Serpentine

プロローグ

Gyuutaro couldn't believe when his mother handed him his newborn brother.

He was so small, too fragile, like some glass pane in a hurricane. His cheeks were swollen with warmth, and his nose was red like berries. And with a little encourage, Gyuutaro watched an eye peak out from beneath eyelashes.

An eye; a blue eye and evenly dashes of grey, a grey so brighten by the kiseru smoke. The infant opened both eyes now when there's Gyuutaro's hand coming right up to smoothen tiny hairs.

His hair, however, hadn't grown yet, but Gyuutaro spied the white hairs from the baby's eyelashes, and what tenderness softened his gaze as the infant's settled into the slow strokes.

"What's his name-"

"Did I say you could speak?" His mother bit sharply, just taking another soak to her kiseru, but answered anyways to Gyuutaro's joy. "His name is [M/N]."

"[M/N]?" The name suited his tongue, it sat sweetly and rolled around pleasantly like candy. The baby gurgled at him and Gyuutaro's heart came overtaken with a warmth that could really burned fingertips.

This was his sibling! His sibling! His new baby brother! Adorable, tiny, and little timid baby brother.

And in that excitement, he gently kissed his brother's head tucked in the swaddling cloth until his lips were tingling. They even shared the same eye color!

It was a surprise when his mother went a month early into labor, and much a surprise when his brother came out chubby and round and red cheeks- an indication of healthiness.

Gyuutaro wouldn't admit publicly, if he would at all because that's how he was, that maybe a little envy came from all that attention swerved away from him- if he had any. A new child born in unexpected circumstances? Especially popping out beautifully? Jealousy.

But Gyuutaro eventually turned over for his brother, and quickly, too.

Now he'd cherish his brother for lifetimes ahead, sparing every piece of affection that could come from his tiny figure. He'd commit to guard the innocence swaddled in rags, his promise coming deep from the heart and so low in his throat.

And while his brittle arms quaked from beneath the bundle, strained from the weight, but Gyuutaro pushed through because the baby was his brother and an oath to himself to be make something of himself.

His ragged breath turned steady in beat of their hearts, and he sat right on that creaking old floor, legs crossed, and he lies that baby right in his lap. It's a protective stance, really covering the baby when he's hunched over. Two fingers wiping his brother's cheek stop to hold the back of his neck.

The only present thing about his mother would be what smoke's filling the air, wrapping itself around the brothers like a warm blanket, and all he could see- all that enveloped his vision- were those bright, blue eyes tinted with the shadow of love.

—————————