A/N : It's been a while, right? I'm really sorry to keep you waiting and thank you for all the reviews, supports, and, above all, patience. This chapter is for you guys, who've been waiting patiently and staying in touch with this crappy fic of mine. oh, and also to the new readers, welcome! And special thanks to theallmightyTACO, because your review got me LOLed hard. thanks for making my day and reminding me of the existence of this fic :)

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applied.

Warning: lame grammar, typo, un-BETA-ed, corny scenes, cheesy fluff, read at your own risks. oh, and incest, if you haven't noticed, that is.

World in the Colour of Ash

Chapter III : The Green-Eyed Monster

"Thanks for the ride Kaito-san, it was… fun." Stuttered a blushing Kagamine Rin to a blue-haired man leaning against a sleek midnight blue car at the front of the Kagamines' house.

"Don't worry Rin-chan," the chemistry teacher flashed his student-turned-girlfriend a wide smile. "The pleasure is all mine."

"Oh, yes it was really fun," a shy smile tugged at the corner of Rin's lips. Kaito-san was always gentle and pleasant to be around with, she mused.

"I'm glad you enjoy it, we should ride together more often then."

The blonde girl's cheeks were tinted red as her boyfriend lowered his towering figure to meet her lips in a good bye kiss. She held her breath in anticipation as she felt butterflies fluttering about inside her tummy. And just when their lips were only millimeters apart—

"EHM!"

Someone cleared his throat loudly. Making his presence known on purpose. The couple jumped away from each other in an instant. Both were afraid of getting caught.

"You better get into the house Rin, it's getting late." Kagamine Len spoke in a clipped tone. He was fixing his gaze on the black asphalt street like it was the most interesting thing in the world, a deep scowl marring his young face.

"Len! I thought… You! Ugh—!" Mortification and anger attacked the shocked and panicked girl.

"Now." The older one of the twins added sternly. He jerked his head towards the door, both of his arms folded in front of his chest. His words final.

"Ah, well… see you tomorrow then, Rin-chan? Len-kun," Kaito dipped his head to the Kagamine boy. For a split second, their eyes clashed in a not-so-subtle distaste against one another—the boy's fiercer than the older man's. Then the innocent smile was back plastered to his face as he waved to Rin and got back into his car. Kaito started the sleek sedan and drove into the night.

The moment Rin turned her head around towards Len, the blond boy was gone, no longer leaning against the wall. Half-annoyed and half-embarrassed, she stomped her way into the house. And immediately ran into none other than her own mother.

In a flash, all her annoyance changed into horror and nervousness. She stole a brief glance at the clock on the wall—06.30 p.m..

'Crap!' the girl cussed inwardly. She usually arrived at home around 4 p.m. at worst. Missing without any explanation for two and a half hours wasn't really a good idea, especially if you had no good excuse to back it with.

"Ah! Rin-chan sweetie, you're finally home! How was the study group, hmm?"

"Eh?"

Well, that's weird. Her mom didn't look angry at all.

"The studying together at the Yowanes'? Len told me there'll be a big test tomorrow, so you're studying with some of your friends. Right?" Mrs. Kagamine lifted a single eyebrow in confusion.

"O-ooh! Yeah, sure, the… the big test right? Ah, everything's fine Mom, I might even get a perfect score tomorrow. Ah-ahahaha," the blond girl let out a nervous laugh. Thanking her twin brother inwardly.

Rin's mother chuckled and ushered her daughter inside. "Now, now, hurry clean yourself up and get ready for dinner, okay?"

"'Kay Mom!"

With light, cheery steps, Rin skipped past her mother and was about to set foot on the first step of the stairs when she heard the faint sound of piano—almost drowned by the TV's Evening News.

Wait, the piano? She tip-toed into the living room and found Len, playing their piano alone. Rin gasped and quickly peered at the calendar by the coffee table. It was Wednesday. Every Wednesday, she usually played the piano with Len from 5 p.m. until dinner time. They've never planned about this weekly jam session, but it had become an unspoken agreement between the Kagamine siblings. Maybe it's a twins' thing or whatnot, but they really treasured this private time together. Len and Rin, on one piano bench, playing tunes and having fun in their own private world of two.

The guilt-stricken younger twin padded quietly until she was right behind her brother's back—swaying slightly with the dark tune he's playing at the moment.

"Len…" She nudged her twin's shoulder softly.

There was no response.

"Len," another nudge—harder this time. "Len, I'm talking to you!"

