Chapter Text
Aguero knew that it would take time for the kingdom to recover after the havoc his suitors wrought, but still, he couldn't help tracking every way it manifested around him. He felt it in the way Rak refused to let him travel anywhere for a month without looming behind him, in the contingency plans Isu brought him despite Maschenny's promise against retaliation from the Great Families, and in the way the townspeople approached him with hushed warnings about any strangers that arrived in their harbor.
It was one of those warnings— that of a woman with hair and eyes the same shade as his own— that brought him out into the streets of town late that evening, without any guards or companions beside him. He nodded to the townsfolk who greeted him as he made his way toward the outskirts, but didn't pause in his stride.
The further he got from the palace and the densest parts of town, the slower he walked, the streets growing quiet around him as he made his way between empty storefronts.
Still, though he was no longer surrounded by his people, he knew he wasn't alone. He stopped in the middle of one of the streets, glancing around at the alleyways surrounding him.
"Are you just going to follow me around all night, or are you going to tell me what you're here for?" he called out, tucking a hand in his sleeve.
Silence. Aguero grasped at the hilt of his hidden dagger, keeping his breathing steady.
The scrape of movement against cobblestone rang out, and Aguero pivoted out of the way as a flash of silver flew toward him. Pain seared across his cheek in its wake, the blade clattering against the wall behind him.
"You've gotten slow," a familiar voice followed the blade. "Unless you mean to tell me that you let me hit you on purpose."
"Kiseia," Aguero greeted her as she stepped out from the alleyway, though he didn't relax from his ready stance. "It's been a long time."
Over twenty years since he'd last seen her, and she hardly looked different from when he'd left; her eyes were the same brilliant cobalt, and the sharp, short cut of her hair made her expression appear just as fierce as when she tried to kill him after their sister's death. She and Aguero were the most dangerous weapons their mother had ever created, but after so many years, Aguero had no idea how their skills compared. Still, he knew that if she wanted to kill him, she never would have let him perceive her presence.
"You knew I was here," Kiseia accused. "Why did you come out here alone?"
"You never would have shown yourself if there was anyone else around." Aguero released his grip on the dagger, pulling his hand out of his sleeve. "I wanted to know why you're here." Perhaps she'd finally come to her senses and left their family behind, or perhaps she'd been disgraced and decided to come to him the way Ran had years ago.
Kiseia's face was blank as she regarded him, her hand twitching toward the other knife sheathed at her waist. Aguero simply waited, one of his brows climbing upward.
"Mother wants you to visit," she finally said, her mouth screwing up in a frown.
"So you thought you'd try to kill me rather than subject me to her?" he said, but Kiseia only scowled deeper at his teasing.
"Don't talk about her like that," Kiseia snapped. "You owe her—"
"Nothing," he said firmly, his humor dissipating. "She abandoned me." He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to ignore the twist of discomfort in his chest. "I earned everything I have myself, without her help." Despite his words, his fingers dug into his arms. He didn't want anything she had to offer, but if she wanted to see him now after so many years of silence, there had to be a reason. "Why now?"
Kiseia's eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly, and Aguero was suddenly reminded of how quickly she'd learned his expressions after their mother took her in; she'd needed to in order to follow his plans so effectively. Aguero wouldn't be surprised if she could read him better than Bam, even after so long away from each other.
"She didn't say," she told him coolly, a blade flicking out over her knuckles. She twirled it between her fingers, and Aguero couldn't shake the feeling that she was looking straight through him. "You'll have to ask her yourself."
Aguero wanted nothing less than to heed his mother's request. Even if it wasn't an attempt to kill or capture him, seeing his mother again and dealing with her disapproval would be nothing less than miserable. Still, if there was even the slightest chance her reason would involve Bam somehow, Aguero had no choice but to find out.
"I'll think it over," he said, though with all the possibilities at play, the choice was easy. What would truly be difficult was convincing Bam not to come with him. Even without the political concern of both sovereigns leaving the kingdom again, the idea of Bam meeting his mother sent a chill through him.
But that was an issue for later. In the meantime, he certainly couldn't leave Kiseia to wander unsupervised in his kingdom.
With a sigh, he wiped the blood from his face onto his sleeve, then turned on his heel and gestured for her to follow. "Come on, brat. I won't have you sleeping on the street when I've got perfectly good rooms in the palace."
"I should just stab you," Kiseia grumbled, but as Aguero began to walk, she hurried to catch up to him and fell into step half a pace behind him. It was a habit she began when she became the blade for their sister, but Aguero had expected her to have shaken the habit after so many years apart.
"You're welcome to try," Aguero told her, unable to stop his smirk. Over a month after clearing the suitors from his palace, he'd had more than enough time to recover, and the fire fish and his shinsu control were stronger than ever. Kiseia herself had surely grown stronger as well, but she couldn't kill him.
Kiseia sneered back at him, blade flashing idly between her fingers before she slipped it back into some hidden sheath. "Mother wants you alive, so I'm afraid it'll have to wait until she realizes you're a lost cause."
"I look forward to it if it means she'll leave me alone," he replied.
Though Kiseia made a disdainful sound, she said nothing more, simply trailing behind him. Her posture was tense, her eyes flickering back and forth warily. The edge to her stance only grew worse as the two of them reached the more populous parts of town, where several of his citizens still milled about in the dim evening light.
