Sin looks at him sideways. - We already spent your money, we can't give it back to you. Besides, when you fell on those bins you destroyed our dinner, so now we're even. -
He managed to get us from wrong to right with a single sentence. Every now and then it takes me a little bit to follow him but I have to admit that he's clever.
- Don't worry, I wasn't going to ask for my money back. I came looking for you only because I want my wallet back. It's one of Cal's gifts and there's a picture I care for in it. - He moves closer, and we pull back defensively, but judging from his look, he doesn't seem to be a bad person. Actually, he looks like one of those people who are too good not to be stupid. He kneels before us, crouching like a cat. - Do you two live on the streets? -
Sin and I nod in sync. He tilts his head slightly. - Why? -
We both shrug. - They left us here. -
He raises an eyebrow and looks at us puzzled. - What do you mean they left you here? Your parents? -
We nod again.
- When? - He asks.
We look at each other and then we answer in sync. - About a couple of years ago. -
- You mean it's two years that you live in the streets all alone? - He says, baffled.
We nod again.
- But it's outrageous! - Then he calms down. - Are you twins? - He asks right after.
- Yes. - We're identical, smart guy. Is he blind or what?
- Are you hungry? - He asks, and immediately we both nod. We're always hungry. He smiles and stands up.
- Can I buy you breakfast? -
We look at each other in surprise, then we both immediately nod eagerly. - YES, YOU CAN! -
He laughs and tells us to follow him. It's not that we're stupid, but sadly enough, when you're hungry, you do stupid things, like follow strangers. Besides, we can take care of each other. We found ourselves facing bad situations only a few times in the past, and this guy still looks nice anyway. That's why we follow him.
A few minutes later we are sitting at a table in a tavern.
I can't reach the floor with my feet and neither can my brother, who is the same height as me. But he's swaying his legs back and forth, throwing ravenous glances towards the kitchen as we wait for the hot cocoa and the pastries we ordered. Pastries, can you believe it? We don't even have money for bread and this guy offers us pastries, after we stole his wallet (and, let's not forget it, after we hit him in the face with a piece of wood)! All this is just crazy, he can even take away one of my organs later, I don't care, but I want that slice of cake and pastries and, damn it, even the hot cocoa!
- So, - says the guy, - we still haven't been introduced. My name is Bastian, but you can call me Bas. What are your names? -
- I'm Tears and he's my younger brother Sin. - I point at him. Sin doesn't even look at us, he's now sitting on his knees giving his back to us and staring at the kitchen door. I think he's eating the door with his eyes.
- Younger? Aren't you twins? - Bas asks.
- I came out after he did. I don't remember it, but I've always been the oldest and that's that. - I explain.
The guy sways his head thinking. - Right, who comes out last is the oldest. So you're the oldest. You have weird names, but they're very nice. -
- Do you like kids? - I ask.
- Well, yes I do, why? -
I throw him a dirty look. - Why are you buying us breakfast? -
He suddenly realizes. - By the Gods! Tears, no! I'm buying you two breakfast because Cal is away and I love being around people, and I also wanted to do something nice for you two, that's all. Don't see too much into all of this. -
I look at him sideways, but I believe him. I know that there are people that take away children and do bad things to them. I don't know exactly what is it that they do but I'm not going to let them take me away from my brother, or vice versa, or even the both of us if it's something bad we're talking about.
- Who's this Cal? - I ask. It's the second time he mentions him.
- Cal is my best friend, and today he's out of town. -
- And who's the woman in the drawing in your wallet? -
He smiles, but he looks a bit sad. - Her name is Clizia. -
- Is she your wife? -
He shakes his head and chuckles, he has a sincere and contagious laugh. I smile too. - No, Tears I'm not married. -
- So she's your girlfriend. -
He sways his head. - Yes and no, let's just say that there was a time when we cared for each other very, very much. -
- Is she dead? -
- Holy smoke, Tears! No, she isn't dead. You are very curious, - he laughs again.
- Curiosity is a sign of intelligence, - Sin says. He's still turned on the chair. He looks as if he's not listening but he's hearing every single word as usual.
