A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the update coming so late. *laughs nervously* I was actually away at a camp for a while, and this chapter was intended to be published before I left, but I didn't feel like it was complete and so I kept it until now. Additionally, school is starting up once again for me. Another reminder that I do not plan to stop writing, but publications may be slow. Once again, thanks so much for the incredible reviews. I actually laughed at some, and they just make my day so much better.

I don't own Vocaloid.

Morning came and went, bringing with it a shell-shocked but hopeful Miku and multiple complaints from Luka. The latter had never been a morning person, while the former was surprised and relieved by her friend's ability to be empathetic. Unfortunately, although she was grateful for Luka's empathy, the words of her father still cut deep. On the more positive side of things, Miku was able to remind Luka that within the following month, both of them would be able to sleep in. Until then, however, it was time to continue preparation for midterms. Miku had been wise enough to begin studying intensively far prior to her father's visit, meaning that although she was shaken, it wouldn't affect her grades as much as it could have. Luka, being a hard worker who relied on a schedule, had of course also started studying much in advance. Eventually, both women wound up lying on the floor, notes spread out every which way despite Luka's constant absentminded adjustment. The exciting experience of trying to obtain books from the library had proved stressful and aggressive, leaving them with less resources than Miku would've liked.

Eventually, the teal-haired woman felt her shoulder being nudged by the eraser of a pencil, and looked up to see Luka motion towards the alarm clock on their bedside table. It was about fifteen minutes after the shops would open, which meant that many of the breakfast places were probably already flooded with students. Scooping up her papers while trying to keep them organized, Miku put them into her satchel and waited for Luka to file hers away before they hastily got dressed and went in search of breakfast. As was suspected, all of the diners nearest to the school were packed with students. Remembering the small café that they used to frequent, Luka led them there, surprised to come across Kaito sitting by a set of windows. Miku waved to him and started to approach, but he softly stated that he wasn't looking for company and returned to his drawing. Understanding that many artists wanted time alone with their work, Miku nodded and bid him farewell, going to sit at her usual spot with Luka after getting breakfast. It was then and there that it happened again. Sitting by a large window, Miku became acutely aware of the way that the light hit the other woman's face, making the upper edges of her irises become a much lighter shade of blue than was normal. She watched her thoughtful expression as she focused on the world outside the window, recognizing a familiar sensation as she suddenly remembered the need to breathe. Forcing her gaze elsewhere, she stared down at her work, smiling slightly as she remembered Lily's scolding for the billionth time in the past semester. She furrowed her brow, shaking her head slightly to keep herself from getting distracted by persistent mental images of the other woman's face, making it difficult to concentrate on her work. Eventually, Luka shifted, and the sound of her movement was enough to snap Miku out of her constantly looping thoughts so that she could focus again.

She got through a lot of her work before sitting up and shutting her computer, scribbling down a few things in pencil and sitting back to enjoy her now lukewarm espresso. After a moment Luka asked her if they could compare answers. Studying went like that, with Miku making more headway than should have been possible for someone so distracted, until they decided to head to the park and take a break.


Every single day of the weeks leading up to the midterms was spent in a similar way. Luka and Miku would study intensively during the morning, then go to classes if there were any, before meeting back up and venturing to the park to continue studying and concluding the evening with yet more studying. There was very little time to relax, but somehow, Miku reflected annoyedly, her mind still made plenty of time to consider her pink-haired roommate as opposed to the subjects that she was trying to study. Every night Luka made certain to get them both to sleep so that they could operate properly the next day. Lily, on the other hand, was quite clearly not getting enough sleep. Although the woman seemed laid back, she was still a hard worker when it came to academics, and as the date of the midterms approached she had quite clearly transitioned from sleep energy to that which seven cups of triple espresso might provide. Luka pitied whichever poor soul had to share a room with her at that point.

