Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pop! The sound and smell of toast wafts through the small apartment. Both of the owners are awake, Aether and Lumine. Aether is busy decorating the toast to his liking, while Lumine is busy getting dressed in the bathroom. The time is 6:30, the twins have to be in school by 7:45. Aether has been up since 3:20 a.m. stressing over today caused him to lose sleep. While on the other hand, Lumine got up 30 minutes ago, showing no signs of panic or stress. Aether wishes he could have that kind of easy-going mindset, even if it was only for today.

“Lumine!” Aether calls, “Hurry up, your breakfast is done!”

“I’m almost done!” Lumines' voice is barely audible over the sound of her hair dryer.

Aether continues to munch on his toast as he waits for his sister. He already packed both of their bags and lunches, he's already had at least 3 cups of coffee. Aether has always been one to worry about his appearance, so most of his early morning was spent destroying his closet just to find an outfit he liked and deciding on what hairstyle to go with. After about an hour, maybe closer to two, he decided to wear a white cropped shirt with a collar under a light brown knitted sweater. The bottom of the sweater is tucked into long beige pants. He decided to go with his signature hairstyle, putting his hair into one long braid.

Lumine walks out of the bathroom fully dressed in a light blue skirt with a white blouse, her only piece of jewelry is a gold necklace. Her hair isn’t styled, she only has a Cecilia flower pin on the left side of her head.

Lumine walks into the kitchen and grabs her respective piece of toast from the counter.

“Both of our lunches and bags are packed, and our computers are also fully charged,” Aether says, checking the time nervously. 6:39 A.M. it reads.

“Thank Aether,” Luime says, finishing a bite of her toast. “Don’t be so nervous. I’m sure that you’re going to have plenty of friends.”

“I’m doubting that,” Aether remarks.

Everyone likes Lumine, she’s friendly, pretty, and kind. How could you not? Aether is simply her antisocial brother who follows her like a shadow. People don’t like Aether, they simply talk to him to seem nicer to Lumine. Everyone is friends with Lumine, No one is friends with Aether. It’s a fact by now.

“Stop that,” Lumine says flicking his forehead, “You’ll find someone to be friends with, I know it!”

“Quit it! How did you know what I was thinking?” Aether quips back, as his sister walks to the front door to put her shoes on.

“Intuition!” Lumine calls back. “Hurry up and put your shoes on, we're going to miss the bus!”

The bus jerks to a sudden stop at the front gates of the twin's new school, Tevyat Univeristy. Its black steel gates were open, letting in a sea of students. The twins quickly get off the bus along with a few other students. Quickly Lumine grabbed Aether's arm, not to lose him in the crowd. They both ducked and weaved through the mass of kids until they finally entered the school. Aether looked around, the school was much bigger than their last one by about 2x. Currently, they were standing in front of what they could only assume was the library. Here the crowd had lessened significantly, thinning out to only 20 students in the whole area, including them. They both looked around, half admiring the building and half trying to figure out where to go.

“Let's just ask someone which way the office is,” Aether said gesturing to one of the students, who was leaning against one of the lockers with their phone in hand.

“Alright,” Lumine said hesitantly. Aether grabbed Lumines hand and shoved her toward the student. After Lumine regained her balance, she glared at Aether before making her way up to the student, Aether following behind her.

“Hello. Sorry to bother you but which way is the office from here?” Lumine asked, after finally reaching the student and getting their attention.

Said student had tan skin and dark blue hair that was tied off into a ponytail. His eyes were also a beautiful blue. His outfit consisted of a navy blue button-up, although his top 3 buttons were undone, that was tucked into white jeans. He had a silver necklace around his neck, and a light blue pendant with some kind of design was attached. He also had on some unique-looking gloves, they were black fingerless gloves with a circle cut out in the back, and in the middle of each circle was a silver star. He seemed pretty normal at first glance, the only odd thing was the black eyepatch that covered his left eye.

“Hello,” He said, a small smirk dancing across his lips. “And who might you too be? I can’t just let two strangers into the office, no matter how pretty they may be, now can I?”

