Chapter Text
Miku couldn’t believe it, after 5 long years she was about to finally be home.
She had spent half a decade stranded on the hostile alien world of Nauvis, but at last, after building her own rocket and intercepting a nearby cargo ship, she would really be going home.
Upon arriving at the space elevator, which looked almost identical to an airport but in space the first thing that Miku noticed was how clean everything was compared to when she was on Nauvis where the dust was almost inescapable
the next thing she noticed were sounds, Miku was used to loud sounds since she had built and run a factory on Nauvis for the last 5 years
but this was different from the rhythmic, heartbeat-like drone of the factory that she was so accustomed to. Instead the overlapping sounds of hundreds of discordant voices left her quite disoriented before she remembered something extremely important.
She didn’t have a plan for what to do next, so she decided to ask one of the crew members of the ship that had picked her up to lend her a phone, and he graciously did. with the phone in hand Miku quickly dialled a very close friend.
Teto stared at her buzzing phone and the text that read unknown number
She didn’t know for certain who it was but she had some ideas
- Her insurance providers
- The concert managers for this year’s Tetofest
- A random scam artist
- A crazy fan who had somehow gotten her number
That last one sounded particularly dreadful but nothing in the world could have prepared her for what happened next.
Teto picked up the phone and to her simultaneous shock, horror, elation and confusion was the cheery voice of her very dear and very dead friend Hatsune Miku.
“Hiiiii Teto long-time no see, uh can you please pick me up from the spaceport?” Miku said sheepishly as if she was embarrassed about being dead
Teto's face turned as white as snow as the hairs on her back stood on end, she looked like she’d just seen or rather heard, a ghost
“MIKU? YOU’RE ALIVE! HOW? WE ALL THOUGHT YOU DIED! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!? WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS!? WE MISSED YOU!” Teto shouted panickedly
Miku, now more than a little bit alarmed by her friend’s distressed yelling attempted to diffuse the situation
“I promise I will explain everything soon, but right now I really need you to pick me up from the spaceport”
Miku assured
Teto seemed somewhat dissatisfied with this answer and sighed loudly, loud enough in fact that Miku could hear it through the phone.
“alright I’ll come and pick you up but you owe me an explanation.” Teto responded, exasperated
And with that, Teto hung up the phone and got in her car while Miku gave the phone she was holding back to its owner before descending the space elevator.
An hour or maybe two later Teto was at the spaceport leaning against her car looking through the crowd for Miku to no avail, thinking to herself that it really shouldn’t be this hard to spot someone with giant bright blue twintails.
While she was doing this, she noticed someone walking towards her but she couldn’t make out what they looked like since they were wearing large dust covered welding goggles and had a beige scarf covering their face
Teto also noticed that this person’s left arm starting from halfway down the bicep had been completely replaced with a mechanical prosthetic
They also had a large dusty coat covering their whole body with armour plating interspersed throughout it, the stranger seemed to also have a holster on their belt containing what looked like a rather substantial handgun.
Teto was just about ready to disregard this stranger when she realised that they were calling out her name in Miku’s voice.
Miku lifted her goggles and pulled down her scarf to reveal her face
“Alright let's get going!” Miku said cheerfully, seemingly oblivious to her absurd apparel
Teto could not believe her eyes, Miku was nearly unrecognisable, her pale skin had turned to a dark tan with clear signs of sunburn, her iconic twin tails looked as though someone had cut them off with a kitchen knife, her hair had taken on a long and messy appearance, it’s bright blue colour having returned to her natural milk chocolate brown. The only thing that had not changed (thankfully, Teto thought) was Miku’s face.
“Oh my god! Miku, what happened to you?” Teto said, Clearly alarmed
“oh, right, the arm, I’d actually rather not talk about that, please” Miku muttered quietly
Miku grabbed her prosthetic where it attached to what was left of her arm and looked sheepishly at the ground
Until now Teto had already forgotten about Miku's prosthetic arm. Upon closer inspection Teto realised that the prosthetic seemed to be covered in some kind of bulky layered steel plating making it look almost like armour but it had silicone lining on the inside of the hand and was directly connected to Miku’s left humerus.
