Hello my dear readers! How are we all doing? Here is another chapter, don't hesitate to tell me what you think of it! It is a shorter one, which leads directly to the next one, so… It's sort of a cliffhanger, even though I'd not say that ^^'

Thank you to the people following my story, it warms my heart! It's a pleasure to share this story with you guys, so I'm delighted to see that some of you appreciate it! Hopefully you'll like it till its end! :)

Yours truly, Circle of J.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from the Kid Icarus series. The deities mentioned are taken from Greek Mythology, remastered the way I imagine them. What I own, on the other hand, is the plot.

Kid Icarus: Heirs of the Light

Chapter 5: Advice seeker

"I still don't see anything," Pit said before he sighed in defeat.

"Come on, now's not the time to give up! There must be something that we've missed!"

Pit collected his thoughts while he studied the necklace with devotion. He had been quite tensed ever since the 'shrieking incident' had last occurred, only a couple days ago, and wished to know more about the subject. Dark Pit had remained strangely evasive every time he had mentioned it, and that alone made him think there was something darker to this gift which was given to him by the Gods. So, he had thought that taking a day off his usual battles to look at it and talk it out with Viridi could be beneficial to everyone.

At the moment, Dark Pit was locked up in his room and read a story, silent and concentrated as he always was. Whenever he opened a book, he would instantly be absorbed by its plot—if it was compelling enough—and spend his next few days reading it back and forth to uncover all of its lore and secrets. Even though these stories had nothing special to themselves, since they all revolved around a lone hero saving a princess from the evil guy's castle filled with evil creatures, he still found this new hobby way funnier than hanging around Pit.

After the necklace incident, he had become… questioning, perhaps even accusative when Dark Pit would say he knew nothing about the voice he heard. The light angel would persist, ask if he really didn't remember how it sounded, if he couldn't recognize it, draw a parallel with a certain Goddess of Love… It really started to get on Dark Pit's nerves, and he wished he had never heard the jewel's voice at all. If Pit had heard it instead of him, he'd have way less problems!

"Again today I will be soaring through the sky~…" Pit hummed, with a little nostalgia in his voice, the song he had made up one day during the Uprising while he took a closer look at the stone. No signs, no letters on it, no nothing. "My enemies, I'll dish 'em up in a stir fry~…"

Viridi growled in frustration. "Focus, Pit! I' m not here for your singing, though I must admit that you've gotten better at it. Taking lessons?"

"Nuh-huh," Pit denied, then he looked up at the ceiling, as if he had a chance of seeing Viridi through it, watching over him. "Viridi, there's really nothing on the stone. I don't see any letter or anything engraved in it."

"Well, even if there were letters, you wouldn't know what they looked like anyways! Augh! It's so useless, I'm wasting my time here!"

"Viridi, quit whining and just help me, okay?" Pit asked, a bit too authoritarian to the Goddess' taste.

"Don't take that tone with me! You're nothing compared to the wonderful Goddess that I am—don't forget that!" Viridi replied, then she sighed. Getting those words out of her chest seemed to have lightened the mood. "Anyways, what did Pittoo say about the voice itself? Feminine, squeaky like a squirrel's, what else?"

Pit shrugged, desperate. "No more than that. He's very sensitive whenever we speak about it. Which is why I get the feeling that he's hiding something from me."

"Fair enough! I know Pittoo better than anyone, and I also think that this attitude is highly suspicious! Try to get something out of him!"

The angel of light lifted up the stone, holding it in his palm, and turned it in all the ways without finding anything peculiar or striking about it. Pit raised an eyebrow, thinking of a way to get the information he craved for out of Dark Pit… "How do I do that?" he asked Viridi, hoping she'd have an answer to his question. She was always thinking, right? Now was the time to show it.

The Goddess of Nature groaned, bothered by the fact that this angel couldn't do any damn thing by himself, and thought about an amusing way to get Dark Pit mad at Pit. Surely, that wouldn't lead anywhere, but it'd be so fun to watch! Since she had wasted so much of her time trying to help Pit, she could at least have a little fun. "Well, why don't you go talk to him about… you know, the weather!"