At the unexpected comment, Lumine's face stayed as stone cold as ever, opposite her brother who had a light shade of pink across his cheeks.

“Listen, I don’t have time for flirty comments. I am Lumine and this is my twin brother Aether, we are new students here and need to get to the office. Now can you please direct us to the correct location?” Lumine said with a sigh.

“Ah, I heard we were getting some new students. Although, I wasn’t expecting them to be twins, let alone attractive.” The man said with a wink, “I am Kaeya Alberich, Fencing Captain of the Teyvat fencing team. Follow me to the office.” Kaeya walked over and slung his arm over Aether's shoulders.

“Thank you Kaeya,” Aether said quietly.

“Yeah, yeah. Thank you Kaeya. Now get your hands off my brother,” Lumine said forcibly throwing his arm off Aether and grabbing Aether's hand in the process. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

The twins soon found themselves in the office talking to one of the secretaries. Kaeya left saying he had classes to get to, throwing more flirtatious comments at the twins until he was completely out of sight.

“The principal will be with you shortly, she's currently busy with another student.” The secretary said shooting the twins a kind smile and simultaneously using her hand to encourage the twins to take a seat.

Aether and Lumine both took her up on the silent offer and sat down. They sat there in silence for quite some time before a kid and a lady appeared from around a corner. The boy seemed to be around Aether's height, maybe a little shorter. He had purple-colored hair cut into a bowl cut, that sat underneath a black bucket hat. He wore a simple graphic t-shirt of the famous rock band Sixpence Smiles. Underneath the t-shirt was a black long-sleeve shirt that covered his arms. He wore black and gray checkered pants with black combat boots. He wore three silver rings. The first was on his left ring finger, the second was on his right middle finger, and the final was on his left pointer finger. He scowled as he grabbed, what Aether assumed, was his bag and walked out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

“You two must be Aether and Lumine, right? I am principal Ningguang, please do come in so we can discuss schedules, classes, rules, and answer any questions you may have.” The lady from before walked up to Aether and Lumine encouraging them both to enter the room she just left. The principal had long white hair with a single strand of red in the middle of her bangs, that was styled into a half-up and half-down look. Some of her hair was coiled into a bun which was held up by a single hair stick, the rest was freely flowing down her back. She wore a beautiful pencil dress, the base color of the dress was white with yellow-golden patterns covering certain parts of it. She wore simple black heels. She smelled of expensive perfume.

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The twins spent most of their time discussing what other classes were open, clubs, schedules, and other matters. Soon enough the twins were nearly finished with their introduction.

“Any other questions?” Ningguang questioned.

“Yeah, I do,” Aether said quietly, “who was that kid with the hat that walked out all angry earlier?”

“Ah, Scaramouche, he is a notorious troublemaker along with his other ‘friends’, they call themselves the Fatui Harbringers if I remember correctly. Stay clear of that group, they are not friendly.” Ningguang explains, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Ah, ok, thank you for the warning,” Aether said smiling politely.

“You’re welcome, Aether. Any more questions?” Ningguang asked again, “No? Alright, your tour guides will be here soon. Aether, yours is a boy by the name of Diluc he is a little stone-faced but knowledgeable. And Lumine yours is a girl by the name of Amber, she's a very friendly girl, you'll like her.”

Almost immediately after the principal finished talking a boy and a girl opened the door to their room. The boy had red hair that was tied off into a high ponytail with bangs framing his face. He had a black button-up shirt on under a gray vest, his pants were simple black jeans. His red eyes were intimidating, as well as his whole presence, hell, it was almost palpable. The girl had brown hair with a large red bow on top of her head. She had brown and gold shorts with a red cardigan overtop a white shirt. She was smiling the width of the room.

“Hello, Mrs. Ninguangg! Are the new students ready?” The girl, Amber Aether guessed, asked.

