Suprise fools. I stopped counting the years, but this damn unfinished Vocaloid fanfic has been on my mind. Trust me.

Anyway I'm here for closure on a story I started and it's an open invitation to join me on this ride.

x

"Ah, Meiko! Perfect timing." Called a voice, "There's something I want to ask Kaito, is he up yet?"

Curiosity filled her mind at the notion of what their Master could possibly want with them, "Ah, 'fraid not, Master. It's probably best to assume he won't stumble out of his room 'till noon; the twins thought it would be funny to bother him until who-knows-when in the morning." She sighed.

Mildly insulted by Meiko's tone, Rin had to butt in, "But Kaito-nii said he didn't mind! At all! Not once!"

Meiko could only silently curse Kaito's soft-touch when it came to the younger Vocaloids, as her exasperated glare kept its focus towards Rin.

[Flashback]

"Rin, Len. Please, get back to bed." Kaito pleaded, his voice laced with weariness.

It had been perhaps maybe five hours now that the twins had been causing havoc and getting up to general mischief within the confines of Kaito's bedroom. He loved these two dearly, he really tried to tell himself that so he wouldn't snap at them, no matter how much the situation called for a good scolding. Trying to climb into bed and ignore them had proven itself to be a useless plan of action when Rin and Len had thrown themselves onto the mattress with him and were now playing on their phones.

"Not that I don't love you wanting to spend time with your onii-chan but, if you're not gonna go to sleep, can't you at least do this in your own room? It's nice and big, and just across the hall…" He doubted base persuasion tactics were going to work at this point, but a Vocaloid could hope.

"Yeah, we could…" Len started "but then Luka-nee might see the light on under our door and I don't want her to get mad at us."

"You know, she wouldn't get mad if you guys just stuck to your bedtime. Or just learned how to trick her into thinking you did."

Rin chirped up "Yeah, that's what we're doing right now isn't it? Luka-nee hasn't caught on to us yet-"

Before Rin could continue, the door opened abruptly.

"But Meiko-nee is well aware of what you're up to now."

A chill fell over the room with a mixture of the rage radiating off Meiko and the tense fear that had seized the twins.

She grabbed Rin and Len both by their shirts before they had a chance to run and dragged them in to their own room and Kaito briefly worried whether her loud lecturing would wake the whole house up. He only had the energy to spare an exasperated smile of thanks towards his old friend and mild sympathy towards the fate of the twins. By the time Meiko returned to his now open door, he had already re-adjusted himself under the covers and taken the chance to appreciate being able to spread out without hitting a Kagamine.

"You really saved me there Meiko; don't forget to remind me I owe you one later."

"Don't mention it."

She could have left it at that, but the twins weren't the only ones she ought to have a word with.

"This wouldn't be an issue if you just told them off every now and then, it not gonna be the end of the world if you were a little tougher on them sometimes."

Kaito nodded wearily "Yeah, yeah. It's fine; really, they're just kids being kids. No harm meant, no harm done."

"How long have they been keeping you up like that?"

Kaito yawned "I don't know? A while? It doesn't really matter, does it?"

As annoyed as she was by this attitude, Meiko recognised that this wasn't the time to have this conversation and perhaps she may not even by the right person to get through Kaito's thick skull.

"Good night Kaito." She began to close his bedroom door behind her.

"G'night, Mei." He mumbled.

[End of flashback]

Their Master laughed at the twins antics; he was just as sweet on them as Kaito was, if not more.

"Ah, I feel bad for asking now but would you mind fetching him for me?"

"Not at all"

As she walked into Kaito's room, she felt hesitant to disturb him when a full night's sleep would do him wonders, nonetheless, a polite request from their Master wasn't to be ignored. Still, Kaito looked so innocent while sleeping all bundled up in his blanket, Meiko settled for waking him up as gently as she could by carefully shaking his shoulder.

"Kaito, it's time to wake up."

"Hhnnn? Mei?" Rubbing his eyes, Kaito sat up.

It was obvious on first sight that Kaito wasn't close to being well rested; hopefully their Master wouldn't need them for long so her friend could take it easy today.

"Master wants to speak to you."

Kaito grinned and darted out of the room and Meiko followed behind. Oh how Kaito loved his Master. The pair of Vocaloids were greeted with a smile, their Master could help but chuckle at Kaito's dishevelled bedhead.

"Good morning to you, Kaito. Now if I could just borrow you for a moment, there's something I'd like to ask."

Kaito all but threw himself on the couch across from their Master, Meiko shortly after giving him a playful shove to make space for herself next to him, curious as to what their Master wanted Kaito for.

"Firstly, I want to sincerely congratulate you in regards to your increased sales, it warms my heart to see you and your beautiful voice finally get the attention you've always deserved. Now what I want to know is if we were to extend an invitation for you to perform in the next scheduled live concert, what would you say?"

