BA-BOOOOOM!

Miu and Kirumi were both thrown backward by the sheer intensity of the explosion as Miu's latest invention went down in flames.

"Well. Talk about finishing with a bang," Miu said in a subdued voice, face completely black with soot. Kirumi, meanwhile, said nothing, choosing instead to look for something to clean her face with. There was a washcloth at the far end of the worktable.

"I do hope this cloth is uncontaminated?" she asked as she picked it up.

"What? Duh!" Miu snorted. "That's not my cum-rag, if that's what you're asking… Perv."

Kirumi narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. Instead, she got to work cleaning her face while Miu turned to pout at the soot-stained table.

"Fucking hell, I stayed up all goddamn night working on that thing!" she sighed, sounding sad and embarrassed and furious all at once.

"Perhaps we can rebuild it," Kirumi replied calmly, offering the washcloth to Miu, who snatched it from her and gave her face a short, rough scrub before she tossed the now-filthy thing back to Kirumi.

"No fuckin point," Miu growled, kicking some of the soot on the floor with her boot for emphasis. "Life decided to fuck me in the ass, no lube. Now I just gotta deal with the shitty "morning after" effects."

Once again, Kirumi refrained from speaking. Holding her tongue, she made her way to the corner of the lab towards the door labeled "Cleaning Supplies". Kirumi was quickly able to tell that Miu hadn't even touched this area, because every cleaning bottle still had its seal on, and everything in the closet was actually neat and tidy. The same could not be said for the rest of Miu's lab. So the maid gathered all the supplies she needed before making her way back over to the worktable.

Miu was still griping about the invention, swearing like a sailor. Kirumi made no effort to chide her. It never worked anyway. Lecturing Miu always ended in one of three ways: she either got angry and argued back, or she got scared and would cower and plead until Kirumi felt guilty, or she would promise to do better… only to forget about it five seconds later.

But once the table had been cleaned spotless, Kirumi finally spoke again.

"Are you sure you do not wish to try again?" she asked Miu. "I made a promise to serve you today and I intend to fulfill that promise."

"Serve me, eh?" Miu asked, focusing on the second half of Kirumi's statement rather than the first. "Now you're talking!" her face split into a wide grin. Even though she'd been serious when she'd asked Kirumi to be her lab partner earlier, she wasn't opposed to Kirumi being another type of partner either… But Kirumi was hardly amused.

"If you are thinking vulgar thoughts, then I advise you to be more aware of the situation," the maid warned.

"Whaaaaa?" Miu sounded genuinely surprised by Kirumi's harsh tone. "But aren't you a maid?"

"Yes. But what you were proposing has nothing to do with my profession."

"Oh come on! But you're a maid," Miu repeated. "A sexy maid, right? You had to know what you were doing when you took this job!"

"I did. And it had nothing to do with that," Kirumi answered coldly.

"Well, why the hell would you be a maid if you weren't going to be a sexy maid?!" Miu was baffled. "I mean, I wouldn't want to spend all day cleaning unless I knew I could get down and dirty each night. Isn't that the point!? Unless… Wait a minute!" Miu's eyes went wide and Kirumi sighed quietly. She knew whatever Miu was about to say was not going to be pleasant… "Don't tell me, you get off on watching your clients! You fucking perv! A Peeping Mom, amirite, Kiru-mommy?!" her laughter roared throughout her lab. Finally, though, Kirumi had had enough.

"Please do not compare me to a mother, I am the same age as you! And please do not accuse me of being indecent!" she snapped.

"Oh, dommy mommy mode!" Miu whimpered, cowed by Kirumi's sharp tone. Her legs and voice were both shaking, but it wasn't just from fear. Although Miu was still definitely intimidated by Kirumi. Kirumi, meanwhile, continued to glare at Miu in silence.

"S-so, you d-done bein' mad at me?" Miu finally asked, timid, looking away and twirling a lock of her hair around her finger.

"I am not mad," Kirumi replied, exhaling slowly. "I apologize if I frightened you, I just wish to be treated with more respect."

