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The fire flickered beautifully in his grey-honey colored eyes. They shone with bright fire and crystal clear tears that fell softly down his face. He was crying but his face was not contorted in anguish. His gaze stayed on the fire in a determined way. He was sad, yes, but he would not let it show.
As king he should not. His crown rested upon his head, shining and glittering as the fire reflected off the jewels and gold. The intricately made headpiece. It reflected the fire's fuel. Papers. One paper, as it burned to a crisp, showed a red seal that bore the local crest. The crest of the people.
It was given to him by someone lower than him. A commoner. Looking in the fire, he held two papers - a newspaper and a letter. The newspaper bore the words "King's Husband Admits To Sleeping With Another". The letter was open, both envelope and letter visible. On the envelope was who it addressed. Who it was sent to.
To My Love, Atsumu Miya
From Yours and Only Yours, Kita Shinsuke
The letter, words he wished he never read. Wished he never fell for.
Dear Atsumu,
It is I, Kita Shinsuke. I am a mere commoner compared to your stature and beauty that rivals the beauty of the great goddess of such. You might as well be her brother for I refuse to believe someone such as you is not a god that is kind enough to bless us with his presence. When your brother, Osamu, Introduced us, all I could think of was how beautiful and kind you were. When we first met, I was stunned that I was allowed near such a gorgeous piece of art.
To describe you in words would be impossible. No words could ever express my thoughts in truth to you. As the royal heir to the throne, being next to you feels like a crime as someone so far beneath you. I promise my words may sound like simple sweet talk, like I want something. But simply, all I want is permission to stand next to you and hold your hand, be there for you till the end of our days.
Unfortunately, you are betrothed to another, so I understand if my wish to take you around town to enjoy the sights and eat dinner is declined. He is royal, I am not. A royal such as yourself must not mingle with those beneath you. But I want you to know, if you ever want it, my heart is yours, and only yours, to hold til the end of time. I love you, Prince Atsumu Miya.
Sincerely,
Kita Shinsuke
His words were so sweet and well written. How could he not fall in love from the start? How could he not let his guard down to someone who knew precisely how to use his words? How could he not trust him completely? And yet, he failed him.
He should never have called off the arranged marriage. He should never have mingled with those below him. He should never let Samu introduce them. He was already falling for his betrothed, so why did he change his marriage plans for a liar?
He couldn't believe himself. He was so stupid. He had everything going right. He was going to be king, his sexuality had been accepted, he had a fiance he loved that loved him just as much. He was destined to be a great ruler with a happy marriage. Now all he had was a crown he deserved.
He was a great ruler, but he did not have his happy ending. He threw the letter and newspaper in the fire and watched as they burned like his husband's reputation.
Tears still streaming down his face. Watching the fire as the door to his study opened. He did not acknowledge his visitor. Truthfully, he did not want to talk to anyone. Not at that moment.
The door closed but there was another presence in the room. No. There were two. One approached him from behind. The person put one hand on his left arm gently, caressing it with their thumb while they used their other hand to grab his right hand and bring it up to their lips where they kissed his wedding ring. It wasn't his spouse.
If he knew how to write such beautiful frases, he knew that he didn't want to see him at the moment.
A soft kiss came in contact with the back of his head that was covered in his brown hair he had dyed yellow. He did nothing to stop the person giving him the bits of affection. He knew they would not beyond a kiss on the back of the head.
Nonetheless, he says, "I have a husband."
It did not matter if his husband had slept with someone other than him, he would not make it seem like he was dropping to his level. The other did not answer but they put his hand down and looked into the fire of vengeance with him. Meanwhile the second new presence moved towards one of the two desks in the room.
They were on either side of the door and one made an 'L' shape while the other was just the simple desk you may find an attendant working at. The moving presence went to the bigger of the two desks and stacked the paper, hitting it on different sides to make it a neat stack.
The king finally wiped his tears; he had no time to dwell on this for long. He had a kingdom to run, crying prevented him from doing what he had to. It was his husband's reputation that was tarnished for all, not his. He looked at the fire one last time.
