Welcome to my steep and rapid descent down the Neurodivergent Time Twins rabbit hole.
A young, 7 year old Krux walked out the changing room, pulling anxiously at the neck of the new tunic his mother had just purchased and told him to change into. He didn't know what it was made of, but it itched . Everywhere the new fabric touched felt like thousands of little bugs biting at his skin. He scratched at the arm, rolling the sleeve up so it would get off of him .
"Isn't this a nice shirt?" his mother beamed when he walked up to meet her, while he alternated tugging at the sleeves, hem, and neck with no verbal reply. His mother seemed satisfied with that, and turned away to get back to shopping.
Standing uncomfortably, he looked around the store, making sure that his mother was busy browsing shelves of hanging shirts and tunics, probably looking for something for his brother (who was busy running randomly around the store.)
Fed up, and satisfied that his mother was distracted for the moment, the boy eventually slid the whole shirt off of him, walking out of the store and throwing it into the dirt road. He sighed in relief at finally getting rid of the scratching clothing, leaning satisfactorily against the store's entryway.
"Krux!" shouted the woman almost immediately, sweeping past him to grab the discarded clothing from the dust, sweeping at it even as she leveled him with a disappointed glare that made him wince. " Why would you throw a perfectly nice new shirt like this into the dirt?"
"It was scratchy!" he protested, wrinkling his nose at the shirt that his mother held up and was looking at forlornly.
"That is no reason to be so disrespectful! I just bought that for you, you can't just be throwing it on the ground!" she lectured, waving her finger at him scoldingly. At the raised voices, his brother had halted in his running in circles, and came over to stand supportively at Krux's side. (Which he definitely didn't need, because he definitely wasn't tearing up. Crying at getting in trouble was for babies, which Krux certainly wasn't.)
"But I don't want to wear it!" he argued with all his seven year old might, crossing his arms tightly over his bare chest (and suppressing a shiver. He'd rather be cold than wear that painful thing again.)
"Yeah, mamma, he doesn't wanna!" chimed in Acronix, thinking it a very strong endorsement on his brother's behalf.
"Nixie, please, you aren't helping," she said levely to the slightly younger twin, who stared, aghast at the fact that his masterful persuasion had been so easily dismissed.
Looking around the very public but fortunately empty street, she turned back to her older, and still shirtless, child, the mother's mouth forming into a tight frown. Krux stepped closer to his twin apprehensively. "We all have things in life we don't like," informed his mother sternly, tugging his hands down by his side and putting the tunic back over his head despite his struggling.
"No! I don't like it ," he cried out, wriggling to escape from the material that was already making his skin crawl just from being over his shoulders.
His mom sighed sadly, pulling the shirt back on her difficult son with a final yank. "Why are you so stubborn, Krux?" Kneeling down and looking at her son sympathetically, she put a hand on his small shoulder (effectively pinning him in the shirt he was already trying to escape, though that wasn't her intent). "Son, I can understand that you might not like this shirt, but you can't just take it off. Sometimes you just don't like things that you have to do." She gave him a crooked warm smile, hoping he understood.
But the shirt was already back to burning and Krux was anxiously shifting his shoulders trying to get away from it and didn't reply.
His mother took the silence as a sign he was done arguing, and planted a kiss on his forehead, telling him, "I still have to do some more shopping. You and your brother be good." She lifted her hand from the older twin's shoulders, ruffled the unruly hair of the younger, and turned back into the shop.
As soon as she left, Krux was already picking at the shirt, trying to worm away from the feeling of biting bugs. He desperately wanted to tear it off again, but forced himself to resist to avoid angering his mother again. His brother seemed to pick up on his discomfort, his bright gold eyes observing his twin perceptively. "Are you alright, brother?"
Krux pulled at the hem of the cloth, muttering, "I can't wear this, Nix. It's all burny ."
"Then don't!" his twin helpfully suggested.
"I can't do that. I don't want to get in trouble with mother again," he complained, shrinking from the memory of his mother staring at him so disappointedly.
"Hmm," his brother, tapped at his chin with his index finger, tapping his foot rapidly as he tried to find a solution for his twin brother. Realizing something, he exclaimed, " Again! What if you didn't get into trouble the first time!" Shaking his brother's shoulder excitedly, but letting go quickly when he saw his distress at the gesture, he explained with a mischievous smile, "Use your powers and go back to before mother yelled at you- before you put the shirt on. I have a plan."
Krux looked at his brother skeptically. His parents said not to use his powers except for an emergency, and he didn't want to have to wear that power blocking necklace his brother always ended up wearing when he got into trouble with their parents. Plus, Acronix's plans were usually...not the best. But his skin was still crawling painfully, and he didn't exactly have a better idea, which to his young mind was an emergency. Concentrating, his fist glowed yellow as the young boy called on his powers. Making sure to take his brother along with him, he turned back the clock, his mother walking backwards towards him, resting in front of him, and then walking backwards further- going back to the racks of clothes where she had been when this all started while he went back inside the changing room.
He sighed in relief when he was back in his own comfortable shirt, the annoying new one now just laying in his hands. He stared worriedly at the changing room doors, hoping that Acronix knew what he was doing. A minute passed, and he started to fidget nervously.
Right when he was considering peeking out of the room to see what was going on, his brother peered into the room, hair even more messy than usual and grinning impishly. "Alright, brother. Mother is distracted for the moment. Now we can put my plan into work."
"And what plan exactly is that, brother?" questioned the boy, following his brother as he sneaked along the edge of the store. Krux heard a distant commotion, but didn't want to think about what his brother might have done for his amazing idea so tried to ignore it and just follow alongside his twin.
He pointed to the shirt, explaining with a self-satisfied smirk, "You hate that stinky tunic and it hurt you. So you ditch it and grab another one, and mother will never know!"
" That was your big plan?" questioned the past-powered youth, knowing even at his young age that that was a pretty straightforward tactic. Not exactly impressive.
Acronix crossed his arms, pouting, "Well, it's working so far, isn't it?"
Well. He couldn't really argue with that. Shrugging, he peered at the selection of shirts and tunics in his size, touching each of them to see if they were any better than the one his mother had bought. Periodically, his brother would run off to do FSM-knew-what to keep their mother away from him. Considering his grin grew steadily more evil every time he returned, Krux decided that he was better off not knowing.
Eventually he did find something he could actually tolerate, and quickly pulled it on, tossing the tunic his mother had paid for into a pile of clothes to hide the evidence. And then burying it under a few more layers just because he didn't like it and wanted to spite it. There. Now he had a top he could actually manage to wear, and his mother and the shop keeper lost no money. It sounded like the perfect conclusion to the young boy.
The time twins both nodded satisfactorily at their plan's success. At least, until their mother returned, gasping for breath and staring at a suddenly sheepish Acronix. "We will be having a talk when we get home young man!" She scolded, catching her breath. Her gaze softened when she looked over at Krux, who was staring up at her innocently. She gave him a smile, ruffling his hair. "Well. At least one of my boys wasn't getting into trouble. Thank you Krux."
He glanced over at his younger twin, grateful and also surprised that he would be willing to get into trouble for him.
"Well. At least we've got that shopping done. Now you two have some nice presentable clothes. Let's go home." their mother declared, and the two boys nodded aggressively in agreement.
As they left the shop, Krux was glad that he could finally feel comfortable again, and was grateful (not for the last time) that his brother was so daring. He wasn't one for hugs, but he did bump his twin's shoulder appreciatively, telling him quietly so that their mother wouldn't hear, "Thanks, Acronix. There's no way I would have been able to wear that terrible thing."
"Not a problem, brother," he replied, grinning cheekily, "That was fun!"