A/N: Written for the Becoming the Tamer King on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges Forum (come join us; we're always happy to see new faces on the forum), Azulongmon's task: write a ficlet under 300 words about conflict.
Squabble over Cake
Only the people who knew them really well or not at all know them to be brothers; the ones in between can only ever see the differences between them. Like how Kouji's taste-buds are far fussier than his brother's. How Kouichi much prefers mellow colours over the glaringly light ones of his brother's taste. How Kouji prefers the action, while Kouichi prefers the reflection. How they are the attacker and the defender in a game of chess – the white and the black.
Even once upon a time in the household, it was things like squabbles of cake flavours or past-times that shouted the loudest. Babysitters were fooled; if they hadn't looked so similar at the time they may have been best friends instead of brothers. And when their parents separated – when they lived apart – they changed. Physically. They looked less like each other, and people see the differences when they were together. A fuller face. A lighter shade of hair. Smaller eyes. Darker eyes.
Takuya had mixed them up at first, because he knew Kouji, and he saw a kindred spirit, because no-one else had made that mistake. Not even Kouji, not until he had known himself. And Kouichi,? He had known…only because he knew what to look for.
And that doesn't matter, because they are different, and conflicts might sometimes arise from differences – but so does a sense of kinship, those kindred spirits that make them, in the end, so alike.
Because even if they hadn't been related by blood, they would be brothers. They are fated to be – even if one of them doesn't even believe in fate.