Disclaimer: I do not own Rin, Len, Leon, Neru, Meiko, Lily, Piko, Lola, the Peninsula Hotel, Kasumigaseki Station, Hibiya Park, the Tokyo Metro, Tokyo, or Japan…did I miss anything?

Blondes Are for the Birds

Chapter 4: Run Len Run!

Speeding along at approximately twenty-two meters per second, the metro car bumped and wobbled on its way, rushing down the Chiyoda "Green" Line. Sprawled out on one of the seats lining the subway compartment, Kagamine Len grumbled in his sleep, leaning back in his chair with his mouth wide open. The passenger next to him flipped the page of the daily newspaper, the rustling of parchment echoing the sound of air blasting around the iron walls of the subway.

Interrupting Len's nap, an automated voice blared out of a speaker, "You have now arrived at station eight, Kasumigaseki. Please clear away from the doors and exit the metro calmly. Thank you."

At the sudden noise, Len jolted awake and rubbed his eyes, looking around in bleary confusion. He asked the person next to him, "Where am I?"

"Kasumigaseki," the old man muttered over his newspaper, adjusting his round-lens glasses.

"Shit!"

Len's feet hit the floor, and he shot through the metro doors as they closed behind him.

Without a pause, he sprinted up the escalator to the upper tier of the metro station, stopping only once at the mechanical fare gate to thrust a hand in his slacks' back pocket. He needed a few extra yen to pay for the extra distance he had ridden on the subway, but when he drew out his wallet and pried it open, he barely had any change to spare.

A few irritated profanities spouting from his mouth, he looked up to glare at the metal gates standing in his way. His hands pushed up the sleeves of his jacket, and with his head down low, he broke into a sprint and charged at the ticket gates.

At the last possible second before he crashed into the machine, he placed his hands on the metal barrier and vaulted over the gate in a flying leap. Gaping at Len's acrobatics, the stout policeman guarding the station yelled after the boy, but in a few quick strides, Len was soon far out of the officer's reach.

Len's dress shoes slapped loudly against the pavement while he cursed his weird tendency to fall asleep on subway rides. The constant movement was somehow soothing to him, and since he was a child, he always had to struggle to stay awake on the metro.

Two minutes from the station, he saw an entrance to Hibiya Park out of the corner of his eye. Len made a split second decision and dashed inside the Kasumi gate, hoping to save lost time by taking a short cut through Hibiya.

Racing past strolling couples, mothers with their children, and cherry blossom trees in early bloom, Len suddenly felt a drop of water smack against his forehead. The first drip was quickly followed by another and another, until they accumulated into an early spring shower. Len looked up into the sky with his eyes squinted and his fists clenched. He missed his subway stop, and now it started raining? The universe officially hated him.

Along with hastening the budding of the cherry blossoms, the unusually warm March weather had brought a torrent of rain. The downpour stripped the Sakura trees of some of their delicate blossoms, and the pink-white petals soon plastered Len's shoulders and hair. He tried and failed to get the flowers and their pollinated filaments off of himself as he crossed under the Hibiya gate into Hibiya Avenue.

Through the rain, he ran north up Hibiya Avenue, past Harumi Avenue, and turned sharply right onto a side street. He almost lost his cool when he finally saw his destination on the right, the Peninsula Hotel. A bellman in a white uniform began to say, "Welcome to…" but Len pushed through the revolving doors in a flash, leaving the rain behind him.

Standing inside the lobby, he made his way to the receptionist's desk, leaving watery footprints on the floor behind him. The receptionist on duty gawked shamelessly at him, as women had a tendency to do when he approached him. That is, when he wasn't soaking wet and covered in Sakura crap.

"Can you tell me where the hotel chapel is?"

She took an extra minute to ogle the strange boy, and then haltingly answered his question, "Um, fourth floor. Are you a part of the Akita party? The elevators are…"

"Thanks," he curtly replied, leaving her to stick her eyes back into her sockets where they belonged.

Inside the elevator, he took a long look at himself in the mirror. His hair was a shade darker from the rain, and his signature ponytail was coming apart. A few strands had fallen over his ears, and damp tufts of hair clung to the back of his neck. In record time, he had also ruined his only good suit. His shoes were scuffed, his trousers stained, and a button from his coat was missing.