The week of the midterms finally arrived, bringing with it jittery students and a wave of terror that almost certainly washed over the entire student body before everybody accepted the inevitable. During that time, it became almost pointless for Luka to try to get Miku to let herself sleep, because the other woman's extreme fear of failure probably kept her up anyway. Entering the large auditorium where the first exam would be given, Luka gave Miku a few words of comfort before moving to her place. There were then hours of work devoted to various exams. Hours transitioned to one week, before the final exam, which Miku entered alone. She exhaled, feeling her exhaustion in every part of her body. Mentally, she recited everything that she could before taking a seat and grabbing a pencil. Throughout the exam, she forced herself to remain calm, not allowing herself to glance away from the exam.

Meanwhile, an exhausted Lily offered a half-hearted fist bump to everyone she saw before heading back to her room to fall asleep.

"Everyone's doing cool? Great, great..." she muttered, stumbling off. Gumi ran to her and tried to support the much taller woman. They made their way back to the dorm slowly, making scattered conversation. A familiar color caught Lily's eye, and she remembered something.

"HEY PINKY!" she shouted across the campus, noticing that Luka was sitting on a bench outside of her dorm. Luka looked up from a book that she was reading, instantly pinpointing the source of the noise. "'S GONNA TAKE THE GREEN ONE HERE AND GO FOR A TRIP, BUT WE NEED TWO MORE!" she yelled. Gumi shook her head and they went over to join Luka on her side of the street.

"The 'rents have a hyper-cool super-new resort that I'm just aching to try out, and we have a break before school starts again. If you and pigtails want to come, which you entirely do, I have space for two more. The fun-van leaves tomorrow." she said, leaning heavily on the other woman. "Did I mention I haven't slept in three weeks? Because I haven't slept in three weeks. After the sky became the grass I just decided to roll with it."

"Get some sleep, Lily." Luka responded to her second statement as opposed to her proposition, closing her book and using her hand to mark the page that she had been on. Lily nodded slowly and Gumi walked her off. Seeming to just remember the other half of the conversation, she paused. "You're coming to the resort with us!" she hollered over her shoulder, "I hear that the cabins do a phenomenal job of setting the mood!" Gumi glanced up at her questioningly, but shook her head and returned her eyes to the road ahead of them, assuming that she was too tired to voice whatever thought would have made her last statement make sense. Lily shouted a final 'tomorrow!' before Gumi managed to get her into the other female dormitory. Luka hurriedly returned her gaze to her book, feeling her face heat up considerably. After puzzling over a few sentences, she realized that she had lost the page in her hastiness. Searching very confusedly through her book for the proper page, she only noticed that Miku had sat down next to her when she heard an exaggerated sigh of tiredness that caused her to nearly jump out of her skin. Turning to regard the other woman, she gave up on finding her page and set the book aside, mentally cursing the setting sun for highlighting her delicate features in such a way. In her opinion, orange should never work well with teal, and yet she wasn't nearly able to pull her gaze from the gorgeous contours of the other woman's face. She furrowed her brows, feeling something deep in her chest that was familiar and yet so wildly different from whatever she had experienced during her childhood. The feeling had substance, as if it were somehow tangible while she couldn't hope to actually reach it with her hands. It was excitement that somehow managed to also feel slow and relaxing.

Luka shook herself out of her train of thought before she could get too lost, realizing Miku appeared to have dozed off, presenting her with an entirely new dilemma. The other woman was sleeping so peacefully, her tiny breaths and tranquil smile made a pretty great case against waking her up, and yet Luka knew that it would be the right thing to do. She wanted nothing more than to scoot to the other end of the bench and join her, but forced herself not to comply, instead leaning back and staring at the sky, which was still colored by the remnants of the setting sun. Just as she was about to accidentally follow in Miku's tired footsteps, Luka came to her senses with a start, hearing a low chuckle. She turned to regard a familiar purple-haired man with distaste in her glare, allowing herself to shift closer to her roommate and place her arm over the back of the bench where she was sleeping. Seeing her awake, the man just passed them, smirking and shaking his head.

It was then that Luka decided to wake Miku by delicately shaking her shoulder. Miku slowly sat up and opened her eyes sleepily, glancing around for a bit before she came to focus on Luka's face. Remembering where she was, she smiled embarrassedly.

"Sorry, I hadn't meant to fall asleep..." she muttered.

