Her Mirror Image

Rin sighed, stirring the hot cocoa and setting it down before her brother, Len.

"Oh, Len," she sighed, "why did you have to skate so close to the thinnest part of the ice?"

Len shivered and pulled his blanket, spangled with cartoon bananas, closer around himself. "I didn't try to, R-Rin! K-Kaito pushed m-me in and I broke the ice and f-fell in the water."

Rin laughed at the haunted look in her twin's eyes and tweaked his nose. "It sure was funny how Miku freaked out, and tried to get you out, and grabbed Kaito's scarf right off his neck to try to save you."

Len smiled weakly. "Y-yeah..." He traced the outlines of the bananas on his blanket longingly. "Rin-chan, do we have any bananas?"

Rin smiled. "Banana season was over long ago, Len-Len. I'm so sorry."

Len grimaced. "...oh." He sighed a most mournful sigh, as though the world would end. "That's just terrible, Rin...what'll I do until—" Suddenly he shouted out, "HEY!" and ran to fetch his laptop.

Quickly he fired it up, mind set to go Google it.

"HEY!" he exclaimed for the second time in thirty seconds, "THERE IS NO BANANA SEASON! BANANAS ARE GROWN YEAR-ROUND!"

"Whoops," said Rin, a very obvious smirk on her face, "I must have forgotten."

At that moment, the doorbell rang. Len got up, but Rin pushed him back down. "I'll answer it," she said, in a very business-like matter. "You're down sick, so you should stay in bed. Now, do you know where the orange-shooter is? I need to be armed in case it's a solicitor or something."

She opened the door, to be faced with one of her least favorite people in the world.

"Hi...Miku," Rin said skeptically, skipping over the "-san".

"Konnichiwa, Rin-chan," responded Miku peppily, shaking her head so that her insanely long turquoise hair brushed the backs of her legs. Despite the biting cold, she wore a pleated skirt that didn't even reach her knees. Wrapped around her neck was a blue scarf that looked remarkably like Kaito's. In fact, Rin wouldn't have been surprised if a certain blue-haired young man was turning his house upside-down in a frantic search for the clothing item.

"I just came to see if our little shota was okay," said Miku.

"Heezfinejussleevritenow," said Rin quickly, more quickly than she had meant to. Seeing Miku's quizzical look, she sighed and said, on a much more polite tone, "Len's doing okay. He's just got a nasty cold, but other than—"

Rin felt long hair brush her face as the virtual pop idol streaked past, ignoring the female Kagamine and zooming straight to the male one.

"Len! Ohhh, are you okay? I tried to tell Kaito to slow down but he didn't listen. Len-kun, I'm so sorry! I wish you felt better. You know what? I should make you some of my leek soup. It's a recipe that my grandmother gave to me. Yes, leeks, they do wonders for the body. Man can't live on bananas alone, you know!" Rin heard Miku laugh at her own joke, which was terrible as far as Rin was concerned.

Rin let a breath escape her lips as she listened to Miku continue talking faster than a speeding roadroller. It wasn't that she hated Miku...well, okay, she did rather dislike her. It never seemed fair that Miku was sooo popular, and pretty, and was a good singer. Not that she, Rin, wasn't a good singer... But as things often turn out when you have a twin, you're never singled out. No one ever said 'Rin Kagamine'. It was always, 'Rin and Len Kagamine', or 'Rin and Len', 'the Kagamine twins', 'The mirror images', or 'the Kagamines'...

Not that she didn't care for her brother. Far from that. Definitely, Len deserved to be protected from that nasty girl, Miku.

Okay, that's it, thought Rin, exasperated. Time to put my foot down.

She stormed into the room. "Hatsune—Miku," Rin breathed, hoping she sounded more menacing than she felt, "That patient needs rest. So leave him alone and get the heck out of my house."

Len stared at his sister in disbelief. "R-Rin...?"

Rin fumed, blood vessels threatening to burst violently. "That's right, Miku! I think I have a say in my brother's company, as well as his health. And I want him to get better so please exit through the door!"

Len sweatdropped despite his freezing body temperature. "Rin..."

