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Gaming’s mornings were always marked with disorder and rushing to get to school, as he had a tendency to oversleep. That day was like no other, though this time he had an excuse for why he had overslept, he had been texting Freminet all night, or well, that’s how it had seemed to go anyways. Oh! Freminet! Gaming had noticed recently that he had slowly begun to warm up to Gaming’s admittedly small friend group. The Fontainian still wasn’t as close with Xingqiu and Chongyun as Gaming was, which was perfectly understandable. But the two of them had clicked, surprisingly well in Gaming’s opinion, though he wasn’t quite sure how or why but it was no matter.
Freminet had also been quite the topic of discussion at their shared school, or so Gaming had heard. He’d heard rumours or well, they weren’t really exactly rumours, he didn’t think. Would Freminet being described as ‘the Fontainian Beauty’ count as a rumour? Or was that more a nickname? Either way, it was kind of a funny nickname at least, seeing as Freminet, himself, didn’t really seem to really like nicknames all that much. At least, from what Gaming had observed.
He’d observed Freminet a lot recently, always seeming to find his eyes traveling onto the platinum blonde guy. It was almost an instinct, and Gaming didn’t exactly think that he’d really been so focused on one particular topic before. There was something about the Fontainian that seemed so interesting to him, and Gaming couldn’t exactly place why. He’d even been dreaming about him recently, simply imagining certain scenarios in his head. Nothing too incriminating, really. Though, it was kinda weird that his mind had landed on such a word as ‘incriminating’, what exactly was incriminating about having dreams about one of his friends? He’d had dreams about his other friends as well. So, why ‘incriminating’?
His Freminet dreams were simple in their form, simply the two hanging out together, again nothing really incriminating really. The one he remembered mostly clearly is a dream where he and Freminet had been huddled over his board, Freminet checking the wheels of the board Gaming used at S.
Oh S. Gaming did want at some point to get Freminet to come to S, just so that he could see how everything worked, even if he didn’t end up liking it. Just he could share the thing he simply wished to share with someone. Of course, Xingqiu and Chongyun came to S, but they always came to S, and weren’t really ‘new blood’ to bring into the wonders of S. Gaming would want someone there, that would be there to see him, and maybe see him possibly beat Jackpot. He knew well that he wasn’t exactly on Jackpot’s level just yet, that it would take a while to be on his level, but even if it was just a friendly match between the two, and Jackpot’s apparent ego didn’t get the best of him, Gaming still would like to do it.
And if Freminet was there to witness it?
Some kind of joy entering those light blue eyes that had the slightest hint of lavender?
Gaming felt that familiar warmth wash over him, and a smile found itself on his face. Yes. He’d like that very much.
Simply imagining Freminet there, cheering him on, in his own, quiet, way, filled Gaming with a warmth he wasn’t quite sure how to describe. But, either way he wanted Freminet there, even if it was just once. He could even introduce him to everyone? Gaming would do the talking obviously, as he didn’t think that Freminet would be able to handle the boisterousness of Bug, or any of the others. Graffiti was a little… unique, and that might cause Freminet stress if he hadn’t met her just yet. Owl was, well, Owl, so he wasn’t sure how Freminet would handle such a… closed off(?) guy.
Of course all of that to say, if he would get Freminet to come to S. At least once.
He’d already been kinda running his head off about him at S anyways. He hadn’t been saying his name obviously, this was S you’re speaking about, using your real name is a no-go. Bug had even commented on it, going on about some clothing model named Ms Hina or whatever. Gaming had immediately clocked out of that conversation anyways, as Bug always seemed to bring her up anyways. He’d gotten kind of tired of the whole spiel, and for him, that was saying something.
It was then that Gaming remembered that he was actually supposed to be doing something. But, the question was what?
Where was he?
A meow then sounded, and Gaming looked over to where Man Chai was pawing at a discarded textbook on Common and he suddenly remembered.
School.
