Rin gave out a tired sighed and stretched her back as she looked at her painting, which is in a work in progress. She felt that she's been in her and Len's room for weeks, even though it was only a couple of hours. She looked at the window and saw that it was starting to get dark outside, though she's worried that if she takes a break now, she will lose time to finish the portrait for Miki's birthday. She still had another portrait for Piko's birthday to continue working on too. This is what she gets for procrastinating most of the day...
She looked at her nightstand looking at the empty plate, which once had snacks that Luka left for her. Beside it was an empty cup. Her throat felt like a drought. She grabbed it so she could refill it with water and return back to her room as quickly as possible.
Maybe if she stayed up longer, she would get a lot more progress done on both portraits, maybe even finishing them a lot earlier than expected.
~~~
When she returned, she noticed a pair of teal twin tails by her door frame. That's right, Miku told her that she would get home early from her weekly photo shoots, she smiled as her chest grew warm as she walked towards the twin tails.
"Do you like it, Miku?" She saw Miku jump and turned around when she heard Rin's voice.
Miku's expression quickly turned from surprised to happiness "Rin Chan!" She exclaimed as she gave her a hug and a kiss on her forehead.
Rin's face turned rosey red as she hugged her back. She always loved how she isn't shy when it comes to her affection towards her and the people she loves. She became more effortlessly loving and affectionate towards her over the years, even before they started to date. That was another reason why she found Miku to be adorable. Another reason she loved her.
"Rin Chan! Your painting looks so good!"
"It's not done yet Miku!" Rin giggled
"I know! I know! I meant that it looks really good!" They let each other go to walk into her and and looked at the halfway done portrait of Miki in the twins' room.
"She's going to love it!"
Rin turned to her "I hope so"
"Hey, what are you getting her and piko's birthday?"
"Oh! Uh....I'm not sure.." Miku smiled awkwardly
"Don't worry about it, you've been very busy lately" Rin gave her a reassuring smile "You have plenty of time to look for their gifts, I can even help you if you want!"
Miku smiled, they both looked at the portrait again. Rin thought about how much blending, shading and lighting she needed to do. It was just a pretty cute portrait of Miki with a sweater on that's planned to be a galaxy themed sweater, she really seemed to like those sweaters.
"Rin-Chan?"
"Hm?"
"Can I watch you paint?"
Rin felt a little nervous about people staring at her while she paint, but she didn't really mind if it was Miku.
"Of course you can!"
~~~
About a half an hour, Rin focused on her painting while she caught glimpses of Miku watching from her bed. Although, it didn't seem that Miku is actually looking at her painting.
She made another glimpse again, in which she noticed that she's not looking at her anymore but at something else. She looked at her way and noticed the corner of the room, a handful of old sketchbooks stacked on top of each other. She was kinda embarrassed that she just had all the sketchbooks there instead of having it somewhere else neatly, but she couldn't really find any room for them.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know where to put them" Rin's voice made Miku jump again
"O-oh Rin-Chan! Sorry about that! It's just that, your art keeps looking different for the past few years and I haven't seen your old art in a long time..."
"Do you want to take a look at one of them?" Rin asked
"Is that okay?"
"Mhm! Of course it is!" Rin smiled
Rin walked over to the stack of sketchbooks, as she picked out the first one.....it felt familiar to her, but she hasn't opened her old sketch books in years, she couldn't really tell which one it is and when it was made, but she didn't even bother looking into it first before handing it to Miku, she went back to her portrait immediately afterwards.
~~~
Miku opened up the sketchbook, and the first thing she saw was a date, 11/17/2016 along with very cute doodles of bunnies, and as well as one of her first attempts at realism....if you could call it that. Miku found it endearing though. As she went through pages full of sketches of the other cryptonloids, she noticed that there's quite a lot of sketches of her with hearts around them. All drawn the best way Rin could at the time. Miku giggled at this while a bit flustered. Now that she thought about it, she didn't ask Rin how long she had feelings for her. She didn't know that it had been this long. She grew the urge to kiss Rin, but she seemed so focused on her painting. She decides to let her finish.
As she turned another page, she saw sketches that are different from the previous page. They were sad sketches of Rin, and most of them are smudged seemingly by water or some sort of liquid. Miku frowned at this, worrying if those sketches were smudged by tears. Why would she draw these sketches anyway? As she flipped a few pages, the sad Rin sketches won't stop coming. She doesn't remember Rin being sad during that time....why was she sad at the time? Does she somehow still secretly feel that way? Did something happen?
