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The thing about Valentine’s Day is that it’s only truly dedicated to the grade schoolers that get to pass out cute cards and treats to their classmates and the lucky people that are in relationships at the time of the holiday. For everyone else who lacks a family or partner to celebrate the day with, it’s just another uneventful day.
So, what better way to alleviate the dull ache of loneliness on a day that celebrates love than to spend it with other lonesome singles?
That brings the story, now, to a casual hangout at Lumine and Aether’s house. Technically, the group was supposed to see a movie together, then eat out at one of the fancy-but within budget-restaurants in the city. Unfortunately, all of Teyvat decided to watch the same movie that day and because of their last-minute planning, they couldn’t score any tickets. The same could be said for the restaurant situation. Even with Childe flashing an obnoxious amount of cash at the manager, there simply wasn’t any room for a group as large as theirs. Thus, the consensus was to have an at-home movie session and fill up with greasy pizza and cheap alcohol. There wouldn’t be a surround sound theater or upscale dining, but hey, no one was complaining.
“Ugh, when are the guys coming back with the food?”
Half of Amber’s body is hanging limply over the arm of the sofa, belly down, as she stares at the carpeted ground, lithe fingers mindlessly playing with the fuzzy fibers. Her stomach is growling lowly, a clear indication of just how hungry the girl is. She half-heartedly kicks at the ticklish fingers that brush her exposed thigh, using a little more force when the giggles that escape her assailant reveal it to be Lumine.
“Venti said they’ll be back soon,” the blonde says to placate the agonizing brunette, who, mind you, was raiding the twins’ cabinets half an hour ago. She, along with Mona, plowed through most of their stash of off-brand snacks in seconds. Not a single crumb was left.
“Lumine?”
Said girl halts her hand midway to Amber’s calf and turns her body to face Ganyu.
“Can I have some water, please?” she asks, polite as ever.
Being the amazing host that she is, Lumine smiles at the older girl and leads her to the kitchen, gallantly informing her that she’s free to get whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Of course, on her way there, she also makes sure to poke at Amber’s side, snickering when she jolts in surprise, her body involuntarily arching away from her.
Swift as could be, Lumine dodges the hand that swipes at her, laughing the rest of the way to the kitchen, Ganyu trailing closely behind.
“Aether would never,” Amber grumbles, repositioning herself, so that she’s sitting up properly, knees drawn to her chest. Then again, he also abandoned her to spend the day with his boyfriend, so mayhaps he’s just as bad as Lumine.
Her stomach begins to growl again, and her hands automatically drop to clutch at it. Rather than acknowledging her borderline painful hunger, though, she tries to refocus her attention on Keqing and Mona, who are crouched in front of the TV screen, thoughtfully discussing which movie would be best to kick off their night.
Horror is a no-go, since Amber and Venti would probably shit themselves.
Romance to remind them of how single they are? No fucking way.
Drama is more entertaining to watch when half the group is drunk, so that’s reserved for later.
“I was thinking a classic comedy would be best,” suggests Keqing, presenting a stack of neatly piled movies.
Mona nods as she helps flip through the various selections, pausing on one that catches her eye. “How about-”
SLAM!
All three girls lurch when they hear the loud sound, heads instinctively whipping towards the entrance and eyes going wide at what they see.
“Oi, who the hell is slamming my…” Lumine, who hurried from the kitchen when she heard the commotion, trails off, her expression slowly morphing into the same stunned one mirrored on the others.
“Aether?”
When he hears his name, the boy freezes in his step, head rising to meet his sister’s concerned gaze. Glistening pools of liquid gold that break off into streams of glittering tears meet a matching pair of eyes that begin to panic the longer they stare at one another.
“Fuck,” is the first thing he says, voice raw and weak, bloodshot eyes puffy under the overhead lights, a painfully obvious sign that he’s been crying for a while already, “you weren’t supposed to be home yet.”
Just as Lumine begins to walk towards him, arms instantly reaching out in a hug, there’s a banging on the door, followed by frenetic yelling.
“Aether! Babe, please open the door!”
Said boy wraps his arms around himself, eyes squeezing shut.
