trans_9 | Be It Ever So Humble

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Be It Ever So Humble

If she'd counted her days right (and Miku was sure she had), then it was October for her. Her birthday, to be precise. Miku looked at her reflection in the mirror. She certainly didn't look like she was twenty, did she? But, what had she expected, a sudden aging overnight?

Miku prodded at her cheek with a finger and made a face. Maybe she'd been expecting the start of a wrinkle, or a hair suddenly turned gray. But no, nothing different, and nothing new. Miku turned to look at the conjured house around her again, finding some solace in the familiarity of home. It was important, of course, not to let herself stay in here too long. There were things she had yet to learn, and things that needed to be done.

She scurried from the bathroom to the foyer, from the foyer to to the living room, past a sleeping Ruri curled on the couch, and outside where she'd been doing something nice and asinine - raking October leaves up in the yard to use them for fuel to make sweet potatoes.

It was her birthday, after all, she deserved a nice treat.

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For once in her life, Sasami wanted something simple to deal with. That dragon person going nuts, then the gravity going out, it was a bit too much so soon.

She had intended to go into the sensoriums and bring up her home on Earth, only to be caught off guard by the fact the one she wandered into was occupied. She couldn't help but notice that the outdoors that was created here was set in the fall - that was the time when she came to Earth...

"Wow... it's so pretty...!" Sasami commented.

Miku jumped slightly, and immediately chastised herself. "Well, thank you," she said warmly. My, but that little girl's hair was blue, wasn't it? And her eyes were pink. Just like she'd fallen out of a shoujo manga. "But, I suppose I shouldn't take credit for the weather."

Sasami couldn't help but chuckle at Miku's reply. "Oh, I know..." She looked around for a bit before letting out a wistful sigh. "I remember seeing my first autumn. It was wonderful..."

Shaking her head, she smiled widely and bowed. "I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself earlier - I'm Sasami!"

"I'm Miku," she replied and returned the bow. "It's very nice to meet you, Sasami-chan." Wah! So cute, and polite, too! How many children were like Sasami on board? Though, her wording was just a little peculiar, "What do you mean 'first' autumn?" It wasn't possible for her to have been an infant and remember such a thing.

Sasami looked down at that. She remembered how Karen reacted to her over what she was. "Promise not to react badly? Well... it's just... I'm not from Earth. I'm... I'm an alien..."

True, there were others like her out there, but still, it made her feel self-conscious - after all that time trying to hide her origins, actively coming out with them still wasn't the greatest thrill of her life.

"Well," Miku smiled. "It could be worse, I guess, and I don't think that has been the worst thing I've heard while I've been here." The possibility of her boyfriend monstering out had been. Yes, that was more frightening by far. Something in her chest squeezed uncomfortably and she raked up a few more leaves.

"And at least it explains your hair and eyes; I was afraid I needed to have my eyes checked, Sasami-chan." Miku laughed quietly.

Sasami let out a chuckle herself. "I guess you don't have anyone that has something like this where you're from, huh?"

"I've heard about some of the things that's happened here... but... I guess I'm glad I wasn't involved in them." Trying to change the subject, she noticed her raking leaves. "Why are you raking leaves? ...are you going to bake sweet potatoes?"

Yes, Sasami knows about that, too - that's how her first day on Earth ended - enjoying some sweet potatoes.

"Only in manga," Miku smiled. "And yes, I am. I thought it would be a nice treat." That, and she missed seasons! Stacy's eternally humid temperature was painful and already made the idea of passing time hard to judge. "I was going to finish here, and then go to my back yard, so I won't disturb the neighbors."

Not that there were actually any neighbors to speak of, but that didn't mean Miku was going to ignore time-honored manners.

"It's always nice to have some sort of treat for yourself." Sasami said, nodding. "Though, I didn't have to worry about bothering neighbors. Where I lived was pretty much to ourselves, so it gave us a bit of privacy to do whatever we needed."

Like make sure no one wondered why there was a big explosion because her sister and her rival were fighting over the same boy.

Sometimes Steve felt bad about always barging in on people in the sensoriums, but... well, it was Miku. He was usually welcome to hang out with her in here. In fact, it was kind of the status quo for him.

He appeared down the street a little ways and his clothes immediately adjusted for the weather, a hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

"Hey Miku," he said. "Is this the, er... outside of your house?"

Miku looked up from the prodigious pile she'd started and smiled, "That's right. I was going to work my way to the back and make sweet potatoes." She prodded the pile with her toe. "What were you up to?"

"Nothing, really," he said. "I was just wandering around again and you happened to be in here again..." Totally innocent. Yeah.

