Not always getting along
Given their personalities, Shion did not expect Saga and Kanon to always get along, since that was a stereotype of twins that did not always prove to happen. Most of the time, they got along well in everyday life, but today was one of the days when they poked on the sore points of the other brother in a rare argument, ignoring Shion as he tried to block out their raised voices behind the thick book of world history that had been intended for today:
"For being as clever as you are, it can be annoying as hell when you are so sensitive about things that you have no control over!"
"You are just jealous that I do better in the school lessons!"
Saga was the more sensitive of the two, and Kanon could be pretty mean at times. For Shion, who had witnessed their growth from newborns into the ten-year-old boys they were right now, it was yet another insight in how foolish it often was to expect twins to be identical in so many ways. And he had met a lot of different twins over his long life so far.
"Do not start a fight, will you, boys? Or I will send you outdoors."
Too late, Saga had grown angry enough to punch Kanon, and a fist fight started as they rolled around on the floor, wrestling and under name-calling. Giving up on even getting the lesson done with their current behavior, Shion used a minor Stardust Revolution to send them out from the small classroom, both breaking up the fight and trying to keep the brothers apart until they both had calmed down.
"Oh, oh. A far cry from our generation, indeed. I can not remember Aspros or Defteros name-calling each other like that, but then again, they were nine years older than us and would never have allowed themselves to be witnessed doing anything that may look childish," Shion heard Dohko call through his Cosmo.
"You tell me, old friend. Then again, those boys are only ten years old and I am trying to follow Master Hakurei's advice to let them remain children for a few more years before they shoulder the responsibility that will one day become theirs. Not everyone is ready for being a Saint at a young age like Regulus was."
He could almost imagine Dohko nodding in agreement.
"True words spoken in wisdom from a long life, indeed. Yes, there are cases of young children proving themselves worthy of a Cloth at a young age, but there is a reason why we do not send out Saints on missions until past the age of twelve at the minimum. Nowadays a lot of things have changed, children that age are expected to be in school rather than learning a craft or working."
Shion put a hand over his eyes, muttering about how annoying such changes in the outside world could be at times, indeed.
"If Aspros had been alive in this era, he would have loved to explore an alternative identity as a traveling professor for his missions. He did study a lot of various fields of knowledge as preparation for the opportunity to become Pope after Sage, despite that it all ended up in vain when that damn Fenir Wolf killed him before the choosing of the new Pope could happen."
"He did protect Defteros from getting crushed between its jaws because Defteros had just caught Sasha and Regulus from falling over that cliff edge, his instinct as the older twin to protect his little brother. It was not the fault of Defteros that his hands were literally tied at that moment by pulling them back up on safe ground, we others were pretty busy in trying to kill that overgrown wolf and it aimed for our young Goddess as a snack because it hunted those with vast Cosmos."
No one knew how that wolf from Norse mythology had managed to break free from the seal it had been under, but it had came straight to the Sanctuary likely due to the gathering of so many people with Cosmo, which it must have felt to be like a buffert of fresh prey and spiritual energy to cause terror with in the world.
"And he still saw his unexpected death as a chance to mess up with the army of Hades in order to ensure a victory for us from the shadows. Acting as a mole and pretending to have betrayed Sasha…only he could have mastered it to the point of not being found out at all, indeed, playing with the dual theme of the Gemini Saints."
Ah, the memories of those long gone…
Suddenly when remembering the class about the previous Gemini Saints a few days ago, Shion got an idea and left the classroom, aiming for the Gemini Temple where the Gemini Cloth was patiently waiting for their future bearers.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Again proving their different characters, Saga went to the main library building in the Sanctuary to cool off his head there with a favorite book, while Kanon went off to have an angry rant while doing some light training.
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid brother!"
It did feel nice to kick away some small rocks and other things that he could attack without any reason to hold back, but a small part of Kanon did feel guilty over verbally poking on Saga earlier. If things went really bad, then he likely had triggered a anxiety attack for his brother again that tended to happen when Saga was pushed towards a personal line, and for what stupid motive? Being angry over that Saga once again had gotten better grades than himself. Not that Saga would ever brag about it, but it had still annoyed Kanon to see his brother make such a fuss over a simple school test that would be perfectly normal in the modern world outside the Sanctuary, now in 1968.
"Ugh! Why did Saga have to inherit that damn anxiety disorder from our birth mother, and it made her unable to care even for herself back when we were little?!"
They did know their birth parents pretty well, being a married couple in the local village that had produced generations of both male and female Saints ever since ancient Greece, yet it also seemed a irony of fate that in this generation, the future Gemini Saints was born to a mother whose anxiety disorder had gotten worse during her pregnancy because she had worried herself sick about whether she would become a good mother or not, and her getting a postpartum depression after their birth, had not helped either. Even now, ten years later, she was needing regular medication from the healers in the Sanctuary, since its long history of Saints did not always mean Saints or other people who were what one would call "normal" and unexpected opportunities to study mental disorders long before the outside world, and any ideas of future children for her and her hard-working husband was out of the question.
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"
While Kanon would never admit it openly, he was actually scared of how things would be for Saga in adulthood when they most likely were Saints. If their mother, a normal civilian, could have such bad meltdowns on really bad days, then how would his brother manage to deal with being the Gemini Saint, likely leading the generation that would fight in the Holy War? And what if he ended up as the Pope, having to lead the whole Sanctuary?
"Ugh!"
