i wear the cloak of scarlet and secret
Jul. 9th, 2020 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
softpunksmiya atsumu & miya osamu // ~3k
> Twins destined for diverging fates: Atsumu, who was born to rule. Osamu, who was born to serve.
The story goes like this. The Queen gives birth to twins. The bells chime in celebration. When they’re old enough to question why they’re placed in different circumstances, why there’s a comprehensive list of things they’re not supposed to say or do, why they must live most of their lives apart despite being born together, the Queen—Queen to Osamu, Mama to Atsumu, and that alone should be telling enough—says to her children, “Atsumu was born to rule. Osamu was born to serve.”
It’s the truth, but not the full one. Later, Osamu is pulled aside while Atsumu is whisked away by an instructor, blessed with education Osamu isn’t privileged to have. He makes do with Ayame’s scarce knowledge and Atsumu’s textbooks, desperate enough to do the other’s homework if it means he gets to learn; he’s never liked the idea of falling behind his brother despite the fact that they never started things on the same footing in the first place, unequal from the very beginning.
Behind a pillar, close to the servants’ quarters and to the secret entrance with a staircase that brought one to his bedroom—a world isolated from everyone else, a world that was his alone—the Queen crouches down and tells him, “I gave birth to you, but you are not my son, because you were born for one reason and one reason alone.”
She looks at him like he’s too young and simple-minded to get it, but though Osamu is seven, he understands. In his opinion, he’s always been the smarter one between him and Atsumu—maybe the one more worthy of the crown.
In the end, it never mattered.
You were born for one reason and one reason alone, she says. And that is for your brother.
Osamu is a castle secret only a handful know of, kept in a hidden entrance and tucked in what used to be a torture chamber. Atsumu escapes to his room every other day to play with him because he’s still his brother even if no one will acknowledge it, even though there’s never much to do and he always says Osamu is the worst playmate he’s ever had. Osamu is raised by a midwife named Ayame who loves him like she’s his own but has memory problems, and he can freely wander the palace grounds only when everyone else is asleep. During the few times he’s allowed out during the day, it has to be when Atsumu is elsewhere and not coming out for a long time so people assume they’re the same person.
This is Osamu’s life: a mere extension of Atsumu’s. The Queen said, I gave birth to you, but you are not my son.
Their kingdom is one constantly riddled by war. The King and Queen are both hardened warriors that have taken down entire armies and conquered countless lands. During the times when Osamu is made to take Atsumu’s place to attend galas the latter can’t be bothered to suffer through despite being the Prince—Atsumu is the King and Queen’s son and he is spoiled rotten—Osamu learns that the elite classes and allies call them victors.
When he asks Suna Rintarou, a boy his age who is brought to the palace because he possesses exceptional fighting skills and is worthy of becoming a personal royal bodyguard, he echoes the words of his people and whispers tyrants.
Osamu is thirteen and knows a thing or two about evil, but there’s a difference between knowing of it and genuinely feeling it. He poses as Atsumu for a small expedition with the rest of kids who were born into wealth and prestige and power because the King and Queen think it's too risky even though this was one trip Atsumu wanted to go to because they were his friends.
Sure enough, Osamu gets kidnapped and is held captive, tortured for five days until troops come storming in and he’s taken back to the palace to recover.
Resting in his secret room, the Queen visits him for the first time in years and reminds him, you were born for one reason and one reason alone, and that is for your brother. Ayame is bedridden because she forgot how to walk, but when Osamu visits her with his bruised face and scarred body, she cries because he looks like someone she once dearly loved.
Osamu is thirteen and knows a thing or two about evil, but there’s a difference between knowing of it and genuinely feeling it. Five days of isolation and pain isn’t enough to make him feel any genuine resentment towards these people who are clearly evil, it just makes him think that his situation sucks. He’s aware that the King and Queen should treat their people better by listening to their woes instead of taunting them by flaunting what the rich have but the poor don’t, and he’s aware that he deserves more than being a dirty little secret and Atsumu’s proxy.