"It's perfectly alright," Luka hastily responded, "it was just getting late, so I thought we should get to our room." Miku agreed and stood up, pulling Luka to her feet as well and leading her inside. After clambering up the set of stairs and tossing on their sleep attire, both women fell hastily asleep.


"He wants to record it?" asked Miku. She was sitting behind Luka on the other woman's bed, reading an e-mail that she had wanted to show her. She felt Luka nod since she was looking over the taller woman's shoulder, and briefly considered hugging her from behind before she spoke again.

"Seeing as it was forwarded to us by our teacher, he's an actual producer too, and not just one of those shady web salesmen."

It was Miku's turn to nod. "So do you want to start recording?" she asked.

"I'm down for it if you are." Luka responded. "We've only got this one week to use the studio, so it's unlikely that we'll wind up with the finished product as he wants it, but I definitely want to give it a try. I suppose Lily's plan can wait until next week." Miku sat back and Luka turned to regard her, recognizing the other woman's questioning stare and remembering that she hadn't told her about Lily's offer.

"Right, I forgot to tell you. Lily wants to know if we'd go with her to a new resort that her family recently opened up." she said. Miku appeared to be considering it for a short period of time.

"That lacks much description, but as would be any of Lily's spontaneous offers..." she muttered. Luka was quite clearly already planning on going, and Miku had nothing better to do anyway. "Sure, why not?" she responded. Luka smiled slightly, relieved. She hadn't wanted to go to Lily's house without Miku, and she also didn't want to drive alone, perhaps in the dark for however many hours it would take to get there. Visions of dark haunted mansions and butcher shops filled Luka's head, causing her to shudder.

"What, it's not some abandoned murder shed... is it?" asked Miku, appearing to read her mind. Luka shook her head, resuming her composure.

"No, no. I just wasn't really told what the place would be like, and I honestly wouldn't expect any less from someone like Lily at this point..." she responded. Miku smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, it's not as if she would want to go there herself, so if anything, she'd just tell you to go without her. From what you said, it sounds as if she plans on going with us." she said, trying to lessen the other woman's worries. Luka nodded.

"So we can go to record right now?" asked Miku, trying to change the topic. Luka nodded.

"We can call him to tell him we're in on the deal, and then drive to the studio and record. He even has a team for us." she responded. Miku considered this and nodded.

"What about a manager?" she asked.

"He has people there who work for him. If we need a manager, he may assign us one." Luka responded. The call was made, and they planned to be at the studio in one hour. As Miku prepared to leave the building, she almost walked directly into Lily, who's face lit up.

"Miku! Just the person I wanted to see." she cheered, "Did Luka tell you about the trip you're going on?"

"Actually, Lily," Luka poked her head through the doorway, coming to stand just behind Miku, "Miku and I have some business to attend to before we leave. We were thinking of meeting you there in a week?" she finished off her statement as more of a question, implying that she wondered if it would still be okay to join them. Lily sulked and crossed her arms, just as Gumi entered the small courtyard outside of the dorms.

"You're going to leave me with Greeny?" asked the former in a broken voice.

"I told you they wouldn't be able to come on such short notice." Gumi came to stand next to Lily, hitting her gently on the back of the head as she approached. "We need to plan these things before we just run into them."

"Umm, actually Gumi," Lily spoke with such an incredible amount of sass that it was obviously a joke, "The pink one said that they had business to attend to, and that they'd be coming later." she stuck out her tongue and crossed her arms.

"Sorry I wasn't around to hear that, I was just taking care of basic hygiene." Gumi responded with an equal amount of sass.

"I brush my teeth!" Lily defended.

"Once every five years, maybe." Gumi retorted. Somehow, despite sounding like an argument, the interaction felt friendly.

"No! Do you wanna smell my breath as proof?" she asked, bending down and opening her mouth wide. Gumi stumbled backwards a few steps, backing away.

