(These are humanoid Rex Lapis's clothed, just imagine him as a chibi)

Rex Lapis quickly grew over the span of three hundred years. The little dragon who could be easily cradled in Lilith's arms became as large as a small horse, forcing the twins to give him his own room. Lilith was saddened at not being able to sleep with Rex anymore and often snuck into his room to cuddle at night. It wasn't until he was about 500 years old when he had enough control over his powers to manipulate the size of his body, and he mostly chose to shrink to cuddle-size. Lilith was understandably delighted, and every night the twins and the dragon would sleep together in one warm bundle.

Rex's 1000th birthday...

"Happy birthday Rexy!!!" Lilith cheered, bringing out a large fruit tart.

"Happy birthday, Rex," Lucifer smiled.

Rex happily trilled. The twins had become like his older siblings, and he adored them to death. He especially loved Lilith, who had saved him so long ago. He still didn't know exactly who they were, as they made it a point to never talk about their previous lives in front of him. This made Rex slightly sad, but he never let it get to him. Everybody has their secrets, and what's most important was that they were his family.

"It's already been a thousand years since I found Rexy, huh?" Lilith sighed nostalgically. "Time flies by so fast!"

"I'll bet that if he grew back to his original size, he would be the size of the entire ruins," Lucifer said, nodding his head.

Rex excitedly sniffed at the tart, mouth watering.

"Oh yeah, I should cut it!" Lilith laughed, grabbing a knife.

As they ate the tart, Lilith and Lucifer started an intense debate about what to do for Rex's birthday. Lilith wanted to bring him to a beautiful underground cavern with a lake and ores that created the most mesmerizing patterns of light on the walls. Lucifer wanted to travel to the giant snow mountain far away from there that was rumored to have glorious aurora lights at the current season. As they lightly bickered, Rex began fidgeting. It was times like these that made him want to be able to talk to the twins the most.

He stared at them longingly, with only one wish on his mind: I wish I was able to be human too.

Poof!

In a small puff of smoke, the small dragon disappeared. As the twins coughed and waved the smoke away, their eyes widened. Lilith then squeaked, face reddening, while Lucifer grabbed a blanket and threw it over the figure.

A young male looking a little younger than them, perhaps about 6 years old, sat where Rex used to be. His long chocolate brown hair fell down his shoulders, their tips an amber color. Small horns similar to his dragon form extended from his head.His similarly amber eyes blinked at the flabbergasted twins, his eyelids oddly lined with red.

"Rex?" the twins said simultaneously, their eyes wide.

"....Hi?" Rex finally said, his voice raspy. While he couldn't speak in his dragon form, he could understand the twins. Thus, his knowledge of human speech.

".........SOOOOOOOO CUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!!" Lilith squealed after a long pause, pouncing on Rex. She rubbed her cheek on Rex's chanting "Cute!" over and over again. "I have another little brother!" she declared, wiping a fake tear from her eye.

"Is this a thousand year thing dragons do?" Lucifer, the only sane twin, asked.

"I'm n-nawt shure," Rex stammered, still not used to maneuvering a human tongue.

"He lisped and stammered oh my gosh my little Rexy is even cuterrrrr!!" Lilith squealed, rubbing her cheek even faster against Rex's.

"Sis, he's suffocating," Lucifer pointed out in a deadpan voice. Lilith gasped, then quickly let go.

"Noooooooooo! I'm so sorry Rexy, are you okay?" she asked, panicking.

"I'm oki, Lili's," Rex rasped, not being able to pronounce "th" that well.

Lilith squealed again, barely able to suppress her urge to cuddle Rex again.

"First order of business, clothes," Lucifer said, digging into a nearby basket of clothes. He drew out a small white and black hoodie-coat, underwear, and trousers and tossed it towards Rex. He gestured at Lilith to leave the room while he helped Rex to maneuver into the clothes.

Lucifer called out to Lilith when he was done, and she reentered the room.

