More exhausted than she had realized, Miku had fallen asleep almost immediately, her last thoughts wondering if she should go back and retrieve her song from Kaito. She awoke the next morning, the alarm clock once again tucked against her.
She quickly set it aside as if it were a bug. She looked at it again, and realized the time was 11:00 am. Out of habit, she started to freak out, but remembered her classes were over.
She sat up in bed and saw the reason she woke up. Rin and Len had returned their road roller to full size and were sitting in it, making noises that they thought would go with it. The road roller took up most of the width of the room and Miku had to flatten herself against the wall to squeeze past it.
"Oh hi Older Sister!" greeted Len, apparently wide awake. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to get my song. I left it in Kaito and Gakupo's room."
"Aw, did you leave it on purpose?" asked Rin sweetly.
Miku, still tired, glared at Rin. "Shut up," she said insensitively. Rin, apparently unaffected, continued making road roller sounds. Len stared at Miku as if she would explode any second.
Miku realized that she had been rude to Rin, but made no effort to apologize. She was too tired. She decided she would have to make an effort to get in bed before midnight.
Continuing out the door, she reluctantly knocked at the next door over for the second time within twelve hours. She attempted to wake herself up more before the door opened, so she wouldn't look like she just got out of bed, even though she did.
Kaito opened the door and immediately glanced at her hair. He suppressed a laugh before asking, "Would you like a hairbrush?" Panicked, Miku reached up and felt her hair. There were apparently dozens of stray strands coming out of her hairbands.
Embarrassed, her cheeks reddened and she nodded, and Kaito retreated into his room and came back seconds later with what appeared to be a brand new hairbrush.
"Why do you have a new hairbrush?" Miku asked, confused.
"Gakupo," Kaito said smiling. "He accidentally breaks quite a few, so he has extras ready."
Whether from exhaustion or from the fact that Kaito was standing there, Miku found this extremely amusing. Gakupo did have really long hair that he kept in a hairband. She started laughing uncontrollably, and Kaito looked over Miku down the hallway before pulling her into his room.
"You OK?" he asked, close to laughing himself. She nodded, still laughing so hard tears were forming in her eyes. Suddenly, she regained herself. Her laughter dying down steadily, she took out her hairbands and started brushing her hair.
"Ah, sorry," she said, followed by a sigh to finish her laughing session. "I don't know what came over me. That was just really funny. Thanks for the hairbrush, anyway."
"No problem," said Kaito. "So, why did you knock on my door again?" Kaito looked at Miku questioningly. Miku suddenly realized she had forgotten why she had come. Desperately trying to remember, she suddenly saw her music on the white table.
"Ah! Right! I forgot my song here last night, and didn't want to bother you too late or too early," Miku said, not admitting that she had slept in way too late. She went over to retrieve it, her long hair dragging behind her as she tried to brush it.
"Where's Gakupo?" she asked as she attempted to turn around without tripping over her hair.
"Singing," Kaito replied, staring at Miku while she brushed her hair. She looked up at him, feeling a little bit uncomfortable when she saw Kaito looking back.
"What?" she demanded, addressing Kaito's sudden attention.
"Oh, nothing. You're just the only person here." After that he made a point to stare her down as she finished brushing her hair. Miku didn't completely believe he had been doing that on purpose at first, though.
Looking bored, Kaito tried to break the awkward silence. "You can keep that brush if you want. I don't think Gakupo will notice."
Miku, not wanting to give up her chance to make Kaito feel awkward, declined. "No, I don't think I need it. Maybe I'll just come visit you every day." She stuck her tongue out at him jokingly and started slowing down her movements.
Kaito sighed. He actually didn't mind. He liked this side of Miku, she seemed much more fun than she let on. He just didn't know how much longer she'd keep this up; it wasn't a very exciting activity to watch someone brush her hair, no matter who it was.
Finally, Miku got tired of her game of keep-Kaito-waiting. She put down the brush and tried to put her hair back up with her hairbands. Much to her disgust, one snapped. "Ah!" she exclaimed in annoyance. "My hair is too thick to put up in just one hairband." She narrowed her eyes at the broken one, trying to convey her hate.
She looked at Kaito for help, but he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know if Gakupo has extra hairbands," he said. "But even he doesn't put up all of his hair. You could try leaving some of it down."
Miku struggled with her hair before letting out and exasperated sigh. She knew what she probably needed to do, but didn't want to do it. "Help me?" she mumbled.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Kaito was grinning.
"Helpme," she said sternly. Kaito went over to her and grabbed a handful of her hair. "But don't hurt me!" Miku added quickly.
"Hm," Kaito said, apparently trying to figure out the best way to put her hair up. "OK now try to keep your head still." Kaito started to braid some of her hair, and Miku stood staring at the wall, clueless of what to do.
"Wow. You have a lot of hair," Kaito said, five minutes into the braid.
"Maybe you just don't know how to handle a girl's hair," Miku retorted.
