Author's Note: Hello, fellow Vocaloid fans!
This is a fanfic I have been working on and off for over a year now. So weird how it's taken me this long to post it! Hopefully the quality is worth the wait. I worked super hard on this and really hope that you guys love reading it half as much as I love writing it. And the Kagamine Twins' tenth anniversary passed recently, so what better way to celebrate than to post a story all about them?
Happy reading!
- Fantastical
Disclaimer: I in no way, shape, or form own Vocaloid. Each character used belongs to the respective company that produced him/her; I merely borrowed them for non-profit entertainment purposes. However, I do claim ownership to the cover art and words below. Please enjoy.
The image looking back mirrored her own. The same cerulean orbs, the same blonde hair that brushed the chin, and the same creamy, pale skin. Everything she had that made up her appearance, so did her reflection. Simultaneously, both Rin and her mirror counterpart pulled the corners of their lips downwards into a deep scowl.
"Careful, or your face might freeze like that," said a tiny greenette as she leaned over the sink and adjusted her dangling earrings.
A pang of jealousy shot through Rin. Her parents forbade her from piercing her ears until she was sixteen, and she was currently seven months shy of fifteen. "I say we ditch this dessert cart, Gumi. This place blows."
"I think it's nice." Gumi stood straight again. "It was awfully kind of your parents to invite me to come tonight. I've never been to a banquet before, let alone stepped inside such a gorgeous, expensive hotel!"
Rin's scowl deepened. While her best friend admired the decor, Rin wanted to demolish the place. Even the restroom – complete with mahogany stall doors, marble floors, and cloth towels for drying hands instead of paper towels – was too fine. Everything fashionably displayed grace and etiquette, and it was this fineness that made Rin believe there was nothing for her at these events save boredom.
"Beyond me why my parents drag me along every year," Rin spat. "I don't even work for this stupid company! You know what? Forget this. I'm out."
"What?" Gumi followed Rin with her eyes as the temperate blonde stomped towards the restroom exit. "Rin, wait for me!"
Slowing only long enough for her best friend to catch up, Rin said, "I'm leaving this joint. I'm bored, there are tons of other things I'd rather be doing, and I already ate so there's no point in staying any longer. Now is the best time to go home and spend the rest of the night doing whatever I please."
"You'll get in trouble if you just disappear," Gumi warned. "You're going to at least tell your parents you plan to leave, right?"
"I can EM them after I'm a good block or two away," Rin replied with a shrug. "What are they going to do? Ground me for all of summer break?"
"Don't jinx yourself," Gumi whispered.
"Trust me," Rin ran her palms down her baby blue dress, "nothing is going to happen. This is going to be a summer just like any other. Mom and Dad would never do anything extreme."
She continued to march through the hotel, and Gumi, who had to lift the thick skirt of her rose-pink gown so that she could walk quickly, struggled to keep up. Everything about the night irritated Rin. She twisted the ring on her right middle finger so fast that the skin in under the band began to get irritated. All she wanted to do was go home and listen to her music in peace. It was impossible for her to get away with enjoying music in public.
"Uh, Rin," Gumi began as her eyes scanned the empty lobby, "where are we?"
"Oops." Rin, too, took in her surroundings. There were black leather seats and glass tables, and a set of stairs started near the lounge and wrapped upwards along the building, but the absence of an exit was obvious. "I must have made a wrong turn. This looks like the back lobby." Spinning around, Rin said, "It's okay, all we have to do is-"
"I'm sorry, are you two lost?"
Both Rin and Gumi looked up to see a girl about their age descending the stairs. She had red hair and blue eyes, and a gold dress hugged her frame. The girl stopped at ground level but attempted no further approach towards the two. "I . . . I can help you find your way, if you want me to."
"Thank you, but that won't be-" Gumi began, but Rin cut her off.
"I know where I'm going, thank you very much," she snapped, fingers curled into fists. "Now mind your own business and leave us alone. Don't you have better things to do than bother us?"
"I-I'm sorry." The girl took a step back. "I was only trying to help."
"Well, stop helping," Rin growled. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she gritted her teeth. Anyone who stood in Rin's way of her goal was not someone the blonde considered a friend. "We have better things to do with our time than to entertain some spotty fox who needs that much makeup to make her look good. Geez, you must be hideous without all that junk if you must cake it on so thick. You must lose ten pounds every time you wash your face."
