III. Chapter 4

"Brother, what have you done?" Ruth asked yanking on Aki's arm till he turned around to face him.

"What I had to do," Aki answered simply, still hidden behind the veiled hat.

"Aki!" Ruth reached under the veil to lift and flip it over the hat so he could see his brother's face clearly.

Aki's face carried a mixture of resignation and determination. A feeling of knowing no other choice and adamant at following through with his decision.

Though, that was not what drew Ruth's eyes, Aki looked exhausted, like the next strong wind could knock him over. It was fare for Ruth to be scared, Aki's skin a sickly pallid, paler than a ghost, even lips lost of blood and eyes surrounded by dark circles so bad they were nearly black.

Ruth could understand the need for the hat, finally, for Aki was someone who'd die rather than show a single weakness. There is no sin greater for him than to appear less than perfect at any time.

The twins had stopped on a desolate path back to the main gate, unused for the most part, surrounded by a thicket of trees. The surrounding was dark and full of the usual quietness of wild.

Yeran and Zeke had left earlier than them and the twins had stayed behind so that they would not be entering the city at the same time, not ready to give even a hint of an a aquintance.

Those two would be meeting with Yor by now, they knew. 'Keep your friends close and enemies closer' sort of thing, as Yeran said. Ruth was not inclined to trust him. Not till he proves himself.

"You, invited a fifteen year old who's hell bent on world domination to help us? Have you lost your mind?" Ruth questioned, desperate.

"Terra is hardly the world Ruth," Aki dismissed him absent-mindedly.

"Aki!_" Ruth cried, "_that was not my question,"

"What do you want me to say?" Aki met his eyes, a plea to stop asking questions written in them, which Ruth ignored.

Call him cruel, but he had to know. Why? Why was he doing this? What drove him to seek help so urgently? Their rebellion army was rising, within a few years there would be enough. If Aki is seeking help, that means there is something more that he is hiding.

"Whatever it is that you are hiding from me. I know you want to spare me, to keep all the worst parts to yourself, but we are a team Aki, we have always been, even before we were born, tell me, tell me so I can help you!" Ruth pleaded, holding both Aki's in his.

Aki stayed motionless, eyes downcast, the hat threatening to hide him again.

"Aki please...," Ruth was not above pleading, not when it comes to his brother.

"He wants me to kill you," it was but a whisper, only caught for the reason that Ruth was not standing a foot apart.

"What?" He asked, even as he understood the meaning.

"Yor, he wants me to kill you," Aki raised his eyes that looked broken, shattered like an abandoned glass, but lit by a glowing fire at the same time. Anguished, but resolute.

"He wants us to disaffiliate completely, he's no longer satisfied with driving wedges, now he wants to tear us apart," the rage in Aki's voice was enough to set the world ablaze.

"We knew this was going to happen eventually brother," Ruth reasoned.

"I do not think he wants to kill you, not truly, but when can we ever be certain of his decisions? He's forcing me to choose between you and Nuwee,"

Ruth stared, suddenly aware how huge a burden his brother carries, caught offguard, as always. He knew not what drove him to wrap his arms around Aki, so tightly, he felt the breath being punched out of his brother.

"You don't have to do this alone Aki, you always forget that, we will solve this together, alright?" He muttered, tightening his hold.

Aki's hands came around him just as strongly, the fabric on his back bunching up his fists. He sighed, tucking his face briefly into Ruth's neck, onky to draw back, not few seconds later. Ruth let him go, but not enough for his arms to completely fall away.

Aki nodded.

"Alright, together,"

Ruth smiled.

"Thank you, now, tell me about that Prince,"

He suppose there was enough contemplation in his voice for Aki chuckled, wetly, but Ruth was not going to point it out for he might get a few holes in his body.

"We do need him, unfortunately," Aki replied with a playful smirk.

"I don't trust him,"

"Good, neither do I, but we don't need to trust him to work with him, we just need to have some... common goals,"

"Like what? World domination?"

"Like I said, Terra isn't the world,"

"It might as well be._" Ruth groused, good naturedly.

"_Do you think he can actually do it though? He's a tiny fifteen year old after all."

"You are only what? A head taller than him? He probably hadn't had a growth spurt yet,"

"Exactly! Are we going to rely on a kid for world domination?"

"Say 'world domination' one more time and see what I do to you,_" Aki threatened.

"_ he's like, barely two years younger than us, it doesn't count. And, he has more resources than we do, also, the way he just knows things, Yeran is more than what seems to the eye, Ruth, underestimating him is the last thing we should do,"

"Besides, more allies never hurt, now does it?" He added.

"Underestimating even a baby is not something I do Aki, you know that. What I am saying is, how are we to trust he would not be tattling everything off to Yor?"

"Tattle? What are we? Toddlers in a play date?" Aki giggled.

Ruth raised a brow, suppressing a smile himself.

"No, he's not someone to put all his cards in one deck, I doubt he does anything without scheming five steps ahead," his twin reassured.

"Well, I trust your judgment, and if anything went down the drain, at least I get to say 'I told you so,'" Ruth sighed, faking a put off.

Aki swatted at him.

"Let's go, we have delayed enough,"

"You first, I came out informing that I'm going hunting and I would need to being something back,"

"I don't think anyone knows where you are?" Ruth asked, suspiciously glancing Aki up and down.

"Nope," Aki giggled again, twirling away with a skip.

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Hey,

Just a question, are Aki and Ruth too touchy for brothers? I'm writing them based off of my own brother, who's three years younger than me (he's 17) and is very touchy all the time, with our parents and me, at least, he's always hugging us and giving us kisses and putting an arm around my shoulders (he's taller than me, now,) when we are in public and glaring at everyone who even looks at me, but that might be caz we are an Asian family and we were raised to believe our siblings are our best friends, which, true, mostly.

I was just going off on the thing where neither of them had anyone else to rely on but each other so they are really close, and twins are usually even closer, right? I just wanna know if this is too weird to you guys? Caz it's pretty normal for me, as I said.

So, tell me if I gotta change that, without commenting something nasty like sibling incest or the like,

Sorry I rambled, I just had to ask that.

Thanks.

So, again, HI ,HI,

Your Author is back, and author is motivated, so new chaps might come out sooner than before.

See ya,

Arkhane.

Ruth.

Aki.

So, Aki and Ruth are paternal twins, so, they don't look more alike than siblings born in different times, which is to say, not a lot, they share some features like eyes and hair, but they don't look identical.