A/N: New fic. And romance this time too :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid, Nintendo, or anything else used in this fic.
"RIN!" yelled a girl's voice.
Rin opened her eyes slowly, squinting from the sudden morning light. She yawned and stretched.
"Rin Akita! About time you woke up," said Neru Akita, Rin's twin sister.
"It's still so early," yawned Rin, about to pull up her covers. Neru yanked them out of her hands.
"Don't you remember?" asked Neru in a stern voice. "Today is a special day."
"Probably not special enough for me to get up at nine in the morning," Rin mumbled, closing her eyes to go to sleep again.
"Yes, it is special enough," glared Neru. "It's the day before Len's birthday! We have to buy him a present. Mom and Dad already said yes for us to go to the mall."
Rin shot up. "You're right! It IS Len's birthday tomorrow. Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Rin immediately got out of bed and headed down the hall to the bathroom. After brushing her teeth, she changed out of her yellow pajamas and into a long white collared shirt and dark jeans. Rin quickly ran down the stairs for breakfast.
"Morning, Rin," her father greeted her from behind his newspaper.
"Breakfast is on the table," her mother said.
"Good morning, Mom, Dad," Rin said before she sat down and started eating. Today's breakfast consisted of pancakes with oranges and a glass of orange juice. She quickly gobbled the pancakes and gulped down the juice.
"I'm done!" she announced to her parents. "When are we going to go?"
"When you're sister's ready," Mom replied.
Neru appeared instantly. She was dressed in a green short and wore light blue jeans. In her hand was her cell phone, which she carried everywhere. Hanging on her arm was a small purse with all her allowance in it.
"I'm ready," Neru said, walking to the closet to grab her sandals. "Let's go."
A short drive later, the family arrived at the mall.
"Meet me at this fountain in an hour. Call if you need more time. Your dad and I are going to be shopping as well. Stick together and don't get lost," their mom said.
"No problem, Mom. Take as much time as you need," Neru told them. To Rin she said, "Let's go."
"Which store first?" asked Rin. The mall was a busy and crowded place. Everywhere she looked, there was a store of some sort.
"What kind of present do you think Len would want?" Neru asked Rin. "There's just too many things we could buy!"
"Well, Len likes reading and video gaming. Why don't we split up and look at the book store and toy store. Then we could meet up at the electronics store if we couldn't find anything," mused Rin.
"That's a good idea!" agreed Neru. "But I think we should stick together. You should know how easily we could get lost here. Besides, we need to agree on a present."
"Sure. Whatever," replied Rin, already wading through the crowd toward the toy store.
"Wait up! Geez! Just this morning you didn't feel like getting up to buy Len a present, and now that you're here, you won't wait for me," grumbled Neru as she tried to follow her twin.
Rin stood in front of the entrance, waiting for Neru. Neru finally popped out of the crowd, red-faced and breathing heavily.
"That was good exercise wasn't it?" asked Rin, smiling sweetly at her elder sister.
"I don't get how you can just go through a mob of people without getting hurt," muttered Neru. Out loud to Rin she said, "Let's just get in before our hour is up. We already wasted ten minutes of it."
"Okay, okay. Don't freak. We still have fifty minutes," replied Rin, already glancing around the store. Neru snorted and leafed through the store's catalog, looking for something on sale. She spotted something on the plushie section.
"Hey, Rin! Look at this! Wouldn't it be perfect?" asked Neru excitedly.
"Huh?" Rin came over and took a look at what Neru was pointing to. "Ooh, it's a banana plushie! That would be perfect for the banana-loving Len. We should get something else too."
"Yeah," agreed Neru enthusiastically. "Just getting this banana plushie makes us seem a bit cheap."
"Let's get him a video game!" exclaimed Rin, finally able to locate the video game section of the store. "That new Super Mario Bros. game should be out by now."
"Let's go get the plushie first," whined Neru, wanting to go look at the other plushies while at it.
"Eww, no." Rin wrinkled her nose. "Who wants to go to those stupid furry things?"
"Me. If you don't want to go, at least let me go," complained Neru. "Just stay in the video game section and browse. At least I know where to find you." Neru ran off after that.
'Whatever,' Rin thought to herself, absentmindedly walking to the video game section. She reached the shelf full of new releases and quickly browsed through it. 'Hey, look. The New Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo Wii really did come out! And it's on sale too! Might as well buy two; one for Len and one for myself!' Rin thought happily.
