Unknown Need

AN: Pitto and Pit brotherly bitterness and sweetness. There are mentions of suicide and small spoilers for Kid Icarus: Uprising. I promise there's a happy ending! :) Enjoy.

Dark Pit was still in the safety net below the stage he'd been fighting on. He'd been tossed off the stage by Link after one too many hits, and for a while he just laid there on the net, not bothering to climb out like the others, but now he managed to sit up, wincing at the pain in his shoulder and his side.

He was half tempted to ask Viridi for help, but the thought made him shake his head. He wouldn't. He would continue sitting there, he would get up after a while, and he would climb up and go get himself a potion or something to eat.

He lifted his knees to chest to rest his crossed arms on them, then he lowered his head to rest on his crossed arms.

He began thinking over the battle in his mind. Figuring out what he could have done instead, thinking of Link's and the others hits and how they react to certain moves. He often did this sort of thing when he lost, it was a healthy punishment, but punishment, none the less.

"Hey," Dark Pit looked up to see Pit walking over unsteadily on the net, "You okay?"

Dark Pit growled a bit and gritted his teeth, "I'm fine!"

Pit stopped a foot or two away, "Oh, okay...you don't look so well..."

As he followed Pit's eyes, he saw that the side of his shoulder had been sliced into earlier and is now bleeding. He supposed he should have noticed that earlier, but he couldn't care less, "Why do you care? I don't."

Pit looked slightly shocked, "Well, you're like a brot-"

"Don't you even think about saying that," Dark Pit snapped, "we're not brothers!"

The hurt look of Pit's face pained Dark Pit, but he waited to hear Pit speak, "We look like each other, and we act sort of like each other...I've always kind of thought of you like a twin..."

"I'm..." Dark Pit began angrily as he bit his lip to hold back tears threatening to spill over, "just your copy!"

Pit took another step forward before sitting on his knees a little ways off from Dark Pit, "So we're sort of like twins. We're the only family we have."

Dark Pit would have moved away from Pit if he were any stronger, but he sat still, "Even if we are like twins, it doesn't mean I care for you."

Pit nodded, "I know."

Dark Pit looked away, unable to watch the pain he caused Pit, "Pit..." he took a breath to steady his tearful voice, "I'd rather...be dead...than just the copy of you... Nobody cares about me, and even if they did, I wouldn't want them to. I don't want...pity...I don't want to...exist."

A hand on his right shoulder-his good shoulder-made him jump, startled for a moment. Dark Pit looked back to Pit, his purple eyes meeting Pit's blue eyes.

A moment of silence came over them, but finally Pit broke it, his quite voice sounding too loud as it filled the small silence, "Pitto..." he began, but Dark Pit cut him off, "Don't call me that!"

Pit's eyes seemed to darken for a moment, "I can't call you Dark Pit. I'm as capable of having a darker side as you are capable of having a lighter side. Pitto, you may have started as just my copy, but you've got your own personality, your own way of doing things, you're yourself, no matter how you came to be."

Dark Pit glanced down and bit his lip again, but he couldn't stop the few tears that escaped his eyes of their own accord. He wiped them away almost angrily, "I know...but you will never understand how it feels to suddenly exist, not knowing who you are, where you're from, who your family are...or anything! And then to find that I'm...I'm a copy of you, someone who annoys me...I from a mirror, and my family is...you..."

Pit sighed, "I'm sorry that I can't understand...but what will you do about this? And anyways, it's not like I have much memory of where I'm from or who my family is either."

Still managing the hold the tears back, Dark Pit found himself wanting to stop being so personal with Pit, but wanting to tell him more too. Nobody would ever understand his pain of the person he hates also being a person he needs. It made him confused about things. It made him hide things.
Finally he looked back up to Pit, "I could take myself back out of existence."

Pit's eyes widened with worry, "Pitto...you can't. That's...don't."

Dark Pit looked away in anger as he sighed loudly, then he glanced back to Pit, "Why does it matter to you?!"

Pit reached forward suddenly, attempting to hug Dark Pit, but Dark Pit caught his wrists in his hands. They stared at each other, then Pit spoke again, "I need you... If you...I can't lose you..."

Tears fell from Pit's face as his voice broke. Dark Pit released his wrists and allowed him to hug him, then hugged him back. He hadn't thought of Pit's own problem...Pit's loneliness. Of all the questions running through Dark Pit's mind, he had one important one, "How...could you need me, though? Why not...just live the way you used to...without me?"

Pit laid his head on Dark Pit's right shoulder and tried to calm himself down as he spoke, "I never...never knew I needed someone like a brother...someone around my age to have as a friend...until you..."

Dark Pit tried hard not to sigh in annoyance. Part of him understood the pain, similar to some of his own, but where did that leave him? Staying around for Pit's sake? He hated to see Pit hurt, though... He really had no choice, it would seem.

He ran his hand up and down Pit's upper back, shushing him as he tried to get Pit to stop crying. He hated how nice he must seem, but to watch Pit cry was worse.

Finally Pit pulled back, seeming sort of embarrassed and ashamed, "Sorry," he muttered, "I just..."

Dark Pit shook his head, "It's fine."

Pit had a question, and Dark Pit could tell. It was the way his eyebrows would furrow a little, the way he would frown, and the curiousity in his sparkling blue eyes. Finally, Pit asked, "So, are you...staying?"

Dark Pit half pretended to not understand as he slowly stood on the netting, and turned away, "Below the stage? Nah."

Pit was quickly at his side again, though. He never gave up easily. He grabbed Dark Pit's right arm to halt him, "You're...not going to...kill yourself?"

Dark Pit almost felt like smiling. Was this happiness? Happiness that Pit needed him? It made him realize he existed for a reason. Pit did need him. Dark Pit suddenly felt sort of important, and he let a small smile lift the corners of his lips, "No. Not ever."

Dark Pit didn't know why he suddenly felt so much better. Maybe he didn't feel as worthless. Maybe it was the new meaning of his life. Maybe he finally could except, that yes, he was Pit's copy, but he was very important to Pit. And though Pit had said so many times before, Dark Pit had seen just how much he meant to him when the tears had streaked down Pit's face. He saw the only proof he needed. And that little moment changed his life.

Pit smiled brightly back at him, seeming to see the new attitude, "Good..."

Pitto began walking again, and he glanced over at Pit, "Mind helping me with my arm?"

Shaking his head quickly, Pit said, "Not at all."

Turning to continue walking, Pitto smiled and said quietly, "Thanks, brother."

Pitto didn't have to look over at Pit to know he was beaming with happiness. He had always wanted a brother. It's just that neither of them had known it. Just like the neither of them had known that they both needed each other.