Chapter Text
The autumn air drifting throughout the city brought with it a chill that raised the hairs on people’s arms. Pumpkins were already set out on doorsteps. Leaves crunched under Ajax’s shoes. His breath wasn’t quite visible in the cold air yet, but he relished in the feeling of the breeze trying to sneak under his skin. Adjusting his scarf, he wandered his way down the sidewalk back to his house, swinging his bags in his hands. It wasn’t long before he arrived at its orange-toned worn brick and shoved his key in the golden doorknob.
Upon opening the door, he was immediately greeted by the sight of Aether lounging on the couch with Tonia and Anthon. Teucer leapt up and slammed into him as his other siblings excitedly shouted, “Ajax’s home!”
“Okay, okay, come on, off, I need to close the door.” Ajax gently shook Teucer off and shut the door with a foot before heading to the kitchen with his bags. “Thanks for entertaining them, Aether.”
“It’s cool, we’ve just been watching movies.” Aether paused the movie, then lazily got up from the couch and padded into the kitchen. “Mind if I stay a bit longer? We haven’t finished this one yet.”
“Stealing my siblings from me?” Ajax stuck out his tongue as he sets the bags down. “Yeah, you can even stay the night if you want. You know where all my blankets and pillows are. Ah-ah, Teucer, don’t go peeking at the groceries! I promise I got all of you something special.” He gripped the top of Teucer’s head and made robot noises as he moved him to the entryway, making him giggle. “Beep-beep, whirrr…this way, beep. Say, Aether, where’s your sister anyway?”
Teucer bounced up and down. “Yeah, I wanna see Miss Lumine too!”
Aether chuckled. “She’s out with the girls, as usual. I think they’re hosting a sleepover at Dehya’s.”
“We should have her over more often,” Tonia suggested.
“Am I not good enough for you?” Aether pouted.
“It’s not like that, it’s just…” Tonia toyed with the hem of her dress. “I need girls’ nights!”
Aether sniffed dramatically and staggered backwards. “Oh, I see how it is…you like my own twin more than me…” He flopped into a chair. “My heart is broken. I let you braid my hair and everything.”
Tonia giggled and rushed over to him. “I promise I like you and Miss Lumine equally!”
“Hmph. You better. No playing favorites.”
Meanwhile, Ajax had nearly finished putting all the groceries away - graham crackers, chocolate bars, marshmallows, cookie dough, cinnamon rolls, and plenty more autumn goodies that he was planning special activities with. He kept his surprises for the others in the bag.
“Okay, gang,” he called, “have you been behaving yourselves?”
Met with suspicious silence, he put his hands on his hips.
“Teucer took one of your popsicles,” Anthon admitted.
“Anthon stole a cookie!” Teucer retorted.
“Tonia smacked Anthon,” Aether pointed out.
“He smacked me first!” Tonia cried.
“So what I’m hearing is,” Ajax cut in, “none of you deserve your surprises, no not even Aether, and I get to have them all instead.”
The absolute outcry from the group in front of him made such a cacophony that he was forced to cover his ears. Teucer ran up to him and gripped his leg tightly all while begging that he was really good and to please give him his surprise pretty please with a cherry on top.
Ajax shouted, “Okay, settle down! Sheesh, I’m not actually going to keep them from you.”
Cheers erupted as Ajax dug through the bag.
“For Aether, these star-shaped gummy candies in assorted colors and flavors.”
“For Tonia, this berry-flavored hard candy with the sour juice.”
“For Anthon, some rock candy in blue raspberry and green apple.”
“And finally, for little Teucer, a variety of popping candy, but mostly cherry.”
He smiled as he handed them all over and everyone thanked him. “Just make sure to brush your teeth after eating it,” he advised. “Or your tongues will be stained forever.”
“Having a blue tongue would be cool, though,” Anthon remarked. “Like a skink.”
“We can’t have you all getting too much sugar. It’ll spoil you rotten.” Ajax sat at the counter beside Aether with his own treat of a chocolate orange. Aether studied a list haphazardly tossed on the counter and picked it up, cocking an eyebrow.
“Super Awesome Fun Fall Activities That Will Hopefully Make Zhongli Fall In Love With Me?” Aether read aloud.
Ajax snatched the list from his hands. “Hey, you weren’t supposed to see that!”
“It was in front of me.”
“Meanie.” Ajax clutched it to his chest. “I’ve been working on this for a while, planning everything out. I want it to be perfect.”
“And you didn’t ask me to look it over? Or better yet, Kokomi, the planner?”
