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“Aren’t siblings supposed to want to split up at some point?” sneered the other student who had shoved past them in the line. Ingo recognized him as the same person who had, very loudly, shouted about an exam being unfair the day before. Who Emmet had told to shut up in front of the whole class.
“Verrry rude,” Emmet said, glaring daggers at him.
“Well, so were you yesterday. Such is fuckin’ life.”
“Why would Emmet and I follow different tracks if our goals align?” Ingo said, putting a grounding hand on Emmet’s shoulder. Even if he, too, felt outrage inside. “We enjoy sticking together.”
“Thought the twin thing would have gotten old by like… Middle school. You must drive each other insane. You both are weird, with how you insist on sticking together.”
“... The dining hall line is hardly the place for this conversation.”
“Yes. Get your mashed potatoes and shut up,” Emmet added with a shit-eating grin.
“At least I’m not some weirdo who clings to his brother all the time. Is that it? Does one of you refuse to grow up?”
Both brothers were very proud of their restraint as, without another word, they left the line and headed back to their dormitory. Once they were out of the dining hall, they released their pokemon. Lampent and Eelektrik floated behind the two young men, occasionally circling to the front of them to receive affection.
Currently, Emmet was laying back on his bed, arms spread, staring at the ceiling. “I am Emmet. I am so disappointed. You know I like the dining hall’s mashed potatoes verrry much.”
“I know, Emmet.”
That got Emmet to turn; Ingo wasn’t usually that quiet. Indeed, his brother was laying on his back like Emmet was on his own bed across the room. His hands were folded across his stomach, and he too stared at the ceiling like it owed him money. But Emmet could tell from the extra severe downwards pull at the corners of his mouth that Ingo was lost in thought, and none of them were good.
“Ingo? Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes Emmet, I’m fine. I just… Well, I cannot deny that those comments from earlier have gotten to me. Just a little.”
Emmet’s heart dropped, just a little, and it must’ve shown on his face because Ingo hurriedly continued.
“No, no, not that I regret our aligned tracks, not at all! I just… Are we weird for it? Am I dragging you down, at all? You know you can tell me if I am, yes?”
“Ingo… Ingo you are catastrophizing again.” Emmet said the word almost like he was sounding it out. He flipped over to his stomach and propped up his chin with his hands. “You are not dragging me down. Not at all. Not even a little! Yup! I love getting to do things with my brother!”
Ingo said nothing, just clutched at the front of his sweater a little tighter. Time to bring out the big guns.
Emmet quickly hopped off his bed, padding over to Ingo’s in his still-socked feet, climbing into the bed next to him and bonking his forehead against Ingo’s shoulder. The bed was hardly big enough to fit them both; it was called a twin bed but couldn’t hold twins, how foolish was that?
“Hi Ingo.”
“Hello Emmet.”
“I am Emmet. I am helping.”
Ingo said nothing, but when Emmet looked at his face it had lost some of the signs of stress from before. Emmet then wrapped his arms around Ingo, hugging him close and pressing his face to his shoulder again.
“See? Clingy is not bad. Clingy is comfortable.” Emmet’s attempt at a joke fell flat, though, as Ingo swallowed.
“That’s… Somewhat my point. This isn’t… Normal, is it? How well we get along? If that person couldn’t even accept that we like each other’s presence, what would people think if they saw this?”
“Ingo,” Emmet said with enough force for the word to reverberate in Ingo’s chest. “There is nothing wrong with us. Or wanting to hug your family. We are allowed to express affection.” Emmet smiled, looking up at Ingo. “If more people cuddled their friends and family, they would feel better. Yup. And people like that guy would get the sticks out of their asses.”
“Emmet!” There was a slight laugh to Ingo’s voice, and Emmet grinned harder.
“My point stands. It is verrry nice that I was born with a best friend. We are a two-car train!”
“... I love being a two-car train with you,” Ingo said, squinting happily at Emmet.
“Good! Because you are stuck with me! No take-backs!”
As the conversation finally gave way to laughter, Emmet considered his feelings, the ones he’d carried for a while now. How he was afraid he was the clingy one who was holding Ingo back. At some point in their childhood, the target of bullying had switched from mainly Ingo to mainly Emmet, and he never forgot that.
But right now was about cheering up his brother. Emmet could untangle his own emotions later, and bring them up to Ingo when he was finally brave enough to do so.
“We never did get anything to eat, did we.”
“We did not, and I am hungry.”
“I thought you were Emmet?”
“That too.”
The brothers didn’t move from the bed for a moment, but then they both got up, slipping shoes back on and grabbing their hats.
“Maybe that person will be gone from the dining hall by now,” Ingo said hopefully, reaching up to give Lampent a quick snuggle. The warm glass smooshed against his cheek helped cheer him further, and his pokemon made a quiet little noise of happiness.
“I verrry much hope so.” Emmet was tying his laces while Eelektrik swam circles around his head.
“Thank you for the reassurances as well, Emmet. I owe you one.”
“I’ll eat your serving of mashed potatoes,” Emmet said, bumping Ingo’s shoulder with his own. “And Ingo?”
“Yes?”
“Do not try so hard to be normal. We are autistic; ‘normal’ is already different for us. But we get to be outliers together!”
“I like the sound of that,” Ingo said, eyes smiling. He rested a hand on Emmet’s shoulder again, waiting a moment before they both left the room again. “Outliers together.”