Utilitarianism

Chapter 3
Doubt

Rin woke up sprawled across her bed, her vision blurry. She snapped her hands to her face, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. A figure came into her view, it was perched on the end of her new bed, trying to keep away from Rin. The girl yawned, not bothering to think about the figure, before her memories of the day before came back.

"Oh, er," She began, scratching her head. She sat up comfortably, leaning on her pillow which made her dirty blonde hair even more messy, "Good morning Len."

Len flinched for an unknown reason, looking at his new friend carefully. His own hair was incredibly messy, sticking up in all directions. He looked like a hedgehog. He moved slightly closer to Rin, as if he were a sort of puppy sniffing his owner.

"Good morning...Rin." He muttered, staring into her soul. Rin was a little scared by that.

She had to slide further into her pillow, with a frightened expression on her face before Len realized he was doing something wrong. He stopped looking at her so carefully, and his expression softened a little. It wasn't a smile, though.

"Sorry..." He muttered, looking away from her.

The blonde girl felt bad, she wasn't one to pity others, but she couldn't help but do it for the sitting in front of her. She shot him a warm smile, trying to show that it was alright, but the boy didn't seem to buy it.

"I am sorry," He said, his English sounded slightly forced. That was when Rin noticed it, an accent. It was well hidden within his polite tone, but it was there. Rin wasn't sure it was though.

"Hey," Rin said, moving towards Len. He looked a little taken aback by her movement, but he didn't move himself, "Say that again."

"I am...sorry?" Len said after a short pause. He held a confused expression on his face, from being examined by Rin.

Rin grinned, "What is your first language, Len?"

"My first..?" Len asked, frowning, "My first is...Nihongo?"

Rin looked at him carefully, rather confused herself.

"Nihongo?" She repeated, with no clue what it meant.

Len seemed to understand that Rin was confusion and was thinking deeply. He opened his mouth slowly before he spoke.

"The - eh - language of Japan?" He said, asking if he was correct.

Rin laughed a little and nodded, showing her understanding of what he said. Her laughter was loud but through it she managed to utter 'Japanese'. Len nodded enthusiastically.

"Ah, yes - this Japanese!" He said, smiling happily. It caused Rin to laugh even more.

"Rin?" A voice called from below, Luka, "Are you alright up there? I can hear you."

"Heh, yeah." Rin replied casually, masking her giggles, "I just thought of something funny."

"Well, okay." Luka said, "Come downstairs when you want breakfast and also - no lessons today."

"Thanks Luka!" Rin said, grinning, "But what could I do?"

"There's a park in town, it's not far, you can see it from here." Luka stated.

Rin didn't bother to answer the maid and she turned her attention back to Len. She grinned.

"My English is not good." Len said sadly, "I am sorry."

"No! It's good!" Rin argued, staring him down, "It's better then you think!"

"Thank you but," Len muttered, staring back at Rin, "I must confess that I cannot understand much."

"It's fine, I wouldn't understand if you said anything in Japanese." Rin replied calmly, still grinning.

"Houtou?" Len asked, grinning back, "Okashii desu ne."

Rin grimaced, knowing he was just trying to annoy her, "What?"

"Wakarimasen." Len said, but then he saw the rising anger in Rin's eyes, "I will stop now."

Rin laughed a little and checked the time '10:36am', so she still had plenty of time. She decided that she should learn more about the boy sitting in front of her.

"How old are you?" She asked, leaning closer to him.

"I am fourteen years old." Len answered immediately, it sounded recited. Then again, it probably was.

Rin had created a list of questions to ask him in her head. They all seemed important to her.

"Where are you from? How did you get here? Who are your parents? Where are your family? Why were you stuck in that dungeon? Who are you?" Rin asked him quickly, all in one go. All her words seemed to pass Len though, because he just sat there. It didn't even look as if he was thinking.

"My parents are called Lola and Leon." Len whispered, "They hate me."

He seemed pretty uncomfortable talking about his parents, that's what Rin could see. She didn't want he to be uncomfortable though, so she decided to change the subject she had started.

"Do you want food?" She asked, hearing her own stomach rumble. Len shook his head, much to her surprise.

"I am not hungry." Len stated quietly, looking downwards.

"Really?" Rin asked, staring at him with a frown.

"Really." Len said, "You should eat."

"Fine."

Rin went downstairs to meet Luka who cooked her a great breakfast while Len waited upstairs. When she came back up she threw him some more clothes to get changed into and declared that they were going to the park.

The pair set off to the park, having to climb out of Rin's bedroom window which was a lot of hassle for her, but not for Len. In fact, he was the one that caught her when she jumped. They slowly walked to the park, nobody noticing them. Once they arrived, Rin rushed underneath a tree, fanning herself.

"Hn...Len get over here!" She called to the boy, waving at him with one hand, whilst still fanning her face with the other.

"Yes?" Len said, standing above Rin with an excited look on his face.

"Sit." Rin commanded and Len obeyed her.

The park had a nice atmosphere, it was calming and peaceful. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud it sight - how Rin loved the summer. The grass was swaying slowly and so were the trees, it make the whole place seem alive.

"You like it here?" Rin asked Len, seeing the bright smile on his face.

"Yes, it is very beautiful." Len replied, laughing lightly.

Rin was quite glad that nobody else had noticed the imperfections on Len's face, other wise she would have been a little screwed. It showed how much of a lucky charm the boy was, though.

"Who are you?" Rin asked, barely noticing the words slip out of her mouth. Len noticed.

"I was born in Japan, but my parents were from the west." Len said, "They disowned me."

Rin paused her fanning to think about what he had just said.

"Your English sure had improved." She commented, waving her hands around her face once again.

"I have been practicing it. Waiting for someone to listen." Len stated, the bored tone in his voice obvious.

"Well, my name is Rin and my father disowned me and my mother when I was younger." Rin said, "So I guess we're sort of even."