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 Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 8:08 pm
Independent.
That’s what Daddy had said. That this was something big boys do. ‘You don’ want to sleep with your brother forever do you? This way, you’ll both have your own space to grow tall while you sleep.’
Erasmus thought that was silly. Surely he would grow tall just as fast laying beside his brother as he would otherwise. Perhaps even faster, since he wouldn’t be using so much energy being displeased with his solitude and would have more spare to grow with. It wasn’t normal, this way. Not without Percy breathing beside him, warm, safe, near where he could see and touch him at any moment just to be sure. That was how it had always been before and, in Erasmus’ humble five-year-old opinion, how it ought to have stayed.
He frowned at the wooden underbelly of the bunk bed overtop him.
Percivle was up there, at least. Close. Just not close enough. When the idea had initially been introduced, this proximity had been emphasized to him as he’d taken objection: ‘He will be just above you, Erasmus. Not far at all.’ And indeed, if he lay very still and kept his breath quiet, he could hear his brother from time to time, stirring, shifting, or making other indistinct sleep noises. But then sometimes it would go very quiet, and always then, no matter how he knew it wasn’t sensible or grown of him to think so, for a moment Erasmus would fear.
What if the shadows stole his breath? Or spirits took him in the night while Era wasn’t watching as he was meant to? What if they needed to be near to each other to function properly and something stopped working entirely, or—
A sound emitted from the upper bunk.
The bed boards creaked. By the time a breathy, sleep-fogged whimper reached his ears, Erasmus was already sweeping his bare feet over the edge of his cot, gripping the ladder, and on his way up. It usually made his heart pound a little to climb, new as it was (though he had been up before), and tall as compared to all his short limbs. But tonight, his focus was elsewhere, and though he gripped the rungs tight, he scaled it without hesitance.
Percivle was fast asleep, if fretful, and seeing him was like remembering to breathe. Moonlight highlighted the upper angles of his cheeks and nose, and the various portions of limb strewn out from under the safety of protective covers. Immediately, much of the tension in Era relaxed. He crawled across the top covers as his brother continued dreaming, settling at his side and edging himself beneath the covers there with as much care as he could manage. Only after he secured Percy in his arms, though — one wound around his middle and the other looped over their pillow, nose tucked to familiar soft-coral curls — did his nerves truly ease. This was where he ought to be, no matter what Daddy said, and now, if Percy did wake afraid, he would be where he was needed.
The thought brought him enough peace of mind that his eyelids finally drifted shut again, and his subsequent yawn was lost amidst pillow fabric and tangerine locks.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 8:17 am
Nights in Zenner were not the silent kind. Percivle knew this, of course, having lived there for as long as he could remember and knowing nothing else. Bugs chirped outside his window, wind whistled against the mountain rocks, and their house creaked. Either in answer to the wind's moans, or something else entirely. Usually Percy could confidently dismiss these things. It wasn't like he was alone in his home, not even alone in the room he shared with his brother, and it was so genuinely unlikely that anything unsavory could be there. He knew as much, but toddler boys weren't often known for their sensibility, and knowing whether or not a thing was true sometimes wasn't enough.
Because this night in particular, Percy was sure it was a 'something else entirely' kind of night.
He didn't expressly remember falling asleep, so much as he recalled staring warily over the wooden railing of his bunk at his closed door, tucked securely beneath a once-neatly-laid sheet. He fancied himself perfectly awake. First just watching the doorway, then concerned enough about the security of the perimeter to slip from his bed and carefully down the ladder, moving delicately enough as not to shake the bunk and wake his brother. Admittedly, this should have been clue enough that he wasn't completely in his right mind. If he were awake, this wouldn't have been an adventure worth undertaking alone. Few adventures were.
But in the moment, this seemed natural.
He crept across the room, cracked open the door, and slipped outside. He was greeted with an impossibly long stretch of hallway (deeper and darker than normal, though Percy was of little mind to question it), fading into blackness hardly more than an arm's length away. Maybe in another time, he would've asked the darkness if anyone was there, received no response, and returned to bed.
Instead, he stepped down the path, which suddenly seemed to be much more winding than he was used to, with unnecessary pieces of furniture that they didn't have littered about the hallway. But there was a point to this mission, and it wasn't furniture.