“Go away…,” Lumine hears him whisper, watching with an aching chest as he curls in on himself, hugging his body tighter.
The incessant knocking doesn’t stop, his quiet plea left unheard.
“Aether!”
The noise is making his head pound, the fresh tears on his cheeks practically burning his skin.
It’s too much. Everything is too much.
“Lumine,” comes his frail call, and she’s by his side in a flash, supporting most of his weight when his body starts to sway off balance. “Make him go away. Please.”
“I will. I promise I will. Just-” Her eyes flicker to Amber, and the girl takes the cue to approach them. “Stay with the others, okay?”
Aether doesn’t answer, but he does comply when the brunette carefully leads him to the sofa, where Ganyu is waiting with a glass of water, Keqing and Mona on standby to fetch anything he might need.
After ensuring that Aether is in safe hands, Lumine turns to the door, wincing when she realizes just how thundering everything becomes in her ears. She doesn’t hesitate when throwing open the door, glare steely when she faces who she knows is the sole reason why her older brother is in tears.
“Lumine,” Chaoxi pleads, hands clasped in prayer, “let me talk to him.”
“No.”
“I have to-”
“No.”
She notices the different sized hand prints on either side of his face, and there’s no way she could ignore the smeared chocolate that colored the front of his white dress shirt an unsightly brown. It doesn’t take a genius to know what prior events occurred to lead up to the present.
Her glare turns vicious, her eyes reflecting the pure rage that she controls herself to not act on in hopes of slamming the door in his face faster.
Chaoxi, the name of the boy she now has at the top of her hitlist, fails to make out the dangerous aura that Lumine is emitting, and instead of understanding that no means no, the bastard actually tries to force his way in.
“Even just a minute is fine-!”
He scrambles for the door frame, but Lumine is quicker, harshly slapping his hands away. She hears someone call her name from inside, but she brushes it off, never once letting her gaze falter when met with the other’s sheer desperation.
Under the scrutiny of Lumine’s intense, unwavering stare, Choaxi is the first to break away, attention fixating on the space over her shoulder, where he could see a sliver of the interior.
“Aether!” he begins to scream, much louder than before, much more deranged. Lumine narrows her eyes, bending her knees and forming her hands into fists, in case he tries to do something drastic.
“If you don’t leave, I’m calling the cops,” she threatens, fully prepared to tackle him to the ground to keep him far, far away from Aether, until the authorities arrive on the scene.
“I don’t think that will be necessary.”
Both Lumine and Chaoxi turn to see an audience of men, whose spine-chilling auras are on par with the blonde’s. The few smiles that are displayed are downright predatory.
Zhongli is the first to step up, arms folded across his chest. “Mister Chaoxi, here, knows when enough is enough. Isn’t that right?”
His posture shows the usual calm and collected man, but his eyes, swirling with the same kind of rage that fills the rest of them, speak of a storm that’s ready to wreak havoc.
Laughter pierces the tense atmosphere next, dry and hollow, lacking anything that would suggest a speck of friendliness behind Childe throwing an arm around Chaoxi, essentially trapping him between his claws.
“Ah, well, if he doesn’t, I’m allowed to have my fun.”
If that doesn’t get the message across, surely the round of knuckle cracking and the realization of what exactly he’s up against-6 on 1, plus the chance of the authorities becoming involved-does.
“So, what will it be?”
Only a suicidal fool would’ve stayed.
“Wah~ I really thought we were going to have to fight,” Venti says with a sigh, one hand resting on his chest, while the other is holding three pizza boxes.
Diluc scoffs. “Like you would’ve done anything more than cheer us on.”
“Hey! Moral support is important, too!”
While those two start to bicker, which is really just Venti ranting to an annoyed but stone-faced Diluc, Kaeya is the one who asks Lumine what happened. Although they were ready to throw hands at someone that was clearly an unwanted presence, no one knew why. He doubted that the answer would’ve changed how they reacted, but it was still nice to know the full details.
“For starters, he made Aether cry-”
In an instant, Lumine is getting shoved to the side, making way for a nimble Venti, who had shoved the pizza boxes at Diluc the second he heard the words Aether and cry.
