Logic, by definition, was rational. It was reasoning that could be followed through a strict set of principles and offered no real bias towards anything. Media normally described it as the cold, harsh, truth. This wasn't necessarily true, nor was it necessarily wrong. The truth often hurt, but it was one of the most powerful weapons a person could have.

Ironic, coming from a person who lived their entire life as a lie.

Emotion, in contrast, was irrational. They got in the way of thinking, impeded judgment, caused people to act unpredictably. The reason for feeling emotions could be traced, logic could be applied, but it wouldn't change the fact that by existing they formed a bias.

Aqua, for a very long time, thought that he had tempered his emotions to be aligned with his logic.

That was evidently not the case.

His realization came during their first initial run through of the entire script. The main cast had met up with the director to do a first casual read through. It was tradition after all, especially in the acting world. Sometimes they were more professional, sometimes they were casual, it usually depended on the director. This time, it was a more casual thing.

Ruby, who had tagged along with him as per usual, was wearing a slightly oversized hoodie. She had stolen it from him about a year ago and hadn't given it back. Considering they lived in the same apartment, he could have just as easily grabbed it back if he wanted, but never deemed it necessary.

He, on the other hand, was wearing a button down with a more casual pair of slacks. Casual enough that people couldn't criticize him for overdressing, but professional enough for nearly any possible scenario.

The room that the cast found themselves in was one of the spare conference rooms that were available in the building that the director normally worked in. There was a large round table that was in the middle of the room, with enough seats that there could be an empty seat every other chair and the cast still wouldn't fill it up.

The twins got there early, introduced themselves to whoever was already there; mainly the director and the assistant director, and found themselves a place to sit in one of the further corners of the room. People trickled in soon after, making themselves comfortable and grouping together with people they've already worked with. There was chats about catching up and drinks after, but the closest people got to sitting next to the twins was two seats away, one empty seat on each side of them.

There were a few staff members of the building who brought in drinks. Most of the older members of the cast accepted them gratefully. Aqua declined, along with Ruby. He very much doubted that any of the people here would have cared, if even noticed, that they were still a year off from legally drinking. But it was still better to be safe than sorry, a dumb minor scandal like being caught underage drinking was more of a headache than necessary.

Snacks were also present, but none of them were messy or noisy. That meant no chips, wrappers or other similar things. This time, Aqua obliged, taking a few fruits and berries for times when he wasn't speaking.

When everyone that was needed finished showing up. The director spoke, introducing himself.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat. "Glad to see everyone here and ready. I'm director Kawahara and I'm looking forward to working with you all. Feel free to take this first read-through more relaxed and enjoy your time, without further ado, let's get started on 'Stolen Moments Between Us.'"

With that, people opened their script to the first line. Aqua, as the male lead, had the opening line. Which meant he could set the tone for the rest of the night.

Traditionally, people wouldn't overact in this first read through. Aqua had no plans to change such a thing. Things proceeded smoothly after that, Ruby got her first line a few scenes in. It was a traditional boy meets girl. Soon enough, most of the supporting characters were filtered out until the majority of the speaking was done by the twins.

They got around halfway through the script when the big point of conflict in the script was revealed. The male lead had to go overseas for a reason he refused to reveal, causing friction between the two characters. There was a big fight, their personalities clashed and it ended with them breaking things up. That was the end of the first half of the script.

The team took a break around there. Some of the cast went out for a smoke, others stayed in the room. The twins kept to themselves. Ruby took out a pair of earbuds and started on whatever phone game she kept herself busy with these days. Aqua simply closed his eyes and relaxed.

It wasn't as if he disliked this sort of thing, but it was more tiresome than anything else. Meeting people for the first time, being cordial in situations where he'd rather just spend it practicing by himself. At least during recordings he could focus on himself and nobody would bat an eye. In situations like this he couldn't even fully get into character, so for the majority of it it felt like wasted time.

He wasn't looking forward to his next birthday where he was legally allowed to drink. Wouldn't be able to use that excuse to decline attending the post-recording drink sessions that were all too common.

