"Big sister! Big sister!"

The pink-haired girl turned her attention away from the small bouquet of wild flowers she was gathering to look at her younger, green-haired companion, her long ponytails flowing behind her as she ran

"Hm? What is it?" She asked, hiding the flowers behind her back. She'd intended for the colorful arrangement to be a special surprise for the younger girl.

"Look what I found! Aren't it's wings pretty!" The green-haired girl opened her closed fist, revealing a butterfly. At first she too was taken by it's beauty, but then she noticed that state it's wings were in from having been held so tightly in the younger girl's fists, with one of it's fragile wings pinched between her fingers.

"Ah! Oh no! You shouldn't hold a butterfly like that!" She gasped, running over, her hands nervously fluttering around the other girl's. There was no way to simply take the poor creature away from her now without hurting it any further, so all she could do was mime her command for the younger girl to release the butterfly.

"Why?" The green-haired girl asked, looking down at her catch, very much ignorant to its condition.

"If you handle a butterfly's wings like that it won't be able to fly again!" The pink-haired girl told her sternly, her tone much more angry than before. "Now put it down!" The other girl gasped in fright at both the realization she'd brought the butterfly harm and the fact the pink haired girl had become angry with her. Unsure of what to do, she let the creature fall from her hand and onto the grass where it squirmed and fidgeted helplessly. Even though it had been released, it's wings were far too worse for wear to fly with.

"Oh no, poor thing…" The pink-haired girl muttered quietly to herself as she knelt down, scooping up the injured butterfly as careful as she could, and in doing so dropped the flowers she had gathered that were scattered by the breeze. The butterfly twitched and jerked around on her palm in a painful, disheartening display. There was nothing she could do but watch as a small lump began to form in her throat for the inevitably doomed insect. But what surprised her even more was the soft sound of sobs. Taking her eyes off the butterfly she looked up to see the younger girl, her eyes glistening with tears. Now aware she was being watched, the green-haired girl furiously wiped at her tears with the back of her hands, sniffling loudly.

"I'm sorry…" She sobbed, her voice wavering as she spoke. "I…I didn't know…I…" The older girl sighed, the butterfly's hurt wings and her companions hurt feelings taking its toll on her as she stood to her feet. Careful not to drop the butterfly she reached out with one of her hands, resting it on the top of the crying girl's head just as gently as she was handling the injured butterfly.

"I'm not mad, you didn't know. We all make mistakes, it's alright." She said softly as she felt the tremors of the girl hiccupping under her light touch.

"W-Will it be able to fly again?" The younger girl sniffled, wiping away yet more tears. The pink-haired girl shook her head, her eyes resting on the butterflies damaged wings once more.

"I'm afraid it might not be able to, now," she said regrettably, seeing as the green-haired girl's sobs grew in volume in hearing she had hurt the creature beyond repair. Sighing, the older girl reached around, pulling her younger companion close to her, so much she could feel her tears seeping into her sundress. Lightly rubbing her back with one hand while still cradling the butterfly with the other, she softly shushed her, waiting until the younger girl's cries became quieter before she spoke again.

"The least we can do is make it comfortable, okay?" She asked.

"…Okay," The younger girl hiccupped, nodding in agreement. Smiling warmly at her, the older girl took her hand, leading her over to a small bunch of bushes. The two of them knelt down as they carefully rested the butterfly beneath the thick clusters of leaves.

"I'm sorry, mister butterfly," The younger girl sobbed lightly, rubbing at her eyes again that had begun to become red from crying. Her cheeks were also stained with tears and light streaks of mud from having wiped at her face with dirty hands.

"As long as you're sorry, I'm sure mister butterfly will forgive you," The older girl assured her, using the hem of her dress to wipe at her companion's cheeks. "And if it means anything to you, I've done much worse."

"Worse?" The green-haired girl gasped in disbelief. "What did you do?" The older girl smiled bitterly, looking deep into the other girl's eyes.

"I guess you could say I ripped the wings off a butterfly because I didn't want her to fly away," she told her, sounding sorrowful. "I couldn't bare the thought of her fluttering away to join the other butterflies, so I took away her wings so she could be mine forever… and the worst part is, I'm not sorry."

"Why…I don't understand," the younger girl looked up at her in shock and confusion. The older girl shook her head, her pink locks waving in her face.

"Never mind, just forget it," she sighed, standing to her feet and offering the younger girl a hand. "Maybe you'll understand when you're older."

