Title: Masquerade

Chapter 1: Reaching The Crossroads

"Meruto, tokete shimai sou…"

With a skip in her step and a large bowl of chocolate pressed to her chest, Rin hopped about the room, wielding a wooden spoon in her would-be free hand. The previously spotless kitchen now resembled the terrifying aftermath of three consecutive flour-egg-and-cocoa-powder tornados. But of course, the little girl was oblivious to the Hell she had just opened up for her mom. Except for the song, the only thought swimming in her love-induced mind was the calendar on the wall, with twelve days crossed out and the fourteenth day circled in bright pink highlighter. She continued to hum a few more verses before she broke out into song again. The frilly pink apron, she had bought earlier that day, was now coated in a thick layer of brown, ready to spew out a rain of chocolate powder if anyone patted it. It wouldn't make much of a difference, though, seeing as the tiled floors were already sticky and shiny with batter ingredients. It was quite horrifying, to say the least. It's always amazing how much love is able to blot out a person's consciousness. To be more accurate, how completely oblivious Rin was to her surroundings on Valentine's Eve.

"Valentine's Day, Valentine's, Valentine's," she whispered to herself, dropping her singing and instead going on and on with her little mantra. "Kaito. Valentine. Kaito. Valentine. Valentine." The addition of the name seemed to energise her further; Rin now kicked out her legs in awkward ballet-like movements, the bowl in her hands dribbling the contents from the unseen front, dolloping chocolate paste onto the floor.

From the front door, there was a click and the sound of the latch being slid into place as her brother returned from kendo classes. "I'm home," was the voice that came down the hallway and a head of spiked blonde hair popped around the kitchen entrance. Blue eyes widened at his sister's 'masterpiece' of the kitchen. At least it's not as bad as last year, he decided, sighing exasperatedly before making his way up the stairs.

The thirteenth and she's already going cuckoo, he thought, throwing himself onto the bed. Downstairs, what sounded like every single pot and pan in the cupboard toppling over echoed into his bedroom. The boy tugged on his headphones and jacked up the volume. 'She'll probably be the most scariest tomorrow. Hyperness at maximum intensity. Here we go…'

"Rin… You have a fever."

The flushed face that looked up at him was filled to the brim with disdain and somewhere in the boy, she plucked at a heartstring. There was a sniff and Len wasn't sure whether it was from an oncoming flu or because she had been crying. He glanced into her eyes. Bloodshot… Well, when someone has a fever, they get bloodshot too… Why must fever symptoms and crying be so similar? He withdrew his hand from her forehead and slid his schoolbag to the floor, rushing off to the bathroom to run some cool water over the 'fever cloth'. The whole time he was wringing the water out, he expected some sort of whine or complaint from his sister of her predicament. He was more than surprised when none came. Wow, she must be really upset. Growing a little worried, he walked into the room, folding the cloth between his fingers. There she was with her blank gaze still fixated on the same piece of ceiling. Len chewed on his lower lip uncertainly as he placed the cloth over her hot forehead. Her blue eyes spoke only of her disappointment but she didn't say a word. Defeat also lingered in those puppy eyes and Len forced his gaze away, clamping down on his lower lip to keep the sympathy from eating him up. Say something! his mind urged. Say something to make her feel better!

"Rin… Erm…"

"Go to school," she murmured softly, batting his hand away from her and closing her eyes.

"But, Rin—"

"Go to school, Len. I'm fine. Eat my cake too. At least it'll be good for something."

He sighed at his twin. Usually when she's in one of her moods, she's as temperamental as Meiko-senpai. Best not to get on her bad side, he decided. Scooping up his bag from the floor, he gave her nose a small poke and grinned when a smile managed to form on her feverish face. Satisfied that he had at least made her smile, he took a few backward-steps to the door. "I'll come straight home," he reassured her, knowing quite well there was no need and walked out of her room.

"Have fun."

Len bit his lower lip again as he heard the sorrowful whimper. He closed the door without looking back, in hopes that it would numb the uncomfortable churning feeling in his gut just by a little.

