Chapter Text
It was just a normal day as always for Aether, getting up early in the morning to get dressed and go to school as he always has had his sister waking him up since he likes to sleep through his alarms usually, But this time they both slept through their alarms.
_______________________________________________________
Aether woke up as he opened his eyes and blinked a bit sleepily there, half awake reaching to grab his phone to check the time before his eyes widened and immediately jolted awake, "Shit, We're late," He said quickly getting out of bed while throwing his phone on the bed to go wake his sister up that was next to his room, slamming the door opened as he looked at his sister, "Lumine! Get up, we're late for school!" He shouted enough to wake his sister up immediately. He turned to quickly go to the bathroom while leaving his sister's door opened, not even caring about giving her at least a good morning since he was in a panicking state. Lumine stared at nothing for a while just to process what exactly happened, rubbing her eye a few times before she jumped out of bed realizing what her brother just said as she grabbed her phone quickly to check the time, She sighed deeply before she quickly placed her phone down and went to her closet to pick out her outfit while Aether was in the bathroom as she looked through her clothes she finally picked out something to wear, throwing those clothes on the bed as she walked out of the bathroom as soon as Aether was out of there, "Jeez, you could've woken me up in a much nicer way than slamming my door open like that! You could've broken my door," She said a bit angrily but was also as panicking as her brother was at this point.
Aether took a deep breath to try and calm down a little before he looked at his sister in a slight angry way, ignoring what she said as he quickly hurried to his room, "I don't even have time to do a proper hairstyle, I'll just have to go with a simple ponytail today," He said to himself with a pout as he walked over to his closet to pick out something to wear as well, grabbing a grey hoodie with some ripped jeans before he closed his closet, placing the clothes he picked out on a chair near him before he began to undress himself there as he tossed the clothes he took off somewhere aside while grabbing the new clothes to put on. He turned to his drawer he opened it before grabbing a hair tie while turning to face his mirror there in his room to do his hair, putting his hair up in a high ponytail while grabbing some lip gloss out of his drawer too since he does like to be a little extra sometimes with makeup, but today just wasn't his day since he was hurrying.
Lumine yelled from the kitchen once she got ready, "Aether! Do you want to have breakfast quickly before we go?" She asked as she waited for an answer from her twin brother, making herself something quick to at least not go to school with an empty stomach, "No! Don't worry bout it, I'll just take some money and buy something for myself from the store when we go to school!" Aether answered once he finished putting his lip gloss on, shoving it in his pocket before he went to get his back bag quickly while grabbing some money from his night table and shoving them in his back bag, swinging it over his shoulder as he walked out his room before heading to the kitchen, "Are you done?? We're going to be very late if you continue being slow, Lumine," He said with a pout as he turned to leave the kitchen, so he can go put his shoes on quickly, not going to wait any longer for his sister of course since she was being so slow. His sister just rolled her eyes as she shoved some bread in her mouth and walked out of the kitchen to also go put her shoes on, seeming more calm than before when she was literally panicking about not being able to get to school on time since she thought she'd take more time on dressing up, "Relax a little, We'll make it on time, and we'll just say we're sorry! Besides our next class is with Mr. Zhongli he's very understanding, Though yes I do admit that he can be very strict sometimes, but come on! We're his favourite students," She said with a smirk as she shoved Aether's shoulder a little with a slight giggle while Aether seemed unamused he opened the door and casually walked outside, "You're an idiot, let's just go before we get in more trouble for being so late to our classes."
_______________________________________________________
Aether walked in the middle of class, panting a bit heavily since he probably ran here before he looked over at the young teacher Zhongli (who was only 25) a bit nervously, smiling a bit awkwardly there before he took a deep breath for a moment, "Mr. Zhongli I apologize for being so late I didn't hear my alarm go off," He said as calm as he could be but in reality he was screaming inside his brain before he glanced over at his two friends, Venti and Childe who were just waving like idiots, looking back at his teacher to try and ignore them both while Lumine walked in the classroom shortly after, standing beside her brother as she watched Zhongli a bit nervously as she averted her gaze down to the ground instead of staring at the tall male who was staring at them both in a serious way, "You miss your first class and then come late to my class?" He sighed with disappointment before he pinched the bridge of his nose a little there, "Just go sit down and don't interrupt my class any more, thank you," He said as Aether quickly apologized and made his way to his two best friends to sit between them as Lumine followed shortly behind her brother, going to sit down beside Hu Tao since they do talk sometimes let's just say that they're somewhat friends. The blonde haired male seemed to tense up slightly since he felt someone glare at him from behind, glancing behind him for a moment to see who it was. Xiao, One of the popular kids in this school who started picking on him ever since the beginning of college for being too girly and having long hair. Aether smiled for a second at Xiao a bit nervously before quickly turning to look forward as he cleared his throat, but Xiao just hummed in response, leaning back against his chair as he grabbed some paper and began to rip it into pieces before making them into very small paper balls to throw at the blonde, smirking a little there before he began to throw the paper balls he made at him making Aether tsk a little from annoyance, "Could you stop that?" He whispered, trying not to draw attention right there, before turning to look at Xiao with a slight glare only to be met with scary gold eyes glaring even more at him which made the blonde haired male tense up "damn speak of being confident enough,,,," He said to himself quietly once he turned away quickly from Xiao. Aether's two friends were currently either talking to someone else and not paying attention to what was happening to the 'girly boy' or the other one is just sleeping through the whole class which yes indeed it was Venti.
