The man flicks his wrist upwards to take note of his watch, shaking his head in worry at the sight of the time. The flight is taking off in two hours, and he should've already been at the airport a long while ago.
Not that Len's really complaining. He himself had just gotten back from hours of training in the capital city, alongside the allowance check he has tucked within his pocket the last thing he wants to do is interact with his father for an entire night. It seems his wish was granted, because that man is already bustling around the apartment packing up the last of his things.
At this point they can barely even stand each other.
In all honesty he could care less about his father's absence when there are plenty of other things on his mind.
Not to mention there are his final exams at the end of next month, which, thankfully, his family wasn't making a big deal out of; his dear old dad barely acknowledges it, his brother can't do more than wish him luck when staying on the other side of the country, and Rin... well, Rin doesn't have to know anyway.
Right. Rin... hell. Maybe he should tell her.
His head hurts thinking about it.
Len stares down at his feet, pretending to be wistful, then looks back up to meet the man in the eyes.
He's holding onto his juice box, taking little sips of milk though the straw, while his father takes the time to straighten a tie, calmly, despite the panic in everything else. "How long will you be gone?"
The response he gets is far from what he wished to hear.
"... two months. Listen, Len, I'm telling you not to bother that girl's family while I'm gone." The sudden attack catches him off-guard, especially when this is the one conversation they'd avoided having for a whole year.
When he scoffs, as if hoping their subject of discussion would change into something else, his father forgoes the discomfort and faces him with a stern glare.
"I'm not trying to be funny. I don't want you to make the same mistake twice."
He breathes through his teeth when he his father looks at him impatiently, expecting a direct answer. "Alright. But even if I do see her, what do you expect to happen? Bet you she'll immediately get pregnant just by breathing in the same air as me, yeah?"
"I said I'm not joking around."
Of course, Kagamine Leon is never joking around.
It's so sudden, with a bitter reminder, that his father has never once been proud of him. That's why Len is always getting chastised, that's why he was never allowed to let a single toe out of line or else he'll be forcefully reminded of it until the end of his time. It's times like these where he prefers his mother, but then he remembers what she's done as well.
Even as a child, to this man, he was likely nothing more than a black stain on the sky.
And to that woman, he was only a cloud ー she remembers him, but does not miss him even if he isn't there.
"All I asked was how long you'll be gone, you're the one who..." Oh, fuck, he doesn't know why his eyes are betraying him now. They're wet, and his tongue follows suit, turning numb into nothing more than dead weight in his mouth, but he tries to continue speaking, avoiding defeat, "... y-you're the one who..."
Leon's eyes softened at the sight of his son's trembling shoulders. "I have to go," He rests one, soft hand on Len's arm, but when the boy stiffens at the touch instead of finding comfort in it, the hand is released as if it were shot by ice. "I mean what I said, I don't want you to get hurt. Do you understand?"
No, he doesn't. He's lived his entire life understanding, and now refuses to be running in a circle. "Just go. You're going to miss your flight."
"Len, look at me." The older man lifts one of his carry-on bags over a shoulder. "Everything I've ever done, I did it for you."
The words are familiar, but Len's not quite sure where he's heard it before.
But when he looks away, towards that dusty cabinet glass, just to see his reflection scowling back at him, the blond already knows the answer. And it disgusts him to the core.
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Naturally the first thing he did upon arrival to their home in the mountains was to tell her to take a shower, pack her bags, and ready their daughter so they could return to the beachside town.
She was groggy and half-asleep when he told her the news.
Her words came out in a slur of what he hoped wasn't curses and insults, but through the indistinct mumbling he did manage to understand something along the lines of you know Len you're absolutely bloody mental, then threatening to bury him in an unmarked grave hidden beneath her future garden of roses and lilies.
He hopes those are merely the doing of his ears playing tricks on him rather than actual words slipping from her heaven of a throat.
"It's summer break, my dad won't be home until maybe, I don't know, Christmas, and the final exams are coming up. This is the best thing we can do."