The house's creaking intensified as he walked, and more garbled and unfamiliar sounds joined in, quiet at first, then louder. There wasn't anything to be afraid of, Percy knew. He'd lived in this house his entire life. There was nothing here- But there was. In his living room, after walking an impossibly long stretch of hallway, there was. The thing didn't have a face. It didn't have a body. It was just a tangle of skinny, bony arms, and a shadowy, drooling tongue, and a tuft of tangerine-colored hair gripped in long, silvery talons. Percivle didn't know if it was some kind of animal he'd seen before, or just a great conglomeration of unnatural things put together. There was no evidence that it could actually do anything to him, but his heart rate picked up all the same.
He thought to wail. His daddy would protect him. Maybe momma. Or Era, if he was awake. But the creature looked at him, or noticed him, or it had its focus on him, anyway, and with a gurgle of sound, it reached-
Percivle woke from his nighttime 'explorations' with a muted yip of sound, eyes blown wide, and an arm flailing out in his disorientation to escape the atrocities of seconds prior. For a brief moment, he was lost, confused, and alarmed, with virtually no idea where he was or how he got there, and there was still the sense of danger lingering-
The familiarity of the situation set in a minute later. Although his heart was still pounding as if he'd run a mile, he was laying in his bed after never having left it at all. Erasmus was there, tucked close to him in a way he hadn't been at the start of his adventure, and this was a welcome change. Percy's fingers gripped the loose nightshirt his brother wore, and he sank to bury his face against the familiar warmth of Era's chest. He sucked in a breath and nuzzled closer in a way that, while still gentle, he hoped would be enough to rouse his twin.
"Era?" Percy asked quietly, voice lowered to the obligatory note that this time of night and the surrounding silence required. "You awake, yet?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 10:31 am
Erasmus might have fallen back asleep. He probably had, given how Percy’s stirring seemed to pull him from something with a tighter grip than simple observance. But awake he was just the same the moment Percy’s fits returned, eyes snapping open, fingers instinctively crimping to whatever was nearest—and because Percivle was there as he ought to be, it was him that Era’s fingers gripped. His nightshirt and his warmth. As all of this registered, and his brother’s quiet inquiry reached his ears, Era’s waking tensions eased again and he nodded, releasing a breath as he loosened his grip and rubbed his hand up Percy’s back.
It had seemed like whatever crept through Percivle’s mind when he dreamed had been unpleasant.
“Mhm,” he ‘said’ in affirmation. Remembering his initial trek up, he added, “You were makin’ noises. And I don’t like these beds, you were too far away. And they’re not makin’ you sleep good…”
It wasn’t so bad now, he supposed. Like this, now that they were on the same one again. The vantage point from Percivle’s bed was far ‘better’ than his (though he had pitched no fuss in the arrangement), almost epic—especially so at night, such that as Era’s eyes wandered the nooks and shadows from their high perch, they almost might have been heroes, secured away in a high castle. Above all else, just the two of them.
“Is it gone real good?” Era asked at length. “The night monster that had you wakin’. Or we can go down and have Mama an’ Daddy see it don’t come back.” In spite of himself, an enduring yawn escaped. He shook his head to clear it. Though he might certainly have benefited from more sleep, first things were first, and sleep could come after those had been resolved.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 10:59 am
Makin' noises and not sleepin' good. Percivle's expression soured, though he kept his face concealed against his brother's chest. Of course he wasn't sleeping well. Unwanted and unnecessary change probably always had that effect on young toddlers. Particularly when he'd been perfectly content with their previous arrangement and still didn't especially understand the need for separate beds. This was not what he was used to. This was not what he wanted. Besides, it didn't seem like Erasmus was taking it any differently. He'd been awake enough to crawl up here, after all.
Still, he supposed it was probably mostly his own fussing that kept Era awake. With a muted and self-and-situation-displeased puff of air, he muttered, "Sorry I woked you up." Percy could promise to be quieter next time, but it didn't much seem like that was within his control, and he couldn't say he believed his twin minded being up here, anyway.
Instead, his arms slunk out to curl around and against Erasmus' form, the entirety of Percy's body notching close and tight against him. "Y'know what Momma said, he said we'd 'get used to it,' if we just stuck with it. And that we'd sleep better anyways, causa not kicking each other all night." He reached to peel a few disheveled and flyaway tangerine curls from his eyes, so that he could crane his neck back and peer up at the older boy. "I don't kick you most times, right?"
