A/N: This takes place before the next chapter and a bit after the last chapter.
Ether stormed back to his place before he made his way to meet with Lumine and Kaeya at the Temple of the Wolf. Shutting the door tightly behind him. "What the fuck was I thinking? Saving Lumine and putting myself in danger? This was not a part of my plans!" Ether grumbled, his actions were irrational and purely came from his selfishness.
He didn't see people as friends, he saw them as nothing more than tools to accomplish his goal, but many of his actions are not reasonable. 'Why is that?' Ether thought.
Did he save her from pity or something else? 'If so, then what is it?'
He knew the answer deep inside, but he didn't want to admit it. In the past two years, he had attempted to forget and ignore his longing for his past life. He got over most things in his past life, his parents, and his friends, but one thing he could never forget was his little sister.
She is a year younger than he is, but she has more energy than anyone Ether had ever known. She is strangely attached to him even when she had a boyfriend, quite the annoying sibling indeed. He loved to mess with her, and the way that she reacted to him is priceless. No matter how mean or annoying he seemed, she is the most important one in his mind regardless of what situation he is in.
Her name was Aileen. 'I wonder what she's doing now?' Ether wondered as he stared out the window. 'Hopefully, she is doing well.'
Even if Ether never showed his affection in front of Aileen, it doesn't mean he didn't care about her. His craving to see, to even hear her voice, was like an addiction, she was the only thing he regret about his death, and he couldn't be more helpful as an older brother before he died, or seen her happily married. 'If I remember correctly, Aileen should be around 16 right now.' Ether recalled. 'Around the same age as Barbara and Lumine.'
He knew that no one could ever replace his little sister, but his actions were saying something else. His actions towards Barbara originated from his past life, his sister would always take care of him whenever he is ill. Barbara's personality reminds him somewhat of his sister. And he knew that she saw him as someone more than just a brother.
For Lumine, it was her hardheadedness when it comes to many things, but she was always there to help him out when needed, and she was always shy around him, 'Ah! It's been so long that I forgot,' Ether realized what he was forgetting, 'Aileen wasn't my sister, I was adopted!'
Aileen was against his foster parents adopting him, especially when he was older than her and had different parents. Unlike Ether, Aileen was social, energetic, bright, and intelligent—Everything Ether could wish for.
Instead of being a likable brother, he decided to stick his nose to books and avoid trouble as much as possible, he was always reading or playing games whenever Aileen is out playing with friends, studying, and doing work whenever she is messing around. The only thing Ether could best her in was work, school work, or any of the school subjects.
If he had one regret about dying, it would be that he could never see Aileen again. 'Maybe I can make up for it this life…' Ether thought, 'I need Lumine to reach my goal of a peaceful life after all.'
'Until then, I'll protect her from harm to make up for me dying, Aileen,' Ether vowed, 'would that be enough to make it up to you?'
'In the end, it was my selfishness that drove me to do whatever I wanted and that hasn't changed since,'
'But, ultimately, it doesn't change the fact that Lumine and Aileen are a different people. After all, their experiences are different.'
He stared out the window, expecting to see the sun shining through, but he was greeted by stormy clouds and darkened sky. He turned around to see the clock, at 1:30 PM. It's noon, if they wanted to be done with this today, he'll have to go now. So that he can be done with this by 5. 'And I need to get my body use to my skill too…' Ether thought before dashing off to the temple to meet up with the two.
A/N: I want to ask how is this short story. First time doing one so leave some feedback. Also, it's not new years for me yet but can we make it before it is new year for me? 100k views?