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Makoto was wedged in between Ren and Ran, each of them radiating a sleepy warmth, tucked up under his arms and dressed in their coziest pajamas as they were.
It was a chilly night in early winter and Makoto had agreed to babysit his siblings while his parents went out with their friends who were visiting from out of town for a few days.
Makoto had Ran’s favourite storybook open on his lap and was reading in his most dramatic voices while simultaneously trying to keep the volume of the tale down so that the kids would actually become sleepy and get into bed without a fuss.
“…and the Prince leapt from his horse, paying no mind to the men and beasts laying as though dead in the courtyard, nor to the guards and maids slumped against walls and into chair in the great halls and rooms of the old palace, for he knew now that they were only sleeping and that this was his one chance to wake them all.”
“How’d he know that?” asked Ren, frowning at the book.
“Cause the good fairies told him, stupid,” said Ran, “They said that if no one could wake the princess before the sun rose one the one hundred and first day of the curse that the whole palace would sleep forever.”
“That’s right,” agreed Makoto, barreling forward in hopes of finally coming up on the end of story time, he was supposed to have had the twins in bed an hour ago and if his mother caught them up this late it would be Makoto suffering through a lecture.
“So the prince climbed and climbed and climbed, to the highest room in the tallest tower where the good fairies had said the princess slumbered. As he burst through the door he could see from that high window the first light creeping over the edge of the thorny barrier. And he knew he must hurry if he was to save his kingdom and the princess. Turning about the gilded room his eyes alit upon a bed, the curtains drawn back and laying upon it as fair a maid as ever the prince had seen, dressed in cloth-of-gold with a circlet of diamonds and rubies laid over her brow and he knew that this was the princess of the dawn that the fairies had told him of. As he approached her he felt his chest grow warm and he knew at once that the princess was also his heart’s dawn. Kneeling down next to her place of rest the prince was overjoyed to see that under the swell of the princess’ bosom her own heart shone with golden light, and he bent to press a gentle kiss to her yielding lips.”
“Gross,” said Ren, making a face.
“It’s true love’s kiss,” Ran huffed, “It’s romantic.”
“It’s gross,” Ren asserted.
Makoto plowed over the argument that was sure to follow, with the last few sentences of the story.
“The moment their lips touched, true love’s kiss was enacted, and as the light from the one hundred and first sunrise swept across the palace grounds, one by one the maids and the cooks and the gentry and the stable boys and the dogs in their kennels and the singing birds all began to wake. The princess too, opened her eyes and gazed upon her prince, the bright rose-red of his heartshine radiating soft and bright through the fine linen of his shirt and she knew that this must be the ‘One’ the aunts had spoken of when they told her of her curse. Her gaze was soft, with such tenderness within it that it brought tears unbidden to the prince’s eyes.
–‘You are here at last my prince, my love, the light of my heart. I confess had worried in my darkest dreams that you might never come.’
—‘How could I not come for you, my only dawn? My heart would be as a winter’s night without my dreams of you.’
And though they were but strangers in truth they felt the love welling up from deep within their hearts and washing through them like the golden sun that washed over their lands, and with such a love between them they knew that they could face any foe, banish any demon and conquer any hurt if only they stood together.
And so it was that on that very same day, they were married to the clear ringing of golden trumpets in the high sun of the afternoon and they were crowned the Sun King and the Sun Queen. And they lived happily ever after.”
“The End,” chorused the twins, Ren reaching over to shut the book firmly.
“Next time, we’re reading one of my stories,” Ren declared, “Yours always go the same way, the prince and the princess meet, they find out that they’re eachothers’ heartbrights, the princess gets put under a curse and the prince has to break it with true love’s kiss and they all live happily ever after. Bo-ring.”
“You just think that cause you’ve never met a heartbright of your own!”
“Neither have you, Ran!”
"I did too!"
"Did not!"
“Guys, really,” sighed Makoto, “You shouldn’t fight so much. You’re brother and sister after all.”
“Sorry, nii-chan,” they chorused, not in the least bit contrite but making a good show of it.
“Come on,” said Makoto, ruffling their hair as he got up from the couch, “That was the last story, and now it’s time for bed.”
“Hey, nii-chan,” said Ran, suddenly, bouncing after him, “Haru-nii is your heartbright, right? Does that mean that you’re going to get married and live happily ever after?”
Makoto felt the blush creeping up the back of his neck and over the tips of his ears.
“Eh? Um, Haru-chan and I are just really good friends, Ran.”
“But how can you just be friends if your heart shines for him?” said Ran dubiously, “Doesn’t heartshine only happen when you’re in love with the other person?”
“Not necessarily,” said Makoto, shaking his head, and maneuvering her into her bed while she was distracted.
“Heartshine happens when you’re near your heart’s true mate,” Ren said knowledgeably, climbing into his bed and burrowing under his covers without prompting, “That’s what Manami-sensei said.”
Makoto had to laugh a bit at that, “That’s just an urban legend, Ren. Heartshine happens to lots of different people for lots of different reasons.”
“Then, what does it mean?” asked Ran, “What does it really mean, when you have heartshine for another person?”
“I wonder,” said Makoto with an enigmatic smile.
“Come on, nii-chan,” demanded Ran, tugging on his sleeve, “Just tell us!”
Makoto was abruptly reminded that his mother had said Ran had had her first heartshine with a boy about her age at the local park earlier that week, and had been alternately smug—lording the experience over her twin—and embarrassed about the whole situation.
“Well,” Makoto started, slowly, trying to remember what his mother had told him when he’d come home one day from swim club, in tears.
It had been right after he and Haru had met Rin and while they were at practice they had been standing close enough to bump shoulders, laughing about something Makoto couldn’t remember when their hearts had started to glow. It was the first time that Makoto’s heartshine had been anything but deep-ocean blue, a soft cherry coloured light that pulsed in time with his heartbeat. Rin’s chest had glowed a familiar, cheerful bluish-green, and Makoto had panicked because, well, he’d been heartbrights with Haru since they were still in nursery school. He hadn’t known anyone else could make his heart shine back then. He’d thought it was only Haru.
His mother had had to sit him down and explain to him several times that it was okay that he had more than one heartbright. That it wasn’t weird that they were both boys, like some of the other kids in his class said. And how it didn’t mean that Haru wasn’t important to him anymore, it just meant that Rin was also a special person in Makoto’s life.
“I guess it means that the person should be close to your heart. Whether it’s love or just a good compatibility, heartshine is your body’s way of letting you know that this person is or could be very important to you.”
“That’s so complicated, and that’s not what the storybooks make it sound like,” complained Ran, ducking her face under her comforter to hide her sullen pout.
“I know, it’s tricky and confusing, but that’s what life is like,” said Makoto, running a soothing hand over her hair, “Happily ever after, it’s a lot more difficult than stories make it seem. But, I think it’s probably worth it, in the end.”