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“Birthday?”
“Yes, it’s brother Ajax’s birthday tomorrow! Have you decided on a gift for him yet?”
Birthday…
It was something Lumine had a hard time understanding.
Contrary to her youthful looks, unbeknownst to the people living in Teyvat, Lumine had lived for quite a long time. She had lived for so long that it was arguable who had lived longer between the Anemo Archon and herself. Her concept of ‘time’ largely differed from others, making ‘birthdays’ seem quite pointless in her eyes.
Celebrating the date of one’s birth every year seemed a bit too repetitive for her who had – and could – live for countless number of years. For as long as she could remember, Aether and she rarely, if ever, celebrated their birthdays. The closest thing they had done in regards to it was how they exchanged gifts with each other whenever they traveled to a new world. However, it was more correct to call that a tradition rather than a birthday gift of some sort. So it confused her to no end when Teucer seemed to get overly excited over his older brother’s upcoming birthday which was fast approaching.
“Is it really something so special? Birthdays, I mean…” Lumine wondered aloud as she crouched down to help Teucer put on his scarf. Even in the middle of summer, Snezhnaya tended to be quite chilly, and Lumine didn’t want to risk the boy catching a cold.
“‘Something so special’?!” Teucer grabbed onto Lumine’s hands, preventing her from wrapping the remainder of the scarf around his neck, and looked up to gawk at the blonde girl, repeating her words as if it was she had just said the most scandalous thing in the world. “This is big brother’s birthday we’re talking about!”
“I’m…sorry. The…concept of celebrating birthdays eludes me,” she told the child with an apologetic smile.
“Do you…not celebrate yours?” Teucer’s eyes widened comically as he asked her cautiously.
Lumine nodded. “I don’t remember when the last time I celebrated my birthday was.” There was no need to tell the boy how many years it had been since she last celebrated it. He probably wouldn’t understand anyways, or take it as a joke.
At the girl’s response, Teucer’s eyes began to tear up as he looked at her with pitiful eyes. “I’m so sorry Sister Lumine. I…I didn’t know.”
“Don’t cry Teucer!” Lumine let go of his scarf in panic and began to wipe away the bit of tears that had begun to form at the corner of his eyes. “I really don’t mind!” she reassured him.
“Nobody should just let their birthdays go by uncelebrated!” he cried out as he threw his arms around her neck to give her a hug, though the action seemed to cheer up the boy more so than the girl. “You have lived such a difficult life!”
Lumine chuckled at the younger boy’s antics and soothingly pat him on the back. “Don’t worry, Teucer. I’m not sad about it or anything!” she reassured. However, to her dismay, her words seemed to have the exact opposite effect on the boy as he began to cry out louder.
“You poor soul! Not knowing the joys of celebrating your birthday!”
Not knowing what to do, Lumine could only continue patting him on the back in hopes of calming the boy down.
“When is your birthday? We must celebrate it this year!” Teucer sniffed as he pulled himself away from her a tiny bit to look her in the eyes.
Lumine blinked at the unexpected question.
Her birthday?
Now that she thought about it, she didn’t remember when her birthday was. It had been so long since she had even paid any mind to it, that she had forgotten.
Teucer wasn’t an idiot, he was the Tartaglia’s youngest brother after all. He knew how to read the expressions of people and the expression that Lumine had on right now told him all that he needed to know.
“You poor, pitiful soul!” he cried out once more as he leaned against her chest and began to lightly throw his fists at her in exaggerated despair.
Lumine inwardly sighed to herself.
What would Ajax say if he saw this scene now? He would definitely nag at her for making his little brother cry.
“…Teucer, why are you crying?”
Speaking of the devil…
“So let me get this straight...You were crying because Lumine here, has never celebrated a birthday before?”
“Yes! Isn’t it horrible?!”
Ajax rubbed his temples, attempting to soothe himself of the migraine that this situation was giving him.
