I promised faster updates! I only lie sometimes~!
Please forgo any mistakes, I slept maybe four hours at the most last night cos my stupid drunk neighbors kept me up with their stupid pool party all night. So, gommene for any spelling or grammar errors, I'll come back and edit later. Does anyone even read these? I wouldn't XD
Anyways, this is a chapter to sort of make up for recent terrible turns of events. Gumi leaving, Miki turning against them, the group getting captured again... I figured you guys needed a "pick me up" chapter! Well, let me tell you, I think you're really gonna' like this chapter. Like really. It's a little slow, but just wait for it. I've made you wait a long time for this, I hope I've done it justice.
Thanks to reviewers!
~Tiruneko ;3
X~59~X
As the shadow filled and dark transport truck hits a bump in the road, the cage rattles in the empty trunk and slides back into another wall. Due to the small size, Miku and Len have pushed their backs against opposite walls but their knees still manage to touch, even folded against their chests. Miku's face is buried in her arms and her breathing is incredibly ragged. She refuses to look up as the crate bumps again.
"Miku…" Len puts his hand on her knee and she pulls away as far as possible, nearly bashing her head against the roof. The trunk of the van is entirely empty besides their cage. For added security, only one cage is allowed per truck. "Miku, we'll be fine." His stomach lurches.
She shakes her head and her breath hitches and releases sounding like gravel running down a hill. Len's heart sinks.
"Miku?" Nothing. "Miku, show me your eyes." She stops breathing all together and curls further into herself. "Miku!"
"No!" She shouts, her voice full of tears.
Len lurches forward and grips her wrists, pulling her forward with force he hadn't intended, nearly dragging her on top of him. Her face hovers inches from his, her eyes fear inspiring.
Their crimson red depths have turned to a shade of fresh blood illuminated by the sun, as if they themselves possess their own source of light. Her pupil is merely the size of a pin prick and spilling outwards in thin wisps into the rest of her iris are black strips creating the pattern of spider webs dancing in the darkness. The whiteness of her sclera is entirely gone, swallowed whole by the swimming red. Her eyes seem to have a heartbeat of their own as she stares at Len. He doesn't breathe.
He slowly releases her wrists and watches her slowly recoil back into an upright fetal position across from him. With great difficulty the blonde shifts to be right beside her. Her body tenses even more and her shoulder blades arch. A warmth spreads across her thin and bony shoulders and before she knows it, Miku is entirely wrapped into Len, her cheek on his shoulder, his chin resting on her head, his arm around her shoulder, his other around her waist, his legs intertwined with hers. Miku won't dare open her eyes.
His fingers move through a strand of her teal hair, caked with dry blood. "I'm not afraid." He says, his voice soft and nearly silent.
"...I am…" Len grips her tighter.
"I'm sorry." He mutters, pulling her hair around her shoulder and away from her face, still hidden in her hands. Miku shakes her head weakly.
"…they burn…" She rasps out, digging her fingers into her eye sockets, pushing with all of her strength. Almost instantly, Len grips her wrists with only one of his hands, keeping her pinned against him with his other. He rips her hands away from her face and holds them to his chest, moving his head to look at her face.
Tears roll down her blood caked skin and her eyes flash. Her face falls when she realizes the look of horror on Len's face. He looks like she just punched him in the stomach, like all the air has disappeared from his lungs. But he's not scared.
"I-I…" Miku begins to sob. "I-I'm-I'm so sorry!" Her whole body begins to shake and her pupils shrink into her eyes entirely, disappearing within an instant.
"Miku?" Len gasps, shaking her gently as her mouth drops open. Her body snaps back over his arm and her limbs twitch and wretch, convulse and bend. "Miku!" Len shouts. She can't hear him anymore. The black webs in her eyes vanish, leaving only red, red, red.
Len knows what's going to happen next. The light will come as it had before and it'll kill him and probably whoever is driving. He would never admit it to her, to anyone, but that was the most painful death he had ever experienced. Worse than being choked, burned, drowned, crushed, electrocuted, poisoned, worse than free falling. It was indescribable agony. It was as if the devil himself had reached into his throat and ripped out his heart. And afterwards there was no relief, just a pain so brutal it was numbing. It felt like something had crawled inside of his eyes and like something was stabbing him from the inside out. Even the farthest depths of his body hurt. And he can't imagine what it was like for her. What it is like.