She looked over to Rin, who is still very focused. She knows that Rin is busy, but she still needed to talk to her. She needed to know.
"...Rin?"
"Hm?" Rin said still concentrated.
"Um....I found these drawing on your sketch book" Miku turned over the sketchbook.
Rin turned around and looked at the sketches, she immediately knew exactly what it was. She turned bright red from embarrassment as she immediately snatched away the sketchbook from her hands.
"I-I'm sorry-" Miku tried to apologize but Rin quickly interrupted
"I-It's fine! R-really!"
"Rin you idiot..." Rin thought to herself
She looked down at the sketches and remembered why she drew these in the first place.
"These sketches are embarrassing, I...I didn't want you to see these."
"What? Rin-Chan! They are not embarrassing!"
Rin turned away from Miku's gaze
"Rin-Chan" Miku moved more towards Rin
"Did something happen during that time?"
"I-it's stupid-"
"You being sad isn't stupid!" Miku raised her voice without meaning too
"Please Rin Chan, please tell me what made you so sad" she put her hand on Rin's cheek, causing her to look at her eyes.
Rin sighed she took a moment to consider but she has her answer "okay then"
"It's just that...well at the time....I thought you were better off without me"
"W-what?! How could you say that?!"
"I guess I couldn't help it, you were with your friends all the time, you were very busy with your updates and all, I over heard you that you were talking about how unique and amazing Tianyi was, how pretty and talented ia was, how much yukari made you laugh....and I guess I couldn't help but compare myself to them, you were too busy to spend time with me that well...I thought that you didn't like me anymore."
"B-but it's fine...I was being selfish, and I'm pretty sure that was just my jealousy talking besides you were busy with a lot of things anyways, with your 10th anniversary and all" Rin said
A wave of guilt hit Miku, while yes, she was busy at the time, with a new update, an anniversary coming up and she had so many amazing new friends to spend time with, but she could've just checked up on her at least once. She could've made some time to hang out with her, but she didn't. She didn't even notice that Rin was sad. It was her fault that she was sad.
"But...I-it's not fine...I'm...I'm so sorry"
Rin looked surprised
"I could've at least check up on you!! I'm so sorry Rin Chan!!!"
"Miku-"
"Rin Chan, listen to me, I will never be better off without you okay? I love you so much and I always love to have you around. I really do!
You mean so so much to me!" Miku's eyes started to form tears.
Rin puts a hand on top of hers, calming her down
"I'm so sorry that I made you feel that way! I was such a horrible friend I'm so s-sorry!!" Miku cried
"H-hey! Miku it's fine really!"
"It's not!! You supported me through all these years and you made me so happy, I should've done the same thing with you!"
"But you have! That's in the past Miku, but now you've made me so happy and you do support me. Even while you were busy with your 16th."
Miku wrapped her arms around her and Rin touched Miku's cheeks, using her thumbs to wipe her tears away.
"I forgave you a long time ago Miku, and I know that I matter to you now, back then I was just being selfish...it's okay because you were busy and that you have friends too."
"It's not really your fault, I promise" Rin smiled
Miku put a hand on Rin's
"Please don't cry, you are much prettier when you smile...well you are always pretty"
Miku giggled at this, before Rin even realized that, Miku pressed her lips against Rin's gently. They both stayed like that for a moment before they pull their lips away.
"Rin Chan, even though you said that it isn't my fault. I promise that I will never let you feel that way ever again"
"I know you won't" they both smiled at each other
~~~
Rin looked back at the panting but...she didn't really feel like panting anymore. All she wants to do now is go to sleep, it was getting dark out anyways
"Hey Miku?"
"Hm?"
"I'm starting to get a bit tired"
"Oh! Do you want to go to bed?"
"Yeah, I think I could use a break. I can work on it tomorrow."
As Rin is about to clean up, Miku stopped her.
"Wait Rin Chan!"
"Hm?"
"Do you want me to help you?"
"well..." Rin yawned loudly, she didn't fully realize exactly how tired she is.
"Okay then, only if you go to sleep with me"
"I was going to ask you that silly!" Miku giggled
~~~
After they were finished cleaning up and got changed, The girls got in bed, when suddenly Miku gave Rin a surprise kiss on her cheek, Rin turned a bit flustered from it and Miku giggled at this. Sometimes, Rin couldn't really believe that Miku is her girlfriend. She smiled and kissed her cheek back.
"Good night, Miku"
"Good night, Rin-Chan"
Rin turned off the lamp as the room went dark.
"I love you" Rin whispered
"I love you too"