"This is officially the best day ever," Lilith said with finality, grinning like a madwoman at the way the too-long sleeves bunched up around Rex's wrists and the trousers, which would be knee-length on Lucifer, touching the top of his small feet.

"Mine too!" Rex grinned sweetly. Lilith couldn't resist her urges this time and glomped on Rex, sitting on the couch and setting him on her lap.

"I'm officially dying from cuteness overload," Lilith said, her new favorite word seeming to be "officially".

"And I'm officially telling you that the tart is five seconds away from being swarmed by ants," Lucifer drawled, eyeing the quarter of leftover tart.

"No! Begone, thou foul insects!" Lilith cried out dramatically, sweeping the plate away before the first ant could reach it. "I should probably wrap this up for snacking later," she said, gently scooching Rex from her lap onto the couch, then getting up to grab a cloth from another room.

"Great, now I have two brats to look after," Lucifer groaned.

"Who're you calling a brat, brat!?" A slipper flew from the doorway, beaning Lucifer on the head.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

A thousand more years had passed in the blink of an eye. Rex Lapis had grown much faster than the twins and now looked like a young man in his early twenties. He quickly outgrew his old clothes and had to change them often, although he continued to prefer wearing the same style as the clothes Lucifer had given him all those years ago. Lilith would often gripe about how it wasn't fair that he looked so grown up and they still looked like twelve year olds. She also whined about how she couldn't cuddle his child form anymore and often bullied Rex into transforming into his baby dragon form.

Lately, however, he had begun hanging out with a goddess named Guizhong and other adepti and gods. The twins were slightly saddened that their baby brother had started straying from the nest, but they knew that they couldn't keep him locked away from the rest of the world, as they had done to themselves. They couldn't shake their deep-seated fear of humans after the tragic events of their home world. Lilith was especially terrified of the never-ending depths of human darkness, and Lucifer would do anything to keep his sister safe.

In order to distract herself from her self-induced solitude, Lilith had developed a habit of wandering around the plains, hoping that she could have another magical encounter like with Rex.

(*wiggles eyebrows* This, ladies and gentlemen, is the moment WE'VE ALL BEEN FREAKING WAITING FOR LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!)

One day, she stilled. The faint sound of clashing reached her ears, drawing her towards it. As she moved, the sounds grew louder but more infrequent, signaling the end of the fight. She hastened, some instinctive part of her consciousness telling her that she couldn't let him get away, whoever he was. She broke out into a full run, finally reaching the edge of a small hollow sunken in the ground. Below her, she saw a lithe figure stabbing his spear into the last standing human.

Lilith held her breath, her entire body abuzz. She couldn't explain the feeling well; it was like a cloud of butterflies erupted from her stomach, rushing to the ends of her limbs and numbing them. Her knees felt weak, her blood boiled, and her face erupted into flames. Underneath all of these sensations, she felt a click, as if some missing part of her she didn't realize was gone had found its way home.

She didn't care that his toned body was covered with blood, his jade tattoos streaked with crimson.

She didn't care that his deep navy hair, the underside of it a beautiful teal, was messy and streaked with both dust and blood.

She didn't care that his gorgeous golden eyes were half-lidded with bloodlust and pain, a strange aura of darkness wrapping around him.

All she could see was him, his beautiful soul shining with the most warm light she had ever seen, aside from her brother. She vaguely registered black locks of hair falling from behind her ears, explaining how she could see the light instead of the darkness of his soul. She didn't mind because she felt sure that nobody with that blinding of a soul could harbor maliciousness on the same level as other beings.

Lilith sucked in a breath, her heart skipping a beat as the male caught her eye. She could see his eyes widen, his bloodlust and pain temporarily giving way to wonder and awe. A moment later, he was gone. She stood up hastily, about to jump down into the hollow before a raspy voice called out to her from behind.

"Who are you?" the male demanded, making her jump and turn around. She took a step back in shock, for his eyes were so close to hers that she could clearly see his cat-like pupils.