"No." She took a minute, making him hold his breath and believe the younger blonde was only pausing her speech so she could get over with brushing her teeth furiously in front of the bathroom mirror, involving a glare towards his reflection with all the fury she can muster.
Then she spat out the foam.
He blinked, as if waiting for her to continue talking, but one more look at Kagamine Rin told him that she was very, and completely, finished.
Nothing could be done to change her mind either.
"You've got anything left to say?"
"No?"
"Right ー I mean, you took a pause there, so..." Len cleared his throat when the girl spun around to glare at him. His own toothbrush, gel coated nicely on the brush as he was still taking his own sweet time to put the damn stick in his mouth, nearly fell out of his hands. Rin was stepping over a very thin boundary of rushing over to do it herself. "Please consider it."
"No. And brush your teeth."
But he's already brushed his teeth nine times today until his gums taste and feel nothing but mint and green tea. At this point he's only doing it because he has nothing better to do.
That, and consuming toothpaste wasn't the worst thing in the world to do. On the contrary...
Before he could finish his thoughts, she roughly bumped shoulders with him on her way out, leaving to take their clothes off the pegs before the small ray of sun they have stops shining and the dark clouds come by to pay them another visit. She can't be bothered to deal with another mess of rain. They haven't seen clear skies for weeks.
Len decided to put the brush aside first, leaving it on the sink with a mental note to clean up any mess after he gets his point across.
Only, well, you need two willing participants to have an agreement, and one of them refuses to respond even to the slightest hint of reason.
The young man follows their path to the living room, where she doesn't think twice to leave through the back porch and step onto earth.
"Remember those five conditions? You can up them to ten. Just follow me on this."
"Oh, forget those. You've never kept your promises anyway."
"What are you saying? You've never even told me what they are. Rin, come on, don't be upset with me."
He hesitates to get his feet dirty. To think of putting his toes between all that mud and grass was more exhausting than he'd like to admit, not to mention having to clean up the halls once they dirty the house all over again.
But right now this irritating younger girl is standing too far away and he has no choice but to jump off the wooden platform and onto the ground.
He can almost hear her groan once she realises he's standing next to her.
"Hi," He greets, with upturnt corners at his lips. She's not sure if it's meant to be seductive or friendly, but she decides not to find out.
Her reply is instant. "No."
Len felt his face fall.
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"Smile, Mirai."
A scowl.
"... Smile, Mirai!"
An even bigger scowl. His heart couldn't help but ache at the lack of improvement despite several hours of effort he'd so easily wasted. He turned away from the camera lens to focus on the scent of salt air, seashells beneath his feet and that sour face directed towards him so bitterly as though he'd committed every single sin against earth.
At this point it'd be easier to train a puppy to walk on two feet rather than to get his daughter to smile. And that alone was difficult in itself.
Deciding better not to push, he raised his thumb and pressed on the capture button
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"No. I'm saying no, she's too young to be outside." Rin doesn't budge, "She's young, she can't even stand for ten seconds without falling over, and I don't want to risk getting caught."
Bullshit. They've brought her out before.
He has her daughter, and he has the house keys, both in his hold. She fears they've reached the point of no return.
Len spun around to reassure her. "We won't be going anywhere public. She'll be fine."
It's the one day nearly all summer where the weather is forecasted to be sunny; he's not about to waste an opportunity so brazenly.
"We don't have money for train tickets," She made an attempt to take Mirai out of his arms. He resisted, turning his to stride ahead, ignoring any protests she allowed to float in the air. "If we spend any on today, we might not have anything to eat tomorrow. Or the week after that. Or the week after the week after that,"
Rin was pretty today, wearing that same white dress from her birthday while one of his rattier cardigans covered her arms.
When he complimented her, she responded with a scowl.
He would've wrung his hands from exhaustion had a child not been in his hold. Len quickly cut in, jumping to the easiest conclusion to please her if he ever dreamed to have one single day of peace. "I've got it. We'll go somewhere that won't need train tickets, alright?"