"Eew, gross, no! I know that you wake up, like, two hours before I do, even if you- stop moving! Lily!" Gumi kept moving backwards, and Lily kept moving forwards, before they both broke into a run as Lily chased her friend around the tiny courtyard. Miku stood in the doorway. Luka shifted behind her, and she was suddenly aware of their closer proximity, hurriedly moving to the side to let her friend actually exit the dorm. Gumi was shorter, but experience both in running and avoiding her present pursuer allowed her to dodge when necessary, making sharp turns. Lily was clearly just enjoying herself, running behind the smaller woman and occasionally sticking her tongue out when she caught someone's gaze.

"Should we just leave?" asked Luka. Miku was about to nod, before she remembered something.

"Do you know the location of... wherever it is that Lily wants us to go?" she asked.

"I can just text her for it. This might be a while." Luka decided, and Miku nodded, following her out and into a maze of sidewalks. Walking alongside her oldest friend, Miku could once again be plunged deep into thought. The first thing that she recognized was warmth, both in the air around them and within herself. While she usually preferred colder weather and rain, the day that they had just stepped into was beautiful in its warmth. It wasn't painfully hot, and the wind was a simple breeze so that it didn't disturb conversation. She could enjoy the sun for once as it highlighted everything, including the woman beside her, with a cheery hue that she would normally have considered to be too bright. Still, everything seemed muted, even if it wasn't in pastel colors. She noticed Luka furrow her brow in thought, wondering briefly how a such simple expression could make her want to pull the woman into a hug, or write a song about her. Miku even considered taking a picture, before she realized that such actions would seem extremely unusual. Luka smiled.

"What do you think will happen if we actually succeed?" she asked, moving her gaze to meet that of her friend. Miku paused for a moment. The idea of success in the music world hadn't occurred to her. Everything had started quickly that morning, and she hadn't had time to actually think about what she was doing. The idea of working was what she understood, but the possibility of success was unreal to her.

"I don't know," Miku responded honestly, "I haven't thought about it before."

"I want to live in a mansion built into the ocean." Luka stated. "With many submarine ports to dock random travelers, but the fee will consist of fresh tuna."

"Caught in a humane way?" asked Miku. Luka nodded.

"Of course." she responded. "And you can come over, and we can have coffee on the roof. In fact, we can buy the small café that we met up in, and put it on my roof, which will be just above the seaside."

"Won't it smell like fish?" asked Miku. Luka shrugged her shoulders.

"One of the friendly travelers will be an inventor, and they'll make me a special machine that keeps the entire mansion smelling of roses, or something like that." she decided with another nod.

"People will call you the crazy fish lady." Miku stated.

"You'll still visit me, right?" asked Luka.

"Of course, because I'd be the world renowned crazy cat lady. I plan on adopting every cat in the world and putting them into a humungous shelter, and whenever anyone's feeling sad, we let them into the shelter and they can lie on the ground, and cats will come and sit on them." Miku decided.

"What if they're allergic to cats? Or they don't like them?" asked Luka. Miku paused.

"I'll find another method." she decided. "This will, of course, all be happening in-between various recording sessions."

"So you'll visit me at Tuna Estate, and we can have butlers bring around trays of leeks." Luka continued. They arrived at the parking garage, and got into Luka's car, because they wanted to carpool and she insisted on driving. The ride was a little longer than forty-five minutes, and conversation ended pretty quickly.

"So I'll dismount my pet tuna and bid goodbye to the cyber-merpeople." Luka concluded.

"Maybe we should listen to music for a while." Miku suggested. "Not that I don't enjoy this conversation, because I really, really do!" she responded hurriedly to Luka's slightly concerned expression, "I missed it a lot. But we're going to be recording for a while, and our voices will grow hoarse. We'd better save them." Luka realized that she was right, hiding her mild disappointment as she turned a radio on. Neither of them said it, but the thought that they might actually hear their voices on a radio was terrifying and exciting. Miku didn't expect to succeed, and Luka knew that the odds were small, but even so, they found themselves in an extremely unique situation. After a while of driving in a comfortable, music-filled silence, they finally arrived, and mentally shook the tiredness out of themselves, trying to be alert. Someone was there to meet them as they got out. He spoke to them, and Luka recognized the voice from the phone. Hands were shaken, and both women were led through a series of halls before coming to a surprisingly large studio. A team of people sat outside of the recording booth, managing the various pieces of equipment. Luka made a mental note to thank them later, because their song would be difficult to submit professionally if they didn't have a team. They were given a brief explanation from the man, and entered the recording booth to see a pair of microphones that they both recognized to be fairly upscale. Miku noted also that the microphones weren't identical, and remembered her instruction to approach the one nearest the entrance.