"I-I was just jokin'," Miu mumbled, still blushing and sweating and looking away.

"It ceases to be a joke once the party it is targeted at becomes offended. Comedy is subjective, after all," Kirumi replied wisely. But because she did not wish to unnerve Miu any further, she changed the topic back to Miu's invention. "What were you attempting to build?"

Kirumi's trick worked like a charm and Miu cheered up instantly.

"Oh yeah! I never got to finish telling ya!" she cried. "Well, you see, I've come to notice that sometimes, when you're in the middle of masturbating, you could be having a grand old time, but sometimes, you just… can't… quite… get over that last little hump to finish yourself off. And lemme tell ya, that shit SUCKS! All buildup and no payoff? No fucking thanks! I know some people like orgasm denial, but never getting to climax? Even after hours of going at it?! It's like no matter how hard or fast you rub, you don't get anywhere! But that's what my invention was gonna fix!"

"So your invention was meant to temporarily increase its users' libido?" Kirumi asked, trying to indulge Miu in the conversation.

"Holy fuck, Merriam-Webster, do you have to talk like you fucked a history teacher all the time?" Miu snickered. "Just say it makes people horny! I know I said I like a mouthful, but not if it's just words!"

"But what you have said still does not explain how or why the device exploded," Kirumi ignored Miu.

"Oh that's easy," Miu laughed dismissively. "It just overheated! I didn't have a good enough cooling system in it so the "bitch in heat" got too hot to handle and blew her load too soon! … All those pistons… pumping in and out… so hard and so fast… The friction was just… too much!" Miu moaned. But Kirumi ignored her again to mull over what she now knew about Miu's invention.

"So… you have created an automated syringe?" she asked. There was a note of suspicion in her voice. Although her desire to assist Miu had been sincere, there was a pragmatic motive in it too. The maid wanted to ensure that Miu wasn't trying to build a weapon. But listening to Miu now, that sounded exactly like what she was doing. Even if the intention of the device was just to temporarily increase libido, it wouldn't take too much tampering to turn it into something much worse.

"Oh, calm your tits!" Miu pretended to yawn. "It only works on my aphrodisiac mix, not just any ole stupid drug! You didn't seriously think I was enough of a dumbass to just leave my invention out for any old pleb to wander in and fuck with, right?" she scoffed. And despite herself, Kirumi was impressed. Even though Miu was still very vulgar and rude, she'd just proven that she had fairly decent foresight and knew how to make very clever fail-safes to ensure that what was hers stayed hers. Granted, that didn't totally alleviate the concern that the device could be used as a weapon, but at least now Kirumi could rest assured knowing that only Miu could use it.

"Ha, ha, HA! I bet you're totally jealous right now!" Miu bragged, misinterpreting Kirumi's silence. "While all you got is an ugly, old, skanky-ass maid outfit, I am just full of and oozing genius! Raw brain-power, baby! HOO YEAH!" the inventor congratulated herself proudly.

"Well, Miu, I am glad you put so much thought into your creation," Kirumi replied. Even though Miu had just insulted her, Kirumi's maid instincts were kicking in and she could sense that, despite her earlier notions, Miu actually had a fair bit of potential. "And I wish to support it in full!" the maid declared. It was enough to genuinely catch Miu off guard.

"Well, gee, if you wanted to make me that wet, you could've just poured a mop bucket on me," she said, but she sounded more nervous than seductive. She looked away and fiddled with a lock of her hair again, sweating and biting her lip. "You sure as good at sucking up and kissing my ass. You sure you're not trying to be a sexy maid? You probably could be, if you got a better wardrobe…"

"Ours would be a professional relationship, nothing more," Kirumi replied, growing stern once again. But for once, Miu did not cower.

"Well fuck that then!" she instead growled. "If you wanna fuck with me, you gotta stop being so damn uptight and formal all the time! It's like you got a perpetual stick up your ass!" she cried, but after a moment, something occurred to her. "Y'know? That does sound kinda hot…"

"Miu, my pride as a maid, and the Ultimate Maid no less, demands that I carry myself respectfully and properly at all times."

