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Xiao had a crush. A very big, very obvious crush on the second year class representative, Aether . He was always getting into trouble— and Xiao always seemed to be there when he needed him most. He never minded helping— in fact, it was how they first met.
It was during the entrance ceremony, when Xiao himself was newly branded a second year. The auditorium had been crawling with new first years, most of them he remembered seeing at his old middle school.
But there was one face he hadn’t seen before. A petite boy, long blond hair that was tied neatly into a braid cascading down his slim back. His skin was pale, and his eyes were golden.. like the sun. He was beautiful.
And he was lost.
Xiao, completely entranced, silently slipped away from his own group of loudmouth friends and walked up to the boy, wanting to get his name before he lost him in the crowd of first years.
“Hello,” He had greeted, trying to appear as welcoming as possible, though it seemed useless with how he was dressed. His blazer was completely unbuttoned, he refused to wear his tie, and his hair was dyed jade green at the roots. He wasn’t necessarily the poster child for a good high school student.
Aether had jumped a foot into the hair, clutching a piece of paper close to his chest, a small squeak slipping past his lips.
“O-Oh, hello. A-Are you a first year too?” The boy asked, his cheeks gradually turning a light shade of pink.
Xiao almost smiled at the question, so timidly asked. “I’m a second year. My name’s Xiao.”
Aether’s shoulders hiked up to his ears, making him appear smaller than he really was. “A s-second year— u-um, I’m Aether, nice to meet you.”
Xiao hummed and nodded over to the paper the boy was still clutching closely to his chest. “That your schedule?”
Aether startled, quickly looking down at the paper before meeting Xiao’s eyes again. “A-Ah, yeah. I’m not r-really sure where I’m supposed to go after this.”
“Let me see.” Xiao said, not even waiting for Aether to hand it to him, instead grabbing it from the boy’s loosened grasp.
Xiao looked over the entire schedule, though he did so after checking for the boy’s class number at the top right corner. Somehow he figured it’d be useful information.
“You’re in class 1-B. First floor, second classroom.” He stated, handing the schedule back over to the boy without much thought.
Aether exclaimed softly under his breath, gently prying the schedule out of his hands and proceeded to look up at Xiao with the softest smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
“Thank you, Xiao.”
And like the idiot he was, Xiao turned without another word, waving silently as a violently obvious blush gradually colored his face and neck.
That’s when it started.
It’d been an entire year since Xiao last had a full conversation with Aether, solely for the fact that he doubted he could ever muster the courage to walk up to the boy ever again. Despite Aether’s friendly demeanor, Xiao was terrified of him. Well— terrified of what he might do around him. Whenever he was around the other, he felt totally out of control of himself. And it never failed to mortify him.
Xiao had seen him a multitude of times since they last talked. In the hallways, during lunch, and occasionally during class. Contrary to what his friends called him, Xiao was not a stalker. Aether was just… always around.
“H-Hey!”
The inside of his locker faded back into his line of sight at the sound of a familiar voice lilted in panic. Xiao’s eyebrows furrowed, unmoving as he strained his ears for the voice again.
“Leave me alone!”
He slammed his locker shut without much care for how loud it echoed in the empty hallway, and rushed around the corner, recognizing the voice instantaneously. He peeked behind the wall, and was met with the sight of Aether standing cornered up against a wall, visibly trembling as he bravely met the eyes of two third years who were leering down at him with lecherous looks in their eyes.
“Keep quiet girly-boy, you’ll get us caught. We just want to see what’s between your legs.” One of them laughed, his hand inching towards the hem of Aether’s trousers. The boy shook his head, tears now building in the corners of his eyes. He looked petrified .
Xiao had seen enough. With enough rage to burn down the entire school building, he stalked up to the boy’s, and right before the boy’s hand could even reach the fabric of Aether’s pants, Xiao caught his wrist, and yanked it backwards.
“Hey! Wh-What the hell!” The boy gasped, pulling his wrist out of Xiao’s iron grip, holding it against his chest protectively.
Immediately upon looking at him, recognition began to fill their eyes. Xiao wouldn’t call himself a delinquent, but he was known for getting into fights— and always winning. He’d unknowingly created a reputation for himself, and he’d never been grateful for it until that very moment.
“What do you think you’re doing?” He asked slowly, putting himself between the boys and Aether. He could hear the boy’s slightly labored breathing behind him and willed the third years to leave faster.
They both simultaneously shook their heads. “N-Nothing! We— we were just leaving.” One of them blundered, hastily walking away in the opposite direction. Xiao watched them leave, making sure they were completely out of sight before he turned his body to face the boy standing behind him.
“Did they—?”
Seemingly out of nowhere, Aether wrapped his arms around Xiao’s neck, hiding his face into the crook of his neck, and completely pressing their chests together.
