My first successful oneshot.
This will make sense on its own, but it's inspired by this video:
youtube (dot) com/watch?v=MvjZ6VkLuCM
It'll make sense whether or not you watch it.
The story is... the same, yet different. Like, I stole the basic storyline.
I'll try to explain everything at the end.
Sing With Me
By Sophia Marsh (AKA Yoru Hikari)
For as long as he could remember, Len had been alone.
An empty world with nothing but a long piece of glass. There were seasons, yes, but no sun to guide them, no plants or nature to show their beauty. There was light, daytime and nighttime, but no apparent reason. But Len never questioned this, because it was the only world he had ever known.
It was winter. Bitter cold.
He shivered and did the only thing that had kept him alive in fourteen years of solitude. He sang.
He never knew where he learned the songs, but he knew them, and was comforted by the words. They were all he knew, all that signified that there could be a world beyond his. But somehow, when he looked into the glass, it was just the same expanse of nothing. A plane, nothing but the glass. That world was the same as his. The other world, the one of beauty, existed in another dimension. The dimension of song.
But today, Len didn't feel like singing. It didn't seem right. He sat down, curled up, and fell asleep.
He woke up to a tapping sound. He had never heard any sound but the sounds his feet made on the ground and the sound of his own voice. He had tried, long ago, to tap on the glass, but never again, for he was scared that his last piece of the world might break, leaving him trapped inside the void of his imagination.
He didn't know if what he lived in was reality, or just a dream, a dream held by a comatose boy that would never wake up. Perhaps it was supposed to be a punishment. But Len never saw it like that. To him, there was no such thing as loneliness. It was how he lived his entire life.
Reluctantly, he opened his eyes. There was a girl kneeling on the ground on the other side of the glass. She saw him awake, and her face lit up with a smile like nobody could have imagined.
"Hello?" said the girl. Her voice sounded like Len's... or maybe it was just his imagination. "Do you live here?"
"Yes," replied Len, "I always have."
"Oh, I wasn't sure you could speak the same language as me."
"I can," he assured her. "What's your name?'
"I'm Rin. What's your name?"
"I'm Len." He shivered from the cold.
"You know how it's so cold? I hear that when it's cold in the real world, it snows. They're like tiny drops of cold, and if there are enough, they stick together and you can make things out of them.'
"The real world? This isn't the real world?"
"Um... I heard that there's another world. Besides this one. If you go far enough, you might find the window into it."
"Wow. I never knew that. Maybe..."
"What?"
"Never mind. It's stupid."
"Tell me!"
"Maybe... if we walk along this glass together for long enough, we can find it."
"I've tried. That's how I found you. Maybe we can keep going together... so we won't be lonely."
Lonely. Lonely means you have nobody. Len finally realized that what he had felt all these years must have been loneliness, but he never realized it because it was all he ever knew. He didn't want to leave Rin. When she was there, he felt... whole. He could smile. He could laugh. Len didn't know the name of that feeling, though.
"Yeah. Let's go together."
"Here," Rin gestured to one side, "This is the way I came from, so..." She pointed in the other direction. "This is the direction we have to go."
"Okay."
They both stood up. Rin started walking, and Len ran to catch up with her, then tripped and fell down with an ear-splitting scream of pain.
"Are you okay?"
Len cried. He never felt this before either. It hurt so badly.
"Oh my god, it looks like you sprained your ankle. You'll be okay, just... relax..."
"I DON'T WANT TO RELAX!!! IT HURTS!!!!" Len started kicking his ankle and suddenly yelped in pain again and let it fall, limp, to the ground.
~~Ten Minutes Later~~
"Okay, now just relax. It'll heal in a few weeks, and you'll be fine."
"Where'd you learn all this stuff? You know about the outside world, and fixing my ankle, and so much..."
"I knew a person once. When I found the window to the real world."
"You found the window?"
"Yes, but it broke. Now I need to find another one, so that I might meet her again."
"Who was she?"
"I don't really remember, it was so long ago. I think her name was Shi- no, wait... never mind. I really don't know. She was older than you or me, and she was really nice. And she had a beautiful voice."
"You have a beautiful voice too. Do you sing?"
"Thank you. I do. What about you?"
"Um... yeah..."
"Will you sing to me?"
"Sure...
Gentle breezes blow
On the day I return
To this home I left so long ago
The cherry blossoms bloomed
As you welcomed me
Into your..."
RIn had closed her eyes. She had a peaceful expression on her face as she finished the song.
"As you welcomed me
Into your arms again."
"Wow, you're really good. I didn't know you knew that song!" exclaimed Len.
"Yeah. It's one of my favorites. Hey, maybe we could try singing together someday!"
"Okay... do you know this one?" Len hummed a few notes of a melody.
"Wow, that's also one of my favorites. Okay, on three!" said Rin, with an excitement she did nothing to hide. "One... two..."
