I hear Kaoru pace in his room as I lie on my bed. He asked me to come over, didn't say why. He's getting ready. I take a sneak peek at his thoughts, he can't decide what to wear. Red flannel and jeans, I tell him mentally. It's always a good choice. I hear the scraping of the hangers in his wardrobe. I'll look very plain in my riding jacket next to him, I realise. I'd have to care at this point. I've been quite lazy lately. My riding jacket is always where I am, meanwhile all of my nice clothes are here. I hear the door to Kaoru's room open, followed by a knock on my door. Kaoru, knowing not to wait for an answer by this point, opens the door. I notice that the flannel is slightly too big for his already broad frame.
"That's Takumi's shirt, isn't it?" I groan.
"Maybe." He avoids my eyes.
"Why do you do this to me?" I get off the bed, standing up. "What are we doing anyway?"
"Well." He gulps. His eyes move to Kasumi's bedroom door.
"Oh." I say. "That was pretty quick."
"Can't really hide it, can I?"
"I suppose." I shrug my shoulders. "Considering he was over yesterday and then I called you gay, she probably saw this coming."
"If it makes my life easier, then I'm not going to complain." He sticks his hands in his pockets, shifting his weight between each leg. "Who else do I know that's gay?"
"If we're talking gay in the sense of not straight, like, everyone we know."
"What?" Kaoru mutters. "Even like Yusei and the others?"
"Yusei's panromantic, he doesn't care what gender people are. Which is good for me, cause I don't really identify as any gender even though I present as female. Even all of the gang people we know too. Raiden is the only one that's hundred percent straight basically." I nod. "Well, I mean Reika likes guys, but you know since she's asexual and is also agender, we don't really count her. That's honestly about it. We have a way of finding each other, I guess." Kaoru squints at me a little, confused. "Dude, Raiden's the only straight psychic I've ever known, get over it. Maybe Divine, but that's about it. Geez, something about being marginalized for something beyond our control. What am I talking about being psychic or gay?"
"That's a fair point." He responds.
"Are you ready?" I ask, changing the topic.
"I don't know. Are you?" Kaoru makes a face that perfectly sums up how he's feeling. Lots of fear, with some gay in there. "Okay, come on. We getting this over with."
"Kaoru honey, can you put some coffee on please?" I hide my chuckle as Kasumi calls out to us from the sitting room. Kaoru rolls his eyes, going straight into the kitchen. "Oh Yuuka, I didn't know you were here." She stands up to give me a hug.
"I just got here." I answer.
"Mrs. Whiskers, get off the table!" I hear Kaoru shout from the kitchen, followed by a thump on the floor. The other door opens, revealing our cat scurrying into the sitting room. She continuously rubs her head on my leg. I put her up, only for her to squirm in my arms.
"Why are you like this?" I say to the cat.
"Apparently, cats rub their head on things to mark them with their scents." Kasumi explains, sitting back down. "It's kind of affectionate, but not really." I sit down too, Mrs. Whiskers just sits awkwardly in my arms.
"I made you one too." Kaoru says as he comes in. He hands me my coffee after he hands Kasumi hers. "Cause you always want coffee." Mrs. Whiskers jumps out of my arms as soon as I open them, instead opting for the cushion between Kasumi and I.
"Oh yes, it's so true." I smile, taking my hourly caffeine dose. I notice that Kaoru didn't make a cup from himself. Kaoru sits on the other sofa, sitting at an angle so he's looking at us.
The caffeine makes my anxiety worse. I hear Kaoru in my mind. I try to portray the shrugging of my shoulders in my face alone.
"Are you not having anything, son?" Kasumi asks.
"Uh no." Kaoru mutters.
"Why not? Is something wrong?" She says before taking a sip.
"Well." Kaoru moves a hand to the back of his neck. "Kind of." He glances between Kasumi and I quickly. "I have something to tell you."
"I know you're gay, son, it's okay." Kasumi cuts him off before he has the chance to say anything. I smile into my cup, knowing that this was probably going to happen.
"I'm-" His eyes widen. "W-Wait, what?"
"I know that you're gay, I've always known."
"And you're… okay with that?" He blinks really fast, as if the words haven't quite registered yet.
"Yes, of course, why wouldn't I? I still love and support you, honey." Kasumi chuckles. "I've been expecting this for a while. A few months ago, you said you were bringing a friend home. I thought you were bringing home a boy, so I put makeup and everything! Nope, you just showed up with your sister."
"That would explain a lot." I say, sipping my coffee. "Am I the only person who didn't see this coming?"
