In the cozy little sushi restaurant on the edge of a quaint and pretty road, there were stands filled with colorful sushi of many different types.
On the very edge of the stand at the far end of the restaurant, sat a single scrumptious, mouthwatering, sparkling piece of negitoro sushi. Rich red tuna with ripe green leek decorated it's juicy center as it waited for a hungry visitor to claim and eat it.
Click, clack! The sounds of two pairs of shoes racing to claim the last piece of negitoro were heard throughout the quiet building. One of the sounds were of clattering dress shoes, the other sound was the quieter tromping of winter boots.
"Got it!"
Two voices rang in unison as two pairs of chopsticks grabbed at the one piece of negitoro.
Suddenly only inches away from another girl they've never seen before, the two grew startled and slowly glanced into each other's face.
The shorter girl tugged harder on her chopsticks and the taller girl began pulling hers higher.
"It's mine!" The shorter girl grunted. She wanted the leek part more than anything.
"No, it's mine! I like it more!" The taller girl's face began turning red. She wanted the tuna part more than anything.
Suddenly, the little piece of sushi could no longer take the pressure of the chopsticks and shot right up into the air, before plummeting right towards the ground.
"Nooooo!"
Luka, the taller girl, flinched in horror. Miku, the short girl with the pigtails, dove frantically down to her side. At the same moment she dropped her empty plate, which landed on the hard wood floor and wobbled. The negitoro fell right onto the wobbling plate and flew up into the air again due to the plate's unbalance.
Miku squealed and Luka whimpered.
"Flyaway sushi!"
The negitoro was flying all the way to the other side of the restaurant. Miku and Luka scrambled erratically in that direction, holding their plates right out in front of them so either one of them could catch the flying sushi.
Right at that moment, a costomer opened the front door. A strong, chilly November gust of wind rushed through the opening and in a whim, it blew the negitoro back in the girls' direction.
"I've got it..."
They were standing close together, yet it was heading straight for the gap right between them.
Both girls held their palms out to their sides, their hands now touching, slightly layering over each others'.
The flying, windblown sushi piece finally landed for sure, right in between both of the girls' hands. A miracle catch. A perfect half had been caught on Miku's palm, and the other half on Luka's.
The two girls lowered their faces to look at the unharmed sushi for a moment in awe. Their hands were conjoined and thanks to that, the negitoro didn't fall onto the floor. They slowly closed their hands and fit them into each other to secure the piece of sushi, not realizing this now meant they were holding hands.
They slowly afterwards looked into each other's faces.
"I'm sorry." they said in unison.
"I'm sorry for trying to take it away when it was obviously yours. You can have it." Miku said, remorse in her large eyes.
Luka, feeling as if it wasn't hers in the first place, replied with "No, it's all yours. I'm the one who's sorry."
Miku shook her head, making her long pigtails dance and swish around her sides. "No, it's yours."
Luka sternly shook her head at Miku, her long pink hair stroking her back.
"You can have it."
"No, YOU can have it!"
"No, it is yours!"
After a bit of an arguement, the girls realized the piece of negitoro was getting a bit old and needed to be eaten quickly.
"Fine then... how about we split it between us?" Miku suggested. "I know it's a small piece, but it seems like the only way we can settle this."
Luka nodded. "That's fine." she said.
"Excuse me..." Miku politely said. "Not to sound demanding, but can my half be the half with the leeks? I adore negitoro, and the leek is my favorite part."
Luka looked at Miku and slowly smiled.
"It's okay." she agreed nicely. "Negitoro is one of my favorite foods too. I enjoy the tuna part."
Miku smiled back.
The atmosphere of the small building was cozyć¼warm and fuzzy even. Colorful dim light shone from the ceiling and the warmth from the heaters shielded both girls from the bitter cold outside. Cheerful music quietly drifted in from the speakers and people's chattering kept the place feeling alive. In the middle of what seemed to be an early winter, such a haven-like environment would be a tough one to want to leave.
At a table together next to each other, Miku and Luka split apart the small piece of negitoro and ate it before any of the other sushi they had brought back on their plates. The piece simply melted away in their mouths.
They were sitting at the same table together now, which seemed okay with both of them.
"That was somehow more delicious than anything I'd ever eaten!" Miku cheerfully sang. Luka smiled calmly, nodding back at her. "I guess sharing things isn't so bad!"
