On Tumblr, Doyouhearttheangrymen had a headcanon about Virgil baking. And ArtisticRainey has a wonderful headcanon about John and Virgil being twins, which I adore.

So, I had a fic idea and here it is. I'm publishing it under this prompts banner, because it's been prompted by them.

Everything was neatly laid out. The tools he needed for this job, lined up with precision. Except this wasn't a mechanical job. Or even painting.

Virgil Tracy was feeling like he was about to fly apart with stress, so he had turned to his ultimate stress reliever.

Baking.

In this case, bread. He needed the release that baking bread would give him. The rhythm and physical needs of kneading the dough; shaping; getting everything just so.

Virgil preferred to do it all the really old fashioned way. No automatic food unit or even an electric mixer with a dough hook. No bread machine.

A big green earthenware mixing bowl that he had once found in a second hand shop. A sturdy wooden spoon and his much loved scales and measuring spoons and cups. All laid out with the same precision he would use for spanners and wrenches, or paint brushes and pallet knives.

He didn't need a recipe. The items he was going to make were old friends, and he could have made them in his sleep. But that was what he needed to de-stress. Muscle memory, and the pleasant memories that this activity gave him.

Measuring ingredients, combining, mixing, and then finally the bit he loved.

Virgil took a handful of flour and dusted the marble counter and then dumped the dough onto it. He sighed as he started to knead the dough, letting the motion help to clear his thoughts, to get rid of all the bad thoughts

Thud Thump That was for the solar flares that put his baby brother in danger. Thump Whack Bam And that was for Laurence Fischler who put them all in danger, especially John.

His Twin. In danger. Again from his own 'Bird. It had been 25G that time. John had been forced to come down by the GDF officers who came to collect Fischler and his crew. It had helped that Colonel Casey had gone up with them and had been horrified at John's white, pinched face.

Virgil punched the bread again. Nobody argued with their Godmother when she combined her Colonel with her Godmother personas. Not even John.

And so John was here. Safe. But injured. Three cracked ribs and obviously not eating regularly had had Scott putting his not inconsiderably sized foot down.

Thump Thump And John had eaten and had slept for a full twelve hours after he had finally allowed himself to surrender.

And Virgil had been unable to hover, because he'd had to completely re-wire parts of two after they had been fried.

Pull Thwak So he'd been denied what he really needed. He'd been denied his twin's presence.

So he was here. Wondering where John had gotten to. He knew he wasn't on Five – they had gotten EOS to retract the space elevator after Casey and John had arrived on Earth. But it was thirty-six hours later, and still no twin time.

Virgil knew that John was probably as antsy as he was.

Everybody forgot they were twins – they looked like brothers, but nothing about them said twins. To a quick glance, even their personalities were different. But there was their connection. They had shared mama's womb, come into life at the same time, and that gave them a bond, and every so often, they needed to be close again. So John would come to Earth, or Virgil would go to Five and the pair of them would fuse again.

Virgil would share with John his physical strength and need for closeness. John would share his sheer enthusiasm and enjoyment of life, and what they did. And they would talk, and listen. And sit silent. And finally fall asleep, curled up together, content.

And they would both feel renewed.

But that hadn't happened this time. John was home, and Virgil had been busy looking after him for a few hours, after which John had fallen into a deep sleep – a combination of his own exhaustion plus the pain killers.

Dammit.

Virgil took a deep breath and inspected his dough, satisfied it was perfect. He carefully placed it in one of his rising bowls, covering it with a damp cloth and placed it in the warming drawer.

He cleaned up from his activities and then got out the next set of tools. Different sort of baking this time. This was something they all loved – a huge rich chocolatey mud cake. His artistic nature screamed and Virgil decided to make it a dark and white chocolate one, the batters swirled together in an abstract pattern.

Yeah. It would be good. And it would be ready to come out of the oven in time for his bagels to go in. He wasn't going to trick himself. He was going to make bagels for John. He'd already made fresh bread the day before, and would make more tomorrow. But this batch…

They were for his Twin. And the dough contained Virgil's entire heart.