"Ugh, then working with you is gonna suck ass! And not in the good way. I can't even understand you half the time, all the fancy shit you spew!"

"Then I will try to adjust my vocabulary accordingly. I can be accommodating."

"… Wait… Are you saying I'm fucked in the head?!" Miu demanded, pointing to her head with wild, crazy eyes. Kirumi had to fight not to say yes.

But a few minutes later, some of Miu's insecurities began to bubble to the surface.

"Why are you so hellbent on "serving" me anyway?" she finally demanded. "What's the point if you're not gonna fuck me at least once?"

Normally, Kirumi would've been irritated by such a statement, but she was able to sense that Miu felt more sad than angry. And the maid was finally starting to understand why. Miu's identity was so intertwined with sexuality that she truly believed that if people weren't looking at her sexually, then they clearly despised her. That still didn't make her incessant advances ok, but it explained why they happened so often.

"It is because you have great potential as a thinker, designer and builder," the maid said softly. "You are the Ultimate Inventor, after all."

"You don't even like my inventions!" Miu scoffed.

"That is not the point," Kirumi replied.

"Well, I ain't stopping doing what I love, which is literally making love, just because you are too blind and stupid to realize my true talent and genius! Got it?" she pointed a finger at Kirumi. "I'm just tryna make people feel good. Why is that so bad?"

"It is not bad, and I am not asking you to stop anything," Kirumi continued, calm as ever. "I fully intend to support you just the way you are."

"Wait. What?" Miu blinked in surprise, so caught off guard by this remark that she hardly knew how to respond. "You don't like lewd shit though."

"Ah, but I do not mind working with these sorts of things," the maid corrected. "My only stipulation is that no sexual act is ever done to me, because that is not how a maid should compose herself. But to merely work with the objects is permissible."

Miu paused for a moment, pondering Kirumi's words. It was an interesting take… But there was something much more pressing that Miu wanted to focus on. Kirumi had said she had been willing to support Miu just the way she was. She did not want Miu to change herself or sacrifice any of her passions, no matter how "weird" they were. Miu had never been told that before…

Miu might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but even she could sense that most of her peers didn't like her. Even if she couldn't understand why, she still knew they didn't like her. And it stung. Badly. It felt like no matter what she said or did, it was always wrong, and just gave everyone else yet another reason to despise her. But it wasn't even just because of her loudmouthed, foulmouthed ways. She was also just very self-centered and seemed almost incapable of understanding things from other people's perspectives. It was really this trait that turned most people away from her. She was just so hard to get along with that building a connection felt almost impossible!

But either way, it meant Miu was left in the dust while everyone else seemed so much savvier and more close-knit. It felt like being trapped on the outside looking in, or being stuck inside a maze full of nothing but dead ends, constant rejections. Even when she tried to play by their rules, she still managed to always get it wrong. And it hurt to be rejected so often, especially when she wasn't even trying to be rude half the time.

So for Kirumi to explicitly confirm that she liked Miu just the way she was almost felt too good to be true.

"You really mean it?" she asked softly. "You don't want me to change myself?"

"Of course not," Kirumi promised. "Just be more respectful if someone says no."

"Hmm…" Miu sounded a bit reluctant, but if Kirumi was willing to stay by her side, maybe she could agree to that. She just didn't understand why someone would ever say no. Wasn't everyone her age a giant horn-dog?

But for once, rather than trying to argue this point, Miu managed to simply yield. At least until a few more moments went by and some of Miu's wonder turned back into bitterness. More insecurities were bubbling up.

"This is all very easy for youto say," she grumbled. "Everyone loves you. And I don't even know why, anyway… Sure, you're nice and all, but what kind of lame-ass, weird-ass "talent" is being a maid?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm, envy and hurt. "And what about me?!"

"Miu-" Kirumi began, almost unable to conceal her surprise and concern that Miu, of all people, would ever sound so vulnerable and hurt.