If he’d been late before, he was probably extremely late now, and thus began the rush. He picked up the textbook, startling Man Chai into meowing in protest, and Gaming gave him an apologetic look. It was probably a good thing that Freminet wasn’t allergic to cats, as although Man Chai had merely been pawing at the book, it was still covered in his hair, and Gaming didn’t exactly have the time to clean it. He put the book in his bag and then grabbed the clicker on his side table and put that into his bag as well. Then, he rushed throughout the house, collected everything else he would need and rushed out of the house.
By the time he reached the school, Gaming was panting and he basically slumped into his desk by the window. Xingqiu and Chongyun were already seated and chattering among themselves, not having noticed him yet. “Some man called Kakavasha came into my father’s office yesterday,” Xingqiu was saying, and Chongyun was listening quietly. “He didn’t state anything about why exactly he was there, just that he’d like to ‘have a chat’. I’m not sure about you my dear Chongyun, but I’ve read enough books to feel suspicious about such an encounter.”
“I’m sure it was nothing serious, Xingqiu. You know Kakavasha works at the local orphanage, right?” Chongyun responded, and Xingqiu blinked. Gaming chose that moment to take the clicker out in case he would need it and sat up in his desk. He could still hear the conversation between the two, but he was more focused on life going on outside the window. Interestingly, a black haired man was walking a, seemingly very yappy Chihuahua, and another man was trying to catch up to him. Soon enough, he heard two streams of conversation going on at the same time.
“Kinny, why does Ajaw hate me so much?” Said one of the men outside of the window, the Chihuahua yapping once again in protest, causing the black haired man to look down at the unhappy dog.
“Ask him yourself, Lyn,” ‘Kinny’ responded, causing ‘Lyn’ to just look down at the dog, looking terrified.
Then, Xingqiu and Chongyun’s conversation swam back into his ears. “Why didn’t you tell me he worked at the orphanage?” Xingqiu responded, incredulous.
“I thought you knew this already? It’s in his job description? ‘I had no family if my own, so decided to give other kids the life I never had. If I can do good in this world and make my mom, dad and sister proud, then I will’. I thought you knew this?” Chongyun responded in confusion. Gaming suddenly felt like he’d been sitting too long, and he started shifting in his seat, clicking the small device a little, and that’s when Chongyun and Xingqiu seemed to notice him.
“Oh look who decided to join us,” Xingqiu hummed, swiveling around in his seat to face him and Chongyun did the same. “Oh, if you’re wondering where Freminet is, he just went to the bathroom.” Xingqiu then smirked slightly, and Chongyun noticeably narrowed his eyes. “You two… get along well, or so I’ve heard.” Gaming sat up in his seat and nodded.
“It seems like we do. Did you know? The first time we met we just kinda, clicked I guess? I’m not entirely sure how to happened. Oh! Did you know he likes diving? He mentioned it to me once. I’m sure he was great wait- actually- hang on.” Gaming dug his phone out of his pocket and then scrolled until he found Freminet’s number in his long contacts list. “He actually sent me something regarding that. Apparently he was fairly famous in Fontaine for his dives, or so he says. Ah- here it is! See? This is him amongst those mechanical fish. He didn’t tell me about how the fish work. If I recall correctly, they use hydraulics and these gears and stuff and then they can move under water. It’s kinda cool.” Gaming’s voice suddenly calmed to a soft tone, and he felt himself smile. “Look at him there, in the water. He seems so at home, hey, even his eyes look purple in this lighting. The way, okay well, his head is hidden so I’m really just imagining all this but I’m imagining that his hair will just flow with the waves. It’s…” Gaming trailed off smiling at the video, earning a curious hum from Xingqiu.
“My, my, he almost looks like he’s about to ki-“
“What um, are you doing?”
“Freminet!” Gaming greeted. “I was just showing them that diving video you showed me last night. Oh, I didn’t get to tell you last night, but you did so well in this video? I don’t know anything about diving, but you seem to have a talent for it.” Freminet flushed a little in embarrassment, dipping his head so his fringe covered his eyes.
“Diving isn’t a talent. You can um… train for it. I could teach you if you wanted, um… only issue is that we don’t exactly have diveable areas here. So if you wanted me to reach you, we’d have to go somewhere for me to do so.”
