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"You should tell him. He deserves to know."
Lisa crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair.
Cyno frowned, throwing his spear from hand to hand as he thought.
"I don't know. He seems happy here, and I don't want to disrupt that."
She groaned, flicking her hand and using her vision to hold his spear in place in midair. He stared at her.
"Cyno. He has basically made every person in Mondstadt into some kind of fake familial relationship. He called me mum the other day! He calls Klee his little sister, and he even refers to Diluc as his uncle! He's only spoken to Diluc twice. He's desperate for a human family, and I'm happy to take care of him, but I'm not happy to continue keeping this secret. You don't have to adopt him, just let him know you exist."
He looked lost. Conflicted. She lowered his spear back into his hands and he tapped it against the ground. It disappeared into golden flakes in the air.
He watched them disappear.
She watched them and thought of the wolf familiar Razor had.
"Are you his familiar?"
"His what?"
"He has a wolf. One made of electro, and he summons it when he's fighting, just like you do, except you turn into the dog. He fights alongside it."
Cyno frowned.
"I'm not a familiar, I'm human."
"I know you're human. I'm saying are you somehow... transferring energy? I've heard of people communicating through visions. Have your ambitions reached him somehow?"
Cyno shook his head.
"If I was fighting battles in Mondstadt while I was in Sumeru, I'd know."
She paused, tilting her head.
"It comforts him. When he's feeling lonely, sometimes I see it appear and hug him or ruffle his hair."
They were both quiet. Cyno stared into nothing.
"It's not a physical form. Not a wolf or a human, really. A mixture of both. Dog head, human body."
She looked up, at Cyno's headdress.
"Dog head, human body."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"It's more proof he wants family. He was given a vision, gifted power by the gods, and what did he do? He created a mixture of his human and wolf halves to act as his real family. He knows he isn't blood related to his pack, and he knows the same with me and the rest of the humans he calls lupical. His ambition, his driving force, led him to making someone to be that for him. Isn't that enough? Tell him."
Cyno looked down at the floor, his headdress staring at Lisa and covering his face. He crossed his arms.
"Tell him, or I will."
"Tell me what?"
They both jumped and turned to the door. Razor stood there, one hand on the doorknob and one hand holding a new pot of ink. Lisa had forgotten she'd sent him to get one when Cyno arrived ten minutes ago.
She stood up, walking over and taking the pot from him.
"Thank you, sweetie. Me and Cyno here were just talking about some grown-up things, don't worry about it."
She placed a hand on his shoulder, gesturing for him to come into the library. He hesitated, watching Cyno carefully.
Both of them stared at each other, red eyes meeting red eyes.
Cyno looked him up and down.
His white hair was long and scruffy, and he was wearing gloves that had the same markings that Cyno had on his wrists. He had an armband around his left arm that bore the same mark Cyno had tattooed on his right. He was also scarred, and had bandages on his arm, which was quite muscular for a kid. A fighter. Just like his brother.
"Boys, its rude to stare." Lisa scolded.
Cyno looked away, blinking away tears. He rarely ever visited Mondstadt, the last time being when Razor was first found by Varka. He had been too scared to get close to the kid, and now... now he was a teenager. His little brother was a teenager, and he'd missed it all.
Lisa noticed his furious attempts at not crying and patted his shoulder when she walked past with Razor, guiding the boy down the stairs to a table in the main part of the library.
She got Razor set up with a sheet of paper and some examples of words to try writing, and walked back up, her heels clicking and Razor's quill scratching being the only sounds in the room.
She got back to him and gave him a sympathetic frown.
"Please." She whispered.
"It hurts to listen to him speak about family and not be able to say anything. Please tell him."
Cyno wiped his eye, but a tear fell out of the other one.
"Cyno..."
He looked down at Razor, his tongue sticking out as he tried to perfectly copy Lisa's writing.
He should have been there.
He should have been with him.
He turned and started walking out. Lisa opened her mouth to protest, and he turned his head, his white hair brushing over his shoulder.
"I need to think. I'll be back within a couple hours. This is... difficult for me."
She closed her mouth and nodded.
He closed the door behind him with a click and left the Knights of Favonius headquarters.
"Ah, Cyno." Albedo smiled and Tighnari turned to face him as he approached their spot at the edge of Cider Lake.
"I need to speak to Tighnari alone. I need advice." Cyno muttered, looking down at the others sat on the grass.
He'd been quite upbeat the whole time they'd been here, so both of the other men looked at each other in confusion for a moment.
Albedo shrugged and got up.
"I'll leave you two to it. I'm not one to push. I'll see you around, Tighnari. Your knowledge of plants is very intriguing. I'll need to borrow your brain again before you leave."
"Yeah, of course. See you." Tighnari got up too as Albedo left, frowning at Cyno.
"What's wrong? Have you been crying?"