Only silence came. She had nothing more to say or do than a purse of her lips, followed by a firm nod of the head.
But Rin had been hoping to be brought to the empty festival grounds they'd visited once before, where he'd be able to prove the theory of tulips before any trace would be buried beneath snow. She was, however, not hoping to be brought to the nearest seaside, where she's given no choice but to stay by herself on a nice little carpet higher up the shore to avoid any contact with the ocean.
Len's ankles were in shallow tides, the push and pull of the sea dragging skin into water, soon returning to kiss land.
A small hand clung onto the cloth of his jeans and he had to squat down, holding onto the owner's body, helping her stand on her own feet.
Little footprints could be seen imprinted on whatever there was of sand.
"Come in the water!" He cupped a hand over his mouth, as if the gesture would help his voice echo in the air, "It's warm!"
His partner grimaced with every last bit of refusal. "I think ー I think I'm fine where I am, thanks!"
The beach couldn't be described as pleasant. Not particularly, in comparison to their hometown ー then again, you can't compare an iconic ocranside town against a district famed for their water springs and mountains.
The sky is purple, and there's the reflection of the crimson sun waving at them through the water.
There's no soft, white sand in sight. Instead the entire shore is cliffs, rough rocks, and pebbles, similar to those reflexology paths often famed by middle-aged women in the park. After a while, his daughter turns restless enough to sob in distress at the sharpness beneath her bare feet.
The camera he had in hold was left to dangle on the sling around his neck when he had prop the child up on one arm, waving the other towards Kagamine Rin in hopes of luring her in. On other matters, he took a sniff of Mirai's scalp, of citrus and roses and the newest shampoo of the week, then wiped away a gooey trail of snot from her nose into a napkin.
Maybe it really was a bad decision to take them out. It's not the hike of morning anymore, and he personally doesn't feel too cold even when the sun is raining on his back, but maybe if he were any younger or any smaller...
"Can we go home yet?!" Rin yelled over the sound of the waves, grimacing over any surface the carpet couldn't fully blanket. She was certain her thighs would be full of scabs the next morning, and she wasn't looking forward to it by one bit. "She's going to get even fussier if we're not home by the time she's filled a diaper!"
"I brought the baby bag, we can just change her here."
"Stop being inconsiderate!"
Given that response, it was only natural that he wordlessly cross the gap into dry land, making sure to place their child safely onto the carpet, then watch Kagamine Rin shrink a million times in size as she tried to flee from the boy's outstretched hands. A shriek sounded in the air, throwing birds flying up into the skies as she, in just a few seconds, found herself in his hold on their journey to the sea.
Her apologies were nothing more than dry words to his ears.
"No, no, no, put me down!" Blonde hair tangled through his fingers. "Len, down! Please! I'm sorry! I'll enter the water myself!"
It's too late now. "Gave you the opportunity to do so earlier."
"And I'll take it! I'll take it, alright, I'll ー " She let out another scream when he pretended to lose his grip. Len felt his cheeks flush red from a mixture of amusement and enthusiasm, holding in a grin from bursting over his face as both knees submerged beneath the sea. "Let me down! I'll listen to you from now on! I'll do anything you want ー "
"Oh, you want me to let you down?" An audible splash of the water, made with a single swish of his leg. "Right here?"
Another scream of his name, followed by hands roaming every part of his body that she could grasp on. Oh, he hasn't had this much fun in ages.
To think the girl is actually this worried of drowning when the tides are at their weakest and nobody at her height would be underwater unless they were to crawl on both hands and feet. Her arms soon wound around his neck in nothing but pure desperation, and this time, the laugh bubbling up his throat nearly escapes.
Only, when he looks down to see the young lady's eyes clenched so tightly, a gentle tug to the heartstrings drags him across the ground.
He blew at one of the hairs tickling her nose. Her response is confused, and she blinks her gaze back open, staring back towards him.
This won't do.
While his first love is the sea, she wants absolutely nothing to do with it. In a moment, every breath of air kicked out from his lungs.
