a.n. It's been so long...but it's finally summer, so I'm going to crank out an update. Hopefully more than one...I hope you're not too terribly upset with me. I'm sorry and thank you for your patience. I was really happy when I realized I had 99 followers...let's see how high we can get that number!

Happy Birthday to Chrislayer-Sama! This chapter is dedicated to you, thank you for being such a good listener and friend to me, no matter how sporadic I can be! You've been there through EVERYTHING in the past few years, here's a small token of thanks for putting up with me for so long. :)

I'm making this temporarily parallel to the real world. As in, in this story, it is also currently summer for students. Enjoy!

EDIT AS OF 6/12/17: Almost done, this is a lighter chapter. I hope you guys like it!

Summer comes creeping upon the students like a thief, stealing away the little comforts of spring, such as the not-so-sweltering weather and the joys of socializing outdoors without melting. Well, the latter is a comfort most students hold in spring. Miku isn't bothered with the humdrum of her societal counterparts.

As a junior in Vocaloid High School, she is sick and tired of having to slog for long hours while barely making A's. She's beginning to hate school.

"Additionally, class, this lab project is mandatory, so be creative! Just as the rubric says, you are REQUIRED to be in groups for this, so get chummy with one another!"

And when that stupid, know-it-all chem teaching assistant Gakupo Kamui comes up with this genius idea of a double test grade to show his proctor for evaluation at the end of the school year, she hates him too.

Miku, however, takes pride in being a fair judge of character and tries not to hold it to the newbie personally, blaming her irate nature on the heat instead.

"Oh, and bt-dubs, I have your assigned groups up here, so go ahead and make your way to the front!"

Then again, no heat could be the cause of this irritation. What kind of teaching assistant uses words like "chummy" and "bt-dubs"? Did he think using teenagers' slang made him cooler?

Miku shakes her head as she makes her way to the front of the class.

Miku Hatsune, Rin Kagamine, Len Kagamine, and Kaito Shion. The twins and the bird brain, just great.

Miku remembers the twins all the way from her kindergarten class. The two are inseparable and both make decent grades, making them at least tolerable lab partners. It's Kaito Shion she's worried about. The boy is a senior and fails nearly every single one of their AP chemistry tests and continues to fail even after receiving the help of teachers, tutors, and friends alike. A part of Miku feels bad for sizing up her peers like this, but the heat really is getting to her and her grade can't take anything less than 85 on this project before she's down to a B for semester average.

"Hey, guys! I'm so excited to be your lab partner! How about we get to know each other after school by going to the ice cream parlor? I heard Bluebell brought back their cake flavor!"

I see the problem already. Too much sugar and too little studying.

The twins both smiles and nod enthusiastically. "Yeah, that sounds great!"

"Perfect, actually! We didn't have anything planned anyway."

Their voices sound the exact same.

After realizing the lull in their otherwise-energized conversation, Miku brings her attention away from where it's conveniently located (outside the window). "Sorry, what?"

"We were wondering if you'd join us after school today at the ice cream parlor. You know, as a kind of 'get-to-know-you' type of thing."

Miku feels like she already knows them too well, but immediately after thinking that she feels guilty for being so rude.

Just as Miku opens her mouth to respond, the final bell of the day rings.

"I guess I could. Sure, why not. How about we exchange our contact info for this project?"

The group walks out of the building and stops close to the curb of the parking lot, busily tapping in names and numbers. It's only after Miku hears the roar of a motorcycle engine coming awfully close that she realizes her mistake.

"Hello, gorgeous! Oh, and you have your friends with you today! I don't think I've met them before. Why don't you introduce us?"

The she winces and looks anywhere but at the people around her. I should've never left the building.

Following after her voice yet still out of the blue, her genie's feminine figure, clad in a leather jacket despite the heat, steps off of the purring engine. She slowly pulls off her pink and white helmet, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair as the other hand unzips the clingy leather off of her torso.

Miku thinks that's a bit too excessive, but she's not about to complain.

After putting away her helmet, the genie stretches slightly, her long slender arms reaching out towards the pleasant blue sky on either side of her. As she stretches, her shirt rides up and reveals a hint of the toned, flat stomach beneath the thin fabric. Miku herself can't stop staring, a fiery sensation pulling at the pit of her stomach and sending tingles along her spine. The worst part is Miku can't stop herself from imagining what those muscles might feel like under her hands.

