Characters: Utau Hoshina
Café Buono!: Bucket of Water (バケツの水)
Utau tapped a pencil on her desk impatiently. She was stuck. The pop idol was supposed to be writing a new song. Yukari Sanjo, her manager, had accepted an offer to do an ending theme for an anime show, and Utau had no idea how to start. They had requested that the song have something to do with the show in even a vague way.
Utau sighed and picked up the piece of paper with details on what the anime was about. She read the details before summarizing the whole thing out loud, "So, it's a pre-teen show about a spoiled moody girl who goes to school, and some guy gets worried when she's overly moody and goes to her house in the middle of the night." Sarcasm and pessimism leaked through Utau's voice as she said this.
Utau scoffed and threw the paper back on the desk, "This is impossible. They want a happy, obviously non-sarcastic, song about some moody pre-teen girl." As she said this thunder struck, and soon rain started to come down. The thunderstorm raged outside, the rain making loud sounds on the ceiling.
El landed on the desk and asked Utau in concern, "Do you need our help~?"
"Any help would be great" Utau replied, tapping her pencil on the desk, staring at the blank sheet of paper.
El thought for a moment before a drop of water landed on her head. She looked up and saw that water was dripping through a crack in the ceiling. "I better go get a bucket to catch that water~"
Il landed on Utau's shoulder, and read the description of the show. Il snickered before saying, "Ha ha, that show's so unoriginal." El flew back into the room and placed a bucket on the desk. Drops of water made sounds against the metal bucket as they landed in it.
Utau nodded, "Yeah, there's so many other shows like it." She then stretched and said, "Well, I guess that makes it easy then, but these kind of songs aren't really my style."
Il shook her head, "Nah, that's not I was talking about. I was thinking about how it's so much similar to Amu's life. I mean, the girl's pretty moody if she has four different versions of herself, and how many times has Ikuto visited her at night?"
Utau thought it over slowly, "Yeah…" The resemblance was vague, and a slight stretch, but it was there. Il's comment got Utau thinking about what the girl-from-the-anime's heart egg would be like if she were in their world. "The girl from the anime likes to let out her emotions on everyone else, that's for sure."
A long silent pause followed as Utau wracked her brain for clever lyrics, while Il did little to help with her sarcastic comments. Water continued to collect in the bucket, and when it began to become almost completely full, El floated down to the bucket, "It's almost full~ I'll get a new one~" With that, El flew down to the bucket and placed her little hands on the handle, struggling to pick it up.
Utau observed El as she did this, noting that the bucket was so full that water would soon spill over the rim. Then, it hit her. Utau smiled and said, "I've got an idea."
The pop idol began writing her lyrics on the paper as Il watched. Il smirked, "That's pretty clever. When she cries water collects in the 'bucket' and then she laughs 'until it's about to overflow'! Cool metaphor."
"Thanks," Utau replied. With a smile of satisfaction that could be mistaken for a smug smirk, she remarked, "I'm not really into any cheesy metaphors, but I guess I can make an exception this time."
A crash sounded, and Il and Utau turned to the door to see that El had dropped the bucket and crashed to the floor, spilling water everywhere.
"Ouch~"