As Big-Al dried himself off, he saw the light on his cell phone turn on, followed shortly by it vibrating and ringing to the tone of "Oh When the Saints".

Dropping his towel to the floor, he rushed to the cell phone and opened it, then spoke into it. "Moshi moshi, Big-Al here." He said in Japanese as he was getting accustomed to.

A smooth, angelic voice spoke out in English from the other end. "Big-Al, what's this about you being in Japan?"

"Oh, Miriam, good to hear from ya!" Big-Al said, switching back to his native language. "How are things going for you?"

"Meh, my career is slow, but still moving. Looks like you're rocketing off, though. You getting along fine with our Japanese brethren?"

"Yeah, they're really nice. Having a bit of family drama, though, I think I can help out with it, though."

Miriam was quiet. "…Oh." She said plainly. "… the Kagamine twins, right?"

"Yeah. Is there something wrong?"

Miriam sighed. "Well… out of all us Vocaloids, they've had it the roughest. At the age of 9, their parents were both killed in a car accident. After that, they went through three different orphanages. The last two they went to was found to be physically, mentally, and worst of all, sexually abusive towards their children.

"…wow." That was all Big-Al could say. He would never have guessed those two happy little kids had such a shitty childhood.

"Yeah, I know. The police launched an investigation of the last orphanage after two of the attendant who worked there died suddenly in the same night."

"How'd they die? Stabbing, I guess?"

"Even better, cyanide poisoning."

"How the heck did a bunch of kid get their hands on cyanide?"

"Beats me, they couldn't ever figure it out." Miriam sighed again. "Honestly, I'm glad they never found who did it. And after Len and Rin were picked up, our 'benefactors' tipped the scales and launched another investigation on the second orphanage, which was shortly thereafter shut down."

"Damn… no wonder they're so close."

"And I don't know anything past that. It's a Vocaloid secret, nobody else knows. You won't be finding this bit of information on Wiki." Miriam cleared her throat. "By the way, you did wonderfully at that concert performance. Your body wasn't programmed for dance like Miku's was, was it?"

"No, not really. I guess it just comes naturally to me."

He then heard a knock on the bathroom door and a boyish tenor voice call out from the other side. "Al-san, you're late for breakfast."

"Oh damn it. Hey, Miriam, I gotta get going."

"Okay, talk to you later, Al."

))))))))))))))))

*6 years ago*

Len woke up, rubbed his eyes, and climbed from the top of his bunk-bed. He looked to his clock. "…10:32? Why didn't mom or dad wake us up?" He remembered that last night their parents were going to some sort of board meeting. For what, he didn't know, or for that matter, really care. They left late at night, and told the children they'd be back after their bedtime, and they should put themselves to bed. "Hey, Rin, wake up. It's morning."

Rin rolled so her back was facing Len. "Five more minutes…"

"Don't give me this 'five more minutes' crap, Rin. Get up and get dressed." Len went to his drawer and started pulling out his usual clothes, socks, shorts, a t-shirt, and a pair of underwear. Taking off his P.J.'s, he slipped on his new set of clothing. "Rin, get up already…" Len said as he wrapped a band around his hair so it was up in its usual style.

"Alright, alright, I'm up…" Rin said as rolled to the side and landed with a thud on the ground, still wrapped in the blanket.

"No you're not." Len said as he tugged on the blanket, making Rin roll out of it and across the room a bit. "I'll wait for you downstairs. I'm going to check up with mom and dad." Len turned around and went towards their bedroom door, opened it and exited the room. He heard Rin get up off the floor, so he knew she'd be down soon enough.

When he got downstairs, it was silent. He went into the dining area, where they would usually be eating some breakfast. He peaked inside the kitchen and saw nobody. "Hello? Mom, dad, you around here?" He waited for an answer, but didn't hear a sound.

Rin popped up behind him. "Where's mom and dad? I didn't see them in the living room."

"I dunno…" Len grabbed Rin's arm and pulled her back into the hall, into the room where the clothes were washed and cleaning supplies were stored, and opened a door, looking into the garage. "… they're not home…" Len scanned the garage, but there was no sign that the car even returned from its trip. Len slowly closed the garage door.

"… Len?" Rin asked in a quiet voice. "Something about this doesn't feel right…"

"Yeah, I know…" Len walked back to the kitchen, and sat down at the kitchen table. Rin sat on the opposite side as him.

"Hey Len? I'm hungry."

"Well, looks like we'll have to make our own food." He laughed nervously. "How hard can it be?"

Getting up and walking to the kitchen, he dug around in the refrigerator. Rin went into through the cupboards, looking for food as well. "I found some cereal."

"Yeah, but we're out of milk…" he sighed. "Hey, what about some eggs?"

"Hmm… I guess so." She pulled out some pans from one of the cupboards and placed one on the stove. "Hey Len, which setting should I put this on?" She eyed the dial on the stove.

Len walked over to the stove as well. "I guess… medium?"

)))))

A while later, Len and Rin were at the dining table, looking down on the eggs on their plates. It wasn't burnt, but it was obviously overcooked.

"You go first." Rin said to her brother.

"Ladies first."

"No, I insist, you take the first bite."

"Alright, fine…" He took his fork and cut off a piece of the egg, and brought it up to his mouth. He quickly dropped it inside his mouth, and gagged, spitting it out onto the plate. "Uuugh! Nasty!"

Rin pushed her plate away. "Well, I'm glad I made you do that. Now what?"

Len reached for his glass of orange juice and gulped it down, attempting to get the taste out of his mouth. "Gah…" He wiped his mouth and got up out of the chair. "Go start up the N64, we'll play Pokémon Stadium or something… I'll go get some cereal and we can eat it straight." Len got up and walked back into the kitchen, grabbed a bowl and the box of cereal that Rin left out, and pored some into the bowl. He grabbed a few juice bottles out of the refrigerator and carried them along with the bowl into the living room. As he turned around the corner he saw his sister setting up a game on the TV.

