*** Two chapters iyyyeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy /o/ Sorry for the wait /o/ ***

Chapter 19: Rain

It was dusk by the time Kaito and Rin reached their destination; Kaito's house to be exact. The small grey brick house was between two large houses and for some reason, Rin thought, Kaito's house had a weird atmosphere surrounding it. She hadn't even entered the house, so it was hard to imagine what the inside of the house would actually look like. It had a haunted house kind of feeling; compared to the two houses full of greenery and lights it wasn't something Rin could picture someone like Kaito would live in.

And then she remembered; Kaito had many houses and kept moving from one place to another, so to abandon one house shouldn't be much of a surprise for her. Still, she'd seen two of the houses Kaito had live in, and both of them looked completely abandoned. If it weren't for the fact that she'd just left a murder house, Len was 'missing', and she was one train with a potential spy / murderer, Rin'd ask him what kind of house Kaito actually 'lives' in.

"Now will you tell me the rest of the story?" She asked impatiently.

"We're not inside yet. Look, I have too many keys with me, it's dark, so they all look the same." Kaito fumbled with his keys. It didn't sound like a really lame excuse, did it? The three hour train trip was enough time for him to brainstorm a lie to cover up Len's stupid decision on 'staying' there. He didn't really want to lie, but after everything that's happened to Rin, she doesn't deserve the cold heartless truth (the fact that Kaito doesn't know anything), she needed a comforting lie. "Uhm, it's probably this key? Nope, let's try this one."

"It's… Drizzling." The wind was starting to get into Rin's nerves. She could sit in a train for hours but to stand out in the cold for a few minutes… When she was just seconds away on figuring out what was going on with Len, she couldn't help but feel impatient about everything. "Have you tried all the keys? And… Do you usually carry that much?"

"Well, you can't leave your house without a bunch of keys, right? Wait a sec, I think this is it… There we go." The door finally opened and the two heaved a heavy sigh of relief. "I'm going to light a fire on the fire place over there. Are you wet? I can get you a towel, I don't have a change of clothes, I mean, mine's probably too big for you, so that's obviously out of the questi-"

"You should explain everything to me, first!" Rin was tired of waiting and was too tired to listen to any of Kaito's excuses. If Kaito comes up with another excuse or tries to steer the conversation away from the subject she's going to explode. From tears, from anger, from everything. By then, there was no way he'd say no, right? "You said we should wait until we get to your house, and now we're here! Please just tell me why we left Len like that!"

"Lighting a fire would literally just take us a minute, I swear! We're going to talk in the living room with a nice fire it'd be great. Sit down and relax for now, alright? You've had a rough day." Kaito made his way to what Rin guessed was the living room.

Rin took a deep breath, and exhaled. She was really tired of waiting, though the thought of sitting down, relaxing, with a warm fire on the fireplace was a nice image. Warm, relax, and safe… While Len was still out there not feeling warm, relaxed nor safe.

'I should have… More faith in people…' She sighed and followed Kaito to the living room. Aside from the dust, dim lighting, and horrid rainy atmosphere, it wasn't really a bad house. It was well furnished, at least, and five years ago or so it would've been a perfect house to live in. 'If I have to stay here for a while, I'll try and clean it up.'

"Fire's ready!" Kaito said and sat down on the sofa. "I'm sorry if it's too… Well, dirty. It'll have to do for now. Now, where to start…"

"Earlier when we were still in the kitchen, Len said he had something to tell you… What is it? It's apparently so important that he had to leave me there, is it something I shouldn't know? That's why he doesn't want to take me with him? Is it something like that?" Rin sat on the opposite maroon sofa, facing Kaito.

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that… It does kinda sorta involve you, but Len doesn't want you to know because he's just that kind of person." Lying seemed like such a great idea for a minute but… "So, the truth is…"

'Why am I suddenly having second thoughts on lying to her? I lie all the time, why does it feel so different right now?'

"The truth is, Len's actually looking for Miku right now and he was wondering if I'd seen her or not. No, I don't think he's still looking for her, I'm pretty sure he'd found her already by now and left already. Mayu's still stuck in the interrogation room so there's no way she could've captured them, I made sure of it. It's a happy ending for all of us, huh?"

"Wait, Miku is…" The last time Rin had heard of her… "Didn't… She commit suicide?"

"Answer me this. Do you really think she's the type of person who'd actually do that?" Rin was speechless, that's what she'd always thought. Even though there was a possibility of it actually happening after all the things they'd seen together there. Still, committing suicide.. Doesn't sound like something Miku would actually do at all! "So you see, there's really nothing to worry about. Why don't we go to bed now? It's still six, but you must be exhaust-"

"Then she's still alive somewhere? With Len, right now? They're both… When can we meet them again? Will they come here?"