The girl opened her mouth as if to speak, but instead of words, a sob passed through her lips. Embarrassed, the girl covered her face and ran back up the stairs. Rin simply stared at the retreating figure until it was gone. Gumi, on the other hand, stood with her mouth hanging open and her face paling by the second. The greenette wobbled slightly, grateful to have worn flats instead of heels.
With the redhead no longer in sight, Rin merely spun around and said, "Okay, now to find the exit."
Gumi gaped at Rin as if the greenette couldn't believe what she had seen. She followed Rin and demanded, "What the blaze is wrong with you?"
"That girl was in our way, so I said what I could to get her to leave us alone," Rin responded.
"What happened to you?" Gumi softly asked, as if intending for the question to not be heard.
Yet Rin did hear. She stopped in place and answered Gumi by questioning, "What do you mean what happened to me?"
"It's just . . ." Gumi looked around the room in a desperate search to find an excuse to not explain. Finding none, she continued, "You were so kind and sweet when we were kids. That Rin, the one that became my best friend, would never be so mean to anyone no matter who that person was. What happened to her? Why is there a bitter, selfish girl in her place?"
Glaring at Gumi through the corner of her eye, all Rin replied with was, "She grew up. Now I'm leaving. Come with me or don't, I couldn't care less. Just don't ask any more stupid questions."
With nothing else to say, Rin strut forward in pursuit of the exit. However, she did not make it far before she was interrupted again.
"There you are!" exclaimed a relieved female's voice. A woman who could have been Rin thirty years into the future hurried forward as if she was keeping herself from running in heels.
"Mother?" Rin questioned the same time Gumi gasped, "Mrs. Kagamine!"
"Your father and I have been looking all over for you, Rin," Mrs. Kagamine stated as she marched towards Rin and wrapped her fingers around Rin's rail thin wrist. Tugging her daughter forward, the woman looked at Gumi and said, "You come as well. It would be wrong of us to exclude you when you are practically family."
"Yes, ma'am." Gumi had to keep a light jog to keep up with the mother-daughter duo.
Mrs. Kagamine, wasting no time, lead the girls back into the ballroom and all but pushed Rin towards the table in which her family was seated. "I found them," she stated to her husband, who was in the middle of checking his tab screen.
"About time," Mr. Kagamine said as he put the object into his coat pocket. "What took you so long, young lady? I was three finger strokes away from activating the tracking device in your communicator."
"I thought I was allowed to explore," Rin argued.
"Yes, but only if you don't go far," Mr. Kagamine replied. "Now we can get Oliver and- Where's Oliver?!"
"No need for alarm, dear," Mrs. Kagamine soothed. "Oliver is with the Hiyama family. He wanted to play with their daughter, Yuki. Remember?"
"Right, right." Mr. Kagamine waved his hands as if to wipe the words away before shouting to a table three rows over, an act that earned him a glare from his wife, "Oliver, come here now!"
"Yes, Daddy!" responded a ten-year-old with shaggy blond hair and bright amber eyes. The boy ran towards his family before recalling his parents' strict warning against running at the banquet, prompting him to walk the rest of the way.
Now that both of his children were present, Mr. Kagamine took Oliver by the hand and told Rin and Gumi, "We are going to walk over to my boss's table and introduce ourselves. Since he isn't a stickler like the man who was in the same position before him, I want to make an excellent impression with him and his family. Children, be on your best behavior. That especially applies to you, Rin."
"What?" Rin snorted. "Are you implying I'm worse than that little brat I'm forced to call my brother?"
"Rin Linelle Kagamine," Mrs. Kagamine said, letting the name itself be the warning.
"Okay, I'll behave," Rin crossed her arms, "but I won't like it."
"Just don't act up and I'll be satisfied," Mr. Kagamine replied as he, his wife, and kids, Gumi included, approached his boss and his boss's family. When the high table came in sight, Mr. Kagamine began, "Mr. Opera?"
"Ah, yes," replied the man with the black hair and finely trimmed beard. He, like the rest of the men at the banquet, was dressed in a suit and tie. However, what set this man apart was that he made the attire look casual. It was as if the man was so relaxed that everything around him lightened up too. "If it isn't Al Kagamine. I've been bragging to my wife about you."
"It's true," added a woman with tightly curled brown hair. Standing upright, she extended a hand to Mrs. Kagamine and introduced herself. "I'm Prima, Tonio's wife."
"Ann, Al's wife." Mrs. Kagamine took the hand. "These are our children, Rin and Oliver. The other girl is Gumi, Rin's best friend. I hope it's okay that we extended the invitation to her as well; Gumi is almost like another daughter to Al and me."
