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False shakes her sister from her slumber and watches as she slowly pushes herself upright, blinks the sleep from her eyes and stretches herself awake. “Morning,” she says. “Your turn now.”
Symmetry mumbles something incoherent and rolls out of bed to start getting dressed while False disrobes alongside her.
“Started laying out plans for the main base today,” False says. “It’s in that spot in the mountains, just north of the spawn village, you remember.”
Symmetry nods. “Did you end up going for castle or factory?” she asks.
“Castle.”
“Oh.” Symmetry pauses in the middle of tugging on a sock. “I wanted to build a factory.”
“Well, you still can,” False says. “We can have a separate area for farms and such, and connect up the two. It’ll be nice to have more than one big project.”
Symmetry hums a vague assent and continues to get dressed. “What else?”
False continues her explanation. “I had to take a break to help Tango out. He was doing some fancy redstone thing with withers in the nether, and somehow three of them got loose. Grian was there too.”
“Aww, that sounds like fun.”
“It wasn’t nearly as fun as it sounds,” False laughs. “Mostly just a mess of wasting rockets flying about and trying to get hits in. After that, I started Jevin’s Easter egg thing, but I only got through hiding about half of them.” She nudges her sister with an elbow. “It’s down to you to get through the rest. I crossed off the bases I already hit, so just make sure not to double up, yeah?”
“Right, of course.” At this point, Symmetry has finished getting their usual outfit on and is just working on lacing up their boots. False grabs their brush from the nightstand and sits down on the bed behind her to work on combing her hair, undoing the tangles that have formed over the course of the long hours of lying in wait.
They both enjoy having their hair brushed. It’s become a part of the routine of things—wake up, swap clothes, give the rundown of the day, then brush the other’s hair and have a moment of quiet contentment, just the two of them, alone. One of them, it doesn’t matter which, will joke that maybe she ought to stay; the other will tease her for being lazy, and this will devolve into a back and forth of playful jabs, then kisses of varying degrees of gentleness, and sometimes more, depending on how much time they have. It’s a cycle that False is happy to repeat every time, a gentle reminder of the love between them, despite how little time they have together during the season.
But something feels off today. Symmetry doesn’t respond to the pull of the brush through her hair, simply finishes lacing her boots and sits still on the edge of the bed, allowing False to finish uninterrupted. False leans forward and presses a light kiss to the side of her sister’s neck, looking for a response. “Everything alright?” she asks.
Symmetry startles, as if snapping out of a daze. “What? Oh, right, yeah, sorry. Just sort of thinking.”
False hooks her chin over Symmetry’s shoulder to listen. “What about?”
“It’s just…” False can’t see her sister’s face very well from this angle, but she can recognize the apprehension in her tone, can picture the way they both worry their lower lip between their teeth when they’re unsure of themselves. “Have you ever thought about why we do all this?”
“All what?”
Symmetry gestures vaguely between them. “You know, all the hiding and pretending and stuff. Can’t we just, you know. Be our own separate people? Why do we keep pretending to be the same?”
False frowns, confused. “What do you mean, pretending?” she asks. “It’s always been like this, right? We are the same.”
Her sister laughs, hollow and mirthless. “Right. Of course we are.”
False's frown deepens. She feels as if she's on the precipice of some profound wrongness, and that one misstep will send send them stumbling into the dark. She swings her legs forward over the edge of the bed so that she can sit beside Symmetry and tentatively take her hand. “Are you doing okay?” she asks nervously. “You seem a bit off.”
Symmetry's hand squeezes hers, and her lips turn upward reassuringly. “I’m fine. Sorry, I think I just slept a bit weird. Got a bit of a headache.”
False lifts her hands and presses her fingers to Symmetry’s temples to rub them in gentle, soothing circles. She leans up to gently kiss her sister’s forehead. “Do you want to stay for a bit and rest some more?” she asks. “We’ve got time.”
“Nah, I’ll be okay.” Symmetry tugs away and stands up from the bed. “I’ve got, what was it— eggs to hide, right? Should probably go ahead and crack on.” She strides over to the chest by the door where False had put the contents of her inventory and dons her armor and wings. “Have a good night, Falsie.”
False sighs and slides under the blankets of their bed, tugging them up to her chin, and settles in for a good, long rest. “G’night, Sym,” she calls. “Love you.”
False can’t read the expression on her sister’s face before she leaves the room. She tries not to let it bother her as she drifts off to sleep.