“Hello, Amber. Hello, Diluc. You’re just in time, I believe they are ready for their tours,” Ningguang said as she rose from her seat. “I hope you enjoy your time here, come to me or a counselor if you have any issues.” She waved as the 4 students left her office.

The group stood outside the office for a few silent minutes, staring at each other, before Diluc, unexpectedly, was the first to talk.

“Come on Aether, let’s stay on schedule, and not fall behind for pointless reasons.” He said, walking away down one of the hallways.

Hesitantly Aether took a step forward. Then looked back at Lumine for something. Reassurance, help, protection, he wasn’t sure what. Lumine simply smiled at him a gave him a small nod before being dragged off by Amber, in the opposite direction.

Aether hurried after Diluc, catching up with the boy a few hallways down. They both walked for a while, the heavy silence in the air occasionally breaking when Diluc would explain a new class or area. Aether had tried a few times to start up a small conversation but it almost immediately died out. Aether simply concluded that Diluc wasn’t one for chit-chat.

“What’s your first class?” Dilucs voice rang through his ears pulling him back into reality, they were standing in the music hallway now.

Aether quickly pulled his schedule out from his pants pocket. Glancing at the clock on the nearby wall. 11:00 pm.

“Uhm, it says that I have Global Studies in 5 minutes.”

“Alright, I’ve got the same class so we can walk there together,” Diluc announced, walking off in the opposite direction. Not waiting for a response from Aether.

The boys walked to class in silence, verbally. Physically there was a lot of talking. The hallways had started to fill up with students again sometime in the middle of their trek, Aether tried his best to stay next to Diluc, however, the crowd seemed intent on sweeping him away. Diluc seemed to take notice of Aether’s struggling and uncharacteristically grabbed his wrist, tugging Aether closer to his side. Diluc wrapped his arm around Aether's shoulders, keeping Aether's body flush with his own.

They both walked the rest of the way like that, only breaking apart once they reached the door of the classroom. Diluc went in first, holding the door open for Aether as he shuffled in. There were only a few people in the room, excluding the teacher. Two boys and one girl to be exact. One boy was sitting closer to the front, he had two braids resting over his shoulders. The tips faded from bright teal back into his ‘natural’ blue-ish black hair, his eyes were teal just like his hair. He wore a green beret on the top of his head. He had brown shorts over top white tights, with a white turtle neck for a top. He also fashioned an off-set belt, the left side resting higher on his hip with the right dropping below his hip just above the thigh. The boy was humming a tune Aether didn’t recognize.

The other boy was sitting at the very back of the class staring out of the window, he had hair like the first boy. Except the front wasn’t braided and instead, he had darker teal highlights but the same colored ‘natural’ hair. His eyes were also a darker teal. He wore a black Nirvana hoodie and ripped blue jeans, which seemed like they had black fishnets underneath the jeans but it was hard to tell. He bore a very displeased expression, glaring at who knows what outside.

The girl was sitting on the left side of the classroom, she had a neutral expression and was reading a book titled “Constellations: the Story of the Stars”. She had two purple pigtails that flowed down her back. She wore a dark purple dress with stars, moons, and constellations sewn on all over the skirt portion of the dress. She also wore a tiny witch's hat, directly centered on her head; the kind you would most likely find and get during Halloween, except it was now February and just starting to get warm again.

None of the students paid any attention to Diluc and Aether, well that is until the boy with twin braids noticed them. His face instantly lit up and he waved at the pair, Aether heard Diluc huff beside him. Not even sparing the waving boy a glance, Diluc quickly ushered Aether toward the back of the class, far away from the student. Aether decided to let himself be led away and go talk to the other boy later. He hesitantly sat down next to Diluc, taking out a book to pass the rest of the time, that is before class started.

Diluc didn’t say a word to him the whole class period. Not when Aether had stood up and introduced himself, nor when he would ask him a question. All Aether got were nods or grunts. Other than that, they both just sat there in complete silence. Soon enough the class was over and it was time for lunch, Aether and Diluc walked out of the class together however when they reached the hallway Diluc went left. Unsure if he was supposed to follow, Aether instead went right, towards his locker to get his lunch.