After realizing how transfixed she is, the girl tears her eyes away. Glancing around, her eyes narrow into a stone-cold glare she directs at her blue-haired classmate. He seems to be admiring the view too much. Or rather, as Miku sees it, eye-raping the body of her genie.

Miku likes to think she isn't as attached to Luka as she suspects she might be, but frankly, the past few months have been spent solely in her company and Miku just can't help but feel a little more entitled than the rest of the population to Luka's presence.

Her irritation only grows as she watches her idiot lab partner eye Luka's. Glancing at Luka did nothing to help, as the genie seemed oblivious to the happenings around her.

I bet she dressed like that on purpose, the nerve of her! Eager to break Kaito's line of sight, Miku clears her throat, the sound loud and abrupt. To her satisfaction, it seems to work.

"Damn, Miku! Who's the hottie? She looks like a real catch! Nice!" Kaito can't stop gaping at Luka's chest even after Miku clears her throat, but once he breaks his gaze long enough to think straight, that's the only comment he manages to jabber out.

The twins simply stand there, staring at Luka, Miku, and Kaito in confusion.

Luka takes all the liberty she can in the moment, shrugging off her jacket to reveal her toned arms in a white v-neck, taking her time walking up behind Miku with an extra sway in her hips. Miku gulps, trying to ignore the blossoming redness in her cheeks that doesn't seem entirely the fault of the heat anymore. Realizing she's staring again, Miku averts her eyes quickly to focus on the concrete instead and fixes her face with a frown.

"These are my project partners from my AP Chem class. That's Rin, that's Len, and that one over there is Kaito. Rin and Len are twins and they're juniors, like me. Kaito is a senior."

She hears a hum in response. The overwhelmingly pleasant scent of vanilla and rose reaches Miku's nose and she involuntarily sighs, her eyes slipping shut. Luka's scent. A cool hand dances its fingers alongside hers, lacing them together, and for a second Miku forgets she's in the exceedingly hot school parking lot with three people she barely knows.

There's a long pause, and then she hears Kaito's voice echo around the parking lot, sounding distant. "Well, how about we meet for ice cream tomorrow instead? And go ahead and bring that hot college chick!" There's a slam of a car door and a screech of tires. Her blood boils, and not because of the summer heat.

Hot. College. Chick? Just who does he think he is?

Opening her eyes, Miku sees that Kaito has driven off comically fast in his stupid, tiny blue Volkswagon, and the twins are nowhere to be seen.

That leaves her and Luka.

A huskier, more sensual voice whispers by her ear, the cool breath brushing her earlobe. "Do you wanna make out in an empty classroom~? The student-teacher thing has always been something I've wanted to try."

Maybe she's being a bit hostile because of her mounting frustration with school in general, but Miku's eyebrows scrunch and she glares. "Shut up and take me home, showoff!"

The genie raises an eyebrow in an unspoken question, sensing a terseness that had become unusual between the two of them in the past few months. Deciding not to push the matter, Luka brings the laughter back into her voice. "As you wish, Mistress!"

Pulling out two helmets from the storage unit under the seat, Luka steps onto the purring beast and gestured for Miku to climb on behind her. When the tealette hesitates, Luka turns around and knits her eyebrows together, an expression of concern marring her marble, statuesque features.

"What's wrong? I've picked you up from school nearly every day this semester."

Miku's eyes seemed unfocused on the conversation, staring at the wheels of the shiny motorcycle. "Yeah, but, never on a motorcycle. It's always been in a car. You know, a nice, covered, safe car!"

The pinkette's laughter chimes out over the empty lot. "Don't you worry, I'd never let anything happen to you. I told you that before, didn't I?"

Miku rolls her eyes in response. "After showing up on this death machine, I'm not sure you meant it."

Luka clutches her heart in mock hurt, placing the helmets onto the seat to free both of her hands. "Alas, my fair maiden has wounded me!"

Sighing, the tealette steps closer to the motorcycle, slips on her helmet and climbs on, loosely wrapping her arms around her genie's waist.

