Author's Note: Sorry! Ten million times sorry! I actually wrote about the first three pages of this chapter immediately after finishing the last one, but then school and work, and then exams, and then Christmas shopping and work and...well, I got sidetracked. The end result is that the chapter is late, but long. I'll try and be better in the future. Also, woot for 99 reviews. Let's break 100 on chapter 20, shall we?

Kagayaku Means to Shine
Anime: Shoujo Kakumei Utena
Primary Pairing: Utena x Anshii
Rating: PG-13
Written: 7 Nov 2006, 28 Dec 2006
Chapter Twenty

A soft, worried female voice spoke into a tense silence.

"We've been keeping these things a secret for a long time. They're not stupid, they're going to start asking questions sooner or later. What are we going to tell them?"

"I don't know," responded another, deeper female voice, "I thought we could wait until they were at least sixteen, but if he's found us...well, at least they're older and better equipped than some of us were."

"We've done everything we could," agreed a third voice, male this time, "And if they really do have it...well, maybe they'll finally be able to bring him down once and for all."

"The question is," came a tired, female voice, "Should we send them in, all unknowing, or should we tell them everything now?"

A deeper male voice popped up.

"Do we have any idea as to when he's going to make his next move?"

"Well," mused a smirking female voice, "If the butterfly is in league with him...does anybody disagree with me on that point?"

There was complete silence.

"I thought so. If she's working for him, she won't be coming around at least until she heals from that knockdown I gave her earlier today. So that gives us a little time to plan, at least."

"True enough. We should keep an eye on the twins, though."

There was a rustling sound, and then the same voice spoke again.

"Have you noticed anything odd going on?"

"Not recently," said a new female voice, "But they've been so wrapped up with their practicing that I haven't seen much of them recently."

"The test is next week. If we can put it off until after then, I think it will probably go better."

"You think so?"

"Yes."

"Fine. Until then, we'll concentrate on locating his puppet and figuring out the best way to tell this all to the twins."

"How about the fairytale?"

"I think that might be best. We can work out the details later, but let's get going now before they get suspicious."

"They're all gathered together again," Nishiko said softly, as she dropped onto her brother's couch in a mirror of his position, backs against the armrests and their feet sharing space on the center cushion, "In mom and dad's rooms this time."

:Why are you even bothering to talk out loud?: came the question from Nishiki, and his answer was a feeling much like a mental shrug.

:Because I can?:

:Let's meld. It's easier to talk that way.:

'Talk' was a relative term, really. Looking up, two pairs of identical eyes met and two minds merged into one consciousness, which called itself, somewhat sarcastically, Shiiro. Four colours. In that state, they were one person, with double the mental processing. And it was in that state that they shared thoughts, ideas, and musings without effort, truly one mind.

The room fell silent as the twins sat together, relaxing in the comfort and security of their closeness. Some said they were too close for brother and sister, and made insinuations behind their backs, but it wasn't as if they cared. Yes, they were close. It was only natural to be close to someone whose mind you shared.

Knock knock knock!

The door to Nishiki's suite opened and Anshii poked her head in just as one mind in two bodies looked up at her. Two pairs of flat, blank blue eyes met her green ones, and a sudden shiver rocked her body. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, there was a nearly audible sensation of something snapping, and suddenly those two pairs of eyes took on life and personality again, regarding her curiously.

"Yes, Mama? Is something the matter?"

"I...no. It's nothing," Anshii said softly, her voice shaking slightly, "Dinner will be ready soon, please come and set the table."

"Yes, Mama."

"We'll be right down."

The door closed once more, and Anshii sagged against the outside frame. They've discovered it. They're using it. Jumbled, incomprehensible thoughts flew through her head at the speed of light, finally condensed into one, coherent thought. I need to tell Utena.

Back in Nishiki's living room, the twins looked at each other and a single thought sped back and forth between them. We've been caught. It was followed shortly by another thought. Why didn't you lock the door!?

