Chapter Text
“He doesn’t speak.”
“What do you mean he doesn’t speak? He’s Papa!”
“Yes, I understand that,” Sister said dryly. “But the fact of the matter stands. He does not speak.”
“Then how—”
“He can still sing and perform,” she cut him off, “so that isn’t a worry. He is capable of speaking. He just won’t.”
“But why?”
Her lips curled up.
“I guess you’ll just have to ask him.”
Copia sighed and slumped into a chair.
“I don’t know,” Sister quietly told him after a moment. “I don’t know what happened to make him this way. He came to us in this state, refusing to speak. The ghouls will translate for him on occasion, but he doesn’t spend much time around them. You’d have better luck asking him to write it down. And by better, I mean no luck at all.”
“Why not? I’m Frater! I’m his brother! Why won’t he speak to me?”
“I don’t know, Copia,” she sighed. “You seem to be taking this as though he won’t speak to you, but you’re not special, sweetheart. He’s like that with everyone, including me.”
He could hear the hurt in his mother’s voice, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. On the one hand, he felt bad for her that her own son would not speak to her.
On the other hand, she had abandoned him first.
“Well, at least I’ll get some peace and quiet around here,” he grumbled to himself.
—
“It’s eh… nice to meet you?”
Copia cringed inwardly, hating that he couldn’t get out a simple greeting without being painfully awkward about it.
The man before him remained silent and still, simply watching him.
At least he didn’t laugh.
“So… I hear that we’re brothers,” he tried, unsure what he was hoping for, but he continued to receive nothing in return.
No, he did know what he was hoping for, and he was disappointed. He’d hoped that since they were twins, since they had this rare, unique bond, that he might be the exception. Maybe even his position as Frater would get the man to speak since he apparently communicated with the ghouls, but that didn’t seem to be the case either.
“Alright,” he sighed. “This has been a wonderful conversation, but I have some work I need to get done.” A lie. He had nothing at all to do and was bored out of his mind, but he couldn’t take the awkward standoff. “Congratulations on your ascension, and feel free to go and do as you please. I’ll be here if you need anything.”
With that, he walked back around his desk and dropped into his chair to look over his desk, which was empty save for the old computer monitor. Maybe he could play solitaire and watch the cards dance around the screen. It would be better than nothing.
He startled when the chair in front of his desk moved and a thin figure slowly lowered themself onto it.
“Oh… was there something else?”
Papa V Perpetua made no indication that he’d even heard him speak. He simply sat back in the chair and folded his hands in his lap.
“O—okay, sure, you can sit there. I’ll just… work, now.”
As though desperate to humiliate him, the universe decided that, despite the fact that he knew he’d turned the volume down, remembering hitting the button when his mother was scolding him for not listening to her just that morning, the volume had miraculously skyrocketed, and the game’s music filled the room while he fumbled to turn the sound off. Once he did, he looked forward and saw that Papa’s eyes were still lowered, but he had his hand hiding his mouth.
Great. Now his brother was silently laughing at him.
What a fantastic start to a relationship.
—
The rest of the day passed as usual, with the occasional clergy member making their way to his office to remind him what he could and couldn’t do and to give him an unimpressed look that also reminded him that he held the respect of very few within the church. At least, that’s how it felt. His mother swore it wasn’t true, but she was his mother. Of course, she would say that.
Though she’d never been one to sugarcoat his shortcomings before.
All the while, his brother sat silently in the chair before him. He tried to strike up a conversation a few times and received only a blank stare in return. A few of the clergy members who noticed him startled and gave him a polite greeting, but they didn’t even get the glances Copia did. At least Copia felt acknowledged. That was better than the nothing the others were getting.
Maybe their brotherhood did count for something after all, no matter how small.
Papa V did not budge from his seat until Copia decided to get some lunch. He stood up and was startled when his brother gracefully rose from his chair as well and waited for him to move. Once he did, Papa followed close behind. Copia went to the cafeteria and ordered a light salad before looking at his brother, curious to see how he would order. Instead of doing so, he just looked back at Copia patiently with his hands folded before him. After an awkward silence that Copia was starting to expect was going to become the norm, he walked off back to his office with his brother trailing close behind.
Once they settled back in his office, Copia hesitated to eat, worried it would seem rude when his guest had nothing.
Well, it wasn’t like Papa could call him out for it.
Still, it felt wrong.