There's laughter and a moment of shuffling. "Sweetie, this thing goes faster than five miles per hour. Don't you want to hold on a little bit tighter than that?"

Arms tighten in response.

Revving the engine, the genie grins before making her voice drop to the usual range it inhibits for most of her flirtatious comments, especially when they border on the downright dirty. "Hey gorgeous, do you feel that vibration down there? I bet my speed could make you scream, but if you hold on tight, I promise to be gentle."

She hears a laugh from her companion, feeling her breath ghost over her exposed ears and neck. When Miku speaks in a barely audible whisper, Luka swears she feels her lips on the back of her neck and she shudders, her stomach flipping in ways she's not used to.

"Well, some like it rough. Why don't we experiment to find out if I do, too?"

Luka's throat goes dry while her mind goes completely blank, a strange, foreign heat finding its way up her neck and into her cheeks while a different kind of heat starts to curl and coil deep inside of her stomach.

Luka believes this new sensation is a product of heatstroke.

"This time I'm not the one who's blushing! I see you're finally getting a taste of your own medicine, huh?"

Though the comment seems biting, Miku's tone is light and playful, only heightening the strange sense of euphoria the genie suddenly feels. There's a moment when that feeling hangs in her stomach like warm amber, but then something is pushed a little roughly over her head. Luka jumps before recognizing the familiar visor of her helmet. From behind her, she hears a soft mumble muffled by the helmet as two arms replace themselves securely around her waist.

"Better safe than sorry."

The genie smiles and slowly accelerates, allowing the girl behind her to adjust if needed before zooming to full speed, drawing a small shriek from the student as they speed off into the distance.

From his empty classroom, Gakupo takes a break from grading papers and looks out the window, squinting at the two and smiling happily. He shifts his attention to his own ornate bottle in the top-most drawer of his desk and nods to himself. The gentle smile remains on his face as he locks the drawer.

Miku doesn't say one word the entire ride back. Be it her own daily stresses or the growing confusion she feels with her feelings towards Luka, the girl can't figure out where to start to put an end to her problems.

The past few months have been...different, for sure. Since the incident in the rain, Miku has slowly become more and more accustomed to the genie's teasing remarks and is more easily able to strain out the true meanings behind Luka's words from the bulk of the teasing. She still knows next to nothing about her companion, however, and is not incredibly hard-pressed to find out. Something about Luka is melancholier than Miku thinks she's ready to dig through. She sees it in the way the genie centers all of the conversations around her. Whenever the two of them land remotely close to Luka's past, Luka smiles in that charming way she always does and smoothly redirects the conversation, either with another flirtatious remark or a direct deflection. Miku doesn't have the heart to ask her why she keeps doing so, not wanting to open up that can of worms just yet.

In the aftermath of these strange feelings, however, Miku finds that she wants to get to know Luka, especially considering that though she trusts her, she's essentially living with a stranger. A stranger who cares a lot about her, but a stranger nonetheless.

That in itself is another problem. What do you call a stranger who flirts with you everyday?

As Luka parks the motorcycle inside their garage, Miku makes her way inside the house, dropping off her school bag and switching on the TV. After doing so, she walks over to the kitchen and opens up the fridge, surveying what they needed for grocery shopping this upcoming weekend.

That's become another ritual for the two. After realizing within the first week that Luka wasn't really going anywhere, Miku devised a plot to attempt to make her leave of her own free will. Her diabolical plan had been to tire the genie out, making a list of all the things she could possibly think of as chores. Cleaning the house sat next to raking the leaves. Mowing the lawn was scrawled neatly underneath cleaning the gutters, and other menial labor jobs that Miku needed done or would've liked some help with were added to the list, bit by bit. All of the bills, luckily, were paid for by the inheritance money their parents had left them, and luckily, expenses and money management were not added to the list. (Miku had her brother to thank for managing that alongside his college studies.)

The one thing Miku had forgotten was that Luka wasn't an ordinary human being.

