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寿桃🐰在手 心想事成~!

[to explain the wordplay] 

basically it’s a Chinese custom to have a longevity peach 寿桃 shòu táo on your birthday to wish for a long life so I made a word play on the táo since it sounds similar to tù (for bunny) and also peaches as an euphemism for butt 

send me “draw!” and i’ll draw your muse! ( accepting ) | @xiwangri

!!

wwx: Yeah I have PTSD, proficient talent for sucking dick

lwj: I think we also need to talk about your use of humor as a coping mechanism

Ouch.

It’s safe to say his sister still hits like a ruin guard and that tackle—Wow, that hurt. Aether stays there for a moment, golden eyes fixed on a specific point in the stars. When was the last time Lumine had slapped him? When was the last time he’d been yelled at by her?

He can’t even remember; it’s been that long.

He pulls himself up and presses a hand to his quickly reddening cheek, flinching at the throb of pain that comes. Aether doesn’t say anything, at least for a while as he just stares at her—the distance between them feels so large right now, even though Lumine is right there.

Keep calm.

Keep—

“You think I want you involved with that? I didn’t even want to be involved in it!” It comes rushing out, Aether’s hands are clenched and he’s shaking. He’s honestly shaking.

“What’s to say that we can even leave right now?” He forces himself to take a few breaths, tries to calm his racing heart, but it doesn’t work. He can't—Aether forces himself to look at the ground, not let anyone see the tears at the corner of his eyes.

“You know what happened last time we tried to leave! And I can’t go through that again—I woke up and couldn’t find you! I never abandoned you! I spent years—”

He shakes his head, slaps a hand over his mouth and tries to make himself go quiet.

She didn’t hear the sound of the Abyss Herald, nor the sound of him leaving. Instead, it’s quiet for a moment. Just a moment, before the silence is broken by Aether’s outburst. His addmitances. She’d been the one who wanted to leave, because she didn’t want to be reminded of war and strife. They would’ve come back, they would’ve–

“…..You abandoned me a month ago.” Lumine says, voice uneven. Shaking again, filled with the emotions she was holding at bay. “You and Dainsleif. You asked me back then… why was I with him? It was a commission. I gave him one, and that’s all there was to it.” But it’d been nice to have someone by her side for a while, and not just there and gone. Like most of the people of Teyvat she’s met. All she wanted was companionship.

“The God that stopped us from leaving. For one reason or another.” Flashes of s o m e t h i n g shoot through her mind. Voices, screams, Dainsleif’s voice telling her she needed to get out of there quickly– They stop almost as fast as they came, and Lumine puts a hand to her head. Almost as quickly, she drops said hand to her side and finally…

Finally, she looks back at him.

“You spent years? Don’t cut yourself off like that.” She chides. Again, she tugs at her kimono sleeve. A bit rougher this time. The fabric is sturdy– it won’t tear easily. It’s stress relief. It’s keeping her grounded. Keeping her from turning into a massive heap of emotion.

“…..I spent all that time looking for you, asking people where you were, putting up missing person posters just so I could find you. And when I do, you tell me to ‘see what you saw’ and both you and Dainsleif leave.” It’s hard to say it, and she actually chokes up when she gets to the part about him and Dain just leaving her like that. It wasn’t nice to be alone, and feeling abandoned by the only companions you ever really had. Your own twin, and the man you commissioned about the Abyss Order.

She finally turns fully, to face him again. And she walks towards him. The grass is crushed under her feet, and the sound breaks the silence once again. But this time, she doesn’t do anything but hug him.

“……..One week. Just spend one week with me and you can go back to the Abyss Order. That’s all I ask.”

Had it really only been a month ago that he'd said that? Time really passes by too slowly in Teyvat for Aether, enough so that he's lucky that he can remember the day of the week without the pocket calendar he has somewhere back in the abyss. It'd really only been a month..

"I.." He wants to so desperately say no, that wasn't abandonment—that he'd only been leaving for the time being, but really. There's no other way to explain that other than him leaving her alone, like Aether hated to be. What else could you call that?