"Probably." Kasumi chuckles. "Aren't you bi? You should have clocked him."
"Yep, he's bi too actually." I shrug my shoulders.
"That's okay too." She nods at Kaoru, who still seems out of it.
"I thought it was funny, because I used to beat up the people who beat him up for being gay. I never realised. Still would have beat them up either way." I shake my head.
"And you call your brother oblivious." Kasumi sighs.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" I mutter under my breath.
"Because you're an idiot." I put on my best offended face at Kaoru's comment. "Actually, there's another thing too. I-"
"You're a psychic too?" Kasumi cuts him off. "Why else would you go looking for her?"
"Well yeah." Kaoru blinks slowly.
"I still love you, son." Kasumi gets up from the couch, pulling Kaoru into a hug. She stretches her arm out for me. I reluctantly get up, letting them have their nice family moment. "And you, Yuuka. It's okay. You're still my kids and I love the both of you." She pats both of our heads, despite them being above hers, before sitting down. "I can't believe you thought I'd reacted badly to that news." Kasumi shakes her head. "You do know that your aunt Kyoko was a lesbian?"
"Wait." I put my hand up. I turn and put my now empty coffee cup down "My mother? A lesbian?"
"Did you not know?" Kasumi turns to me, surprised. "When the Zero Reverse happened, she had just moved in with her girlfriend." I stare at her for a few seconds, mouth wide open.
"I had two moms?"
"Yes." She nods slowly. "In that your adoptive mother had a girlfriend, who you would have called mom also. I mean you already have two moms since I gave birth to you, but details. You didn't know about her?"
"She never mentioned her." I press my hands together. "Or maybe she did? I don't remember much, since I was so young."
"She must have died in the Zero Reverse." Her face falls. A silence falls over the room. I stare at my hands. I almost had a completely family. Two mothers to support me as I grew up. Ripped away from me before I even knew what I had. "Wait a second." Kasumi stands up, leaving the room. I feel Kaoru going to say something, but he stops. I sigh. It's hard to take in. No one ever told me. Like a piece of me that was missing the entire time, but I never knew it was gone.
"What's that?" Kaoru asks as Kasumi comes back into the room, carrying a box caked in dust.
"Well," She exhales deeply, sitting down with the box at her feet. "Kasumi moved into a new apartment with her girlfriend a few days before the Zero Reverse. She asked me to keep her photography stuff so it would safe. She never came back for it." She sighs. "So, I kept it up in the attic. I've never looked at it, but I thought you might want to see it." She picks up the lid of the cardboard box, placing it on the floor such that the dust doesn't rub off on the carpet. She takes out some fancy camera equipment out of the box, setting it on the rug delicately. I move over on the couch, right next to Kasumi, so Kaoru can join us. "She studied journalism back in college, but she loved photography. That was her passion." There's a sad smile on Kasumi's face. There's a couple of photo albums neatly placed in the box. She takes out the first one, opening it up. The album is filled with photographs about nature. One of a blue butterfly on a sink stands out to me. The next album in the box catches my attention. I gently take it out of the box, setting it on my lap. A polaroid falls out of the album. Kaoru picks it up, turning to me. I gasp, taking it.
"That's you." Kasumi points to the baby in the photograph. "That was taken the day she gave that box to me. You were born with dark hair, you still had it at that point." Kasumi puts her hand over mine, turning the photo. I read the date on the back of it, recognising as the day before the Zero Reverse. I turn it back, staring at the image. My baby self is staring at the camera with wide eyes and a smile. I was about a year old at this point. I slip the polaroid into a little pocket inside the cover of the album. I start turning the pages of the album. It's filled with pictures of me. I have to blink back the tears. In some pictures, I'm being held by a blonde woman with grey-blue eyes. That must be her, I realise, the woman that would have been my other mother. Kasumi barely looks at the album, keeping her eyes on my face.
The next photo is my mother and Kasumi together. You can see their resemblance as sisters, despite how different their personalities seem. Between my mother's pixie haircut and her tongue sticking out, it's almost hard to believe they're sisters. Kasumi always seems so poised. I notice the pink choker I'm wearing now on Kasumi. She must have stopped wearing it out of grief, I realise. These photos seem to be taken over a really small space of time.
I turn the page of the photo album. There's two photos next to each other. One of me and a toddler, who I assume is Kaoru judging by the light brown hair. The other is of me and a tanned baby who must be a good few months younger than me. Judging by the look of me, it wasn't taken too long apart from the other photo of me.