When the high school student smiled triumphantly at the genie while handing her the long, monstrous list, she had thought she had finally won against her supernatural problem. Luka took the list and read through it, smiling in an (annoyingly) amused way before snapping her fingers and finishing some of the hardest tasks, tasks that Miku had painstakingly taken her time to brainstorm. She did some of the simpler chores by hand to try and kill time, citing her reason for doing so as being "bored". The tealette could only stare as she watched her entire backyard transformed from what seemed to be endless undergrowth into neat, trim bushes and grass that looked good enough to be part of the center feature in "Home & Garden Magazine". She turned her attention from the garden to Luka, who giggled and snapped her fingers once more, pointing out at the yard again.

On the branch of one tree was now a newly-attached a swing. A freaking swing.

That wasn't the end of it. As Luka kept snapping her fingers, Miku watched her house transform from organized chaos into neat and orderly. When Luka was finished, the clean, shiny floors left Miku wondering if she could've eaten off of them without getting sick.

The only thing Luka struggled with was grocery shopping. Having been bottled up for centuries until just a few short months earlier, she had no idea what some of the things on Miku's list even were, much less where to find them. To Miku's utter displeasure, she had to spend even more time with the genie going to the store and teaching her what things were than if she had just gone to the store and done the shopping herself. Luka, on the other hand, enjoyed going to the supermarket and taking in all of the different sights, smells, and sounds. Being her creative self, she figured out how to "surf" on the back of a shopping cart very quickly and while it gave Miku and some of the more uptight employees a headache, other shoppers and children loved having her there, seeing an upbeat, new young face in a place that seemed so mundane and boring otherwise.

After the first shopping trip, Luka begged her to go again, and ever since then, the two go shopping together. Miku makes the list and takes Luka along, who helps her load and unload the heavier items.

Snapping back to reality, Miku picks up a notepad and begins taking inventory of what they need for the coming week. As she does so, she hears the cushions on the couch squish as they always do when someone sits down. Smiling to herself when she hears a loud, melodramatic sigh, Miku sets the notepad down and walks over, coming to a stop behind the couch and smiling fondly at Luka, who's taken to "elegantly" (as she puts it, anyway) lying down with her limbs splayed and hanging haphazardly off of the edge.

Seeing her, she lets out another long, exaggerated sigh.

A smile threatens to surface on Miku's face, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards before she can resist the urge. Schooling herself to a deadpan expression and demeanor once more, she keeps her tone serious. "Alright. What's wrong?"

Luka's eyes glint with mischief as she smiles brightly. "I'm bored."

Miku rolls her eyes affectionately before walking to the other side of the couch, shoving Luka's legs off and sitting down, grabbing the remote. "Why don't we watch some TV? Maybe that'll keep you out of trouble for a while."

She receives a groan in response, waving her arm at the screen. "But I don't like staring at this thing you call news! All they waste their time on is the weather when there are so many other interesting things they could be talking about! I bet they have no idea what's going on in other parts of the world," The genie grumbles, sitting up and crossing her arms.

Miku leans over and flicks her forehead lightly. "Idiot, that's because this is the weather channel. That's what they're supposed to always talk about."

Luka wrinkles her nose, shaking her head. "You humans are so strange, devoting an entire network to something so fickle. What's the point? Weather will always change."

The high school student tilts her head. "Isn't that exactly the point? Because it keeps changing, you need to be aware of where it's going or what it's going to do."

Toned shoulders shrug as their owner runs a hand through her hair, smirking slightly. "Not to brag or anything, but I can change the weather in small locations permanently or in larger locations for short amounts of time. So, just as an FYI, you probably won't ever need this again, as long as I'm here. Now change the channel to something interesting."

Miku makes a face. "Why are you so arrogant? That's just annoying...and also pretty rude. And fine, let's watch Disney channel, since you seem to have so much of a problem with what's currently on."

Miku finds arrogance annoying on everyone else, but somehow on Luka it's slightly more attractive. Just slightly. But she's still not going to condone it.

"I'm not arrogant! I'm just giving you a heads up on my abilities in case you happened to forget; I was just saying it to save myself from the monotonous drawl you ignorant humans call the weather channel! And I don't wanna watch Disney, there's nothing good on right now! It's all just kids' shows!" With that declaration, Luka makes a grab for the remote.

Miku promptly pulls it out of her reach, shifting it to her other hand while extending her arm to keep the genie at bay. "If it's really 'all just kids' shows', then I fail to see why watching Disney would be a problem for you."

