Meow.

One long chapter coming up.

I wrote this while listening to 96Neko-san's cover of This is the Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee so parts of it may be a bit crazy. xP Ugh… That stupid toilet paper monologue's gotten stuck in my head. Pf.

Once again, to remind you, the part in Italics is something like a flashback.

15.

The departing morning of their first three-day Primary Three excursion was pretty chaotic.

It started off with Rin jumping out of bed to find that she'd woken up fifteen minutes late and hadn't even packed her bag. Just halfway. It lay floppily on the floor like melted raspberry ice-cream with half of its contents slopping out, like a lolling tongue. Rin swore as she squirted out excess toothpaste all over the sink, brushed her teeth and tumbled about the room collecting all her additional whatnots, still swearing. Len had just woken up and was trying to change, but then started wailing about some sort of sticky white stuff. Rin was too busy to pay much attention.

He almost fell off the mattress in horror. He tossed his pants out of bed, dove under his blanket refused to un-bury his head from under his pillow until Rin virtually had to strip him of every single blanket and pillow and bolster and plushie on the bed. He was shaking like hell.

Like she wasn't dealing with enough already.

With a sigh, Rin discreetly pinched a corner of his abandoned pants and transported it to the laundry basket.

He was still in hysterics when she got back from the laundry room with all her three days' worth of change and a very quick breakfast downstairs, pacing up and down the room like a retarded clockwork mouse. He looked like he was on the verge of screaming his head off. Then windows and mirrors were going crack.

'It's normal. Calm down. Now start packing,' Rin ordered.

He whined.

'The world's still in one piece,' she snapped. 'Help me get the sleeping bags from the attic.'

The reply was an incoherent wail.

'Len!'

'Aaaaargh…'

She threw her hands up in exasperation. 'Fine – whatever!' She stomped off to get the sleeping bags herself.

Len abruptly braked, staring after her with wild eyes, panting and, seeming to calm down a little after a minute or so, stared at the mess on his hands, doubled over, stumbled to the bathroom and was magnificently sick.

Then he broke down over the toilet bowl.

Now that was quite a thing to watch, if anything. Rin stood waiting at the doorway in disbelieve as he sobbed and threw himself on the floor in a pile and attempted a suicide and threw up again did whatever people normally would do in a horrific tragedy of some sorts.

He almost managed to convince her there was something majorly wrong. Probably with his mentals.

Then he started running around everywhere like a cat on a frying pan, wailing his head off and banging into the walls, until Rin had no choice but to pin him down on the couch before he cracked his skull on the corner of a table.

'Rin… help –' he sobbed. 'Help…'

'Don't worry, it's normal.' Wasn't it?

'What's wrong with me?'

'Nothing's wrong.' Why was she having to do this?

She patted his back soothingly. He cringed away with a snarl.

'Hey… Calm down.'

'I don't want…!' He crushed the cushion under his head. 'I don't want to turn into a–' He hiccupped shrilly. 'A…'

'Shh- sh. It's alright, Len. Come on, get up. We gotta leave soon.' The clock ticked on mercilessly. Rin was growing irritable. Len moaned.

'Don't tell Mum… Please don't say…'

'Alright, deal. Come on, let's –'

'Help –' he choked. 'I'm not a freak… I'm not –'

'Shh…'

'Get this out of me! Get this thing off me –'

'Get what?'

He screamed at her.

-.-.-.-

'Ohh look, a flying banana!'

Rin waved the banana in the air above his head, mimicking a woosh sound.

He utterly ignored her.

'Len!' she finally shrieked. She'd had enough. 'You're going to ruin my school trip as well…' She felt like crying.

He'd buried his face in his knees some while ago and just wouldn't look up no matter what she tried.

She'd promised to go shopping with her friends. They were supposed to share snacks in their dorm after all the lights were out. They'd arranged to bring torchlights and chocolates and crisps and biscuits. She'd even bought a new pair of pyjamas just for that.

Why was it always her who had to go through these things? Why did she always have to deal with him and his insane mood swings? Why was Mum or Dad never there? Why didn't they send him to a community school? He wasn't normal – they could all see that.

A soft sob leaked out of her.

Len slowly looked up at her quivering lip, and visibly sank even further. He curled into a heap on the floor, pressing his face into the carpet.

'I hate you…' Rin whispered.

He didn't react, and neither of them moved any further.

-.-.-.-

Rin looked up dazedly when the doorbell rang.

Was it the newspaper?

What time was it?

