An Afternoon With Len-kun

Len woke up and did his usual morning routine. This time, he wore a white T-shirt with a banana on it and black pants. He was about to head for the kitchen when he passed by Rin's bedroom door. And on it, a note that had Rin's orange stationary was taped:

Went out! Will be back later!

-Rin

P.S. Len, make sure to go grocery shopping!

Len frowned. He hated grocery shopping. One time, he accidentally went and spent all the money on bananas. Rin was so mad she looked like she was ready to run him over with their Road Roller.

He headed for the kitchen and was surprised to see Kuroneko fallen fast asleep there on the kitchen table. He raised his eyebrows and smirked at the goofy smile she was wearing as she slept. He opened the kitchen curtains and let the light shine on Kuro's face. Her eyes slowly opened.

"Wha- Where?" she asked groggily.

"Wakey wakey," Len joked.

Kuro rubbed her eyes and stretched while Len took the fact and noticed that she was working on something. A song. A pile of papers were under her arms when she was asleep. Len was about to reach for one when Kuro slapped his hand away.

"It's not finished," she said solemnly. "I don't like people seeing my work until I'm done."

Len nodded, understanding her. He felt that way sometimes too. "What's it for anyway?"

Kuro shrugged. "Just a little song I plan to sing on air sooner or later," She gave a little wink. "It's a surprise, so I can't say anymore."

Len crossed his arms. That sure was tempting. "Ok, fine." He went to the fridge, looking for food while saying, "So, I'm gonna head to the supermarket later, " He brought out a carton of milk. "You wanna come?"

Kuro's blood red eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "Sure! I'd love to!" she said cheerfully.

Len nodded, poured the milk into two glasses, and handed one to her. "Is there anything you'd want to buy?"

"Just some more milk, fish, and tapioca!" Kuro smiled dreamily while lapping up her milk.

The banana lover shook his head at this. "For someone who's name is a cat's, you sure act like one."

Kuro simply laughed. "I guess that's how I was named!"

Len smiled lightly and finished his milk. They headed out of the apartment and headed straight for the nearby market. As soon as they got inside, Len grabbed a cart and they went to the fruits section first.

As Len grabbed a three bunches of bananas and two cartons of oranges, Kuro gave a serious look, and said, "It's a date!"

Len almost stumbled over his own two feet. He blushed profusely and looked at her with a panicked face. "W-what?!"

Seeing that look on Len's face made Kuroneko burst out laughing. Len gave her a light punch. "Not funny!" he whined.

Kuro was still laughing when she said, "I'm gonna get the fish and milk." With that, she took off.

Len sighed and continued to search for the other items on his list: two cartons of orange juice, raw meat for dinner, banana chips, shampoo, soap, and dish-washing liquid that smelled like oranges (Rin's request). By the time Kuro got back, she was carrying four cartons of milk, five fishes, and held an extra large cup of tapioca.

Len couldn't help but chuckle. "Addicted much?"

Kuro smiled sheepishly and put the items in the cart. They went to the check-out counter when Len spotted Gumi. He smiled when he saw his friend, who was wearing a green shirt, orange shorts, and carrying a basket full of carrots, her favorite food. Len and Gumi go a long way back when they had become from strangers to best friends. They were assigned to do a few songs together and singing them made them become closer.

Spotting him, Gumi smiled and came up to them. "Hey, Len! Oh! Hi Kuro-chan!"

Kuro grinned and waved. "Hey! Gumi, right?"

"Yup! So, Len, got a handful of bananas there again, huh?"

Len rubbed the back of his neck. "Well…yeah. And oranges."

Gumi nodded at the cart. The he turned to Kuro. "You guys are gonna be singing together, right?"

Kuro nodded eagerly. "Uh-huh. I heard you did with him once."

Gumi smiled. "Yeah. That's how we became the best of friends." She patted Len's back and said, "I hope you won't have a hard time with him, though. He can be a handful when it comes to duets."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Len scowled.

The two girls burst out laughing. "Geez, Len, you're such an uke!" Gumi chuckled.

