The Perry Brothers - Ch. 30

Terri and Terry, 34 years old
Catherine is working today, so Terry and Terri decided to take Veronica to the park. Terry isn't exactly  enjoying the sound of screaming children and the little toys flying across the sandpit, but he loves watching how Veronica draws in the sand and plays a ninja when sliding down the tunnel.

   The sun is shining and there's a nice breeze. "Daddy! Papa! Look how high I can climb!" Veronica shouts from ontop of the monkeybars. She calls Terri papa, and Terry daddy. Otherwise it would be too confusing. The twins have had enough of those moments, when someone calls one's name and they stare at each other, wondering which one they ment. Suddenly Veronica sees a couple of monsters, a little bit older than her, flying. She looks over to her fragile wings. They're small and she can move them only a little bit, since she has never used them. Veronica runs over to the swings and starts swinging as fast as she can. Her short braid keeps hitting the back of her neck. Terri starts to worry as Veronica stands up on the swing as it goes higher and higher. Then Terry sees the look on Veronica's face and knows what's going on. He starts running over to her shouting: "Veronica, stop right now!" She looks at her fathers getting closer, but won't obey. "Young lady, I'm warning you!" Veronica stands back on the swing and places her left foot at the front of the swing. "Veronica May Perry!" She leaps off.

   "What were you thinking?" Terry scolds, while he carries Veronica on his and Terri's back. Veronica stays silent and a few tears roll down her cheeks. She hurt her knee and is feeling slightly ashamed. "You could've gotten seriously injured!" While Terry goes on scolding, Veronica wraps her right arm even tighter around Terri's neck. Just as Terry feared it would be, Terri has become the nice, fun dad, while Terry is the stricht dad. Veronica ignores her dad's lecturing and looks at all the other monsters with wings around her. "Why don't mom, daddy and papa have wings, but I do?" she thinks to herself.

   They get home and Veronica immidiately goes to the bathroom to get her favourite plasters: the ones with caterpillars. She hands the package over to daddy and papa. Terri takes one out of the box, gives it to Terry and then Terry puts it on Veronica's knee. He gives a little kiss on the knee and whispers: "Don't do that again, okay? You got me pretty worried." Veronica nods quickly, gives both fathers a kiss on the cheek and runs to her room.

   "Seems to be a thing in our family, to jump out of high places in that age", Terri jokes. "Not funny." Terry puts some water boiling and gets macaronies from the cupbord. Terri has a little bit of worry on his face. "How are we going to teach her to fly?" he asks. Terry is surprised. "We don't necesseraly have to..." "I think she wants to." Terry hesitates for a second. "We'll see. If she tells us she wants to fly, we'll figure something out." Terri thinks for a moment, but then lets it go and helps Terry with cooking.

   Once the brothers get the casserole into the oven, they go to see if Veronica's okay. She's lying on the floor with lots of colour pencils and a piece of paper in front of her. Veronica is often drawing. This one is a fluffy rabbit. Seems to be a toy, with the extremely visible seams, pieces of thread and button eyes. Veronica's quite impressive. She deep in her little zone and won't notice papa and daddy at all. Some day, she's going to be something amazing.

The Perry Brothers - Ch. 29

Terri and Terry, 29 years old

"Just, look at her!" "She's beautiful." "Our little angel..." Catherine holds in her arms an adorable baby girl with purple-blue butterfly wings. She has a start of thick, light blue and pink-ish purple, yarn-like hair, light turquoise skin, hooves for hands and feet, and small, sharp horns. She blinks with her four eyes, all just a little bit later than the one before. It took Terry, Terri and Catherine a lot of time and effort, to adopt her. It wasn't easy to get official custody shared between three monsters, two brothers, and the other one's wife.

  Veronica. That's what they've named their daughter. Veronica May Perry. Veronica means "she brings victory". And she surely does. Terri and Terry have gone to tattoo it on their back, with some blue and purple butterflies. The butterflies are very simple, but bring a nice detail to the text. Veronica. It sounds so good. Especially, when they know it's their daughter's name. This time, Terry had to do the convincing. Terri wasn't sure if he wanted a tattoo, but then again, Terry wasn't sure if he wanted a kid. But in the end, they got both of them, and they love both of them.