"Whoa!" Lilith yelped as her foot slipped off the edge of the cliff. She fell backwards, but before her training could kick in and help her land safely, she felt a pair of hands slip behind her back and behind her knees. The faint scent of Qingxin flowers wafting into her nose, causing her body to relax subconsciously. The next thing she knew, she was safely on the ground of the hollow... well, as close to the ground as she could, with her being held by the male and all.

"O-oh, uhhhhh... thanks?" Lilith stuttered, phrasing her thanks like a question.

The male merely nodded then helped her to stand, his hand on her waist to help her keep her balance. Even after she was steady, he kept his hand on her waist, his eyes never leaving hers. She scarcely dared to blink too much, wanting to drink in as much of his features as she possibly could.

"Your hair..." he finally said, making Lilith flinch, "...and eyes. They changed color."

Lilith raised an eyebrow, then lifted a lock of her silver hair. "Oh," she said, "that happens sometimes. This is my default look, though." She grinned, regaining a bit of her confidence. "I'm Lilith! What's your name?"

"... It's best that you don't interact with me," he said after a pause. "You'll only suffer."

"And what makes you so sure of that?" Lilith asked, propping a hand on her waist.

"I just know," he said before turning around.

"Wait!" Lilith cried out, grabbing his wrist. He stiffened, and Lilith continued desperately before he could shake her off, "Will I... see you again?"

He was silent for so long that she was scared he wouldn't answer before he finally said, "You shouldn't." Lilith's mood dropped as her grip on his wrist loosened, but before he disappeared she could've swore she heard him whisper, "but I hope you do."

Lilith finally let her body drop to the ground, her knees giving up on her (just like my sanity-). She was still in a daze, turning his features around in her head and wondering why he looked so familiar. However, she found it almost impossible to think straight. She gripped her flushing face in her hands and bent over, eyes trained on the ground like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

"He was... so motherfricking hot..." she murmured, eyes squeezed shut as she fought back a little squeal. It took her a couple of seconds to collect herself, and when she raised her head she realized that she was standing in the midst of fresh corpses. She flinched slightly, memories of her last day in her world flashing into her head, but she shoved them back. It's not like I haven't killed any people in our long time in this world, she thought to herself. Yes, there were times when bandits or lost travelers would come across the twins' ruins. Most of the time they were able to subjugate the bandits and leave them in the nearest town or point travelers to the right direction. Sometimes, however, they had to kill some of the bandits in order to get the rest to obey. Lilith had most of the blood on her hands, not wanting her pure, pacifist brother to carry the burden that she felt should rest on her shoulders alone. Their mother died protecting her, the weight of her death dragging Lilith into the depths of self-hatred. She put up a happy facade in front of Lucifer and Rex, but there were some nights where she couldn't help but curl up and cry her eyes out.

Lilith still couldn't get used to the feeling of being invaded by the negativity of a person's final moments, and the fog it brought into her mindscape was excruciating. The only reason why she didn't go insane was because of her brother. They balanced each other out. Lucifer purified the invading fog in her mind, while she kept him grounded and protected him from the inevitable heartbreak that would come from him completely trusting someone, then being betrayed because he couldn't see the darkness in their soul.

It wasn't exactly the act of killing that got to her - she had gotten used to it as an inevitable thing in this world. It was the agony of their dying moments that made her want to scream and rip her own heart out.

Lilith got up, then got closer to one of the bodies. They were long dead, so she didn't have any fear of being affected by their dying throes. She knelt down, examining the body. She recognized it as a member of the group of bandits that was terrorizing the area as of late. They had already burned down quite a number of villages, but the twins felt no obligation to exterminate them as long as they stayed away from the ruins.

"Did he do this knowing that they were bandits...?" Lilith mused before standing back up and heading home.

A.N.
OKI, ONE LONG CHAPTER WITH THE START OF A LONG LINE OF XIAO FLUFF READY AND DELIVERED!