Chapter Text
“Play along, pretend everything’s fine, at least in front of her.”
Childe didn’t question anything at Aether's request. He understood. As a brother, he also wouldn’t want Tonia, Anthon, or Teucer to be sad. Imagining Tonia having a boyfriend already bothers him, and if the said boyfriend suddenly lost all memories about her? Childe would tell him to get lost.
Childe knows that Aether—at least the one he knew back in Teyvat—loves his sister dearly, and he could tell this Aether in front of him does too by the way he talks. Aether showing mercy is probably for the sake of his sister, not for him.
Still, easier said than done, huh. Childe has little to no information about Lumine, both in this world and in Teyvat. This will be the first time he meets her, he felt a little bit sorry for Teyvat’s Aether somehow.
Childe was deep in thought that he didn’t realize the scenery had changed from a crowded city to a quiet neighborhood. They stopped near a two-story house. A garden at front divides the house from the road. Each house is divided by a wide lawn, and beside the house they stopped in, a mature oak tree with a single swing hanging on its sturdy branch.
The house is not big, but also not small, it looks fitting for a small family.
Aether walked to the house, and he followed from behind. They were still a few meters from the house when the door suddenly opened, something ran fast and struck into his legs.
“Papa!!”
Childe froze at hearing the high-pitched voice. He looked below to check if the owner of the voice is the same as the one currently hugging his legs.
He took time to process what just happened while throwing glances at Aether, who probably just realized that he hadn't told him about his daughter.
“Aine,” Aether bent over to see his niece properly and stretched out his hand to hold her. “It’s late, why are you still up?”
His little niece, however, tightened her grip on her father’s trousers and shook her head in rejection. Instead, she looked above to her father. “Papa late, Aine misch papa..”
Her father then lifts her up and carries her. Now that he is able to look closely, his daughter shares the same ginger hair color as him. However, rather than his dull blue, her iris shines gold, similar to her uncle. Did she get it from her mother? Childe recalled the time when Aether said that he was searching for his twin sister, so she must’ve shared the same eye color with Aether.
On her father’s arm, she yawned and then hugged him, rested her chin on his shoulder. She should be sleeping, was she waiting for her father to be home?
Childe doesn’t want to let her stay outside any longer. When he was about to come in, the door that was slightly ajar opened wide and a woman appeared from behind.
Her golden eyes caught his attention. She must be..
“Mama..”
His daughter no longer hugged him and turned to her mother, but she still rested her head on his neck. At the end, she couldn’t fight the drowsiness and fell asleep in her father’s arms.
“Geez, mama said not to run outside immediately- what happened to your head?!”
The woman was checking on her daughter until she realized her injured husband. She cut the distance to check his bandaged head. Childe finally can take a proper look at her. The golden eyes are similar to Aether’s, but her eyelashes are longer. Her blonde hair also—no, it’s paler than Aether’s—the back part is cut short above her neck, leaving two locks of shoulder-length hair framing her cheeks.
Her fingers carefully part his bangs to look at his bandaged head properly. The soft touch and the very-close distance between them made Childe awkwardly embarrassed by her actions. He’s supposed to be her husband, there’s no room to be embarrassed, he thought.
“There was..small accident.” Aether answered on Childe’s behalf. He is being supportive that it feels like two brats trying to hide a wet sheet from their mother.
“You two came home late too! I called your phone but there was no answer, I was worried!”
The scolding was directed to both him and Aether, however Childe feels he is being scolded more since she is right in front of him. There was another foreign word phone just added to his dictionary. Aether later explained that it fell into the river and he had no chance to contact her from his. Of course, his sister didn’t fully receive it at first, she still looked at them in turn with folded arms.
“I’m sorry for making you worried.” Childe apologized on behalf of the other him of this world. “It’s not a serious injury, really.”
She finally let out a sigh, opened her arms asking her husband to give their daughter, in which Childe refused. “She will wake up, let me put her to sleep instead.”
He later regretted his decision when he got lost in his own house from looking for his daughter’s bedroom.