“Sorry, Lumine! My bestie needs me!” he shouts over his shoulder, hastily kicking off his shoes before pouncing on the hiccuping pile of tears and snot. There’s a garbled choke, along with a few high-pitched squeaks from the girls as background noise, then a trembling sob of Venti’s name.
“What did he do?” Childe asks this time, and his tone alone, simmering with rage, has Lumine at a loss for words, almost afraid to speak. And his expression...it shouldn’t make her legs as weak as they are right now. She has to remind herself that his anger isn’t aimed at her, and, therefore, he isn’t a threat-to her, at least.
Taking a deep breath, half to gather her wits, half to calm down her racing heart, she asks, “What do you think Chaoxi, who’s always doused in rumors of multiple lovers, did?”
Lumine will never admit it, but she holds her breath, waiting, watching for Childe’s reaction.
It’s no secret that the redheaded Fatui is rather...fond of Aether. Whether it be when sparring, bickering, studying, eating, or hanging out, Childe always showed a bit more genuineness around the older twin, which is a rarity in itself. Spoiling him with food, giving him smiles that radiated real warmth rather than the ones that never reached his eyes, openly showing affection with no intention to tease, looking at him in that way only a man in love would ever look at another person.
Really, it’s a shame that Aether is too dense to notice, choosing to give any guy that seems sincere enough a chance with his heart while failing to notice the one person, who’s been secretly grieving over every new relationship he gets himself into.
Oh, but Aether isn’t the only one at fault. No, Childe’s an idiot, too.
Childe’s love language is fighting. A punch to the throat, his legs being swept from under him, a well-placed elbow to the gut. All of that is what gets his dick and heart hard, which is unfortunate, considering Aether chalks his enthusiasm to fight him down to an insatiable hunger for an adrenaline high.
So, Childe pinning the blond to the ground and leaning incredibly close to his ear to whisper, “I win,” meant nothing but another loss for the blond.
Truly, a pitiful impasse to be at.
As a consequence of Childe having the hots for Aether, Lumine 100% expects him to chase after Choaxi and commit a crime punishable by death, yet the next time she looks at him, he’s unusually quiet, face schooled into the epitome of stoicism.
“I see.” And then he’s entering the house.
The others are confused by his reaction but are glad that they don’t have to come up with alibis anytime soon. Someone’s stomach growls, kicking them into motion to deal with the second most important matter at hand: their hunger.
~
On second thought, maybe their hunger could wait.
The scene that greets them when they walk in is Aether huddled up in the tiniest of balls, curled on his side, lying halfway onto Venti’s lap with his head buried in his stomach. Because of how he’s positioned, back facing outward, his expression is hidden from the others, however, the stuttered breathing along with the hiccupy sniffles is the evidence needed to know that he’s crying. The sounds are muffled, as though he’s trying his best to keep his pain to himself, but it’s tortuous to hear either way.
“Do you want me to sing you a song?” Venti asks him, voice a gentle hush amongst the notes of sorrow. His hand is lightly stroking the top of his head, taming the nest of golden tresses that had escaped from its braid.
Amber is sitting on the opposite side of Aether, rubbing his arm to somehow help soothe him. When she hears Venti’s question, her face scrunches up, perplexed. “I thought you wanted to make him feel better, not worse?”
The singer, who’s renowned for his outstanding songs -thank you very much, Amber-scowls at her but doesn’t let his attention stray from the boy on his lap for a second longer. He can’t, especially since the blond doesn’t laugh, giggle, or even chuckle at the insult. He always shows some form of amusement whenever Venti is being poked fun at, whining about betrayal and ‘we’re best friends, how could you?’ be damned. It just goes to show how upset Aether is, and it breaks their hearts.
Lumine hates seeing her brother like this. Aether is strong, smart, witty and a hell of a fighter, and yet all she sees in front of her is another victim of love that will soon turn to a withering shell of emptiness. In due time, she knows that he’ll recover; he always does. But, it doesn’t mean that the process will be easy to watch.
Before that happens, before Aether locks himself up and away from the world, she wants to be there for him. So, she slowly approaches the trio, crouching down by Venti’s legs to place a hand on his back.