It didn't.

The after-school bell rang and the blonde slammed his forehead into his still-opened Chemistry textbook. The blurred outline of the molecular structure of diamond seemed to glare at him and the same icky feeling swirled in his gut. It had swelled up inside him when he closed Rin's door and never left him since. Back at home, Rin was still having a fever and unable to give Kaito-senpai her Valentine's chocolate cake she had specially baked for him. Len shuffled his feet against the concrete floor and gritted his teeth, going through his options once more. He didn't really need to think it over more than once; being the good brother he was, he already decided he would do it the moment he packed the cake and Rin's clothes into his bag that morning.

Oh good lord…

Bow in his hand, Kaito spaced his feet and stole a glance at the circular target positioned in front of him. Diverting his eyes back to the kyuudou equipment in his hands, he pinched the end of an arrow. Glancing back at the target even though he wasn't really supposed to just yet, his gaze was interrupted as he notices a very conspicuous head of blonde hair a distance away, moving along the little walkway that led students from the school to the archery area. He raised an eyebrow as the small frame seemed to stop from time to time to adjust her skirt. Maybe it's just been tailored, he thought and was about to continue with his practice but the blonde haired girl raised up an arm and waved it about. Oh, did she come to see me? he wondered, stepping out of his stance and lowering his bow. Judging by the way she started signaling to him hysterically, he assumed so. There was the sound of the air being sliced and the elastic vibrating as Yowane-senpai fired her first arrow. Soon, similar sounds echoed around him as everyone began practice.

Kaito glanced about and thankfully, no one but Kamui-senpai had noticed him out of stance. His purple-haired senior offered him a smile and nudged his head to the blonde-haired girl before proceeding to aim the arrow in his hand. Thankful, Kaito bowed his head before jogging out of the practice area. The cool sunset wind greeted him and aired his hakama, the male glancing around, wondering where she went. Her face peered out from behind the smaller building where they kept their equipment and it immediately disappeared once they made eye-contact. Chuckling softly, he strode across the grassy grounds and behind the concrete wall. He couldn't help but smile as the girl attempted to juggle the cakebox on her knee as she tied her ribbon on her head. It was quite dark, so he couldn't make out her face but the bow she tied immediately identified her as one of his juniors. Kagamine –

Rin. You are Kagamine Rin. Not Len. Rin. Kagamine Rin. Rin. Rin. Ru Ri Rin.

"Kagamine Rin," Kaito called.

"Exactly," Len nodded. He froze as he was retrieving the box from his extended leg and glanced over his shoulder. Even in the dim evening light, he knew it was Shion Kaito-senpai that stood behind him. He didn't expect him to immediately come over! He panicked. He hadn't had time to compose himself yet! His breath hitched in his throat as he snapped his face back, quite afraid to look him in the eye now. For some reason, his heart started to beat a lot faster and it was getting quite annoying, to say the least. The pounding in his ears got so loud, it took him awhile to notice that he had started breathing heavily.

"Good evening, Kagamine Rin." He seemed to laugh as he said it.

"Very good evening, Shion-senpai!" Len couldn't believe that he didn't need to mask his voice that much to make it sound like his sister. The nervousness was all he needed to replicate it. "I'm so sorry for dragging you out of your practice." He still kept his back to him and shakily clutched the box to his chest. He was holding it so awkwardly tight that there were finger indents in the cardboard now.

"No, it's fine, they're just warming up," his senior reassured and there was a laugh. Len's heart seemed to be thumping at his throat now; most likely from the fact that the man was actually convinced he was his sister. He didn't know it was this hard for him to lie.

"Oh, don't you need warm-ups, senpai?" Darn it! His voice quivered.

"No, I got here earlier so I already did my warm-ups."

"You probably know why I called you out, right?" he asked uncertainly.

"I have a good idea why."

"I should probably get it over with, right?"

"Take your time."