“Okay, then let's talk about something else” Teto said, trying to change the subject
“can we talk in the car please” Miku asked, meekly
The two of them got in the car together
“What do you want to talk about first?” Teto asked
Miku was putting on her seatbelt as she looked over at Teto, who had already put hers on and was now starting the car, and she noticed Teto‘s hand was adorned with a Wedding ring.
“Well, who’s the lucky boy?” Miku teased
Teto looked down at her hand and quickly realised what Miku was saying
“Actually it's Neru” Teto said calmly as She pulled out of the carpark and onto the highway
“wait WHAT! YOU AND NERU GOT MARRIED!?” Miku yelled incredulously
“Yeah, after you disappeared, Neru and I really started to cherish our moments together, since now we knew how easily it could be taken away, and eventually we fell in love, got married and moved in together” Teto explained with a noticeable smile on her face
“oh wow that’s new, what about our friends? How have they been doing?” Miku questioned
“most of them have doing pretty well, Len and flower started dating about 6 months ago, Meiko and Kaito bought a house in Kyoto together” Teto explained
“Len and Flower started dating?!” Miku said, confused
“yeah it surprised me too when they announced it” Teto agreed
“oh how has Rin been?” Miku asked
Teto paused briefly as her smile faded “Rin took your loss really hard, she never really moved on and–” She stopped abruptly “look its not really my place to talk about it alright, but if you wanna understand what Rin’s been through I suggest you listen to the song she wrote about you it’s called Lost Without You I’ll show it to you when we get to my place” she said, Clearly unhappy
“Sounds like a plan” Miku said confidently
In truth though Miku was worried about Rin, the name of her song Lost Without You was definitely telling
“So now can I know where you’ve been for 5 years?” Teto Inquired
“Actually I kinda wanted to wait till we get to your house and tell you and Neru at the same time if that’s ok” Miku admitted
“Oh god I just realised I didn’t tell Neru why I left, she’s going to be shocked when I show up with you” Teto said
Teto didn’t have time to think about that because they had arrived at her house
Teto opened the door and called out to Neru “Darling I’m home”
Teto walked through the hallway into the living room with Miku following close behind until they met with Neru in the living room, where she was sitting peacefully on the couch, typing away on her laptop.
“Hey Neru I’m back” She said
Neru closed her laptop and placed it down next to her before turning to Teto and making various hand gestures, since Neru was mute from birth, the only way she could “speak” was through sign language.
“took you long enough by the way who’s that standing next to you?” She signed
Miku, who was deeply upset by the fact that her friend did not recognise her, finally spoke up
“Hi Neru turns out I’m not Dead” Miku said awkwardly, Clearly trying to make a joke but not succeeding
Neru was not amused, in fact, she was shocked (as Teto had predicted), she stared at Miku for a solid 5 seconds before standing up, walking over to Miku and proceeding to slap Miku in the face after which she started signing rapidly “you idiot where the hell have you been for the last 5 years?”
Miku sat down on the couch and began to explain “well when my ship exploded my escape pod got caught in the gravity well of a nearby planet and crash landed there. I spent the next 5 years building a factory in order to–”
Teto interrupted “wait, a factory? Why”
“well making an escape rocket is quite complex and requires very specialised machinery that I needed manufacture on my own, and that’s without mentioning all the raw materials I also needed to mine and process on my own” Miku responded
“So now what?” Neru asked
“I don’t know” Miku realised
At this moment Teto decided to interject with a proposal “why don’t you go take a shower and then borrow some of my clothes and after that I’ll show that song I told you about then you can stay here for the night”
Miku was slightly confused but enthusiastic about the idea “a shower does sound nice but I’d feel kinda weird wearing your clothes and sleeping in your house”
“Ah, that brings me to the next part of my plan, which is spending most of tomorrow shopping with you, buying things like a phone and food so you can move back into your own house” Teto replied
“Oh, my house! And my brand and bank account, what happened to them?” Miku exclaimed with panic over the thought of possibly having no home or money
Teto responded with reassurance “relax Miku, I have your bank account and legal ownership of your brand and me, Neru, Rin and Len split ownership of you house between the four of us”
“However” she continued “I think you should stop worrying and start showering”
Teto had made a very good point, so Miku walked off to the bathroom
As Miku took her goggles off she looked in the mirror and was physically taken aback by the face she saw looking back at her “oh my god, Is that what I look like now” she thought out loud. No wonder Teto and Neru hadn’t recognised her, she barely recognised herself!
