DNA

Truth Revealed *5 Years Ago...*

"Hanji, Levi, please come here." Mother called us as we were playing video games.

"*sigh* What did you do know, Hanji?" Levi asks as he pauses his game.

"Blaming me? I didn't do anything." He rolls his eyes. I know that he's going through 'that phase' but he's gotta loosen up.

"Yes, Mother?" We both say as we walked into the dining room. Mother having her hair up in her usual bun, the bright light shined on her blond hair and her brown eyes looking down in her book.

She looks up, "Ah, take a seat."

"I wasn't part of whatever Hanji did." Levi quickly says as he took his seat.

"Levi!" I started to punch him, but Mother's voice calmed me down.

"Hanji, you did nothing. No one did anything." She puts her book down. "I decided to tell you something... something you should all know."

"Which is?" I ask.

"Levi, Hanji, you aren't siblings. We... adopted you both."

"Adopted?!" I turned to Levi, seeing his surprised face.

Mother nods, "Since I could never have children, I decided to adopt children and raise them as if they were blood-related. That's what happened to you."

"Then... where...?" I leaned back and shaking my head.

"Hanji, I remember your full name, Hanji Kari Zoe. Levi, yours was Levi Kenny Ackerman."

"Let me get this straight." Levi starts to speak. "We aren't blood-related, we have completely different last names."

"You're correct."

"Why tell us now? What's so important that you needed to tell us? This is stupid, why? Why lie to us about who were are?"

"Levi, baby..." Mother reaches out to him, holding her hand out for him. "I made a promise to your birth mother, that you'll be in good hands when I took you in."

"Who's my birth mother?"

"I don't know her name, I only met her once. That time was when I adopted you, when you were 9 months old. You were so tiny back then..."

"Mother, what about me?" I leaned forward. "What about me?"

"Hanji, I never met your parents... your aunt gave you to me without a warning."

"No one... my parents..." Every muscles in my body just dropped, my breath was stolen as abandonment from my real birth parents. At least Levi's real mother asked for a good care for him. My parents? They didn't even care... my eyes started to blur...

"Hanji, I took care of you, better than what they would've done. I did more than they asked-"

"I never knew them... at least your mother cared about you, Levi."

"You know what? I bet they did care." Levi walked to me, wrapping his arm around me. "I guess... I'm apologizing..."

"For what? We never asked to be left behind, none of this." A tear fell down my cheek. "Why..."

"Someone cared about us, and it's our adoptive parents. They took us in, when probably no one would. Where would we be if they never took us in?"

"Would you want to meet your birth parents again? Because I would want to know who they were..."

"I would want to meet my mother. But, we're probably not ready."

"Hanji... sweetie..." Mother takes my hand and held it close to her heart. I felt the beating, beat, beat, beat. They're right... even though my parents were never there... you cared for me... Mother... "I love you."

"M-me too..." I crashed into her, crying uncontrollably.

"Shh..." I felt her soft pats on my back. "There there... cry as much as you want. I'm always here for you... understand? I love you both, even though you aren't my real children, I love you. Promise me, that you'll take care of each other."

"I got to, Hanji's gonna get her crazy thoughts to her head."

"Understand, Mother." Why would she make us promise this?