Koinonos (κοινωνός)
Companion, partner
If he could, then he would keep the sun from rising. It didn't have to be for good, just for a few minutes, maybe an hour or so. Just so that Gumi would sleep a little longer. Diva or not, she shouldn't push herself like this, like she didn't realize she had limits.
Even Divas and Paeans had their limits.
But no, the birds began to chirp slowly, and though the sun itself had not risen, the darkness was slowly starting to lighten as twilight approached.
Yuma knew Gumi was awake. He could all but hear her mind whirling like a storm. She might be calm and composed on the outside, but that only meant that her depths held things most couldn't even dream of.
And she had too much to think about. He stroked her emerald-green hair and held back a sigh. Decades of planning, of biding their time and building alliances and pulling strings, and the entrance of a new Duet had put everything on hold.
Gumi wasn't mad at the new Duet. She was angry at herself for not seeing it, and did what she always did when she was frustrated at herself, much to Yuma's dismay.
She took it out on herself.
Yuma's hand went from her hair to her lips, to trace their slightly swollen outlines. For once it wasn't from his kissing her, but from her own teeth gnawing at them until they had swollen from the abuse.
Gumi didn't push his fingers away like she had several hours ago. He waited, nonetheless, even if he would rather she was healed sooner than later. The longer she went with her self-sustained injuries, the heavier his heart grew.
"Fine," she murmured, though he had not said anything. She was kind, the master of his heart.
Smiling faintly, Yuma leaned down to kiss her. He didn't need to apply the Force this way, but it was a reward for himself, to do things this way.
From the way her arms snaked around his neck and pulled him closer, Gumi didn't mind either. They remained intertwined in each other's embrace long after her wounds were healed.
The second Duet she and Len met was also arguably the most flamboyant and extravagant one in the history of Divas and Paeans. The Diva of the Dancing Water was heralded as the most beautiful woman in all of Hamartia and had been since her ascension as a Diva. Light pink hair swayed gently, and though she dressed in clothes simple and old-fashioned, Rin realized that the rumors were not exaggerated, and that Diva Megurine was truly deserving of the title of most beautiful. Her features were radiant and elegant, arranged in what could only be called perfect harmony with each other, and the air of mystery and composure hung around her like a light perfume.
Her Paean was more known, however, for his preferences in fashion, and today was no exception. Wearing his violet hair long and in a ponytail, with the flowery robes of a woman draped over his broad shoulders, he made for a dissonant sight, but one familiar from the songs. Hanging from his waist on a belt was a single sword – the only weapon the Paean of the Dancing Water needed, because other than his fashion he was known for being a deadly swordsman. His blue eyes looked over Rin, gave a longer glance to Len, and then returned to stay on his Diva.
The two of them were a pair that would draw gazes regardless of who they were.
They dropped by just before she and Len would officially be sworn in as the new Duet. Dressed in clothes that probably costed more than everything she'd worn in her life before this combined, Rin waited in the building nearest to the border of Kipos. They would be revealed to the citizens in the center of Rakia, where the most people could see, because entrance to Kipos was restricted.
Diva Megurine was not like Diva Utatane. At least, not in her approach.
"Call me Luka," the pink-haired Diva offered her kindly, after introducing herself and her Paean. "When you are comfortable."
Rin nodded.
"And if you need to ask something, let me know," she added. "I will help with what I can. And Gakupo will, too."
"Of course." The Paean Megurine's voice was a deep baritone, which clashed even further with his sense of fashion.
A footman came to fetch her and Len, and the Duet of the Dancing Water let them pass.
"Are you okay with this?"
Too caught up in her stress, Rin had just made the assumption that Len was fine with everything, in the way those who did not care about their surroundings could not be affected. He looked like his mind was impervious to everything that made her feel stressed, as if they could not leave a mark on him.
But seeing Diva Megurine speak on behalf of her Paean, and her Paean immediately agree to it had made Rin wonder – was Len okay with this?
It was important that she knew where he stood on this, in case it came back to bite her in the ass later on. Granted, this was a weird place to ask the question, but. Better late than never, and better now than later.
Len reacted in the way he reacted whenever Rin did something to pay attention to him. He smiled, like his heart was about to burst with joy and he just could not hold it back.
