Hello? No, this is FanFiction

We finished our song and looked at the blacked out faces who had begun applauding. Why were they applauding? I looked to Miku, who had a face with distaste plastered upon it before her teal hair turned and bowed towards the audience. I did the same barely a second later, though I'm sure that it looked delayed to the crowd.

Miku pressed herself against my arm, forcing a smile for the audience. I smiled with her before Miku began talking, "Sorry everyone, that will be our last song for the evening!"

I continued the little farce we put on for the audience, "But you all were an awesome crowd!" The audience began to clap louder response to my compliment. I remained smiling as Miku continued,

"Luka and I will be back again in a year for our annual tour!" The audience cheered again, seemingly blissfully oblivious to the problem.

"But Miku and I will be absolutely excited to come back!" I exclaimed out to the audience, their cheers continued as we both gave a wave to the crowd while we waited for the stage lights to turn off. Once they did, Miku let go of me as we both paced off stage.

"What in the world was that!?" Miku was the first to ask the question that was no doubt in the air, "You were entirely off key for the whole song!"

"What?" I was off key? That wasn't right, she was the one who was in the entirely wrong octave, "You were singing way too low!" I was right. Miku was singing far too low for the entire song. I was surprised the crowd didn't realise it.

"Too low? We're you listening to yourself!?" Miku was obviously not happy about this entire thing either. I'll admit that it wasn't my best singing. A bit flat, maybe, but entirely off key? Not a chance.

"Yes, I was." She removed the ribbons from her hair, "And this was all on you, Luka" She threw her ribbons to the ground, a stagehand quickly picking them up to take them to her dressing room, attempting to get out of our way,

"All on me?" I was slightly jeopardised by what she said. There was no way that this was on me, she was horrible through the entire thing for an entirely different reason, "Sorry Miku, but were you even listening to my lead?"

"Listening to your lead?" Miku let out a hurtful scoff, "What lead was there to follow, Luka? I wasn't going to follow the lead of someone who was entirely tone deaf on stage, with all of those people who paid good money listening to us!"

"What do they matter? All that matters is that this sold out and we give a performance that doesn't mock everyone there!" It was true wasn't it? What are they going to do, tell their mothers?

"You used to be different, Luka…" Miku walked towards the exit, not even changing out of her costume, was this hard on her as well? "All of this has gotten to your head… ever since your renegotiation…" A loud click from the door filled the backstage as the crew looked at her, "What happened, Luka?" Her voice cracked when it came to my name, "You used to be in it for the music, for us…" She walked through the door, a loud click sounding backstage as she left. I looked at the door biting my lip, a large amount of the back stage crew looking at me in response.

I looked at them, trying to keep my composure through all of this. "Come on! You don't get paid for standing around doing nothi…" My voice trailed off. Was there an echo to my voice? I looked in the direction of the stage, the crew continued to look at me, though I wasn't concerned about that, "One…" I started counting, walking towards the stage, "Two… three…" As I approached the stage, the sound of my voice echoed back to me from the monitors at the front.

The stage lights blared down on me, a familiar heat graced my face… wait, what? Weren't they supposed to be off? It was hard to tell from the immense contrast of the stage lights compared to the low blue that filled the stadium, though there was definitely still people there, if only a quarter of our otherwise packed performance.

Were the microphones on that entire time? I saw a few lights from people's phones and cameras. They were up before I came on stage, I'm sure of it. I looked to the sound box. Empty. My vision blurred for a second as everything got brighter.

This feeling, the tightness in my chest, the sudden nausea that I felt run through my body. This was something that I haven't felt since my first solo performance. Biting my lip, I removed the microphone attached to my ear and dropped it on the stage, the loud sound of the drop feeding back into the microphone, a ringing filling the stadium.

I stormed off backstage, the crowd booing at me in response. No surprise there, truthfully. I came back, the lights from the stage flooding the relatively dark backstage area.

"Where are they?" My voice was rough, the crew still packing away some of the props that Miku and I had used for our performance looked at me, "Where are they!?" I repeated again, shouting. My voice cracked in my anxiety,

"Wh… where are who?" One dared to answer me back, and not in the way that I had wanted. I turned to the girl. She was carrying a few leads that were kept as spare in case something went wrong.

