Together Again

Summary: ‘If I can save you, maybe my brother will forgive me….’
Warning(s): Spanking; spoilers for Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly; some violence; references to death; potentially triggering material: references to suicide
Author’s Note: I always felt so bad for Itsuki. Plus, I like the idea of there being some kind of afterlife where he can be reunited with his siblings. (I like happy endings). This fic is for the Promise Ending of the game.
Also written for the Spanking_World prompt challenge, with the prompt provided by myself as the quote in the summary above

###

He felt it when the Repentance finally loosened its tight hold on the village. No longer locked away in the prison he’d been in for so many years…decades, even…although he could never quite remember all the time that had passed. For everyone else, they relived the same day, over and over again. Never seeing anything outside their own pain and suffering. Always attacking the living they were drawn to.

He’d never seen any of them. Never been able to change their fate. Always looking out through the bars that covered the only window that looked out of his prison, he’d watched and waited…always hoping. But at sunset each day, his hopes were dashed at the end of a dangling rope. Like the rest of the tortured souls in the village, he was trapped in this never-ending cycle of pain, murder, suffering. He could only hope that Mutsuki, as a crimson butterfly, had escaped the horrors that had befallen everyone.

He knew he couldn’t hope the same for Chitose. His little sister had been too young to understand; and none of the villagers would have been concerned with saving anyone outside of themselves. Itsuki would have been the only one to try and save her.

And he’d failed so much.

I’m sorry, Mutsuki. I’m sorry, Chitose.

He couldn’t bring himself to say the words out loud. He didn’t deserve to be forgiven. Not after he’d failed. Failed in the ritual and failed to save Yae and Sae. They’d come back and he was helpless to do anything other than give Yae advice when she came to see him.

And then she’d become frightened of him and ran, leaving him once more to his loneliness. To his penance. To his grief. To await the inevitable noose closing around his neck, as he realised how much he had failed those he cared for the most.

But he didn’t feel trapped anymore. Instead, when he paced around his cell, he didn’t experience the same kind of force that had held him inside his prison for so long. This time, when he tried to get out…he succeeded.

When he finally stepped outside, it was no longer night. Dawn’s light was finally rising, bathing the village in a soft, eerie glow. Itsuki allowed himself to look around, seeing what he’d missed for so long, as he made his way to what had once been his home, when he’d been alive. His home…and his brother’s home. His sister’s home.

As he neared the buildings, he glimpsed the others, standing outside their houses, all with their heads raised to the sky. All watching the path of the crimson butterflies, as they swarmed towards the rising sun. Itsuki’s gaze was drawn towards them, but only for a second, as his eyes sought out and found two familiar figures who stood in front of his own house.

“Brother!” Chitose’s tiny form launched at him, her arms wrapping tightly around his waist as she hugged him close. “The darkness is gone! We’re free!” She beamed up at him, the tiny bells she wore tingling softly with every movement she made.

He reached down and cupped her face in one hand; leaned forward and brushed a kiss over her forehead. “I’m glad to hear that,” he whispered. If she carried any trace of the scars the Remembrance had left behind, she didn’t show them. She looked up at him and laughed joyfully, free of the pain that had lingered for so long.

His own heart ached as he thought back to all they’d suffered. Maybe, if he’d been stronger…the Repentance might still have come for them, but perhaps his sister wouldn’t have had to suffer so much.

“Mutsuki came home too!” She let go of Itsuki, instead taking his hand and leading him towards their house, up the steps and next to his brother…his twin.

Faced finally with his beloved brother, who he had failed so spectacularly, Itsuki lowered his head. He couldn’t bring himself to look into Mutsuki’s eyes and see the accusation, the censure, he knew was there. “I’m sorry.” The words escaped his lips before he could stop them. He didn’t deserve forgiveness. “I failed you…” he whispered.

His brother didn’t respond with words, instead moving towards Itsuki and Chitose. He reached out and wrapped his arms around both of them, hugging so that Chitose was cuddled between the two of them.

