Chapter 7: Confession

Ever since he had been little, Setsuna had known that there was only one woman that he would ever love. Unfortunately, that one woman, the one he would do anything for, was his sister. Knowing that he could never tell anybody, he made himself into an outcast; never talking to his classmates, always off by himself. After only a few tries at friendship, his peers shrugged him off as "hopeless" and left him alone. Only one person insisted on seeing him: Sara, the sister whom he loved. Her devotion to him only made him love her more, and he knew that if he were to keep his secret he couldn't continue to see her on a regular basis.

"I love you," he told her. Sara looked at him oddly; she had no idea what he was getting at.

"I love you too, brother," she said, confused. "Why does this mean—"

"You don't understand," Setsuna interrupted. "You love me as a brother, but that is not the same way that I love you. It…" he paused for a moment, and then continued. "It would be better, for that reason, that we didn't see each other."

"Why?" she asked. Despite the countless times she had asked him that same question, Setsuna found that it was still had to put the answer into words.

"Sara…" he began. He stopped for a moment and took her hand. "There is nothing I would love more than to spend the rest of my life with you, but the way I would want it wouldn't be right. I… I know it will hurt, but after tonight I'm going to stop seeing you. Don't try to find me, because I don't want to hurt you anymore."

After that, there was nothing more that either of them could say. Setsuna walked his sister back to their mother's house, still holding her hand the entire way. On the front steps, she stopped and turned to him.

"Setsuna," she said, "I'm sorry that I can't be what you wanted me to be." After saying that, she kissed him right on the lips. "I'm sorry," she repeated before disappearing inside. A light went out in an upstairs window, and Setsuna knew that his mother had watched the entire thing from her bedroom. She had been the first one to realize the true feelings that one of her children had towards the other, and had done everything within her power to ensure that her daughter would remain protected. Setsuna no longer cared that she knew; he would never see her or his sister again.

I'm sorry that I can't be what you wanted me to be. Sara's parting words ran through his mind over and over. Something was not right; he had thought that she would have been angry, not apologetic. He knew that it didn't matter, not anymore, but that couldn't stop him from thinking about it constantly.

"Setsuna," someone called out. He ignored them; he wasn't entirely sure that it wasn't just his memories. He couldn't remember many times when Sara had called him by his name, as she normally just referred to him as "brother." His revelation must have really disturbed her.

Setsuna was brought out of his thoughts when something hit him. A small rock bounced off of his head and fell to the ground. Looking up, Setsuna saw Sakuya Kira sitting on a stone fence beside the path some ways back. Even though the sun was setting and there was barely any light, the older student was reading a book with one hand even as he tried to get Setsuna's attention.

"What do you want?" Setsuna asked. He wasn't in a good mood, and wanted nothing more than to go home and forget about everything, even though he knew he could never truly forget.

"I called to you several times," Kira replied. "What's got you so down?" When he failed to obtain a response, he continued. "Ahh, you were going to see Sara tonight. I'm guessing that your little meeting didn't go so well." He closed the book and jumped down to the sidewalk, coming right up behind Setsuna.

"Then again," he whispered, "Maybe it went just right, and you're disappointed because you had a foolish hope that things could have worked out better." Setsuna still remained silent, not trusting himself to speak at the moment. "Come with me," the older boy offered, "I think you really need to get your mind off things that have already happened." Setsunsa ignored him and once more began to walk home. He didn't care whether or not Kira followed him, but instead only concentrated on returning to his father's house. As he walked through the front door, he was addressed from behind.

"I know that you didn't want things to turn out this way," Kira said. He hadn't said anything more along the way, but had followed Setsuna all the way to his home. "Maybe there was a better way to do this, and if my advice just made things worse, well, I'm sorry." Setsuna let the door close without turning around.

I'm sorry. Sara's last words to him had been an apology. It made no sense; she had never done him any wrong. All she had ever done was to love him as a sister; it wasn't her fault that her older brother was a monster.