The lunchroom was loud and packed full of kids. Hesitantly, Aether looked around for Lumine or Diluc. There, at a table in the back was Lumine. Surrounded by at least 5 of her newest friends. She was smiling and laughing hysterically. Not wanting to bother her, Aether instead looked for Diluc. He was sitting at a far table with a few other students, one of them Aether recognized as Kaeya. Great, now where am I going to sit? Both people he could have sat with were busy with their friends.

“Hey there Aether!” A voice called.

Aether spun around and noticed the boy from class earlier, the kind one with twin braids.

“Uhm, hello. Who are you?” Aether asked.

“I’m Venti! I happened to notice that you didn’t have anyone to sit and eat lunch with, right?” Venti asked as he moved up to stand side-by-side with Aether.

“Nice to meet you Venti, uh, you’re right I don’t have anywhere to sit,” Aether smiled warmly at Venti.

“Great! You can join me then!” Venti grabbed Aether's hand and tugged him towards a table.

On the way, the pair passed by Diluc’s table. He stared at the two as they passed; Aether used his free hand to issue a small wave toward the redhead. The pair continued the trek towards the table until Venti stopped suddenly, causing Aether to bump into him.

“Here we are, you can sit next to me,” Venti smirked and lightly nudged Aether in the ribs before taking his seat at the table.

There were 4 people at the table including Venti. One boy, Aether recognized, was the one from Global Studies. The one that was glaring out the window and looked like Venti. However, Aether didn’t recognize the other two. One had white hair with one, seemingly random, piece colored red, he had it tied back into a short ponytail. He wore a black turtle neck and a long orange-colored coat covered in maple leaves, he wore gray flannel patterned pants. The boy smiled gently at Aether as he moved to sit down.

The other boy had red-ish hair and charming green eyes. He wore a white tank top and long brown shorts which reached his knees. He wore a very simplistic outfit, bearing a pair of flack fingerless gloves on his hands. He sat on the other side of Venti, shooting Aether a charming smirk.

Aether just awkwardly smiled back, then quickly sent Venti a quizzical look. Venti seemed to get the hint, “How about everyone goes around and introduces themselves to our newest friend, Aether!”

Venti turned to the boy with white, inviting him to start the introductions.

“I am Kazuha, nice to meet you Aether,” the boy said.

“Xiao,” the Venti look-alike mumbled from across the table, refusing to look Aether in the eyes.

“I’m Heizou, majoring in detective science, it's so nice to meet you Aether,” His smile from before widened at he spoke.

“It’s nice to meet you guys too!” Aether beamed.

The rest of lunch went by pretty smoothly, in between bites of food someone would fire a question. Most were either aimed at Aether or came from him. Aether learned that Xiao is not much of a talker, Heizou is very passionate about his detective career and is very flirtatious, Kazuha loves poetry and nature, and Venti loves music and has a Blue Tree Monitor named Dvalin.

Once lunch was over Aether waved goodbye to the little group and headed to his last few classes, Health and his foreign language class Russian. Diluc wasn’t in any of his last few classes, nor was anyone he knew. The rest of the day went on smoothly and Aether was able to end the school day with minimal homework. Once he was finished putting his stuff away and packed up the necessary items into his bag, Aether set off to find Lumine. He was walking down a particularly crowded hallway when he swore he heard his sister's voice behind him. His steps slowed a fraction as he looked behind him, however in that small second when he wasn’t looking, Aether walked straight into someone.

The impact was strong enough to send Aether stumbling backward a few steps. Almost automatically Aether's head whipped around to apologize to the stranger for running into them. His eyes locked onto dull blue ones, the student he had run into had short ginger hair. He had pale skin and a freckled face. He wore a maroon button-up paired with a black leather halter over top of it. He wore black jeans for pants and a pair of low-cut gloves on his hands.

“Ah, sorry comrade, didn’t see you there!” He said smiling crookedly at me.

