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“N—Nah, I can’t do that!”
Aether frantically shook his hands in front of him, nodding his head in rejection at the invitation he had received.
“Why are you being so adamant about it? Come on, there’s nothing wrong with it.”
The woman in front of him was cheery, chuckling at the Traveler’s antics while maintaining her rigorous posture, the fading sun in the sky coloring her face orange and causing her blonde hair to shimmer.
“I—I don’t know… I don’t really get invited that much to eat… let alone to someone’s home.” Aether’s voice dropped when he said, ‘home,’ reminded of the home that he was absent of.
“Barbara will be there, she’s expecting you,” said the woman, uncrossing her arms and taking a relaxed posture around Aether.
“Won’t this be the first time you two have eaten together in a long time? Do you really want me there intruding?” Aether came up with an excuse to avoid having to go and intrude into another person’s home.
“The only reason us two will be having dinner together would be because of you. You wouldn't be intruding at all.”
The woman inviting Aether into her home for dinner was none other than the esteemed Jean, adamant about her invitation to one of her good friends, the blonde boy himself, Aether.
He put his hand down in defeat, Jean’s casual smile a thing he adverted his eyes from, peeking at the black bow at the top of her head.
Aether was being invited into a home that wasn’t his, invited to watch a family that wasn’t his in their own home, eating dinner together and sharing smiles and laughs, when he hadn’t done that in centuries. It was something he didn’t want to be a part of, not his family, but because it was Jean and Barbara, half of his heart told him to fool himself, that it would be fine to accept the invitation, even if he was lying to himself and them.
He silently huffed out a breath he’d been holding onto out through his nose, looking at Jean’s forehead to give the appearance that he was making eye contact with her, and he slumped his shoulders down and relaxed them.
“Alright, fine. I’ll intrude into your home," Aether relinquished, smiling faintly at Jean.
“That’s great! Thank you, Aether, but I have to correct you. I’m the one inviting you, it’s not intruding then,” Jean expressed, not addressing Aether with ‘Traveler,’ or ‘Honorary Knight,’ like she used to, but by his given name. A thing Aether had told Jean and Barbara to do after a year had passed since he came to know them.
Jean turned around, her heeled boots tapping on Mondstadt concrete. Aether looked at the back of her head, her short blonde hair that was blurred by the rays of the setting sun, the distance made by her walking and him standing still creating a mirage in his eyes.
Jean was taller than Aether, he had to look up at her, and she had a ponytail tied by a black bow, but if Aether looked at her back when the sun obscured her looks, then for a moment, Jean appeared like someone else.
It was worse when he stared at Barbara from the back.
“Aha…” Aether’s laugh was one second long, barely picked up by his own ears. He put away the smile he had on, his eyes fixed on Jean’s hair, his delusion ruined by the bobbing of her ponytail.
He couldn’t help it, staring at Jean and Barbara and getting closer to them, actually referring to them as friends.
They had blonde hair, and one was short enough. Again, Jean had the ponytail, and Barbara had her twin-tails, and Jean was way taller than her, and Barbara was close enough. There voices were nothing like hers though, and neither were their professions and likes and dislikes.
But because there were physical similarities, and to Aether the most important factor was them being siblings, sisters, that was all he had to focus on to pull the wool over himself.
Aether sighed, and he sprinted towards Jean, closing the distance and following her from behind at an angle. He couldn’t walk next to her or Barbara, no matter how hard he tried. It didn’t feel right to, it wouldn’t be because he wanted to walk next to them, but using them to walk next to the person that was gone.
He stared ahead, the Acting Grand Master in the corner of his sight. She sure was taller than Aether and her, and he focused on that trait of Jean's, not a chance for a mirage to appear in his vision.
When they made it to Jean’s home after a long and leisure walk, Barbara was there to greet them both.
“Aether, I’m glad you’re here! Sit down, dinner is ready already,” Barbara greeted Aether with a smile, quick to accept him into a home that was foreign to him and have him sit down at the eating quarters, pushing him from behind with her hands on his back.
