Chapter Text
"Nooo I wuv you more," Lumine holds the phone closer to her face. "I wuv you most." Amber's faint voice was nearly inaudible through the phone speaker.
"Lumine, please, I’m trying to sleep." Aether’s voice was muffled under all the blankets stacked on top of his head, a desperate attempt to block out their affectionate call. It's been a month of them video-calling every night and he’s had enough. Lumine ignores him.
"Amberrr, you hang up fiwst."
"Lumine, I'm gonna shit myself if you keep baby talking." She looks up to glare at him.
"Shut up I'm on call."
"I KNOW. THAT'S THE PROBLEM." He thrashes under the covers.
"I’ll caww you tomowow okayy? Okay byeeee,” Lumine whines followed by thoroughly annunciated kissy sounds. Aether hears the video call end. “What is your problem.” She deadpans.
“No! What's your problem.” He breaks free of his blanket. “I KNOW you don’t talk like that.”
“There's nothing wrong with the way I talk to Amber.” She turns her nose at him.
“THERE'S SO MUCH WRONG BUT YOU COULD AT LEAST LET ME SLEEP.”
“IT NOT MY FAULT YOUR GRANDMA HEADASS IS SLEEPING AT 8 PM.”
“I HAD A VERY HARD DAY, OKAY? CANT YOU CALL HER SOMEWHERE ELSE THAT ISNT OUR BEDROOM?”
“NO, I WANNA BE COMFY IN BED WHEN I CALL THE LOVE OF MY LIFE.” He gapes at her sheer audacity. He's just trying to sleep? And shes gonna disrupt it for a comfy phone call in bed??? She's tripping.
“You’re tripping.” Aether supplies.
“And you're being over dramatic.” Lumine retorts instantly. He gasps at her accusation, throwing a theatrical, but somewhat genuine, hand over his chest.
“I know you wouldn’t last a second in my position, with the SHIT I put up with you and your Amber calls. About to change her contact name to amber alert at this point.” He lies back down on his side in preparation for his 8 pm slumber.
“I would, you're just overdramatic.” She rolls her eyes, flippantly.
He shoots upright back up with another gasp. “Aint NO WAY you think you would put up with BABY TALKING AND GOOGOO GAAGAA-ING EVERY TIME YOU WANTED TO SLEEP.”
“Yes, I would.” She flips onto her side, giving her back to him as she plays candy crush, entirely unbothered. “Plus you have no one to googoo with. Bitchless ass.”
He stares at her back, mouth agape in shock at her unfathomable audacity. “You know what? Fine. You think you can? Sure. Fine. Whatever. Whatever .” He mumbles inaudibly as gets back in bed and opens his phone to text.
Aether : you up?
He fiddles around with his phone case and checks his notifications as he waits for a response. Only a few seconds later…
Albedo : of course, it's only eight.
Aether : NOT YOU TOO
Albedo : ???
Aether : nvm
So you know how you’re my favorite friend in the whole world
Albedo : You don't need to flatter me if you need something
Aether : damn ok
so wanna help me get revenge on lumine
Albedo : I hold nothing against her to endorse this behavior
Aether : I’ll slide you my chem lab petri dish
Albedo: I will endorse this behavior
Aether : okay so I'm gonna call you in a bit
just go along w it okay?
And don't question it either
Albedo : Alright
~
Aether was in their closet for a bit. It was a little odd since it was nearly nine but Lumine didn't question it. She’s almost done with level 97 of candy crush and she can taste the milestone. She hears the closet door drag open and saw Aether wearing one of his oversized T-shirts and basketball shorts that are entirely hidden under the length of the shirt.
All was normal until he sat at his desk instead of his bed. Lumine raised a brow.
“Aren't you usually dead asleep by now, grandpa?” She mindlessly spoke, not taking her eyes off the phone. There was a time limit this level.
“Albedo wanted to call tonight.” Aether’s voice was flat as he applied chapstick. She sent a brief skeptical glance his way but kept silent otherwise.
Aether powered on his laptop before clicking the call button, fighting a smile that was making its way to his lips. He can’t laugh… not yet.
Eventually, Albedo picked up. He looked about the same as usual; button down, messy room in the background, and plastered poker face. But there was a hint of confusion knitted in his brows, his gaze trained on Aether.
“...Hello, Aether.” It sounded more like a question.
“Mmmm, hi Albedo” Aether elongated the last syllable, flirtatiousness evident in his voice. Lumines eyes shot wide, glancing at him before returning right back to her phone.
“The fuck?” she spoke under her breath.
Albedo's eyes were wide, blinking slowly. Then blinked again. “Are you alright?”