That God that stopped them from leaving—There was more to it than that and the mention of her has Aether looking up and around rather quickly to make certain that she's not there, breath caught in his throat once again. Paranoia or not, he didn't want his sister to be near Asmoday ever again if he could help it.

".. Dain—Dainsleif is a jerk. You really can't trust anything he says. He's nothing but a backstabber and a liar." It's mumbled under his breath, soft and quick—that's still a fresh wound, one that Aether doesn't wish to make bleed again.

"Yeah, years.." Centuries really, separated from his sister by time itself and it'd never really gotten easier. "He went in after me?" It's stated more of a question, Aether looking at her once more before he lifts a hand to wipe at his eyes and try to clean his face. (The last thing he needs, he's dully reminded, is for his twin sister to see him gross cry)

"You would have found me eventually—.. Even without the missing posters, I think." Especially when he knew the moment she woke up.

He almost flinches when she hugs him, unused to hugs after all this time before he relaxes in her arms and hugs her back. Her request is a simple one but... "They won't like that."

Mayhaps, if this was just a dream, Aether would be content to just walk with his sister throughout the field—But it’s not just a dream and he’s not sure if he wants to let her know he’s actually here. He fidgets with one of his gloves as he watches Lumine stare at Inazuma.

His sister is alone right now and most of the time? From what Aether’s seen, she travels alone by herself—She makes friends across the world, but none of them come with her as far as he knows. At least when Aether had been traveling himself a long time ago, Dainsleif had been there and that had been enough for Aether at the time. (Then everything had been ruined, then Dainsleif had changed sides and he was alone with nothing but his thoughts.)

Should he make it clear that he’s actually here?

It might ruin the night, but lying to Lumine—It’s never been easy.

Aether carefully takes a few steps away from his sister, before his whole demeanor has changes—from relaxed to rather tense, there’s a grim twist to his lips now and he’s turned unnaturally still. Guarded, even around her.

“..Well, you’re already awake.”

Lumine stares at the city, which seems so distant despite having come from there mere hours ago. Wonders if she should risk waking herself up just so she could try to progress. But she doesn’t want any of this to end. It’s lonely, without anyone by her side. It’s even lonelier since the day he and Dainsleif left her behind. Crushing loneliness, only slightly abated during times where her dreams were prominent or she spent some time in the teahouse with Thoma and Ayaka.

(Because she’d been abandoned, left alone, made to travel Teyvat when she just wanted to leave this place and go home with her brother. Teyvat’s problems aren’t hers, she only helps because she has no other CHOICE in the matter.)

She feels the tension in the air as Aether takes a few steps back. And his whole demeanor changes in front of her. Instead of the dream, instead of him staying by her side— was he leaving again? Was she CURSED to be alone in this world still?

You’re already awake.

The words are like a poison, spreading through her and making her tense up. As if anticipating the end of all of this. The Herald– he’d come soon and take Aether away. A dream turned to a nightmare, a nightmare turned to reality. Lumine lets out a strangled cry as she throws herself at him full force, to knock him over. Give her a chance to knock some sense into him.

And then?

Regardless of the success or failure of her tackle, she slaps him. It’s not as hard as it should’ve been, but there’s tears in her eyes and she doesn’t look happy.

“Then why did you leave me behind?!” She sounds hurt, looks hurt. “Why didn’t you just ask me to go with you? You know I would’ve! I’ve only been talking to the Archons to find you, and then you leave when I find you!”

She moves away from him after saying that, after getting back to her feet. She tugs the arm of her kimono again, and looks at Inazuma. He’ll leave, and she’ll be alone again. Always alone, always alone.

“…..If you’re going to leave, just do it quick. I don’t want to see it.”

It's safe to say his sister still hits like a ruin guard and that tackle—Wow, that hurt. Aether stays there for a moment, golden eyes fixed on a specific point in the stars. When was the last time Lumine had slapped him? When was the last time he'd been yelled at by her?

He can't even remember; it's been that long.

He pulls himself up and presses a hand to his quickly reddening cheek, flinching at the throb of pain that comes. Aether doesn't say anything, at least for a while as he just stares at her—the distance between them feels so large right now, even though Lumine is right there.