Luka came to stand across from her, and they smiled at one another briefly before telling the rest of the team that they were ready to record. Beginning, Miku was surprised. There was a certain power to the situation that she was in, exciting her. She could easily feel the places where she didn't properly hit a note, or where she didn't harmonize properly with her friend, and made mental notes to get them the next time around. Once they stopped singing, Luka asked her if she wanted to record again, and they agreed without hearing the product of their recording, informing the team.

When Luka began again, she was attentive to every part of how Miku sang, as well as her own voice. She recognized familiar rises and falls in the other woman's voice, and entered the song almost precisely when it would have been perfect, enjoying a small victory, yet slightly annoyed that she couldn't hit it right. She stared into Miku's eyes, remembering that for the moment, they were in a fierce rivalry. Every word that she sang came out with vigor, and she smiled inwardly, noting that she liked the way that it felt. At the end of the recording session, they exited the studio and went to listen to the recording. What they heard actually made Luka utter a verbal apology. She had gotten overly into character, to say the least, and it showed in the way that her voice was too uneven, as if speaking. Miku, on the other hand, noted that she too sounded extremely unprofessional, voice wavering unnecessarily at points. She heard a thump, and was confused for a moment before she realized that it was when Luka must have stomped her foot on the ground. She remembered something about some people being very physical when they were recording, which caused problems, and worked it into her mind that she should try to stay as still as possible.

They reentered the recording booth, blushing slightly in embarrassment. Luka realized that the natural sound of the song carried the majority of the urgency so that she didn't need to express it as vocally as she had been. Miku tried not to waver, going for a familiar feeling in the back of her mouth when she hit the high notes. She told the recording team that she was ready once again, and this time, didn't launch into the song despite the fact that it was action. She took a silent breath and began with slight urgency, not necessarily needing to emphasize how she was feeling nearly as much as she had been. As she sang the words, she made certain that her voice did not waver nor break, keeping it smooth before Luka joined in. Luka watched herself, but entered the song exactly when she wanted to, meeting Miku's eyes again as she challenged her in the song. They rose through the first chorus together, slowly building off of the tension created by the beginning in order to sound properly urgent. As opposed to getting overly emotional, Luka focused on allowing her voice to rise and fall, complimenting the music instead. When they finished, both women exited to listen to what they had done. Luka thought that she hadn't been nearly as horrible as before, but there were still many things that she could do to make herself better, still embarrassed at how her voice came out in comparison to Miku's. Miku frowned. Her voice was a lot clearer, it broke in less spots and it didn't waver as much, but she had been focusing too much on making it smooth, to the point where she didn't hit every note that she wanted to. They reentered the studio, discussing the song with one another before beginning again.


Both women gave the song their best, not ceasing to work until Luka realized that they needed to eat. Of course, Miku was going to ignore her hunger and continue working, and honestly, if Luka had been recording alone, she would have done the same. However, since she was looking out for a friend, Luka managed to briefly pry Miku away from her work. The shorter woman had insisted on staying in the studio and working on a part of the song that she just couldn't hit right while Luka went to lunch. While Luka would just have brought food back for her friend, it wasn't allowed in the studio, and eventually she managed to get Miku to come with her by grabbing her hand and leaning back with all of her weight. Miku sat and allowed her arm to be tugged for a while, before Luka reminded her that she was hungry, and that you can't work as well when you're hungry, and eventually dragged her out. They both ate as quickly as possible and returned before the recording team had actually finished its lunch break, giving them time to practice a little before getting back to work.