Len's slender fingers stopped dancing on the ivory keys, leaving the song unfinished; tattered away in the thin air. Now there was only the deafening silence. Broken slightly by the monotonous, lonely sound of the newscaster from the television.

"Thank you. For buying me some time by lying to Mom."

"You did the same for me at school this afternoon. We're even," was the boy's dry answer. He didn't even turn to face his sister.

Facing her brother's cold back, Rin whispered solemnly.

"I'm sorry."

There was a long silence until, finally, Len voiced his reply.

"What for?"

"For forgetting our usual piano time."

"Oh, I don't mind. I understand that you're just too busy enjoying your time with Shion-sensei," he spat the name like it was poison.

"Look, I said I'm sorry, okay?" Rin could hear how her own voice trembled. Len had never spoken to her that way.

She knew he had changed. He's a little bit temperamental lately, yes, and he did pick up fights for no good reason with the other guys at their school sometimes. Often, she even found herself getting scared at how harsh and cruel this foreign, hot-blooded Len's words and actions could be. But never had she stood at its receiving end.

Even when Len was changing from a cheery, bright boy into this sullen and hot-headed teenager, his attitude towards his sister had stayed the same. He was always the gentle and caring big brother. Sure, they banter once in a while, but Rin had never heard her brother's voice so thick with hate it sounded bitter in her ears.

"I didn't… didn't mean to skip our quality time together," She felt her eyes getting hot and bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling. Her throat constricted painfully.

Len sighed hearing his sister's broken voice. He could imagine the tears started to pool at the corner of her sapphire eyes. So he rose from the piano bench and walk away from his twin sister. All the way never looking back in fear of his crumbling resolution lest he saw the expression on Rin's face. If he saw his sister cry, without any doubt he would immediately rush to her side to hug and comfort the poor girl. And that just wouldn't do—for now.

"I s-said I'm sorry," the younger twin sobbed softly. "I'm really—"

"Save it, Rin…" and with that he disappeared into the corridor. Stepping up the stairs in silent and slammed the door to his room shut. Leaving the trembling girl alone in the living room.

A loud growl escaped the blond boy's lips as he swept his arms over the nightstand in fury, knocking down a bed lamp and sending a tiny alarm clock come crashing noisily. Flailing in blinded rage, his back hit the wooden door hard and he slid down to the cold floor.

He hurt her. He hurt his sister and it was unforgivable. He was being childish. He was being selfish, and he was… jealous.

He had spent two hours waiting for Rin to come through the front door. He expected her to arrive at home on the usual time. Naively thinking that the bastard would immediately drive his sister home. But no, they'd been gone for three and a half hours, only god knows where. And he spent those tormenting hours—every second of it—in questions of what the hell were those two doing. Where did they go, what did they do, what kind of love words did they whisper to each other's lips—

'Fuck! Cut it off, Kagamine!' Loudly Len banged the back of his head to the door, trying to get his mind clean from the taunting images of his sister and the blue-haired jerk.

'Look what you've done!' his face scrunched up in disgust of himself. 'You hurt her…'

He buried his face in his cold palms, damp with perspiration. Never before in his life had he felt so ashamed of himself.

'I hurt her.'

Len couldn't believe he'd just lost from the ugly green-eyed monster. He had succumbed to the jealousy burning in his heart and he hurt his sister with his attitude. He knew Rin was not the one to be blamed, and he even hate it more that his sister cried and apologized for something that wasn't even her fault. He knew, but he just couldn't help himself. He just wanted someone to blame for all his miseries.

And as his mind's getting clearer, Len was now full with self-loathing and regret. He shouldn't have just left her like that.

Hurriedly, he rose from his bedroom floor and dashed downstairs, jumping down the stair two or three steps at a time—almost killing himself at the process. Gasping for breath, he took notice that the living was now empty, and at the dining table were just his father—reading an evening newspaper—and his mother—preparing the dinner.

"Where's Rin, Mom?"

"She went to her room saying she wasn't hungry. I'm kinda worried though; your sister doesn't really look well just now. Check on her for me, dear?"

"Oh, okay, I'll just skip dinner too then." The teenage boy went back running up the stairs and stopped short right in front of his twin's door—exactly across from his own.

He breathed deeply once, twice, and gently knocked the wooden door. There was no reply. Again he knocked, with a little more urgency this time. And after being ignored for the second time, he turned the handle slowly and pushed the door open.

Len peeked into the dark room before silently padding inside. He immediately spotted a large bundle of puffy bedcover on the far corner of the bed. Slowly he took careful steps towards the bundle that he assumed was his sister.

