"Alright, so we have to have three kinds of cloth…silk, fleece, and leather." Miku tapped her chin thoughtfully. "And the chemicals we use to burn the stuff are bleach, chlorine, and cleaning product…"
Luka tapped her pencil impatiently on her notebook, nodding at Miku's every word and attempting to ignore the odor wafting through her house.
Empty pizza boxes and litter scattered the floor, causing the carpet to be almost invisible. Scents of dirty laundry and feces floated around the two. Must have a cat somewhere, Luka thought. Luka tried to be polite and not pinch her nose as she tiptoed around the trash on the ground.
"Excuse the mess," Miku had laughed when Luka first stepped in. "Kaito lives here, and he's not…the cleanest being of all…"
Kaito-that was the blue-haired kid's name. He was a year older than Miku and Luka, in his last year of high school, but apparently Miku and him were together. Miku still acted squeamish whenever she spoke to or about him, though. Luka wondered why.
Now Luka and Miku sat beside one another on the ratty couch, reading over the science project instruction sheet. Everyone in the class was doing the same experiment, which Luka, creative mind she was, found to be quite stupid. Whoever did it best got the highest grade, she guessed.
"They've already supplied all of the materials…um…since this is due in three weeks and we'll finish the experiment today, we can finish the poster early!" Miku grinned at Luka. She looked away. Nobody ever smiled at her.
The supplies were gathered out of Miku's backpack and set out on the dining table (which had to be cleared off because of the rat droppings and rotting food lying on the plastic thing). Luka was confident in herself on this one-she knew it would be easy. She could ace the experiment as long as Miku cooperated with her.
"Alright, first we need a few plates so we don't stain the table." Luka pointed at nothing. Miku nodded and dashed to the sink, piled up with dirty dishes. She retrieved a plate caked with something red, scratched it off with her fingernail, and laid it down on the table.
"Alright, we've got that. What next?" Miku put her hands to her hips.
"Um…we should probably set out all of our materials and put goggles on."
"Uh…Goggles?" Miku scratched her head and laughed anxiously. "I'm afraid Kaito doesn't have any of those around here."
"So this is Kato's house?" Luka blurted out. Damn it, shouldn't have said that.
Miku sighed and began to place the small bottles of chemicals and samples of cloth on the plate.
"I live with him now. I don't have…never mind." Miku coughed loudly into her pale fist.
Luka coughed back, and Miku returned it. They eyeballed each other sideways and then swiftly turned away. Luka's face burned with embarrassment.
"So, uh, we should do this, huh?" Miku interrupted the smothering silence. "If we want to get it done, that is!"
She was back to being cheery. Luka stood from her unevenly balanced wooden chair and stood a fair distance away from Miku.
"So, we should start with the math." Luka said quietly. "Three times three is nine, so there are nine possible solutions that will turn up."
Miku stood in a stunned silence for a few moments, mouth slightly ajar. Luka cleared her throat to clear the silence.
"Wow, you're so smart!" Miku suddenly cooed loudly, jumping up and clicking her heels together. "Cool, we should write it down in our-crap, do you have your Science Notebook?"
"You bet," Luka turned to her red backpack, slung over the back of her chair, and filed through it until she found her tattered composition notebook.
Tapping the torn cover with her fingernails, she opened it to a blank page and produced a pencil from her pocket. She very quickly scrawled a data table and showed her math.
"Now, for the bleach…" Luka turned to Miku.
She already held a bottle and the cap in her hands, grinning sheepishly.
"Sorry, there, Luka Megurine!" She giggled. "I couldn't wait."
Luka sighed heavily before reaching towards the bleach, mentally cursing at Miku for knowing her last name. She would have to pour the liquid on the silk herself. Miku wasn't reliable enough to do this…
As Luka reached forward, the blue-haired Miku pulled back while her foot made contact with a pizza box lying on the floor, and the small sample bottle of bleach floated through Miku's fingers.
The opened cylinder hung in the air for a moment, seemingly suspended as Luka's eyes widened and Miku's face fell. Then it continued to fall towards Miku's hip and-pop-smacked opened-end up directly above her hip.
The wretched, sobbing screams of pain Luka expected to hear never came. Embarrassed, she removed her fingers from her ears and coughed nervously, quickly fetching a somewhat-dirty paper towel form the kitchen counter and sopping up most of the staining liquid from the ground before realizing that Miku just got freaking bleach on her hip.
