Tahc Thgin Etal, read it sdrawkcab

[RDraconis]

Churches were strange. Terribly silent, holy places with gorgeous- often gothic- architecture. Unless there was a service or something, they also tended to be dark because the only light coming in was through stained glass, casting an eerie sort of glow. And then there were the pews leading up to the alter and, sometimes, even an organ. The greater the church, the smaller you felt, as if God wanted you to know that the greater his presence the less you mattered. That had always amused Anastas, enough so that whenever he went to church he ended up chattering about it to Set, who didn't mind. He had never been one for sermons or anything, but his parents didn't seem to like it. It wasn't too long before they gave up on trying to get the twins to sit still and silent in church.

"It's too bright, even at night," Tas mumbled, standing at the altar and drumming his fingers in a rather bored manner. He didn't notice the fact he'd rhymed without meaning to, and really didn't care that he was probably supposed to be inside right now. It didn't seem that important, really, and according to his watch it was only about 9 pm. Despite the lateness, the filtered light of the moon and stars and any other lights outside still made it slightly brighter than he had hoped. Supposedly there were lava tubes that were so pitch black you needed lights to watch through them, he'd have to check them out some time.

The boy shook his head, sitting down next to the altar and holding both hands out, opening his eyes wide and watching the already dark tints of the glass fade from view, curls of black wisps creeping underneath, over, and around the door. He smiled at the darkness, laying back on the cold stone floor and looking at where he knew his arms were, pleased by the inky-ness.

"You should just stab your eyes out, then you would be in this much dark all the time," a voice not unlike his own informed him, followed by the sound of a heavy door being closed gently. "I'm sure you could find someone to tell you if your shirts were gaudy enough."

Anastas didn't bother sitting up, rolling his eyes as the sounds of someone working their way through an unknown place, using only their hands as eyes, broke the silence that had preceded them. Instead he just said, "Heya," to make his location known- as his presence already was. The darkness wavered a bit, the windows being uncovered as the boy sat up and watched his brother make his way, with barely less difficulty.

"Mm," the other boy replied, leaning against the altar and facing the doors. After watching him for a moment, Anastas returned the dark to the windows- though less than before. "I don't suppose you're thinking about staying here?"

"Why not? It's pretty and quiet, and barely takes anything to make it dark," he said with a smile, realizing that this was the first time they'd spoken since coming here, "It's not comfortable otherwise though... it's a church 'an all."

"Mind if I stay?"

"S'long as you don't do the spikey thing, Matty," Anastas replied with a laugh.

"Just for that..." he muttered, sitting down next to his brother, the clang of metal clear as his fingers hit the stone. "Not like I'm going to hurt you, Naz."

"That's what you said-"

"-4 years ago, get over it," playfully punching the smaller twin with the back of his hand, fingers still a bit sharp for that. Anastas pretended to be pained by it before lying back down, looking up at the high, vaulted ceiling. Set shook his head at his twin, "It's 9 pm, it's not late enough for that," he scolded, earning a retaliatory punch from an awkward angle.

"Like there's anything better to do," the both paused, Set trying to prove his brother wrong, Tas humming to himself.

"Ben Lee?"

"Yeah..." Tas sighed, "I miss home."

"You would," Set replied, ruffling Anastas's hair. He glanced around, not able to see anything, but already used to it due to who his brother was, "I don't like churches. They feel wrong."

"That's just because you don't like god... or anything related," he said wisely, remembering their 4th christmas when their parents got halfway through the explanation of Santa Claus before realizing that Set wasn't the sort of kid who could believe in that sort of thing without the results being very, very bad. Anastas never minded. The idea of some random, fat old guy coming down your chimney wasn't a good one; even if he did bring presents. Set grinned, glad the darkness hid it.

"Nice," he muttered instead, still grinning though he sounded bitter. Anastas decided not to point out he could see in the dark. "Besides, Naz, you never seemed to interested in it. Weren't you the one always getting in trouble for getting the words to hymns so very, very wrong and talking during the moments of silence?"

"I can't help it," he whined, "I'm comfortable in churches. It's not my fault people don't have a good argument about why God would want me to be bored and uncomfortable while worshipping him..."

"Not that you do worship anyone."

"Shhh..." he warned, placing a finger to his brother's lips. Set shook his head, knocking the hand away. They had never been at all religious. The thought that any sane god would give a kid like Anastas such a dark power only reinforced that.

"Maybe the Greek ones... it seems fitting," Tas suggested, placing a hand over his eyes.

"What's wrong with the Egyptians'?"

"They can't figure out what the names of their gods are. I've seen 15 spellings of one, and 15 versions of the rest."

"And stealing everyone from the Romans is so much better?"

"Our names are better!" Anastas insisted, "Minerva vs. Athena, Mars vs. Aries, Jupiter vs. Zeus, Venus v- ok, that and Hermes aren't good examples..." Set laughed, "But you see my point."

"Look, lets settle on Norse," Set said finally. "Neutral territory, right?"

"Neutral because we don't know anything about it," Tas grumbled.

"Hey, there's always wikipedia. And maybe a library," Set pointed out with a shrug, not one to be deterred.

"Sounds good- you look it up in the library, I'll take the internet," Anastas said cheerfully.

"Naz..."

"You like quiet, you'd rather-"

"I think I know why I really hate churches," Set interrupted. Anastas looked at him, "There's no pillows- and it won't end well if I hit you with the chalice they held holy water in." Tas paused at this, not sure if he had seriously considered it, before laughing and shaking his head.

[RDraconis]

"That would hurt," Tas said in a faraway sort of voice, getting the point. Although, really, experience dictated that Set could do plenty harm with soft, feather filled pillows if he wanted.

"Yeah... and then you'd either have a nasty bruise or it might even split something, and then we'd have to deal with all that blood..."

"You're not worried about smashing my skull and dealing with brains?" Tas asked sulkily. He paused for a moment, "Never mind..." he muttered, realizing what he'd set himself up for. Set shook his head.

"You can't stay here all night," Set announced finally, standing up and grabbing his brother's hand, dragging him up as well. "Come on, lets' go back in." Anastas whined but stood up anyways, making his way through the church while Set glanced at the windows before pausing and shaking his head.

"Leaving the dark?" he asked finally, his voice echoing slightly. Tas glanced over, as if unsure what he'd said, before announcing his realization with a simple "Oh".

"Yeah... that could be bad," Tas said finally, taking it down while Set took the opportunity to get to the door before his brother. Thus, Set was leaning against the now-open door when Anastas finished undoing his earlier work. The smaller of the two ran over to Set with a slight giggle, bare feet feeling a slight scratch on the floor's stones with each step.

Set shook his head, actually used to wearing shoes- like normal people do. When Anastas caught up, he walked outside and down the steps of the church, looking around the grounds and trying to decide what to do next. He agreed with Taz's preference of being outside, it would likely be hard to find an empty room in the school- and there was always some idiot who would turn on the lights, years of public school had proven that.

"We can just hang out here for awhile, it's not a far cry from what we used to do," Tas suggested, glancing at his brother. Set nodded with that, glancing up at the sky.

"What we used to do generally involved watching TV and making fun of the actors," he pointed out softly, not sure what else to say before sitting down on the last step and shaking his head.

"Yeah..." Anastas paused, "would it be bad to make fun of powers instead? I mean, it'd be a good excuse to figure out who has what..." Set rolled his eyes, "What? It'd be ok if nobodies a psychopath..."

"Telepath?"

"Both, really."

"Hmm," Set nodded. "Maybe we can try that later, Nazzy."