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“Wow, I can’t believe old man Shimura finally kicked the bucket. He’s been a hundred years old since we were ten.”
Lumine snorted at her brother as she topped off her suitcase and moved to close it, taking care to be gentle with the black dress she’d packed to wear to the man’s funeral.
He’d been a staple during their childhood. He’d attended every barbecue and happy hour the parents of the block threw, and every child’s birthday party.
Lumine had gotten “married” to one of the boys from down the street, in Mr. Shimura’s front yard, when she was eight. Thoma had even made her a flower crown.
He’d made cookies at every holiday, and taught the children how to hang the lights, and it wasn’t uncommon for them to see him walking around the block with his mean little dog and his bright red newsboy cap.
She still had a scar from where that dog had bitten her when she was nine, and although it had been scary at the time, she remembered it fondly.
A small part of Lumine had thought he’d never die, but as it was, death was a part of life, and that’s what he would have told her if she’d asked him about it.
She knew from her mother that he’d been sick for a while, and although her parents no longer lived at that house, their tenants had been the one to deliver the bad news, and Lumine had actually cried about it.
It had been ten years since she’d last lived at that particular house. She’d moved to Mondstadt for nursing school and never looked back, except for when the holidays rolled around, and even then, he’d always seemed to be gone when she’d go over to his house for a visit, so she’d given up on calling on him entirely.
Now, with both her and Aether settled in Mondstadt, their parents had started coming to see them, which made things a whole lot easier.
As it was, her mother had demanded that both of them go back to Inazuma for Mr. Shimura’s funeral, and neither one of them protested, because he’d been as good as a grandfather to them when they were growing up, and they owed it to him to celebrate his life.
“I mean, I expected it to be sad, I just didn’t expect to absolutely lose my shit.”
Aether chuckled softly as he presented his sister with a handkerchief and pulled her into his side, “Ah well, one of us was bound to go soft in our old age, might as well be you.”
She swatted at him half-heartedly as he rubbed a reassuring hand down her upper arm and sighed, “I didn’t expect so many people to show up, he was obviously very well-loved.”
“Not…helping!” Lumine hissed between sharp intakes of breath, willing herself to calm down before she made a scene, eliciting a sly smirk from her brother that she’d ordinarily punch him in the stomach for, if she wasn’t so busy trying to keep herself in check.
“Sorry.” He replied, “My bad.”
The twins sat there in silence for several minutes before Lumine regained her composure, and her brother pressed a kiss to the crown of her head as she straightened her back and sighed, rolling her head from side-to-side to help loosen the crick that had formed in her neck, “Okay. I’m going to freshen up for the repast, and then we can go.”
“I think that's a good idea, we wouldn’t want one of the neighbor kids to bring shame upon the family.”
The repast was a much more lighthearted affair, with friends and family sharing anecdotes back and forth over food and drink, most of the men’s ties loosened as the formality of the service began to ebb away.
Lumine and Aether’s parents had found solace with a couple that she didn’t immediately recognize, and the closer she drew to where her mother had waved her over, the more familiar they became, but Lumine was still too unsure to jump to any sort of conclusion.
The woman had light brown hair and bright green eyes, and the man had the same, except his hair was blonde, but Lumine couldn’t quite place a finger on who they were, until her mother began the introductions.
“Lumine, this is Klaus and Hanna Koch, I don’t know if you remember them from when you were little, but you spent quite a bit of time with their son.”
Lumine held a hand out for them to shake as she connected the dots and felt herself blush, “Ah, right, you’re Thoma’s parents.”
“You have a good memory, it’s got to have been what, fifteen years since we’ve seen you?”
“Closer to seventeen, I think.” She replied, “I was eleven when you moved.”
It was funny how many things she remembered about him, seventeen years later. They’d both been so young.
She remembered how he used to take her down to the pond behind his house to catch frogs, and she remembered chasing the ice cream truck down the street on hot summer days.
She remembered jumping in puddles during a few particularly strong storms, and she remembered one time where he’d “ran away from home” and snuck into her and Aether’s treehouse.
She also remembered being absolutely devastated when he’d told her that his family was moving to Mondstadt, but he’d promised to write to her, and he’d done just that.
After a couple of years of steady correspondence, however, they’d both gotten busy, and their letters had fallen to the wayside, never to be picked up again.
It was weird to see pieces of him, so many years later, and she was just about to ask after his well-being when a smooth tenor interrupted her train of thought, “Here, mom, I brought you some—”
Bright green eyes that matched his mother’s were kind and inquisitive as he set a plate down in front of Hanna and turned to face them directly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. It’s just, she’s been frothing at the mouth for these since we got here.”
Hanna waved a hand casually before setting it on his forearm and giving it a gentle squeeze, “I’ve hardly been frothing.” A beat as she took a bite off the plate and sighed, “Forgive me, my Thoma never quite grew out of his dramatic phase.”
Lumine cocked her head to one side as a faint blush graced his features and he smirked, running a hand through his hair before fidgeting with his tie and rolling his eyes in response, “That drama had to come from somewhere, mother, and it wasn’t dad.”
The woman batted her eyelashes and simpered as her son peered down at her fondly, and he held a hand out for her parents to shake, “Where are my manners? I’m Thoma. I grew up down the street from Mr. Shimura, and I’m pretty sure I got married in his front yard when I was ten.”
Hanna’s gaze flitted between her son and Lumine as a coy smirk played across her features, “You did, and allow me to reintroduce you to your wife.”