But then she remembered what Teto had said “stop worrying and start showering” so she took off the rest of her clothes as well as her prosthetic arm and got in the shower
Miku fiddled with the knobs in the shower until the water ran hot
“ahhhhh” Miku moaned with euphoria as the water spilled over her and years of built up dust washed away
Miku spent the next 2 hours simply enjoying her shower before moving on with cleaning herself
She grabbed the soap and covered herself in it before washing it off along with even more dust (seriously how does this much dust attach itself to one person)
Miku then turned her attention to Teto and Neru’s vast array of hair products, many of which she was familiar with as she had used many of the same products on her own hair for years
She reached for the first bottle before very quickly remembering that she only had one arm (oh, right) she thought to herself (this will be a lot harder than I anticipated)
What should have been 5 minutes of hair washing turned into 25 minutes of fumbling about and dropping half the bottles on to the floor but eventually Miku finally managed to wash her hair, something she had really not thought would be so hard
After that unexpected ordeal Miku left the shower feeling substantially better, dried herself with a towel, reattached her prosthetic and called out to Teto “Teto I’m done with the shower. Can I please have those clothes now”
about a minute later Teto’s voice could be on the other side of the door “took you long enough, here’s the clothes” Teto opened the door slightly to pass the clothes to Miku
“thanks Teto” Miku replied as she closed the door and began to examine what Teto had given her
It was a plain white t-shirt which far too big for her or Teto and an equally plain but reasonably sized knee length dark blue skirt, she quickly put the clothes on and left the bathroom
As she entered the living room, she suddenly realised how hungry she was.
“What’s for dinner? I’m starving” she asked
“Sushi!” Teto responded excitedly
“Oh sushi’s good but I should have some vegetable since I haven’t had one in like 5 years” Miku said
At this point Neru joined the conversation “wait you haven’t had any vegetables for 5 years?! What the hell did you eat on that planet?”
“Honestly mostly giant bug innards” Miku admitted “they’re rich in protein and vitamins” she continued
Teto was simultaneously impressed and disgusted “you survived on nothing but giant bugs for 5 years?!”