"Razor."
He raised his eyebrows.
"Is he alright?"
"Yes. He's fine. Well... he apparently... ugh."
He was finding words difficult today, apparently. The right phrasing escaped him.
Tighnari let him think, his ear twitching.
"...Lisa says that he acts like he wants a real family. Not his wolves and not whoever he ends up gravitating towards around Mondstadt, a real family. Apparently he has a familiar. An electro... thing, half dog half human, that acts like family and he made it, and Lisa thinks I should tell him that I'm his brother because he clearly wants someone."
Cyno sighed, looking up at the wall of Mondstadt.
"And then he walked into the room and he's like me. He's so much like me, Nari."
"How?"
"His hair, and his eyes, and he has my tattoo on an armband and he's got scars so he's a fighter like me and he's covered in dirt so he spends all his time outside, and he's a teenager now and I missed it! I missed it all, I thought I had more time to think about it but he's so grown up-"
Tears started to fall again, and Cyno stopped talking, biting the inside of his lip to try and stop himself.
Tighnari wiped his eyes with his thumbs, making him focus on him.
"You haven't missed it all. Not yet. He's not an adult, and he's not old, and he's not dead, so you have time. You have now, and now never leaves, so spend it being happy."
Cyno smiled, placing his own hand over Tighnari's gloved one.
"Wow, Nari, you're getting poetic."
"Oh god, I've been spending too much time talking to Albedo."
They both laughed, their hands moving to hold each other's.
"Seriously, though."
They both stopped, and Cyno felt his guilt come back again.
"If you don't want to miss his life, you should tell him. Obviously it's up to you, but surely it should be up to him, too, right?"
His ears moved as he talked, and Cyno watched them.
"...yeah. You're right, and so is Lisa. I just... I guess I wanted to hear it from more people."
Tighnari squeezed his hands gently.
"You can do this. He's gonna love you, and then he can visit us in Sumeru and we can visit here more. Collei likes it, so she won't complain."
"Where is Collei?"
"Her and Albedo's assistant, Sucrose, are friends now. They're off adventuring."
"Oh."
Cyno frowned and Tighnari tilted his head.
"She's making friends, I'm making friends. You should one-up us and get a brother."
They both smiled again, and Nari gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"There you go, encouragement."
"Do I get more if I bring you a brother in law?"
"If he's nice to me."
"I'll make sure."
The door to the library clicked open again and Cyno walked in, spotting Lisa and Razor on the table they had chosen downstairs.
He watched her show him the parts of words he wrote right and the parts he got wrong, and watched him nod and try again, holding his quill tight in a fist.
He cleared his throat and she looked up, noticing him and smiling.
"Razor, someone wants to speak to you. It's Cyno, from earlier."
Razor looked up too, but he seemed intimidated, moving closer to Lisa.
Cyno took off his headdress and put it on Lisa's desk, making his way downstairs. Lisa stood up and he moved her chair to face Razor directly and sat down.
He looked uncomfortable, his shoulders tense and his stare piercing. It didn't intimidate Cyno. All he noticed were the fact that their eyes were the same.
He cleared his throat.
"I'm Cyno. I'm from Sumeru."
Razor nodded, looking at Lisa. She smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
"Introduce yourself, honey."
"...I'm Razor. Hello."
The older brother smiled.
"Hello, Razor. I, uh... I have some news for you."
"News?"
"Yes. News."
They were both quiet. Neither of them seemed to be very good at this bit.
Razor's grip on his quill tightened.
Cyno shifted, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees.
"I'm... I'm your brother, Razor."
Razor dropped his quill. He stared at Cyno, no longer with distrust, but with shock. His hands began to shake and he looked at Lisa, then Cyno, then Lisa, then back again.
"...what?" His voice was quiet, barely a whisper.
"I'm your brother. Our parents had me in Sumeru, and left me to my studies when I started school. They came here and had you, and then... I stopped getting letters from them."
Tears gathered in Razor's eyes.
"Mother... Father... what?"
He seemed in complete disbelief, and Cyno didn't blame him.
"I know it's shocking. You don't need to immediately accept me, I just wanted to-"
He was cut off by Razor throwing himself at him and grabbing hold of him in a hug. He stood up and hugged back, and when Razor started crying he couldn't stop himself from doing the same.
He finally held his little brother in his arms. For years, he'd put this off, scared that he might be rejected or turned away, or that Razor's new life was better than anything he could offer, but now...
It was worth it. It was all worth it, because he could feel Razor's hair against his skin and could comfort him as he cried and he could be there. That was the best part, that he didn't feel any kind of barrier that meant he couldn't be there.
They stayed hugging each other for a while, and when Razor finally let go, he looked up slightly and met his eyes, sniffling and still sobbing.
"...I missed you." He managed, and Cyno smiled.
"I missed you, too."