When he had arrived home to the scene of his brother crying his eyes out in his fiancé’s arms, he had imagined the worst. Lumine was someone who could cheer his little brother up with two hands tied behind her back, getting the boy to stop crying was something she could easily do. When he saw that even she was struggling to get the tears to stop from coming out of his eyes, he had inwardly panicked. So for the reason he was crying to be something as simple as...this...kind of frustrated him.
Not that he, too, wasn’t upset about the fact that the love of his life had never celebrated her birthday before but…
“She doesn’t even know when her birthday is, the poor thing!”
Actually, that changed everything.
“What?” he asked as he turned his attention to the blond girl, who only gave him a shrug.
“It’s been so long that I’ve forgotten?” she repeated the answer that she had given to Teucer earlier in an unsure voice.
“Do you at least know around when you were born? Like...what season?” Ajax asked, struggling to believe her words.
Lumine shook her head. “No. I don’t recall.”
The ginger quickly put a head to her head, checking her temperature to see whether or not she had a fever. When he confirmed that her temperature was as normal is it could be, he gaped at the woman.
How could she not recall when she was born unless she had an amnesia of some sort?
“You really don’t remember?”
“Nope.”
“Not even a hint as to when?”
“Nu uh.”
“What is your name?”
“Lumine.”
“What is my name?”
“Ajax, I’ll punch you if you continue with these stupid questions.”
Correct. Ajax was his name. She remembered it, so there was no way she could have amnesia.
“You...really don’t know what day you were born? Nobody ever celebrated your birthday?” Ajax repeated his question in a much sadder voice than before.
He had spent many years with his family, celebrating each and every one of their birthdays every year in some way, shape, or form without fail . His included. It hurt his heart to know that nobody had ever celebrated the day that the love of his life was born into this world, including the girl herself.
He stared at her with obvious pain in his eyes.
How could she be so indifferent to this? Did she really not care about her birthday? Did she really not appreciate being born?
Lumine, noticing her fiancé’s sudden change in mood, sighed and patted him gently on the head. “Don’t worry, Ajax. I’m perfectly fine,” she said with a small smile. “Let’s worry more about your birthday tomorrow, shall we?” she added, remembering how this topic had been brought up in the first place.
She wasn’t one to celebrate birthdays, but if it made Ajax happy, she was darn well willing to start doing so now.
Ajax’s eyes darkened as he pursed his lips into a thin line, once again being reminded that Lumine was a girl who was very giving. She only ever cared about others and never herself. The one time she had desired something, it had been taken away from her as soon as she had gotten it back (Aether was an asshole). He just wanted her, who meant the world to him...who deserved everything in this world and more ...to be happy.
After having an internal struggle with himself for a moment, his eyes changed.
He grasped both her hands with his and brought it close to his lip, giving it a gentle kiss. He gazed down at her with unwavering eyes and said in a voice that left no room for arguments, “let’s celebrate your birthday tomorrow.”
“What?” Lumine blinked in confusion at his words.
“Birthdays are celebrated because people want to celebrate the fact that a person was born into this world,” Ajax began to explain. “I, for one, want to celebrate the fact that you were born. If you were never born, I would have never met you...You, who mean the whole world to me,” he gazed deeply into her eyes that widened in shock.
He smiled. A soft, adoring smile.
“I was born anew, the moment you were born. With that in mind, if you don’t remember when exactly you were born, don’t you think that it’s perfect for us to celebrate our birthdays on the same day?”
Lumine didn’t know what to say.
She knew that Ajax could be thoughtful at times.
The day they first decided to go out with each other. The day he first proposed to her. Every single one of those little moments had been planned on and decided by him with her in mind. Every single thing he did, no matter how small or big, was for her sake. It was something that she had known for quite a while now, something she never commented on but always appreciated.
Hearing such a thing from him…
“You big dork…”
How could she not cry?
“There, there. Shouldn’t you be happy about finally having a birthday for people to celebrate?”
She truly loved this man.
“...Thank you.”
She would never regret choosing him over her brother. Not now...
“...I love you, Lumine.”
Not ever.
“So, does this mean we get to celebrate two birthdays tomorrow?!”