“Nah, I can’t swim anyways. Anyways, Frem, did you hear what everyone of calling you? The ‘Fontainian Beauty’. Can you imagine that? Archons above, I wouldn’t be surprised if they called you Prince or something or other. Also, I honestly can’t tell why you’re being called that, you hardly interact with people outside of us, so I’m not sure where else they would’ve seen you to make that conclusion. I mean, I suppose some would find platinum blonde hair and light blue eyes attractive, I mean, I get it, but still.” Freminet’s face grew more red, and he curled in on himself, and Xingqiu and Chongyun shared a look. “Also,” Gaming lowered his voice. “You remember me mentioning… you-know-what? Your brother might not want to-“
“One asks that the class settles down now,” said the voice of Auntie Xianyun. “Isn’t that right, fledging Gaming?”
“Right, sorry miss,” Gaming said, after feeling her eyes on his back. He looked over at Freminet, who was still blushing, and sent him a smile. “Meet me after class, okay? We can discuss this then.”
After class, Freminet met Gaming at the place where they’d first met and Gaming found himself staring as he approached. The sun was shining off of Freminet’s hair, making the usual platinum blonde shine golden, causing a shiver to pass through him, but in a good way. It was then that he also noticed that Freminet had pulled back the the side of his fringe that hid his other eye, or had it been like that the entire day? Gaming hadn’t exactly noticed, and again it wasn’t anything incriminating, and the usually hidden eye was the same shade of blue as the other one, and had the same shade of lavender in it as well. And there was that word again, ‘ incriminating ’, which he still didn’t know why he was fixated on it. But then the breeze that Gaming had only just noticed passed and Freminet’s fringe fell back into place, once again hiding the other eye. Freminet was quiet, and surprisingly holding his gaze, before he finally tilted his head and looked at him. “You mentioned S? In class? That’s why we’re here right? You know. The ‘you-know-what’?” Freminet’s prompting finally brought Gaming back to the topic at hand and he grinned.
“Oh yeah, right! Sorry, I got kinda distracted there, Frem.”
“Don’t call me that,” Freminet murmured, but his tone sounded slightly amused. “You’ve been getting distracted a lot lately. Well, um, a lot more recently. Which is… kinda strange but, I’m sure it’s nothing.” Gaming blinked. Freminet was right in that observation, in that he had been getting distracted more often than usual, but he was usually quite easily distracted, so that thought was almost immediately forgotten. It was surprising how easily he could do that, just put things from his mind, but Freminet was still waiting for an answer. About S. Yeah, S. “Anyways um, what about S? You were saying that it’s not my brother’s scene before we were interrupted. I know I told you that, but, why do you bring it up now?”
“So, you said that it isn’t your brother’s scene, and you said that it isn’t Kinich’s scene either, and I don’t doubt, based on what you told me about her, that it wouldn’t be your sister’s scene, either. I haven’t met your Father but I don’t doubt it wouldn’t be her scene either-“
“I think Father would be um… too busy in her own ventures to even consider going,” Freminet butted in. “I mean, I don’t doubt she had her secret joys either, but S? If those two were two events, the Venn diagram wouldn’t touch.” Gaming blinked and Freminet sighed slightly. “They’re mutually exclusive… in other words.”
“No, I know,” Gaming responded. “I just find the way you explain things cute.” Gaming was soon too distracted by actually voicing his plan to see the way Freminet recoiled, going red out of embarrassment. “So. It’s not any of your family, or Kinich’s scene, but, do you think it would be yours? I know that seems kinda ridiculous, but, um, I don’t really think that Wushou dancing would be your scene either,” he paused, feeling a wave of nervousness pass over him. “But anyways. You wouldn’t have to meet anyone if you don’t want to, but if you want to, I could help you introduce yourself to people! I do seem to have a way with people-“
“Says the guy who only has three friends,” Freminet blurted out before covering his mouth. Though, Gaming didn’t exactly take offense. It was true after all.
