The States

Tar Heel

His twin and his sister are gone, and the world dims as David learns how much he hates being left alone. 

His hands do not shake as he signs the notice of secession. 

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David's been mocked before. 

It was to be expected. He had been a colony made of bootleggers and pirates, rural and thinly populated for a while. He'd had an accent thicker than anyone else's for the longest time. 

It's fine. He can bear it all. 

But here are his people being made a mockery of. They point at North Carolina on the map and call it the reluctant state, say that they are a state of cowards, joke about buying up all the tar to make his statesmen stay. 

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Davis can't tell the difference between him and Daniel. Their supposed president doesn't seem too bothered by this fact. 

David, personally, is a little insulted.

Just because they're identical twins doesn't mean they're the same person. 

Daniel is the reckless one, the one that doesn't think things through. He's smart, sure, and no one can write a battle plan like he can, but he has a habit of leaping before looking. He's impulsive and stupidly brave.

David is the more observant one, the one who knows sometimes you just have to go and take it and sometimes you have to wait for it. He's smart enough, observant enough to figure things out without having to be told. 

There is a reason there are two Carolinas, after all.

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This war is tiring, a never-ending chess game where he must always be on edge or risk a checkmate. (At least in a battle, enemies and allies are helpfully color-coded.)

The house has the same fragility as congress meetings before the war, like the wrong word or action could lead to damnation. 

He knows what he looks like; he knows how his accent is clipped and his words are pronounced and enunciated perfectly, everything to escape that image of an illiterate backwater colony. 

This war requires that he tread carefully, so David learns how to play the game- how to smile and laugh when the jokes start, how to stop the force of habit that is his clean-cut enunciation so that his accent is thicker. At least fifty percent of him is that famous southern charm, and he shows it. 

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Jackson brushes a curl of Scarlett's hair behind her ear, a gesture Alfred had done many times before. 

But Alfred's fingers never lingered on Scarlett's cheek, never made Scarlett look so trapped-

His pen snaps in his hands, ink splattering over his hands.

Daniel looks at him and the realization hits him like a bullet.

He knew.

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"How long has that been happening." David gets out between gritted teeth.

Daniel can't meet his eyes, and David's heart drops to his stomach. 

There are a lot of things David would do for his brother. There are a lot of things he would forgive Daniel for without hesitation. 

Risking Scarlett is not one of them.