Chapter 36: Merry Merry Christmas
Hello again! Yes, I'm not dead! ^^; Anyways, here's a whole chapter devoted to Christmas! What exactly do the Vocaloids/UTAUloids in "Meltdown" do in Christmas? Read on to find out~
After months of waiting, weeks of sitting in desks, and marking off days in a calendar, December 25th arrives. Or as most of you may call it-Christmas Day. Christmas morning, to be exact.
Snow sleeps in abundant piles, only to be woken up by the kicks of small children. Laughter and sounds of yawns fill the city as a certain red-haired girl wakes up and takes in the scenery. A pale light peeks out through her curtains of her partly closed window. Shifting the pink covers aside, she turns and slides her hand under her pillow. Her hand blindly pats around, trying to feel for the device. Finally, she brings up her white cellphone and unlocks it, typing in her four digit password like any other day. A message pops up.
"'SoundlessVoice09' has sent you a message."
Read Now or Later?
It's no surprise that Miki clicks "Now". The screen changes to her messages where she can see his text message waiting for her. Opening it up, she can read:
"Rise up and get ready for a spectacular Christmas ^_^
I hope you have an amazing day, and don't forget to smile~"
Sure, they're just words, but the emotion behind them is enormous. Biting her pink lips shyly, Miki texts back a sweet message and tries to hold back the blush rising to her cheeks. This new feeling…she adores every second of it.
But, this is exactly the same feeling as she had with Piko when they were hanging out together…
Miki pushes aside the questioning. After all, it is Christmas. Just receiving such a thoughtful message is enough for her. She smiles back down at her phone and at the image of the petite girl reflected from the screen.
Today is definitely going to be an amazing day.
And with that, Miki jumps out of bed and throws open her door to the people waiting downstairs.
While some people rest in their houses, there's one girl who's dashing across the street with a small, carefully wrapped present in her hands. Crossing streets, pacing down sidewalks and turning each snowy corner, her heart beats twice as fast as the second before.
I can't believe I'm actually doing this...
When she finally reaches his doorstep, she stops and bends over, supporting herself by holding onto her slightly bent knees. Each pant is accompanied with a white wispy cloud. Once regaining her breath, her eyes look up to the doorknob. Each scenario plays out in her mind. Will she stutter? Look like a complete fool? Will he laugh? Will he accept? Who even says that he'll answer the door?
Or even worse...
What if she's inside?
But now is not the time for doubt. Now is the time for her to place her hand on the door and knock loudly. Each knock rings loudly in her ears, and the footsteps step over her heart. She can hear the door unlock and drops the present, clumsily turning around and running away from the door. She can't bear to face him if she is there.
Aito watches the girl run down the street and steps out, but his feet knock into a object. Bending down to pick it up, he wonders what it is. Upon further inspection, he finds a plastic bag with a clay rabbit inside. The white rabbit holds a soft plush carrot. The sewing is terrible with the string misshapen and problems in many areas, but he smiles at the gift.
Stepping back inside, Aito grabs his jacket and scarf, ready to head out to Luka's house.
"And so I just place the ice-cream in between the cookies and eat them?"
Kaito sets down his phone and smiles at the recipe. "Sounds easy enough~!"
A voice calls from the other room. "Kaito, what did I say about the kitchen?"
"But mom, I'm not going to blow it up like last time!"
When he receives no reply, he taps the dim screen again and looks at the measurements.
What kind of ice-cream do I want?
His hand reaches out to the fridge. Peeking into the frozen land, he counts ten different flavors of ice-cream. His finger traces over the strawberry carton but heads to the chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream. As he pulls out the half-full carton his phone rings in his pocket, playing "PonPonPon".
He ignores the noise and sets down the ingredients on the countertop.
"Okay, all I need to do is grab two cookies…"
Kaito drags out two chocolate chip cookies to the center.
"And then I carefully scoop out ice-cream and place it on one cookie. Okay."
He proceeds to follow the directions.