The older twin's eyes scanned the room and found many photo frames on his sister's nightstand. One held a picture of the twins in their pre-school uniforms, and the other one showed the two of them in their middle-school years under the blooming cherry tree.

Len skipped the last frame because in it was something he found repulsing. It was a picture of Rin with a man whose hair was the same shade of blue with the long scarf they're sharing in the picture. They looked so happy together it bothered Len to the point of wanting to break the picture every time he saw it.

Gently he sat down at the end of the bed. Staring at the bundle of bed cover.

"Hey," he started softly. "I'm sorry; didn't mean to be angry with you…"

The bed cover shifted a little and he could hear a small snivel from under it.

"I'm really sorry Rin, I was too harsh, and I was angry for no reason at all," he put a comforting hand upon the bundle. "It wasn't your fault; I shouldn't have treated you like that."

With a tired sigh, Len wound his arms around his blanket-covered sister. The bed cover slipped down to Rin's shoulders, revealing that Len was hugging his sister from behind, his temple against the back of her neck.

The older blond caught sight of a drop of tear rolling down his sister's pale cheek, and he felt the girl was trembling against his embrace. Gently he turned Rin around to face him properly.

"Rin…" But the girl wouldn't meet him in the eyes. She hung her head low and let her locks of golden hair spill over her face. All that Len could see was just her pearl white teeth biting her plump lower lip, and fresh trail of tears cascading down her cheeks.

"Rin, please…" pleading softly, Len put his palms at both of his sister's cheeks and lifted her face to get a better look of it.

"Please don't cry, you know you break my heart every time you do so." He leaned closer and traced the wet trails on her skin with the tip of his tongue, up until he kissed both of her eyes dry—reveling, almost sinfully, at the salty taste of her tears—as he pulled her closer against him. Resting her head against the crook of his neck.

"I'm sorry for what I did downstairs; you know that I didn't mean it. I was just… upset," he whispered into the shell of the girl's ears, gently nibbling on her earlobe, landing feather-light butterfly kisses on the sensitive skin.

He was almost lost, drunk in the act of not-so-brotherly affection towards his sister. He could even care less about apologizing to her, all that occupied his mind now was just the need to senselessly kiss those soft-looking, temptingly luscious, lips of—

"Why upset?" came the timid answer from the younger blonde.

Len was brought out of his reverie, and almost sighed in relief. At least, she didn't refuse to talk to him.

"Well… there's this… new song, which I just made. Thought you might like it, so I just can't wait to play it for you." He uttered the lie so easily it made his own skin crawl.

'Look what a lying monster you've become, Kagamine,' Len spat to himself inwardly.

"Is it g-good?"

"Hmm?"

"The song… is it really good?"

"Well, I think you should say whether it's good or not yourself tomorrow when you hear it, okay?" the boy was now patting his sister's head tenderly. His chin resting snugly against the top of Rin's head, while his mind's thinking of the tunes he should play to back up the lie. It's not a 100% lie though, he actually did have a tune or two made while thinking of Rin. So they could do just fine, he guessed.

"So, you're no longer mad at me?" Rin peeked up at her twin brother from under damp, long lashes. The sight of his sister looking up at him with her eyes still watery from crying, her cheeks flushed, and her plump lips—red from being bitten over and over again earlier— half-opened, almost made Len lose his senses.

He quickly turned his gaze away and tightened his hold on the blond girl's waist.

"No, of course not, Rin," Len tried his best to make his voice sounded less raw. Now that he paid attention, his throat did feel a little dry, didn't it?

"I'm glad then… I can't stand you being mad at me Len, after all—"

Suddenly the room felt unbearably hot for the teenage boy. He could feel his sister's warm body, flush against his torso. Her breath against the base of his throat, the sweet smell of her orange-scented shampoo wafting against his nose. His eyes caught the sight of one of his sister's camisole strap, sliding down the soft, soft pale skin of her exposed shoulder.

"After all, I need you too much—"

As the unfinished words struck the last blow needed to destroy his fortress of self-restraint, Kagamine Len swore he heard a snapping sound coming from somewhere inside his mind. That's one second before he pounced on his little sister… and kissed her.

-end of Chapter III-

Now that I've made a coming back into this fandom, I hope I'll be able to finish this story. It feels good to actually fall in love with your story all over again. It gives the strength needed to create more posibilities in widening the plot.

So! Coming in next chapter - Rin and Len: the aftermath, and the continuation of Miku's 'confession' to Len.

Reviews and comments will be highly appreciated! Don't let me become a lonely writer, will you? :')

With all the love of the world,

Kanashiminoru.