Rin was about ready to continue her "get-Miku-out-of-the-freaking-house-so-she-will-finally-leave-my-brother-alone" campaign, when she stopped to listen to the said brother that she was too busy protecting to actually listen to.

"Hmm? Len, did you say something?"

Len shrugged and squirmed, looking uncomfortable under his sister's steely gaze. "You know...I really don't mind if...if Miku stays here." He glanced at Miku, who gave him an encouraging, grateful smile. "Really...I don't suppose it would hurt if she stayed—" Len suddenly erupted into a fit of hacking coughs. "—if she stayed for a while." He began to cough some more.

Rin's eyes widened. What was her brother playing at? Well, she wouldn't stand for it. Little miss pixie doll was not, repeat, NOT going to stay for half a second longer if she, Rin Kagamine, had anything to do with it.

"Nonsense," she shouted over her poor brother's coughs. "See, you're already getting worse. You must be catching gingivitis or something."

"Gingivitis is your gums," said Len hoarsely. Miku laughed.

This was definitely the breaking point for Rin. "WELL, SEE IF I CARE!" the blonde shouted hysterically, forgetting her calm-yet-coercing stature and going for crazy-and-most-definitely-coercing instead. "WHY DON'T YOU AND MIKU HAVE SOME FUN, HUH? YEAH, GO ON LEN, WHY DON'T YOU FORGET EVERYTHING YOUR DEAR SISTER HAS TOLD YOU AND START ON HER, HUH?"

Rin sprinted out of the room, not believing her brother's words.

Her first thoughts were to fire up the roadroller and run over a few buildings to ease her anger. Her next were to permanently run from home and never speak to her mirror image again. Oh, yes, and of course there was the all-purpose-treatment for all things stressful.

The moment Rin stepped out of the house, she slammed the door and let out an earsplitting scream, an all-time record since the recording of "Meltdown". Naturally all living things in the area scurried, flew, or ran away, this including not only rabbits and squirrels but the neighbors as well.

The vocal release of anger didn't seem to suffice or water down the hotheaded Kagamine's rage. Approximately two seconds later there was a loud exclamation of "I! HATE! MIKUUUUU!" that all could hear it for miles and all pretended not to notice.

Right after a fire dies down, there's still the rain.

Angry tears dripped down Rin's face, blurring her vision as she ran blindly down the block, bawling and screaming her heart out, mixed phrases of "I hate Miku" and "Len how could you" and "my own brother".

It was one of those times when nothing, not even orange juice, would cease the storms and make her feel better.

Well, that was until, after minutes of running down sidewalks with her eyes closed, screaming, being stared at like a lunatic, and miraculously not getting hit by passing vehicles, Rin bumped into something—someone, actually.

It had happened like this: Rin had been running, arms outstretched and flailing, when suddenly her body lost momentum as she barreled into someone else. Her arms, which had been faced with only the air, continued to travel around the person, suddenly engulfing whoever it was in a hug. Rin, no matter how distraught or insane she was at the present time, would still have been mortally embarrassed if she had been caught hugging a complete stranger on the street. She opened her blue eyes to take in whoever it was, and to her surprise, it was none other than—

"Kaito!"

A scarfless Kaito, Rin noted to herself, not surprised.

Kaito blinked, registering the girl hugging him for no apparent reason. "Hi there, Rin!" He let a smile spread across his face.

An ice cream covered smile. Rin frowned. Oh, that Kaito. Surely cleaning himself up a bit after ice cream excursions couldn't be too hard, could it?

"Kaito, you've got something on your face." Rin snapped, some of her annoyance still left over from the incident with Len and Miku.

"Hmm?" Kaito stared at her blankly for about two seconds before he realized what she had said. "Ohhh! I had rocky road today. It's one of my favorite flavors, but really, the flavor itself doesn't matter much. Just as long as it's ice cream." He reached for his scarf to wipe off the excess sugar until he realized, when his fingers grasped air, that the said scarf was absent from its usual spot around his neck.