"And next I just place the other cookie on top and I'm done! Sounds easy enough!"
As he grabs the cookie, his eyes keep glancing to the open carton of ice-cream. It's just sitting there, waiting to be devoured, taunting him to just indulge in it. He looks back at the cookies. Does he really need to make chocolate chip cookie ice-cream sandwiches?
Kaito shakes his head. This always happens. It's time for a change! A new year is coming and he has to start cutting back on eating ice-cream alone!
His eyes slide over to the calendar on the wall. There are still a few days until a new year though…
Who cares if he slacks off a bit now?
And soon, Kaito's mouth is great friends with the delectable ice-cream again.
"I'll never deny you again, my love," he murmurs to the lifted spoon and takes in the cold.
Len spits out the snowball, running his mitten across his cold tongue. Rin tries to hold in her laughter as he groans and holds his now cold lips. Looks like this time he took a snowball to the face.
"Sorry Len, it was an accident!"
All of her strikes have been accidents, from the one in the back that made him fall to the one that left a bruise on his arm. He bends down and begins making a snowball.
"I'll show her how to throw a- oof!"
And Len falls down from the huge snowball that rolled his way. He lets his feet fall as he stares at the white sky, giving up. There is no way anyone can beat Rin in a snowball fight. A cute blonde comes into his view, a cheeky grin peeking from the holes in her hands.
"It was an accident," she says as she continues pressing her hands to her mouth to stop from laughing.
"Oh really?" Len asks and cocks an eyebrow. As she places her arm down, he reaches up and grabs her wrist, dragging her down with him. As she falls, Len turns his head and leans in, letting her get a taste of his cold lips. Rin feels a shiver run down, and not just because of the cold tongue that slips across her lips.
Her knees collapse as he pulls away and gives her a smirk.
"Sorry, that was an accident."
Rin's lips let out a growl as she slaps the top of his head. Len laughs and shields his head from the blow, hearing Rin mutter how much of an idiot. But he can see the small smile on her lips.
"You only get what you give, Rinny~"
"Shut up, idiot."
Rin looks down at her lap as he continues to laugh.
Why is my heart pounding so loudly?
Hesitantly, she looks up at Len.
"I love you."
Miku wakes up with a start. Drawing out her breath, she looks at the mirror to her left and slowly touches the short ends. Stray scissors sit nearby the mirror, widely spread open with small strings of teal hanging lightly. Twinkling Christmas lights hanging around the walls make the steel shine red, green, then blue in useless, repeated patterns. An small, pathetic tree in the corner. The house is quiet. Her world is black. The world outside is white.
"Merry Christmas," Miku says bitterly, throwing off the covers and welcoming the cold.
Shuffling on her slippers, she heads to the bedroom door. She doesn't care for the presents waiting downstairs. No material can replace the person that's not there. As they all traveled for business, the feelings left. Emotions dry up from distance.
But opening the door wide, she finds a sugar cookie with frosty icing laying on top of a pale plate. Just beside it sit a warm glass of hot cocoa with fluffy marshmallows drifting across. Miku bends down to read the small card in front of the plate.
Merry Christmas~
Only one person knows that Miku loves eating this on cold winter mornings. Sniffing with a small smile, she picks up the plate and hot cocoa and heads back to her room, closing the door tightly behind her.
"Thank you, Haku."
Luka quickly opens the door as soon as she hears someone knocking. Opening the door, she lets in a bundled up Aito and cold air.
"Come on in, Aito," she says, giving him a warm welcoming smile like always. Aito's eyes go around the room to the decorations and the white lonely Christmas tree in the corner. He spots Luka's mother crossing the kitchen and waves at her as she passes by.
"Oh hey, it's Aito."
Lulu looks up from her newly opened present, a pink laptop, and smiles at him. "What brings you here?"
"Just wanted to spend some time in Christmas with my bud," Aito says, exaggeratingly looping his arm over Luka's shoulder and bringing her into a tight hug. Luka laughs as he lets go and pinches his cheeks.
"Yep, we're as close as two friends can get!"