Peeling off his soggy jacket, he wiped some of the moisture off of his face and pressed the button for the fourth floor with his thumb, leaning heavily against the elevator wall as the doors clicked shut.

A heeled shoe rapped against the polished floor of the hallway outside the hotel chapel. With her arms crossed and her expression grim, Rin glowered at the immobile elevator doors standing next to her. Occasionally, the elevator monitor would flash, displaying a red number "2" or "7," but never stopping on her floor.

A vein began to pulse on Rin's left temple as her blood pressure rose. Where was Len when his future mother's wedding rehearsal had already started?

Neru had assigned Rin to "Len duty," since he was late despite Leon's insistence that his son would show up on time. Rin was expected to greet Len when he arrived, debrief him about any wedding ceremony arrangements, and then drag him to the chapel and down the aisle.

The show could not go on without the bride's maid of honor or the groom's best man, Len, even if Rin would have had it otherwise. She wanted to delay having to put up with the jerk on a daily basis as long as possible, and if that meant he wasn't going to show up at the rehearsal, or the wedding for that matter, then so be it.

She never wore a watch and had forgotten her cell phone at home, so there was no way to tell the time. To mentally entertain herself, she began to think through what she would say to Len when he arrived. What was she supposed to tell a complete stranger who just happened to know everything about her life and was going to be her brother in a week?

'Hey Len! Where have you been for the last 15 months?' or 'Good to see you, Len! Are you still an asshole?'

Obviously, this line of thinking only made her more annoyed with the situation.

At this point, it seemed as if it an eternity had gone by since she had stood here to wait, and every passing second gave her another reason to loathe the person she was waiting for.

"Maybe I should just forget about him and go," she grumbled to herself, looking away from the elevator just as the monitor flashed "4."

Hearing the doors clack open, she jerked around as Len exited the elevator, looking like he had stepped out of a hurricane. His hair was a disgrace; he held his sopping jacket in his fist, and his dress shirt had been soaked through.

Rin had no words to respond to the situation, and instinctively, her eyebrows shot up and her eyes stretched open.

To release the nervous tension, Len reached to rub the back of his neck and curtly explained to Rin, "Missed my stop. I ran."

She nodded mechanically, and then noticed the state of his clothes. Frowning in disapproval, she advised him, "You might want to put on your jacket."

He stuck the sodden coat in her face, as if that was explanation enough. "I'm not wearing this."

"Um, yes you are," she replied in a derogatory tone, as if talking to a child,

Len looked from Rin to his ruined jacket, and then back again, mouth open in disbelief. "Are you nuts?"

"No," she hissed, striding closer to him, "it's just that any idiot would know that a linen shirt is see-through when it's wet!"

Len blinked, "What?"

"Do I need to spell it out for you?" She closed her eyes, took a breath through her nose to calm herself, and maintained steady eye contact with him as she said, "I can see your nipples! It's disgusting!"

Stupefied, Len looked down at his chest. "Oh."

The wet material clung to the contours of his chest and abs like a second layer to his muscled skin.

Rin sighed in exasperation, "Here, I'll wring out your stupid jacket…" she snatched it from him and twisted the fabric, letting the water drip to the floor, and then threw it back at him, "…and then you'll follow me to the chapel."

Just as Len's brain was able to catch up with the situation and think up a few dirty jokes he could make about her 'observation' of him, her heels were already clacking down the hallway. He had no choice but to follow her. Sticking his hands in his damp pockets, he made his way towards Rin.

As soon as Len caught up and matched his stride with her own, she noticed something different about him from the last time they had met. Ten extra centimeters to his height, to be exact. Observing him in her peripheral vision, the girl's eyes narrowed.

Rin naturally resented people who were significantly taller than her, and this older Len was no exception. Anyone who towered over her 158 centimeters of height automatically reminded her of a certain bully from elementary school.

7 year-old Rin had refused to give a bully her bento box, and in retaliation, he had taken her pink pencil case that her father had given to her as a present before he had died. The bully held the pencil bag over her head all of recess, laughing as Rin hopped up and down, trying desperately to get her tiny hands on it. When recess was over, the bully chucked Rin's pretty heart-decorated pencil case in the trash. She wasn't tall enough to reach into the garbage can, and by the time that she returned to the spot with Neru after school, the school janitor had thrown the trash into the incinerator.

It was with these bitter thoughts, and irritated, confused musings on Len's part, that the two entered the chapel where Neru, Leon, and the rest of the bridesmaids and groomsmen were waiting.