There was a brief silence, and then an outraged, Since when is it my job to lock the door!?

:Since always.:

:Shut up.:

Dinner was a silent affair, which had been happening rather too often for comfort. Everyone was absorbed in their private thoughts, and not even couples spoke more than absolutely necessary.

Anshii, having decided to put off telling Utena until after dinner, continually stole glances at her children, feeling vaguely ashamed of herself as she noted them behaving quite normally, if a little quietly. Still, there was no mistaking what she had seen in their eyes. Back in the dimly-remembered days of her childhood, she had seen that look on her brother's face as he came down from using the Power, and there was no mistaking it. Came down, as if it were a drug. And yet, she mused, as she pushed grains of rice back and forth in the bottom of her rice bowl, they showed none of the strain and effort that he had as he desperately fought to keep his own power under control. Instead, the twins had looked...relaxed?

The sudden clatter of a chopstick falling to the wooden table made Anshii jump, along with the rest of the table, as Miki blushed and retrieved it, mumbling an apology. Juri just chuckled softly, joined by Touga and Utena, and soon the painful tension had dissipated, at least in part, and shortly conversations began to bloom.

"Shi-kun," Touga said, addressing the twins, "Have you practiced yet today?"

They both nodded, and Nishiko answered aloud.

"Yeah. My sports club was canceled today, so Oniichan skipped his and we came home to practice," she said, then elaborated at the questioning look she received, "Neither of us have any meets coming up, so we thought Oniichan skipping one day would be okay."

"Just be careful," Utena said with a smile, "You never know when once can become twice, and then before you know it you've skipped a hundred times."

"This from someone who never stuck with a single club activity for more than a month or two," commented Anshii with an uncharacteristic grin, which was widened by Utena's immediate protest. Juri joined in the teasing, followed by Kozue and then others, and the tension in the room finally broke completely, giving way to loud, cheerful conversation, teasing, and general merrymaking.

With the lightening of the atmosphere came relaxation and, for Anshii, forgetfulness. And so, it wasn't until she slipped into bed beside a quietly snoring Utena that she remembered what she'd seen in the twins' eyes. Snuggling up to Utena's back, she wrapped one arm around the slumbering woman, resting her hand on a flat stomach, and smiled sleepily. They might have come from Utena's belly, but for all intents and purposes, they were Anshii's children, and she loved them.

"Everything will be fine," she murmured softly into Utena's ear, and smiled as the other woman made a little grumbling noise in her sleep, "Everything will be just fine."

A storm rocked the walls of the mansion that night, sending bolts of lightning crashing down from the sky, heralded by massive crashing thunder that made for restless sleep. Although it seemed fit to last forever, the storm eventually did cease, giving way to a late, watery dawn that saw half of Tokyo without power and nearly twelve million yen (1) in lightning damage. Residents of the city uniformly agreed that it had been one of the worst storms in years.

All that mattered to the twins was that school, for the first time in their short lives, had been canceled. This was due to damage occurring when a small, glancing bolt of lightning hit the main generator. With the power out and the generator damaged, it had been decided that it was far too cold to force students and teachers to show up to the presently unheated building for classes.

"Wow," laughed Nishiki, still dressed in his pajamas, lying in bed and talking to his current girlfriend on the phone, "I thought it would take another big typhoon like the one a couple years ago to cancel school!" (2)

There was a brief period of quiet as, Nishiko presumed, the girl on the other end spoke. She and Nishiki were lounging around in his suite, lazing the day away until their family got home and they were roped into practice or other things. As her elder brother continued to talk on the phone about trivial things that she thought rather banal, Nishiko was busy drawing.

The phone held to one ear, Nishiki leaned over his sister's shoulder and touched one fingertip lightly to the paper, pointing out the slightly odd curve of one leg, which Nishiko promptly corrected.

"No, no, I'm paying attention. No, I'm just hanging out with my sister."

Nishiko smirked.

"Of course we're close, we're twins."

Nishiko drew some more.

