Woah, okay, only one last (hopefully) small chapter to go, about 6 more vocaloids to include POVs for, and I'm done. Warning, this chapter includes LOTS of sap.
I do not own Vocaloid or any of the products (voicebanks) associated.
Chapter 7: LIFE with the Stars (LIFE-Lame Idiocy for Fan Enjoyment)
(Ryuuto's POV [SEE, I told you I'd include him!])
"Quack." That was about as random as all of November had been for Galaco. Her monthly visits to the house were usually nothing special, but when she opened the door to the accursed block, a small, green-haired boy with a very large tooth was looking up at her, and proceeded to quack in a manner freakishly similar to a duck in front of her.
You couldn't blame Ryuuto for this, he was only a child, and a very curious one at that. His parents were the staunch believers that their boy was a talented genius; however, Ryuuto never liked his tutoring with Mr. Hiyama, unlike Yuki, who adored him. He preferred going out into the world, feeling the wind in his hair and getting down and dirty.
Too bad his caretakers here wouldn't let him do that.
So when Gumi would get up for her morning exercise, freak out when she heard a rustle in the bushes, and just pass it off as another Hachune for Miku to deal with, it was actually Ryuuto trying to blend in with the surrounding greenery. Green hair came in useful for that kind of camoflague. Maybe he'd get Gumi to join him one day, and Sonika too, and they would have a green party, in celebration of all things greeny-looking.
But for now, he would stick to quacking this random girl out of the house.
(Kaito POV)
Christmas was almost upon Kaito, and that meant everyone got to go and... , RECORD MORE SONGS!
"YAY FOR CHRISTMAS!" he cheered as he and most of the other housemates stepped into the always sophisticated reception room of the studio.
This time they were joined by the lovely Akita Neru and fabulous Kasane Teto. These two girls made Kaito's day every time they visited. Although Neru was considered the love-child of Rin and Miku, which was a common pairing Kaito shipped, Neru was unique in her own way, cynicism, arrogance and elegance were some words that came to Kaito's tiny, insignificant mind.
Teto, now she was a piece of work; always active like Gumi-two-shoes and constantly talking. But that was why Kaito loved her, you know, in a 'Yo, what'up, guurrlfreeeend...' kind of way. He planned to go shopping with her for some new hair products after the recording, maybe some permanent hair-dye in a different colour than blue! LOL, that'd totes get the managers hating on him!
Unfortunately for readers who have stuck with the pile of crap emulating from Mr Ice-Cream Man, I will now address the following situation.
Miku likes Kaito but knows she can't have him. Meiko loves Kaito, thinks he's an idiot and knows no one else can take him away. Kaito loves both girls, but knows Meiko will bash him up if he brings up his feelings for someone else.
And everyone, including his girlfriends and his guuurlfrends, secretly believes that Kaito is 100% gay, but that he just doesn't know it yet.
I mean, whichever fan thought of ice-cream as his fan item must have known about the sexual innuendos they were bestowing upon him, right?
(Miriam POV [Hell yeah, got a full on diverse cast this chapter!])
It was one of those days when Miriam was asked to actually 'tag along' to the recording sessions, the days that she thought about while cooking, cleaning, weeding, breathing, reading, sleeping, tending cuts that were bleeding, and anything else that ended with -ing.
The sort of musty, dark and hardly used smell of the booths came back to her as soon as she stepped in. Oh, the nostalgia! How she wished to be in her hey-day, just her, Lola, and Meiko...
The recording got quickly under way; most of her songs were covers but then again, that seemed to be the only thing anyone ever liked about the 'Engloids' anymore...
'Oh well...' she thought, and with that, began to sing. Gosh, she hadn't sung for that long in ages! Her voice almost as perfect as it was when she started her career, she flawlessly hit each note with passion and enthusiasm. By the time she had finished her 3rd cover, she would have been content with going home there and then.
But of course, in the booth next to her, some idiot intern at Yamaha had stupidly decided to put No.1 and even-more-No.1er-than-the-other-one together and get 'You're Fired' on only his second pay-check.
Miriam knew it was either that, or Gumi and Miku had just happened to obliviously walk into the same room without noticing each other and then notice each other.
Miriam was betting all her money made from this session that it was the first one.
Luka bet her life savings, life insurance and her superannuation on it.
Kaito bet Meiko over to Gakupo.
For the second option. Stupid Kaito.
