"Where could she be?"

A tall, sixteen-year-old boy paced around the living room, glancing at the clock every five seconds. On his head were several blond spikes around the front of his head, with the rest pulled back into a tiny ponytail. Bright, blue eyes blinked rapidly from worry. Worry that his twin sister would either be home late, or not even appear until morning. The thought of thugs kidnapping his dear sister immediately came into thought.

"No, no, no!" He shook his head, refusing to believe that such a thing could happen. His sister wouldn't be that stupid to be out alone at night. She said that she was out with her friends.

Unless she lied.

"RIIIIN!" Len cried loudly. "YOU BETTER NOT BE LYING! YOU CAN'T BE!"

Len then proceeded to smack his face with a couch pillow. He also kept on screaming Rin's name and something about coming home late.

This went on for thirty-five minutes.

When he reached thirty smacks to the face, his face was slightly red, and his hair was a little messy. When he reached fifty smacks to the face, his face was VERY red, and his hair was messier than before. It was hard to tell which was worse: that it was already midnight and Rin wasn't home yet, or that Len was hitting himself. Luckily, he stopped hitting his face by the time it was ten past twelve.

"Rin..." he said sadly, staring at the ceiling. "Why aren't you home yet? Did you forget what we were supposed to do at midnight...?"

12:41 A.M.

"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!~" a cheery voice rang from the front door. Len sprang up from the floor and dashed to the foyer. Rin's home! he thought cheerfully. He was too happy to find his sister home safe, he even dismissed the weird tone in her voice. HIS SISTER WAS HOME!

"Rin, Rin!" he shouted happily. "Let's go to the living room and celebrate-"

Holy fudge... Rin?

Standing in front of the door was not the energetic twin who always came home with a bag of oranges. In fact, it was the very opposite.

Rin's hair was ruffled, messy, and her big, white bow was missing. Her face was red, maybe even worse than Len's face. It didn't help that her usual scent of oranges was replaced with sake and that her clothes were more wrinkled than usual. Add that she had fallen asleep flat on her face, and the results were...less than lovely. Len stared up and down at her as realization dawned on him.

Rin. Went. Drinking.

But...how? was his question. Quickly, he took out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"...Hello?" came the sleepy reply.

"Miku! Were you with Rin today?" Len shrieked.

Miku almost shot out of bed at Len's scared tone. Why was he calling this late? And about Rin?

"No, did something happen? Did Rin get kidnapped?"

"No! She's home, and...I'm just checking! See you!"

Click.

Miku stared at the bright screen. Something was definitely up, and it was scaring Len out of his wits. Rin was probably home (it IS midnight...), so what happened? Especially on today of all days.

After calling every single friend on his and Rin's phone, Len managed to come to the conclusion that nobody was with her. At midnight.

ALONE.

He didn't know whether to feel scared or relieved. Scared because she went out alone, and relieved that she was home alive. It was practically a miracle...

Len slapped his face. He was probably just over-reacting. Yeah...that's it. After all, he was the kind of sibling who cared too much about such trivial things. He needed to let Rin be on her own and make her own mistakes. He couldn't take care of her forever.

"Ha ha...what was I thinking?" he chuckled lightly. Len turned to his sister, who was finally awake from her daze and laughing as well.

"Aaah, good morning, Len," Rin said. "Did I miss something?"

"Ahahaha! Nothing much!" Len replied. "Aren't you tired?"

"Eeeeeh...a little?"

"I'll draw the bath, then. You can rest a bit."

"Thanks, Len!"

Len smiled as Rin skipped past him to the kitchen. He really didn't have anything to worry about after all. Rin probably just took Meiko's sake (how she didn't get caught is a mystery to him), but where she went exactly...he could ask lately.

As he began running the bath and adding in orange-scented bubble, he thought about her behavior when she was awake. Aside from the (slurred?) weird voice and messy appearance, she was all right. Nothing seemed to happen to her, so that was one less burden. If only they could have celebrated...

A few minutes later...

