Chapter 4: Some Good Ol' Twin Talk

Mark Jr. and Justine decide to make some headway in helping the two families bond, by talking things out with Kendra and Kendall.

There were times when, provided she had nothing important to get done, Katrina liked to sit back and reminisce about the past, specifically the dozens upon millions of memories she made with her husband and their rapidly growing family. It seemed like less than a second ago, Mark was the last surviving Simmons and Katrina's family, while loving and supportive, had been pulled apart like sticky buns over the years as they all grew older and were forced to take different paths. When the two eventually got hitched, it managed to unite the latter family and even add onto it. Maybe winning over Rosemary's family would have a similar effect on their already large entourage?

One of the memories that consistently remained near the top of the pile occurred many years ago, back when their two kids came into the world. Katrina got pregnant just under a month after she married Mark, but it wasn't until nearly double that time when she first became aware of it. And it took even longer to learn that she was having twins. Throughout the pregnancy, in addition to the various inconveniences that came with it, she couldn't help but feel terrified at the idea of enduring two childbirths in a row on the same day. Soon as she discovered there were two babies inside her, she already knew that she would not want to have any more children afterwards. It was a promise she managed to keep by abstaining for roughly two decades, until menopause hit when she was about fifty. Far too long to go without sex, if you ask her.

Regardless, Junior and Justine would eventually have a premature but ultimately successful birth on January 2nd, 2019. Such prematurity enabled them to both be pushed out at once, much to their mother's relief, and following the delivery, she was given the chance to catch her breath and recuperate for a bit as the doctors performed a couple of tests outside the room. Even so, she was so excited to finally be a mom that she couldn't even be mad at all the sharp pain down south.

"Well Mark, we finally did it." a much younger Katrina sighed contently. "Hope ya' don't have any major gripes with me, 'cause our lives are officially connected now."

"Nonsense, dear. I'm not going anywhere," a younger Mark replied, placing a hand on his wife's shoulder. "I wanted these two just as much as you did, if not more."

Before long, the physician came back in with two blanket-wrapped babies, placing one of them into the arms of each parent. Little did he know he'd be the same one to deliver their granddaughter in the future.

"Welp, they're all clean and perfectly healthy, all things considered." he nodded. "Any ideas on what you would like to call them? I've got the forms ready."

"We agreed that we would each name one, right?" Mark asked, eliciting a nod from Katrina. "Well then I say we name the boy Mark Jr."

"Aw man, I wanted to name him Corleone, after my nonna's ex." Katrina rolled her guacamole-green eyes, before holding up her daughter. "Ah well, hmm... she kinda' looks like a Justine to me. How's about I go with that?"

"Beautiful," the physician clapped his hands together. "Dad, any objections?"

"No, sir." Mark shook his head. "Junior and Justine, it is."

"Rad. Well, I'm just gonna head out and let you four bond a bit." the physician stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"Y'know, it's so funny how you're always presentin' yourself as this super humble dude, but then ya' go and name your son after yourself," Katrina quipped, earning nothing more than a shrug from her husband.

It was then that a woman who looked nearly identical to her woke up from her nap, resting in a fold-up chair across from the bed, a big and burly man with shaggy blonde hair waking up next to her at the same time.

"Ugh, anyone wanna remind us why we're here?" the woman croaked, her accent even thicker than Katrina's.

"Um, to witness the birth a'your new niece and nephew? Geez Priscilla, don't tell me ya' slept through it all." Katrina sighed. "Now just shut up and grab the camera."

Priscilla just groaned and stood up, taking out a camera big enough to fit into both of her hands, alongside a tripod.

"Say bolognese," she said dryly, switching to an Italian accent as she said that last word.

"Bolognese!" Mark and Katrina replied in unison, before a photo of the scene was taken, later to be hung on the living room wall forever.