“Yeah” Miku said flatly
Teto was at a loss for words and had very much lost her appetite “oh well um let’s hope this sushi is better than giant bug innards”
Dinner proceeded with Teto and Neru only picking at their food
After an awkwardly quiet dinner they all sat down on the couch and Teto decided to show Miku Rin’s song “hey Miku this is that song I wanted to show you” she handed Miku a set of bulky wireless headphones as she quickly searched through her playlists for the right song “ah here it is” she said as the song began playing in the headphones
Miku began listening to the song and found it quite disturbing to hear her friend so miserable and brokenhearted, one line in particular stood out to Miku
“you were my guiding light and now you’re gone and I’m lost without you”
(Did Rin really think of me like that?), She wondered to herself before another line stuck her like a hammer
“You know I wish that I told you, I know that I loved you”
(WHAT?! RIN LOVED ME?! HOW DID I NEVER NOTICE!) She thought to herself as she looked back through all her memories of Rin and realised that it had been blindingly obvious that Rin had always had a crush on her
“TETO I NEED TALK TO RIN RIGHT NOW” she shouted with noticeable panic
“wait wait wait wait, calm down for a second Miku, Rin’s probably asleep right now she won’t respond”
Neru then interrupted, signing “Speaking of sleep, I’m gonna go get some since it’s 9 o'clock and I need to be up early to go to work tomorrow. good night you two” and kissing Teto before she left
Teto replied “good night darling wait it’s 9 pm already ok uh I have a video call in like 10 minutes”
“Oh a video call? With who?” Miku asked inquisitively
“Just this new singer named Adachi Rei, I’m helping her come up with lyrics for this new song she’s writing called dance delightful” Teto answered
“Oh that’s cool that you’re helping out new singers” Miku responded
“Well good luck with that” Miku said as she walked off
“Where are you going?” Teto wondered aloud
“Oh I thought I’d go to the other room so that I don’t bother you during your call” Miku explained
“Oh you don’t need to do that, I can just do this in my office instead, you should grab a spare blanket and some cushions and get some sleep, you’ve had quite a day” Teto said she walked away
Teto left the couch for her office, leaving Miku by herself
As the familiar loneliness set in Miku started to think
Teto had told Miku to go to sleep but she wouldn’t
Miku’s thoughts instead drifted to the issue that had been troubling her for a few hours now, Rin, she had known that she had a crush on Rin since the two first met in high school but she had never admitted her feelings to Rin for fear that it would ruin their friendship but now knowing that Rin’s feelings reflected her own, it was all she think about
Teto wearily rose from her bed and checked the time on her phone, it read 2:06 and she could hear some kind of noise coming from the living room, she decided to get up to fix whatever was making this noise so it didn’t wake anyone else up
As she walked into the living room she noticed that the lights were still on and as she got closer to the source of the noise, it became clearer what the sound was, it was crying, it was Miku crying (Oh no, that can’t be good) Teto then walked in on Miku sitting on the floor sobbing loudly to herself
“Miku? Why are you crying?” Teto muttered, trying to be compassionate but clearly far too tired for this
“Teto?!” Miku looked up at her “why are you awake”
“I could ask the same of you, but more importantly why are you crying” Teto replied
“WHAT IF RIN HATES ME?” Miku cried out
“What?” Teto asked, extremely confused
“WHAT IF SHE DOESN’T FORGIVE ME FOR DISAPPEARING!” Miku exclaimed
“WHAT IF SHE NEVER TALKS TO ME AGAIN, WHAT IF I RUINED THE ONLY CHANCE FOR TWO OF US TO EVER BE HAPPY!” She wailed as she continued crying on floor
“Miku, I’m sure none of that is true” Teto said, trying to reassure Miku that everything was okay
“But what if it is true? What if Rin doesn’t love me back anymore?” Miku panicked
Teto hugged Miku closely “Miku, Rin would never hate you and I’m certain she’ll forgive you for everything” she said comfortingly
“You promise?” Miku whispered, barely holding back tears
“I promise” Teto assured
This seemed to somewhat calm Miku down (Good)
At this point a thought occurred to Teto
“Miku, how much sleep have you gotten?” Teto inquired, worried about her friend
“uh I haven’t slept at all” Miku admitted shyly
“Go to sleep, I promise you’ll feel much better about Rin in the morning after you’ve had some sleep” Teto insisted
“Okay I’ll try to sleep” Miku lied
“Alright I’m gonna go back to bed now, Good night” Teto said as she left
Miku didn’t go to sleep, instead she decided to plan out her day of shopping with Teto for a while
It was just before dawn, Miku was watching as the black night sky turned deep blue when she heard footsteps, she turned around to see Neru wearing a suit and carrying a purse and laptop bag
“Hey Neru, why are you up so early?” Miku questioned
“Oh hey Miku, I’m just going to work, nothing interesting” Neru explained
“You look nice in that suit” Miku commented
Neru smiled and signed “thanks” before leaving the house, waving her hand “good bye” in the process.