Krux was not in a good situation. His brother had wandered off at some point when the two ten year olds had been sent to market to buy some groceries, and now the older twin was by himself in the bustling street.

He pushed himself forwards, moving against the crowd of people that seemed to get larger with every step, telling himself that he was the older twin (alright, the older twin by three minutes, but still the older one. Father and mother always told him he was the responsible one, anyway). He was in the double digits, and he was just going shopping . He was definitely not struggling.

But the deeper he got into the busy shopping square, the louder it became, and the more aware he became of the people passing around him. Every second it seemed like someone was brushing up against him or bumping into him, and each time it happened it just jostled him more and more. So many people were talking, and the voices were all so loud , conversations layering over conversations and the whole thing forming a discordant wave that made his head pound. Another person brushed by his side and he flinched away. The grown up gave him an odd look at his cringing, and he forced a smile onto his face even though his nerves were screaming.

Forget shopping, he decided. He just wanted to find his brother and go home. It was just too crowded out here today. He started chewing on his nails nervously as he turned around and tried to find his way back. His view was just met with an overwhelming swirling pattern of colors as people went about their business, flocking from stall to stall, and he lost all sense of where he was. The murmuring voices had risen even louder, submerging all of his other thoughts. He stopped in his tracks, breathing heavily as people continued to push by his side around him, each touch sending his thoughts screaming. And there was still so much noise. He just wanted it to stop .

With a high pitched scream that caused the people around him to pause in their actions and stare at the child with a collection of puzzled, annoyed, and disturbed looks, Krux collapsed into a ball on the ground. Fisting his hands in his hair, he wailed again, this time a sphere of red light surrounding him and all of the people around him, their expressions frozen in place. Oblivious to what he had caused around him, the time user rocked on his heels, hands moving over his ears to drown out the noise while he yelled sensely at the people to just shut up .

On the other side of the marketplace, Acronix looked abruptly up from where he had been browsing an interesting looking gadget in a storefront when a large red light shot above the building roofs. "Krux?" he exclaimed while the other shoppers muttered to each other worriedly and confused. He knew his brother's power when he saw it, and he could feel the telltale tingling of temporal displacement that happened whenever one of the brothers used their powers. Immediately dropping the item he had been looking at, he rushed over to the location of the bright light.

He entered into the red bubble, scanning worried yet impressed over the people paused in the middle of their shopping. In one case he couldn't stop himself from adjusting the trajectory of an item trapped mid-air, snickering when he thought about it missing its mark when this subsided. Hearing a shouting voice that he knew was his twin, he immediately yelled at himself for getting distracted and settled back into a light jog towards the sphere's center.

Huddled in the middle, surrounded by adults caught mid-stare, sat his brother, curled up into a ball and shouting seemingly at nothing. Acronix frowned, knowing that this wasn't the first time he had found his brother like this.

"Krux?" he asked, in a much more gentle voice than most people would think him capable of, approaching his older twin carefully. His brother had stopped shouting, but didn't reply to him- staying in his protective ball position. Getting a little closer he prompted again, "Krux? Brother?" Normally Acronix couldn't stand being slow or quiet - too aware of the feeling of time passing to want to waste any of it - but this had happened before and startling Krux while he was like this only made it worse. So, slowly he made his way to his brother's side, sitting down beside him in the middle of the dirt road.

"Krux? Are you alright?" he asked a third time, and this time his brother seemed to finally become aware of his presence, dropping his hands from his ears slightly and actually looking at him, though he still said nothing and the people all remained paused around them. Catching his twin's eyes, Acronix gave a shaky smile, but kept his distance (his brother didn't like physical contact at the best of times, and as much as he wanted to hug his brother for his own comfort, he had a feeling it wouldn't help anything right now.) "This was one of those bad days, wasn't it, brother?" He asked knowingly. Sometimes there were just days where everything seemed more difficult for Krux. None of them knew why, but the time twin's mother had taken to calling them his "bad days", and Acronix had become pretty skilled at spotting them. He felt a small surge of guilt at not noticing earlier, and leaving his brother by himself. He had just found this interesting store, and he had gone to look at it, he hadn't thought . Krux was still staring silently at nothing, the world on pause around him, and Acronix took a deep breath and pushed the thought away. That was in the past, and it certainly wasn't helping Krux now.

