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“Len!”
Len and Rin look just like each other. Len and Rin have the same last name. Len and Rin look to be about the same age. Ergo, Len and Rin are twins.
At least, that’s the conclusion that Ena and Mizuki seemed to have settled on. Apparently, the real-world Kagamines didn’t have the same relationship (ambiguous, Ena called it, her face crinkling in annoyance,) but Mizuki said that pretty much everyone agreed that they were siblings, especially the four of them, so Rin and Len were probably siblings in the SEKAI, at least.
Len doesn’t know much about Rin, except that she’s a little scary, a little snappy, and that she’s his sister- whatever that odd, amorphous word means. He looks like her, and they share a name, but other than that, he’s really not sure what to make of it. He’d asked Ena then, and she hadn't really seemed to have an answer either. Mizuki had jumped in to respond in her stead.
“A sister is someone who takes care of you,” she said confidently, eyes gleaming with faraway affection, “someone who’ll be your friend, no matter what.”
“Len! Where are you?” Rin’s sharp voice cuts through the still air again, and Len winces. Why couldn't Miku have found him, or one of the girls? Immediately, he feels bad for thinking such a thing. Rin might be scary, but she’s much preferable to the depths of the empty SEKAI. He should be grateful he’s been found at all. And he is. Really.
Len takes a deep breath and peers out from around the obtrusion he hid behind. He spots Rin easily, a soft yellow head of hair sticking out from the bleak grey background.
“I-” he starts, wincing when his voice breaks, “I’m over here!”
He sounds timid, even to his own ears, but Rin seems to pick his voice up immediately. She turns on her heel, eyes wide — panicked? — until she spots him on her horizon. Her shoulders droop, just a little bit.
“There you are,” Rin scolds as she storms over, hands planted on her hips. Len hunches, cowering a little behind the outcropping. “Why did you run away?”
Len opens his mouth, but his panicked explanations die on his lips. Why did he run away? Sure, KAITO is scary when he yells, but Len knows he would never hurt any of them. Len trusts KAITO, so why did his raised voice make Len scamper away like a scared mouse? Like a baby?
Len’s gaze drops to the ground. How is he supposed to help Mafuyu like this, if he runs from every loud noise, if he hides behind Miku at every hardship? How can he support her when fear seems to have woven itself into his very existence?
“Oh, nevermind,” Rin sighs, her voice exasperated but betraying a hint of something else — something softer. “Come on. I know the way back.”
Before Len registers what’s happening, Rin reaches out and grabs his hand, their cold palms pressed together. Her grip is steady and firm in his, and he stumbles as she pulls him forward and away from the shard he’s hidden behind. Rin glances to the side.
“I know you hate it out here, so- so let’s go. No use in making yourself more miserable,” she huffs, giving his hand another, softer tug.
Len chews at his lip, but he nods reluctantly. He’s scared, nothing but scared and sad and lost, running away and making his friends worry about him, forcing them to go searching across the expanse because he can’t suck it up and stay put.
Rin sighs, and Len flinches, trying to pick up the pace.
~
“KAITO,” Rin declares as soon as they near the group, and immediately Len’s heart sinks. This can’t end well.
KAITO glances up, his face cold and impassive. His eyes flit to Len, almost lifeless in their dark blue, and Len shrinks under his gaze. “You found him,” KAITO says, voice monotone.
“I did,” Rin sniffs, squeezing Len's hand. She shifts a little bit, standing almost in front of him, nearly blocking his view of KAITO. He has to crane his neck and peer around her head just to get a proper look. “And you,” Rin points an accusing finger at KAITO, “need to apologize.”
…This might be the worst possible outcome.
KAITO raises his eyebrows, and Len hopes that the dull grey ground will show him some mercy and swallow him whole.
“I’m not apologizing for anything,” KAITO scoffs, and whatever tiny part of Len that might have dared to hope shrivels. “I told Mafuyu what she needed to hear.”
“I’m not talking about Mafuyu, dummy,” Rin seethes, and Len winces at the name-calling. Only Luka and Mizuki have ever called KAITO anything other than his name, and he only barely puts up with it from them. “You have to say sorry to Len! You scared him.”
There’s a word that Mizuki uses quite frequently, that Ena has made Len promise to never, ever repeat. He’s not sure what it means, but from circumstantial evidence, he feels it might be very applicable in this situation.
Shit.
Len opens his mouth, to say anything at all, maybe it’s okay! Or KAITO please don’t think about me ever, or maybe just can everyone please stop staring at me, but nothing comes out. KAITO frowns, and his piercing gaze shifts to Len again, and Len thinks this is it- KAITO’s eyes hold the power to completely destroy VIRTUAL SINGERS, and Len is about to be banished from the face of this SEKAI entirely.
