Chapter Text
"Ah, I'm such a good boss," Otomachi mused to herself as Kasane had called for help from within Miku's tight hug. Her cries fell upon deaf ears as the boss praised herself for a job well done. She was too easy sometimes.
"Oh, come on, newbie," Miku snickered as she finally set Kasane down, who was now clutching her sides as she took quick breaths. "It's just a hug, no need to get so worked up. Don't you think we're so much more in tune now that we've-"
"Ms. Otomachi, I'd like to return to my work now, if we're done here," the newbie interrupted her, turning to the purplette.
"Oh, of course! Go on, Kasane, don't let me hold you back from getting some great work done! I hope you two are now more aware of how far a little connection can get you!" She waved goodbye to the redhead as she rushed out of the office. Miku was about to follow suit when she heard, "Hatsune, may I have another moment with you? I'd recommend closing the door."
She gulped. Despite her cheery demeanor, the boss was nothing if not incredibly intimidating. Nevertheless, she complied and closed the office door before taking her seat before Otomachi.
The purplette clicked her tongue and rested her head atop her hands. "You and I both know very well that this isn't your first time getting engaged in physical workplace conflict like this. Have you truly not learned your lesson by this point?"
Miku scoffed. "Well, back then, what was I supposed to do?! She did the same shi… things to me a lot, and when it got that bad, was I supposed to just sit back and take her punches until I died from blood loss?!"
"No, you were right to fight back, and I understand that it was a situation where there wasn't much more for you to do," Otomachi furrowed her brow. "But for that exact reason, I would've expected you to know better than start something with the newbie, Hatsune. Back then, I had already been a bit wary of Ms. VFlower, due of reports left from Akita and Yowane when they quit their internships. Stepping out of my office to see you bleeding from your forehead while fist-fighting her, and later hearing from your coworkers that this wasn't the first occurrence of that violence, was the final straw. If this had been any more similar to that situation, you would be receiving the same treatment."
A chill went down Miku's spine.
"However, I know that you're capable of moving past this and keeping your temper next time," the boss continued with a cheery yet somewhat perfunctory-looking smile. "You're a very valuable asset to our team here at CFM, I daresay more so than Ms. VFlower was, and I know you're capable of making this nothing more than a tiny blip on your record! If you keep up the good work, I've been considering giving you a promotion to the HR department, where you'd work with Hiyama!"
The aforementioned Human Resources worker, who Miku hadn't noticed was sitting in the corner of the office this whole time, coughed very loudly in what must've been surprise. "W-what?! I can handle the job on my own, don't I get any say in-"
"Nope!! The CEO herself thinks so, too!" Otomachi chirped, cutting off Hiyama's protest and causing him to slink back in his chair. She turned back to Miku with a dismissive wave. "Anyway, I'm getting off track. Point is, we can move past this as long as it doesn't happen again! Treat the newbie well, okay? She seems pretty easy to rattle, based on my interactions with her, and I know you used to be similar to that. It wouldn't hurt to find out if a little kindness could break her out of that shell a bit! With that, you're dismissed- go do some great work, okay?"
"Understood, thank you for considering overlooking this slip-up. It won't happen again," Miku expressed her gratitude as she began to stand up, momentarily folding herself into a professional bow before exiting the office.
She felt her breath begin to quicken. Stop it, she would tell herself, you're not like VFlower. You will never be like VFlower. She could be a better coworker to Kasane while maintaining her image- these walls around herself she'd crafted so meticulously. Things would not end for her in the same way they did with VFlower, they would not go down the same path. Violence just wasn't the way to go.
No matter what, she wouldn't let anyone lay a finger on Kasane again, lest she take the fall for it.
Miku had so shamefully broken that promise she made to herself. Yesterday, she failed the task she'd been sticking to for the past month.
She knew she was in the wrong. She knew her experience with VFlower didn't excuse her actions toward the newbie. She saw the coffee mug shatter beneath Kasane's arm, but was too caught up in her temper to do anything about it. At the end of the day, didn't breaking these deep-seated vows and attempts at being a little more humane make her so much worse than her former superior?
Well, she'd already been cutting it really close on that promise to herself, judging that she still acted like shit to Kasane. But since her conversation with Otomachi, it hadn't gotten physical until yesterday. For someone so determined to be better than VFlower, she sure was doing a terrible job. And it had all come crashing down because Kasane had asked if Miku cared about her.
She probably did. She couldn't admit to that, though.
When push came to shove, there wasn't much else that could describe it. Her excuse was that when a knight had a princess placed in their protection, they went through with their duties because that was their job- that was what was asked of them. But then again, now that she thought about it- if the knight didn't actually care for the princess, would they continue to defend her rather than neglecting their responsibilities and lying about it? Would they feel this heavy pool of guilt within their gut for breaking their promise and causing her injury? (This wasn't to say that Kasane was some helpless princess in need of defending, of course.)
