A/N: Heeeeyy! I'm back with yet another little story for all of you. This one definetly doesn't start off too happy, but it will get happier twords the end. As someone who's freind has a reletive serving in the United States army, I wanted to write a little peice covering that topic. Because war sucks. There you go. Don't forget to review, and thank you to mah two little followers, vanillasoftserve...Something, and Ultrafangirl...Umm...42? 43? Arigato, and ENJOY!

Rin caught herself many, many times, looking out the window through the early light of the day, peering through the mist. Every day she did this, looking for him, almost childishly thinking that if she strained her eyes hard enough, there he would be.

Seemingly endlessly she looked for him. Him, whom she so proudly sent off into unkown terror, death, Hell. Half a year, over half a year ago she had watched his form dissappear into the crowded airport. He had never been very tall, and this proved a difficulty in trying to keep her eyes on him as he proudly and ignorantly strode away.

For Len was a rather deluded boy. Naive to the butal ways of the army, refusing to heed her warnings, he had enlisted. Rin knew one of the ony reasons he even enlisted in the first place was because he wanted to protect her. Stupid, stupid boy he was, always believing he could save anyone and anything he set his mind to. Admittidley, this was one of the reasons Rin loved him so. Len was a fool, but he was an honest fool. If he made a mistake it was typically because of his less than observant qualities. Len was a clumsy, optomistic, downright childinsh boy. And Rin was sure as hell having a hard time without him. His broad grin and bright blue eyes sparkling with an idea had dulled in her mind the longer he was away. And it scared her.

She hadn't even been able to bring herself to watch the news anymore. Every time the war was mentioned she walked into the other room. She would always dread that the new number of the fallen troops included her best friend, her counterpart, her very own Len Kagamine. She thought of him constantly, wincing at the mental image of him with a rifle in hand, avoiding bullets, a frantic expression on his face as he ducked behind something, struggeling to reload his gun-

Rin gave her head a quick shake. No. She wasn't doing any good scaring herself like this.

She had recieved a lot of help from the others. Meiko, Miku, Kaito-they all were in this together, and that fact comforted Rin beyond words. Every day was bearable at least with them around. Thier shows of support-so seemingly small that they probably went unnoticed by most-meant so much to Rin that she couldn't help but smile, nearly returning to her normal abundance of energy.

Half a year-had it only been that long? Rin gazed absentmindedly out the window, yet again searching for the thing that she sometmes almost thought would never come. Rin had always hated to be speprated from him. The Kagamines were inseperable and everyone knew it. Whenever something went wrong, it was always Len that Rin would turned to. if Len had an idea, he would always check with Rin first. They were always together, no matter what. So, this time Len had spent away seemed like a liftime to Rin, every day dragging on for a century, blurring into the next. Days had no meaning if Len wasn't there with her.

Of course, Rin could never avoid everything. News would leak out no matter how hard she tried to ignore it. So, when she heard about the recent bombing, she was terrified. She was never one to burden others with her troubles, so around Miku and the others, she was always strong and seemingly happy. But sometimes she couldn't hold it inside anymore.

Somedays she cried nearly the whole night, heart-wrenching sobs of worry and sorrow. Yet, Rin found no peace in her dreams, either. How many times could she see Len die? A gunshot, a bomb, a knife-nearly every method possible for the destruction of the fair haired boy was brought to the surface of her merciless mind. It was tourturous, waiting with bated breath for the merest scrap of news about Len's well being.

When the mail came, Rin could never bring herself to even touch it. She was so, so scared it was what she thought it might be. Terrified of seeing those three little words-Killed In Action.

No letters arrived. Len's location was kept secret. Rin was sometimes very angry because of this, furious with the army for taking away her counterpart, her best friend. And they didn't even have the decency to give her a goddamn letter? It was maddening.

Rin absentmindedly pressed one hand aganst the glass window, looking out at the pouring rain. It didn't seem like it was going to let up anytime soon, and the cloudly sky reflected Rin's sullen mood like a mirror. How long would this have to go on, how many more days would they make her and the rest wait-

Wait.

Wait.

What was that? A shape in the distance. There, there it was again! Rin's heartbeat increased, her blue eyes wideneding.

Could it be? Dare she hope? It seemed so unlikely..

Tears of joy and disbelief began welling up in her eyes as the figure was made clear for the whole world to see. Same blond hair, same large blue eyes..The ponytail! Rin laughed chokingly as she noticed this. He still even wore his hair up in that stupid ponytail!

Rin flew down the stairs, past Meiko who grumbled, "Where's the fire?" ,nearly knocked the front door off its hinges as she darted outside, not even caring that she was in sweatpants, not even caring that it was so cold out and she was still in a t-shirt, not caring about anything because he was here, right here!

Len bore a single forlorn crutch under his right arm and he walked with a steady limp. His uniform was ragged, but to Rin, he was the most beautiful thing in existicance.

The young blond boy looked just as surprised to see Rin as she was to see him. His blue eyes widened and he was neary knocked over backwards as she flung herself into him, the need to hold him here and be held in return nearly overturning her need to breathe. She sobbed into his thick army jacket, overwhelmed by relief and joy and a million other feelings she couldn't even keep track of. Len was abrubtly holding her as well, his tears wetting the top of her head. Rin sobbed at least one hundered different things into his chest, her voice muffled by the thick protective matiriel. Len neither heard or understood any of what she said, but it didn't matter.

When Rin could finally raise her head and look straight at him, she noticed several things about Len that were different. He looked older, sadder, as though he had aged ten years in just half a year. Rin's heart broke for him, for all that he must had suffered, for all the things he must have done.

He looked back at her, smiling, but not his ussuall grin that took up three forths of his face. it was as if he couldn't quite bring himself up to the level of energy. But that was okay.

He was here, and he was alive. And that meant Rin was as well.