His jaw snapped shut at the sudden revelation, and Lumine could see all the blood rushing to the tips of his ears as he cleared his throat and met her eye before holding his hand out to her, “I thought you looked familiar.” A beat as she took it and he gave hers a squeeze, “It’s good to see you, Lumine.”
His tone was genuine, and she didn’t miss the subtle decrease in volume as her name rolled off his tongue, “It’s been a long time.”
Lumine cleared her throat and held his gaze as he dropped her hand and offered her a smirk in a silent agreement to not discuss their loss of contact, and she pushed out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as Aether came up beside her and clapped her on the back, “There you are! I found Kamisato Ayato and Ayaka, from that blue house on the corner, they asked if we wanted to go out for drinks, reminisce, et cetera.”
“Ah, how fortunate, because I found Thoma, from next door.”
Aether flashed Thoma a wide smile as he arched an eyebrow and reached out to shake his hand, “I remember.” A beat, “ Your name was scribbled all over Lumi’s diary when we were kids. It was precious.”
“Oh-kay, well.” Lumine replied, trying to will her blush to stay where nobody could see it, “Now that that super embarrassing secret is out in the open, we should probably figure out where we’re going to go for those drinks, brother dearest.”
Aether offered her a sly smirk at the threat behind her words, and his eyes flashed with mischief as he turned back to Thoma and nodded, “Come with us! I’m sure you and Lumine have a lot of catching up to do.”
“It’s weird, isn’t it?”
Lumine sipped her drink slowly and looked out over the Inazuman Sea, “What’s that?”
“To know that Old Man Shimura died.”
Lumine snorted and shook her head as Thoma came up beside her and leaned against the balcony of the Uyuu Restaurant, nursing his own drink as his gaze followed hers, “That’s what people do. They grow old, and then they die.”
“Right, but you don’t think about that when you’re a kid. It’s all sunshine and rainbows, barbecues and fake weddings, and then you grow up and leave it all behind, only to be surprised when staples from your childhood pass on to the next world.”
Amber eyes met green as Lumine turned to look at him, “I wonder how many kids got fake married in that yard of his.”
He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, flashing a bright smile that made her heart skip a beat, “At least ten, if I remember our neighbors correctly.”
Lumine returned a smile in kind and took another sip, “Our fake ceremony was the best by a landslide, I bet.”
“Oh, undoubtedly. How many ten-year-old grooms can say they made a flower crown for their bride-to-be?”
Lumine felt heat rising to her face at the way his voice dropped to a whisper, but she shook her head to break the spell as she felt him scoot closer, “I had that hanging on my wall for months. My mother finally had to throw it away because the dried petals made a huge mess.”
She felt her heart give a tug at the memory as her mind kept her firmly planted in the present, “Do you ever miss the naïveté of youth?”
Thoma offered her a smile and sighed, “Sometimes, but being an adult has its perks too.”
“Sure.” She shrugged, “If you consider bills and student loan debts and jobs that barely pay for both perks.”
“Point taken.” Thoma replied, “But for every one of those things, there’s a drink, or a friend, or a lover.”
“Are you really trying to hit on me in the aftermath of a funeral?” Lumine said, tossing back what was left of her drink as she waited for him to respond, “That’s bold.”
“I just mean—” a beat as he took another swig of his own cocktail, “There are things we couldn't enjoy as kids that we have the privilege of enjoying now. Whether that be—”
“Drinks, or friends, or lovers.” Lumine finished for him, not quite sure how to respond to the shift in conversation, “Which of those things do you lean on, when adulthood overwhelms you?”
“Friends, usually.” He replied calmly, “You?”
“Drinks with friends. Or is that not allowed?”
He cocked his head to one side and smirked, “No lover, then?”
Smooth.
Lumine wrinkled her nose and shook her head gently as he arched an eyebrow and waited for her response, “No. Not for the last couple of years. Much to my parents’ chagrin.”
“Ah well, their loss.”
Lumine didn’t miss the way his eyes brightened at her answer, but she knew better than to overanalyze things, especially on a day where emotions were running high, “I’m not upset about it. I needed some time to figure out who I was as a person.“
“And did you?”
“Maybe, why?”
“Well, if you feel like you’ve figured out enough about yourself, I’d like to buy you dinner, see the person you’ve become for myself.”
“Why, so you can write me letters for two years and then ghost me again?”
Thoma’s face reddened at the pointed question, but he recovered quickly and flashed her a smile as he nudged her with his shoulder, “No. Technology is much more advanced than it was when we were teenagers, if I decide to ghost you, it’ll be over text.”
“Oh, even better. Now the cloud will know my shame.”
She was teasing him, but she couldn’t help the prick of sadness that followed the comment as his green eyes softened and he tipped his chin, “I’m not stupid enough to make the same mistake twice.”
“Can I get that in writing?”
Thoma chuckled and fished a pocket notebook out of his jacket, and the look on his face made her feel warm and tingly all over as he followed it with a pen and pulled the cap off with his teeth before scribbling a few things and offering the paper to her, “If you want it written in blood, instead, I’d be happy to accommodate you.”
Lumine snorted at his dramatics and snatched the paper out of his hand, noting the Mondstadt address and area code, and Thoma’s breath was hot against her cheek as he bent down to kiss it, pulling back as Aether’s voice called out to her, “We should get back to everyone, before they start to speculate.”
Thoma smirked at the blush she felt blooming across her face, and he reached for her hand as he turned away, only dropping it once the others came into view.
She could feel the piece of paper burning against her palm, and part of her wondered if the ghost of their neighbor had brought them back together on purpose.