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“You know, dear brother of mine, if you wanted to tell me to get laid there are easier ways to do it.” This was not how Aether, or any one else in their shared residence expected their conversation to start. When his sister had sauntered into the community courtyard, eyes locked onto her tablet, he had expected her to comment on the statistics of her last video or even that she suspected he was the one who kept forgetting to replace the toilet paper, but this?!? She was focused on him, an amused look on her face, oblivious to the others who were dealing with the aftermath of that. He idly noted he would need to replace two cups and that someone would need to clean the grill of mint jelly, but he could force Childe to do that. The cups however were trickier, as they had been obtained on various trips, so sentimental value played a part. Maybe he could get away with super gluing the handle back on the mug, but the traditional tea cup? It had been made of cast iron, so how the hell… Wait no, he needed to get back on track.
Aether, in no uncertain terms, wanted his sister to sleep with anyone; Male, female, non-binary, or hell, self-identifying Apache helicopter. Anyone who wished to properly ‘court’ her needed to first go through him, a background check, and then walk off 100 feet off a 10 foot overhang, over a cliff. To say that no one was good enough was an understatement. It had been a relief when she had a mutual break up with her boyfriend at the time, who he loved to remind her that she had to go behind his back with. Granted they had been together for 3 years and the break-up was mutual, leaving them on good terms, but that ass wasn’t good enough. Unhealthy way to view it? Aether didn’t kid himself, it was somewhat unnerving but with their parents deceased and their extended family sniffing around for ways to steal their inheritance from under them? No one could blame him for being protective. It was bad enough she risked her safety with this little virtual idol stint, even if she did have a lovely singing voice. No, it was enough of a headache dealing with their actual friends, who failed to hide their yearning looks and ‘flirtatious’ banter, but add in an obsessive stalker or a few dozen? He wasn’t about to push his luck.
“What the hell did you send over?” Amber demanded before turning to Lumine with a devilish smirk, “You mean your three year dry spell is now officially over with? You really do need to get out more. Oh, does that mean you’re going clubbing tomorrow with us? The invitation to join us is still open, Ganyu would appreciate a fellow wall hugger, at the very least.”
Lumine hummed, eyeing how Childe seemed to lean in a little close, and tilted her head at Amber, their unspoken sign of ‘I’ll answer later.’ When Amber blinked in acceptance, Childe cursed under his breath and returned to his new cup of coffee as he focused on his own assignments.
“It was the patreon upper tier request results…” Aether had forwarded the email just moments ago, reviewing a translation on his things to do after dinner.
Lumine made a noise of acknowledgement, before pulling her tablet pen off the case and writing something down. It was finally then she remembered that he had offered his project members a place to study and work as they worked on finishing their assignment, specific procrastinators be damned. They must have moved out into the courtyard, which explained why along with the undergrads, a few notable graduate and Master degree students were hovering (or mooching food and drink) about.
“Oh good evening everyone, hopefully my brother was a good host.” A chorus of various greetings could be heard from various corners of the common areas, before she turned her attention back to her twin, who was now staring at his phone like he wanted to set it on fire. Then melt the ashes, and burn the residue one more time. It took a lot not to laugh in his face.
“So this song…”
“Pretty much makes some sort of innuendo to sex every other line, or outright mentions something suggestive, depending on how you translate it.”
“And they voted for this… why?” Clearly it has been a dumb question, as his not so innocent sister gave him an exasperated look, silently answering one possible reason, before verbally continuing.
“I’ve already released it once, like really early on, before you forced me to take you on as a moderator.”
“Your fan base are mostly horny preteens and men. Have you seen some of the comments?”
“Of course, why do you think I always use an avatar? I don’t need to cover up a murder.” She shrugged as she accepted the cup of tea from Amber, wincing as the first sip burned her tongue, before continuing. “It must of been some of the older fans then, if they remember the original video. There was always a buzz for me to redo it, but I’ve never been happy with any of my retries. Plus there is the issue of background noises. A lot of other covers have suggestive lewd breathing during the chorus, but when I tried it, it just sounded weird.” Lumine winced as she realized what she just admitted.
“….pardon?” The withering stare Aether gave her was actually intimidating.
“It’s actually a catchy song! It definitely would be one you could see played in the club tomorrow.”
“We’re picking another song.”
“Aether, they pay for this right, you’re going to start another civil war with the fan base.”
“Again.” Amber added in, ignoring the brewing storm between the two. She was far too used to their antics, having been roommates for 3 years at this point.
“We. Are picking. Another song.” With that, he lunged for his sister’s tablet, barely missing it as she chose to save the machinery, going down as it was flung into the awaiting hand of one of their other house mates. With barely a thought, Zhongli reflexively caught it with one hand, taking his time to put his tea down before slipping it into his satchel. It wouldn’t take long for the elder twin to cave, he surmised, and at least this way he could stop a certain drunkard from accidentally locking Lumine out of her own property again. One would think after trying over 30 times to guess the password, the resulting beat down would of been enough. Yet there was a hand trying to paw at his property. Already, the younger twin had turned the tides, switching it so that she had her brother pinned under her, his own hoodie used as an impromptu straight jacket. They continued to argue loudly, though now even Zhongli was starting to get a little worried.