Letting out a wave of his own Cosmo, Kanon shattered the huge rock in front of him. Finally, he had calmed down enough to not start a screaming match again.
"Kanon, is that you?"
Looking up, Kanon saw that it was his father that waved at him from a distance. Based on the fact that he had a hoe over one shoulder and a basket of food in his other hand, he must have been out on the fields earlier to check on the crops and remove weeds.
"...hi, dad…Saga and I had an argument earlier…"
Lifting a eyebrow and then nodding towards a stone bench to sit on, the farmer with his beard and hair in the same blue color as his twin sons, offered the younger son to keep talking:
"Dad…you know how…frustrating it can be when he reminds too much about mom on her bad days…how can you bear to still be married to mom, despite all that? You even had to give us to Pope Shion not long after our birth, because her depression made it impossible for you to care for all three of us and keep the fields and livestock in order, despite all four of our grandparents trying to help even though they were already pretty old back then…"
His father took off his straw hat and placed it on Kanon, allowing his son to brood under the shade.
"I knew of her anxiety disorder already before we married, since we both knew each other from childhood but originally did not think of romance as something to happen between us, which is why we married when we were closer to 30 years rather than 20 because other relationships had failed. A steady support net and people to always be at her side during her worst days, is what she needs, not prejudices and ignorance about the darkness in her brain that haunts Saga as well. Besides, if I had not married her, I fear that she would have become a victim of some scumbag that had the face of an angel but the hidden personality of a devil that would have killed her eventually. Some really nasty people believe that mental illnesses do not really exist, but that is faked for attention, and may even find pleasure in driving such persons to commiting suicide without any remorse for their part in that."
"What?! That is sick!" Kanon commented loudly in horror, feeling his anger melt away as his father explained more of the dangers that his mother could have faced in life if they had not lived here under the protection of the Sanctuary, without him as her husband, such as others not understanding why she could be so anxious at times and how that sort of narrow-minded views did not help.
" And you do not really like to hurt Saga with cruel words despite everything, do you, Kanon? It may not be intended, but poorly-chosen words can hurt more deeply than one may think."
The boy shook his head.
"No! But I do not want him to become a nervous wreck either, that needs medicine to function somewhat normally. I still can slip into nightmares of mom during that really bad episode back when we were five, after the burial of her parents when they had died not long after each other from high age, and instead of her, it is Saga…"
His father hugged him close.
"I know what you mean by fearing that Saga will end up like that, I think that is why Pope Shion tries so hard to give you the best upbringing you can get, despite that we can not raise you two in our own home. As for an apology about the argument earlier between you…this might help? My mother asked me to give this for you, she knows that this is a favorite for you both."
Kanon felt his mood brighten up at the small glass jar that he got in his hands.
"Grandma's homemade yogurt for tzatziki! Thank you, dad!"
Now feeling a lot more joyful, Kanon thanked his father again and hurried away to find Saga.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Saga had also calmed down when Shion found the older twin inside his favorite corner in the library, though he was still crying in regret over his own harsh words from earlier.
"Sometimes it feels like all Kanon and I do is argue between us, Shion…"
The former Aries Saint offered a cup of strong chamomile tea to the youngster, knowing that Saga would need its calming effect.
"You both are strong-willed and want to not be seen as identical copies of each other just because everything suggests that you are the future Gemini Saints, so I am not surprised that you crash at times. Not every set of siblings can always get along in harmony, it would be idealizing reality to such a degree that it is impossible to live up to."
Soon, Kanon arrived, and while both twins were still a little on their guard in case their tempers crashed again from a poorly timed comment or something such, the peace offering in the form of the glass jar with the treat inside was welcomed.
After leaving the library, they went back to the Gemini Temple.
"...Pope Shion, are we going to restart the history lesson again?" Saga wondered once he had placed the glass jar inside the coldest storeroom for dairy products so it did not spoil from the summer temperature outdoors.
"No, I realized that a different sort of history lesson may be better today, Come with me, please."
An identical look of confusion on their faces met him, and it grew as all three entered the chamber with the Gemini Cloth.
"Are you going to tell us the full details about Tiernan and Owen, the Irish twins who fought in the Holý War of 496 AD? Since you told us the whole story about Lydia and Elena a few days ago?"
But Shion shook his head as he placed one of their respective hands on the Cloth.
"Not me this time as the history teacher. You will hear all their life stories from the previous Gemini twins themselves."
"Wait, what…?!" Saga started in shock, before a spiritual force dragged them inside the Gemini Cloth.
~X~X~X~X~X~X
Author note: I really do not like the explanation of the origins for Saga and Kanon in Saint Seiya Origins, because of the rather unnerving scenario of a new mother somewhere in the world suddenly finding her newborn twin sons basically kidnapped the same day as she had given birth. So instead, Saga and Kanon are "local-born" in one of the villages around the Sanctuary, and rather than a separate evil personality caused by being possessed by a evil spirit, Saga have some problems with anxiety that he inherited from their birth mother
The idea of the Sanctuary having healers that are able to treat mental disorders to some degree, comes from the fact that the Saints often are born in different countries and the Sanctuary would basically be a melting pot of various ideas and discoveries in medicine from earlier time periods. It may not be up to the modern health care at times, but a better alternative than a lunatic asylum
Yes, I intend for Aspros to die in a different manner in this AU, he will still die two years before the Holy War but instead uses it as a possibility to be a mole in the Underworld for Sasha and the Saints. The fuller details of this will be shown in his and Defteros' part of this story