Luka nodded. Somehow, this negitoro had felt special to eat. She was somehow savoring it more.
"So," Miku asked, "What's your name?"
Luka's cheeks instantly turned a bit red and her light blue pupils expanded. This girl wanted to get to know her? Introducing herself made Luka feel a little bit shy. She took in a breath and did it anyway.
"My name is Luka." she said demurely, attempting a kind smile. "Luka Megurine..."
"That's a pretty name." Miku replied. Her little smile gave Luka butterflies. It was so friendly and cheerful.
"My name is Miku Hatsune. You can call me Magical Miku!" She raised her hand in a peace sign. "Just joking, haha. Just 'Miku' is fine!"
Miku wanted to continue the conversation, but she suddenly ran out of things to say to Luka, who seemed bashful. She decided to start by saying something random.
"So, Luka. Um... it's nice to meet you! It seems you really like tuna."
Indeed, most of the sushi piled up on Luka's plate contained raw tuna.
Luka blushed a little, not knowing how to react.
"Um... nice to meet you too, I guess. Miku..."
It felt a little bit odd for Luka to be saying someone's name. They had just met, yet Miku already talked so comfortably to Luka. Luka was afraid of coming off as aloof, which she seemed to always do.
She took another bite of a tuna roll.
"Um... are you fine with me... staying here?" Luka once she swallowed. "I mean, sitting at the same table?"
Miku's mouth fell open.
"Of course! Sure! We're friends after all!"
Luka's heart skipped a beat. Friends... did she just say "friend"? She couldn't believe it. Luka had had a hard time making friends with the others in her school due to coming off as so cold or "icy".
The shock of the word made Luka bashfully bury her face in her hands.
"Luka... are you okay?" Miku squeaked. Her voice was high-pitched and cute.
"Miku... why are we friends?" Luka asked, cupping her hands to her mouth bashfully.
"Well..." Miku began to rub Luka's shoulder, covered by a warm sweater. "I think we made friends over a negitoro. But that's okay, because friendships can blossom from anywhere! As long as the two people like being with each other, any kind of friendship is wonderful, isn't it?"
Luka began blushing even deeper. Miku was so fast to start liking others.
"Miku... thank you. For being my friend I guess." she muttered, the words clumsily falling out of her mouth. "And I-I guess I like being with you too...?"
"Aww..." Miku gave a sappy smile. "You're so soft and fluffy Luka!" she loosely embraced Luka's warm arm, causing Luka to squeak a little.
"I already like you, Luka. You're really nice! At first, I thought you looked kind of scary. Maybe it was because you were so tall, and I thought you were going to take away my negitoro!"
Luka buried her face in her hands again. So even Miku thought she looked scary... she had eyes which everyone thought looked icy and sharp like the arctic. She could never smile right and always wore a scowl. Everyone misunderstood her for it.
"Aah! Sorry Luka!" Miku flailed, her voice rising an octave. "I don't think you're scary NOW, Luka! I promise! I even want to know your cell phone number and where you live so I can talk to you more!"
"Aah..." Luka decided it was becoming hard to keep up with Miku. She was so friendly and outgoing! It wasn't something that the withdrawn Luka was used to.
"Well, my cell phone is in my pocket. Hold on a second... as for where I live, I'm staying at Seabreeze apartment complex..."
Luka was interrupted by an elated gasp from next to her.
"No way!" Miku spread her hand over her mouth. "I live at Seabreeze also! Oh my gosh, we live in the same apartment! Are you a college student too?"
"Ah, yes..." Luka replied, "I'm in my first year..."
"Me too..." Miku started. "Wait, what!? You too? You look so mature that I had thought you were much older than me, maybe twenty-three!"
Luka felt dumbfounded. She was only eighteen! Plus, Miku was a kid too. Why had she been so excited about becoming friends with someone she thought was a twenty-three year old office lady, anyway?
Luka couldn't help but to laugh.
"Luka, you're laughing!" Miku laughed back at her.
"I'm only eighteen! Haha... you're too funny, Miku!" Instead of turning red, Luka's face became a cheerful shade of pink.
Afterwards, they exchanged cell-phone numbers, and had a lively conversation about the kinds of foods they liked. In the middle of it, Miku pulled out her own cell phone and took a picture of Luka.
The picture was a little embarrassing, as Luka's face wasn't ready for the camera, her mouth was half-open and she was holding her chopsticks to her front, but Miku thought it was a cute picture nonetheless.
