Day Out With the Twins 01

           "Knock knock."
            Adam woke up. He felt like it was early, but the room was still dark. It wasn't the boiler room he had been kept in for the time before he could move. They had moved him to another spare apartment of his own. There were certainly enough of them. Not that that made it any lighter, with minimal lights shining in through the windows, even during the day.
           "Who's there?"
           "Side."
           "Side who?"
           "We're already inside. Hurry and get up, sleepyhead, we're going out to have fun today!"
             Adam opened his eyes again to realize that Matty and Sandy were both standing over him smiling. He wasn't exactly sure how they got through his locked door, but he hoped it wouldn't involve him needing to buy another lock.
           "Come again?"
           "Sophie is going to be out all day on 'biz-nass.' So we decided that you and us are going to take Mina out and do something fun."
             They both raised their arms and skipped around.
           "Fun! Fun!"
           "What? Is there even anything fun to do around here?"
           "There's always something fun to do in the city, Adam."
           "Shut up and get up."
             He sat up and rubbed his eyes.
           "Also, we got you a present."
            He looked over, to see a medium sized plant on fire on his desk. Suddenly very awake, he jumped up off the other side of his bed, ending up tripping and collapsing into a pile of sheets. He peeked his head back up over the side.
           "What... what is that?!"
           "It's a blaze bonsai, Adam. They come from our country. It emits a tiny amount of flammable gas that keeps it constantly glowing. Helps make sure animals don't eat it."
           "It... it's going to catch the wall on fire!"
           "The walls are made of stone, Adam. Don't worry; it's totally safe."
           "I... no they're not!"
           "Don't change the subject, Adam. If it was going to burn down the building it'd have done so already."
           "Here, look."
            One of them took the plant up, and held it to the wall, much to Adam's  dismay, and turning his face quite a few shades lighter. However, like they said, the tiny amount of glow on the plant did not spread to the wall, and appeared not in fact to do much of anything.
             Adam was not however entirely convinced.
           "I... but I..."
             The twins both made giant puppy dog eyes and feigned crying.
           "You... you don't like it?"
             He was a little annoyed at their obvious faking, but at the same time he felt like he didn't want to be a negative recipient. After all, he'd feel guilty hurting the spirits of the only non-openly-depressed people he'd seen in years.
           "No, it's fine, it's just..."
           "..."
           "You're sure it won't burn anything?"
           "Adam, we make it our business to be sure of the things we say."
           "Our business... that we say that it won't burn anything."
             Adam realized that it was of course not his building so he would not really be the one losing anything if it burned down. Well... a place to stay, yes. But not one he was previously paying for at least. Would it be his fault if it did?
           "Well, it's true that this room is a bit empty. And a nightlight would certainly be helpful."
             He looked back over at the glowing plant.
           "Do I... do I have to water it?"
             The twins looked at eachother with skeptical looks.
            "Adam, yes of course you have to water it Adam. What do you think it drinks otherwise?"
            "Moron."
             Adam tiredly shook his hair, in resignation, and partially to wake himself up more.
           "I'm not sure what I expected you to say."
             He stared blankly at them for a second.
           "Wait..."
           "..."
           "Are you sure it's okay for us to take out Mina? I mean... us? Without Sophie?"
            The twins held up his bed pushing him off onto the floor, and forcing him onto his feet.
          "Adam, what are you talking about, of course it's okay, Adam. Everything we tell you to do is okay by merit of us being the ones who tell you."
          "Is... is that how it works?"
          "You're about to find out."
          "Hurry up and get dressed."
            He looked down, realizing that he ad been sleeping in his clothes as he generally did because he was too lazy to have different sleeping attire. He wondered whether they knew that. Or more importantly, would they have barged in his room anyways, even if he was not dressed. He wasn't sure they would care, or perhaps know why it was a problem even.
            That was hardly his concern though. He knew that after realizing that Mina was not going to handle his presence very well, that Sophie had specifically made sure not to force her to interact with him more than necessary. The twins might certainly be a mediator, but he was not sure whether she was ready to have to be in this situation.
            ...Or that he was, either.
            But at any rate he figured there was no getting out of it. He would have to help sometime. At least Mina had apparently not had any episodes since then of trying to attack him. She should really be seeing a therapist rather than having a handful of ill-trained individuals to help her deal with her problems. But he had discussed this with Sophie. Where they were now, there really was no coherent therapists who were not government shills. Tomas claimed he was qualified as one. Was he trustworthy? Hopefully he wasn't trying to gain trust in order to abuse her himself, later.
           What a confidence inspiring position. Leave someone's entire fate up to a crazy old man who tells you he's got it covered.
