This was written by MargaritaDaemonelix for a SS event we had in the Elsword fanfiction server in 2019! I kept forgetting to post it here, but here it is! Everyone say 'thanks marg' for such a great story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Elsword.
/
pink champagne on ice
/
"I've a question for you," Elesis says.
Ain looks up from where he's pouring them each a glass of champagne. "And I'm sure I've an answer."
He hands her a glass, and she takes a long sip of sparkling rose quartz before setting it aside and approaching him. The static between them crosses eons, and as she climbs into his lap she can feel his breath hitch in his chest.
"I would say that this is my first time here," she says, carding her fingers through his hair, "but we both know that's a lie considering how often I have to remind both you and Elsword to eat."
"In my defense, academic debate is a rabbithole of its own," Ain laughs, letting his hands rest on the small of her back. "It's far too easy to forget that time passes."
She grins at him with all her teeth, and his easygoing smile fades, and they both know the jig is up.
"So why, pray tell, do you have a wall plastered with pictures of my brother?"
/
Some days Elesis wakes up, and thinks to herself, can't I have an extraordinary day today?
She dresses neatly, eats her routine breakfast of toast and eggs, and gets to work before her brother can even wake up. He's old enough to bear the responsibilities of waking up late for school, after all, and she's got work far before he has class.
Every single day, she clocks in at work and gets to data entry. It's boring as all hell. Sometimes, she challenges herself to do as many entries as she can in a short period of time. Sometimes her eyes start to sting and she goes for a short field trip to the nearest coffee machine. Her coworkers don't really talk to her, and she doesn't reach out to them either.
Weekends are a bit better. They're the only bit of spice to her otherwise monotonous life, even if it's still the same old formula of getting Elsword to hockey practice, doing grocery shopping, picking him up from hockey practice, and the two of them doing meal prep and watching the latest episode of their favourite cooking shows. It's one of the few times in her jam-packed life when she can genuinely sit down and talk with her brother, and feel like she hasn't failed him as an older sister.
"Mrs. Hausman is going on maternity leave," Elsword tells her as they stand side by side in the kitchen peeling potatoes. "The new history teacher is coming Monday."
Elesis frowns. "You sound bitter," she comments. "Worried that the new teacher won't be able to live up to your expectations?"
"I mean, history's my favourite subject." He makes a face. "Mrs. Hausman said that our new teacher is really young, and he's practically just graduated from teacher's college, so…"
"I'm sure you'll do just fine." For good measure, she socks him in the arm. "And even if the new teacher sucks, I'm pretty sure you can just mooch off all of Dad's old textbooks."
"Those are outdated," Elsword complains, "and extremely racist."
"Then rewrite the textbooks yourself and make them less racist, dummy."
They continue to peel potatoes in silence, and Elesis basks in the few moments of extraordinary left in her weekend.
/
As it turns out, the new history teacher is extremely awesome, and incredibly knowledgeable to the point where he can match Elsword, history geek supreme, word for word. "His name's Ainchase Ishmael," Elsword crows over dinner that night (and isn't that something extraordinary for once, them having dinner together), "and he literally graduated last year and this is his first job and he lets us call him Ain. He is so cool. Oh my god."
"Sounds terrifyingly young," Elesis remarks. "Like my calculus professor in my first year at university. We thought he was a student the first time he walked in."
And really, Elesis is happy for her brother—he looks forward to school now. Perhaps this is his little bit of extraordinary, the thing that breaks the monotony and gives him something more than just hockey tournaments to strive for. Seeing that smile on his face makes Elesis happy, too.
It doesn't stop data entry from being the most boring thing on the planet, but hey, it's something.
The days turn into weeks, and as Elsword studies for midterms he chatters endlessly about, oh, everything from chemistry to English to history, that oh-so beloved subject. "Napoleon's legacy is in that he was able to turn war into a machine for his own gain," he says dramatically to the empty seat across the table. Elesis holds back a giggle in the kitchen, where she's sauteeing mushrooms for dinner. "His mobilization of army units and making them self-sustaining gave him the ability to turn Europe into a bloodbath. There was an opportunity ripe for the picking as France crumbled like moldy crackers, and he ascended to it through a military cult."
"You sound like you're eulogizing a man who's been dead for two hundred years," Elesis snickers.
"It's supposed to be a mock debate," Elsword says. "Usually when I debate with Ain, we get all theatrical. I think he took drama in college or something."
"You guys do one-on-one debates in class now?"
"Well, usually it's just Ain and I talking about Roman senators and stuff," Elsword admits. "I mean, sometimes Chung joins us if he's not busy with band stuff, but we like to debate during lunch, I guess."
Now this is interesting. "You spend your lunch breaks debating about Roman senators with your history teacher," she says, letting the amusement drown out the worry in her voice. That can't be professional, right? "Talk about favouritism."
Elsword sticks his tongue out at her. "You're just salty about taking economics in high school."
"Mmhmm. And who's the one between the two of us who has a job and an apartment?"
They bicker over mushrooms and fried rice, and by the time Elsword has gone back to studying Elesis finally lets her worry out in a silent exhale.
