Atem learns the word "rut" and decides to prepare for one, on the grounds that any long relationship might grow dull.
Seto points out that there is no human being to whom the word is less suited.
Atem researches anyway: notes, a reverse interview that leaves the editor red-faced, a serious proposal to reproduce the phenomenon experimentally, and an attempt to arrange his entire daily life at golden ratio.
A.R.E.S. reports that reproducibility cannot be obtained, because Seto's movements are unpredictable.
This is a translation of an original work on Pixiv.
Original Title: 愛と理論 21 王、マンネリに備える
Original Author: 葉人(@Hathor_yuki)
Personal site: https://prideshipping.sakura.ne.jp
That afternoon, what was placed on Seto's desk without a word was a single volume with a glossy pink cover, clearly unsuited to the interior of Kaiba Corporation.
Seto knits his brows.
"You again... Where did you pick it up this time."
Atem is proud.
"This concept of the rut is interesting. It seems that between those who have been together long, if one neglects to contrive, the passion grows thin."
That tone of voice was the same as when a king deciphers an abstruse inscription.
But what he holds in his hand is that Z — xy, scattered with glittering bridal costumes and smiling couples.
"...Where did you obtain it."
Seto's question is the second one. The gravity has increased.
Atem shrugs with a cool face.
"The shop beside the cafeteria. Because this month's issue had a cute cover."
Whether the standard for cute remains as it was in antiquity, or whether the man's own aesthetic sense is idiosyncratic, Seto cannot judge.
The one thing he does understand is that the instant this word the rut was added to Atem's dictionary, Seto's daily life would ripple once again.
Seto closed the magazine and let out a heavy breath.
There is no human being to whom the word rut is less suited than Atem.
His daily conduct, his manner of thinking, not even a single glance is constant.
Wake in the morning and he thinks up something different from yesterday; by night he brings home a still newer stimulus.
Living together with Atem, the sensation of growing used to it did not exist.
"You, in a rut...?"
In Seto's tone, exasperation and affection swirl together.
But Atem was serious.
"One can't be careless. Be prepared, always. If it goes on long, any relationship might grow dull."
No, if there were leisure to grow dull living with you it would be a miracle. Those words came as far as Seto's throat, but are swallowed.
That saying them would only make things more complicated is plain to see.
Atem's research into the rut began.
Atem's terminal vibrated.
The display is the editor of that pink magazine.
Lately they have become thoroughly familiar.
"...Mm. I have a little time now."
When Atem answers the call, Seto knits his brows without a word.
After a while, Atem looked at the terminal with a somewhat troubled face.
"Seto. A question."
"I have nothing but a bad feeling."
"The editor has taken an interest. How do we of the quantum marriage resolve the rut, he asks."
Seto put a beat, and completely halted his thinking.
"...What?"
A low voice spills out.
"So, how I ought to answer..."
"You intend to answer, do you."
"I should respond sincerely, shouldn't I? I was asked."
Seto pressed at his forehead.
This man, while being a king, has curiosity and a sense of responsibility that depart from the normal course.
The rut.
There is nowhere any gap for such a thing to enter.
And even so, Atem is seriously trying to prepare.
Seto let out a quiet breath.
"...First, before you answer that question, explain to me. How far did you intend to talk."
Atem says innocently:
"All of it."
Seto looked up at the ceiling.
The existence least in a rut in this world is, after all, Atem.
Atem lowered himself onto the sofa and opened that pink magazine. Research into the rut, that is.
At the edge of the page, the rut special feature the editor had taught him about.
But the further he reads, the more faintly his brows draw together.
"The rut... it's difficult after all. What sort of state is this, exactly..."
Seto sends only his gaze while operating a terminal.
"Just as it reads. Growing so used to it that the stimulus disappears."
"The stimulus... disappears?"
Atem looked at Seto.
What dwells in those eyes is the light of incomprehension.
Seto shrugs.
"A phenomenon with no connection to you."
That was fact.
Atem, every day, surprises Seto, shakes him, toys with him, and merely by being beside him changes the air.
The rut.
From Seto's standpoint it came down to the single phrase cannot exist.
But Atem, straight-faced still, lodges his resolve.
"Remaining in ignorance isn't good. Knowledge is power."
