[Rachel's POV]

'If you tell your sister who we are... We'll hurt her, worse than what we did to you.' Tomeo snarled.

I knew the difference between the two of them now, Takeo was always smiling cruelly with every comment and always refereed to Payton as "Shōfu," (Whore) while Tomeo usually called her Payton or "your sister/twin."

I nodded my head in fear as blood dribbled and dripped off my chin and onto my lap which was now building a little puddle on top of me.

'I'm so afraid.' I whimpered. 'Can't you just leave us alone?'

'No!' Takeo snapped. 'The two of you are in too deep now and I'm finished with the both of you, you're just nuisances, I was annoyed with Tomeo said we couldn't kill the two of you.'

I gurgled blood at the back of my throat. 'Who are you?'

'Well... That is a tough question. Let's just start by saying our parents were quite high in the government, though they didn't like any of the stupid bastards.'

'Does that mean the two of you are-'

'The only children of the two most well known assassins on this stupid world.' Tomeo growled. 'Isn't it obvious?'

I gulped loudly and looked away, my entire body hurt as blood continued to trickle down my cheeks.

'Ok.' I whispered. 'I won't tell anyone who you are. Just please, leave me alone.'

The two cruel boys smirked at me before nodding.

'Should we just leave her here?' One asked the other.

'Perhaps that would be the best idea but she needs to get to a hospital...'

I gulped. 'No! It's fine! Just go! Leave me alone! I won't tell anyone, not the hospital because Payton will tell them that I know who you are! If I tell Payton not to tell anyone, she won't.'

'Perhaps... But I have a better idea.' Takeo stepped forward and placed a finger under my chin. 'I want you to never speak to your sister again, never act kindly to her, I want you to tell her to leave you alone or.. or we'll come back and finish the job.'

I noticed Tomeo turn to his brother in confusion as Takeo grinned at me before he shrugged and turned to me too, glaring hard at me.

'Fine!' I whinced. 'I promise but... Can I ask? Why do I have to do this?'

'Death is too good for your whore of a sister. She deserves to be singled out and hated by everyone, she deserves to want to kill herself...'

'I couldn't do-'

'You do it... Or we do it.' Tomeo busted in, pushing his brother slightly out the way as he went behind me and sank to his knees, pulling hard on the rope which burnt around my wrists.

He loosened it and the rope fell, I pulled my hands into my lap and cradled them gently as I cried harder.

'Believe me, Miss Power,' Takeo leaned forward, smirking so cruelly. 'I will make that whore pay for everything she has done in her miserable, pointless life.'

An hour passed and I was alone, completely alone in the dark, waiting for someone to save me, I didn't have a phone on me and I had no clue where I was, so I just sat there and I cried, I cried so hard I felt like my eyes might slip from their sockets.

Why am I even alive?

Payton and I have joked about this for years but only now do I wish it was true, I wish we were born into one body, so the both of us could be strong, one strong minded person.

'Where are you, twin?' I whimpered. 'I need you now more than ever.'

[Payton's POV]

I raced around the small town of Japan I lived in (I still had yet to learn where it actually was) as I called everyone I could think of, police, ambulance, fire department.

I might have been going a little overboard but, my twins safety was in jeopardy so to be honest I was like an angry pregnant women going down these streets, stomping and snarling at everyone I passed.

I showed the police the call I got and they tracked the number to a lake where the Sim card had obviously been dropped into.

I guess the bastards got their hands a little too dirty.

'Where are you, twin?' I cried as I ran across a large field, kicking my legs up high behind me. 'I can't loose you! Not now! Not ever!'

I stopped in the middle of the field and twirled around on my toes before reaching my hands up to curve around my mouth as I screamed my twin sisters name at the top of my lungs.

Suddenly, the most beautiful sound echoed back.

It was my own name, coming from my twins mouth.

I twirled around, gasping, as I stretched on my tip-toes searching around as fast as I could when I saw a mangeled bloody shape about 15 metres from me.