What did it matter. The bus must have left by now. Her classmates would all be well on their way now, having fun. They would have forgotten about her by now.

The bell rang again, loud and insistent. She got up from the sofa and dragged her heavy feet to the front door.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the faces of her three BFFs, Oliver and the class prefect clogging up the doorway.

'Rin! Why're you still at home? You won't answer any of our calls – aren't you coming?'

'Wh- where's Len?'

'You promised to bring the crisps!'

'We thought you were sick or something.'

'Where's Len?'

'Come on – the bus's still at school. The driver had to fix the engine so we came to check on you.'

Rin's heart soared. 'Really?' she breathed.

'Where's Len?'

She distractedly flicked her hand behind. 'In there.'

Oliver peered into the living room and spotted Len, who looked positively terrible.

'Len…!? What happened?'

Rin patted his shoulder. 'Don't worry, he's fine!' Probably.

Yuki (a perfect girl and the class prefect) smiled a bit awkwardly. 'Uh, if he's coming… He'd better put on a uniform, you know. Or… at least a shirt maybe? And – uh – pants.'

'I'll, um… help.' Oliver kicked off his shoes and scuttled in past Rin.

They virtually had to drag him all the way to school so the bus wouldn't leave them behind, all soggy, puffy-eyed and pathetic and still sulking resentfully.

His earrings for that morning (he somehow hadn't forgotten through all that hysteria) were hot-pink rings, with a diagonal arrow sticking out of them each. Rin couldn't help thinking his pick was rather self-abusive.

At least, Oliver was nice enough to keep him company.

Rin opened the wooden sliding door of the changing room to find a partially stripped Len doing some very strange things on the floor. Her eyebrows rose even higher.

'Again, Len?'

He peered up at her from under his foot, while (frantically) trying to hold his limbs in place. 'Why?'

For a few seconds, she struggled to find a sane reply.

'Reckon I'm getting any better?'

'I doubt it.'

'…'

Len slowly untangled himself, sitting on the floor. He cracked his spine.

'You'd normally expect to find guys doing something like push-ups in their boxers but seriously – yoga, Len?'

'What?'

'Don't you ever get… embarrassed?' Rin asked him.

'Until you came in, no.'

'Me?'

'The same way people aren't embarrassed being seen naked by their clothes – who's gonna see here – the washing machine?'

'Good idea. If it sees you being so stiff it'll think twice about ingesting you next time. Reckon you'd still fit?' (Back then when he was five, if she remembered right, he'd almost drowned in the washing barrel.)

'…Seriously?'

'Hahaha. Imagine if they tumble-dried you – you'd be even shorter than you are now.'

'Oh, come on… You just had to mention that.'

'Aww, Len… Look on the bright side – you can still pass for a shota for several more years.'

'Ugh!' Len's face went red. 'I am not a shota!'

'Better start on your yoga training, then. You could like – stretch your spine a bit if you tried, maybe? Y'know, just a few inches…?'

'I hate you,' Len muttered.

Usually, Rin won without exception.

It was lunch break. They'd finished their exams yesterday.

Len somehow saw the necessity to forsake his ritual visit to the girls in the seniors' classroom to escort her to the girls' bathroom downstairs, since the bathroom on their floor was under repair. A burst pipe had apparently flooded the whole corridor last night.

Well, so long as he didn't plan to guard the door or something, she didn't mind too much.

On the way, they ran into the trio who were hanging out together as usual.

'What's that?' Rin asked, indicating the pieces of paper they were holding.

Renka waved her paper in front of her. 'It's a form – there's a list of extra-curricular clubs.'

'Oh wow…' Rin blinked in amazement at the long list of activities to choose from. 'Sports and Athletics, Basketball, Volleyball, Baseball, Football, Brass band, Arts, Drama, School Choir, Book Club, Dance Club, Gimnastics, Cooking… hmm.'

'Lily's staying with the Dance Club. Me and Renka – we're joining the Brass Band next year. Which one d'you reckon you'll join?' Neru asked her. Club activities started from Third Grade, with joining at least one club a compulsory rule.

'I dunno… Book Club maybe? It sounds the easiest,' Rin laughed. 'Just read books.'

Renka shook her head. 'Nuh. They say you have to write feedback essays for every book you read.'

Rin pretended to throw up. 'Okay, bad idea.'

'And Nuko Len-Len is joining the choir,' said Lily. They all burst out giggling while Len went red in the face. 'I can't sing,' he complained.