“Aether…”
“You were right,” he mumbles, the first words he’s said in a while. Then, he laughs, bitter and so, so broken. “My taste in men is fucking terrible.”
Childe, who’s been silent the entire time, opting to simply stand at the foot of the couch, chooses that moment to interrupt.
"I told you, didn't I? If you're gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough."
"Childe,” Lumine hisses, but he isn’t looking at her.
"I said he was bad news, but did you listen?"
Aether shakes his head, sniffling.
"And now you have the gall to cry?"
Aether turns around, revealing a pair of red eyes that, in spite of looking worn out, are glaring at the ginger with a newfound ferocity that far outweighs the dull ones that were present before. Childe keeps his expression steadfast.
"Shut up. You're supposed to comfort me, not be a dickhead."
“A hug isn’t going to make the pain go away,” or so he says as he rests a hand on top of his head, gently ruffling the golden locks with a softness that is rarely associated with Childe. Then, when he’s satisfied with mussing up the freshly groomed hair, the redhead takes one of Aether’s hands, pulling him out of Venti’s hold and onto unsteady legs.
A frowny Aether meets a smiley Childe.
“Let’s eat.”
“‘m not hungry.”
“C’mon, you can cry later,” Childe coaxes, poking at the crinkles between the other’s eyebrows. “You’ll run out of tears without sufficient nutrition. We can’t have that, can we?”
Aether tries to wiggle away from him, but he’s kept in place by the hand firmly gripping his.
“I got all your favorite pizza toppings,” Childe tries again, cupping one of the blond’s cheeks to wipe away the remnants of his tears with his thumb. No one mentions how Aether melts into the touch.
There’s a pause, followed by the quietest, “...with pineapple?”
“Mhm. With pineapple.”
A sniffle. A quavery breath.
“Fine.”
“Good boy!” Childe praises, laughing when his attempt at ruffling the other’s hair again is met with some resistance, Aether swatting his hand away, telling him not to touch him despite still holding his hand.
Meanwhile, Keqing has a full-on grimace on her face, not from watching the duo’s interaction but because-
“Who put pineapples on the pizzas?”
Venti scratches at his cheek, grin sheepish as he explains, “That might have been our fault.”
There’s a thoughtful hum from Zhongli, who is watching over Childe and Aether from afar, ensuring that the ginger doesn’t unintentionally upset the younger man any further. “Indeed. We made the mistake of letting Childe order the pizzas.”
“Another pineapple-on-pizza-eating heathen,” Lumine says, clicking her tongue, as if it was a truly upsetting fact.
There’s an evidently distressed shout from Aether, but it isn’t exactly worrisome when it’s followed up by carefree laughter and a half-hearted apology.
“Nope,” Kaeya begins, amused, “just a man, who ordered his love’s preferred food without realizing.”
~
In spite of his initial agreement to eat, Aether figures he really isn’t feeling up to it after all, taking only tiny nibbles of the slice of pizza on his plate. Everyone is well past their second slice, some even going for a third, but he’s still ebbing away at his first.
Naturally, it doesn’t go unnoticed by Childe.
Instead of proceeding with his plan to try and feed Aether-which would’ve probably ended up with him getting choked out on the floor-he simply observes him.
The tousled threads of gold that Lumine helped out of their braid, with the promise of helping redo it later.
The paler than usual skin.
The red nose, accompanied by the frequent sniffles.
The uncharacteristically dull eyes that never did manage to lose that irritating shine that comes from one on the edge of crying.
Finally, when he can’t take Aether giving his rightfully concerned friends and sister a transparently fake smile, Childe abruptly stands up, the chair scraping the tile floors to create an uncomfortably shrill noise that has each of them blanching.
Without warning, Childe easily picks Aether up from his armpits and throws him over his shoulder, ignoring the discombobulated protests and demands to be put down.
Does he listen? Absolutely not.
“Dude, what the fuck?!” Aether starts beating on his back with his fists, though he stops when the sly little shit starts walking, forcing the blond to focus on not throwing up what little food he ate.
In response to the rest of the bewildered interjections that try to stop him, Childe shoots the group of concerned friends with a beaming smile that does more harm than good to their distress. “Don’t worry. I’ll bring him back as soon as I’m done with him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” someone asks, but the duo is long gone before they can get an answer.