Its flames danced as the letters of lies fueled its spark in the intricate fireplace.
3 deep breaths. That's all it took to calm the heavy feeling in his chest that still had a sharp pain as if he'd been stabbed. That's all it took. He was good at calming himself as being king was no easy task without it.
"Kindly move yer hand off my arm, King Sakusa," he addresses the presence next to him.
He does not at first till Atsumu looks at him with an expression that tells him again but in a silent, more demanding way. He finally lets go. He glances towards his fellow ruler but he's turning around walking to the desk the other was at.
He himself continued to look at the fire. His crown sat upon his head of black, curly locks in silver and ruby. His eyes were a deep obsidian to match and two moles on his forehead. Most times he was found wearing a mask but not at that moment.
The person at the desk Atsumu had walked to looked very much like the King at the desk with him. Same skin color, same base hair color however he had changed his to a gray compared to the king's blonde, and his eyes were more honey colored than gray. Their eyes almost matched the other's hair.
Pictures on the desk showed younger versions of themselves. The gray haired person was the king's twin brother, Osamu Miya. He had been the second born son by a mere 3 minutes but that set him and his brother heavily apart.
Atsumu was trained to take over the kingdom. Osamu was trained as well just not as much since his job was to advise his brother in his decisions and attend meetings of family heads within the kingdom, Inarizaki's, walls and councils between the neighboring kingdoms. They both trained in the art of combat however Atsumu had proved to beuch better at it. He was the King's shadow, good at everything the King did but always to a lesser extent than the king himself. Even in war tactics he was second place. Never was he to outshine his brother.
He still loved him though. Next to pictures on the desk were ones of his brother's spouse. All of these were drawn but had amazing detail.
One picture was of their wedding day. He could remember as clear as day just how happy his brother had been. Kita had been equally as happy. Everyone had been. Except for a visiting prince whose ability to read people was incredible. He was happy for them, yes, but he warned Osamu that something seemed off about Shinsuke and to keep an eye on him.
Why did he not listen? His brother sat in the chair at the desk. It was his afterall. The one across the room was his husband's.
"You've married an Icarus, Tsumu. He flew too close to the sun and we both knew it. But, did you really have to burn the letters," He asked his brother.
They both noticed how he was slowly taking more control over the kingdom by convincing him to give a different power for he was, quote unquote, "better suited to do it". They noticed yet they did nothing. And now, a woman, who noticed this overtaking of power, entered their marriage as his mistress.
"Because, Samu," He responds, not looking up as he begins working on the paperwork he was doing until he had read about what happened and stopped. "There's no point in keeping something so full of lies. Besides, they're never truly gone. I read them enough times since each was sent that they're practically ingrained in my memory. They'll never leave me till the day I begin to lose my memory."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"If you're willing to throw something so important to you away, why won't you let me kiss you just once," Sakusa asks, turning towards the brothers.
He seemed like he was pleading. Atsumu knew Sakusa still held feelings for him even after he married. And deep down, there was something screaming at Atsumu to get the traitorous man back for cheating, yet he refused. He just shook his head.
"He's still my husband. Just because he cheated doesn't mean I should. It would be wrong. And two wrongs don't make a right. You should know this as the king of your kingdom."
It was so sweet how the other king never let go of his feelings for him even after he cut their arranged marriage off. Sakusa still never married anyone. He supposed it was because he hoped one day he might get that romance between him and Atsumu again.
"I do. You're right. But why stay with him if he slept with a woman? He clearly doesn't love you."
"Because I believe he still loves me, it's just that, while I was gone, he needed a way to relieve stress and that way happened to be sleeping with a woman. He told me he no longer would."
"Tsumu, he's lied before. How do you know he's not lying now," Osamu was skeptical.
He would not forget the letters he received himself from Kita. It would be a lie if he said introducing Shinsuke to his brother wasn't the worst mistake in his life. His brother deserved better and he felt so heartbroken when he let the guy that made him realize he was bisexual slip through his fingers like sand in a strainer.