But they’re inevitably passing facts, like knowing his bed sheets are secondhand, or knowing Atsumu always has fish on Sundays, or knowing that Suna favors his left hand despite being right-handed.
On the twins’ fifteenth birthday, Atsumu celebrates the occasion in the palace. Suna gives Osamu a dagger as a gift and sneaks him to his hometown in the dead of night, because Osamu wants to see the stars and Suna lives close to the cliff side with a boy named Kita. There, he sees the way the wars and battles his parents waged had left orphans and broken families, and it turns out that Suna is one of them.
Later, when they return to the castle, Osamu asks, “Why do you still serve here when you know we’re evil?”
He expects some extravagant answer about a revolt or trying to change the system from the inside—the kind of thing he once found in Suna’s bookshelf and liked to read when he lounged in Osamu’s room during moments of boredom.
Instead, Suna says, “I’m here because I’m evil.”
Osamu frowns. “For doing what?”
“For serving you,” Suna replies. “Because I don’t find you evil. Being surrounded by something doesn’t make you become that same thing. So I think I can withstand everything, because of that very fact.” He pauses. “Even being called evil.”
Osamu is still frowning, but two hours later, when Suna has already gone to bed, Atsumu will sneak into his room with half of his birthday cake still in perfect shape because he insisted it was also meant for Osamu even if no one cared. This will make Osamu remember waking up in the aftermath of his kidnapping in his chambers with his brother curled up and passed out right beside him, the two of them barely fitting the single bed.
There’s a difference between knowing something is evil and truly feeling it in your bones until you’re hot and boiling with rage at the injustice of it all. Osamu knows he is never truly capable of feeling the latter because Atsumu is following in the footsteps of their parents' tyrannical rule and commoners call him evil and Osamu—
He can’t hate someone he loves so much, someone he loves enough to withstand being a shadow, a substitute, and a servant.
Suna told Osamu that he wasn’t evil. When the King and Queen eventually die once they turn seventeen and Atsumu has to ascend to the throne, Osamu steps in for him during the first day of his week-long coronation because they know it’ll be met with protest and scorn before the people waver and accept the new ruler.
Osamu bows his head to the citizens and declares false promises of doing his best to serve the country; in response, they hurl words and objects at him, calling him a liar and a murderer. Osamu takes them all patiently, dirtying Atsumu’s robes and suffering through the humiliation of doing nothing in order to show humility.
Suna said that Osamu wasn’t evil, but Osamu thinks, I have to be. I will be. I was born for one reason and one reason alone, and that is for my brother.
Osamu learns four things about Atsumu’s trip. One is that the town Atsumu had visited was Suna’s. Two is that the man he fell in love with is named Kita Shinsuke. Three is that the townsfolk are apparently planning on staging a coup to kill the King.
Four is that Atsumu doesn’t know anything—nothing about the mutiny and nothing about Suna’s involvement with both Kita and the town.
Suna isn’t in the palace for tonight. Osamu doesn’t dwell on why, and instead sneaks out when the stars are bright and heads into town. He wanders to the cliffside because despite the years having passed, the view is still breathtaking.
Unsurprisingly, Suna stands by the edge, gazing up.
“I’m not the one leading it,” is the first thing he says.
“I know,” Osamu says. He swallows. “That’s not why I’m here.”
Silence. Then, “Kita-san is my lover, but I know his Highness has fallen for him.”
“I know.”
Suna glances at him. There’s a ghost of a smile on his face. “I know you do,” he says softly. The look in his eyes causes Osamu to feel a sudden heavy weight in his chest. “I know that my answer wouldn’t have mattered, because this isn’t about me.”
The dagger’s blade glistens under the moonlight. Suna had gifted it to him for his fifteenth birthday. Suna had taken him here to see the stars right after. Osamu knows Suna knows this. Suna is Osamu’s best friend.
“I can’t lose him,” Osamu replies.