"AH!" Hatsune Miku gasped, bolting up right in her bed. Her sheets and hair flew around her chaotically for a few seconds before coming to rest, messily. Taking a few seconds to let being awake sink in, she looked out her bedroom window. Petals from sakura trees danced lazily in the warm spring breeze, almost hypnotically.

"That dream again," she muttered to herself, slowly lowering herself back into her bed, gathering up the sheets she'd thrown off of her. It used to be the dream would come every so often, so little that every time she had it, it might as well have been new. But now it came to her almost every night since the day she graduated middle school, growing more and more detailed over the break.

She shook her head, trying to busy herself with other thoughts as she rolled over to look at her new high school uniform hanging on her coat rack near her bedroom door. Hours and hours of studying night and day for her entrance exams had paid off generously, and seeing her uniform just waiting to be worn filled her with the sweet feeling of accomplishment.

But then her eyes slowly drifted over to her clock sitting at her bedside table, and all of her feelings of being accomplished vanished like smoke.

"Crap!" She cried, throwing her sheets off of herself as she wildly ran for her door. If she stopped for a second to think about what she was going to do first, she would end up being late for sure. All she could do was frantically run about the house, doing things in a mismatched order of whatever flew into her panicked brain next. She would have run out of the house in her pajamas if her mother hadn't pointed out her error.

"Why didn't you wake me up!?" Miku whined from her bedroom as she hastily changed.

"I tried, but you refused to get up, you stubborn girl," Her mother scolded. Miku groaned in frustration as she hiked up her skirt, hardly even taking the amount of time it took to take a breath to look at herself in the mirror. Her two ponytails were uneven, and it looked like she'd just gotten out of bed (which wasn't much of an exaggeration). She quickly whirled around, desperately wanting to enjoy the moment of looking at herself in the mirror, but she hardly had the time. So, school bag in hand, she rushed down the stairs and bid her mother a quick goodbye as she raced out the door.

"Miku, wait! You forgot your lunch!" She called, but her daughter was already too far away to hear.

After what seemed like hours of running, the high school gates were in sight. Miku's lungs and legs stung and begged for her to take it easy now that the school was in sight and, thanks to her panicked sprint, she had a few minutes to spare before school began. But she ignored their silent pleas as she picked up her pace in the final stretch. But in her exhaustion, her footing had become clumsy, and unevenness in the sidewalk soon became her undoing. Before she knew what had happened she went from running for the school gates to plummeting to the ground below. She hardly even had time to cry out as she caught herself on her knee that was quickly relieved of its top layer of skin by the unmerciful concrete.

"Ow!" Miku whimpered, falling back onto her backside as she fought back tears. She felt her face grow warm as a small number of students passed her by, all watching her like she was some sort of zoo animal that had just done some sort of amusing trick. Embarrassed frown on her face, she began to search through her bag, where she'd messily thrown in what she had needed for the day, for her handkerchief. Perfect, she thought, she'd gotten up late, because of that she had no time to make herself look presentable for her first day of high school and now she'd just made a clumsy fool out of herself. She looked at her bleeding knee angrily, as if it had been the reason her day had started off so mediocre.

"Damn it, where did I put that thing," She muttered to herself, about ready to just pour the contents of her bag onto the sidewalk and find what she needed that way.

"Oh, my, are you hurt!?" She heard someone above her gasp as a shadow fell over her. Miku looked up, her eyes immediately falling on the figure's long, flowing, pink hair that gracefully fluttered in the breeze like the pink petals that swirled above them in the air. Shielding her eyes, Miku came to find it was an older girl wearing the same school uniform as her. Her face was kind and gentle and her soft-looking lips were drawn up in an understanding smile.

"Ah…" Miku's mouth hung open stupidly for a moment, stunned by the older girl's beauty before she got a hold of herself. "Oh, I…I fell, I'm fine," She assured her, going back and fourth between looking at the goddess of a girl who stood before her and back to her black-hole of a school bag. "I just need to find my handkerchief, stupid thing is missing…"

"Here," The older girl said kindly, handing Miku her own.

"What? Oh, no, I couldn't possibly-" Miku gasped.

"Please, take it, it's fine. You need it more than me," She smiled. Miku looked up at her in disbelief, her eyes slowly trailing down to the handkerchief the girl was offering her. After a few moments of jumbled thought she finally reached up, gingerly taking the piece of cloth between her fingers as if it were to rip in two if she held it any rougher. Her cheeks began to feel warm again, but now for a whole new reason.

