Mirror

She stares at him with waterfall eyes, this brittle, mirror boy. His hair is swept with gold, his palms spread over the glass, matching her fingers inch for inch.

The girl-child is at a loss; she blinks, and so does the boy with her face.

"Don't be afraid." he says gently, and it startles her. She moves away from her porcelain-white vanity table, away from her 'reflection'.

The blond boy gives her a sad, half-sung smile. "Please." he begs, and something in his voice makes her relent.

"How..." she breathes in softly, conjuring up enough courage to trace the outline of his face. Her fingertips meet glass. "What...?"

"We're the same, you see?" his lips are unwavering as he opens his hand, letting the rivers of his palms face her once again. Instinctively, she places her own hand over his, almost overwhelmed by the iciness of the mirror.

"Finger for finger..." she murmurs. She is calm, then, somber as the sleeping sea.

"Len." he sings, so gently, so beautifully, that she almost doesn't catch it.

"Hm?" she hums, and she wonders just when she became comfortable with the entire situation.

"My name." he beams, pressing closer to the glass. "And you?"

"I'm Rin." she declares, not missing a beat.

"Pretty." mumbles Len, from behind the mirror, which seems so very far away. She wonders, suddenly, just who he is. Where he is. Boys don't just appear in mirrors. Not boys with her hands or her face.

Rin pulls her hand back, folding her lily-boned knuckles into her lap. "Are we..." she begins, unsure of just what she is asking. "Are you...me?"

Len only shrugs. "I don't know." he replies, honestly. "I don't think we are. But we're connected, somehow. I'm sure of it."

"Brother?" she whispers, and she hopes she is wrong. And it makes her feel so very foolish; this boy is a mirror, after all.

"No." he says after a moment. "I don't think so. Something more than blood."

"Something that lets us speak through mirrors?"

He laughs, and it sounds like music. "Something like that."

Silence. Rin pulls at the starlight length of her ribbon, Len's gaze has trailed to his wrists.

Until, finally. "I want to sing. Do you ever get that feeling?" asks the boy.

Rin's lips bloomed into a smile. "Singing is my favorite thing in the entire world."

Len's features light up. "Really?"

"Really."

"Sing for me, then?"

"Only if we do it together."

"Right. Together."

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