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The bass of the music reverberates all over the house, the sound so intense that it gives the illusion that the actual band is playing live instead of its origin being an incredibly ridiculously potent speaker system.
Or maybe the ear shattering sound it’s just an exaggeration created by his heavily alcohol ridded mind.
When he accepted to attend Ajax’s most recent hosted party he hadn’t expected to end up as bad as he currently was. It was nowhere near the first time he had gone out to do nothing more than to drink, and while not that usual for him he had found himself partaker of some of Ajax’s previous parties.
But this one in particular was on a scale compared to none that he had ever attended before. And if Ajax’s worried expression was anything to go by then things really had escaped Ajax’s hands.
He hadn’t come alone, but by the third drink Rosalyne’s boyfriend showed up and she left them in the dust, and after several more hours, a diabolical amount of shots of pure vodka and a betting ring that had reached the thousands, both him and Pantalone had been in such a state that they ended up losing each other.
Zandik was currently splayed over a couch in one of the house’s rooms that miraculously was empty.
In front of him there’s a table, and aside from his wallet and phone the only other thing on it is a still closed beer bottle that had somehow ended up in his hands even though he had said he wasn’t going to drink more. He shouldn't, he really shouldn’t.
He still opens it.
Several ‘this is going to be actually the last one’, gulps later every single bad decision made tonight is coming back to haunt him. There are palpitations that he both hears and feels, inside his head.
The room around him has been spinning non stop for more than 5 minutes, and his chain of thought jumps with no order and sense.
His mind is dividing between deciding to gather enough strength and equilibrium to stand up and go out to find his lost friends, and thinking nonsensical things like why are crabs the perfect evolutionary form, when the debate comes to an end when the door to his sanctuary is opened.
Lifting up his head to see who it is takes more effort than what it should.
Golden hair, rather short stature, white dress and an almost ridiculously long scarf that would look bad on anyone else but on her.
“Lumine”. He greets her with a considerable amount of effort.
A grumble is her answer, with trembling steps she approaches and then rops to sit on the floor between the couch and the table. She throws her head back to where it touches against his stomach.
“Zandik.” She finally says.
And then directs her attention to her phone, he tries to see what she is doing but by this point he has a headache that makes looking at any screen give him a horrible pain. On her right hand she holds a glass that contains a multicolored glittery drink.
Without taking her eyes away from her phone she points the thing in an offering manner towards his direction.
“No thanks”. He says, for he knows better. He knows Lumine's tastes so he’s 90% sure that that thing is nothing more than a combination of at least 4 different types of alcohol, with some fruit juice thrown on it, and as a finishing touch a shit ton of glitter.
“I ordered a uber.” She slays in a slurring voice. “You can come with me in case you still don’t have a lift.”
It would save him the trouble of finding one, and with Lumine and him living in the same apartment complex there should be no reason to reject her offer. But.
“I came with Rosalyne and Pantalone. Gotta find them.”
Lumine just slowly blinks several times as she appears to process her words.
“Rosalyne left like,” she turns once again to look at her phone, “Four? Hours ago. And Pantalone dropped not that long ago. Ajax and I had to drag his sorry ass to one of the spare rooms like, half an hour ago.”
Well in that case. “All right then.”
It takes them more than 5 minutes to reach the entrance to wait for the car, but in between the trembling legs, the world that keeps on spinning, and the urge to simply give up and collapse against the floor and lose the fight with gravity, it’s actually a miracle that they manage to do it.
Luckily they don’t have to wait long, because otherwise Zandik is sure he would have simply fallen asleep there where he was sitting on the porch of the house.
The ride back happens in silence, Lumine lays completely against him as support, and he hopes that the exhaustion over her prevents her from realizing how crazy his heart is currently beating.
Lumine Viatrix, Zandik’s best and oldest friend. They first meet as toddlers back when they both lived still in Sumeru, inseparable since the moment the first meet, he had been harboring a now rather embarrassing long crush on her since his childhood days.
A crush that had first started when she alone ducked it out with a group of kids that decided to pick up on both of them. A crush that had survived the physical separation that they went through when in their teens Lumine had to move to Liyue.
Years of nothing more than calls and messages, schedules that never aligned thanks to different time zones. And now here they were, both now living in Snezhnaya, not on the same course but on the same university, living on the same apartment complex with only a floor of distance between them.
And with every passing day that crush had done nothing more than grow and grow.
They reach their destination, and thanks to the stars the driver is so comprehensive of their current intoxicated state because it takes them a ridiculous amount of time to both gather the money to pay and then to find the strength to get off.
But finally they are out and walking towards the elevator to take them to their respective floors. Lumine’s floor is lower, on the occasions when they arrive at the same time he has picked up the habit of accompanying her to her door.
Thankfully the elevator makes no loud noises, and the lights are dim.
Under them he can see all the flattery makeup that Lumine put on to reflect the light and make her shine in a way that always manages to steal his breath.
She’s starting to nod off, her hair is a mess and her makeup is not what he would call a mess, but the long night has left some changes on it.
He still can’t take his eyes away from her.
Now or never, the part that made him say this is the last drink 6 drinks before his actual last drink seems to whisper to him. The logical part stays silent.
“Hey, Lumine?”
She can manage to half open just one eye and look at him.
“This is kind of embarrassing but I-”.
The ding of the elevator arriving at the first stop interrupts him, and before he can even begin to say goodbye Lumine interrupts him when she starts to gag.
She bolts straight for her door.
It takes him some seconds to process the situation but he’s able to react before the door closes on him. By the time he reaches Lumine’s place she has already entered, he closes the door behind him and goes straight to the bathroom.
Like many times before he simply holds Lumine's hair out of the way with one hand while the other rests offering silent support on her back.
Some minutes after she’s cleaning herself, both finally drop in complete exhaustion on her couch. He should probably go back to his own place. But Lumine rests over him and he has no desire to move her. Also, it wouldn't be the first time he sleeps at her place.
“Hay Zandik”.
Her voice is barely a whisper.
“You were saying something on the elevator.”
Ah. Right.
“About something embarrassing. What was it?”
Both his logical and illogical side are now silent. Refusing to offer advice in these trying times.
“Right. I. There exists the chance that I. Have had a crush on you since like we were children.”
She hums.
“I see.” Finally she answers back. “You’re right. It is kinda embarrassing.”
¡OUCH!
“Especially because I have also had feelings for you since like middle school.”
What?
“Lumine? What? Elaborate please?”
But she says nothing more, the only answer is her tranquil breath now that she sleeps.
And while he simmers in his shock for some seconds it also doesn’t take long before he falls asleep.