Kaito jumped up in his seat "For real? Wait, really? Actually? I—Of course! I woul—would love to!"

"Excellent. For now at least, it'll only be one song but we still expect you to give nothing less than your best and to join the others for rehearsals. Now, shall we go tell them the good news?"

Meiko watched Kaito bounce out of the room with a grin stretching from ear to ear, for Kaito to have come so far since release was no small feat, she had witnessed the roller-coaster that was his entire Vocaloid journey up until now first-hand.

Things were hectic in the household for the duration of the following weeks as the inhabitants anticipated the incoming song list for their next live show. The screams of delight were deafening when an envelope finally arrived titled only "Mikupa 2012".

Whilst Miku and Luka studiously looked over the songs they were to perform, Rin and Len were getting giddy over their Daughter of Evil and Servant of Evil combo that was always a huge hit with the audience. Getting over his nerves, Kaito took a deep breath and looked for his name in the listing…

"Pane Dhiria?"

He tried not to let the disappointment get the best of him but truthfully, he was anticipating something that in his opinion, made him look a little cooler, like Cantarella maybe?

"Are you excited, Kaito-nii?" Rin asked from beside him "I am! I'm excited to see Kaito-nii perform! Feel free to ask me for ANY advice you might need, I'm like your super experienced senior when it comes to concerts." She boasted.

"Wouldn't Miku-nee be the most experienced out of all of us though? Stop trying to brag in front of Kaito-nii, though I'm glad I won't be the only guy at rehearsals, that's for sure." Len added with a cheeky grin.

Kaito watched the twins banter before him, reminding himself that just because it wasn't his first choice of songs he'd like to debut in a live concert with, it was still something to celebrate.

Attending rehearsals with Miku, Luka, Rin and Len proved itself to be much more fun than he could have ever imagined, from getting up early and staying late to support Miku with the seemingly endless hours she had to put in to memorise all her choreographies, to watching Luka gracefully master routines in what seemed like an impossibly short amount of time, to Rin falling face first after tripping over her own feet and Len laughing too hard to notice Rin grabbing him by the ankle to pull him down to the floor with her.

It wasn't difficult for the other Vocaloids to notice the positive effect this was having on Kaito, he spoke with more confidence, he exercised more in preparation for the show and he as a whole had a brighter mood than before rehearsals began. With two weeks left before the show, it became the most talked about topic in the house.

"T-minus two weeks until the big day guys, how are we feeling?" Luka asked the table.

"Ahhh, I wish we had more time, I've still got so much I want to practice." whined Miku.

"You'll be fine, Miku. You're always great on-stage, try not to fret too much okay?"

"I for one, wish we had LESS time!" Rin announced "I get so excited for it sometimes I can't sleep! I just wish it would come sooner!"

"I wish you would be quieter about it when I'M trying to sleep" said Len.

"Oh shut up! You're just acting cool but you know we can ALL hear you practising in the shower."

Kaito laughed "Go easy on him Rin, I don't think there's a single one of us that doesn't do that."

Meiko could only hold her tongue in this conversation, there's only so many ways you can say you're excited or happy for someone before beginning to feel left out. Logically she knew this was irrational, her friends had no say in who did and didn't get to perform but she used to have Kaito to fall back on in times like this and now being the only one left in the house who didn't have a live debut…no, she wouldn't let herself harbour resentment at Kaito, not when he's laughing across the table from her, not when this had been the happiest she had seen him in a long time, not when it could just as easily had been him in her position, feeling her feelings.

She sighed, trying to push her feelings down and did her best to join in on the banter between friends, once the show was over, she wouldn't feel like this anymore…

The Crypton crew minus Meiko stood in the area outside their dressing rooms, going over last minute details.

"This is your final scheduled rehearsal as a group, be sure to take full advantage of the venue and perform as though this is the real deal. There's an observing audience of current and potential business partners with their families, any mistakes will reflect badly on everyone involved in this concert and some who aren't. I'll only say this once: mistakes won't be tolerated."

Kaito flinched as the stage director gave what he assumed must be a pep-talk but honestly sounded more like a lecture, did the others have to put up with this every time? His nerves were beginning to feel a bit frayed already. The second the director left, Kaito let out a heavy sigh and tried not to let the pressure weigh him down, this was all normal and standard procedure, this was going to be fun.

"Don't let him get to you too much, Kaito." Luka spoke up, placing a hand on his shoulder "His bark is worse than his bite, if anything were to actually go wrong he'd set things right before anyone even realised. Though he terrified me out of my skin at my first concert with that speech."

And there went an entire world's worth of pressure off his shoulders "Thanks, Luka." He smiled.

The process of dress, makeup and the start of the performance whizzed by Kaito as his mind began to buzz with a thousand more thoughts than he was used to having. Standing on the platform that would lift him to the stage, he clutched his hand in a fist behind his back, trying to ignore the fact that it was trembling.

There were a few seconds of loud music and cheers.

