:

A little earlier than the time we promised, I get off a limousine before the entrance of the Athha mansion and walk into it. I'm welcomed by your butler.

Coincidentally, I'm in Orb this very day to take care of some business. Well, I was told it was a coincidence, but I still suspect Lacus's behind this. She looked rather mischievous when I told her the news.

Anyway, if I'm in Orb today, we must meet in person, like you said. After all, this'll be the first time we spend this day together after we found out we were twins. Although we've had chances before, somehow either of us always had to cancel the meeting. But it seems we can finally do it this year.

Hearing a noise, I turn my head to find you hastily walking into the entrance hall. You also find me and start to run toward me, beaming.

I'm surprised, and hurry toward you to receive you in my arms.

"Happy birthday, Kira!" you shout, smiling and laughing and squeezing me.

I can't help smiling as well. "Happy birthday, Cagalli." I hug you back, though gently. It's probably not a good idea to squeeze you, considering your current condition.

"But shouldn't you avoid running?" I look down at the bulge in your body.

"Don't get me started," you groan. "I just had to reprimand Athrun for being overprotective this morning. I wouldn't like doing it twice in only a few hours."

"I'm just worried," I answer, my eyes still on your midsection. It's been months since we met face-to-face last. "You're quite..." I catch myself before I say "bigger." Lacus warned me not to say that. Maybe "rounder"? No, it still wouldn't come out right.

As I struggle to find a better word, you ask, "Do you want to touch?"

I shift my eyes to your face which is excited. "Um...is it fine?"

"Of course!"

You take my hand and put it on your big, round belly. Then, I feel...something lightly bumping from the opposite side. I stare at my hand.

"Is that..."

"The baby is kicking."

"Wow," is the only word I can manage. My eyes are glued to the place where our bodies touch.

A baby is inside you, alive and well and kicking. A life. That is related to you, and therefore to me. We all share the same blood—half of which came from Ulen Hibiki.

Then, I think about the day we met and feel amazed. If I hadn't met you that day, the baby mightn't be here. I might've never had a niece, or a nephew. I might've never felt this wonder, and love for someone I don't even know yet.

I think about the strange twist of life. I can't help thinking our encounter seems to have been really fateful. I can't help wondering whether there's something like fate after all, though I still don't think it decides everything in our lives even if it exists.

Maybe fate takes part only in encounters. Maybe fate leads us to meet and then, leaves the rest in our hands. What we do after the encounter. Whether we part ways or stay in each other's life. If it's the case, I sincerely thank fate for having made us reunite after a long separation.

It's one of the greatest gifts I've ever got that I have you as my sister. The only thing I'm happy to have known among those secrets about our biological family is my sister's none other than you.

Although the revelation was surprising and somewhat shocking at first, it was some consolation to me when I was suffering after finding out how I'd been created. That at least my sister was someone I could like, and someone I already liked. Someone who I knew for sure was a good person. Someone who cared about me, not for my genes or abilities, but for who I was.

I sometimes hate my blood, and I probably would've hated it much more if I hadn't been aware you were the sister I hadn't known having.

Well, if I hadn't chased after you and gotten involved in the war, I might've never met Raww Le Klueze or gone to Mendel. I might've never found out about my origin to begin with.

But I might've still come to know it somehow, and then would've suffered more. Without you, I might've hated everything about my family. I mean, my biological family. I don't think I could've hated Mom and Dad. They love me so much and raised me as their own. They are the best parents anyone could hope for.

My biological parents are a different story. Even my biological mother. I don't wanna dislike her. She's Mom's sister, someone Mom loved. And I don't dislike her. I know Via Hibiki was rather a good person, suffering because of the cruel experiment her husband conducted. Maybe as much as I have.

Probably that's why I don't like to think about her. She reminds me of how much pain and suffering the experiment caused. The experiment which gave birth to me. I was the source of her pain and suffering in a way.

I know she still loved me. Mom says so, and I'm at least sure she really believes it. Plus, as Lacus once pointed out, our biological mother appears to be smiling at me as warmly and lovingly as at you in that photo. I suppose, or hope, she saw me and cared about me as a person, not as an Ultimate Coordinator or as a tool to make her wishes come true like her husband did. That she loved us as you and me.

Yet, she can still bring me feelings of guilt. I can't really think about her without thinking about the sacrifices made to create an Ultimate Coordinator. The darkness and ugliness surrounding my birth.

It's a really good thing we knew each other before finding out the truth about our relation. Otherwise, I might've felt the same way about you, which I wouldn't want.