“I can do things myself!”
“You should’ve asked me!” Tonia whined. “Autumn isn’t romantic at all! You need to do it all on Valentine’s Day.”
Ajax retorted, crossing his arms, “Autumn is his favorite season, actually. I thought that was more meaningful than the cliché of love day.”
Aether took hold of the list once more and looked it over. “Let’s see. Step one, clean and decorate the house.” He paused and gave Ajax a side-eye.
The front door had a wreath made of sticks and decorated with fake leaves, sunflowers, and tiny pumpkins. Every shelf had a skull, spider, or other spooky creatures. Ghosts lurked from doorways. Candles were scattered about, scented like pumpkin or cinnamon. Pillows saying “boo!” were placed on the sofa, along with a plaid blanket. The dining room tablecloth was patterned with cats and bats, and the violet vase atop it was full of black and orange roses. The usual cookie jar was traded for one shaped like a jack-o-lantern. Candy corn was in the plastic snack bowl. A cat-shaped clock eyed him from the wall, beside a calendar cleanly marked off to the date.
Ajax squeaked, “…okay, maybe I went a little overboard.”
Aether sighed in exasperation and continued on, “Step two: operation best spooky week ever. Day one, totally platonic hangout at the café and maybe a gaming session."
Ajax’s eyes shone. "He doesn't know how to play very well, so I can teach him the controls."
"Day two, go to the orchard to pick apples, visit a field of sunflowers, and make some apple pie.”
Ajax blushed and shrunk in on himself.
Aether huffed, "Day three, pumpkin patch and carving and bake another pie."
Ajax stuttered, "We can't have pumpkin carving without pumpkin pie, and the roasted seeds."
"Day four, bike around the park and have a picnic before taking the train to the horseback riding place and return home for s’mores."
"That one was kind of impulsive, but he likes relaxing stuff like that."
"Day five, fall festival." Aether glanced over at him. “That’s it?”
Ajax cut in, "Come on, we can’t not go to the festival. There’s so much to do there.”
"Day six, haunted house visit if he’s cool with it and costume party at Yoimiya’s.” Aether’s eyes widened and he asked incredulously, “You’re going to take that poor man to a haunted house?!”
Ajax’s face turned redder. "Maybe he'll get scared and cling to me."
"You…okay. Day seven, Halloween night with three exclamation points.”
Ajax coughed into his fist. “I think it’s cool. We can hang out and hand out candy while the kids are out and about."
Aether shook his head. “You’re hopeless. Does any of this plan actually involve telling him how you feel?”
The silence that followed was deafening.
“ Ajax. ” Aether’s glare pierced straight through him.
“I-I’m not good with this stuff, you know that!” Ajax held up his hands in surrender. “I’ve never done something like this, I don’t know how it’s supposed to go or if I’m doing it right, and I’m not…”
He paused, chewing his lip.
I’m not exactly someone who’s right for him. We’re so different, not to mention…
He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t want to scare him off.”
“I think you would have scared him off a long time ago,” Aether pointed out. “Look, dude, you can’t keep dancing around your feelings and expect him to know you want him to tango.”
“ What? ”
“I mean you can’t keep waiting for him to make the first move. You have to suck it up and say it yourself. What happened to Ajax the warrior who isn't afraid of anything and takes any challenge given to him?"
"Yeah!" Teucer chimed in. "Remember when you beat that boss for me even though I was super low level?"
"Or when you went from last place to first place in that racing game just in time to win your team the trophy?" Anthon brought up.
"And when those mean boys stole my doll and tore it up, you beat them up and got it back for me and then sewed it together?" Tonia said.
Aether smirked. "See? Fearless. Confident. A victor. You can't let something that small stop you."
“Yeah…” Ajax nodded, then smiled confidently as he stood up. “Yeah! You’re right! I’ll go through with my plan, so I can spend extra time with him and show him my feelings before saying them outright! It’ll be a perfect week.”
“That’s my big brother!” Tonia leapt over to hug him tightly. His brothers joined in.
“We believe in you, Ajax!” Teucer cried.
After a bit of hugging, Ajax patted their backs. “Alright! Come on, kiddos, you have a movie to finish with Aether.”
"Join us, join us!" Anthon chanted.
"Movie night!" Tonia exclaimed.
"Sleepover, sleepover!" Teucer joined in.
Ajax laughed. "Okay, okay, I'll come too."
As the trio pulled him towards the living room, he thought to himself.
It's going to be okay. If your family and friends can love you no matter what, then maybe Zhongli can, too.