Chapter Text
Two children sped past the royal throne room, ignorant to everything around them. One as pale as the moon was running through the halls, attempting to run away from the one chasing him, whose hair was as bright as the sun. Loud laughter escaped the child in front as the other sped up to finally catch him. He extended his hand forward and swiped with his fingertips, desperately reaching for his target. Once he felt the brush of clothing, he immediately stopped in his tracks, a large smile beginning to form.
“I got you, Shiro!”
In response, Shiro turned around with a pout on his face. Then, he mirrored the grin. “Oh, but I’m going to get you back, Ichi!” Suddenly, he ran forward, intent on tagging his younger twin before he could escape again. However, with a yelp, Ichigo narrowly dodged the hand and ran the direction they came from. Right when they were about to reach their full speed, Ichigo skidded to a stop. Because of the suddenness, Shiro almost tripped over himself in surprise.
“What was that for?!” Shiro glared at Ichigo, who he was a little angry at for ruining their fun. When he realized that Ichigo was staring down at the ground, he turned his head toward the royal hall. There, he was met with the sight of their guardian. Fumbling around, Shiro tried looking at anything other than the new arrival. He made eye contact with Ichigo, silently promising to get through whatever Zangetsu, their guardian, was going to throw at them.
Silence pervaded the hall before Zangetsu sighed and critically observed the two before asking what they were doing. Not being one to back down from his inquiries, Shiro grunted and answered, “We’re playing tag, what did it look like?”
Zangetsu raised an eyebrow at them, remaining neutral and just standing there. It was so much worse than any other reaction. Ichigo shuffled closer to Shiro, who took his hand into his own to comfort his younger twin.
“If I remember correctly, you two are supposed to be studying the history of the Hogyoku.”
“We were! It’s just that … you know, we wanted a break and all.” Ichigo didn’t want him to think they did nothing all day, so he started to clarify things. Thankfully, Shiro was there to give him the bravery he needed to get through.
“Besides, out of all the books in the library, that’s one of the only ones we read! Natural order this, natural order that … It’s not like we don’t know the tale like the back of our hands by now.” Boldly, Shiro stuck his tongue out at Zangetsu to which Ichigo nudged him so they don’t get separated out of punishment again. Their magic wasn’t strong enough to go against their guardian just yet.
Shaking his head, Zangetsu rubbed his forehead out of frustration. When he was put in charge of the two princes, he expected a little difficulty since they were only small children, but not this much. Figuring that there was no use trying to force them to study, he let them go. He watched as they both took hesitant steps forward until they were a safe distance away and bolted off.
Let them be. They can’t enjoy their childhood forever, after all.
Shiro and Ichigo kept on running until they couldn’t see Zangestu anymore. They were panting harshly, stopping to catch their breath. Thankfully, they were near their bedrooms. Shiro watched as Ichigo kept looking behind them, back toward Zangetsu, which made him sigh and push him a little to snap him out of his thoughts.
“C’mon, don’t tell me you want to go back to studying the same history over and over again, Ichi!”
“But what if he tells our tutors?”
“All the other kids get to play around, why can’t we?” Shiro pouted, taking Ichigo’s hand again and tugging him toward his room, “Here, wait, I have something more exciting than some all-powerful jewel thing.” The grin on his face made Ichigo grin as well, letting himself be led into Shiro’s room, where his brother rummaged around beneath his bed. Once in a while, Ichigo tried bending down to peek at what he was trying to do, though it was too dark to make out anything meaningful.
After waiting a few minutes, Shiro pulled out a large book. Ichigo pouted and sat down on the ground, looking at it with interested eyes, vaguely wondering what made this tome better than the Hogyoku one. His brother took a seat next to him and turned the book vertically to view the pages. There, in the beginning, was a small gap, indicating a dog-ear fold which Shiro opened up to. Now, Ichigo was immensely curious. Leaning closer and craning his neck, Ichigo stared down at the page he flipped open to.
On the page were two large archaic looking symbols, one of the sun and one of the moon. Shiro grinned at Ichigo’s shocked face.
“I knew you’d be impressed,” Shiro proudly declared, handing Ichigo half of the open book so they can both support its weight. Reaching out instinctively, Ichigo traced the lines of the sun, trying to make out all the details.
“What are they?” Ichigo’s question was distant, still in awe at the beautiful depictions.
“I don’t really know … I can’t read it, but it mentions markings! So … maybe it’ll show up on us when we inherit the powers!” He could barely contain his excitement. “Aren’t they cool? I can’t wait to show this off when we finally get our powers.”