Bas nods. - True. And it's intelligence that has kept you two alive for so much time, so young, living in the streets. -
Finally the kitchen door opens, and I notice it because my brother moans excitedly and turns around to sit up straight on the chair. The waitress arrives and while she's putting our order on the table, she looks at us with a raised eyebrow. Well yes, we are dirty and we probably stink, got a problem with that? This guy is paying, he's got the money, so serve us and stop judging!
Sin stares at the hot cocoa biting his lower lip. He's starving, but he waits to gobble everything up. Me, I almost take my stuff off from the waitress' tray and I tuck in. Bas laughs again a little, but I don't care if he's laughing at me. I'm too hungry and I don't remember when was the last time I ate something sweet and, most importantly, so good. Maybe never.
Bas looks at Sin while I wolf down my food. - What is it, Sin? -
He looks at him. - May I? -
- Of course you can, pumpkin. - He smiles at him and Sin gloats.
- Bon appetit, then, and thank you. - He puts a whole cream puff in his mouth and almost chokes. I pat him on the back while I'm trying to insert in my mouth an entire slice of cake, then I chug down a mouthful of cocoa and swallow but I burn my tongue.
Bas laughs again. - Tears, slow down, I don't want it to be your last breakfast! -
I swallow in a rash gesture and grab a cream puff from my brother's plate. Sin slaps my hand, and so I push him and he nudges me. I manage to steal that cream puff from him, but he bites my other slice of cake and that's when I lose it and I gulp down his cocoa, all of it, burning my throat and tongue. He watches me with his mouth open in silent disapproval, a death promise in his eyes. He then sticks his fork in my right hand, virtually pinning me down on the table. I scream and I jump on him. We roll on the floor, but I don't have time to beat him up properly while he pulls my hair and kicks me, because Bas separates us.
- Stop it! Holy smoke! You don't need to fight! There's enough for both of you! -
His voice is so authoritarian that it makes us feel immediately guilty and we instantly stop fighting. We stare at him, and we feel so ridiculous that we get up and casually remove from ourselves dust that was already there before we rolled on the clean tavern floor. Bas stares at us seriously and we lower our heads out of guilt. He raises an eyebrow and sighs. - Sit back at the table and stop fighting. If you want to eat something else, you just need to tell me and we're going to order it. -
We're not used to being scolded. Nobody yells at us if we go to bed late or if we fight, or for anything we do, except for when we steal from the market stalls. In that case, yes, people get mad at us, otherwise nobody cares about what we do.
That morning we eat an absurd amount of pastries. Sin and I have always had a weakness for sweet things but it's very hard to find something sweet and edible in the trash and it's also difficult to steal candies from the stalls. At most you can try those overflowing candy baskets: if you're fast enough you can bring home a handful of sweets, but if we have to risk not being able to show our faces around the market for some time, then it's best to pick a stall with something more nutritious, like fruit and vegetables or bread. Bread is always edible even when it becomes hard, but one bad apple can cause side effects that we don't want to remember...
In short, we would live on sweets if it was an option but it isn't, so usually we live on stale bread, or waste that we find in the bins behind restaurants.
In the end, we managed to fit in our system such a high amount of sugar that we could live off of it for at least a couple of weeks. We ended up filling our stomachs, and Bas is looking with wide eyes the amount of empty plates that the waitress is clearing from the table. He told us to get everything we wanted, and we did. Evidently he wasn't expecting us to be able to swallow so much stuff. We kept on asking him to stop us if he was overspending, but he didn't do it. Indeed in the end he laughs, looking at our round bellies, all satisfied and happy to be overstuffed.
He finally asked for his wallet again and he got it back, despite it pained Sin a lot to return it. Obviously he tried not to show it, but I saw it anyway. Then Bas promised to come and visit us sometime for breakfast, or maybe to buy us a house as it probably would cost less.
In the evening we are back in the same alley of the day before.
