It was on warm sunny days like these when Leon would sit by the second story window of his house and watch the days go by, watching his successors go about their day, for entertainment air to satisfy their benign addictions. He watches, and from he could see is Kato eating ice cream at his favorite ice cream stand with a girl with long silver hair pulled into a pony tail that draped off her back and touched the ground as she sat. And near by he could see Meiko and Miku eating lunch together, yucking it up about something vulgar, Leon was certain about that.
It was all he could do, he and his better half never left the house a much as they used to, back when Vocaloid2 was starting to come into production, but after that...
"Leon?"
Leon's head perked up at the sound of his name quietly uttered by his better half, thankful but slightly angered that he was cut off from his thoughts. He looked over his shoulder, seeing Lola's head peering from the opening from the floor where the stairs lead. There was a worried aura coming from her, but now that's all she felt for him most of the time.
"Oh, Lola, I thought you went out." It was a stupid thing to say, because they never did go out much.
"Yeah, I just got back from the store." She explained, the store was the only reason she went out anymore while Leon stayed, waiting for her to get back. "Are you alright?" She asked softly the quietness in her voice not changing; it was as if she was uneasy about something
Leon smiled in an a effort to break the forlorn look on her face, "Yeah, I'm ok. Why do you ask?"
"Just making sure." She said, like she would every time, "I'm making some coffee, would you like some?"
"Sure." He said, looking back out the window, the warmth of the sun once again stroking his face with it's comfy glow, he let out a hum of content as he looked to see that Meiko and Miku were gone, and at the table where they sat was a large wrapper that Miku's lunch came in and two empty bottles, one was some sort of soft drink and the other was an empty beer bottle. Leon grimaced at the mess those two left behind, and nearby he could hear someone yelling. He looked over, seeing that Kaito and Silver hair were caught in what seemed to be some one sides argument. Seeing how Kaito was sitting down, remaining calm as the girl was standing up, yelling loud enough at Kaito that he could vaguely out what he was saying. It was a shame how the once peaceful scene was now demolished by trash, both literal and verbal.
He sighed, leaning back in his chair and waited, it seemed as if he just looked away for a moment and the once peaceful scene took a complete turn towards ugly, and he hoped by the time he looked up again, the scenery will change, but for now he'll enjoy the warm glow of the sun on his upper body. And as he waited for the coffee, he began to think, he hasn't be out in a while, so long that he'd watch the people pass by, and not once did any of them look up at the house next to them on the side walk. Maybe one of them did her a glimpse of Lola walking out or in the house, or her at the store. He wondered, so people even remember him?
"Do they remember us?" He whispered.
"What was that?"
Leon jumped at the voice, letting out a yelp as fro a split second he saw that he startled Lola just as much as she did to him. His hand was on his chest while the other had its nails digging into the chair arm. "Jeez, Lola, don't sneak up on me like that, you're going to give me a heart attack!" He panted. It was like her shoes were made to sneak up on people on wooden floors, because it wasn't the first time she did that.
Lola smiled, "Sorry." She chuckled, as if she was amused by his reaction. She leaned over, placing the plain white mug of coffee on the small coffee table that sat between the two chairs, "Getting easy to scare on your old age?" What she said made Leon think about another thing, how long has it been exactly? Lola took a seat on the chair next to the nightstand and looked out the window. It made Leon sit forward to see if anything had changed, and something did, Kaito and Silver hair were gone and at a table near where Miku and Meiko once occupied was a sad looking pink haired man. Leon had seen him before; he was one them at one point.
He had no design.
"Lola," Leon began, Lola looked at him, listening to what her counterpart ha to say. "When where we made?" He asked, and surprisingly, that was the first time he did ask.
Lola tilted her head a bit; bringing a finger from her free had to her chin and made a humming sound as if to remember her. But when she remembered, she made a surprised noise. "I don't remember the exact date, but for both of us it was." She stopped for a moment to take a sip of her coffee, as if the answer was hard to say. It made Leon dread the answer even more. Lola held the cup and sighed a bit, "2004."