"Who do you think I'm talking about." I paced towards her. She tried to step back though couldn't get far before I grabbed her shoulder with my right hand and pointed back at the stage with my left, "I'm talking about the idiots who run the PA system!" I was well past containing my anger.

The girl looked away in response, "Th… they've left already Miss Megurine, they told us-"

"What do you mean they've left already!?" I looked the girl in the eye, "Who else is going to deal with the equipment that they have to put away!?"

"I… I was going to say that they told us that we were to put things away in their stead." Her voice was getting softer, "Miss… Miss Megurine, you're gripping my shoulder too hard."

I let go of her shoulder and put my hands up in the air. Air… I needed fresh air. I walked to the back door and pushed it open, the loud click filling the area behind the stadium and backstage. I stepped out into the cool Autumn air.

I looked around first. Maybe Miku was still here… right? To the left of me there was nothing but footpath, to the right of me was the lights of the car park and a fence that blocked entry to this area. I sighed, my heart sinking a little further into the abyss. Miku probably slipped past me when I was on the stage.

None of this would have happened if it wasn't for Miku.

…Miku.

…She was the one who saved my career. It was bittersweet, really. In return for her saving my career, much of what I do now are duets with her, the label not exactly wanting to take much of a risk with me going solo again.

"I'm in your care!" Those were the words she said to me with that bubbly personality that she has when we first met each other. It was customary, sure, though the way she said it showed that she really did look up to me.

Miku quickly soared to the top of the charts, her first album selling the full run of 40,000 physical copies on its opening weekend and even more copies being sold on iTunes and Amazon. The label waited a month before releasing my album, hoping to get to the Top 10, as much of my previous work had.

It didn't even make the Top 100. It peaked at 143 on the charts and only went down from there, quickly dropping out of the Top 150 in the next week. Miku on the other hand, released two more singles in the week following, taking places 1 and 3, 2 being taken by a rivalling artist.

Usually the label would just shrug off a bad release off, though with Miku easily selling enough and being the hot new commodity on the market, the label saw it fit that I should be terminated, the album apparently flopping too hard in their eyes.

"Miss Megurine…" He was a man in his forties, creases on his brow with charts and graphs sprawled all over his desk. He looked at me, "You know why I called you here, right?"

"Of… of course I know why I'm here. Look, Sir, I'm not sure what was wrong with it, all of the magazines loved it, and it got great reviews from everyone. Just… Just give me one more chance, I know tha-"

"Miss Megurine, your album didn't sell well because you're an outdated face." He looked at me with jaded eyes, "Look at Miss Hatsune's release. A new face, a new marketing chance. A new marketing chance, immense profits to be found."

He leaned back in his chair. I clenched my fists, already having an idea, "Miss Megurine, you are hereby terminated, effective immediately. You have forty-eight hours to remove all belongings from the premises." He shooed me with his hands, turning back to his laptop.

I took one step backwards, tears welling in my eyes. I softly opened and closed the door. Miku was standing outside, replacing the cap on the bottle of water she had in hand.

"Luka!" She exclaimed, about to hug me before stopping. "Wait… what's wrong, Luka?" She asked, bending her back to look into my eyes.

'A new face, a new marketing chance' those words rang out in my head. I'll admit that I did feel some animosity towards Miku, though, I knew it wasn't really her fault.

Biting down on my lip I took a deep breath to try and calm myself, "I got cut from the label." My voice was shaky. I swallowed and distanced myself from Miku, extending a hand, forcing one of my worst smiles, "It was a pleasure working with you, Miku Hatsune." I had to keep myself professional, I wouldn't be able to take it if I tried to depart personally.

Miku's smile dropped, "What… what do you mean, 'cut'?" Her eyes looked into mine as if reading her answer from them. Damn it, Miku, wasn't it obvious?

"Shake my hand, Miku." I said - no, ordered. Miku continued to stand there looking at me. Looking at me with that same stupid look on her face, that same stupid face that was on all of those damn covers, "I said, shake my hand, Miku." I repeated, no doubt I looked pathetic right now, "…Please."

"No."

What? What the hell was she saying? Couldn't she at least do one last thing for me, on my last day as someone with any kind of public image? How cruel do you have to be to do something like that? To someone who was your senior, no less?