'You don't have to. All you have to do is pose there looking pretty in a tutu,' Rin snorted.

'Hey!'

'Don't forget the pink wings, yeah?'

Len looked mortified.

'Hahaha – Rin that's mean,' Neru laughed.

'That's only because you haven't seen him in it.'

Neru raised an eyebrow. 'You have?'

'Yup, complete in full makeup.' Rin elbowed Len's arm. 'Go on – you tell them.'

He glowered at her.

'Ohmygoodness, seriously?' Lily cracked up. Renka went slightly pink and became suddenly interested in the opposite window.

They were creating bookstands for the graduating Seventh Graders, by some mad idea of the Art teacher's.

It was an age-old tradition (or something similar was) in most schools to build something at least half useful to present to the Seventh Graders on their graduation day. Everyone hated it, except for the enthusiastic teachers who cheerfully laid out the plans.

Everyone muttered curses under their breaths as they worked. The classroom air was stuffed full of sawdust, sandpaper and spray-paint particles, stinking with fresh wood-varnish. The painting was okay; the problem was cutting out the pieces of wood parts straight to begin with, and then carving them before the painting came in.

How the bloody hell the Art teacher came up with the idea of carving bookstands, no one knew – but there were some rumours about it having to do with the involvement of Green Gables. (Her real name was Anne, until Len randomly nicknamed her that and it accidentally stuck with everyone. She was the nerd girl of Class G1-3 who'd been one of his girlfriends for about a month last year, until she actually realised what Len G1-2 meant and decided he wasn't her type after all.)

That was when a smiling Grade Six girl opened the classroom door. 'Hello everyone, –'

She paused mid-sentence as Len strode towards the door.

'Bathroom,' Len called to the teacher, waving his hand over his shoulder.

The girl stiffened as he carelessly shoved past her. Suddenly, she looked a little unsure. 'Ah, well…' She swallowed, staring down the corridor.

For all his refined, well-honed senses concerning the fine arts, the Art teacher seemed to be exceedingly blind to the obvious things in ordinary unsophisticated life. Or maybe he just chose to ignore it. 'Everyone, say hello to Miss Sakine. What do I say, always greet your seniors.'

"Hello Miss Sakine…" the class intoned.

'So, Meiko,' the Art teacher beamed at the chestnut-haired girl, who hastily recollected herself, 'What brings you down here today?'

'May I have permission to speak to your class, sir?' Her tone had a strange, flat quality to it.

'Of course you may.'

Meiko raised her voice. Though the male half of the class was preoccupied mostly by her fairly large and shapely bust line, which she appeared not to notice. 'Hello everyone. As I think you've read on the poster downstairs when you came to school this morning, this year since there are too few members in the School Choir, the Event-Organising Committee has decided to recruit student members to join. We've made a full list of students, also based on the opinions of School Choir members, so I'll call out the names of the Grade One students in order now:

'Yuki, William, Maki, Rei, Mizki, Galaco, Cul …Rin, and Len.' She addded so softly Rin almost missed it.

She had just said "Rin and Len", hadn't she?

Was she fucking out of her mind?

Even the Art teacher looked surprised. 'Well, well… We're sure to have an interesting performance this year aren't we?'

Snickers rose from the class.

'Silence,' the teacher snapped irritably.

Meiko was gazing absently into the space somewhere above the empty desk in the front of the class. Her chocolate irises flickered as they focused on the carved pattern of a cat on the side of the unfinished bookstand on the desk.

Then she looked up, as if shaking a thought off her mind. 'We'll be holding practice sessions in the Music Room on the second floor every day from five, starting tomorrow, so please come whenever you can make it if you've been selected as a member. Thanks for listening.'

Meiko turned heel like a typical Sixth or Seventh Grader, bowed curtly to the teacher and left.

Rin covered her face behind her hands. She was beginning to sweat already.

What on earth were they going to do?

Surely those Seventh Graders or whoever had decided on this year's batch had known just how bad her singing was. And so was Len's. No one in their right minds would appoint them.

Oh, no… Kaito was going to be watching. She was going to completely disgrace herself in front of…

A thought occurred to her.

What if Meiko had appointed her in that post for exactly that purpose? After all, Meiko was officially supposed to be something like his girl. And she was the deputy head of the school Event-Organising Committee. Perhaps Kaito had told her about that Valentine chocolate. What if she'd added Rin in the choir knowing she was terrible at singing, in order to embarrass her in front of Kaito and make it clear who his girl was?

