Kagamine Len and the Case of the Disappearance of Hatsune Miku's Shoujo Manga
Chapter Seven
"Y-you… You like me…?"
"I… I guess so…"
"But… But…" Len blinked, his gaze shifting this way and that; evidently uncomfortable, unsure where to rest his eyes. "B-but why?"
It was a single statement; short and simple.
Nice.
Kaito wished he was able to retreat like that when things were getting too much for his brain to handle, rather than spilling out a torrent of utterly meaningless phrases simply to fill the silence.
If Len were the general in an army, he'd be able to plan several steps ahead; always able to guide his troops away from the fray when they were in a pinch. He was conservative like that.
Kaito, on the other hand, would surely end up guiding all of his men into death and certain disaster. It was an inevitable outcome, really.
Disaster was always inevitable when Kaito was involved.
"I… I don't really know…" Kaito admitted, his cheeks light pink. "For the reasons I said before. B-because you… Y-you're… kind of cool, I guess."
"Cool?" Len stared at Kaito in shock, his mouth falling open. "Are you sure you're talking about me here?"
"I-I guess… W-who else would you be if you weren't Len? You're not an imposter, are you?"
Suddenly, a rather unpleasant idea popped into Kaito's mind.
"W-wait a minute…! Y-you're not actually Rin in a disguise, are you…?! Y-you're not going to video tape this confession and post it online, r-right?"
"…No, of course not. That's stupid. Why would I do something like that?"
"Ah…" Kaito's cheeks turned even pinker. "I guess it is a little stupid. You're right."
"Besides, nobody video tapes things nowadays. They can just record stuff on their phones."
"T-That… is also right…"
Kaito sighed. He was starting to feel old. Like an embarrassing uncle at a party.
"B-but if you started… l-liking me… because you think I'm 'cool'… I'd feel guilty."
"Guilty?"
"Mmhmm. Since, you know… you'd have f-fallen for me under false pretences."
"What do you mean?"
"It's obvious what I mean. Just look at me," said Len, throwing his arms akimbo – a clear gesture that demanded Kaito's attention. "I'm a dork. I like doing the laundry, and I willingly watch documentaries on trains, and my dream is to one day be a detective! What's cool about that?"
"…Everything. To me, everything about you is cool."
"H-ha…" Len laughed, though Kaito wasn't sure whether there was any real humour injected into it or not. "Rin would tease you so, so badly if she heard that."
"I… I-I don't care what Rin thinks. I think she's wrong." Kaito paused, breathing in deeply, trying to steady the rapid beating of his own heart. "I think you're really reliable… and fun to talk to… and you make me smile."
"I-is that really why you like me…? I-is that all?"
"Does there need to be anything more…?" Kaito blinked up at Len anxiously, his bangs falling in front of his eyes. "Is that… not good enough…?"
"N-no, it… I-I, um… I-I didn't expect…"
"You're not happy…?"
"I-it's… I-it's not that I'm not happy, r-really…! I'm just… surprised, I guess."
Well, that made sense. Kaito couldn't begrudge Len that.
Aah… Just looking at the younger boy, his face light pink, one hand ruffling those light blond spikes, that reminded Kaito a little of the spines of a stegosaurus… was enough to make Kaito's stomach flip.
T-This was stupid… He was reacting to Len like an obsessive fan. Like a starstuck, hormone-addled teenager who'd just encountered their favorite idol out in the supermarket, buying milk.
Any second now, I'll start asking for an autograph… Aren't I supposed to be the older one here…?
Kaito sighed. If Len was uncomfortable, then he'd understand. He'd back off. It was just a stupid crush, after all.
He really had been stupid… thinking it would all work out, just like a shoujo manga.
He'd try to forget it. Push past it. Actually work on that romantic duet with Miku, rather than getting sidetracked with these vaguely defined feelings that were probably, partially, due to admiration and his own lack of self-confidence.
He needed to stop thinking about Len.
"I… I'm sorry…" said Kaito softly, drawing a pattern against the light blue duvet with the index finger of his right hand. "You can pretend I didn't say it."