Suna is Osamu’s best friend, but Atsumu is his brother.
You are alive for one reason and one reason alone.
“I know,” Suna tells him. “I’m not the one leading it, but I’m a vanguard, their symbol of hope for success. If they lose me, they lose the will to fight.” He takes a step back, his foot creeping off the ledge. If he tilts back, everything will be over. Even though there’s purpose to the way Osamu holds the dagger with its blade unsheathed, he trembles and feels fear when he realizes what Suna is doing.
“Suna—”
“I still am your bodyguard, my prince,” Suna interjects, his tone awfully light. Osamu can feel tears welling up in his eyes. The first and only time he cried, it was Suna who wiped them away and said, we are the kind of people who can never afford to cry. “Your servant, your shield. If I can keep your hands clean, I will.”
Osamu laughs but it sounds like a dry sob. “You know I hate this. I hate that this is happening. Suna, I don’t want this. I don’t—”
He can’t even finish. Suna continues smiling. He takes another inch back. Osamu’s breath hitches. “Osamu,” Suna says slowly. Don’t say my name. Osamu wants to beg, because he knows Suna has never looked at him and seen his brother, and that’s maybe why this hurts more than it should. “I still stand by what I said all those years ago. You are not evil.”
“I am,” Osamu insists. He is, because he’s forced Suna to do this. He is, because he and Atsumu share the same blood, and they always say that Atsumu is nothing but evil. “Suna—”
“Farewell, my prince,” Suna tells him. “I’ll see you soon.”
The ground disappears under Suna’s feet. He flickers out of Osamu’s sight. Osamu thinks Suna is wrong, because the latter is going to a place Osamu is too evil to follow.
The Queen said, you were born for one reason and one reason alone, and that is for your brother. Once, Atsumu asked him, “Don’t you ever want more than this?”
Osamu didn’t reply, but his answer would’ve been a no. No, because he doesn’t know any other way to live. No, because his life existed for one sole purpose.
“Tsumu,” Osamu calls out. His brother is gazing outside through the window. The people are marching down the palace gates and towards the main house. The troops have betrayed them and the servants have fled. Osamu and Atsumu are the only ones still inside, but the people only know of the existence of one. There’s a ratty brown cloak in Osamu’s hands. Atsumu’s hair was gold for the longest time, but now the dye has faded and his hair has reverted back to its natural shade of black like Osamu’s. It’s good. It makes things easier. “‘Tsumu, you have to get out of here.”
“What?” Atsumu slowly turns to him. Osamu immediately wraps the cloak around him and grabs him by the wrist to drag him to the secret entrance of the tower room they’re in. Suna had been the one to introduce him to this passageway, and it’s what they used to be able to escape castle grounds without being seen to head to Suna’s village. It’s a slide, easy to enter and easy to do it quietly. Obediently, Atsumu slides the lower half of his body into the passageway, but then he stops, realizing that Osamu is making no move to come closer and follow after him, no move to go with him even though the slide can fit the two of them. Atsumu’s arms are the only thing keeping him up, but he doesn’t seem to mind the strain it puts on his muscles. “‘Samu.”
Osamu shakes his head, and removes his own cloak to reveal that he’d been wearing Atsumu’s garments this entire time. Atsumu’s eyes widen. “We’re twins,” Osamu starts. “But in the end, I am your servant, your shield. If I can give you a shot at living, I will.” These are Suna’s words. “They won’t notice a thing. They never have.” They never will.
“‘Samu, this isn’t what Mama meant when she said—”
Osamu just shakes his head. You are born for one reason and one reason alone, and that is for your brother. His entire life is a culmination to this moment. This is why he exists—so Atsumu will too. His life is a mere extension of Atsumu’s. Osamu isn’t going to fight it; he doesn’t want to. This is the only life he’s ever known, and he’s okay with seeing it through this end.
By the cliffs’ edge, Suna had said, “I’ll see you soon.” He knew of Osamu’s fate as well as he knew his own.
