This chapters a little sad, but sometimes sadness is necessary to a story, ne?

Enjoy as always minna! ^^

Thanks to reviewers:

`InsertStupidNameHere

`theunhappytwins

`zhane 17

`awesome dt

~Tiruneko ;3

X~20~X

They had all been staring out the window for some time now, looking out, enjoying the weather, the sun, and the road before them. The city was a ways off, but that didn't matter to them.

Rin laughs about some petty thing Len had done a while ago, Miku giggles softly in the back seat beside IA. The music plays the steady beat, the beautiful spring song. But one of them didn't laugh, buried in her thoughts.

"Len, tell me a story!" Rin cries as she drives along the road.

"What why?" He asks.

"Because I'm bored." She replies simply, turning off the radio to hear his words.

"I don't have any stories. What about you Miku?" He asks, turning around in the backseat to face her.

The girl with teal hair wearing blood stained clothes shifts uncomfortably, shaking her head. Len's gaze falls upon IA. Her cheek is pressed against the warmth of the window, her hands curling up into fists then un curling and playing with a loose string on her skirt. Her red eyes reflect back in the glass, and they look solemn and grim for such a young child.

"What about you IA?" Len asks, probing for a response. She has been dead silent since this morning, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"Story…." She trails off. "I don't have any worth telling Lenny."

"Well, how about tell us what's on your mind then?" Rin suggests.

"Just thinking… about those days." Without further prompting she begins to ramble on and trail off, telling a story without even meaning to. No, not telling a story. She is telling her story. "This day is like those, with the sun the right way, the branches swinging in the breeze. Mama said, 'Go do something, get out of the house for a while.' So we did. He took me with him like we always did. We went to our usual spot, but I got bored and wandered up a hill just outside of town. Mama had always said stay away from the hill, but he didn't stop me, so we went. He told me stores, pat my head, bother me all the time. He taught me a game, that I didn't like so he said, 'let's just play tag instead.' He chased me all around, chased me like always. He caught me over and over again, I just kept losing, and wouldn't get up to run anymore. But he picked me up again, like always, and we kept playing. I ran too close to the edge of the hill, and ducked and rolled away, but he kept running." Tears sting her eyes, burning and making her vision blurry. Rin and Len look at each other, stunned at her memory.

"You don't have to tell anymore-" Rin was about to say but she keeps going, as if Rin had never said anything at all.

"I went to see where he went, and I slipped too." Her words are barely audible through the tears now. "The wind was so fast, and his voice was so loud in my ears and I wanted it to go away so I cried. The buzzing in my ears wouldn't go away! The flashing in my eyes wouldn't go away! It hurt so bad when the wind stopped racing. It hurt so bad… all his red was falling away. He looked at me, really slowly, with this... happy face. The red was rolling off of his face really fast and-" IA uses her sleeve to rub away the tears streaming down her pale cheeks. ". He was watching me. He said something but I didn't hear him, he said it so happy too. But I never knew what it was. He was smiling so much, I didn't know why! He just kept talking to me, telling me it would be okay, and I watched him fall asleep. He never... he never woke up. Mama came along eventually and saw me holding him. Mama was mad, she cried and cried and I told her it was okay. She cried and cried and told me I did it, she said I pushed him! She cried and cried, and hurt me when I touched her.

"Later everyone was around me, everyone was yelling. It was so loud and the buzzing in my ears wouldn't go away. Mama said it was my fault he was… she said it was my fault and then I was wet and she held out the flickering orange flower, and then it was so hot and the heat wouldn't stop.

"Then they took me, and it was dark for a long time. Then I heard you, Len, but I thought it was him. But you're just like him." As her story goes on the tears fade, and with the last word she seems to let out a sigh of relief, her eyes returning to their normal upbeat gaze, and the last of the tears dripping off her nose and into her hands. "I'm not going to cry anymore though, because you're here."

"IA…. Who is the 'he' in your story?" Len asks, his face covered with an expression of horror and sadness.

"Piko. Big brother Piko."

~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~

The two blonde twins stand outside the family bathroom, waiting for IA and Miku to finish using the bathroom and cleaning up a little bit. Rin leans up against the wall, arms crossed over her chest, a bored expression on her face, lost deep in thought.

"Everyone… everyone thought she killed her brother, and her mom burned her alive in front of everyone she knew Rin. Then the corporation showed up and took her away and locked her up in the darkness for who knows how long. That just…" He throws his fist into the wall, sending out a long thump through the corner store just outside of the closest city.

"None of it is right Len." Rin whispers softly. "Nothing they do is justified in the slightest. All they do is hurt."

"I just don't even get it anymore Rin." He shakes his head back and forth slowly. "I don't want to look at their crying faces anymore. I don't want to have to see either of them cry ever again, because it hurts to watch. It's sickening. I can't stand it. I just want them to be happy for once in their messed up lives. They shouldn't have to live this tragedy anymore."

"Len, all of our lives are tragedies in their own right. No matter how sick and twisted the plot is, there is always tragedy worked into the main frame." She sighs.

"But it shouldn't have to be that way."

"But where would we be without it?" Rin says. Len's eyes widen, realizing something his little sister did a long time ago.

"You know what's funny?" He laughs.

"What?"

"I'm nearly two hours older than you but you're still years smarter and you make me feel so dumb sometimes."

Rin walks off, punching him hard in the shoulder. "That's what I'm here for."

The sun beats down on the grass and trees just outside the store. The wind blows gently through the trees, swaying the branches ever so gently and making flowers rock in the wind. The weather is perfect and amazing.

Just like those days.

But these days, these days are happier.