In time, the twins would grow up right before their parents' eyes, developing and becoming one with both their bodies and personalities. And as of this very moment, they were both over a quarter of a century old. Being a free-spirited lesbian, there was some doubt as to whether or not Justine would ever make any babies of her own, or even settle down with someone. But that was not the case with her brother, having met a wonderful wife and raising his first of possibly several children. And Katrina knew that since she became a grandmother at such a young age, she would most likely be able to see every last one of her grandchildren reach adulthood. Something every grandparent dreamed of.

---

Deciding to spend the day over at Simmons Manor Jr., she sat comfortably in one of the living room's armchairs, watching with a benign, loving smile as her son reached up onto the shelf to polish a bronze chess trophy, a prize he and his sister had won at a completely unrelated competition just under a decade ago. By this time, Mark had already spoken to Paul about the agreement to help him rebuild the family farm, which he did appreciate even if he didn't exactly show it. However, plans for construction would not be able to start until Springtime came around, at which point all that snow would finally be melted and out of the way.

"Hey, uh, Junior?" Katrina spoke up after a while.

"Yeah, Mom?" Mark Jr. briefly looked away from the shelf.

"So, uh, I was thinkin' that maybe today could be spent tryna' win over the Sterlings?" Katrina suggested. "I know we all kinda' got off on the wrong foot last night, but there ain't no use in givin' up right away."

"I suppose you're right." Junior nodded. "I... I think I already have a good starting point in mind, but I'll need to find Justine before I can get started."

"I'll take your word for it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd better go check on your dad." Katrina nodded and stood up, adjusting the tight, cornflower-blue muscle-shirt that hardly hid her upper body.

---

Junior found Justine in one of the spare bedrooms, lounging back-up on the king-sized bed with a smartphone up to her ear. She happened to be speaking to an ex-girlfriend whom she'd unintentionally become acquainted with almost a decade ago. Unfortunately, the two were unable to make things work for long, but they still remained good friends to this day.

"Listen Mandy, I dunno what's going on, but my biological clock's been ticking a lot lately, especially after my niece was born," Justine explained. "I know the obvious answer would just be to have a baby, but I don't even know where to start. I already know I don't want to adopt... not to sound cruel, but I want to be there for all of my child's journey, instead of just most of it."

"Well hey, adopting isn't the only option, y'know," a female voice responded, speaking in a Canadian accent with a cutesy lisp.

"Yeah, but the only other one I know of offhand would be a sperm donation, and that would require some random dude's cum inside me. Like, hello? Lesbian?" Justine shuddered in disgust. "At least you have the advantage of being bi."

Junior waited patiently outside the bedroom for a few more minutes until he heard his sister hang up, before politely and rhythmically knocking on the door.

"Come on in," Justine said, prompting him to do just that.

"Hey, so I kinda' need your help with something." Junior cut to the chase. "I think I might have an idea on where to start when it comes to bonding with Rosemary's folks."

"Might? Last I checked, you're the boy-genius of the family," Justine chuckled.

"Yeah, well I figured that since both our families contain a set of twins, and since the Sterling twins were the least hostile towards us, we could start by talking to them first. See if we can win them over, y'know?" Junior explained.

"Oh, you mean Kendra and Kendall? Sure, why not?" Justine stood up and adjusted her Italian-flag tube top, a hand-me-down from her mother. "They're probably saints compared to those other twins we met way back when."

---

The two managed to find their Sterling counterparts doing yoga in the basement, both dressed in baggy Bohemian trousers that nearly covered their sneakered feet, accompanied by tight, sleeveless athletic crop-tops. Further proof that these twins were of the mellow type, always seen displaying an almost hippie-like demeanor and being willing to try new experiences, agreeing to the casual chat session at the drop of a hat. No wonder they were the only ones who weren't uptight about the whole situation.

Right away, the Simmons twins knew they had this part of the process in the bag, appearing a bit confident as the four gathered on the living room couch. With Rosemary nursing and rocking Primrose upstairs, it would mean plenty of free time to form a connection without any distractions.

"So, uh, I guess to start things off here, which of you is the older twin?" Junior asked upon sitting down.

"I am." Kendra placed an open hand on her chest. "By nine lucky minutes."