“That’s ok, it was my fault, I should have been watching where I was going,” Aether waved his hands as if he was dismissing the ginger-haired boy.

“I haven’t seen you around here before, are you perhaps new?” The boy questioned.

“Yes, I am. My sister and I just transferred here today, I’m Aether nice to meet you!” Aether said as he raised his hand to shake.

“That makes sense I’m Childe. Nice to meet you Aether,” Childe quickly returned the gesture.

“I have to find my sister and go now, it was nice meeting you, Childe!” Aether said as he pulled his hand back and turned to walk in the other direction.

“Nice to meet you too comrade! I’ll see you tomorrow!” Childe called as Aether walked down the hallway.

Childe watched for as long as he could. Until that tuff of golden hair was impossible to spot. He sighed and looked at the ground there he noticed something shiny on the ground. He quickly crouched down and picked it up, it was an earring, Aether’s earring to be exact. It must have fallen off when they bumped into each other. Childe tucked the earring into his jean pocket, trying to keep his excitement concealed as best he could. Maybe he does have an excuse to see Aether again...

Chapter Text

As soon as Aether and Lumine were back home they crashed on their living room couch. Their little sister, Paimon, was upstairs playing with her kitchen set. Somehow not tired after playing at school for so long.

“So… how was your day?” Aether asked, slowly pulling himself upright to face Lumine.

“Pretty good, made 5 new friends, Ambers one of them,” Lumine explained, “how about you? Did you make any friends?”

Aether sighed, “Yeah I did, I made most during lunch. I also met a few people but I don’t think we’re friends,”

“Well that’s a start, I’m sure you’ll make more as the year goes on,” Lumine said, sluggishly getting up from the couch and walking over to her room.

“I’ll get you when dinner’s ready!” Aether called, getting off the couch and walking toward the kitchen.

---------------

“LUMINE!” Aether screamed.

Lumine rushed into the bathroom, “What! What happened?”

Aether was on his knees searching through the messy drawers beneath their sink for… something.

“Where’s my earring? Did you move it?” Aether said as he continued to sift through a drawer.

“No, I would never touch your earring. Did you check your nightstand?” Lumine asked, leaning against the bathroom’s door frame.

“Yes! I’ve searched the whole apartment!” Aether frantically moved to another drawer.

“Well, we can search for it after school but we have to go,” Lumine walked over and helped Aether onto his feet, “We’ll find it ok?”

Aether sighed as he was hauled upright, “Ok,” was all he said as they grabbed their bags and walked to the bus stop.

Bam! The bus hit another pothole. They need to fix these roads, Aether thought as another pothole jostled him and his sister around in their seat. The torturous ride soon came to an end and the twins quickly exited the bus and walked through the high school’s front gates.

The twins parted ways with a quick hug as they went to their lockers. Aether’s locker opened with a click, he carefully hung his bag on the back hook and pulled out his math book, sketchbook, and pencil. Aether shifted all his items onto one arm as he closed his locker, spinning the lock a few times just to be safe. He turned to walk toward his first class before he was suddenly stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

Aether whipped around with a yelp at the sudden contact. He instantly locked eyes with some familiar blue ones.

“Oh! Childe!” Aether said sighing in relief.

“Hey, comrade! Sorry for scaring you but you dropped this when we bumped into each other yesterday,” Childe said extending his hand out, a familiar gold earring sitting in the center of his palm.

Aether gasped and quickly snatched the earring from Childe, “My earring! Thank you so much, Childe!”

“No problem,” Childe answered, “It was more my fault that you lost it anyways.”

Aether quickly put the earring back in his ear, shaking his head left and right to ensure the earring was secure. “What would you like in return? I have 20 mora right now, but I can bring more tomorrow if you want,”

“I don’t need anything in return, it's more of me returning a favor,” Childe said.

“No, no please take it,” Aether said, grabbing Childe's hand and dropping the mora into it.

“Aether it’s fine,” Childe tried to hand Aether his money back, “take your mora and use it for something you like, I don’t need it.”

