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Xingqiu needed to get ready for the dance. Not that he was planning on asking anyone out at the dance or anything, nothing of the sort! It was just the first time he’d gone to anything like this, so he was just nervous. Yes, nerves, that’s all it was. That’s what Xingqiu thought to himself as he searched through his closet for something actually suitable to wear. Yes he knew it was only a school dance, yes he knew it would be entirely acceptable to just show up in jeans and some jacket that would technically qualify as formal wear, but he didn’t want that. After all, if he was going to go to something like this, he might as well put in the effort to try and make it at least a bit memorable.
So through his closet he searched, through clothes now far too small for him to wear and through suits with enough ruffles on them to kill a man. Archons, why did past me have to have such a poor sense of fashion? He wondered as delved deeper into his closet, just looking for something at the very least presentable at this point. He ended up settling on a waist-length black coat with navy blue designs swirling out from the center, where the two sides of the coat joined through a series of loops made of golden twine, as opposed to the more traditional buttons that would be expected. Under this coat he wore a simple white shirt, both for warmth and to cover up any areas that the coat left exposed, most notably an area of his upper chest that the coat's v-neck had left uncovered. As for pants, he ended up just putting on a pair of jeans anyway, much as he struggled to find a better option. His next task was to search for shoes, and he ended up settling on a pair of black combat boots
He then turned back and surveyed his bedroom, letting out a low whistle, if it wasn’t messy before then it sure as anything was now. Anything even remotely formal that had been in his closet now lay flung across the surfaces of his room. Old shirts joining the tangled mess of sheets, blankets, and stuffed animals he called a bed. Small, dusty suits covering up the piles of books and papers strewn haphazardly across the floor. He had even managed to fling one particularly unsatisfactory pair of pants all the way across the room to cover his laptop. Well, it was too late to clean up now, the dance was starting in 15 minutes after all! He’d just have to deal with the consequences when he got back home. Who knows , he thought to himself as he stepped out of his room and shut the door behind him so his mom wouldn’t be able to see the mess he made. Maybe someone will even ask me to dance, a voice in his head whispered. He couldn’t help but laugh slightly at the thought as he climbed into his mom’s car.
“Hm? What’s that sweetie?” His mom asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” he replied. Yes, he thought to himself, absolutely nothing at all.
--
“Now, I’m going to be back here to pick you up at 9:00, and you better be here or else!”
“Yes yes mom, I know,” Xingqiu brought his hand to a space directly over his heart, “I promise to not carry on with any disreputable ruffians,” he assured his mother as he hopped out of the car onto the rough asphalt of the school parking lot.
“Alright you, get back here!” His mother cried out, shaking her fist at him in mock anger. “Do try and have a good time though, I know you don’t always get on with other people so well.”
“Don’t worry mom, it’ll be fine,” He replied before waving goodbye and turning to face the school. As he stared at the school gate, he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous, his mother’s words had been far from lies, and at least on some level, he was worried to death about not being good enough for people. Don’t bother worrying about that, they’ll hate you no matter what you do. You’ll be alone, but no matter, we have plenty of practice by now don’t we? Traitorous thoughts swirled through Xingqiu’s head, shaking his faith in himself. Hey come on, if nothing else the dancing will be fun, maybe you’ll even find someone to sweep you off your feet while you’re at it! He perked up at that, he did enjoy dancing, the movements never failed to calm his ever-active mind, whether those movements were rehearsed steps or wild spur-of-the-moment moves, it mattered little to him. And besides, finding a princess to sweep him off his feet didn’t sound too bad at all, or a prince, or a nonbinary peasant for that matter, he was open-minded like that.
Xingqiu strolled into the school auditorium where the dance was being held feeling rather confident. That confidence was immediately shattered by a complete sensory overload. Lights and sounds and smells all surged forward at once to overwhelm him. The auditorium’s main lights were off, but that only made the effect of the strobe lights seemingly shining from every direction even more pronounced. The music blasted out of speakers set up both around the edge of a room and in front of a D.J booth where a bemused looking security guard sat behind a laptop and other various accouterments that were likely only there for show, it was after all, far easier to just hook up a laptop to a speaker system than to try and do anything fancy with actual equipment, and from the look on the security guard’s face he seemed to already be having quite enough on his plate. And then there was the smell, Rex Lapis was there a smell. Xingqiu would like to meet whoever thought having a bunch of teenagers in a crowded room together all working up a sweat in some capacity, and Xingqiu would like to smack them with a collected edition of The Lord of The Rings trilogy. Hard. It definitely didn’t help that the auditorium wasn’t exactly well ventilated in the first place, and the nigh-omnipresent smell of pizza wasn’t exactly a plus, just how did that smell get everywhere?
Despite all that though, after taking a moment to acclimate, he did have to admit that the room had an energy to it, and a bizarre sort of charm. Either that or the smell really was getting to him. As he walked over to the refreshment tables, with their pizza and bowls of punch, both of dubious provenance, Xingqiu further surveyed the room, looking around at the people in it. The room was crowded, sure, but there was still a fair amount of room to be able to move around without bumping into too many people. As he looked around the room, his eyes chanced upon a boy with light blue hair wearing a fairly simple jacket in a color that matched his hair. Ah, so that’s where Chongyun was, Xingqiu thought as he started making his way across the room to where Chongyun stood, eating a popsicle.