   They go back home, and take Veronica to the nursery they've created together. The walls are completely white, with the exception of a simple green tree Catherine painted. On the wooden floor, there's a green, soft carpet with yeallow stipes. There are tiny, yeallow and green, chairs and tables next to a wooden closet. The closet has been decorated with butterfly stickers. Terri and Terry carefully put Veronica into her crib, underneath the window. "She's amazing." "We're amazing", Catherine whispers. "I mean think about it. We're parents. Role models. Mom and dads..." No one says a word. They all just watch Veronica sleeping peacefully and thinking - mom and dads. That sounds good.

The Perry Brothers - Ch. 28

Terri and Terry, 29 years old

The sun rises rather quickly. The twins walk around aimelessly in the kitchen, trying to make coffee. They can barely keep their eyes open as they swich the coffee maker on. The brothers go to the living room and Terry begins reading the news paper while Terri watches TV. Catherine walks in, wearing a bathrobe, and greets Terry and Terri with a loving smile. It's the most regular sunday morning.

   The family goes to sit by the breakfast table. They drink their coffee, eat their breakfast. Catherine seems like she's wondering or holding something back. "Is everything okay, sweetie?" "Yes, I was just thinking... You see, I have been thinking lately, that I... I would like to have a child." As the twins hear the news, Terry spills his coffee and nearly chokes on it. Terri tries to carefully ask if he's alright. "Yeah, yeah. A child! Uh, yeah, um... Sure! Why not? Kids! Why not get five of them right now... Yeah..." Terry is being sarcastic, but scared. He lets out a nervous fake laugh. "You don't want kids?" "Ah, no, yes! Everything's fine! I-I... I'd rather not talk about it." Catherine and Terri look at each other for help, but neither of them know what to do. Catherine finishes quickly. "Hey, I thought, I could go on a walk. By myself. So you guys can... or cannot, what do I know? Bye, honey!"

   After Catherine's gone Terri starts talking. "Terry, what's wrong? Sure, you've never really liked kids that much, but you've always seemed like you wanted to be a dad." Terry gives up and sighs, but still won't look at Terri. "I don't know... I just don't feel like I'm ready. I mean, I think I'm ready! I guess, I just don't feel like it." Terry stays silent for a long while. "I just don't think, I could ever be a good dad." "Don't be ridiculous! You'd be a great dad." "Yeah, sure..." Terry is being difficult again. "Look, I'm not going to force you to do this, but I know, you can do it and..." Terri does it again. The puppy dog eye. Somehow, after all these years, he can still do it. And it works.

   "Okay, I think we have no other option than adoption." "I don't know, sweetie... It's a lot of hard work. And I mean a lot." Terri gives a big sigh. "I know, but I don't think Terry's ever going to-" "Hey, I'm right here! I think, you could talk a little bit more respectfully." There's a long silence. At first it's awkward, but then Catherine laugh a short, soft laugh. "Think about it. We're gonna be parents." Terri smiles. "Yeah... That's pretty awesome." The silence continues. Terry doesn't say a word, but smiles wide. He's going to be a dad.

The Perry Brothers - Ch. 27

Terri and Terry, 28 years old (the beginning is Terri's p.o.v)

Just another normal day. Nothing special. Get up, go to work. Wait. It seems like things are getting skipped. I forget everything I've done, right away. Whatever. There's something else weird going on. I can't figure out, what... Oh well. I guess, I should just carry on. I walk around town, but I don't seem to have a destination. I guess, I forgot about that too. There's no one to be seen. Hmm... Everything seems out of place. That's not, where the tree usually stands. I guess, trees can change places then. Wait, what? Something's not right. Well, things are always a little weird. But still... Wait. Where's Terry? Oh my god, where's Terry? This can't be right. I realize, that the whole left side of my body has been bandaged. I try to scream Terry's name, but I can't make a sound. Help! Where's Terry? I need to find him! Suddenly a car drives right past me. I fall down, but can't get up. I only have three tentacles. I should have four. It's a birth defect. Usually Terry helps, but now, he's not here. What am I going to do? I try to scream, but still, no sound. I drag myself to a patch of grass. How could this even happen? Someone comes and puts a white blanket on me. When it finally gets taken off, I'm lying on stage. The audience is full, and everyone looks familiar. Yet, I can't recognize any of them. The only thing on stage, apart from me, is an old typewriter. Nothing else. Someone stands up in the audience. It's Terry! I scream his name and...

