Where Boys Fear to Tread

Jasper tilted his head slightly, his eyes looking too large and his skin too thin. He seemed to be made of paper, a notion supported by the way he stumbles and nearly blows away everytime Conor steps too close, too quickly.
His lips are parted slightly as he watches his brother move around the room. Soon Conor catches onto the persistant watching and pauses to in turn look at his brother.
He cocks an eyebrow.
"Hello" the word is almost a question, and Conors voice sounds curious.
"Hello" the reply is rough and shows no hesitance. It doesn't really come from Jasper at all.

It is a patient and near hesitant smile that this other-self draws from Conor.
The not-quite-Jasper smiles in return.

"Alex will be here soon. You best let Jasper out, you know how he gets confused".
The words seemed to echo in Jaspers head, in all the secret places of his brain. Something in him shifts. A dizziness comes and passes. Suddenly he changes, his shoulders hunch, his eyes lower, and his cheeks flush ripe pink in realising he was staring at his brother.
He hears Conor chuckle quietly, and wonders who he was, what he'd said. It had been minutes, hadn't it? Since he had last been himself.

"Did you hear what I said?"
Jasper looks up at Conor and nods. He had heard it too, in some far-off part of his head. He catches Conor's smile from the corner of his eye, still not daring to look up even though the pink in his cheeks was nearly all gone, leaving his skin porceilan-white and porceilan-fragile.

The doorbell is ringing, Jasper realises and groans. He hates the sound. It rips through his skull, merciless. His grimace gives it all away.

When he opens his eyes the sound has stopped, there are footsteps on the stairs and a lanky boy with a toothy grin filling up the doorway.
"Hullo Jasper" The boy has sparkling eyes that are heavily lidded whenever he looks away from Jasper. That toothy grin too, changes when he looks away from the fragmented twin. It becomes a polite yet enthusiastic smile when his eyes fall on Conor.
Jasper snaps his eyes up quickly with a muttered hello, and Alex's smile widens so much that it would crack and break his face if he was made of porceilan and paper like Jasper. It makes Jasper flush again and he hopes ever-so desperately that Alex doesn't notice because that would be too much. Too much for Alex that is, who would explode with the girth and the weight of that smile.

Jasper knew that his brother was watching, with something unknown hiding behind his eyes. It made him feel safe, even when Alex took two too-large steps toward him, and Jasper almost fell off the bed. He had been perched precariously on the edge, looking about ready to run away if anything startled him (which Alex most certainly had.)

Alex reaches out to put a steadying hand on Jaspers arm. The touch is almost overwhelming. Nobody touched Jasper, no-one beside Conor. The touch raised goosebumps on Jaspers arm, even though Alex's palm was pleasantly warm and soft, and the touch was feather-light.
Conor was still watching them with those protective and something-else eyes. Jasper saw him frown, because to both of them, that touch was so much more than Alex ever intended.

Without a word passing from the lips of either of the twins, Alex realises. He knows the strangeness in the touch. He remembers.
"Sorry" he mumbles, eyes darting between the two of them. He lets his grip loose and his fingertips graze down Jaspers arm before falling away completely.
To Jasper, the touch is a memory. It reminds him of something sickening. His breath catches foul within his lungs, and his eyes slip closed.
He is hiding.
When he opens his eyes, he is someone else.