--
Chongyun still couldn’t understand for the life of him why the school had an entire cooler full of popsicles just sitting there next to the refreshment tables, not that he was complaining of course, he practically lived off popsicles, but still, it was very strange. Did the school have some kind of contract with popsicle companies? Did they get them as a donation from some parent with a surplus of them? As he pondered this very important question, he couldn’t help but think of Xingqiu. Where was he anyway? He should be here by now. He wondered for a moment if anything had happened to his friend, but he quickly dismissed those thoughts. He’s probably just running late. He tried to think of other things, ponder further the question of the popsicles, but he was now thinking about Xingqiu, and his mind wasn’t just going to let go of these thoughts. This was a problem he’d been noticing recently, he would catch himself thinking of Xingqiu at moments when he wasn’t already paying attention to anything. Honestly at this point it was getting kind of annoying, though a voice in his head added those thoughts are very nice indeed. Would you like some more? Psyche! You don’t get a choice here! Have some more thoughts of Xingqiu! And in these thoughts he was so enthralled for the moment that he failed to notice Xingqiu creeping up on him.
Closer and closer to Chongyun he crept, taking care to remain in the corner of Chongyuns vision, even if he did seem to be spaced out at present, one could never be too careful. Slipping behind another student to block himself from Chongyun’s view, Xingqiu crouched in preparation to jump up and scare his friend. And then yet undetected, he sprung up in front of Chongyun. “Boo!” he crowed as he leapt towards his friend. He took him by surprise and since he’d caught him so off-guard, when he jumped at Chongyun in a way that was intended to just be shoved aside, he ended up knocking him over and the two of them ended up on the floor.
“Gah!” Chongyun cried out as he was disturbed from his reverie by… was that Xingqiu? Speak of the devil, he supposed, well really more think of the devil in this case. As he focused back on reality, he noticed a couple of things. First of all his back hurt, second of all he was lying on the ground with Xingqiu sitting on top of him just dying of laughter. “x-Xingqiu,” he managed to stutter out, already feeling heat rise to his cheeks, “You’re here.”
“Why yes I am, dear Yun, what an astute observation” he replied, wearing what might possibly be the smuggest smirk Chongyun had ever seen on him.
“Now, not to be rude or anything but um, why exactly are you sitting on me?” Chongyun asked. Instead of responding however, Xingqiu threw back his head and erupted into even more peals of laughter. Unfortunately for him however, this caused him to lose his balance and fall from his previous perch on Chongyun’s chest, nearly falling directly onto Chongyun’s face before barely being able to catch himself. Now their faces were mere inches apart, so close that their noses were almost touching. “Ah, Chongyun I-” Xingqiu began before one of the teachers supervising the dance grabbed him and unceremoniously hoisted him off and back up onto his feet. As Xingqiu apologized profusely to the teacher, Chongyun grew more and more flustered as the adrenaline of the moment wore off, if his face was the shade of a cherry before, then he was a tomato now.
--
“Yes sir, I understand, I won’t do it again.” Xingqiu finished his apologies to the teacher for “being a disturbance” and walked back over to Chongyun, who despite having calmed down somewhat, was still blushing furiously. “Hey, Yun, you okay?” he asked, his standard mischievous tone suddenly having vanished from his voice.
“Yeah, I’m fine, you just caught me off-guard is all,” He said in response. “I was actually wondering where you were,” he continued. That part was true at the very least. Then he noticed something, the music was changing, and then he remembered. The school had decided that while most of the songs would just be random pop songs that students submitted, they were going to play one waltz. Why they were only playing one Chongyun had no idea, probably for the same reason the school had access to so many popsicles.
“Oh, Yun, If it’s not too awkward after what just happened, I’d like to ask if I could have this dance,’ Xingqiu said, extending his hand out towards Chongyun.
“Oh well you see- I actually- um- how to put this” Chongyun babbled as he tried to think of some excuse, any excuse. But before he could think of one Xiangling stepped in and took his hands.
“C’mon Chongyun, let’s dance together like you promised!” she said. The look of hurt on Xingqiu’s face was unmistakable.
“Oh, I see,” He remarked curtly. “Well, don’t let me get in your way,” he said as he turned and walked away. Chongyun wanted to run after him, to explain that this was all just a misunderstanding. But Xiangling had already pulled him to the dance floor and besides, he had promised to dance with her, as a friend. But now he was thinking about things other than friendship, and they most certainly weren't about her. He would still try to dance though, dance regardless of the feelings, dance regardless of the reasons, dance and just try not to cry.
--
It was raining outside now, and the clothes Xingqiu had put so much effort into were getting wet. He didn’t care though, at least the rain helped hide his tears. He didn’t even really know why he was upset, after all this was just what he should have expected, right? The chances his friend actually would have liked him back were slim to none, but still, he couldn’t help but feel all torn up inside. He thought he’d had a chance, he supposed he’d just guessed wrong, this wasn’t one of his books after all, and not everyone is guaranteed a happy ending.
Still, in the back of his mind, he can’t help but hope that one day, maybe things would change, maybe one day Chongyun and him would be together, maybe one day all these terrible feelings would be washed away by the rain. But until then, all he can do is settle for letting his tears be drowned out by the tears of the sky.