“Are you really leaving nothing behind on Earth?” He asked, taking a seat on Garnet’s bed. He knew he hadn’t been sad to see Rik-Vane fading into the black, and if he never saw it again, it would be too soon, but their lives weren’t similar to his.
Garnet looked to Goldie first who shook her head – the human non-verbal ‘no’.
“We had some friends,” Goldie said brightly. “I’m sure they miss us, but it’s not like they’ll be super disappointed that we’re gone. They might not even have noticed yet. And we don’t talk to our parents. So, they definitely haven’t noticed yet. Even if they did, I doubt they’d care.”
“Oh, give themsomecredit, Goldie,” Garnet sneered. “They’d care ifyouwere missing.”
Goldie made a face, dropping back down into her discomfort ball with a groan.
Tanin looked between them. There was a story there, but he wasn’t going to ask. Another lesson from Rik-Vane – you never pry into another person’s past. But Garnet read the curiosity on his face again, and she filled him in with an ironic sweetness.
“Our delightful parents werequiteeager to have a baby. They planned for months before trying, they had the baby room all set up. They wanted – and got – a girl and were prepared to devote their whole lives to their singular, perfect, beloved child.”
Tanin frowned, his quills twitching. “There are two of you. And I don’t think your people consider twins to be a singular person like Sorbet and Tebros’ people do.”
“They consider them one person?” Goldie asked, confused.
“Humans certainly do not,” Garnet agreed sagely. “So, what do you do when you’ve meticulously prepared for your singular, perfect, darling child and suddenly there are two of them instead?”
“Rejoice?”
Garnet scoffed. “Absolutely not. You resent the second one for being there and ruining your perfect plans of you, your spouse, and your singular princess. You condemn her for being born small because the perfect one took the majority of the blood supply in the womb-”
“My bad,” Goldie said with a smile.
“-and you blame her for the rest of her life for destroying your ideal family unit.” Garnet finished with a long, dramatic sigh. “That is, naturally, the only right thing to do.”
“I’m hoping this is sarcasm,” he said, relatively sure it was and not something humans genuinely believed in doing to their twins. He knew some cultures considered twins to be jinxes or that one was the flawed version of the other. But he also knew twins tended to run in families and he wouldn’t want Garnet to treat their young that way.
Her young.Heryoung that way, he meant.
“Mom and dad didn’t want twins,” Goldie said, her voice soft and sad. “They just wanted one, andIwas the one they chose because I was born at a normal weight and Garnet was smaller.”
“I heard they even thought about putting me, and just me, up for adoption,” Garnet declared smiling brightly. Like it was just a funny story from her youth and not the potential rejection and abandonment of parents that neglected their own child in favor of the other.
“Growing up, they treated me like a princess, and Garnet like the annoying neighbor kid who can’t take a hint and just go home,” Goldie continued. “I knew what they were doing, and I tried to stop it, but they didn’t care.”
“Don’t you dare feel bad about what they did,” Garnet declared, leveling a finger at her before looking back at Tanin. “Do you know, she would always stand up for me to our parents. Sometimes, literally putting herself between us because she thought they were getting violent.”
“Theythrewthings at you! There’s no ‘thought’ about it.” Goldie reminded her with a harsh frown. “They blamed her for everything. Sometimes, they tried to take me places and leave her behind!”
“And you know,” Garnet snickered, “Goldie always refused to go along with it. If they took her to a restaurant without me, she wouldn’t eat. If they took her to a park or something, she wouldn’t play. Sometimes, she threw a tantrum because I wasn’t included. As we got older, she’d make them bring me places or she’d begin telling everyone how she missed her twin, but her parents wouldn’t bring her along because they didn’t like her. She’d walk right up to strangers and announce it without even saying hi first. Embarrassed the hell out of them.”
“Theyshouldhave been embarrassed,” Goldie scoffed.
“They should have been ashamed,” Tanin agreed. “I cannot imagine not being delighted if my mate gave me any young, and especially twins.”
Garnet smiled at him, eyes sparkling. “Good to know.”
“Point is, we definitely don’t miss our parents,” Goldie sniffed. “We ran away the night before our eighteenth birthday. That was my idea too. I told Garnet we should run, that we should get away from them, and she started packing a bag right there.”
“I was happy to go,” Garnet sighed, sinking down in the bed. “So, no. There’s nothing for us to miss on Earth. Screw it.”
“Screw it!” Goldie concurred, throwing her fist up before groaning and covering her mouth.
The Humility jerked and Tanin’s stomach dropped. Both females moaned uncomfortably before Garnet blinked, pushing herself up.
“Wait… The nausea’s gone!” She declared, her entire face brightening.