Like she'd even been a match against Meiko in the first place.

She felt like crying.

She was not about to cry in the middle of a class, in front of all her classmates.

But hmm. Maybe they'd let her go if she cried and said she didn't want to sing.

Calm down, calm down…

It was alright. She didn't need to cry. All she needed to do was stand on the stage behind the others and open her mouth wide in the imitation of singing, and everything should be fine. Right?

She sincerely hoped it would be.

Ironic that Len was now actually joining the choir after all.

She torpidly glanced over at Len, who had ghosted back in and was engrossed in his task of digging at his block of wood with a chisel, biting on a corner of his lip. The design was fairly predictable: a cat, perched on a banana-shaped moon.

Len tartly told her, hers was even more predictable.

A Titan, simply put.

The panel on the other end – quite obviously – was occupied by a certain famous human with a 3DMG. It wasn't exactly a new thing, and the series had concluded several years ago, but the gory concept never really died. She'd just thought the Seventh Graders (being a generation from six years back) might appreciate it.

After all, the teacher did say "anything you like".

Now she sorely regretted her choice of design she'd sleepily decided on at three in the morning on a random Monday, following a weekend of procrastinating (watching said anime on archive) ignoring the glare of her blank My Personal Design and Ideas form given to them all by the deeply inspired Art teacher. Gouging out a fat titan with a chisel was plain torture. She almost wished she'd settled for a plain, simple, lovable satsuma. Even a fluffy rabbit or road roller would still have been better.

The Art teacher phantasmagorically interpreted her carving of the titan as "wonderful memories in the biology lab". Rin tried to hide the other end of her bookstand, but he insisted she show it ("Everything is art, dear"), and Len who happened to be beside her charmingly (annoyingly) destroyed the image by explaining very poetically that the boy in the picture was chain-sawing his way through the Sky of Mysteries and that the random anatomical model of the musculoskeletal system on the other panel had suddenly come to life to wave and say hello to him – to which the delighted Art teacher burst into an onslaught of passionate lectures on the Wonderful Magic Powers of the World of Art.

When the teacher finally took a ten-second break to get a drink, Rin looked behind her shoulder to find Len snoring on his feet, leaning against the blackboard.

Everyone was compelled to stay back at school until six to polish up their bookstands using sandpaper, in preparation for base-coating the next day. Those who still didn't manage to finish their work were then compelled to take back their bookstands to finish them at home.

Rin's bookstand stood solidly and uncompromisingly on the coffee table, waiting there to be finished up or else look like a total failure when painted. Unless the surface was very smooth, painting was going to be hell.

Her arms were already aching from meticulously sanding the tiny carved intricacies on her impractical design of a titan with abs. She wasn't slow – she would have finished about the same time as Len if not for all the details.

There was just too much detail. The sandpaper was too coarse. She wasn't even sure whether the sanding was actually improving or worsening the surface.

'Come on. Why can't you help even a tiny bit?' she grumbled loudly, stretching her cramped arms as the smell of stewing leek soup wafted from the kitchen.

The microwave beeped.

'Later.'

'It's your fault. You could have said something when I was doing the design and I would have done something simpler.'

A loud sigh issued from behind the kitchen door.

Rin glared at the titan on the bookstand. '…What're you looking at?'

It ignored her and sat there, mouth lolling in a permanent gape.

Len sat down on the couch beside her. He folded his knees under him and gestured dully.

She flopped her arm into his lap.

He rolled his eyes.

She switched on the TV and ignored him. His hand gripped her forearm, and gently started kneading the sparse lining of cramped muscle.

'Dad called last night,' he said flatly.

'Oh.'

'He said he's coming home this weekend. …For a change,' he added in a low mutter.

'Hmm.'

'Reckon we should tell Mum?'

'Obviously.'

'Can you?'

'Yeah, whatever.'

'Thanks.'

'Pfff…' Rin sighed, glancing at the hardly smooth surface of the bookstand. She'd gone over it once, but it didn't seem to be nearly enough. 'Guess I'll just deal with it later… I'm going to have a quick shower,' she muttered. She pulled her hand out and strolled off, leaving Len on the couch.

And yet somehow she still hoped – the teacher would come up with another project just for the following year, for the following year's Seventh Graders. She'd think of a more appropriate, becoming, likeable design that everyone was going to envy, work hard on it, and pray it'd somehow find its way into Kaito's hands.

On reaching the changing room, she decided to run the taps and have a good warm soak after all.