"You made it!" Neru's gaze turned first to Rin and then to Len. Her eyes widened. "Len-kun, what happened to you?"

"He missed his stop, didn't have an umbrella, and ran here in the rain," Rin summarized for him, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, you poor baby!" Rushing up to her future stepson, Neru fluttered over him with concern, asking Leon if he could maybe call the hotel for some towels and crying motherly phrases like, "You shouldn't be this wet! You'll catch a cold!"

Uncomfortable with the attention, Len brushed her off gruffly, "Don't freak out. I don't need anything. I'll just air dry off."

At Len's blunt reaction, Neru's face showed a second's worth of hurt, but after she mumbled, "Okay," self-consciously, she bounced back, exclaiming, "Alright, everybody, get into your places!"

Len acted as if he knew exactly where to go, and then began walking the exact opposite direction from where he was supposed to be.

His future stepsister groaned and grabbed his arm. "Just follow me." Rin pulled Len after her.

She placed the both of them rigidly behind the last groomsman and bridesmaid and in front of Len's little cousins Lily and Piko, who were standing with their mother Lola, Leon's younger sister. As soon as they were in place, Rin's hand flinched from Len's bicep, as if the contact had burned her.

When Leon and the minister had placed themselves at the end of the aisle, the elderly minister solemnly pressed the "play" button on an old CD player, beginning Mendelsson's wedding march.

Like wound-up mechanical figurines, all the bridesmaids and groomsmen walked formally two-by-two up the aisle to the slow beat of the music. Occasionally the wedding coordinator, who was working from the sidelines, would stop them and give them advice about their posture or poise. The process seemed to take forever.

Rin's companion wasn't someone she would willingly start a conversation with to pass the time, so when she heard little Lily whining to her mom, she couldn't help but glance back and observe the small family.

Tow-headed Piko was dressed in his Sunday best, patiently holding the upholstered cushion where the rings would be placed. Lily was having a mild tantrum, accidentally dropping some of her flower petals from her basket on the floor while her mother shushed and lectured her. Rin smiled faintly and entertained a silly little wish, a dream in which her father never died, her mother was happy, and she had a real sibling of her own.

It was Len who drew her back into reality with a tap to her shoulder. Like any dreamer imagining something pleasant, Rin resented the person who had the gall to wake her from her daydreaming. Her thoughts whirled and her eyes flashed.

All the anger and resentment she had stored up in her association with him boiled up again, and she spat, "Are you going to apologize to my mom for being thirty minutes late?"

Len's eyebrow rose, and he smirked, "Why should I?"

The only reason he was still here was because of his father's threat to ground him. He wouldn't have shown up otherwise.

The 'devil-may-care' attitude oozing out of his upturned lips and relaxed shoulders tightened the skin on Rin's face. Her teeth clamped together, and her cheeks flared with rage.

When Len casually offered his arm to her, she instinctually wanted to refuse it. Then an evil idea came to mind. Smiling widely, she slipped her hand into the crook of his arm, and cheerily skipped down the aisle, reminiscing about her ballerina and serious dancing days.

All her years of dance classes had taught her two important things: how to avoid stepping on her partner's feet, and how to make him fall flat on his face.

About midway down the aisle, Rin's thin leg snaked dexterously around Len's left ankle, and with a feather-light push to his back, she sent him tumbling. Unable to catch himself, Len's nose, face, and body smashed painfully into the wooden floor.

Rin didn't even bat an eyelash, continuing towards the altar as if nothing had happened.

It wasn't until she heard a few gasps and giggles from the bridesmaids up front that she turned around, pretending to be surprised. "Len! Are you okay?"

He didn't move for a second or two, and then gradually lifted his head as she approached him, teeth bared in a snarl.

"I'm fu…freaking fine," Len snapped, mindful of his language when his baby cousins were standing right behind him.

Then Len's nose started gushing blood.

"Oh my god," Len's Aunt Lola cried, stepping in front of her children to shield their eyes and handing a tissue from her pocket to her nephew. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Rin dramatically blubbered, as the wedding attendees swarmed around them. "We were just walking along, and then Len tripped out of nowhere and f-fell!"

Her concern wasn't completely contrived. Rin impulsively bit down on her thumbnail as red liquid saturated the Kleenex Len held to his face and the wedding guests flocked around him. She'd only meant to embarrass him, not to break his nose!