“No, keep it,”

“If you are that insistent on giving me something…then why don’t yo-”

“Aether, there you are,” A voice cut the ginger off.

Childe quickly turned around, there standing directly behind him was none other than…

“Diluc!” Aether called, waving at the redhead.

“Hello, Aether,” Diluc said as he walked past Childe, bumping the boy slightly, as he went to stand beside Aether, “I forgot to tell you but I will escort you all of this week, just to ensure you know where everything is.”

“Oh, that makes sense!” Aether said, turning back to the ignored Childe “Sorry about that, what were you going to ask?”

“It's fine, I was-” Childe started, a small knowing smirk aimed at Diluc.

“Don’t bother Aether, we have somewhere to be. Whatever he’s going to say is not worth your time, let’s go,” Diluc cut Childe off again, earning a glare from the ginger.

Aether paused at this, Diluc had never been directly mean to anyone as far as he could tell. Sure, he looked displeased most of the time but he never voiced it aloud.

After a moment of hesitation, Aether responded, “Yeah we can go, I’ll sit with you at lunch, so hold your question until then, ok?”

“Yeah, ok, that works!” Childe responds, almost immediately perking up.

With a huff, Diluc grabbed Aether by the shoulders and pulled him away from the Harbinger. The pair walked toward their next class; the burning sensation of eyes watching them lingered the whole way.

“...And if you divide 3 on both sides you get 9, so X equals 9. Then to find Y you put 9 back up into the equation in X’s place. So, the equation turns into y=4*9+6, which means Y equals 42.” the man explained, circling, pointing, and writing mini notes on Aether’s paper.

It was currently time to work on the assignment for the day, the teacher was nice enough to allow students to work with the person next to them. Since Aether wasn’t fully grasping the concept he opted to work with the boy next to him, Albedo was his name. The boy in question had light blonde hair, almost white, and wore a zip-up hoodie. The jacket was white with gold trim and designs, unlike the rest of the jacket the hood was black. The jacket was open, revealing a blue t-shirt with vertical black diamond patterns underneath. Instead of pants, he wore gray shorts with lighter gray tights underneath. His shoes were knee-high, black, lace-up boots. Diluc was sitting behind them working alone, every so often Aether could feel his eyes on him, but every time he turned to look he was staring at his paper.

“...Aether are you listening?” Albedo asked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah I am sorry,” Aether said shaking his head, ask Diluc later, focus on passing this class now. He thought.

“It’s ok, we’re done now anyways,” Albedo dismissed, tucking his pencil behind his ear as he leaned back, “If you ever need help again feel free to ask me, I also can help with Chemistry and Art.”

“Oh, thanks I might have to take you up on the Chemistry offer, I’m struggling,” Aether said scratching the back of his head.

“I can tutor you if you’re up for it,” Albedo responds, his face doesn’t show much but his eyes sparkle just a bit more.

“Yes please!” Aether sighed.

Albedo cracked a small smile at the answer before glancing up at the clock, “Class is almost over, what’s your next class?”

“Um,” Aether pondered running through his schedule, “I think I have a study period,”

“Ah, alright,” Albedo said, putting his books in his bag, “I’ll see you later then,”

The bell rang as soon as Albedo finished, almost like he counted it down. The lighter blond left the class first, beating the swarm of students pushing and shoving to get out of that classroom and onto the next. Aether and Diluc stayed near their seats waiting for the rush to die down.

“Don’t sit with Childe at lunch,” Diluc said, he had moved from his seat behind Aether to the one Albedo had previously sat in.

“Why?” Aether asked.

“He’s a Harbinger, I’m sure you must have already been warned about them,” Diluc crossed his arms over his chest.

“Well, I have been warned about them…but I’m sure they can’t be that bad,”

“Listen, they are not safe to be around,” Diluc paused, I don’t want you to get hurt is initially what he wanted to say but decided against it, “they won’t take pity on you just because you’re new,”

“But, I promised Childe I would sit with him during lunch,” Aether countered.