"I want a picture of each and every friend I make inside my phone!" she told her. "Well, welcome to my cell phone, Luka!"
Luka eventually told Miku that she was studying abroad from Europe, and Miku had told Luka that she was studying abroad from Japan.
"You speak English really well for someone from Belgium." Miku said, bewildered.
"Oh. You're English is very good, for someone from Japan. I had thought that you always lived in America."
"Oh, same here to be honest, haha."
They learned quite a lot about each other.
After they finished their meal, the two left the restaurant together and walked home together in the frigid cold.
"It's really chilly outside, isn't it? Especially only for mid-November."
"It is quite chilly." Luka answered. She had a habit of looking at the ground when she walked, but this time, she tried mustering the courage and comfort to look straight ahead at Miku's face.
After a while of walking aside to their apartments, Luka noticed Miku was shivering more than she was. Miku didn't have a scarf around her neck, which was exposed and looked as if it were vulnerable and bitterly cold.
"Um, Miku..." Luka mumbled and shyly tugged at her own scarf, pondering on whether she should let Miku wear it.
"Miku... you seem cold. Would you like to borrow my scarf?" Luka pulled it out and offered with a sheepish smile.
"Thank you..." Miku said.
She approached Luka and pulled the scarf halfway around her neck. Miku walked towards the warm girl and wrapped her fuzzy white scarf halfway around her neck, still leaving some of the scarf behind on Luka's body.
"Ah, It's fine, Miku... you can take all of it. I don't really need it that much."
Miku shook her head and got all comfy in the warm scarf they were sharing.
"No thanks. I'd rather share it between us. Things feel much more special when they're being shared with a friend, don't you think?"
Miku smiled right into Luka's face with her wide emerald eyes. They shone, and Luka felt uplifted just looking in them.
"Yes, I guess you are right, Miku. This feels quite cozy."
They walked along with smiles on their faces when a single snowflake fell right into Miku's palm as if she were controlling it. She saw it's intricate crystal pattern right before it melted into her warmth.
"Hm? Oh, it's snowing, Luka!"
The pigtailed girl lifted her face to the sky in time to see the first light crystals of snow dallying and swirling through the sky and all around them.
"Indeed." Luka calmly took in the view as well.
"I love snow..." Miku mused. "It makes me feel so floaty inside, as if I could become as light and free as the flakes..."
Miku lifted her hands to the sky, opened her mouth to try to catch them on her tongue and Luka giggled. Miku was endearing, she was like a kid!
"It just makes me want to sing." Miku said. She strolled to a pause at the empty edge of the quaint road, and Luka paused also.
Miku looked up into the air, held both gloved hands to her heart, and started singing a cheerful song. Her voice was smooth and graceful, soaring in the wind and resonating with the falling snowflakes. It was a song Luka had heard before, called Song of Snowflakes.
From that one sole moment, Luka now knew. She discovered who Miku truly was, just listening to her merry voice and her uplifting song. Her heart fluttered. Miku was a bright, caring and cheerful spirit who saw positive things and magic in everyday life. Carrying a smile all around, turning every mundane event in something special, and ever stranger into a friend...
Exactly the kind of bright, cheerful person person Luka once aspired to become. It was her dream from long ago that she had abandoned and completely forgotten about. She suddenly remembered all her old feelings again and felt something tug inside her heart.
Enthralled by having met such a friend today, Luka smiled wide, put her hand in Miku's, looked up at the sky and began singing as well, along to Miku's song. For this little moment, her shyness had completely flown over her head, vanishing with Miku's bliss and the magical surroundings of flittering falling flakes. Luka simply felt reborn with a rekindled dreaming spirit.
Luka's singing voice was rich and had a mature sound to it, almost like the voice of a classical singer's. She started out softly, but she sang progressively louder and with more emotion as the felt more and more euphoria encompass her.
Miku's drifting, closing eyes shot wide open once Luka sang out and performed a powerful note with vibrato. It resonated with such sophistication and magnificence, one could tell that Luka had been trained in singing for a while.
Once the tall woman noticed Miku's gaze, she blushed again and bashfully hid half her face into the scarf.
Miku silently 'wow'ed, then began clapping and cheering.
"Aaah, bravo! Bravo, Luka! That was amazing!"
The taller girl sheepishly removed the scarf from her face and looked straight towards Miku. Her face was so... cheerful.