"Miku!" Despite her thrashing he shakes her, pinning her arms to her side. Her head snaps back and the sound of a crunch of bone in her neck makes Len sick. "Miku!"
Her eyes close.
…What is this feeling? Her head swims and her entire body feels numb. What happened? Her head thumps with a deafening noise.
Silence.
Slowly feeling returns. A gentle touch like nothing she has ever experienced is cupped around her cheek. It's warm, surprisingly so. Comfortingly so. Without really thinking she finds herself leaning into this contact. It's somewhere else too. The same feeling. On the back of her neck, holding her head almost. Despite the crushing pain there, the feeling is dominating. Miku feels the bone snap back into place, fixing itself under the feeling. It moves with the new bone. Her eyes. Her eyes don't burn anymore. The ringing in her ears, the insatiable buzzing is also, gone. Only the feeling. It's somewhere else too. It's damp, and warm. And even more gentle than the feeling on her cheek and neck. It's inside of her too. The feeling… it's on her lips.
Miku slowly opens her eyes.
Len's hand is on her cheek and holding her head, his body incredibly close and warm. His hair brushes by her face and tickles her forehead, but that isn't the surprising part. She has no breath, and can't figure out why.
…What is this?
Len's eyes are shut and she can feel every part of him, so warm. The feeling again dominates, and time melts away, simply vanishing into air. Then, he pulls away. Just as fast as it had hit her, it suddenly ends. Air returns to her lungs but she does not gasp for breath. She shudders with loss. Len's eyes steadily open, a warm rusty red. They lock with hers, a bright, simmering, rose color.
The feeling on her cheek and neck… his touch. That becomes clear now. His head nearly touches the top of the cage, hers slightly below. When had he become taller than her? Had he always been…? She can't seem to recall anymore.
Their eyes stay locked, then the sound around them breaks into an even deeper silence. He blinks and within seconds Miku watches as his face flushes bright red. Is he…
Blushing?
Miku feels limp. If it wasn't for his hands still supporting her, she might, no, will probably collapse onto the bottom of the cage. Her legs are bent painfully under her as are his. Her eyes still can't seem to leave his. Slowly, she raises a hand. Her index finger grazes her bottom lip. Damp. She lowers her gaze to his lips, just for a second, and looks back up into his eyes. She draws her finger away and stares at that, before, again, her eyes find his.
Neither speak.
Miku can't think of what to do but stare into him, like trying to discover a birthday present without touching the box or removing the decorative wrapping paper. And for once in Miku's life, she can really, truly say, the buzzing in her ears has gone. Len's face isn't even an inch from hers.
Miku gulps and moves her lips, her voice shaky and that of a child.
"L-Len…?"
Before more can be said he leans forward with incredible speed. Miku feels her head tip upwards. The feeling explodes and rockets up through her whole body. Her eyes flutter closed and she leans into Len, falling into him and pushing him against the side of the cage. His lips move across hers with a gentleness and ease she has never felt before. His hand moves from her cheek to her hair and a tiny noise escapes her lips. After a long moment of breathlessness, he pulls away again. Their eyes meet.
"I-Is this… kissing?" Miku asks, her eyes blinking with the nature of a child.
Len can't help but lift his hand to hide his grin. He laughs and nods his head.
"Y-yes," he chuckles.
"R-really?" Miku squeaks.
Len laughs again. "You're so unsure."
"R-really?" He moves a hand through her hair, grinning.
"Every word out of you…" Len tucks a strand behind her ear. "…is a question."
Miku's mind drifts back to her first conversation where she was treated as a person.
"I don't think I know."
"You're very uncertain." The voice beyond the wall had said.
"I am?" She had yelped, embarrassed.
He had laughed. "Every other word out of you is a question."
"I guess so." Then she had laughed for the first time in ten years.
Miku giggles slightly, for a moment forgetting where they are. A different type of silence falls between them. After a moment Len reaches up, moving his hands to Miku's shoulders and turning her body so she lies against him, into his chest, her head on his shoulder, just under his chin, right where he likes her.
