*WARNING: language (more of one than usual)

** NOTE: For best effect, start playing slow, kinda sad music or music with a sad storyline toward the end of the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Vocaloid and I haven't done one of these in a loooong time.

Romeo and Cinderella

Chapter 9: The Tower of Glass

"Where the hell were you?"

…

That was a very good question.

I woke up, with a pretty bad headache, in my bed and a very irritated maid looming over me like a vulture. I had neither any idea as to how I had gotten into my own bed nor any clue as to why I should be confused about being in my own bed in the first place. As far as I remembered, I had left early from dinner and gone to bed soon after, though that didn't at all explain why I felt like my head had crashed into a rock or my face was sore.

I reached up to rub my eyes but Luka grabbed my hands before I could make contact.

"Don't touch your face! You'll only hurt yourself more," she scolded. It was then that I realized her irritation was angst over me and not anger.

I moaned in reply, too tired to use my big girl words.

"Come on, get up. I haven't gotten the chance to clean you up yet." Luka's hand found mine, since I couldn't exactly see to save my life at the moment, and she led me across the hall to the nearest bathroom. Sitting down on a stool, I heard water running followed by the sensation of something soft and cool coming in contact with my face. It felt very nice at first, though as it continued I noticed soreness in my face ceasing to die down. "What did you do to yourself, Rin?"

I muttered the tones associated with "I don't know," shrugging my shoulders for added effect.

It would be a while before the full extent of the situation hit me. Luka rinsed off my face, wiped the hair out of my eyes, and even went so far as to undress me, checking everywhere for cuts and bruises that I had no explanation for when she asked me about them. After she had wiped me over, she stood back and stared at me, trying to hide her horror with a hand over her mouth. I sent Luka a questioning look and in return she went to the corner of the room and directed a mirror to my bare body. Light bruises battered my legs, and though I had never seen them before, they looked to be mostly healed. A small scrape danced along my right shoulder as if I had fallen and not braced myself, but it, too, looked almost ready to fall off, not red and swollen as it should have been. Then, I looked at my face. It was not the easiest task in the world to bruise your face. Sure, one could be slapped and have a red mark for an hour if it was a solid blow, but rarely would one be hit hard enough for the mark to cause bleeding under the skin. Around my mouth were the prints of a small hand. It looked like someone with mud on their fingers had grabbed me by the face, but when I tried to rub the marks away, it only caused pain.

"Rin. What did—?"

"I don't know," I said, cutting off Luka's question and shaking my head. "I… don't know."

.

Earlier that morning, Luka told me, a man found me in an alleyway near his home. I was cold and looked to be hurt or dead but, recognizing me as a noble of the Kagamine family, the man rushed me back to my manor where Luka took me and dashed me up to my room (The man was thanked with a sum of money that would buy bread and meat for his household for a week). Luka set me in my bed and heated a bag of sand to try to warm me up. Then she could only wait and hope for me to awaken.

"We can't let my father see me like this," I dictated after Luka had dressed me in fresh apparel. "He'll make assumptions and I'll be in trouble and some innocent person will be in trouble and there would just be too much unnecessary trouble that could have easily been avoided."

Luka looked at me expectantly for a moment then sighed and left the room. "I'll be right back," she called behind me. After a few moments passed, she returned with a little box. She opened the box and pulled out a brush. "Powder—for your face," she explained. She dusted my face over a few times then directed me back toward the mirror. The bruises on my face were hardly noticeable, especially to someone who wasn't looking for them.

"How effective is this going to be?" I questioned. "Will it stay?"

"Just don't dunk your face in a tub of water and you'll be fine," Luka muttered somewhat irritably. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. She sighed again. "It should at least last you through the visit with the Shions."

And I just fell out of the bed altogether. The last time the Shions visited, Kaito kissed me in a Library then I freaked out and sprinted outside, literally running into a new friend then later got nearly raped with said new friend that same evening. In other words, the word "Shion" brought forth very mixed feelings.

I let out an exasperated sigh. This could only lead to trouble—the exact kind of trouble that I'd had Luka dust my face with white crap for to avoid. You know that feeling of sudden fear that you can get when you process that certain bad things are going to add together and there will most likely be one giant bad outcome? That's what happened to me.

"Just try to survive today, okay?" Luka asked me.

"I can try," I supposed.

"And don't kill anyone, either."

"That I cannot promise," I exhaled, not all that sarcastically.

I returned to my room and looked at my clock next to my bed that read three P.M.—wait, three? As in three o'clock! I must have slept through half of the day! At this rate the Shions would be at the manor in a matter of an hour or two. I barely had any time to savor before their arrival. This brought forth a ridiculous amount of turmoil in my heart, striking me nearly immobile with petty, childish grief. Thusly, I proceeded to sulk in my room, face plunged into a small mountain of pillows, until I heard the magic words:

"Rin! Would you come down, please? We have company!"