"Damn brats sitting all by themselves, egos probably sky high from getting a lead role so young." Someone grumbled in a quiet voice from across the room. The sound however, echoed and despite the chatter from the others, was able to make its way to Aqua easily.

Another reason he disliked these initial run throughs. People were too loose-lipped when he didn't get a chance to have his skills speak for themself. The drinks they've no doubt consumed did them no favors.

"Girl probably slept with the director to get them both a role. Peh!" Said another.

Aqua's eyes snapped open, his gaze swiveling to see just who exactly was making such comments and-

A hand grasped his own. He looked down underneath the table to find that one of Ruby's had found his and enclasped it. Her gaze was still focused on her phone, Aqua could even see the little character from the game doing things, but she wasn't playing with it any longer.

"Ha! Can you blame him? If a pretty thing like that came up to me, how could I refuse?"

Aqua located the two talking. He had no qualms about people bad mouthing himself, but to speak about his sister was something else.

Another squeeze came from Ruby. She took her earbuds out, which got a look from the gossipers and cut the chatter, and powered off her phone. She shifted a bit until her left side was leaning against Aqua. Her head tilted just slightly, enough that it seemed like she was now looking ahead, but her eyes were off to the side.

Aqua locked gazes with her side glance and found it wasn't that she was looking for comfort, but rather making sure he was ok.

He didn't know until then but his jaw was clenched and his hands were in fists. He was irritated, very much so. He hadn't realized that simple things such as words could still send him into a spiral.

The blonde sighed, relaxing minutely in a way that was likely only visible to his sister. He squeezed her hand back and she shifted into her normal upright position.

"Alright team. Break is over! Let's get this show on the road. Ruby has the first line so take it away!" The director proclaimed after he walked back in from his smoke break.

Ruby turned her script back to where they left off and waited for the shuffling of paper from others doing the same to die off. When they did, she cleared her throat and read the first line of the second half.

"I can't BELIEVE him! Who does he think he is? Some sort of character from a book? Mr Tall, dark and handsome? Real life doesn't work if someone refuses to communicate!" She exclaimed.

It was loud. It was in character. It completely shattered the casual and relaxed atmosphere that the room was in before. Silence followed her line, everyone stared at Ruby. The sudden overacting, the loud exclamation that wouldn't be out of place on set, but was entirely surprising in the quiet conference room. It surprised people and threw them off their game.

Aqua couldn't help but stare as well. Stared and met the gaze of his sister when she turned ever so slightly and met his eyes, the tiniest upturn of her lips betraying her sudden portrayal of her character.

Ah. He thought. This was payback.

There was a huff of amusement that left him, one that he was unable to hold back. They certainly were twins, if there was any doubt that Aqua had (there wasn't) then it would have evaporated in that moment.

Ruby was doing the same thing he had planned to, let his skills speak for himself. Only instead of waiting until recording started, she accelerated it and started right this second. She would drag along everyone in the room with her overacting just for that.

It was utterly childish to do such a thing. Petulant. Petty. He could come up with a few dozen more synonyms, but none of them would matter.

He would go along with it, at least for today.

"Next line?" Aqua called softly.

There was a squeak of shock that came from the girl who played Ruby's best friend. She was supposed to be playing the kind and consoling best friend of the female lead, the one who offered advice in times of need. She, like everyone else, was caught by surprise.

The girl stuttered her next line, a clear attempt for a more in-character display was there. It fell flat for the next few lines but by the end of the scene she was doing her best to match Ruby's characterization.

It was like a fire had been lit under everyone's chairs. Some were able to find themselves in character immediately. Others, like the gossipers, were never quite able to get their rhythm in order to make any sort of impression.

When it came to Aqua's turn, he matched Ruby's energy in full. His character didn't have the emotional range that Ruby's did, but he more than made up for that with the seriousness and depth that was available.

The twins went back and forth. Ruby used her charm and skills she learned as an idol to draw the room into each of her lines while Aqua used his experience and ability to envelop the character he was portraying to leave a lasting impression.

