No Regrets
Chapter 7: Tiny Space
Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid
RinLen [Noncest]

xxx

"Are you Rin-nee's boyfriend?" Rinto asked rather rudely as he danced around Len, not used to me bringing back people from school besides Kaito (or Gakupo, though I never invited him, he sort of just snuck in without me noticing). I resisted the urge to hit Rinto across the head and instead, shut the door behind me and began removing my shoes. Len seemed nonchalant about the whole situation as he shook his head.

"No, I'm in the Broadcast Club."

Rinto nodded and literally dragged Len into the living room. Irritated, I trailed after the two. Rinto had sat Len down and rushed into the kitchen, promptly returning with a cup of tea and some of his unfinished snacks from the pantry. He gestured for Len to help himself, and he did. I threw my bag onto the usual spot on the couch and took off my jumper as the room was already very warm. I offered to take his bag too, he just shrugged and passed his duffle bag along to me. I left his bag next to mine.

"You are like Kai aren't you?"

"Kai?" Len asked questioningly as he followed my action and began removing his sweater.

"Kaito. But Kaito is probably going to be Rin-nee's boyf-"

Okay, I couldn't help it.

I hit him across the head roughly, causing him to yelp and leap backwards, hands instantly covering his head in preparation for the next blow. I lowered my hand and gave him the usual nasty glare. "Stop being so violent woman!" he growled, which quickly turned into a quiet whine when I threw him another threatening look.

"Keep your nose out of my business, kid." I snap and lightly nudged him on my way to the kitchen. I turned around and said to Len, "I'm going to see what there is, keep him amused will you?"

I saw him look at me in disbelief. He didn't seem like the type who had siblings. He probably could handle it better than I could though, considering his patience is as endless as the ocean and the galaxy. As I examined the practically empty refrigerator and bare pantry, I sighed. I returned to the living room to find Rinto with Len and a photo album. I ignored Rinto's annoying giggles and spoke aloud.

"What do you guys want to eat?"

"Wafu burgers!" Rinto shouted instantly as he spun around and jumped up. I frowned.

"Is udon okay with you?" I asked, ignoring Rinto's outburst. He had once eaten ten burgers in a row with two glasses of chocolate milk, the result was him bed-bound for a week due to stomach aches, vomiting and plain weakness as he could only eat porridge. However, Rinto still doesn't seem to understand the consequences.

"No!" Rinto whined, "Burgers!" He turned to Len for support. "Burgers right?"

Len blinked as he was caught in the middle. "Udon is fine, thanks." He dipped his head lightly at the end of the sentence, I just smiled in defeat and disappeared into the kitchen. I heard Rinto complain to him about how I controlled what he ate too much. Len just laughed.

xxx

"I can help you."

Len's voice shocked me as I almost cut off my finger. He just chuckled, amused by my exaggerated reaction. I gave him a dismissive look and let my attention return to the chopping board and knife. "It's okay, you probably can't handle the knife anyway."

"You don't trust me?" I rolled my eyes.

"Well you see, this is more than a kitchen." I said calmly as I rinsed the vegetables and continued briskly slicing them up into appropriate sized pieces.

"Try me." He grunted coolly as he flipped his hair lightly. I smiled knowingly and waited for it to happen. Just as Len was getting impatient, we were hit with a deafening Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony", mixed piano chords and slamming of keys. I didn't flinch but Len did. He stared at me in disbelief.

"What was that?"

"Rinto." I answered simply as I heated up the pans.

"And?" He said, expecting a lot more detailed answer.

"A piano." I responded. I laughed inwardly to myself when I saw his expression. Oh gosh. Priceless. I felt bad for keeping him in the dark. The cacophonous noise continued for twenty minutes. When Rinto finally got bored from the keys he turned on the television and began watching 8 o'clock anime show. "He does piano lessons. Mom forces him to. He sucks though." I explained to Len as we were cleaning the chopping board and unwashed dishes.

"He'll get better... Probably." Len tried sounding encouraging, which was very rare. He could see the scepticism in my eyes and he added truthfully. "Okay, maybe not."

"Told you." I said, very pleased with myself for outsmarting a smart-ass. He didn't seem to mind though.

I didn't know Len could cook. Most of the boys in our class had never even touched a knife before. I remember last year when we had a Home Economics lesson, we were just baking muffins and the boys almost managed to set the kitchen on fire. Which when you think of it, would be extremely difficult because the only dangerous piece of technology that is used in the process is an oven, a few bowls, an egg-beater, flour, sugar etc. Interestingly, as we chatted when cooking time went by faster and we completed cooking at least an hour earlier than usual.

