The sleep was the best thing, he decided.
Saeran opened his eyes lazily, staring up at the ceiling. He didn't shift his body when his eyes darted over to the clock, the mint greens widening ever-so-slightly when he saw that it was already four in the morning.
His body still hadn't fully adjusted to the whole concept of sleeping more than three hours at once. Or the idea of getting real food instead of pills and sugary sweets. Or even the sensation of not having a suit restricting his movements to make him feel like a prisoner inside his own body.
Even the roots of his Saeran's were beginning to grow back in, and they were redder than he had ever remembered them being.
After all, so much had changed.
But the sleep was still the best thing.
Saeran closed his eyes and wrapped his arms tighter around the (h/c) girl clinging to him, breathing in the smell of her hair.
It never failed to be a surprise to wake up, every morning, and find her at his side.
The sweetest surprise.
The boy let out a sigh, perhaps in preparation to drift off into another dreamless slumber before the sound of cursing from another room pulled him back into a state of alertness. He raised an eyebrow at the sound, an amused smile flitting across his face before pressing a kiss to (Y/N)'s temple, crawling out of bed.
"Need help?" He asked once he had snuck up behind his brother.
"Gah!" The redhead exclaimed, practically falling out of his chair. "You scared me, Saeran! Geez!"
Saeran rolled his eyes, glancing at the code his brother had been working on before wordlessly adding a comma between two parameters. "You need sleep, Saeyoung. I saw you working on this before (Y/N) and I went to bed."
Oh.
That's another thing that had changed.
His redhead brother had abandoned the Luciel persona, deciding that it was time to go back to his roots as Saeyoung. He'd claimed that he was working on a plan to get out of the Agency and begin working with Saeran at Jumin's Intelligence Unit, but that plan wouldn't go through for a while.
"Quiet, little brother. Leave the complicated stuff to your big-brother-defender," Saeyoung responded with a goofy smile, causing Saeran to let out an ungraceful snort.
After two weeks of tension following their return from the Mint Eye, things had finally begun to calm down in their family.
The process was slow going, but Saeran felt it in the little things: the way he no longer tensed at the call of his name, the way his body no longer felt nausea at the sight of a healthy meal, the way the sight of his brother began to calm him instead of frustrate him.
Saeran was healing.
And not just him. (Y/N), too. And even Saeyoung.
At last, all three of them were beginning to grow used to each other, to this whole idea of living together in the bunker.
"Have you decided if you're going to the party or not?" Saeyoung asked, after a moment of silence.
Saeran sighed, plopping himself down on a nearby couch. He stared at the ceiling as he thought about his brother's question.
V had decided to hold another party through the RFA: one to commemorate the return of its original founder (though she wouldn't be joining the organization itself for a long time to come) and to raise the funds necessary to reintegrate all the Mint Eye believers and disciples back into society.
Saeyoung had to attend, as a member of the RFA, but V had extended the invitation to both Saeran and (Y/N). Thus far, Saeran had shown little interest in going and rekindling the flames of their shared memories at the Mint Eye that he'd worked so hard to dampen. But the date of the party drew close, only two days away, and the boy knew that he had to make a decision eventually.
"I'll go if (Y/N) says she wants to," Saeran said after a long silence. "But I don't see any benefit to attending."
"V said that there's something he wants to show you," Saeyoung ventured, turning away from his keyboard to face his brother. "He thought that you and (Y/N) would like it."
"Did he specify with 'it' is?"
The sheepish chuckle from Saeyoung was an answer in itself. The redhead opened his mouth, perhaps to convince his little brother to attend the party, when another voice interrupted them altogether.
"I want to go."
The twins raised their eyes in unison to the source of the voice.
"To the party, I mean," (Y/N) clarified, tossing Saeyoung a sleepy smile as she rubbed her eyes.
"What are you doing up?" Saeran asked, eyes raised in concern. His sleep schedule was still healing from years of neglect in the Mint Eye, Saeyoung the exact same as him in that regard. But it made him worry to see his lover up at such an ungodly hour, especially when she was so vocal about loving her slumber.