Dreams always seemed so silly and mundane in the morning, even the 'scary' ones, and Percy knew that this one was probably no exception. There hadn't been anything bad happening, and there still wasn't going to be anything bad happening, this night. Erasmus was here now, keeping him company in the wee hours of the night, despite clearly being ready to fall asleep on himself. "Mmm..." His violet gaze shifted to the door. But it wasn't morning, and the room was still dark, and the house was still creaking, and if Era fell asleep, then he wouldn't have anything to do but hide his face against his brother's chest and lay there.
At least Momma and Daddy offered more options, even if they were across the treacherous hall.
"Yeah," Percivle decided after a moment, as he sat up and flicked covers off of his legs. "It's more good if we go in there." He clambered across the bunk and dropped his legs over the side before making a long hop to the ground, and landing with a reverberating 'thud'.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2017 11:38 am
Erasmus shook his head.
“You didn’ wake me the first time,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep proper anyhow, not like they said, not with you up here and away and me down there.” Percy had not even been making noise at first, or not an objectionable amount, and Era couldn’t judge how long he’d laid awake, but he knew he had been longer than he ought to have and not due to any wrongdoing of Percy’s own other than simple lack of presence. “You didn’t kick me before, but when you’re not there, you kick about over me and then the shadows make you quiet and I don’t like it and I don’ wanna get used to it like it’s normal ‘cause it’s not.”
Towards the end, the entire mini-spiel picked up speed into a messy run-on sentence that probably ought to have ended sooner than it did. It wasn’t that Erasmus didn’t trust and love his parents. He did, wholeheartedly. They just happened to be wrong in this regard, and the more he thought on it and the more he experienced it, the more he became convinced of its truth. They certainly wanted what was best for he and his brother, but they didn’t really properly understand this issue yet.
Perhaps soon they would, if both he and Percy were agreement and began boycotting the new experience altogether. Or if he simply showed them the result of the new arrangement.
Percy seemed keen enough on that portion anyway.
Era’s hand remained loosely looped about his brother as he shifted and sat up, only dropping away when Percy moved for the ladder, and by that time, Era was following. He squinted at Percy’s long hop, debated, and finished half the trek down the ladder rungs before hopping after him to the ground. Bare toes curling against the cool floorboards, he reached to catch Percy’s hand before heading to the door and peering down the hall.
It wasn’t a big house. Not like Vanariah’s in the city, or other people’s who seemed to scrape for the sky in the busy areas. But it was, for now, infinitely better than those places because it was just the right size for the four of them, and both their parents were within range of a few padded footsteps. Era lead the trek, down the darkened corridor, to their mother and father’s room, door shut, but unlocked such that when he reached and fiddled the handle it creaked open without resistance.
Mama and Daddy slept together in the same bed.
Erasmus puffed quietly. It wasn’t a new fact of course, but in light of the given circumstances, it felt more notable just the same, because that just wasn’t fair. If anyone was going to be in danger from night kicks, it seemed Mama was the worst off. Perhaps Daddy didn’t kick at all with his metal leg though. He saved that question for later.
“Mama…” he called into the shadows of the room. Quiet breathing and stirring followed. He began again, louder. “Mama—Daddy, Percy can’t sleep good…”
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 7:42 am
Yeap, that sounded about right. Percivle nodded sagely as his brother hopped to the ground after him. The night had felt like it was fraught with an awful lot of tossing and turning, and not as much sleep as usually could be had when he was more comfortable and they were closer together. Really, he ought to have expected without being told that Erasmus felt similarly, but it was secretly pleasing, all the same.
He smiled as at the back of his twin's head as Era collected his hand and the pair stepped out into the hallway.
There wasn't any rational reason for the twinge of hesitance Percy felt as he squinted through the darkness down the hall. It looked as normal as ever. Much more normal than it had in his dream. Quite familiar and genuinely nothing to be afraid of. But there was still something about having his back to it that made him irrationally nervous. He skittered after Erasmus, close on his heels and with a wildly unwelcome sense of alarm.
An unintentional whine slipped out of him as Era creaked open the door and peered inside. Percy made it a point to wedge himself as much between Era and the doorway as he could, without stepping in. He squeezed his brother's hand, and touched his cheek to Era's shoulder.
