That night, Kanon kept tossing and turning in bed. Rhadamanthys tried to ignore him, until he felt Kanon get up from the bed. He looked up at the clock. Three in the morning.
"What is it?" he asked, pushing himself up on the bed.
Kanon looked around for his slippers. "Aside from us, nothing can get into the castle, right?" he asked as he bent down to put them on his feet.
"Of course not. Like you asked. If Saga could get in here it was only because your souls are so alike," he said.
"Are you sure?"
"Kanon what is really the issue?"
Kanon shook his head. "I'm gonna check on Saga," he said, standing up from the bed.
Rhadamanthys rubbed at his face. "He's fine."
"Pfff. Saga's never fine, much less in here," said Kanon, and walked out towards his twin's room.
He turned the doorknob softly and opened the door. Inside the room he could see Saga's tiny form under the covers, outlined by the underworld's red light filtering through the window.
"What is it Kanon?" asked Saga. His brother entered the room and sat down on the bed next to him.
"Just wanted to check on you," he said, passing his fingers through Saga's hair. He could feel that his soul was agitated. It had felt much farther when he was in the other room, but now he could sense it clearly. There was something upsetting him. He touched Saga's tiny cheek with his thumb. The bruise from his fight with Aioros had almost faded.
"Did you have nightmares too?" asked Saga.
"…No," answered Kanon, before he could realize that perhaps he should have lied. But in his and Rhada's house he never had to lie about anything anymore, so it had caught him unguarded. He noticed Saga's surprised look, a tinge of sadness shining in his eyes.
"Oh," his brother said. "So even in the same house…It was only me."
Kanon laid down next to Saga and threw his arm around his small body. He really was so cute like this, but his eyes…his eyes were the same. His eyes were the same as Kanon remembered seeing them when the darkness had started awakening inside him. When he'd started to change. A shiver of unease ran down Kanon's spine when he thought back to those dark nights, and he almost couldn't bear to remember it.
What that thing had done to them, when they had been so very little…It was too cruel to think about.
"Did you have nightmares about the darkness?" he asked. "It's sealed in the lowest circle, for real. Rhada and Athena sealed it"
Saga burrowed under the covers "I dreamt about it, but I also dreamt…That Aioros never forgave me. That Aioria then left me, because he could live without my love, but not without Aioros' love," he said. "And I think, if it comes to that…I would prefer it. If Aioros really never forgives me-"
Kanon pulled him closer against his chest.
"Never is a long time. We've been dead and alive a few times and we haven't even tasted a bit of never. He'll come around, you'll see."
"How? What do I have to do to make him see I'm trying my best? That I'm giving all that I can give."
"You can't," said Kanon, tapping Saga's nose with the tip of his finger. "That's always been your problem Saga. So strong and mighty, the golden boy of the sanctuary, always the best... You've always been able to do something to get what you want. But this time you can't. You can only wait and believe. There's no changing the heart of people. Not even with all your powers."
Saga clung to him. "But when? When will things change? When will Aioros stop resenting me? When will you stop looking at me with fear? When?!"
Kanon held him against his chest as Saga cried.
When?
Even he didn't know.