(A/N: Well, here it is. I have a lot of history with this story. Vocaloid's Adolescence. For anyone unfamiliar, I wrote the first, very cringey iteration of this fic somewhere around 2013. I tried my hand at it again in 2017/2018, and while it was written better than before, I kinda let some negative criticism affect my passion for the plot, so I put it on hiatus for a long time. I never thought I'd return, but after giving myself some time, my passion has returned. It's about time I get this rewritten for real, all the way til the end. I can't guarantee that I'll be incredibly consistent, but I'll see this through to the end, and with a fresh coat of paint, too! I've left the old version up [incomplete btw, obviously] for… I dunno, a comparison, I suppose. The general outline will remain the same. I'm going to keep it as unrealistic as I damn please; I'm writing this story for myself, first and foremost, and for readers who share my tastes. If there's any part of this story you don't like, well I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna change anything. Well, that's enough rambling from me. I'll keep quiet now! Please, do enjoy. Thank you.)

It was normal for twins to share a special bond, right? Like, they were supposed to be inseparable… Right? It'd be kinda weird if they weren't. Well, that was how I viewed it, anyway. I figured all twins could feel that deep connection – it went that way with me and my brother, at least. We were practically joined at the hip as kids. Barely a single moment went by when we weren't together.

Though, as we grew older, we began to sense our bond ran deeper than that of the average twins. I was never quite sure how or why, until that fateful day rolled around. The day we realised we weren't just 'average' twins.

I would never forget that day. We would always creep people out with our uncanny ability to flawlessly predict each other's sentences. Even I always thought that to be just a little strange. Bearable, but strange. And then, on our eighth birthday, we discovered that ability had nothing on the fact that we could physically hear each other's thoughts.

I gave up trying to rationalise it long ago. I thought we'd be inseparable from then on, like every other pair of twins out there. That was my view on twins. That they were 'supposed' to have a strong bond. I really wished it could've stayed that way forever.

Then around came that time of a kid's life when they went through this magical thing called adolescence. That had been the downfall of my relationship with my brother, to be honest. My parents described this 'adolescence' in the simplest way possible. I still remember it as though it happened yesterday.

"Ah… Ahh…! Mom! Oh my god, Mom!"

I screeched out at the top of my lungs, horrified. Poor, inexperienced, twelve-year-old little me needed her mother, right. That. Second.

Seeing blood coming out of a place where it never had before… That could not be normal! Sure, we learned bits here and there about it in school, but my parents practically raised me and my brother in bubble-wrap. They had insisted on withdrawing us from those classes, leaving us in the dark, promising they'd teach us themselves.

As if my frantic screaming wasn't enough to catch my mother's attention, I also stomped wildly on the bathroom floor.

And just like that, there she came – my knight in shining armour! My mother bolted up the stairs within literal seconds. "Rinny! Oh, honey! What's the matter? Is my little darling baby sick? Mommy's here, don't worry!"

"Mommyyyyy…!" The floodgates burst open as soon as I heard her voice, the sheer terror of the situation doubling – no, tripling! If Mommy was in a fit of panic, then it must be bad! "I'm bleeding! I don't wanna dieeeee!" Cue the dramatics.

"Bleeding…?" Just like that, her worry dissipated. "Bleeding where, sweetheart?" My mother sounded rather calm. Too calm, in fact. Probably as close to fainting as I was, to be honest.

"My… m-my… my…!" Sobbing, I couldn't even say it out loud. Embarrassment and pain crippled me into more whining.

"OH! From… From there!" Apparently, she hadn't figured it out despite her calmness a mere moment ago. She shrieked at first, before swiftly reassuring me. "Honey, honey. Relax, okay? It's normal. I promise."

"Normal?!" I flipped out, totally unable to think logically. I mean, how could heavy bleeding from such a private place be 'normal'? Impossible. "Mommyyyy!"

"Rinny, it's okay! It just means you're growing up, my brave little girl!" I still couldn't decide if she was angry at my incessant whining, or if she was merely trying her best not to burst out laughing.

"Gr...Growing up…?" I hesitantly repeated. "But…" I had no idea what to say. My tiny brain turned to mush upon trying to think of a rational explanation for it. Mommy sure did a great job explaining all that to me, huh.

"Please get yourself cleaned up, Rinny, then we can talk some more about this."

I glanced around the bathroom, horrified. It looked something akin to that of a murder scene. Alright, fine, not really. But a lot of blood was left behind!

And at that point, for some ungodly reason, I decided to ask my twin brother perhaps the most humiliating, ridiculous question to ever exist. 'Lenny… Have you started bleeding too?'