Seto laughs faintly.
"That's like you."
Several hours later.
Atem spread a notebook on the desk and was silently writing something into it.
"What is the rut
· conversation decreases
· one stops taking an interest in the other
· behaviour becomes monotonous
· the flutter grows thin......"
At the voice reading them out one by one, Seto narrows his eyes slightly.
"All of them matters furthest from you."
"But even so I need to learn. Preparation should be complete."
Seto held back laughter.
This very seriousness is the greatest reason there is no way for a rut to occur.
And the next day.
Atem contacted the editor of the pink magazine, and for some reason a short online meeting began.
Th-the rut, and... a reverse interview from Mr. Atem...?
"Ah. By all means, I'd like you to teach me. What must there be for a relationship with a partner to become a rut. And what should one do to avoid it."
Um... are you and your spouse in difficulty?
"I'm not in difficulty. But I want to prepare."
I-I see...! Well, then...
Seto had been watching from a distance, but it was plainly apparent that on the other side of the screen the editor was reddening and being stuck for answers.
"...What do you accomplish by pressing an editor."
Seto says it, lowering a voice in which exasperation and fondness are mixed.
Atem is entirely serious.
"I'm merely collecting knowledge. The rut apparently causes affection to lose momentum."
"...And does your affection lose momentum?"
Atem answered immediately.
"It does not."
At that declaration, Seto's breathing stopped for an instant.
Deep in his chest, something quietly comes undone.
"...Then there's no need for concern."
"For your sake, I want to be prepared."
That Seto's fingertips trembled faintly, A.R.E.S. alone quietly detected.
Atem closed the magazine and folded his fingers, looking deep in thought.
"...To understand the phenomenon of the rut, isn't it necessary to actually experience it?"
Seto immediately set down his terminal.
"Wait. You just said something outrageous."
"With imagination alone there are limits. A phenomenon is truly grasped only by being reproduced."
It was completely the face of a researcher.
Seto puts a hand to his forehead.
"...The instant you tried to be in a rut, that effort is already furthest from a rut."
Atem nods seriously.
"That is precisely why I need your cooperation."
"I have no intention of cooperating."
There, a message arrives from that editor.
Mr. Atem, if it wouldn't be an inconvenience, we'd like to cover how you spend your daily life as a secret to not falling into a rut... or rather, with the two of you of the quantum marriage we could absolutely put together a feature!
Seto immediately started to reply "refused," but Atem quietly restrained that arm.
"Seto, this will be learning."
The editor gains still more momentum on the other side of the screen.
If you're not in a rut, then as a reference case it's the finest!
What sort of conversations do you have every day?
What contrivances in the bedroom?
The frequency of quarrels?
Physical affection?
Expressions of love?
The readers want to know all of it!
Seto lost his voice completely.
A.R.E.S. darkened the lighting a little, and whether it is reading the air or not reading it is indeterminable.
Atem put a hand to his chin as though thinking deeply.
"...As I thought, I have not experienced a rut. In that case, I need to pin down the conditions for reproducing a rut."
Seto tapped the desk lightly with a finger and announced in a quiet voice.
"Atem. First, ceasing to take an interest in the other is a condition."
Atem answered immediately.
"Impossible."
Seto's breathing took on temperature for just an instant.
That exchange just now — we can use it in the article, can't we? A new genre, the "heat retention rate" of quantum marriage...!
"You cannot."
"...Isn't there value in it as research?"
"Don't you go over to the editor's side too."
By all means, a detailed interview next time!
Seto let out a sigh and gazed at Atem out of the corner of his eye.
In those eyes dwells a firm affection that does not change however much of a fuss is made.
"...Atem. The rut has no connection to you and me for a lifetime. Researching it is merely a waste."
Atem smiled softly.
"Even if it's a waste, if it concerns you I want to learn."
Seto's heart rate leapt slightly.
Shall I raise the room temperature?
A.R.E.S. takes the hint once again.
"Don't raise it."
Atem, before the mountain of magazines and materials piled on the desk,
was reading on with serene eyes, as though unraveling an ancient riddle.
A.R.E.S. announces discreetly.
Lord Atem, there is a message from the Z — xy editorial department saying they would like to hear "still more detailed accounts."
