Stone's Throw

[Charon Tethras]

"Ha!" he barks. "You only think that because you can hardly see. I've gotten real good at hiding my feelings from you, Dil."

[Diligence]

Head snapping up despite his current blindness, Dil gapes at Charon briefly. "What! Why?" he bursts out, sounding hurt as well as shocked.

[Charon Tethras]

"You don't need to be worrying about me all the time. If there's something you can do to help, I let you know."

[Diligence]

"No," Dil says flatly, and Charon can hear his eyes narrowing to slits under his blindfold. "That's not how being brothers works, Charon. If you're gonna worry about me-- and don't try and deny it, I know you're always worried about me-- then I'm going to worry about you right back."

[Charon Tethras]

"You're twelve days younger than me. That makes me the older brother, and it's my job to protect you."

[Diligence]

"I'm short lived so I'm technically older by now," Dil counters. 

[Charon Tethras]

"We're both short-lived," he grumbles, though the point that he's merikosi and Dill isn't is well taken. "And time doesn't work that way."

[Diligence]

"Time is an abstract fabrication born of the soul's limitations," Dil says with a sniff. 

[Charon Tethras]

"That's not true. Time comes out of the material plane existing."

[Diligence]

"Which is where souls are put," Dil says with a firm nod.

[Charon Tethras]

"Sure, but you have it backward. The material plane convinces souls to pay attention to time, not the other way around."

[Diligence]

Dil grins toothily. "Exactly! Which means time is a foreign aberration to our souls, which all can agree are the most important part of ourselves. Which means I'm older."

[Charon Tethras]

"Age is also an outside factor, meaning I'm the older one because I've always been older."

[Diligence]

"But if time and age are both outside factors then they cancel out and make me older."

[Charon Tethras]

He glares at Dil despite being unseen. "That's not how anything works and you know it. Ugh, I shouldn't have said anything."