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“Take that, bastard!” Lumine smashed buttons on her controller and laughed as Xiao’s character fell, K.O flashing across the screen.
“Fuck!” Xiao slammed his controller on the carpet, sulking as Lumine raised her arms in victory.
“Sore loser.” She poked his side.
“Sore loser? Come here, you little brat!” He started tickling her relentlessly, reveling in the sweet laughter as she begged him to stop.
“Ah! Stop it! Stop it, you demon!”
“Apologize!”
“Haha, no! Never!”
“It seems I won’t stop then.” And tackled her to the ground as tears of laughter sprang in her honey colored eyes.
Xiao could get drunk on her smile, high on her presence, all the things he used to do to cope could never compare to the euphoria he had when she was close.
She was a star, an constant that guided him out of his darkness into light.
Yet, she was so far.
“Lumi! I’m home!” Aether called from the doorway.
Xiao stopped abruptly, letting Lumine get up and run towards her brother.
“Ae! How was your blind date?”
“She was… loud. Very loud. And obsessed with dead things.” Aether shuddered a little. “She runs a funeral parlor and apparently sells coffins, Lumi. She sells coffins .”
“There, there, you’ll meet someone you like someday.” She pat her twin on the head.
Xiao put on his mask that he usually wore around other people, cold, indifferent. Lumine’s brother was no different from anyone else, he could tell Aether didn’t trust his sister with him, could hear the conversations they thought he wasn’t listening to.
“Lumi, do you know what everyone says about him? He used to be part of a gang, for Archon’s sake!”
“Used to, Aether! What happened to not judging people from their past, huh?”
“He’s different.”
“How? How is he different?”
“You really can’t see, Lumine? The way he looks at you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“ Xiao.” Xiao raised his head to see Aether very much glaring at him.
“Aether.”
“I’m going to bed, night, Lumi.” Aether huffed.
“Night, Aether.”
After Aether’s door clicked shut Xiao stood up.
“I’m headed home.” Xiao said, gathering his phone and mask into his bag.
“Are you sure? Don’t want to play at least one more game?” Lumine asked, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes.
“Yeah, it’s best, Bonanus will kill me if I’m late again.” His sister would sooner smack him over the head with a spatula than anything else.
“Oh, right.” Lumine looked away, nibbling at her lower lip.
Damn the Archons, and damn those taunting lips of hers.
If only I could just-
His phone rang.
“Xiao, where are you?” Came his father’s voice, and the undeniable clink of wine glasses.
“At Lumine’s, I’m just headed home.”
“Could you pick up more pickles? Your mother’s been craving those a lot recently.”
“Sure, and more ginseng tea, too?”
“Thank you, Xiao. Now if only Menogias could be as helpful.” He muttered, but there was that loving note to it that made Xiao smile. Zhongli had saved them, saved all of them from horrible lives, and Xiao owed him everything.
“Consider it done.”
“And, Xiao, tell Lumine to come over for dinner sometime. We’d be happy to have her over for family meals.”
Xiao rolled his eyes. His father couldn’t have made it more obvious if he tried.
“Bye, Dad.”
“But-” The line ended.
“Was that Mr. Zhongli?” Xiao didn’t realize Lumine left the room until she came back, a small container in her hands.
“Yeah, gotta go to the store and get pickles.”
Lumine laughed. “Ms. Guizhong is doing alright?”
“Her and my future baby sister. You do know that they keep wanting you to address them by their first names, right?”
“It feels awkward.” She smiled. “Here.” She handed him the container.
He went to open it and she slapped his hand away. He raised his brow.
“Don’t open it until you get home, alright?” Her cheeks pinked. “And tell me what you think of it.”
He nodded. “Thanks, Lumi.”
They both stood there in silence, neither one of them wanting to move.
“Bye.” He said quietly.
“Bye.”
He slipped out the back door, Lumine waving to him as he walked away.
Xiao itched to open the container, itched to know exactly why Lumine blushed over a box of Tupperware. It felt cool to the touch, and Xiao was tempted to lift the top to just take a peek.
Come on, you’ve been resisting your temptations for two years, you can handle ten minutes.