"Oh my-holy-Miku!" Luka, stunned, felt her eyes widen as she stares into Miku's eyes, anxious. "Are you alright? That looked like…ow…"
"I'm okay," Miku stated evenly, clenching her teeth. "Do you have bandages and that alcohol stuff at your house?"
We've got plenty of alcohol, I'll tell you that. Luka thought grimly, wanting to punch herself. If she just let the bleach burn her, things could be bad. But if she led Miku to her house and she saw all of the bottles…well, things could be bad.
"Yeah, I do," Luka grabbed her by the shoulder to stabilize her and led her out the door, across the street, and in another door-this time her own.
Miku's eyes widened at the sight of so many of the glass cylinders and orbs, but quickly forced her gaze to dart away. Luka allowed her to lean on her shoulder, pursing her lips as she ushered her as fast as she could to the tiny, grungy bathroom.
Miku seemed to be used to messy walls and floors, because the blue-haired girl wasn't fazed in the least by the bathroom's.
Luka allowed Miku to sit hinderingly on the rusting toilet lid as her hands dashed to the medicine cabinet, swiftly fumbling for the gauze wrap and peroxide.
"Here, I'll pour it on, and then you can wrap it, okay?" Luka wasn't sure if she was qualified to do this-or if it was the right thing to do in this situation-but she was going through with it anyway.
Miku didn't make a peep as Luka unscrewed the small white cap to the brown bottle and let it drizzle onto the small burn mark, sizzling like lava. Surprised, Luka frowned slightly and raised her eyebrows. This happy-go-lucky girl was tougher than Luka had thought. Luka would've been punching and shrieking at whoever was pouring it on by now.
When she was finished, she left Miku alone in the bathroom so she could wrap her hip up and attempted to clear off some of the clattering bottles that lined the tables like soldiers.
When Miku hobbled out of the bathroom, grinning, she tapped Luka on the shoulder. Luka turned only to be enveloped with a warm bear hug. Surprised, Luka raised an eyebrow and shrugged away.
"What was that for?" Luka tried not to sound rude, but she didn't like people to touch her. Miku's smile faded only a bit.
"Thanks for helping me, Luka Megurine!" She chirruped, crossing her arms behind her back.
Stop saying my last name, for God's sake! Luka wanted to shout, but mustered a quick, painted-on smile in return. Miku observed her beat-up living room and grinned wider.
"I like your house. It's much better than Kaito's." Miku laughed brightly. Shocked, Luka frowned. Nobody had ever complimented her house before-then again; nobody had ever come into her house, really…
"Alright, we should be getting back to our experiment, right?" Luka managed another false smile and allowed Miku to lean against her once more as she limped back to her house.
This girl is like a superhero. She's not feeling practically any pain at all, and she got freaking bleach spilt on her hip! Luka snorted to herself and shook her pink-haired head, rolling her blue eyes.
As soon as the door opened, Miku seemed to freeze up, breathing in sharply. Confused, Luka turned in rapid circles, sending her un-brushed hair in a wave around her face.
"What?" She whispered, frightened that maybe a burglar had gotten in while they'd been out. They had left the door open, after all, and it wouldn't be very rare for this neighborhood…
"Kaito," Miku breathed softly, eyes widening. "He was out at the club. I can smell it."
Luka wondered how she could possible do something like that (putting aside the fact that's Luka thought her to be a superhero, it was not plausible) as she turned, turned, saw nothing, turned…
"Oh! Jesus!" She crashed into the broad chest of a man. Startled, she stepped back hurriedly and glared up at the blue-haired guy.
"Erm, sorry." Luka tried nervously, but the look of absolute pissed-off-ation on the guy's face was enough to make her think twice about trying to apologize.
Kaito was staring into the kitchen. Luka and Miku followed his gaze until they found the awful, horrendous, terrible sight of a big, fat, white stain on the tiled floor.
Miku mumbled something breathily under her breath, and Luka remained slack-jawed and embarrassed as she stared at the spill.
"Luka Megurine," Kaito's gruff voice felt like broken chalkboards piercing her eardrums. Flinching at her full name, she gazed up at the man.
"I think it's time you leave now."
He rolled up his sleeves.
Miku's eyes watered.
Luka bit her tongue, fetched her book-bag from the kitchen, and left, shutting the door behind her and mentally swearing at herself for not noticing the way Miku was silent around that dude, how she flinched away from his touch.
She wasn't a hero. She knew exactly what would happen. But it was none of her business…was it? Who was she supposed to ask for advice on this? Should she ask for advice on this? It's not like she could talk about this with Rin-or anyone else, for that matter.
It would be too dangerous for both her and Miku.
