Title: Future
Author: B.J.B. Freya-sama
Genre: General
Characters: Caesar Silverberg & Albert Silverberg
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Caesar Silverberg lay dead asleep one endless afternoon.
Books strewn out by the meter, he found himself a nice comfortable one to bury his face in as he snoozed. Never mind that his mentor had a test more difficult to tackle than an enraged wild boar, and never mind that he was drooling away all the text in his book as he slept. Nope, he couldn't care less. There was nothing he couldn't do and nothing he didn't already know. The same vicious cycle put him in a slump. And really, was reciting the names of the men who fought valiantly to overthrow the Scarlet Moon Empire really all that important? Not a day went by where Mathiu Silverberg's name went unmentioned, and Caesar's brain was just frying.
Frying took a lot of energy, thus he slept. There was more to learn outside of Toran's affairs, he knew. The problem was, nobody cared to tell. And if no one cares to tell, he doesn't care to listen. He just sleeps.
He sleeps, until an oddly familiar thunk on the head wakes him, and he becomes as florid as his unkempt hair. The offending book that gave him the light thunk is plopped in front of his face, and he gazes up, eyes half-glazed.
He meets the cold eyes of his elder brother, to whom he hadn't seen in nearly three winters past.
Half-glazed eyes then become wide with wonder. "What? Why are you here?"
Albert doesn't answer. He just takes a seat beside Caesar and lets his eyes scan the haphazard display of text. This scene was familiar to him.
"Seems you haven't changed a bit," Albert said, not looking up, not really looking at anything but the books. It was this very useless garbage that prompted him to take his studies North to Harmonia in the first place. "I truly pity you."
"Save it for someone who cares," said Caesar, in the middle of a wide yawn. He cracked his back and shoulders with a nice long stretch and rubbed the rest of the sleep from his gloomy eyes. Great, he thinks, as if Master Goron's chiding wasn't enough, guess who decides to show up right out of the blue! This was bound to get ugly.
Albert laced his fingers together and placed them in his lap, seated upright and poised, head turned to face his younger brother. "I used to find your snoring during our studies distractive. Perhaps you should try sleeping at night."
"If you came here to trick me into doing this crap, it's not working."
Caesar just wasn't in the mood for this. For any of this. For his studies, his brother, his life, nothing. He did sleep at night, and he slept during the day. It was the only fun thing to do in Nowheresville Toran, albeit uneventful, and unuseful. Albert was the better of the two, he knew it, and he didn't care. Potential this, Silverberg that, yeah, yeah, yeah... it was the same old thing every single day.
"There's plenty of war around Harmonia right now. Interested?"
With a snort, Caesar just leaned back in his chair, arms folded behind his head, feet up on the table. So... Albert just offered to shove his little brother in the middle of some stupid war he knew nothing about? How very kind of him.
"Like war's supposed to be some big game." A smile drew across Caesar's ashen face for a change. For first time in so very, very long, he was interested. "Which nations are going at it this time?"
"You'll hear all about it soon, I'm sure." Albert rose from his seat, with that staid, superior attitude he emitted in cascades Caesar once drowned in as a young boy. This time, however, the younger Silverberg managed to keep his head above water. If Albert thought highly enough of him to offer a challenge, he was up for it.
"Yeah, I'll think about it." Caesar glared at the book in front of him. "This damn thing's getting less comfy anyway."
There was a hint of a smile rising onto Albert's lips. It's about time that lazy kid got his spark of potential lit.
"I look forward to seeing you."
Before he headed out the door, Albert turned to get one last good look at his brother. "Be sure to choose the path that best suits you."
With that, the door swayed shut with a soft click, and Caesar just stared at it, thinking. Perhaps there was future for him yet.
But until then, he plopped his head back down on his increasingly uncomfortable book and slept. After all, sleep is what endless afternoons intended for studying were made for.
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