“‘Tsumu,” Osamu says. “You better live a happier life.”
You’re evil. Atsumu’s eyes tell him.
Of course I am. Osamu thinks. We share the same blood.
He leans down and pushes Atsumu away without waiting for a reply. As Atsumu slides down the tunnel structure and disappears, Osamu closes the passageway and doesn’t look back.
Osamu is here because he thinks the same. Atsumu is not evil. He is a king who doesn’t know any better, but he isn’t evil. He is his brother.
They drag Osamu to the guillotine in the late morning with the bells chiming in celebration. A crowd has gathered below the stage, eager to see a long-awaited execution. Osamu walks up to the platform with his head held high as Atsumu, an ex-king who has not forgotten his dignity. Kita stands a few feet behind, in charge of giving the signal for when to pull the rope and make the blade fall.
He has a few minutes until noon and slips his head in the hole. His eyes wander to the crowd one last time, taking in their righteousness and clean hands and freedom. Among them is a familiar face, going unnoticed within the sea of people but strikingly clear to Osamu.
Atsumu looks horrified when he sees Osamu, panting slightly like he fought his way to get a front view. He’s still dressed in the same cloak he ran away with, but he’s alive and okay and that’s what matters.
The bells stop chiming. I am your servant. Your shield. If I can give you a shot at living, I will. Osamu had said. Atsumu’s eyes soften when he realizes what the silence means and closes his eyes.
Osamu thinks, ‘Tsumu, you better live a happier life.
Atsumu opens his eyes and gives Osamu a wide beam despite how his eyes are glassy with unshed tears.
I will, they tell him.
Kita raises his hand to signal. Osamu smiles back. The blade drops.
> Twins destined for diverging fates: Atsumu, who was born to rule. Osamu, who was born to serve.
The story goes like this. The Queen gives birth to twins. The bells chime in celebration. When they’re old enough to question why they’re placed in different circumstances, why there’s a comprehensive list of things they’re not supposed to say or do, why they must live most of their lives apart despite being born together, the Queen—Queen to Osamu, Mama to Atsumu, and that alone should be telling enough—says to her children, “Atsumu was born to rule. Osamu was born to serve.”
It’s the truth, but not the full one. Later, Osamu is pulled aside while Atsumu is whisked away by an instructor, blessed with education Osamu isn’t privileged to have. He makes do with Ayame’s scarce knowledge and Atsumu’s textbooks, desperate enough to do the other’s homework if it means he gets to learn; he’s never liked the idea of falling behind his brother despite the fact that they never started things on the same footing in the first place, unequal from the very beginning.
Behind a pillar, close to the servants’ quarters and to the secret entrance with a staircase that brought one to his bedroom—a world isolated from everyone else, a world that was his alone—the Queen crouches down and tells him, “I gave birth to you, but you are not my son, because you were born for one reason and one reason alone.”
She looks at him like he’s too young and simple-minded to get it, but though Osamu is seven, he understands. In his opinion, he’s always been the smarter one between him and Atsumu—maybe the one more worthy of the crown.
In the end, it never mattered.
You were born for one reason and one reason alone, she says. And that is for your brother.
==
The story goes like this. The Queen gives birth to twins. The bells chime in celebration. The King and Queen tell the world that they’re blessed with a single son, the heir to the throne. His name is Atsumu.Osamu is a castle secret only a handful know of, kept in a hidden entrance and tucked in what used to be a torture chamber. Atsumu escapes to his room every other day to play with him because he’s still his brother even if no one will acknowledge it, even though there’s never much to do and he always says Osamu is the worst playmate he’s ever had. Osamu is raised by a midwife named Ayame who loves him like she’s his own but has memory problems, and he can freely wander the palace grounds only when everyone else is asleep. During the few times he’s allowed out during the day, it has to be when Atsumu is elsewhere and not coming out for a long time so people assume they’re the same person.
This is Osamu’s life: a mere extension of Atsumu’s. The Queen said, I gave birth to you, but you are not my son.
