Archive of Our Own ^beta

It’s been there for as long as they can both remember – the telepathy thing. The psychic connection between them, the fact that they can share their thoughts if they want to.

It’s a twin thing, is all any professionals were able to say when the condition was taken to the doctors. A phenomenon that manifests itself in some – but not all – sets of twins. It saved their mother nights of coming into their room and telling them to be quiet as children, and made teenage life either heaven or complete hell depending on how they felt about each other that day. And now, it helps them out in the ring.

Brie doesn’t know if any other twins she knows have the same ability. She’s never asked, always thought that a risk because it doesn’t affect everybody, because it isn’t something that everybody even knows about. They were always told to keep it secret, in their own minds rather than out in the open.

She can definitely imagine the Usos having such a connection: they’re always so in-sync, so in tune with each other in the ring, that it’s actually kind of scary, even though she’s got her own twin. Sure, nowadays she and Nikki aren’t quite as twin-like as they were before – they’re becoming more different in their gear and their moves and the personalities that they’re allowed to display on screen – but they still complement each other, still work well together.

Not so much recently, though. And not just because Brie quit (she was not fired, thank you very much), but because even when Nikki’s close to her, Brie can’t seem to get on her wavelength. Whatever. She decides to focus on Summerslam and her match against Stephanie instead. That’s what’s important right now.

She doesn’t have Nikki in her head cheering her on, but she tells herself it’s OK. She can deal with coming out to the ring on her own; she should be fine. All Brie can do is go out there and stick it to the Authority for making her and Daniel’s lives hell. She might be a little upset that Nikki didn’t wish her good luck before the match, but she’s not going to let it worry her any more than it already is, not going to let it stop her from doing her best.

It hadn’t crossed her mind – she was too busy doing her best to try and win – but by the end of the match, by the time Nikki’s come out to the ring to interrupt it, Brie’s realised why she hasn’t been able to connect with Nikki recently, why Nikki’s been shutting her out.

Nikki’s been colluding with the Authority behind her back, trying to get one up on her because… Brie doesn’t even know why. She thought Rollins’ betrayal of the Shield was unexpected, but this? Her own sister? She never thought she’d see the day.

When she heads backstage, she’s alone, only her own thoughts running through her head.