𝓢𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓶𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓼 | 𝔸𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕩 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣

𝐈

Aether and Paimon walked along the hill, Aether's hand rubbing up against it as he walked. He didn't know what to do. His sister was gone, and he needed to find her. As children, and even now, they were inseparable, nothing can tear those two apart, except that damn goddess. Paimon doesn't know who she is so it wasn't much of help to locate. The strong feeling of seeing his sister again gave him pride, but that pride had been stretched out, into a thin line, thinner than a hair. Then said, Aether just wanted to find her, but didn't wanna put the work in.

Aether took a breath. His beautiful golden locks swayed in the wind like grains of wheat. Beautiful and magestic grians of wheat. His glowing eyes soon closed. Nothing felt good right now, not even the soft dandelion seed touches that the wind had gave him from time to time. He wanted to just break this wall that was seperating him from his sister but... That wasn't possible, but not entirely impossible. It'd would just take time.

A really long time.

He went deep into thought. He thought if that there could be someone here to fill that hole that his sister had left him. Not a replacement at all, just a... Distraction from his crippling depression. That thought made it second to his list of things to do. But what if it was hard? No no, it couldn't be! Not harder than fighting a god in order to find the family member you've been so close and dear too all of your life.

"Woah! Heads up!" A voice shouted from nearby. Soon, an arrow, engulfed in the orange beauty of flames flew right above the duo's head and dug right into a boars side. "Sorry there you two" The voice came out from behind a tree. Her brown locks were spread along her shoulders and a headband with a red pair of bunny ears, that looked more like a ribbon. "Are you two from around here?" Aether looked over to Paimon.

"Ugh! It's not hard to say no ya know!" Paimon groaned.

"Sorry, we aren't from around here" Aether pushed Paimon away just a bit. Paimon gave the boy a glare.

The girl with the flaming arrows smiled. "Oh! Then, I can show you around! Maybe even introduce you to the town!" She giggled. "I'm Amber, Outrider of the Knights of Favonious!" She grabbed Aether's hand from his side and shook it violently. Aether was scared his arm would fall off. "Sorry for almost hitting you two there" She chuckled, letting go of the blonde's gloved hand. Amber flipped her hair with her hand and brought out a huge smile. "I'll show you around Mondstadt! I'm so happy to finally show somebody around!" Amber giggled.

Aether faked a smile and went back to his thoughts. A person to please him... A person to make him forget about pain... Another person to love...

[♡]

Y/N stocked up all the food that had just come in the mail.

3 Dozen milk cartons

8 Onions

50 Pepper and Salt shakers

And lastly... 73 Apples.

People loved those damn apples. And they'd spend as Mora as they could to get their hands on them. Y/N huffed and put down the last Apple, to then have it knocked down by a group of young kids playing ball. She mentally groaned in disappointment. She felt bad for the parents of those kids.

"Sorry Miss!" A girl tossed her a coin and took and Apple. She swiftly caught the 10 Mora coin. She'd have to clean every apple that hit the ground, and that was all 73 of the new ones, minus the one that the girl took, so 72. Y/N kneeled onto the ground and began picking up the juicy fruit everyone obsessed over.

"Having trouble again?" A voice called out. It was Keaya, Y/N's good friend. His dark blue hair and his tan skin was seen in the corner of Y/N's eye as she began to pick up the apples one by one and out them into a basket. "You always seem to have trouble with these apples" Keaya picked up one and took a bite, humming in delight. Some juice dropped down his chin, he licked it away. She side glared. "What?" Keaya chuckled. Y/N just held her hand out, expecting 10 Mora in her hand. It was never given. "I thought as a friend I had a 100% discount" He took another bite. More juice went down his chin. Y/N rolled her eyes.

"OHHH KEAYA!!!" A high-pitched voice was heard. Ugh Amber. Y/N picked up the Apples faster, needing to get away from that brunette brat. Amber was then seen in sight, Y/N continued going faster. It felt like Y/N's hand were burning from the suns heat, they had to slow down their pase. "And Y/N?!? Perfect timing!"

"No, not perfect timing" Y/N mumbled under her breath. An unknown hand picked up the last apple and put it in Y/N's hand. "Huh?" They looked up to the figure and raised her imperfect eyebrow.

"There, the last one" It was a boy, an unknown boy, a new boy and... A... What ever that was over his shoulder. Y/N nodded as a thank you and stood back up in a hurry. Keaya was in the middle of his introduction so Y/N had some time to get away. She grabbed the basket from the ground and began to make her get away.

"Ah!" A hand was felt on their shoulder. It was Ambers. She swore, if she held onto her shoulder for any longer, that fountain nearby would make a great swimming place for Amber, or even a new "Oxygen Tank". "You haven't introduced yourself to the new traveler yet!" Y/N turned around and flashed a kind smile that had no meaning whatsoever. Just a smile with no story, no meaning, no purpose of being there except to cover the uncomfortable feeling in Y/N's chest.

"Hey! I'm Y/N!" Oh, Barbados, what am I doing? I don't know how to introduce myself!! Y/N was basically sweating bullets, gallons, tons, whoever you want to put it, she was really nervously sweating. They never really liked people. Except Blanche, Keaya, Diluc, Doina, and now she was oddly comfortable near that boy. He seemed to have the same energy as her, and she like that. The traveler was nervous too, mainly cause his little traveling partner was going all the talking and could spill any dark secrets in a snap.

"Nice to meet you Y/N! Paimon in my name and the person next to Paimon is Aether!" Aether... That name... It's... It seemed kinda... Y/N didn't know how to place the boys name in her mind. She kept telling herself it's just a name, but, something inside of her said it was more. Home? No no. It's just a name.

Aether. Is. His. Name.

"Do you work for the Knights of Favonious too?" Paimon asked. Y/N shook her head.

"No! I work here at the General good store! Blanche is sick right now so I have to take over for the rest of the day" Y/N huffed again. Blanche always wants her to work at least a 16 hour shift when she is gone for anything ever, but when Blanche is gone for more than 1 week, it's up to 20 hours, sometimes 24. "I'll be here almost all day! So if you need any ingredients for food, come to me!"

Paimon nagged you with more questions, but you had only heard the last one she asked. "Man, do you have a vision at least?" Y/N scrunched up her face.

"As a kid, I always thought of having a vision, but... I can't even get one if I tried, I'm unathleticly inclined so I'm stuck here serving people apples" She looked up to the sky. "I wanted a Dendro Vision, or a Cryo one would be cool too! No pun intended" She chuckled. Now that chuckle was real. Aether and Keaya chuckled along with her.

"Aww, you don't have a vision??" Paimon whimpered. Y/N got suddenly impatient with the small woman.

"Yes, I stated that just now" She hid an angry expression behind the kindest smile.

"Darn it! They won't be of any help to us to find your sister!" Paimon mumbled, but clearly made it so Y/N could hear.

Her and that Paimon fellow would definitely not get along.