"You weren't there in bed," She mumbled, flopping onto the couch and throwing herself into Saeran's arms. She said nothing more, already beginning to doze off as she made herself comfortable while she koala'd herself around Saeran's chest. The boy felt a blush rise to his cheeks, used to her affection but used to it in private, behind closed doors. But if the girl noticed his flustered state at such open love, she didn't show it.
Next to them, Saeyoung stifled a laugh.
"Quite the girl you found yourself, Saeran." An amused grin had risen onto the redhead's face, never failing to enjoy an opportunity to tease his little brother.
"Quiet," Saeran grumbled. He shot his brother a glare, trying not to move to avoid disturbing his lover as she slept—now completely asleep—atop of him. "You found her, too. She told me about how you two kissed in the cabin."
A momentary silence followed, and for a second Saeran worried that he had said something wrong. Should I have not brought that up?
But the boy had no reason to fear.
Time had allowed him to forget how deep his connection was with his twin, but the present was proving that bond to be strong and stronger with every new opportunity.
In front of him, the redhead laughed.
"You've got me there, Saeran," Saeyoung said with a chuckle. A new sort of grin spread on his face, one mischievous and light with amusement. "But I never truly had her."
Saeyoung winked, and Saeran felt a blush spread over his cheeks, knowing the meaning of his brother's words.
Her heart was always mine, Saeran knew. Even when she left.
Even when he had been awful to her, even when the Elixir had stolen the love from his heart, even when he'd brought her a world of pain...(Y/N) had never stopped loving him. And now it was his turn to return all the affections she had never stopped giving him, tenfold.
"Well, you heard her," Saeran mumbled. "She wants to go to the party."
Saeyoung grinned. "Need help picking out a suit?"
"Only if we can find (Y/N) a dress to match."
"And here I thought you wouldn't be one for such sentiments," Saeyoung said with a chuckle. "But don't worry. I'll make sure you both have everything you need for the party."
But Saeran knew that when Saeyoung said those words, he didn't just mean them in reference to the party. No, Saeyoung had made it abundantly clear from the first day when he'd invited Saeran and (Y/N) into his home, going shopping with them the next day to buy them all they could possibly need to survive for the next five years, that his hospitality extended past whatever formalities they were used to.
Saeyoung would make sure that Saeran and (Y/N) were happy, truly happy.
And as Saeran sat, arm wrapped around the love of his life as she slept, engaged in casual conversation with the twin he'd spent so much of his life missing, he found that his happiness was rising with the sun behind him.
It was a slow process, but steady.
And certain as the sunrise, no matter how far Saeran fell, there were now two people in his life who would help him pick up the pieces and get himself together.
The boy smiled, watching lazily as his brother continued on whatever rant he was pursuing, observing as the sun lit up the room: the face of his brother, the outlines of all the previously dark objects in the room, the (h/c) strands of his lover that were beginning to grow back in at the roots.
It was a strange happiness. Certainly not a conventional one.
But the happiness was there, covering every moment as clearly as the light that shone through the window.
"Yeah," He answered his brother when the redhead posed a goofy question, an excited smile on his lips as he continued to gesture wildly. Saeran was barely paying attention to half the words coming out of his twin's mouth, but he didn't need to.
This was happiness, and Saeran had to do was sit back, smile, and enjoy it.
Word count: 1.7k
Notes: It feels really strange to say, but this next chapter will be the final chapter in the entire series! Preliminary goodbyes are always different than the final farewell, so I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's been with me on this ride before it gets too bittersweet :) I appreciate all your support, and i feel like this publishing this series has taught me so much. It's my first series, actually, and its sort of strange but i can see how my writing has subtly developed and changed from chapter 1 of the neutral route to this here xD anyways - final chapter this thursday (you can bet your butt i wont miss it for the world) and I'll see you all then <3
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Next Update: 4/30/20
I do not own the rights to Mystic Messenger or any of the characters within it.