alien_snipe

“Zero, c'mon. Get out here.”

“No.”

Spoony sighed impatiently. “Mom's gonna be real upset if you're not out in time for dinner.”

“I don't care!”

“Yes you do. You always care what Mom thinks.” Spoony crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the door separating him from his twin as though he could burn a hole through it with his gaze. “I'm just gonna stand here bitching at you until you finally open this door, how about that?”

There was a shuffle at the bottom of the door, and a slightly crumpled piece of printer paper rustled up against Spoony's feet. Spoony's heart sank before his hand even touched it; he recognized the article headline, and he immediately flashed back to the first time he'd read it, the way it had made his teeth grind. “I was gonna show it to you,” he called. Behind the door, Zero made another miserable snuffling sound.

Spoony allowed his shoulders to sag, and the frustration in his posture melted into sadness. “They're wrong, dude,” he said, gently.

“No they aren't!!”

“YES THEY FUCKING … RRGH.” Spoony focused as hard as he could on Zero hiding, terrified, under his bed, and resisted the urge to punch the door. “Don't listen to those assholes! OK?! They aren't even the science reporters you called, they're just some no-talent jackoffs who didn't even understand what you were trying to show them!!”

“But the science reporters never CAME! And THEY did!”

“So call the real guys BACK! If you keep trying, you'll reach somebody who appreciates what it is you're trying to do-!”

“Did you see how many hits that article had?” Zero sounded as though he were pressed up against the door now, and his voice had gotten quiet, though still shaky. “The 'real guys' will not come back, Ten. Nobody. Will come back.”

Spoony made himself look down at the paper in his hands. As he scanned the words, he started to feel that dangerous, blazing anger rising in his chest again.

“...they aren't even funny, man. 'Doctor Insano'? Really? That's fucking Kindergarten stuff.” Spoony made himself chuckle. “Z, c'mon. This is gonna blow over in a week. And are you honestly gonna give up the science game when you're two weeks from being a real doctor?”

There was a long stretch of quiet. “Zero … some morons accused you of being crazy. And right now they're better known than you. So. Fucking. What. You're gonna leave them in the dust, man. You're gonna change the world. You know that, right?”

Spoony perked up when he heard the click of the door latch. Zero finally emerged, still rubbing a bit at eyes that looked painfully red.

“You're right, Spoony. I'm sorry. I can't hide away forever.” He smiled shyly at his twin. “This will all seem very silly when it all blows over, won't it?”

"Atta boy." Spoony pulled Zero into a bonecrushing hug.