Pit nodded and stood right up. "Right! Good idea—Wait a sec… The… weather?" he asked again, puzzled by the simplicity of the talk Viridi suggested, and the Goddess laughed out loud. The angel gritted his teeth. "You're making fun of me, aren't you?"

"Were you really thrilled at the idea of talking about the weather to Pittoo?!" she laughed hard, imagining very well the course of that fictional conversation they would've had. She'd have loved to see it. "Hahaha, you stupid dweeb!"

"Hey!" Pit pouted, then he looked over to Dark Pit's room and walked towards its door. However, he stopped in his tracks. "So, I talk to Pittoo, okay. I just—What about, Viridi? I suppose not… the weather…"

"I HAVE AN EVEN BETTER IDEA!" she suddenly cried out, enthusiastic at the thought of her evil plan taking place. "Why not about Palutena? Dark Pit loves that subject so much!"

"And you're still making fun of me," Pit complained.

Viridi calmed down a little and tried to sound as serious as she could be. She cleared her throat and Pit raised his head a little, listening in closely to what she would say next. He really was clueless, wasn't he? For the first time in her existence, Viridi felt somewhat sorry for Palutena, who had to work with Pit on a daily basis… "Well, Pit, I don't know! How about you be a big boy and step inside? Just talk about anything that crosses your mind!"

"You're serious this time?" Pit asked again just to make sure, and Viridi hummed to confirm that she was, indeed, serious. The light angel braced himself when he knocked at Dark Pit's door, expecting to be kicked out as soon as his twin opened the door. Instead of that, Dark Pit looked at him in anger, his book between his hands, and he closed it without glancing away from Pit at any moment. He seemed in a really, really bad mood. Pit gulped and lowered his head. "Pittoo, I—"

"The wall, Pit," Dark Pit warned him again, and Pit immediately nodded and apologized. The dark angel sighed, rolled eyes and opened his door wider so that his twin could walk in. "Now, you have two minutes. Think before you talk."

Pit stepped in the dark, barely lit room, and sat on the edge of the bed. The latter was rather large—much bigger than his own, which was a couple mattresses and a dozen of blankets—and its sheets were both black and purple. He couldn't say he expected anything else coming from his darker counterpart, but he still felt a little disappointed by the obvious lack of warm, light colors that he enjoyed so much. The atmosphere in Dark Pit's room was that of a horror movie watched at midnight… Pit shuddered at the thought. Dark Pit sat next to him, put his closed book on his bedside table, and eyed back at the angel. Pit pondered about what he should and shouldn't say if he didn't want to get thrown out, and after a moment he looked up. "I have been way too insistent about the necklace. I've been obsessing over it and I hope you forgive me for that, Dark Pit."

"For once you said it right, how could I resist?" Dark Pit scoffed, then he leaned in and opened his book again. "Is that all you wanted to tell me, sweet—" he quickly cleared his throat. "I meant to say, Pit?"

Pit shook his head, oblivious to Dark Pit's slip. The dark angel felt quite relieved that his twin didn't mention it, and his eyes fell back to the lines on the pages. Pit stared at him, that same gleam in his blue eyes; oh no, there was so much more… But so much more he couldn't tell. When he met Dark Pit's curious eyes, he glanced away to hide his blush and stood up, rushing towards the door. His voice had died within his throat before he could get words out, before he could express his feelings towards Dark Pit. So instead of being transparent—even though he hated that he had to lie to his twin's face—Pit thought of an alternative and said, as he was about to close the door, that Viridi had told him to say hi. Dark Pit frowned, obviously not convinced, but he didn't insist and went back to reading his book. To be fair, he was rather surprised that Pit hadn't asked for him to read it aloud… Something definitely was off with his behavior, but the dark angel decided not to mind it. This story was way more interesting.

Pit silently, carefully closed the door, and leaned back against it once it was fully shut. He rested the back of his head on it and wondered if he could've said it, if he could've been sincere, if Dark Pit would've been ready to hear it all. But he shook his head thinking about it; he was sure that his dark counterpart would have been anything but up to hear those words coming from him. After all, with the usual reactions he had whenever Pit talked with Magnus… He would hardly believe that the light angel had such feelings towards him and not the human.