   Terri opens his eye. He's sweating and shaking. At first, he remembers nothing, but then starts to panic. He quickly looks over to his left and sighs in relief, as he sees Terry sleeping next to him. Still there, still attached. It takes him quite a while to realize, it was just a dream. It still frightens Terri. He just wishes he could hide somewhere and cry. That's how bad it was. There's a light in the hallway. Catherine is probably in the bathroom. Terry wakes up to Terri's heavy breathing. "Man, you're shaking all over. Did you have a nightmare again?" "A bad one. A really, really bad one." Terry sees his brother's fright. Terry always knows. There's nothing Terri could hide from him. "Do you want to talk about it?" "I-I don't know, I guess..." Terri starts explaining all he can. He's restless and slightly panicing. There's something that he realized. Something that touched him really unexpectedly. "I don't really no why this would be such a big deal, I just..." Terri sighs and looks over to his brother. Terry looks at him with a smile. It makes Terri feel a lot better. It makes him feel like he matters. "You know, I think I realized something. I guess, that I... I really need you." Terry's eye opens wide. He stops all of his thoughts. "And I don't mean just the obvious things, like sharing organs, having less limbs. I need you." Terry's eye is getting watery. His lower lip starts trembling. Terry is desperately trying to hold back. He quickly throws his arms around Terri and tries to sob quieter. Terri hugs him back with a big smile on his face. He has won the battle.

The Perry Brothers - Ch. 26

Terri and Terry, 27 years old

"Should we have a theme? I think we should have a theme! What's gonna be our theme?" Terry rolls his eye once again. Terri and Catherine are totally obsessed with planning their wedding. "How 'bout winter wonderland?" Oh, come on. That's so cliché. Terri however likes the idea. The couple goes through different colours, patterns and flowers. Snowflake invitations. Ruby giants. Lots of lace. Shoulder warmers. Long gloves. The colours are going to be white, light blue, silver and purple. It fits well with the winter theme and also the ring. Terri and Catherine are going crazy. Luckily, Terry gets them convinced to do a smaller wedding.

   There's absolutely no peace. Let's go dress shopping, let's go cake tasting, let's go here, let's go there. It's really taking all the energy out of Terry. "Who are we gonna invite?" Terry wakes up from his own thoughts. "I-I don't know... Friends... Family... Whatever." Terri groans and tries to think of more people. "Hey, how about Roland?" Terry looks over to his brother, confused. "Roland? Terri, I'm not sure if that's a good idea..." "It'll be fine. We haven't seen him in a long, long time, and he was our best friend." "But-" "You could finally tell him, how you feel." Terry is choking up a little bit. He's looking at Terri with an angry, but vulnerable expression. "You know what, I don't care. It's your wedding anyway, not mine." Terri gets frustrated. "I thought we went through the phase of your and my life! I... Well... Fine. I'll invite him anyway." Terry definitely doesn't want to see Roland again. And telling him, how he feels. No way. Terry never bothers others with his feelings. Your thoughts are your thoughts, you keep them to yourself.

   "This is it, Terry. I'm getting married." The twins fix their purple ties and smile at each other. Wow. Both of them realize just now, that they really are grown up. That's weird. Terry still sees his brother as the little over-active kid. Always getting into trouble. Terri still sees his brother as the little awkward kid. Always having trouble standing up for himself. They can remember their game nights like yesterday. All the stupid fights. This wedding is supposed to celebrate Terri and Catherine, but somehow, it feels like it's about Terri and Terry.

   The music starts. Instead of classic wedding music, they have a love song. Not too cheesy though. They didn't want a too traditional wedding. Catherine steps in. She's gorgeous. Her beautiful, silky hair is left loose and free, but very small, glitter snowflakes are scattered carefully at the ends. Her dress moves beautifully while she walks. One single flower petal drops to the ground. Terri can barely stand still, waiting for Catherine to reach the altar. As she gets closer, she offers her hand to Terri and smiles. This is really it. Marriage. I just feels so right to stand next to each other, right here, right now. It feels magical. It feels like a fairytale. The best fairytale.

   When the ceremony is over, of course, the couple shares their first kiss as husband and wife. Catherine also gives Terry a small kiss on the cheek. Terry blushes. It's impossible to describe, how much it means to him, that Catherine appreciates him. He really thought, there would be no one in the whole world, that could accept him, even though they only want his brother. Terri is glad too. More than glad. Catherine is perfect in every way.