When they started working again, they simply didn't stop. They sang until the studio closed, but they did take breaks for water, and were careful not to damage their voices. Miku opted to drive home. She made up the excuse that it was because Luka had driven her, but in actuality, the taller woman looked like she was about to faint where she stood. Miku doubted that she looked any better, but she absolutely refused to allow her tired friend to drive, eventually getting her to begrudgingly give her her keys. It was worth it, because Luka fell asleep in the passenger seat despite the fact that it was early for her. When they pulled into the parking pavilion, Miku was reluctant to wake her up. She almost fell asleep next to her, but realized that they'd both feel better if they slept in actual beds, and forced herself awake, waking Luka and taking the short walk before they collapsed in their dorm room.


The first day's struggles were only the beginning, as both women soon discovered. Working themselves so hard the previous day left them exhausted, and by the third day of recording, Miku realized that they would need to establish an actual schedule in order to get any good work done. She gave them more time to sleep in, since going to sleep earlier would be difficult as they had grown used to coming home at a set time. Then, she found a logical amount of time to work, while putting a small break in the middle so that they could eat and discuss what they wanted to do with their voices, and what they thought that perhaps the other could do as well. While such activity could have been offensive, either woman learned from what the other had to say, also learning from how they corrected themselves. By the end of the week, neither woman felt that the song was complete. They both simply had so much that they could do to make it better that they didn't even want to show it to the man, but it had been a part of the agreement.

He nodded, and asked to look at their schedule and how they worked. Luka, who had made a physical copy, showed it to him and he looked at it for a moment. Both women realized that they probably seemed lazy, yet they needed to be careful about stressing out their voices.

"I heard that the first two days, you just came in here and recorded?" he stated, sounding like he was asking a question. They nodded. "I will admit, that's good progress considering the fact that you're new to this. I can't wait to listen to the recording. I usually do that alone, so you two can head home now. I'll contact you if anything comes up." They nodded.

"We were planning on going on a trip for the next week or so." Luka remembered. "Will that interfere with your plans?" The man thought for a minute, bringing his hand to his chin.

"No, I should only need to contact you by phone." he responded.

"Thank you." said Luka. She and Miku left the small office, but Luka wanted to stop by the recording studio first. They saw their team packing up what little they had brought to the studio, and both women thanked them excessively for helping out before they left the building. The drive home was a quiet one. Luka and Miku had taken turns being the driver, and although Luka was idle, she considered the experience. It wasn't the first time that she had felt the feeling, yet it never failed to surprise her. There was a certain vibe that one got after finishing an engrossing activity, such as rehearsing for a play or movie. It felt sad to know that the experience was over, and yet there was also a relief because she knew that she couldn't screw up. She almost drifted off, but heard Miku begin to hum their song. Although she had almost grown tired of singing it, Luka joined in for fun when it was her cue, surprising Miku. The humming intensified before the taller woman began to mumble a few words, and by the end of the song, they were both singing tiredly. No longer needing to save their voices, they began to sing various other songs that they liked before Miku remembered something.

"Should you text Lily to tell her that we're going tomorrow?" she asked. Luka thought for a moment.

"She's been blowing up my phone for the past week wondering, so she's pretty well informed." she replied. "I got the address and found directions online."

"When did you do that?" asked Miku. Neither woman had had much freetime whatsoever.

"Before going to sleep a few days ago." Luka responded. They arrived at the parking pavilion, hastily exiting the car and heading for their dorm. Sleep came quickly, and they woke up extra late the following day, eating a relaxed breakfast before packing what they needed and getting into Luka's car, which was larger and better-suited for carrying luggage. Just as they were getting into the car, Miku's phone rang. She looked at the caller ID before showing it to Luka and taking the call. A few nods and noises of agreement told Luka that Miku was listening intently.

"She's right here with me." said Miku, "Yes, I'll ask." she took the phone from her ear and covered it with her hand, looking up at Luka.

"He wants to sell it."

A/N: I don't know what I'm going to do with Lily and Gumi yet. I also already have the next chapter or two mapped out, so there will be no advances made between Lily and Gumi during that time. I have finally settled on a (hopefully) permanent pen-name, 'pepperbreakfast.' Additionally, feel free to leave a comment because I love to hear and learn from what you have to say.