Sometimes, Pit pondered whether to let Magnus know or not, but somehow he felt like the human already knew. Surely he noticed the way Pit glanced at Dark Pit, the way he suddenly smiled when the dark, gloomy little angel talked to him—even when it was to mock him or snap at him—and the way that he was completely taken by the other's sight and forgot all company around him. Pit wasn't very cautious about that… He let his feelings guide him, and sometimes he would just ignore Magnus just to stare intensely at Dark Pit's figure.

Viridi cleared her throat, revealing her presence, and Pit jumped, nearly banging his head against the door. "How did that go, Pit?"

"Well, I don't know what I expected," the angel of light answered before he picked himself up and walked back to the table. The necklace hadn't moved nor changed, still shining in that light blue glimmer that Pit found so pretty. He thought about putting it around his neck again, however he still needed to study it. They had close to no time to waste, so he would do everything to find the information he wanted. "Let's just get back to this."

"Before we do: did you tell him?" Viridi inquired—only herself really knew what she was referring to. When she saw Pit raising an eyebrow, she growled and expanded: "You know, about your feelings for him! I think it's no secret to anyone at this point."

Pit blushed and hid his face behind his hands. "What makes you say I have any of these?"

"You refused to go back to Skyworld—All Gods are aware of that, it spread around pretty quickly! I was impressed by how rich, how brave of an action that was coming from you, and had quite a hard time believing it. So I went to Palutena and saw it with my own two eyes! You had left," Viridi explained. He could almost hear the smirk behind her ridiculously high-pitched voice. "So I came to the conclusion that you'd done it for someone! And bingo, one point for the Goddess of Nature! Next thing I know, you're staying over at Dark Pit's house!"

Pit chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. He tried not to seem too uneasy, despite the fact that he was embarrassed beyond what words could express. Since he didn't want to expand on the reason behind his departure, he instead played it off as though nothing special had happened in the first place. If he told her that Palutena had locked him up in his quarters, she'd ask him questions he had no will to answer. "I have no idea why you'd come to such a conclusion from that, Viridi." He blushed, and she slightly laughed at that.

"Aww, you're turning red! Maybe Phosphora was onto something when she said you were cute…" she said, still giggling. Pit turned even redder than he was before—he had always had a hard time accepting compliments without dying of embarrassment—and looked away from the necklace. He hesitated to take off his laurel crown, to put an end to the conversation that was unsettling him, but Viridi stopped laughing and became serious again. "Let's now look at the necklace, I don't have a whole day off like you do, Pit."

"I took this day off," Pit said, then he smiled proudly as he completed with: "Sometimes, you have to take initiatives."

Viridi groaned, however she did not reply. Instead, she said to concentrate on the stone, to look at it in every way, to scan it with his eyes in order to find even the smallest sign there could be. After a moment of examining the stone, Pit's eye caught a strange detail at the bottom of it, that he had missed all along: a mark, looking like a small mirror. He had no idea what that did there, why it was there to begin with, but he found it intriguing enough to let Viridi know about its existence. The Goddess hummed, rummaged through her thoughts and went off to look for meaning behind such an interesting, unusual mark. Pit, on the other hand, stayed where he was, staring at the little mirror engraved in the stone. "Now that's strange. I wonder if I should go and ask Pittoo about this."

"About what?" the familiar voice of Dark Pit erupted from the overwhelming silence all around Pit, and the light angel jumped in his chair. Dark Pit came closer to him, eyed at the stone, and closed the book that he was still holding in his left hand. He seemed so deadly focused, he even had glasses on his nose. Pit knew it was only a stylish element, that it didn't correct Dark Pit's sight in the slightest, but it still managed to catch him off guard. The dark angel approached his free hand and gently took the necklace off of Pit's palm, inspecting it. "That's a mirror, isn't it?"

Pit nodded and turned towards him. "Do you know what it's doing on the stone?"

"I think I'm starting to understand."