The pinkette growls, climbing on top of Miku and clawing at the remote, which remained just marginally out of her reach. "Oh, that's a low blow. Just, change the channel already! What's your problem?"

All of a sudden, the remote clatters to the ground and the two find themselves right beside it. In all their struggling, they slip off of the couch and onto the floor, Luka now straddling Miku on all fours as the other girl rubs her head, oblivious of their suggestive position until she opens her own eyes and, god, those have got to be the prettiest, most intense blue eyes Miku has ever seen in her whole life...

The TV remote lays forgotten a few feet above Miku's head, neither girl seeing anything in the world around them except for each other. All of a sudden, Miku's senses seem hyperactive. Did Luka's hair always look this soft? Did it always have that kind of angelic sheen? And, were her lips always that naturally rosy and...delicate?

Luka reaches up and brushes a strand of teal away from pale, soft skin, her voice tender when she speaks. "Sorry. You o-okay?" She clears her throat afterwards, trying to block out the stutter.

Never in her life has Miku thought of stuttering as cute, but from Luka, it's a new level of adorable, right up there next to puppies and rainbows. "Yeah. I just. Um." At a loss for words, she continues to stare into Luka's eyes.

Out of the blue, the front door slams and loud, fast footsteps approach. "Miku, I'm home for the- OH. MY. GOD."

Miku's eyes widen in alarm as she cranes her neck back, wishing with all her might that the owner of the voice she grew up listening to isn't really there.

He is.

In her heart, she really hopes this is just a very detailed nightmare. Or that all of a sudden, her brain has picked today to start hallucinating. Doubting either has happened, she decides to conjure up some sort of response. "Mikuo, I swear, this isn't what it looks like at all!"

Her brother's eyes widen even more in shock, his voice coming out higher than usual. "Why didn't you tell me you were gay too!? It would've saved me so much worrying over coming out!"

Miku pushes Luka off of her unceremoniously, sitting up defensively. "I'm not, agh! What the heck? I'm so not gay! And— wait, WHAT?"

Mikuo's face flushes as he gestures awkwardly, trying to diffuse the tension. The fake smile he pulls his mouth into seems almost painful. "Pfft, I meant, like, gay, as in, the...um, the happy kind of gay ?" His forced tone trails up into a question. Miku raises an eyebrow in response, crossing her arms over her chest expectantly.

Recovering quickly, Mikuo sputters and points to Luka accusingly. "Well what about you?! I walk into my house, back from university on what's supposed to be a carefree summer break, to find some girl going down to do the dirty on my sister!"

Miku's face flushes as much as Mikuo's had a minute ago. "That was an accident! We fell! And god, Mikuo, don't you ever say 'do the dirty' again! What are you, eleven?"

The older sibling rolls his eyes and sticks out his tongue. "Shut up, dweeb." He turns his attention to Luka, his tone turning polite with a hint of teasing alongside the amusement. "Hello! I'd welcome you to our humble abode, but I see Miku already has! I'd also offer you something to drink, but I think Miku's the thirsty one in the room right now. Go ahead and get comfortable, unless Miku's already helped you out with that, too." Mikuo smirks triumphantly at his now enraged sibling, prancing up the stairs and yelling over his shoulder.

"I'm going to freshen up, don't go anywhere, either of you! I'll be down in five!"

Miku groans and slaps her palm to her own forehead, shaking off the comforting hand Luka places on her shoulder.

She wants to ask Luka to zap them out of this place but she knows that will only make things worse.

The siblings and Luka sit comfortably around the coffee table in the living room, eating sandwiches Luka conjures when Mikuo looks away. Swallowing, the boy continues his story.

"And I think I've been this way for a long time, but I was just so afraid to tell you. Because if you didn't accept me, I would lose the only remaining family I had. At university, I joined the gay-straight alliance. At first, I pretended to be straight, but I couldn't keep up that ruse for very long at all. Luckily, everyone there is obviously really progressive, and they were totally cool with me when I came out. No one really cared, anyway. Oh, I have a boyfriend now, by the way. Maybe you can meet him sometime. I'm actually staying back at the dorms this summer for my bio-med engineering research, he might be on campus once or twice."

