KO let his anger surge through him. He was wild, uncontrollable, vicious. He listened to the furiously pulse of his heart. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth and felt truly furious.

KO growled low in his throat. It was a menacing sound, loud enough to be felt.

'Bend your knees.'

He crouched slightly, tilted forward just enough to be balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to spring in any direction. His eyes flickered around, keeping his target in sight.

'Angrier. Don't think about it. Get mad. Get ready.'

He felt every nerve and muscle stand at attention, ready to respond to the lightest flick of thought. He locked eyes with his target. He gave one sharp nod.

'Now!'

KO leapt forward, charging towards Enid at top speed. He felt like he barely touched the ground, possibly aided by a touch of TKO's borrowed flight. He turned into a violent streak of energy. He could see Enid start to shift her leg back into a more firm stance and adjusted his flight accordingly. He hurtled through the air, the beginnings of a war cry ripping its way out of his throat-

"Cut!" yelled Dendy.

Enid stepped out of the way, letting KO safely pass by at ridiculous speeds. He barreled past and skidded to a stop, just inches short of a parked car. He let out a relieved sigh and patted the spared car gently like a small dog. TKO grabbed control of his mouth before he could even turn around fully.

"Dendy! Why?" he yelled across the parking lot.

Dendy made a large apologetic gesture. She cupped her hands around her mouth to yell. "The lighting was off. It wouldn't match the other takes."

KO started to walk over to Dendy, who was hovering over a rather scratched up looking camera. Rad was leaning over her shoulder, pointing at something on the small screen and saying something too quietly to be heard from across the lot. Enid sauntered up next to him, swinging her hands behind her head. They walked side by side across the parking lot towards their ad hoc camera crew.

"Hey, Enid! You did really good! Did you see me?"

Enid laughed lightly and ruffled his hair. "Yeah, dude, of course. You're getting faster."

His eyes lit up. "Really? Do you mean it?"

'She was off her mark.'

Enid stuck her tongue out at him playfully and didn't answer. They walked up to Rad and Dendy, who were gathered around the camera. They pointed at the tiny attached monitor and lightly bickered. A shabby looking boom mic leaned precariously over them like a bent street light, casting a thin shadow over the two.

KO waved his hand wildly in the air at Dendy. She smiled and waved back lightly.

Rad was still talking as Enid and KO walked up. "...can totally keep going! We can just do all that lame computer stuff-"

"Post processing," filled in Dendy.

"-Yeah, yeah, that, and we'll just make it look like day."

Dendy shook her head. "I disagree. The light is already dimming. Just making our last shot consistent with the others will be work, let alone trying to turn a night scene into a day scene. We need to move on."

"Well? What should we do? Do we keep shooting and edit it, or get started on the night scenes?" Enid looked him square in the eyes. "Director?"

He straightened to his full height and rolled his shoulders. TKO cleared his throat and spoke. "Let's move onto the night stuff. Dendy's right, we're losing the light."

There was a chorus of agreement and acknowledgement from the cast and crew. They all hustled to pick up their equipment and grab any outfit changes for the upcoming scenes. TKO stood in the midst of it and puffed his chest like a proud bird. His shy, awkward grin balanced on his face like an unfamiliar visitor.

"I'm in charge," he whispered to KO under his breath, almost giddily.

'You're in control!' was the excited response.


Hours later, after two more scenes, one interruption by Mr. Gar, and one speech about appropriate work activities, they decided to voluntarily wrap up the shoot. KO got to work winding up cables as TKO shouted out directions and what scenes they would work on the next day. With all of them working together, they were able to carefully pack the camera equipment into Rad's van and shove all of the costumes under his seats.

As KO placed the last fake moustache into the van, Carol walked up and ruffled their hair lovingly.

"You guys ready to go?"

"Uh huh," grunted TKO, reaching for her hand and giving it a light squeeze. He leaned towards her and rested his head on her arm to hide his face. "I'm tired."

Carol leaned down and gave him a kiss on the top of his head. "It's been a big day."

They started towards the car, TKO squeezing Carol's hand just a tad too tight. He was worn out from a day of directing.

"TKO."

KO turned to face Dendy, who was jogging towards him with an arm raised to get his attention. He gave her a tired smile and let go of his mom's hand to trot forward to meet her. Dendy smiled brightly and started digging in her jumpsuit pockets. She pulled out a chunky looking device.

"Another prototype. Please let me know how this one functions."

KO nodded quickly and pocketed the device. He gave Dendy a short wave before trotting back to his mom.

"Okay! We can go now!" he called out to Carol.