So he sat next to his brother quietly and waited, longer than anyone who knew the energetic child would have thought he was able. The true amount of time he spent there was impossible to place while the world remained frozen in its tracks around them. Acronix gazed over the looming faces of the on pause passing adults unashamedly, making faces at the ones that he thought looked especially rude. Eventually, after he made one particularly mocking expression at an adult whose face was locked in a disgusted glare directed towards Krux, his twin made the first sound in a while, giggling lightly at his brother's expression.

"Brother!" remarked the ten year old at the sound, glad to have his twin back. Turning towards him he asked, concern gleaming in his eyes, "Are you alright, brother?"

Krux took a shaky breath, uncurling slowly from himself both physically and mentally, and nodded.

Acronix whoosed a large sigh in relief, before jumping to his feet and gestring broadly at the scene around them, "I have to say, this is impressive, brother! Look at them, stuck!" He barked out a laugh at the surrounding adults' frozen faces.

Krux did look at them, feeling the exact opposite of his brother's amusement when he saw the looks on the grown ups' faces. Indignant shame welled up in him as he noticed all of their shared startled and appalled expressions. They looked rather like he felt about himself at the moment, and he crossed his arms tightly to himself with a scowl.

Acronix noticed when his brother fell silent once again, and promptly plopped back down beside him. "What? You are not the least bit proud that you managed to time stop so many people? And for so long?"

"No, because I should not have had to. This was just supposed to be a simple shopping trip," he took another quick look at the faces around him, hoping that Acronix wouldn't notice.

Unfortunately, his brother was all too perceptive, and worried about his brother at the moment, so he caught on right away. He followed the older twin's gaze to the especially-disgusted-looking older man that he had just been mocking. "You don't have to worry about them brother!" he snorted, waving towards the man dismissively, "I mean, look what you did! They are fools to look down on people with powers as amazing as ours."

Krux could feel his confidence boost by his brother's statement, the feeling growing as he really looked at the scene around him. There had to be at least ten people trapped in his time bubble, which, now that he thought about it, was pretty impressive. He felt a smile work its way onto his face at the realization- one which his brother enthusiastically echoed.

Despite his confidence lifting his mood, all at once he felt drained, and slumped over where he sat. This had been an exhausting experience, and more than anything he just wanted to go home. With an in-syncness that only twins could share, Acronix seemed to know exactly what he was thinking and shot to his feet, reaching down to grab his twin's hands and pull him up as well.

"Let's go home, brother,"

"But, the groceries…" he halfheartedly complained, worried still about his role as the responsible one.

Acronix waved it off, scoffing, "Forget about them. We'll just tell mamma and pops that you were having one of your bad days and they will just have to deal with it." Looking around one more time he added with a wisdom born from experience, "Let's not tell them about this time stop bubble, though."

He smirked confidently at his twin who couldn't help smiling back. He joined hands with his brother, something Krux usually disliked but at that moment it kept him calm and assured they wouldn't be separated again, as they navigated their way through the still crowd. Once free from the bubble Krux was dead set on heading towards the gate that led to the dirt road leading back home but his brother teased with a mischievous grin, "Hold on Krux!"

The younger directed his twin's attention to the stasis bubble as it finally dissipated, no longer being maintained by the time elemental's presence. Krux tensed ever slightly as the whirlwind of movement resumed (even though they were far enough away at this point to not make contact) but was pleasantly surprised at what his brother had done. As the disgruntled adult's time lurched forward once more he was met with a heavy playball in his face that Acronix had moved from it's arc.

The two shared a rebellious laugh. "If adults can't see how great you are then they'll get whacked in the face! It was only fair after all," Acronix chuckled at his brother who's mood had changed dramatically from the withdrawn and frightened boy of mere minutes prior.

The walk back was calming and quiet, which Krux liked very much. With his brother there, he was able to distract from the crowds that flowed in their continuous wave around them as they walked through the square and towards the road to home. Acronix chattered about interesting things in the shop, the possibilities of using their quickly developing time powers for even funnier pranks, and the occasional ridiculous one liner that he insisted was the next big phrase. Krux just listened, letting his brother's voice drive away the others the whole way home.


This was fun to write. I love thinking about how emotional states and powers interact, especially when it comes to the Time Twin's powers.