Dark Pit remembered the words of the stone, the fact that it was a 'bridge' between 'one end and another'. He was starting to piece everything together, and his memory arose, reminding him of a place where nobody would be looking for him. The dark angel sighed, closed his eyes, and successfully prevented a single tear from rolling down his cheek. No need for that conversation right now. Worried, Pit asked him if he felt alright, if he needed to sit down. Dark Pit found that a good idea and took a seat next to his lighter version, taking his head between his hands and trying not to succumb to the immense sorrow he felt growing in his heart. It had been such a long time. He remembered a time where he'd ask the Gods, he'd pray that he could go back, claimed that he didn't fit in this life. He couldn't count the amount of nights he had stayed up, cuddling to his pillow and begging Zeus or even Hermes to bring him back to where he thought he belonged.

But that was before he found out about his feelings for Pit. Ever since he realized that he had fallen for him, Dark Pit had never asked again. Nonetheless, the necklace was there, in his hands. The key to his freedom, the key to go back to his old life, to his own place. The key to leave everything behind and never look back at it. "It's complicated," Dark Pit said when he felt Pit's eyes on him, demanding for explanations. "You wouldn't understand."

"I could understand anything. Does this have to do with the Mirror of Truth?" Pit inquired, and Dark Pit couldn't help but think that Pit could sometimes be very smart. However, he didn't say anything of the sort, since the light angel probably had no idea why he even emitted that hypothesis in the first place.

Dark Pit shrugged. "I don't know," he lied, looking off to the side. He wrapped his fingers around the necklace before he slammed it against the table, hoping it'd break into pieces. Pit gasped as he did so, and pushed his hand back to look in horror at the stone. Fortunately—or not, to Dark Pit's taste—it wasn't broken in the slightest. The stone still glowed pink and there was nothing to indicate that it nearly had been destroyed at all. "Well, that's too bad."

"Why did you do this, Pittoo?!" Pit cried out, just as he felt his heartbeats slowly calming down. "You could've broken it!"

"I'd hope."

"But why—"

"Magnus is at the door, let's not make him wait, okay?" Dark Pit interrupted Pit. The light angel fluttered his wings to signify that he was not agreeing to this, that they had to talk about what had happened, but his twin stood up and went to the door, opening it to the human.

When he thought about it, he still hadn't opened the sack Magnus had brought a few days earlier. Strangely enough, it had no smell, so he assumed that this time it was not the decapitated head of one of their enemies. The human stepped in and his eyes immediately fell on Pit. "Hey you two angels, thought you'd enjoy to go out."

Pit seemed hesitant, for whatever reason, and grasped onto Magnus' shirt. He looked at Dark Pit, who had been sitting on the chair he previously occupied and was scanning his book with his red eyes, and whispered for the human to follow him outside. Magnus shrugged and agreed to it, since he didn't really mind either way.

Pit pulled him outside, glad that his darker twin hadn't noticed them walk out, and bit his lower lip nervously. How could he explain the situation and keep it as short as possible, before Dark Pit looked up from his book and realized that they were gone? Everything was just so complicated. He wasn't even sure that he had… those feelings for his darker version, but for some reason he still needed to talk about them to Magnus. He knew how well he could trust him, he was his friend since the Uprising… Plus, if he had been right, Magnus would already have noticed it. He really didn't have anything to lose. Pit ruffed his hair, uneasy though, and briefly looked off farther into the street. The sun was already starting to get low, he couldn't waste anymore time than he already had. "Magnus, I wanted to tell you about something."

The human nodded. "Yeah, that's what I understood. You seem worried, is everything okay?"

The angel of light gulped down, trying not to be too scared since it wasn't the end of the world. He was just going to… voice out what had been hidden within. It really shouldn't be that hard, should it? He clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and could hear his heart panicking in his chest. Although he was paralyzed with fear, he still managed to open his sapphire eyes and look right into Magnus' gray orbs. "I'm fine! I'm okay, though we should keep our voices down."

