Re Birthday

Chapter 5

News travelled fast where we lived, and by the time I had managed to limp back to the castle Rin already knew what had taken place in the village. Tears were drying against my cheek as I stumbled through the kitchen door toward Rin. She took the blood splattered sword from me without a single word and replaced it in its hiding place. She turned to glare at me, but seeing the tear tracks running down my face understood I had already punished myself. I was not proud of what I did, though at the time I had been, I was ashamed of myself for acting in such a way. I promised myself there and then that I would never be proud of hurting someone again. Ever. Without saying a word, Rin took my hand, and led me away from the kitchen, noticing I was limping she finally spoke.

"What happened to you Len" She asked this gently, not in a patronising tone. I sighed, still feeling shame; I looked up at her concerned face.

"He fought back...he hit me and...I fell on my sword" I told her, feeling my cheeks grow hot with embarrassment, what sort of assassin falls on his own sword? Still, Rin didn't laugh, and instead frowned in concern. She kneeled next to me to see the wound for herself. She pulled a face, telling me she thought it looked bad. She told me I needed to clean it, before leading me through her bedroom into her bathroom. I sat wearily on a stool as she instructed as she knelt again next to my leg, inspecting the wound more thoroughly now.

"You will need to remove those" she told me matter of factly, referring to my pants. I blushed doing as she instructed somewhat hesitantly, she laughed at my embarrassment, reminding me that we were identical twins.

"Not identical enough" I muttered "In case you didn't notice I'm a man and you're a woman" I blushed again as she shrugged this fact off, cleaning the wound on my leg gently, trying not to hurt me. I appreciated this.

"Well I think we are identical enough, I hear our little thief thought so too" She reminded me as she wrapped a bandage around my leg, pulling it tight to restrict the blood flow. I winced a little as she did this, not sure if it was from pain or from the memory of my irrational behaviour. Yet another thing to make me blush, the shame. Rin finished bandaging my leg and looked up at me. She wiped a tear away from my cheek.

"You have to stop blushing Len or your face may stay red forever" She smiled kindly, I laughed a little at this. My Rin. This was the girl I knew, the one I fought for, protected and the one I would die for if I had to. If only the people knew her the way I did. I pulled her into an embrace, she didn't complain, and wrapped her thin arms around my neck. She whispered that everything would be okay, I clung tighter to her, letting myself cry. I could feel her eyelashes tickling my neck as she blinked, holding me close as I held her.

After a long while Rin let go of me, I tried to pull her back as I felt her arms slipping away from mine. I wanted to hold her, to smell her soft hair again, feel it in my hands, never let go. Never leave this place again. However, she stood in front of me and looked sympathetically into my eyes. She made an attempt to tidy my hair up a little; it had fallen out of its usual ponytail, making me look more like Rin than normal. She brushed her hand through it, carefully pulling it up again, tying it for me. A simple yet meaningful gesture.

"Len I hope you will not take this the wrong way but...you look exhausted, I think you should get some sleep" She smiled again at me once more.

"I still have more work to do Rin its fine I feel a lot better now" I began; I didn't want to disappoint her. That was the last thing I wanted to do. She held a hand up to silence me. I was quiet and awaited her response.

"It is fine, that was my main errand for you today, and you completed it, you hurt yourself doing it for me. Now I want you to go to bed I want you to get some rest. If you really want to get back to work tomorrow I shall arrange for you to do something a little more...light, something I've been putting off for a while as it is not urgent" She told me, feeling the full force of my exhaustion now, I nodded weakly, gratefully accepting this break she was giving me. She told me to wait there, as if I had any intention of moving. I must've been dozing for when I opened my eyes again Rin was standing in front of me holding some clean clothes for me to change into. I took them from her, I changed automatically, not caring if she was watching (which I don't think she was), as I worked on what I can only describe as autopilot. When I was dressed she took my hand once more, and led me to her bed, though at the time it didn't occur to me whose' bed it was. I fell wearily down on to the bed, shutting my eyes, listening to Rin sing an old lullaby to me.