Unsynchronized
Author's Note: This one's for rempicka :)
Love is all about timing.
Their first meeting was flawed for many reasons. The first was Neru's alarm having gone off many hours too early due to the Kagamine tricksters deciding to do their best to pester her as much as humanly possible, thus leaving her in a particularly sour mood. The second was the rumours going around that Neru and Haku's usefulness was a bit of fiction and they'd soon be uninstalled to make space for new, better voicebanks. The third was talk of these UTAUs that would soon be arriving and the bothersome arguments of fans of the new system. The fourth was her sleep-deprivation-induced clumsiness causing her to trip in front of everyone and make roses blossom in her cheeks until Miku ran to her defence and helped her to her feet. The fifth was Teto's complete inability to notice that Neru's affections were clearly already dedicated to the Vocaloid who had dragged her to come meet the UTAUs in the first place, Miku.
No matter the passion or chemistry involved, if the timing is wrong, then nothing will work out for the best.
Their second meeting was more flawed than the first. Neru was most irritated by Teto stumbling into her room at the ungodly hour of two in the morning, having mistaken it for her own room. Her mood worsened when Teto promptly began to act like an idiot and get all embarrassed, hurriedly pushing excuses onto Neru while the blonde cast a glare in hopes that the redhead would get scared and run away. However, rather than do so, Teto's eye caught what was on the computer screen, and she invited herself into the sanctity of Neru's room to ask if she needed any help working on the sheet music. Neru did her best to keep her mouth shut, because Miku had requested that she play nice, but Teto was being a real pushy nuisance, and Neru had things she wanted to do. Eventually, Teto remembered the time and apologized for keeping Neru and bothering her, leaving to find her way to her actual room.
Even a fated couple cannot surpass its constraints.
It was at their third meeting that Teto was first of any use to Neru. Neru was sitting on the floor outside of her bedroom, her face hidden between her knees, because she'd made a terrible mistake. Teto's presence was an annoyance to her, and she wasn't in the mood to play nice, so she snapped at the girl to back off when Teto asked her if she was okay. Teto didn't back off, though, and rather slumped onto the floor next to Neru. She wrapped an arm around the smaller girl's shoulders and murmured that she didn't have to tell her what was wrong, but that she'd stay there with her. Neru didn't say anything, because there was no way in the world that she'd confess to the comfort that Teto's presence was giving her. They wound up sitting there for half an hour before Neru stood up and walked away without a word of thanks seeing as she had to bite her tongue to stop from crying. She'd just gotten rejected, after all, and that hurt more than she'd like to admit.
However, even if the timing is wrong once, it might later be right.
Teto confessed her feelings for Neru the fourth time they were meeting, and Neru wanted none of it. She'd just been rejected, and she didn't feel she had to deal with this garbage right now. So, without a single care for the request that she play nice, she said something ice cold to Teto. She couldn't remember exactly what it was that she'd said when she paused to think about it later, but she clearly recalled the heartbreak in Teto's teary eyes. She might have felt worse about it had she not seen the Vocaloid who held her heart paying so much attention to Teto lately. It wasn't fair that she had to sit back and watch this. It wasn't fair that Teto got everything and she got nothing. She wanted to break her to pieces, to hurt her like she'd been hurt.
A mistake, once made, can be fixed.
When they met for the fifth time, Teto was intruding on Neru's time with Miku, the one who asked her to play nice, the one who rejected her. Neru, still hoping to gain Miku's approval, played nice, as requested, as Teto looked at her coldly and admitted that the entire reason she'd wanted to come here was that she'd always idolized Neru. Neru's cheeks had flushed bright red, because she wasn't used to being complimented. However, that joy was short-lived when she realized that she no longer had a chance to be close to Teto; Teto had a passionate dislike for her now, it seemed. Any chance they might have once had was far gone, and Neru was well aware of this. It seemed like such a waste, though, to have lost this chance. She found herself noticing Teto more and more after this confession, and with this noticing came a familiar heartache.
The key, once more, is timing.
It took a couple months for them to meet properly for the sixth time, and, by this time, Neru found that her feelings for Miku had faded. Rather, she was developing feelings for Teto that were getting stronger and stronger. So, she told her. Teto just stared at her, though, and blinked. Then, slowly her mouth formed simple words: too little, too late. Neru jerked back, physically shocked by this rejection. While it was true that she and Teto had never dealt with Neru's earlier rejection, when Teto had told her over her reasoning for wanting to meet the Vocaloids, Neru had assumed Teto would wait for her. But she hadn't, and Neru was too prideful to hold onto feelings for this girl, so she gave up then and there.
However, if the timing still isn't there, then all is lost.
Their seventh meeting was the next day, and Teto apologized for the previous day and confessed that she did honestly still have feelings for Neru, but Neru was no longer in the mood to feel anything for the redhead, so Teto faced a second rejection. The girl was clearly shocked, but Neru's feelings could change quickly, and the blonde refused to take responsibility for this. She and Teto could have had everything if Teto had only said yes yesterday, but there was no way Neru would come crawling back to someone who'd been so cruel to her.
Because, in the end, love is all about timing.
A few months later, Neru's feelings resurfaced, but Teto had all but forgotten her at this point, as infatuated as she was with Yukari. When Neru moved on once more, Teto realized that her real feelings were for Neru, not Yukari, but Neru had fallen for Miku once more. And so continued their circle, because, no matter how perfect they truly were for each other, they could never, ever seem to get the timing right.