The pair stood silently for a minute before Aether suddenly perked up, eyes shining as he turned to Diluc.

“How about I sit at your table and Childe can tell me whatever he needs to there?”

Diluc froze for a minute, he wanted to accept the offer but having a Harbinger sit at his lunch table might not go down too well.

“...I suppose, that’ll have to work,” Diluc said at last.

Aether smiled the width of the room in response, grabbing his bag and skipping out of the classroom. Once Aether was gone Diluc cracked a small smile shaking his head.

Aether put everything back in his locker, except his sketchbook and pencil, he planned on sitting outside in a garden he saw on tour yesterday for his study period. Aether left his locker and walked to the left wing of the building, there were a few students scattered around but none he recognized. After a few minutes of walking Aether reached his destination, a secluded garden at the back left corner of the school. There was a ring of 11 oak trees, spaced like numbers of a clock, only with one missing to create a makeshift entrance. The trees enclosed 4 large stones, all with flat tops to sit on. The gaps between trees were filled with flowers, a healthy bloom of Primroses with Foxgloves and Calluna mixed in on one section, and some Marigolds and Daylilies taking up another. Their aromas all dance and twirl together into one strong yet comforting smell.

It takes Aether a minute to get used to the sight and smell of the garden, nevertheless, he soon is sitting on the ground, his back against a rock, with his sketchbook open and pencil gliding along the paper. He spent the rest of his free period sitting on the ground, his drawings ranging from small doodles to large sketches. Aether was so lost in the enchantment of the garden that he nearly missed the bell that signaled it was time for lunch. He quickly got up and ran to put his sketchbook away, grabbing his lunch as well.

Aether pushed his way through the crowded entrance to the cafeteria, his eyes scanning over the numerous tables and faces before spotting a familiar shade of red. Aether quickly weaved his way through the tables before sitting down beside Diluc. Whatever conversation had spiked up before was quickly pushed aside, as all the table members stared at the newcomer.

The silence was impressively loud, despite the constant blabber of surrounding tables. Aether could only awkwardly smile as he jumped from looking at one pair of eyes to another; shifting amber, charming ice blue, sweet light green, and stoic red all stared back at liquid gold.

C’mon Aether! It’s not that hard! Just tell them what your name is and get this over with, you already know Diluc and Kaeya! Aether internally scolded.

After a mental pep talk, Aether took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and…

“Um, hello…I’m Aether, nice to meet you all?” He said, nervously bouncing his leg under the table.

“...”

With no reply seemly on its way, Aether started to shrink in on himself. No longer able to look the other people in the eye, Aether decided his lap was much more interesting.

Finally, with a quick session of rapid blinking, someone spoke up, “Nice to meet you as well Aether. I am Zhongli, my apologies for making you uncomfortable, new people are a rarity for us,” the man with amber eyes said, shooting Aether a gentle smile.

“Oh! You’re ok Zhongli, I understand,” Aether said, perking up again.

Zhongli was wearing a more formal outfit, one might mistake him for a teacher if they didn’t know him. He wore ironed black dress pants with brown dress shoes. He had a matching black turtle neck under a brown long coat for a top. His hair was a dark brown color that faded into a beautiful apricot color at the tips. It was pulled into a low ponytail, seemingly held up by a jewel. He had a comforting kind of aura around him.

“Lovely to meet you Aether! I am Thoma,” The green-eyed man leaned across the table, hand outstretched asking for a handshake.

Gladly accepting the offer, Aether shook Thoma’s hand. Retreating to their seats once again, Aether turned to Diluc. An idea dawned on him.

“Diluc, did you tell Childe I was sitting with you instead of with him?” The blond asked.

“Yes I did,” Diluc answered, picking up a piece of his lunch.

Kaeya opened his mouth to speak but before he could, as if he was summoned, Childe came up and plopped down next to Aether.

“Hi, comrade!” The Harbinger exclaimed as he grabbed a grape from Aether's lunch box and threw it into his mouth.