Lola nodded mindfully, and with the practiced eye of a plastic surgeon, she examined Len's nose.

Wanting to be anywhere but in the center of the chapel with a bloody rag on his face, Len shifted uncomfortably.

"Sew, whaz w'ong with meh?" he mumbled nasally through the bloodied tissue after a second or two of silence.

"You really need to be more careful," Len's aunt advised, "It's not broken, but you came very close to fracturing the bone. It'll swell a bit, but just put some ice on it, and it'll be fine."

Switching from her "doctor" to her "dotting aunt" setting, Lola smiled and ruffled his hair fondly. "It's not manly to be a klutz, squirt."

Looking at the floor in embarrassment, Len grunted. Rin put a hand to her chest in relief. A bloodied nose wasn't nearly as bad as a broken one and wouldn't leave any lasting damage. Now she had no reason to feel guilty. Her eyes locked in on her feet. She told herself that again and again as a twinge of shame turned the contents in her stomach.

As the rest of the men and women drifted back into their places and Len wiped his nose, Rin's insides continued to churn with guilty bile. She rubbed her arms to try to get rid of the sensation, but couldn't remove the feeling of being dirty, a girl rubbed in vegetable oil and rolled in mud.

Maybe she hadn't critically injured Len, but she almost did. Her impulsive prank might have led to serious consequences. When had she become a sadist who enjoyed other people's pain? This wasn't her. She shook her head. Out of defensive habit, she wanted to blame the change on a certain blonde boy that had walked into her life. But she knew in her heart that he wasn't completely at fault.

There was no way that she would be able to explain all of these complications to herself in the little time she had now, so to placate her guilty conscious, she moved towards Len. Getting down on her knees and into his face, she asked with concern, "Still bleeding?"

Len's face turned a dark shade of red, and since he couldn't think of words nasty enough to describe this she-demon, he growled wordlessly.

Rin's eyes took a downcast hue. What had she expected? It wasn't as if he was going to thank her for giving him a nosebleed. To keep up with appearances, she released a hollow laugh, bounced to her feet, and skipped away, humming a merry tune to herself.

For a girl who was usually considerate of others, revenge was sour and tasted of limes.

Len had gone to the bathroom to clean up, and the drama of the situation eventually died down. Before they all left for the rehearsal dinner, which would take place at a delicious Italian restaurant, the wedding guests sat around a table provided by the hotel and had themselves a drink or two.

Laughter and gaiety dominated the atmosphere, perpetuated by Neru's fun-loving comments and Leon's subtle humor, except for the air swirling around two teens in the corner. In a twist of fate, Len and Rin had been placed next to each other in the seating arrangement.

Len grasped his soda with a death grip, never taking his eyes off of Rin, and Rin tried her best to ignore him, laughing along to one of her mother's enthusiastic stories. While the source of his hatred's attention was drawn elsewhere, Len glanced down thoughtfully at the Pepsi in his hand. With care and precision, he repositioned his cup slightly closer to Rin, got up from his seat and grabbed another bottle of soda. He slowly refilled his glass until the dark bubbling liquid touched the rim.

He caught his aunt and uncle's attention from across the table and started talking to them, pretending not to notice when his wrist lightly touched his glass of soda and tipped it over, sending its contents straight into Rin's lap.

Rin noticed a wet, stickiness wash over her body, and glanced down. Her face paled. She stuck her fingers into the soda and held her skirt up to the light. There was no way a stain that big and that brown was going to come out.

"Oh." Len craned his neck towards Rin, as if just realizing that he had ruined her favorite dress, "I'm so sorry. I'm such a klutz sometimes."

His voice reeked of pretended remorse, but the skin around his eyes crinkled slightly, suggesting a suppressed smile.

She wanted to shriek, to react in a way that would bring attention to the situation, but she bit her lip. No, she wasn't going to let him win. Not this time.

As cool as a cucumber, Rin turned away from the fiend and resumed her conversation with her mother's friend. It wasn't until Neru noticed the odd looks thrown her daughter's direction and made Rin come with her to the ladies room that Rin retreated from the table. Under the yellow lights of the hotel bathroom, Rin's stone façade cracked, and she showed her true colors.

