Green eyes had fallen half lidded, staring in the strange middle ground between the end of his nose and the distant, unfocused grounds across the room blocked almost entirely by the snowy haired man’s opposite shoulder.

      His hand drew back in surprise at the other’s bodily arch against him, eyes having drawn wide and he blinked at the other, leaning back, and head picking upright to blink at the other’s sudden jolt to bury his face in his hands.

      What had... just happened... was that... had that been what he thought it was?

(( 🗲 ∵ @rotforged ))

He doesn’t know how long he’s been running, not really. A few days maybe, long enough for the soles of his fight to ache, like the bones might pierce through, burdened by the weight. Long enough that most of the blood has dried but not long enough that the pain has stopped. 

He crashes through the trees, glances over his shoulder and thinks maybe he’s put enough distance behind him. He has to stop running, if only for a little while. Not even he has the endurance to keep running from one end of the world to the next. He needs to stop, to eat and find water and sort his thoughts out. He hasn’t thought much more the past few days than keep running, just keep running, you’re almost there, you’re almost gone. 

There are some caves up ahead, overgrown with weeds and tree roots, dark enough that he can just sink into the shadows for a while and hope no one notices. He runs straight for them, then falls through the mouth when one of his feet catches a tree root.

"Is that what you try to convince yourself everyday?" Tenka inquired, hand supporting his face as he stared Kotarou without blinking even once.

Stubborn he was, and this was definitely not an offer he would do to anyone. A part of his own self inquired him. 'Why are you doing this?'. 'They are trying to destroy, to kill your family'. 'They want to end with everything you know and love'. Such thoughts were far from being lies, and Tenka was aware of that. Hating himself for feeling what he still felt sometimes made him angry, but it is what it is. And he coudn't run away from how things worked in his life - as he never did before.

"I don't believe it. This whole garbage you say. 'The Law of the Clan is absolute'. Is it, now? DO you truly believe on that? Or are you trying to convince yourself of this since both you and Shirasu were children, because of all you went through? Like a well-done brainwash?" Tenka stared him more. "Either way, who's commanding the Clan? As far as I'm concerned, it is both of you. You make the rules. And as such, you can change that. Call me stupid for all I care!"

A laughter, and the eldest Kumo shook his head, while staring Shirasu's twin.

“I see. So you don’t know them then.”

At this point, Sakichi struggles to even call it a DISAPPOINTMENT. How many people had he asked about the memory that plagued him, only to receive nothing? How many times had he described the image of those two siblings—twins?—only to find their identities no closer than before?

// I’M ON MOBILE AND ON A DIFFERENT BLOG BUT THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY ADJVGHJA

      He couldn’t much blame the other for the scepticism, the idea of true and stubborn refusal to leave someone’s side was something rare found... even from the time Wasabi had come from... the ye olden days of Europe and Japan...

      Devotion was so valued... and so seldom... that when one stumbled across it in the bleeding daylight... they often knew not how to hold onto and simply stared on in blind reverence. Letting it slip away while they damned themselves for ages to come.

      But he dared not let something like this slip through his fingers... it was the first time... the first time he’d felt... dare he say complete when in the company of another.

     He'd not thought on what he'd offer up as a sign of his devotion when the day came, because honestly when the population had skyrocketed into the billions and the magical populous shrank away from the sun, Wasabi had given up his hope on such a grandiose ideal striking him with it's lightning.