Once again... sorry for the late update :'

I tried my best to keep up but... science gave a SHITLOAD to do last night.

Anyway, is it just me or do these chapters keep on getting longer? This one has the most words by far...

Disclaimer~ same as always.

Enjoy 3


CHAPTER TWELVE

Half an hour later, Len lay asleep in his bed, tears still caught on his eyelashes. Kaito gazed peacefully out Len's open window, humming an unknown tune. Miku and Luka had gone back to their homes the moment that they realized that there was nothing more for them to do there, and that it had become a family problem. They exited without a word, solemn expressions on their pale faces and exhaustion clearly outlined in their posture.

"I never thought that anything this serious was going on in my own brother's life." Rin whispered, blankly looking through Len's photo album.

It was nicely made, with stickers, ribbons, labels and perfect moment pictures. Rin flipped the page and tears filled her eyes. Both of the pages were decorated completely with yellow. Sunflowers, bananas and lemons outlined all of the pictures of Len and Rin, all of them from before the divorce. One of them was Len and Rin as toddlers, blue eyes and blonde hair identical. Another was them as they went off to their first day of preschool, Len's bangs flopping down over his teary eyes, and Rin's hair pulled up into cute pigtails to match her happy expression. She flipped the page of child pictures and her eyes widened.

Family pictures. Ripped.

The same yellow pattern remained, but purple and orange had been added to the ribbon. Most of the pictures had been torn apart and taped carefully back together, all of them with familiar faces; Rin, Len, Saya and their father, Keiichiro. Rin smiled with memory as she ran her finger along the repaired edges on a picture of their family cooking. Saya was stirring a bowl of something, flour covering her shirt and skirt. Keiichiro held a pan and a spray bottle of PAM and had pieces of eggshell in his hair. In between them was Len, licking a spatula and wearing a yellow plaid apron with lace, his arms were covered in icing and sprinkles. Rin's face just bearly appeared, her being the one who took the picture; she had icing on her as well, except on her cheeks and bangs. Every one of them was smiling. A few of the pictures had little, round wrinkled smudges on them. Rin stared at them for a while, then her mouth dropped slightly when she realized that they wear tear drops.

She shook her head and flipped to the next page, yellow and purple without the orange, but this time with pictures only of Len and Saya. There were no pictures with her father on that page. The next page. These pages were yellow and blue, dedicated to Len and Kaito. Little notes had been scribbled on the sides, like 'first date', 'Halloween', 'sleepover', and 'Christmas'. In most of them, Len was either pouting or blushing with delight. Kaito always had a look of careless bliss in his eyes and smile.

As she pulled on the corner of the pae and turned it, Rin gasped with joy and surprise; the pages were leaping with color, yellow, pink, blue, purple and green swirled all over the paper. Pictures of many kinds made a collage in the book. School pictures, drawings, photo booth strips and just normal photos, all of Rin, Len, Miku and Luka. There were pictures of them in their school uniforms, costumes, party clothes, formal clothing, and even bathing suits. In some they were playing their instruments, other they were fooling around at shops and karaoke boxes. No matter what the fashion, place or reason, they never failed to smile as if it were the last day on Earth.

"Rin!"

She snapped her head up from the album in surprise, Saya stood in the doorway of Len's room.

"What are you doing here?" Saya asked, surprise etched into her face.

"Mom!" Rin said and stood up from Len's computer chair, staring at the tray of soup in Saya's hands. "Oh, for Len? I'll help."

'Be nice to her, it's not her fault,' Len told Rin before he fell asleep just minutes before. Rin was going to make sure that she did at least that much for her brother.

"Oh, Saya!" Kaito grinned and turned from the window. "What's up?"

"Kaito, too?" Saya put down the tray on Len's bedside table and smiled back at Kaito. "Sorry that you had to come and visit on such a day, she was really harsh this time."

"What?" Rin blinked, then shook her head. "Oh, yes. What went wrong?"

"She just overreacted, that's all. All that we have left is Len, so hearing that he's been staying afterschool for people that he has close relationships with was kind of hard for us to get over but..." Saya's gaze dropped and softened. "After I thought about it for a while... it's good that he has friends."