~
“Stop crying.”
“I can’t!”
“You can. Look, they’re drying up.”
Aether huffs, ending the conversation altogether as he glares out the car window, because, yes, Childe kidnapped him, threw him into the passenger seat of his ridiculously expensive convertible, and is now taking him who-knows-where.
Silence engulfs the air between them, allowing for an unpleasant awkwardness to settle.
Glancing at his companion, Childe spies Aether wiping at his eyes again. Now it’s his turn to frown.
"Try not to get snot on my seats,” he off-handedly comments, not really caring in the slightest about anything except the other’s well-being.
Still, Aether takes that as an offense. Whipping his head around, he looks Childe dead in the eye as he noisily blows into his tissue, then, without so much as a blink, drops it on the leather chair. The glaring contest that commences afterwards proclaims Aether as the victor, mainly due to the fact that the driver is supposed to keep their eyes on the road. It’s a victory all the same.
Childe lets out an exasperated sigh. "Geez, not a single tear was shed when I punched you in the nose last week, but look at you now.”
"As if I'd shed a tear for you,” Aether spits out begrudgingly, the memory bringing back a phantom stinging on the bridge of his nose. He was a second too late to dodge, resulting in Childe landing a direct hit, which was quickly countered with a headbutt to the chin. Aether remembers winning, then again, the memories become somewhat fuzzy near the end. If Childe had won, he’s sure he would’ve rubbed it in his face for days.
He almost doesn’t hear the low, nearly inaudible, "Let's keep it that way."
Aether wants to ask what he means by that, but Childe is already staring straight ahead.
A few minutes later, the car is entering one of Teyvat’s more popular plazas, occupied by a variety of shops and restaurants. Since the sun is setting below the horizon, the area is illuminated by the glow of luminescent lights, giving the plaza its own special flair of majesticness.
"Where are we going?" Aether asks as they’re pulling into a parking spot. He takes note of the apparent plethora of couples strolling along from shop to shop, heart throbbing when he fixates on how happy they look together, snuggling together for warmth and laughing without a care in the world.
A light tap on his shoulder has him breaking his gaze from the window, turning just to lean back again to avoid bumping foreheads with Childe, who takes the liberty of unbuckling his seatbelt for him. The brief proximity gives him a good whiff of the redhead’s hair, and beyond anything else, Aether can’t help but think how nice he smells. The coconuts from his hair mixed with the enjoyable notes of his cologne has the blond’s eyes falling shut in an attempt to better savor the scent that’s gone faster than he would’ve liked.
"We’re gonna get food you can actually stomach."
“I told you, I’m not hungry.”
“Would you still say no to ice cream?”
Peeking an eye open, Aether glances up at the neon sign of the store they’re parked in front of. Momentarily stunned, he realizes it’s that one liquid nitrogen ice cream place he’s been wanting to try out for a while now. He was originally supposed to go here today.
Blinking back the resurgence of a stinging behind his eyes, he forces his attention elsewhere, though it doesn’t last long when he catches sight of the odd contraptions being used inside.
“...yes.”
Rolling his eyes when he sees Aether pressing his face against the window, no doubt trying to watch how they make the ice cream, Childe mildly chides, “Be a little more honest with yourself.”
“Like you’re one to talk,” the blond retorts, snarky as ever when it comes to their bickering.
And yeah. Maybe it is time Childe is honest with himself, too. They both deserve as much.
With that in mind, he reaches into the backseat and throws his hoodie at his companion, elegantly blanketing the blond’s lithe form in a sea of maroon fabric.
"You look like a mess,” he explains rather plainly in response to the bouts of protest from beneath the layers. Of course, he omits the teensy little observation he made of Aether shivering from the cold, which is to be expected when you’re out at night with only a skin-tight crop top and low-rising jeans. A flattering outfit but extremely impractical to fend against the chilly nighttime air.
“Feel like one, too,” Aether mumbles back, seemingly accepting his fate of being confined to Childe’s very nice smelling hoodie. Seriously, it should be illegal to smell this irresistible-not that Aether would ever openly admit it. Who knows what the big-headed Snezhnayan would do, if he ever finds out.