“Childe, how nice of you to drop by,” Zhongli said, his calm facade covering the annoyance in his voice.

“Always will be,” Childe smirked back, stretching his arm across Aether’s shoulders.

Aether cleared his throat to ease the tension between the two men, “Hey Childe, so…what was it that you were meaning to tell me?”

“Oh, that? I forgot already,” Childe said waving his free hand in dismissal.

“If you’ve forgotten then there’s no need for you to be here,” Diluc snapped, “so, leave,”

“Hey now let’s not be cold! Even if I forgot, I can still see my friend, no?” Childe said tightening his grip around Aether’s shoulder, pulling to poor blonde closer to him.

“You’ll have plenty of time to see him later,” Diluc growled, glaring daggers at the Sheznyanan.

“Now, now, everyone how about we let poor Aether go and resolve this later,” Thoma suggested, shooting the blond a pitiful look.

Both men stare at each other for a minute before reluctantly Childe lets go of Aether's shoulders, the shorter boy rolling that shoulder in response. Tension is still high in the air as both Diluc and Childe glare at each other over the top of Aether’s head, the poor boy keeps his head down as he slowly eats his lunch.

That was how most of the lunch period went, Childe and Diluc in a glaring match as Aether ate, seated in between them. The occasional conversation would be spiked by either Zhongli or Thoma, most of the questions all getting to know Aether more, trying to forget the silent war going on between the other two. Kaeya stayed unusually quiet, perhaps enjoying the look of an angry Diluc or maybe not wanting to be caught up in the battle, either way, it was different, to say the least.

Soon, lunch ended and Aether got up as quickly as he could, bolting out of the cafeteria and straight to his locker. Taking a few deep breath’s to ease his nerves. He took a quick peak at the schedule he had taped to the door of his locker, creative writing was next. He grabbed the necessary items and walked towards the class, he pushed the door open and stepped inside. The room was void of any students, only the teacher was present, sitting at her desk. He walked over and set his stuff on a desk, sitting down, Aether pulled out his notebook. Their assignment was to create a poem with a hidden meaning of their choosing, but Aether was having a hard time making it fit the criteria. He mulled over the assignment as students trickled into the room, erasing lines and rewriting others.

Aether was so caught up in writing his poem that he didn’t even notice that someone had sat down next to him.

“Are you struggling with the poem we were assigned?” A voice sounds, dangerously close to Aether’s ear.

Aether jumped in his seat, covering his ear as he looks over at the person beside him. Aether locks eyes with none other than…

“AH, Kazuha! You scared me!” Aether yelled as he lightly glared at the boy.

“My apologies Aether, but you did seem to be struggling to write a poem, no?” Kazuha asks, a questioning yet calm look on his face.

“It’s fine, uhm yeah, I guess you’re right. I can’t get the poem to sound right, I'm going for an innocent-sounding story with a twisted meaning underneath,” Aether explained showing his failed attempts to the white-haired boy.

“Ok, if you don’t mind, I have some pointers and ideas you can use,” Kazuha asked, pointing to the notebook.

“I don’t mind! Please, help me,” Aether said handing him a pencil.

“Ok then, well first you used urge here when you could have used…”

Kazuha and Aether sit and talk about the poem, Kazhua explaining and correcting Aether as he wrote the poem. Just before the bell rang to start class Aether and Kazuha finally were able to write a poem they both liked.

“Thank you Kazuha!” Aether said, turning to the boy with a bright smile.

“Of course anytime,” Kazuha smiled back, turning to face the teacher as she started the class.

The rest of the class was easy, he got to finish up other homework when work time for the poems rolled around. Soon enough the class, and school day, were over. Aether pushed through groups of people, putting away his school supplies and grabbing his bag and phone. Just as he was about to go find Lumine, a text notification stopped him.

The message was sent an hour ago by his sister, he quickly opened it. The message read,

Got sick. Headed home. Pick up Paimon from daycare.

Aether sighed and shoved his phone back into his pocket. He adjusted his bag and set off for Casanova Daycare.