Moon Princess Chapter 13: Darkness, a voltron: legendary defender fanfic

Moon Princess
Darkness

Erasing the memory from his mind proved impossible.

In the back of his mind, he still remembered Ryo's small frame staring at the family grave as rain poured down around them. The boy's chest rose and fell, his eyes which mirrored Akira's staring at the familiar name. Ever since the incident – the kidnapping, Ryo remained in a panicked state, looking around for something which wasn't there.

His dead twin brother, obviously…

Takashi's hand tightened around his younger brother's, his mind attempting to keep his own feelings under control. "Akira was a rather odd child, wasn't he?", one adult said. Another said, "It's a shame. Why did the moon child have to die? The matriarchs of both the Shirogane and Kogane families are devastated."

And yet, life went on.

At least, life went on for everyone else in the family.

A scream woke him from his slumber. Takashi found himself getting up, heading towards his brother's room at the manor – the room he used to share with Akira. Sliding open the door, he found Ryo shaking under the covers of his futon. Takashi slipped in, bringing himself under the covers, listening to Ryo's teeth chatter. Pulling the boy close didn't stop the shaking, and the only noise from his brother worried him, as the chattering said so much even though Ryo said so little.

"What did the kidnappers do to Ryo and Akira?"

His words made his grandfather's head dart up. Takashi rarely if ever saw fright in the man's eyes, yet the day he decided to ask that question he saw said fear. "Takashi, don't ever say Akira's name again."

"But…"

"I am the head of this family, and you will do what I say."

"What about Ryo? Are you going to not say his name either? He's practically dead, isn't he, but how am I supposed to help him if I don't know what happened?"

The man's facial features softened, another rarity. "Some things are better left alone. Ryo will talk when Ryo will."

Talking when Ryo would have meant going through a couple years of utter silence, but at least the amount of time between nightmares kept growing until Ryo no longer had nightmares. Of course, Takashi wasn't privy to everything done for his younger brother. He wasn't really sure when Ryo started talking again, let alone making friends with others. The boy remained distant, only coming out emotionally in his music.

In all honesty, Ryo's songs haunted Takashi. His younger brother came up with lines such as, "mirror of me broken into a million pieces", and with these Ryo became a pop sensation.

Mirror of me broken into a million pieces -
Where has your name gone all these years?
Cutting into my skin these broken shards -
I'm left in oblivion attempting to find myself.

The interpretations of just those lines varied among fans, and yet Takashi knew these words were about Ryo losing his twin, a twin everyone came to forget. He found himself unable to listen, something which frustrated Ryo. He remembered that once upon a time, it was Ryo who would cry, and not Akira. Akira mostly smiled Now, Ryo only cried through his music, shutting himself off from everyone.

Of course, him becoming Keith's legal guardian didn't help their relationship.

"How dare you! How dare you replace Akira, Takashi? And with what? Some kid…"

"Ryo, I've got a headache. There's a lot of paperwork involved in this."

"You don't get it!"

"Ryo…"

"You don't get it at all!"

"You've not met Keith, so is it fair to…"

"Fair? What's not fair is you replacing Akira! Have you also forgotten him or is this your way of compensating for his loss! Because…"

"I don't need some penchant teenage pop idol whose method of compensating involves hiding all of his feelings and emotions in his music rather than…"

"That's why you can't listen to them? Because they remind you of Akira? Because for you it's just easier to forget and replace him?"

"Out!"

And then there was the last conversation they had.

"I don't want to meet this Keith Kogane kid. I don't care that he's likely distantly related to us, and that's why you were asked to take him in."

"Come on Ryo. Don't be like that. Can't you be at the launch. It would mean…"

"I'm not going to be there if he is."

"Ryo…"

"Don't act like you haven't done anything wrong, Takashi! You think that just because a few years have passed that I'll finally be fine with this kid you replaced our brother with? I don't care that we're the same age. I want nothing to do with him. He's not Akira! Yet now you're wanting me to show up and pretend like there's nothing wrong."

"Well, yeah. I did ask that you not…"

"You used the words 'that subject'! You couldn't even bring up Akira's name!"

"Ryo, I couldn't say anything because Keith's listening, and…"

Erasing the memory from his mind proved impossible.

Akira's smile was infectious to say the least, but always chased the rain away. Yet, that day at the funeral it kept raining and raining. He remembered wanting to cry so hard, yet some adult telling him not to cry, but man up. Remembering Akira's smile also proved so much better than remembering what happened when Akira and he were kidnapped, as every time he remembered he felt as if her were suffocating.

