Page 73 of A Lab Rat's Guide to Fated Love
“No, please let him go!” Vir grabbed her under the arms and tried to physically lift her off the man. “He’s my brother, Adi. That was a dumb joke.”
“He had a knife!”
“There’s no knife, I promise,” Vir assured her. Then, turning to the man, he added, “I told you to stop doing that, you ass.”
Nori’s grip loosened, and she let him lift her off his brother’s back while her brain took another second to process the information. As soon as he was free, Adi crawled, coughing and sputtering, away from her to lean against the concrete bollard a few feet away.
“I didn’t know—you had a—a bodyguard,” he croaked, before muttering quietly to himself, “Nita warned you, dammit.”
He looked at Nori and a silly grin broke out on his dirt smeared face. She winced, watching a trickle of blood appear out of his left nostril.
“You okay?” Vir asked, pulling him to his feet. He seemed to be trying hard not to laugh.
Looking from one brother to another was like a live action game of find-the-difference. In all the childhood anecdotes Vir had told her over the past few months, he’d failed to mention one tiny detail.
They were identical twins.
The only difference was the stark contrast in their eyes. While Vir had the intense, dark irises Nori had become acutely familiar with, Adi’s were a striking olive-gray. Although they were framed by the same mascara-commercial lashes as his brother’s.
Adi’s hair, way longer than Vir’s, was tied up in a messy bun, with shoulder length strands sticking out in random places with dirt and leaves and a stray candy wrapper stuck in there.
“I’m so sorry,” Nori mumbled, offering him a bunch of tissues before tentatively reaching out to pull the candy wrapper out of his hair.
They took Adi to the studio with them where Vir patched his nose while Nori ordered takeout for dinner.
“Sorry…” Nori apologized again, catching him wince as he bit into a sandwich.
“Seriously now. It wasn’t your fault.” Vir let out an exasperated sigh. “I would’ve done the same if I saw someone sneak up on you like that. Maybe worse.”
She gave him a reluctant smile, instead of telling him how his idea of worse would probably look like a little flick on the forehead compared to the bloodbath she’d had running through her brain.
“He’s right. It was my fault, really. I’m sorry,” Adi added softly. He smiled, then winced again as the movement pulled on his facial muscles. “On that note, would you mind teaching me that flip sometime? It was something—pow—flip—bam!”
Heat flooded Nori’s face as she tried not to laugh. But then Vir started laughing and Adi joined him, too, marking the end of her resistance.
“You didn’t tell me you were twins,” she said after a while. “I assumed you had an older brother from the way you talked about him.”
“Iamolder,” Adi replied before Vir could speak, “by a full ten minutes. I’m the original. This one’s the ugly copy.”
“You need better twin jokes.” Vir shook his head in mock disappointment.
“You’re just jealous because you know I’m funny and you’re boring.” Adi shrugged. “Anyway, I thought you were someplace secret in Himachal, though? Is everything okay? Are those other researchers giving you trouble again?”
“Right. About that…”
Vir had explained things to Adi on strictly a need-to-know basis earlier, so his brother wouldn’t worry when he couldn’t locate him at the university.
They filled him in on the remaining details.
“Are youserious?”
Adi stared at them with eyes so comically round and kitten-like—just like Vir’s, but a different color—it made Nori spontaneously burst into laughter. Both brothers turned to stare at her with identical puzzled expressions, only making it harder for her to stop.
“Sorry. Still getting used to the twin thing,” she said once composed. “Yes, the experiment worked.”
“Yup.” Vir added, beaming. “I guess I’ll hang around for a bit longer.”
“Thank fuck!” Adi lunged towards Vir and pulled him into a hug—or a chokehold—it was hard to tell.
