Chapter Text
Xiao grunts, pulling his black cap lower to cover his face. He swears he will strangle Venti after this. He shouldn’t have participated in that bet, knowing Venti is a little shit who enjoys drinking and pranking people. Xiao is his favorite victim.
Long story short, Xiao lost a bet and now he has to accept the punishment:
Sign up for a belly dance class.
That shit friend of his also asks for daily photos to make sure Xiao doesn’t run off.
The dark-haired male scoffs. Xiao is a man of words, so he won’t back down. This is why he is now standing in front of a locked room in the neighborhood dance studio. The receptionist told him the class starts at 5:30 p.m. He looks at the watch, 5:15 p.m, but he doesn’t see anyone.
Xiao plans to go wait in the common space when he hears a voice behind him.
“Are you here for the belly dance class?”
Xiao looks at the person. Golden hair carefully tucked under a white cap, a mask covering their face except for a pair of honey eyes, gray hoodie, and black long baggy pants.
“Ah… yes”
“You are very early! Usually people wait until the last minute to join the class haha”
The person removes his mask, letting out a soft laugh. His honey eyes scan Xiao’s body, causing the black-haired male to unconsciously rub his arm.
“So...sorry, did I make you uncomfortable? I didn’t mean to do that. It’s just… you look like someone I know. Are you new to this class?”
The person apologizes as he lowers his gaze and offers Xiao a shy smile. Xiao finds himself staring at the sheepish smile and those round rosy cheeks. Xiao mentally slaps himself. He’s not here to ogle this future classmate of his. He clears his throat.
“Yes, I’m new. This is my first day”
“This class just started last week and we move quite slow so you didn’t miss a lot” The guy beams and extends his hand.
Xiao hesitates a little before taking the hand and gives it a light shake.
“My name is Aether”
“Xiao”
“Nice to meet you, Xiao!”
Xiao watches Aether take out a key, opens the locked room and flicks the light on.
Maybe he’s a teaching assistant? Wait, do belly dance classes even have teaching assistants?
Questions begin to flow to his mind as Xiao follows Aether into the room. Aether goes to one of the corners and puts his bag down. Xiao follows and puts his bag next to the blond’s.
Xiao turns to Aether and wants to ask him some questions, but he stops midway.
Aether is taking his hoodie off. He tucks his hands at the hem of the gray cloth and slowly pulls it upward, revealing his midriff.
Xiao has to bite the inside of his mouth when he sees the exposed belly. It’s milky white and it looks so smooth. He wonders how it would feel when he presses his hand on that belly...
His perverted thought is interrupted when he hears several footsteps. His other classmates are here, maybe the instructor too.
“Hi teach! How are you?”
Xiao snaps back to reality and looks at Aether, who is now wearing a brown crop-top hugging his small frame, exposing his midriff. He doesn’t realize Aether has long hair. The blond begins to braid his hair.
Xiao hears his classmates joke.
“Teach, not fair! You didn’t let anyone put their belongings near yours!”
“Haha, he’s new to this class. Plus”
Aether smiles sweetly at Xiao.
“I don’t mind sharing this space with a cute student like him”
Fuck.
As if Archons want to see him suffer even more, he’s now standing on the front line. In front of him, just a few steps, stands Aether, the belly dance instructor.
At first, Xiao refused to stand in the front. He didn’t want people to stare at him. But upon seeing Aether’s pleading eyes, Xiao gave in.
“As you know, today we have a newcomer. His name is Xiao. Please welcome and treat him well” the blond says and smiles at Xiao “Because we have a newcomer today, so let’s go over the hip lifts and basic shimmy”
Aether turns around, his back facing the rest of the class.
“Let’s assume our basic belly dance posture position”
Xiao tells himself to focus, trying his best not to let his eyes trail down Aether’s slender waistline. He decides to follow Aether’s hands.
“Legs are right under the hip bones. Bend your knees. Good” Aether stops to check the class before he continues “Tuck your lower abs back. Then, lift your chest, imagine you are preparing to go for a job interview. That’s right”
“Arms out, like this” He extends his hands “Remember to relax”
“Now, you are going to bend your knee even more than before and straightening that knee to lift your hip up”
Xiao follows the instructions meticulously without any trouble. As long as he follows Aether’s arms, he should be fin---
“So, as you straighten the right knee, the right hip will come up and it is going to shoot straight up into your body”
Aether points his finger to his belly, demonstrating the last part of his instruction.
Xiao chokes on his spit.
“Switching over to the other side, straightening that knee, coming back down”
His amber eyes follow the movement of Aether’s hip.
“Lifting the hip up and back down to neutral position”
Xiao holds his breath.
“Now you are going to go up, up, and up”
He bites his lower lip.
“Let’s try that with music”
With a single tap of Aether’s finger, the room is filled with upbeat music. The blond goes back to his position and begins to move with the music.
“A little bit faster”
Xiao’s pulse quickens.
“And faster”
Aether sways his hip faster, matching his movement with the drum and the beat.
When the music stops, he turns to the class. Xiao catches the mischievous grin Aether secretly throws at him. He also doesn’t miss the brush of Aether’s hand when the blond walks past him. Xiao glances behind his shoulder, eyes following Aether who is now fixing the other student’s posture.
Xao is mentally reconsidering his initial attempt at strangling Venti’s neck. Xiao reminds himself to buy Venti 3 bottles of Dandelion Wine. But that will happen if he can get Aether’s number and ask him out to a nice dinner after this class. If Xiao doesn’t have the blond’s number saved in his phone by the end of today, he will make sure to pay back tenfold to Venti. Block Venti’s number, tell Diluc he won’t pay for Venti’s tabs, and not remove the cat fur on his clothes before he goes to meet Venti.
So Venti’s fate is in the hands of a belly dance instructor.
For the first time after putting up with that little shit and suffering because of countless stupid pranks for 20+ years, Xiao thinks Venti finally does something good.
Xiao thinks about the next 4 weeks of attending this belly dance class, about seeing his blond instructor sway that little waist of his, and about that smooth and spotless belly. He smirks.