"That's stupid," Nishiki protested over the phone, "And pretty gross."

"...No, I don't care if that's the rumour around school. Not only is she my sister, she's a lesbian too. Remember?"

"What did you just say? That's just rude. No, I'm not kidding. Why would you think that? You know what, since she's right here listening to me, why don't I ask her?"

Nishiko regarded him quizzically. They weren't linked at the moment, so she only knew what the girl was saying by what Nishiki responded with, and he was sounding more and more angry by the minute.

"Do you stare at other girls in the locker room?"

"No," she answered simply, then went back to drawing.

"She says no," he reported into the phone, "And besides, it's not like you have anything she doesn't see every day anyway. No, it's not like having a guy in your locker room, that's dumb."

With a gesture, he invited Nishiko into his mind, and she went willingly, curious as to what the other girl was saying. Not wanting to interfere, she hung back at a level just deep enough to share a few senses.

"...likes seeing us naked! How is that different from a guy?"

:Because I'm not desperate enough to have to peek, unlike most guys at our school?:

Nishiki nearly laughed out loud at the sardonic voice in the back of his head, but managed to hold it together long enough to respond.

"Well, let's see. Because she isn't a guy? Not even all guys are like that, anyway."

"Oh please, as if you wouldn't stare if you found yourself allowed in the girls' locker room."

"No, as a matter of fact I wouldn't. First of all, that's rude. Second of all, my entire family would beat me if I did. Third, I'd probably just be embarrassed."

"Yeah, right."

"Look, could you at least try to like my sister? I can't imagine how you'd react if you met the rest of my family."

"What, is one of your uncles gay or something? I think that's totally fine. It's just lesbians that are gross, really."

There was a very long moment of complete silence, as the twins processed that and, thinking in tandem, made a decision.

"You know," Nishiki's voice was deceptively mild when he spoke again, "I think I'm going to have to cancel our date on Sunday. I was planning to invite you to my house for dinner, but I don't think it'll work out. Maybe I'll call you sometime. Or maybe not. Bye."

He hung up the phone, smiling vaguely as Nishiko sent a comforting feeling into his mind.

:Thanks, but I'm okay. I wasn't really dating her for her brains, you know?:

:I know. Breaking up with somebody still sucks, though.:

Nishiki's only response was a silent nod, before he laughed and pounced on his sister.

:Ah, who cares about stupid girls, anyway? School is canceled, so I vote we just have fun all day long.:

:Sansei.(3)

When their parents came in hours later, it was to find the twins sprawled together across Nishiki's big bed, snoring, and a handful of variously good drawings scattered on and around them. Dressed in their pajamas, hair tucked under them, it was hard to tell them apart, even for the people who had raised them. Without Nishiki's binding tops and Nishiko's alleged push-up bras, their lean bodies were remarkably alike, especially when hidden under loose winter pajamas.

Leaning in the doorway, Utena felt her chest swell with pride at having raised, through some very trying circumstances, such a pair of smart, talented, and overall good teenagers. And then, she walked up and tickled both of them, leaving Anshii to stand in the doorway, watching as her three blue-eyed children wrestled, laughing themselves silly.

In such happy times, she mused, who wants to think about impending doom? Big brother, I hate you all over again, for trying to ruin this beautiful life that I...that we have built. We will stop you, but...what will it cost our family? I'm afraid to find out.

END CH.20

References:

(1) Twelve million yen is around about a hundred thousand USD. So not hurricane damage, but pretty damn bad.

(2) Schools never close in Japan. They just don't. Unless there's a typhoon ON TOP OF THE CITY, schools in Japan will not close. I mean, what do you expect? They come to school during freaking summer vacation. And in case you didn't pick it up from Nishiki and Utena being at the kotatsu last chapter, it is most certainly winter. The twins' birthday is in winter, January 27 to be precise.

(3) Sansei means 'agreed' or something to that effect. It's usually said when somebody suggests something, or when there's a vote, to mean a positive response.