Nodding in response, Miku smiles reassuringly. "Yeah, I don't have a problem with it at all, just clean up after yourself. And I hope you know how to be safe and not catch some nasty disease."

Mikuo makes a face and reaches across the table, smacking her. "Mind your own business! And since you asked, yes, I do know. I actually read the pamphlets the counselor gave out during orientation week, so shut up!"

"Hah, I bet you learned a lot about yourself during orientation week."

"Your puns are stupider than you are."

Their aimless banter continues like this back and forth, making up for the time lost throughout the year. During their conversation, Luka remains quiet. She doesn't want to draw attention to herself, somehow nervous for whatever that conversation might entail. The genie finds that strange. It isn't as though she'll be going anywhere, because the bottle can't simply be given away or thrown out without her permission. If they can't kick her out, what is she so afraid of...?

Mikuo's gaze lands on her as the conversation between the siblings died down. His stare doesn't waver, but it doesn't seem as judgmental as Luka had feared it would be.

Was that it? Was she simply afraid of being disliked by her mistress' sibling? But why?

He breaks the silence. "So, how did someone as gorgeous as you end up with my dip-wad of a younger sister?"

Luka can't stop herself from smiling and puffing out her chest in an intended-to-be-comical way. She decides that she doesn't have to worry too much about Mikuo; after all, he seems easy-going. "You see, I actually saved her from drowning..."

Miku interrupts her. "Stop lying and let me tell the story." Before continuing, she pauses and glances towards the genie, her eyes voicing the question she doesn't want to say aloud in front of her brother just yet. Should I tell him that you're a genie?

Smiling softly, Luka nods slowly, leaning back and eating her sandwich comfortably.

"Aww, look at you two! You're like a married couple already, communicating silently and all that jazz!"

Miku growls at him. "If you for once learned to shut that sewage pipe you call a mouth, maybe you would stop spewing garbage all the time."

The older sibling leans forward and sniffs at the air dramatically. "Sorry, I think I just smelled some really nasty trash...oh wait, that's just your face."

Miku looks around, her tone sarcastically oblivious when she begins to speak. "Wait, I'm confused. Which mirror were you looking into?"

"Oh, that's funny coming from-"

Luka clears her throat loudly and snaps her fingers, a solid brick wall appearing between the two siblings' plates on the table.

Mikuo is so shocked he falls backwards. "What the..."

Luka snaps her fingers again and the wall disappears. Miku leans forward with an elbow on the table and her cheek resting on her palm, waiting expectantly for Mikuo to recover.

Mikuo reaches out with his hand tentatively to touch the air where the wall had been just seconds ago. After staring at the space in wonderment for another few seconds, he starts. "Miku! Did you see that?! I swear a wall just—"

"Yeah, exactly, that's what I wanted to tell you."

"Oh my god! Your new girlfriend can randomly conjure up walls?"

"She's not my girlfriend, you crackpot! And, no, that's not what I meant to tell you."

"Then what is it? 'Cause, that was like, super freaky. And I need some sort of explanation, for stuff like this."

"Mikuo, Luka Megurine is a genie."

There's a long pause. The silence is nearly palpable, weighing heavily on each person sitting on the floor around the small table. Then Mikuo speaks.

"Like, in Aladdin?"

Luka bangs her head against the table. "No! Not at ALL like Aladdin! That cheap, on-screen magician was such a humiliating portrayal of our race! And he was so ugly! We don't even have blue skin!"

There's another long pause after Luka's outburst. Miku nods slowly. "Basically like Aladdin, but we don't talk about that."

Mikuo taps his chin in thought, nodding to himself. He reaches over and pats Luka's shoulder, his tone straightforward and reassuring. "But like, way sexier."

Luka stops moping and grins, instantly lighting up and running a hand through her hair. "Thanks! I work out!"

The older tealette flips his hand in the air dismissively. "Mmhmm, girl, it SHOWS!"

Miku shakes her head slowly. "How. How did I not realize you were gay before?"

Mikuo shrugs. "I'm a great actor. Also, now that I know this incredibly crucial piece of life-changing information, I have two questions. For one, how did you two really meet?"