"If we send this to the dry cleaners, do you think…" Rin blubbered, her heart-shaped face looking miserably back at her from her reflection in the mirror. The green fabric was splattered with murky brown liquid from the waist to the hemline, and Rin's mascara was beginning to smear from the tears building in her eyes.

Teto had helped her pick out this dress. They had spent hours in a local shopping center searching for the perfect outfit for each other. Teto had fallen in love with a tailored navy number, and Rin had found her green dress in the most remote corner of the most remote store in the mall. It was the ruined memories that were making her emotional about this, not the silly outfit.

"Honey," Neru cooed remorsefully, standing behind her daughter with her hands on Rin's shoulders, "let's go home and get you changed."

"He did this on purpose, you know." With her weak emotions channeled out of her system, there was room in Rin's psyche for a moment of rage. "He wanted to get me back for…"

She bit her tongue before she admitted to purposefully tripping Len and almost breaking his nose.

Her mother shook her head, "This isn't any good, Rinnie. Is this how you want to treat your future brother?"

"He's not my brother! He's a jerk, and I don't want to be related to him!"

Neru cringed at the words, but Rin continued to vent.

"Why did you have to get married so quickly anyways? Did you think all these problems would just go away? What kind of 'family' will you and Leon be if your kids hate each other?"

Aware of her daughter's need for a listening ear, Neru stood firm, no matter how much Rin's accusations pained her. She patiently let her daughter rant and tire herself out enough to be able to stop and listen.

"You know that Leon is going to be relocated to a different clinic." Pulling her daughter into an embrace, Neru soothingly stroked Rin's back. "They needed a good physical therapist, and it was an offer he couldn't refuse. He'll have to find an apartment on the other side of town. We didn't want to be apart, but we both wanted to get married before we moved in together because we wanted what was best for you and Len."

Even though she didn't want to be reasonable, Rin could see the sense in her mother's argument.

"You're only going to be together for three more years of high school anyways."

Rin frowned at her mother, "'Only' three years?"

Neru laughed dryly, "It'll go by much faster than you think."

Turning from her mother and contemplating her teary face in the mirror, Rin pulled her grimace into a weak smile.

"That's my girl," Neru pinched Rin's right cheek, and Rin swatted her hand playfully away.

"It's not like Leon and I haven't considered the problems between you two," Neru said. "We just decided that we wanted to fix the situation together as a couple, and the best way to do that was to get married and make the two of you stepsiblings!"

"You really couldn't have thought of a better way?" Rin whined, turning back to face her mother, "Our house is going to be a war zone."

"I get the feeling that it'll get worse before it can start getting better," Neru said informatively.

Rin's mouth quirked to the side. "And that's supposed to make me feel better?"

"Ooo, don't sass me!" Neru pouted. "You've never had a sibling before, but believe me, even real brothers and sisters don't always get along."

"I know. I hang around Ted and Teto all the time."

"No, no. Actually having a brother is a whole different ball game. You can't understand what it's like to have as sibling by just watching other families' problems."

Tapping the side of her cheek contemplatively, Neru added, "Sometimes, arguing is a way for people to get things out of their systems. You know loving couples that stay together and love each other, but fight all the time?"

"No."

"That's how your daddy and I used to be, but that didn't mean we didn't care about each other. It's just how we communicated."

Rin looked at her peppy, non-confrontational mom with new eyes, "I didn't know that."

Neru smiled fondly. "You were very small."

With an uncharacteristically somber expression on her face, Neru gazed over Rin's shoulder to fix her glazed eyes thoughtfully on some point in the distance. "I think that people only really argue about the big, bad, important things with someone we understand and trust. We can push each other's buttons and say things that we normally would never say."

What Neru was suggesting sounded more than a little crazy to Rin, but when she put her first confrontation with Len in the context of her mother's philosophy, suddenly things made a bit more sense. Len and Rin might have been opposites in many, many ways, but they both had to deal with the absence of a parent and all the emotions and complexes that came along with it.

Whether by death or disappearance, the forces that had taken Len's mother and Rin's father away from their children had irrevocably changed them. It was a part of who they were, just as much as Len's blue-green eyes and the soft curl at the edge of Rin's cropped blonde hair defined what they looked like.

"Maybe Len-kun and you don't realize it yet, but I think he's the best possible candidate to be your stepbrother."

Rin looked at her mother in shock.

"From what you've told me, you said things to him that you would never have shared with me!"

