Illusion | Xiaother

Mondstadt

24 months ago

"Lumine, wait up!" Aether stopped for a while to catch his breath. "C'mon brother, you know miss Ei will give us a scolding if we're late to school. AGAIN." She turned back around and kept running. Aether let out a sigh and followed his sister to his awaiting doom.

"I heard miss Ei didn't let you two off that easy this time, huh," Ven, Aether's best friend chirped as soon as they entered the classroom.

Sitting down next to Ven, Aether gave him a death glare and took out his note books while Lumine chatted among her friend group. Their homeroom teacher came a few moments later, "Students, please take your seats. I hope you all remember that your maths test papers will be given out soon so I expect the whole class studied for the exam. We wouldn't want a bad mark on our grade now, would we."

The class groaned and a bunch of complaints were heard, but the teacher dismissed them and left the class. Aether placed his head on the table while his hand was hanging over the edge. "Ven, if I die from this, delete the history I looked up from the net asap," He muttered. Ven didn't say a word, but Aether knew he was feeling the same way.

This is gonna be a long day.

.....

"We're back!"

Dragging his feet across the floor, he dropped his bag and himself on the couch. While Lumine, being the good girl she was, went straight upstairs to her room, and he heard the door was slammed as she did.

A tall figure dressed in black appeared from the dining room, probably wondering where the sound came from. He looked at Aether and looked at the stairs. then back at Aether. "What?" Aether asked nonchalantly, but the man might have already guessed what happened. He sighed, "What did you do this time?"

"Well..." Aether explained to him what happened today after school, the whole situation about some guys trying to hit on her while her brother was right beside her. So how could he let her sister get asked out by some douche bags on his watch. He might have said some mean things about them and almost picked a fight if not for Lumine holding him back. It's reasonable that she must be embarrassed and angry at him for the whole fiasco.

Aether finished telling his story, and the man gave a slight chuckle. Aether looked at him questionably, tipping his head to the the side a bit. After a pause, the man spoke, "You know Aether, she's at the age of making her own decisions, you don't need to worry about her every second of the day."

Aether let out a sigh, "I know... I- I'm just worried she'll get taken away and then forget all about me. About us. That's what I'm scared of." The man placed a hand on his shoulder, reassuring him, "If you know Lumine, she won't just just ditch us and be with some other random guy she just met, trust me."

After saying that, he prepared to leave to his bedroom upstairs. Aether ruffled through his bag and pulled out a box beautifully wrapped in wrapping paper. "Dain, wait. Would you mind giving this to Lumine on the way over? She wouldn't be happy to see my face infront of her door." Dain gave a smile, "Why don't you give it to her yourself and find out." After that he left.

Well, that's Dain for you. Never making sense of anything he says or does, like the mysterious person he is. Ever since his younger brother, Aether's and Lumine's childhood friend, died from an accident he's been taking care of them, all the while searching for evidence from 16 years ago. The twins come from a well known family, so their parents haven't had much time for them since they go on business trips and whatnot.

Aether got up from where he was sitting and grabbed his bag from the couch, hesitating on whether he should go up stairs and apologize to his sister or if he should wait till tomorrow, when she's cooled down a bit, to go and face her.