By the time Miku had come back, the sky had gone from crisp blue to a dark gray. Oh, she disliked rainy days, but she had to admit that those were the days the flowers drank the water that kept them alive.

Walking into the building just before it started to rain, Miku was greeted with the scent of smoke. She could hear the sound of sparks and steam, like something was being grilled up.

In the kitchen she found Luka at the stove, the indoor grill set on top of it. What looked like fish was being grilled a bit too crispy as sparks flew here and there.

"Ah, Miku. You've returned I see." Luka turned to smile slightly at Miku, seemingly not aware of how badly the fish had burnt.

"Um...Thanks, Luka-san, but, um...Shouldn't you take those off now?" She pointed at the grill.

Luka appeared to understand and turned off the grill fast, feeling a bit silly for not having noticed. On the other hand, Miku stifled a giggle. Cooking around here was never quite what you believed it to be.

Especially that one time when Len and Kaito tried to make banana ice cream, only for the blender to-

"C'mon already!" Came a yell down the hall. Miku lept into the air slightly, startled from the noise. Had that been Rin? Or maybe she'd mistaken and it was Len?

Either way, she knew it was one of the twin's voices.

"We're supposed to practice, Len! And I can't practice without you! You know that!"

"I just don't feel like practicing right now!"

"You never feel like doing anything, whether it's right now or later!"

"I'm tired, that's all!"

The twins came walking from around the corner, bickering with each other as per usual. Once in the room, they stared each other down before crossing their arms and looking away from one another.

"I'm not talking to you, Len!"

"Fine! Then I'm not talking with you!"

Luka and Miku flashed each other a look of concern. It wasn't strange to see the twins fight over something, but now it seemed to be occurring more than it needed to be. Before they could ask the twins what was wrong, they walked off in either direction, not even glancing back at the other.

"That certainly was awkward, commented Luka, but we have something important to concentrate on."

Setting her umbrella down, Miku leaned against the counter to listen.

"Don't you remember we are having guests today?"

"Eh!? No! No, I didn't remember that!" Hastily, the blue-haired girl ran out of the kitchen to see what was happening.

'How could I have forgotten? Meiko-san said we were having family over this morning, I surely couldn't just forget! Ah...But she didn't say how many, either...I hope it's not too many...'

--

"S-Stop, Aniki!" Kaito cried, trying to grab at the blue muffler that was currently choking the life out of him. Clawing for the edge, he pulled hard and dove under, the cloth coming off his neck altogether as he gasped for air. Taunting laughter ensued behind him.

"You're such a pushover, I swear." A tall male who looked much like Kaito grasped the scarf in his fist. His hair was a bright shade of red, along with the paint of his fingernails. The coat he wore was much like Kaito's, though it was a deep gray.

"That wasn't f-funny! You could have choked me to death!" He wheezed. The red male rolled his eyes.

"Has it ever occurred to you that you were overreacting? As far as I can remember, you don't have metal lungs."

His own throat was then constricted by the red scarf around his neck. Instinctively, he threw his arms out and tried to push away Kaito.

"Akaito, you're so mean!"

The brother's fought a moment before they wrestled each other to the floor, trading insults and punches as well as, yet again, attempting to choke each other.

When a fiery fist slammed upon their heads, that was when they gave up, abandoned their scarves and bowed to the floor for forgiveness.

"Will you two knock it off!?" Meiko demanded, eye twitching. She watched with disgust as the two continued their bowing, begging over and over for her not to hit them again and that they would be nice, and blah, blah, blah...

"Besides, he started it!" "I did not! You did, you baby!"

"I don't carewho started it! Either shut up or leave each other alone because I've had it with you two arguing every single time you're around each other! Kaito, you go over there! Akaito, you go there! And if I catch you two again I swear I won't let you get off easy!"

Both fled in fear to their appointed side of the room, not wishing to see what she would do if they didn't.