Did you hear that? It was the sound of my father; mind-fucking me with nine words. Oh, the power of literature.

I reluctantly pushed myself up from my nearly-suffocating clump-o-pillow and straightened up the rat's nest that I used as my excuse for hair. I then found some sort of shoe that wouldn't cause me to fall down the stairs if I wore it, which took a lot of time and a theoretical shovel to uncover, not to mention its pair. Finally, I crept out of my room and trudged down the hall and the first few steps before going into "princess mode" and acting as if I had an ounce of self-respect. The indigo dress that Luka had stuffed me into gave me just enough presence to look like royalty from the corner of one's eye, but was azure enough not to get me arrested. (If one was not of direct royal blood it was frowned upon to wear violet. The law had died down in more recent years, but it was better to be safe than sorry… granted I certainly wasn't being safe.) The dress was decorated with black embroidery and a few faux pearls made of white glass; though they were so small that no one could possibly notice they were fake unless the person were imposing on your personal space. The sleeves were long and slender, puffing out at the shoulders then hugging my arms the rest of the way down. This dress was usually saved for very special occasions; I honestly had no idea why I had to wear it now. It wasn't like the Shions were all that special or anything. Sure they may have been of higher class nobility than even my family was but still…

I finally arrived at the foyer and greeted my not-so-welcomed guests with a curtsey. "I apologize on the behalf of my punctuality," I lied through my teeth, "for I was simply a mess when you arrived. I'd hate for such guests as you to have to see me in such disorder." I smiled. There were my big girl words. I had been looking for them everywhere. And it apparently took a very unfortunate series of events to find them.

"Would you care for a drink and bit of socialization as we wait for the food to be prepared?" my father fancied the guests. As Kaito's parents agreed with shining faces, my father turned back to me. "Rin, my dear, why don't you take Sir Shion out to the balcony? I do believe the sun is just setting. It would be quite the view."

I grinned at him. "Of course, Father. I would love to." I tried very, very hard not to vomit at the idea of being alone with him…

Alone.

Again.

I gestured for the sapphire-haired monster to follow me. I started down the Grand Hallway then took a right at the doors to the Ballroom. There, at the end of the hallway was a tall, swirling staircase that led to a glass tower. The tower was the highest building in the West City besides the clock tower. We climbed the cold staircase to the top where the floor spread out eight meters across. The clear windows were decagonal in shape and took up nearly all the wall space, the floor a lovely pearl tile that glowed peach in the slowly dimming sunlight. I'd used to go to this tower often, especially as the sun rose and set. It was my quiet place when I needed to be alone. I had taken Lily up here a few times as well. She always loved this tower. In fact, at one time she was playing so rowdily in it she ran right into one of the windows and cracked the glass. Father had never found the time to replace it…

Two balconies jutted out from opposite sides of the tower, one toward the east and one to the west, marked by stain glass door faces that cast beautiful light on the floor when hit just right. There was no furniture in the tower except one long, mahogany chair and table with a quill pen and blank parchment paper on it. A long time ago my mother would come up here and write poetry. She would sometimes read her poems to me. They had always been beautiful.

Nothing but good memories could ever be made in this tower. It truly broke my heart to break that tradition.

I opened the stained door that led to a stone overhang outside the Glass Tower. It peered directly west, right into the eye of the sunset. I leaned on the railing with one elbow, captivating myself with memories as I stared over the horizon, forgetting about Kaito's presence near me. When I was a little girl, I would play up here with my parents watching me smiling. I couldn't have been older than five, but I remembered those times so clearly. Back then, my family had been so close. My mother read to me every night. We had dinner together every day. My father loved me.

A word from Kaito yanked me out of my thoughts. I immediately hardened my expression and tried to think of something that would insult his integrity when he said whatever he had to say.

"Rin…" he began.

"What!" I snapped.

"You don't have to pretend," he said. "I know you don't like me. Hell, you might even hate me…" Hate didn't even begin to cover it, babe. "But I really care about you, and if we're going to make this thing work, I'd like you to at least give me a chance." Pfft. Not likely. "I was surprised by this whole marriage thing, too. Believe me. And I would hate for you to have to spend the rest of your life with someone you don't even like." Aha! I see we agree on something. "So please, Rin. Maybe, if we try, we can learn to stand each other. I don't want us to end up like some people out there. I want a way out as bad as you do."

Hah! A way out! That was funny. There was no way out of this sort of thing. Once your fate has been decided for you, you can't take it back. It wasn't a game. There was no bending the rules.

