Two Halves of a Whole – Chapter 2
Yugi looked at the hand outstretched before him, confused and unsure of what to do. He smiled weakly and cautiously brought his hand up, finally clasping it with Isaac's hand. Yugi noted the warmth of Isaac's hand, the firm grip, but not rough, unlike Kaiba's. Yugi continued to gaze into those giant, sapphire eyes. He didn't feel like they were piercing into him, scrutinizing any possible weaknesses he might have, something Kaiba would do. No, these eyes were warm, welcoming, curious in fact to this new, strange counter boy in front of him. There was no threat, nothing that could harm Yugi. Yugi smiled. This was not Kaiba.
"I'm sorry for mistaking you for another person; I can see you are in fact not him," Yugi said gently to the newcomer, allowing his defences to come down to the previous threat.
"Oh it's quite alright, I've been getting quite a lot of that lately – people keep yelling at me! But I don't blame them," Isaac responded with a warm version of Kaiba's tone. "In fact, I am actually here to meet this Kaiba person you speak of." Isaac's smile widened even further into a gleeful grin, his eyes lightening up with excitement like that of a child. "I heard he's quite the charmer."
"Oh, quite," Yugi said sarcastically, shifting to get up off his stool so he could stand and face his friends. Yugi disliked being behind a counter and having to talk to peers, it felt unnatural. "But you have to realize Kaiba has fought many demons, and still struggles to get over many of them. He may be cold, but he has a heart somewhere in that large cavity of a chest he has."
"Well obviously he must, because Isaac here has that exact same chest cavity size Kaiba has, and his heart fits just perfectly fine inside!" Miriam said, springing lightly away from Serenity next to Isaac, and placing a hand on his chest, right where his heart is. Isaac looked down at the small figure below him and chuckled, "Oh, Miriam..."
"How would you know Isaac has the same size chest Kaiba has?" Yugi asked openly. He shifted his gaze to focus on Isaac, scanning the entirety of his body, head to toe. Indeed, he looked exactly like Kaiba, it was flawless. But looking further into his posture, eyes and facial expression, Yugi could see it was not Kaiba. He had heard of two people looking almost completely alike but not being related at all. Yet the resemblance was almost uncanny, Miriam was right, Isaac's dimensions seemed to fit Kaiba's slender frame perfectly.
As Yugi scrutinized the Kaiba look-a-like standing before him, he noticed the figure becoming visibly uncomfortable with the elongated stares, shifting his feet restlessly. At that moment Yugi felt a jolt, a surge of electricity pulsate through his veins for a brief instant in time. His stomach fluttered as the jolt passed through, making him suddenly conscious of what he was doing, and his own actions around this strange...attractive new comer. He fixed his gaze into Isaac's eyes, those familiar, distant, warm eyes. His heart skipped a beat, distracted with the intoxicating allure of warmth yet a new sensation of nervousness present. Why hadn't he been attracted to this sort of physique before? It was beautiful...Kaiba looked exactly like this...why hadn't he felt this electric sensation with that man? The two were identical. That was when something hit him from the back of his head like a brick – a realization? Had he really been this tired to not think of this earlier?
"You're not...wait...are you really related to Kaiba?" Yugi stammered, his velvet eyes widening with shock, distracted by this new idea. Isaac's body relaxed at the break of the stare, nervousness leaving his eyes replacing it with only more warmth and a new grin slowly spreading on his face.
"I am very much related to Kaiba...you could say was very much attached to him." Isaac responded with a joking tone in his voice.
"You're his twin?"
Isaac placed a hand on his hip and whipped brown locks lightly around his head, and returning his ever glowing eyes upon Yugi's gaze of amazement. "Yup. In fact I am his identical twin – we were actually conjoined at birth. Funny how we shared the same womb yet never remembered each other long enough to have 'met!" Yugi suddenly noticed the slight Canadian accent coming through the warm Kaiba-tone, along with many fluctuations creating a sing-songy, rounded out "ou's" and that familiar tone certain men had. Was it possible he was...no he had to hold off on asking. It was rude.