(Miku/Gumi POV)
Of course, being a recording session, it was only a matter if time before the drama queens got their game on.
"This was my studio, I was here first!"
"Oh please, *I* was assigned this studio. If you hadn't been such an airhead you would've realised you'd stepped into the wrong booth!"
"I may be an airhead but at least I don't drool over guys, I've seen you stare at Yuuma-san for hours. You just...sit there and...go all...weird..."
"Well at least he likes me back. Who is it that has a crush on you again? I distinctly remember being told it was Piko." At this Miku shut her mouth, stared out of the booth and glared at her friends watching from the safety of outside.
"What? I thought it was a good thing at first that he liked you," explained Miki. Take another moment to ignore that comment. Okay...
"He-h-he doesn't like me, whoever told you that is lying!"
"No! They're not lying!" Everyone turned and gasped like a scene from a cheesy American soap-opera. It was Piko who had spoken.
"No, I won't deny it any longer. Miku, I...I like you a lot, I don't care if you reject me, I just want you to know properly about my feelings. Let me know if you do too. I'll be waiting back at the house." And with that, he left.
Miku shut the door of the booth so that her friends couldn't hear her. Unfortunately, the one person she hated she' locked in with her.
"Reject him."
"What?" Miku was seriously confused now. Was Gumi actually voluntarily speaking to her, let alone giving her advice?
"I said reject him. If you don't have feelings for him, why play along and make his and your life hell?"
"But-but now that I've seen his face and his true feelings...I don't think I could hurt him that bad, I'm not up to that!"
"Hold it a sec," said Gumi, "are you telling me that Hatsune Miku, world renowned superstar, who constantly tries to get rid of her fans, and who teases me a every chance she gets, actually has standards?! Ha!"
"Please don't laugh, I really feel bad about letting him down."
"Oh." Gumi had never seen Miku like this before, on the verge of crying. She was more...forgiving, someone Gumi could relate with.
"Well, ask yourself this: do you feel the slightest bit attracted to him?"
"Ewww, no, he's too girly." Aaand the old Miku was back.
"Then just tell him there is no way that you could see yourself with him, but you'd still like to be friends. Can you handle just being friends?" Gumi responded, slightly chuckling to herself about the accidental joke she made.
"Yeah, I guess...okay, I'll talk to him then. Thanks for all this, you know...whatever it was you just did."
"Don't mention it. Seriously, don't tell anyone we had this conversation, even those idiots watching us," she replied pointing at Miku's friends, who immediately backed off a little from the window.
Miku just nodded, got up, walked straight past Gumi, and exited the booth to her awaiting posse.
Gumi walked out after her, and stood alone as she watched the group head to another part of the building. Sighing, she started to walk off in the other direction, when she caught Miku taking a back-glance at her.
They locked eyes for a second, and for the first in her life, Gumi saw Miku give a genuine smile. Just a small one, but it made her feel confident enough to smile shyly back.
And then they were gone. Miku smile grew for a fraction of a second before turning her head back to her friends.
Gumi stood there, staring at nothing, before finally walking away.
Fits of laughter could be faintly heard from the adjacent booth for the next five minutes, as the older girls had drilled a hole through the wall.
(Yukari POV)
Another trait of Christmas was all the cheesy Christmas songs that got released. Especially the jazzy ones, Yukari bet she could retire on one year's worth of sales form a Christmas jazz album.
You see, not only was Yuzuki Yukari (or, Yuyu, as her friends called her) a complete emo-inspired diva, she was a self-proclaimed, sales analyst and jazz singer. By day, she was unsocial, shy, and blunt, but at night she became free of any social restrictions in her life. She felt truly ALIVE, no matter how creeped out people got when she told them with emphasis on the 'alive' part. Some housemates suspected she was part dead, or part vampire.
Rion was certain she was part rabbit, part idiot. But then again, Yukari didn't respect Rion's opinion, and she could speak, she was the one who thought dressing as some weird futuristic moe-princess was normal. No wonder she wasn't as popular as Yukari.
As she finished recording her debut jazz hit-single, she decided a little nap upside down would benefit her, you know, to get the blood flowing to her head.
Like I said, TOTALLY NOT a vampire.
(Prima POV)
As everyone arrived home, they gathered around the lounge room to hear about the drama-of-the-day. Prima was absolutely desperate for some action, besides, she wasn't known as an opera singer just for her songs. She had a passion for TV soaps, all the sudsy goodness that it gave her, the feeling that their lives will always end up so much worse than hers. Especially the ones that die.