He blinked back at the other boy at the words, 'Percy can't sleep good.' They were true, of course, but he thought it equally important that all parties know, "You weren't sleeping good, neither," he pointed out in an only slightly-quieter-than-average tone. And he was sure they both would've been fine if not for the imposed new sleeping arrangements. With a huff, Percy tangled his fingers in Era's shirt and smooshed his face against him.
From the bed, a bleary-eyed, green head of hair poked up from over the mound of his sleeping lover. Naarhiji squinted in the direction of the doorway at his two boys and rubbed the heel of his palm against his eyes.
"You're not sleeping good?" He repeated as he shifted into a sit and dusted the covers from his legs in what he thought seemed inviting. "Come tell Momma all about it."
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 10:11 am
Malikai wasn’t unaccustomed to nightly interruptio—rather, visitations. That, so far as he was concerned and always had been concerned, was part of taking on duties as a parent and not something to bemoan once the decision to have children had been made to begin with. Of course, he had as a younger man imagined the exact circumstances for his future parenthood might have been slightly different, it changed little as far as this expectation went, and though tending to young children did mean less of tending to other adult things in the nightly hour, he didn’t sincerely take much of any objection to it.
In fact, if he were perfectly earnest about the situation, though they were a handful as was surely impossible to avoid with twins, Erasmus and Percivle had actually been less prone to rousing he and Naarhiji in the night after infancy than he might have expected. Once settled down with each other, they generally slept very soundly. Or, so it had been.
This situation wasn’t entirely new either, but had started much more recently, with the implementation of beds each their own. It had seemed like a good at the time. Amazing, though, what an effect being roused past midnight could do for shifting one’s perception. All of the bed, the sheets, and Naarhiji’s body were so warm and near—but those, indeed, were small voices, and they would not be departing any time soon without being attended to.
Malik grunted as Naarhiji moved, and then, with some finagling, managed to convince his body to follow suit as well, hoisting himself upright and arranging so that it was less likely dashing five year olds would come bodily dropping atop the bed and bash themselves against the metal bar of his leg through the sheets accidentally.
Erasmus, for his part, shrugged at his brother’s first comment—true, he hadn’t been sleeping well either. But it was Percy’s issue that seemed more pressing and relevant, and the root of it besides, at least from his perspective. He wasn’t sleeping well because Percy wasn’t and because he was worried, and if he weren’t worried and Percy was well, then neither of them would have the trouble.
It was Percy who most needed their parents’ coddling attention, in any case, and Erasmus wanted their focus there. Then, perhaps between the two of them, they could convince them these ‘bunk’ beds were a crime against their brotherhood.
At his mother’s invitation though, Era’s expression perked instantly, bright and almost mischievous for the first time that night. Moving just inside the doorway with Percy, he turned and touched his nose to his brother’s. Then, holding Percy’s identical gaze for that instant, he grinned.
“Race you to Momma,” he said, and gave Percy’s hand a single encouraging ‘starting’ tug before darting himself towards the bed.
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:07 pm
Percivle was all too eager to dart after his elder twin with just the barest convincing tug. And for all of two steps, he did. Games, even at this hour of the night, were always good and enjoyable, and the invitation did seem more pleasing to Era than anything else that night. Things that pleased Erasmus were certainly welcome, and Percy did like being a part of things that made his brother happy.
But hardly more than two paces into the room, Percy paused, and cast a quick glance back at the doorway. It had been closed, before they'd come in, though not likely because Momma and Daddy were afraid of body-less hallway creatures. Still, if he was going to stay in here (parents and sibling or not), the added barrier wouldn't hurt anything. With a muted grunt, Percivle edged back toward the door and carefully nudged it shut, until the handle latch clicked into place.
Then, he was scrabbling back in the direction of his parents' bed.
'Over' seemed the best way to go, in this case, even though there wasn't much reason to rush at this point, and 'over' lent itself to scrambling atop the bodies already present on the bed. He didn't think anyone would mind, so up Percy went, hoisting and clawing his way atop the mattress of his father's side of the bed and clambering messily over top him to reach Naarhiji. But really, 'over' had the benefit of better positioning, all around. Maybe it was more work, but now sitting nestled between his parents, a little extra strain was a reasonable price to pay.