          "Adam, wake up!"
           They apparently noticed he had zoned out.
          "Ugh. I'm paying attention. Who said I wasn't?"
            He squinted his eyes, and looked back and forth.
          "Quiet, Adam. We realized you have difficulty telling us apart, so we decided to solve the problem for you."
           It was true. Once again, they had on identical outfits. But they pulled out fleece hats, one shaped like the top of a cow, and one like a cat. Each of them put one on, marking the only real difference he could now tell between them.
          "Now, I'm Sandy." one was pulling the kitty hat over their head.
          "And I'm Matty." the other one was pulling on the cow shaped one.
          "Ta-daa! How do we look? Great? Yeah, I thought so. But we realized we can't just wear hats that are this cool, and leave you and Mina feeling left out, so we got some for you, too."
          "No, that's really not necessar..."
          "Do you want the bee,  the dove, or the sheep?"
          "There's an extra one for Sophie, too, obviously. We can give it to her later, though."
          "Quiet! You obviously are the bee. Here, put it on."
          "But I..."
            Before he could protest, the twins had taken the hat and stuffed it onto his head. He was slightly dismayed in that he wasn't quite sure that they would form a reasonable appearance ambling around the city all wearing ridiculous hats. He assumed the twins secretly found it funny, and that is why they were subjecting it unto him.
            It wasn't a secret. They were both on the ground laughing at his annoyed expression, and smacking their faces in ecstasy. One of them still on the ground, and without paying attention rolled backwards down the short staircase, collapsing backwards prompting the other one, and then themselves to laugh even harder, alternating between apparently laughing at Adam, and themselves.
           The door at the bottom of the staircase opened, causing them to both stuff their hands in their mouths and kneel up quickly, with wide eyes. Mina came out with a slightly confused look on her face, to see what the commotion was. They both slinked along the ground, and stood up behind her, smiling with their mouths wide open as they placed the sheep hat onto her head.
          "Get ready, Mina. We're going to go out and have fun."
          "Fun, fun!"
          "Everybody likes fun."
          "Except for mister grumpy-pants here, apparently."
          "Hey! Is that supposed to be referbgh..."
            The other one stuffed their hand over Adam's mouth.
           Mina looked temporarily shocked.
         "...Huh?"
         "Hurry up, and get ready. Let's go."
          The twins skipped back further into her apartment chanting to themselves. "fun, fun fun..." She walked out and looked around, until she saw Adam. Adam, realizing he would have to stand up and pretend to be a source of stability in her life swallowed, and walked forward to talk to her.
          ...He hesitated. He really had no clue where to begin. Talking to a young girl shouldn't be this hard. It usually wasn't. But someone with this much life experience at such an age was certainly no ordinary matter.
         "So... how are you today?"
          Yeah... that counted as conversation. Right. Lord, he sounded like an old man.
         "Fine."
          They both stood there awkwardly. Adam really didn't know what else to try to say. He couldn't even open up to her, certainly it wasn't likely that she would open up to him. To his great relief, the twins came bounding out again, smiles on their faces, thus nullifying the need for him to come up with something to say more immediately. At the very least their positive attitudes would drown out the lack of real ones him and Mina probably wouldn't have.
          He hoped indirectly that he could somehow hijack conversations that they started and have it count as him interacting with Mina. You know... that type of interaction. The one most people do, but rarely ever remember, or know how to articulate. Or want to admit that their faith in explained why their life never went anywhere. You know.
         The twins were standing holding up their hands and holding open their mouths in a 'let's go' position. After a moment they looked around, at eachother, and back again, realizing no one was moving, and squinted their eyes.
        "Certainly is gloomy in here."
        "Adam, wake up. We're having fun."
         They each shot off four party poppers between their fingers in the general location of Adam and Mina, much contrary to what the warnings printed on them said you were supposed to do with them. Truth be told, Adam was secretly glad for them making this plan. He had a feeling they would stay positive even if him and Mina did not. Which was really what both of them needed right now; especially her. All the same, he felt like even if he was not particularly feeling bright on the inside, he could at least show it on the outside. He stood back up.
         "Haha. Let's go."
         "Err... wait. Where are we going?"
         "I hope we're not going bowling. Seriously, no one ever tries past the first two frames except for whoever's winning by then."
         "We know that nobody actually likes bowling, Adam. Don't worry, we'll find out our plans when we get there."
         "Why does that not inspire great confidence In me?"
         "Because you're clinically depressed, Adam. Let's go."
         "Hey, I..."
         "..."
         "You're not supposed to say it out loud."