"So you sing too?" Miku asked with eyes that were growing large like marbles. "I've never known that about you! Well, so do I! I'm a singer... not as good as you."
With her cheeks still red, Luka turned to the smaller girl and smiled.
"You are a good singer, Miku. You impressed me. Not only that, but you have the ability to immerse people, you know. To make them... happy."
"Luka... r-really?" Miku's smile became sentimental. "You're too kind... thank you so much!"
The two girls had finished their stroll out of the empty shipping square, and their quiet apartment complex was now in view.
"You know, I've always wanted to have a partner in singing." Miku said.. "And now I met a such nice friend who lives in my apartment, with an amazing voice as well... I want for you to be the partner I've always wanted! I want to be part of a duo! Not only that, but I think we're going to become best friends!"
Luka, thou thoroughly flattered, had been put right on the spot. Truthfully to her, being in a duo didn't sound like a bad thing, not at all. In fact, it was something she secretly always wanted to do to come out of her shell. Luka remembered the reason she wanted to become a singer in the first place; to make friends and to sing with them too. To put smiles on people's faces...
Miku was the one that had made her remember that.
Suddenly, she felt a tingle of bliss fall over her.
"Miku..." she said fondly. "I would... love to!"
"Yaaay!" Miku pulled Luka's hands into hers and danced around the cold pavement, her dress shoes making a friendly clattering sound.
Luka jumped for joy as well, for the heck of it. Today had been a great day already.
"So, what should we call our group?"
The two started walking again, not minding that snowflakes were falling heavier, sliding off their hair and melting into their jackets.
Luka was thinking long and hard, and so was Miku.
"Ah! I've got the perfect name!" Miku chimed. "Negitoro!"
Luka fought back a mighty laugh, almost falling over in the process.
"We're naming our group after the sushi we became friends over?" Luka laughed.
"Well, yeah! It fits us perfectly, dont'cha think? Plus you love tuna and I love leeks! Negitoro is made of tuna and leeks! See?"
"Well... I guess, I do admit its a catchy name." Luka said. "Oh, well. We're not famous yet or anything, so Negitoro will certainly do for now!"
"Yay! Hey Luka, since we live so close together... well, first of all, do you have time today? Do you want to visit my apartment room? I live alone, but I have a pet rabbit, and a lot of karaoke and recording stuff! In fact, I do covers of songs I like, and I'm even thinking about making music videos. And now that I have you, I'm going to have a thousand times as more fun doing it! So, Luka. Have you ever recorded before?
Luka shook her head. "No, I merely only sing when I'm in the mood. But I do have time today and would love to visit you..."
She just met a friend, and already she was going to visit her house? Luka felt excited and gleeful inside. Plus she was going to make music videos with this girl? Oh... this is too much excitement for one day!
"Hey, um... thanks for inviting me over, Miku." she said, embarrassedly hiding the butterflies in her stomach.
"Hey, it's my pleasure!" Miku said back, smiling.
The two were almost back at their apartment complex now, heading into the direction of Miku's building.
Suddenly, Luka blushed. She promptly had just realized that she was still sharing a scarf with Miku.
"Oh yeah... I forgot all about it... We're currently sharing a scarf." she whispered.
"Gee Luka, you sure blush a lot." Miku giggled, Making Luka jolt a bit. She saw her blushinf?
"You don't have to by shy around me, I mean it." Miku reassured. Her smile had to have been the brightest thing Luka had saw all day.
"Oh... alright, M-Miku..."
...
...
A/N:
Don't ask how that piece of negitoro managed to defy gravity at the beginning. It's because negitoro are magical. They can fly. Or because this story is planned on having more silly whimsical moments like that. I'm just that kind of person.
In case you didn't know, Negitoro is sushi that contains both leek and tuna in it~
I FEEL LIKE THIS CHAPTER IS CRAP I DON'T KNOW HOW TO NEGITORO. SORRY IT'S JUST FRIENDSHIP BUT TO BE HONEST I LIKE IT MORE THAN ROMANCE-/*sobbu*
...Sooo, I guss I ship Negitoro (Miku x Luka)? I mean I ship LukaxTeto and LenxMiku too, but I can't resist these two together either . Plus it actually has a fandom, it's so rare that I ship something that actually has a fandom.
This was originally going to be a fluffy one-shot but it ended up being something that might as well be continued. So I will continue it.