"Mom, it wasn't like that…"

"Nuh uh." Neru held out a manicured hand. "Let me talk. Now, he may have not been very sensitive about it…"

"He was an ass."

"Don't use nasty words!" Neru lectured lightly. "Anyways, where was I? Oh, yes. He may not have done it in the nicest way, but you weren't particularly nice to him either. Even though you fought, the important think is that you both allowed each other to open up. That's healthy!"

Rin gave her mother a long look. "If you're marrying into the family to find someone for me to vent to, just get me a psychiatrist."

"Rinnie. You know that shrinks don't help."

Knowing her mother, Rin could read the hidden message in Neru's statement. Even though Neru had tried some of the best psychologists, therapists, and grief counselors, she still had spent half of her life looking for her husband in all the wrong places and in the worst relationships.

Neru's eyes crinkled in a twinkle of a smile. "The secret to mental wellness is healthy relationships with people you love who love you."

Rin allowed her mind to process that idea for a second, digesting the thought.

"You know what?" Neru declared confidently, drawing Rin out of her ponderings. "I think Len-kun is your cure, and you are his, just like Leon was for me. And if I'm right, this family might just work out." She winked. "Plus, home life with you two at each other's throats all the time is sure to be entertaining!"

"Mom," Rin moaned. Then Neru laughed, and Rin couldn't resist laughing as well.

Sticking out her hip, Neru exaggeratedly extended her arm to her daughter. "Let's get back home."

With embellished pomp and circumstance, Rin accepted her mother's arm, and the mother and daughter moved forward together.

"Oh, you must be Rin!"

Rin quickly whipped out her manufactured smile for the millionth time that night, shaking hands and making niceties with yet another complete stranger. The moment she had walked into the Italian restaurant in her clean, blue dress, her mother had disappeared into a crowd of well-wishers, and Rin had been stuck in small-talk conversations with people she had never met.

Thankfully, during the tiring process she had remained unmolested by Len, who was busy making light conversation with the guests. Well, mostly the female ones. She tried to subtly glance his way, but her casual gaze hardened into a glare as she watched a trio of attractive women giggle and chortle at something Len was saying. Rin huffed to herself. Why someone so antisocial and disagreeable to her could be charming to anyone was beyond her understanding.

Remembering that she had a guest to entertain, Rin turned back to the woman standing before her.

"So nice to see you! You work with my mom, right?"

"Yes!" The woman seemed delighted that Rin appeared to recognize her. "We both work in the same company, except I deal more with wall paints and coordinating interior colors."

"Oh, really. That's so interesting." Rin commented without the slightest inflection to her voice. At this point, she didn't have the energy to even pretend to be interested.

"I personally love it," Neru's brunette coworker added. "It's a dream job. The only thing I'd rather be doing is maybe naming paint or nail polish colors. I'd call them things like Arabian Night for a really nice purple, or True Love for a deep red…"

"How cool."

"I know! All I thought about when I was getting my college degree was what to name colors. Like I'd look at a sunset and think, those colors would look great on someone's wall!"

"Mm hm."

The woman continued to chatter about her "knack with colors" and different shades of "earthy green" until Rin could barely take it anymore. Then she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

"Rin-Rin!"

Rin turned around just in time to intercept her red-eyed and red-faced adopted aunt.

"Did you miss your Meiko-oba?" Despite the full glass in her hand, Meiko managed to clobber Rin with a boa-constricting hug.

Looking concernedly at the drunken woman, Neru's coworker mumbled something about "not wanting to butt into family reunions," and moved on to find another unsuspecting victim to babble to.

"Of course I missed you!" Relieved to see someone she knew, Rin returned her aunt's embrace, but not without a skeptical glance at the unnamed liquid in Meiko's glass.

"Have you been drinking again?"

"Yup," Meiko chortled, taking another swig. "Parties with free drinks are the greatest!"

Rin groaned while Meiko giggled hysterically at some inside joke with herself.

"Why do I always have to take care of you?"

While concentrating on her aunt's drunken escapades, Rin failed to notice someone walking up behind her.

"Who is this?"

Rin took her eyes off Meiko and saw the last person she would want involved in this situation. Len.

"Um." Rin's brain buzzed. What to say, what to say…

She hastily introduced the two of them to each other, "This is my mom's friend, Haigou Meiko. Meiko-oba, this is Kagamine Leon's son, Len."