His twin was dead, and he'd never get that smile back.

The adults didn't seem to care or understand. "What a horrible child. I'm glad he's dead," said one adult, while another said, "I'm glad they killed the little monster. He was such a horrid child."

So, life went on, because nobody wanted to remember the horrid child.

Except life didn't go on, because Ryo couldn't help but remember Akira differently.

Except, of course at night when he'd awake, the memories of what happened raging in the back of his mind. While these memories thankfully became a fog, something remained in the back of his mind – the men wanted Akira, but they wanted to hurt Akira. They did hurt Akira, and that's why Akira died, yet Ryo found himself unable to wrap his mind around why they'd want to touch the "moon child". Half of what they said, he didn't understand.

"Hey, Ryo. You're having another nightmare."

His eyes wouldn't open, yet he'd feel Takashi getting into the futon with him, pulling him close. He didn't need to say anything, yet he couldn't help but feel dead inside. After all, something very important was lost, yet nobody seemed to understand how he felt. Constantly their grandfather would say, "don't ever say Akira's name again."

Except, he was an exception to the rule. When he finally started talking again, nobody balked at him saying Akira's name. Possibly though, everyone was simply too shocked to hear him speaking again. Grandfather didn't care. It wasn't though until someone told him, "you're such an amazing child" and he responded with, "no, Akira is," that he really understood. Their response back was, "who's Akira." Nobody remembered.

Mirror of me broken into a million pieces –

Somehow, he managed to get his feelings out on paper, into his music. Nobody understood how incomplete he felt without Akira, but then again it was just to easy to erase something they could not see.

Where has your name gone all of these years?

Some of the girls thought he was referring to some lost love interest, and yet he was honestly too young when the first song became such a hit. He was interested in girls, but never found himself interested in any specific girl.

Well, until recently when he started dreaming of a girl with brown skin, pointed ears, blue eyes and white hair. In his mind, she wasn't his love interest, but that of his brothers. Oh, did he hate Takashi, meaning he'd rant and rave in his songs against the girls. In part, this was why he took a break to go to college. The inspiration wasn't there yet was – in a way he didn't like. Why should he be upset with some skank stealing his brother – the one he hated for replacing Akira?

Cutting into my skin these broken shards –

"What do you say regarding the girl who decided to attempt suicide because of your song?"

"I'm not sure whether to be more appalled with the fact a certain fan misinterpreted a line I meant to describe a painful feeling to me decided to treat suicide like some kind of romantic thing, or the fact they're comparing the way I feel to the way someone who does struggle with suicidal thoughts every single day."

"So you're not suicidal? The lyrics you wrote resonated quite well with some who are."

"If they can find solace in my song, I'm glad. But no, I'm not suicidal."

Except, the Akira part of him was. He'd dream about it late at night of late. In one dream his Akira-self was with Shiro talking to these strange people. He felt the blade pierce his side, felt angry at himself for morning the loss of his father, but glad he said Takashi was like a brother. The dreams left him with negative feelings, being that dreams were meant to be an insight into one's psyche.

He didn't thought want to go back to counseling, but the family didn't want anyone to know he'd been in counseling for his brother's death.

I'm left in oblivion attempting to find myself.

How could he find himself when his family's solution was to forget and replace? Finding out about Keith left his stomach upset. "How dare you! How dare you replace Akira, Takashi? And with what? Some kid…"

Takashi was working on the paperwork he needed to become the legal guardian of the kid, but the fact his older brother was taking in a complete stranger the age he was – that Akira should have been – didn't sit well. "Ryo, I've got a headache. There's a lot of paperwork involved in this."

"You don't get it!"

"Ryo…."

"You don't get it at all!"

"You've not met Keith, so is it fair to…"

In fact, he didn't want to meet Keith. "I don't want to meet this Keith Kogane kid. I don't care that he's likely distantly related to us and that's why you were asked to take him in."

"Come on Ryo. Don't be like that. Can't you be at the launch. It would mean…"

"I'm not going to be there if he is." He wanted Shiro to choose Akira and him over that boy. He wanted it so badly, for someone to acknowledge the fact Akira once existed.

"Ryo…"

He wrote his feelings into his music, refusing to cry. He wasn't supposed to, but doing this made him feel better. At least, they did for a short period of time.