By the time she finally exited her over-extended procrastination bath and went back upstairs, the pot of leek soup was ready for serving, left to cool on the kitchen stove. Len had stuck a heart-shaped Post-it on the stove next to it.

Shaking out still-damp strands of her blonde hair, Rin bonked down grandly onto the bed with a huge sigh. Bouncing on her butt after a hot bath felt strangely refreshing. She began to realise she was actually very tired.

Oh, damn. She'd forgotten her stupid bookstand downstairs. She had to finish it by tomorrow.

But the bed was so soft and springy, and…

'Mf–!?'

Something swatted her down sideways into the mattress. Her head collided with her pillow with a soft poof.

Something like a scruffy, blonde octopus.

'Len,' she growled through her teeth, 'I gotta finish off that stupid titan – hey – lemme go!'

He gave a huge yawn, cuddled her with all eight limbs and pulled the blanket over their heads with an unworried, affectionate purr.

'Len.'

Silence.

'Len. Get off me!'

He continued to ignore her.

'Lemme switch off the light at least, come on.'

Snore.

'Len…'

She gave up.

She woke up in the morning, washed her face and went downstairs to give her cursed bookstand one more good glare before she had to take it to school.

She'd have to think of a good excuse to give the Art teacher. Maybe she could do a bit more during break-time, before the class started.

She found the bookstand on the coffee table where she'd left it last night. It was polished virtually squeaky – slightly matted, but otherwise furniture-squeaky. Len was lounging on the couch painting his nails, checking phone messages. 'You took long enough. I thought you weren't going to wake up or something. I was just planning to buy a coffin.'

Rin scurried over to the bookstand and gaped at it. 'How did you…?'

Len held up what resembled a ginormic spongy rainbow-coloured ice cream stick, waving it around with an annoying smirk.

She snorted incredulously. 'Are you serious?'

A nail buff?

'You polished a bookstand with a giant nail buff?'

He shrugged. 'Do you need one? I have a lot more.'

'Exactly how many fingers do you have that you need to use them on, Len?'

'Eleven,' he said, holding up two.

'…'

'No, wait. My mistake – it should be twenty-one, when you add ten more.' He raised his foot to eye-level, wriggling his plastic-perfect toenails. They were painted fluorescent pink.

Rin picked up her bookstand to examine it.

As it turned out – forget the damned titan for a second – Eren was relatively okay. The Seventh Graders would probably recognise him.

With a pleased exclamation, Len held up his hand under the light to examine his handiwork, each nail painted horizontally half-in-half in fluorescent shades of pink and yellow gradation.

'Damn,' Rin commented mildly.

Nothing much happened at school that day.

They both ditched singing class.

'Don't push any f– Ow! Agh… oww… Stop it! Get off me – ow…!'

Rin staggered against the cabinet, swearing. She clutched at her hip with a wince.

Len mildly raised his eyebrow.

'What are you made of?' she growled irritably.

'Uh – all sorts of complicated protein molecules, I guess?'

'Then have some fucking mercy on those who aren't!'

'Oh come on. I didn't know you were that stiff. You being a girl and all…'

'Just shut up will you?'

'Hey – I was just trying to help! I'm sorry,' he laughed.

'No you're not.' Rin grimaced, hobbling towards the rattan stool in the corner. 'Ugh…' Len pushed it under her aching butt. Her overstretched joints screamed abuse. She sank into the stool with a wince.

Len went back to his bathmat, sat down and started bending in a way she'd never imagined anything partly male could. Now that she'd tried it herself, she found it rather improbable that her brother would manage it.

Still, he somehow did.

She muttered a curse under her breath. 'Bones. Are not meant to be moved that way, I tell you. The writer of that book's insane.'

'Dunno… This is the only one I managed to do so far.'

'There must be something majorly wrong with you, then.'

'You don't say.'

'Have you even heard of any men who've managed to do that in any part of the world?'

'No.'

'…Seriously?'

'Yeah. It's the Ladies' Edition.'

During the next Art class at school, Rin retrieved her tubes of red, yellow, green and blue paint from her paint box in a spark of inspiration and proceeded to paint a Picaso-version of a carved titan on her very unique bookstand. Eren turned blonde.

The Art teacher was absolutely delighted and showed it to the whole class. Rin swiftly got up and excused herself to the loo.

Everyone's howls of laughter followed her out of the classroom.

Len looked up from painting his spotted blue banana, peering around at everyone, and mildly raised an eyebrow at the rainbow-coloured titan.