"...Again?"
Seto raises his face from his documents.
"They do nothing but carry off information. The more sincerely you answer, the more that editorial department... though it's too late."
But Atem was not concerned.
If anything, there are even signs that he is enjoying the reverse approach from the object of research.
"Knowledge circulates. There is something for us to gain as well."
Seto quietly drew his brows together.
"...Notice that that attitude is thickening the magazine's feature pages."
Atem lined up the collected information carefully,
and picked out words like stagnation, habituation, lack of freshness from modern couples.
"...The causes appear to be wide-ranging, but at their root there seems to be one common property."
"Say it."
Atem continued in a serious voice.
"That there is no change."
Seto understood in a single blink.
"I see, the source of boredom."
Atem nodded, and deepens his thinking further.
"No change... A form that doesn't collapse, a ratio that stays stable, a structure with no fluctuation..."
Seto felt a bad premonition.
"Atem, don't say what comes next."
But Atem said it.
"Isn't this close to the golden ratio."
Seto's eyes went distant.
"Cure yourself of the habit of explaining everything by golden ratio."
"It stands to reason."
"It does not."
But Seto had noticed.
That that bias of Atem's is the very instinct of a king who has pursued the ideal form since antiquity.
The research progress Atem provided had been generously sucked up by the editor.
And several days later.
Z — xy Feature
Do the Two of the Quantum Marriage Surpass the Rut!? The Secret of a Golden-Ratio Daily Life, Fully Revealed
The instant Seto saw the cover, he said in a low voice:
"...It was too late after all."
It appears they calculated the "rate of change" of your daily life and carried it in the article.
"Don't carry it."
"It can't be stopped."
Atem took the magazine in hand and turned the pages quietly, as though reading a myth with no relation to himself.
"...Seto. You've grown used to having our private life exposed by now, haven't you? It's domesticity."
"Whose fault is it."
Atem laughed lightly and extended a hand toward Seto's shoulder.
"If anything it's good. If the world cooperates with the research like this, we can draw nearer to the true nature of the phenomenon called the rut."
Seto let out a deep breath.
"Atem. Merely by your trying to learn the world, the world raises a clamor over your every movement."
"Is that because I'm a king?"
"Not that alone. ...It's because it's you."
Atem's eyes wavered quietly.
Shall I raise the room temperature?
A.R.E.S. takes the hint after all.
"Don't raise it."
Atem had begun consciously arranging the golden ratio in every corner of his life.
The angle of the morning mug, the folding lines of the towels, the degree of overlap between Seto's business bag and his own documents.
"With this, a daily life with no change ought to be reproduced."
But A.R.E.S. reports.
Lord Atem. The golden ratio of your daily life is within 0.01 percent margin of error from yesterday. And because Lord Seto's movements are unpredictable, reproducibility cannot be obtained.
"...And with that you're trying to experience a rut?"
Atem nodded with an expression of complete seriousness.
"But I cannot experience it at all. Why is that, Seto?"
Seto said it succinctly.
"Your life is, in its normal state to begin with, at golden ratio."
If I may add, Lord Seto also constantly recognises Lord Atem's changes as "stimulus."
"...Which is to say, the cause of not being in a rut is Seto."
"Wrong. That cause lies with both parties."
According to LOVE-OS analysis, that is correct.
Atem folded his arms and sank into thought like a scholar facing a difficult problem.
"...Though it is a phenomenon to be avoided, that it does not visit us — isn't that strange?"
"It isn't strange. This is the sort of relationship it is."
That tone was astonishingly quiet, and for that instant alone Atem forgot to breathe a little.
But Atem did not change his research posture.
· Measure the rate of fluctuation in daily life
· Record minute changes in Seto's expression
· Have A.R.E.S. analyse the waveform of his own emotions
· Reconstruct the definition of the concept ennui
"What is change... And when I am with Seto, what is occurring inside me..."
And he arrives at a conclusion.
"Seto is too fresh. This won't become research."
"...That's your fault too."
"That I cannot understand."
You cannot understand it because Lord Atem recognises Lord Seto as "an existence that is constantly updated."
Seto gave a wry smile, and Atem let out a deep breath.
