Chapter Text
It was definitely weird to wake up and not know exactly where his sister was.
Well, yes, he did send her a good morning text, which she read and replied to an hour later with a loving “mornin loser”, but still. He had woken up before his alarm, laying awake in his bed, staring at the ceiling until a familiar sound rang out from his phone. He’d set aside an outfit for the first day of classes the night before, and it was sitting in his cupboard, almost mocking him for being anxious.
…how in the world could a sweater and slacks mock him?
“Hey Aether, Chongyun!”
They had all met in front of the cafeteria that morning, planning to spend their breakfast together before the twins were delivered their respective timetables and found out what sector they had been placed in. The previous night there had been bets placed on which sector they would end up in, with Aether having the most votes in Hydro, and Lumine almost unanimously placed in Pyro. That 'almost' was only because Chongyun hadn't quite understood what was happening, and placed the twins in Cryo because Xingqui hadn't stopped talking about some theory where Aether would end up in Anemo because both names starting with A, and Chongyun was the only person to listen to him. They all excitedly chatted, as if they’d known each other for years, over a light breakfast that was served by the cafeteria staff. Xiangling went on about how her family restaurant was booming and explained the events of what she dubbed the ‘summer holidays kitchen incident’, where she brought the gang in after hours and managed to almost burn the place down.
“Hey, have any of you seen Xiao around?”
A small turn in the conversation, but Hu had been looking around for some time and directed a question toward Chongyun.
“No, I haven’t actually talked to him since, gods, combat last year. I heard he was arriving late, though.”
“Wait, who’s Xiao?” Aether and Lumine had responded in sync, sending each other little grins.
“A… friend? He’s quite distant, and could be called a loner by some.” Xinyan sighed. “He’s the son of one of the teachers but sometimes its hard to even get a word out of him. Crazy cold stare and everythin’, personally I just steer clear.”
“He can be really fun though!” Hu Tao piped up.
Most of the table turned to the brunette, a knowing look on their faces.
“Anyways, he prefers to be alone most of the time, so you probably won't run into him for a while.”
As Hu kept talking, someone approached the table, a quiet presence with soft blue hair.
“Excuse me, everyone, hope you are all enjoying breakfast!”
The table all turned, seemingly recognizing the voice.
“Ganyu!”
She smiled, a soft calming smile.
“I’m here looking for the new students, uhm… let me check… Aether and Lumine?”
Aether smiled right back at her.
“I’m Aether, and this is Lumine.” he gestured to his sister, who was too invested in her eggs to notice the new person at their table, and lifted her eyes up “What do you need us for, Ms. Ganyu?”
“Oh please, you flatter me, I am not a staff member.”
The table snorted, someone muttering ‘closest thing to it’.
“I am simply the student representative, and I am here to hand you your timetables. I’m sure everyone has placed bets on your respective sectors, so they have been covered by a small sticky note. Good luck with your first day!”
With that, she placed the papers in front of their twin, Lumine having the dignity to pause her feast, and everyone sat around, overbubbling with anticipation.
“Three.”
“Two!”
“ONE!”
They pulled the bright notes off the paper.
…
…
“CRYO?”
“AND ANEMO?”
“WHO DECIDED THIS?”
…
“Hu Tao.”
…
“WHAT.”
…
“Everyone is staring.”
“AS THEY SHOULD. LUMINE IS CLEARLY NOT CR-”
Yanfei’s hand was covering her mouth. The girl had stood up on her chair and was pointing at the offending pieces of paper.
Suddenly, she retracted her hand, yelping in pain.
“She- Hu tao- you bit me.”
“Yes. And I am ANGRY. I am going STRAIGHT to the head office and transferring these two into the Pyro sector right now and…”
Her war plans were never-ending, and she was talking on and on about ways to ‘ethically’ ‘persuade’ the office to transfer the two.
“Hey, Hu. I think… I don’t mind Anemo. Venti seemed fun.”
Aether had spoken up, freezing the brunette's pacing, and at his words, her shoulders slumped.
“Well, I would try, but if you’re fine with it…”
She walked over to her chair, with a similar demeanour to an upset toddler. She slumped into her chair utterly defeated and rummaged around in her pocket.
“5 dollars to… who?”
Xingqui grinned. “Me. I guessed that our boy Aether would be in Anemo. See, the ‘A’ theory is correct.”
“…do I get five for guessing Lumine would be in Cryo?”
Chongyun was poorly holding back an amused grin.
“You two lover boys can figure out how to split our money.”
As Chongyun turned a bright shade of pink and Xingqui slunk behind a book, presumably hiding a similar situation, the money from the table created a small pile in front of the pair. As Xingaling had quietly pointed out the night previous, they weren’t dating, but everyone had bets on when they would ask each other out, and who would ask.
On reflection, this group had a serious problem with placing bets.