Small towns are commonly well known for it's representative peaceful and silent vibes. Away from the strident sounds of the big city's crowds, traffic, factories, etc. It's a whole different place. However, that quality isn't always as comforting as it may sound, people usually tend to very careful at keeping it quiet. Why's that? Remember in such towns everyone knows everyone, be a little too loud in any kind of conversation and, undoubtedly, your neighbors will hear. They'll soon talk about it with their friends, and their friends will tell their friends, have for sure everyone will be aware of your situation by the next day. It's almost as if everyone was a celebrity here.
That is exactly why it was very odd to hear all the loud shouting and swearing breaking through the evening's soundlessness, coming from the Thunderman's household. You didn't even need to be on the inside of the house to listen clear as water the agitated voices of the oldest children. It wasn't precisely uncommon to know about these two sharing any sort of stalemated discussion, nevertheless, this one seemed to be remarkable, as most of their arguments were vague and even comic. This time, in the other hand, you could almost touch the tension between the siblings, almost taste the outrage and the hatred.
At this point, no one else being at home was a menacing factor. If it wasn't for the heavy depending they had on each other, which was clearly noticeable in any other less disturbed situations, you could even think any of them was about to become a murderer at any time.
Lots of things were said that night, very little of them were actually meant.
"You're a selfish bastard and it kills me to share your DNA!"
"If you weren't 'Miss perfect bitch' all the time I wouldn't have to be like that so often!"
And so on. There's no need to go into that.
Long story short, their screaming and hurting ended up in a broken vase and an infuriated Phoebe storming out of the house. She hated being out after the sky had gotten dark, it made her feel unsafe. But that was probably the right thing to do at the moment. The two needed their time and their space to let the heat cool down and meditate about the previous happenings. If they stayed together for just five more minutes only god knows what would've happened.
Such fight required almost two hours for Max's heartbeat to go back to it's average rhythm, time he used to work in some old projects, play videogames, talk to Colosso... anything to get his mind off Phoebe. It was also the time it took him to realize his sister hadn't come back... He was still exasperated, but that didn't stop the thought of Phoebe never being out this late from running in the back of his head... becoming stronger as time passed by.
Seconds started to feel like hours, the silence of the house was killing him, his pride refused to do something as ridiculous as trying to locate her. But soon enough he found himself sitting in the living room's couch checking the clock every ten seconds, he wanted to pretend he still felt enraged but truth is he couldn't help but worrying.
He checked his phone again.
1:14 AM
"Damn" he muttered
The teen clutched the phone in his hands and furrowed his eyebrows, all of his worries were only one phone call away from banishing.
I guess a call won't kill me... I can just pretend I need to ask her something... Uh... The telly's remote! Yeah, that works...
I'm pathetic...
At the end he had no choice but surrendering, he pressed number one in speed dial and waited. His heartbeat fastened as he heard the first ring, but suddenly, the worst possible scenario happened. All of the anger he had left drained from his body and was replaced with true fear as he heard Phoebe's ringtone piercing through the silence across the room.
She left her phone.
That was it. No matter how much she made his blood boil or how cocky and irritating she could be he didn't want a lost sister. Max stood up, took his jacket and walked out through the main entrance of the house.
"God dammit" He kept saying under his breath
"For fuck's sake Phoebe.
Couldn't you choose any other day to get lost?
Damn you Phoebe"
Complaining and cursing was all he had left to hide his true concern. He tried checking at the obvious places at first.
He took a taxi to the library and checked at the romance section; nothing. Science fiction maybe? Nop. An unsuccessful walk around the maths books and he was out.
Okay, maybe she wanted to be surrounded by history... he had to walk almost six blocks to get to the museum and it took him about half an hour to look around the whole place only to realize she wasn't there.
Wong's Pizza Palace! He better than anyone knew she ate her pain away. Memories of the time they ate waffles together at midnight to forget about her hamster's death and how he had been the only person who got her to smile after the tragic loss played in his head and he had to shoo them away to concentrate, he couldn't stand the small feeling of guilt clutching his chest. He took his phone out of his jacket and searched for the pizza emoticon he had tagged Wong's phone number with. Right after, placed the cell next to his ear and waited, the middle aged lady picked up the call after the second ring. Her fake kindness echoing through the line.
"Wong's Pizza Palace? What can I get you?"
"Wong, is my sister there?" He asked coldly
"Max?" She recognized the voice of the teen
"Mhmm"
"I don't know why you're asking, but I've been having a delightful day and I'll have you known that means no dealing with any of your family!"
Before she could keep rambling about her unhiden despise he hung up. This was odd. Alarmingly odd.