“Okay! No need to push me there,” Aether let a laugh escape, such overabundant cheer from Barbara a huge difference between herself and her, a stark reminder to him that Barbara is Barbara and not whatever person he makes her out to be. He does it less often now, having known Barbara for more than two years, able to see her as his friend. There was a time when he would address her by her name, but not see the person she was.
“Geez, at least let him wash his hands first,” Jean sighed, motioning to the two of them to follow her to the kitchen.
The three took turns washing their hands, waiting in line. There was Aether, in the vicinity, in the home of a family, two sisters, that he had no right to be next to. He did like spending time with them, friends after all, but being in their home was a different matter. He turned his head away from the two.
“Hmm…”
“What is it, buddy?” Jean asked, wanting to be a good host for her friend.
Such a term used by the Acting Grand Master herself was into the deep end of being strange, any to hear it suffering from severe whiplash. It was Aether’s fault, his constant visits to Jean in her office at the Favonius headquarters causing his friendliness towards her and his casual matter of speech to rub off on her.
“Since you’re always so busy, I kinda expected your home to be not so clean.”
“A—Ah, I have Barbs to thank for that. It’s embarrassing to admit, but my home is left rather disorganized often, and my sister comes in every now and then to clean up,” she said, using a nickname for her sibling.
Jean and Barbara being close enough for the latter to go into the former’s home was unheard of, and so was the usage of a nickname. More of Aether’s meddling in their relationship, wanting to see them close and have a healthy sibling bond, all done on a whim by him.
He didn’t approach them for that goal in mind. He just felt like seeing them one day, that’s all, and he came back regularly to see them, after an encounter with a certain sister.
With squeaky clean hands, the trio sat down. The sisters were sat across from each other, and Aether was sat at one of the ends of the table. He had a good view of the two from there, watching them eat their respective favorite dishes of pizza and dried fish. An odd combination to be having dinner for, but the three ate, two happily munching.
When Aether was distracted by his own musings, Barbara tapped at Jean’s hand to get her attention. Aether was off in his own world, and Barbara pulled something out of her pocket. Jean held back a chuckle, watching her sister slowly and quietly creep up on their friend, standing behind him and the object in her hand pulled over his head. She tilted her hand, the liquid in the bottle dropping a few drops onto the pizza in Aether’s hand. He took a bite and—
“Spicy!” Aether yelled, his face scrunching up and swallowing the fiery contents down, fiercely gulping down a glass of water.
“Hahaha!” The sisters laughed in unison, one laugh in front and to the side, and the other right behind him, such a childish prank made by Barbara funny to her and Jean.
Laughing at a prank that was somewhat rude, done by one of them and enjoyed by both, was something no one ever expected to see or hear by them. All of it was Aether’s influence on them, a surprising childish side to him that impacted them both.
They were different around Aether. He didn’t know how to feel about it.
“Yeah yeah, laugh it up you two,” he chided, stealing the bottle of hot sauce from Barbara and nudging her away to her seat, shaking his head but smiling contently.
Their meal was lively, Aether glad for the change of pace in his regular lonely meal time with Paimon. She was a great companion and friend, don’t get Aether wrong, but when he used and spent his time on the sisters, it fooled his heart into closing the hole that was there with fake filling, but only for a few minutes or hours.
They weren’t her after all, no matter what angle or direction Aether looked at them from, no matter how many smokes and mirrors he used on himself.
‘Can’t I go even one day without thinking of you?’ Aether berated himself in his mind, finishing the remaining portion of his dinner as he watched the sisters eat. He much preferred to listen to them than interrupt their conversation.
“Aether, how was Sumeru? You haven’t told us anything at all about it.”
“Yeah, tell us, Aether!”
He looked at them individually, and for a moment he regretted ever giving them permission to call him by name.
“Sumeru… what should I start with…”
Aether was being pleaded by the two to talk their ears off, and he may as well answer them. He told them his tales, answering all of their curiosity as Jean or Barbara would sneak more food onto his plate.