They hustled into the car. As soon as he was seated and buckled up, TKO had pulled the device out and was fiddling with it. The screen lit up his face weirdly, making it just a bit sharper and paler. Carol pulled out of the parking lot before her curiosity overwhelmed her.

"Whatcha got there, kiddo?"

TKO hunched his shoulders and curled himself over the screen.

"It's nothing," he mumbled.

There was a moment of silence and internal dialogue before KO sat straight up and tilted the screen towards his mother.

"Dendy is trying to make us a phone! So we can still text and stuff when we're, you know-" He gestured vaguely at his own forehead. "-not driving."

Carol looked intrigued. "Does it work?"

TKO rolled his eyes. "Not yet. I don't think our brain has reception." He let out a chuckle. "This is prototype number 4, so here's hoping."

Carol hummed in response.

They chatted back and forth about nothing in particular as Carol drove them home.


Later that night, TKO sat on their bed and whipped out KO's phone. He crossed his legs casually, one bare foot wiggling idly as he thought. He tapped out a couple of notes and reminders into a notes app. Enid needed better marks for the fight scene, Rad's costume was starting to rip, he needed Dendy to take charge of breaks so he could focus on directing and not staring at the clock…

After a few minutes, he realized that he hadn't heard from KO in a while. He arranged himself in a more stable position and fell back into the mind space.

He opened his eyes in front of his house. Something was off. There was a change in the air. He'd spent too much time trapped here to not be intimately aware of every facet.

There was some huge shape lurking on the left side of his house.

He immediately started running towards it, trying to not gulp in air in his panic. Was it a monster? Another side of KO, someone worse? A new cage? He'd been so good! He was trying!

He spotted KO at the base of the (streamers? Lines of light? Cables?) structure, looking thoughtfully up at it.

"What… are you doing?!" yelled TKO. He raced towards KO, who was twiddling his thumbs in front of the new shape.

"Well, I, uh. It's-" KO waved his hands at the floating lines hovering over him. "-It's for me!"

TKO skidded to a stop, breathing heavily. Now that he was closer, he could finally figure out what he was looking at. It was a wireframe sketch of a room, just the barest suggestion of walls, a roof, a couple of windows… and it was protruding out of his house.

TKO felt his anger, painfully familiar, rise up in him. He tried not to snarl. "What do you mean."

"You know, like, a place for me to hang out." KO turned his back to point at one of the walls. "Like a room of my o-"

"NO!" TKO was furious, radiating anger in waves of energy. Purple lightning sparked from his clenched fists. The ceiling and walls of the mindspace flickered dangerously with distant lightning. "This is mine! This is my house! You can't- You can't- You can't do this!"

KO turned back around, balanced on the balls of his feets in case he needed to dodge. TKO hadn't attacked him in a long time, but…

"I… Why are you so mad? I don't-" KO grit his teeth. "Why are you so mean?"

The lightning dissipated from TKO's hands like he had been dunked in ice water. His eyes, bizarrely, started to sting. He stood up straight from his aggressive crouch and schooled his expression into a more neutral position.

"I'm not going to stand here and argue with you."

KO bared his teeth and huffed out his nose. "Oh, yeah?"

"I challenge you to a POW battle," he said with forced calm.

KO twitched backwards in surprise. "What? No! We're not-! I'm not going to fight you!"

TKO backed up a bit and started doing a couple of light stretches. "I'm very mad. You are very mad. We both need to let off some steam. So, we are going to spar until we can talk without yelling."

"I can talk without yelling!" yelled KO.

TKO gave him an unimpressed look and cracked his knuckles.

"I'm-! I'm not going to fight you. We're better than this. We don't need to do this. Please, we've been getting along so well!"

TKO shook out his hands. Quick as a thought, he dashed forward and tapped his fist on KO's torso, before darting out of reach.

"Defend yourself!"

KO sprung towards him, and tried to grab him. "Stop it!" TKO sidestepped, neatly avoiding his overextended grasp.

TKO ducked into a sprinter's crouch and bared his sharp teeth tauntingly.

KO growled back and tried to grab him again unsuccessfully. He hissed in frustration. "Can't you let me have one thing?! I shared everything with you!"

TKO scoffed and dodged further back. KO stood his ground and shot a dozen light power fists at him. He rolled forward under the barrage, but was grazed by one, singeing his back. TKO leapt to his feet inches from KO.

TKO growled in his face. "You couldn't let me have one thing? And I'm sorry that I'm being inconvenient for you by wanting to not be trapped in here!" He dodged backwards out of range from KO's next punch.