"Um, Len? Something's wrong with the game… it's not starting."

)))))))))))))))))))))

"Thanks, Gumi." Al said as the green haired lady took the plate away from Al's spot at the table.

"You're welcome, Al-Sama. Oni-Chan, you're going to help me with the dishes, right?" She walked away and into the kitchen area.

"Um… I guess so." Gakupo replied back as he carried his dish along with some others into the kitchen, following behind her. "We'll handle the dishes, Al, go and join the others."

Al stood back up and made his way out of the dining room. "Oni-Chan? Huh, they don't look related." Al navigated his way through the large Vocaloid mansion. As he passed by Luka's bedroom, he peeked inside the open door and saw Luka sitting on her bed, holding a weird hat that was designed like a cat's head. She seemed sort of depressed. Al knocked twice on the door. "Hey, can I come in?"

"Oh, sure, yeah. Come in."

Al opened up the door wider and ducked a bit so he wouldn't hit his head on the doorway. "Why the long face, Luka-san? And what's with the weird looking hat?"

"Oh, this was my neko hat from when I was little. I was just thinking about my childhood."

"Is that why you're so sad? Childhood memories are supposed to be pleasant!" Al came in and sat on the bed. "Couldn't have been that bad, now, could it?"

"Well, it was nice and all, but I kinda regret being the shy little timid girl who hid whenever anybody talked to her and never spoke to anybody."

"Oh, well, I guess that would make you childhood a little bit less enjoyable. I can hardly see a young you like that, though, you're not so shy and timid now, and you're definitely not afraid to say what's on you mind."

"Hehe, yeah. When I look back on it it's like I'm reading the memories of a completely different person. Back then my nickname was 'Toeto' because of how much I stuttered.

"I guess that's one of those Japanese jokes?" Big Al tried to go through his Japanese lessons in his head trying to figure out what that name had to do with stuttering.

"When someone is not sure what to say, instead of saying something like 'um…', we say 'eto'. When you stutter 'eto' or say it really shyly it can sound like…'e-e-to eto'. That's what I did, and so they gave me that name." She got up and went to a table where some of her makeup lay, along with some different pictures framed and propped up. Luka grabbed one of a deeply blushing young girl with long, pink hair and a funny looking neko hat on her head, dressed in a long brown dress. She looked slightly tense and timid, and she stood there with her hands to her side and a blank look on her face.

"Is that little Toeto? She's a cute little girl." Big-Al got up and walked over to Luka and looked down and over her shoulder at the picture she was holding.

"Yep… oh, Toeto, I'd like to say I hate you for messing up my childhood, but I'd be lying. I love that part of you from head to toe…" Luka tapped her finger on the picture frame. "I'm sure little Toeto wished she was hiding away somewhere at that moment."

"Aww, hang in there, Toeto, things will get better soon." Big-Al spoke to the picture frame, then turned and gave Luka a warm smile.

Luka turned her head and smiled back. She then looked back at the picture. "Oh, and that reminds me, that boy... I really wanted to tell him how I felt from the heart, but shy, red-faced Toeto just said 'no' to that thought."

"I remind you a boy you had a crush on? …Um, thanks?"

Luka blushed a bit and put the picture back where it was. She then went back to her bed and sat down where she was before. She picked up the hat from the bed and looked down at it, moving it around in her hand.

"Hey, Luka, try it on, I want to see how it looks on you!" He gave a light laugh.

"Really? Well… alright." Luka stretched the opening of the hat open and lowered it onto her head. "It's a little bit of a tight fit, but I can still wear it."

"Hehehe! It looks cute on you!" Big Al went over and sat next to her again.

"R-Really? Thanks." Luka was blushing a bit, but composed herself and adjusted the hat to a more comfortable position.

"You know, the best thing for our types to do when we've got something stuck on our mind is to write a song about it. Let's write a song about Toeto! I'm sure she'd be happy to hear it!" Big Al gave a large, toothy grin, showing off his two small fangs. "I'll help you out! … even though my Japanese song writing isn't that great… or even my Japanese in general."

"Yeah… you sound REALLY American at times. Your infatuation of racecars and burgers doesn't help." Luka smiled back, chuckling softly. "So, how should we start it off?"

"Well, how about…"

))))

Big Al came out of the small recording studio, a big grin on his face. "Yes, there's one song to put in…" Al saw Luka walking up to her, a small smile on her face. "Hey, Luka, what's up?" He noticed she had her hands behind her back.

"Al, I have something I made for you." She brought her hands in front of her, and in them was two different neko hats like the one from before. "One's the original, which I resized so it fits me again… and the other…" She handed one of them out to Al. He held it in his hands and turned it around, examining it. It was much larger than the original, but otherwise was the same, except for a stitched up scar on it's head similar to his. "… is just for you. Thank you for helping me, Al. You're right, writing that song really brings the load off of my mind."

Al grabbed it out of her hands, and held it up. "Oh, it's so cute!" He held it over his head, held it open with his hands and slipped it on. "How's it look?" Luka had a tightened smile on her face, and she was visibly holding back laughter. "…is that a good laugh or…"

Luka couldn't hold her laughter back. "Heehee... heeheehee! Al, it's unbelievably adorable on you!" Luka stood back up reached up to adjust Al's hat a bit.

Al grinned widely and bend his knees a bit so Luka could reach better. "Luka, thanks… this is a great gift." He bent down a bit lower on his knees and spread his arms wide, then gave Luka a tight, but not crushing hug.

"Y-Your welcome, Al-san." Luka said with a slight blush on her face. 'Why am I so flustered this time? Damn it, Toeto…'