Their kingdom is one constantly riddled by war. The King and Queen are both hardened warriors that have taken down entire armies and conquered countless lands. During the times when Osamu is made to take Atsumu’s place to attend galas the latter can’t be bothered to suffer through despite being the Prince—Atsumu is the King and Queen’s son and he is spoiled rotten—Osamu learns that the elite classes and allies call them victors.
When he asks Suna Rintarou, a boy his age who is brought to the palace because he possesses exceptional fighting skills and is worthy of becoming a personal royal bodyguard, he echoes the words of his people and whispers tyrants.
Osamu is thirteen and knows a thing or two about evil, but there’s a difference between knowing of it and genuinely feeling it. He poses as Atsumu for a small expedition with the rest of kids who were born into wealth and prestige and power because the King and Queen think it's too risky even though this was one trip Atsumu wanted to go to because they were his friends.
Sure enough, Osamu gets kidnapped and is held captive, tortured for five days until troops come storming in and he’s taken back to the palace to recover.
Resting in his secret room, the Queen visits him for the first time in years and reminds him, you were born for one reason and one reason alone, and that is for your brother. Ayame is bedridden because she forgot how to walk, but when Osamu visits her with his bruised face and scarred body, she cries because he looks like someone she once dearly loved.
Osamu is thirteen and knows a thing or two about evil, but there’s a difference between knowing of it and genuinely feeling it. Five days of isolation and pain isn’t enough to make him feel any genuine resentment towards these people who are clearly evil, it just makes him think that his situation sucks. He’s aware that the King and Queen should treat their people better by listening to their woes instead of taunting them by flaunting what the rich have but the poor don’t, and he’s aware that he deserves more than being a dirty little secret and Atsumu’s proxy.
But they’re inevitably passing facts, like knowing his bed sheets are secondhand, or knowing Atsumu always has fish on Sundays, or knowing that Suna favors his left hand despite being right-handed.
On the twins’ fifteenth birthday, Atsumu celebrates the occasion in the palace. Suna gives Osamu a dagger as a gift and sneaks him to his hometown in the dead of night, because Osamu wants to see the stars and Suna lives close to the cliff side with a boy named Kita. There, he sees the way the wars and battles his parents waged had left orphans and broken families, and it turns out that Suna is one of them.
Later, when they return to the castle, Osamu asks, “Why do you still serve here when you know we’re evil?”
He expects some extravagant answer about a revolt or trying to change the system from the inside—the kind of thing he once found in Suna’s bookshelf and liked to read when he lounged in Osamu’s room during moments of boredom.
Instead, Suna says, “I’m here because I’m evil.”
Osamu frowns. “For doing what?”
“For serving you,” Suna replies. “Because I don’t find you evil. Being surrounded by something doesn’t make you become that same thing. So I think I can withstand everything, because of that very fact.” He pauses. “Even being called evil.”
Osamu is still frowning, but two hours later, when Suna has already gone to bed, Atsumu will sneak into his room with half of his birthday cake still in perfect shape because he insisted it was also meant for Osamu even if no one cared. This will make Osamu remember waking up in the aftermath of his kidnapping in his chambers with his brother curled up and passed out right beside him, the two of them barely fitting the single bed.
There’s a difference between knowing something is evil and truly feeling it in your bones until you’re hot and boiling with rage at the injustice of it all. Osamu knows he is never truly capable of feeling the latter because Atsumu is following in the footsteps of their parents' tyrannical rule and commoners call him evil and Osamu—
He can’t hate someone he loves so much, someone he loves enough to withstand being a shadow, a substitute, and a servant.
Suna told Osamu that he wasn’t evil. When the King and Queen eventually die once they turn seventeen and Atsumu has to ascend to the throne, Osamu steps in for him during the first day of his week-long coronation because they know it’ll be met with protest and scorn before the people waver and accept the new ruler.