"Ohhhh." Rin's tipsy aunt ran her eyes up and down the fifteen year-old boy, then smiled lecherously. "Nice to meet cha, hot pockets."

Ignoring the shocked expression on Rin's face and Len's bemused smile, Meiko turned to her adopted niece. "You know, I could eat this kind of guy for a snack. Yeah, eat him as a snack, if I was like…" Meiko counted on her fingers, "a bazillion years younger."

Rin's jaw dropped, and Len snorted. What was with this jerk and women? Was it pheromones? Some sort of cologne he wore? It didn't make any sense!

Rin stuttered, "Uh, Meiko-oba. I think you've had a little too much to drink."

"What? I only just started! I could drink all night. Yeah, all night long!"

Despite Meiko's flailing and ranting, Rin did not miss the soft chuckles coming from her future stepbrother. Rin's lips tightened, and the temperature in her head began to rise.

Wanting to get her source of embarrassment out of Len's sight before Meiko said something really outrageous, she began guiding her surrogate aunt towards the corner of the room. "Sure. How about you come over here with me, and we find you a place to sit down."

Rin left Len behind without a word, but not before she gave Len's laughing face a good hard glare. Even if her aunt was a raving drunk, why did he have the right to find something funny about the situation? Under Rin's gaze, Len stopped chuckling to himself, but his blue eyes danced.

This last moment of eye contact did not go unnoticed by Meiko. "Oooo." She gave Rin a lopsided smile. "Don't think I didn't see that! Is he some kind of secret boyfriend you're not telling me about or somethin'? Hm? Cuz boyfriends that are kept secret from your oba-chan are not real boyfriends. You can tell me anyyything."

Deciding to humor Meiko, Rin said, "Well, here's the deal. I hate him, and he's going to be my stepbrother in a week."

"Wow! That's kinky. You know, getting it on with your stepbrother is really kinky, right?"

Rin's face fell flat, and she slapped a palm to her forehead with a groan. "Oh God."

Trying to reason with this woman was like talking to a horny goldfish swimming in alcohol.

"Really kinky," Meiko mused. "And you hate his guts? What, do you have hate sex or something?"

"No, Meiko-oba."

Rin gently removed the glass of alcohol from Meiko's hands, setting it down on the table and walking up behind Meiko to usher her staggering aunt to the far side of the room. "I don't have time to sober you up right now, so can you just sit down on this nice couch and stay put? I'll bring my mom over in a bit to say hello."

At the mention of Neru, Meiko perked up. "Neru-chan's coming? Okay, I'll wait right here. Just bring her right over, and I'll give her some talking to. Or she can give me some talking to. Well, we'll talk about something good." She swayed a little. "Something good…" And just like that, she started snoring.

Sighing heavily, Rin shook Meiko to jolt her back awake. "Don't sleep, okay? Otherwise I won't be able to bring Neru over."

"Okaaay. Nooo sleeping."

Meiko's eyelids drooped for a second, but she managed to stay awake just long enough to murmur, "Neru…lovin'. In love 'gain. Neva thought… Sewww 'appy fur…"

"Shhh." Rin sat down beside Meiko, knowing that she couldn't leave her aunt in such a childlike state.

"'appy fur…"

"Yes. I'm happy for her to."

Rin wearily allowed her aunt to use her shoulder as a pillow. Well, Rin thought to herself as she thanked a waiter for giving her a glass of punch, it seemed as if the rest of her night was going to be spent babysitting Meiko. Not as if she minded. Rin took a long hard drink out of her glass. She'd take any opportunity to get away from all the crazy blondes in her life.

Meiko began humming the wedding march under her breath.

Smiling, Rin softly sang along, "Here comes the bride…"

A.N. While writing this chapter, I really got attached to Meiko as a character. She's like the crazy alcoholic aunt that you never had and always wanted. Oh, and Meiko's "hot pockets" comment? That's not really supposed to make sense. XD Gosh, Meiko and her weird, perverted sense of humor. Wise!Neru is also the greatest. I would definitely go to her for advice.

As an extra note, all the places I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter? They're all real. You can Google them, and even track Len's route to the Peninsula Hotel via Google Earth if you like. It took a lot of research, but I wanted to capture the moment in a convincing way. It is also technically possible to jump over the fare gate at a subway station, but I wouldn't exactly suggest it. Subway security guards can be scary.