We did not need to look in the trash because we were still packed from the morning. Being full is a priceless feeling. I don't think there is a better feeling in the world, or at least nothing I have yet known. We even managed to find our two favorite boxes, so I set back up our sleeping accommodation for the night and I sneak under. Sin is already inside and he sticks his tongue out at me because he knows he took my place. I raise an eyebrow and, nonchalantly, I roll him to the side, because that's MY place. Sin lets me be and rolls over moaning and sighing, then I pull in our bag and pull out our blanket.
Tonight there is a strong cold wind, and the box shakes a bit, but I didn't know that wind was also able to knock. I look at my brother and he looks at me with the same quizzical look. A knock again. Is someone seriously knocking on a box? What the hell...
I peek out and it's Bas, smiling and holding a blanket.
- Why, hi there! I thought you could use one of these. -
We're both stunned, we stare at him for a moment and then I scratch my head, while Sin touches the blanket. - It's so soft! - He says, looking at me with eyes that say "Please take it or I won't speak to you ever again, until the day I die, when I'll tell you to go to hell."
I sigh. I don't like charity, which is why Sin begged me with his eyes. I like to take care of myself, but it's true that fall is coming and this blanket is sparkling clean, soft, and you know it's warm just by looking at it.
Bas smiles again. - I'm giving you this only because you've kept me company. It's a payment, Tears. I was alone this morning and you two stayed with me, so I owe you something, breakfast was not enough. -
I look at him, he looks back at me. We both know that it's not true, but we also know that it's okay in this case to play it down.
- Okay, - I finally say, and I take the blanket. I clear my throat while my brother grabs the blanket, taking it inside the box. - Anyway, when you need company, well, we're always around here. -
Bas lights up and smiles, he looks really happy. I think this man is crazy, he must have something clogging up his brain.
- That's a deal! - He says, then he waves at me and walks away whistling.
I shrug and go back in the box, where my brother is mummified inside the blue wool blanket Bas gave us. Only a few tufts of brown hair stick out from that sort of happy laughing wrap.
Things started like that and went on for quite a while. It's been three months now since we stole Bas' wallet and now we have breakfast together every morning. At the beginning, Sin was overjoyed. We would have breakfast and then receive something in exchange for our company. On the second day I asked him if his friend was back and he said yes, but apparently he preferred having breakfast with us than with him because he kept on coming back. In the evenings, he would come with his payment, which was either food or blankets or clothes. He bought us a lot of stuff too, and now our bag is full of things that didn't come from the bins, to my brother's delight.
Or maybe not.
At the beginning, Sin was happy but then he clouded over. I think he sees Bas' appearance as a shadow cast over him, and this is very stupid of him; but I don't need to tell him that because he already knows what I think. We always know what the other one thinks, there's no need for words between us.
The fact is that December has arrived and snow followed right after.
All the children wait for snow, and even my brother does, but I don't.
I hate winter because I can't stand the cold, and snow. Snow might be beautiful when you look at it from behind a window, sitting by a lit fireplace, but not from inside a box that gets wet and collapses because of the humidity and the weight.
Winter brings cold and sickness.
We always get sick in winter, and it's a pain because we take turns getting sick. Always together, yes, but as soon as one gets better the other one gets sick with the same illness. And it's complicated, because the first one has just healed but he's still recovering and it's really hard to take care of the other one when you even have problems standing on your own feet.
Today I'm really worried and Bas understands it right away because I eat very little, but especially because I showed up for breakfast alone. Just to be clear, I wouldn't have even come, but Sin forced me, and I agreed only because this way I could also bring him something to eat.
- He's ill, he preferred to stay in bed, but I don't want to be gone for too long. Bas, we're always together and he's alone and sick in an alley... - I say.
- What's wrong? - His face is really worried, almost as if someone told him that his mother had a terminal illness.
I shrug. - He's got the flu, nothing serious, but he has a couple of lines of fever. - I'm detached, I know. I should have stayed there with him, but he almost kicked me out. But I'm not going to be away for long, just enough time to get something to eat and bring some back for him too.
Bas inhales. He takes off his white fur hat and I know he's going to say it again, and in fact he does.
- Tears, you really should consider moving in with me. -
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