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Remus sprinted into the living room, startling Roman and Patton. Patton almost knocked Janus over with his hand when he blindly completed a pat while he was distracted.
“Oh sorry, Jan.” Patton apologized to Janus, who frowned like he was going to start crying. That prompted Patton to pick him up, Patton rocking him back into that funny little smile. Patton’s own small smile came as he and Janus gazed into each other’s eyes, Janus gurgling.
“Bubba? Is somethin-”
Remus ignored him, to Patton’s visible confusion. Patton’s tummy ached, like he had swallowed a bee and let it attack his insides. He could tell it wasn’t from the bowl of macaroni he ate; macaroni had never made him feel like that. Patton didn’t like the feeling one little bit.
Patton blinked. They had just been playing patty cake? So why did his big brother Bubba look so... panicked?
Patton glanced up at his other brother, bouncing Janus to appease him while Patton was distracted with what was happening around him. Roman’s eyes were as round as saucers, and even Patton could observe that Remus was communicating something to him with just his eyes.
Patton had been told a bit about twins having a connection that gave them the ability to do something like that.
Unfortunately for Patton’s hopes, the connection wasn’t literal. But that didn’t stop Patton from imagining Roman and Remus talking to each other across space or even other dimensions. Patton learned that word just recently learned that word: dimensions. He also heard about something called tele-kin-ee-sis, which Patton assumed was the special twin connection, but he hadn’t asked his brothers about it yet and what it really meant.
Remus shot towards the couch, where Virgil was draped on the couch beside Remy. To Patton’s amazement (and slight shock), Virgil at that moment bolted upright. Emile had done something similar to Virgil when he had entered his room. His posture was very straight and not hunched like usual. Just like Emile.
Remus scrambled backwards, pausing when Virgil’s eyes snapped to him, but Virgil didn’t say anything.
“Oh hey Veeee......” Patton began to greet his older brother, but when Virgil eyes snapped to him with lazer-like precision, he trailed off. Patton didn’t consciously choose to do so, but he clutched Janus a little closer to his chest. Janus was close enough to entertain himself with pulling Patton’s hair, but Patton didn’t mind as he sat there paralyzed under Virgil’s gaze.
Virgil’s... His eyes were almost... red.
“Unknown assailant with an innocent. Ready to neutralize. Do not make any threatening movement towards this unit or the innocent or this unit will not hesitate to kill you. Explain your presence.”
Patton’s mouth turned dry. Virgil was threatening him? Surely... surely he was just joking.
Patton blinked heavily. He had just been sitting there, gaping at Virgil for who knows how long.
“Vee what’s happening? Bub-” Patton turned to try to figure out what was happening from Remus, but Virgil’s strange sounding voice interrupted him.
“Explain your presence or this unit will be instructed to kill you, unknown assailant.”
“I-” Patton gulped, clutching Janus as tight he could without giving Janus any discomfort
Why wasn’t anyone doing anything to help hi-
“Unit V4716-L.”
Huh? Is he talking to Virgil?
Remus’s voice finally spoke. Patton breathed a sigh of relief as this strange Virgil’s focus shifted off of him. But the relief was short lived when Patton saw Remus’s face, it was almost stark white.
“Unknown assailant. Ready to neutralize. Do not-”
Remus interrupted Virgil, his voice much more commanding and sure than his pale expression would suggest. Though it didn’t escape Patton that there was a slight lump kind of sound hidden in his voice, Remus didn’t falter.
“Unit V4716-L, please attempt to backlog access database for pending message from Unit Codenamed Emile Picani.”
Patton held his breath, however he wasn’t exactly sure what he was holding his breath for. The moment showed many signs of being really important, like a big grand picture that really made someone think or fell, but Patton was missing the finer details of the painting.
Virgil narrowed his eyes. Patton could scarcely wait, his lungs slowly beginning to scream for air when Virgil’s eyes turned back to their normal purple and green color. Virgil’s eyes were special like that, Patton had never seen someone with Virgil’s very unique eyes.
Patton finally let go of his breath in one big rush. Both Virgil and Remus turned towards him curiously at the sound before facing each again. Patton was shy under both of their gazes; he didn’t know what was happening. Everything and everyone seemed so big all of a sudden, other than Janus.
Speaking of Janus, Janus pulled on Patton’s hair with a sharp tug. Patton was half a second from crying out in pain when Janus was plucked from his hands. Patton scrambled for him, fearing strange Virgil had caught him. But Patton scrambled forward only to see Roman cradling Janus, Roman playfully chastising Janus and pulling Janus’s fists down when Janus tried to pull on Roman’s hair.
Eventually Janus stopped, his fists instead going to playfully pound on Roman’s chest like he did with the box. Roman allowed this, looking over his shoulder where Remus was talking in a low voice.
“-wait here Unit-V4716-L, for full record upload directly from chip.”
“Command processed, will standby with Unit E-2017 Emile Picani for future instruction.”
Virgil sat back after saying that, staring off into space, his eyes vacant. Remus didn’t notice how strange Virgil looked. He just turned back to run down the hallway.
Patton gazed into Virgil’s eyes, flinching when the eye contact drew Virgil’s eyes.
“Vee? Uh... Robba? What’s... what’s wrong with Vee? He said he was going to kill me when he wasn’t actually playing and his eyes were weird? Is he sick?”
Roman glanced up from where he was playing patty cake with Janus as well. In Patton’s opinion, pat-ty cake should only be played with someone named Pat-ton, but he couldn’t stop his older brother.
“No, he’s just... different now. You’ll... understand when you’re older.”
Patton opened his mouth to protest, but Virgil’s strange gaze caught his eye. Self conscious, Patton curled into himself, pouting.
His brothers never told him what was going on with adult things. Patton was getting tired of just being told ‘when you’re older.’ He was older, wasn’t that enough?
Patton did the only thing he thought he could do.
“Whoa Patton, wait, don’t touch-”
Patton scooted himself onto the couch and laid his head in Virgil’s lap. Roman’s pale face like Remus’s could wait.
Virgil was his brother; he would never hurt Patton.
Right?