Osamu bows his head to the citizens and declares false promises of doing his best to serve the country; in response, they hurl words and objects at him, calling him a liar and a murderer. Osamu takes them all patiently, dirtying Atsumu’s robes and suffering through the humiliation of doing nothing in order to show humility.
Suna said that Osamu wasn’t evil, but Osamu thinks, I have to be. I will be. I was born for one reason and one reason alone, and that is for my brother.
==
When he turns twenty-two, Atsumu goes out to interact with the village heads of their kingdom about the agriculture of their kingdom and comes back in love.Osamu learns four things about Atsumu’s trip. One is that the town Atsumu had visited was Suna’s. Two is that the man he fell in love with is named Kita Shinsuke. Three is that the townsfolk are apparently planning on staging a coup to kill the King.
Four is that Atsumu doesn’t know anything—nothing about the mutiny and nothing about Suna’s involvement with both Kita and the town.
Suna isn’t in the palace for tonight. Osamu doesn’t dwell on why, and instead sneaks out when the stars are bright and heads into town. He wanders to the cliffside because despite the years having passed, the view is still breathtaking.
Unsurprisingly, Suna stands by the edge, gazing up.
“I’m not the one leading it,” is the first thing he says.
“I know,” Osamu says. He swallows. “That’s not why I’m here.”
Silence. Then, “Kita-san is my lover, but I know his Highness has fallen for him.”
“I know.”
Suna glances at him. There’s a ghost of a smile on his face. “I know you do,” he says softly. The look in his eyes causes Osamu to feel a sudden heavy weight in his chest. “I know that my answer wouldn’t have mattered, because this isn’t about me.”
The dagger’s blade glistens under the moonlight. Suna had gifted it to him for his fifteenth birthday. Suna had taken him here to see the stars right after. Osamu knows Suna knows this. Suna is Osamu’s best friend.
“I can’t lose him,” Osamu replies.
Suna is Osamu’s best friend, but Atsumu is his brother.
You are alive for one reason and one reason alone.
“I know,” Suna tells him. “I’m not the one leading it, but I’m a vanguard, their symbol of hope for success. If they lose me, they lose the will to fight.” He takes a step back, his foot creeping off the ledge. If he tilts back, everything will be over. Even though there’s purpose to the way Osamu holds the dagger with its blade unsheathed, he trembles and feels fear when he realizes what Suna is doing.
“Suna—”
“I still am your bodyguard, my prince,” Suna interjects, his tone awfully light. Osamu can feel tears welling up in his eyes. The first and only time he cried, it was Suna who wiped them away and said, we are the kind of people who can never afford to cry. “Your servant, your shield. If I can keep your hands clean, I will.”
Osamu laughs but it sounds like a dry sob. “You know I hate this. I hate that this is happening. Suna, I don’t want this. I don’t—”
He can’t even finish. Suna continues smiling. He takes another inch back. Osamu’s breath hitches. “Osamu,” Suna says slowly. Don’t say my name. Osamu wants to beg, because he knows Suna has never looked at him and seen his brother, and that’s maybe why this hurts more than it should. “I still stand by what I said all those years ago. You are not evil.”
“I am,” Osamu insists. He is, because he’s forced Suna to do this. He is, because he and Atsumu share the same blood, and they always say that Atsumu is nothing but evil. “Suna—”
“Farewell, my prince,” Suna tells him. “I’ll see you soon.”
The ground disappears under Suna’s feet. He flickers out of Osamu’s sight. Osamu thinks Suna is wrong, because the latter is going to a place Osamu is too evil to follow.
==
The mutiny in that village never comes to fruition, but it sparks something else in the rest of the citizens, burning rage and deep-seated exhaustion that they’ve suppressed for years. Osamu knows that this is something that has been coming for a long time. They have never been a kingdom meant to last.The Queen said, you were born for one reason and one reason alone, and that is for your brother. Once, Atsumu asked him, “Don’t you ever want more than this?”
Osamu didn’t reply, but his answer would’ve been a no. No, because he doesn’t know any other way to live. No, because his life existed for one sole purpose.
