"English"'Thinking/Telepathy'Normal Speech"
A little boy of only eight years old crept down the cold, dark hallway. His dark, blue eyes seemed to glow and his raven hair shimmered when they caught the moonlight leaking through the small windows. It was 12:06pm, he should not be out. The boy clutched the item hard in his hand. He was halfway down the hall.
'There's no going back now.' Not that he was planning to.He took another step, the floor creaked. He winced. His step was too short. He slid his foot forward and leaped, he landed with a mild thunk of his feet. Good, no creak. He smiled. The building was ancient, so memorizing the spots of the hallway that didn't creak was an easy enough task.
He crept on, clutching the newspaper wrapped item to his chest. His stomach was clenching nervously, he grinned. He loved a good thrill. The chances of him getting caught were slim, those dirty old nuns slept like a rock.
The door to his bedroom was now in sight. He crept on, stopping every few moment to listen. He was two meters away when he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps on the staircase. He sprinted the last bit and threw the door open, closing it gently behind him.
He came face to face with a mirror image of himself, well almost. A boy with the same face sat on the cot staring at him.
"What are you doing here, Kazuma?" the boy asked.
"Shh! She's coming! Lay back down!" Kazuma ran and dropped to his stomach and rolled underneath the cot with the fluency of a ninja and froze.
The boy on the cot snickered 'Like a ninja, huh?'
'Oh shut up, Kazuya.' Kazuma said over their private communication line.
'You said it not me.'
Heavy footsteps sounded outside their door and stopped right in front of it. The door cracked open and light shone through, a plump middle aged woman glared into the room for a moment, then left.
Kazuma sighed. "That was close." he whispered as he climbed out from under the cot.
Kazuya sat up from from his position and shot a look to his brother. "Why are you sneaking around at this time? You know full well what happens when we are caught disobeying."
Kazuma rubbed the tops of his hands at the memory. But then he grinned and reached back under the cot. "I have something."
He pulled the package and handed it to kazuya. "Open it."
Kazuya grabbed the package and raised an eyebrow at his brother. He took off the newspaper as quietly as he could and found a tiny cardboard box. He lifted the lid and his eyes lit up at what he saw. In the box was a raspberry tart with a single match.
Kazuya looked up at his brother. "Where did you.?" he started to ask but Kazuma cut him off. "That doesn't matter."
"Kazuma." he said.
"It's fine." He insisted.
He then took the match and struck it against the wall and stuck it into the tart.
"Close your eyes and make a wish."
Kazuya decided to listen to his brother.
They closed their eyes and silently prayed. When they opened their eyes Kazuma smiled and they both blew out the match. When Kazuma looked at his brother, Kazuya was looking away.
"What, what did you wish for?" he asked almost shyly.
"A safe place for us to live together!" Kazuma exclaimed.
"Me too."
Kazuma took the tart and split it, giving his brother the bigger half. They ate in comfortable silence until Kazuya let out a muffled yawn. "We should go back to sleep." he said.
"Yeah."
Kazuya started to lay down, and when Kazuma didn't move right away he looked at him.
"Can... can I sleep with you?" Kazuma asked.
His brother didn't answer but slid over, making room. They lay there for a moment.
"Kazuya." he paused, "Happy birthday." he whispered.
Kazuya didn't answer but his brother knew what he was thinking.
"Good night."
XxX
The next morning
The twins were sitting alone at the table with a bowl of mucky brown porridge, if you could even call it that.
There was a knock at a side door before a woman stepped in. She smiled seeing the children.
"Oh, hello there boys, my name is Luella! What are your names?" she asked, when they didn't answer she went on "I was just driving with my husband when went and gotten ourselves lost, I was wondering if there is someone in charge I can talk to?" she had a sweet mother like voice and a heavy English accent.
Kazuma looked to his brother, his eyebrows were scrunched in confusion, he had only understood half of that.
'She's looking for someone with directions.' Kazuya said with their telepathy.
'I'll go find one of the nuns.'
Kazuma got up and ran towards the office like room.Kazuya just stared at the woman with a blank face.
"You're a cute one aren't you?" she said.
He had not been expecting that. His eyebrows shot up, him? Cute? She must have seen his disbelief because she laughed.
A wave of panic hit him suddenly and he shot out of his seat so fast his chair fell over. He turned and ran down the hallway.
He ran through an opened door just as he saw an old nun raise a metal ruler above Kazuma's hand. Kazuya's own hand shot out.
Whack!
The thin metal slapped off Kazuya's hand.
"Why you little brat-" the old woman started,
"Good heavens! What is going on here!" The lady -Luella - from earlier exclaimed.
"This wretched thing stole something from me, he is just getting his punishment." the plump lady growled.
"That is no way to treat a child! Look at them, the poor things are scared out of their wits!" Luella exclaimed.
"This has nothing to do with you, I am acting as their guardian while they are here before they get shipped off to another orphanage."
Luella frowned "Are you boys okay?" she asked.
They didn't answer.
"They don't speak English." the nun said
"They don't? They seemed to understand me just fine before. However do you communicate?" Luella was incredulous!
"You better leave, I think you've over stayed your welcome."
"Then I will be taking the boys home with me." she turned to the twins, "Do you want to come home with me?" She asked.
"Home?" Kazuma asked.
"Yes! Home, with me."
Kazuma looked to his twin and grabbed his and pulled him forward with a pleading look.
"Of course! I would never dream of splitting you up!" She hoped he hadn't thought she was just going to take him.
Kazuma smiled.
"Hold on there lady! You can't just waltz in here and take the children!" the nun yelled.
Luella glared at the lady, just then, a man walked in.
"Oh Martin, dear!" she said.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"We are taking these boys home! Have you not seen how they have been treated! They are whipped in the name of discipline! And have you seen what they were eating? It doesn't even look edible! Oh, please Martin! I would never forgive myself if we were to just leave them here!"
Martin looked at the boys, his gaze was soft as he watched the two twin boys. This seemed different than the other times she had asked to adopt. She would probably adopt the whole orphanage if she could but this was definitely different. He hadn't seen her so passionate in quite some time. He really did believe she would hate herself for leaving them here. One of the boys looked blank as he held his red hand while the other looked hopefully at Luella. But both of them had soft eyes, he could see it. He too found himself wanting to keep the boys, there was just something about them that drew him to them.
"Pack your things, boys." he said.
Luella cried happily then took both their hands and took them out of the room. Kazuya heard one last thing before they were out of the room.
"I believe I require the necessary paperwork."
The nuns plump red face fumed with anger then they were out of sight. Kazuma lead them to their room while Kazuya just followed. Luella looked through their things and the twins looked through their stuff with a look of disgust and embarrassment.
Luella just grabbed their hands and pulled them to the car and set them in the back seat.
The reality of it all hit them when they had settled into the back seat of Luella's car.
"Our wish came true." Kazuma whispered, a smile came over both of their faces
"We're going home."