"It's all right," Mr. Opera said. To Rin and Gumi, "I have a daughter your age. She's around here somewhere."
"Probably hiding," Mrs. Opera added. "Our poor Daina is incredibly shy. She wants so badly to make friends, but she's too sensitive to what people think of her to put in any considerable effort. Oh, Tonio, there she is now, and – oh, my – she looks so upset!"
"Oh, boy," Rin heard Gumi say before she could understand why. It was when her eyes landed on a sobbing redhead did Rin fully comprehend the amount of trouble she was about to get into.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Mrs. Opera asked as she flew to her sobbing daughter's side.
"I wa-was trying-ing to ask thi-this girl if she-she needed he-help finding her way-ay," Diana tried to answer through her uncontrollable hiccups, "and she ca-called me a-" Noticing Rin, Daina stopped talking and hid behind her mother.
Both families noticed what quieted Daina and looked at Rin. Daina's parents looked shocked with disbelief while Rin's parents looked as if they were about to die of embarrassment on the spot. All Rin did was smile without remorse, lift a hand, and state, "Guilty."
"You called Daina a what?!" Mrs. Kagamine barked the second Gumi had exited the vehicle and walked into her own home.
"A spotty fox," Rin replied as she looked out the window in time for the self-driving hover cab to shoot off like a fired bullet.
Mrs. Kagamine paled. "Please tell me you didn't actually call her that. Rin, that girl's father can fire your dad over this!"
"I am fully capable of speaking for myself, Ann," Mr. Kagamine said.
"Quiet, dear. I can handle this," Mrs. Kagamine replied. To Rin, "What exactly were you thinking, young lady?"
"I was thinking the girl is a spotty fox."
"What's a spotty fox?" Oliver asked. Mrs. Kagamine shushed her son.
"An ugly, inbred prostitute," Rin answered, causing her mother to snap at Rin to be quiet.
"Rin, why did you think that was an appropriate thing to say? You really hurt that poor girl's feelings," Mr. Kagamine demanded as calmly as he could while Oliver asked, "What's a prostitute?"
"And answer your father, Rin," Mrs. Kagamine interjected before turning to Oliver. "Please be quiet, honey. We need to have a serious talk with your sister."
"I wanted to leave the banquet, and this girl with ten pounds of makeup was standing in my way," Rin replied. "Father, you taught me that if I wanted something, I had to fight for it, didn't you?"
"Not at the expense of others," Mr. Kagamine said. "Rin, your behavior is getting out of hand."
"Is not," Rin argued.
"You got suspended from school for throwing a boy's tab screen out the window."
"All he had on it was books. It's the twentieth century. Seriously, who reads?"
"Do you also need a reminder that you also almost got expelled for beating up another classmate?"
"She insulted my shoes. Stupid runt had it coming."
"This is it," Mrs. Kagamine said. "Rin, you need to stop it with this attitude right now."
"Or what?" Rin rolled her eyes. "Are you going to ground me and make me spend all day outside doing yard work?"
"Yard work is for hobo knockers," Oliver said, resulting in both of his parents widening their eyes in shock.
"I didn't teach him that," Rin instantly claimed even though she knew by her mother's reddening face and flaring nostrils that the damage was already done.
"Sweetheart, your blood pressure," Mr. Kagamine reminded his wife as he put a hand on her shoulder.
Using a moment to take deep, slow breaths, Mrs. Kagamine looked her daughter squarely in the eyes and said, "My mind is made up. Maybe yard work will do you good. As soon as we get home, start packing your bags. You and Oliver are going to be spending the summer with your Grandpa Rinto."
"No joke, Gumi, my mom is on the phone with my grandfather right now," Rin said as she lied on her bed, all four limbs stretched out, communicator set firmly in her ear. Her eyes wandered around the room, bare save for lavender walls, a desk with a slim screen, and a floating shelf with old textbooks.
"Your family has a phone?" Gumi asked from the other end. "I thought those died out decades ago after means of communication went mobile."
"Grandpa Rinto is not very good at staying up to date." Rin blew the fringe out of her eyes. "I swear, Gumi, I don't know how I'm going to survive if this summer thing pulls through. He lives in the middle of nowhere! I doubt I'll have enough access to the NatAct to even send an Eletter."
"What, it's not official yet?"
"Mom has to make sure he's not currently busy with anything."
"Then what are you doing not proving to your parents that you don't need to spend time in the country?" Gumi began. "My step mom once threatened to send me to military school but changed her mind when I started helping out around the house without being asked."