Luka chimes in enthusiastically. "Miku was at a strip club, and she decided she really liked what she saw, and then—"

Miku cuts in, interrupting her for the second time on the same topic, her face burning brightly. "I accidentally kicked her bottle while walking back from school and the old man who knew Luka told me to take it. Later, I was trying to get the filth off of it and I got stuck with her."

Luka huffs, speaking mock-indignantly. "You rubbed my bottle! But if that's not your thing, you can definitely rub something else."

Miku chokes on her sandwich as Mikuo doubles over in laughter. "Oh, I like you! I do hope you'll stick around, you sound chill. But, do me a favor. No super loud sex, okay? She's my sister, and that's just freakin' nasty."

Luka nods seriously. "Will do."

Miku punches Luka and slaps the back of her brother's head, mentally preparing herself for the long journey of interaction between all of them ahead.

Mikuo winces and covers his head. "Okay! I'll be serious! My second question...does this mean she can help do the laundry? Or just, you know, do the laundry for us?"

Miku's forehead hits her palm with an audible thunk as Luka nods, a big smile on her face. She gives Mikuo a thumbs up.

"Heck yeah, I can!"

A long journey indeed.

Luka pinches the bridge of her nose as she sits on the black leather couch inside her bottle. Everything around her is cast in a warm red light from the almost-opaque-but-still-translucent red glass on the side of the bottle, making it harder to see unless you already know where everything is located. It's two in the morning and she can't sleep. Something has been gnawing at her insides since she'd gone to pick Miku up from school. She feels as though she was being...watched? It's a strange sensation, but Luka's gut feelings are never wrong.

Glancing around, she notices that once again, they proved to be infallible. She has a small cloud of mist sitting on her coffee table, meaning some other supernatural being capable of generating cloud messages (sort of like missed calls) has decided to bother her. It's unlikely that there's someone actually calling her, however. She has withdrawn from the magical realm for years, not sending anyone any note or explanation of her centuries-long spontaneous "hibernation". They technically can't even know if she's alive or not (besides the fact that genies are very hard to kill when they didn't want to be killed).

At least, a spontaneous hibernation is what they would know of her disappearance. She cares too little of what they think to be pulled back into their petty little council politics, or to even make the effort to fill them in on the past few centuries. She hasn't spent them quite as idly as everyone thinks she has.

She desperately hopes it's one of those telemarketing trolls. They'll yell at you with their scratchy voices to buy a new lamp with no down payments or try and get you to take a loan of magic from some shady bank run by gnomes. Gnomes are okay, though. Luka appreciates that they're always to the point and never try to waste her time with useless conversation or idle chit-chat. There are some supposed perks to interacting with those permanently in a grumpy state of mind.

Massaging her forehead, she takes a deep breath and forces a smile. Her mother always told her the situation automatically became easier to deal with if you smile. For the majority of her seemingly endless lifetime, Luka followed the rule because it seemed to work. With a flick of her wrist, the cloud begins "raining" sound, more and more of the cloud disappearing until the entire message finishes playing.

Luka listens pensively and frowns when she realized that not only is the council of magic chewing her out, but she's now required to make an audience with one of their head members, the one who's a genie and thus in charge of their magical sector. He had apparently spotted her and the council wanted to check in and make sure there wasn't going to be another rebellion, like what happened in 1914 and again in 1939. Those wars devastated the human world and promises were made in both realms to refrain from a war that large-scale ever again.

The genie sighs and flops back, splaying over her couch. They only want to make sure I'm under their control or at least on their side, even if they know I'm stronger than all of them combined.

Luka has been on the council's cautionary list for a while now. She's always been mischievous, but as she grew older, she simply stopped adhering to any laws she thought were stupid. At first, the council was wary of what they called her "delinquency", but they realized that as long as they didn't bother her, Luka wouldn't cause trouble for them either. It didn't take long for them to figure that out, either. They had employed a watching crystal to follow Luka around. Never once did it seem to be connected, the feed from it always unclear; the council realized why after they received a "gift" of a crushed crystal on their meeting table one morning with a rather inflammatory (and notably vulgar) response.

Then there were the random explosions around their offices as well as the almost juvenile stink bombs planted on every single seat of the conference hall. The gimmicks mysteriously stopped once they sent an apology note to the House of Megurine.

