Work Text:
TJ's shoes were soaked through, his ears stung and his face felt like it could shatter into a thousand pieces at any sudden expression as he pulled open the door to Lotus Diner. At the sound of the bell, the cashier looked up from behind the counter and gave him a warm smile–which, he'd tried his best to return before tugging on the slow-closing door in an attempt to minimize the draft.
It was an hour out from midnight and at least one third of the tables were occupied; said occupants sipping on coffee and picking apart late night pancakes. Neon pink and green signs of plants and reptiles were hung sparsely around the room; the walls and floors black in color. Admittedly, it was a bit of an odd layout for a diner, but it had grown on him in the past year.
A surge of laughter cut through the otherwise hushed atmosphere and he tied it back to a pair off in the far corner–assuming it to be a mother and daughter. They talked animatedly through hand gestures and books, papers and pencils were sprawled messily over the back of their table as plates of food filled the space in front of them. The sight sent a pang of sadness through him as he thought back to his and Amber’s late night outings with their mom. They're some of his favorite memories, even if the majority of their restaurant visits were heavily charged with exhaustion and stress over late assignments or homework due later that morning. A good chunk of their visits during year 7 consisted of their mom googling various techniques to help her guide TJ through math lessons. It hadn't been the best time in his life but she was always patient with him.
The only other blonde head of hair in the diner caught his eye and managed to reel him in from the longing of a simpler time–which, in the moment and as a thirteen year old, was anything but.
He jogged over to the table and swiftly slid into the forest green booth without a word.
"Thelonious." Amber piped up a few seconds into the silence without looking up from her phone. He stayed silent and continued to look over the menu as if he wasn't going to get exactly what he had ordered for the past sixteen months. Amber slowly looked up and set her phone face down on the table, tilting her head with a curious smile as he beamed down at his menu.
"Jagger?" She drew out cautiously, tapping on the table and earning no response as he continued to absentmindedly flip through laminated pages. "Hey," Amber called out and aimlessly kicked her leg out under the table until her foot came in contact with something other than air. TJ flinched and looked up as the silverware clinked together. "Motherfuck-" Amber groaned in pain, pointlessly whispering and borderline growling the remainder of the word.
TJ cocked his head to the side, jutting out his lower lip. "Aw, you missed."
"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock." She rolled her eyes and pulled her legs up onto the booth.
"A for effort."
"Welcome back, I'm suing you if I can't get through dance practice tomorrow." She joked but TJ's jaw still went slack.
"I breathed!"
"No," She rolled her eyes and tore open a mini cup of creamer, pouring it into her coffee. "You were freaking me out."
"Do you think mom's up right now?" He asked, ignoring her comment. She let her spoon fall against the side of her cup and turned her phone over.
"Should be, it's only 12:05 for her," she said looking up from her phone. "Want me to set up a call?" She slid it off the edge of the table and into her hand.
TJ shook his head. "No, that's okay, she's probably watching her soaps right now."
"We'll go straight to voicemail." She chuckled, setting her phone back down as TJ grinned.
"So," She started, grabbing her coffee and leaning back against the booth. "What's brought you into my office today, baby bro?" She smiled against the rim of her cup as he groaned.
"Incase you’ve forgotten, we’re twins." He reminded, taking a sip of his water.
She lowered the cup away from her face. "You’re a day younger." She said nonchalantly as TJ began to choke.
She waited patiently, finally taking a sip of her coffee as he coughed and gasped for air. “We’re two minutes apart!” He strangled out.
“My point still stands." She set her cup down and folded her hands. "As usual, you missed the 11:59 deadline. Just accept it.”
"Ok, elder." TJ mumbled, wiping at his menu with a napkin.
"Aha,” She snapped her fingers. “Now was that so hard?”
"I–" TJ started but stopped as Amber put a hand up, signifying that she was over the argument and he closed his menu, lining it up along the edge of the light pink table.
"Enough stalling, why did you FaceTime me to meet you here 'immediately '?" She imitated, dropping her voice a few octaves and his face scrunched up in disgust.