It was the first week of March; it was unusually chilly tonight. Len seemed to have bored of his temporary infatuation with TV games and came to sleep early for a change. He swore with a shiver and delved deeper under his blankets. He obviously hadn't thought of what Rin had done for herself.

He rolled across the mattress and collided with her back like a magnet. He pressed his nose in his favourite spot between her shoulder blades, squirming to find a comfortable position.

Rin smiled, feeling complacent.

…Until he stuck his hand under the bottom of her nightdress.

She opened her eyes in surprise. Before she could shove him away, there was the sound of something adhesive being ripped off, quite loud in the silence.

Rin scowled. 'Put that back. I need it!'

'You shouldn't use it.'

'It's none of your business.'

'Sure, you're hot enough without burns. On your ass of all places.'

She snatched the piece of white adhesive back from him. He snatched it right back and threw it at the bin across the room. It missed its mark and stuck on the side of her cupboard instead. It looked so odd sticking there that they both broke into snickers.

'Nice aim,' Rin remarked sarcastically.

'Were you gonna sleep with that? Are you crazy?'

There was a certain violation in her being robbed of her good idea. And besides, he'd started it by giving her a packet of them in the first place. 'Just because you disagree with people doesn't make them crazy, you… you pervert.' She struggled to find a good word to dump out her irritation on him.

He sleepily tried to placate her with a loud yawn. 'You're gonna get burns.'

'No I'm not. It's not that hot.'

'It's proven. Wanna see for yourself?'

'Are you asking me to look at your ass?'

He snorted. 'As far as I know you're the only idiot who sticks a carbon warmer on her butt.'

'As far as I know you're the only person who sticks his hand in any girl's skirt,' Rin retorted.

'On a bed?'

'Yeah, that.' She aimed a kick at his shin. 'I was two seconds short of tasering you.'

'Sure?'

'Wanna try again?'

'Trust me, you'd be the last person on earth I'd want to do it with.'

'Same here.'

It was a rather queer thing to say, considering he was sticking to her back like microwaved cling-wrap. Queerer still, she didn't mind at all. He more than made up for the pocket warmer. 'Sure… you'd rather do it with a tree,' she mumbled with a yawn.

There was a contemplating pause. Len hugged her slightly closer with a faint growl. '…Forget that git already, seriously.'

She blinked. Oh. That git. She was so used to the thought she'd almost forgotten where it had originally come from. 'Don't worry, I'm not that sensitive. What was his name again?'

'Hmm. What was it – Phumiya?'

It might have been his phronunciation getting muffled and sounding like "ph". There was a certain odd tugging on a lock of her hair, near the back of her head, sort of bored, sort of wet, sort of ticklish and sort of chomping, suggesting he was taking the whole subject very un-seriously. He was probably thinking about his new girlfriend or something to do with her.

Like her underwear, maybe. Rin scowled again. 'Gumiya.' Was she supposed to be some sort of consolation bolster to keep him occupied at home? Ugh. She was ashamed of even admitting this slut was related to her.

…She was just feeling annoyed right now. He was taking her replies and general conversation and inclination to talk to him perfectly for granted. After ignoring her for so long.

'Don't need any more tissues, then?'

'Stop eating my hair! I had a cold, you idiot. I wasn't crying.'

'Yeah, you weren't.'

Rin couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic. He just swung his leg over both of hers in a way that was quite inappropriately possessive. It was just… she couldn't stay annoyed. She was way too tired, though he probably knew that. Even her irritation at his obvious attempt to get the better of her just sank and evaporated off into the softness of the blankets, leaving a warm purr in the bottom of her ears. Her eyelids drooped.

She would have objected if it hadn't been so chilly, of course.

But, sure – she wouldn't deny – this "slut" was sometimes quite convenient to have around. And snug. Wonderfully, irreplaceably snug. She could leave the argument for tomorrow.

Sometimes, she really had to wonder if this Fluffy Bolster and that Slut were both the same twin brother in possession of the same brain. Maybe he had another one put away in his cupboard – but which one was real?

In any cases, she thus finally got her bolster back after two weeks.

' 'night, Princess.'

'Mm.'

But he really, really was a slut. And it didn't even seem to matter a shred to him who he flirted with.

March. A day more to the end of Term Three, finally. The bookstands had been finished and put away until Graduation Day. Rin was gratified to find that someone had made an Evangelion bookstand that resembled Iron Maiden. Now there wasn't much left to do in class except gossip about the latest couples in school and hot new celebrities. (She didn't even want to think about the choir.)

