I see you've opted out of discussing the silentness of your revert. Anyhow, it's not awkward wording. That's how it's done in professional periodicals, without font formatting, and whether we call it "special" or not, (WP:CAPTION calls it special, BTW) it's unnecessary. Per WP:CAPFRAG, "The text of captions should not be specially formatted (with italics, for example), except in ways that would apply if it occurred in the main text." We wouldn't use small fonts in the main text a la: "Itchy (the mouse) and Scratchy (the cat). The guideline also says that the caption should be succinct and not state the obvious. "(top, the mouse)" is redundant and and states the obvious. So unless you have an argument that adheres to an established guideline my pitch is some more succinct alternative like "Itchy (mouse) and Scratchy (cat)" or "Itchy (left) and Scratchy (right)" or "Itchy (top) and Scratchy." (no "bottom") And if parentheses aren't your thing, I'm fine with commas.