The last thing he registered was a tug on his collar when she fell, dragging him along with her.
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As guilty as he felt, he couldn't deny the laugh that escaped this time.
He hadn't meant to drop her. That would've been the last thing on his mind. Rin was lovingly drenched from head to toe in saltwater, and any more efforts to reach out for her only resulted in a harsh punch against his chest. So he succumbed to grinning ー teeth on display, stretching to both ears and reaching his eyes.
All he wanted was to view the sea, not to bathe in it.
He told her it was an accident, out of every last bit of sincerity left in his heart.
It's too bad she would never believe him with what he's already done.
He made her wear a change of clothes they'd brought along ー only her school skirt and one of his jumpers. It's saddening, because now the outfit in their pictures wouldn't match the little white frill dress he'd carefully chosen out for their daughter (who, apparently, had to be guarded at all times because of a newfound interest in tasting any pebbles off the ground.)
Well... on the bright side, at least he managed to avoid the camera getting wet. A few testing shots proved the quality to be in top condition.
Rin wouldn't look at him even once during the walk home.
To be fair, she was barely talking to him at all this past week. Today has been a drastic improvement, and it's only because she had no choice but to communicate or else Len would get everything done his way.
He makes up for her coldness by closing their distance, walking just inches away rather than feet, stepping with his shoes in the trail of mud she leaves on the path.
Their daughter wakes eventually, but only long after the visit to the beach. He's been pestered to change out of his soiled clothes, rid his body of dirt, then return to bed. And by then, he was available to tuck the little girl back into her blanket with a soft pillow, with those blue eyes set to be closed until morning.
The sound of footsteps from the outer hall rushes past, and he's surprised the person in question can run around so energetically despite her complaints of pain.
Rin offers a mug of chocolate she'd brought back from the kitchen, made fresh, and the sweet liquid fils him with warmth directly to the stomach.
The mixture in itself wasn't perfect; powder was badly mixed in, curdled with chunks of air, but when she looks at him with those wide blue eyes, questioning how good it tastes, he doesn't hesitate to say it's the best thing he's had all day.
She flushes crimson from head to toe, smacking an embarrassed hand against his back when he takes another sip of the sweetness.
The boy cried defensively, nearly snorting out hot water. "What are you hitting me for?!"
In all honesty, he'd be lying if he said he didn't understand why she'd want to stare... this girl has never made a drink for him before. By the large mound of sugar sitting at the bottom at the cup that refuses to be mixed no matter how desperately he stirs the spoon, he doubts she's ever made any for herself at all.
"Does it taste good?" Her voice is harsh, but the worry is genuine.
That's the seventh time she's asked already.
"Why?" Len decided to voice his concern suspiciously, turning their interaction into a play, "What did you put inside it?"
Rin was in the middle of standing up with her long blanket dirtied at the hem, crumpling it to the side to search through his schoolbag for a spare jacket. She frowns, as if offended he ever dared to question her, but dropped the subject once concluding that she didn't have enough energy to start an argument on a problem so minor.
To think
Lucky him, he couldn't help but think. Lucky, lucky him.
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Blonde tufts of hair tickled his chin, then bumped his nose in attempts to get a better look of the bright pictures on the book, barely visible in the darkness.
"'Very well,' thought the old woman." Len narrowed his eyes at the lines on the page, making out whatever words he could from a blur. The moonlight is dim, and the night was much too warm to light a fire. "So she planted the seed, and that very seed bloomed into a tulip, and out of the tulip sprouted a girl, no bigger than the size of a thumb."
As he brought the piece of literature lower, it resulted in his daughter's delight, trailing pudgy fingers over the paper and dwarfing over his own hands.
She'd woken up only half an hour prior, in the dead of the early morning, refusing to go back to sleep. Pushing the child by the forehead back onto the futon, no matter how many trials he'd put into effort, didn't work as he'd hoped it would.
Her nails scraped over the drawing of a frog.
Then as if all that curiosity was finally satiated, leant back to her former position against his chest as he continued reading on. A few drops of milk from her bottle spilled on his jeans as she moved around.