"Oh save it!" Miu interrupted. "We both know it's true! Even though I am a freaking inventor, it's you that everyone loves and admires! It's your talent that has everyone in awe! You just fit in so well here and I… don't. For some fucking reason. Pfft!" Miu rolled her eyes angrily.

"But you are special in your own way," the maid finally said.

"Oh please, spare me that fake-ass fucking comfort bullshit!" Miu interrupted.

"I am being serious," Kirumi countered, a steely edge returning to her voice. It did the trick and Miu got intimidated enough to shut up. "You seem to think your talent is inferior to mine, but that is not true at all. Every talent is equally good and worthy and useful. None of them were meant to be compared to one another. The only thing a talent is meant to be measured against is itself."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't compare apples to oranges," Miu grumbled.

"There is a great truth within that maxim," Kirumi said seriously. "You are more than worthy and good enough just by being yourself because that is all you are ever supposed to be. You are valuable in your own unique way, and that is exactly how it should be. Your intentions are good, and that is worthy of praise, you just need to be more aware when people tell you to stop doing something."

"Hmmm," Miu grunted again. "I guess I can try…"

"Besides, trust me, I can sense that the other students do not completely adore me either," the maid continued, still trying to reassure Miu. At first, Miu gave her a scandalized and disbelieving look, but after Kirumi explained, it all fell into place. Even though Kirumi, in many ways, had excellent social skills and a very likable personality, many of the other students were just as put off by her constant "maid mode" as they were with all of Miu's antics. Sure, Kirumi's were much preferable, and she was infinitely more polite, but in some ways, the maid was just as lost and lonely and outcast as the inventor. She could also sense that there was a disconnect between herself and the others, but like Miu, she was equally powerless to make it better. All she could do was remain painfully aware that as much as she was liked, she was still a black sheep compared to the others.

"After all, I know you are not particularly thrilled with the way I speak," Kirumi gave Miu a dry smile.

"Awww, shit, you're right!" Miu slapped her forehead, a new understanding washing over her.

"I think I am beginning to understand you, Miu," Kirumi said softly. "There are still many mysteries, but I think we are more alike than it seems. I would even be willing to wager that you also struggle with showing intimacy and affection?"

"Woah, woah, woah! Slow down there, crazy bitch!" Miu sounded amused and uncomfortable. "No need to get so personal all of a sudden. Least you could do is take me home first! Like damn, call-out post much?"

"I am sorry," Kirumi dipped her head. "You are right, I should not have asked such an invasive question."

"Awww, shit, no, see? You can't do that!" Miu pouted, but it was clear she wasn't that upset. "I told you I didn't like all that maid shit."

"Well, I take just as much pride in being a maid as you do in being an inventor," Kirumi replied. "This means a lot to me."

"Hmph, fair enough," Miu nodded. "But I suppose you do have a point. About all the other stuff, I mean. I just don't like that pansy-ass, sappy-ass shit. If you like someone, congratulate em and yell really loudly. Everyone loves a screamer! Gotta make sure the world knows, ya know?"

Kirumi did not reply, but she still agreed with everything Miu had said. It was exactly what she'd been hinting at. Like Miu, she also struggled to show affection. Her way was to remain distant and proud, so she could show the proper respect for whatever it was that she admired. But most people misunderstood this as coldness and disinterest. It hurt her, sometimes, to be misread as heartless when it was just a different way of showing affection. So she felt some level of comfort knowing that Miu suffered the same issue, even if her "love language" was the total opposite.

"But, according to you, I give too many fucks while you give none at all!" Miu snickered to fill the silence. Kirumi winced slightly, Miu's words hitting a little too close to home, but she did have a point. Both in terms of emotionality and sexuality. "Like, I'm a hypersexual pansexual and you… are… somewhere on the asexual spectrum, I'd guess?" Miu continued. "Definitely nothing alike."

"Correct," Kirumi affirmed. "But this means we both know what it feels like to be a sexual outsider, even if the ramifications are different."

