The Girl of Many Floods- Linh Song

II

The moment Tam and Linh stepped through the door, their father reeled on them.

"How many times have I told you? If anyone asked, you are not twins. Do you honestly like all the whispers and stares following you around? And now you tell Lord Cassius you're twins?! Him out of all people?! You should know better," Quan scolded.

"But what's the point of telling people we're not twins if we obviously are? It's not like they'll believe us," Tam argued.

Linh spoke up,she had never done it before, it was Tam who mostly argued with their parents so her voice was shaky when she said, "what's wrong with being twins, why this discrimination? It's not like we can help it."

Quan looked stressed. "Look, we've been already been through this and I don't want to explain it again. And Linh, first your brother and now you? Why Linh,why?" he asked, his eyes seemed desperate.

"B-," Tam started but Mai cut him off.

"Tam, look at me," she said, and Tam tried to look away.

"Look at me!" This time, Tam's silvery blue eyes stared into her pale blue eyes as he smoothed his bangs.

"Do not argue with you father. We've already told the both of you what you should do and why, do not argue about this again, do you understand?" Mai asked. Linh could tell Tam wanted to retort, but he knew better, so he bit his lip and gave a forced nod.

"I'll just go back to my room now," he mumbled and started up the stairs. Linh was about to follow him when their father cleared his throat.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Tam froze with his foot on the first step, Linh just a few steps behind him. "To my room?" Tam answered hesitantly.

Quan glanced at Mai, who gave a curt nod before continuing,"since both of you seem to like being twins so much, the both of you would be sharing a room from now on; or at least until you two finally decide to listen to what we say."

"What?!" Tam and Linh exclaimed at the same time.

"Y...you can't-" Tam started.

"Yes we can, now go," Quan said firmly.

Tam wanted to argue back, but Linh tugged at his sleeve, shaking her head.

She knew this was a lost cause. She was upset, she never thought that her parents would sink to this level, but on the other hand, she never liked sleeping alone anyway. She often went to Tam, when she could not take her nightmares anymore. Tam was always there for her, he would comfort her, although he was not the reassuring type of person, he still tried his best, for her. And Linh was grateful for it.  

Tam trudged up the stairs with Linh behind him, grumbling about how unfair this whole thing was.

"I'm sorry Tam," Linh said quietly.

Tam looked at her, "for what? It's not your fault that we ended up like this. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. If I haven't interrupted, told Lord Cassius that we were twins, this wouldn't have happened... I'm sorry Linh. "

"No Tam, you didn't lie, it's our parents who did," Linh's eyes narrowed, "don't blame yourself it's not our fault, it's our parents'. " Linh sighed, she never really got angry, she loved her parents, but sometimes, sometimes she wished that....
She shook the thought out of her head.

"Anyway, I'd like sharing a room with you," Linh added, and Tam scowled, but he couldn't hide the small smile that crept up his lips.

They eventually reached the top of the flight of stairs and exited towards Tam's bedroom.

"So, whose room do you want to use? Yours or mine?" Tam asked.

Linh hesitated, and she thought for a minute before answering, "yours." She thought that would be the best, since she had spent a number of nights there when she had nightmares and she knew Tam would feel more comfortable there.

Tam nodded, "shall we get started moving then?" he asked.

Linh nodded before adding, " but you'll have to let me redecorate at least half of the room, it looks way too gloomy in there." Tam rolled his eyes before he let out a reluctant  "fine."

"Are you sure you don't want to use your room instead?" he asked.

"Oh no," Linh replied. " I think you'll like your room more , plus, I'll have way too much fun redecorating your room, " she teased as Tam grumbled unhappily.

They went to Linh's room to start moving but they had another problem; how were they supposed to move the furniture? None of them had manifested with an ability that could help and Linh was pretty sure that their parents wouldn't want to help them; they were probably busy anyway.

"I can use telekinesis?" Tam suggested.

"Um Tam, are you sure your telekinesis is strong enough to lift everything in my bedroom, even if you go one at a time?" Linh asked, trying to be gentle so that she would not offend her brother.

Both of them had been practicing telekinesis but she wasn't sure he could even lift a chair long enough to bring it  from her room to his, they were only seven after all, and they had only just started practicing telekinesis, it wasn't commonly used anyway, the elves focused more on abilities, not skills like telekinesis.

Tam bit his lip, he knew Linh was right.

"How about we combine our telekinesis strength?" he suggested.

Linh nodded,"we could try."

Both of them walked to the nearest chair and focused. Linh narrowed her eyes as she tried to lift the chair off the ground. Slowly but surely, the chair floated a few centimetres off the ground, nearly scraping the floor. They proceeded to slowly move the chair to Tam's room. By the time they managed to put the chair down, both of them were sweating.

Suddenly, a thought occured to Linh. "Why couldn't we just have carried the chair?" she asked.

Realisation crept up Tam's face, who was frowning and trying to clean his sweaty brow.

"Well, that was stupid of us," Tam said, rolling his eyes as Linh burst out laughing.

From there, moving ran smoothly, they carried the not so heavy items like chairs, and used telekinesis for heavier items like cupboards.

Suddenly, there's was a loud 'thump' as half the bed fell on the floor and Linh turned around to see Tam on the floor, collapsed.