He was sick of it.

It had been too long, too long.

Everytime he glanced at the panel of glass, he would always see the same thing; a dusty, rarely used attic, with some cardboard boxes cluttering up the corner of the space and some other things he could not name.

But other than this panel of glass, he was simply standing in an endless black void. He had contemplated on running to the far end of this void in an attempt to search for an exit, but he might just lose sight of this rectangle that still reminded him of reality and never make his way back again.

Losing sight of it would be like death.

On countless occasions, he would just sit there, almost going crazy in the endless darkness. It was rare, but sometimes, a small girl with short, dark blue hair would appear in the glass panel. Her mouth would always appear to be moving, and she would always appear to be speaking to someone out of his range of sight, but no matter how hard he pounded on the glass panel, or how loudly he screamed, she never seemed to notice him.

His voice would never seem to reach through the mirror.

After the first few times, he would just give up and slump against the glass panel. He didn't even glance back whenever he saw the flash of blue hair appear again. A reminder that he was invisible to the outside world was not needed.

Len didn't know how much time passed. He just sat there, staring into the endless space of darkness, devoid of any form of life. As every second ticked by, he could feel his hope start to drain away, despite the numerous attempts he tried to get himself cheerful again.

Until one day, a surprised voice pierced through the panel.

"What are you doing there?"

It was a smooth voice, unlike the cracked one Len heard whenever he screamed to be let out, the one that seemed rusty, as if it hadn't been used for decades.

His neck twisted as he turned to look at the mirror. His hands shaking, he grabbed the edge of that small rectangle. His eyes were blown wide.

"What?"

He just raised his eyebrows.

"I said, "what are you doing here".

Len blinked, opened his mouth, then shut it again.

"You… can see me? You can hear me?"

The man on the other side smiled and shrugged.

"You tell me."

Len stared for a second. Fine, a second too long. He chewed his lip.

"I'm Len. Len… Kagamine. Don't laugh. What's yours?"

He cocked his head.

"Kagamine… huh. Go figure. Anyway, my name is Kaito Shion."

Len stood up, pressed his hands to the mirror. His eyes looked thoughtful.

"Do you… know a way for me to get out of here? Or at least follow you?"

The question seemed a bit sudden, and Kaito took a step back. Either Len is perfectly fine with asking a complete stranger directly for a favour, or he was really desperate.

Although, judging by his facial expressions, it appeared to be both.

"I… I don't know," Kaito admitted, albeit a bit slowly. The light in Len's eyes dimmed and he looked downcast.

"Oh… okay." He didn't know why, nor understood why, but Kaito didn't like it when the blond was so… discouraged. It was like an instinct, almost an automatic response, but he felt the words rolling off his tongue anyways.

"But I could come see you everyday."

Len's eyes lit up when he heard the bluenet say that. "Really? That's great! You won't… abandon me, right?"

His smile grew when Kaito nodded. "Speaking of which, do you happen to know a female, with hair and eyes the same shade of blue-"

"Kaito, lunch!" a voice yelled from somewhere out of Len's sight.

The man turned to look in its direction. He shot an apologetic look at him and whispered, "Sorry, gotta go."

"Wait, I'm coming!"

And he scampered out of sight.

The feeling of loneliness returned. This time, it didn't close in. It hung around him like a fog, and he did, in fact, have his vision obstructed by, well, fog.

"Great. Now metaphors are real?"

He sighed. He would just have to live with it. After all, it wasn't guaranteed he would break out of this cage, and it was, at the very least, a difference to the empty void he was used to.

Time passed. Len didn't know how long, nor was he aware of the events that were going on downstairs. The next thing he knew, the same bluenet had appeared again.

"Oh. You're still here."

Surprised was laced in his tone, as if Kaito didn't believe what had happened a while ago had actually happened. As if he didn't believe that Len was really, and truly, stuck in the mirror.

Well, he was handling the situation pretty well for a person living in the world where stuff like this doesn't happen.

It still didn't mean that Len didn't think he was stupid. It didn't mean that he wasn't mad.