Miku walked into the middle of the circle, with Piko already inside, waiting for her.
"Piko, I-" she paused as she looked back to Gumi. Prima could FEEL the tension created just by that one look. The uncertainty in Miku's eyes being counteracted by Gumi's trust filled ones staring straight back at her.
Miku turned back to Piko and restarted her previous sentence. "Piko…I-I'm sorry, but I don't feel the same way you do."
'WHAT!' was the only thing replaying inside Prima's head. This was supposed to be a happy ending, just look at the inconsolable sadness on Piko's face after she said that! Fan-girl sirens going off in her brain were screaming at her to intervene, but unlike other fan-girls, Prima was much more mature, and waited to see how this latest revelation played out.
"I-I h-hope we can still g-get to know each other more, a-and hopefully become f-friends," was all Miku could say before running off to her room and locking the door. Everyone moved their gaze back to Piko, to see how he'd react.
He sat there for a minute, and even made some people bored enough to leave, but eventually sighed, stood up off the couch and walked quietly and calmly up to Miku's room, in a very girl-like manner, Prima noted.
'Ah well, some things can't always change ,' she thought as she and the remaining audience resumed their daily business.
(Piko POV)
"Miku! Please open up, it's me, Piko!"
A shuffle of footsteps could be heard, followed by the snap of a lock, and then more shuffling, presumably back to the bed from whence she came.
Piko silently slipped through doorway, and sat down next to the teal mass off hair and tears.
"I'm so sorry, I thought what Gumi told me to do would make it all better but know I feel even more horrible!"
"I forgive you."
"And now I absolutely regret it, I can never make it up to you, please don't be offended!"
"I'm not, I forgive you"
"You see I thought it would be a horrible plan at first and I was right, see! I'll never get over this now cause-waitaminutewhatchusay?"
"I said, I forgive you and I respect your opinion, I think it would be fine if we became friends."
"Wha-but I-and she-it worked? Gumi actually helped me for once?" the look on her face made Piko blush, it was pure innocence and confusion and was what Piko loved about her. But if she really didn't feel that way about him, he could respect that.
"Oh Piko thank you so much! I won't let you down, I'll be a good friend, honest!" she exclaimed and pulled him into the tightest death-hug he'd ever gotten. Her hair smelled of her latest fragrance, 'Yellow by Hatsune Miku', and made Piko feel all bubbly inside. She finally let go and ran off to supposedly tell everyone that it was all okay; maybe she'd even publicly thank Gumi, though he highly doubted that.
(Mew POV)
It had been about a year since Mew had first made her rather grand entry into the house, and the year had gone pretty quickly for her. Yes, she'd had a hoot with the modest amount of recording she got, and the photo-sessions always made her feel special. Leaving her cat behind had always been hard for her, but she'd gotten through it.
Now, as the second, and last Christmas feast came, she finally felt warmth coming from some of the other house-mates, as she'd pretty much been ignored by most for the whole year. She didn't mind, she usually did her own thing anyway.
December had gone rather boringly, apart from the confession near the start of the holiday month. The morning was chaos; every person under 18 (and Kaito) instantly turned five again and almost wrecked the Christmas tree.
But now came the feast, and Mew had been let in the kitchen to work with the other adults, a time that she had cherished gossiping with the women, slightly flirting with Tonio, much to Prima's disapproval, and feeling included for once.
When the time came to sit down, she didn't sit off near the end, she sat right in the middle, next to all the more popular singers. She hadn't laughed or eaten like that in ages, and happiness filled her senses, the lights shone on the room more intensely, making it seem warmer. Mew wasn't the only one seeing this, all of the others that usually stayed quiet during dinner began to loosen up and talk more openly. Yuki and Ryuuto sat at the big table that night, and mostly contributed to the laughter that could be heard from the other end of the street.
And her present. It was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen, it must have cost at least $100, these people should not spend so much on her, she could get such things herself. But still, it made her feel welcome and acknowledged. She didn't care if it was fake friendship or just a little late, it made up for the half-decent year she'd had.
Mew had never been so proud to be part of the group all year than on that night.
Didn't I warn you about the sap?! Anyway, like I said, just one more New Year/Break Up chapter to go, and I can focaus on finishing other stories.
Please stay tuned for the last chapter, and don't forget to review this one!
Prince Ed
