After both of the twins arrived home, they casually entered the house and stopped dead. There, sitting at in the living room was their parents. They were calmly drinking coffee and looked up when they heard the front door open.The moment they saw their children, they stood up and walked to them with big smiles. The twins were still frozen, until both parents hugged Asher tightly. They praised him and promised to reward him for all the good things he did while they were gone.
"Asher my boy! I heard you won another match today and you're still undefeated! That's my son!"
"Asher dear! Your grades are magnificent as usual! All the effort we put in to raise you really paid off. You are the apple of my eye."
"Should we reward you with double your allowance? Or maybe a new flying sword?"
"Next time we're gone for a few weeks we'll leave extra money. Speaking of... we brought back a few souvenirs for our little angel."
Asher hugged them back and basically glowed in their praise. His smiled as innocently as he could and answered like a spoiled kid.
"Mom, dad, I want the best books about cultivation techniques. Those that are so rare that nobody will recognize them."
Off to the side, Mae stood and glanced at the picture perfect image of a family. Her unemotional face didn't fit in. She nodded her head at her brother as a thanks because she knew that book was for her and headed for her room. Her thoughts wandered as she walked.
If her parents knew she was the one that was undefeated? Would they praise her like that? Would they stop liking Asher then? She shook her head, She didn't like attention anyway. Even to herself, that sounded more like she was trying to convince someone. She had already created the stepping stones for her brother, she couldn't abandon him halfway. Plus, he asked for the books for her and agreed to let her live off him someday.
She heard them talk about school and just have a nice warm conversation and the sound of food being set at the table could also not escape her ears. She didn't need to eat, but it was still nice so she still did it... but today she lost any longing for flavour.
The voices still floated to her sharp ears, even three floors separating them.
"Mom, dad, shouldn't we wait for Mae before we eat?"
Their laughter was like a knife that was thrown very accurately.
"Why would we wait? This is a family dinner."
She couldn't bear to listen anymore and forcibly blocked out all sound.
She flopped on her bed and closed her eyes to forget about reality. She dreamt about a very young girl that was always sickly. She was born weak and her parents gave up after the first year of trying to cure her. She never left her room and books and her bed became her only companions. She would get food and people came in to clean, but they never really talked and she only ever requested new books from them. For years it continued like this, until a bomb exploded her whole world.
That bomb came in the form of a little boy, he crashed through her door on a flying sword that was out of control. He hit her bookcases and finally crashed into her bed. In the eyes of the girl, this boy was an oddity and just destroyed everything she had. Even though she was mad and sad, her face didn't make a single expression. Perhaps it was because she had never seen others expressions or because she didn't have much change in emotion throughout her life so far.
The little boy sat up and rubbed his head where he had hit the bedframe after falling. His face slowly morphed and he began to cry loudly while just sitting there. The girl walked to him looked at him. He had short brown hair that slightly curled at the tips and big green eyes that kept shedding water. She didn't know who or what he was or even what he was doing, but some inner part of her felt extremely uncomfortable. She scrunched her nose at the feeling and out of instinct she pat his head. The more she pat his head, the less he cried and both of them started feeling strangely connected to the other. He looked at the little girl and hugged her tightly.
After a few adults found the two children clinging tightly onto each other with the boy still having dried tears, they tried to get the boy to go, but he still clung to the pale girl and refused to let go. This marked the day that the twins first met and also the day that changed the little girl's entire life.