[This is what has become of their boys. A little more tragic, a little more broken, and lacking in things they once had. But back together now. And trying their hardest to make things right, and to save their family, their home, and everything that matters.
Would they be proud? Surely, they wouldn't be disgusted by their inability to take care of their killer. They'd always been too kind for that. Surely.
And so Sousei sighs softly, even as Tenka clings tighter, even as the dams finally break and Tenka is able to finally cry. He'd been trying so hard, hadn't he? To plaster a smile on it. Even right after, when Tenka had said he was leaving the Yamainu, there'd been that damnable, broken smile. Sousei hated that expression--and still, he hates it. He knows they were both taught the same things...that they should smile when they're happy, cry when they're sad, and embrace their emotions with everything they had.
But Tenka was so bad at that, after their parents' death.
And Sousei had never been good at it at all.
His breath hitches as well, but crying does not and never will come easily to him, and he doesn't. Instead, slowly, he closes his eyes, and remains exactly in the same position, loosely grasping Tenka in return as he clings to him like a lifeline. And maybe this, too, is what Taiko had meant when he'd said that Tenka would need him.
(And he needs Tenka too... but Taiko had probably always known that, too.)
Still, it's Tenka's pain and Tenka's tears that help Sousei drag back together the pieces of his composure, because he'd always known--someone has to stay standing, with their head held high, always. There must always be someone.]
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Would they be proud? Surely, they wouldn't be disgusted by their inability to take care of their killer. They'd always been too kind for that. Surely.
And so Sousei sighs softly, even as Tenka clings tighter, even as the dams finally break and Tenka is able to finally cry. He'd been trying so hard, hadn't he? To plaster a smile on it. Even right after, when Tenka had said he was leaving the Yamainu, there'd been that damnable, broken smile. Sousei hated that expression--and still, he hates it. He knows they were both taught the same things...that they should smile when they're happy, cry when they're sad, and embrace their emotions with everything they had.
But Tenka was so bad at that, after their parents' death.
And Sousei had never been good at it at all.
His breath hitches as well, but crying does not and never will come easily to him, and he doesn't. Instead, slowly, he closes his eyes, and remains exactly in the same position, loosely grasping Tenka in return as he clings to him like a lifeline. And maybe this, too, is what Taiko had meant when he'd said that Tenka would need him.
(And he needs Tenka too... but Taiko had probably always known that, too.)
Still, it's Tenka's pain and Tenka's tears that help Sousei drag back together the pieces of his composure, because he'd always known--someone has to stay standing, with their head held high, always. There must always be someone.]