“It’s kinda hard to make friends when people don’t really… like you. Anyways! Enough about my social life. Would you want to come to S? Even if it’s only once?” Gaming wanted to say more, but he held himself back, not wanting Freminet to feel forced to come if he didn’t want to. Though he did want Freminet there, he also knew that too many faces in a new strange place could cause Freminet to have a panic attack, and that was the last thing he wanted. “You don’t have to of course, it’s just a suggestion. Skateboarding isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. And some of the skateboarders can be a bit much. We can avoid those if you do want to come, but that’s up to you.”
“People don’t like you?” Freminet asked quietly, instead. “Why? I like you, and we’re friendly with each other.” Something about Freminet’s ordinary statement caused Gaming to choke on air, and turn warm all over. Gaming shook his head to get it back on the topic and he then looked at Freminet.
“People have a hard time keeping up with me, and therefore, don’t try to get to know me.” He shrugged and played it off, while trying to calm his racing heart. “Anyways, would you want to come to S? With me? Even if it’s just once. You don’t have to, obviously. It’s just a suggestion.” Freminet went quiet for a while and his eyes narrowed in contemplation. Gaming, on the other hand, started fiddling with the zippers on his jacket, but this urge was different from the usual urges, this urge was dancing around in his stomach making him feel surprisingly antsy. Why was Freminet taking so long to answer him? A simple yes or no would do, wouldn’t it? Why was he so hyper-focused on whatever Freminet’s answer would be?
“Even if it’s only once…?” Freminet began, and oh no. That didn’t sound good. Gaming began preparing himself to receive a ‘no’ and then looked at Freminet, whose expression had changed from contemplation to a sort of determined one? He couldn’t quite tell, and then Freminet looked at him. “Hm, I’ve told you about and even showed you my interests, even if it had to do it over phone, and… it’s only fair that I get to see yours, isn’t it? And um, on the topic of meeting everyone… um, with you there, maybe I’ll have a better time? Well, then if I did it alone. So, yeah, I’ll come.”
“Frem, Frem, Frem!” Gaming couldn’t help himself, and wrapped his arms around the blonde haired boy, completely unprompted. “Thank you! Or well, I shouldn’t really be thanking you, there’s nothing to be thankful for. But I’m so glad that you want to come with me. You won’t regret it, trust me. Oh, we’d have to get you the sticker, even if it’s only once. We’ll have to go to Guuji’s place! So let’s go there now.” Gaming felt Freminet relax and then he chuckled lightly, and in his reverie, it sounded like music to Gaming’s ears.
“I’ll um, I’ll let you do the talking then,” Freminet responded, as Gaming led them towards the kitsune’s house.
Guuji’s house was deep in the Inazuman suburb, but thankfully, it wasn’t too much of a walk, and as the two arrived, a vixen was sitting out on the porch, dozing, her brown ears slumping forward as she slept, meanwhile a pink kitsune was watering some glaze lilies on the corner. Gaming ran up to the pink one and she turned around, her purple gaze widened in surprise. “Ah, young Lion, what brings you here, cub?” She hummed, before turning her eyes on Freminet hanging back, looking at the veranda.
“Hey Guuji,” Gaming responded, looking back at Freminet. “I need the seal, as someone new is coming to visit The Mine.” Guuji’s eyes narrowed in recognition and she nodded.
“Follow me.” She lead them to the back of the house and then produced a sticker in the shape of an S, not unlike the one Gaming had attached to his hoodie and she passed them the sticker. “Do be careful walking back around the front, Fugue just got back from visiting Yukong and is quite tired. I don’t wish to wake her, and I hope you’ll heed my words. Now go, young cub, and… I’ll most likely see you tonight.”
“Noted, thanks Mi-I mean, Guuji!” Gaming and Freminet then left the house and Gaming looked at him. “Here we have it, the seal,” he said and presented the sticker. “We all need this sticker to even enter S in the first place. So, we have yours now. Should I-“
“-I should take-“
Their fingers brushed. Freminet blinked as Gaming felt heat rush through him and he laughed awkwardly. “Um, I should- uh, you- you do it. It is your sticker after all, so um. Here you go,” he passed Freminet the sticker, and he looked at it, before sticking it on his collar. He then smiled at him, and Gaming felt something inside him flip uncomfortably. “Hahaha, anyways. We should probably get going, now. Um, I’ll walk you back.”
