Chapter Text
Tartaglia woke up in the morning at 4 am, yawning as he stretched himself on the bed. He was pretty confident that he'll be the first to wake up this time but he was surprised by Scaramouche and Xiao with them brushing their teeth and fighting over the tiny sink.
Tartaglia was clearly disappointed to see himself waking up last as usual but his thoughts completely drove away to Professor Zhongli. Tartaglia smirked at the thought as Professor Zhongli was going to his class today. And he was confident that Prof. Zhongli will be wearing his beige turtleneck, with a long black coat, a pair of brown linen pants like he always does every two week in Friday.
He then joined the two guys who were fighting over a sink. "Gee.. Calm down, kiddos. The sink ain't going anywhere." "We're not kids." the two spoke in a stern voice. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now move. It's my turn." Tartaglia spoke as he pushed the two aside.
later, the three of them were heading to the same class after breakfast in the cafeteria. "I wonder what Prof. Zhongli's gonna wear today..." Scaramouche and Xiao silenced when Tartaglia spoke. "We both really don't care about your big fat crush on the prof, dude.. " said Scaramouche. "yeah. Absolutely," Xiao spoke next. "Though, you'll be getting more words from me if I ever caught you flirting with him again," said Xiao. "ugh.. Please don't. I want to sleep tonight. You better do us some good tonight, you jerk," Scara poked Tartaglia's cheek.
"Don't worry guys, I promise I won't flirt with a single soul today," Tartaglia let out a sigh and patted the two shorties' shoulder. "Don't touch me.." spoke Xiao while brushing his patted shoulder. "let's just get to class already."
An hour and a half later, their alchemy lesson are finally over. Xiao was taking some notes left by Professor Lisa earlier while Scara pulled out two piece of watermelon flavoured chewing gum and placed them in his mouth. Tartaglia meanwhile, was busy thinking about the flirt he's going to give today to Prof. Zhongli. He continued daydreaming as professor Zhongli finally walked in. And surprise not surprise, Zhongli was wearing exactly what he had expected.
That dark brown hair with a golden edge, his long black hair being tied and decorated with a shape of a golden diamond on the hairband. His golden thin glasses, the clothes that Tartaglia had predicted for today, and a tight ASS. Tartaglia continued smirking at the view. "sigh.. What a perfect wife you could be, Professor Zhongli.."
Xiao and Scaramouche who was just next the ginger looked at his direction in disgust. "Dude, do you even know how old he is? He's closer to his early 50's than my grades is closer to a B!" interfered Xiao. "So what? My wife could be older than me, and I wouldn't even care," said Tartaglia. As Scaramouche was about to also interfere, the whole class were told stand up and greet the professor.
In the process of learning, Scara was putting his whole attention to the board - for the first time ever, hoping that both of his mother won't smack him with a belt once they found out that he failed history class. Xiao on the other hand was focusing on both the board and Tartaglia. As to be expected by the ginger, no notes were taken, only breath taking view of the professor's ASS.
Once the class was finished, Zhongli was packing his bag. And then came down Tartaglia, who's about to shoot another shot with Zhongli. "Good morning, Professor Zhongli. Your bag looked heavy, could I please lend a hand to help?" Tartaglia asked with a smile. Professor Zhongli then spoke, "oh, Ajax. Good morning to you too. You want to help with the bag?" Tartaglia nodded quickly. "you don't have to trouble yourself on helping with the bag, Ajax. It's not that heavy," continued Zhongli. "no no no prof, I insist." Zhongli thought for a moment. "sigh, alright. Here. Let us go to the teacher's lounge," "yes sir! Thank you for letting me help!"
Xiao and Scaramouche who was observing from a far, took a glance at each other with a weird look on their faces. Then both came their twin couple, Aether for Xiao, and Lumine for Scara, both were asking for notes from earlier.
As Tartaglia and Zhongli continued walking down the hall, Tartaglia started a conversation. "So, Professor Zhongli, anything you like to do as a hobby?" Zhongli thought for a moment, "a hobby, you say... Well, I do like collecting gemstones and crystals." Tartaglia looked at Zhongli with amusement on his face. "Collecting gemstones and crystals, huh? How long have you been collecting?" "well, I've been collecting them since I was in my late 20's. Good times, I must say. Nowadays, i rarely buy any gemstones since they were so.." "Expensive?" Tartaglia interrupted. "no, it's because people rarely sell them anymore these days. And whenever I do found one, I often would forget my wallet in the car or at home.. Heh," Zhongli sighed.
Somehow, Tartaglia had an idea. "hey, Professor Zhongli. Maybe if we're free, we could go gemstones looking somewhere? I'll pay." "Together? Just us, then?" "Well, why not? Consider as a reward for being an awesome teacher," Tartaglia said with a smirk. "I would love to, Ajax. But I'm afraid Xiao won't let me hang out with anyone," said Zhongli. "He's just... I'm not sure how to say this.. But he's.. Hmm.." Zhongli thought about the perfect word to say.
"Overprotective. Yes," Zhongli continued. "Overprotective? Just how bad are you at taking care of yourself? Haha?" Zhongli paused for a moment. "Very bad, actually," he sighed. "Why do you say that?" "For starters, I often lost my wallet on my outings alone. I've been scammed on the streets for who knows how much, and I've often getting lost whenever I asked for directions. It seems like I only possess the knowledge of the history and gemstones.." "haha, don't worry about that. When I'm around, you won't lost anything, not even yourself," Tartaglia chuckled.
The two continued their conversation until they arrived at the teacher's lounge. They had decided to go on a hang out - a date - this Saturday.