A story for Paimon's birthday! (which was quite a few days ago, so I really should have written this earlier, but uhhhh let's just say I'm about as hardworking as Venti :D )

Summary: Aether has finally found his sister, except she has a paimon too, and Paimon really doesn't like Paimon 2, especially when they share the same birthday.

Or, Paimon and Paimon fight over a single birthday cake (because Lumine knows how to bake but Aether doesn't)

(for the sake of simplicity, Aether's Paimon shall just be called Paimon, and Lumine's Paimon shall be called Paimon 2) (because the story is told from Aether's perspective)

disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, places etc., they all belong to Mihoyo

(the name of this chapter was supposed to be 'paimon + paimon = more emergency food' but apparently I'm not allowed to include symbols in the title?)

also, super cute and adorable drawing by amandazou939, do check out more of her artworks on twitter zzzoayzzz! :DD (link to drawing: h-t-t-p-s-:-/-/-t-w-i-t-t-e-r.c-o-m/zzzoayzzz/status/1400730790128873477) (just delete the dashes)

"Hey! That's my cake!" Paimon 2 exclaimed in indignation as Paimon snatched the large cream cake from her, nearly falling due to the added weight, before drifting away in an unsteady manner. Paimon 2 huffed, crossing her arms as she did a complete loop through the air out of displeasure before flying after Paimon, who promptly ducked behind Aether, sticking out her tongue to make a nasty face in the process. This, evidently, did nothing to deter Paimon 2, who flew around Aether without hesitation and headed straight for Paimon. Paimon cast Aether a pleading glance, only to receive a nonchalant shrug in response. Ignoring Paimon's betrayed glare, Aether watched as Paimon darted across the room, frantically trying to evade Paimon 2, who pursued her relentlessly.

"It's my birthday today! That's my birthday cake! Give it back!" Paimon 2 shrieked as she nearly rammed headfirst in the extended arms of the Barbatos statue, whirling around to face Paimon.

"It's my birthday too! Why can't I have a cake?!" Paimon replied, her voice coming out as a squeak as she desperately tried to flip herself upright, still clutching on to the cake and hovering unsteadily.

"Lumine baked it! Go ask Aether to bake one for you too!" Paimon 2 finally caught up to Paimon and grabbed hold of the other end of the cake. Paimon froze, and, still clutching on tightly to the cake but not tugging on it either, turned to look at Aether, an expectant and hopeful expression spreading across her small face.

Aether blinked, running a hand through his hair sheepishly and shifting uneasily on his feet. Paimon had indeed left him a note earlier today, along with a few ingredients - some flour, sugar, and a few pieces of slime condensate. The only problem was that there was no recipe. Still, he supposed he could give it a try, if only so these two could stop causing so much noise and chaos before they cease to become emergency food and get turned into actual food.

"I'll try," he managed, his voice severely lacking in confidence and conviction, but apparently Paimon didn't notice, or perhaps, she had more faith in him than he had in himself. Sighing in exasperation, he started wandering around Monstadt, ingredients clutched in his hands, hunting for a cake recipe that involved slime condensate.

A conversation with Sara yielded no results, the poor girl had looked distraught when Aether had suggested adding slime condensate to food. Consulting Xiangling had similarly proved futile, while the chef certainly had a flair for adding strange ingredients to food, slime condensate included, people in Liyue simply were not so fond of cakes and Xiangling wasn't particularly skillful at baking. Brook and Yanxiao, similarly, were unfamiliar with cakes and baking in general. Out of desperation, he even visited Lynn, the adventurer outside Mondstadt city, who revealed to have never baked a cake in her life, and Katherine, who had promised to keep an eye out for such recipes, but hadn't seen anything of the sort in the past.

Disappointed, Aether had no choice but to drag himself back to Mondstadt on unwilling feet and face Paimon's wrath, which could be anything from pulling his hair out to single-handedly destroying his eardrums.

He hadn't been completely inaccurate in his predictions. Upon realising that no, he had no cake for her, and no, he wasn't planning on baking one any time soon, Paimon proceeded to first pull his hair out by grabbing tufts of it in her tiny fists and flying in the opposite direction as hard as she could, then promptly worked to burst his eardrums by asking Paimon 2 to spit out half of her cake in an extremely loud and high-pitched but polite way.