"Well damn, I guess that's true too," Miu underwent yet another epiphany. "Holy shit Kirumi, I didn't know you were into psychology."

"Well, it's not that," Kirumi smiled politely. "I just have worked with enough people in my life to have a decently well-rounded knowledge base."

"But our talents are still very different," Miu said.

"Of course," Kirumi agreed. "Like I said before, that is entirely the point. We were not meant to be clones of each other. We were meant to be our own people, first and foremost. You are an inventor because the world needs inventors. I am a maid because the world needs maids. We each have a role to fill, a purpose in life. That is why we are who we are. Because the world needs us. And they need us just the way we are."

Some of what Kirumi said was an oversimplification, but it did a lot to soften Miu's prickly heart.

"God fucking damn it, you cunt," Miu whimpered through very ugly tears. "You better get on your fucking hands and knees and apologize for emotionally devastating me like this! Who knows how the world may suffer if I do?"

But for once, Miu's crass ways were exactly what the conversation needed. It managed to earn a small laugh from both women and almost served to prove Kirumi's point even more. The world needed Miu, and it needed her just as she was. That didn't mean there was no room for improvement, but she didn't have to feel jealous or inferior when she was just as worthy and useful as any other Ultimate, and all just by being herself.

"Hmmm, I guess we could make a pretty bomb-ass duo," Miu mused, and for the first time that day, she gave Kirumi a smile. A real smile. Big and warm and genuine. "So Kirumi, would you like to be my official lab partner from now on?"

"I would honored."

"Well good, and that's exactly how you should feel! You're pretty damn lucky, you know? I don't extend this offer to just anyone!"

"I appreciate that."

"Ha, now that's more like it!" Miu was clearly in Heaven, basking in Kirumi's praise, and for once, Kirumi was more than happy to let her.

But after several minutes, Miu turned back to her worktable with a new spark in her eyes.

"You ready, lab partner?" she grinned wickedly as she opened one of the drawers of the table, pulling out several very large, very sharp power tools.

"Lab safety first," Kirumi reminded Miu politely.

"Awww, you ruined it!" Miu grouched. "You were supposed to call me lab partner! Besides, fuck wearing protection. It feels better this way!" she continued with a slightly unhinged giggle. Kirumi only smiled serenely as she handed Miu a lab coat and pointed to her goggles.

"Oh alright, fine," Miu's pout deepened as she reluctantly suited up. "Ugh, you can't even see my gorgeous tits in this stupid coat!"

"Well, it keeps them safe," Kirumi replied with a shrug.

"Hey, just because you don't mind keeping your titties hidden under an apron all day long doesn't mean I want to!" Miu continued to complain. That was another thing she'd never get about Kirumi. Who on Earth would choose to dress down and not flaunt everything they had?

"Well, I am ready to begin with this experiment," Kirumi interrupted. "Are you, lab partner?"

"What the-?! Oh, you… Come on! That's so not fair!" Miu continued to cry, but when Kirumi only smiled pleasantly at her, Miu was forced to admit defeat yet again. "Alright. Fine. Lab partner…" But even though she'd spoken the word with venom, just getting the chance to finally call someone that made her smile, and she was unable to stop it. Lucky for her, seeing Miu smile made Kirumi smile as well, so at least Miu wasn't the only one who looked like a lovestruck dumbass.

"Alrighty, then, let's get this show on the road!" Miu finally declared as she and Kirumi both raised their power tools.

AN: I SO wish we could've seen Kirumi helping Miu with her invention!

Also, another similarity I forgot to mention: they're both very smart. Different types of intelligence, yes, but both very smart. Heck, they both came up with fairly convoluted murder plots, so they are far from stupid.

This was also slightly inspired by a post I saw comparing tea and coffee. It said:

Tea: Calming, many flavors, the answer to all problems.

Coffee: Anxiety Juice (TM), 3 heartbeats for the price of 1, more than 4 cups and you can talk to electricity!

(Sound familiar? LOL)