   Music. Darkness. Lights. Smiling faces. The reception is laid-back. Samantha walks over to the couple. "Hey, Sam! It's been so long." They give a big hug. "Uh, Catherine, this is Samantha, our old friend." "Who did you call old?" Classic Samantha. "So, you're still with Lily?" "Yeah. I can't believe it's been already 15 years..." Catherine won't believe what she's hearing. "Wh-what, wait, how? You've been together for 15 years? I mean then you'd have to have met when you were little kids!" "Well, little kids... Maybe just kids. Preteens. Do you guys have some sort of a honey moon?" "Well, no. We're just going to stay home together." Samantha let's out a smirk. "Well, congratulations to the couple, and Terry! Now, I'm gonna go get more drinks so I can go crazy..."

   Catherine has gone and talk to her friends. The brothers are looking around and see Roland. "Hey, Roland!" "Hi, guys! Congrats and all, this is amazing." "Yeah, thanks. How are you and Molly doing?" Roland suddenly looks upset, but quickly is over it. "Oh, yeah... We're not... Yeah, it didn't work out." "Oh... I'm sorry, I should've..." "It's fine. I'm actually kinda glad." Terri stops for a moment. "Hey, stay there, Terry and I gotta talk." Terri takes his brother a little further away from Roland. "There's your sign." "What?" "Ask him out!" "Terri, no! He's not interested in me!" "And how would you know?" "Isn't it clear? It's never going to happen." "Terry, we went through this already! Now you're just deciding to be miserable and alone." "Well, maybe I am then. It's still not going to happen!" Terri turns his brother to face him and looks into his eye. "Terry. I know that face. I know this feeling. I recognize that voice. You want to tell him. And you should." "Well, sometimes things don't go the way you want." Terry turns away. Terri gives up. He doesn't want to use the puppy eye on this one. This one's serious. He knows Terry would feel humiliated in this situation. Maybe someday, he'd find someone. There's no use pushing Terry.

The Perry Brothers - Ch. 25

Terri and Terry, 27 years old. I recommend listening to Danny Elfman's Ice Dance while reading!

Catherine puts on her skates and heads to the ice. "You coming?" "Uh, yeah. We'll come right after you." She goes and does some tricks while waiting. "I don't know if I should do this..." "Terri, everything's going to be fine." "But, what if she doesn't want to? Maybe we're not ready." "You are ready. We are ready. It's impossible for her to say no." Terri tries to come up with an excuse to back up. "But, I mean, what about you?" "You don't have to care about me." "But-" "Terri! Do you love this woman or not?" "Well, y-yeah, but..." "Then, no buts! Remember, how much money we spent on that. No going back." Terri stays silent for a moment. "C-could, you do it for me?" "Terri..." "Okay, okay, I'm going!"

   Catherine is gorgeus. She skates gracefully and twirls everytime she changes her direction. Her perfect silky hair is covered with snowflakes. As she goes past the brothers, they see her eyelashes have turned all white from the frost. She's sparkling. Terri's time stops. He subcontiously moves a little closer to Catherine. His breaths are quiet, warm and filled with love. Love for her. Terri's hands start trembling. Catherine suddenly grabs both of the brothers' hands and starts spinning. As she giggles, white frosty air flows up to the sky. She looks into Terri's eye. Her sharp eyes gleam and send warmness into Terri, even though they're icy grey with a shade of blue. A small strand of her enchanting hair falls onto her face and Terri gently pushes it away and leaves his hand onto her cheek. They're the only living things in this timeless universe. It's just them forever. Everything is perfect. The place is perfect. The mood is perfect. The feeling is perfect. She is perfect. She's beyond perfect.

   Terri slowly puts his lower hand in his pocket. "You know, Catherine. I-I... I just really love you. That's all I can really say. B-but there is more I can do." Terry smiles a little as Catherine starts to listen. "I just have to say, you're the most amazing person, I've ever met. There's no one who could replace you." Catherine smiles and blushes. Her cheeks are more red than usual, from the cold. "And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Because I love you. And I trust you." Terri takes out of his pocket, a silver ring with small, light purple jewels in it all around. "So, Catherine... Will you marry me?"

   "Terri..." Catherine's hands start trembling too and she shares the warm deep breaths with Terri. "Terri, I love you too. I trust you. No one could take your place in my life." Terry already knows what's going to happen, but Terri is getting more nervous every second. "I will. I will. I will, Terri, I will!" Catherine kisses Terri deeply and they share the warm breaths completely syncronized.

The Perry Brothers - Ch. 24

Terri and Terry, 26 years old
Wow. Has it really been that long? Yeah, four years. After college, they haven't seen the OK guys for four years. Okay, they've bumbed into some of them at work, since all of them have become fairly succesful scarers, getting their own scarecards and everything... Terry and Terri once again have to share it. Anyways an occasional 'Hi' is all the words they've shared with the guys. Now they're getting back together at the former fraternity house. Nowadays only Don and Squishy's mom are living there. Yeah! Squishy has moved out of his mom's house. It's about time...

