Dave had heard wrong; he must have. The shock was playing with his hearing. His brother had said something else, and it was sending him into a tizzy. This was Grade A, black and white, Tinseltown freak out here, but he was keeping it together somehow. He was feeling something that reached down into his chest, clenched his heart, and squeezed it sporadically, leaving him breathless.
"What are you talking about?" he asked after a long moment of silence.
"What do you think?" Dane playfully quirked up his brow as though he were playing a game.
"If I knew that, do you think I would ask?"
"I dunno." Dane shrugged and leaned back, crossing his right leg over his left. He threw his arm back over the chair and pulled the cigarette towards his lips. "You can be a smart mouthed ass sometimes."
"Look who's talkin'."
Dane let out a small noise of amusement. Dave could see the faint smile without looking directly at his twin. But he didn't want to see him. He didn't want to see the smugness that was coming from the other Strider right now. Any sort of amusement made him uneasy in this case; this was serious, a very serious case. Dane was treating it like a joke, or really like it was something else.
"Alright so," Dave pushed the conversation forward, "what're we gonna do in this little 'experiment' of yours?"
"First, we're gonna go people watching—same as always." Dane pushed the smoke out of his nose. "And then we'll go from there."
The younger male scoffed. "You're telling me that you don't even have a plan?"
"Oh no, I have a plan. I said 'we'll go from there' though. That means you and me, if you decide to take this up that is."
"Say I don't."
"Then we won't talk about it."
"We can't just not talk about it." Dave stood up quickly. He let out a frustrated scoff and decided that this conversation wasn't worth dealing with at the moment. "You want coffee or some shit? We have five day old pasta in the fridge if you want anything."
"Why don't you bastards ever go shopping?"
"He's stubborn as fuck, and I don't want to do it." Dave spun around slowly, facing the other male and crossed his arms over his chest. "So long as I don't want to do it, he's going to try to force me to at least do it once."
"You two are idiots."
"Hey. I'm not the one choosing to starve just to prove a point here."
"Then why don't you go shopping for food?"
Dave paused and stared at his twin. The silence lasted about five seconds.
"That's not the point," he retorted.
Dane laughed gently and tipped his head up towards the ceiling. "Oh right right, that's not the point." As he talked, smoke drifted out of his mouth.
Watching his brother, Dave was reminded of the mobsters from the overly action packed movies he used to watch. He turned around and began padding his way towards the kitchen. He looked around for something decent to drink out of. There was Bro's "Hard Boss" mug in the cabinet, but he didn't want to go anywhere near that thing for the sake of not knowing what a "hard boss" was. He didn't really want to know either. He reached past the lonesome white mug and began stacking the various red plastic cups that were slowly taking over the cupboard. As he stacked and pushed them aside, Dave found his favourite (or at least mostly used) clear tankard mug. Reaching for it didn't help and standing on his tiptoes only made the reach more uncomfortable. He came down, standing flat on his feet as he looked over his shoulder. Good, Dane could't see. He "assisted" a couple of smuppets off the counter and climbed on top. He grabbed the mug from its difficult to reach position and saw that there was an unsightly chip in it. He frowned. When the fuck did that happen? Bro probably did it. Maybe that was why it was in the back. That bastard. Well, at least it wasn't massive.
With a sigh, he flashed over to the fridge and gripped its handle, ready to throw it open. That was until he remembered the sword trap. He wondered if it was still there. It had been years. Maybe Bro had given it a break. He pulled the door open with a flex of his fingers, and some long-buried senses spiked up at the almost inaudible sound of metal shifting. He flung open the fridge door and jumped into the air simultaneously. A dozen or so swords of all sharpened varieties jettisoned out of the refrigerator and flew across the room. Dane's head shot up at the sound of metal clanging to the floor. He stood up and moved toward the source only to find a small heap of random swords. Some had serrated edges; some had broken, jagged edges; and others looked as though they'd cut him if he kept staring any longer. He turned his head towards the kitchen wondering where all of these suddenly came from. That's when he remembered Dave's stories over Skype about a sword trap in the kitchen. Dane laughed it off as some bizarre thing of fantasy; only because he never thought he'd get to see it in action. He was half-right. He didn't see it in action, but he witnessed the end result.