"Well-" His expression softened and her interest piqued as she watched red creep into his face. His mouth hung open and he began to speak again when he clamped it shut and visibly folded in on himself. "I just," His eyes scanned the pink surface. "Really wanted some waffles!" He pointed at the sign at the end of the table.
"Bullshit." She straightened in her seat, crossing her arms. "One doesn't call, sooo out of it that they end up walking into a pole, over waffles."
"Donkey would." He challenged without skipping a beat, choosing to ignore the fact that it was yet another embarrassing incident that he would fail to live down.
"You would know, Thelonious." She smirked.
"Gahh," He shuddered. "You’ve maxed your limit for today, please let me live in my warped reality where TJ is just TJ for more than five seconds," he whined.
"Well, when you put it that way, you should've just absorbed me in the womb when you had the chance. And I only said it once.” She looked at him blankly. “And a half?” She tacked on, unsure if Thelonious Jagger said together registered as once and if one said without the other then counted as a half or a whole.
"Exactly, and once is a goddamn ear and mouthful." He chuckled, snapping her out of her calculations. "Also that pole, I'll have you know that it came out of nowhere."
"Oh? As did you, now give me a reason for that." She locked eyes with him.
Neither of them dared to break eye contact. At some point his phone vibrated twice against the table and pink began to seep back into his cheeks, his mouth involuntarily stretching into a smile. Amber narrowed her eyes and smirked knowingly, down casting her stubborn gaze to his phone and back up at him questioningly and his leg began to shake.
"Fine!" TJ broke with a sigh, his smile never faltering. "I went– wait no, you already know that." He paused. "I have, I had, I got-" Failing to string together a sentence, he took a breath and simply allowed himself to just continue smiling. He turned towards the window, looking through the cracks of festive poster paint drawings and watched snow float onto the nearly lifeless streets.
"I swear to god, TJ,” she groaned after a moment, becoming increasingly impatient. “If you called me here again just to tell me that you got lai-"
"Noooo, nothing like that." He quickly cut her off, tearing his eyes away from the window. As if it were a second nature, he swiped a sugar packet from the table organizer and began rolling it in between his fingers. "I just," He met her eyes, still grinning like an idiot.
"Just?" She felt his smiley mood beginning to transfer to herself. "I'm kinda dying over here, Teej. Can you spit it out?" She asked softly, letting her legs fall back down to the floor as she shifted in her seat. "I mean it’s fine if you can't, take your ti–"
"I have another date tomorrow!" TJ blurted out through a laugh–half from successfully and coherently spitting it out, and half from disbelief of the statement in and of itself.
"Oh, another?" Her expression momentarily fell but she quickly managed to match his smile once more, taking to stir her coffee. "What's his name?"
He rolled his eyes playfully. “Y-”
Despite her attempts to hold back, she let out a dry chuckle and let her spoon fall limp against the cup with a clank, cutting him off before he could finish his answer. "I love you, but at this point there's only so many names, Teej. If you’re at it again, we're going to have to start differentiating by last names as well." She swallowed thickly and her eyes flitted down to her menu.
His smile shrank considerably but didn't disappear, no matter how much he wanted it to in that moment–the outline was pretty much etched into his face, much like the indents in your skin after a good nap. "You, uh, you already know his name," he stated quietly, looking down at his hands.
Her head shot up with a glare. “What happened to not dating each other’s friends?” He looked up with wide eyes and his smile was nonexistent at this point, but all he offered was silence so she took it as an invitation to continue. "I mean there are the exceptions, but I doubt you're close enough to-"
"Okay, first off, I've never seen you with or heard you talk about Cyrus before, and second, if he was your friend why did you let me-"
"Wait, I don't–" A faint smile creeped onto her face. "Cyrus, as in the same guy I saw you with at the movies earlier tonight?" She asked in disbelief.
"Yes!" TJ laughed in relief. "I told you about him, who did you-" Realization flashed in his eyes. "Oh." He deflated in his seat. “You thought I-"
"Well, yeah." Amber gave him a sympathetic smile. "When you said another, I just thought you," she trailed off, letting her facial expression and eyes complete her train of thought and he nodded slowly in understandment.
"Amber," He said softly, sitting up in the booth. "I promise I stopped doing that last year."
