Hello, and welcome to the 'redux' of SawyerRaleigh's Secrets We Keep, redone in my style since she couldn't figure out what to do with it.

The main 'plot' of this story remains the same, as a story of Subaru and Hokuto doing very twincestuous things, and how their relationship grew. Yet it has my little spins on it that will make it different, and hopefully still enjoyable.

There will be six parts to this, the second is already written and the third is in production.

Here's hoping that you still enjoy this!

And I know it's true; that visions are seldom all they seem

But if I know you, I'll know what you'll do

You'll love me at once

The way you did Once

Upon a dream

It had started when they were six, with a film that they had watched together, something that had been translated from America, a fairy tale story.

Hokuto had been enamoured with it, sweeping herself up into the story as first the princess, then when realizing the limits of the role, the three fairies rolled into one vibrant package.

Subaru hadn't been quite so enchanted, it was pretty, but he didn't see the appeal of it. But his twin wanted to play games of Sleeping Beauty now, and because he loved her, he went along with it.

Not that it was always easy to keep up with how she leapt from piece to piece, from idea to idea as he very well knew. And thus they were at one of their few standstills where he couldn't handle something and yet it appeared to be necessary.

"Come on Subaru! You have to kill the dragon so you can save the princess!" Hokuto yelled, waving her small arms in agitated motion at the trash can that had been dubbed the villain of the movie. "Otherwise she's gonna eat up the princess and the prince and clean out her teeth with the fairy!"

Subaru clenched the stick tighter in his hands, despite Hokuto's insistence that it was the sword of the movie, he couldn't see it as anything other than a stick, and tried to imagine that the garbage can was an evil dragon, that was going to eat up the princess that wasn't there, then him, then his big sister, and couldn't. All he saw was a garbage can. "I can't hit it Hokuto-chan." he cried. "What did it ever do wrong?"

Hokuto frowned at him, green eyes serious. "It's a big mean dragon. Do you want to be dragon dinner Subaru?"

The stick fell out of his hands sadly. "I would be dragon food if it meant I didn't have to kill it." he whispered to his sister.

She sighed, but all the anger went out of her eyes quickly, leaving them sad and green. "Okay then, the dragon's gone." she said, trying to move the game along. "It flew away and went to go take a nap somewhere with no princesses and no Subarus."

He sighed in relief, and they moved away from the not-a-dragon-garbage can to a tree filled part of the great yard. "Then after the dragon flies away, what happens next Hokuto-chan?" he asked, wanting to know how much more there was to do.

She thought seriously, her dark eyebrows pulled down in concentration. "Then, the fairy and the prince go back to the castle," she led them over to a tall apple tree, shedding white blossoms like snowflakes, soft and silent, "And then the prince goes and wakes up the princess..." she trailed off as she realized the error in her plans. "We need a princess."

"I could be the princess," he offered, wanting to help. "I have to lie down on the ground, right? Be a sleeping princess?"

"No." she retorted, still thinking. "You can't be the prince and the princess at the same time, otherwise the game becomes impossible." She thought a little bit harder, bright green eyes shining in the sun.

He was content to watch her work through the problem, his beautiful big sister who looked like she was born to be the sunlight itself.

"Aha!" she exclaimed. "I will be the princess instead!" her eyes lit up happily as she spun to face him in victory.

The only thing that came to his mind at the burst of energy was; "But aren't you the fairy already Hokuto-chan?"

She made a flapping motion with her hand, he guessed to wave away the previous role. "I can be the princess too." she said with dignity, flopping to the ground on her knees to start picking flowers and attempting to weave them into a circle. "Once I have my crown, then we can finish the game." The string fell to individual flowers in her hands and she scowled at them, trying again to make them into a circle.

He sat on the ground too, watching her hands as she looped flowers together with much concentration in her eyes, humming the movie's theme a bit awkwardly as each flower went together, one after another like footsteps in the sand.

At last she finished, placing the crown on her head proudly, not caring that the loop ended up too big and one end fell over her ear. "Okay, now I'm the princess, and I'm going to be sleeping, and you'll have to wake me up with a kiss."

And she flopped over onto the grass dramatically, the flowers falling back out of her hair, green eyes shut in a pretend sleep, waiting for him to finish their game.

And yet, instead of leaning over and doing what she wanted, he found himself watching her instead, like he wanted to memorize everything about her instead of the onmyoji chants and rituals, like she was more important than all of those.

She was, really, since she was his only sister, his only twin.

He couldn't ever imagine being without her.

Hokuto opened her green eyes in annoyance, looking at him. "Subaru, you are supposed to be kissing me awake." And she shut her eyes again.

A wave of awkward ran through him, and he sort of bent over her, his face suddenly growing hot, and he didn't know why. Yet for some reason, it felt so scary, the idea of kissing her.

But she didn't say it needed to be like in the movie, right? That was one part he remembered well, how the prince had kissed the princess awake.

With his face hot and his heart thumping, he pressed his lips to her cheek for the briefest second before pulling away.

She made a grumbling noise and he realized that he had gotten it wrong. "Subaru...that's not going to wake up the princess. Do it properly." And this time she watched him, making sure he wouldn't run away without her.

His face got hotter, and he didn't think he would be able to do it at all. But when he told her so, she frowned at him. "I'll hold my breath till you do it right." she told him, and made good on her threat.

It terrified him to see her not breathing, and that fear pushed him past the other fear of kissing her badly.

He leaned over again and softly, quickly, pressed his lips to her till she blinked her eyes open again.

When Subaru pulled away, she grinned at him. "See, you can do it!" she said as she sat up. "You just need to be braver."

As she brushed the flowers out of her hair, he pressed his hands against his cheeks and was surprised to find them warm still. But as he breathed, they slowly cooled to how cheeks were supposed to be.

A bright blue butterfly fluttered past the both of them, and Hokuto shot to her feet as it flew away. "Come on Subaru!" she cried as she started to run after it. "Let's go get the butterfly!"

He followed after her willingly, in her footsteps as she charged after the fragile little butterfly, through the dappled sunlight underneath the trees. She was all color and light and fire and beauty and life.

Subaru always wanted to keep her that way.