Chapter Text
“Ooh! You’re playing co-op again, Lu?”
Lumine momentarily pauses the game and turns to the person asking the question. “Yep! And we’re about to enter a weekly boss battle now so…” She returns her attention to the screen again.
“Alright, I’ll leave you to it.” Aether turns to leave his twin sister’s room. But as he reaches the doorway, he could not help but add, “Say hi to Ajax for me too!” and promptly closes the door.
Lumine feels her face heat up immediately. “How did you—”
“Lu? Is everything alright?”
The voice on the other line is tinged with concern.
(Or is she just reading too much into things?)
Either way, she responds with a shake of her head.
“Yeah, no worries.”
“Good.”
Lumine sits up a little straighter on her gaming chair.
(Even if things might not be smooth-sailing for her right now, at least she is getting a little kinder to her back.)
“Weekly boss run, then?”
“Let’s.”
🌙
The entire weekly boss run ends almost 3 hours later.
As their aim is not to speedrun the ever-expanding boss enemy lineup, they used their most underleveled characters for the challenge…
…which eventually resulted in getting thoroughly beaten up by the nerfed Golden House domain foe multiple times.
Lumine restarts the Golden House co-op challenge. “In all my years of playing this game, I only found out about this counterattack mechanic now.”
“Me too.”
It turns out that the boss enemy ‘punishes’ players when they use certain elements. The next battle becomes more bearable the moment they switch characters.
Silence settles as the last boss in their run disintegrates and the reward-granting flower blossoms at its wake.
What to say next?
Such moments have become commonplace between them, where Lumine would find herself at a loss for words all of a sudden. Not that Lumine is keeping tabs, but it seems that something shifted between them after that time in the makeshift shed a few weeks ago.
(But which part, exactly?)
The quiet dragged on for a few more heartbeats. If there is one thing that Lumine is weakest at (among other things)—it’s dead air in a conversation.
Should she ask if Ajax has any plans for tomorrow?
But just as she opens her mouth to speak, Ajax has already her to it.
“Do you have any plans tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?”
Tomorrow is the 27th of December, a few days after Christmas.
Lumine shakes her head. “Hmm, nothing that I can think of.”
“Great. Wanna go archery tomorrow?”
“Archery?” What a reckless kid, this one. “The conditions are not ideal.” The winds brought about by the coming of winter have been particularly strong for the last few days.
“Hmm…but you did say that you want to see how much I improved with my bow.”
“But not under this weather.”
“All the better.”
Lumine did not need to see him in order to know that he’s smirking at that exact moment.
“Fine. Let me see if I can still find my old bow.”
“Great! See you.” Ajax promptly drops off from the call.
🌙
Spending time with Ajax for the past month after two years of essentially cutting him off feels almost natural.
From eating meals together at school again (ignoring their quote-end quote shippers making googly eyes at them), to joint study sessions at his house with his mom baking them cookies that never lost its charm with her—it’s as though he never left in the first place.
Even so, there are a few, but glaring differences compared to when they were hanging out as kids.
For one, Lumine isn’t too pleased about noticing how the striking auburn of his hair is not dulled even for one bit by the winter sun. Or how he stood taller, prouder, as he is poised to release the arrow from the bow.
Has he always been like this?
WHOOSH!
His arrow pierces through the air, landing right in the center of the target fifty meters ahead of them. Striking with a precision that far surpassed hers, whose arrow is within bull’s eye range as well.
“Finally, I win.”
Another thing that Lumine isn’t too pleased about is how she’s suddenly being starstruck by Ajax’s smile.
Nothing has changed with the way he does it, with the way it reaches his ears and his pristine pearly whites are out for the whole world to see.
And yet, somehow…seeing how happy he is (for lack of a better word) gives Lumine the nastiest kind of butterflies.
A hand waving in front of her snaps her out of her Ajax-filled jumbled thoughts.
Great . Now she’s spacing out.
Lumine shakes her gloved hands. “Sorry, you were saying?”
“You know, this makes me wanna see if I can also beat you in wooden swords.”
Lumine checks her phone. No messages from home yet.
“In your dreams.”
🌙
Lumine is as nimble as Ajax is precise with his arrow. Whatever strength she lacked she made up with speed and agility. Ajax has always been good with defense, but Lumine is persistent.
As soon as she finds an opening, she sweeps over his legs and makes him fall on his back in one fell swoop.
“I still win.”
Lumine must have looked like a total mess, because Ajax doesn’t say anything and simply stares at her.
However…there’s something about right now that Lumine can’t quite put a finger on.
The late afternoon wind starts to pick up, and she could already feel her glove-covered palms getting soaked from the snow on the ground. Common sense dictates that she should stand up from being on all fours. Still, she doesn’t even feel like getting up at all.
In fact, seeing him lying under her gives her a weird kind of satisfaction—not that she’ll ever say it out loud, of course.
(And what is that red tint on his cheeks? Is it from the cold? From their sparring?)
She watches as his hand is reaching out slowly to touch her cheek—
In an instant, every little scene that she read from Aether’s shoujo stash comes crashing back to her.
Does this count?
All she can hear right now is the fast pounding of her heart. With each beat coming in faster with every inch that brought his finger closer to her face…
Until the familiar but unwelcome ring of her phone buzzes in her pocket.
Lumine reaches home in record time, running the whole 15 kilometer distance without once looking back–
Lest Ajax sees the smile on her face that refused to go away.
🌙
“The grouch’s seat is empty first thing in the morning.”
Lumine lets out a small giggle. “Don’t tell me you miss him already, Ajax.”
Today is Scaramouche’s first day as an exchange student in Sumeru, selected for being the top student in their sophomore class. For all his rather seemingly standoffish demeanor, he is actually very helpful in his own way. He also happens to be another of Ajax’s close friends.
“Nah, I’m just wondering who is taking his place.” Ajax shrugs and takes a bite of his cheese puff. “Or will his seat stay empty for the next two weeks?”
The usual commotion in the classroom dies down as Teacher Yae enters for the homeroom period. And she is not alone.
“Good morning everyone.” Teacher Miko’s elegant voice flows throughout the room. “As you are all aware our very own Scaramouche is participating in an exchange program, and I’d like to introduce to you all the representative from the Sumeru Akademiya.”
“Everyone, please welcome—”
Because said Sumeru rep is none other than–
“—Alhaitham.”
Lumine’s childhood crush.
She finds herself whispering the name.
“Alhaitham.”