Family Ties: A Series of Short Cryptonloid Drabbles

1 – Miku Hatsune

She honestly didn't remember how long it had been since she'd left her tiny hometown to become a pop star. Well, it had been tiny when she left. Now it had to be at least three times its size! At least she could still find her old house. I wonder if they'll like my new look… She briefly saw herself on the day she left; dressed in a leek-colored sweater, jeans, and her lucky shoes, teal hair swinging just below her chin.

Taking a deep breath, she rang the doorbell. Seconds passed before a tall middle-aged man with her color eyes opened it. "Hello, how can I—" He blinked, and Miku had the oddly satisfying experience of watching his eyes pop open wide. "Miku…? Is that you?" he breathed.

"Yeah, Dad," she said with a cheerful smile. "All my new friends look sorta like this! Anyway, I got Mom's message, and it just…seemed right to show up for the holidays." Her dad's eyes misted over, and he pulled her into a familiar bear hug. He didn't seem to mind the giant Twintails. But who cared about that when you were hugging your long-absent daughter?

"Welcome home, honey. We can't wait to hear all about your life in Tokyo!"

2 – Kaito

"…and there are so many different kinds of ice cream for sale you would not believe! Plus the Vocaloids all treat each other like family, even Meiko, who's kind of scary," he gushed. Kaiko, his more responsible (and obscure) sister, grinned. "Wow! If stuff like that happens every day in Tokyo, what are you doing back here? Besides the fact that it's almost Christmas, of course."

Kaito's face lost some of its usual happiness. "I…don't actually get a lot of respect anymore. I came back because I think maybe if I start acting like you, I'll get some." Kaiko stopped in her tracks and stared directly into his eyes. "Big brother, you don't need to be the responsible one. That's my job. You just focus on being your usual silly, awesome self. And besides, I sound like a chipmunk when I sing. How much respect do you think I get?"

If Kaito had been paying attention, he'd have noticed that she'd led him straight into the kitchen. "Now, why don't you stop being hard on yourself and tell me more about your friends?" she prodded, putting out two light blue bowls of—

"ICE CREAM!" "Don't give yourself a brain freeze, Kaito."

3 – Meiko (Sakine)

"Hi, Mom, it's me," Meiko whispered, kneeling. "Not much new, I just decided to come back home over winter break. Wait, there is something new. You'll be proud to know that Haku and I are cleaning up, and I got a new hobby—graphic design. It's pretty challenging, but once you get the basics, it's just as addicting as…well, you know." She put a vase of red and white poinsettias (well, it was a sake bottle, but it made a perfectly good vase!) on her mother's grave. "Merry Christmas and love you forever." The bottle-cum-vase cast its green shadow on the words "Hitomi Sakine. Gone too soon."

4 – Rin/Len Kagamine

For what had to have been at least the 9,000th time, Len wondered how his twin sister wasn't cold in this amount of snow wearing those tiny shorts and midriff-exposing sailor top. True, they were both dancing and singing along to a favorite song of theirs, "Remote Control," but still!

"And so far, we've made…what, 150 yen?" Rin asked, peering into the bucket marked "Please give" when the song was done. "This is ridiculous! We'll never get the money for Iroha's train ticket like this! Len, either we start singing Christmas carols or you swallow your pride and do the full version of 'SPICE!'" He blushed. "Rin, I felt awkward just writing that dumb thing. How do you think people will react to hearing it?"

Rin sighed. "Len, people love you, and the Internet loves that song. Give the public what they want!" She gave him a devious look. "Or do you want to do 'Imitation Black' instead? We can totally do that, you know. It won't be the same without Kaito-sempai and Gakupo (not to mention that awesome dress), but hey. A song is a song is a—Len?"

The familiar opening of "SPICE!" was coming from the iPod speaker, and Len was dancing along in a completely non-self-conscious way. "What are you doing?!" "Swallowing my pride, like you suggested," he shot back mid-dance move. "Gozen youji no kooru de me wo samasu. 'Kinou dare to doko ni ita?' nante. Ii-nogare to ii-wake wo kougo ni, tsukai-wake te tanoshin deru…"

"'Kimi dake da yo,' nante ne? Beta sugi…warae chau," she joined in. "Dareka to tsunagatte itai dake? *one, two, three!* Nigakute hotto na supaisu, kimi dake ni ima ageru yo. Muchuu ni saseru boku no teisuto wo…Karadajuu de kanjite?" They'd somehow wound up sounding like each other, but that's what you get when you're somebody's twin. Len first noticed the (strangely familiar) woman in the giant brown coat between the second verse/chorus and finale. She was staring at them with wide blue eyes, as though she'd never seen two 14-year-old pop stars dancing in the streets before.

By the song's end, both twins were sweating bullets and had goofy grins on their faces. Rin's got much wider when she peeked into the money bucket. "WOO-HOO! 2,620 yen!" she cheered. "That's almost enough for a round-trip ticket!"

"And you deserved every bit of that, kids," the woman commented. "Thank you, ma'am," Len said nonchalantly. "Uh…if you don't mind my saying so, you look really familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?" "I should think so," she chuckled, putting her hood down. Their jaws dropped to the ground the instant they recognized her—

"Mom!"

05 – Luka Megurine

"Aunt Seri, I'm not quitting my job. I love singing, and someone has to make sure the Vocaloids don't kill each other," Luka declared over the phone. Even now, she was surprised that she'd been able to muster up the courage to say this. Aunt Seri had effectively adopted her after a nasty car crash incapacitated both her parents, and while no one would call her a stellar parent, she'd done a good job.

That came with the expectation that Luka would (at some point in the future) take on Revolving Beauty, the salon Aunt Seri was currently running back in Kyoto. She, personally, hated the place. Too cold, it smelled like chemicals, no good books to read, and the less said about the clientele, the better.

"Perfect. Now how am I going to find an assistant-slash-successor?" Aunt Seri griped. "Well, don't expect any more tidbits from me. No seafood recipes, nothing. …Is that what you expected me to say?" "Uh…"

If Aunt Seri's first response surprised her, the next one would knock her socks off: "Well, it's not. A beauty salon can't be a family-owned business. I mean, it'd be really interesting, but not all of us have that kind of free time. You stay in Tokyo and keep doing good things."

"…but what about finding an assistant?" Luka asked, still unable to believe what was happening. Aunt Seri laughed. "Sweetie, so many people need work over here it's not even funny. And I can always do on-the-job training. Don't worry about it. I'll call you again if anything noteworthy happens, or maybe just to chat. Merry Christmas, Luka!"