Those times were… good. Chaotic as all hell, but good, and a ton of fun. My brother's reaction to that dumb question in particular was priceless. I… missed those times. As I grew older and discovered more and more about this so-called adolescence, it didn't take long for me to understand how complicated it'd be to navigate. Periods were the least of my problems.

Something about the bond with my brother slowly but surely changed ever since then. We drifted apart, and for the longest time, I figured it to be completely normal. One's teen years are a struggle enough on their own, but having to deal with a brother who'd constantly get under my skin just made it so much worse.

Even though I had almost successfully made it through adolescence, relatively unscathed, there were still challenges ahead of me that I never would've been able to predict.

…

Alright… The big day! At last. A huge moment for me! Uh, and my brother, too, I suppose. For the first time in our lives, our parents trusted us enough to take a short vacation – to leave us home alone. Naturally, with their strict ways and such, there were a couple of conditions to fulfil before they agreed. Nothing I couldn't handle, though. Except for the teensy, tiny fact I had to work with my brother in order to secure that freedom.

In the end, it wasn't that much of a pain – we argued a whole lot, more so than a few years ago, but we still had some good moments together here and there. We didn't hate each other's guts. Yet.

"We'll only be gone for two days, okay? That's today, tonight, and then we'll be back tomorrow night," Mother explained to us, listing it off in explicit detail. She knew we were older than five, right? Our dear parents raised us in bubble wrap, but not quite that much bubble wrap.

I just couldn't believe they didn't trust us with such responsibility sooner.

Currently, they were both standing opposite me and my brother – their arms folded, expressions stone cold and stern. I ran my glance over said brother at my side, who appeared to be listening all intently. Guess I grew up to be the nonchalant 'troublemaker', huh? I could never match his goody two shoes act.

"We're still allowing you to have that sleepover of yours for your birthday," Father started.

"But absolutely no one other than your small group of friends are allowed to set foot in this house!" Mother finished for him.

Ah… These two had always been so predictable. I saw those lines coming a mile off. Playing along, I gave my parents a simple nod, before getting to the most important question. "Can we order pizza, too?"

'That is all you're interested in, you greedy child,' came my brother's mocking thought, out of nowhere.

Wah…! I tried my hardest not to visibly flinch. God damn it, I hated it when he surprised me like that.

"Oh…" Mother sighed, rubbing at her arm, seemingly conflicted. "Okay, only this once. I don't want you wasting all your money on junk food, though, darling."

"Don't worry," I said, plastering on a sweet facade. "I'm sure Lenny would be happy to treat me." I shot him an innocent grin, making sure to add just a subtle hint of a teasing smirk in there.

"I would?" he remarked, narrowing his eyes at me, almost menacingly.

I sneaked a quick glance to my parents, who immediately glared daggers into him for his lack of manners. Hah! Good old fashioned sexism, expecting the man to be all generous and drop to his knees for a lady. Suck it, Len!

"I mean… Of course I would." He swiftly corrected himself, and our parents' expressions softened.

"Alright. We're going to go grab the rest of our things. Behave, you two!" Mother informed us, adding in an order, before heading out of the living room along with Father.

As soon as they were out of sight, my brother and I turned to face each other, almost in sync. I slapped on a big, unflattering smug grin, whereas he just glared sharply at me. "Don't forget your manners, Lenny. You know how old fashioned Mom and Dad are," I said, with a snicker. "Besides. Where do you get off trying to interfere in my love life?"

He rolled his eyes. "Rinny has a love life? Interesting."

Oh, he did not just say that. That cut deeper than usual.

I gritted my teeth together, remaining as calm as possible. I couldn't yell at him. Today, we turned seventeen years old, but here we were, bickering just like when we were thirteen. Seriously, what even happened to our special bond? What a load of shit.

"Of course I do," I huffed, sticking my chin out with a dramatic pout.

Len let out a quiet laugh, taking on a more cocky tone. "Oh yeah? Who is it this time?"

I choked out a gasp, thrown off by that low blow. Did he honest to god think he could keep getting away with all those horrible remarks? I thought that stupid, inconsiderate moron was more understanding of all my crushes from a few years ago. No… He really had been, once upon a time. He just… got caught up in the heat of the petty argument, right? Ugh.

"Don't act like you don't know!" Deciding to brush it off for now, I continued, leading up to a dramatic reveal. "Pizza has always been there for me."

"Oh, lord," Len groaned, slowly shaking his head. "I'm interfering because my wallet is suffering."

"Pssh," I scoff, folding my arms. "I'm doing you a favour. It'd do you good to stop wasting your allowance on filthy manga, and have a little diversity for once."

"Ah-!" Now it was his turn to squirm. He dropped his voice to a low hiss. "You… know about that?"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" I raised a brow at him. Actually, it'd be better if he didn't answer. "I've let you get away with stacking that disgusting crap in our bedroom for far too long. If Mom and Dad were to find out…" A hint of mischief slipped into my words, a threatening smirk pulling at my lips.