There was a girl-group in the corner chattering about boys (such as Kaito, Len, Rinto, Yūma, Len, others and Len) so Rin made her way to the other group currently discussing cat cafés.

'How were your Math marks?' Miss Lorra asked a group of nerd-wanna-be girls and a Len chattering near the front. A pair of someone's purple glasses was balanced on Len's nose. 'You did get your papers back, didn't you?'

'Uh huh, Miss.'

'Not too good…' a girl winced.

'I passed,' another girl said. 'Sort of.'

'Utterly horrific,' said Len solemnly, peering through the tinted glass.

Miss Lorra crossed her arms with a frown. 'What about that parabola question? Len – I remember your paper. What happened with that one?'

'The convex graph, Miss? Um… convex up there, convex somewhere down there – wait – is that two each?' A couple of girls giggled. Miss Lorra whacked him on the head.

'Fill up all your questions next time, alright?'

He grinned sheepishly.

-.-.-.-

The Language teacher was busy writing a letter.

Len folded his elbows over her desk and watched her at it, kicking his feet up and down behind him like a five-year-old until she finally looked up and asked him what he wanted.

'Did you change your number, Miss?'

She stared down her pointed nose at him, half-moon glasses icy. 'Not in any recent years,' she said stonily. 'Why do you ask?'

Len shrugged. 'Oh I don't know… The prom committee was complaining they couldn't contact you –'

'And you are part of it?'

'Of course not.' He giggled. 'I'm still in First Grade.'

'…'

'Well… Some people seem to think I have everyone's number so they asked me if I had your new number…'

'…'

He sighed. 'Okay… okay. Miss Lorra asked me to give this to you.' He pulled out a piece of folded paper and handed it to the Language teacher. She gave him a very stony look.

Rin grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and dragged him out of the classroom. 'You took long enough,' she growled.

'Byeee Miss! See you next term! Love your Language classes!'

He blew glossy pink kisses at the Language teacher all the way till they turned round the corner, giggling, where Rin dumped him against a pillar and stalked off. He probably had too many bonbons again, or something. The usual senior girls had been feeding him something that looked suspiciously like bottle-shaped chocolates earlier that afternoon.

-.-.-.-

Renka and Lily invited her to a game of (strictly no boys) dodgeball in the school gym after school. Len was designated to the outfield while Rin joined the opposite team. But they ended up not having enough players, and the game died halfway. Renka and Lily left her and went off to drool over the sweaty guys playing basketball in the other side of the gym. Len was hooked on and dragged off by a couple of senior girls to attempt to balance on a unicycle, which they took evident relish in teaching him to do.

Rin realised she was standing alone in the empty dodgeball court, clutching the abandoned ball in her hands.

A random boy trotted up to her, followed by a whole group behind him. 'Hey. Are you still playing? Can we have the court?'

'No… Sure, go ahead.'

With a sigh, she passed the ball to the boy and made her way towards the basketball court to find her friends.

She grew somewhat aware that a lot of people were watching her as she made her way across the outer edge of the basketball court. For some reason.

'Hey Rinny! You free this Saturday?'

She shrugged. 'Kind of.' What the hell did he just call her?

'Yes or no?' Rinto asked, throwing his basketball through the loop in a clean shot. Rin haughtily ignored his wink. Like Kaito couldn't do that.

…She hadn't just said that.

'Fine, yes. Your birthday's in March?'

'Duhh, no. Not my birthday. You know that new blockbuster Soundless Voice, I bought one but I accidentally got another one – it was kind of unexpected – so y'know, I have a spare. We could go to the cinema together.'

'Go with someone else,' she replied flatly.

What sort of an invitation was that?

She simply couldn't imagine going to watch a very sad, tragic movie with this annoying git. Why was it always cinemas? Couldn't they all think of some better date spot at all?

Who invited girls on a date to watch a tragedy, anyway?

'Awh, don't be so stiff. You're free, right? We could…' Rinto trailed off, and then smirked. 'Ooh, looks like someone's jealous,' he drawled. Rin turned around to see Len scowling at Rinto. The next moment Rinto went somewhat pale as he saw Lily next to Len, scowling at him too. 'Oh – uh, hi Lily.'

Len beamed. 'Hi Rinto. Where did you say you were taking Rin again?' he asked sweetly.