He’d met her during a math class his adoptive father shoved him into because “education is important.” She was relentless, breaking down every wall he tried to put up until he was helplessly, irrevocably in love. And there was no stopping it, no resisting. Every time he was with her all he wanted was to give in, just once.
As if he stood a chance.
He thanked Dongsheng as he made his way home, the old man calling out for him to be safe.
Before he could even knock, the door is slammed open. Bonanus was waving, he had guessed it, a spatula in his face. One covered in fiery frosting.
“Were you being mugged? Was someone holding you at gunpoint? It’s midnight!”
“Mom wanted pickles.”
“Uh huh? And it’s not because you wanted to spend one more minute with Lu-Lu?”
He rolled his eyes.
“It’s not like that, Bo.”
“I read your diary, and for the love of the Archons, keep that thing PG.”
Xiao blushed furiously. “Hey, you weren’t supposed to read that!”
“Obviously, with you waxing poetic about her eyes and her hair and her lips-”
“Shut up, Menogias and Bosacius will never let me live it down!” He hissed.
“Yeah, yeah, come inside.”
The moment he entered, Xiao all but threw the pickles and ginseng onto the counter and ran upstairs, Tupperware in hand.
He slammed his door shut and quickly opened the container.
It was Almond Tofu. Almond Tofu with tiny green and white pearls, and a note.
Will you go out with me?
“It’s not going to work.” Lumine moaned, her friends on the group call. Amber only rolled her eyes.
“Come on, we’ve been planning this for weeks!”
Shenhe looked up from her painting her toenails to give Lumine a reassuring smile. “I’m sure he at least appreciates it.”
“He hasn’t texted me, what if he forgot about it? What if he gets weirded out and avoids me forever? What if I ruined everything? What if-”
“If you keep saying ‘what if’, Lumi, I will electrocute you.” Yae said simply. “Xiao hasn’t said anything yet, and you’re just going to tire yourself with those thoughts, darling.”
“But, Miko! He’s so shy most of the time, and the only reason I did this is because Keqing dared me.”
Keqing didn’t look up from her business textbook. “If you don’t work for what you want you won’t get it.”
“She has a point.” Amber said.
“And besides, the worst he can say is no.” Miko said, examining her nails.
“No, the worst he can say is that we’re just friends.” Lumine shoved her face into her pillow. “Or nothing at all.”
“Wait, say nothing or say that you’re nothing?” Shenhe blurted.
“That too.” Lumine groaned, the sound muffled.
“Good going, Shenny.” Keqing facepalmed. Shenhe shrugged.
Lumine had a crush on Xiao since she first saw him in math, she volunteered to be his tutor, she convinced him to be her friend. She wasn’t expecting to fall so hard, she dreamt of him at this point, dreams she refused to tell anyone about.
Looks like she had to wait til tomorrow.
Lumine closed her locker with a despondent clang, Xiao hadn’t texted her all night, she probably ruined everything and he wouldn’t talk to her again-
“Lumine!”
She turned to see Childe making his way toward her.
Oh, Archons, no.
Lumine tried to speed walk away, but there was no escaping him, he grabbed her wrist.
“Lumine, are you coming to my party Friday?”
Lumine tried to break out of his grip, she easily could, but she didn’t want to end up in the principal’s office for beating another kid bloody.
“No, she isn’t.” Xiao was between them in a blink. He was shorter than Childe, but he still made it look like he was looking down on him.
“And who are you to decide?” Childe scoffed.
Xiao smirked. “We have plans on Friday.”
“What plans?” Childe’s face was scrunched.
He pulled Lumine to his side, and Lumine tried desperately to not turn redder than a tomato.
“None of your business plans.”
Ignoring so many eyes, Xiao brought Lumine to their spot behind the giant tree at the back of the school.
“Look, Xiao, I-I’m sorry. If you don’t want to talk to me, if you avoid me forever then that’s fine, and I-” Lumine buried her face in her hands, but the moment she did, Xiao pulled them apart and kissed her.
And damn did he kiss her.
Their lips moved against each other as she wrapped her arms around his neck, as he pulled her flush against him, as he whispered his answer in her ear and went back to kissing.
Xiao was on cloud nine by the time they reached first period, their pinkies still intertwined, still wanting to be close.
They did end up having plans that Friday, their first date.
The mere thought made both of them giddy.