The house smelled like beef stew when he got home.
Luchian was at the stove, stirring slowly — the kind of slow that meant he'd had time to actually think about what he was making instead of rushing it.
"How was work?" he asked, not turning around.
"It was fine," Clyde said, sitting down at the table.
Luchian ladled out a bowl and set it in front of him, then sat down across with his own. "Fine isn't a real answer."
"Well it's the only one I've got right now."
"Come on, try harder."
Clyde took a spoonful, mostly to buy himself a second. "Long day, lots of teaching, and nothing exciting."
"Mm." Luchian didn't push it. He ate for a bit, and then said casually, "I was thinking about visiting the Matrix today."
Clyde looked up. "Matrix? Why?"
"There was a man selling prints near the market this morning. Skyline pieces. Apparently it's gotten even bigger and advanced — they've put in those new elevated transit lines, the ones that run between the towers instead of underneath them."
Luchian gestured vaguely with his spoon, the way he did when he was painting a picture with words instead of a brush.
"It is said that the whole inner district glows now. Every building's got its own lantern grid built into the architecture instead of just the streets and they're planning to add a dome covering the whole city and they are planning to make a giant light bulb to mimic the sun."
"How do they even know what the sun looks like? and a trip there sounds expensive."
"Well they did their research and found books from our ancestors that revealed what the sun looked like before the cataclysm." Luchian smiled slightly. "And everything about the Matrix is expensive, that's sort of the point of it."
Clyde ate another spoonful. "So you want to go?"
"I never said that."
"Well you're describing it like you've already planned the trip."
Luchian laughed. "Fine. I want to go, but just to see it. Since I've-I meant we've never actually been there, you know. I've heard about it my whole entire life. Biggest city in Miton, best economy on the continent, all of that. It feels strange to live this close and never once set foot there."
"Are you sure it's we? I feel like you just wanna travel and see the whole world, but I have to remind you it's fifty kilometers."
"I know how far it is."
"That's not a short trip, Luchian. The coach fare alone would eat a good chunk of what we just spent on this house." Clyde said it gently. "And that's one way. We'd need to come back too."
"I know," Luchian said again. "I wasn't being serious-serious. Just — thinking about it.
Clyde watched him for a second. "But we could try to save for it, if you actually wanted to go."
"You don't have to do that."
"I didn't say I'd do it tonight. I said we could try." He shrugged. "You've never really asked me for anything like that before, a trip somewhere, Most of what you ask for is groceries and whether I've eaten."
"Those are important things to ask about."
"They are, I'm just saying — if you want to see the Matrix someday, that's not a crazy thing to want." Clyde pushed his empty bowl forward slightly. "We don't have to decide tonight."
Luchian was quiet for a moment, turning his spoon over in the bowl without really eating anything with it.
"Maybe next year," he said eventually. "Once the garden is actually producing something, and once things are a little more settled."
"Yeah sure maybe next year,"
He meant it as a real answer, and something in Luchian's face seemed to understand that and a small, genuine warmth settled back into his expression.
Clyde finished what was left in his bowl and stood, gathering both of their dishes before Luchian could get to them first.
"I should go study," he said.
"You've been studying a lot lately." Luchian said.
"Yeah, new role and there is lots of stuff to learn."
"Mm," Luchian said again
Clyde rinsed the bowls quickly, set them to dry, and headed for his room.
"Don't stay up too late," Luchian called after him.
"I won't."
He shut his bedroom door behind him. Out in the kitchen, he heard Luchian humming something faint and tuneless, the sound of a man content enough with the evening.
Luchian sat there a little longer after the humming trailed off, looking at the empty chair across the table. The thought crossed his mind again — maybe it's time we talked about our parents — and like always, he let it go.
Not tonight.
Clyde sat at his desk and opened his Hollow Eyes again.
Same result.
"Nothing has changed huh, but it seems like I can hold on to the hollow eyes for a longer period of time." Clyde said while still lying on his bed.
Then he moves to his desk and sits down on a wooden chair.
I need to earn more money to go to the Matrix, but that isn't the important thing.
Noxar with his phase right now he can track me easily and Luchian will be in danger.
He leaps back to his bed
Curse this!
I just got enough money to live a normal life. Now i have to handle this sh*t!
Isn't there a low risk high reward job?
A gust of air moved past him.
Aurelian was standing right next to his chair.
Clyde jumped and before he'd fully processed it, he asked. "How did you get in here?"
"Your window was open, so I leaped in here." Said easily by Aurelian
Clyde was in disbelief "Humans can do that?"
Aurelian laughs at his puzzled face "Divine Ichor," Aurelian said, like that explained everything, which, fair enough, it kind of did. "Flash Step." He checked a small watch on his wrist. "I'm heading to the training grounds. Want to come?"
Clyde hesitated. "R-Right now?"
"Yes, right now."
"It's late tho."
"It's always late here, that's sort of the whole point." Aurelian was already moving toward the window. "Are you coming or not?"
Clyde looked at the window. Then back at Aurelian.
"Yeah-h," he said. "Sure."
Aurelian vaulted out of it without a flicker of hesitation, like the window was simply the most efficient door in the room. He glanced back once from outside, gesturing for Clyde to follow the same way.
Clyde looked at the window again.
I swear if he broke the window frame, I'm forcing him to pay tenfolds!
Then he took the stairs.
Luchian glanced up as he passed through the kitchen.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Uhh-h going to go read with some friends," Clyde said, too fast, already reaching for the door.
"At this hour?"
"It's a long, good book."
He shut the door before Luchian could say anything else, and ran.
Luchian just stood there speechless and asked to himself "Is he still my brother?"