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Aurelio's scars, earned in the apocalypse, were still very visible and almost fresh when Auristela saw him last, boarding a ship for Pan Dulce's city, tears in his eyes. She cried, too, in her dorm, when nobody was able to see her.
After the clean-up was done and everyone was in their home cities, deciding what to do with their lives without their parents' pressure, Relio said he wanted to go to baking school. Auristela agreed it was the best for him. She returned to the Academy, still liking the idea of helping people with her powers. She secretly enjoys helping people, mortal, Jades and Golds alike. And she gets to spend time around Niya at the Academy.
Now, as Aurelio awaits for his sister, the scars on his body are faded, barely visible. It's been two months, after all, and the only useful thing they inherited from diosa Lumbre is quick healing.
Stela almost starts crying just at the sight of hwr brother. One might say Relio looks the same—black hair cut in an undercut and styled in an bun, warm brown eyes, still 6 foot 3 inches and muscly, but he doesnn't. He isn't the same. He looks healthier; the burns on his arms, earned from Lumbre ('resistance training', fucking bullshit), are almost healed, not blistering new; his eyes feel alive, they are sparkling; he stands more relaxed, less rigid; he is smiling his real, soft smile instead of the plastered smile for the cameras.
As soon as her feet touch the hard stones of the port, Stela runs towards her brother. "Relio!" she sqeels, a smile spreading across her lips. Dioses, her brother.
He smiles, just the same. "Stela!"
Her arms wrap around his body, pulling him closer. Her fingers are digging into his skin as she buries her head in his shoulder and breaths in his smell, cinnamon and sugar. It's him. She tears up into his shirt.
His arms wrap around her waist as he pulls her close, gently putting his chin on her shoulder. He slightly tilts his head, resting in against his sister's. She feels a tear drop from his cheek on her shoulder, and she is crying, too.
The hug has the same intensity as the one they shared after the dioses ascended into the heavens after defeating the Obsidians. It holds much less fear and much more sweetness.
This was the first month they’d spent apart in their lives. Before that, the longest they haven't seen each other was a few hours. They even shared a room in the Academy. They would've seen each other earlier, but with their schedules and the rebuilding of Reino del Sol, it wasn’t possible.
When they step apart, Stela takes another good looks at her brother. "You look happy, Relio," she says softly. "It suits you."
"You, too."
They start walking, Relio leads the way. His steps are confident, he's sure of where he's going. Before, he just played at the confidence, letting his guard only around Stela. Now, he is truly sure in himself.
Lumbre's parenting really made a tool on them, but therapy, doing things they loved and being around people they loved helped. Eventually, they would be able to undo it completely.
"I missed you." Stela doesn’t have to say it; Relio knows. She knows he missed her, too. But she wants him to hear it. "Sometimes, I miss having a partner. But, mostly, I missed you."
She really did miss him. Not just as a partner in fighting, someone to control her fire, but the mannerisms only she could read, his voice as he called her nickname, yelling out his nickname because only she could, his smile and his laugh, his patience, his reasoning and reassurence, his calmness, his love.
Relio offers a small smile. "You need to call more often."
She puffs. "Oh, don't be a prick. I call you every day."
"I'm not! Sol, anytime you miss me, just call me."
"You could call me, too, you know."
•○●○•
Auristela isn't rigid anymore, her posture is less straight, she laughs loudly and freely, talks about things that interest her instead of pretending to be only a Hero and nothing else.
It makes Relio happy to see her like that. He likes listening to her talk about makeup with Ocelo or silly challenges with Niya. She even made some new friends, which makes Aurelio infinitely happy. He knows Stela wants to hear about his time at the baking school, so he talks about the friends he made and the pastries he learnt to bake.
Of course, they texted and called during the months they'd been apart, but they need to talk about it in person, too. It just isn't the same.
That month was the first without his sister. It was hard, and it would've been harder if not for Stela constantly checking up on him to see how he was adjusting. He, too, checked up on her, worried about her well-being and safety.
During the first days after the apocalypse, Relio had a hard time letting his sister out of sight, afraid she might be captured again. It took a long talk from her to convince him she was going to be fine, she could take care of herself, she was safe anyway, nothing bad would happen. He was allowed to leave for baking school.
Though, Stela was worried about him, too. She didn’t know how he'd adjust, but that was the least of her worry. The twins were partners in everything—how would they learn to act alone?
Stela's entire visit to him in Pan Dulce's city, Aurelio and Auristela don't part. Relio can't leave her side, and neither can Stela leave his. He shows her around for a while, but they end up sitting down in a café and just talking like they used to. They both realised how much they missed it.
Relio missed seeing his sister. He missed the way she lifts her eyebrow when he says something amusing, the smell of her perfume, her loud laugh, her reassuring smile, the excepting tilt of her head and her knowing look. He missed the way she loved him, fiercely, loudly and quietly at the same time.
"Sol, I don’t want to go yet," Stela says as they wait for her ship back to the Academy. "It feels like I just came."
"I'm visiting you next weekend. Now that the ferry lines are stablilised, it's going to be easier."
"Mhm."
"Say hi to Ocelo and Niya for me, will you?" Relio asks.
"I will."
The ferry comes and honks. People start embarking it, but Relio and Stela stay across each other for a bit. He pulls her in for a hug.
"I love you, Stela."
"Love you, too, Relio."