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"Twins have a special bond. They feel safer with each other than with their peers."

-Jeanne Philips

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Year 845

The trickle of a small stream and the rustling of the summer breeze through the tall grass was the only background noise as my brother and I sat outside. I was tinkering with my invention and he was just sitting there. I couldn't risk working on it in town. A few weeks back I had begun drawing my invention when my step-mother found the papers and tore them to shreds before beating me severely. I still had bruises on my stomach.

My hand absentmindedly reached for the spot and I rubbed it to ease some of the lingering pain.

"If it's any consolation, Dad wasn't very happy with Margret when he found out. He still isn't. I hear them fighting outside by the barn every night..." my brother trailed off brushing his hands against the grass.

It probably should have been amazing that he could tell I had been rubbing my bruises without even seeing me, but I'd known him since before my birth. We'd shared a womb and sometimes I even think we shared feelings and thoughts. It didn't matter that he was blind, he always knew what I was doing, just as I always felt him on some level inside my mind.

I sighed and choose not to add comment. He knew where my feelings stood in regards to my father and step-mother. I instead evaluated my work thus far. I had crafted two wooden wheels and the frame was almost done.

"Why are people so scared of change?" I asked myself and my twin aloud, "If... if my invention pans out- it could seriously help travel and it would make so many more things time efficient and- and... urgh!" I tossed my tools back into tool box causing a loud clatter. I'd be worried of attracting attention but this spot was secret. An hour and half hike from my family's farm which itself was a half hour walk from town.

My brother stopped playing with the long blades of grass and turned to face my voice, his expression full of contemplation. "Maybe... maybe people are scared of what they don't know? I mean look at the Titans. We don't know a thing about them and they're the most terrifying things in this world. Except perhaps death, but even then we don't know anything about death and that's why so many people try everything in their power to not die. Even though it will eventually happen to them anyways..." he trailed off.

My body stilled as his speech once again turned toward dark subjects like death and the Titans.

I looked up from my work at him. His eyes probably would have been dark like mine, but instead, the blindness left them this milky blue color. It was frightening for most people in our small village. I adored them. I studied the look on his face. Peaceful. The looked unnerved me.

"Okay - spill, John. What're ya thinking about in that crazy brain of yours?" I asked, my expression flat.

He smiled bashfully and scratched his cheek.

"Just something the Doctor said to me..."

I couldn't keep my eyes from rolling. John had been seeing a doctor in the village for a little over three years now, since he was nine. I didn't like the guy. He always watched everyone around him like they were beneath him. Like he was in on some joke the rest of us weren't privy.

"Oh yeah? And what did good ol' Doc Stupid Face say this time?" I asked, laying down next to where John was sitting. I reached forward to grab his hand and set it on my forehead. He began to stroke my hair.

"I asked him to describe what the Titans look like... he's seen them, you know? He was granted permission to watch some from the top of Wall Maria… research stuff." I stiffened but otherwise remained silent.

John continued to stroke my hair, but after I was silent for too long he tugged none too nicely.

"Ouch!" I shouted, and made to smack his hand- only he pulled it away at the last moment and I ended up smacking my own head.

John chuckled and leaned back on both his arms as I stared up at him.

"Anyways… he told me that they looked like us. Kind of. Some of their proportions are more exaggerated than normal humans, but mostly they look pretty human..."

"What else?" I asked, because it was written all over his face he was deeply thinking about something and he wanted to talk about it, even if the subject disturbed me.

"He said that a lot of them have this... smile. A constant smile. So I got thinking, the Titans are probably happy. But then I thought, 'What could they be so happy about? They don't do anything. They don't do anything-' When I realized they're happy... to eat us. That's their happiness. They're not doing it to be cruel. And- well if it's only natural for them to eat us, maybe we should all just get eaten so that life could just progress from there?"

The wind stopped and the air grew still. I... couldn't, I couldn't form anything to say. I jumped and grabbed his shoulders forcing him to turn toward me even though he couldn't see me. He looked startled, but with a hint of familiarity. Like he knew this would be my reaction, that stupid small smile on his face.

"If you ever say stupid shit like that again, you won't have to wait for a Titan to eat you- I'll kill you myself! Do you understand me, John?" I asked wildly shaking him, hoping I could force reason into him if I shook hard enough.

He just laughed.

Totally not my desired effect.

"I'm not joking! Tell me you understand!" I shouted, becoming a bit frantic. This wasn't the first time he had said something about dying or just letting himself or others die because all of us were going to die anyway. He called it 'natural' and a 'kindness' that we humans were allowed to die. I didn't try to understand his logic on this topic.

"I know, I know," he chanted pulling his arms up to cup my cheeks. He started wiping tears I hadn't even realized I'd been crying.

"I'm sorry, Lacramo. I'm sorry, okay? I just wasn't thinking is all."

I took a deep breath and pulled away from him, wiping my own eyes.

"You have to promise me something, John," I said, pulling on my serious voice.

"Hmm?" he asked, looking off to the side of where my eyes were.

"You have to promise me that no matter what happens, Titans, robbers or murders, you have to promise that you'll never give up because of your goddamn idea of 'kindness', okay? It's not a kindness to let something kill you just because it can."

The smile returned fully to his face and he closed his eyes. Like he was stewing over an answer that would pacify me. "Okay, Lac. I promise to never let myself die. Will you stop crying now?" he asked tilting his head to the side and looked straight at me, as if he could actually see me.

I felt my face heat up at his intense stare that had somehow managed to catch my eyes directly. I turned to look off at the water and my discarded tools and invention.

"Tch, who's crying? Not me..." I muttered and started packing everything up in burlap bags and put them back in their hidey-hole I had created so no one could stumble upon my work. When I turned around John was standing and offering his hand toward me.

"C'mon, let's go home," he said, smiling at me. I let him pull me up before I started leading the two of us home.

The year was 845. Three weeks later Wall Maria would fall at the forces of the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan and two days after that the Titans would reach my small village before the news could.

Had I known, that walking home with John on that bright Sunday afternoon would be one of the last times I would get to enjoy his company…

I would have told him I loved him.

I would have held him.

I would have vocalized everything he was to me even though the two of us didn't need to say those kinds of things out loud.

Because three weeks and two days from that moment I would only be half of the person I was born. Because three weeks and two days after that Sunday my brother, my twin, would be dead.

A/N: what the fuck is wrong with me? this isn't my godric story. this isn't my other godric story. what is this? Lac and John the twins... living in the SNK world... i just. i don't know why i'm writing this. i guess i'm feeling sorry for myself.