The walk back to Freminet’s house was quiet, though Gaming didn’t exactly feel at ease. However Freminet chose that moment to speak up again. “Um, I don’t really need to be home right now. And honestly, I’m kinda excited to be at S, you seem to be really invested in it.” Gaming let out another awkward laugh, still not quite recovered from earlier and only really nodded in response. He started fiddling with his jacket again. “In fact, I think I’m only gonna get one thing from my house, since we’re here already, it makes the most sense anyways.” Gaming once again nodded and then Freminet opened the door to his house.
“Freminet where in the heavens have you been?” Said a man’s voice, and Freminet noticeably froze. “You’ve been gone for hours!”
“He had school, Lyney.”
“I don’t recall asking for your opinion Lynette.”
“You were wondering where he was,” ‘Lynette’ responded.
“I was fine, I was with Gaming,” Freminet explained. Lyney blinked and then actually showed himself outside, and Gaming recognized him as ‘Lyn’ from earlier. “And I’m going somewhere else with him tonight as well.” Lyney chose that moment to waltz on over, scrutinizing Gaming in a way that made him want to curl up. Freminet sighed. “Lyney. He’s a guy from my class.” Lyney blinked and then whipped his head around.
“A guy from your class? As in… a friend?”
“You could say that.”
“Uh, hi?” Lyney was looking at him again, and then opened his mouth.
“If you hurt him in any way, you’ll have to answer to me. Freminet doesn’t make a lot of friends, so if I find that you’ve hurt him… are we clear?”
“Yes sir!” Lyney then smiled and clapped his hands together.
“Awesome! Our little Frem has made a friend!” Out of the corner of his eye, Gaming noticed Freminet dip into the house and then he just stood there outside, waiting for him, while still feeling Lyney’s eyes on his back.
“Gaming, hm?” Said Lynette appearing out of nowhere, and startling him. “You must’ve been the guy he was telling us about. I apologize for my brother. He can be a bit… much. I do hope he didn’t chase you off already. He does try to protect him. In his own way.”
“That’s enough guys,” Freminet announced, reappearing and rejoining Gaming at his side. “So um, are we going to you-know-what now? I’m really excited to see this now, as you seemed particularly invested in all this, I don’t know, dangerous stuff. It’s sort of… adorable? Is that the correct term? Any way, I really want to see what’s got you so invested.” Gaming couldn’t help his smile at that and he was sure that Freminet’s siblings could see it. Something about the way Freminet called him adorable made him feel that familiar rush, as they headed off towards that old mine.
“Oh, so it’s that kind of friend,” Lyney commented as they left, his tone indicating a smile.
“I could say the same about you and a certain guy,” Lynette responded.
~
The usual crowd of S was scattered around in the old mine, and Gaming could even see the indigo mop of hair that belonged to Owl sticking out of the crowd.
Ocelot was talking to Graffiti and drinking a coke while Crane, also known as Shenhe, was talking to Cloud, also known as Chongyun who was standing beside Zhenyu, also known as Xingqiu. Grabbing Freminet’s hand, Gaming raced over to the small group. “Hey guys! Let me introduce you to Penguin! Oh!” Gaming whipped around to face Freminet and the whispered out, “that’s what I’ve been calling you here, if you don’t mind. I just couldn’t really think of anything else.” Freminet smiled at him, and Gaming couldn’t help but smile back.
“Well… it um, kinda fits because of…” Freminet put down his backpack and pulled out a penguin plushie.
“Oh my Archons that’s so cute!” Gaming responded and Freminet smiled a little, turning a bit red. “Does it have a name?” Freminet squeezed the the plushie a bit, still smiling.
