MARTY!!!!!!!!

The Face They Share

(the Josten Twins au, part 3)

Clearly, sharing a face with someone semi-famous is a pretty shitty way to be on the run. Luckily, Nathaniel's face didn't really show up in the news until he joined the Raven lineup, though, when they were sixteen, and by then he was...different.

Abram's breath catches painfully in his chest the first time he sees Nathaniel. He looks so much like their father. That's the first thing he notices. He hadn't missed the auburn hair, or the blue eyes. In all the years he's been on the run, all the years he's been separated from half his soul, all the years he's pretended to be someone he's not, he's never missed the auburn hair and the blue eyes.

He misses the soft smile his brother gave him when they read each other bedtime stories. He misses his brother's genuine laugh when they played. He misses the warm embrace of a body that fits perfectly against his. He misses his Benjamin.

Nathan's Nathaniel is not somebody Abram has any desire to know.

Nathaniel's face is fuller than Abram's, as if he's getting regular athlete's meals and isn't decaying from stress.

His nose has been broken at least once, probably because the only violence he receives is during friendly scrimmages. The violence that Abram receives usually comes in the form of guns, and other things that can kill him. He doesn't often get punches to the face, so his nose has managed to survive all these years unbroken.

His hair is cropped close to his scalp, closer than has ever suited them. Abram starts growing his hair out. He cycles through many different shades of brown. He runs. He survives.

His mother punishes him for having friends. He doesn't have any friends. His mother tells him to act like he's never had a brother. He acts like he's never had a brother. His mother changes him.

It helps. The changes, they help.

Making himself new. Making himself different. Making himself lonely. It helps.

He feels his brother in every step he takes.

@dramaticlacrosse

Nathaniel

Inspired by @wuzeio incredible art of Raven Nathaniel meeting Fox Neil here - has anyone ever written a fic where it’s Neil who has a twin?? Mary isn’t able to take both boys on the run, so one ends up a Raven and one is a runaway for ten years and maybe he still ends up at Millport and is disguised better with close cropped hair and contacts and lifts in his shoes and Kevin’s like “….you look like this Raven Nathaniel” and Neil’s like “…..I have no idea what you’re talking about” and then more shit happens but now I’m inspired and maybe will write this fic myself!!

praying that I spelt his name right