Naar wasn't quite as prepared for all this excitement as one might have expected. It was still night. Still early (or late?) and the rush of little feet skittering across the floorboards wasn't... Well, he wasn't mentally there, yet.
When Erasmus reached his side, Naar dipped to scoop him off his feet and settle the toddler in his lap. "You're very... awake, this morning," he commented, carding long fingers through the back of Era's hair. "You must have slept a little, to have so much energy."
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 10:01 pm
“Mmmm…” As though to belie the comment (though entirely unintentionally), Erasmus yawned just as his mother’s fingers carded through his hair, his eyes flitting shut and posture relaxing against him before he peeked Percy’s way as he came clamouring over their father’s legs. “I did sleep. A little,” he admitted. “I was—Percy was up, on the other bed, and I couldn’t sleep so…” He shifted his weight, tucking the side of his face against his mother’s chest as he curled in his lap, inadvertently pressing closer despite his initial intent that their focus rest on his brother, though his eyes at least were on Percy. “I went up and then I slept some once I was…once I could hold him, and then he had a bad dream.”
Everything felt a little further away and far less objectionable here, with everyone atop the same bed and such close quarters, so it might have been easy to rest his case there. But, critical matters were at stake, and his parents had to know.
“We don’t like the beds being so…with the…” Era frowned. “We don’t like sleeping apart. I don’t know if anything’s happening and…” He shifted, twisting to look up to his mother as though eye contact might better emphasize the gravity of his case. “You and Daddy sleep together and we did before and it was good, Percy probably won’t ever even get as big as daddy so there’ll be room.”
Malikai, who had helped Percy ‘over’ with guiding hands of caution on his way to the middle, paused mid kiss to Percy’s hair, covering a chuckle at the commentary and shaking his head when he leaned back. “Your mother and I share a bed for different reasons…is—” He, too, yawned, though it took him longer than Era, and he covered his mouth at the end of it, shaking his head after as though to dispel the sleep from him, “—this wha’ all the scuffle is ‘bout again?”
Era nodded. But then almost immediately he added, “But Percy did have a real nightmare.”
“Mmm.” Malikai tucked a tuft of orange behind Percy’s ear with his thumb. “An’ did you fight it off first like a good big brother or is tha’ why you’ve both come hunkerin’ in here for?”
Era’s gaze snapped to Percy. “I could fight it—is it still about?” Why this hadn’t occurred to him earlier, he couldn’t say. He didn’t suppose his father had ever before suggested nightmares could be battled for their wrongdoings, but it sounded exciting, and to his sleep-addled five-year-old mind that, for the moment, was enough.
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 11:44 am
Naarhiji sighed in quiet contentment and threaded his arms to rest around his little boy's waist. He'd never been especially positive that he wanted his life to involve children, if partially because he'd never though of many situations that would allow it, and partially because he hadn't ever considered himself particularly fond of youngsters, either. Loud, messy, annoying creatures... And most of them, very nearly all, were.
But not his. His were so sweet. And so smart. And easy enough to manage, in that Naar was sure they just didn't need as much as other children so long as they were together. They were easier to get along with than he'd always imagined, anyway.
He hummed softly as his fingers slipped through Era's hair, then to rub little circles into his back as the youngster leaned into him. "I know you don't like it," he admitted quietly. "But you'll see that it's not so bad, once you get used to it. And I promise there won't be anything bad happening that you need to be-"
"You don't think I'll get as big?" Percivle piped as he settled himself.
Mmm, yes. This was better. From his new spot, Percy collected two fistfuls of blankets and shimmied himself down to tuck beneath them. He and Era didn't often sleep in Momma and Daddy's room (they were big boys, after all, and didn't need that sort of nightly protection), but it wasn't so bad every once and a while. Their bed was definitely bigger than his and Era's. It could fit all of them well enough.
He settled his head against his father's arm. "I could get as big as Daddy, as long as you don't get bigger than Momma. Then we can share. And we will both fit. And nobody would need to grow anymore. Because we'd be all the way growed." Despite having just situated himself, he shifted again, this time to shoot his old man a skeptical squint. He really shouldn't be telling his brother to go off and fight strange and questionable things. And not out in the dark, where he couldn't see.