TKO dropped to all fours and dashed forward, trying to grab at KO's leg to pull him off balance. KO jumped to dodge. He put his hands on TKO's unprotected back, somersaulting over him and pushing him prone in one motion. TKO's jaw clicked as he hit the ground. KO landed roughly behind TKO, throwing out his hands to regain his balance.

"You're not trapped," snapped KO.

"Not anymore!" he retorted with a sharp kick behind him. KO rolled out of the way and into an unexpected grab. He rolled with the momentum and used his weight to throw TKO off of him.

As the fight wore on, a few things became apparent.

Their fighting styles were always pointedly dissimilar. TKO used his wild swipes and lunges to throw himself across the battlefield, propelled into his opponent's space by violent momentum. Always up close, always in your face. KO tried to put distance between them, throwing out power punches whenever he could and dodging more than he struck.

And this is what they shared. KO animalistically swiped at him with fingers curled like claws. TKO held back, overextending his punches because of inexperience rather than thoughtless rage. They mirrored each other unconsciously, falling into each other's habits. Their fight balanced into a kind of dance. They traded blows and feints, dodges and grabs in tandem.

KO swung out in a sweeping low kick. TKO caught his foot in both hands and twisted to pull KO down instead. He hit the ground with a grunt. Looking up at TKO's determined face, he declined to stand back up. Instead, he pounced forward like a wildcat. TKO yelped dramatically as he was toppled over. KO pinned him quickly as he lay tired on the ground.

KO stood up with one foot on TKO's stomach and bared his teeth. "I win."

KO smiled and held up one hand. TKO grabbed it and pulled him to his feet.

"Still mad?"

KO cracked his neck and looked away. "We still shouldn't fight. But I'm not mad anymore."

TKO shoved him playfully on the shoulder. "Worked, didn't it? Stop complaining."

KO smiled softly. TKO felt his playful grin slip into a more hurt expression. KO winced.

KO made a tired gesture and created a large, low beanbag chair. He collapsed into it and pulled TKO down with him. He slung a casual arm around him and pulled him into a loose hug. TKO shifted slightly but didn't pull away.

KO's brows bunched in concentration. TKO watched his jaw clench and unclench as he searched for the words.

"I… I wasn't- I wasn't trying to hurt you. I didn't think that you would be upset. I thought… I'm sorry. I wanted- Since you've been on the outside more often, I thought it would be nice to have somewhere on the inside for me. Like how you have your drawer and your clothes and music and stuff?" KO tilted his head onto TKO's shoulder lightly. "You know?"

TKO hummed. "I just always thought of this place as mine fully. It… It hurt to see it getting taken over. Even by you."

KO fiddled with a strand of TKO's hair. "Yeah."

"You should've asked."

"Yeah."

"I think we mighta overdone it with the whole 'punching out our feelings' thing."

KO fake punched him. "It was a good idea. You have good ideas. I always forget that."

TKO shifted in the beanbag. "You can build your house."

KO sat up so suddenly that he almost unseated TKO. "Really?!"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes. Don't make me regret it."

KO tilted his head back to stare at the rough outline jutting from TKO's house. "I really really should have asked before I started building. Especially since I had us sharing a wall. Do you want me to move it? I can probably push it over ther-"

"No." TKO interrupted. He was silent for a moment before he continued. "I li- It's fine there." He made a face like he tasted something bitter. "I like it there."

KO smiled at him brightly and rested his head on his shoulder again. They sat in silence for a few peaceful minutes.

"I love you," said KO frankly.

TKO grunted noncommittally.

"We're like brothers. Brain brothers?"

"Mind twins. Consciousness cousins."

"Brothers."

"Brothers is better."

KO paused and leaned his head more heavily on TKO's shoulder. "Do you?"

TKO turned his head just enough to make eye contact. "Do I what?"

"Love me?"

TKO furrowed his brow lightly in confusion. "Yeah? Of course, dude. You're an overly emotional little weakling, but you're my brother, and I love you."

KO let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. They cuddled together on the enormous beanbag for a few minutes in soft silence.

"We're, like, really sweaty."

KO started to pull away from the hug. "Oh, sorry!"

TKO tightened his grip and kept KO in place with one arm on his shoulder. "Wait." He chewed on his lip nervously, a habit that looked far safer on KO's dull teeth than TKO's sharp ones. "I… really am sorry. About- About yelling at you. I just…"

"It was your thing, and you thought I was taking it away from you." KO carded his fingers through TKO's wild hair with limited success. "I get it. I just thought, you know, if we both were sharing out there, then we both could have our own rooms in here. I'm sorry for not asking."

"It's… alright. I guess I overreacted. I'm just, you know, protective. Of my stuff."

"I know."

They sat for a while in contemplative silence. KO continued to play with TKO's hair, eventually untangling a section enough to put a loose braid in it. TKO closed his eyes and doozed.

