the one who opened the door was a red-head, with faded freckles that were no doubt very vibrant when she was younger. she was wearing an interesting outfit, a pink dress that ended in pleats. she looked almost like a school girl. her face was smiling, and she had a dragonfly tattoo on her bare shoulder. odd tattoo choice, but chris had seen weirder. she had bright green eyes, and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

behind her was no doubt her wife. she had short, sandy blonde hair and tired blue eyes. tired was an understatement, actually; she looked like she hadn't slept in years. her smile was more patient than her wife's, who reminded chris of chrissie. she also had a dragonfly tattoo on her shoulder, but you could only see a little of it because she wasn't wearing something shoulderless. instantly, however, chris had noticed something odd.

here's something about chris. he and chrissie had been in the foster care system for so long, that he had seen almost every type of person. rich, poor, old, young, you name it. for some reason, he had met a lot of war veterans along the way. and most of them had gotten pretty bad scars during the war, so chris could see whenever a person had gotten a skin graft.

now, chris didn't know what had happened to this woman, but it surely hadn't been pretty.

from what he could see, there were skins grafts almost on her entire body. he could see the tendrils of one up her neck, the indentions of them on her hands. and if they went from her neck to her hands, no doubt they were everywhere in between as well. chris had seen a lot, but never anything like this! this was something new and exciting. already, he could tell this was going to be interesting.

"hi there! you must be christopher and christine." said the first one, with a smile. "i'm amelia, and my wife behind me is sophie. it's nice to meet you!" the interesting one, now named sophie, looked both chris and his sister over. amelia laughed.

"she's too quiet for her own good. come in, please! maria has already gone over the paperwork, so no need to worry about that." said amelia with a chuckle. she moved out of the way, and so did sophie. chrissie beamed, bouncing into the house instead of walking. 

chris followed suit, only he definitely was not bouncing. he snuck a suspicious look at sophie, and she noticed. she gave him a similar look, and then stuck her tongue out at him with a smile. chris was taken back, and didn't respond. he had never heard of nor gotten such a response. amelia quickly caught on and laughed, hooking an arm around her wife's waist.

"honestly, you are so childish." she said playfully. sophie smiled at her wife, as amelia dumped her stuff onto the kitchen table. it was a small house, but not suffocating. definitely middle class citizens.

so why were they adopting to troublesome twins from the foster care system?

"oh! don't just leave your stuff there, honey. we already prepared your room. come upstairs! i'm sure you'll love it!" said amelia. sophie stood to the side, and gave a slight scoff.

"come now, dear, don't spring everything on them at once. give them a little time to adjust." she said simply, sighing through her words. "trust me, it's extremely overwhelming when foster parents try everything at the same time."

sophie's words were calm and collected, and it took chris a while to realize what she meant as amelia apologized.

'trust me...? does that mean...' he thought absently, as amelia chatted idly with chrissie. those two were definitely going to be best friends if they stayed at this home for long. they were practically the same person. sophie, on the other hand, was much more reserved and cautious. eventually, however, she did speak up.

"alright, you two." she said with a small tired laugh. "break it up. christopher, christine, what do you two want to do? we have the entire afternoon free; amelia and I took off of work. do you wanna go to the movies? the aquarium, perhaps?" sophie interjected, saying the most words chris had heard her say this entire time.

"don't call me christopher - my name is chris." he spat back. amelia's smile faltered, but sophie barely flinched.

"right. chris then. say, do you have a nickname too, christine?" she asked, pivoting the conversation away from chris. chrissie nodded.

"i go by chrissie, if you don't mind." she said, giggling. sophie smiled.

"ya'know, amelia had a nickname, when we were younger." she said simply. chris watched as amelia's face suddenly flushed.

"oh my god, please don't." she retorted. but the smile on her face and the laugh in her voice betrayed her. sophie cracked a grin.

"i used to call her 'me-me'."

amelia groaned playfully. "ugh, what a painful nickname. i can't believe i let you call me that. so embarrassing." chrissie laughed, and chris was... amused, at the most, by their antics. chrissie suddenly lit up, and tugged lightly on amelia's dress. amelia turned to look at her.

"yes, chrissie? what is it?" amelia asked, devoting all her attention to the bubbly girl. sophie chuckled.

"you've learned well in the art of proper listening etiquette, young padawan." sophie teased. amelia pouted.

"after all those years of you sitting in silence while i blabbered, i did pick up a thing or two. jeez." she hissed playfully. chris sighed. just as he expected. they acted exactly like an old married couple. his attention quickly fell back onto chrissie, however, as the heterochromatic girl continued.

"we should go to the fair! i saw a poster on the way here!" sophia and amelia smiled.

"that sounds like a wonderful idea. and you, chris? do you wish to go the fair?" sophia asked. the young boy was just now realizing how proper her english was.

"yeah, sure, whatever," chris mumbled, already in a bad mood. he didn't know why exactly, but he hoped they didn't stay here long. too positive, this household. and that always means they're hiding some awful secret.

but before he could grasp it, they were all piled into the car. chrissie was smiling enthusiastically, ameia was blabbering on about something or the other, and sophie was looking out the window, arms sitting in her lap.

he sighed. already he felt like he stuck out. oh well. time to go the fair, i suppose.