He was unsure whether this little girl truly understood anything spoken or was merely enjoying the comfort of a warm body encompassing her, but he found it didn't matter enough to know.
Babies are two dimensional anyway. He'd worry about emotions, hers, namely, later down the line, when it will actually matter. As of now, in all honesty, he's getting sick of storybooks.
This specific one, for example, he's already read over fifteen times in one single week.
But it was the only book he has with pictures, and the infant is certainly not getting tired of it. "... a pretty young maiden, to wed with a hideous frog? How absurd. The fishes, determined to help her, responded to the girl's..." Squint. Lord, the moon surely was too dim tonight. "... pleas, biting at the lotus stalks to set her free- ow," His narrating stopped short when his daughter decided to suddenly stand up on two feet, putting her entire weight onto his groin. "Oh- argh, Mirai!"
Out of shock, Len flung the book somewhere he didn't bother to trace.
He turned to face his source of torture.
Inocent ocean eyes blinked at him, as if she didn't just curse his wellbeing to hell.
Len somehow managed to get her off his body and onto the floor, leaving space for him to double over, bending his stomach on his knees. "... you little brat, you hate me, don't you? What di-did I ever do to you?"
He stared forwards as if she could actually provide him a logical reply.
The young man took a deep breath to settle his thoughts.
He pulled his daughter back into his lap once he felt the pain slightly (and excruciatingly slowly) ebb away. The water took ages to blink away from his eyes.
Leaning against the wall for support, he then unfolded the book cover to reveal the very same page with Thumbelina sobbing, maybe less drastically than himself, on a lotus petal. Mirai pointed at one of the orange fishes, babbling indecipherable sounds, and he let out a hum of pained agreement as if he understood exactly what she meant.
But he wasn't going to let whatever just happened immediately forgotten.
"If you do that again," He squishes her face in one hand, which he thinks is done gently, though it's really not ー forcing those plump little cheeks to bulge between the gaps of his fingers. "You're going to sleep without any more stories tonight. Do you understand me?"
The command reaped no fruit. Mirai doesn't say a word (not that she could in the first place.)
See, this is exactly why he struggles with babies.
But the little girl does respond in her own way eventually. Those icky little hands reach up to his ears, confusing Len as his eyes returned to the book, ready to keep reading, only to gdt caught off guard when she yanks down with what felt like every single force in the world.
In that moment, his ears had nearly been ripped from his head.
The blond had no choice but to push Mirai off, hunch down, giving himself another five minutes to breathe.
But when he looks up, expecting to see the child stare at him with that same, stoic look, he was surprised to see those lips spread out into a smile. She giggles, a sound more akin to a hiccup rather than a laugh.
Only a few teeth can be seen from her gums when she smiles.
He wrinkles his nose, reaching out one hand to pinch the cherub face in mock punishment.
It only occurs to him when the storybook is finished for the hundredth time and she's safely tucked inside her blanket, asleep after hours of his hard work, that this was the first time he'd ever heard his daughter laugh.
And it was soft, like raindrops in the sea.
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The bathroom door is knocked on by the maximum of five times before it disgracefully bursts open, a young woman barging in without awaiting an answer.
One of the irritating rubber ducks made way through the water, coming over to poke at his skin. Irritated, he flung the offending toy to the floor to rid of any distractions, especially when it's bothering his head space.
It releases little squeaks as it bounces, then a final quack once it hits the wall ー or, rather, Kagamine Rin's leg.
Len drew his knees up to his chest, the cold bubbles of his bathwater running along with his movements as he glared daggers into his companion for so blatantly disrespecting his privacy. Then again, he's done the very same thing to her over a dozen times, so he's not standing in a place to complain.
She picks up the toy, squeezes it in her palm, then throws it back into the water against his chest.
Before he can demand reasoning behind such brashness, she announces loud enough to echo several times down their hall about how she's finished packing up everything they would need.
Her tone is sour but her face remains the same, the picturesque perfection of nonchalance.