"Yes, yes, they're both still alive. I'm sorry but we can't meet them at the moment… It's just that, it's not safe for us to meet. Probably, I guess? We need to wait for another two or three weeks until we could meet them again, I bet Len has his own hiding place or whatever, he could manage. He'd been through worse situation. You gave him the antidote so he's better than ever, remember?" Though Kaito had a feeling whatever Mayu gave earlier wasn't the antidote at all. The fact that he looked nearer to death than before he took the antidote made Kaito think that way earlier.

And if that's the truth, then... technically Rin killed him.

THERE'S NO WAY HE COULD TELL RIN THAT.

"I don't understand… Why do we need to wait so long just to meet?!"

"Yeah, honestly that's what I don't understand! I'm just as clueless as you are here, Len didn't tell me anything about why we had to hide and wait for three weeks. Once we meet again let's go punch him in the face really, really hard." He finally got a chuckle out of Rin, no doubt because of relief from the lie about two of her most precious people. "I'm sorry you had to wait so long for the truth, to be honest I don't really know what to say to you since Len was so vague on the 'wait for three weeks for us to meet' part, I thought you'd think I'm lying or hiding something from you." That part, at least, was partly true.

"It's alright, you're not hiding anything from me, right?" God, that innocent face was killing him slowly and painfully. "About Len, at least?"

"I've told you everything I know, don't worry." He smiled. "Are you hungry? I'm not the best chef in the world, but I can try."

"I am, but I'm too tired to… Care about it. Do you mind showing me where I'm going to sleep?" Rin was sure there was no fresh or edible food on the kitchen anyway, she didn't want to bother Kaito anymore than she already was.

"Alright, it's right upstairs." He stood up, happy that it was all over for the time being. Hopefully Rin wouldn't ask anymore questions about Len, one long comforting lie was enough. "We can go look for food first thing in the morning."

"Where are you going to sleep?" Rin followed him out of the living room, that house was so small, there's a chance that there was only one bedroom there; and for Kaito to sleep on the sofa would just be rude. It had a second floor though, so there should be more rooms, at least.

"Oh, I'm just gonna sleep on the sofa." Kaito had just realized the light drizzle have turned to quite a rain that night. Since Rin was going to sleep on the second floor, hopefully there'd be no leaks or anything there…

"Are you sure? I don't mind sleeping on the sofa, I'm just a guest here." She could sleep through anything as long as she was under that roof, completely safe from everything.

"No, for the next three weeks we're going to live together. And it'd be so rude of me as a gentleman not to give you a bedroom to sleep in." He opened the door to his bedroom. Inside the small room damp room was a bed, a desk, and a chair facing the window; unlike the living room where it was fully furnished that room looked far more... Empty. To most eyes' it was the worst bedroom a gentleman could ever offer, but to Rin it was more than enough. "No leaks, good! There's no lights here though, should I get a candle or…?"

"I don't mind, I'm going to sleep anyway so it doesn't matter."

"If you need me anything just shout, okay? I'll be downstairs." As much as Kaito wanted to, it didn't look like he could sleep at all the next few weeks. The paranoia of Mayu breaking into his house would keep him awake all night long, all day long. It didn't necessarily have to be Mayu, it could be someone else entirely… She had her cronies. "Sweet dreams." Kaito shut the door behind him and left.

'Ah…' Rin walked over to the window and started to stretch. Things were going better than she could ever imagine, it was great! She felt bad for pressuring Kaito on where Len was but she couldn't help it. Why would Len want them to wait for three weeks was still a mystery, and she couldn't think of a reason why he'd do that, but she could wait that long…Hopefully by that three weeks they'd find a way to contact each other; not necessarily meeting face to face. She didn't want Kaito to punch him in the face. 'The rain's really chilly…'

And that's when Rin spotted it. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness by then and even though it was too dark too see, she swore she saw a shadow… Someone was right in front of Kaito's, no, 'their' house. Who'd stand out in the rain and do that? Without an umbrella too. Rin tried rubbing her eyes, and, yes, that person was still there, her eyes wasn't playing tricks with her.

'Should I tell Kaito about this…?' The worst part of it all, she was sure that person was looking right at the second floor's window, her window. As Rin backed away from Rin the window, she realized that person had finally moved away and left. Rin watched him until it's finally gone from her sight completely.

'It's… Just a passer by. Thank goodness.' Again with her negative thinking. To see someone staring directly at her window was a bit bizarre, but she shouldn't let that bother her. 'Let's just sleep for now.'