"Conjoined? Why were you two separated?" Yugi asked in amazement, "oh, but I hope it's alright I'm asking, I realize these are all quite personal questions." Yugi wanted to be polite to the lovely newcomer.
"No, it's quite alright, it's really not all that personal...to me anyways. It fascinates me every time I tell it, and how I came to be where I am now, in this spot." Isaac responded with glee in his eyes, prepping for a story. "I'll try to make it simple. Before we were born our parents knew they were having twins – however they also knew they could not afford two children, only one was feasible with the sort of money they had at the time. They sought out a young couple who couldn't have children of their own, and found the people who are currently my mother and father. However, it was only until later on during the pregnancy that doctors were able to detect that we were even conjoined – we were conjoined at the stomach, around the navel area. Thankfully, we shared no vital organs, just some skin and flesh." Isaac stopped here and grinned sheepishly, "both of us have a scar on our stomachs. It's a nice patch of skin that's a different shade from the rest, but it has always served as a reminder that I have a twin somewhere out in the world. Anywho, I'm getting off topic. So we were born through caesarean section, and because our biological parents could not afford the separation surgery, as I was already signed off to the couple, my current adoptive parents were kind enough to pay for it so they could take me home, and Seto could go with our biological parents. We were separated at after three days of being born. Incredible, huh?"
Yugi's eyes widened in amazement. He also suddenly noticed he had somehow migrated closer to the figure emanating positive energy and warmth. So this Kaiba look-a-like was Kaiba. But also wasn't. Genetically, he was identical to Kaiba, yet a completely different person. "That is quite an incredible story, is Kaiba aware of any of this?"
"To be honest, I have no clue as to what he knows. But, I have come into contact with Mokuba who is supposed to meet me here soon, another little sister I had no idea I had! But Mokuba didn't tell me what Seto knows or doesn't know. She was way to excited to meet me, after I told her my story and of course, provided the supporting documents and proof. It was slightly odd, I've never met someone so sceptical." Isaac looked down, slightly concerned about the implications of this.
"It's not Mokuba who is sceptical, it's Kaiba. Mokuba knows his brother much better..."
"Her. Her brother. I know Mokuba is trans, get the pronouns right!" Isaac said warmly to Yugi, raising his hand and letting it fall gently onto Yugi's shoulder, looking into his mesmerized velvet eyes.
The sensation of Isaac's hand on Yugi's shoulder was more than electrifying, Yugi lost his train of thought for a split second in time, overcome with a strange warmth and many desirable urges. He could feel blood rushing to two distinctive parts of his body, one being his face and the other...he quickly snapped out of this, face visibly bright red and said, "oh, yes, erm, my mistake! Her brother. Kaiba typically doesn't believe anything of what anybody says first time around. Everything seems to need proof."
Isaac smiled sheepishly and let his hand drop, shifting his eyebrows slightly at Yugi. Yugi couldn't help but wonder what this meant, he didn't even know if Isaac went that way...however Isaac's attire was far from straight, much too flamboyant with fiery flame. "I understand," Isaac said, shrugging slightly. "Mokuba seems like quite a sweetheart though, I'm excited to meet her! It's always fun to meet new people you're connected to in some intricate way, always a thrilling experience." Isaac turned his head and glanced at Miriam and Serenity, arms wrapped around each other's waists and Serenity's head cuddled up against Miriam's shoulder. Isaac returned his gaze to Yugi, his brilliant sapphire eyes darting downwards and coming back up again to meet anxious velvet eyes.
"Are you friends with Dorothy?" Isaac asked devilishly.
"What?" Yugi asked. He was very lost by such an odd question.
Isaac laughed, "Damn, you haven't heard that question? What I'm asking is are you gay, silly!"
"Oh! Yes, I am, but I don't see the connection..." Yugi trailed off, when there was the clatter of the door at the front of the store, and a petite raven-haired figure with dark wide eyes gazing staring with shock right at Isaac.
"Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, North American reference." Isaac quickly told Yugi, "I would respond that I am friends with Dorothy," he said and added with a wink.