Xiao stiffened, not having expected so much— touching. Though, he realized, now that they were so close, Aether was still trembling. He was scared and Xiao was the only person around to give him comfort.
He could… do that— probably.
“A-Are you, um, okay?” He asked, lifting his own arms and loosely wrapping them around the boy’s waist, patting his lower back robotically.
Xiao’s never comforted someone before… if that wasn’t already obvious.
“Y-Yes, thanks to you.” Came Aether’s muffled answer. The boy pulled away from the sudden embrace, their faces mere inches apart. Xiao gulped, his neck and face burning with a familiar heat he hadn’t felt in ages.
“I—“ He started before being abruptly cut off.
“Thank you, Xiao.” Aether sniffled.
Despite his eyes being swollen, and his leaky nose, Xiao thought he was breathtaking. Literally .
He inhaled too sharply, and somehow started choking on his own saliva. Xiao hastily backed away from the hug, hunched over himself and began hacking over his own spit. Dramatically. And right in front of the boy he liked, no less.
“X-Xiao?! Are you okay?!” Aether gasped, hovering over him, moving side to side anxiously.
Xiao shook his head, stifling the rest of his coughs into his fist. “I-I’m fine, sorry.” He rasped, the heat he felt on his face was no longer from affection but complete mortification. “Um, I have to go— I-I’ll see you around, A-Aether.”
Really, he was just trying to leave so he wouldn’t embarrass himself any further. As if he could ever show his face around the other after this.
Xiao cringed to himself as he walked, regrettably reminded of the exact reason why he avoided going near the boy in the first place. Though, this time, he really didn’t have the choice to look the other way.
A distressed Aether was something Xiao would like to avoid entirely, whatever it cost him.
“You know, he’s probably scared of you. That’s why he’s so nice to you.” Hutao snorted the next day at lunch after Xiao had explained where he’d been during class.
He rolled his eyes, but he didn't bother to try and argue against the theory. That was a possibility he had thought about before. It wasn’t something Xiao wanted to be true, but it wasn’t completely out of the question. Plenty of people were scared of him— for reasons he didn’t know. He hardly did anything to make so many people fearful of him.
“Don’t say that, Hutao!” Ganyu huffed, smacking the girl lightly, only serving to make her laugh and giggle even louder. She turned to Xiao with a determined glint in her eyes. “I think he likes you, Xiao. You should totally go for it!”
Xiao deadpanned at her. She was way too optimistic for his liking. “I’m not going for anything. Besides, we’ve talked twice, I know nothing about him.”
“You know that he’s cute. What else do you need to know?” Hutao scoffed, momentarily pausing in her one sided game of footsie she was having with Chongyun. “What do you think, Yun? Should Xiao ask the cute second year out?”
Xiao growled. “Would you keep it down? Chongyun’s sitting right in front of you.”
Hutao rolled her eyes while Chongyun drew out his answer.
“I don’t necessarily care.”
Ganyu sighed wearily. “You’re all so unhelpful.”
Hutao opened her mouth to rebuttal, no doubt with something vulgar, before her eyes flickered behind Ganyu, widening in shock and filling with mischief.
“Don’t look now, but your cutie is walking over here.” She giggled.
Xiao frowned, and looked over his shoulder, his face slackening instantly. Hutao wasn’t lying. Aether was walking over to his table, holding something in his hands with a determined look on his nervous face.
Xiao quickly thought about running straight out of the lunchroom, not entirely prepared to have what little pride he had left shredded to pieces when his friends witnessed how much of a mess he became around the boy.
But then Aether tripped, and Xiao moved without thinking.
One moment he was sitting at his lunch table, and the next he was standing with an armful of Aether.
He had his arms wrapped around the boy’s chest, holding him close enough to the point where his chin was resting right on the base of Xiao’s neck. His arms had somehow ended up looped around his shoulders again, leaving little to no room between their faces.
Xiao could feel Aether’s breath on his lips and he would’ve dropped him right then and there if he didn’t have more self control.
“Xiao! You saved me!” Aether chirped from his chest, his eyes closing into small crescent shapes as he smiled up at him.
Xiao swallowed thickly, and inhaled a grounding breath. He steadied Aether back to his feet before speaking.
“You need to be more careful.” Xiao reprimanded gently, crossing his arms over his chest.
Aether chuckled sheepishly, scratching at his nape, his cheeks coloring a soft shade of pink. Xiao felt his own heat up.
“I know, sorry. I got excited when I saw you, that’s why!” The boy grinned, holding up the small bento box he had in his hands. “I wanted to give this to you as a thank you gift for what you did yesterday.”