I dropped my hand, it was taking all of my self-control to not pin the girl in front of me to the wall and strangle her. First she takes my career, then my dignity?

"Wait here."

She pushed her water bottle into my chest. Now she has the audacity to give me orders? I was about to open my mouth to give her a piece of my mind before the mahogany door behind me opened.

I leaned on the wall behind the stadium. I'm still not sure if I should be thankful or not towards what Miku did. It did keep me doing what I loved doing, though the studio cut forty percent of my royalties in order to try and recoup their losses.

I felt something cold drip on my arm, looking down, there was a drop of water, though the coolness on my face showed that it wasn't rain, but rather tears. I wiped my eyes and face with the torso of my costume before taking a deep breath and heading back in, getting changed and leaving the venue.

I opened the door to my apartment, stepping forward and holding onto the knob to keep balance. I really needed to stop doing this. I felt a vibration in my pocket as I clumsily slammed my door shut, leaning on it, I dug into my pocket and reached out my phone.

A picture of a teal haired girl was bouncing up and down, Incoming call: Miku Hatsune. Slide up.

Her picture continued bouncing. I placed my finger on it and flicked it up, a pink button reading 'Answer' sat next to a white 'Ignore'. Tapping answer, the image on the display flipped to an entirely white screen reading 'Miku Hatsune' above another pink button reading 'End Call' along with a timer and a few options.

I took a deep breath and held the phone up to my ear, "What?"

"Luka?" Her voice was quiet. Understandable, given the time. I remained quiet, waiting for Miku to continue, "Luka, about tonight."

My stomach sunk as I slid down the door. I closed my eyes, "What'bout it?" Tonight's concert wasn't something I really wanted to remember. Though, given what had happened I don't think I'll be forgetting it any time soon.

I heard her click her tongue. I rolled my eyes, "You've been drinking again haven't you?" Always the inquisitive one,

"What's this gotta do with t'night?" I wasn't in the mood for this trivial chatter. We'll have far too many interviews about it while the executives try to figure out how to smooth this out.

Miku sighed through the phone, "Look… Luka…" She started, "I know… I know that with everything that's happened… you're a bit more tender than you usually are…" Miku Hatsune - Master of backhanded compliments, "But is all of this is just overreacting don't you think?"

"Overreacting? How's any of this overreacting?" Should I really be talking when I've had this much to drink?"I was on top, Miku. I had everything I could've'ever wanted. And then bam! All gone in a heartbeat, stolen by some pretty teenager with a fresh new face." Really, I should stop, "And then like some kind of sick joke, the same person who took it all away gave it all back." No really, Luka, stop talking.

"What the fuck is wrong with you Miku?" Luka, stop, "You could've jus' shaken my hand and I'd've gone back to university or something." Was that a sob from the phone? "But no, fucking Miku Hatsune the hot new face for Crypton Records just had to go and play Superman." What am I saying? "I should've stopped you before you went in there Miku... I don't even know what would've been better."

"Luka…" Miku's voice was quiet and trembling,

"No, shut up, Miku. I'm just some second rate artist on life support from the current chart-topper,"

"Luka… stop…"

"I shouldn't even be performing, Miku. All the execs only put up with me because of your heroics. Most of our audience comes for you, anyway." I swallowed, trying not to cry, "Just…" Luka, no… "Just leave me alone, Miku!"

The sentence came out of my mouth like a gunshot. On one hand I felt some kind of sick relief that I had gotten it all off of my chest, yet at the same time, there's no way Miku could look at me the same again.

I held the phone tightly, trembling against the door, I bit my lip.

…Sobs…

That's what I heard through the phone. Honestly, in this state I didn't want to hear it. Half out of my frustration and anger at what I did and fuelled by my drunken mood, I threw the phone at the coffee table. It landed on the wooden surface and bounced, landing on the carpet face up, the screen now having a large spot of black, the pink button running lines down the screen.

Miku must have hung up as the phone's image seemed to flip again, returning to my lock screen picture, a picture of Miku and myself, though the black splotch on the screen covered Miku's face and half ran onto my own. What was uncovered by the blob was horribly disfigured. The screen soon turned off.

I was left crying as I crumpled into a ball and fell asleep on the floor.