Keep calm.

Keep—

"You think I want you involved with that? I didn't even want to be involved in it!" It comes rushing out, Aether's hands are clenched and he's shaking. He's honestly shaking.

"What's to say that we can even leave right now?" He forces himself to take a few breaths, tries to calm his racing heart, but it doesn't work. He can't—Aether forces himself to look at the ground, not let anyone see the tears at the corner of his eyes.

"You know what happened last time we tried to leave! And I can't go through that again—I woke up and couldn't find you! I never abandoned you! I spent years—"

He grimaces, looks up to repeat the same thing he’s been asking for the last few weeks— to be left alone with his thoughts, thank you very much. Those words die on his tongue the second he realizes that it’s Lumine standing there and not one of his abyss ‘subjects’.   His sister—It’d only been a while ago that he’d seen her for the first time in ages, from somewhere that wasn’t just from a distance and looking at her now is still enough to remind him that for now, they’re playing on different sides of a battlefield.

It’s something that stings, makes questions spring to his throat—how are you? what have you discovered? how goes your journey? how was meeting the raiden shogun?  why were you with dainsleif? But instead, Aether pulls himself together—reminds himself of the question she’d just asked and his eyebrows scrunch together for a quick moment.

has he found anything?

She must think she’s asleep or something. Aether takes a deep breath and pulls himself into a caricature, smile sliding easily into his face as it did when they’d been exploring other worlds together. He pulls himself off the ground, stands up straight and—

“Ah—I haven’t found anything. What about you?”

Though the two of them were on opposite sides– opposite battlefields, Lumine had only wanted to find him. To go home. Because home would be with him, with her twin by her side. Like always. And yet, she still mourns. She still cries. She still feels abandoned by him and Dainsleif.

But those feelings didn’t matter when dreaming. When a dream of travelling Teyvat with her brother was at the forefront of her mind. Sometimes, only sometimes, does Dainsleif join in on those dreams. Following at a distance, never coming near unless it was time for them to settle and eat. Tonight was not one of those dreams.

Tonight, it was just herself and her brother travelling.

“No wonder, you were slacking off again.” She teased, before giving a sigh and turning to the distant lights of Inazuma City. “You think we’ll get there soon? We’ve been in this field for a while now…”

Every time I dream, we never get any closer to Inazuma. It’s like I’m mentally blocking myself from continuing forward…

He looks towards Inazuma, can see the shining lights of the city and just barely make out the statute of the Raiden shogun.

If they walk for a while, they'd reach there and that's the last thing that Aether wants right now. Liyue is safer, easier, but there's already 'missing person' posters posted there with his description and he just can't risk that right now.

It wasn’t like she needed oxygen.

But she would make a camp near the pool of water she landed in after surfacing and crawling out of said pool of water, and she’d dry off there. Which meant she would be staying there for the night instead of making the trek back to Inazuma.

And in the middle of the night, she stared at the stars. Remembering the day she’d fallen with her brother to this world.

She would sometimes dream of travelling Teyvat with Aether, and wake up with tears streaming down her cheeks. Before shutting it all away and wearing a smile that didn’t suit her at all. But tonight…

Tonight was different.

She’d sat up after a while, as if thinking she was dreaming. The way she thought she was dreaming? Aether. He was there, not too far away, as if he was travelling through Teyvat with her. Like her dreams always said.

And so, the first thing she did? Get up and walk over to him.

“….So, did you find anything?” It was just a dream. When she woke up, he’d be gone.

She’ll live with these dreams for now.

It's something that stings, makes questions spring to his throat—how are you? what have you discovered? how goes your journey? how was meeting the raiden shogun?  why were you with dainsleif? But instead, Aether pulls himself together—reminds himself of the question she'd just asked and his eyebrows scrunch together for a quick moment.

has he found anything?

She must think she's asleep or something. Aether takes a deep breath and pulls himself into a caricature, smile sliding easily into his face as it did when they'd been exploring other worlds together. He pulls himself off the ground, stands up straight and—