His last hope was Cherry's place, if she wasn't anywhere else then she had to be there! He prayed for her to be there. His footsteps clapping against the pavement of the sidewalk was the only sound he could hear. The empty midnight streets almost looked like they belonged to a ghost town.
The night was getting even colder and he started to wish he would've brought a ticker jacket as he held tightly onto the one he was wearing, he exhaled and saw his own breath. As he made his way there he wouldn't stop grumbling to himself.
"You better be there Dweebs...
I swear to god
Don't you dare not being there"
At last, the super villain approached the light green house surrounded by diverse types of plants, specially Lilies.
He took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell. It didn't take longer than fifteen seconds for the door to open revealing a well known blonde head. The typical smell of raspberries of her house invaded his nosetrills, also the warmth of the inside felt so good on his frozen face.
The sleepy look on the girl's semi-closed eyes turned into great confusion when she saw who was the person she was greeting.
"Max?" She furrowed her eyebrows
"Just tell me that my brainless copycat is here so I can go home" He wanted to sound as annoyed as possible
The girl understood what he meant but didn't have a satisfying answer "Phoebe? I haven't seen her in all day."
Her words, as expected, displeased him deeply, but they also triggered a big anxiety on his insides. The super boy took his thumb and index fingers to his forehead and rubbed it as he paced back and forth around the porch. His desperation started to show up, he looked up to the sky and back at the ground.
His sister's best friend started to notice his actual state and soon shared his worry "... where's Phoebe?"
"Do you think I'd be expecting to find her here if I knew where the hell she is?"
She raised her arms defensively "Whoa. Okay, no need to be so rude. But seriously what happened?"
Usually, he wouldn't have said a word to her, Cherry was nothing but his sister's dumb friend. But tonight he needed all the available help. He sighted.
"We had this huge fight and she ended up walking away, I started to worry when I realized how late it was getting, all I know is that she's not either at the museum, the library or Wong's place" He explained feeling so done
The blonde girl crossed her arms thoughtfully, they stayed in silence both staring at nothing, each lost in their own reasoning trying to figure out the place of the their missing significant one.
Max had definitely ran out of ideas, desperation was written all over face, whereas Cherry's was suddenly coloured with realization.
"The abandoned dog park! Of course!" She announced
Her companion looked at her clueless, as expected. She took his oblivious look as sign to explain herself.
"The whole week she was broken because of Link moving away she would go there all the time! She only took me with her once but almost every time I texted her asking where she was, she was there! Oh my god, I should've realized this sooner!"
"The abandoned park all kids say ghost stories about?"
"Yeah! The one that's five blocks away from Hiddenville's graveyard!"
"You think she'll be there?" Max gave a dead serious look at the blonde teen. A 'I can't loose any more time, you better be right' look. And she caught the idea.
Cherry nodded "definitely. Just let me go get my jacket and boots and we'll go"
She was about to head back in but the boy stopped her by closing her front door with nothing but a swift movement of his fingers. So she turned back around.
"Wait. I gotta do this... on my own" he looked down, if he had no choice but showing his care, he might as well avoid eye contact with the one who's obviously going to black mail him in the future.
The girl gave him a cheeky smile "Awww, you do love your sister!"
He rolled his eyes "You'd need to have an emotional illness to not love your family I guess... say one single word about this conversation to anyone and you'll regret it." He threatened but that didn't wipe away the awed smile her lips
"I'll go now" And right after that, he broke into a run downtown.
She looked at him as he ran away, thinking of all the fights she'd witnesses between the two of them and realizing how loving they actually were. Realizing that all of their "I hate you's" were actually "I need you's" and all of their glares meant "I couldn't live without you".
And then she remember...
"Max! Wait! You closed the door! You need to open it, I can't go back inside!"
But he was too far away already.
The park wasn't exactly big, it was nothing but fifteen square meters of trees, dry grass and old benches. As soon as he got there and didn't get a sight of his twin he didn't even care about being discreet. He cupped his hands around his mouth and started yelling her name at the top of his lungs. Repeating the process as he walked by the place until he heard a faint answer.
"Max?..." Her voice was loud but weak, like she was desperately trying to be found but didn't have much energy to do so.
The sound of her voice made his heart race "Pheebs? Where are you?"
"Over here..."
He followed the fragile calls of his twin, speeding trough the place, looking at all of his surroundings until he spotted her. Sitting with her back against a tree with both hands holding onto her left foot for dear life. Her face showing an aggressive pain while her whole body trembled at the coldness of the night. She looked so... vulnerable. And he hated it.