Percy scoffed. "It didn't have a body. You can't fight a thing with no body. It was just a face and some scissor nails and some hair." But it was still very scary, at the time, and he didn't want that fact to go un-understood. "It woulda done something bad, anyway. Maybe broke up our house, or something. You can't fight it."
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 1:35 pm
‘There won’t be anything bad happening.’
Erasmus shot his mother a skeptical look because, well-intentioned as his mother surely was, he couldn’t promise that. He didn’t know. And Erasmus wouldn’t know either, if he weren’t there next to Percy when it happened, whatever ‘it’ was, whenever ‘it’ did. He opened his mouth to say as much, but Percy piped in too quickly, and his attention flit that way instead.
Immediately after he began, though, Era puffed, because that was silly—surely it was evident that their design intended he and his brother be precisely the same size always and forever as they grew, no matter what occurred one way or the other. It might be different for other people, but they came in together and, he was sure, would follow the same growth path—one way or another.
“We’ll always be the same,” he said. “Maybe…” He glanced between their parents. Fortunately, it was quite a range. “We could split the growin’ up half and half and all still fit. Smaller than Daddy but bigger’n Momma.”
If there were flaws in his logic regarding spacial dynamics, it was lost on him for the moment and didn’t seem critically important besides: Percy had moved on to speaking about the monster. That couldn’t be a boring topic, and didn’t disappoint. As his brother described it, Erasmus wriggled and leaned, stretching out to flop down into Percy’s lap and grin up at him.
“But if it didn’t have a body, part of it’s already gone,” he said. “I only got to fight the face and nails and hair, nothin’ else. I could do it. An’ if it was gonna do somethin’ bad to the house that’s all the more need to I think.”
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 5:12 pm
"Hmmm..." They were fairly similar, it was true. So similar, in fact, that sometimes Momma called him the wrong name, never mind how often it happened that someone else did. Not many people looked as much alike as Percy and Era did, but Percivle didn't think that meant they'd look alike always. That was a very long time, and they were still very small, and lots and lots of things could change.
"I don't think it will be 'always,'" Percy asserted, as his fingers found their way to Era's shirt once the other boy was in his lap. "You don't have bad dreams about Nobodies, so there's that, aaand... There will be more stuff, when we're bigger. Different stuff, so maybe people won't call me 'Erasmus' so much."
But though there were instances when people made that mistake that he thought he'd prefer to be called by his own name, it probably didn't matter that much, in the end. They were so often right next to each other, anyway, and it wasn't as if being Era would be a bad thing. "I guess it's okay if not, though, and maybe it'd be okay to be smaller than Daddy. Not very much. Wanna be real big and take care of my own monsters."
Percy squinted down at his brother, his nose crinkling and lips puckering because no. No. "And its parts aren't already gone. They're like... ghost parts. They're there, but they aren't. So it can still move and getchu and stuff, but you can't touch it. It can only touch you. And only with the parts you don't wanna touch, anyway. The parts that'll hurt you. Like it's nails and face. I don't want it to hurt you. So..." He huffed derisively. "So you can't. You just can't."
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 6:12 pm
Erasmus listened, watching intently and without objection as Percy began—until he reached ‘maybe people won't call me 'Erasmus' so much.’ There, Era’s brow pinched just the barest fraction because, was it so bad if anyone did call him Erasmus? People called him ‘Percivle’ surely just as often and it always felt almost as much a compliment as a greeting.
Percy clarified a moment later at least, but despite the, ‘it’s okay if not, though…’ the thought lingered on his mind as his brother went on. His lips stretched back, though, revealing a toothy grin of his own at the latter bit, and he squirmed upward to a half-sit, perching himself in Percy’s lap with one knee to either side of him, firmly sandwiched between their parents.
“Maybe,” he suggested, “I could use guns. Magic guns like the new ones.” He placed his wrists on Percy’s shoulders, fingers shaped as though holding invisible pistols before he ‘pulled’ each ‘trigger’ in time. “Bam, bam, bam! And I wouldn’t even be so near as it could hit me from,” he explained. “Or one big one like…” He shifted his arm, this time ‘cocking’ an imaginary rifle the best he knew how — which wasn’t, admittedly, a perfect understanding, but in context seemed clear enough as to intent — perching that instead over Percy’s ‘shoulder’ presumably not to the headboard which was in fact behind him but some imaginary construction of his brother’s nightmare conscious. “BOOM!” he said. “And gone.”