And probably my blood isn't such a bad thing, right? Our blood's, though hardly the only thing, one of the things that connect us. My blood also connects me with Mom. My love for you and Mom wouldn't change the slightest even if we weren't blood-related. But I'm truly glad we are, since you make me feel better about ties of blood.

I still don't like that man. Our biological father. I still feel disgusted with what he did, the extent he went to fulfill his greedy wish. I still hate the fact my blood's partly his.

However...if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be here. Your baby wouldn't be here.

For that, at the very least, I can appreciate his existence.

Sometimes, I wonder what I would be doing, where I would be if I hadn't met you that day, hadn't chased after you that day. My life would've probably been more ordinary, and more peaceful. Maybe I wouldn't have had to experience the agony of war. I might be happier.

Or not. Someone I love mightn't be alive, or mightn't be in my life. Even I myself mightn't be here. I mightn't have experienced as much happiness as I have. I might be having a miserable and unhappy life, hating myself.

I wouldn't know. No one can know what would've happened if they'd chosen a different way. It's both a blessing and a curse. What might've happened can make you feel bitter, leading you to forget the value of what you have now. Because you might've had a better life. Or it can make you feel happy, reminding you of how precious your current life is. Because you might've had a worse life. We never know which is true. Well, probably both are true. There must be at least several possible futures that might've come true, or a lot more. Some of them better than the one we're living right now; some of them worse.

However, it doesn't matter in the end, does it? What we actually have and what actually happened is the only thing that really matters. It doesn't matter what we might've had, what we could've had. Though it's difficult to accept it. Everyone must wonder from time to time what would've happened to them if they'd made a different choice in their life. Like I sometimes do. It's not a bad thing. It's just a human thing, I guess.

What's important is what we do with the wondering. It's up to us whether we dwell on what-ifs and ruin what we have, or we use it to appreciate more what's in our hands.

And now gazing at your face filled with happiness, smiling and laughing and talking with you about our family and friends, I feel pretty sure—surer than ever—I'd choose the same way even if I could go back in time. I won't lie. There're many things I prefer to have avoided, many things I wish I'd never known or experienced.

Nevertheless, I'm glad I chased after you that day because you'd be very likely to have died otherwise. Well, you might've found another way to survive, considering the quite good luck you seem to have. You've survived a raid on a colony and plunder of mobile suits twice without much injury, after all. But the odds are high that you couldn't have made it. And I certainly wouldn't want that.

Even though its consequences still trouble me once in a while, I don't regret the choice I made that day. I don't regret I followed you and put you in a shelter. Because I'm happy I came to know you as my friend and sister. I'm happy you are still alive and in my life.

Even though my past still haunts me, I'm happy with the way things are. I'm happy where I am. I'm happy with my life. More than anything, I'm happy I'm with the people I love.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

The End

A/N: As you have probably figured out, I'm a sucker for sibling love, and I love Kira & Cagalli very much. While AthrunCagalli is my favorite couple, the twins are my favorite non-romantic pair. And if I have to pick one among all pairs, non-romantic ones and romantic ones altogether, I might choose the twins over AC. That's how much I love them. And that may be partly why this fic got quite long.

The word I feel that fit Kira best is "mild." Compared to other characters, he seems to be moderate in any characteristics, and have a high tolerance for uncertainty. Maybe that's why he can be compatible with Lacus who seems to peculiarly prefer to be enigmatic.

Anyway, being "mild" can mean balanced, passive, flexible, or impressionable. I think all of these are more or less true about Kira.

···

I suppose some explanation is needed concerning the KiraLacus relationship. It seems to me the nature of their intimacy changed twice during GSD. Before the ZAFT special unit attack, their exchanges appeared rather one-way: Lacus looking at Kira, following him around, or initiating a conversation with him. And they didn't touch each other.

During and after the attack, their exchanges became two-way, and they had some physical contacts but only in special occasions, especially Kira initiating it. Plus, they didn't look exactly intimate, at least not more than they had in the end of GS.

Then, after Kira got the Strike Freedom, their exchanges appeared more natural and more like lovers'.

So I decided the changes indicated their relationship development.

···

Maybe I should also explain what Kira said about Cagalli being called Princess. From what I've read, Cagalli isn't officially a princess even though she was called Princess in the series. It seems more like a nickname, a quite formal nickname. I'm not sure she is called Princess because her father was the Chief Representative or she is an Athha or she is a member of one of the five noblest families.

In this fic, I adopted the first theory since it seems to explain best why she doesn't like being called Princess, especially in GSD.

Thank you for the reading. If you've written a review for another fic of mine, thank you for that, too.

And happy birthday, Kira & Cagalli!

*edited 09/09/17*