What kind of teacher takes so much time out of their day for one student?
/
Today at 2:48 pm
[Elsword] hey elsa i uh missed the bus
[Elesis] did you get caught up talking to your history teacher again
[Elsword] no,,,,
[Elsword] maybe,,,
[Elesis] i can't clock out now, can you hitch a ride with chung or something
[Elsword] nah band practice got cancelled so he took the bus home
[Elsword] oh hey ain says he can drive me back
[Elesis] the more i hear about this teacher of yours the more worried i get
[Elsword] hey he has a clean record
[Elsword] you googled him yourself
[Elesis] ugh FINE
Today at 3:16 pm
[Elsword] whoops i left my keys in my locker
[Elesis] sjdkjfj
[Elesis] just have him drop you off at the library or something
[Elsword] oh don't worry about that
[Elsword] turns out he lives next door
[Elesis] hE WHAT
/
It is thus that Elesis Sieghart finally get something extraordinary on a weekday: she shows up at her neighbour's door with a hastily purchased chicken pot pie from the store (fresh, not frozen) as a peace offering and perhaps as a bargaining chip as she trades food for her brother. She knows her neighbour vaguely, and only as a concept. It's hard to marry that concept to the shining personality that her brother has constructed of his history teacher.
She hesitates for all of three seconds before her hand betrays her and she knocks loudly. Inside, there's a yell of she's here that can only be Elsword, and then the door opens and Elesis finds herself facing an angel.
"Good afternoon," she says, managing somehow to keep her wits about her. This Ainchase Ishmael, history teacher supreme who somehow lives next door, has mossy eyes and a smile that can melt stone. "I'm, uh, your neighbour? And also your student's older sister, I guess."
"Miss Elesis," the neighbour says, offering his hand. "Elsword has told me. I'm Ainchase Ishmael. Call me Ain."
She takes his hand with her free one, still in a state of mild shock. His hands are silky soft, compared to the callouses on her fingertips. "Elesis Sieghart," she says. "It's nice to meet you."
Elsword pops in at the door with a grin. "Hey Elsa," he says, as if there is nothing wrong with the fact that their next-door neighbour is his history teacher. "Ooh, you brought chicken pot pie. Ain's making soup."
This is how Elesis ends up having dinner with her brother's history teacher, for what she feels isn't going to be the last time. Ain is a polite host, and soon Elesis is sitting awkwardly at the table watching him heat up the pie and struggling not to take down her rat nest of a hair updo entirely. Elsword chatters with him about the Opium Wars the whole time, and Ain dutifully answers his every question in turn.
And maybe she still thinks he's being horribly unprofessional about his friendship with Elsword, but Elesis thinks having a face to put to the name has changed her opinion of Ain somewhat. He's just a guy her age, making a friend of her brother for the same easy reasons.
(It doesn't help that he's cute, either.)
So when Ain serves her a slice of pie, she takes it with a smile, and swallows any of the remaining uneasiness she has.
Later that night, she's playing a mobile game with her feet on her desk when Elsword comes crashing into her room, looking absolutely devastated. The school bus he was supposed to be on got in an accident, and while no one's been killed, many have been hurt. Chung's been hospitalized; they make arrangements immediately to go visit him during the weekend.
And all Elesis can do is thank her lucky stars that some guardian angel was watching over her brother and kept him out of that bus.
/
The whole after school thing becomes a regular occurrence, and soon Elesis has to sheepishly ask for Ain's number so that she can at least keep tabs on her brother when he forgets to text her. "It's alright," he says assuringly as he punches her number into her phone. "I'm sorry this is causing you so much concern."
"No, I know you're not going to kidnap him or anything considering you literally live next door," Elesis says, but her tone falls flatter than the joke. "I just… worry about him. Our parents aren't in the picture, as you probably see."
Ain dips his head quietly, and Elesis thinks she hears him whisper a prayer.
Thus begins a new, equally steady friendship: Elesis discovers that Ain is terribly babied by the rest of the history department at Velder High, and counters his complaints with her bitching about the monotony of work. The splash of colour in her grey workday is trading conversations with him during her lunch break, and getting real-time commentary from her brother on the side.
"You have a crush on him," Elsword says accusingly, pointing at her with his fork. "You smile at your phone when you text him."
"First of all, I only smile when I text Rena, because she doesn't know how to use emojis," she fires back, "and secondly, I only text him because you don't text me, you goblin."
"Hag."
"Gremlin."
"Lovebird."
"Disrespectful!" She conks him over the head with a rolled up napkin; he rolls his eyes at her and takes another bite of his pasta. "New episode's out. Race you to the TV."
As they watch in silence and the night drags away into the impromptu marathon they've started, Elesis gets the rumble of a notification from her phone. With Elsword so fixated on the screen, she sneaks a look.
[Ain] You've been watching that variety show for an awful long time tonight.
[Ain] I can hear you laughing through the walls.
[Ain] Perhaps it's time to take a break?
And by god, if she doesn't smile at that.
/
Elesis tries to be a good neighbour, she really does, but it's hard when she's the only one supporting herself and her brother and she has one (1) job that drones on for hours and hours and seems to never end. She doesn't bother Ain with requests for favours, and he doesn't bother her either.