Instead, he says something entirely, mundanely unpredictable.
“Did I?”
Len shrinks under the weight of KAITO’s attention, unconsciously stepping a little further behind Rin as he tries desperately to disappear from KAITO’s wrath.
Rin gently squeezes his hand.
Len jumps. He had almost forgotten that their hands were still linked; Rin holds steadfast nonetheless. She turns towards him, eyes still full of vitriol but softening a little at the edges. She squeezes his hand again, and Len realizes there’s a message she’s trying to convey. He blinks, then focuses on the thrum of the SEKAI beneath them, around them, between them, within them. Rin’s eyes are soft, like storm clouds.
“You did,” Len mutters. The weight of Rin’s hand is heavy in his own as he glances away from her again. He can’t quite look at KAITO directly, so he stares at the ground by his feet instead. “…I don’t like it when you yell.”
“… I’m sorry.”
There's a deep gravity to KAITO’s voice, like there always is, but for once, it isn’t frightening. It’s… not quite soft, but something approaching it. This time, it’s KAITO who won’t meet Len’s eye.
“…It’s okay,” The words seem to leave Len’s mouth of their own volition. He doesn’t want KAITO to look sad. “I’m okay.”
KAITO looks back up at him, and Len shrinks a little from his gaze, even though it isn’t nearly as annoyed as before. “Good,” KAITO says, and then looks like he wants to say more. He doesn’t. Neither does Len. They stand in the suspended silence of the SEKAI.
“Well,” says Rin after a moment, her brow furrowed. The sudden sound makes Len jump. “…Good. Don’t do it again.” She hisses at KAITO, and then tugs on Len’s hand again. “C’mon, Len. You need to help me colour over one of the drawings Enanan gave us. Luka messed it up.”
“O-okay,” Len says, letting himself be dragged along. He glances back at KAITO, but he’s already half-obscured by the mist, walking away from them in long strides. Huh.
~
Their little cache of colouring pages and pencils is easy to locate, tucked under the easel Ena-san brought into the SEKAI for when she wants to paint in peace. Rin shuffles her own folder out and flicks through it, clearly on a mission. Len sits awkwardly behind her until a sheet of paper is shoved into his hands. He fumbles with it for a second.
It’s one of Ena’s illustrations that she’s printed out for them to colour on, from their MV for I’m the Rain. It’s a personal favourite of Len’s, if he’s being honest. Ena even let him sing it with her once. He thought he saw Rin watching them from behind one of the formations in SEKAI, but he can’t be sure.
It’s a pretty drawing, of a girl with an umbrella standing in a field of flowers, reaching out to catch a drop of rain in her palm. Except…
Len frowns. “Rain isn’t supposed to be pink.”
“That's what I said!” Rin yelps, quieting when Len jumps at her loud voice. “I told Luka it was weird, but she just said she likes pink, and she drew all over it, and…”
Rin’s lip quivers. She looks away.
“Can you fix it? You’re better with coloured pencils than me.”
”I…” Len looks back down at the paper. Honestly, he’s not too sure how to fix this. Rin won’t meet his gaze.
“I can try.”
“Okay,” Rin sniffs, “thank you. Here,” She shoves the box of coloured pencils into his hands, “I’m gonna work on something else.”
She shuffles away from him as she picks through the other printouts Ena’s given them. Len carefully slides a blue pencil crayon out of the box — maybe he can mix shades of pink in through the rest of the piece to make it seem more synchronous?
He places the pencil to paper to get started, but something nags at him. Rin’s fully turned her back to him. He can’t get a glimpse of what she’s chosen to colour.
“Did Luka say sorry for ruining your drawing?”
Rin pauses, then sniffs. “No.”
“…I’ll ask her about it next time I see her.”
Rin glances at him over her shoulder, and Len quickly avoids her gaze. Rin probably doesn’t want anyone talking to Luka on her behalf — she’s adept at the silent treatment when she’s upset. But she nods, her bow bobbing with the movement.
“Okay. Thank you, Len.”
Len’s mouth goes dry. He nods back, even though he doesn't know if she’s looking at him, and quickly busies himself with the little droplets of rain on the page.
After a moment, Rin shuffles a little closer to him. Len freezes, the sudden feeling that he’s done something horribly wrong and that he’s about to get scolded for it quickly overcoming him; but Rin doesn’t say anything. Instead, she sits right next to him, still angles a little away, pulls out a yellow crayon, and starts drawing.
Len’s eyes fall back to his own page. On the few raindrops he’s gotten to, the pink has started to balance out with the blue. Maybe he’s starting to get somewhere.
And so the Kagamine twins sit and draw, pencils scratching against paper, Miku’s soft voice drifting in and out as she wanders, endlessly singing; until the SEKAI flashes, and four teenage girls reappear, demo in hand.