Like this, the final lines of the movie came quickly.

"Don't I mean anything to you? Won't you stay here? With me? Please?" Ruby begged.

"You mean the world to me." Aqua stage whispered. "But I'll be gone by the morning."

"Then leave me a way to remember you."

There was silence as the last line settled. It was broken by the clapping of the director who had a bright smile on his face. There was the muffled sound of someone sobbing into tissues,the girl who played Ruby's best friend, Aqua identified.

Personally, Aqua was a bit surprised at the reception. They hadn't gotten out of their chair to do any real acting, merely putting their all into the lines they delivered. Even the gossipers seemingly had nothing bad to say about it, their conflicted expression plain to see as day. Either the people in the room were easier to please than they expected, or the chemistry between him and his sister was higher than he expected.

He wasn't sure which one he preferred.

And thus, the first run through came to a close. The twins declined to come along for the crew dinner afterwards, and instead headed home to their shared apartment. The drive home was mostly quiet, the only reason noise being Ruby happily humming along to a song that Aqua didn't recognize.

When they reached their apartment, Ruby skipped ahead to her own room. Aqua settled himself into the living room where he set down his script and opened it back up. Shortly after, Ruby was visible for a second as she left her only to transfer to the bathroom with a handful of different clothes.

He was content to ignore whatever his sister was doing for the moment, instead opting to check his phone for anything he might have missed. There was a text from Miyako asking how the session went, to which he replied it went just fine. He decidedly didn't mention the subtle, but still evident, way the twins defied expectations and he had no real plans to divulge such a thing.

Aqua scrolled through the rest of his messages, nothing special was of notice. He double checked his schedule, just to confirm that he was free the rest of the day, and opened his script to work on practice.

Before he could start, his sister exited the bathroom in a different outfit than she had before.

Gone was the oversized sweater and in it's place was a frilly white camisole. Its straps were thin, and showed off her neck and shoulders. The frills weren't over the top, and the lower end of it stopped a little short, showing a sliver of her toned stomach. The neckline was modest enough to reveal a hint of the swell of her breasts, allowing only a tiny flash of cleavage to show. Her jeans were a dark blue denim that complimented the white top. They were tight and clung to her legs, showcasing just enough tone and curve to draw the eye.

Ruby's face was adorned with just the bare minimum of makeup, but her features were already striking without them. With it, it was enough to make her ruby-colored eyes pop. Her lips were touched up with a shade of lipstick just a shade lighter than her natural color, highlighting them in a soft maroon.

Aqua would honestly admit that the sight of her took his breath away. Ruby somehow teetered the line between cute and seductive well.

It took him a second to compose himself, all too acutely aware of the utterly taboo feelings that were starting to well up at the sight of his sister like that.

"Going out?" He asked, more rhetorical than anything. For what else could his sister be doing when dressed up like that?

It caused his stomach to twist oddly. An unpleasant feeling permeating his being.

Ruby gave him an odd look, as if he had just spoken to her suddenly in a completely different language.

"Why would I be going out?" She questioned him.

The rebuttal question took him another few seconds to process. "Because you're dressed up?" He pointed out.

His twin furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm getting into character."

Aqua blinked at her response, attempting and failing to follow her thought process.

"I… what?"

Ruby blinked in the same manner as he did. "Oh. Are you not rehearsing? You usually do after every session."

It took a moment for Aqua to put the pieces together. It wasn't a strange thing for her to ask. He just didn't expect the dress up for it.

"I am. Would you like to join me?" He said measuredly.

His sister perked up. "Yeah! It can be just like the short film!"

Aqua chewed on the inside of his lip. It was precisely because of the short film that he was hesitant on rehearsing with Ruby. It was of no fault of her own, the blame lied solely on his traitorous indecipherable feelings of his own that would well up at times regarding her.

It was a tightrope he had to balance. To keep his newly found emotions in check until they inevitably disappeared. And to make sure that no one, especially his sister, found out about their existence.