Magnus crossed his arms against his chest, waiting for Pit to speak up. What was going on with him? Was he alright? His cheeks were blood red and his eyes started to sweat with tears… He had rarely seen his brave angel friend so worried about something. He guessed that it had to do with Dark Pit, since he insisted that they should keep their voices low, but what was it? Right as he asked himself that question, the human remarked strange scars on his friend's shoulders and frowned; did Dark Pit hurt him? Was it why he wanted to keep it secret? Did his darker version beat him up? From what he knew, it wasn't such a rare occasion, since Pit had told him several times that they sparred a lot. Did they spar again, but this time, it didn't end well? Was it why the dark angel was so focused on ignoring his lighter counterpart? There were so many questions… But Pit had remained silent, biting his lower lip. "Angel face, we don't have the whole day. Just tell me what's wrong."

Pit nodded and shut his eyes firmly. He stopped breathing, bracing himself, before he succeeded at getting it all out in one shot: "I love him."

The human's eyes looked deadpanned. So that was it? He already knew that, it was rather obvious: that look in Pit's eyes, every time he looked at Dark Pit, fooled absolutely nobody. He was even surprised that the dark angel hadn't noticed, maybe he had, since it was so visible. Perhaps that was why he didn't want to talk to him, and instead focused his attention on a book. Magnus wasn't exactly a professional when it came to relationship issues, for he never had to face situations like this one. Gaol had accepted him pretty easily, so… How could he be of any help?

Pit blinked, waiting for an answer, and Magnus cleared his throat. "Excuse me. I already knew, Pit, you're not very discreet."

"I'm not?"

Magnus shook his head negatively, and glanced in the sky only to see that the sun was getting lower and lower. They shouldn't spend too much time talking if they wanted to go for a walk. Magnus didn't really know where they could be going, maybe a tour of the town? He'd see with the two angels where they wanted to go. At the moment, the human was more interested by the conversation. "No, you're not, angel face. So that's why he's avoiding you? He has realized what was going on? You two argued?"

Pit furrowed his brows and shook his head. "Oh no no no! He doesn't know."

"How could he not?" Magnus chuckled. "Your eyes shine whenever you look at him, and you think he didn't see that?"

The light angel looked off to the side, thinking about what the human had said. Yes, he wasn't the most secretive person, with his big expressive eyes, but… Dark Pit had never mentioned anything. He hadn't talked about a 'weird' look that Pit might have given him at any time, he… He hadn't seemed to realize. Or did he know? Did he know and refused to talk about it because he wasn't interested? He knew that Dark Pit wasn't really into conversations around those types of subjects… Maybe it was his way of telling him: 'No thank you'? Pit's heart sank at the thought; maybe he had hoped for too much. He should've known that it wouldn't be possible between them, they… they were like brothers in Dark Pit's eyes. Brothers that sometimes hated each other. Why would he be looking into a relationship with his reflection? Plus, he always told Pit that he was an idiot, a stupid, a moron… Those were not exactly pet names. Pit lowered his head, tears menacing to flow out of his eyes, then turned away from Magnus. "Then he doesn't like me…"

Magnus frowned, confused. "What do you mean, he doesn't like you?"

"He's never told me that he had noticed," Pit explained, heartbroken. He hugged himself, since the cold wind made him shiver. But he couldn't resolve to walk back in the house, not now that he knew… "If he didn't, that means he's not interested… Right? That's his way of saying it, since he doesn't like to talk."

The human sighed and gently put his hands over the angel's shoulders. "Now now. I don't think that's it. You know, I can overlook a lot of things, but what I see when Dark Pit looks at you is not hatred; quite the opposite. How about, you tell him how you feel. Hm? We're going out tonight, that's the perfect occasion for that. Then, he can tell you what he thinks of it. Sounds good?"

Pit looked over his shoulder with a slight smile plastered on his lips. His eyes started shining again, like they always did in the presence of Dark Pit or whenever he thought of him, and the angel turned around fully to face his human friend. He took him in a warm embrace. "Thanks Magnus. You're always of great help."

"I'm your friend, that's what I'm here for," Magnus smiled. "Then? Shall we get going?"

"I have one request," Pit said. The human raised an eyebrow, and Pit looked up at him with glistening blue eyes. "We get to go to the forest. It's the most romantic place I know."

To be continued…

Updated: 02/11/2019