Meiko walked back over to two, now giggling girls. One had pink hair that looked like it had a tornado shape into either side, the other looked much like Meiko, only smaller and younger.

"You got them good, Meiko-san!" The pink haired one cried, pumping her fist in the air. Meiko only rolled her eyes.

"I wish I didn't have to do that to get them to listen."

Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Miku jumped in front of the group with the best smile she could make.

"Everyone! It's good to see you!" Such an outburst had the girls again laughing and squealing and talking now, all about where'd they'd been, what they'd been up to

Which gave sufficiente time for the two brothers to make a fast escape...

--

As it turned out, the only guests that made it that night were Akaito Shion, Teto Kasane and Sakine16. More were supposed to arrive, yes, but it had been one of those days where a last minute error wormed into the plans.

But three was a crowd, after all, and it was more than enough to get everyone together in the large living room.

On the small coffee table sat a radio, playing a CD of various Vocaloid songs while it's artists talked, danced and mingled.

"Haha! You look so cute when you're mad!"

"Len's not cute when he's mad, Teto, he's just annoying!" Rin was, obviously, still peeved at her twin for not lightening up and apologizing for their earlier argument.

Sitting on the couch, Miku looked around at her friends. More often than not, she would be all over the place talking with people and having a good time, but for some reason she just didn't feel that today.

A glance out the window let her catch a glimpse of the storm still brewing outside. As dull and gray as it was out there, the atmosphere in here was clearly something else.

"I can surely dance better than you, Gakupo! You have two left feet!"

"Take that back! I'll show you!"

Just as the radio was getting cranked up, a sudden crash banged the house. It sounded like a huge rumble inside a metal pot.

The lights in the building flickered and went out. Miku could have sworn she'd felt a slight twinge of the heat of lightning in her circuits.

"Ah! What happened?!" Rin cried.

"Ow! Kaito, you idiot, get off me!"

"S-Sorry, Aniki..."

Blinking her eyes a few times, Miku stood up and tried to adjust to the darkness. Everyone was either in a panic or looked unhappy with the intrusion of their fun.

She could vaguely make out certain figures, like Teto over by the armchair, and Gakupo's sword at his hip.

There was someone in the corner over there as well...Wait...How many people were here again?

Miku counted the number of people she knew were here, remembering where they'd been the point the lights had faded.

It had been ten, right? Ten...But she counted eleven now...Who was...

The figure's head turned in her direction, and Miku knew she was being looked at. She could feel the eyes of this person looking directly into her own.

Her body seemed frozen to the ground. A sense of fear washed over her for one second before being replaced by a feeling of knowing, understanding. She took a step closer...

But the next moment she blinked, the lights flickered back to life. She vaguelly recalled they had a backup generator at that point. Looking back at the corner, Miku saw no figure there anymore. No one even close to there. She could have sworn though...

Everyone's voices grew loud again, confused and frightened.

"The lights are back again!"

"That must be some storm out there..."

"Teto, how will we go back in this weather?"

"A lightning strike like that..."

Miku didn't hear them, though. The numbness of her body was gone, but the emotional feeling wouldn't go away. It was like a buzz going through her robotic veins.

Had she imagined someone there in a moment of fright? Or was there really something there? If so, who were they? And how and why had they gotten here?

She had no more time to think. The party immediately went into full swing again, and she felt someone pull her into the ring of dancing.

Taking clumsy steps, Miku went along with the flow of the song until the buzz had left nothing but a small sting behind.

The memory was quickly forgotten, but only for the time being...

--

Hopefully this chapter was longer... I'm attempting to write longer chapters as this gets deeper in, so check back for more soon! Also! PLEASE give me a helping hand by going to my profile and answering the poll on what characters you want in here. There are more choices than there were before now.

Some characters like Haku and Akita aren't in the poll because they are either going to be in the story or have too little information to work with.
Check back soon for more of the story, and thanks for sticking with me!