At the same time Rin wondered if this was the stupidest question she would ever ask.
"You are the only one in the world that matters to me," he whispered. "I should be asking you, Rin – are you okay with this?"
His words were sweet in tone, and yet Rin could not shake the feeling that it was sweet not in the sense honey, but something more like a toxic flower.
If she said she wasn't, then who knew what Len would do?
"I'm okay," Rin lied immediately, when her mind pulled up the memory of Len throwing a plate at the princess. Though his feathers were gone now, and his beauty the only physically unearthly thing about him, Len wasn't human, did not play or abide by human laws without her involvement.
"Then," said Len. "So am I."
She hadn't eaten much, so the feeling of wanting to throw up shouldn't have been present.
Rin swallowed, despite her throat feeling dry with anxiety. This was happening. She was going to be a Diva, with a Paean and all that meant. The weight of this unfounded affection was heavy and made her nervous, but that was something she'd have to deal with, as was the ceremony they were about to enter as its stars. The Diva and Paean equivalent of marriage.
Also something that had never really made its way into her plans. Rin had never planned on being a Diva, never planned on being married, and yet here she was.
"I'm nervous," she admitted. Len was focused on her in the way a hawk might on its prey – his gaze, dark and piercing, was something of great weight. "I'm scared. I don't know what's coming in my life."
Life was full of the unexpected. All her careful planning after getting her life into a semblance of order had been completely shattered along with the covering that Len broke to reach her in that ceremony.
It was, if Rin was to be completely honest, not something she appreciated, but she couldn't let that possess her for long. Princess Ia had made it clear that there were going to be games she was going to have to take part in. Either as a piece or a player.
She reached out, palm up. Hesitant in action, but eyes filled with a yearning that burned like hellfire, Len slowly reached out as if to make sure he didn't displease her by doing so, and carefully took it like it was the most priceless of treasures.
He symbolized the power she now had, the power she still didn't feel was rightfully hers. But this wasn't a dream and she wasn't one who wanted to be swept up in the storm.
Princess Ia, for all that Len had been furious, had truly given her a warning, a reminder that she needed to stop pitying herself and get ready. If not for herself, then at least for Miku and Mikuo, who she still hadn't been able to contact yet.
A Duet was called in to protect the king and heir while the princess met with them, all because they had not sworn to never raise arms against the rightful king. If Rin were to hazard a guess from the blatant hint Princess Ia had given, it was simple. The king didn't want to meet the two risks that Rin and Len had become – unexpectedly, at that – but also didn't want to lose them. Sending Princess Ia, who was known to be the princess most loved by the king, was to appease them with the – honor? Something like that.
And once she and Len did swear, then what? No one had expected a new Duet, so everyone would be interested, forced to make new plans.
In the games they were about to be thrown in, Rin didn't want to be a piece. She didn't want to be a player, either, but it was better than being the puppet of someone else.
"Can I trust you?" Ironic that she asked of trust, when she did not trust Len herself, not fully. It was only because he was a Paean and the significance of the bond between the Paean and the Diva that made Rin even be asking him this. "To be on my side no matter what, to not betray me?"
And yet that bond was exactly why Rin needed reassurance. Because this bond was something that had not taken part in over fifty years, and there had only been twelve other cases before, all that took place well before her birth.
Rin herself did not feel any particular bond towards Len, nothing that would fit what he displayed towards her. Nothing like what the Duets Utatane or Megurine had.
If she learned that they were broken a pair, that there was something wrong with them, she wouldn't be surprised. Disappointed, irritated that she would have to deal with the fallout – because Rin had no doubt that the blame would somehow find itself pinned to her – but not surprised. It would make sense, even.
Still, soon she was about to be legally bound to him in front of the king, so Rin wanted verbal confirmation. That would be a step towards – something she could work with.
To the blunt distrust, Len's reply was silence. Silence because he looked so full of ecstasy, so overwhelmed with emotion that he was unable to speak. His hold on her hand tightened – not to the point of pain, but so that he was clutching her hand like he never wanted to let go.
If he wasn't the greatest actor in the kingdom, then Len was genuinely happy at her question.
"You describe what defines the most important parts of me," Len said, once his rapture had apparently eased enough for him to regain his words. "I am yours. To use, to abuse, to do as you please."
