Chapter Twenty-Eight: The "Me" In Me

Avis could only respond to the girl's question with a startled expression and a stumbled step backwards.

He touched a finger to his chin—subconsciously—as he aimed his gaze at the mahogany planks of Lillian's floor. "What are you talking about?" he managed to laugh, feeling the lump in his throat grow with each word. "Of course I'm—"

The girl took a step forward and closed the distance between them in mere seconds, and her golden eyes were cold as they met his panicked—now blue—ones with the bold ferocity of a wild Arcanine. "Really, it was easy to figure out," she hummed. "I had my suspicions from the start. Who are you, then, and what happened to Aiden?"

He pressed his lips together, studying her firm expression and wondering if the situation was still salvageable; whether he still had a chance to fool the girl, but he found no such escape from her harsh gaze.

"I'm his twin brother," the teenager muttered. The reluctance in his voice was evident, and every cell of his body screamed at him that he wasn't supposed to be revealing his identity to anyone. "Avis Ichor. Your partner was...killed in a battle."

A few moments of tense silence sparked between the both of them before the black-haired girl answered. "I see," she contemplated in her usual calm tone, and it was clear that she was trying to piece the information together. "Why are you taking his place, then? It's not my business to tell anyone, so you don't have to worry about that."

"It's complicated." That was all he managed to get out before his voice threatened to crack, and he swallowed for breath before lapsing back into a state of familiar indifference.

It wouldn't be enough, of course; it would never be enough, and that was because he was still muddled and confused about the entire situation—but as long as he was able to grate some lie out about how he was just taking over Aiden's place, it would be fine.

Letting out a small breath, the younger female reclaimed her position on her bed with a slight frown. "Do you want to explain?"

He did, but he couldn't. It was already a risk with Lillian knowing that he wasn't Aiden—the rational part of his mind was telling him that it wasn't worth telling her anything else. 

"I think I understand enough," she nodded. "Thanks for your explanation. I'll have to figure out what to—"

The boy interrupted before she could get any further, and his eyes widened as he dared to gaze at her. "I don't get what's going on." His voice was raised just the tiniest bit above a harried whisper, and his tone was cold. "I thought you and my brother were in a relationship."

"That's hard to explain," Lillian answered. "We weren't in a relationship. Yes, I did find him attractive once, but it wasn't anything serious. We only pretended to be in one so that people wouldn't suspect anything about our work."

She watched Avis' watch her with confused eyes, and she proceeded to continue before he could say anything else. "I guess I'll have to explain to you about everything," she sighed, and a shrug flowed through her shoulders in a single fluid motion.

"The government is pretty incompetent when it comes to handling this," she started, and the hard look in her large eyes returned once again. "Sure, they started investigating the reason behind those attacks, but Hoenn got in the way with the war and everyone's leaving the actual issue behind. Idiots, if I have to describe them."

"Still, I guess we can't blame them." Avis took great care in choosing his words, and he spoke slowly, trying not to say anything more that could get him in trouble. "They're too busy trying to get Kalos to survive. But what's your point behind all this?"

The girl answered with a dry bout of laughter. "I did say that me and Aiden were working together," she answered. "We're trying to find the reason behind the mystery attacks and a solution to stop it."

He couldn't stop the words from being blurted out of his mouth, and he regretted them the second after he had spoken. "You thought it was possible?" His tone was more incredulous than he had meant it to be, and he shot a silent curse at himself "I'm sorry for saying this, but it's just the two of you."

"Well, there's the difference between the two of you." An amused smile tugged at the corners of her lips, and Lillian shot him down with a haughty stare. "And yes, we know that it may very well be useless, but no one's going to do it and both Hoenn and Kalos will be stuck in some vicious cycle. Besides, we have a few connections."

She watched as Avis fell silent, and a ghost of a smile—a triumphant one; an expression that announced that she'd won the short argument—formed on her face.

"I'm a bit put off by the sudden turn of events, but I can't do this by myself. That's why I'm asking for your help," she stated, and the boldness in her eyes had quieted down to something more serious. "Of course, you could decline, but that would mean giving up on whatever Kalos has left. If you agree, I can't promise that you'll be happy, but there'll be one place where you can stop acting as Aiden."

He didn't quite give a solid response, but the tension in his shoulders didn't go unseen—and from the way the boy's body seemed to curl in on itself, she'd received an answer.

"So you do seem to value your personality just that small bit," she murmured. "That's good, then. I was planning on going on a mission by myself, but I think that this is something you could help with."

"What is it?" Avis finally found his voice, and he glanced down at his new partner with genuine curiosity in his voice.

Lillian grunted as she got to her feet, slinging a bag over her shoulder and motioning for him to leave the room. "We found a client that you're familiar with," she replied. "We're going to your friend Yan's shop."

§

He couldn't quite the right words to say as he remained by the girl's side.

Is this right? He'd felt far too guilty for his own good when he'd seen the crushed look on Yan's face, and he didn't know if approaching her so soon was the best idea—not when he'd memorised the hollow dullness of shocked that roamed her eyes; not when he felt the guilt burning like a ferocious poison in his gut.

"We're just going to ask her a few questions before leaving." Lillian spoke up, as if having sensed his discomfort, and he was grateful that her eyes were turned to the tarmac below her feet. "I understand you're worried, but you have to remember that you're acting like Aiden now."