"Phoebe what happened?" He kneeled down next to her
"I came here to take a small run to clear my mind, and I was so lost in my own thoughts I didn't realize one of my shoelaces was untied. I tripped and I think I sprained my ankle... I can't stand up... with mom and dad being out with grandma, and Billy and Nora staying at their friend's houses, I thought no one would notice I was gone and I'd spend the whole night here" she explained looking up at the sky, contemplating the way the position of stars meteorologicaly matched the coldness of the night
"...what about me?" Max felt quite hurt at the way she deliberately took him out of the picture
She looked down feeling guilty "... can you blame me?... after the whole argument we had..."
He felt so sick just remembering. His worry had made him forget completely about it and thinking about it made him feel like this was all his fault.
And after all of what he said and did just a few hours ago he felt even worse.
So without any sort of previous warning he cupped his sister's face in both of his hands to examine her. She was obviously weirded out by his sudden act but didn't say a word, not only because of how indescribably awkward she felt like or because of the strange sudden wanting of just lean and cuddle up next to him, but because she actually enjoyed the warmth of his hands on her face. She closed her eyes trying to avoid his stare and ignore the funny feeling in her stomach, some why it was making her cheeks feel even more heated. The boy furrowed his eyebrows in guilt, his suspicions were unluckily right, she was almost ice cold.
And to think that if his pride would've been just a little stronger he would've left her to spend a whole night there with nothing but a light sweater and some jumpers. He kept telling himself that was all in the past now, all that mattered was the he had found her safe and sound. He stripped his jacket off his arms and carefully wrapped it around his sister, laying it over her shoulders. She gave him an odd look, taken back by such a loving gesture coming from who called her a 'Cocky full of herself wanker' just a while ago. He noticed the way she was staring at him and sighted, because he was fully giving up on trying to stay mad, who was he fooling? he just couldn't.
"Okay, we need to take you back home alright?" As he slowly slipped an arm around the back of her knees and held her waist with the other one, he looked at her in the eye, almost as if he was asking for permission to touch her. And of course, who was better than Phoebe at reading his eyes?
She nodded as she placed her arms around his neck, making it easier for him carry her. Once she was completely settled in his arms, he stood up carefully and started making his way back home. There was finally no need to run all around Hiddenville, all rushed up trying to find his twin so he decided to just walk calmly instead. For a few seconds she enjoyed the moment, Max was warm and gentle. And as abnormal as it sounded, she felt safe with him. But soon the moment was lost when they both found themselves with nothing else to discuss and the silence was soon overwhelming.
The superhero rested her head on her saviour's shoulder and just stared at him, analyzing his facial features. She'd never done that before, had his eyes always been so light? They were definitely lighter than hers, while her iris was a cholate brown (matching her hair), his were almost hazel. He also had a strong jaw which looked great with his even skin and...
"What are you looking at?"
She was dragged out of her thoughts when Max caught her staring. Suddenly feeling extremely embarrassed she looked down to hide the red colouring her cheeks.
"I...I..." She shuttered "I'm sorry... for... everything." she apologized, mildly to change the topic but she truly was sorry.
He looked down at her and gave her a half smile "You think I would've looked for you in the library, the museum, Wong's place and Cherry's before finally coming here if I hadn't forgive you already dork?" The teen teased
She let out a heavy sight, like a faint laugh and left her mouth slightly parted.
"You really went to all of those places?"
He nodded
A small nearly imperceptible smile was glued to the girl's face "Thank you for finding me" she said heartfelt "I really am sorry"
"And... I guess I'm sorry for telling you to use a glue stick instead of a Chap stick.." He chuckled trying to lighten the mood
"And I'm sorry for calling you a Dick Head" She laughed
"And I'm sorry for calling you air head nerd"
"And I'm sorry that your insults are so incoherent"
Easy comes, easy goes. As much as this phrase is usually used in a negative manner this time it meant the small uncomfortable air floating around the twins had gone away as fast at it showed up. They laughed together, making fun of all the things they'd said with such a passionate hatred just a couple hours ago. All of the tension had been fully forgotten.
They knew it wasn't the last time they would argue like that, honestly, it was far from being the last one. But it was also far from being their last mending.
Because that's just how the whole Max/Phoebe twin thing worked out. Fighting, bickering, and pretending to hate each other until they needed inevitably needed each other. Which always ended up happening. They were dragged one to the other like magnets. Why did that happen was yet another mystery.
Maybe all of their fights were just a cover up for something else...
Maybe it was their way to let go of the strange feeling they got when they were together
Or to dismiss that unexplainable tension that was always around them
To ignore those stares they couldn't help but give each other
or maybe...
It was proably just another twin thing.
Hello... it's me again...
Okay no. Lmao. I know the end was shittt but ran out of inspiration and well... still I hope y'all babes enjoyed it!
Special appreciation to lucayathegood for reminding me to work on this and telling me to finish it and post it bc honestly this was going to stay in my unfinished files...