"You wouldn't!" With just that, Len was sent into panic mode. Out of nowhere, he dropped to his knees right in front of me, a pleading expression warping his features. What in the… Hey, when that whole dropping to one's knees for a lady thing came to mind, I didn't mean literally."Come on, Rinny! You wouldn't be that cruel, right? I'm sorry for teasing you about your pizza!"

I sneered down at him. Pathetic. "I don't believe that's all you teased me about."

For a moment, he averted his intense, desperate gaze… As though reluctant to actually apologise for the more hurtful words. He let out a heavy grunt, looking back up to me. "And I'm sorry for teasing you about your love life. That was low, I get it."

Heh. I'd never really throw him to the wolves like that. But damn was it sweet to get a real apology. "Get up, you dummy."

Len's eyes widened at my gracious forgiveness. He bounced back up straight away, straightening out his posture with an awkward cough. "You… forgive me?"

"Hmm…" I narrowed my judging eyes at him. "Nope. But maybe I'll reconsider if you buy me the most expensive pizza you can find tonight."

Even though I clearly replied with a 'no', his eyes lit up regardless. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He exclaimed, practically hopping up and down on the floor. That kid… What a weirdo.

"Yeah, sure," I muttered.

After those short-lived arguments, Len and I typically went back to normality. We were pleasant and nice to each other for a short while, then he'd say something to irritate me, then I'd fire back, and… It was a pretty vicious cycle. It was also exhausting, to say the least. It seemed we'd adopted such a system as our daily routine. Along with it being exhausting, it also… kinda really sucked. No one would like to fight with their sibling every single day, right?

"Anyway, we should go get ready for when our friends come over," Len spoke up, steering the conversation in a different direction.

"Mmh, we should, yeah," I agreed, with a light nod. Couldn't stand there bickering all day. I was looking forward to the rest of the day, anyway.

It had taken us weeks in advance to convince our parents to give us some freedom. Since there was absolutely no way our parents would let us stay out late partying or whatever, I had to compromise and ultimately came up with the idea of a sleepover at our own house. However, even the idea of something as innocent as a sleepover wouldn't bode well with our over-protective parents.

So, Len and I put a temporary halt on our all out sibling war; we've completed every single possible chore around the house for the past three weeks, barely giving ourselves a break, to gain the trust of our parents. To prove we were growing up, responsible, and capable of handling some time alone.

For one night of fun, I'd say all that hard work paid off. Really though, our small group of friends weren't even bad people. We'd known them for years – they were good kids. Relatively well behaved, not entirely chaotic. Except for the one time they… And the other time they… Eh. Mother and Father didn't need all the details. We should be allowed to do stupid things and live normally as teens, though.

We head upstairs to our bedroom. Our parents thought it'd be 'cute' for me and Len to share a bedroom – that, and Father really wanted the spare bedroom to be turned into a studio for his hobbies. So, we were stuck together, in a confined space. Not a great idea. I was used to it by now, though. We did what we could for 'privacy', but most of the time neither of us could be bothered to trail all the way to the bathroom to change clothes, so we simply turned our backs to each other instead.

I shoved past Len to enter first, making a beeline for my bed, hoping to find something decent to wear. Our friends wouldn't be here for at least a couple hours, but it was always best to be prepared. I knelt on the floor, beginning a full-scale hunt for a good outfit amongst the messy, but clean, pile of clothes surrounding my bed.

Suddenly, I heard quiet snickering from behind. What on earth was that clown laughing at now? I clenched my teeth together. We were back to the arguing part of the cycle already, huh? I took in a breath to compose myself, before rising to my feet and spinning 'round to face Len. "What?" I demanded, in an impatient tone.

He broke into a fit of childish giggles as I confronted him. Lord spare me from that boy's immaturity, please. "Your…" He couldn't even get more than a single word out; he sucked in a sharp breath, on the verge of cracking. "Whew… Rin, are you really sure you want to order pizza tonight?"

Eyes narrowing, I wordlessly urged him to elaborate.

"I mean… When you were kneeling down, I couldn't help but notice a certain area has totally gotten bigger-"

"Excuse me?!" I immediately flushed, cutting him off before he had a chance to finish whatever disgusting thing he would've come out with.

He threw his hands up in front of himself, all defensively. "Hey, hey! I'm just asking out of genuine concern for my sister's health!" Though he played innocent, there was an obnoxious fucking smile on his face, one that made me want to seriously hurt him.

"You… You…!" My eye twitched, humiliation-fuelled rage consuming my entire body. No going back now. I then proceeded to lash out at the top of my lungs. "You god damn pervert! Why the hell are you staring at my ass, Kagamineeee?!"