She was positive that any other person would associate extraneous commentary and condescending behavior to be included in the prospect of hurting someone. That wasn't how it went down for Miku, though. Was she really that twisted for thinking so? Had the poorly balanced ratio of VFlower's physical to verbal cruelty really fucked her up that much?
Miku sighed as she stood up from her cubicle to go to the break room. After telling Kasane to stay away from her, she would have to start getting coffee for herself. How long would it take for her nosy coworkers to become suspicious of her? The wise thing to do would be to make up with the newbie in hopes that she'd be willing to pour more black coffee for her, but that would be humiliating and she couldn't guarantee she'd be forgiven after what she'd said.
She dug this grave for herself- now she had to lay in it. So, although that aforementioned newbie was doing her work at the break room table, Miku entered the room, pointedly ignoring her while she rummaged around in the cabinets for a new coffee mug.
｡・:*☕˚:✧｡
Teto's arm ached to hell and back.
There was absolutely no doubt that something about that damned mug injured her when Hatsune had slammed her down onto the counter in the main office space yesterday. However, when she'd briefly scanned her arm for cuts and gashes, there was nothing to be found. She couldn't even pinpoint exactly where the sharp pain was coming from. It just plain hurt, which was always nice and helpful.
Then again, she hadn't really had time to properly assess the damage, as she had tried to get herself to bed as quickly as possible- both so she didn't have to think about the argument she'd had with Hatsune, and also so she didn't have to risk falling asleep at work again. She might've missed a really bad cut in a blind spot or something, but this was less of a split-skin pain and more of a dull throbbing that sent sparks through her arm if she moved it too much. The impact of the shove hadn't broken her arm or anything, had it…?
In the corner of her eye, she could see Hatsune going through the cabinets, presumably searching for a new cup. It seemed she was really serious about not wanting to interact with her anymore, because the Hatsune she knew would likely rather be caught dead on the floor than get a drink for herself. It made her heart ache a bit, knowing that the reason all of this had happened was because she crossed a line. Hell, she probably crossed a whole ocean of lines, knowing how enraged her asshole coworker had looked. Stupid Kagamine and Megpoid, making her get all in her head like that in the first place.
And all of this stress was on today, of all days…
Trying to focus on her work, as she'd overthought their interaction enough already, she went back to working on her digital spreadsheet. It was simple enough, just typing in some numbers from old client files- and as much as she loved the analytics and numbers and whatnot, even she'd admit it was a bit dry to be doing this for a half hour. It was whatever, though. Anything to take her mind off of recent events.
That release was short-lived, however- she let out an involuntarily hiss of pain when she subconsciously moved her arm to push an already retyped sheet of paper away from the rest. Hatsune, who had been moving to leave the break room with a fresh cup of black coffee in her hand, snapped her head around like a cat hearing the crinkling of plastic. Teto looked over her arm once more to check for cuts- with no new discoveries- in the hopes that she would stop being scrutinized so hard by the bluenette's piercing stare, but this was to no avail as she walked over, set her cup on the table, and grabbed hold of Teto's arm. She began, "Wh- Hatsune, what are you-"
"Is your arm hurt that bad?"
"I thought you said you were going to stay away from-"
"There's a ceramic shard caught in your skin. Did you really not see it?"
Teto stopped in her tracks to look at the spot on her arm between Hatsune's fingers. There, sure enough, was a tiny fragment of the broken mug, slightly protruding from the pale skin in her arm. Shit, no wonder her arm hurt so bad. How could she have missed that?! "O-oh. I can handle it later when I go h-"
"No, I can't let you keep hurting like this," Hatsune interrupted, standing up and walking over to grab a dusty first-aid kit from the corner of the room. What? "I can get it out of there really quick. It's not my first time dealing with something like this. It won't hurt much more to remove than keeping it there."
"H-hold on a minute," Teto clung to her chair as she backed away from the taller as much as she could, "I'm more than capable of taking c-"
"I know you are. But I got you into this mess, didn't I?" Hatsune removed a pair of tweezers from the kit as she sat in the chair next to her. "I might as well get you out of it. Now, hold still."
Unable to think of a decent protest, Teto complied and froze as her arm was lifted into the air. Thank god, for Hatsune's sake, that the break room windows had their blinds down. She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip to suppress her pained reaction, feeling the sharp piece of ceramic leaving her body. Hatsune murmured something about how deep in the skin it had gone, but it was nothing more than white noise compared to the loud screaming and alarm sirens playing in her mind.