Kaito looked, bewildered, at his empty hand. "Say, Rin-chan...you don't happen to know where my scarf is, would you? Haven't seen it since Miku-chan yanked it off my neck..." He rubbed his neck. "Ouch."

"Yes, yes I have," said Rin stoically. "Miku still has it." Ugh, saying that name was one of the most disgusting things she was sure she had done.

Kaito paused a moment before laughing. "Oh," he chuckled. "Well, I suppose she must have some good use of it, although I wish she'd asked nicely first."

"I wish she'd asked before she went barging into my house to talk to my sick brother," muttered Rin.

Kaito must have been too busy looking up at the sky to hear her. "Haha, look how blue the sky is," he exclaimed. "I haven't seen it that blue since you two gave the roadroller a break. You doknow that roadroller of yours is a nasty source of air pollution, don't you?" He looked at Rin anxiously.

"So I've noticed," said Rin. It sure was lucky of Kaito that his scarf was missing, otherwise Rin didn't know how she would have restrained herself from strangling him with it. Kaito always meant well, but...dang, he was such a baka sometimes.

Something about Rin's unusual lack of cheeriness worried Kaito.

"Hey there, Rin...is something wrong?"

Rin laughed bitterly, glad she had someone to listen to her troubles, even if it was the dull-witted, ice cream-loving Kaito.

"Oh, it's nothing," she said sarcastically. "Miku only almost broke down the door trying to get to little "Len-kun" and see if he was "okay", and if he would like some "leek soup". And then Len—my own brother!—told me off for yelling—er, telling—Miku to get out of the house."

Kaito blinked again. Just when Rin was about to explode and scare the living ice cream out of him, he spoke up.

"So that's what you were screaming over?" He laughed with relief. "When I heard you, I thought Len had died...not scolded you for being inhospitable."

"Inhospi—? Listen, Kaito, don't you understand? She just came in! She stole your scarf!"

Kaito laughed gently. "Hold on. I love my scarf, but I love Miku more. In a friendly way, not really the other kind," he added thoughtfully.

Rin, usually a gentle person herself, caring for her dear little brother and never without a sweet word to say, was losing it. She was actually ready to tell lies if it would get more people to agree with her.

"Kaito," she said dramatically, "I haven't told anyone this yet, but..." she lowered her voice to a whisper so that the tall young man had to bend over to hear her.

"Miku stole ice cream from your freezer."

The terrible words sent Kaito into indescribable agony.

"NOOO! NOT THE ICE CREAM! She can take my scarf, she can take a whole closet of scarves—"

Rin tried to hide her smug expression.

"—but just not the ice cream, nooo, it can't be true!" wailed Kaito as passerbys stared, wondering why on earth a 20-year-old man would be breaking down in the middle of the street like a young child. And over ice cream, of all things.

Rin noticed the weird stares, and feeling a little uncomfortable herself, which was more than could be said for Kaito, decided to try to console him.

"But don't worry, Kaito, I stopped her. In fact all the ice cream is safe in your freezer, okay?" said Rin, shaking her hands at him and sweatdropping.

Kaito stopped. "Oh," he said. "Well then." For a moment it looked as though he was spacing out again.

Rin tried once again to provoke him. "But she attempted to steal your ice cream. There's a crime right there."

Kaito's next response was surprisingly a lot calmer, now that ice cream loss was out of the conversation. "Rin," he said, "why don't you go back home for a while? Maybe talk things out with your brother."

That was one of the things Rin didn't want to do. I mean, Len doesn't know what's good for him. And it's definitely not Miku.

"Please, Rin," said Kaito. "He's your mirror image. Mirror images aren't supposed to hold grudges against one another, or avoid eachother. Does your mirror reflection avoid you?" Rin recognized his older-brotherly tone and sighed.

"Fine then," she said. "But if I go back and Miku's still there, then there's no telling just what I might do."

Rin turned around and stomped all the way home. She paused at the door. If Miku was still inside... What she really wanted to do was take a leek and snap it right over Miku's head.

"Len-Len?" she asked as she came inside. "I'm back..." She sauntered back over to her brother. "And I'm sorry for running away."