"Th-Thank you," She stammered, looking up at the girl as if she were her savior.

"Don't mention it," The girl smiled warmly. "Oh, I'd better hurry or I'll be late! You think you'll be fine on your own?"

"Of course," Miku put on a brave smile as she showily rolled up one of her sleeves and jokingly flexed. "I'm tougher than I look!" The older girl lightly chuckled, her fingertips pressed against her lips as she laughed.

"I'm glad," She grinned, straightening up. "Good luck with your knee."

"R…Right…" Miku nodded blushingly as she rubbed the silky fabric of the handkerchief between her fingers. "Wait! What's your-" but before she could ask, the girl had already gone, and was now gathered amongst a group of girls her age who happily greeted her as they disappeared into the school court yard. Miku sighed, looking at the handkerchief and feeling almost bad she'd soon be sullying it with her own blood. A pink "L" was embroidered on the corner of the pure-white surface.

"L…" She said aloud before begrudgingly wrapping it gently around her wounded knee. She made a very bold note in her mind to try and wash the precious piece of cloth, mostly so she could have a reason to seek the pink-haired girl out so they could talk again.

"Oh, there she is!" A happy and relieved voice rang through the courtyard that Miku recognized immediately. Looking up from the pavement she looked to see her two friends from middle school who had applied to the school along with her: Rin and Len. They stood outside a thinning crowd that was gathered around the bulletin boards that addressed which classes they'd been placed in.

"Told you she'd probably get up late," Rin giggled, nudging her twin brother as they both ran up to her.

"What happened to your knee?" Len asked once the two of them reached her.

"Oh, nothing big, I just fell on my way here, that's all." Miku chuckled, embarrassment engraved in her smile.

"That's no surprise," Rin snickered, "You've always been clumsy, of course you'd eat it on your first day of high school, just in case your legend of having no coordination hasn't been heard of yet."

"That's me," Miku sighed, rolling her eyes as the three of them walked over to the bulletin boards. "The master of being clumsy." Looking down at her knee she couldn't help but smile. Maybe being clumsy, for once, had been a good thing.

The day had gone over without any real incident. Miku had always expected her first day of high school to be amazing and eye opening, but instead things had run smoothly to the point of almost being mundane. Rin and Len had been placed in a separate class, leaving Miku to try and keep her head above water on her first day alone. It seemed that everyone knew everyone else from middle school and she was the only one left outside the loop. It almost seemed intimidating to even consider the thought of infiltrating the small cliques that had already begun to form in the classroom.

But what was more disheartening was the fact she hadn't seen the pink-haired girl from that morning at all. Granted, she hadn't had much time to look all over the school for her, she'd hoped to at least see her once more. All of her chances of getting to see the girl again had rested on when school got out, but she was met with crowds of people asking her to join their club when she had entered the court yard, giving her little chance to even find Rin and Len, let alone the pink-haired girl. That and, by that time, she was so overcome by hunger she couldn't even think straight or put up a fight to make her way through the crowds of people recruiting first years for their clubs, so all she could do was stand there and take whatever flyers were being shoved into her hands

Sighing in defeat she stumbled into her room, exhausted, throwing the disorganized pile of papers onto her bed before flopping down on it herself. Flyers for all sorts of clubs flew up into the air as she crashed against her mattress, then fluttered back to earth and rested on top of her.

"Tomorrow will be better," Miku told herself, rolling over so she could see just what clubs the school had to offer. In middle school she didn't see much of a point and had been a religious member of the "go home" club, but now it seemed being in one would be essential if she wanted to make any new friends. She sifted through the papers, none of them really catching her interest. Sports clubs were a big no, that was for sure. Being in one only left a high probability of herself or someone else getting hurt somehow. There were a lot of other clubs for miscellaneous hobbies, but nothing Miku was really into.

Then her eyes fell on a sheet near the bottom of the hefty stack. It was a simple looking flyer, decorated with small music notes. On the top of the page were bold letters reading "Choir club". She skimmed over the rest of the smaller details written on the page. Singing had always been something she loved, though she'd always been to shy to lend her voice to anything outside of karaoke. The thought of singing in front of and with other people made her feel nervous, but it was either that or try her chances with another club she wasn't all that interested in.