Baking. It relieved his stress, but it also enabled him to show his brothers how much he loved them. How much he needed them.

It was always surprising how fast things went when he was baking. His cake was in the oven, and he was ready to do the second kneading of his dough.

Thump Thud Whump John obviously had other things to do than spend time with him. Obviously.

Cake out. Oven temperature changed. Water boiling. Bagels were ready to go in.

As he watched them boil, Virgil heard John's voice. He looked up to see John and Kayo walking slowly past the pool towards the kitchen. They had obviously been on the beach and then he noticed something else. Kayo's hair was down, which was unusual enough in itself. However, Kayo could be as hesitant as John was about touching, except that she and John seemed very happy touching.

Virgil smiled as he watched them pause and ex change a gentle kiss. So this is what his twin had been doing. He had no doubt that this was serious for John. He could almost feel his emotions from here.

A beeping had him turning and taking the bagels out of the water, transferring them to the tray to be slid into the oven to finish baking.

When he turned back, John was sitting at the counter, head cradled in his hands grinning. "You saw," John said simply.

"Yup."

"Are you OK?"

"Yup."

"Sure?"

"Yes. Sure. I suppose I would have liked to find out from you before seeing it. But it's not like we've had time to just chat recently."

"I know." John ducked his head. "I don't deserve what you're making for me."

Virgil snorted. "How the hell do you come up with that?" He shook his head. "We definitely need twin time if you think that."

"That's it. We haven't had time. And I've… well I've been selfish. I've had Kayo. And work."

"And I've had to replace the wiring on Two." Virgil carefully stirred the thick chocolate into a ganache and then transferred the mud cake to a cake platter before he began to cover the cake with the ganache.

"And now you're going to obsess over icing a cake for hours so that it's perfect."

"Well, I had to do something."

John reached out and put his hand on his twin's wrist. "I don't need you any less, you know. But… I've been so confused. Frightened. What if Kayo didn't understand."

"Yeah. I know." Virgil felt the stress disappear. John still understood his fears, and still had them himself.

"She thinks we're idiots you know."

"Well, that's not news. She finds inventive ways every day to tell us all we're idiots."

"Yeah. But you and I. She wanted to know what we thought she was going to do. It's not like she can change when we were born. In fact…" John blushed. "She told me that she doesn't even want to see me again until you and I have had our twin time."

"You told her about that?"

"No. But she knew." John sighed. "I keep forgetting how long she's lived with us, you know. And apparently she spoke to Scott."

Virgil harrumphed and finished covering the cake. "She would. So now we're gonna have Scott on our case."

"Nah."

"Um.. Yeah," came a voice from the door. "You've already got me on your case." Scott eyed the cake. "Go off. Do whatever it is you pair hole up and do. Virgil's like a bear with a sore head, and John's more jumpy than normal." Scott's eyes were pleading. "I want the twins back that I recognise. Can I have cake?"

"Nope. Not until after dinner." Virgil held out his hand and John popped a small stasis field generator in it.

"I've put a timer on that, Scott," John said. "You won't be able to get at that cake until Virgil and I are good and ready."

"Well at least leave me some bagels!"

John looked affronted. "They're my bagels," he pointed out. "Virge made them for me."

"John, not even you can eat all of those."

"Try me." John's eye glinted with mischief and Scott groaned.

"I change my mind. I don't want the twins back."

"Leave him a few, John. I was going to make more for you to take back to Five with you. And he's right. Not even you can eat all of those in one sitting."

Virgil leaned against his twin and grinned happily. They didn't need to talk all the time. But they did need to be together. And he could feel them fusing as they just sat on the flat roof and looked out over the ocean.

They may be adults now, and John was about to start a new chapter in his life, but that didn't change how they started. Together, in mama's womb.

"So, tell me about you and Kayo," he said and could feel the joy in John when he mentioned her name.

Yeah. Nothing could break that bond.