-Whew! Allright, I guess I have some explaining to do, but the story is nowhere near amusing or interesting. Basically, it's been a great month for work, with plenty of new stuff going on, which by addition means a crappy month for basically everything that doesn't involve eating or sleeping. Hopefully I'll be able to resume updating as regular, and if things keep steady, will be able to balance it all. Keep'em coming!-
They had after all, been borne together, and thus it was only natural that they grew together, singed together and did most of the things together, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing, and such a long time being on the other's back ended up undermining the relationship.
As time went by, both of them grew tired of always being referred to as "the kagamines" and being interchangeably named, or even worse, the dull "not him, the female Len" and stuff like that; would be enough to get on anyone's nerves to be honest; and of course, being on the same band with roughly the same roles did not help things one bit. Rin being the most vocal one, did not hesitate one bit to speak her mind out at the slightest provocation; Len, on the other hand, quietly measured his time, yet exploded with acid rage the second he reached his threshold.
In the end, the fight was unavoidable; it was not the best way out of it, but what both of them needed was indeed some time away from each other. And still, the harsh, impersonal way of achieving the personal time had left both of them hurt and feeling like they had been torn from half of themselves; in a way they sure had been.
I should admit that I lied a little bit to Len when I said Rin might not say that she misses her brother, for she, as outspoken as she had been on the fights, was also unhesitant on telling me how she missed him now that the harsh, cold medicine of time had finally kicked in, the rage subsided and the good memories remained. With Len, however, it was a totally different matter, for he was quite reluctant to share his thoughts or feelings with anyone else, preferring to keep a strong front and indulge into worldly pleasures to keep his mind busy. Indeed my visit had poured salt into an old, unclosed wound, but being as used to do that as I am, I did not mind, if it helped either of them a little bit.
"Still, you know what they say about them peace doves Haku" said Ellion, gulping his drink down.
"Heard that one before" I replied; the cups were a rather strange and unwelcome change, but seemingly I could no longer get him to just let me drink straight from the bottle as I always do.
"Just make sure you don't end up walking into the middle of the crossfire"
"Wouldn't be the first time, and most likely not the last either"
"As cheerful as always right Haku?"
"Oh yeah, I feel like a wind chime…"
For the first time in a very long time, I was able to recall the full evening without any (well maybe a few, small ones) blanks or voids in the conversation, which soon turned to mundane, yet amusing topics. We started discussing amusement parks for no good reason at all and Ellion started telling me how they were quite different back into his days, and how the fortune wheel was all children dreamed of when a fair passed by town, instead of the tall, speedy coasters that now reigned among the main attractions.
"To be honest, they give me the chills you know; can't really trust your safety to a kid that gets minimum wage and talks using a speaker that produces a sound hoarser than my old coach after the 7th round"
"An old boxer afraid? Well that's certainly a new one" I poured myself another helping of sake; to be honest it was a burden having to pour a new drink every time; "thought it would be more scary to go up into a confined space with another guy who wants to beat your head out of its socket"
"It's different there you know; at least in the ring you can fight back, throw some punches, keep jabbing to maintain distance, defend yourself" and most likely unconsciously he started throwing punches as he spoke, like he was shadow boxing; his moves were quite different from those of an amateur, and did not show the least bit of rust, even if somewhat slow, most likely because it was just for show.
"In those damned plastic prisons" he continued; "you are just strapped into place and not given a chance to defend yourself until the whole thing ends! If something breaks, you just pray to land somewhere soft and that's it, I don't like that"
"Well, when you put it that way, it certainly sounds pretty bad"
"Haha, but won't you look at me, an old geezer still rambling about his good old days and how he's not a fan of modern times. I'm sure you must be bored to death by now Haku"
"Not at all" I replied, and it was a quite honest answer; "I was actually hoping for you to go for a little bit longer about those matches; if you made it to the 7th round it must have been a rather important fight"
"Oh my, don't get me started on that one! You seriously don't want to, because if I start, I might get carried away you know"
"Go ahead"
"Haha, help yourself then! It was the championship for the Japanese traditional boxing association"
"Can't say I've heard of them"
"Sure you haven't, they got "merged" with the big fish after they gained some popularity; back then we did things right, no bunch of redundant and annoying rules on the way, no inflated stars, just talent and fists, that was all there was to it. But anyway, it was a full 12-bout fight against Shikiro "trickster" and…"
