My phone buzzed with a ssage just as I was finishing breakfast with Stella and Reika. The sender made smile before I’d even read the content.
Aria: Big brother! Coffee today? Have news. Don’t you dare say you’re too important now 🙄
Arthur: When have I ever been too important for my little sister?
Aria: Want a list? It’s long
Arthur: Funny. Where?
Aria: Le Poilte. Sa place as before. For old tis’ sake
I stared at the ssage for a mont, mories flooding back. Le Poilte—the ridiculously expensive coffee shop where we’d gone eight years ago when she was fourteen and I was still a student at Mythos Academy. The place where soone had mysteriously bought us eighteen-thousand-dollar coffee, and I’d spent the entire al calculating how much money we were consuming with each sip.
Arthur: That’s expensive even for a celebration
Aria: Your treat this ti 😈 You can afford it now, Mr. Second Hero
Arthur: Fine. But you’re explaining what this news is that requires premium-priced caffeine
Aria: Deal. One hour?
I showed the exchange to Reika, who smiled with the kind of understanding that ca from knowing how much my family ant to .
"Go," she said before I could even ask. "Stella and I have administrative work to finish anyway. Family ti is important."
"You’re sure?" I asked, though I was already reaching for my jacket.
"Completely sure," she confird, her violet eyes warm with genuine affection. "Besides, I’m curious about this news that requires such an expensive venue."
An hour later, I stood outside Le Poilte, marveling at how the three-story building looked exactly the sa as it had eight years ago. The sa sleek modern architecture, the sa subtle indicators of wealth and exclusivity, the sa sense that walking through those doors would cost more than most people earned in a month.
Aria was already waiting at the entrance, her auburn hair catching the afternoon sun while her green eyes sparkled with barely contained excitent. At twenty-two, she’d grown into the confidence I’d seen hints of during our teenage years, though she still carried herself with the kind of playful energy that made it impossible to take her too seriously.
"Arthur!" she called out as I approached. "Ready to pay ridiculous amounts of money for liquid in a cup?"
"Ready to find out what news is important enough to justify it," I replied with dry affection.
The interior was exactly as I rembered—polished floors, ambient lighting, and patrons whose net worth probably required teams of accountants to calculate. We were shown to a private booth, the sa kind of high-end seating that had made feel out of place as a student but now seed appropriate for soone with my current status.
"So," I said as we settled in, "what’s this mysterious news that requires premium caffeine?"
Aria’s grin widened to the point where she could no longer maintain any pretense of suspense. "I’m getting engaged!"
The announcent hit exactly as she’d intended. I stared at her for several seconds, processing the news and everything it implied, before breaking into a smile that matched her obvious happiness.
"Marcus finally worked up the courage?" I asked, referring to her boyfriend of two years.
"He did!" she said with obvious delight. "Three days ago, during dinner at that restaurant we went to for my birthday. He was so nervous he could barely speak coherently, but he managed to get the important words out."
"I’m happy for you," I said with complete sincerity. "Marcus is a good man, and he clearly adores you."
"He does," she agreed with satisfied confidence. "And I adore him right back, so it works out perfectly."
I gestured to the server, noting how Aria’s eyes lit up with anticipation. "What’s the most expensive coffee you have?"
"The Celestial Gold Reserve," the server replied without hesitation. "Twenty-three thousand, seven hundred dollars per cup. It’s enhanced with rare magical ingredients and provides significant cultivation benefits."
"Two of those," I said without flinching, though I caught Aria’s expression of amazed delight.
"Arthur," she said with sothing approaching awe, "you don’t have to—"
"Yes, I do," I interrupted with a smile. "Eight years ago, soone mysteriously bought us expensive coffee here. Today, your big brother can afford to do it properly."
When the coffee arrived, it was even more impressive than the gold swirl we’d been gifted years ago. Each cup seed to contain liquid starlight, with swirling patterns that shifted and moved like captured nebulae. The aroma alone made my enhanced senses tingle with appreciation.
"This is incredible," Aria breathed, taking her first sip. "It’s like drinking concentrated happiness."
"At twenty-three thousand dollars, it should provide enlightennt and grant three wishes," I replied, though I had to admit the coffee was genuinely extraordinary.
"Thank you," she said with sudden seriousness. "Not just for the coffee, but for... this. For making ti for despite everything else you have going on."
