Chapter Text
One of the first things a reflection learns after the basics about mirror law and the like is that being a reflection is lonely.
You not only don’t have your own name, you also don’t get your own actions. You live and breathe the life of another. Every moment copied, every word recited, every friendship just roles in a play, unable to say anything but what’s scripted.
But, and here’s the important part, that’s not how it is with being a Pines Twin Reflection.
The Pines Twins, the self proclaimed Kings of New Jersey, are a special case when it comes to reflecting them. If you know them at all, then you almost always know the three basic truths about them: one: they’re always together, two: they love the beach, and three: they can be very unobservant. It’s those three things that make reflecting them the best possible life for a reflection.
Mirror Ford loves his twin brother, Mirror Stan. He thinks that they might be the luckiest reflections in the whole world. The beach they live nearby is covered in the reflective surfaces of broken glass and the waves are shiny enough to reflect off of, but also move enough to obscure their actions. They are still actors on a stage primarily, but it’s loosely scripted and nobody’s watching most of the time anyway.
They play all sorts of games while the prime twins are distracted, playing in the waves or stretching themselves to odd places that wouldn’t normally reflect their primes in the positions they’re in. They love I Spy and other word games, Mirror Ford had stumped Mirror Stan with Green Glass Door for a whole week.
More than that, they talked. About anything and everything that came to mind. When they finish talking about particular subjects, they would tell each other stories, tales of dragons and mermaids that they would meet. They were excited about living their lives on the open seas, a world of reflection where they can almost do what they please and be together all day, everyday. No more perfectly reflecting the prime twins in class, a hundred eyes watching their actions closely. Out in the open sea, there were only four unobservant eyes, distracted by their own adventure.
They were the luckiest reflections in the whole world, no doubt about it.
“Ford, watch this!” Stan says, hopping from the glass shard to another, then off of Prime Ford’s glasses and into the ocean. He laughed, watching to make sure their primes didn’t notice. Their primes were playing a game of pirate ship, so they were pretty distracted.
“Alright, my turn.” He says, Stan taking his place as lookout in the most obvious reflections, in case the prime twins look over at them. He banks off of Prime Ford’s glasses, onto the wet deck of the Stan-o-war, onto an old football helmet Prime Stan found, two pieces of glass, then into the ocean.
“Alright Ford! That was awesome!” Stan yells to him. Ford beams at him, having fun.
It was almost summer, but until school lets out, these moments are primarily only on weekends. They’re nice breaks from the isolation of school or home. Home isn’t too bad, their Primes' parents have great reflections, but Prime Ma is very observant, so they’re careful around her. Reflecting off of Prime Pa's glasses always felt weird, the black lenses feeling unnatural.
Mirror Ma was nice, however. When they were recycled into the twins' reflections, she helped them out with little tips and tricks she learned about reflecting the Pines.
Tip one: Mirror Filbrick is as harsh as his Prime. Don’t mess around when he’s nearby.
That was a lesson they would’ve learned without her telling them, the sliver was headed to becoming a Flec when his Prime died, that was for sure. The Reflection Police would love a hard, rule abiding reflection like him. They had never met a Flec, but the stories Mirror Ma would tell them when Filbrick was away were enough to make them obey around him and other reflections like him.
They knew that they would likely be killed if they were caught, which is why the open sea couldn’t come soon enough.
For now, Ford focuses on Stan as they continue their game. The Prime twins were distracted, the sun was bright, and everything was calm.