Rin didn't blink or break eye contact with him. Eyes were the windows to the soul, and it seemed that as the Paean of Darkness his soul was molded from the shadows of the night.
She didn't have any way to read the soul, but she was good at reading behaviour, and his, at least, was that of an honest person.
"I hope you'll prove it to me," she said, tightening her grip on him once before releasing. A long moment later, Len slowly released it, as if waiting for her to say he could continue holding onto her. When she didn't, Rin could almost see in him the soul of a disappointed puppy.
"I will," Len promised.
Maybe one day Rin would be able to trust him.
Rin had expected for the ceremony to take place in front of a crowd. In the open air, with people.
The first day of rehearsals – which, why had she not expected rehearsals, even Choristers rehearsed so why would a Diva be above such things – she learned that was not the case, that they would be in a hall in the palace instead.
"Of course there will be people partaking," said Princess Ia when Rin voiced a question. "A good deal of noblemen will witness your naming."
The common people, said Princess Ia, would see her after this.
By the time the actual ceremony came to be, the fittings and rehearsals had her near the end of her ropes, and the only reason she was managing to hold onto the fraying ends of her patience was because she had Len. If she snapped, he would snap, and then they'd be in trouble and she did not need that right now.
But the real ceremony was still, despite the almost unnecessary amount of rehearsals they'd been forced to cram in, nerve-wracking. The cue was given, and the doors opened. Somehow, Rin managed to keep a straight face despite the countless pairs of eyes in noble heads glued to her face as she and Len, dressed in clothes that were too heavy and too expensive, made their way down the great hall, to where the king and the high priest awaited.
Most of the speech – covering the history of the Divas and Paeans and Hamartia, and the honor of today as well as the ascension and other things Rin had mostly heard through one ear and spilled out the other – had been finished when the doors were opened for them to enter, so there was really only one last part of the ceremony they had to participate in.
"Kneel, children," said the priest, an old man with a surprisingly booming, robust voice.
They did, and thankfully there was no tripping over the clothes onto her face in front of everyone.
"Diva Rin, and Paean Len," said the priest. "By the magnanimous love of the goddess, you are two parts who have come and become a whole. Treasure this harmonious bond, and become a Duet to sing blessings upon Hamartia as others before you have done. May your songs go down in our history as one of love and peace and hope."
Next was the king. Maybe it was the age, but he did not share the ethereal beauty of Princess Ia. He looked, well, like a well-groomed middle-aged man in very regal clothing who could carry himself with the grace and mannerisms of his station, which was probably a very inappropriate thing to think of one's king one was about to swear to.
"Diva Rin," said the king. "Do you swear to serve the kingdom of Hamartia and its rightful king, to uphold its peace and wellbeing, to be its sword and shield, song and blessing?"
All words that were included in the oaths sworn by previous Divas.
"I do," she said.
"Paean Len," said the king, and repeated the same words he had asked of her.
She felt Len glance to her, and after a second, nodded slightly.
"I do," he said, and managed to not sound bored like he had during rehearsals, which she deeply appreciated.
"Then, as King of Hamartia, I welcome you as the thirteenth of the blessed pairs that have watched over this kingdom since its birth. Rise, Duet of Dark Paradise. Your name is Kagamine, the Sound of Mirror."
So that was their Duet name. They'd been keeping it all hush-hush, because it had to be revealed at the ceremony and not a moment too soon or something. Rin didn't like mirrors, but she wasn't going to very well say that to the face of the king.
Rin offered a hand to Len, because if they did rise, then they needed to do it as a pair, as they were now pronounced. Len, predictably, took it with joy radiating from his face.
And together, with a new name, tied by their oaths, they stood up. One pair together for however long the rest of their lives would be, for better or for worse.
AN: And now they're married (or the Diva-Paean equivalent of it, anyways). The ceremony is traditionally kept short and the words minimal because some Paeans threw a fit (see: Kiyoteru and some others) so they quickly learned to not make it unnecessarily long.
The five Duets:
Rin-Len: Duet of the Dark Paradise/Kagamine
Meiko-Kiyoteru: Duet of the ?
Luka-Gakupo: Duet of the Dancing Water/Megurine
Miki-Piko: Duet of the Storming Steel/Utatane
Gumi-Yuma: Duet of the ?