"Choir club, huh?" She mumbled. "I guess I'll have to give it a shot." She reached down, her fingers tracing over the handkerchief she hadn't dared take off her knee. A small, red stain had soaked through the fabric, leaving the area crusty and rough compared to the surrounding softness. Part of her wanted to give it back to the girl, wash away the blood and present it to her fresh and clean, but another part of her wanted to keep it to try and preserve the memory.

"What is this feeling?" She wondered allowed as she caressed her warm cheeks with her fingertips that were frigid in comparison. She'd never felt this way about another person before, much less a girl. Society had programmed into her brain that girls should fall in love with boys, so why was it that she was blushing like a lovesick schoolgirl whenever she thought back on that morning. Her long hair that flowed gracefully in the wind, her unblemished skin that reminded her of a doll, her deep blue eyes that looked at her with nothing but kindness- Miku continued to get lost in her visions of the girl. And as much as it made her feel warm and drunk off a feeling that she guessed was love, it made her feel dirty. She was a girl, there was no way her feelings would come across as normal.

Frustrated with her own feelings she grabbed her pillow, loudly groaning into it as she pressed it against her face.

"I shouldn't feel this way!" She moaned, her voice muffled by her pillow. "This…this isn't normal!" All through the night she continued to tell herself the same thing. Every time she pictured the eyes she could get lost in or the smile she wanted desperately to press her own lips against she'd think to herself that the feelings that she had in her heart were abnormal. No one would understand or accept them- it was best to try and kill the flame before it became a raging inferno.

Maybe it was just stress of going to a new school or maybe the sweet scent of the spring air had finally gotten to her. She searched and searched for reasons, anything that would explain why she felt this way.

"It's probably nothing," She muttered as she slowly drifted into sleep that night. "Tomorrow…tomorrow I'm sure… I'll stop feeling this way."

The next day Miku had gotten up at a reasonable hour and had enough time to make herself look presentable. She'd remembered her lunch and had enough time on her hands that she could walk to school without any problems. But despite it all she felt awful. The feelings she was sure she would escape once she'd gotten some sleep still lingered inside of her. The very thought of the girl brought a blush to her cheeks and all she could think about was how badly she wanted to see her again. She'd washed the handkerchief the other night thoroughly enough that there wasn't even a scrap evidence that she'd used it just so she could have a reason to seek her out. Even in her dreams, all she saw was all sorts of twisted fantasies of what would happen when she gave it back, and they made her feel like she'd committed some sort of sin.

"Miku!" Miku jumped, hearing someone call her name and drag her from her rose-tinted fantasies. It was Rin and Len, running up behind her.

"My, aren't we early today," Len teased as the two of them positioned themselves at either side of her. "And here I thought you were going to be running frantically to school again. I guess I lose that bet."

"Shh! Len!" Rin hissed, her finger pressed against her lips. "Don't tell her we made a bet, stupid!"

"Sorry to disappoint," Miku chuckled. "I guess I can't be late every day." Her eyes darted back and fourth as she spoke, desperately searching for the pink haired girl. But with each turn of her head she continued to come up empty handed.

"Hmm? What's wrong, you loose something?" Rin asked, taking noticed to Miku's strange behavior.

"What? Huh? Oh, no, I…Nothing…" Miku muttered, cutting her search off short to stare down at the pavement. Rin and Len looked to one another, sharing a confused look as they both shrugged.

And, much to Miku's dismay, another school day passed by and she had yet to find the girl her thoughts refused to stray away from. Her spacey attitude had gotten her into trouble all day and now that the day was over she felt herself growing more and more disappointed- So much she nearly forgot about the fact she had made plans to check out the choir club. Digging for the paper, she ran back into the building as she frantically searched for the room.

Once she found it she paused, her arm outstretched and ready to open the door. She thought over what to say, like she was rehearsing for some sort of play. Clearing her throat she took one final deep breath before slowly opening the door.

"H…Hello?" She called softly as she peeked inside. Only one person was in the room then, and the very sight of that person made Miku's heart skip a beat. Pink hair that danced in the breeze coming from an open window, kind blue eyes that turned her way as she was drawn inside- every inch of her perfect body seemed complimented by the glow of the sun from outside. It was her, the girl she'd been searching for, the girl she couldn't stop thinking about. This had to be some sort of dream, or maybe she had the wrong clubroom! But before she could turn her tail and flee the girl spoke up, bringing all plans for Miku to try and escape to a crashing halt.

"Hello," She said sweetly. "I'm Megurine Luka, vice president of the choir club. It's very nice to meet you."