The second she turned her eyes away from the window, that person came back again, this time, with an umbrella. Things couldn't get even more uncomfortable for Rin for sure. What was that person trying to do? Spy on them? Of all the houses, it's not like he was going to get anything out of it! All the lights were off and there's no way anyone could peek inside! With that odd thought in mind, Rin had the sudden urge to just leave the house and ask what was that person's problem. That didn't sound like the best plan in the world, it was possible she was just over-thinking everything...

'Uhn, I guess I'll tell Kaito about it.' Rin made her way downstairs, and to the living room.

'He's not here…' Maybe he was taking a bath, or something? There was no way he'd leave her alone in that house… Unless Kaito thinks that house is… Super safe and rejects all evil. Rin tried to peek through the window again, and sure, that person was still there. It was still too dark to see his face, all she could make out was that person was definitely a man; she knew that much at least. 'Why did I say… I want to talk to him again?'

There was no way an evil spy would be so… Obvious, right? Wouldn't he be hidden somewhere and not out in the rain directly below the house he's supposed to spy on? In other words that man was harmless and she should just go say hi.

'What am I thinking…?' It was hard to explain, but there was just something about it that bothered her.

'It's ridiculous, I should just go back to bed.'

"Rin? What're you doing?" Kaito's voice behind her startled her.

"N-nothing… It's just that, there's someone out there just… Staring at this house." She pointed at the man with the umbrella. "He was here before, then he left to get an umbrella… And now he's back. Should I be worried?"

"I don't think you should, but it IS kinda worrying. I'll go and say hi." The second Kaito said that, the man left again. "Uh…"

"If you think it's nothing, then I guess I shouldn't make a big deal out of it." It's better to just forget about it anyway. "I'll go to bed now, good night."

"Good night, sweet dreams." As Rin went up stairs, Kaito desperately tried to look for an umbrella in the living room, then the kitchen, then the storage room. No, he wasn't just going to let that stalker gets away with it. "Nope, no umbrella. I should just risk getting a cold."

He was hesitant on leaving Rin alone, but he did it anyway. Kaito locked the door behind him and tried to look for the man with the umbrella, luckily from where he was standing he could still see him.

"Hey you!" Kaito shouted, and ran towards his direction. He took shelter from the rain using that man's umbrella, and that's when Kaito took a better look on that stalker. He was probably around Kaito's age, his hair completely white; his clothes was completely soaking wet and his eyes... It looked like his right and left eyes had a different color. No matter how much he squinted Kaito couldn't determine what colors they were, it was probably... Aqua and...

"What is it?" Obviously sharing an umbrella with a stranger, a man at that, was too weird for him. Not to mention he was looking deeply right into his eyes.

"Nothing, I just moved into this neighborhood. Then I saw a you staring at my house earlier the middle of rain like this, I thought I'd go and say hi." The rain was lighting up and the heavy rain before slowly turned into a light drizzle again. "It's not everyday that you see someone staring like this, you know."

"I'm sorry for staring." It wasn't much of a sincere apology, there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"No problem, it's alright." Even so, Kaito replied to his sarcastic remark anyway. "So anyway, what were you doing earlier? You were just staring at my house, what, did you plan on greeting the new family on the neighborhood?"

"Family?"

"Yeah, it's just me and my sister in that house. It's cramped and there's dust everywhere but we're trying to make it through." It'd be easier to explain to strangers that way; he'd have to tell Rin later that for the next three weeks they're going to be brother and sister. "So anyway, back to the question. What were you doing?"

"Nothing. It's just that, I thought that house is empty." There was no way he could tell he and Rin was inside the house; the only light that was on at the moment was the fireplace and it was impossible to see from the living room window. That person must've spotted them when he and Rin entered the house earlier... And he stayed there the whole time? What the hell's that guy's problem?

"It's an old house of mine and I decided I'd go back to this neighborhood." That person wasn't someone he thinks he should be careful of, it's just... Why did he feel like he'd seen him before? Maybe when he lived in that house before he'd seen him once or twice? Kaito felt weird because he had faith in his memory, and it's rare for him to be unsure like this.

There's no way he'd let the guy away without proper investigation.

"So that's it, huh?"

"That's it."

"Good, good! I guess, uh, good evening to you then. Sorry to bother you and everything. Will I see you around here? My name's Kaito, what's your name?"

"It's Piko," He pointed at a building just a few blocks from his house. "and I run a bakery over there."

"I didn't know there was a bakery there… I'm going to bring my sister over tomorrow for breakfast, and eat your fresh homemade bread, then. I'm looking forward to it."

"Me too." From the brief conversation they had, Kaito guessed he wasn't much of a talker, and more of a stalker. Since neither was speaking up again, he assumed the conversation was over and left. Piko made his way back to his bakery, and Kaito sighed.

'I think... I know who that guy is.'