“Hey, I really can’t eat anymore…”
“But you’re always telling us how you’re a ‘growing boy.’ Eat, you’re in our home!” Barbara said.
“My rules here, mister Aether,” Jean chided.
Really, how different their actions and words were when it came to Aether, almost resembling the tomfoolery that she would pull on him on their never ending travels together. They didn’t act like her at all some days, and other days they did, doing or saying things that reminded Aether of her.
Aether relented to their whims, and he did his best to focus on his words and the sisters, and not the person that they reminded him of.
“Oh, Aether, why don’t you stay over the night?”
“… Huh?”
“That sounds like a great idea. Will you, Aether?”
Jean bringing up such an idea was baffling to him, and Barbara seconding it wasn’t as surprising. Aether didn’t want to, he really didn’t.
“I’m not so sure about that. I have some commissions to get to tomorrow,” he bluffed, hoping that the subject of work would kick in Jean’s serious side.
‘Work? Oh well, can’t be done then,’ he hoped to hear.
“If you want, we could help you out in the morning,” said Barbara, Jean nodding her head in agreement.
They were looking at him, waiting for an answer from their friend.
Aether didn’t want to spend the night at his friend’s house, sleep in a home that wasn’t his. He didn’t want whatever came from staying up late and bonding with the sisters, didn’t want to become better friends than they already were. He didn’t want to feel anymore guilty than he already did.
He wondered if they knew, why he visited them so much, who it was that they reminded him of, who it was that he dearly missed from the bottom of his heart, who it was he saw in them and stuck to.
“… Ugh, you’re asking a lot from me today,” Aether moaned, lightly tapping his finger on his empty plate and faking annoyance that all three knew was an act.
“You should be used to it, Traveler,” said Barbara, her and Jean staring at him with hope in their eyes, eyes that resembled that person’s just enough for Aether to say—
“Okay, twist my arm. I’ll see if I can get someone else to do my commissions.” Aether took back his earlier bluff, receiving two audible ‘Yay’s,’ from the sisters. He chuckled at them, at how different and alike they could be to the person he longed for.
That night, as Aether stared at the ceiling of the room he was sharing with Jean and Barbara after evening had came and gone, and the deep night rose, he turned to look at the bed they were in. Surprisingly, they were sharing one, the other bed given to him. He sat up and hung his legs over the bed, elbows on knees and face in hands. He took one last look at them before turning to the window, the moon welcoming him into the late night.
He managed to spot Albedo, his ash, almost blonde hair, going about his duties despite the late hour.
“Throw more siblings my way, why won’t you…” He knew Albedo and Klee weren’t actual siblings, but they may as well be, their bond there for Aether to watch.
Aether sighed quietly, not wanting to wake up the other two, and he stared down at the wooden floor of Jean’s home.
“…” He watched the dry, clean floor be smudged by one drop of water that had rolled down his face, and he stuffed his eyes into his elbow before more could dirty his friend’s home. He was silent about it, used to it since he didn’t want to wake up Paimon whenever they shared a tent.
Aether dried his eyes, cursing himself for allowing sadness to enter what should’ve been a happy moment. He quietly got up from the bed that was one of the sister’s, and he closed the curtain of the window, making his way back to the bed to lie down on it. He hated that as well, much preferring to sleep on the floor and not on a bed that had sheets and covers and pillows that weren’t his sister’s.
Back to staring at the ceiling, this time in complete darkness, Aether tried to relax himself, get his thoughts off his sister for just one day.
He couldn’t, and a tear rolled down his cheek, staining his friend’s sheet who had her sister next to her.
He wanted to eat again. He wanted to look again. He wanted to laugh again. He wanted to pull a stupid prank again.
He wanted to be together again.
Aether wished someone would punch him hard, someone with a geo vision so they could use the earth and rocks to knock some sense into him. He closed his eyes shut and turned to his side, curling into himself and gripping the sheets under him, not allowing himself to drape it over his shivering body.
“I miss you, Lumine,” Aether whispered, falling asleep on a bed that wasn’t in his home.