"Yaaay, bath's done. Time to go get Rin." Len stretched his arms as he slowly stood. He ran down to the kitchen, where Rin was eating an orange.

"Rin, you can go-" Len stopped midway. His eyes darted to her neck, where an unmistakable mark stood out on her pale skin.

"Len?" Rin asked. "What's up?"

"Rin..." his hands curled up into tight fists. Heat slowly rose over him, and his blood began to dangerously boil. His face was probably turning red, but he didn't care. He didn't care about the bath or Rin's late home appearance. Heck, he didn't even care that his nails were drawing a bit of blood.

How. Dare. She. Go. Get. Screwed.

"RIN!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. He sped to her and gripped her shoulders. Rin's eyes widened in fear.

"L-Len..." Rin quietly said. Even her voice reflected her feelings. "You're scaring me..."

"WHO GAVE YOU GET THAT HICKEY! WHEN DID YOU GET IT! AND WHY!"

"E-eh?"

"TELL ME, RIN! TELL ME NOW! WHO DID IT!"

"M-M..."

"WELL!"

"M-Mi..."

"COME ON! TELL ME! WHAT, ARE YOU TOO SCARED TO TELL THE TRUTH? TOO SCARED TO TELL BIG BROTHER THE SHAMEFUL ACTS YOU DID! HUH? HUH?"

"MIKUO DID IT!" Rin suddenly shrieked. She pushed Len away with such force that he fell to the ground. Rin quickly backed away from him, as if he was some sort of animal. Len looked surprised at the turn of events. "We d-did it and he gave this hickey. to me! What's wrong with that?"

"You're sixteen! You can't be doing this sort of crap!" he yelled back. "Are you crazy?"

"He loves me, and I love him!" Rin countered. "I'm prepared for the consequences! So stop treating me like a baby, Len! I can take care of myself!"

I can take of myself! Those words rang in Len's head, and he remembered what he had been thinking earlier.

Of course she can take care of herself...they weren't kids anymore. Why should he interfere?

"You're right..." he mumbled.

"What?"

"I don't need to get all worked up over this." Len slowly stood up and examined the punctured marks on his palms. He slowly looked up at Rin, but refused to meet her eyes. "Even though you're not grown-up by age-standards, you can take care of yourself. You don't need me anymore."

"Len?"

"Good night." Len left the room, leaving Rin all alone. Once he was out of Rin's sight, he ran to his room, thankfully far away from Rin's. He slammed the door shut, locked it, and sank onto the bed. He took the pillow and stared at it. The moments replayed over and over, boiling his blood once again. His hands tightened back into fists. Channeling all of his anger, Len began punching the pillows as long as he could. Hot tears poured out from his eyes with each unsatisfying hit, which caused him to keep going. As much as he didn't want to believe it, Rin was right. She didn't need Len in her life. He wasn't a parent after all. If she wanted to do it, then fine.

Fatigue soon claimed his arms, and he had to stop taking his anger out on the pillow. With a heavy sigh, he turned off the lights and slipped under the covers. Len allowed himself to cry tears at last, slowly taking in the facts.

Rin doesn't need me to watch over her life. She can take of things without me, he thought, heartbroken. I just wanted to celebrate our...

He couldn't finish his last thought as he fell into a fitful sleep.

-Rin's POV: 3rd Person-

She didn't get it. Not one bit. Len was scolding at her. Not to mention that he was also furious about her and Mikuo's doing. But after she yelled at him, he stopped and left? What the heck?

"Brothers," she mumbled angrily, opening the fridge. "They're all idiots."

A large, fancy white box sat on the middle shelf. Curious, she carefully took it out and set it on the table. Rin tried to think of what was in it. A variety of pudding? A cold fancy meal? Cake?

Wait...cake? Rin thought in disbelief. Oh no...

She slowly lifted up the lid, and there it was. A large, vanilla cake with orange frosting on one side and banana on the other. The center of the cake had Japanese writing on it with opposite flavors on top.

"Happy...birthday...to...us," Rin slowly read. Under the message was "From Len."

I am the worst sister ever...