Hm. I don't like this chapter that much. I wasn't really sure where I was going with it… ah well.

As soon as they left the house, Miki burst out laughing and Gumi hung her head.

"You should have... seen your face... when you were talking to him!" Miki said in between fits of laughter.

"Shut up, okay! You said some pretty stupid things to Piko before you got together! It happens to everyone." Gumi said, flustered.

"But it's so funny! Because normally you know exactly what to say, but when you're around him you freeze up and your mind stops working. Just think of him as... Just imagine you're talking to Len or Mikuo or something!"

"But then I'll treat him like them! There's just... No one quite like him." Gumi sighed.

"You'll get there, girl." Miki gave her friend a supportive pat on the back, just as a limousine pulled up in front of their house. "Looks like Miku's back. Let's take a break from the Neru investigation and work some magic on Iroha and Oliver." Gumi smiled weakly and made her way over to the pigtailed popstar.

"Hey, girls! How's the Neru case going?" Miku asked as she stepped out of the car decked in shopping bags.

"Not an UTAU, not Mikuo." Gumi said matter-of-factly. "It might be Nero, Mikuo said he was acting strange."

"Huh. Doesn't seem like a good fit to me." Miku said after thinking for a moment.

"Well we should still look into it." Miki said. "But right now we need to focus on Iroha, who, by the way, admitted to me herself that she does in fact have a crush on Oliver."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Gumi asked, slightly annoyed.

"Because we were talking about – " Miki began to say, but Gumi cut her off.

"Right, right, right." Miku knew what was going on but didn't know who the boy in question was so she decided to leave it alone.

"Okay, so what's our game plan?" Miku asked as the three girls turned to walk inside.

"I think we should work on Iroha first because she's the only one we know for sure has feelings for the other." Miki said.

"But shouldn't we find out if Oliver would return those feelings? Otherwise we're wasting our time." Gumi asked.

"I'm gonna agree with Gumi." Miku said. "It'll be easy to just give Iroha some pointers as soon as we know for sure." By this time they were on the top floor, where the seven Crypton Vocaloids lived in their giant suites. Naturally, Miku's was right in the center. As they walked down the hallway a scarlet door opened and Meiko stumbled out, obviously having drunk a lot.

"Outta m'way, blue haired bitch." Meiko shoved Miku, causing her to drop all her bags.

"What the hell was that, Meiko!"

"Why don'tcha ask ya boyfriend." Meiko sneered, and headed for the stairs. Before she made her way down, she turned and said to Miki, "You too, Spacefreak. Stay th' fuck away from him!"

"She must be really drunk. I don't have a boyfriend!" Miku said, going to pick up her bags. Gumi and Miki went to help her.

"What if she was talking about shipping?" Gumi asked. She knew she was touching on a tender subject, but Meiko was one of those people you had to keep happy or it'd be hell for everyone else. Shipping was a widely feared matter in the Vocaloid household. It was known to cause riffs in friendships and romantic relationships alike. Gakupo and Luka almost broke up once because of the GakupoxKaito ship. In fact, the only good shipping had ever done was to bring Rin and Len closer, and that had just made everyone else afraid to look around corners or in closets.

"I don't think so. Meiko's one of the oldest Vocaloids, she should know by now not to take shipping seriously." Miku guessed. They set the bags down on the side of Miku's room, then flopped down in the teal beanbag chairs on the floor to make a plan.

"So… how are we going to get little Ollie to spill the beans?" Miku asked.

"Can we threaten to torture his stupid bird? It always nests in my hair." complained Miki.

"No because then Luka might yell at us or something. Why don't we just ask him if he likes anyone?" Miku reasoned.

"That'll be way to obvious, he'll see it coming from a mile away and dodge the question. I think we should trick it out of him." Gumi said with a devious smile.

"And how would we do that?" Miki questioned, intrigued by the idea.

"We would just sit nearby him and talk about Iroha, then see if he reacts. If he does, then we'll know!"

"What if he knows what we're doing and keeps himself from saying anything?" Miku asked.

"Miku, come on, you're giving him too much credit. He's a guy; he won't be able to hide his feelings for that long." Gumi explained.

"What if we talk about Iroha possibly crushing on someone else? Then he'll get all defensive." Miki added.

"Perfect! Now what Iroha ships are out there?"

"Let's go look online!" Miku exclaimed, jumping off the beanbag chair and running over to her fancy white Macintosh computer. Miki and Gumi followed her.

"Erm… Miki, you may want to look away," Miku said, as pictures of Miki's boyfriend and little sister together filled the screen.

Miki's eyes widened. "I… that… uh… scroll down if you would," she stuttered, and Miku happily obliged. "What about Lily?"

"Works for me!" Gumi said happily. Miku nodded. And so the trio went downstairs to find Oliver and set their plan in motion. They found Oliver playing video games in the living room and sat down on the couch where everyone had been sitting earlier.

"So, have you heard about Iroha's new crush?" Miku whispered audibly.

"No, who is it?" Gumi asked.

"It's Lily!" Miki exclaimed.

"Really? Oh, they'd be so cute together!"

"I know, right?" Miku glanced over to Oliver to see him squirming a little bit. Jackpot.

"We should set them up on a date!" Gumi gushed.

"No, that'd be way too embarrassing for our poor little kitty." Giggled Miki. Just then, Oliver stomped out of the room in a huff.

Miku grinned. "Girls, I think we have our answer."

I like the idea that James sits in Miki's ahoge and it annoys the crap out of her. XD