Dave continued to pour himself something to drink as though nothing happened, even though he muttered that Bro needed to get some new hobbies. He deigned to venture at what kind the older Strider should get. He walked to the door and shoved it closed with his elbow and foot. Dane snorted and turned away, not wanting to ask if this is what the other blond had really been putting up with. For years.
"Hey, you wanna go smoke outside? I don't want Bro shitting everywhere when he comes home and smells that shit," Dave grumbled as he walked out of the kitchen with an abnormally coloured drink in his mug.
Dane eyed the drink. "The fuck is that?"
"Don't worry about it," Dave rumbled. "We're outta AJ, so this'll have to do."
"Yeah, if it don't kill you first."
"Bite me." Dave walked to the right of the TV and opened the balcony door. "Get your ass out here and smoke that shit. We need to let the living room air out."
The older twin gave out a short laugh. "Touchy, touchy. When did you become a housewife?" He joked as he walked towards and past his little brother.
"I swear to god, I'll pour this all over you."
"Yeah, I don't even know what that shit is. It looks like it burns to the touch."
Dave shrugged as Dane walked onto the balcony. "Probably." In spite of this, he still took a sip from his mug.
They sat down on the relatively new patio chairs and stared out at the bustling city. From their vantage point, the cars seemed so far away, and yet they seemed to be zooming by at a hundred miles an hour. Their conversation trailed along like every other. They talked about school, Bro and Sis, music, and pretty much any damn thing that didn't lead to Dane's underlying homicidal desires. Alleged homicidal desires.
Dave caught that thought and scoffed, shaking his head. Dane stopped in the middle of his sentence and raised a brow.
"Something wrong?"
"Hmn?" Dave turned his attention back to his twin. "Oh, sorry. I zoned out for a bit. What's up?"
"Wow, way to tell a guy the date is boring," Dane joked, leaning back into his seat and once again looking out towards the stacks of apartments.
"You know you gotta spice it up with one of us, man. Sorry. No special treatment for you." He kicked his feet up onto the railing and looked skyward. "Anyway, keep talkin'."
They fell into a silence. Dave left for a moment. When he came back, Dane had another cigarette lit in his left hand. He sat down into his seat and set his mystery drink set onto his thigh. Dave's right hand rested over the mug's mouth, but his grip tightened the very second there was danger of spilling its contents. 'So how long are we not gonna talk about what we need to talk about?' Dave thought to himself after a long while. He pulled his cup to his mouth and tipped his head back. The only time Dane moved was to draw the cigarette up and to lower it back down. There wasn't much movement or speech on his side. Dave wondered fleetingly what his brother was thinking. He let it go, not wanting to venture into that right now.
Time slipped away, and the sun was starting to come closer to the horizon. Dane let out a long stream of smoke as he flicked the cigarette away and over the edge.
"Nice place," he commented, crossing his legs at the ankles.
"Yeah, I know. Bro wanted to leave me stranded if I headed out for college."
"'If,'" Dane repeated without looking over to the other.
There was no question, just a statement.
"'If,''" Dave repeated, nodding his head slightly.
Dane chuckled. He had a reply but let it die on his tongue. He brought his hands together and scratched the back of his left hand with his right.
"What's awake at night—do you know?" he asked, tipping his head down and over towards his younger sibling.
The red-eyed twin let out a heavy sigh and hum in thought. "Clubs, and I think the park is open, a bar, maybe one or two diner restaurants, more bars..." He leaned his head back as he muttered out the list.
With a "Hm.", Dane turned his attention back to the skyline. "We'll go out there tonight. Ten o'clock."
"Out where?" Dave remarked incredulously. He prevented himself from scoffing but barely.
It wasn't that he had a curfew or anything. Bro gave that up years ago. He just didn't want to be out at night on a Friday with all those crock-pots around. After all, the freaks come out at night. However, with a small, slow, knowing smile, Dane just waved his hand, motioning towards the city of Houston. "Out there," he breathed out, almost dreamily. Dave found it a bit weird. The older twin let out a short laugh and then turned his contentment towards Dave, who wasn't feeling it one bit. Dane seemed set, and the conversation died with that statement. That was that. They were going out tonight.