Chapter 14

"I'll tell you about the game now, Marius so listen carefully alright?" Claud spoke once he and the twins were inside the carriage.

Marius earnestly nodded, leaning forward towards him. Claud chuckled at Marius before carrying on,

"The game is simple. All you have to do is take as much attention from dad. Got it?"

Marius raised an eyebrow at Claud's odd game, "That's it? Are you sure it's even a game?"

"Why? You think you won't be able to win a simple game like this?" Claud provoked him, grinning widely.

Sure enough, Marius was riled up. He scoffed, folding his arms, "There's no way I won't win! Fine, let's play this game!"

Darius glanced at his older twin and quietly shook his head. He better keep a lookout on his twin just in case some trouble happens.

Before Claud split up with them to follow Leon, he leaned over to Marius and whispered,

"The game starts once I leave."

When Claud left with Leon, Marius began thinking of ways of getting their father's attention. He continued pondering all the way till he reached the toy store. Upon entering the store, an idea popped into his mind and quickly whisked Darius away with him into a toy section.

Darius glanced at the toys before poking him on the arm, "Are we at the right place?"

Marius nodded with a smug grin, "Yup! This will definitely gain dad's attention for a long time!"

"But—"

"Dad come over here and see this!!" Marius shouted, startling a few customers that were inside the store as well.

Darius hid his face in embarrassment and shook his head. Not long afterwards, their father came and looked at the dolls sitting on the shelves.

He raised an eyebrow before bringing his gaze onto Marius. He pointed at the dolls and said, "Marius, I didn't know you were interested in these now."

Marius blinked before his eyes widened in realisation, "No! Not for me! No way!" he frantically shook his head till he was almost dizzy.

"It's for her!" he exclaimed.

Their father chuckled and nodded, patting Marius on the head as he spoke,

"I see, this is for Aeliana, right? How kind of you, Marius."

Hearing his father praise him, his heart swelled up with happiness and he grinned widely.

"Of course! Let's pick one for her!"

"But Marius, do we know what kind of doll she likes?" Darius questioned as he looked at the large variety of dolls they could pick from.

"Um...let's look around first!"

"That's a good idea, Marius. Why not we each choose one and ask her to pick her favourite later?" their father suggested.

He and Darius swiftly agreed and began searching around. They searched high and low through the shelves before settling on something that caught their interest. They returned to where their father was waiting.

"Did you two find one?" their father asked, holding a doll in his hand as well.

Marius nodded, holding up the doll he had picked out. It was a doll that had short black hair and black buttons for eyes. The doll was dressed in a guard outfit and its right hand was touching its forehead, saluting.

Darius on the other hand held a female doll with two pigtails and pink buttons for eyes. It wore a cute yellow dress and had a tiny flower in its hair.

Their father looked at the dolls before chuckling, "Looks like the dolls you two picked out is something that Aeliana might like."

"Then pick mine!" Marius said but Darius shook his head.

"No pick mine!"

"But I showed mine first!"

"It does not matter. Aeliana would definitely choose mine over yours!"

"Says who!"

"Says me!"

Before they could bicker further, their father stopped them and sighed.

"Why not, you both go get Aeliana to come here and ask her to pick the one she likes the most?"

The twins looked at their father before nodding, "Yeah alright, let's do that."

Darius headed into the aisle he had seen her walk into while Marius looked around. After searching around the store, they realised Aeliana was not there anymore. Puzzled, they returned back to their father.

"What? Aeliana isn't here?"

"We couldn't find her anywhere and we searched the whole store dad!" Marius said.

Their father's expression turned sour before he spoke in a shaky tone, "Let's leave the store for now and find her."

The twins didn't argue back as they realised how serious the situation had become. As their father walked in front of them, Darius pulled Marius' sleeve, getting his attention.

He leaned towards him and whispered, "Do you think Aeliana's disappearance is caused by brother Claud?"

Marius furrowed his brows and shook his head, "How can that be? How can brother Claud just suddenly—"

Marius' words paused as something clicked in his head. The game he had impulsively agreed to play.