"H-huh? W-what do you mean?"
Ah… T-this was not going exactly according to plan.
Kaito's attempts at doodling an invisible picture of octopus Luka came to halt. His finger froze in mid-air.
"…W-what do you mean, what?"
"I mean I, um… Ah…" Seeming aware of what he'd just said, Len turned his head away, face flushed. "I… I just mean, you don't need to apologise."
"I-I don't…?"
"Of course not. I'm not mad. In actuality I… am k-kind of flattered, you know…?"
"F-flattered?"
"Yeah. I mean, um… Rin is always calling me a dork, a-and I know I'm not super conventionally good-looking. I'm kind of short, and I do look a lot like Rin, so… Um… I-I guess, maybe, I just thought… I wasn't very appealing. Kind of like Sherlock Holmes, a-ahaha…"
"B-but Sherlock Holmes is appealing! He's really popular, right? Everybody thinks he's cool!"
"I-I guess so, but… in the actual stories, the other characters don't. They just think he's weird. I don't think he's well-liked at all, and… he definitely isn't attractive." Len frowned. "I always thought I was kind of like that."
"B-but you're not weird! And you're definitely not unattractive! I-I think you're really cute!"
"Y-you do…?"
"O-of course! Y-you're the cutest! The absolute best! If other people can't see that, then they're the ones who are weird!"
"A-ahaha… W-well, um…" Len laughed awkwardly, rocking back and forth as he sat on the bed like a metronome. "T-t-thank you… K-kaito. T-That means a lot to me…"
"I-it does?"
"Y-yeah… I-It's nice being told that you're cute… by somebody who's so good-looking. A-ahaha…"
"G-good looking? I-I'm not-"
"You totally are."
Kaito looked down at himself dubiously.
"I don't know about that. I'm just an idiot…"
"Maybe so. But, you're an endearing idiot all the same. A-ahaha…" Len laughed softly, blinking up at Kaito; their eyes meeting. "I… I guess it's nice being looked up to. Even though I'm actually much shorter than you. But… you don't need to. Y-you have a lot of good qualities, too… A-and I, um… I-I like you too."
"Y-you do…?!"
"Of course. You're the person I spend the most time with, of my own free will." Len smiled, lightly tapping Kaito on the nose. "And, from that evidence, perhaps we can draw the tentative hypothesis… that you're my favourite person, too. Although picking favourites is kind of childish."
"Ha… L-len, I… I…"
Kaito floundered. He was lost for words.
Why was it, even during his confession (was that a confession?), Len had managed to sound so much cooler than he had done? He even got in a good detective metaphor there for good measure.
Kaito couldn't use metaphors. He wouldn't have known one if it had stolen all of his ice-cream from the freezer and eaten it right in front of him.
That… wasn't fair…
If you keep saying things like that… I-I'm going to end up liking you even more… I-idiot…
Was it just Kaito's imagination, or… was Len actually getting a little closer?
Instinctively, Kaito's eyes slid shut; the lashes meeting together in a flurry of dark black, like the feathers of a crow.
H-how… H-how was this happening, anyway? And over something so silly as some stolen shoujo manga, no less.
Maybe this could be another case for Kagamine Len to crack.
a/n: Yay, I finished it~ If you read this much, then thank you!
I only wrote this because I was playing Project Diva with a friend, and I noticed they had the Kaito/Len duet Erase or Zero in it... And my old feelings for this cute couple were revived! Ahaha n_n'
I guess this is also kind of like my old, oooold Kaito/Len fanfic, Sugar Coated Accident, in that it has vaguely similar themes and concerns (both Kaitos are worried about getting old/being incapable of singing properly anymore). But this one is a lot, lot, lot more to-the-point than my old fanfiction, with more interaction between Kaito and Len, and without any pointless stuff weighing it down. Does this mean I could have told that old story in such a few amount of words? Ahahaha... n_n;;
I like to think my writing has improved since then. I hope it has!
Thank you! Chuu chuu! x x x