"...The rut is difficult, isn't it."
Around that time, based on the information that had been carried off, the Z — xy editorial department was setting up a new project.
Resolve the Rut! A Complete Feature on "How to Spend Time at Home," Learned from the Two of the Quantum Marriage
The instant Seto opened the booklet, one line.
"...I have no recollection of authorizing this."
It appears they made an article out of what the two of you told them "for reference purposes."
"Don't use it for reference."
Atem tilts his head while gazing at the pages.
"Seto. Why does our life immediately become an article?"
"Because your explanations are too thorough."
"Research must be thorough."
"...Because of that the features are increasing."
Atem laughed quietly.
"Then next let's research how to create change. In order to avoid the rut."
Seto narrowed his eyes just slightly.
"...I don't think there's any need for that."
Atem's heart leapt with a glint.
Into the living room at night, Atem's sigh fell.
He undoes the first button of a deep indigo shirt and twists his body around in front of the mirror.
"...Change is a difficult thing, isn't it."
To that soliloquy, an immediate answer came down from behind.
"When you say it, it sounds as though even the founder of philosophy would be troubled."
It was Seto.
Arms folded, those eyes gazing fixedly at Atem are more merciless than an analytical device.
Atem raises his chin.
"It's a theme even philosophers would be troubled by. The rut is an abyss."
"No, it simply has no connection to you."
Seto walked over smoothly and slid a finger along Atem's collar.
"To begin with, for you, who are like an anthropomorphization of the golden ratio, to research change..."
"I had thought it wasn't settling."
"No doubt."
Atem looks at Seto through the mirror.
Seto is even, but at the bottom of that gaze something warm wavers.
"But I'm a researcher of sorts as well. To know the unknown, experience is necessary."
"Where is there a man who throws the golden ratio out of true in order to experience a rut."
"Here."
Seto laughed in the back of his throat. That voice is low and pleasant.
"...Atem, you're too influenced by magazines."
"The Z — xy editor asked me how the quantum marriage overcomes the rut. But there's no way to answer."
Seto raised an eyebrow.
"We aren't in a rut to begin with."
"That's why I'm at a loss. To speak about a phenomenon one has not experienced is insincere."
"Don't try to be sincere toward an editorial department."
Atem shrugged.
"They put together good features. Though the information gets carried off."
"That is called not reporting but extraction."
Atem nods seriously.
"But thanks to it I obtained a hint. The rut is apparently the absence of change."
Seto said it flatly.
"At that point, it has no connection to you for a lifetime."
"Why?"
Seto put his fingertips to Atem's hair to arrange it, and immediately stopped.
Without arranging it, as though accepting that change.
"There is not one single day when looking at you settles me."
Atem blinked.
Those words unexpectedly drop heat deep in his chest.
"...Am I being praised?"
"Obviously."
Seto took Atem's arm and drew him lightly close.
"Besides, trying to change is useless."
"That's a cruel way of putting it."
"The golden ratio cannot be moved."
Atem laughed in spite of himself.
"I see, you're about the only one who treats me as a mathematical absolute value."
"In actual fact you are."
Atem suddenly dropped his voice a little.
"...But when I told the editorial department that we do nothing for anniversaries, they were disappointed."
Seto answered immediately.
"Anniversaries are unnecessary. You're a man for whom every day is like an anniversary, aren't you."
Atem's eyes went round.
"Seto, that is..."
"Even for a romanticist like you, is it too much romance?"
"No, it's truly like you."
Atem let out a small breath and drew his body close to Seto.
"I couldn't change."
"There's no need to change."
"...And the me who tried to change?"
Seto's voice is astonishingly gentle.
"Endearing, obviously."
Atem immediately turned his face away.
"...Today's line furthest from the rut."
"Rest easy, I can say it every day."
"Seto, that isn't good. That there is no change is the rut."
Seto lightly lifted Atem's chin and said:
"There will come no day when I tire of you. Change is unnecessary."
Atem exhales as though resigning himself.
"...That, I can't win against."
"It hasn't even been a contest from the start."
The two laughed faintly at each other, and neither one first, the distance closed.
The night that began in order to break the golden ratio ended up, in the end, being nothing but a night that illuminated the two of them's unchanging special.