Aether stretched out a little once class was over, "Finally," He said before he grabbed his notebook and shoved it in his bag as he stood up and looked over at Childe for a moment, "Hey, Aether, did you hear about this new game that recently came out? It's so cool and popular, me and Venti bought it yesterday, and we couldn't stop playing it all day and night!" He said with a grin while he gathered his stuff, "That's right! Ehe, It didn't catch my eye at first but after playing it, it was quite interesting to me! You definitely should buy the game, Aether! We could all play it together, I'll even help you too!!," Venti said with a soft smirk there before he swung the bag over his shoulder, looking over at Xiao who was apparently his other friend and then looking back at Aether and Childe, "Sorry guys, but I promised Xiao that I'd be having lunch with him today! I hope you two don't mind since we're both very close friends," He said with an awkward smile, rubbing the back of his hair a little from the sudden news since they all would always tell news before anything does happen the next day or so. Aether seemed to just stare and blink at Venti with no expression, probably cursing his best friend out before he shook his head a little, "Ah... No problem at all, You can go and have lunch with Xiao!" He said, sounding calmly there, before he looked at Childe with a furious expression, only to be met with a soft smile from the tall ginger male there beside him.
"So, about this game you were talking about...Is it really that fun? I mean, you two did say it was boring when we last walked into the gaming shop," The blonde male said with slight confusion while making his way out of the classroom with the ginger, "Yeah man! Sure I did say it was boring when I first saw it, but I shouldn't have judged too quickly, I decided to buy it as soon as you and Venti said you guys had to leave to study for the test we had the other day," Childe said before he glanced over at Zhongli once they walked out the classroom, "Ah, sorry Aether but I gotta go talk something out with Zhongli, I'll catch up to you later yeah?" The ginger said with a smile before he quickly turned to walk over to Zhongli. Aether sighed since he was left all alone but did like it though he wasn't complaining much just hopefully someone doesn't ruin the peaceful time he was having.
Anddd... He spoke too soon, His sister Lumine came to bother him, "Aetheeeerrrr!! I want to ask you something," She said with an innocent smile which only means she wants something, He sighed from seeing that look as he stared at his sister with an unamused expression, "What is it this time you want, Lumine?" he asked before tilting his head to the side a little, fixing his ponytail a little there, "Nothing,,,, I just want to know how much money you have since... I didn't eat much for breakfast this morning," She said with a pout before crossing her arms a little like some little child. The blonde male just grabbed his back bag from his back and opened it, pulling out the money he had left on his night table yesterday as he held them out to Lumine, "Here you go, I don't feel hungry at the moment anyways I'll just eat once we get home," He said as he smiled a little at his sister because sure he might be annoyed with his sister at times but he loves her regardless and is very grateful to have her in his life since she helped him through so much already. His sister only smiled there brightly as she took the money and pulled Aether in a tight hug for a moment, "Thank you! I'll make sure to cook us something big once we get home just so you can eat enough!!" She said a bit too happily there before she quickly turned to go back to her friend Hu Tao as the blonde haired male only watched his sister leave before turning to go outside and sit down by a tree, glancing over at a group of people who were talking non stop about the game, "Jeez,is this game really that popular? and it only came out a few days ago.... maybe I should consider buying it... but I should ask my parents for some money since I don't think I have enough for it.." He thought with a slight sigh before he continued to walk, sitting down on the grass near the tree as he leaned back against it once he placed his bag beside himself, pulling out his phone and headphones from his other pocket that did not have lip gloss since he did the mistake once to put his phone and lip gloss together in one pocket and once the lip gloss slipped out people immediately gave him some strange stares... He opened his phone and plugged in his headphones before putting them on, clicking on his playlist he has with downloaded songs in his gallery as he played it before putting his phone in his hoodie pocket, leaning his head back against the tree and closed his eyes for a moment to relax there without anyone finally not bothering him...He just seemed to not be having such a good day today with waking up late, overthinking about how he looks, remembering all the people picking on him in school.