She checked the price: three thousand yen (which is about $30). Rin checked her wallet next. Inside was five thousand yen in all. 'Not enough for two. I'll ask Neru for money when she comes back.'
A few moments later, Rin heard her name being called by Neru. "Rin? Where are you?"
"Over here, Neru." Rin walked out of the aisle she was in and waved to Neru. Neru saw her and walked towards her. In her arms, she was carrying a huge banana plushie. Rin gaped at its size. If it was put on the ground and stretched out, it would have reached up to her chest or something.
"Wow…that's a….big plushie!" exclaimed Rin.
"Yeah, I know. The saleslady was looking at me as if I was crazy when I chose the biggest one they had," laughed Neru. "Anyway, did you choose anything?"
"Yes, I did. I just need to borrow a thousand yen from you."
"Eh? Why? I thought you had enough. The most expensive game I see here only costs four thousand yen," said Neru, quickly browsing through the shelves.
"That's only if you buy one. I want two," retorted Rin.
"And what do you need two for? You don't give someone the same present twice…wait. Let me guess: one is for yourself too, right?" sighed Neru, "fine. Pay me back by next week," Neru said, handing over the money.
"Thank you!" yelled Rin as she hugged Neru tightly. Rin grabbed the two games from the shelf and raced toward the counter, money in hand.
Neru sighed as she watched her. She gathered up the banana plushie and gave it a long look. 'I hope Len likes my present better. I can't wait to see the cute look on his face when he opens this up. I should get this wrapped too!'
"Neru!" called out Rin, "I'm ready to go meet Mom and Dad? Are you coming?"
"Of course I am! You better wait for me, Rin Akita!" Neru called back, jogging toward the exit of the video game section. She found Rin standing there, waiting for her. "I still have to pay for the plushie. Wait for me by the entrance, please."
"Okay," replied Rin, wandering off to the gift wrapping section to have the game wrapped.
A minute later, Neru was also at the gift wrapping section and in a bad mood. She had to pay extra to get the oversized banana plushie wrapped. 'But this is going to be worth it!' she squealed inwardly.
It was time to meet Mom and Dad by the fountain near the entrance of the mall. Rin and Neru half-ran and half-walked through the crowded mall to get there on time. When they arrived by the entrance, their parents were waiting. Mom was tapping her foot while glancing at her watch. Dad was completely buried under shopping bags.
"You girls are five minutes late," their mom said in a fake-stern voice.
"We know, we know," Rin and Neru chorused. "It was just the crowd or else we would've been on time," added Neru.
"Excuses, excuses," muttered their dad from the mountain of shopping bags. "Now can we please get this into the car?"
The family walked to the car, a fairly new Jeep. The twins' dad dropped the bags to the ground of the parking lot and breathed out a sigh of relief. Rin and Neru got into the car, although Neru had a bit of trouble getting the banana plushie in the car and closing the door.
The drive home didn't last for long. Rin and Neru were both excited for Len's birthday party tomorrow. He invited some of the kids from his class and a few of the neighbors' kids as well. Neru and Rin were both home-schooled so they didn't really know anyone besides the kids from their neighborhood.
When they got out of the car, the twins saw Len playing in his front yard.
"Hi!" they waved to him.
Len acknowledged them both with a nod, focusing on getting the basketball he was dribbling around into the hoop.
'He's athletic!' Neru made a mental note to buy sports equipment as a gift for him next time. She slightly blushed when Len pulled up the bottom of his shirt to wipe off the sweat coming from his neck.
"Len! Happy early birthday!" called out Rin.
"Thanks." Len grinned at the two sisters. "Were you guys out shopping for my present? What is it? Will you tell me?" he asked eagerly.
"You'll find out tomorrow when you open it," replied Rin, winking at him.
Len's face turned pink. "Umm…sure…yeah…" he managed to stammer out.
"What time is the party tomorrow?" asked Neru, pretending she didn't know and eager to get Rin away from Len.
"You forgot? It's going to start at two in the afternoon," replied Len.
"Oh, yeah! I remember now. Well, I have to get this huge thing into the house. See you tomorrow." Neru walked toward their house, having a bit of trouble getting up the pathway and into the door. Len was too busy chatting with Rin to notice.
'Tomorrow's going to amazing!' thought Neru, hugging the plushie close to her.
Next chapter is going to be the birthday party.
Thank you to Sephiria Evangeline for beta-reading!~
Read and review 8D