Len looked at her cautiously, but was quick to smile. "Hi, Rin," he said, "I'm glad you're back. And don't worry about it." He gave his sister a hug.

But once Rin broke away from her brother's loving embrace, she was all business.

"Okay, Len," she said, standing up and taking charge, "where's Miku?"

"In the kitchen," responded Len, mildly amused at her behavior.

Rin took a breath and bolted into the kitchen.

"Maybe you could make something with bananas in it?" called Len as she left.

Miku was, as Len had said, in the kitchen, fixing up a batch of homemade leek soup. Rin sniffed the air. Yes, it undoubtedly smelled good. But she, Rin Kagamine, refused to admit it, refused to acknowledge it.

"Oh, hey there, Rin-chan!" said Miku cheerfully, wiping a hand on her green apron. "Would you like to help me cook?"

"No, thank you," said Rin politely, but coolly. "I'm Len's sister, so I think I should have the authority of taking care of him."

"Are you sure you don't need some help?" asked Miku. "Besides, in our family, don't we call everyone a brother or sister, regardless of blood relation?"

"Yes," said Rin, "but I'm his blood sister. I'm his twin."

"Mirror image. No one said you were twins."

That was true, but... The two Kagamines had grown up together, around eachother. They'd been born together, they'd sang together, when they were little they'd slept in the same bed and taken bubble baths together. Now they both took care of the other, although a bit more privacy and space was allowed between the two, but whenever one of them was absent they both felt like part of them was missing. On the whole, Rin had considered Len her younger twin brother, Rin his older twin sister.

"It doesn't matter," said Rin simply. She looked at the scarf around Miku's neck. "And Kaito's looking for that." She willed herself not to let her impatience get the best of her. However, Miku had always been the dominant type...which was well shown in "World Is Mine".

"Oh Rin," she said. "Let your big sister take care of things, okay?"

"Len doesn't like leeks," Rin invented hopelessly. "Len likes bananas."

Miku laughed. "Yes, but I don't suppose I've ever heard of banana soup before," she said, smiling as though Rin had told a joke.

It was hopeless. Miku was too peppy, too happy, too perseverant.

"Please, Miku." Rin pleaded. "Please can you just go? Len really needs his rest. And I'll finish up the soup, and I'll serve it to him."

"Serving me? That's a change around here," called Len from the bed.

Rin shot him a look, even though he probably couldn't see it. "Please Miku-san?" Had she really stepped so low as to put in the "-san"? She brushed the side thoughts away and concentrated on making her ocean blue eyes water just enough.

Miku looked at her in surprise. "Oh, well then Rin-chan...if you're really that upset," She smiled and left the pot of soup on the stove. "Bye, Len-kun! Call me if you need help." She waved and was out the door.

Rin couldn't help but marvel at how easy that had been, and let out a victory cheer.

"YES! FINALLY, SHE'S GONE!"

Quicker than a hungry Len could eat a banana, Rin dumped the soup into the sink and got out some bananas to make a smoothie for her brother.

Her confused brother.

"Um, Rinny-Rin," he started, almost hesitantly, "I thought you said you were going to let me try the soup." Len twiddled his fingers under the blanket.

Rin could've snapped at her brother, but she was in too high spirits for that. "Nonsense, Lenny-Len. As if you wanted to consume THAT poison," she hummed as she peeled the bananas and mashed them into a blender with some yogurt and ice.

"...Poison?" asked Len, watching his sister as she pressed the button and watched mushed bananas swirl around the container. "I trust Miku's cooking..."

Haha. Oh, what a joke. As if anyone would trust Miku's cooking. Rin smiled at her brother. "Well, I'm quite sorry to say that I disagree with your opinion."

She poured the smoothie into a yellow cup and stuck a thick straw in it, and gave it to her brother. "Enjoy," she said.

However, Len wasn't in the mood for banana smoothies just yet.

"Rin," he said seriously, "I want to talk to you."

Rin did a double take. "What about, Len?" she asked innocently.

Len's serious expression looked so strange on a shota. "About Miku," he answered.

Rin groaned. "Okay, so what about Miku?"