He's so nice! No wonder Rin's in love with him. Wait, he's probably saying it to make me feel better, though. Len gritted his teeth. Okay, now, Le- I mean, Rin! Now, Rin, turn around, give him the box, wish him and run. Ready? Okay! Go! Now! With a deep breath, Len turned about, the skirt fluttering and his flattened hair half-concealing his face. Shaking a lock of it away, he looked up with wide doe-like eyes and was surprised to find his senior, Kaito, smiling patiently for this insane girl to give him his Valentine's chocolate. It was so amazing how calm he was! For a moment, Len blanked out.

"Ah… Um… Er… Eto…" Lost for words, he held out the box, his hand still shaking. Seeing the kind smile, he gritted his teeth again and diverted his gaze to the grass around his shoes. "Happy- Valentine's… Day," he stuttered. He felt the box being taken away from him and immediately, his hand clenched to a fist as he held it at his side. Now to run. Run! RUN! But his legs wouldn't move.

"Thank you, Kagamine-san, I really appreciate you going through so much trouble," he thanked him formally, yet it wasn't the cold-formal that usually comes from Kamui-senpai. It sounded… almost… sincere. This made Len glance up at him through the curtain of blonde hair.

And then, it happened. Later in life, when he would look back at this moment, he would never exactly know what he felt, truly. After thinking that over, he would then, track back to the beginning of the day and think 'what if I didn't pack Rin's clothes with me' or something like that. It was one of those crossroad-things and Len never knew whether he really regretted or secretly intended for what happened next on that windy day on the fourteenth of February.

Kaito-senpai kissed him. Gently, tenderly and with his finger and thumb holding his chin. Len had initially thought that his senior would just carefully reject his 'sister' like all the other girls that confessed to him that day and everything would be done and over with, but he never expected this. It made him a little guilty that he assumed that his sister would get turned down but… wow… If he were to look back at this moment, he assumed these were the things he would be thinking about when Kaito-senpai kissed him. But, instead, his mind was just blank.

For some time, he stood there, hands still clenched at his sides and with the wind fluttering his sister's skirt, not sure of what to do. His heart was beating as fast as the speed of light, if there ever was a bigger exaggeration, and he forgot how to breathe. He took this moment to try and count the number of eyelashes Kaito-senpai had on his left eye and also study the fact that one of his earlobes was pierced. It wasn't until another moment later when those shocking deep blue eyes fluttered open, making Len shut his eyes tight. Oh yeah, you were supposed to do that during your first kiss. He expected Kaito-senpai to pull back but the kiss stretched on longer and when he opened one of his eyes, he noticed that his senior had closed his once more. His shaking fist was taken into the other male's hand and held delicately and he almost jumped out of his skin at this. This was so, so… he didn't even have the words to describe it. Wrong? Right? Amazing? Disgusting? A big misunderstanding? The result of a twin brother parading about with his sister's clothes?

Forgive me for quoting many a romance novel but, 'it ended as quickly as it came' and Len was left with his mouth gaping open as those lips pulled away from the kiss.

"I love you Kagamine-san," he whispered.

Now, the very first thought that entered his mind since the kiss was initiated made a grand entrance: Good lord…

(A/N: Thank you all, very much for reading the first chapter of this fanfic. Please, if you would be so kind as to review, it would be very much appreciated. I like hearing the reactions of my readers, it makes me happy inside. =D

Glossary

Meruto, tokete shimai sou… - The chorus of the love song 'Melt', written by ryo. This particular verse means "Melt, I might melt".

-senpai – The suffix usually placed after the name of a senior. The opposite is kouhai, which is used for juniors but the normally seniors just call you (name)-san.

-san – Another suffix. More formal version of '-chan' as it would be awkward for a random senior to call you affectionately by '-chan' all of a sudden, don't you think?

kyuudou – Japanese archery. It's considered a type of martial art and requires a lot of discipline to master

hakama – Male version of the yukata; basically, a casual type of traditional Japanese clothing. Male and female wear them in kyuudou as it is considered uniform for the martial art, but most of the time, males wear them. It's really long and loose but very comfortable.

Once again, it would be very much appreciated for you to review. =D Thank you. -heart-)