Len glared at his friend. "Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"You want me to search on it online?" Gumi challenged.

Kuro laughed. "Sure, why don't you? You have my blessings!"

"Your blessings?!" Len exploded.

Kuro laughed once more and petted his head. "Just kidding, Len-kun! Maybe," Len rolled his eyes and swatted her hand away.

Gumi checked her watch and turned back to the two. "Look, I'd love to stay and argue about Len being a total shota-"

"I am not a shota!" Len interrupted.

"-but I still have yoga at 4, so I'm gonna see you guys for our Voca showdown tomorrow night, right?"

Len's eyes widened. "I completely forgot about that! Don't worry, we'll be there for sure!"

Kuro tilted her head. "What's the Voca-" she started to ask.

"Awesome! See ya then!" With that, Gumi ran out.

Kuro and Len gathered up their groceries and headed back to the apartment. Kuro asked again, "Len-kun, what's the Voca showdown?"

Len stared at her like she was an alien. "You don't have that in Utaite?" he asked, very surprised. Kuro shook her head.

For once, Len grinned at her. "Kuro, the Voca showdown is the best! We meet up every last Sunday of the month and have a singing competition. Since Kaito is the richest of us all, he always has the best prizes! So far, I've won 50,000 yen, a silver microphone, and a golden colored backpack with music notes on it."

Kuro smiled brightly. "It must sound fun. No one in Utaite is as rich as Kaito, so we're not allowed to have those kinds of things, much less give such expensive prizes."

"Well, tomorrow night will be your first showdown. By the way, you need to pay attention to the category given. It could be duet, solo, etc."

Kuro nodded excitedly. "In that case, I can't wait to play!"

"I wonder what the prize is…"

Kuro shrugged. "I hope it's something yummy. Like tapioca." She grinned at the thought.

Len laughed slightly. "But you can eat tapioca almost everyday!"

"A lifetime supply, then?"

Len laughed more this time. Maybe getting to know Kuro wasn't so bad after all.

Just then, her eyes widened. "Len-kun, look! A new store!" She pointed to a small shop that sold wigs, costumes, and plastic props. The displays showed outfits that belonged to different types of anime. The name of the shop was called "Cosplay Fun". It was a cosplay store.

Len's eyes also widened at this. "Oh, no. Anywhere but there," He started to take a step back.

Seeing the frightened look in his eyes made Kuro smirk. She grabbed his arm and dragged him inside. "Come on!"

"No!" Len tried yelling. But her grip was too strong. They were soon inside the anime-loving store. Not only were costumes being sold there, but also some figurines, merchandise, and posters. The sound of Vocaloid songs was blared throughout the store. Len smiled at this.

"Konnichiwa!" a blonde-haired teenage girl in cat ears greeted them. Her name tag read, "Kris". "Are you customers?"

"Nah, we're just browsing through." Kuro replied. She nodded at the top of the girl's head. "Nice cat ears."

"Thanks," She adjusted the ears and stared at them. "Wait...are you 96Neko?"

Kuro smiled. "The one and only!"

"And you!" Kris gaped at Len. "You're Len Kagamine! My sister and I are huge fans of you both! Where's Rin?"

Len smiled politely at them. "Thanks. Rin is out. I'm just here with Kuro-chan."

Kuro nodded solemnly. "This shop is neat! I wonder why we've never heard of this place before."

Kris shrugged. "It's brand new and just opened up. We're not surprised that a lot of people haven't come here yet. But please, feel free to look around!"

Len nodded. "Thank you. You're very kind."

The teen smiled. "Anything for you two! Now, please excuse me, I have still have to unpack some things, but I'll be back." She disappered into a room.

Kuro took one look at a row of cosplay outfits and said, "It's a shame this place isn't popular. It's really cool!"

"I know," Len agreed. "But we can't do anything about it, can we?"

Kuro spotted a particular outfit on a rack and turned to Len, smiling slyly. "Uh oh," Len said. "What are you thinking?"

In response, the cat-like girl grabbed that costume and handed it to Len. "Quick, put it on." She pointed to a dressing room.