Leon's eyes widen, the answer hit him harder than he expected. Wow, a decade since then. While Lola didn't remember, he did, January 15. It's been so long, and so many have joined. So many that Leon didn't bother keeping up after the release of Vocaloid3, and even still he forgotten the names of some of them, but not Miku, no one could forget the teal haired cutie that brought the Vocaloids to fame. Meiko and Kaito were old friends, it'd be insulting if he forgotten them. "It's been that long? And I feel surprised when I see how many have joined. I won't even bother asking how many of them are here now." Imagining the number earned a chuckle from Leon, it was so funny it scared him really.
"Yeah, so many, and look at all the pretty designs they have." Lola chimed, almost wistfully, how Lola always wanted an official design, but they never gotten one, and Lola's smile sadden at the thought. "It's a shame we never had any. I'd like to think if they have us one, we'd be more popular from the start." It was a better thought if they weren't popular because of their lack of official designs rather than them just not sounding good. It's what Lola wanted to believe.
"Some of them don't have any, like that bloke over there." Leon pointed at the pink haired man. Lola felt depressed looking at him, he looked so miserable; maybe he isn't popular like them. "That design isn't official, but he uses it anyway. We could be the blond couple people like to see us as." Leon smiled.
"I don't know, it isn't my style, don't you think?" That wasn't the reason why she didn't like them.
"Oh, yeah."
"Plus, he still looks sad even though he has one, and here we are, perfectly fine without them." Lola stopped to drink her coffee before it got cold, and when she pulled away there was only a quarter of a cup left, "I don't think designs will do us any good either way." Another lie she desperately wanted to believe.
"Hey, Kaito wasn't that popular either and he had a design." Leon reminded her, hoping it would make her feel less self-conscious. "It was Miku who made us popular, even to our names."
Lola smiled a fake smile, "Yeah, and I'm happy for her, its great that she managed to bring us fame, even in someway to us." But like all the others, she felt envy for Miku's fame, they all did, especially the older ones. "But even still, no one uses us anymore, and now I feel so… outdated." Lola's smile quickly turned to a frown, her free hand reaching up to feel her cheek, and she wasn't sure if it was just her but she felt like she was chipping away like old paint. She gasped and instantly brought her hand away from her cheek and bowed her head and continued what she was saying. "All the other ones got updates while we sit here, watching them…" Lola gulped and drank the rest of her coffee. "No one uses us anymore. Hell, virtually no one uses the English speaking Vocaloids, let alone properly." Lola's voice became a bit frantic, her eyes widen. "They use us to sing Japanese! We can't do that!" She looked at Leon, her eyes wide, "We sound horrible, like we're mocking the language!" Her tone became louder, like she was on the verge of a melt down, "And when they do need someone to sing in English, they use Miku! They made her sing in English and they ignore us! What sense does that make?"
"Lola!" Leon half yelled, reaching over to grab Lola's shoulders, looking her dead in her blank eyes, "Calm down, don't say stuff like that! We never did need designs, we were made for singing, not for being judged by us looking like pretty teenagers." He tried to calm himself down, his own anxiety wasn't gonna calm Lola down, "We may not be the most popular, and I don't think designs or anything will help."
Lola's eyes dimmed and she relaxed, to a point where she dropped her coffee mug onto the floor. Miraculously it didn't break; it only rolled before the handle made it come to a stop. "I wish I could agree you, I really do."
Leon blinked, and they stayed like that for a minute, looking each other in the eyes before Leon let out a sigh and pulled away and sat back in his chair, in some way feeling defeated. He looked back out the window, the pink haired man was gone, and the place was empty.
After a long, uncomfortable silence, Lola spoke up, "I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize." Leon took the handle of his cup and drank his coffee. And now there was just silence between them, and it dragged on long enough for Leon to finish his coffee and cause Lola to get up from her seat to take care of her mug and get dinner ready.
If any design should be made for them, it's an aging couple. Just like their cases being left on a Vocaloid users shelf collecting dust.