Len pulled her in closer and made her sit down next to him. Then he turned around so he faced her. "Why do you hate her so much?"

Rin laughed, fighting the sweatdrops raining down her face. "I don't hate Miku! Silly Len-Len!"

Len didn't look as if he was buying it. "You obviously have some sort of problem with her, though. You always did, but I never mentioned it to you..." He looked at his sister.

Rin felt horrible. Yes, she disliked Miku with great passion. But her brother...she loved her brother, as annoying as he was. "I just don't like her," she said.

"Why?"

"I don't know."

Len shook his head. "There must be a reason. Is it Kaito?"

Rin stared at him blankly. "What about Kaito?"

"Oh you know...how you like him, and Miku likes him..."

Rin shook her head. "Nope. Ever since Kaito started getting dumber I've given up." She searched her mind for anything to say that might be of satisfaction to her younger brother. "Will you accept that I naturally have a dislike for her?"

"No...there's got to be a reason..." Len looked at Rin, their identical blue eyes meeting. "Are you jealous of her?"

Rin could have laughed out loud, but something in the pit of her stomach seemed to weigh her down. "J-Jealous? Where do you get those ideas, Len?"

"Everyone knows Miku Hatsune is the most famous Vocaloid. Even more than Meiko and Kaito, who came first. Even more than Luka, the bilingual seafood lover. Especially more than Gakupo, or Teto, or Gumi, or Haku, or Neru. No one except dedicated Vocaloid fans know who they are." Len paused a moment before continuing again. "And Rin...having lived with you for so long, I know you. You like to be the princess. You like to be number one."

He touched Rin's left arm, where a red, stamped, 02's mark was left.

"But you're still only number two." Len looked at her in silence.

Rin was shocked. Len had gone even deeper than she thought he could have gone. She thought no one knew her secrets...but "no one" must have excluded her own twin brother. Her own mirror image.

"Did I get it?" he asked softly.

Rin nodded, fighting the urge to cry. "But I don't like how you and her..." She stopped there, unsure of how to put her feelings into words.

Len nodded. "Go on."

"You like her, don't you? Don't you have a crush on Miku?"

Len blushed, but didn't deny it.

"So it's true!" crowed Rin. "So you do like her! Why, Len, why?"

"Would you accept that I naturally like her?" Len mumbled.

Rin, although triumphant about having found out her new discovery, was on the other hand far from pleased about the discovery she had actually made.

"But why? What do you see in her? Len, I wish you didn't love her! Isn't my love enough?"

Len stared at her, trying to interpret what she was saying correctly.

It took Rin about half a second to realize what she had said. "Good gosh, Len, I'm not talking about twincest. It's messed up. But..." She prepared to let go another deep-hearted Rin secret.

"Len, you're my twin brother. I'm afraid someday you'll just leave and forget about me. And go with Miku, and share in on her fame, and be a couple. A famous couple. You'll be number one up there with Miku." She bit her lip. "And no one will remember the other Kagamine, the other sister who's only number two," she whispered, eyes away from her brother.

Len hugged his sister. "How could anyone forget you?" he asked, laughing. "Do you know you're the best sister anyone could ever have?" He forced his sister's chin back up again.

Rin looked at him. "R-Really? I thought that you'd say Miku was a better sister,"

"Miku's great, but she's not my real sister. Only you are my real sister. Rin, trust me! Think about how lucky you are already! You're number two, no less! You've got me, and have you noticed that no one says 'Len and Rin'? It's always 'Rin and Len'. Some of our songs are even more popular than Miku's. Some people are fans of the Kagamine twins, rather than Miku."

Rin smiled a little, amazed at how much better her brother could make her feel. "You're really something, Len,"

"I know," said Len, in a fake, conceited voice. "But if I am, then you must be too! We're identical, almost,"

Rin smiled even more. "Mirror images."

Len nodded. "Mirror images."

And the two mirror images embraced with mirror-like timing.

Suddenly Meiko kicked down the door, followed by Kaito and Miku.

"AAALL RIGHT!" she shouted. "FAMILY REUNION! LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!" Kaito held her back. "This time we're only having water," he said. "The last thing she needs is more caffeine, alcohol, sugar, or energy."