Luka laughs to herself as she recalled their foolishness. Her amusement is short-lived, however, as she realized that she has to meet with someone at the ice cream parlor tomorrow.

Guess I'll have to tag along with Miku, whether she likes it or not...

Sighing to herself while shaking her head, the genie exits her bottle and appears next to her now sleeping mistress once more, clinging to her newfound steadiness and anchor.

"So you see, that's why I have to go to the ice cream parlor with you today."

One perfect teal eyebrow arches. "And why do you expect me to believe that some magical council sent for you? What if this is just another ploy to embarrass me in front of my peers once more?"

A disinterested voice replies from the other side of the room, the owner taking a break from channel surfing and simultaneously reading the news. "Miku, it's not embarrassing if it's just flirting. Trust me, I've been to college, I know about these types of things."

The younger tealette snorts. "First, we're not flirting, and second, you don't even know a hole in the ground from your own butt hole. Please."

A mock gasp as the TV volume increases. "Rude much? God, maybe if you just got some, you wouldn't be this irritated all the time."

"Excuse me?! I'm seventeen!"

Mikuo shrugs. "It'll happen eventually." He pauses and glances at Luka, who sits on a bar stool while innocently sipping a fruit smoothie. When the boy makes eye contact, she smirks around the straw and wiggles her eyebrows. "And soon, probably."

Miku tugs at the hem of her dark blue tank top and huffs, even more irritated than before she had started to argue with Luka. Glancing at the genie, she notices her staring unashamedly at her legs, exposed by the white short-shorts she had worn to combat the summer heat. Suddenly, they feel much shorter than they really are...

Sighing, Miku turns to the blender on the counter and finishes making her own smoothie, pouring it out and nodding to Luka to clean it. Luka snaps her fingers and the blender is drying on the dish-rack.

The tealette takes a pensive sip of her smoothie, less cranky now that she has some sugar in her system. "So, hypothetically, if you did come with me, would you be so shamelessly...conspicuous?"

"So you want her to flirt inconspicuously?"

"No! But it's Luka! Asking her not to flirt is like asking a dog not to pant."

The genie leans over the counter and pinches Miku's cheeks, grinning from ear to ear. "Oh honey, but I only ever flirt with you. That's got to at least make you happy, right?"

Miku puffs out her cheeks to try and stop Luka, but failing, decides to cross her arms and keep her mouth shut.

The genie sighs and leans back. "But, here. I can prove to you that I am capable of self-control. If I do, can I come with you?"

Miku, already too flustered by the genie's earlier comments, simply nods and ducks her head, her eyebrows furrowing angrily.

The genie smiles and turned into the small white puppy Miku remembers from their first morning. She sits there and seems to smile.

Miku tilts her head, confused at the sight before her. "What the heck are you up to now?"

The puppy whimpers. Mikuo hangs his head over the side of the couch and turns to stare at the two of them. "It's pretty obvious, isn't it? Look. She's not panting."

Miku sighs and rinses out her glass, deciding against a comment on the situation.

Luka barks happily and trots behind Miku, licking at her heels as she walks. Miku turns and looked at her. Luka seems to smile and wag her tail.

"Fine, you can come with me. Stop looking at me like I kicked you."

Luka barks happily and licks at Miku's feet.

a.n. I apologize for the errors. But hey, this is the longest chapter thus far, over 7,000 words!

A note about the dialogue between Miku and Mikuo: I have a brother two years older than I am, and some of this dialogue is exactly as it happens in real life. Those were taken from our "arguments" (both of us just laugh and keep slinging mud, really). Tell me if that was too much or if you guys are fine with it. This chapter turned out much more lighthearted than the others.

If you can guess where the title of this chapter is from, kudos! I'll probably give you a preview of the next chapter. (Or at least, some details of the plot.)

Again, Happy Birthday, Chrislayer! I hope this made you laugh a little, or at least crack a smile. :)

Review! (The only incentive I can offer you: I might post another summer update!)

EDIT AS OF 6/13/17: I have crossed the bridge into midnight. This is the last of the chapters I had to edit to reach the point of current standing, so from here on out there's a lot more plot. Hang tight, I'm working on my new chapter. There will be another summer update!