Finally got this done. I ended up scrapping two unnamed One Shot ideas and pulling them into this one. I figured that it would be better to have one completed document sitting in my Word file then three uncompleted ones. Eh, they'll be other One Shots. But there's only one Red Rose.
Also, I apologize again that this took so long to write. Thieves or my own incompetence are to blame. Take your pick.
Red Rose – Chapter 2
"Len! Hurry up!"
His sister's sweet voice called out with to him from the bottom of their home's staircase, lined with a tone of annoyance but said in a way that kept her cute. Len had been taking up a good part of the last hour in his room. 'Getting ready,' he told her, while he was actually fully prepared to leave, and was in fact cowering in front of the mirror as his nerves told him that he couldn't possibly do this. Rin had waiting patiently for him until thirty minutes had gone by, at which point she called out his name every five minutes and told him that she was going to leave without him. She wasn't, of course, but she figured that he would at least hurry up a bit if she made it sound like a serious threat.
He hadn't, and she was beginning to think that he just wasn't going to come down. "I told you, I'm coming!" Len called back down to her. "Just a few minutes more. I swear, I'm on my way."
Rin stomped her foot on the wood flooring. "I'm not warning you again; hurry up or I'm going on my own!"
When no response came, she opened and closed the door while staying inside. Seconds later, Len came rushing down the stairs and, too fast to stop himself, slammed him arm on the wall. Rin, having successfully tricked her brother, smiled in satisfaction. "Ready yet?"
Len grumbled and rubbed his arm. "I guess…"
"Good. Then let's get going."
Opening the door, Rin stepped out into the warm spring air. Wearing pink shorts, a white t-shirt, and putting on a pair of dark sunglasses, she breathed in the warm wave of air that hit her. Her hair was tied up in a clean white ribbon, with her silky blonde bangs falling just in front of her soft blue eyes. "Wonderful day," she said as she started towards the sidewalk, Len close behind.
'It's a good thing she hasn't turned around yet,' he thought, 'Or she'd notice that I'm sweating an ocean.' His face turned red as thoughts about telling her ran through his mind. Back at their house, a collection of red roses sat in a water-filled vase by a window in their second-floor room, set up by Len mere seconds before Rin called him down. With them was a note on a folded white card with the Gemini symbol on its cover and no printed words inside. His plan was for her to enter the room before him, see the roses and read the note he left for her, and for him to sneak up behind her to give her a kiss. But he didn't have a good track record for planning, so the outcome could be his hopes and dreams or a restraining order. But he didn't have time to dwell on that. As while he was worrying they were approaching the half-way mark on their walking path, which ran in a circle from the house around their neighborhood and back to their house again. He didn't have a single thing in mind to say to her when she read the letter, his fears that she would be disgusted with him ran rampant throughout his mind, and apparently she had been talking to him the entire time he'd been worrying.
She turned to him. "…Don't you think so, too?"
'…Crap.' Len thought. "Uh, yeah. I agree."
Through her sunglasses, he could tell she looked surprised. "Really? I didn't take you for the type of person to be into that sort of thing."
'Oooh, God, what did I just agree to?' "Erm… Yes, well, uh… I guess that we don't know everything about each other, then."
"Hm." She said, pleasantly surprised. "Do you actually write any, then?"
'…Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap…' "Uh… What exactly?"
Rin looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Poetry, dummy. Do you write any or just read it?"
'…Huh.' He thought a moment. 'This… This could work out, actually.' "I… Have written some, yeah…"
"Well then," she said, looking ahead. "You'll have to show me some sometime."
"I'll, uh… I'll be sure to."
A few minutes of mostly silent walking later, the two of them were stepping back through their home's front door. Rin pulled off her sunglasses, placing them on a countertop, and said, "Well, thanks for coming along with me again today, Len. I wish that we could do stuff like this more often."
Len nodded. "Yeah… Luckily, school's almost over. We should have more free time together then."
"Mmm…" She stepped up a few of the stairs. "Want to watch some TV?"
"Sure, I'll be up in a minute."
"Kay then." She headed up the rest of the stairs and made the turn toward their room. Len waited until he heard the door open before tip-toeing up the stairs after her.
Entering the room, Rin stretched her arms to the air with her eyes closed. Opening them as her arms fell back to her sides, she saw a vase of flowers, along with a card, sitting on top of a bed-side table. Not entirely sure what they were, she walked over to them. She could smell the roses' aroma from across the room, and it intensified as she stepped closer. Picking up the card as she took in the scent, she looked at the Gemini symbol on its cover and flipped it open to see handwritten words inside.
Even if we're far apart, we'll find each other again,
Together we make up both sides of a constellation,
Even when the noise does rise, even on those lonely nights,
Me and you, together we make up Gemini…
I Love you. Hope you love me, too.
-Len
She dropped the card. 'L… Len wrote this?' she thought. 'I… Does this mean…'
Sneaking through the still open door, Len quietly crept up behind her. Spinning around at the slight noise, her face was flushed red with shock and embarrassment as Len's lips pressed up against hers. Len was filled with adrenaline, Rin was filled with confusion.
A few moments later, their lips parted. The kiss Len gave her was over, replaced with an awkward silence in which the two of them stared into each other's eyes, their faces only inches apart. Len feared the worst, but felt that he was ready for it. At least she would know. He expected a violent retribution from her. Because of this, he was surprised when she closed in on him as he did to her. Thoughts rushed through his mind as he slowly realized: She kissed him back.