Within only a few seconds, though, the pain was gone, and she heard the clatter of tweezers landing back in their box. She opened one eye to find Hatsune beginning to unravel a roll of gauze. which was then wrapped around Teto's upper arm. She felt a tiny stinging sensation where the wound was, but other than that she could move the limb around without experiencing an explosion of pain. She sighed and rested her head atop her hands. "Ceramic in my arm, and I couldn't even notice it myself. Happy birthday to me, huh? I'm definitely an 'April Fool'," she deadpanned, accompanied by air quotes.
"Oh, I forgot about that," Hatsune admitted, putting the gauze back in the first-aid kit. "April 1st, huh."
Awkward silence followed. There were so many unsaid words, unspoken apologies, and unacknowledged elephants in the room. What was there to say at this point? Why did her pain make Hatsune change her mind so quickly?
"…I think I owe you an apology," the bluenette began, staring down at her own lap while fidgeting with her hands. "I know I've treated you like shit, and there's no excuse for me to be projecting my own issues onto you like I have been. I… I know I'm a difficult person, and I have a really bad temper, and I put myself before everyone else a little more than I should. My reputation isn't the only thing I have here, but I need you to understand that the people here can be reallybad. I can't go back to who I was before- not only is it too risky, but I just… can't. That's not me anymore. That's not the me that- that Akita Neru and Yowane Haku knew. Hell, if we were still in touch, they'd hate my guts now. They'd hate that I can't be who I used to, and that I've been treating a newbie how I have, and that I-"
Teto cut off her rambling with a hug. She didn't know why she was doing it, exactly, but she could grasp that it's probably what Hatsune needed right about now. She was proven correct when, instead of being shoved off and shouted at, the bluenette very slowly began to reciprocate. Not like the hug back in Otomachi's office- painful- and not like the one back in the storage closet- fragile- this was a real hug, without hesitation or pent-up frustrations.
"I know it's hard for you," Teto muttered into her shoulder, "I know. You don't have to change who you've become, because I know it wasn't your choice to make. Even though you've done bad things, that doesn't make you a bad person- at least, not in my eyes. I'm sorry, too, for bringing up your old friends like that and for assuming there were better ways for you to move past the things that happened to you. I… what I think is that neither of us are perfect, obviously- and we both need to work at bettering the ways we think about each other a bit."
Hatsune nodded her head as both women parted from the hug. "Yeah, I… I agree. And for what it's worth, I've done thinking, and… you're probably right." She averted her eyes in embarrassment. "I do care about you. A lot. I had to find some way to keep being the same coworker those other assholes all know without letting you get hurt again, especially not like me. I didn't want to end up like VFlower, and I didn't want you to end up like me. I kept making excuses for myself, but I don't think there's any other explanation for it. I really care about you, Kasane, and you're probably better off knowing that for sure instead of getting in your head again."
"O-oh." The redhead felt her face heat up like it had just yesterday. "Cool, I… I'm glad. I-I care about you a lot, too."
Hatsune chuckled to herself, having acquired a light blush herself. "Thanks, newbie. I know it probably isn't practical or conventional right now, but…"
She suddenly leaned in closer, holding Teto's face in position by her chin. "H-Hatsune??"
"…can I show you how much I care about you, just for a second?"
Teto's eyes practically widened to the size of dinner plates. She could hardly believe what was happening right now, but who was she to deny such an offer in her position? "…okay."
With that, Hatsune slotted their lips together. It was nothing extraordinary, just a simple kiss, but the shorter felt her stomach flip in excitement. It was nice, but so uncharacteristic of the other- gentle, lenient, soft-
Well.
Who was she to be characterizing the complex person that was Hatsune Miku?
When they parted for air, the bluenette chuckled again- a low, warm sound that set Teto's heart on fire. "Happy birthday, Kasane."
"Thanks," the aforementioned redhead responded, letting out a contented sigh.
"I should probably warn you, though," Hatsune began, holding a finger up as her eyes were back in their typical half-lidded state, "that I still might have to treat you like shit around here, even with this… new development. It'd be pretty risky for me to suddenly just-"
"It's okay, I get it!" Teto waved off the warnings with a grin. "I'm willing to play along if… if this is really happening. I don't know, this is so sudden, and while I'm not opposed to it, it still doesn't feel-"
"It's real, alright," Hatsune smiled back. "I care about you a lot, Kasane, and I wish I'd realized it sooner."
"Yeah, me too," Teto admitted with a little laugh. Finally, she could see where Ms. Otomachi was coming from- they did have the potential to be great coworkers, now that she had finally met this other side of Hatsune, the her that she wanted to be. They could work on themselves- the bluenette learning to let herself be more vulnerable, the redhead learning to be patient with that. The idea of these developments excited the newbie.
Teto was so glad to finally be melting her icy exterior at long last.