Aguero nodded to the ones who greeted him, but it didn't escape his attention that their gazes lingered curiously on Kiseia; for each person who looked at her, she drifted closer to Aguero, until she was nearly clinging to his shadow like the young girl who his mother had taken in all those years ago. She hardly seemed to notice it herself, glaring at Aguero each time he met her gaze.
Evidently, it wasn't an attempt to stab him in the back, so he made no comment as he continued toward his palace.
Amna awaited him at the entrance, her posture loose but clearly prepared to spring into action. She straightened up as he approached, but her eyebrows quickly climbed upward as she looked between him and Kiseia.
"Another sibling, my lord?" she asked politely, but Aguero didn't miss the way her gaze lingered on the cut on his cheek. He could only be grateful that the household was used to the complicated relationships he had with his siblings, as she said nothing of it. "Will she be staying? I can send someone to prepare a room."
"At least for the night," Aguero replied, "maybe a few days longer." It depended on how long it took to convince Bam and the rest that going to see what his mother wanted— without Bam coming along— was the right thing to do. Amna nodded, stepping ahead of the two of them into the palace.
"Mother won't be pleased to be kept waiting," Kiseia warned once Amna was out of sight.
"She's lucky I'm considering her invitation at all," Aguero responded, making his way inside. "Come on, now, you may as well meet my husband."
For a moment, Kiseia remained in the entrance, her face twisting with an emotion that Aguero couldn't quite read. Aguero paused, raising a brow expectantly. When she realized he was looking at her, she scowled, stepping in after him.
When Aguero had left the palace earlier, Bam was training in the northern courtyard, and it was likely that he was still there. With Kiseia following behind him, Aguero began walking there.
It grew obvious, as they got closer to the courtyard, that Bam was still training; in the hallway leading there, the shinsu was dense, heavy with the weight of Bam's power. Though Aguero knew that Bam's power would never hurt him, he was still getting used to the way it pressed in on him as he drew near. At the very least, no sound came from the courtyard, so Bam was surely finished with the more intensive aspects of his training and had moved on to meditation.
His assumption was proven correct as he finally stepped out into the open air of the courtyard. In the center, Bam sat on the stone tile with crossed legs, his hands folded in his lap serenely and his eyes shut.
Aguero paused in his step, his breath catching in his throat. Even after so many years, he'd never gotten used to the wonder that his husband was, and he doubted he ever would.
Bam hadn't responded to Aguero's presence, but the moment Kiseia crossed the threshold, golden eyes snapped open. His eyes found Aguero first, lighting up with warmth as the weight of the shinsu in the courtyard lightened.
"Aguero!" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet. His gaze darted to Kiseia, then back to Aguero, smile faltering slightly. "Is this..?"
"This is Kiseia," Aguero told him, and Bam's eyes went wide. "Kiseia, this is Bam."
Bam's smile tightened. "What brings you here, Kiseia?" he asked politely, but Aguero could practically read the questions he was holding back behind his eyes. Though Aguero had told Bam some of the details of his estrangement from his family— namely, the way his betrayal had led to his abandonment— the full story was his and his alone.
"Our mother has requested his presence," Kiseia replied, and Bam's smile disappeared entirely.
"Why?"
Irritation flickered across Kiseia's face. "I already told him, I don't know. She sent me to deliver her invitation, nothing else."
"Well, I'm sure Aguero's already told you he's not going," Bam said, no room for doubt in his voice.
"Actually," Aguero cut in, "I said I would think about it."
"What?" Bam's brows pulled together. "What is there to think about? You said you never planned to go back there."
This wasn't a conversation to have in front of Kiseia, not when Aguero had no reason to trust that she wasn't watching him for any sign of weakness to report back to their mother.
"Let's talk about this later," he told Bam. "We have a guest, after all." He smiled, and though Bam's brows remained furrowed, he returned it faintly.
"Okay," Bam agreed, moving closer to Aguero to lace their fingers together. "Well, Kiseia, would you like to join us for dinner?" Despite the friendliness of his words, his eyes were flinty.
Kiseia's gaze lingered on Aguero and Bam's linked hands, mouth pulled into a pensive frown. When Bam addressed her, however, her eyes snapped upward. What was going on in her mind, Aguero wasn't sure, but he pressed closer to Bam, staring Kiseia down defiantly. Kiseia met his stare, her jaw set.
"I already ate," Kiseia said flatly— a lie, judging by the way her fingers twitched toward her sleeve. "Find me when you've made your decision." She slipped back out of the courtyard, quickly disappearing into the hallway.
Bam gave Aguero a sideways glance, the smile slipping from his face. "Should we be worried about her going somewhere on her own?"
"She's not stupid enough to do anything that would get her killed." With no one around to watch, Aguero leaned further into Bam, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. "And if she manages to find any secrets," he added with a clever grin, "I might be impressed enough to poach her from my mother's service."
"Aguero," Bam said softly. "You aren't really considering visiting her, are you? Even after everything—?"
"Let's talk about this later," Aguero insisted. "After we've eaten, at least. You must be hungry after training." He hadn't even settled his own feelings on the matter, even if he was certain that he had to figure out his mother's intentions.
Bam made a dissatisfied sound, but as Aguero began to walk, he followed easily. "After dinner," he acquiesced, bumping his shoulder into Aguero's.
It was nothing, just another one of the thousand small kindnesses Bam offered him every day, but Aguero's chest warmed all the same. Bam was more than Aguero ever thought he would have, growing up in the shadow of his family. Finding Bam had brought him this life.
No matter what his mother wanted, Aguero would never let her take it from him.