The two children shouted together, "THREE!"
"When I saw you that first day
You looked the same as you do now
When I first knew what this feeling was
I thought it was a lie...
Because your smile can bring light to the world
When you're gone, it all turns dark.
Your laughter is the melody that guides my heart
Keep guiding me... a while longer...
Until the world ends, I will wish to be with you
Until my soul dies, I'll keep loving you
Until I can tell you, I'll sing it to the sky
Because this feeling is what I know is real."
"That's awkward..." commented Len, evidently embarassed.
"Yes, it is." said Rin. "But it's such a beautiful song."
"Let's sing another song."
So they kept singing, until night... or whatever it was when it became dark, and even then they kept singing, their hearts filled with a buoyant happiness of companionship. For Rin, it was what she had looked for for so long. And for Len, it was what he had looked for all his life, without even knowing it.
Days passed. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Len's leg healed and they began walking, singing 'Aruiteru'. Then they changed the song, but kept singing.
Len knew that this could not last forever, but never wanted it to end. It came to be summer. Rin had come down with a sore throat, so Len alternated between talking with her and singing to her.
"You know, Len, I wonder..."
"Hmm?"
"What if this is all really a dream... or you don't really exist... or something... I don't want to ever have to leave you!"
"Me too. I don't ever want to leave you... but somehow... everything... doesn't seem real..."
Rin sighed. "I wish I could hold your hand. I wish we didn't have this glass in between us."
Len sighed and nodded. Then he had an idea. "You know, maybe..."
"No, Len, don't break the glass!"
"It won't hurt us, step back!"
Rin stepped back and watched with a horrified expression as Len punched in the glass. It cracked. His hand oozed blood, and it hurt horribly, but he sucked in the pain. He punched it with his other hand. A large chunk fell out. But... where was Rin? He called her name. On the other side was green below and blue above, where Rin was supposed to be. He stepped through and called her name over and over again, wishing nothing other than for her to come back. The pain in his hands was nothing compared to the pain in his heart.
He stepped back into the void he was used to. He looked to the glass and saw a boy. A boy that looked like, from what he could tell, himself. He raised his hand and the boy raised his hand. Len cried. It was a mirror. A mirror. A MIRROR. The "real" world was on the other side. But where was Rin?
Len stepped out into the 'real' world, feeling numb. He looked around. To the right was a town. He could see tiny people in the distance. In the opposite direction he saw a single house.
He started walking towards it, his strides lengthening, quicker, quicker, until he was running, sprinting at top speed. Faster, faster... He needed to be there. He didn't know why, but it was as if it were calling him.
He reached the house and looked around. There was one room. He saw a woman standing by a boarded up window. She was taller than him, and carried herself with a certainty.
The woman turned around, an expression of shock on her face. Then she saw Len and smiled. "I never thought I'd see you here..."
"Why?"
"It's a long story. But now... I believe RIn has been waiting for you. Come, let's unboard the window."
Len helped the mysterious woman to take the boards off the window.
"Why is this window boarded?"
"It broke, and I didn't want RIn entering the real world. I was scared that she would die. But if you entered and you're in perfect health except for your hand, she should be able to come too."
"Will we really be able to find her in there?"
"It's alright. We can call her."
"How?"
"Her headphones have a wireless receiver. So do yours. That's how you two could hear each other, despite the mirror between you."
"Oh." Len focused on calling her. "Rin! Rin! Are you in there? Can you hear me?"
He heard it, a faint echo at first, drowned out by static, but becoming clearer. "I can hear you, Len. Are you alright? Oh, I hope I'm not talking to your dead ghost."
"No, it's not. It's really me. Are you alright? I should have listened to your advice not to break the glass."
"It's fine! I think I can see you! Is that you?"
Len looked out into the void and saw Rin. He felt a tear well up in his eye and climbed through the window, running to meet her.
After it seemed like forever had passed, they met up. They touched fingertips, then hands, then embraced each other, tears streaming down their faces.
"I missed you more than you could ever imagine."
"I missed you too. Will you sing with me again?"
"Of course. Always."
Okay... that was... I DO NOT SUPPORT THE RINXLEN PAIRING.
They're just friends here. You can say they're more than that if you want, or not. Whatever makes you happy.
The ending was... different than I originally intended... I just read the description for the story, then I had this idea, then I watched the video, then wrote this... It's a good premise, but my writing is horrid.
Rin reminds me of Clarisse from Farenheit 451. We're reading that in school... yeah... just the way she's so talkative about random things.
If you have any tips, let me know. If you have any questions, comment and I'll explain. It's very fantasyish, and... confusing... yeah...
~~Sophia Marsh~~
After I vowed never to write Vocaloid fanfiction, especially not about the twins... *sigh* Next thing I know, I'll be covering 'World is Mine' (another thing I vowed not to do, haha) I seriously started writing lyrics. -__-