Rin's eyes widened. "That's a great idea! I don't know why I didn't think of it. Gotta go, Gumi. I'll message you later." With that, Rin tapped the off button to her communicator and shifted upright. Jumping off her pink leopard comforter, Rin left her room, took the stairs down two at a time, and entered the bleach white kitchen.
Her dad was pulling chicken out of the glass oven, Oliver was playing one of his handheld games, and her mom was talking on the phone, an item that had to be held to one's face instead of resting in the owner's ear. Mrs. Kagamine – leaning against the kitchen counter, hand placed behind her while the other struggled to keep the phone by her ear – appeared exhausted, as if talking to her father wore her out as much as having a conversation with her own dad left Rin without energy.
"Yes, poor girl," Mrs. Kagamine was saying. "So fortunate of her to have her aunt and uncle take her in. Look, the reason I called is- Okay, okay. I'll let you finish, but Dad, Al is almost done with dinner. . . . All right, I'm listening."
A chuckle built up in Rin before she choked it back. Taking enjoyment in her mother's frustration would not be deemed good behavior. "Hey, Dad," Rin tried, "need help with anything?"
"No thanks, Rin," Mr. Kagamine replied as he distributed the rice amongst four people.
"Not even setting the table?"
"Oliver beat you to it."
Rin turned to see, true to her father's words, that Oliver had already executed the simple chore. She began to twist her ring but stopped when she realized what she was doing. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do? Perhaps I can season the rice? Or maybe get the cheddar sauce for the broccoli?"
"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Mr. Kagamine asked, casting his daughter a suspicious glance. "You normally complain when your mother or I ask you to hang your jacket on the coat rack. Did your final report card come in and you're softening us up before we see it?"
"No, no," Rin answered as she forced a smile and waved her hand. "Mom already took care that the school sent my grades to her personal inbox as well as the family's. All I wanted to do was help out." As if an afterthought, Rin added, "To show how sorry I am for almost costing you your job."
"Ah, now I see why my Rin isn't being herself." Mr. Kagamine shook his head. He picked up the rice seasoning and began dashing appropriate amounts on each person's portion. "If your grandfather says yes, you and Oliver are spending the summer with him. Nothing you can say or do will change your mother's and my minds."
"But it's too cruel a punishment!" Rin whined, throwing her clenched fists down as she stomped her heel on the ground. "I'll do anything. Anything! I'll quit singing, I'll help around the house, I'll be nice to everyone – just don't send me away!"
"Don't shout while your mother is on the phone," Mr. Kagamine warned. "Second, I don't understand why you don't want to visit your grandfather. He's been lonely since your grandmother died, and he would really like to see you and Oliver. Rin, you do know that you were named after him, right?"
"Because he was a hero in the Great War." Rin rolled her eyes. She sat on the stool on the other side of the counter and only half paid attention to how her father arranged the food on the plates.
"That, and your mother was really close to him when she was growing up. She feels guilty for not keeping contact with her father like she should have."
"So she's easing her conscience by sending Oliver and me instead of going herself?" Rin raised an eyebrow.
"We will be staying with all of you the last week before we plan to bring you home," Mr. Kagamine said. He set the rice seasoning down and began to drizzle the cheddar sauce over the broccoli. "However, this is about you, Rin. I'm afraid your mother and I have been giving you too easy a life: you haven't ever worked for anything because we have always given it to you. We're raising an entitled woman, and that's the last thing we want you to become."
"So I'm being punished for your parenting skills?" Rin growled. "Okay, now I'm the victim here. I demand-"
Mr. Kagamine held up his hand, stopping Rin. "There it is. Right there. You're demanding. Worse yet, you aren't accepting us as your authority figures. What we say goes, and you are powerless to change our mind."
Groaning, Rin slid off the stool. "I can't believe you hate me so much that you're trying to get rid of me. I said I was sorry."
"No, you're not," Mr. Kagamine calmly replied.
Before Rin could say anything else, Mrs. Kagamine set the phone down and stared at her daughter. Dread trickled through Rin as she realized that, as she focused so much of her attention on her talk with her dad, she stopped listening on her mother's side of the conversation with her own father. "Three days," was all Mrs. Kagamine told Rin before turning to her husband and saying, "I need to wash up. Give me five minutes, and we can start dinner."
"Does this mean that we're going to Grandpa Rinto's after all?" Oliver asked, looking up from his handheld game.
"Unfortunately," Rin answered. She mumbled to her dad that she wasn't hungry, left the kitchen, and locked herself in her room for the rest of the night.