When it’s clear that Aether is half-assing his escape from suffocation, Childe steps in to help pull the hoodie over his head, even going as far as patting down the baby hairs that stick up from the movement.
“Alrighty, let’s go.”
Aether doesn’t move, nor does he look like he wants to.
"I'm paying,” Childe says to ease his mind, but still, he remains static. It’s not until Aether, with an almost defiant pout on his face, is sheepishly pointing his sweater paws down at his bunny slipper-clad feet that the belated realization hits that he whisked him away on a whim, leaving no chance for the blond to put on proper shoes.
The ginger’s failure to plan ahead is what leads him to crouch down in front of the passenger door, back towards Aether as he beckons him to get on.
“No way!” he protests, a blush high on his cheeks, but Childe is having none of that.
Nonchalant as ever, the redhead helpfully supplies, “It’s either you mount me, or you don’t get to watch how they make the super cool ice cream.”
Glowering, Aether’s foot shoots out to kick at the man, whose face shouldn’t be looking at him so seriously after what he just said. He clicks his tongue when Childe flawlessly dodges.
“Why do you have to make it sound so weird?”
“Am I wrong?”
“I mean, no, but-”
“Just get on.”
Hm...
Dignity? Or seeing for himself the wonders of science interwoven with the Archons’ greatest creation, even though he can watch videos of the process online?
To sweeten the deal, Childe adds, “I heard from Chongyun that it’s magical.”
With a curse, Aether slowly drapes himself over the broad back in front of him, hesitantly wrapping his arms around the other’s neck.
“Don’t worry! You’re safe with me,” Childe reassures him as he’s placing his hands underneath his thighs. Aether doesn’t doubt that statement; it’s the embarrassment that has him hiding his face in his shoulder.
“Hey!” He tightens his arms around Childe, threatening to cut off his air supply after a not so subtle squeeze to his butt. “I felt that, asshole!”
“Oops.”
Childe does it again, more bold, more firm, making it a miracle that they manage to enter the shop at all, what with Aether fighting to get a clean punch or kick in and all. Too bad that the possibility of falling off and, consequently, dirtying his precious bunny slippers chains down his urge to commit murder. To replace that lust for blood, Aether seeks solace in pinching Childe’s cheeks, relishing in the genuine yelps of pain that don’t cease, until they’re inside, where the clouds of nitrogen spilling over the counter pilfers both of their attention.
The excited puppy is so enthralled with the science happening in front of him, that he doesn’t even care that Childe’s hands find a temporary home on his ass again.
Aether’s entrancement to the strange liquid nitrogen actually distracts him from the menu, and it’s only when they’re being asked what they’d like that he scrambles to read it, eyes frantically scanning the list of different toppings and ice cream flavors. So many words, so little time; it’s making his head start to spin. It doesn’t help that there’s a nuisance casually pressing a cheek to his own-a downside to him having to lean forward to be able to read the small letters of the colorful screen. There are also restless fingers tapping along the surface of his thighs, the occasional stroke making Aether’s head into disarray.
"My dearest Prince Aether,” the blond shivers at the sudden breath that hits his cheek, caressing his skin with warmth, “I hate to be a pest in your regal eye, but you're holding up the line. Can you speed it up?"
Flustered, Aether squirms in Childe’s hold, bonking their heads together when it does nothing but cause the grip on his thighs to tighten to keep him from toppling over. "Give me a second! I told you I wasn't ready yet!"
“Um…” Both heads turn to the bashful employee, who’s been waiting to take their orders for the past 5 minutes. They have the common decency to be ashamed for having made her wait that long and for having her witness their childish display. “May... I make a suggestion?”
“One lover’s special and one chocolate whiskey combustion!”
“Well, is it to my prince’s liking?”
“Mhm! It’s so good!”
Childe half listens to Aether raving about the cheesecake bites, the Pocky sticks, the heart-shaped macaron, and the chocolate-covered strawberries that overload his cup, smiling to himself when his nickname isn’t brutally shot down. The other half of him adoringly watches the other’s face, a certain kind of warmth spreading throughout his body at the sight of how bright it is, his radiance rivaling-no, overpowering- that of the sun’s. And his eyes...Childe would love to drown in them.
