Chapter Text
Teto placed her car into park, she was finally home after having to sleep at her office overnight to meet a tight deadline. She removed the key from the ignition and the noise of the engine quickly faded into silence. She grabbed her laptop bag from beside her, looping its strap over her shoulder before exiting the car. Teto stumbled to her apartment’s stairwell, then steadied herself on the handrail as she exerted what little energy she had left to climb the concrete steps. She shuffled through a gray door with a large number two on the wall to the right of it, and made her way through the complex’s connective hallway until she found her apartment. She fiddled with her keys for a short moment until she found the key to the door.
Stepping inside Teto was greeted with the familiar scent of fresh coffee as it permeated the quaint living room of the apartment she shared with her best friend, Neru. She tiredly marched to the couch in the living room and fell into its pillowy embrace. The stress that had kept her shoulders tensed washed away as she let the comfort that the familiar environment provided fill her. She let her head fall backwards to rest on the back of the couch, she closed her eyes and let out a tired sigh, a sigh earned from an exhausting amount of unpaid overtime that was not legal in the slightest, but nonetheless expected by her employer.
Teto reopened her eyes to see Neru standing in front of her. The girl’s eyes were underlined by eyebags that denote stress and fatigue. Her yellow hair was messy, she had clearly not been awake long. She looked at Teto with clear concern, she hated when Teto overworked herself like this.
“Need coffee?” Neru signed to Teto in Japanese sign language, her hands moved with fluidity which indicated years of practice.
“Yes please,” Teto responded wearily.
Neru gave a simple nod in response before striding towards the kitchen. Teto smiled warmly, silently appreciating Neru’s presence in her life. The two only had each other for company, they were always the odd ones out in every situation, that’s what brought them together initially. Neru was unable to speak stemming from a physical abnormality with her vocal cords, and Teto was autistic which made talking to others an intimidating task. The shared social isolation brought on by their respective struggles, created a sense of kinship that lit the initial spark for their friendship back during their school years.
Neru returned from the kitchen, placing a mug full of steaming coffee on the table in front of Teto. She signed to Teto, “Why do you let them push you around like this?”
“They pay me, I don’t really have a choice Neru,” Teto responded somberly, taking a sip of her bitter coffee.
“Of course you do, you need to stand up for yourself or you’re gonna keep getting walked over like this.”
“Y’know I can’t do that,” Teto sighed, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “No one else would hire me if they decide I’m not worth the trouble.”
“Can’t you unionize or something?”
“The executives where I work are notorious for their union busting, and I can’t afford union membership.”
“You have to do something, you look like you could drop dead any second right now.”
“What could I do? There isn’t any point in me trying to talk to my bosses, they wouldn’t ever listen. Besides, I can survive being a bit tired.”
“A bit tired? You look like a damn zombie, you’re just being a coward! You never care about yourself! I hate seeing you like this!” Neru signed scornfully before she stormed away, tears welling in her eyes.
Teto’s heart shattered as her friend lambasted her, Neru could get angry, but this time hurt a lot. She placed her coffee back on the coffee table with shaky hands. Teto’s breath quickened as tears built in her eyes, her cheeks were quickly stained with her eyeshadow as she began to sob. At first her mind flashed with rage towards Neru, but ultimately it was replaced with a deep self-loathing, she knew Neru was right deep down, Neru only confirmed what Teto was already thinking. She held her head in her hands and felt the world around her spiraling, she tried to breathe, to cling to any way of steadying herself, but to no avail.
Teto stood up from the couch, she couldn’t stay there, she had to clear her head, to be anywhere that wasn’t that place right then. She grabbed her purse and keys and stepped out of the apartment. She quickly thought of going to the nearby lake and set off. Ambling out of the complex she made her way down the street. Teto was lucky that there weren’t any people out that early in the morning that would see her crying, most were sleeping in on a Saturday. Block after block she made her way towards the lake, it felt like hours passed despite it having taken only six minutes.
Soon the dull grey of concrete beneath her feet was replaced with the vibrant green of grass tipped with morning dew as she arrived at the quiet lake. She found a bench and where she could sit, looking defeatedly out over the lake, her mind was too preoccupied for her to enjoy the pristine view in front of her. She wiped the mascara and snot that had built up on her face off with a wipe from her purse before depositing it in a nearby trash can. Teto had stopped crying, but she remained morose, her mind despondent, fixating on feelings of inadequacy and self-hatred.
“Hey, are you okay?” A light-honeyed voice rang out beside her.
“Hatsune Miku…,” Teto uttered as her mind immediately recognized the voice, she had to do a double take as she turned to see her.
“Yep, the very same,” Miku, Teto’s idol, replied with a half smile before her face changed back to reflect her concern. “You looked upset, is something wrong?”
“Yeah, it’s nothing.”
“You sure? You can talk to me if you like.”
“I’ll be fine,” Teto replied, wondering why someone as important as Miku would care about how someone like her was doing. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Well then can I sit with you?”
“...Sure,” Teto replied, utterly confused by the entire situation.
Miku sat next to Teto and the two looked out at the lake for a minute until Miku broke the silence, “Why are you up at this time of the day?”
“Uh… I don’t- well why are you up at five in the morning?”
“Not a lot of people are out at this time, I can’t really go for a walk any other time without being stopped every few minutes,” Miku replied, letting out a small giggle over Teto’s nervousness.
“I slept at my office last night to meet a deadline, I woke up early because one of the security guards found me asleep in my cubicle and told me to go home.”
“Oh, I understand, early into my career I used to do the same kind of thing. Management eventually got security to kick me out at the end of work everyday just so I would stop.”
“Damn, I wish my boss was that nice.”
“Nah, they did it because my singing got worse whenever I didn’t get enough sleep and it was costing them profit.”
The two laughed a bit over the shared experience.
“I never got your name, you have one?” Miku said with a grin.
“Oh, sorry, I’m Teto,” Teto responded with an embarrassed smile.
“Alright then, do you mind telling me what’s wrong now Teto?”
“Well… my friend got angry that I stayed at the office overnight again. She-well she called me a coward for not standing up for myself. I don’t blame her… she does care, and… she’s right,” Teto admitted sadly.
“Well I think you telling me this is very brave, most people are too scared to talk about how they feel.”
“Thanks, that… means a lot.”
“Sure thing-,” Miku said before she’s interrupted by an alert from her phone. “Oh, can I get your phone number? I have to go, but I would love to keep talking to you!”
“Oh, okay!” Teto replied.
The two quickly exchanged numbers before Miku hurried off. Teto was left in stunned silence, she had met Hatsune Miku and she was interested in being her friend. For once in a very long time, Teto wasn’t tired, she was energetic as could be.