First posted on AO3
Dark themes including incest in this story.
Something was wrong with Ardyn.
He'd been acting rather strange in the last month but no one else seemed to have noticed. It was mostly some small, almost inconsequential things that he did that made Somnus feel something was off.
His brother seemed more cold than he usually did around people. Outwardly, he still acted the same but something about how he stood, how he looked made it seem to Somnus that he was acting. Even his eyes seemed far more perceptive, almost piercing in their gaze when they looked at Somnus or anyone else. Their parents did not notice anything wrong, but they were hardly around anyway. They barely even knew their own children.
By far the biggest issue Somnus found wrong was that his brother, the man he had looked up to, the man who had been by his side their whole life… Did not want to be around him anymore.
It was so very strange. Everything had seemed normal between them until one day it wasn't. Ardyn barely acknowledged his brother anymore. They rarely spoke or saw one another.
Maybe Somnus was even just imagining the other issues just so he could try to reason why his brother was neglecting him. He had tried to bring him up to him once, but Ardyn had brushed him off.
Was because Somnus was himself now newly considered an adult as a man of eighteen? Did Ardyn now think his younger brother did not need him anymore?
If that was the case, well… Somnus didn't want to be an adult. He wanted to go back to how things were. When he and Ardyn would be able to talk about everything and anything. When they would laugh as they competed in a hunt or just sat in companionable silence during a game of chess.
Another month passed and things did not change between the brothers. The older Caelum had began to travel, leaving for days at a time.
Somnus tried to strike up conversations with his brother when he was around but Ardyn seemed uninterested. He would wander away with some pathetic, at least to Somnus, excuse. The younger brother tried asking Ardyn to play chess with him, hunt with him, train with him. Anything he could think of that they once used to do. But nothing came of it.
So then Somnus tried to orchestrate ways where Ardyn would have no choice but to interact with him. Some of his plans got rather convoluted near the end as he tried to get them together. But it did not work. And it seemed Ardyn could tell what he was doing and asked him to stop his foolishness.
Properly chastised, Somnus did.
The feeling of loneliness the younger Caelum felt intensified.
Their parents were dead. Murdered viciously at the hands of some unknown assailant. Somnus was unable to see their bodies thanks to Gilgamesh. He was told it was best not to let his final memory of them be what he saw now.
The younger Caelum could only wonder how badly the person that killed them must have hated them.
Though they were not the most loving of parents, Somnus had truly loved them. He understood that castle business left little time to raise children. Especially when a strange disease spread across the lands and there was no way to deal with it as of yet. His mother and father had done the best they could, considering their circumstances. It didn't mean Somnus wasn't bitter about how little time they had for him but it meant he understood.
In tears, Somnus went to see his brother. He wanted comfort. He wanted his family.
But once again Ardyn told him he was busy. The older Caelum then locked himself away, in his own grief no doubt.
Somnus was left to grieve without the last of his family.
Somnus watched his brother often but he never seemed to look his way. The younger man began to believe nothing could be done to salvage their relationship now. Ardyn seemed to dislike him. Maybe even hate him if his actions were any indication. His brother wanted nothing to do with him.
"What is the matter?" Gilgamesh asked one day, sensing his Lord's unhappiness.
"Nothing." Somnus sighed. He didn't feel like training today. He looked over at the castle from the training field. He knew which window belonged to Ardyn. What was he doing in there, he wondered. Studying, sleeping, or maybe even gazing out the window? Was he looked at Somnus now?
"Come on now, I can tell there is something wrong." Gilgamesh prodded.
"It is nothing, Gilgamesh. Just something I must come to terms with that is giving me trouble. Do not worry over it."
"As you wish. But as you appear to be of no mind to train today… How about we take the chocobos out for a quick hunt? And then maybe take a short break near the river? It is looking to be a fine day for a little nap, perhaps?"
Somnus smiled, something he had not done often lately, and nodded. Hunting and napping were two things that the younger Caelum was quite partial to. He was glad he still had Gilgamesh.
It had been almost a year now and both Somnus and Ardyn rarely interacted with one another.
Somnus still found it hard to deal with. He didn't understand why things were this way. He still wished to fix it.
But it seemed nothing could be done, at least on Somnus's side. He could only pray Ardyn would come speak with him about what was wrong one day.
Another tragedy.
Gilgamesh was dead. Somnus's oldest and dearest friend. The man that had trained him from a young age... Was gone. He too, had been found dead. But this time after a night of battling daemons. Whatever had gotten to him had been vicious, tearing into him like an animal.
Somnus wept alone in his room after the funeral. Ardyn had not even come to visit his brother that day.
Somnus had no one to grieve with. He was alone.
Weeks passed and Somnus felt even more alone even with people around him. The castle was always busy with people. But the younger Caelum didn't want them. He wanted his brother.
Somnus confronted Ardyn finally, his emotions flaring up after celebrating his birthday alone. Ardyn had been gone for his own and Somnus hadn't even known until he tried to give him his present. That gift now lay discarded underneath the bed in his room. It had been kicked there in anger at the news Ardyn was not even in the castle.
In the middle of the night, with no one else around, the younger Caelum marched over to his brother's room. Ardyn was already been outside, maybe on his way out of the castle again. He never did inform Somnus when he was leaving.
Somnus had then unleashed his anger, grabbing hold of his brother before he could try to wander away with another excuse. He asked him, voice raised, what was wrong with him, why he was acting that way, why he seemed to hate him, why he didn't speak to him or even seem to want to be in his presence anymore. Somnus just wanted to know.
… The younger Caelum was wholly unprepared for the reaction he got from his tantrum.