That doesn't mean they don't have to interact, though. Elsword remains oblivious to whatever kind of awkward relationship his sister and his history teacher have and drags Ain over for dinner at their place, or drags Elesis over for dinner at Ain's. She finds herself googling new recipes in her meal prep sessions just in anticipation for when she inevitably has to entertain her new regular guest. As much as she hates to admit it, Ain is a better chef than she is, but no amount of prodding and poking will convince her to ask him for advice.
It's one of these times when they're eating at Ain's place that Elesis notices that things are irrevocably off. She's coming out of the bathroom when she notices a stack of colourful notecards in the potted plant next to the door. For a moment, she's about to ask Ain if they're supposed to be there, and then she realizes they're not notecards.
They're pictures of her brother, printed out on cheap printer paper, and loosely held together with a binder clip.
Okay, Elesis thinks, what the fuck?
One moment, she's going back to the kitchen, thinking about how weird the situation is—
The next, she's got three bungee cords strung up between his balcony and hers in broad daylight, with the vague memory of having called in sick with work and somehow managing to get into his apartment.
This is very illegal, very dangerous, and very stupid.
Elesis opens the screen door anyways.
Ain's apartment is every bit as clean as it was the night before. A few stacks of papers that were previously present have since disappeared — probably graded papers, or at the very least assignments to be handed back. Ain's white jacket is gone too, and if Elesis didn't feel like an honest to goodness stalker before she really does now.
And then she pushes open the bedroom door, and her entire world seems to flip upside down.
There is a huge bulletin board that spans wall to wall, and it is covered in what must be a thousand photos of Elsword. Pictures of him laughing with Chung, playing hockey at a recent tournament, being spoon-fed baby food when he was a chubby baby, and every moment in between. Ain, it seems, has captured her brother's entire life in photography, seeing as she's never seen most of these photos before, even in her family albums.
As she closes the bedroom door and heads back to the balcony, baffled, a single thought comes to mind:
How the hell am I to confront him about this?
And then another:
How the hell am I going to get back to my own apartment?
/
Today at 3:31 pm
[Elesis] are you two debating about the cold war again
[Ain] Mayhaps.
[Elesis] nerds
[Elesis] oh forgot about this
[Elesis] els is heading to chung's on sunday for an english presentation or something
[Elesis] so i have the afternoon and evening off
[Elesis] wanna watch the new episode with me
[Ain] My apartment or yours?
[Elesis] yours
[Elesis] you objectively have the better kitchen
[Ain] Touché.
[Aïn] I can provide some drinks, if you'd like.
[Ain] I have Merlot and champagne rosé, as well as some soft drinks.
[Elesis] pink champagne please and thank you
[Ain] It's a date, then.
/
Ain is silent, even with Elesis's metaphorical knife at his throat. "Don't even deny it," she says, "I've seen the wall. I don't even know where you got some of those pictures from, because they sure as hell aren't from our family album. I have half a mind to call the police on you right now."
"Don't," Ain croaks, "they won't turn up anything."
"What do you mean they won't turn up anything?" She's got him pinned to the sofa now, and the glass of champagne teeters on the edge of shattering like this fragile chassis of a friendship they've built. "It's a simple question, Ain. What's with your obsession with my brother?"
"It's not an obsession," he insists. "I'm trying to protect him."
"From what?"
Ain leans in, and Elesis thinks for a moment he's going to try to kiss her, but he's got something to say, a quiet oath whispered in the most tender voice. Her eyes go wide with realization, and he pulls away, sporting a smile that is too small for the weight of his words.
"Now you see," he says. "There's been a lot of dangerous situations in the city lately, so it was imperative that I stepped in."
"The school bus accident," Elesis stammers, her iron grip on his shoulders going loose, "you were the one who got him out of that."
"I can't change fate," he says, shrugging. "I can only use my own actions to influence his. We had an excellent conversation about the Irish potato famine, and it just so happened that we stayed past the departure of his school bus. It was then a matter of getting him back safely. I would have delivered him right to your apartment, but I didn't anticipate that he'd left his keys in his locker."
She lets go of him after that, sitting on his knees in complete and utter defeat. "What the fuck," she says finally. "Y'know, it would have been a lot easier if you'd just told me that right off the bat."
"I'm not really allowed to."
"I broke into your house."
"I know."
"I saw the wall of photos."
"I know." He smiles as he lifts a hand to brush the hair out of her face. "I can take it down, if you'd like. I swear none of the photos are inappropriate."
"Oh, I know." She catches his hand before he can drop it. "I'll help you. We can take them down together. And then we can laugh at the stupid photos."
"Oh, so you did see the ones with the funny faces."
/
Today, Elesis wakes up and thinks, wow, my life got extraordinary real quick.
Just two days ago she was doing endless data entry and having to force herself out of bed to make breakfast. Now, she wakes up in the arms of her brother's guardian angel, who might as well be hers too at this point.
She thinks she could get used to extraordinary.
/
A/N: AGAIN LETS ALL THANK MARG