Ichigo smiled, loving it when Shiro got like this. He couldn’t help but agree though. He tried to imagine such a stunning symbol somewhere on his body and then he started to imagine their most awaited day: their coronation.
“Zangetsu should show us more of this stuff … We know nothing about the powers we’re going to have.” Shiro closed the book and stuffed it back under his bed, “What do you think we’ll have?”
Ichigo leaned back and put his weight on his palms, thinking about his answer. “Obviously we get to raise the sun and moon. Oh, oh! Maybe I can summon great fires whenever I want!” Ichigo raised his arms dramatically and attempted to make a fire sound effect. Shiro laughed and went back next to him, jabbing him on the side. Ichigo puffed out his cheeks and crossed his arms, asking Shiro what he thinks his powers were going to be.
“Clearly, I get to turn into shadows and travel through the entire town in one go!” Shiro giggled and jumped on Ichigo, knocking him down and having another laugh. Instead of retaliating, his brother laughed too, remaining there.
“It’s only a few more years now, can you believe it?” Shiro asked, adjusting his position so he lay on his back across Ichigo’s legs.
“I call dibs on first one to raise the sun!”
“Hey, no fair!”
The two brothers spent the night with fun natured bickering before Ichigo had to head back to his own room out of exhaustion.
“Good night, Shi!”
“Good night.” Shiro smiled, waving him off.
Ichigo’s head was up close to the page with the math problem he had to solve. The pencil was simply hovering over the piece of paper set off to the side as he tried to reason with the solution. Groaning in irritation, he put the pencil down and rubbed his eyes. God, he hated math. Hearing the scratch of a pencil, he leaned over to look at his brother’s paper. Scowling at the full page of numbers, he casually brought his own paper over just to see the difference. Unlike Shiro’s own, Ichigo’s only had about half the problems done. He turned back to see what number he was on. When he saw that his twin was on the last one, he placed his chin down on the table in defeat before poking him.
“Shiroooo ….” He called out in desperation, his brain not able to handle any more of this. Without pausing, Shiro glanced over at his seemingly dying brother with a raised eyebrow before returning to his own work and circling the solution he got. “Shiro, help me. Please.” Ichigo kept begging, putting his forehead on Shiro’s arm to get him annoyed so he’d have to help him.
Setting his work off to the side, Shiro removed Ichigo from his arm with a grin. “You don’t have to beg to get me to help you. It’s boring waiting for you to finish anyway.”
“Shut up … I’m not as good at math as you, you know that!” He crossed his arms as Shiro looked over to see what problem he was stuck at.
“You’re much better at me than other things, though, Ichi,” Shiro reassured, pointing at the last thing he wrote on his paper, “You almost got it. You just have to factor it out is all.”
“But it doesn’t work.”
“Sure it does, here, you can subtract this from the other side,” Shiro explained, writing on his paper and showing him each step to the solution. When it was done, Ichigo attempted to do the next one, constantly flicking back and forth between the previous and current problem to try and copy what Shiro did. While waiting, Shiro looked over his shoulder to make sure he was doing everything okay. Whenever Ichigo couldn’t get any farther, Shiro piped in to help him through it.
By the time he finished, Ichigo let his body slump over in the chair, too tired to do anything else. Shiro sat back next to him, clearing the desk of their math work before repositioning him so Ichigo lay on his brother’s arm. He mumbled thanks, too mentally exhausted to do anything else. His brother wrapped an arm around him, keeping him comfortable and safe from falling out of the chair. Mindlessly, he began humming a tune, soft and calming.
“Your voice is so nice, Shi,” Ichigo complimented, his eyes slipping close and letting the melody surround him, “What is it?”
“Mmm … Something I’ve been working on.”
“Promise you’ll show me?”
“Of course.”
He kept on humming, making Ichigo steadily drift off to sleep as Shiro picked up his pencil and began writing all over a new sheet of paper. Each letter was small since he didn’t want to move his arm too much lest he wake up his younger twin. Smiling to himself, he gave him a kiss on his forehead, wishing him the best of sleep.
After a few of hours of silence and inactivity passed, Shiro also fell asleep, using Ichigo as a support. They managed to stay still enough to sleep for a bit until one of them began to slip from the chair. It was merely a chain reaction after that. With a loud yelp, they both ended up on the ground. Quickly, Shiro got up and folded the paper he was writing on before and stuffed it in his pocket, keeping it out of sight.