He releases a hum of admiration, praising her in hopes it would make the young woman leave faster. But when she doesn't, he takes a moment to properly analyse her words, then ponder about what they might even mean. "What are you packing for?"
"What do you mean what am I-" Rin cut herself off, considered her next choice of words, then looked him in the eye. "Think for a moment, you said you wanted to go back."
Her hands scoop under the water, feeling the temperature, than nearly recoiling at the speed of light at how he's practically bathing in ice. The older blond met the subject as cautiously as she did, lowering his tone and reaching just one hand out of the water to stroke her chin.
"Yeah. But you said you didn't want to have anything to do with that. So I dropped it."
"Since when have you ever cared about what I want? About anything that I want?" Rin can't help but grit her teeth at the touch of cold liquid. Luckily the air is warm, and the green summer crickets chirping outside the window reminds her that he won't easily get sick over doing something as foolish as taking a cold bath in the middle of the night.
She stands up with a scowl, searching for one of the old towels in the sink cabinet, then demanding him to get up as she laces it around his damp shoulders.
"I do care!" He argued defensively. The way he shot his arm back into the water as she grasps it, trying to pull him up, nearly got her to fall forwards into the bath. Her balance is caught only at the final second, and it's only after she releases a scream.
He's not sure whether it's the shock of slipping or whether it's the water temperature.
The young lady stumbles back, the bare skin of her forearms catching onto cold bubbles, and Len slowly helps her return to her perch.
Once she settles down, she begins speaking again, calm enough that he'd nearly believe nothing had happened.
"Are we going or not?" Her voice is slightly trembling, but an outsider wouldn't be able to tell. Her skin is flustered, but since the first time he's ever met this girl, her cheeks have always been red.
At the back of his eyes he can see her folding up the sleeves of her shirt to keep it from getting wet ー then dipping her entire arm in the water, even when the pain bites through her like hail against skin.
He can't help but protest when she finally digs underneath his legs, locating the plug of the bath and letting him sink deeply as the water slowly drains. He's not even sure why she's doing this. Len scowls, taking grip of the towel she passes over nearly resentfully, telling her to mind her own business and leave him some time alone without anybody barging into his space.
Only for nothing to change.
Her response is another nag for him to get out of the tub, then to wait until she boils some water for him to have a proper bath, as she's worried about him catching a cold.
Her entire existence overwhelms him. He doesn't know whether to be angry, or to be touched.
"We are," He reached for her cheeks, then apologised once the younger girl instantly recoiled at the lack of warmth in his touch. "Just not today."
Nonchalance is not something he normally associates with Kagamine Rin ー instead it is impulse, arrogance, and sugary sweetness which despite her being upset towards him, she never fails to deliver.
She passes him a robe, and he orders the younger blonde to turn around with eyes closed for the sake of his decency, as if they hadn't thrown that out the window so many times before. As he's stepping out of the tub, donning the robe, Rin only does half of what she's asked to do.
She stares at the opposite side of the wall, towards the door where she can see the shape of his rising shadow, allowing a frown to touch on her lips. "Since I'm going along with this... you promise not to leave me with Yuuma again.. not with my family..."
"I promise."
Despite himself, Len can't help but delight in the warmth of the towel, breathing in the smell of laundry softener she'd left it to soak in this morning. And something else, sweet and citrus-like, that he just can't place. Or perhaps it's just the scent of the sun, and the lilt, even as small as it can be, of her touch.
He can put his heart, raw and pumping in her hands. He turns her around to face him once he's ready, pressing his forehead against hers and sharing their breath.
But she doesn't smile back at him, and he cannot see the faintest trace, not even the slightest linger of faith nor trust remaining in thd young woman's eyes.
thanks for the well wishes! (and ty all sm for sticking around oh god,) i can't say anything about delaying the ending as i believed we can agree the fic has been prolonged for enough, but hopefully i've managed to cover any loose holes in the story that previously hadn't been tied before.
regarding consistency i just might be able to upload a new chapter about once to twice every two weeks.