"I chose Food Technology one year," He explained to me, as though reading my mind. I nodded slowly in response. "It is sort of like Home Economics, except we had the kitchen a lot more. We also designed meals and all that, breakfast, lunch, dinner and you'll be evaluated on all that. So you can say I know the basics."

"Hmm, so you guys hog it all the time then don't you?"

"No, my old school had enough kitchens." He said with a little smile.

Once the meal was ready, the two of us set the table as Rinto busied himself with Mario Cart. "Rinto!" I called. He turned off the television and obediently came to the dining table. I could tell Len was probably wondering about the weird set-out of the house, considering we had a piano and two extra chairs. I didn't wish to say anything though. Rinto continued to talk about school and Len made brief comments as I carried the conversation. It was odd. I felt as though we were family. As though Len and I were married.

After we finished, the two of us returned to the kitchen to do the washing up.

xxx

"Well, see you then." I said rather awkwardly and dipped my head lightly. He just stood on the door-step and breathed out a cold breath. He dug his hands into his pant pockets and shrugged, the way he does. "See you."

Oh darn.

I could hear my mom's car pulling up in the driveway. Before Len could even turn around, my mom gasped in shock. She hurriedly made her way up the driveway and inspected the boy before her.

"Who is this?" She said too excitedly. I mentally rolled my eyes. Just because I didn't bring boys back didn't mean I had no friends who were guys. Though Gakupo appeared gay and Kaito too, they are very much straight.

"Le-"

"Kagamine Len." He introduced himself with a polite smile, cutting me off before I could introduce him. I saw his eyes flicker toward me.

Okay. Was I just charmed by that? No way.

"It's very late, I can take you back home." Mom suggested glancing into the darkness of the empty rural streets. Len just shook his head and politely declined the offer. The more he resisted, the more mom pushed and I wished he would just accept the offer. Mom was very stubborn and she could easily persuade others into doing something they didn't want to do. It was her way of getting around and her defences of being a single-mother.

"How about we give your parents a call and tell them you'll be staying with us tonight?"

"No, really it's perfectly fine." Len insisted. "My house is not very far, I can take a train."

"Where to?" She asked.

"It is only around ten stops."

"My!" My mother gasped, "That's almost an hour! No way! It is already eleven o'clock, there is no way I will let you go out when it is so dark and dangerous, especially in a quiet area like ours!"

I could see Len open his mouth to argue but I surprised him with my statement.

"You can stay here."

He just looked confusedly at me. 'What?' his expression seemed to say. I ignored it. I wasn't warming up to him. I was just doing what was the right, humane thing to do. Even if he was a quiet, silent douchebag I couldn't risk him not turning up at school tomorrow because some drunkard hit him across the head with a glass bottle. Everyone would blame me if they found out I could have let him stay in my house but because Len was too polite I sent him home in the dark- Miku would rip my limbs off. My mom sighed exasperated, "Okay, hurry hurry, in you go you two."

She ushered the two of us inside. She continued talking but I couldn't hear.

The world turned transparent and my eyes were only focused on him.

I could have sworn that in a split second, I saw the galaxy in his eyes, the many billions of stars. But when I blinked, everything vanished. Including him. Not Len but the boy before him. The one who owned a chair in my house, a room, the piano and an irreplaceable place in my heart. I had to shake my head several times to remove the thought. No matter how much they look alike. Len is Len and he is he.

I wish my life was an internet history. That way, I could easily click [Delete History] and I would forget everything. It would hurt less that way.

"Goodnight," Len's calming voice shattered me from my unwanted thoughts. I just smiled weakly at him.

"Night."

I saw. Even if it was my imagination, I can pretend it really happened. His lips curved upwards ever so slightly, to form a truthful smile. And as much as I didn't want to admit it...It gave me warm butterflies.

A/N:

Hey guys, it's been light-years. Short-chapter. Two updates a day. I've been doing SNSD fanfics recently on AFF (partly the reason why I've been inactive). To be completely honest with you, I've sort of lost interest in writing Vocaloid fanfics. But since I despise leaving things unfinished, I will try my best to finish this fanfic. (Been writing mostly TaeNy, TaengSic w/ future YoonYul, SunYeon, JeTi, HyoSun etc.) Enjoy~

And I know the layout keeps changing!