And then it was blank.

He felt both outside of himself and trapped inside the chaos of his own mind.

Heat and dizziness rushed to his head as movement wouldn't come to him.

The brightness of the glowing lights in an otherwise pitch black hall were hurting his eyes and not being able to focus on anything wasn't helping his growing disorientation.

The band had stopped playing, maybe?

There was a harsh noise coming through his headphones that must've been a voice, he might've been able to tell if the sounded of his fast, shallow breathing wasn't the loudest noise in Kaito's current world.

A splotch of blackness in his vision finally gave him the presence of mind to move, taking a step back, he barely got halfway off stage before the lights were cut, or rather his ability to perceive them was as he didn't feel himself hit the floor.

Miku, who had been waiting to go on next after Kaito gasped in terror as members of security dived in to carry Kaito offstage.

Meiko had been watching the concert in a small box reserved for non-performing Vocaloids, she was currently seated with Gakupo and Gumi, enjoying the twins perform their hearts out. It was as fun as every concert in the past had been, even with Kaito's empty seat beside her, but the second those opening notes to Pane Dhiria started, her heart jumped to her throat with anticipation for Kaito's first live performance. Then it consequently fell to her stomach when he seemingly froze onstage.

"What's he doing?" she heard Gakupo say under his breath beside her.

"I don't know, something's wrong-" Meiko cut off her own response when they all saw Kaito collapse to the floor.

Immediately, the three of them were out of their seats and rushing backstage, wanting to understand and get a grip on the situation as soon as possible.

Rin and Len were backstage after getting out of their costumes, complimenting themselves on job well done when they heard a commotion in the hallway, when they went outside their dressing room to check they were greeted with the sight of a member of security rushing over to the sofa in the general seating area backstage with an unconscious Kaito in his arms and a panicked Miku following closely behind.

"Kaito-nii!"

"Miku-nee, what happened?"

"Rin! Len! I—I" she was close to tears "I don't know! One moment he was out there the next he was on the floor."

"It's going to be alright Miku, let's give them some space." Luka was quick to join them, she did her best to herd the younger Vocaloids away from Kaito so they wouldn't end up over-crowding the member of staff tending to Kaito.

After assessing that the situation didn't require urgent medical attention, he turned to face the rest of the Vocaloids, nodded and returned to his original post.

Luka crouched next to Kaito when he began to stir, clenching his fist and wincing as he came to consciousness.

The first thing Kaito felt as he came to was a wave of nausea that made him try to bury his face into the surface below him.

"Don't move, just take deep breaths."

Was that…Luka?

"What… Wha hap'n'd?"

His mind was foggy.

But not for long as the realisation of what had happened hit him with the force of a train, his performance.

He'd messed this one up big time.

A failure of a performance from a failure of a Vocaloid.

He clumsily pushed his way past Luka and tried to stumble away from the others but before he could get far before he fell to his knees, doubled over and facing the wall. Pounding footsteps made him turn his head slightly to see a blurred approaching Meiko, Gakupo and Gumi. They were trying to talk to him but the same panic sensation as before was rising when he thought about the consequences of his personal disaster and couldn't even meet their eyes. The audience was going to be angry at an incomplete show. The audience will get angry at the studio. The studio will have to take action against him. The other Vocaloids might get bad press because of him, and they're all going to resent him for it.

It was getting hard to breathe again.

"Ou'side…air" was all he was able to communicate before he was on the move again.

Gakupo approached slowly, giving Kaito time to back away if he wanted to, before lifting one of Kaito's arms over his shoulder and snaking an arm around to hold him by the waist, "I'll keep an eye on him, you guys should probably go see what management wants to do about this now."

The other Vocaloids agreed as they went off the get a damage report on the situation. Gakupo guided Kaito to a back exit and almost immediately backed off to give Kaito room to breathe, he looked like he was at least trying to get control over his breath again and Gakupo felt helpless as he realised he had no clue what do to in this situation. He tried to help ease Kaito into a sitting position while repeating "breathe slower" and "it's alright" like mantras, neither of which Kaito seemed to respond to.

This wasn't how today was supposed to go at all and Gakupo could only watch Kaito get trapped in his own thoughts as it began to rain on them, unsure of how anything was going to proceed from here.

x

Okay sisters. Here's the tea.

Just turned 20, had an emotional crisis, coped by fixating on a childhood passion (Vocaloid), primal instinct to give this fic a new breath of life.

Updates:

- Hopefully reads better and is paced better

- A BUNCH of added scenes whoop whoop

- More attention on Meiko bc im a feminist

- I can't remember if Luka was in the OG version but she's here now, like i said, im a feminist

- Actually took 20 seconds to research the song lists for the live shows

- Jokes aside, I was trying to be edgy when I was little and wrote self-harm in a Bad Bad way so I've reworked some plot stuff to relate more to stuff I've experienced enough to feel comfortable writing about

- lol