Xiao stared down at the small box, blinking at it a few times before slowly reaching out and taking it into his own hands. The tips of their fingers briefly touched, and Xiao almost dropped the entire lunch box onto the floor. He flushed a bright red when his ears strained at the sounds of his friends giggling behind him.
“Th-Thank you, Aether. I appreciate it.” Xiao nodded, holding the bento close to his chest.
Aether smiled weakly, and jutted a thumb over his shoulder. “W-Well, I’ll leave you alone now! I hope you enjoy the food, I, um, I made it myself.” He waved timidly, before quickly walking back in the direction he came from. Xiao watched, and probably would have continued watching if his friends hadn’t started nagging at him.
He sharply turned to them, clutching the bento tightly in his hands. “You’re not getting any.” He growled at Hutao, who all but pouted.
“You know, maybe you should date that cutie! You’d probably be a whole lot nicer!” She snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.
Xiao rolled his eyes, and took his seat back at the table, looking down at the bento. He had to stifle a fond smile from making its way into his face.
Aether made him lunch. How… cute.
It would be weeks until Xiao got another opportunity to talk to Aether again.
It had been gloomy all day, clouds loomed over the school building until it eventually started pouring. Xiao enjoyed the rain, the way it sounded, the way it felt. It was calming to him.
When the final bell rang, the first thing he did was pull out his umbrella from his cubby and stand out in the middle of the walkway, letting the raindrops hit his umbrella at a rapid tempo.
“C-Cold!”
Xiao cracked his eyes open, unaware of when he had even closed them, and looked around for the familiar voice. Immediately, he spotted him. Aether. Standing out in the pouring rain without an umbrella or a blazer, to top it off.
Xiao frowned— what the hell is he doing?
Without much thought behind his decision, he walked up to the boy, grabbed him by his bicep and pulled him under the pavilion to try and at least keep him a little dry. Fruitless, it was. Aether’s entire school shirt was drenched with rain— you could see his—
Xiao choked, eyes bulging out of his head, his face flaring with heat so quickly he was afraid he began steaming.
“X-Xiao? A-Are you okay?” Aether asked between chattering teeth.
Xiao huffed, silently putting down his umbrella before slipping off his own blazer, draping it around the boy’s shoulders and pointedly covering up his chest.
Aether’s face morphed into one of shock. “Xiao…?”
Xiao wished someone were there to throttle him. Aether looked so… cute in his clothes. They fit him a size too big, and his cheeks were red from the cold, and his eyes were so wide and innocently round— it drove him crazy .
“Why are you out in the rain without a jacket, or an umbrella?” He frowned, grabbing his umbrella from the ground.
Aether looked away guiltily. “Well… I sort of let someone else borrow my umbrella because they forgot to bring one. And I gave my blazer to my friend— she was wearing a skirt, and I felt bad! She looked really cold!” He pouted, grabbing the lapels of Xiao’s blazer and tugging it tighter around his upper half.
Xiao sighed. He was selfless. “You shouldn’t sacrifice your own health for others.”
Aether frowned. “Well— then take your blazer back! You’ll catch a cold if you don’t.” He began unbuttoning the first buttons with trembling hands.
“And you?” Xiao challenged. “You’ll be bedridden for days. Just keep it on. At least I have an umbrella.”
The boy pouted and hesitantly dropped his hands to his sides, sighing in defeat. “I guess so. I’ll return it to you soon, I promise.”
He shrugged, not necessarily minding how Aether looked in his clothes. He preferred it, really.
“You can keep it. I have plenty more.” He said, walking back out into the rain.
Aether squawked unceremoniously behind him. “Wh-What?! Keep it?!”
Xiao looked over his shoulder. “I have more. It’s fine.”
Aether appeared troubled before eventually giving in, his shoulders slumping. “I’ll take good care of it.”
“Wear it often.” He blurted, and immediately bit his tongue afterwards.
“I…” The boy trailed off, then proceeded to let out a string of giggles. Xiao flushed— embarrassed . “I will.”
Privately, his heart thrummed in his chest.
“Come here.” Xiao spoke after a moment, looking over his shoulder again to glance at the boy standing behind him. “I’ll walk you home, since you don't have an umbrella.”
Aether’s eyes widened. “R-Really? You don’t have to.”
Xiao shrugged, fighting off the blush wanting to crawl its way onto his face. “I want to.”
The boy smiled pleasantly, and quickly joined him under the umbrella, bouncing on his toes like an excited puppy.
“Thank you, Xiao.” Aether grinned, standing close enough that their shoulders were firmly touching.
Xiao swallowed thickly.
No matter how many times he heard those words come from his mouth, they never failed to make his stomach flutter.
“You’re welcome, Aether.”
Just this once, he’d indulge him.