Chapter Text
Neru quickly agreed to hang out when offered, she was interested in seeing what Teto’s new friend was like. If she was anything like how Teto described her she must be pretty cool. Teto was more anxious about the hang out, she didn’t really know how to host a guest, even if that guest was a friend simply coming over to hang out. She looked up a guide online and found it somewhat helpful, but also it made her feel even more intimidated with how formal it seemed. Teto couldn’t ever understand formality, there were so many rules that seemed so illogical to her, but made sense to everyone else.
As Saturday came around, Teto set out all the snacks and drinks she could think to prepare. She cleaned the floors and dusted so much the apartment looked like it hadn’t ever been lived in. Even after everything was set out and prepared as well as possible, Teto couldn’t help but be nervous, her stomach was twisting itself into knots at the thought of disappointing her new friend. Neru had to stop her from having a mental breakdown multiple times before it was even near time for Miku to come over. Then, on the brink of another panic attack, a notification on her phone distracted her, it was a voice mail from Miku. Teto had to struggle to fight her nerves off long enough to listen to the message.
“Hi Teto! Sorry, but I can’t make it to your place today, security won’t let me go after I told them I wanted to visit you and Neru, they said that going to your place alone was ‘too risky’. Would you be okay with coming over to my place?” Miku inquired apologetically in the recording. Hearing that she wouldn’t have to be hosting, Teto let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, or more accurately a hacking cough for air.
“Sure, just send me the address,” Teto messaged her back, playing it cool as if she wasn’t liable to be declared legally insane mere moments beforehand.
“Hey, Neru! Change of plans, Miku can’t make it here so we’re heading over to her place,” Teto called out to her friend in the neighboring room.
“Thank god, I thought I was going to have to explain why you were out cold on the floor when she got here,” Neru remarked in her usual sign language as she came round the corner.
“Was it really that bad?”
“No, it was probably worse actually.”
“Shit…”
“It’s fine, you can’t help it.”
“Yeah, but I wish I could,” Teto responded with a tinge of somberness, before quickly returning to her usual bubbly self. After lunch the two were ready to go, hopping into Teto’s car before following the robotic voice of the GPS as it guided them to their destination. The two noticed the houses they were passing by looked more pricey the more they drove. They had always struggled for money so seeing these houses was somewhat strange, it wasn’t like they were mansions, but they were definitely a bit bigger than what the two of them were used to. The two of them parked at the curb in front of Miku’s house, they stepped out of the car and walked down the long driveway until they got to the front door. The two cautiously climbed the brick steps up onto the front porch before Teto nervously knocked on the front door.
“Hey, nice to see you Teto,” Miku greeted her friend before turning to Teto’s yellow-haired companion. “And you must be Neru, it’s nice to meet you. Come on in you two.”
“You didn’t tell me your new friend was Hatsune Miku!” A pale-faced Neru signed to Teto. “I know you’re autistic, but this is a whole new level of denseness on your part.”
“Aw shit, sorry Neru,” Teto apologized aloud to her friend, Miku turned to see what was going on.
“What happened?”
“I forgot to tell her your full name, she just thought you were a different person named Miku, rather than Hatsune Miku, the idol.”
“I see, don’t stress too hard about it, you’re a friend, you don’t need to impress me,” Miku said struggling to hold back a laugh as she took in the situation. Neru gave Miku an appreciative nod before, her shoulders untensing before she turned to stare daggers at Teto a brief moment longer. Miku turned, gesturing for them to follow as she glided elegantly through the house’s small foyer to a cozy living room that would be strangely fitting to see in the average suburban house. Teto and Neru took a seat together on a soft couch while Miku sat in a chair which looked like it had seen a lot of love over the years across from them.
“How have you two been?” Miku asks her two guests.
“I’ve been well, I’ve gotten so much work done this week,” Teto replies before turning to translate Neru’s signs for Miku. “She says she’s been good too.”
“That’s good to-” Miku is quickly cut off by the sound of a loud thump coming from upstairs. “What the hell happened now? Sorry, give me a second. I need to go check on that and make sure one of the twins didn’t do something stupid.”
“It’s okay we understand,” Teto responded empathetically.
Neru and Teto watched as Miku briskly made her way up the stairs, the movements looked instinctual, like she had done this many times before. They heard the muffled sounds of Miku confusedly questioning someone and a distinctive male voice speaking in an apologetic tone before the man asked a question in return. Miku climbed back down the stairs this time with a blonde man in tow, Teto quickly identified him to be Kagamine Len, one of the two Kagamine twins. When he reached the bottom of the stairs Len came over and offered the two friends a hand.
“Yo, you guys must be Teto and Neru right? Name’s Len. It's nice to meet you," He said casually.
“Nice to meet you too, I’m Teto and she’s Neru,” Teto responded, shaking his hand.
Neru shook Len’s hand as well before turning to Teto and signing, “Can you tell him I said it’s nice to meet him for me.”
“There’s no need to ask her for that, I can understand you just fine,” Len remarked as if it wasn’t a pretty unexpected thing to learn about him.
“You know sign language?” Neru questioned him.
“Yeah, me and Rin used it to talk to each other as kids. It was our secret way of talking without Meiko or Kaito figuring out what we were saying. Well, until they learned it too, we got into a lot of trouble that day,” Len laughed, thinking about the memory.
Miku was completely lost as to what was being said, she had to piece together what was happening through just Len’s verbal replies, a task that was easier said than done.
“Do you want to hang out with us, Len?” Miku asked.
“If it’s cool with you I’d be down,” Len replied casually.
Teto and Neru nodded in agreement, so Len joined them, sitting in a chair next to Miku’s. Miku brought out a box of board games that she had for them to play. Neru quickly picked out a box of “Dos” cards, a game she was particularly good at and started to deal out cards. The group chatted casually as they began to play, from an outside perspective it would’ve looked like they had been friends for years.