Tears filled Itsuki’s eyes and blurred his vision, but he refused to let them fall. He didn’t deserve the comfort of tears. But he did wrap his arms fiercely and tightly around his sister and brother in return, holding on as tight and for as long as he could.

Until Chitose started to squirm. “You’re squashing me!” she exclaimed.

Itsuki slowly loosened his arms from around his sister and watched as she scampered away, towards some of the other spirits. He watched her, because he couldn’t bear to turn his eyes back towards his brother. He didn’t know what he was more scared of; seeing the blame on Mutsuki’s face, or seeing understanding…forgiveness. He didn’t deserve either of those things.

“Itsuki….”

He looked up as his brother placed a hand on his arm. “I tried to stop it, Mutsuki. I tried to save them. But Sae was sacrificed anyway. And it was all my fault….” His voice trailed off and he pulled away from his twin, his best friend, the other half of his soul. “I couldn’t stop the ritual. And I couldn’t stop the Remembrance. It took all of them…and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

Mutsuki didn’t tell him it was all right. He didn’t tell Itsuki that he understood, or that no one could have stopped the Remembrance. He stepped forward and he grasped Itsuki’s arm. Without a word, he sat down on the ground, pulling Itsuki down with him.

Itsuki could have protested. Could have said no. He could have struggled, he could have fought. But the sad truth was, his twin knew him better than anyone ever had; not much of a surprise, given they were supposed to be two halves of the same whole. This wasn’t the first time he’d been in this position with his brother, but it had only ever been when the two of them had been alive.

Swallowing hard, Itsuki slowly positioned himself across his brother’s lap. It wasn’t exactly comfortable. They were both surprisingly solid, despite being ghosts. Itsuki had to lay flat in position, but his torso and backside were raised where they lay across Mutsuki’s thighs.

His brother gave his backside a quick rub and then proceeded to pull Itsuki’s clothing free, baring his bottom. And even though he was a ghost and shouldn’t be able to feel it, he couldn’t help but shiver in the cold night air that wafted across his bared skin.

And then, even though he shouldn’t have been able to feel it, the firm smack that Mutsuki sent a warm sting across his left buttock. And then the repeated smack to his right cheek made it sting on the other side and he closed his eyes, forcing himself to relax and accept the punishment as the hard, steady smacks continued, now falling in random patterns all over his bottom and thighs, making it impossible to predict where the next smack would fall.

“This was not your fault, Itsuki.”

Itsuki squeezed his eyes closed at his brother’s words. No. This wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to be punished. To be hurt. Even if it was only through the pain of his brother’s hand smacking his backside. He didn’t want understanding. Didn’t want to listen to Mutsuki’s words as his backside warmed under the firm smacks, becoming sore and tender.

“You did what you could,” Mutsuki continued, his hand serving as a punctuation for his words. “You take too much guilt on yourself, Itsuki. Like when you killed me. I know you wouldn’t have done it if we’d been left with no other choice.”

“It failed.” The first sob was pulled from Itsuki’s throat; unwillingly, because he didn’t want to break down. If he cried, his brother would stop. And he didn’t want Mutsuki to stop. He didn’t think he deserved for his brother to stop. “I failed.”

“You didn’t fail, Itsuki. We loved each other too much for the ritual to work. Neither of us truly wanted to go through with it. I never blamed you for what you were forced to do.”

Itsuki slumped over his brother’s lap, the tears coming fast and hard now. It wasn’t because of the pain of the spanking; it stung, but he’d hurt worse after taking his brother’s life. No. It was about finally being at the end of all of the suffering, being with his family again…and knowing that Mutsuki had him and loved him, in spite of everything. In spite of his flaws and the mistakes he’d made. “My brother. I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too.” Mutsuki stopped spanking, replacing Itsuki’s clothing and then helping him up to his knees. The two knelt facing each other, the warm sun beating down on their heads.

For the first time in longer than he could remember…Itsuki’s soul finally felt at peace.

The End