The Brave Sacrifice (Omegaverse)

38. Fighting Regrets

"W-what... What do you mean?"

Yukio's heart beat so fast that he felt like the sound of it was going to make him deaf. He clutched on the sides of his shirt and small beads of sweat started to form on his forehead. He knew this would happen, he was preparing himself for this.

But, he didn't expect it would happen today.

When he first saw Yukito in Kyushu, he fought the urge to let his brother know about him having a second life in another person's body but he didn't know how to say it or how to explain this kind of phenomenon. But, he couldn't help dropping clues from now and then, and just wished Yukito could pick them up and somehow think things through on his own.

All he could do was to have faith on his brother's understanding and open-mindedness. Yukito was always smart and impartial. Just as proven by how the latter was easily able to accept his relationship with Ryuichi and all else about the secondary genders.

As time went by, Yukio became more relaxed and almost totally dropped his guard; thus, acting naturally as how he did in his previous life.

Yukito looked at the panicking young man in front of him and smiled.

"You know what I'm thinking right now. If I'm wrong about it, you can just stay there and we can forget about what I said. But if I'm right..." He reached out his hand towards the latter and tilted his head, still calm but encouraging, "...come over here before I start scolding you for hiding it from me."

Before Yukio could think, his feet hurried towards his twin brother. As he felt two arms welcomed and hugged him, he began to cry on the latter's shoulder.

For the first time after his death, he felt that his heart was finally home, really home. He cried as though he was in a very long journey with all the heavy baggages and finally, everything became light and he was back to where he should be.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Yukito." In between sniffles, he uttered.

"There, there... I'm not angry." He patted and comforted the other's back.

He pulled away from his brother's embrace and wiped his eyes. "When did you find out?"

Yukito stood up and turned off the stove that still had a boiling miso soup on top. He looked like this conversation was just one of their usual talks before and it made Yukio calm down. The former then turned to go back to Yukio's side and patted the other's head.

"When I saw you in Kyushu, I already felt that it was you. But I couldn't understand it because it's a different body and I was there during... during your..." He meant cremation but he couldn't voice it out. Yukio seemed to understand what he wanted to say so he skipped it. "It was like you deliberately wanted to show me what I needed to know."

He chuckled when the young man in front of him agreed in frantic nods. "Your mannerisms were the same, even your habit of biting your lower lip when you are thinking deeply, how easily your eyes widen and your jaw drop at everything that you find amusing, and your usual dramatic act of staring out the window when you're depressed."

"Hey!" Both of them laughed at the word 'dramatic'.

"And when Eiji and I started to live here, it was completely like I'm living with my crybaby, overly clingy brother again. Still, I always reserved a benefit of the doubt on everything." He pinched Yukio's nose and continued. "Then yesterday, what was that, huh? You totally dropped all the big bombs on me?"

Yukio chuckled as he scratched his cheek, "Uhm, I was just too happy and I was already feeling impatient. I really wanted to tell you already that it's me."