“Here.” Blinking out of his reverie, Childe is surprised to find a spoon raised to his lips and an expectant Aether waiting for him to take it. “Because you treated me, I’ll let you have some.”
Childe looks from the spoon, to Aether and his reddened cheeks, and to the spoon again. The corner of his lip quirks up, just as he’s taking the spoon into his mouth.
“You just want a taste of mine, don’t you?” he asks after licking the spoon clean. Mentally, he counts it as an indirect kiss, which means a lot more than you’d think.
Aether hangs his head, ashamed to have been caught as though it wasn’t obvious from the start.
Cute.
Laughing, the redhead decides to show some pity and wagers him a deal. Aether is free to have as much as wants, but he has to be fed. Truthfully, the older of the two didn’t think he’d agree to it, since the blond has usually shown vehement contempt whenever Childe has tried to feed him. Jokingly or not, the end result has always been bared fangs.
As it turns out, ice cream is one of the foods that a hostile Aether will take unquestioningly. If Childe had known it to be his weakness, inducing puppy eyes instead of utter disgust, he probably would’ve tried this sooner.
He doesn’t mind that Aether ends up eating the rest of it.
~
Following their ice cream escapade, Childe resolves to take Aether to the local bakery, where he plans on picking out a mini cake for them to share, because clearly, sugar is the core craving of the day to ward off the aftereffects of a heartbreak.
Undeterred by the long queue of people outside, who the duo suspect are people that have either failed to order their pastries ahead of time or are on their own late night food run, Aether insists that he stay inside the car, so that Childe doesn’t have to burden himself with carrying him. Light as he may be, he’d feel bad for making the redhead strain himself. Childe would beg to differ, but he’s being shooed out of the car in record time as another couple joins the queue.
An excruciating hour of standing out alone, enduring the endlessly mushy musings of the couple ahead, later, Childe returns with a neatly wrapped box that contains the very last of the bakery’s Valentine’s Day special edition cake, complete with a single, complimentary rose. He walks by the customers that had the unfortunate luck of queuing up behind him with his head held high.
Proud to have snagged the cake of his choice, Childe climbs into the car, excited to open it up and relish in the sweet taste of victory. Alas, when he turns to his travel partner, he finds that he’s fast asleep, hood pulled up to shield his face from the cold, head lolled to the side in a position that he knows will create a terrible kink in the blond’s neck later.
Childe sighs, smile unbelievably enamored as he reaches over to brush Aether’s hair out of his face.
“Sleep well, my prince.”
~
Inevitably, Childe has to carry Aether into the house, the blond probably having fallen into a coma based on his lack of a reaction to being jostled around. Granted, the redhead takes extra care in making sure he doesn’t wake up. The Archons know how much he needs the rest.
Thus, the only response to the cutthroat glare he receives from the other twin upon his arrival is a finger to his lips, silencing any and all nagging in favor of not waking the sleeping beauty on his back.
Lumine raises an eyebrow when Childe gives her the box and rose, but he merely waves her off.
“Ah, don’t be mistaken. It’s Aether’s. I hope you’re not too disappointed.”
Childe doesn’t get beat up simply because he’s carrying her dear brother. That doesn’t mean Lumine hesitates to flip the laughing fucker off.
As soon as the duo disappears up the stairs, the nosy little shits in the kitchen pop their heads around the corner, some with knowing expressions and the others-mainly Amber and Venti-interested in the gifts.
“Did Childe bring back food?” the brunette asks, mouth already salivating at the familiar logo slapped on the side.
“Not for us.”
Venti purses his lips in a pout. “Mean.”
Wanting to quench her own curiosity, Lumine takes a peek at the little card attached to the sparkly red ribbon wrapped around the rose, and she doesn’t know whether to vomit or squeal from the words written on it. Instead, she slams her fist on the door, swearing to the Archons above that if they don’t start dating soon, she’ll kill them both.
‘You look best when fighting, but your smiling gets pretty damn close.
~Your Knight
P.S. Stop dating losers when you have me’