"All right. Let's get started then." He said.

"Awesome! Let's start on scene three."

Aqua let himself relax. That was easy enough. It was the first time the two leads met.

It was impossible to ignore Ruby. Even without accounting for her striking appearance, letting her fade away into being just a character wasn't something he could do. So instead he let himself fade away into a character, letting the lines fill the silence instead.

The two rehearsed together, lines blurred yet he was distinctly aware each time her blocking put her close to him. Each time his gaze wandered off her face and onto her body.

There was a rhythm to their words. A dance of sorts. When one of them finished speaking, the other would pick up. Sometimes it was instantly, sometimes it was two beats, sometimes four beats. But never was it awkward or out of place. Aqua could tell that Ruby was working well off the fact that she'd known him her entire life more so than her skill as an actor.

One scene turned into two, two turned into four. It was on the fifth scene that he hesitated. He didn't let it show, but he knew that this scene was the first kiss that the two characters shared. After this scene it only escalated as well. Kisses turned into more, touches turned into embraces.

Ruby seemed to have none of his hesitation, charging right ahead into the scene with her line with a smirk and a sultry wink.

"I hope I'm not too late, am I?" She asked him, already in character.

Aqua felt a flicker of something unknown ignite within him. The gesture Ruby had just shown him looked so utterly alien on his sister whom he'd known his entire life, yet was so undoubtedly her that he hadn't the faintest idea how to react.

So he didn't. He instead plunged ahead with his own line. "I'd wait a lifetime and a half for you."

He smiled at her and she smiled back. They fell back into the rhythm of the scene easily. A dinner date.

They didn't have anything resembling that in front of them, so most of the blocking was out. Ruby seemed to have other ideas, improvising different gestures in place of the lacking props.

Instead of pausing lines for a bite of food, she would give him a flirty look. Sometimes they were short, sometimes they escalated into other things. Touches on the arm. A hand on the leg. A tug on the shirt.

Each one seemed to set the area that Ruby had touched on fire. One that spread throughout his body rapidly and made him acutely aware that all of this was coming from his sister.

There was an undeniable tension that grew as the scene was reaching its climax. One that Aqua had trouble diffusing. He wasn't even sure if it was real. If the tension between them was a product of their characters or rather as a product between them as real people. Perhaps it was entirely one sided, with Ruby being completely unaware of such a thing.

He didn't hesitate as his character, didn't hesitate up until the point where Ruby's lips were right in front of his own. Less than a hair's width away did he stop.

And Ruby was the one to close the distance.

Strawberry, he absentmindedly noted.

He couldn't recall when Ruby changed her chapstick flavor. Couldn't tell anything at all because his thoughts grinded to a searing halt.

Heat blossomed from their connection. It spread and enveloped him entirely. It was a warmth that was addicting to its core, with each second passing by making him want more and more.

He vaguely recalled memories of their first kiss, the one for their short film. They had never practiced that one between the two of them, some unspoken agreement that it would be incorrect and should only be reserved for when they were shooting.

This one was different in subtle ways. Slower, more hesitant.

Just as soft and intoxicating as before.

There was no audience this time. Just them.

They broke apart slowly, her eyes fluttering open in a manner that left him spellbound. She was so close, close enough that he could inhale the sweet scent of her perfume and leave him wanting more.

There was a blush newly bloomed on her face, one that ensnared his gaze, only for it to be drawn back down to her shining lips.

Her lips weren't far, he could inch forward to recapture them at any moment he liked.

But it was his line. He needed to speak.

Aqua couldn't break his gaze away. She was so close and it would be so simple to just move a tiny bit and to feel that delectable warmth once more.

So he did.

"Mmm… Ah-"

The sound she made was heavenly. One that caused him to further deepen the recollection between them. She reciprocated in her own way. Ruby's head tilted just ever so slightly in an attempt to close the gap between them even more. Her chest arced and he could feel a shiver race down her back from his hand that had at one point without his notice, snaked around her and held her.