"Please, Rin. You don't have to do it for me. Do it for you. Do it for the people you actually care for, and I'll do it for you, too, Rin." There was a pause as he, I saw in my peripheral vision, looked over at me.

I blinked slowly, letting his words soak in.

"I just need one chance, Rin, one chance," he pleaded. "I know you don't want to give that to me, but please. I beg of you. Everyone deserved at least one chance."

"… Not everyone gets the chances they deserve…" I muttered.

I saw shock spread across Kaito's face that morphed into a sort of troubled deliberation.

I shut my eyes.

"Rin, you're crying," Kaito said.

I opened my eyes, fluttering, scattering drops of water on the sleeve of my dress. I hadn't even realized…

"Is there something on your mind? Something you want to talk about?" he queried.

Without thinking, I nodded. I had wanted to talk about it for a long time, actually. About six months, it had tugged on my heart.

"People have talked about her… with me. But no one has ever asked me how I feel about it," I started softly.

"Rin… how do you feel?"

I felt something break inside of me. I couldn't tell what it was, but I knew what it did.

"I feel guilty… and betrayed."

He placed his hand on top of mine.

"Six months ago, my sister disappeared. It was her birthday. She had just turned seven years old. Everyone was so proud of her; we gave her a lovely white dress that morning to wear. We were all preparing a party for her. I was told to watch her, but… I didn't watch her closely enough. During a game of hide and seek, Lily, my beautiful sister, Lily, snuck outside and ran into the city. I looked all over the house for her and I couldn't find her. I told the maids and they searched, too. We were looking for hours, some even hunting through the marketplace to find her, but she was nowhere was she to be found. Three days passed." My voice started to crack in the middle of my words. "Three days and we heard something." I paused, trying to recollect myself. "A man had been going through an alleyway and he saw two things. He saw a bloodstain on the ground and a dirty—" I breathed deeply "—a dirty little white dress."

I could see the image before me. I went with my father to look at what this man found. The blood was dried and brown, scattered around the alley in puddles and sprinkles; the little white dress lay tattered and rumpled. It was all so clear to me, but what had been done to her I couldn't even begin to imagine.

I broke out into sobs. Kaito squeezed my hand a bit in a gesture of comfort. I knew he was afraid to get any closer.

"She was seven years old!" I screamed, breaking in and out of audibility. "She was seven damn years old! She was shot!" I screeched. "Some damned bastard shot her!" My knees gave and I fell to the stone. "Who would do that? Who would do that!" I wept. "Seven years old… seven years old… only seven years old…"

Kaito knelt down beside me and held me in an embrace. It was then that I felt how cold I was. I cried into his shoulder, repeating myself over and over. I must have fallen to hysteria. So much time passed that I couldn't even keep track of it. The sun fell to the horizon, threatening darkness at any moment.

That was when Kaito tiled my face up. His expression was saturated with concern, and that concern slowly changed to a sort of dismay. His thumb traced the dark, tender prints ringing my mouth with a hesitant curiosity.

"Rin… what happened to you?

.

Author's Note: I need more Kaito and Miku! (Btw next chapter, I think, will be a Miku chapter so I'm really excited~~~) So what do you guys think? It's been a while since I actually just wrote without a basic outline or chapter to edit so I hope I'm not just failing through my fingers here. ^^; At least I updated on time….

Kinda short chapter. I really hope everything makes sense since I kinda proofread most of this only once and it was, like, midnight. _ Rin keeps on struggling with her very, very negative mixed feelings toward Kaito and I wanted to take this chapter to give him a little relational development. I cried while writing the ending… but whenever I reread what I write I don't cry. It's kinda sad. I guess I can just never get quite in "the zone" the same way, ya know?

Slow transition here, pretty much. I think I'll be taking the next few chapters and using them for, essentially, relationships. I hope next chapter is longer… I think it will be…. Or maybe not… I really hope so. XD

Has anyone read a pirate fic on here yet? I've never seen one… So I'm hoping I might be the first! ^^ Cuz there's this sequel to this story that I'll start (Actually I have half of chapter one) whenever I finish this story… and it will be amazing. And piratastic. :DD

Thanks so much for reading everyone~! I'd looooove for you to review! I love to hear what you guys have to say. ^^ And those who do review know that I always get really excited about writing and talking and it's almost impossible to get out of a conversation with me. ^^; Thanks again~

Anonymous:

Juzinha: Thank you sooooo much for reading and reviewing! Chapter nine is here! I can't wait for the next one either. XD (Gosh I feel like such a goody goody. lolz)

**NOTE** I want 65 reviews before updating this next. So even if I finish writing chapter ten, I won't be updating until then. So be informed anonymous reviewers!