Marius grabbed Darius' hand and frantically spoke, "We have to find her now."

"Dad! We're going to look for Aeliana!" Marius shouted.

"What?! That's too dangerous—"

"We'll be fine dad!"

Before their father could stop them, Marius had already run away with Darius.

The two didn't know where to first start looking so they began aimlessly searching around, calling out her name as well. They received confused and weirded-out looks from people around them but they ignored them, searching relentlessly for Aeliana.

After a long while, Marius noticed a familiar dress and colour of hair. He pulled Darius with him, pointing in the direction before shouting,

"Aeliana!"

The figure in the dress finally brought their head up, revealing Aeliana glancing at them with red eyes.

"..Brother?" she muttered before her body was pulled in for a hug by Darius.

Relief washed over them once they finally found her.

"We've been looking everywhere for you!" Marius yelled, panting heavily as sweat dripped down his forehead.

"You were looking for me?"

Aeliana had a baffled look on her face as if she didn't expect them to be looking for her.

"Of course! When we called out for you at the toy store, you didn't respond! Next thing we knew, you were gone!" Marius aggressively replied making weird hand gestures as he spoke.

He nearly told her about the dolls but quickly shut his mouth before he did.

Aeliana licked her dry lips and shifted her eyes around, "...Why?"

Darius furrowed his brows at Aeliana's words, "What do you mean why?"

Wasn't it obvious that they were worried about her?

She pushed him away and took a step back. She gripped her sleeve tightly as she spoke, "Don't..don't you hate me? Isn't it better if you never found me?"

Her voice had a slight crack to it.

"Aeliana what are you talking about?" Darius asked, taking a step closer.

Aeliana had a self-deprecating smile and laughed. Marius couldn't bring himself to point out how strained it looked.

"I know you all hate me so why bother trying to find me?" she spoke, shaking her head.

"That–"

"You're only doing this because of our dad isn't that right?"

Darius shook his head, a hurt expression plastered on his face as he replied, "No Aeliana..we're doing this because we were worried and wanted to do it."

As Darius finished his sentence, a look of doubt was plastered on Aeliana's face.

Marius glanced at Darius and furrowed his brows. He walked up to her and pinched her cheeks, hard. Aeliana yelped in pain, swatting his hands.

He sighed and spoke in a harsh manner, "Listen here, little sister. We have been running around trying to find you and this is how you repay us? Stop trying to act tough."

Aeliana stared at him before tears blurred her sight. In the end, Aeliana followed them back and their father pulled them into a tight hug.

Marius pulled Darius and Aeliana into the same carriage as they head back to their home. Aeliana looked out the window while the twins awkwardly glanced at each other.

Marius was unable to stand the silence and decided to speak up. He scoffed loudly and crossed his arms as Aeliana turned towards him.

"You are lucky to have been found by us!" Marius said, holding his nose up high.

He expected her to say something back at him but instead, he received nothing.

Then she heard a loud scoff that almost sounded like an old man's cough instead.

He felt Darius poking him on the arm before his twin spoke, "What he meant was that he's glad we found you."

Marius nearly dropped his jaw at the way his twin twisted his words so easily right in front of him. Flabbergasted he waved his arms around,

"Darius– that is not what I meant!!" he exclaimed but his twin just glanced at him and shrugged.

"Sounds like it to me Marius."

"You– hmph!"

Marius couldn't believe his own brother did him dirty like this!

"Whose side you on?" Marius quietly grumbled, sulking away.

He didn't want to seem like he actually cared about her the slightest bit.

At that moment he heard a quiet laugh coming opposite from him. He brought his gaze onto Aeliana who had laughed. Her eyes turned into small crescents and tiny faint smile lines rested on her cheeks.

"Thank you," she muttered with a genuine smile.

Marius wondered how many times did he see her smile this genuine. Perhaps...only twice?

The twins looked at her and said nothing. However, the silence that fell over them was comfortable.

And Marius would like to think it was due to his intervention that the silence was now better and bearable.