"I have an idea!" KO announced suddenly, waking TKO up.

He grimanced half heartedly and swatted at his arm. TKO rolled his eyes. "Go on."

"What if we shared?" KO's eyes shone with passion.

"...yeah? We share, like, everything. We just fought about it. It's our whole thing."

KO wiggled in frustrated excitement. "No, no, like!" He waved his hands at the eye shaped screen behind them. TKO raised an eyebrow. "Shared control!"

"Okay, sure. The machine is kinda inefficient, but we can-"

KO grabbed his hands and swung them. "No! Not the machine. If we can both be inside, we should be able to both be outside. At the same time!"

TKO allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. "Is that even-?"

KO tapped his feet around like an excited puppy. "Possible? I don't know! But imagine if we could! We could fight villains twice as good!"

"How? Are we gonna…?"

KO pulled TKO to sit on the ground. "We'll just have to concentrate! Are you ready?"

TKO squeezed his hands. "You first?" he requested, almost timidly.

KO nodded and took control. He was sitting on his bed, and his phone had fallen out of his hands at some point. He wiggled a bit with nerves.

Carefully, he felt TKO emerge out of their mindspace.

KO tried not to over think all this. He has gotten over his fear and discomfort with sharing his body with a dangerous stranger. He has learned to trust his double.

Nevertheless, it could still feel weird.

It was an odd sensation. Initially, it had felt like pins and needles when he was taken over. This terrifying stranger who had popped out of his head, shadowy and indistinct, wresting control away without warning just as he was losing control of his emotions. It was unnerving to not feel your limbs and watch them move anyway. It took a while to fully internalize, that uncanny split of KO-body, KO-mind, and TKO-mind. He wasn't his body, and he wasn't even his entire mind. Even when he wasn't struggling for control, there was still a distinction that he was uncomfortably aware of.

As they got better at sharing, that feeling morphed to the uneasy sensation of trying to work a one person puppet with two people. In the dark. Or, worse, like trying to shove two arms into one sleeve and trying to move without getting in each other's way.

Lately though, it had been warmer. Less of an awkward shuffle to blindly get around each other and more of the unconsciously efficient dance of twins working in tandem. KO could feel TKO ask to use his body, and he was out of the way in less than a heartbeat, and vice versa. It was easy. It was simple.

This time was even more different. KO stayed where he was as requested, metaphorically still at the wheel and physically still sitting on the ground. TKO moved forward, out of the mind space, overlapping KO in a slightly unnerving way. Normally, they had jostled each other out of position when taking control, but not this time. It felt like a warm blanket was covering him from head to toe. It felt almost like being possessed by a ghost and possessing it right back somehow. It felt... right.

'Ugh, this is like a brain hug. The drift machine was cool, but I don't remember it being like this at all,' thought TKO.

'This feels… weird? Not bad! But weird,' thought KO in response. 'Hey! I can- we can think at each other!'

They lifted their hand in tandem and looked at it curiously, flexing the fingers.

'I guess this is more efficient?' TKO hummed thoughtfully. 'I mean, for battles and stuff. We didn't have a ton of peripheral vision when we used the machine.'

Despite his calm internal tone, KO could feel his fidgety anxiety in the twitch of their hands. It was mixed with his own nervous excitement in the almost unconscious tapping of their feet. The feeling of united control wasn't perfect. It shifted and pulled in a web of precarious feeling. Nevertheless, it was working. They released a bit of their energy with a couple of excited hand flaps.

'This is so cool!' KO thought. 'Do you think we can fly like this? I think we should fly more.'

Their lips quirked in a grin. 'You think you can handle flying?'

Their head nodded. They lowered themself into a crouch, before springing upwards and into the air. There, just two feet above the ground, they hovered in the air. They balanced in midair. They closed their eyes and concentrated. TKO's nerves and KO's giddy glee melted together into a more calm and centered mindset. It was almost meditative, reminding them of the feeling of meditating with Carol, and Dendy's hands in their hair, and so many other quiet, happy moments.

They started giggling. Their perfect balance started to seesaw as their mouth tried to both smirk and cheerily grin. Giggling like children, they fell out of the air onto their butt. TKO backed out of control at the same time that KO said, "that was so cool!"

'I can't believe we could- Did you feel how-?' TKO was just as excited in his head.

"Yeah! Do you-?"

'We have to try that again sometime.' There was a slightly thoughtful feeling. 'Maybe over something softer next time.'

KO wrapped his arms around himself joyfully. "Promise?"

Their mouth twisted into a sharp toothed grin. "No take backsies."

"Deal."