𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐎𝐌

↱ 𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖊𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙; 𝕭𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖘𝖙, 𝕱𝖆𝖛𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖊 𝕰𝖞𝖊-𝕯𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖆𝖑 𝕿𝖜𝖎𝖓 𝕭𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗

"Mikey, wanna pway twains?" Richie screamed, running into his brother's room.

"Yeah, sure!" Mike grinned jumping to his feet to follow Richie down to the basement.

"Awesome," Richie grinned. "Eddie Spaghetti's coming over too!"

"Oh," Mike's smile faltered.

"C'mon!" Richie grinned, waving for Mike to follow him to the hallway.

"Actually," Mike frowned. "I wanna colour..."

"Why?" Richie asked, turning to look back at his brother.

Mike shrugged making Richie frown.

"Pwease, Mikey?" Richie whined. "I want you to come pway too!"

"I don't want to," Mike shook his head, flopping down onto his stomach and picking up his blue crayon that he had abandoned earlier.

"But why," Richie groaned, plopping down next to his twin brother.

"Cause you like Eddie better than me," Mike whispered, pouting down at his colouring book.

"What? No, I don't!" Richie frowned.

"You always wanna play with him and not me," Mike pointed out, picking at the corner of his current page and curling sadly.

"That's a lie," Richie shouted, quick to anger as the twins always were with one another.

"No!" Mike shouted back, sitting up to glare at his brother.

"Yes, it is!"

"No, it's not!" Mike screamed, face flushing red. "You hate me and you like Eddie!"

"That's not true," Richie screamed back.

"It is!"

"Boys!" Karen shouted over them, making them both stop yelling at one another. "What happened?"

"Mikey's lying!" Richie whined, pointing at his brother angrily.

"I'm not!" Mike denied. "Richie's lying!"

"What-" Karen sighed, only to be interrupted by Richie.

"I don't like Eddie betterer than you!"

"You do!" Mike shouted back. "You never wanna play with me! Just Eddie!"

"Cause Eddie's nicer to me than you!"

"No, he's not!"

"Yeah huh," Richie replied, crossing his arms. "You're a meany!"

"I'm not," Mike wailed, bursting into a fit of tears and making Richie's hard stare falter.

"Mikey," Richie spoke, eyes welling up with his own tears as he cautiously approached his brother. "I'm sorry, you're not a meany!"

"You said I am though!" Mike cried, hiccupping dramatically.

"I was mad," Richie apologized, hugging his brother. "And Miss always says not to say mean things when you're mad but I did. I'm sorry."

"Okay," Mike hiccupped, hugging his brother back.

"You're supposed to say, 'that's okay', Mikey. Remember?" Richie reminded.

"Oh... That's okay," Mike nodded making Richie smile.

"I promise I don't like Eddie better than you," Richie whispered after a few seconds of silence.

"You don't?"

"No," Richie shook his head. "Eddie's my bestest friend, but you're my eye-dental twin!"

"Then why do you always play with Eddie and not me?" Mike pouts.

"Cause Eddie's daddy just dieded and he's sad a lot and he needs me to pwotect him."

"Protect him?"

"Yeah, like," Richie nodded. "Remember at the stawt of school when you were scared to talk to Miss?"

"I wasn't scared of Miss!" Mike protested with a blush.

"You were," Richie nodded with a smile. "So, I would talk to her for you. I pwotected you."

"That's not true," Mike muttered embarrassedly.

"You're stwong now though... And you have Will! You don't need me to pwotect you."

"Will's my bestest friend," Mike nodded, making Karen smile as she proudly watched the two boys resolve their issue on their own.

"So now I pwotect Eddie 'cause he's sad a-cause of his daddy and needs me to pwotect him," Richie explained making Mike nod in understanding.

"Okay," Mike nodded.

"But you're still my bestest, favourite eye-dental twin bwother," Richie promised, hugging his brother again.

"You're my bestest, favourite eye-dental twin brother too, Richie," Mike grinned into Richie's shoulder happily.