She laughed lightly and sat down on Len's bed.

"I'm very grateful to you, Kaito."

"Hmm?" Kaito raised his eyebrows and sat on the other end of the bed.

"You really accept Len for who he is, and you know how much I loved you as a son and as Len's friend." Saya smiled and patted Kaito's hand. "Now that your relationship is this close, I can finally see how important Len's friends are to him. When I first heard of you before THAT incident happened, I was devasted. I'm glad that I realized how much Len loved you." she turned to Rin. "The fact that you're in this club must mean that it's not bad, right?"

"Yes." Rin laughed warmly and moved over to hug her mother. "It's a good club. We write music, you see. We're a band. We have made three songs so far, and we will have a concert soon."

Saya gasped and put her hands to her mouth. "A concert? When? I want to see!"

Rin shared a glance with Kaito before they both burst out laughing.

"Next Friday at our school's summer end of school festival." Rin grinned, her excitement and happiness in Saya's easy acception growing. "It'll be our first live! Len even says that he's writing a song for it. We're all really pumped, and I'm sure that it'll be amazing!"

"EEEEEEE!" Saya squealed with delight and clapped her hands together. "I can't wait to see!"

Kaito smiled, having almost forgotten what Saya's real personality was like.

"In that case, we have to get Len better before then, this is the first I've heard of this concert." He smirked and tapped Rin's nose. "I'm DEFINITELY coming to this."

Content, Rin giggled and span around in the computer chair with a shriek of energy.

"Nnnn..." Len rolled over in his sleep and sighed before half mumbling half whining "Kaiitooo... meeeeeeh..."

They all fell silent and stared at Len wrapped up in his blanket for a couple of seconds before bursting into badly contained laughter. Things got worse from there as they tried hard not to let their laughs out. Saya snorted and Rin and Kaito clenched their stomaches even harder, eventually making Rin fall off of the chair in a fit of giggles. As if a charm was broken, the three let out their laughter all at once, filling up the room with noise. Tears streaming down her face, Rin lay on the floor and tried to desperately sit up through her hysterical giggles.

"Meh?" Rin choked, rubbing her side from the fall. "HAHAHAHA! REALLY?"

"Kaito! He actually said 'Kaito'!" Saya tried rubbing her cheeks to keep from laughing, but failed epically.

"OH MY GOD HE'S GOING TO MURDER US ALL WHEN HE HEARS THIS!" Kaito roared with laughter, rocking back and forth while holding his sides.

"Nnn?" Len pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes. "Wha?"

They all looked at a drowsy Len, awoken from the noise, and cracked up once again. Kaito patted one of Len's legs and shook his head, unable to speak. Rin came up to the bed on her knees and hit the mattress while giggling. Saya was the first to stop, hiccupping and smiling with amusement.

"What?" Len looked back and forth between the three in confusion. "What did I miss?"

Kaito grinned slyly at Len and Rin tried not to make eye contact with him.

"Oh god." Len put a hand up to his mouth. "What did I DO?"

"You spoke in your sleep, about a far off land where unicorns live happily with all the elves." Kaito smirked, making Rin giggle again.

"You-you said 'Kaito' and 'meh'!" Rin laughed and glanced up at her brother.

Len blushed and looked at Kaito before squealing and hiding under his covers. Saya laughed and rubbed Len's shoulder lightly. Kaito poked Len and winked at Rin.

"Oh, come on, eat some soup Len." Rin crooned as she poked Len as well until the he finally peered out from under the blanket.

"Fine." Len mumbled and reluctantly sat up.

"Good boy." Kaito teased and patted his blonde head. "You are too cute."

Len pouted and blushed again, then turned to Saya and gave her a hug.

"Helloooo!" Len sang happily, his voice wobbly with sleep.

"Hey, Len." Saya smiled and hugged her son back.

Len grinned and sat back down, letting Saya pass his the warm soup.

"Thanks, mom." Len closed his eyes for a few seconds on an incomplete thought then laughed warmly.


Read and review... it makes me feel warm and squishy inside :3