Miku nodded, smiling at Kaito.

"Wait, no!" Rin cried, standing up as if shielding her brother. "Len's sick! He needs rest!"

"OH, WHAT DOES IT MATTER?" asked Meiko just as loudly. Miku slapped her to quiet her down, which was quite an accomplishment considering how loud Meiko always was.

"Let's make is a get-well party instead," Meiko suggested, glaring at Miku.

Rin was still hesitant about a party right at the moment. "Is it really necessary?" she asked.

Len tapped her on the shoulder. "I think I'm okay," he said. "Besides, otherwise I'll just be bored." He went upstairs to get dressed.

"Come on, Rin, lighten up!" exclaimed Meiko. Rin rolled her eyes at the same time as she saw Miku give an exasperated sigh. Their eyes met for a second, then looked away. So, they had a common annoyance. That didn't change anything.

Meiko was sitting on the floor, laughing and talking like crazy. Miku glared at her, then looked up at Rin. She slowly untied Kaito's scarf, still around her neck, and pointed at Meiko, then nodded at Rin.

Shut her up, mouthed Miku silently. Rin nodded as Miku threw the other end of the scarf towards her. Kaito watched with amusement, but didn't tip Meiko off.

One, two, three, Miku held up her fingers. With instant reflexes, the two girls expertly wrapped the scarf around Meiko's head like a mummy's bandage and tied the ends together, just as Len came back downstairs.

Rin glanced at her brother's bewildered expression and began to laugh, at the same time as Miku and Kaito. Len quickly caught on and saw the humor in the situation. In fact, the only onenot laughing was Meiko, who promptly began to scream and walk around blindly.

Despite Rin's former doubts, a party ensued within seconds. Kaito somehow produced ice cream and served it to everyone, and took back his scarf from a very feather-ruffled Meiko. Conversations and chats began on all sides.

However, there was still one thing missing, something that Rin couldn't exactly place her finger on. She reamained quiet and thoughtful, very unusual for the bossy, manipulating Rin Kagamine. She glanced around the room, expecting it to come to her, when it suddenly hit her unexpectedly. Miku...

Ha. She couldn't apologize. Okay, so she did feel sorry for her actions. She did feel sorry from keeping Len from pursuing the girl he liked... But she wasn't going to apologize! Rin had a reputation to uphold. She would not stoop so low as to apologize.

Just as she was thinking these thoughts, Miku stepped up to her, bubbly and cheerful as always. Rin was about to instinctively take a step back, but Miku was quicker.

"Hey, Rin," she said. "I've been listening to some of your songs, and I think you're a great singer. I think you and I should request to have a song together. I bet it could top the charts. Heck, maybe it could beat "Just Be Friends". Luka has to keep reminding me of how popular that song is."

Rin paused. Well, Luka had been rather gloaty lately. Something about how she could speak English and Japanese better than anyone else. Rin had also been planning on getting revenge on the sakura-haired Vocaloid.

Plus, there was the added bonus of upping her popularity. But...now that Rin thought about it, Len was right. Popularity didn't matter as much as...well, other things. But then again, this was a great chance to...remeet Miku, one could say.

Miku watched the younger Vocaloid silently. "So...is that a no?" she asked finally.

"No!" shouted Rin. "I mean, yes! I mean, yeah, let's do it! I mean..." Rin began a new sentence as she glanced at Len from afar. "Hey, Miku, sorry for being a jerk. Let's forget about it. I can't wait to see Luka's reaction when we bypass her!" she said, quickly changing the subject.

Rin didn't have to hear an apology acception to know that she was on good terms with Miku now.

"Me too," said Miku. "Maybe we can do something with targets that look like Luka's face."

She laughed at her new friend's idea. "That'd be awesome," she said. She looked at Miku. Well, perhaps she wasn't as bad as she had thought her to be. And Len...well, he had always been right. Even if Miku and Len ended up with eachother, Len was related to Rin in a way that no one else could compare to. After all, he was a mirror image...her mirror image.