"Luka, you're hurting my cheeks-"
"Hey, this reminds me of the last Christmas you stayed here! Remember how we went to visit that nursing home and all the old ladies pinched your cheeks?" Luka says, laughing as Aito pats his cheeks.
Aito shudders at the memory. "I can still feel their nails digging into my cheeks…"
"Aito does have fat cheeks. I can see why they'd do that." Lulu laughs as he pouts and feels his cheeks.
"I actually have high cheekbones, thank you very much!"
As the two continue to laugh and share memories, Lulu secretly inspects the two by glancing up from her blog on her laptop. She begins checking off all the possible signs of flirting.
Aito compliments and teases Luka, Luka teases him back. Luka playfully punches his arm and Aito lightly flicks her forehead. Almost everything in the list is checked.
"And how you threatened to beat up Akita-san and everyone called you a wimp for wanting to hit a girl!"
"Hey, I only said that because she was going to beat you up," Aito says as he moves his plays with the couch pillow beads. "No one messes with my friends."
Luka looks up from her phone and then looks back down with a smile. "Thanks."
"Why don't you two just date already?"
Luka quickly looks up from her phone again and Aito throws the pillow across the room.
"W-what are you talking about?" Aito asks, trying to play cool, although the blush on his cheeks show the truth.
"You guys fight like a married couple, you see each other constantly, and you're close-knit. The only thing that you're missing from a relationship like that is kissing and stuff like that," Lulu states, listing the things off with her fingers.
Aito keeps quiet as Luka clears her throat. "Lulu, you must still be sleepy or something."
Lulu sticks her tongue out at them and walks off to the kitchen. "I'm going to get grapes."
As she leaves, Aito glances at Luka again.
"Why are you calling me AGAIN?"
Teto groans as she bites into her sugar cookie. "I told you, I didn't care that you told that she-devil your number and not me. Does it sound like I'm mad?!"
"Yes…" Oliver says, putting the phone at a safe distance away from his ear in case she decides to scream again.
"Why would I care? I don't care! I don't care at all! I don't care that you think that lying sea monster is much more important that the person who made you fit in this school! And that I actually stand up for you!"
"Teto…"
"Meanie stupid poo-poo face the third." Teto immaturely sticks her tongue out although she knows he can't see.
"I'm sorry! I mean, she just asked for it so I gave it to her…"
Teto sighs and rolls her eyes. "Yeah right."
"Please Teto? Will you forgive me?"
Oliver stays still as the other line stays quiet. "Teto? Are you still there?"
After a long pause, he hears her breath out. "Fine. I guess I can accept your apology."
The line goes dead as she hangs up and Oliver sighs. "Women are so difficult to deal with…"
"I GUESS I can accept his apology," Teto says to herself as she sets her phone down. "But only because it's Christmas."
Teto looks up at the mirror and notices the slight blush laying across her cheeks. She rolls her eyes again and looks out at the dark night sky. She wonders if the same moon she's looking at can be viewed from the UK.
Wait, I can't be thinking about him! That party's coming up soon and I have to start scheming things.
Shaking her head, she slips her Plan Book from her pocket and begins writing plans for the New Years Eve party.
"This is going to be interesting," she whispers as a wicked smile spreads across her face.
I am so, so, so, so sorry for taking so long to write this chapter. And it's only 2,327 words...
Oh well~
I hope you all have an amazing Christmas (or had one already) :D If you don't (didn't), don't worry, things will definitely get better ^^
Oh, and the chapter title is referencing to the song "Merry Merry Christmas" by Rin Kagamine, Len Kagamine, Miku Hatsune, Gachapoid, Gumi, Luka Megurine, Kiyoteru Hiyama, Yuki Kaai, SF-A2 Miki, Lily, Gakupo Kamui, Kaito, and Meiko. I suggest listening to it :D
As always, thank you all for reading so far into this. If you'd like to review, you can do so below and I'll see you next time for either the New Year's party or a hilarious chapter. Bye bye~!
