Angels of a Feather (Kid Icarus fanfic)

6. Shadows of the Past

I was with Pit and his sister when the alarm sounded.

I was... suspicious of Sazahra, for some reason. I kept expecting her to... I dunno, vanish or something. Pit, I knew. Palutena, I knew. Those were familiar names and faces that I could easily recognize. This Sazahra character? It was like Viridian but worse. They both obviously had some kind of connection to Pit, but...

Well, she didn't feel real.

I didn't say that out loud, of course. It was insane. Where was I even getting the idea from? I couldn't explain my own reasoning. So I kept my mouth shut and apologized for any weird looks I unintentionally gave the older girl. Other than my bizarre feelings that she shouldn't exist, Sazahra was... surprisingly similar to Pit. They shared the same hair color, way of talking, and bright glimmer in their eyes. Sure, she had green eyes while Pit had blue, but even an idiot like myself could tell the two were related.

I had the vague feeling that I knew a lot about siblings and how they could be similar or different from each other.

While I was wondering if I actually had a sibling or not, Pit was dragging me along to show me his house again in the family block, eagerly bragging to his sister about how neat he'd kept it in her absence. Sazahra scoffed and teased him saying humans would fly before he actually kept his room clean. The two went back and forth the whole way there, leaving me to my thoughts again. Did I have a sibling? If so, why hadn't anybody mentioned them? What about parents? Pit didn't have parents, at least that was the impression I got - was it common for angels, to not live until full adulthood? But Viridian was an adult, and I'd seen plenty of adult and even elderly angels all around the clouds... So what was my story?

Soon enough, we'd made our way back to the family block of the residential district, which was different from the angel beehive in that it was filled with actual houses, suburban style, though with a distinct lack of streets. Angels didn't have cars, or a need for them, I supposed. A few small families milled around here and there, cleaning up old debris and greeting each other. Pit and Sazahra got a few happy calls as we passed, to which the siblings replied cheerfully. Once again, nobody called out to me. I didn't call out either.

We stopped in front of a smaller, cozy-looking brick house. "Prepare to be amazed!" Pit announced, opening the wood door with a dramatic flair. 

It was... a pretty normal house. Basic furniture and decorations, a few carpets to cover the hardwood floor, a little fireplace... I don't know what I was expecting, but with all the build-up, I suppose I expected more. I will admit, though, it was moderately tidy, although the cleanliness seemed to originate from a lack of people living there rather than an effort to keep it clean. I didn't say that, though - the mere thought was pretty depressing.

Sazahra admitted defeat, albeit astonished that her brother had, by some miracle, managed to keep the house clean without anyone to nag him about it. Pit puffed his chest out and proudly gave the two of us the grand tour of the tiny home, which only had three bedrooms and one bathroom. Sazahra, I'm sure, was completely familiar with the place, but it was sort of interesting for me to see the place that Pit essentially grew up in. Of the three bedrooms, we only looked at two, Sazahra's and Pit's. The third was closed tight and the only reason I knew it was a bedroom and not a bathroom was because Pit mentioned it to his sister. "I only go in there every once in a while to dust, otherwise I just leave it alone," he explained. Neither of them said anything and I didn't want to ask to enhance the vaguely awkward feeling hanging around, but I assumed that was their parents' room. It only further cemented the idea that their parents were long gone.

"Your room is still a mess," Sazahra pointed out, leaning around her short brother to peer into his room.

"It is not!" he protested immediately, moving to shield his possessions from his sister's critical eyes. "I know EXACTLY where everything is!"