A scowl appeared on his face, but he wiped the expression away into something more blank and less concrete before anyone could notice.

Even if he didn't say it, he was angry at the girl leading the way. She had pulled him into something he was sure he couldn't dig his way out of, but more than that—

—she'd brushed off Aiden's death as if it was nothing.

It was as if she was incapable of caring about anything much, and he found himself disliking that nonchalant attitude of hers. They might not have been dating at all, but he found it impossible to believe that Lillian wouldn't care for her partner if they'd been together for such a long time.

Sure, he'd seen the small frown on her face and the look in her eyes when he'd told her of the knight's death, but it was still frustrating.

He may not have been best friends with Yan, but he knew that he would at least be affected if she were to pass away in such a sudden manner—so, why wasn't Lillian like that?

"I can guess what you're thinking about right now." A voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and he startled to meet Lillian's gaze. "I may seem soulless, but it's how I was taught to deal with death. He may have been a partner to me, but it was just because of our common goals."

"Putting that aside here." The female's voice was unruffled, and she raised a hand to nudge the door open. "You there. Are you Yan Xie?"

Avis felt the lump in his throat return, and he was only able to follow behind the girl as if he was mute and observe the silent grief that expelled with each breath that his former coworker let out; the pallor to her skin and the reddish tint to her eyes.

There was a charm clutched in her hands. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he remembered that she'd gotten it from one of those old shops when they were younger. Yan had always been one to believe in superstitions.

Yan took a few moments to collect herself before responding, averting her gaze and choosing to glance at Lillian—of course she would do that; seeing him must have reminded her too much of the friend she'd had before he died.

"Yes, that's me." There was caution in her shaky tone, and he chose to fix his gaze past her and at the familiar Budew watching them from the counter. "What business do you have here?"

The girl took a step closer to him, latching on to his arm and looking ahead with the same collected expression on her face—and he had to remind himself that the two of them were a couple in public. "We just want to ask you a few things," she tried. "That's all."

All three of them could pick apart the discomfort in the air with ease, but none of them bothered to voice that fact, and the shorter girl observed Yan's tiptoed steps backwards before continuing. "We received wind that one of Hoenn's military generals makes frequent visits here, and we'd like to—"

"I'm sorry," the rose-haired female choked out, and she shot a grief-stricken look at the two of them. "I don't think I can do this right now, and besides, I need to attend a funeral in a while. So, if you'll excuse me, please leave."

She then mustered the courage to shoot Avis a dirty look, and it was then that he realised that he'd forgotten about the funeral—an event that was supposed to commemorate his death, no less, and no matter how much he resented the occasion, he had to go.

The glare reminded him that he was Aiden and not Avis any longer, because he'd never seen Yan look like that in all the days he had worked in her shop and he was now someone who was little more than an acquaintance to her.

It was no wonder why she was upset—and really, he should have prepared himself for such a situation, but her words and bowed head stung at his heart with a stabbing needle of numb regret.

"I should apologise for the insensitivity, Yan." He let his voice fall into that soft murmur that Aiden would use, and he wished against the cold reality that he could find another way to reassure her. "I guess we'll see each other...well, there."

"It's fine," the girl replied, and led them back to the entrance's wooden door. "I appreciate the thought, Aiden."

§

Lillian looked up at the taller boy with the same calculating look settling on her face.

"I'll admit that I made a mistake," she nodded, raising an eyebrow as she glanced at the rose-haired girl a few seats in front of them. "I should have taken her feelings about the funeral into consideration."

She waited a while before continuing. "I'll have to arrange for alternative plans, then." She didn't sound disappointed or sad—there was only utter confidence in her voice. "We'll wait until she can handle the questions before visiting again."

Avis wanted to snap back some form of unkind statement; how she didn't seem to care about anything besides her goals and he wondered just how Aiden could have worked with her in the first place, but the voice calling him to the stand interrupted him from doing so.

He hurried to take his position, aware of the eyes on him—there weren't many; this was supposed to be something more private because no one ever knew him—and opening his mouth to speak.

"All of you have been gathered here today due to the unfortunate death of Avis Ichor," he started, ignoring the dry, humourless laugh sounding in his head and swallowing a glob of saliva that had settled in his throat. "I understand that this is a sad day for everyone gathered here, and I hope that these words about my brother would help you through some of the grief."

In all honesty, he didn't know many people who would have felt sad. The only one he could think of was Yan—his parents were strangers to him, and most of the others that weren't relatives were connected to his brother in one way or another.

"As you may know, Avis was my twin. He always seemed to look up to me as if I was older, though, but I felt that he was ultimately the more mature out of the two of us." He wanted to stop there and then—because he was lying to himself and the crowd and he hated it—but he couldn't.

"Avis was someone who knew how to be realistic," he continued. "And despite the serious faces that he showed most of the time, I knew that it was just him knowing how the world functioned."

Feeling nausea bubble past his stomach and crawl its way to his throat, he paused to swallow for breath before trying to speak again. He would rather be anywhere than this damned place; he didn't even know if he was doing a good enough job acting as his brother and—

His thoughts were interrupted just as he parted his lips to speak once again, and the defeaning sound of an explosion paused his words.

§

Aaaaaa I actually got off my lazy ass and decided to write something ahaha

But that aside, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! ^^

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~ nyxia ☆