"That's Kaoru, we went to the park that day." Kasumi confirms, pointing at the photo. "That one…" She hums, pointing at the smaller baby in the second picture. "That was her godson, her best friend's son. Masahiro was the friend's name, I think. Didn't know him that well. The first time I met him, Kyoko spilled coffee on this poor girl. He ended up marrying her if I'm remembering that right. She was his best man, and showed up in a tux."
"Iconic." I say. If I ever get offered to be a best man, I'm gonna rock the tux and a high tight ponytail.
"I can't remember their baby's name." She sighs. "They died in the Zero Reverse, they were working on the project."
I turn over the page and a photo falls out. I pick up the photo. It's a photo of a couple with the baby from the last picture. I instantly recognise the man in the picture. That can't be right.
"Masahiro Fudo." I mutter.
"That was his name, yep, definitely." Kasumi nods. "Wait, how do you know that?"
"Yusei." I point at the baby.
"Yes! That was his name- Oh my gods!" Kasumi turns to me, in shock. "What a coincidence!"
Yusei and I knew each other before the Zero Reverse. That's what this means. It doesn't feel real. Like some made up romantic comedy. But no. This is fact.
"How is that even possible?" Kaoru raises his eyebrows. "What are the chances of that?"
"Practically impossible." I turn over the photo. Look how cute my godson is. The writing is decorated with a heart and a date. I smile. "But things work out in the end."
"Take the photos." Kasumi smiles back at me. "I doubt he has any baby pictures. I think there's a few more of them in there."
"Oh really?" I say. She puts her hand on the album and nods.
"You two need them more than I do."
"You guys aren't going to believe this!" By the time I get back to Poppo Time, only Yusei is in the garage. "Wait, it's only you." I laugh. "But you're not going to believe this."
"Enlight me." Yusei smiles, wiping the oil on his hands into a rag. I admire his arms since he's not wearing his jacket. He kisses me when I walk up to him with the photo album.
"Okay." I take a seat on the couch. Yusei takes a seat beside me, sneaking an arm around my waist. "Kasumi dug out a photo album that belonged to my mother, right?" Yusei hums, kissing my temple. I flip it open on the first page.
"You were a cute baby." He says, knowing that the pictures were of me despite the difference in hair color. I go to question why he knows, but then I realise how easy it is to put two and two together.
"Thank you, I grew my face myself." I see Yusei roll his eyes. "But that's not the only thing that's in here." I flip forward a few pages forward.
"Who's that?" Yusei points at my mother's girlfriend.
"So apparently, I had gay moms."
"Well, you didn't lick it off a stone." Yusei says it so bluntly that I laugh. "I distinctly remember you telling Martha that you were allowed marry a girl because Jack could."
"To which Jack replied that he could marry a boy because I could."
"Is that Kaoru?" Yusei points at the picture of Kaoru and I in the park.
"Yep." I nod. "But, do you know who this is?" I point to the baby in the next photo. I look at Yusei who seems confused.
"Should I?"
"Turn the page." Yusei delicately turns the page, landing on the photo of him as a baby with his parents. A small gasp escapes his mouth. I stare at his face as many emotions flicker in his eyes.
"That's…" All he can do is mutter.
"This album is full of pictures taken by my mother." I say, holding his other arm. "If you look." I take the photo out of the sleeve and turn it over, revealing the writing on the back. "Do you know what that means?"
"Godson." He mutters. "We knew each other before the Zero Reverse."
"That's right." I nod.
"What are the chances?" He peels his eyes from the picture to look at me.
"Impossibly small." I answer.
"This is so strange," Yusei's eyes return to the picture. "I still can't believe it."
"Your family doesn't have a destiny of destruction." I say. "Look how happy they were. That's not a family of people who would make this world a worse place. Don't listen to what people say. You are your own person, you make your destiny."
I don't care what Yusei may say about himself. He's perfect in my eyes. He carries this burden on his shoulders. That he has to somehow make up for his father being involved in the Zero Reverse. He won't rest until he feels like he's done enough that his guilt will vanish. I don't know if that day will ever come. Who knows what the future will hold. All I know is that I want him to stay alive. Even if that means sacrificing myself, so that he might carry on to see his own bright future in front of him. I know that means I won't be beside him to see it happen, but if that's what I must do, so be it.
"Thank you." Yusei smiles sadly at me. I kiss him so I don't have to see him being sad.
"And we found each other anyway." I chuckle, putting my hand on top of his.
"Do you wonder if we could find each other in every lifetime?" Yusei presses another kiss to my temple.
"I think that's called soulmates." I mutter as Yusei's face comes closer to mine.
"Maybe so." He whispers before kissing me again.