Paimon 2, naturally, expressed that she could and would do no such thing, which quickly evolved into another fist-fight and game of catch between the two Paimons. Aether sighed, pressing his face into his hands as he kneaded his throbbing temples. He felt old, so old he wouldn't be all that surprised if Venti called him Grandpa Aether upon seeing him the next day. Paimon, and Paimon 2, for that matter, evidently did not care that he had just aged ten years in the last ten seconds, and continued to cause a din.

That was until Lumine came up to them and blinked up at the two wrestling Paimons in confusion. Turning to Aether, a look of bewilderment on her face, she asked, "What's going on?"

Aether sighed, his shoulders slumping. Taking care of toddlers sure was tiring. Especially toddlers who could fly and weren't afraid of destroying public property. "Paimon wants a cake."

"Didn't I bake her one this morning?"

"Well, your Paimon had a cake, and now my Paimon wants one too."

"Why don't you bake her one then?"

The corner of Aether's mouth twitched in frustration as he replied, "You see, the problem is, I haven't got a recipe."

"Ah," Lumine said, turning to continue looking at the never-ending battle between the two Paimons, making no other response. Aether waited for her to say something, give him the recipe, perhaps, or guide him in finding it, but she simply sat there, watching, seeming to have forgotten about their entire conversation.

"Where did you get your recipe anyway?" Aether asked, breaking the silence.

"From an Abyss Mage," she replied, still not looking at him.

Aether was surprised, to say the least. He hadn't expected Abyss Mages to have an aptitude for baking. Perhaps that was how the Abyss Mage had made Klee call it "Mr. Fluffball" - children have always loved cakes.

"And could you, perhaps, share the recipe with me?"

"I can't," Lumine said with a sigh, turning away and looking down at her feet.

"Why?"

"Well, it's an Abyss secret, I can't tell you their secrets, can I?"

"Oh please, it's just a cake!" Aether wanted to strangle something, someone, anything! The two Paimons were killing every last brain cell he had with their racket, and Lumine wasn't helping him end all of this by giving him the recipe he needed to bake that cake because it was an Abyss secret?

"Oh, stop looking like that, I'll bake one for your Paimon too," she laughed at his expression before turning and heading for Sara's restaurant to borrow her stove for the second time today. Aether let out a sigh of relief, lying down on the park bench he'd been sitting on, feeling so light it seemed he could ascend to Celestia this very instant.

Lumine didn't take too long to bake her cake, it was done much earlier than Aether had expected, honestly. He had been under the impression that cakes took at least an hour, certainly not ten minutes, yet here Lumine was, approaching them with a cake in hand, a delicious looking one at that.

The cake was large, but that wasn't too big of a problem, considering Paimon's appetite, covered in a layer of fluffy snowy cream, topped with a few berries and cut mint leaves. Aether felt his mouth start to water at the sight, but quickly controlled himself. This was Paimon's cake, not his, it had nothing to do with him.

Upon seeing the cake, Paimon immediately ended her fight, swooped down to the cake and, whilst defending the cake from Paimon 2, took a huge bite out of it. Aether waited for her to exclaim about how delicious it was and immediately announce her switch of alliance, that she would be following Lumine from now on, only to watch Paimon scrunch up her face in disgust, spitting a mouthful of cake out.

"My tongue! It's burning and freezing!" she stuck out her tongue, which was a shade of furious red, speckled with bits of frost and snow. Aether raised an eyebrow at the sight.

"What did you put in it?" he asked Lumine.

"Uh, well," she hesitated before replying, "Abyss Mage saliva is one of its main ingredients..."

Aether could feel the contents of his stomach trying to return to the living world and did his best to keep them down, massively glad that Paimon had tried the cake first. Why, she didn't even seem appealing as emergency food now, after knowing what had just been in her mouth.

Paimon, on the other hand, turned to face Paimon 2 and asked, disbelief evident in her voice,

"YOU ATE THAT?"

btw, really sorry if I got any NPC's name wrong 0_0 (I play the game in Chinese)

Thanks for reading! :DD

(Discord ID: Meepy#8110)