It was like electricity dancing between them. It tingled and felt as if there was an active current, one that spiked and caused a gasp of breath, a pant, a sigh.

Ruby placed a hand on his chest, one that nearly caused Aqua to break away if it wasn't for the fact that she pushed herself even closer to him.

Aqua's free hand found itself on her hip, and Ruby leaned into it, moaning softly as she did. He isn't sure how it happens, but the small opening from her moan gives him access for an even deeper kiss, one where his tongue is now brushing up against parts of her that he previously hadn't before. They take turns like that, one mouth opening for the other.

He suckled on her bottom lip for a brief moment eliciting a breathy moan, different from before as she pressed her body into his even further. His hand on her back dipped ever so slightly and he can feel the sudden shock that ran through her system, causing her to part their embrace as they both struggled to catch their breath.

There's a point of silence between the twins as they steadied their breathing. All Aqua can think about is how utterly right everything seemed to feel, like the entire world had finally aligned itself correctly.

They're still close, Aqua's hands are still on her back and hip. Her hand is still on his chest. He wondered if she could feel exactly how fast his heart was beating.

"That wasn't in the script…" Ruby murmured to him.

He could feel the moment his brain registered the words. There was a lead weight that had suddenly formed in his stomach and could feel how it dropped and caused everything to spiral out of control.

Aqua froze, his breathing stilled and his mind raced as he tried to think of any sort of flimsy excuse to say. Everything seemed useless. How could he explain that in a way that made any sort of semblance of sense? People didn't kiss like that for rehearsal. People didn't kiss off script like that at all. People didn't kiss their twin like that ever.

"But I think that it made the scene a lot better! You're really good at this stuff Aqua!" His sister continued.

"Yeah, I just thought it would fit better." He somehow replied, more on auto pilot than anything. He thanked whatever deity there was out there that his voice came out clear.

"We should tell the Director to add the second kiss. I think it really ends the scene off well!"

He took a moment to attempt to collect himself. It failed, but luckily Ruby was still pondering to herself on how she should talk to the director about it.

"Let's stop there, we still haven't eaten dinner, remember?" Aqua said, his voice was impressively level.

He couldn't tell if his voice was trembling. If he was even saying a coherent sentence with how fast his heart was beating. His ears were ringing loudly like tumultuous waves crashing upon rocks. Nothing made sense, his thoughts were a mix of nothing and everything all at once. He just let his body autopilot.

Ruby blinked owlishly before she laughed sheepishly. "Oh right! It's my turn for dinner today isn't it?"

Aqua wasn't sure, he couldn't even recall the day of the week off the top of his head in his current state, but he nodded regardless.

"Okay!" Ruby hugged him tightly. "Just sit tight then I'll whip us up something quickly!"

He couldn't stop his posture from stiffening in surprise at the hug. He wondered if it was possible for her to hear just how loud his heart was rattling in his chest. Could feel how it threatened to break free from its cage when they were so close.

If she could feel exactly how she affected him, in every sense of the manner.

It was only when Ruby disappeared into the kitchen did he allow himself to take the first steps towards his own room. He was wobbly and worked more so on reflex than anything else.

Aqua collapsed into his bed the first chance he got. He released the breath he had been holding steady the entire time. It came out in gasps as he tried to wrap his mind around the feelings that had been growing in his chest.

Fuck, how was he supposed to look her in the eye?.

Start: May 2nd 2023.

End: May 6th 2022

Words: 4374

That's a wrap. Had to finish up my finals before I started on this chapter. Also this was initially supposed to be 2k words but I guess it got away from me. Not entirely happy with how I set things up but I think it went well enough.

Also "blocking" refers to a set of instructions for an actor in how to move in a script.

I'm fairly certain movies don't do initial run throughs with everyone, that's more of something theatre does, but I took some creative liberties. If I used any acting terminology people didn't get, let me know, I took theatre for years so something might make sense to me but not to others.

Thanks for reading. Gonna release a chapter on Stellarium before this next chapter.

-FN