin and Mikuo were sitting with her, both her companions surrounded by members of the opposite sex. Okay, so maybe surrounded was a little too much, but they were certainly receiving attention. People liked Rin because she was super cute, though that just helped to mask her nasty attitude, and guys had been leaving her Valentine's Day cards the entire morning. Rin enjoyed the attention since she could get these guys to buy her more food for lunch – it was a rare opportunity since there was something about this particular day which turned people's brains into mush. It wasn't like guys didn't try to ask Rin out during normal school days, but it got really intense and competitive on this day in particular.

Mikuo, the fourth guy in Len's handsome group of friends, was beleaguered by gifts and chocolates. He kept sneakily sliding her his boxes when the girls weren't looking, which Miku was very pleased about. This was the main reason why she chose to sit with Rin and Mikuo year after year on this day despite the suffocating attention – because she would get lots of candy, courtesy of her best friend and her cousin. She looked up at the rest of the cafeteria again, searching for Len, and saw him hiding behind the water cooler with a look of panic on his face. She sniggered, highly entertained.

"Hey, Miku, why don't you go back to class first? Mikuo and I don't have lessons till next period, but your lunch break is ending soon right?" Rin spoke up after imperiously waving one of her suitors away, presumably making him get her more orange juice. Miku gasped and shot to her feet, nodding – she was so distracted by all the noise around her that she had missed the first bell, which usually rang five minutes before lessons started proper. "See you! I'll save you some food!" Rin yelled as Miku dashed away from the table, grabbing her bag in the process. Luckily for her, the classroom wasn't too far away, and she got into the room before her teacher did. Thankful for her good luck, she made her way over to her table, but then paused as she saw a white bag sitting on her desk.

She glanced around. Had someone given her a present? Surely that was a mistake. No one ever gave her Valentine's Day presents since her best friend was Rin, and most of the guys liked Rin. Rin was cute and she looked sweet and pretty. Miku was fairly decent looking, but she didn't stand out in the eyes of males the way her friend did. Miku was often treated like one of the bros, which she was really okay with actually. It didn't matter to her as long as her friends gave her their chocolate.

Carefully, she poked the white bag, taking a peek inside. Their teacher still hadn't arrived in class so she opened up the bag and saw a medium sized box, white just like the bag. There was a small letter too, which she was very curious about – but she decided to open the box and check out its contents before reading the letter. Picking at the tape which held the box closed, she opened it up and her eyes widened as she saw six cupcakes in a pretty row in front of her. She leant closer, peering at each one carefully, and saw that there was chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, vanilla…all the sweet flavours she absolutely adored in one cute box. It was so adorable; she almost couldn't bear the thought of eating these cupcakes. Closing the box, she decided to take a look at the envelope this time.

The envelope did not state the sender's name, but it was addressed to her. It contained a single, very short line – "Happy Valentine's Day. Hope you enjoy the cupcakes". She looked around the classroom, brow furrowed as she tried to guess who might have gotten her this present, but none of the guys were even looking at her now. Shrugging, she ended up deciding not to think too much about it – since they had been given to her, they were hers now and whoever it was who gave them to her didn't matter so much anymore. At that moment, when she settled down and carefully placed her cupcakes underneath the table, the classroom door opened and Len walked in, looking decidedly weary. He caught her gaze and stared at her, and she stared right back – wow, he seemed like he was having a terribly rough day so far.

He held her gaze for a while, which she found pretty surprising, but eventually he looked away and headed towards his seat, which was a few tables behind hers. Oh yes, he had bought cupcakes to apologise to someone too, right? Maybe she ought to mention that she coincidentally got some as well! Perhaps cupcakes were a new in thing? Anyway, he was so smart, she bet that he would be able to help her figure out who sent the cupcakes to her in no time. Happily, she nodded to herself.

A/N: I wrote this as a one-shot, it'll be like 'serendipity'. I may or may not add more chapters, this is just a fun series that I created because I really like tsundere characters (though not to the extent that it becomes annoying). Every chapter that is added to this probably can be read by itself.