"But that's the only notable advantage either of us has over the other," Kendall chimed in. "Other than that, I'd say we're about equal, and any other positives each of us have purely serve as compensation for the other's weaknesses."

"Interesting." Justine nodded. "I'm assuming that means there's no evil twin between you two either? There usually is."

"Nope," the Sterling twins replied in unison.

"Huh. Well in our case, I'd say we're the exact opposite. We have almost no age gap, yet we also feel like we're more in line with typical siblings than you are," Junior explained.

"And I proudly identify as the evil twin by the way," Justine laughed.

"Almost no age gap? What do you mean by that?" Kendall scratched her head.

"Mom delivered us both at once," Justine stated.

"The wonders of prematurity, am I right?" Junior snarked.

"Oh my. Were there any issues brought on by that?" Kendra asked.

"Eh, not really. We were toilet trained just a bit later than most, but that's really it," Junior explained with a shrug.

---

And so for the next couple of hours or so, the four twins continued to talk things out, and for Justine and Junior, things seemed to be going in an interesting direction. Bonding with the Sterling twins was just as easy as they'd predicted, but they couldn't help but be intrigued at the answers they got. They learned that the Sterling twins were six feet tall and thirty years old, making them the oldest children in the family. They both enjoyed yoga and meditation, only ate meat every other day, and had bachelor's degrees in Biology under their belts. Like the rest of their family and especially their younger sister, they greatly enjoyed farming, doing chores, and cleaning up after themselves, which thus explained why they were trembling the way they did last night. Being waited on and being encouraged to not help out felt like such a foreign experience to them.

No matter what questions they were asked, both Kendra and Kendall almost always offered the same answer. Even when Justine took over the discussion and started asking them various woman-to-woman questions, they still offered identical takes in response. It was like they were a truly inseparable pair, their brains always in sync and neither of them truly thinking for themselves when it came to anything; their interests, quirks, and even menstrual cycles were identical. With such a strong synergy between them, it was easy to see how they were able to keep up with Rosemary while working on the farm.

Having such a tight neural connection seemed to have its benefits, but the Simmons twins couldn't help but feel just a little unnerved by this. They had a tight bond as well, and they probably argued less than the average pair of twins. They liked to think they weren't polar opposites either, but even they had far more differences than their new acquaintances. Both twins got good grades throughout their education, but Junior was still the slightly smarter of the two. They were both well-behaved, but Justine was a bit more rebellious and impulsive than her brother. Not to mention they each had their own unique traits, such as Junior's hyperopia and uneasiness around blood, or Justine's hopeless romanticism and hedonistic tendencies. Such a middle-ground seemed to be the case with almost every set of twins they had ever met up until this point.

"But yeah, you two seem pretty cool," Kendra commented.

"You're totally fine with us," Kendall added. "No idea why our parents are always so closed-minded about new stuff."

"I have no clue either, but regardless, I really enjoyed this little chat." Junior nodded. "We're sorry for interrupting your workout."

"Oh no, it's fine. We were almost done anyway." Kendall turned to her sister. "Now let's go to my room and see if we can break our meditation record."

"You mean surpass five hours? I doubt it," Kendra replied.

"There should be plenty of candles in the kitchen!" Junior called after them.

"Thank you!" the Sterling twins both replied at once.

It was then that the Simmons twins looked at each other as they plopped back onto the sofa.

"Geez, that was a bore. I mean, it's good that there's finally some good chemistry between our families, but still," Junior groaned, following a sigh of relief.

"Speak for yourself, bro. I could listen to those two talk all day," Justine mused, smiling crookedly and uncontrollably.

"Okay, but you have to admit it was a little creepy how those two think alike at all times," Junior continued. "I mean, the only differences we learned about them are that they each have a different favorite food and play a different instrument. Not to mention Kendra's little freckle up there."

"Well I also learned about that special tea that reduces period cramps, so there's that." Justine shrugged. "To think that nature has its own healthcare system..."

"Ugh, well at least now that we're getting along, the rest of Rose's family should be easier to get through to," Junior concluded with a weary nod.