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“Sometimes I wish we have a twin telekinesis,” the seven-year-old Dante said all of a sudden.
They were in the living room, answering math worksheets their mother had assigned to them. Vergil was sitting on the floor and working on the table while Dante was lying on his stomach beside his brother, doodling animals made from numbers, instead of answering.
“Don’t you mean telepathy?” Vergil said without turning away from the problem he was solving.
“It's the same thing.” Dante shrugged.
Vergil just sighed and said, “They are not.”
“Why don’t we make our own!” Dante sat up in excitement.
“Make our own telepathy?”
Dante nodded. “Our way of talking to each other secretly.”
“Why?”
“So we can talk to each other secretly.”
“We don’t need to do that. We can talk the normal way.”
“But it will be useful, come on!” Dante tugged at Vergil’s arm, causing the latter to write stray marks on his paper. “We can discuss our secret adventure plans even when mom and dad are around.” Dante’s face lit up when Vergil sighed and placed the pencil down then faced him.
“This better be worth it,” Vergil muttered while Dante cupped his chin in thought.
“Ah, whenever I do this,” Dante did a slick-back gesture on his hair, “That’s the signal that I'm trying to tell you something.”
“Why is it that gesture in particular?”
“Because it’s kind of like your mannerism and something I don’t normally do. It means I'm calling your attention. So when I say something the moment I slick-back my hair, that word or phrase will be my message." Dante did a sample. “Let’s go study.” He did the gesture on ‘Let’s’, then said, “I eat my words about studying because it’s fun,” and he touched his hair again on ‘eat’, then added, “Whenever I learn something new, I scream with delight,” and he did it again on ‘I scream’. Then he asked Vergil, “So what’s my message?”
Vergil’s brows furrowed before answering, “Let’s eat. I scream. That doesn’t make sense.”
“No! It's not always going to be literal! Sometimes it will be sounds-like! So we won’t be caught easily.”
“So, Let’s eat ice cream then?”
Dante almost jumped with joy. “That’s right!”
Vergil just scoffed, but he was smiling a little when he said, “Simpleton.”
“Your turn.” Dante suggested, “Think of a gesture that would call to me. Something I always do.”
“Be a clown?”
“No!” Dante whined. “How about you stroke your hair down, like mine.”
“I don’t want to mess my hair just to talk secretly with you.”
Dante frowned, then Vergil sighed. The latter looked away when he said, “Since you’re often not wearing a shirt, I will touch my clothes then, a gesture like adjusting my collar or holding the button of my shirt as if I’m going to take it off.”
“That’s a great idea!” Dante’s grin was back, now even wider. “Try it. Send me a message.”
Vergil hesitated a bit, probably embarrassed, but he started, “I will study with you.” He held his collar on ‘you’ then continued, “Only if you make an extra effort to remember the things I tell you.” He adjusted his collar on those two words, then finally, “Not just focus on fun,” he undid the topmost button of his shirt on ‘fun’.
Dante was quick to decipher, “You make things fun!” then he opened his arms to hug Vergil, but the older twin pushed Dante’s face away. “You love my funtics, don’t you?”
“Huh?”
“Fun antics! Funtics!”
“I’m starting to regret this.” Vergil buttoned his shirt again. “I might end up stripping down if you don’t get my message immediately.”
“Don’t worry, I will always get them!” Dante grinned. “I’ll pay 110% attention! Ah no, 150%!”
“Do you even know how percentages work?” Vergil pretended to be annoyed but Dante could clearly see that slight smile that this dork was trying to hide.