I sprinted towards me and fell to my knees at Rachel's beaten and bloody body.

Instantly, tears began to fall from my own eyes as I pulled her into my chest and held her like she was a vase, so easily broken, so fragile.

'Don't scare me like this again!' I wailed as I squeezed tighter, she whimpered quietly but wrapped her own arms around me and cried into my shoulder.

*** NEXT DAY ***

'Rachel...' I whispered the next morning, I sat in the kitchen, my hands awkwardly in my lap as my twin raced passed me for the 5th time this morning alone. 'Are you going to talk to me or not?'

She didn't reply for the 5th time, I stared after her as she sprinted out the room, her bag pressed tightly to her back. She called something about Kaoru offering her a lift before I heard the front door slam.

Ryu, who had been sat at the breakfast table the entire time frowned. 'Is she mad at you?'

I turned to him, my eyes were red from all the crying I had done in the past 12 hours, bags were heavy under my eyes from the lack of sleep I've had and my entire heart felt like it was slowly being torn apart, then torn again until each piece was the size of a crumb. 'I think so...'

'What happened?'

'The two of us were up all night arguing.' I whispered. 'She won't tell me who did that to her and she told me to call off all the police men I've set on her.'

'You refused right!' He gawped.

I nodded. 'Of course! I am not having this happen again, I've specifically told the police to watch me because I am going to kill every single bastard that laid a finger on her. She... She says that I'm overreacting... That I'm starting to irritate her so she's been ignoring me since like 3am since I've been the one talking/shouting since then.'

'Has your mother spoke to either of you?'

'No. She went for Chloe's scan yesterday to see if the plane journey effected anything so yesterday it was all about that damn baby, Rachel and I have never mattered to her... I hate her so much, I wish she wasn't our mother, I'm a better mother to Rachel than she is and I'm her twin!'

Ryu nodded in understanding, his long brown hair dangling in front of his eyes. 'Yes, Miss, are you ready? It's time I got you to school.'

I nodded my head reluctantly as I stood from the chair, pulling my new backpack onto my back and tying my hair in a loose bun.

If Rachel wants to be stubborn then fine, I'll give her a little distance since she did just go through something traumatic but I need to have a proper conversation with her within the week.

[3 weeks later]

'RACHEL!' I snapped. 'Get up! It's almost time for school.'

'Fuck off you stupid whore.' Rachel grumbled back and slapped her hand out, connecting right with my cheek.

I snarled back at her and slammed my fist down onto her back before lifting her mattress up, forcing her to tumble down and onto the floor with a hard thump.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?!' She cursed and she jumped up to her feet. 'What the hell is your problem?!'

Ok so my goal to have a conversation with her kind of went out the window, she's just so good at ignoring and avoiding me.

She spends all her time with Kaoru and Hikaru, she gets lifts from them to and from school, she sits next to them in lessons and moves away from me whenever I sit next to her.

We only curse at each other now, I gave up hope on making up with her a week ago.

She still works on getting the host club back up and running which I guess is a good thing since it keeps her mind of everything and she has good people around her.

She's still getting amazingly good grades and for once, mother is paying one of us attention...

To bad it's me... The loss of my twin as caused me to flunk many of my classes out of irritation and now all my grades have fallen which even I think is ridiculous since it's only been 3 WEEKS!

So yes, a failing child is not what my mother wants so she is constantly yelling at me, telling me I'm an embarrassment, Benjamin keeps hitting me every time he sees me and Chloe, well she's the size of a walrus and she's got the fucking strength of one as well.

It has not been a good few weeks what so ever.

'Go downstairs and go to school you stupid cow.' I snapped back at her before flumping into the bathroom and snapping the door shut behind me and peeling off my school uniform.

Time to pull another sicky.

I listened as Rachel moved around in the room next door, I sighed in relief as I switched on the shower and hopped underneath the burning hot water.