This seemed to satisfy him so far as imaginary guns were concerned and he let his hands relax, winding lightly into his brother’s hair instead, arms looped over his shoulders.
“But anyhow if you’re still worried I won’ fight it yet an’ we can wait ‘til we’re both bigger and make it gone together,” he said. “And…” His lashes flit downward for a half second before he puffed, leaning in and tucking his face near to the niche between Percy’s neck and shoulder, body slumping forward against him. “It ain’t so bad when they call you Era right, like you said?” he asked. “I like it when people call me Percy. If you aren’t around, I get to be you for a moment…”
He leaned back, flashing a brighter smile than he usually did and putting a bounce into his words. “Oh, hello, I love you! My name’s Percivle.”
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Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 7:31 am
Despite the strong notion that he wouldn't ever want anything making loud booming noises that close to his ears, and he probably wouldn't want to be used as a makeshift arm-steadier while danger was behind him either, there wasn't much harm in it now. Except... Percy's violet gaze dipped, his fingers falling away from his brother's shirt to flop down into the sheets. He hummed a soft, low tone.
"You'd just make it mad," Percy retorted quietly. "All them loud noises and flashes, and you's so small and trying to mess it up real bad. It'd get real mad. And come after you."
He lurched forward, hard, shoving Era from his lap and toppling them both forward and down onto the bed between their parents' legs. He caught his twin's arms in either of his own and held them down near his hips. "And it'd scream real loud, like Momma does sometimes. 'Kiyyalahlah!' And attack. And come in and out of the dark corners. And bite you, cause that's what faces do." He dipped, pinched the end of Era's shirt between his teeth and tugged back, wildy shaking his head so much so that he was nearly dizzy. "Grrrrrr-riiiip. And then-"
"Percivle." And then Naarhiji's arm was between them, nudging Percy off of Era and back toward a more stationary spot at the head of the bed. "Don't be so rough," he scolded. "It's too late for this, and you really ought to be asleep."
Maybe he disagreed with what he ought to be doing at this time, but Percy's response came out as an acquiescent huff and a pucker of his lips. He settled back in, despite not looking especially pleased about it. Instead, he had this other business to attend to. "It's okay sometimes," he grunted. "But I don't wanna be you. I wanna be me. If I was you, you wouldn't be there, because I'd be you, and there can't be two Eras. And I would miss you, because I love you, but you wouldn't-"
He squinted. "I don't say that to everybody. Just you sometimes. And Momma and Daddy."
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Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 10:29 am
Like Momma does sometimes.
If Malikai laughed then, coughing immediately after and covering the subsequent hybrid between coughing and chuckling behind a fist, it at least occurred simultaneously — more or less — with Erasmus’ initial startled yip and Percy’s own substantial noise making. And Era for his part found it all very exciting, if wrestling and play monster fights were to be involved-
Sadly, before he could wriggle his arms free to participate, the opportunity was being hoisted away and bid back to a more suitable upright position again by their mother. Era pouted from his marooned location closer to the mattress’ middle. They weren’t asleep yet and wouldn’t be now for at least some bit longer, so whether or not they ‘ought’ to be didn’t seem to matter much for this particular moment.
Percy seemed content enough to shift topics, however, and acquiesced to the instruction with minimal resistance, so Era followed suit, crawling back up closer to where he had been pre-tackle and ‘attack’ demonstration.
“Don’t worry,” he said after his brother finished. “You’ll always be you, an’ I’ll always be me. People’ll be wrong now an’ later an’ always about all sorts o’ stuff, but it won’t make you or me different just ‘cause they don’t know. Sometimes it’s funny when they’re wrong ‘cause it’s like…havin’ a secret only we know.”
He eyed his brother a moment, contemplating the latter assertion. Percivle did seem to enjoy people and excitement on the reasonably limited occasions they’d so far had to engage with those other than family, but aside from that, it still seemed true that he wasn’t quite so loose with open professions of affection as Era’s impersonation implied. So, he nodded.
“I like it that way best anyhow. An’ you’re probably better at bein’ you anyway. But.” He drew a breath. “You still don’t gotta worry ‘bout anybody else bein’ wrong ‘cause I’ll always be here forever no matter what so…” He fiddled with the cloth of Percy’s nightshirt. “You can not worry ‘bout that.”
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