“Keep this up brother, and I will let Mona… no… Childe pick out my club outfit.”
“That’s supposed to be a threat?”
“Ah, the only place any outfit I’d pick for would be one that would look good on my bedroom floor, Oujo-Chan. Nowhere else.”
“I am going to kill him.”
“Well I’m sure Mona will have some scandalous outfit in mind… She has mentioned that romance is in my future.”
“Like hell it is, the last time she said that is…”
“So how is that 2nd year anniversary dinner shaping up, dear brother, Noelle has been practically floating lately in anticipation.” Lumine purred in glee, though she mentally fought to remember just when Mona had mentioned her stars lining up or whatever it was. Had it been a prediction or a tease? She had been drunk then, and she could vaguely remember being forced into a lap and arms holding her down like a vice, while someone else was storming away to do something potentially violent. Who it had been wasn’t clear who did what, what she does remember that it hadn’t ended with someone getting hospitalized… she thinks.
“HA!” Aether leapt on her momentary lapse in awareness to lurch upwards, upending her balance and sent her stumbling back, her arms cartwheeling as she caught herself. Aether took off, phone in hand, and their battle started once again, though at least this time her pounce was far more graceful.
From his little corner, Kaeya watched the show with a slightly bitter grin. It was always amusing to see the lovely kitten banter with his friend, but it also was frustrating when he constantly got interrupted when he found himself sassing the lovely Lumine. Those moments when the two of them naturally seemed to sync together, either to tease each other or someone else, made his tedious nights fun again. As quiet as the girl could be alone, he knew all of the various ways to get her singing to his tune, and yet she kept her wits about her, never falling for his charms. Truly refreshing, she was, and yet having to keep things platonic was getting tiresome. Then again, he supposed it was fine, as long as the unspoken stalemate was still in place. He imagined once someone broke the rules, then it would be an utter bloodbath and cringe fest, especially with the close call they had.
It had been the younger Kamisato who had toed the line once, asking Lumine to join her on a trip overseas, but thankfully Lumine had some sort of family issue at the time, so the peace had been kept, but who knew how long this would last. Personally, he was pretty sure that a few of them had been setting up elaborate plans to pounce, waiting for that trigger to go off. He knew for sure that a certain redhead hard ass definitely was, even if he would never admit it. Speaking of his brother, the man was in his own little world, fingers flying across the keyboard. To the casual outsider, he was taking care of mundane things; schedules, stocks, business emails and other tasks that most business majors were busy learning about, but Kaeya knew his brother well.
“So, is anyone interesting catch your eye, brother?” He watched Diluc’s shoulders barely flinch and his fingers paused for a second, before continuing to dance upon his laptop's keyboard. The sounds of frantic clicking continued, before he spoke up.
“Not yet, most of them have learned, for the most part. But mentioning it in earshot of that bastard was a step too far Kaeya.” And here Aether thought Kaeya thought he had it bad, at least he wasn’t doing anything illegal (technically, but in his defense, it was Childe who had reacted to the ‘rumor’ that someone had dug up her location with violence), which hacking certainly was.
If the younger man knew of what the stoic Wine tycoon/I-am-only-here-to-get-my-masters-degree had been doing behind their back, well he wasn’t sure if Aether would thank him and then try and stab him, or the other way around. Still, one couldn’t be too careful when it came to the obsessive always trying to discover what lay behind a pretty avatar, plus if things did blow up, it just meant it would be easier for Kaeya to sneak in and sweep Lumine off her feet while their respective brothers fought to the death, or him off his.
She did have a very mean kick.
Despite the two of them having their disagreements and bad blood he still could tell when his brother was up to something, and he guessed the red head was on the ‘how to get rid of his competition’ stage. Most Kaeya could believe that Diluc had clear cut ideas for, but there were a few others neither brother could currently counter completely. The stalwart (and surprisingly terrifying) Zhongli, the persistent Childe, and the sweet yet cunning Ayaka and her brother. If only Diluc would accept his idea of an open relationship between the three of them, then luring Lumine into their embrace would be easy, but unlike him, his adopted brother, and Kaeya could quote, ‘Will not share her like some toy’.
Kaeya was insulted that he thought so little of his feelings for the fairer twin, but he could honestly understand. If he had it his way, Kaeya wouldn’t share either, but he was more willing to make exceptions to win the war. As it stood, it would take the whispered threat of Zhongli and Childe’s talk of such an arrangement to change his stance. Said talks had come to a standstill, though there was always the chance that his birds simply weren’t in the right place to overhear anymore. He did notice amber eyes staring warily at him lately, perhaps it was time to push the idea again.