Now he knew he should never have stepped down to the level of talking to a commoner in the first place. He set everything into motion. This was his fault.
"I can't. I just know that I love him and I can't bring myself to get a divorce. No other ruler divorced their spouse. Why should I break the cycle?"
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and words filtered in.
"Atsumu, can we talk?"
Speak of the devil and he will appear. It was Kita. Of course he wanted to talk. He could handle there being a problem.
"I don't know, can we after the way you betrayed me?"
"Please, I want to settle things between us. I know you just got back from your trip across the sea and you just found out, but I don't want us to fight forever."
Atsumu paused thinking. The other two in the room clearly wanted him to say no, but he just couldn't say it.
"Come in. But be warned, both My brother and King Sakusa are here, and I think you can guess where they stand in this little issue," he warned and in stepped Kita.
His hair was gray with black tips at the ends and it lay flat against his head. His eyes were a hazel that drew Atsumu in. He wanted to be mad, but every time he saw the eyes of a man that could write such beautiful words and once had such a starved looking face, he couldn't. It was a spell he was put under.
With the entry of the traitor, Sakusa moved to stand next to Atsumu. He had a guard yet the dark haired king was insistent on being his protector. It was something he did when they were together. Osamu took an approach as a protector just the same, placing his hand on his brother's shoulder.
He responded by patting his hand to let him know it was ok. Afterall, it wasn't like Kita had physically injured him after his brother's hand came off his shoulder, he stood from the seat he had taken and moved towards his husband.
"Please," He begged. He hardly showed emotion yet now he seemed on the verge of tears. "What can I do to make it up at least a little? I can't take back what I did but I can at least make the wounds scars. Heal them at least a little. Even with wounds I inflicted upon you, I can fix them just the same and you'd still be as gorgeous as ever with any amount of scars."
His words were so perfectly pieced. He knew just what destroyed his walls.
"Unfortunately, the only cure for a wound like this is time. But it might have already passed. I'll never fully forgive you for what you did but you can't make me stop loving you and your beautiful words." He paused and smiled softly as he grabbed his lover's hands. Then he spoke again.
"Did I ever tell you what Osamu said when I received your first letter? He said 'Be careful with him, Tsumu. He will do whatever it takes to survive'. I find it funny that then, I never thought you'd ever hurt me in any way. Not with the beautiful words you wrote. And yet it was the words you wrote to another that hurt me."
"I promise, it will never happen again."
They hugged. Atsumu's eyes wandered to the fire. The paper was long ago turned to ash. Kita's eyes wandered to his lover's twin, causing Osamu to cross his arms. He was not naive.
They separated.
"I have a meeting to go to, do you mind staying here and doing paperwork work while I go to it."
"Of course mi amor."
A small peck on the lips and Atsumu left the room. Osamu followed close behind. Sakusa followed as well but stopped next to Kita.
In a threatening tone he says, "If he knew how you look at his brother of all people, he would drop you in a second."
"I'm a king just like you, Sakusa. You threaten me like you'll get him back but you forget I stole from your grasp with a mere letter. He won't find out, and you won't tell him. That is, unless you want to be exposed about your kingdom mingling in illegal trades? That you directly handle, I should add."
"Touche. He never finds out as long as you keep that information away from the press."
"Deal."
"Say hello to the mistress for me."
Sakusa leaves the room.
Atsu walked with his brother as he played with his ring. He had no meeting. He just needed out of that insufferable room. Tears were forming in his eyes. Angry ones.
"Samu, remember when you asked how I knew he wasn't lying?"
"Yes?"
"Now I know he is."
"How?"
"There was fresh lipstick on his neck."
Samu hugged his brother.
"It's ok to cry. Even kings need to cry."
All his twin could do was hug back and cry. There was so much more than Atsumu noticed, but he decided right now was not the time to tell him. The flirting with his brother, the slow take over of the kingdom, his reasons behind marrying him. All were not things he needed to hear at that moment.
But all Atsumu could think was, did he make the wrong choice?