As I stood underneath the hot water I finally let some tears of anguish slip out, 3 weeks its been since I told my twin I loved her, told her that I needed her more than life itself, told her that I couldn't be without her or there would be no point to me.

'I finally understand us, Hikaru.' I whispered. 'We were not born to be seperate from our twins, no twins ever are. You have the main twin then you have the other who would defend said main twin with everything he or she had. For example, there is no point for me to live if I cannot protect my twin and give her everything she could ever desire. There is no point for me to be here anymore... She doesn't need me.'

Don't worry, I don't plan on killing myself, I'm not that stupid, but... I'm ready to shut down and go into sleep mode none the less.

'I love you, Rachel. More than I could ever love any one else, you are me and I am you. I... I'm so sorry for everything I've done to you.' I spoke a little louder as I bashed my fist against the wall tiles, the wall was slippery from the condensed water and my hands instantly slipped down causing me to fall forwards and smash my chest against the wall and slip down as well till I sank on to my knees.

'What should I do now? When even you don't need me anymore?'

Suddenly my mind trailed back to a time that felt so long ago, back in our dear old England.

*** FLASHBACK ***

'I have to stay late tonight, guys, sorry, my sister has a guitar lesson.' Our friend Ashleigh smiled kindly, her long blonde hair whirled around softly in the wind as she ran away.

I looked to my twin and shot her a tiny little smile before the two of us joined hands and headed out the front gate, our long gingery hair curled around each others shoulder, a piece of hair on Rachels partning stuck up and was knotted around my own piece of sticking up hair, the two of us looked up at the knot in front of our eyes and giggled, the way the hair bent almost made it look like a heart inbetween our heads.

'Have you spoken to dad?' Rachel giggled. 'He said he wants to see us, he wants us to come visit him and America.'

I rolled my eyes amused at my twin. 'Mother would never let us go.'

'Who cares what she thinks?' She giggled. 'It's not about her is it! Not everything is about that mean cow!'

'Well, she is the adult.' I whispered. 'She's in charge of everything and would be our only to get on a plane and go.'

'Well! Screw her! All she ever does is fuck up our live and you know what, so does dad! And Benjamin! And Chloe! All they ever do is make our lives somehow worse.'

I tightened my grip on my twins hand as we jogged across the road where our usual driver waited with his unfriendly shades over his eyes.

'We don't need them.' I smiled.

'Why on earth would we ever need them? They don't make us happy, they barely even talk to us!' Rachel ran around the car after letting go off my hand and the two of us pounced into the car.

Being only 11 years old the two of us weren't old enough to do as we pleased after school and had to come straight home every day and could never go out on weekends or stay over a friends house.

'Let's make a deal.' Rachel reached over and rested her hand on my leg.

'What kind of a deal?' I giggled.

'Let's promise that it'll always be the two of us, that no one will ever come between us.'

'We don't need to promise that.' I snickered into my hands. 'We already do that.'

'Well... Let's promise it so it'll last until we are all grey and wrinkly.' She lifted her finger and outstretched her little finger. 'A promise which will be stronger than concrete.'

'Fine then!' I smiled. 'I know for a fact that I'll never break such an easy promise!'

'Well then let's make the promise hard for the both of us.'

The driver took off as Rachel and I sat on our seats on our knees, staring at each other as we giggled in happiness, pinkies out.

'I promise that I will never hurt you intentionally, I will always tell you that I love you and I will never leave you, I will always correct you when you are wrong and whenever you correct me I will accept your opinion and work with it.' Rachel giggled.

'I promise exactly the same, but I promise to always protect you, I will be the Watson to your Sherlock, the Robin to your Batman, I will always be that stone in your shoe that you can't get rid of but I will always protect you.' I blushed.

The two of us connected fingers before laughing our little catchphrase.

'Twins before dins.'

*** FLASHBACK ENDS ***

'Twins before dins.' I whispered. 'I guess you found some normal people then...'