“Pers-“
“Oh that’s cool, does he have a-“
“Lion! My bro!” Said a voice and Gaming was suddenly whipped up into the air by a muscled man with a red horns poking out of his head. “You still owe me that race, you know? Ms Hina only expects the best!” Gaming glanced at him.
“Have you even talked to her? You talk all high and mighty about this so called model, but you even met her?” Gaming was suddenly unceremoniously dropped, though Freminet managed to catch him with one arm. And woah, the guy was a lot stronger than he seemed. Realizing this caused Gaming to heat up, and find himself staring into Freminet’s eyes. Above him, the man continued on his tirade.
“You wound me, Lion! Simply wound me! How dare you speak ill of Ms Hina’s name! I’ll have you know, she’s a very famous model.” Gaming, however, was too distracted to pay attention.
“Isn’t Ms Hina an advice columnist?” Said a new voice, one that even Gaming had never heard before. He finally broke eye contact with Freminet and noticed that the new voice belonged to a short man, mask covering half of his face, though his ears and tail were suspiciously the same colour as Ms Hina’s. Even the man from before, Bug, seemed to do a double take. This caused dog man to quickly respond. “I-I’m a fan of… Hina myself. And I’m pretty sure that she’s an advice columnist.”
“Oh another fan of Ms Hina? Please! I gotta know your name so we can discuss Ms Hina together,” Bug responded, and dog man started to try to run away, Bug following after him.
“Okay… so as I was saying before Bug interrupted us,” Gaming stated. He turned towards where Freminet was. “This is Penguin, he decided to come today! Oh I should probably say that he’s foreign, so he won’t really know what you will say if you speak in Liyuean. I know I’ve mentioned him a lot, but today he’s here! He was so sweet about it too, he was like, since he had shown me his interests, it only made sense for him to see mine.” His voice softened as he remembered the the scene, only happening merely a few hours ago and he soon realized that he was smiling, earning a curious hum from Xingqiu, meanwhile Shenhe just looked confused.
“Yeah um, when he was telling me about this, he seemed so impassioned and excited that I just had to see it for myself um… you know? It’s kind of, adorable. I think that’s the right word.” Gaming looked over at him and then smiled softly, Freminet looking at him with a genuine smile that caused that familiar rush to pass over him and causing Xingqiu and Chongyun to start chatting among themselves.
‘Should… should we tell him?’ Chongyun asked in Liyuean, rousing a half suppressed chuckle from Xingqiu, before they looked back at Gaming.
‘Don’t ruin the story unfolding in front of us, my dear Chongyun,’ Xingqiu replied back in Liyuean. ‘This is entertaining me greatly, and it’s almost… inspiring in a way.’
‘Ugh. You and your stories,’ Chongyun murmured. He then looked back at the two. “Um, you two, Lion and Penguin? There’s a race starting between Jackpot and Shampoo, so if you want to watch it,” He stated loudly in the common language and Gaming’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, we get to watch Jackpot! Follow me, so you can see what true skateboarding is. This guy is last years champion after all, although I have heard he’s not as great as the legendary Snow, but he’s still quite good. Here, we can watch the livestream of it on my phone. There’ll be loads of people by the actual track and I don’t think you’ll want to suffer through that so-“
“That’s fine,” said Freminet leaning into him so he could see the screen on Gaming’s phone, causing him to freeze. The urge to fidget was dancing around in his stomach, but he didn’t dare move. Different kinds of heat were rushing all over him and he just found himself full on staring. Freminet didn’t even seem notice.
Far away by the track, Xingqiu let out a small chuckle as he observed the whole scene, thoroughly entertained. Chongyun gave him a look, and Xingqiu only smiled. “You’re still observing them?” Xingqiu chuckled.
‘What can I say?’ He responded in Liyuean. ‘From where I’m standing, our little friend Lion has got it bad. And the poor thing doesn’t even know it. All I can say is, I get it. I’ve been there myself. Though, hm… it does inspire one.’ Chongyun deadpanned, earning a chuckle from his boyfriend.
‘What are you planning?’
‘Oh, nothing much. Just a little revenge,’ he hummed