Yo pplz. My friend and I were just wondering what the Twins would be like during their teenage years. We chatted about it a bit and it became a pretty big story plot. And yes, I know the genre is supposed to be 'humor' but I can't seem to fit too much of it into this first chapter. Just you wait, and you'll get a few more laughs as we go along.

Disclaimer: Yaddi yaddi. Disclaimers again. Oh well. Yeah, the usual stuff. I don't own the Twins or the Matrix or blah. So on and so forth. Thank you.

Special thanks: Lydia Yeo, my ex-Primary 5 classmate. She helped (a lot) with the story plot, and she is going to be the one chasing me to write more whenever I feel like giving up on this story.

Ran Away, Adopted.

One picked up a beetle that happened to be innocently crawling by. He held it over his twin's head and squished the bug.

"If that was meant to cheer me up, it didn't work," Two glared. He phased and was clean again. "So, remind me again: why are we here?"

"'Here' as in you're questioning existence, or 'here' as in this dilapidated alley?"

"'Here'."

"What?"

"This alley."

"Oh." One sighed. "Depression, mood swings, that sort of thing."

"Heh," Two snarled. "Depression. Sound more of a human thing."

"Apparently it's not, now is it?"

"Well whatever it is or isn't, it sure stinks. I positively hate being a teenager," Two grumbled. "You ever wished we were kids again?"

"Kids? You mean the time period where we liked sticking Mero to the ceiling by his hair, using chewing gum and super glue?"

"No. We did that only a month ago."

"Or the time when you slipped into Mero's precious eight-foot, skinny-necked vase and I went running to him and said that we'd accidentally taken away your phasing power and you couldn't escape?"

"And he had to come rescue me, because Persephone said he had to take good care of his creations."

"Not to mention she treated us like her kids."

"Yeah. Then the vase was too heavy to tip over on its side so I could get out. Mero had to go in head first."

One grinned. "Then he got stuck halfway…"

Two grinned back. "And I phased out."

"That was good…"

"Mm. The punishment we had to take was worth the kick we got out of seeing Mero stuck in that thing."

"Yeah, but now we're out here, not in there playing more practical jokes on 'Mom and Dad'."

"Well now. Whose idea was it to run away from home, again?"

"Yours." One couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"That helped…"

Both fell silent for a bit, then, "You know, sitting here isn't going to accomplish anything," One said.

"We didn't run away to accomplish anything. We ran away for the sake of it. It's not like life is better out here."

"It was your idea to run away. You just dragged me along, that's all," One felt obliged to remind his twin.

"But you ran away all the same, didn't you? It's both of us, mister blame-everything-on-your-twin-brother," Two retorted.

"Um…excuse me, young men, but do you need help?" A kindly voice interrupted.

The two of them looked up and saw a lady, couldn't have been more than forty, viewing them with an obvious amount of cautious pity.

One looked to his brother, away from the lady, and the words he mouthed- "young men"- were accompanied by an amused smirk.

Two returned the look and together they looked back up at the lady. "No we're fine, thanks," they said at the same time.

The woman frowned a bit. "Where do you live?"

"Three blocks down that way, then a left turn till the next district. First house. You can't really see it from here," Two pointed, lying, but putting on a pretty good act.

Unfortunately, One said at the same time, "Well actually we got kicked out of home a few days ago. We're managing… quite okay, but we have no plans yet."

Both, not having expected the other to answer- or at least in the way that he did- turned to each other with a look of dismay and annoyance.

"Um…" the lady didn't know what to say.

"We-" Two began.

Immediately, One moved his arm behind his own back as if to relieve an itch, but instead he reached all the way across and tweaked Two on his side.

'What?!' Two screeched into One's head using their telepathic ability.

One turned to glare at his twin. 'Look, we're not doing anything out here, so why not see what this lady has to offer?'

Two shrugged, folded his arms, and turned away with a huff.

"Yeah, yeah. We were kicked out," One turned and told the woman. "My brother just wants to deny it, that's all."

"Oh you poor kids. Well…" The lady paused to think. "I could provide you with a place to stay if you wanted."

"If she's talking about getting us into some freakin' orphanage, I'm staying out here, thank her," Two muttered, mostly to himself, but also loud enough for One to hear.

"I don't know," One pretended to be polite, unimposing, and hesitant- all of which he never was as himself. "It would be a lot of trouble on your part."

Two, still facing away from both One and the lady, silently made the gesture of sicking-up at his brother's politeness act.

"Oh no, not any trouble at all. See, my only daughter left for boarding school a few weeks ago, so the house is very empty, very quiet, especially since my husband was killed in a car accident four years ago. Also now that she's gone away, you can have her spare room."

"Are you sure?" One asked. "Like, very sure?"

"Oh yes. The house won't be just me anymore. Come along now," the lady said, smiling.

One stood up and brushed his coat down. Then he looked down at Two. "Are you coming?"

'No.' "Yes."

They followed the lady down the street for a good quarter hour before she announced, "We're home!"

Two shut his eyes as tight as possible and imagined throttling his twin and yelling, "Why why why did you say all that crap? Why did you get us here? Why did you tell her that lame, pathetic, clot worthy story so that she'd take us in? WHY?"

"Come in, come in," the lady tapped him on the shoulder and ushered him towards the house.

He glowered at One, who frustratingly smiled back. They had their eyes locked on each other- one very, very annoyed and the other just being a big pain- all the way up the stairs leading to the front gate, down the path to the outside balcony, and up to the main entranceway.

The woman unlocked the door and led the way inside. The Twins took one step through the doorway and practically keeled over from fright.