“Tsumu,” Osamu calls out. His brother is gazing outside through the window. The people are marching down the palace gates and towards the main house. The troops have betrayed them and the servants have fled. Osamu and Atsumu are the only ones still inside, but the people only know of the existence of one. There’s a ratty brown cloak in Osamu’s hands. Atsumu’s hair was gold for the longest time, but now the dye has faded and his hair has reverted back to its natural shade of black like Osamu’s. It’s good. It makes things easier. “‘Tsumu, you have to get out of here.”
“What?” Atsumu slowly turns to him. Osamu immediately wraps the cloak around him and grabs him by the wrist to drag him to the secret entrance of the tower room they’re in. Suna had been the one to introduce him to this passageway, and it’s what they used to be able to escape castle grounds without being seen to head to Suna’s village. It’s a slide, easy to enter and easy to do it quietly. Obediently, Atsumu slides the lower half of his body into the passageway, but then he stops, realizing that Osamu is making no move to come closer and follow after him, no move to go with him even though the slide can fit the two of them. Atsumu’s arms are the only thing keeping him up, but he doesn’t seem to mind the strain it puts on his muscles. “‘Samu.”
Osamu shakes his head, and removes his own cloak to reveal that he’d been wearing Atsumu’s garments this entire time. Atsumu’s eyes widen. “We’re twins,” Osamu starts. “But in the end, I am your servant, your shield. If I can give you a shot at living, I will.” These are Suna’s words. “They won’t notice a thing. They never have.” They never will.
“‘Samu, this isn’t what Mama meant when she said—”
Osamu just shakes his head. You are born for one reason and one reason alone, and that is for your brother. His entire life is a culmination to this moment. This is why he exists—so Atsumu will too. His life is a mere extension of Atsumu’s. Osamu isn’t going to fight it; he doesn’t want to. This is the only life he’s ever known, and he’s okay with seeing it through this end.
By the cliffs’ edge, Suna had said, “I’ll see you soon.” He knew of Osamu’s fate as well as he knew his own.
“‘Tsumu,” Osamu says. “You better live a happier life.”
You’re evil. Atsumu’s eyes tell him.
Of course I am. Osamu thinks. We share the same blood.
He leans down and pushes Atsumu away without waiting for a reply. As Atsumu slides down the tunnel structure and disappears, Osamu closes the passageway and doesn’t look back.
==
The story goes like this. The Queen gives birth to twins. She tells the two of them on their seventh birthday, “Atsumu was born to rule. Osamu was born to serve.” On their fifteenth, Suna says, “I don’t find you evil. So I think I can withstand everything, because of that fact.”Osamu is here because he thinks the same. Atsumu is not evil. He is a king who doesn’t know any better, but he isn’t evil. He is his brother.
They drag Osamu to the guillotine in the late morning with the bells chiming in celebration. A crowd has gathered below the stage, eager to see a long-awaited execution. Osamu walks up to the platform with his head held high as Atsumu, an ex-king who has not forgotten his dignity. Kita stands a few feet behind, in charge of giving the signal for when to pull the rope and make the blade fall.
He has a few minutes until noon and slips his head in the hole. His eyes wander to the crowd one last time, taking in their righteousness and clean hands and freedom. Among them is a familiar face, going unnoticed within the sea of people but strikingly clear to Osamu.
Atsumu looks horrified when he sees Osamu, panting slightly like he fought his way to get a front view. He’s still dressed in the same cloak he ran away with, but he’s alive and okay and that’s what matters.
The bells stop chiming. I am your servant. Your shield. If I can give you a shot at living, I will. Osamu had said. Atsumu’s eyes soften when he realizes what the silence means and closes his eyes.
Osamu thinks, ‘Tsumu, you better live a happier life.
Atsumu opens his eyes and gives Osamu a wide beam despite how his eyes are glassy with unshed tears.
I will, they tell him.
Kita raises his hand to signal. Osamu smiles back. The blade drops.