Chapter Text
When Aether presented a pair of DCKZ special showcase tickets to her, Lumine felt like her heart was going to burst. She had tried so hard to get the tickets, having used all her gadgets to queue online, yet when it was her turn, they were already sold out.
"Ae... how do you get these?" asked Lumine. She held the tickets close to her as if it would disappear if she didn't.
Aether's face was smug and while normally Lumine would love to wipe it off, she let him off the hook this one time. "I have my sources," he said, shifting from sitting to lying on the pink couch in Lumine's room.
Lumine stuck her tongue out. She then turned her seat around to face her camera setup. Now that she got the tickets, she had to make a video. Her almost a million youtube followers needed to know!
"So, who're you bringing?" asked Aether from the couch in the background.
Lumine stopped fiddling with her camera to glance at her brother and shot him a wink. "Dear brother, you of course!"
Aether loudly groaned to which Lumine just laughed.
Aether whistled at the amount of people already gathered for the fansign event before the small concert. Lumine, who was as excited as she was nervous, stayed close to her brother, looking around from over his shoulder. She had her vlogging camera on one hand while the other clutched Aether's upper arm. Her head moved around so often as she hoped to get a glimpse of the members before they officially showed up.
This brought a chuckle from Aether. "Can you even see anything like that?"
Lumine huffed. Before she can reply, the crowd suddenly cheered, to the shock of the blonde twins. Diluc, Childe, Kaeya and Zhongli of DCKZ just came out from backstage and were heading to the signing table. Diluc kept his calm demeanor as he gave small waves to fans here and there; Childe, though his eyes remained empty, had a smile permanently plastered on his face; Kaeya also adorned a smile, though his was accompanied by a few winks; and Zhongli, with a warm smile, politely waved to the fans.
Unable to contain her excitement, Lumine joined in the cheering herself, shaking Aether along as she still had her hand on his arm.
"Aether, we're really meeting them!" Lumine squeeked loudly, almost rupturing the boy's eardrums.
Aether briefly thought of reminding Lumine that they did just met the D and K of DCKZ at least two weeks ago, but he figured she would just brush it off. Lumine did lecture him once how it was different for her to meet with Diluc and Kaeya as members of the Ragvindr household and as members of her favorite idol group. He called it the Lumine Idol Theory.
The signing started as soon as the four members took their seats. Within half an hour, it was already the twins' turn to interact with the idols.
First it was Zhongli. The older man smiled as Aether approached, Lumine in tow. Aether casually greeted, "Hey Zhongli, this-" pushing Lumine to the front- "is Lumine, she is a big fan you guys."
"Ah, hello Lumine, I would like to thank you for your support," said Zhongli. Hearing his deep voice live was too much for Lumine that she needed to remind herself to breathe.
'Breathe Lumi, don't make a fool of yourself.'
"Hi," she managed a small squeak. Then clearing her throat, Lumine said, with more dignity, "It's nice to meet you."
Zhongli smiled. 'Keep calm Lumi.'
"The pleasure is all mine." As he was signing the postcard to be given to Lumine, Zhongli kept the conversation going. "I heard from Aether that you are a vlogger. Are you recording right now?" he asked, gesturing to her camera.
Lumine nodded.
"May I say something to your viewers?"
Lumine was stunned. 'Did he just...' It took Aether pinching her arm for Lumine to realise that Zhongli was still waiting for her response.
"Of course! Yeah, sure!" Lumine directed the camera towards Zhongli.
Zhongli said a few words (at this point Lumine was too busy looking at him and squeeling in her mind to register a word he said) and ended it with a warm smile. He gave Lumine (and Aether) the signed postcard and they took a few photos together. After at least five thank yous from Lumine, they moved to the next member.
Kaeya was smirking when the twin approached. "Hey guys," he said, "glad you could make it."
"Uhm.. would you.. say something to my viewers?" asked Lumine, her tone low unlike the one she normally used.
Kaeya raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh, I was in your last video too. You love me that much?"
Before Lumine or Aether could reply, Diluc who was sitting beside Kaeya interrupted, which surprised them. "Lumine Idol Theory, Kaeya," he said, earning an approving nod from Aether.