   The twins and Catherine arrive. It's just like they remembered. The flowers are growing wildly, but at the same time neatly on the sides of the stairs, and the white pillars are showing how old they're getting. A warm light comes from the downstairs windows. Terri gazes over to the left upstairs window. There used to be their room. Suddenly a small monster pops up to wave at them from the window. They wave back and head inside.

   Party central. They had one single big party here. It was after Mike and Sully got expelled. The party went totally crazy. Luckily the brothers didn't go as crazy as in one other party. That party is one of the things the brothers would rather forget. Although, without that party they would've never met the Oozma Kappa. They wouldn't have competed in the scare games, they wouldn't have gotten back into the scaring program, they wouldn't have become scarers. They probably wouldn't have met Catherine either...

   The only one missing now is Mike. He told Sully to tell the others, that he's picking up his girlfriend. He might be showing off, maybe not. It's still really good to see everyone. Squishy says he's in a relationship, but apparantelly it's not that serious, so his partner isn't here. Everyone seems to get along Catherine. She has absolutely fallen in love with the whimsical group. Apart from working at Monsters Inc. Art's started a business. Apparantelly a small vegan shop. Don and Sheri are in a very happy marriage. They're isn't much to say about it. Squishy still isn't that comfortable with it, but he's gotten used to it.

   The atmosphere is warm and welcome, just like the old days. Don and Sheri are sharing a big armchair, Sully and Squishy are chilling on the sofa and Art is lying around on the floor. Terri and Terry are sitting on a stool with Catherine on their lap. It took long before Terry allowed that. Suddenly the frontdoor flies open and Mike steps in, with a young female monster with a green scaly dress and purple snakes as hair.

   Celia. This is not good, this is not good, this is not good, not at all. Celia seems calm at first, but then sees Terri. Catherine sitting on his lap is not making her feel any more forgiving. She took the break up pretty hard, since she was so young at the time. Terry realizes the fact, that she's now the age she said she was on her dating profile. Oh yeah, maybe it would be smarter to work out what to do.

   Terri asks Catherine to move over and Terry understands to stand up. "Mike? C-can I talk to you? Alone?" "Sure." The three monsters go to the kitchen. "What's wrong?" "Uh, you see you girlfriend... Well I used to... It's kinda funny, you see-" "Terri used to date Celia." "What?" "Well, a while after you and Sully got expelled, I went online dating and I met Celia." Mike stops for a moment to think. Then his makes a weird face out of confusion. "But she must've been like 16 or something. And you were atleast 20!" Terry talks in a calm tone. "Yeah, she was 15." Mike makes a sort of screaming face, but doesn't make a noise.

   Terri stutters and looks over to the party central every now and then. "But we didn't know! She claimed that she was 21! But there's one more thing, that she might be a l-little mad about. You know, Terry wasn't that happy in the relationship and I realized that it wasn't exactly a healthy realtionship either, so I sorta, dumped her. And I should've picked a better moment to do that." Terry is still very calm. "Let's be honest, you dumped her in a really coldhearted way. Though I really strongly believe, she deserved it." "But, but, but, why?! I mean, she's like the most amazing person in this universe!" The brothers answer at the same time. "Yeah, I know, but..." "Haha, no. She's not."

   "Terry?!" "What can I do? She's awful. Lying, needy, and basically just a b-" "Okay, okay, fine. What are we gonna do?" "This shouldn't be too big of a problem, right?" Terri looks over to the living room, where Celia stares daggers at Catherine. "Yeah, I don't think so..." Terri suggests a simple idea. "Okay, let's try and play it cool. Just, ignore the past, you know. We're not here to fight or fix anything, we're here to meet old friends." "And she's not one of them." "Well, I guess so..."

   The three monsters go back, carefully. Terri tries to act natural. "So, it's nice to see old friends... Right?" Time goes by. The guys talk about the good old days, and what's going on right now, but Terry and Terri are constantly worried that Celia would jump at their throats. "Yeah, Catherine's really talented and creative. I can send you the link to her website. It's awesome." "Terri! Stop it, you're embarassing me." Celia's face starts turning strawberry red. "It was real fun, but I think we should go..." As the twins and Catherine leave, Terry and Celia share one more cold stare.