"What, did you think I could just pop out of the mirror whenever I want? Why did you think I was so desperate to get out of here? I've been stuck here for long, too long. I've probably been in here for years. Did you think I was joking?"

He grabbed the edges of the little rectangle. He gripped until his white knuckles turned even paler and the glass threatened to cave. His eyes narrowed into slits. He wanted to throw something.

He let go, instead resorting to digging nails into flesh. It was better than shouting, it was better than caving.

He turned away so that his face couldn't be seen, walking off into the distance. He was a coward. He was a coward, but he wouldn't stop, not even for the voice that shouted for him through the window.

He trudged forward, his legs never seeming to tire, even though the little glittering window had disappeared. He wasn't sure how long he'd been walking, how far he'd gone, but he was used to that. It was expected. What wasn't expected, however, was a square window, similar to the one he'd left behind but much smaller, appearing in front of his face.

He walked forward. It followed. He walked backwards. It followed once again.

He decided to examine it.

It was showing a scene. It felt like he was watching a movie. Wait, what was a movie?

Suddenly, a wall of thoughts slammed into his head, like they were all trying to get in at once. The window disappeared. He no longer needed it. Memories flooded in, but one managed to stay afloat through the strong current.

A small group at an amusement park, laughing. It was… him, and the others, a girl that mirrored his features except for his eyes, a slightly taller teal haired girl, an older brunette, a pink lady that looked to be the same age, and… Kaito.

Rin Kagamine. Miku Hatsune. Meiko Sakine. Luka Megurine. Kaito Shion. Their names. Len Kagamine. That was him.

Tears pricked at his eyes. He bit down hard on his tongue, nails dug deep, but he knew even if he bit his tongue off, if his fingers pierced through his arm, he wouldn't stop the tears. He knew people before.

He ran back. Ran away from painful memories, ran to find that big mirror.

While he was running, he started to think, Why me?

A voice slipped into his head. It was the type of voice that children heard in nightmares, distorted hisses that you could barely make the words out of.

You were an extra. A spare. Two bodies sharing one soul is forbidden, and you only had a quarter! You were just a dead weight, dragging the rest of them down.

Another wave crashed down on him. A wave of exhaustion. It knocked him onto his hands and knees, and the force of the impact made them sting.

Something glimmered in the distance.

His eyes bulged. He crawled towards it, thundering waves shoving him down, the feeling of bitter water filling his mouth coming and going. He was crawling for what felt like a year before his grip on reality was before him, close enough to touch.

"Kaito!"

He shouted until his throat was hoarse, and then he kept on shouting. A little voice at the back of his head, sounding just like his own, said that it wouldn't work, that they wouldn't hear him.

Footsteps approached. Blue hair, broad shoulders, tall stature. It was him.

"I need you to smash this mirror. Right now."

He looked surprised.

"I don-"

"Right. Now."

He saw the window shake as it was carried outside the house, out the backdoor, into the trees. Len shook.

"Now, there's two things that can happen. Either I die and leave blood, glass, and guts lying around, or, I live and escape the mirror. Either option is fine by me."

Kaito's face wrinkled, unsure.

"Hey, if it's any comfort, you won't see me. I'll be in hell."

The taller's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. He cleared his throat.

"Okay."

Len got a glimpse of the sky as the mirror was lifted. The sun was setting.

It was the last thing he saw.

…

Later, at around seven pm, Kaito Shion was found staring at a smashed mirror. It was only obvious it was a mirror, though, when they cleaned all of the blood and flesh from the ground.

He sighed, pondered.

"Len was nice. I can't believe that he was the one that got stuck. Thought he would've known how to get out."

He spent that night picking mirror shards, pieces of wood, and pieces of person out of the grass.

Okay, guys, don't kill us. I mean, don't kill Keito. It was me who asked her to write a bad end.

But on the bright side… compensation for not updating G/?TCH and Glass Wall? Yeah, no. You guys probably won't accept this shitty piece of one-shot.

So back to Keito.

I admit, I was reading Terry Pratchett before this. So I got a teeny lil bit of inspiration. Anyway, just as a heads-up, I'm starting a oneshot compilation, Shield Your eyes.

Thanks for readin'.

Kyasarin, Keito, out~