The van hits a bump and the crate slides across the floor. Miku yelps and grips Len's chest. He curls around her and the two slide a little ways, the side of their cage brutally smashing into the wall of the truck. Len's head hits the barred side of the crate with a loud thud. He curses under his breath and Miku tenses. She opens her eyes, but doesn't lift her head. She inhales deeply.
Honeysuckle and cinnamon.
"…Len?"
"Mm?" He pulls his hands through her teal hair, his fingers catching on some clumps of dried blood. They fall into his lap.
"…What's gonna happen to us?" Her mind drifts to IA's face. To the horrible sound of IA's screams as she had heard Haku speak. Haku's voice had reduced her to that. Miku had never heard a sound quite like it. It was truly, truly horrible. There's no other word for it. She had screamed. She had screamed bloody murder.
Len stops combing through her hair.
"I don't know."
"Len?"
"…Yeah?"
"I-Is the silver-haired lady really IA's mother?" Len falls deathly, deathly silent.
"I think so." His voice is dark and dry and toneless.
"Len?" He doesn't respond this time, but Miku knows he's listening. "Where's your and Rin's mom?" His entire body goes rigid. She can hear him gulp. "I-I'm sor-", He shifts her head up with his hand.
"Please don't say that." He smiles weakly at her. Miku's eyes go wide and she musters a nod, letting her head lower back onto his chest, listening to his rapid heartbeat and feeling the warmth of his chest against her cheek. Under different circumstances she might have fallen asleep.
"She was an amazing woman." He says suddenly. Miku nods. He's silent for a minute. "Me and Rin loved her with everything. Love her, with everything." He inhales deeply. "We lived somewhere where it snowed all the time. Rin loved to sock me in the face with these really terrible snowballs." He chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck. "She put gravel in them sometimes." Miku giggles a little. "Mo- My mom would pay us a quarter each for shoveling snow off of our porch, and afterwards, she always gave us each a dollar, saying, 'You did an extra amazing job, my extra amazing children.'" Miku smiles for him.
"That sounds…" She looks for a word. "…good."
"And over the summer, when it wasn't snowing, she would set up a tent in our backyard and hold me and Rin each in her arms at night and laugh as we tried to catch fireflies. Naturally, Rin tried to kill them with sticks." Len laughs and so does Miku.
"She's always been like that, then?" Miku says clumsily, tripping over difficult words.
"Oh that's not even the worst of it. She was like a cat. If she found a dead bird, squirrel, anything, she brought it straight to Mom, shouting, all excited. 'Look-it, Look-it!'" He imitates Rin squealing in a high pitched mouse-like tone. He sighs. "We never got to start school… but when she had signed us up for preschool, every morning after she decided she woke us up with a story of when she was in school. Me and Rin actually played 'school' together sometimes. She was such an amazing… amazing person. The first time I remember actually dying, when I woke up, she had put me in bed and was reading Rin a story next to me. When I looked into her eyes…" He chuckles mournfully, "…she was happy to see me. There wasn't any fear."
Miku smiles, living through Len's memories of a happy early-childhood. "What did she look like?" Miku asks, filled with curiosity.
"Well, like Rin, but with long hair and she was tall and her cheeks were always pink, a little like you. You know why Rin where's those clips in her hair? Mom had a pair that looked the same. Her eyes were a bright, icy blue, like crystals. She was always smiling."
Miku exhales deeply, feeling herself melt into Len's stories as he continues babbling warmly. And after a while, she finds herself asleep.
A loud mechanical clanging jolts Miku violently from sleep. Len's hands clasp around her shoulders and grip her tightly. A silhouette framed in light from the entrance to the truck raises a gun. Miku feels Len's body curl around hers and shield her.
The popping of bullets from a silencer echo out and Len grunts before falling lifeless on top of her. Miku's eyes widen as Lilly reloads. She clenches her eyes shut and again falls into death.
The dream is over.
And the nightmare is only just about to begin.
Has my romance writing improved? *hopeful smile* I really hope so, because if not, sorry Miku and Lenny!
Hope my Lenku fans liked this. Oh, the days where I didn't even know what Lenku was... *wistful sigh* Look at me now! ^^
Have a great weekend, minna~!
~Tiruneko ;3