The window showed off a bright white full moon, its beauty diminished by all the lights in the study. The sky around it was pitch black, blank of all stars and creatures. A calm night.
“Huh? Did we really fall asleep for that long?”
“Mmm, I blame you. You fell asleep first.”
“Yeah, of course, that’s how it works.”
“Well, now that none of us are tired, what are we supposed to do? Zangetsu will kill us if he found out we were up for the whole night.”
Ichigo looked around the vast study, full of various books and materials for creative pursuits. As younger children, they had always spent their time here, unworried about all their new royal duties. But Ichigo had an idea. He moved over to a small shelf full of art supplies like colored pencils, markers, construction paper, and more. He took out the box full of miscellaneous objects slowly and carefully as to not make any more noise that alerted people they were in there. Now, Shiro was curious. Peering over Ichigo’s shoulder, he watched as he pulled out the pad of construction paper, glue, and glitter. It was the glitter that made him anxious.
“Be careful with that. It could get everywhere.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I just wanna make something real quick.” Ichigo sat down, patting the ground next to him to convince Shiro to do the same. Not one to deny his brother anything or ruin any fun, he did so obediently. There wasn’t any complaint coming out of him. Ichigo ripped a sheet of black paper out from the pad, shifting closer to his brother and trying to wrap the paper around his head. Telling him to hold it, he grabbed a pencil and marked the spot where the two ends of the paper met. At this point, Shiro was immensely curious as to what Ichigo was planning to do with this.
Going down on his stomach, he began to draw. Every single time Shiro tried to take a look, he simply moved so he blocked his view of whatever he was making. Pouting, he sat down in defeat, looking around for more things to do while Ichigo secretly did his thing. In the end, he settled for some mindless doodles.
“Oh, I forgot the scissors!” Ichigo exclaimed, grabbing them swiftly, not giving his brother any openings. There was no way he was letting the surprise be ruined. Expertly, he cut the paper into the shape he wanted. Once it was completely cut out, he began the final phase. At the top of it, he put dollops of glue and carefully sprinkled blue glitter onto it, making little balls out of them. Finally, he glued both ends together until they met the mark. Satisfied, Ichigo stood out and turned around. Shiro remained seated, his head craned up to stare.
“Stand up, you dork!”
Lifting up an eyebrow, Shiro did so, completely lost on what was happening. In that moment, Ichigo presented his product. In his hand was a black paper crown, simply decorated with pseudo jewels all along each tip of the craft. Puffing out his chest and standing on his tip toes, he began to recite the speech he had prepared just moments before.
“On this momentous day, we will recognize a new prince in our kingdom. Please recognize the Prince Sudachi “Shiro” Kurosaki of the Lemon Lands, Lord of Mischief as the Moon Prince!” Ichigo didn’t care for how loud his voice was during the impromptu speech, continuing to play along as he walked steadily forward until was within an arm’s length. Up close, he could catch the faint blush on Shiro’s face. Giggling softly at that, he moved the crown over to one hand and held out the other to him.
“Do you swear to take the oath to protect and rule over the kingdom by following the set rules and customs?”
“I do.”
“And do you swear to the utmost of your power to maintain the laws and peace established with mercy?”
“I do.”
“Then I crown you as the Prince!” Ichigo said, placing it on top of his head. There was a large grin on his face. For a second, they remained like that. Shiro with his paper crown and Ichigo admiring how it looked on him. Then, they devolved into laughter.
“Couldn’t you have chosen a more fitting and serious name for me?”
“I think it was beautiful!”
“Let me repay you, wait!” Shiro jumped and flipped through the pad for yellow construction paper to make Ichigo’s. Despite all the protests, he managed to make one while also holding his brother back from trying to take it from him. After all, there was no way he was going to be the only one doing a fake ceremony. In order to reach the red glitter, he had to summon a force field around him, giving Ichigo a teasing smirk. Putting his own red glitter jewels on the crown, Shiro finished up. He shot up, removing the barrier between them.
“Stand up, Ichi!” He was beaming at his twin, who was blushing profusely. Being the stubborn kid he was, Shiro didn’t move until he stood up reluctantly. Clearing his throat, he lifted his head up, taking on a new voice.
“Do you swear to take the oath to protect and rule over the kingdom by following the rules and customs?”
“I … I do.”
“And do you swear to the utmost of your power to maintain law and order with mercy?”
“I do.”
“Then I crown you Prince Ichigo of the Strawberry Lands, Lord of the Sleepwalkers!” He put the crown on his head.
“I don’t sleep walk!”
“Oh yes, you do. There are sightings of you every night.”