"Wait, why?"

"Just do it."

Not wanting to argue, Len obeyed. Moments later, he emerged with the outfit on and a scowl. He was wearing a 96Neko outfit: complete with black cat ears, a black vest, red tie, arm warmers, and black pants. Len's "02" tattoo was shown on his left arm.

"Kuro, you better give me a good reason for all this!" he shouted.

"Kya~!" she squealed. Then she glomped him. "Just as I thought! You're as cute as ever!"

"Don't tell me this was the only reason!" he yelled, blushing madly. "You better not be thinking of flinging me or whatever."

Kuro smiled. "How did you know?" Len looked at her, horrified until she burst out laughing again. "Kidding! Geez, you don't get my humor, Len-kun. And anyway, I have a different plan in mind. Step outside the shop and don't do anything."

"What kind of plan is that?!" Len shouted again.

"Just trust me." Kuro smiled her cat-like smile again and pushed him out.

Grumbling, Len stood outside the cosplay store, doing nothing, just as Kuro said so.

It wasn't long after a couple of girls came over to him, saying, "Len! Len Kagamine! Can we have a picture?"

"Uh, sure," Len said awkwardly.

The girls squealed and the blonde boy let them have their pics taken with him.

"Are you dressed as 96Neko? That famous Utaite singer?" they continued asking.

Len groaned a bit. "Yeah. I got it from this store." He pointed to "Cosplay Fun".

"That's so cute! I want one!" one of the girls said.

The girls chattered in agreement and headed inside the store. Later on, they came out with heavy bags labeled "Cosplay Fun" on them.

This continued on for a few more minutes. More girls than boys came over, asked for his picture, and bought something from the store. At 5, Len decided to go back inside the store to take the costume off.

"Len! Kuro!" Kris said. "Thank you so much! Thanks to you two, our sales have been going up! The news of our store are going to spread all over the net!"

"You should put up a Facebook page," Len joked.

Kris smiled. "My special thanks to you, Len! If it wasn't for you and your kawaii looks, 'Cosplay Fun' wouldn't be out of stock on 96Neko costumes!"

Len couldn't help but smile. "You should thank Kuro-chan. She came up with the idea." Kuro beamed at this.

"Please, take the costume for free. It's a gift from me. And before you go," Kris held up her phone.

Kuro and Len looked at each other and burst out laughing. They each had their picture taken with her. Then Len changed back into his old clothes before they left the store and saying their good-byes to Kris.

"Well, glad that's over!" Len said.

Kuro laughed. "I'm glad she let you keep the costume! You could use it to cosplay me at VoMas!"

Len raised an eyebrow. "Me? Cosplaying at VoMas? Like, that'll happen."

"Awww, why not, Len-kun?" Kuro whined.

Len chuckled. "Let's just go home."

When the arrived back at the apartment, they set the heavy groceries on the kitchen table and collapsed on the living room couch. "Today was exhausting!" Len declared.

Kuro nodded. "I'm so tired, I could sleep right here, right now!"

"Way ahead of you," Len yawned. "I'll take a short nap." Just like that, he passed out.

Kuro chuckled and turned on the television. She watched the news, then the discovery channel, and then Animax. Later on, she found that Len had rested his head on her shoulder. She panicked a bit and after some thinking, she decided to give him a little glomp.

"Kawaii~" she cooed. When Len moved, she let go and giggled to herself.

Suddenly, Rin burst in. "I'm home!" she shouted.

Kuro put a finger to her lips. She pointed to the sleeping Len-kun. Rin smirked. "Long day?"

"You have no idea," Kuro sighed.

"Get some rest, Kuro-chan. You can just leave him there, he won't mind. He usually sleeps on the couch, anyway."

Kuro shrugged and slowly stood up. As she left the room, she took one more glance at Len and smiled. 'Sweet dreams, Len-kun,' she thought.

And finally! After my sister nagged me into making a chapter, here's one for you guys! It's funny. I know more about 96Neko than Ridaa does. And Kuro's a girl. -Riduu