The sincerity in her voice touched sothing deep in my chest. "Aria, you’re my sister. There’s nothing more important than that."
"Sotis I wonder though," she said, her tone shifting to sothing more contemplative. "What it’s like being you. Having that much power, that much responsibility. Does it ever feel... lonely?"
The question caught off guard with its perceptiveness. Aria had always been more observant than she let on, apparently noticing things about my situation that I’d thought I was hiding successfully.
"Sotis," I admitted, because lying to her felt wrong even when the truth was complicated. "Power creates distance. People treat you differently when they know you could reshape reality if you wanted to."
"But not family," she said with the kind of certainty that made sothing in my chest tighten. "We still think of you as just Arthur. Our Arthur."
The irony was almost painful. Aria believed our family was normal, that the only extraordinary thing about our household was my own developnt. She had no idea that our mother was a cosmic entity whose true nature operated on scales that transcended normal understanding.
"That’s what makes family important," I said carefully. "Having people who see you as a person rather than a position."
"Exactly," she agreed with obvious satisfaction. "Which is why I wanted to tell you about the engagent personally. Because you’re my brother first, and everything else second."
The weight of unspoken truth settled between us like a physical presence. Aria’s trust, her genuine affection, her belief in our family’s normalcy—all of it built on foundations that weren’t quite what she believed them to be.
"When are you planning to tell Mom and Dad?" I asked, partly to change the subject but mostly because I was genuinely curious.
"Tonight, at dinner," she said with growing excitent. "Marcus is coming over, and we’re going to make the announcent together. He’s terrified of Dad, which is adorable."
I smiled at that, rembering my own nervousness during early interactions with Douglas Nightingale. The reality of our father’s background was complicated enough that I could understand Marcus’s intimidation.
"Dad likes him," I assured her. "And Mom thinks he’s perfect for you."
"I know," she said with obvious happiness. "But there’s sothing special about making it official."
As our conversation continued over impossibly expensive coffee, I found myself appreciating how these monts of normalcy had remained constant despite everything that had changed. Aria still teased about being overprotective, still delighted in getting to spend ridiculous amounts of money on her, still treated like the big brother she’d always known rather than the legendary figure I’d sohow beco.
"You know," she said suddenly, studying my face with growing concern, "you look troubled. Is sothing wrong?"
"Just thinking," I replied, which was technically accurate while avoiding the complex realities I couldn’t easily explain.
"About what?" she pressed with sisterly persistence.
I looked at her for a long mont, weighing how much truth I could share without destroying the sense of normalcy that clearly ant so much to her. The knowledge of our mother’s true nature was a burden I wasn’t sure Aria was ready to carry.
"About how much you an to ," I said finally, which was completely true even if it wasn’t the whole truth. "About how important it is that you’re happy."
"I am happy," she said with obvious sincerity. "Happier than I’ve ever been. I have a man who loves , a family that supports , and a future that looks bright. What more could anyone want?"
The simple contentnt in her voice made my decision for . Whatever cosmic complexities defined our family situation, Aria had found genuine happiness within the frawork she understood. Disrupting that happiness to satisfy my own discomfort with deception seed cruel and unnecessary.
"Nothing," I said with a smile that carried all the protective love I felt for her. "Nothing at all."
"Will you be my best man?" she asked suddenly, her tone shifting to sothing more serious.
"Of course," I replied without hesitation. "I’d be honored."
"Good," she said with obvious relief. "Because having the Second Hero as your best man should guarantee that nothing goes wrong with the wedding ceremony."
"Or ensure that if sothing does go wrong, it gets fixed quickly," I added with dry humor.
"Even better," she laughed, the sound carrying all the joy and confidence that made protecting her happiness feel like the most important responsibility I’d ever accepted.
As we prepared to leave, finishing the last of our celestial coffee, I reflected on how so things remained beautifully constant. The setting was the sa, the dynamic between us unchanged, but now I could afford to properly spoil my sister without worrying about the cost.
"Sa ti next year?" Aria asked as we stood to leave.
"Sa ti next year," I confird. "Though hopefully the next occasion will be less expensive to celebrate."
"Don’t count on it," she replied with a grin that promised future adventures in premium-priced sibling bonding.
So traditions, I reflected as we walked out into Avalon City’s afternoon bustle, were worth maintaining regardless of how much they cost.
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