“I … I … I can’t help it!” Ichigo huffed, turning his head to the side in shame. “ … Thank you for making such a beautiful crown, though, Shi. I love it a lot.”
“Aw, I love yours too.”
All their laughter finally alerted someone of their presence in the study. A night guard peeked into the area, their weapon at the ready. When they realized it was just the two princes, they sighed and flicked his head back to tell them to get out, saying it was too late. In disappointment at being found, Shiro took off his crown, giving Ichigo an apologetic stare. Once they were out, they were forced to their rooms on separated end of the castle.
In the afternoon, when they had finally woken up after staying up for so long, Zangetsu scolded them for staying up so late. Yelling about their responsibilities later on, telling them about how they’re going to have to get used to a strict schedule. Aside from that, he let them be. The longer he took care of them, the more he realized they were inseparable. Whether or not that was a good thing for him was debatable at best. Always trying their best to thwart his attempts at keeping them apart for productivity sake … He sighed. The coronation was coming soon, so hopefully it’ll be resolved at that time.
Footsteps were all he could hear throughout the entire palace. Decorations were in every servant’s hand as they prepared the entire place for the guests coming in. Shiro wanted to go out and join the chaos, seeming more fun than what he was doing, but was stopped by several hands. Tailors, to be exact. They were putting the finishing touches on his clothes for the day. The measurement were taken weeks before, however, the pieces of jewelry were not yet picked out. He was getting tired of standing while each person continuously judged how he looked at every change that occurred. If he had to guess, three must have passed in this room. He was tired of looking at himself in the mirror for every minute change.
Fortunately, they all seemed to agree right when Shiro was about to lose his patience. He looked at himself in the mirror. His top piece was a thin piece of armor, more for show than defense that extended up to the side of his collar. It was gray and had small, pointed stripes extending from its side toward his chest. At his waist was a metallic strip, dipping lower in the center to highlight a white moon. The bottom piece was simple black pants, covered by a robe-like cloth that extended behind Shiro like a tiny cape snug at his waist. On his arms were shoulder-less sleeves that ended at the wrist. Beneath it was another piece of fabric that tapered off into a tip that covered the back of his palm. At his neck was a choker with a small moon charm hanging from it and an armored pad was on his right shoulder. Sighing, he looked at the staff members gathered around him, wondering if they were finally satisfied.
In unison, they all nodded. In relief, he stepped down from the podium, adjusting the choker on his neck. It felt uncomfortable. Not to mention he was unused to the feeling of his boots. God, was he supposed to keep the appropriate form the entire day in this? He wasn’t bad at the bows or the precise walks he had to time … It still made him anxious.
“Thank you. I’ll be heading out then,” Shiro announced, not waiting for any responses from them. Right when he opened the door, he almost crashed into another servant, causing the both of them to yelp and jump out of the way unceremoniously. The platter full of food wasn’t harmed too much, so he raised his hand to stop the servant from apologizing endlessly.
“Shiro.”
At his name, he searched around, finally landing on Zangetsu.
“So I see that you’re done with the initial preparations.”
“Thank god,” he mumbled, admiring the sun and moon banners decorating the walls, “Where’s Ichi? Is he done yet?”
“Yes, he is. I came here to get you because his ceremony is starting soon. He requested your presence before starting everything.”
A smile formed on Shiro’s face. “Is that so? Well, I can’t very well be late then if Ichi requested it, huh?”
Zangetsu nodded and led the way into the royal throne room, following the path of the red carpet laid out. He pushed the double doors open. Inside was a gigantic crowd of people, gathered to watch the coronation of the two princes. The chandelier lights lit up the room beautifully, contrasting heavily with the pitch black outside the windows. Ichigo wasn’t in the room just yet, so he stood amongst the crowd. All eyes were focused on him, being the only royalty in the room. Guards stood around him, keeping a generous radius between him and the citizens of the kingdom. For a few minutes, there wasn’t much else going on. It was a matter of patience.
Everyone fell silent when the double doors were pushed open again to reveal a guard announcing the arrival of Ichigo. Shiro stood on his tiptoes to try and catch a glimpse of his twin as he walked in. Unlike him, Ichigo was garbed in all white. The overall look was the same, but its design differed drastically. On his top piece, there was a fire design at its front and its collar was decorated with red jewels. Rather than a shoulder pad on his right shoulder, he had it on his left. Ichigo already had his cape on as he walked down the center of the room toward the two thrones. Too concentrated on his walk, he didn’t look up or to the side to meet his brother’s eyes. Still, they caught each other once he turned to face the crowd. Ichigo smiled and took a deep breath, nodding over to priest Unohana who would be leading the proceedings.
