The Inseparable Princes

30. यौवराज्यम्

"Bhaiya?" said Shatrughna, as he knocked the door of Rama's room.

Sita opened the door instead, as Rama had already fallen asleep. Rama was almost taking care of the entire administration of the state.

"Umm, bhabhi? Pranam! M-may I come in?" he asked hesitantly, as he kept his glances respectfully low.

"Sure!" she said with a warm smile as he walked in and sat near Rama's feet.
"Is everything okay, Shatru?" she asked.

"Yeah Bhabhi. I just wanted to spend some time with Ram bhaiya, if you don't mind," he said.

"You can, surely. I'll go to Keerti now, okay? You can tell me once you're done," she said and walked out of the room, leaving the doors closed.

Shatrughna was feeling somewhat uneasy, for some reason. And usually, when he felt that way, he went to Bharata, but this time, he felt like Rama was the one he needed. He quietly began to massage his feet while Rama woke up suddenly.

"Lakshman?" he said sleepily, as it was always him who came at midnight to massage his feet, instead of sleeping. And besides, they were twins. Although not identical entirely, they did have quite a number of similarities, looks wise. "Wait. Is that you, Shatru?" asked Rama, correcting himself this time.

"Ji bhaiya. I'm Shatru," he said, with an unusually matured smile.

"Didn't you sleep?" asked Rama, sitting up straight.

"Bhaiya, I couldn't. I was just, you know, not able to," he said.

"But why? Is something wrong?" asked Rama.

"Yeah it's I- No actually- actually I don't know,"

"You want to sleep here? You want to try?" asked Rama, asking him to lie down on his lap.

"No bhaiya, you should sleep," he said, as he continued massaging Rama's feet.

"What happened, Shatru?" asked Rama repeatedly, as he refused to sleep once again.

"I've never done all this as much as Laksh has, bhaiya, because I've always been closest to Bharat Bhaiya. But I love you just as much. I love you just as much," he said, and this time, he couldn't help but give in and lie down on his brother's lap, and in not too long, he fell asleep peacefully, as Rama smiled at him knowingly. 

★★★

"Kaikeyi, your father..." started Dasharatha, as the family sat together for breakfast. "He wants to meet Bharat and Shatru. You both will go, won't you?"

"Umm... Pitashree actually, I d-" started Bharata, but was cut off by his father.

"You both have to go," said Dasharatha. "He isn't keeping too well.

"But-"

"No, no, no! You have to go,"

★★★

"We have to go, Bhaiya, in like what, an hour now. Why? I'm in no mood at all!" said Bharata, while Shatrughna looked particularly troubled.

"You have to go, Bharat! Your grandfather, he's ill. You need to visit him, if not for yourself, then for Maa," said Rama.

Lakshmana, noticing his twin's silence to be extremely irritating, asked him such that only he could hear him. "Hey, you're doing well, right?"

"Y-yeah, of course!" he said, trying to look all jolly.

"No, you aren't speaking at all. You should be ranting your head off now, that is your normal behaviour," he explained.