"I know and I'm sorry!" She looked near tears. "I got scared, but shit, I shouldn’t have said that. T-” He gave her a soft smile and waved it off. She nodded, taking it as her cue to change the subject and took a deep breath. She reached her hand out–plucking the battered sugar packet from his fingers with a chuckle and threw it off to the side of the table. “A second date!" She exclaimed excitedly and took his hand in hers. TJ nodded, smiling down at the floor. "You haven't been on a second date with anyone since Eric," Her tone was now softer but still just as proud and excited for him. "Four years, Teej," she whispered, squeezing his hand.
"Yeah," He smiled sadly and looked up at her with glossy eyes. "I know I like, barely know him so this probably sounds ridiculous, but he-, he just makes me really happy. I don't know." He shrugged, picking at a loose thread with his free hand. “It kind of scares me,” he added quietly.
"Well I'm glad that he makes you happy, Teej." She squeezed his hand once more and let go as some tears slipped down her cheeks and onto the table. "And it's not ridiculous,” She laughed, wiping at her face. “Just don't go around saying 'I love you' on your date tomorrow." TJ chuckled, mouthing an ew and she raised her hands in defense. "Hey, just making sure you know that." She grinned. "You've been through a lot these past two years, you des-"
"Hi, sorry for the wait. I'll be your Kira for tonight, I'm waitress." A girl who looked to be around their age said quickly with a nervous laugh, her face as red as a tomato. She took a deep breath, "Sorry about that, I'm Kira and I'll be your waitress for tonight. What can I get you two?" She said looking directly at TJ, pulling a tiny pink notepad from her green apron.
"Uh, can-" Amber spoke, prompting Kira to acknowledge her existence as TJ sniffled. Amber looked over at him with a watery smile. "Actually, Thelonious, why don't you go first? I think I need one last look over." She said smugly, picking up the menu and flipping through the pages with feigned interest–going as far as to mumble a description under her breath just to sell it.
"Take your time," Kira smiled, shifting her attention back to him instead and her smile grew significantly wider. "What can I get you, Thelonious?" His stomach churned and Amber snorted. All he could offer her in that moment was a pained smile, repeatedly mouthing an 'I hate you' to Amber who peered over the top of her menu at him, her eyes full of mirth as Kira jotted down their order.
As soon as Kira turned to walk away, he gave voice to his hatred just in case Amber didn't get the memo; letting out a snort in failure of keeping up his annoyed facade as she laughed which only sent Amber deeper into a laughing fit.
"I panicked, I'm sorry," she wheezed. "I needed an out unless you wanted to be known as the grown twins who cried simultaneously in the middle of a diner at 12am."
"Not like we haven't claimed that title before." TJ chuckled, shrugging. "And that was a low blow, Ambs. But I get it." He smiled, only making Amber uneasy but she nodded nonetheless.
Their time at the diner went well into 2am, gushing over their respective dates from earlier that night; accompanied with what was probably a little too many visits from their waitress–who refilled TJ's nearly full water glass, repeatedly. Offering Amber nothing, not even a spare glance until her glass was bone dry. Which didn't bother Amber too much, because after all, that's how refills are supposed to work.
The visits ceased however once one of her pop-ins resulted in an overflowing glass and a sopping wet lap for TJ. After that, the only visit they received was Kira delivering an armful of napkins, apologies and the receipt. She'd uttered his name numerous times throughout the ordeal and TJ was positive that if he never heard it again, it would be too soon. Although a little annoyed, he chalked it up to her probably being new and getting the hang of the job, and at that, Amber managed to successfully kick something other than the leg of the table.
To make it up to him, she offered to map out Kira's schedule and sections so he knew where and when to avoid the diner. Which he was grateful for, but declined since it was probably a little too excessive and 'borderline creepy' .
And sure, to an extent, TJ understood why Amber did what she did. It was a common occurrence for them to find ways to prevent the other, or themselves, from getting overly emotional–they appreciated it. But it didn’t stop him from periodically firing spitballs through his blue straw like a child as payback when her guard was down. She managed to refrain from partaking in his antics up until a spitball settled it's way onto her eyelashes–by then she had completely abandoned her post as the 'mature older sibling'.