Chapter 21: Her Revelation
The smile that Mrs. Yamato initially had immediately disappeared upon learning Cagalli's name. For a moment, Cagalli noticed a look of horror wash over the woman's face. Yet, she quickly covered it up, before Kira could notice, with another smile. She stepped out of the doorway, to the side, allowing the two teens to enter the house.
"It has to be here somewhere," Kira said as he rummaged through another dusty, cardboard box.
Cagalli, who was several feet away from him, looking through a box filled with children's VHS tapes, frowned. She had been at Kira's house for over an hour but couldn't get the look Mrs. Yamato had on her face out of her head.
"Did you?"
"Huh?" she turned to face Kira, who was leaning against the box he had finished searching.
"Did you find it in there?" he said.
Cagalli peeked in the box once more before shaking her head. Kira sighed.
"Why do you want to find this game so bad? You'll only lose." She moved to sit next to him.
"Funny you say that considering I beat you in the last two that we played," he smirked.
"Yeah…" she wrapped her arms around her knees, pulling them close to her chest, and began staring at the ceiling.
Kira raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright?" he said.
Cagalli was silent for a while. A look of concentration was written on her face, and it—mixed with her silence—worried Kira.
"Cagalli?"
"Kira," she said, "would you be upset if I told you that I was keeping something from you? Something that concerns you?"
"I guess it depends on what it is," he looked at the ceiling as well. "I'm sure whatever it is, you have good reason."
Cagalli squeezed her legs. "I do…but…" her vision was becoming blurry.
"Cagalli?" Kira sat up and moved in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "You can tell me."
"There is a reason why I decided to go to Onogoro Academy," her throat felt dry as she spoke. "Yes, I wanted to finally go to an actual high school, I did…I so did. Especially it being the school that it is. But Onogoro Academy was also the perfect place to look for you."
Kira's eyes widened.
"Knowing that you were born in Orb and that our school would have so many come to it, I had to look there," she continued.
"You were looking for me?" Kira removed his hands.
"Yes," Cagalli averted her gaze. "Because of what my father told me…he told me that I had a brother."
Kira stood up and took a step back. Cagalli watched him, watched as his facial expressions shifted into many varieties of confusion and shock.
"What, but…"
Cagalli stood up and walked over to her bag, that resided by the bottom of the steps. She reached inside, into the inner zipper compartment and pulled out the photo. She stood again and handed it to Kira.
"He gave me this," she said, handing the image to Kira.
He stared at it. "I've seen this before," he said.
It was Cagalli's turn to look shocked. "You've seen this before?" Cagalli nearly shouted.
Kira nodded. "It was a year or two ago…my mom was down here and…she had it." He paused, reflecting. "She put it away so quickly like she didn't want me to see it."
Cagalli thought back to when she first met Mrs. Yamato, and wondered if she had played off Kira finding the photo just as she had played off being taken aback by meeting Cagalli.
"Earlier…your mother recognized my name," Cagalli said.
Kira turned the photo over. "Kira, Cagalli…" he said, reading the writing on the back. He looked at Cagalli and then at the image again, his eyes narrowing. "Twins?"
"Do you believe it's true?"
Father wouldn't lie to me, she thought. Not like this.
"I don't know…" he spoke slowly. "It looks like it, but…"
"Why were we separated?" they said in unison.
Tell me what ya think!
P.S. Idk what to call these. I know they are flash fiction, but they are chapters...I guess I will continue to call this my flash/drabble series *shrugs*