And thinking about cooking. Steve had only eaten her food a few times but he was finding out quickly that he really, really liked a girl who could cook. "I didn't know they made sweet potatoes in Japan."

Miku looked thoughtfully up at the sky and tapped her chin with a gloved finger. "Well, they shouldn't be too terribly different, I would think." After all, wasn't a potato, a potato? "People put them in wagashi and grill them and fry them in tempura batter... all kinds of thing. Anyway, it was my birthday, so, I thought I deserved a treat."

It'd slipped out so naturally that Miku didn't realize what she'd said until it hung on the air for several seconds after. "Er..."

"I've had the tempura kind before," Steve said, and he seemed pretty proud of the fact. Hurray culture! "But what's wugashii?" A noble attempt, really.

But then she mentioned it and his eyes suddenly widened. "Wait, it's your birthday?" he asked incredulously. She was 20! Twenty! (It seemed odd that Steve wouldn't need to ask how old she was... but he had done little more than obsess over the age difference between them for quite a while now.)

He suddenly felt very self-conscious for several reasons. "Oh man, I wish I knew! I would have got you... something."

"Wah-gah-shi," Miku corrected, trying to avoid the subject of her birthday. It was awkward enough that there was an age difference between them, and when it brought itself to light, well... That's what ignoring it entirely was for! "They're sweets..."

She nudged the pile of leaves with her toe quietly. "I... don't really need any gifts, Steve." It would be selfish of her, when they ship had basically nothing in terms of individual items.

"Well, not really a gift, since I don't know what I'd give you," he corrected-- unless she really liked tentacle shaped things cut off the wall or something. "But I could at least do something nice for you. I mean, I am your-"

Small choking noise.

Steve was red in the face as usual, reaching up to push his hair out of his eyes. "Or I mean, I could... just hang out? If you want?"

"I'd like that," Miku smiled, and hoped that the frantic, shaky feeling in her chest would go away, soon. Oh, panic. She didn't miss you in the least. "I'll... I'll go get another rake."

What? You thought you'd get out of helping her, Steve? Miku dropped her and ran around the house to the back.

Oh, man, raking leaves. He hadn't done that in a long, long time. Almost over a year now.

... It was so wonderfully normal.

And her absence gave him a chance to have a miniature panic attack. Twenty! Three years older than him! He was turning eighteen soon (he assumed...) anyway, but what if she decided he was too... too unsophisticated for her?

At least he could show her what an excellent leaf raker he was...?

Miku came running back with a rake and a man-sized pair of gloves a few minutes later, after having her own tiny panic of her own. Should she just have told him earlier?

No, that would've been more awkward. Mm. Miku handed the rake to Steve and smiled. "I'm sorry I don't do more exciting things when you come in." Motorcycle lessons were as exciting as she tended to get, weren't they?

"Don't worry about it," Steve assured her as he slid on the gloves. "Trust me, after the way my life's been going, I like doing unexciting things."

He tackled the leaves with gusto, perhaps trying to show off. "I didn't see your house from the outside last time," he said. "I couldn't even really tell it was in Japan if I didn't know better."

"Well, I guess one place sort of looks like the other, from the inside." Miku stopped raking to consider that thought. "Except in spring. You can always tell yourself you're definitely in Japan during the spring." The cherry blossoms were everywhere, then. You'd have to be blind to not notice them.

Miku raked more leaves into her prodigious pile and smiled at Steve, then reached over and tugged on his arm. "Thank you for dropping by."

Steve just about jumped a foot in the air when Miku tugged on his arm. "Of course," he said. Nevermind it had been an accident, but after confessing it was her birthday Miku would have been hard pressed to get rid of him.

"And you should tell me if I can do anything for you for your birthday, seriously. Everybody deserves something nice on their birthday."

"All I want are sweet potatoes," Miku confessed. "I really can't think of anything I want aside from that." More clothing would be nice, but who didn't want more of that? She pulled her hand away from Steve's arm and reached up to brush her hair from her eyes. "But if I do, I'll tell you."

"Okay. If you really will," he said, kicking a small pile of leaves at her like a dweeb. "I'm not gonna buy you being too modest or saying you don't deserve anything, though, okay?"

Honestly, the sweet potatoes were sounding pretty exciting. And Miku was a great cook and all...

Miku squeaked and kicked some back at him, though with considerably less oomph. "H-Hey! I will, I will." She looked at the pile they'd amassed and nodded. "This looks like it will be good, I think. Hm..." Miku tilted her head from side to side before she nodded again.

"Definitely. Alright, I'm going to go get the potatoes!" she announced suddenly and hurried off with her rake again, behind the house.

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