“You can have some of these if you’d like,” he said, putting a cup of grapes in the middle of the desk to share. He knew it would be in vain, but it didn’t hurt to try—
Just as he went to stab some lettuce and chicken with his fork, Papa reached over, plucked a grape from the stem, and popped it into his mouth.
“Do you like grapes?” he asked, startled by the action.
Rather than answer, Papa took another grape to eat before settling back in his chair.
“Noted,” Copia murmured.
And he did note it. It was the first piece of information he’d gotten about the other man, even if it was a tiny one.
His brother liked grapes.
—
When it was time to leave, Copia was almost reluctant to go. His comment about peace and quiet had turned out to be accurate. It was peaceful and quiet with Papa around. He seemed to unsettle people, so they kept a distance, and those who came to his office did not linger the way they tended to do. It should feel isolating, but it was… nice. Copia was so used to being in the spotlight, to having people begging for even a fraction of his attention. It was somewhat of a relief to get a break from that.
Still, he wanted to get home to some true quiet, to have time to himself. His brother rose when he did and followed him to the door.
“It was nice meeting you,” Copia told him honestly. “Today was… good. I expect I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Twin mismatched eyes held his own for a long moment before Copia broke eye contact, oddly flustered.
“Okay, goodnight, Papa.”
He didn’t know why he expected a response, but he was disappointed when he didn’t receive a “goodnight” back. He would need to break the habit of expecting a response.
With that, they parted, Papa immediately turning to walk down the hall in the opposite direction from his brother. Copia watched him until he turned the corner, and then he made his way home.
—
The following day, there was a knock at his office door shortly after he arrived.
“Come in!” he called, curious to see who might be coming to him so early and hoping it wouldn’t be someone wanting to scold him for something.
To his surprise, it was his brother.
“Oh! Hi, Papa. I wasn’t expecting you.”
With no response, which Copia had once again forgotten to expect, Papa walked across the room to his desk and settled in the chair before it, folding his hands in his lap just as he had the day before.
And just like that, a routine was born.
Every morning, Papa came to Copia’s office and sat in the chair across from him, where he would spend the entire day. The only times he left were when Copia left. Thankfully, he didn’t follow him into the bathroom, but he did wait outside the door, which made Copia nervous. There was a pressure knowing someone was waiting for you when you were relieving yourself.
Copia was starting to feel like a mother duck with one little duckling of his own.
Papa did occasionally get up to leave on his own for a brief time. On one such occasion, Copia jokingly got up to follow him. To his surprise, Papa flashed a quick smile at him and then held the door to his office open so Copia could follow. With that visual memory in his mind, Copia started following his brother around as well until it became rare to see one twin around the abbey without the other.
Lunch went the same as it had on the first day, and it made Copia uncomfortable that Papa never ate, especially with how slim he looked. He started ordering extra food and sliding it across the desk for his brother to take, just as he had done with the grapes. It took a few minutes, but Papa would eventually reach over and begin picking at what was presented to him. Copia took note of what he consistently ate and what he left untouched, so he knew what to order in the future. The first time he ate everything set before him, Copia felt a strong sense of accomplishment.
It was so easy to fall into step with him, to adapt his lifestyle to include this stranger.
Except he didn’t feel like a stranger anymore. They’d never spoken, and Copia was beginning to accept that they never would, but he was starting to feel a bond with the other man. Every time he saw those painted lips curl up, he may as well have been getting a hug for the way it warmed him.
—
The day it happened, Papa had been lingering near Copia more than usual, standing closer as they walked and later peeking at the computer as he genuinely did get some work done. Frustrated with the tasks, Copia made some comment he was hardly aware of, rambling to himself as he often did and bitching about something or other, when he was startled by a breathy sound. It was soft and barely there, but it was so drastically different from every other moment Copia had spent in the presence of the man before him.
When he looked, Papa’s eyes were lowered, and he was shaking his head, still silently laughing. Copia felt a mix of pride and affection, the latter surprising him, but he’d think about that later. He considered addressing the sudden break in silence, but he worried it would make the other man shut up again.
Papa returned to his quiet stillness a moment later, anyway, and the rest of the day was spent just as peacefully as all the others had been when he was around.
From then on, Copia made it his mission to get his twin to laugh as often as possible. As far as he knew, no one else had been able to do so. He didn’t tell anyone, choosing to keep the precious moment close to his chest.
Papa remained silent the vast majority of the time, and Copia had still never heard him speak, but his brother smiled more when they were together and met his eyes on occasion, that same affection Copia had felt when he’d laughed reflected in his gaze.
He was finally starting to understand what it was like to have a brother.