"Well apparently, neither do you," Kaito shot back.
Miku was silent again. Kaito finished the braid, and then tied it together with a little bit more hair. "There. Now don't you look pretty," said Kaito in a mocking tone. Miku yanked her hair away from Kaito turned to face him.
"I'll be leaving now," she said, and Kaito almost opened his mouth to remind her about her song. He decided against it, smiling at the thought of what her reaction could possibly be when she remembered again.
Miku left the room, and, wanting to see what her hair looked like, headed to where Meiko normally was. She was glad to see Meiko was there, who greeted her with a smile.
"Your hair looks nice," she said. "Did you do it yourself?"
"Ah, no," Miku said, avoiding revealing who did, "But I did come to ask if you had a way I could see my reflection. I want to make sure it doesn't look bad.
Meiko took another look at Miku's hair. "Nope, not at all," she reassured Miku. "It looks really good, but what happened to your twin tails?" she asked curiously.
"One of my hairbands snapped. I couldn't put all of my hair into one hairband," Miku explained.
"Well, you might find another one on your bed. Thinks like that tend to show up there," Meiko said. "Not, specifically, your bed. I mean beds in general," she specified.
"Yeah, I got it." With that, Miku started walking back to her room. "Thanks," she remembered to call over her shoulder. Miku wished she had asked Meiko what time it was. Of course, Miku didn't know if Meiko even knew what time it was. "Rin and Len might be taking a nap or something, considering how they went to bed late and woke up early," Miku thought.
She decided to open the door slowly so she wouldn't disturb them if they were sleeping. She sang her middle C softly in case the door wasn't soundproof, though she guessed it probably was, and then opened it gently. Closing it with the utmost care, she then turned and walked towards Rin and Len's beds.
Instead of there being two beds, like before, there was only one bed. Rin and Len were leaned against the pillows and wall, apparently sleeping. Rin's head was on Len's shoulder, and Miku couldn't help but wonder if they had meant to do that.
"Did the door sense that their personalities were so matched that they needed a bed together? Or did it knowt hat Len wasn'ti ndependent?" Miku wondered these things as she tiptoed across the room to her bed and found a hairband. She put up her hair and then wiggled her way almost all the way under the sheets and closed her eyes. "Hey, you're supposed to be doing something," her subconscious said.
"What?" she asked it.
"I don't know."
"Wellyou'rehelpful." Miku opened her eyes. She didn't want to keep having conversations with herself, so she tried to remember what she was supposed to be doing. She paced back and forth, which looked kind of funny, seeing how she was still tiptoeing.
Rin and Len stirred. Miku decided it would be best to go outside to do her pacing. She went outside and saw Kaito's door, and suddenly remembered. "Thesong." She sighed angrily and knocked, for yet the third time in twelve hours.
Kaito greeted her at the door with her song. "Forget something?" he asked with a grin.
"Of course," she said. "I wouldn't come within 500 meters of you without a reason."
Kaito looked thoughtful. "Probably not," he said, "Too bad you live right next to me." His grin returned. Miku grabbed the papers from his hand and left without a good-bye. Since her room was currently unavailable, she went to the recording room, eager to sing again.
She sat and read over the song, and, fully confident in her abilities, put the last page into the music-playing-machine. She found the emotional instructions on the song seemed to fit her quite well, and she felt she sang even better than on the 'audition' song.
Satisfied, she left the room after her song was done. She went to Meiko, who was again in the hallway. "I sang a song," said Miku. Meiko nodded.
"Yes, don't worry now. We'll make sure a copy of it goes to the composer," she reassured Miku. "Why don't you go get some sleep now. It's almost 10:00."
Miku realized she hadn't been sleepy because she woke up so late. She figured she might as well go to bed though, it was no use repeating what happened today. She returned to her room, and started to open the door quietly. However, laughter met her ears and she opened the door the rest of the way quickly.
Rin and Len were jumping on their bed. Miku shook her and walked past them, saying, "I know you two were just asleep, but you really need to go back to bed. It's late and you shouldn't get your sleeping pattern all messed up," and then under her breath she added, "like me."
The two blond-haired Vocaloids sat down, always obedient to their favorite person. "So, did you sing your song?" asked Len, and Miku was surprised that he was the first to talk, unlike usual when Rin was full of things to say.
"Yes," Miku said quickly, "I think I did a pretty good job." She had been staring at the wall, but now she regained focus and started to get in her bed. "Wait, I have more papers on my bed. You've got to be kidding me," said Miku, still getting used to her job.
Rin and Len looked disappointed. "Why haven't we gotten any yet?" asked Len again. Miku shrugged her shoulders sadly, wishing with all her heart her roommates would get a chance soon to be the best they could be.
"I'm sure you'll get one soon," she told them, though not at all as sure as she sounded.
Ah, the trials of lack of sleep and breaking hairbands. Ok but for real, this is a pretty random chapter. Character development, I suppose? Yeah, I'll stick with that ^.^