Rin blushed. 'L-Len…'

'How nice and dark and cosy,' Lily added cattily. She looked pretty menacing, her feet slightly apart in quite a sexy stance, both her hands on her hips in (undeniably hot) accusation. Rin couldn't help envying those killer curves like hell and sometimes felt like hating her, even though Lily was her friend.

Rinto scratched his head uncomfortably. 'Uh, right…'

'What was that about a movie?' Lily asked brightly.

'M-movie?'

'Yes – absolutely! I've wanted to watch that movie ever since it came out.' Lily beamed at him. It looked more like a glower. 'Thanks Rinto, you're the best!'

(If she'd forgotten to mention, the two were currently supposed to be in a relationship status.)

Len slipped his hand around Rin's elbow, dragging her along as he attempted to sneak off. 'Alright, let's just get outta here before it gets ugly…'

'Hey – let go of me.' Rin yanked her arm free with a scowl. She turned to Rinto and told him loud and clear, 'No thanks.' Then she flounced off.

Len watched her in mild surprise, and then shrugged with a grin. He turned to follow her and then paused.

'Oh yeah, thanks so much for that book the other day – it's been working pretty good,' he smirked at Rinto before ambling away, flexing his shoulder blades.

When the final bell rang, signalling everyone to leave the school, Len disappeared into thin air before Rin could wear her shoes. She glimpsed her friends among the crowd squeezing out of the school gate, but didn't manage to wade through to them, and soon lost sight of them again.

When Rin got to the park, she spotted the trio again, chatting beside the path. She gladly trotted over to them.

' – he's seriously hot! I actually saw him the other day in town…' Renka fanned herself. 'Woah.'

Neru gasped. 'What did he look like?'

'Like, he has this seriously cute haircut –'

Renka paused as Rin caught up to them. 'Hey! Who's the topic?' Rin asked cheerfully.

'This new guy called Luke. He just moved in. Rumour says he's dead hot.'

'I tell you I saw him the other day!'

Lily smirked. 'Looks like your bro's got competition coming.'

'Len?' Rin snorted. 'Pff. Since when was he even a guy?'

'Mmm… True.' The trio closed their eyes and nodded.

Renka leaned forward excitedly, eyes sparkling, ready to retell her epic news again to the newcomer. 'So as I was saying…'

But then she trailed off again.

'Hm? What?'

Rin followed her gaze and saw Len as he sauntered past them, earphones screwed in his ears.

They slowed down and waited for him to go, and then resumed their gossiping. For once, Len wasn't in on it.

-.-.-.-

They were making their way home after Renka had shared her new favourite story three more times when they caught up to Len again. They almost missed him crouching behind a tree as he rummaged in his school bag, beside a large rubbish bin. Curious, they stopped to watch him.

Scowling, Len fished out what looked like several magazines stuffed in his bag, and began to scrunch them up and stuff them into the bin. Wrinkling his nose, he attempted to tear one to pieces, but on finding he didn't have enough brawn for it just tossed it into the bin alongside the others.

Renka elbowed Rin with a devious grin. 'Hey – let's go check it out,' she whispered.

Rin grimaced. 'I don't really think I want to…' She had a bad feeling about this.

'Fine then, we'll check it out without you. Don't you wanna know what's in there?'

'It's… It's probably just the weekly cat-manga edition again…'

'Come on, let's check it out.'

Len zipped his bag, shouldered it and padded off, unaware that his three supposedly good friends and twin sister were spying from behind the bush. After making sure that he wasn't coming back, the girls raced to the rubbish bin. Rin reluctantly trailed after them, stomach squirming.

Neru stuck her hand in the bin and smoothed out the magazines.

Renka goggled. They all did. 'Porn? Seriously?'

Lily raised an eyebrow at her. 'That's not the point. It's women's porn.'

Rin covered her face. 'Eww…'

The front cover.

Lily shook her head, flipping through the crumpled pages. 'Your bro's crazy, I tell you.'

'…And you're looking at it.'

Neru looked amazed. 'You mean he brought that to school – and didn't get caught?'

'Why'd he throw it, though?'

'Maybe a teacher wanted it,' Renka giggled.

Lily stomped on her foot.

Rin just looked away up at the trees and sincerely hoped he had a good explanation for it.

x333 Len-kun NAU, Len-kun NAU, Len-kun Len-kun Len-kun NAU! Len-kun NAU, Len-kun NAU… (Sorry… got an earbug)

*A/N: Kindly refer to any random Wiki related to Titans for the definition of 3DMG, I forgot the English name already and I'm really lazy to go find out again right now.

Please review! ;3