Kaeya laughed. Thankfully Lumine already had her camera up to capture it. He then proceeded to say a few words (again, Lumine was too out of it to register anything). Lumine remembered to thank him for it.
"So, you two, whats new?" Kaeya asked as he was signing postcards for them.
Aether answered on behalf of him and his twin. "Nothing much. Oh, Lumi has been actively writing songs!"
This perked up all four members. "That's very interesting. You planning on getting into the industry?"
Lumine shrugged. "Don't know yet. I'm just doing it as a hobby right now," she said.
Kaeya gave her a smile. A genuine one you could tell it came from his heart. "Whatever you two do, you'll be amazing at it!" he said as he passed Lumine and Aether their postcards.
"Thanks."
"I'm ignoring the Lumi Idol Theory for a while now to say this, if there's anything I can help you guys with, please do tell," said Diluc as the twins moved in front of him.
Lumine returned Diluc's smile with her own sweet one. "Thanks Luc. I will."
Diluc cleared his throat, then gesturing to Lumine's camera, he said, "Would you like me to..."
Lumine's face lit up. She set her camera to perfectly capture the redhead before signalling him to start. He said a few words to her viewers, which again, Lumine tuned out. They then took a few photos (she might have taken more shots with Diluc than the two previous members), one with the older guy playfully ruffling her hair.
Finally the twins had come in front of the last member, Childe. Aether casually greeted the orange-haired guy with a 'yow' and a wave. Lumine, however, could not be as casual. Because sitting in front of her, blue eyes trained at her was (secretly) her bias of DCKZ! To ground herself, Lumine had to grab Aether's arm again.
Under Childe's gaze, Lumine suddenly felt super nervous she started fiddling with Aether's sleeve. It didn't help that the guy had yet to say anything to her, and had only been looking at her. Plus, Aether was too distracted with something on his phone to notice the atmosphere, damn him!
After what seemed like hours (it was only half a minute), Childe finally let out a chuckle. "Hey girlie," he said.
Lumine felt like she could die happy then. His voice.. hearing them live was so much better than she had imagined. All the recordings did him no justice.
'Come on, Lumi. You can't miss this chance. You don't know when will you get to talk to him like this again.'
"Hi, nice to meet you. I'm a huge fan on you guys," she said, managing to sound calmer than the turbulence that she truly felt.
Childe chuckled again. 'He really laughs a lot.'
"Well, it's nice to meet you too. Lumi, right?" asked Childe. He started to sign the postcards for her and Aether.
"Lumine, actually."
"Right, Lumine. Heard that you wrote songs. If it is okay with you, can I hear them sometime?"
The question took Lumine by surprise. Her favorite idol was asking to hear her song! She chanced a glance at Aether side-eyeing Childe as if the latter guy had other ulterior motive but Lumine was too stunned and excited to actually reprimand her brother.
"I take it from the smile, the answer is yes?"
Lumine realised she had yet to give the guy her answer. Nodding softly, she said, "Y.. yeah, sure. I'll make sure to share it with you if it turns out good."
"You don't have to humor him, Lumi. Childe, don't scare the girl."
All three heads (Lumine, Childe and Aether) turned towards the source of the stern voice. Diluc kept his attention on his phone, unbothered by the stares.
"Ahahahahaha come on Diluc, I'm just trying to be friendly here," said the ginger. Noticing the other fans in line were getting impatient, he then handed his signed postcards to Aether and Lumine. "Here guys. Good to see you. Hope we can meet again Lumine."
"Yeah, okay, bye," said Lumine as she was dragged away from the table by Aether.
Aether stopped dragging Lumine once the idols were out of their sight. He turned to her, hands on hips.
"What was that?"
Lumine who had her eyes on the signed postcards looked up. "What was what?"
"The way you acted. That wasn't like you."
Lumine groaned. "I know," she said. "I tried to stay calm but its hard, you know. Imagine you meeting the L/YUE girls and they're looking at you, talking with you.. you'll act like me too!"
Aether was about to deny it but was cut off by Lumine's "Oh, shit, NO!!"
The girl looked at her brother, her eyes beginning to water. "Ae..."
Worried, Aether asked, "what's wrong?"
"I forgot to ask Childe to speak to my viewers."