“Awww Albedooo,” Aether all but whines his name. Albedo's eyes go even wider and warmth paints his face, at an entire loss for words. “Don't you remember our texts ?” Aether whispers the last part and it takes everything Albedo to not let his brain entirely short-cut.
“Our- Our texts?” he clears his throat in an attempt to try and refocus. He recalls faintly something about revenge and needing to play along. He nods curtly. “I remember.”
“You're so good to me,” Aether leans one way, letting the shirt fall down his shoulder. “I wonder where else you’d be good, hm?” Albedo's stomach does flips. And then cartwheels. He opens his mouth and closes it again. He blearily blinks as tries to wrap his head at the screen in front of him.
“Aether, bro, please relax a little, I'm trying to play candy crush.” Lumine was fighting demons but the demons is just her brother flirting. She only has two minutes and fifty seconds left of this level.
“Nah you're being overdramatic,” he spits his fighting words, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. He finds her glaring back. Now she gets that he was serious earlier. She huffs out an exasperated breath, feigning nonchalance as she returns to her game. So Aether went back to his.
“So,” Albedo chokes out, attempting to ease the tension, “what are you doing?” he takes a sip from his mug, shielding his face as much as possible.
“Could be doing you.”
Albedo instantly starts choking, hacking up whatever coffee got stuck in his airway. He's turned away from his camera, hitting his chest to help him breathe and he’s so, so warm.
“Ah too much?” Genuine concern seeps into Aether's voice but Albedo waves a dismissive hand. I'm fine, you're good. Aether sighs in relief. “Glad you're okay but you got so cute when you're flustered.” Albedo's hand stills. He slowly pulls his hand back to his person.
His hands and ears are burning,
Aether looks quickly at Lumine and sees the most intense cringe has ever witnessed on her face. On anyone’s in all honesty. But she hasn’t admitted defeat. He needs to pull out his trump card soon. Albedo finally gains a bit of composure and turns around with a faint blush along the tips of his ears.
“Gimme a moment Albedo,” He stands up to stretch, his hands up together, arching his back and letting out a soft mnn~. Against his goodwill, teal eyes travel from Aether’s exposed nape to the curve of his waist, trailing down to the hem of his shirt, where it revealed soft thighs. “I'll be back in a minute” Aether mumbled but Albedo was just trying to keep his mind and soul out of the gutter. The sounds and sights were too much for his pure heart.
Albedo takes this as an opportunity to calm down, to breathe a little bit. It was getting hot in his room. He tied his hair back and undid his top button. Aether took a bit longer than he expected, so he thought this whole thing was over. Lumine assumed the same until footsteps sounded in the room, along with the crunch of a wrapper.
Both Lumine and Albedo looked for the source of the crunch as Aether sat back down. At his desk, he laid down an ice pop. Aether's eyes spoke of mischief and his mouth quirked up, failing to hide a smile.
“So Albedo,” Aether popped the wrapper open. “Tell me about your day.” he reached for the wooden stick and began to pull it out revealing a blueberry-flavored ice pop.
“Well, it started off rather mundane. I had Bio at nine am today.” Aether nodded along to show he’s listening. “It was only a review of last week’s lec…” the words died on Albedo's tongue as Aether brought the ice pop to his lips, kissing the tip softly. Heat returned to Albedo's face and he kept blinking, trying to focus on his sentences. “Last- last week's lecture. Which was just-” Aether's tongue swiped at the tip, coating it blue. Albedo swallowed hard. “It was on- uhm- on derivatives- no that's-” Aether lolled his tongue out as he dragged it from the bottom to the top. “It was on…” Aether wrapped his lips along the tip before sinking down on it. Albedo was breathing hard, chest heaving up and down, as he was laying back in his chair. Aether looked up at Albedo through his lashes and sucked .
“OH MY GOD EW STOP ILL CALL AMBER DOWNSTAIRS.” Lumine is writhing in bed, gagging in disgust, and on the brink of tears. “JUST NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.” Aether bites down on the ice pop.
“YEAHHHH, WOOOOO” he throws his hands up and does a celebratory spin on his office chair. “Thank god, you were insufferable for so long.” Aether began to put his hair back up and fixed his shirt.
“Okay but I'm not nearly as bad as you were today.” She retorted.
“No you were worse because it was bad but for longer. You literally moaned so often that I thought about getting a therapist.”
“I DO NOT MOAN ON CALL-”
“YES YOU DO LUMINE, DON’T EVEN TRY TO-”
“I'm,” a faint voice was heard from Aether's laptop. Both of them looked down in unison. “Im gonna log off for today.” Albedo was covering the lower half of his face with the back of his hand, letting his bangs shield the rest.
The end call chimed in an empty room. Aether began to mentally play back the events from earlier.
Oh.
Oh my god.
Aether slapped a hand over his mouth.
Oh my god.