She held the Holy Bible in one hand and stood side by side with him. Complete and utter silence enveloped the room.
“We will now be commencing the coronation ceremony for Ichigo Kurosaki,” she announced, turning to face him, “Is Your Majesty ready to take the oath?”
“I am willing.” Ichigo took the book offered to him by the head priest.
“Do you solemnly promise and swear to govern the People of this Kingdom and your Possessions according to their respective Laws and customs?”
“I solemnly promise.”
“Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of our Land? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in Karakura Kingdom? And will you preserve all such rights and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?”
“All this I promise to do.”
Unohana then smiled, grabbing the crown from the pillow of her priest-in-training. It was a thin, golden crown with an ornate circular strip that ended in elegant arrowheads. Finishing the circle was a thin, three pronged crown and hanging from the strip was a white veil. Unohana held up the crown high for everyone to see before placing it gently on Ichigo’s head, causing the entire crowd to being their applause.
“I crown you Prince Ichigo of the Sun.”
Ichigo bowed gracefully before walking down the carpet again, out of the royal throne room. Shiro was allowed to follow first, then the priests, then the normal citizens. Pushing past one of the guards, Shiro congratulated his brother, who thanked him and laughed softly when the guard stood in their way again. Him and the priests followed Ichigo while the crowd filed out of the castle and underneath the porch that overlooked the land. On the porch stood the royal and religious members. There was nothing outside. No moon, no sun, no stars. The only light was provided by candles and lamps set up around the perimeter.
“Good luck, Ichi!”
Ichigo raised up his left hand and closed his eyes, concentrating heavily on the task. The coronation wasn’t over until he raised the sun. An orange aura surrounded his arm as he began. In the horizon, the sun began to show itself to the world. Around it was the same orange aura that surrounded the prince as he kept on going until the sun rays touched each part of the kingdom, signaling the beginning of day.
Cheers rang out from the crowd as they witnessed the event. Ichigo opened his eyes and let out a sigh, peering down at his right shoulder where a tattoo of the sun made its appearance, marking him as the Sun Prince.
Everyone headed back inside for the day long feast and celebration in the castle. Each room was full of buffet tables with a large selection of gourmet foods and different activities to keep the guests occupied. Ichigo and Shiro remained out of the party, just enjoying each other’s company.
Shiro was admiring and running his fingers over the new tattoo his brother has, asking him how it feels to be a real prince now. He talked excitedly, unable to contain all of it.
“Isn’t it cool?”
“It is. It’s very pretty!”
The sun was colored yellow and outlined by white, making it extremely pleasing to the eye.
“Are you excited for your own?”
“Of course I am! But it’s a long time from now, so I have to reel it in a bit. Was it hard to raise the sun?”
“A little. It just felt weird extending my magic for that long, you know?” Ichigo opened and closed his hands, still getting used to the feeling he felt before. The veil fell over his eyes, causing him to blow it off making Shiro crack up.
“Unlike you, though, I don’t have to wear that thing all day. I can just take it off.”
“Shut it.”
The party continued on for many hours until it was time for the second coronation that signaled the end of the day. It went on like the first one except Ichigo stood in the crowd while Shiro stood in front of everyone. He had to take the same oath before he could be crowned.
His crown was also just a thin circular strip. It was made by repeating diamond shapes colored black on the outside and blue on the inside of each diamond. A black veil hung from this one. Shiro closed his eyes as Unohana put it on him.
“I crown you Prince Sudachi of the Night.”
Even though it had happened once before, the cheers remained the same. They all returned to their original positions outside with Shiro on the porch, ready to lower the sun and raise the moon. He turned back to Ichigo, letting him know he was ready to begin. The Prince of the Sun extended his hand again, lowering the sun for the moon. Shiro’s aura was blue as he made the moon raise high in the sky, casting pale light and darkness over the kingdom. Like Ichigo, a tattoo of a white crescent moon appeared on his left arm, marking him the Prince of the Night.
The action alerted everyone that the party was over and they all dispersed to head on home. Zangetsu, Shiro, and Ichigo remained behind as the rest of the people went to sleep.
“Tomorrow you will be informed of your specific duties. Tomorrow is your last day of break, so use it wisely and prepare for the schedule that his new job demands of you.”
The two princes looked at each other, seemingly ignoring their guardian. With a wide grin, they hugged, happy that they were finally sovereigns.