Chapter Text
Lumine sits down with a more-agitated-than-usual huff, slumping in the seat next to Aether and slamming her head against a pile of books that Aether has never seen in his life.
Which wouldn’t usually be a surprise, because Aether doesn’t really read unless it’s bedtime stories to Paimon. But it is, in fact, a surprise, because Lumine doesn’t read either unless for the same reason as him.
“Um,” her brother begins, but doesn’t finish, which pisses her off more so than usual.
“What.”
“What’s got you so glum?”
“Shut the fuck up. No one says ‘glum’ anymore.”
“You just said it.”
“Fuck off.”
“What’s wrong?”
Lumine frowns at him. “The teachers gave me an assignment.”
Aether frowns back at her. “Okay? All teachers give out assignments. They’re bitches like that. What’s the problem?”
There’s a beat of silence and Aether begins to look uncomfortable at the strange quiet between the two before Lumine gives in and sighs. “The problem is that they gave it to me.”
“…I still don’t see the issue.”
“Of course, you don’t.”
She pinches the bridge of her nose, sighing again. “Okay. So, apparently, as a gift, or something, maybe like a remembrance, I don’t know, us sophomores have to, uh… how do I say it?” She taps the book, searching for the right words. “Um. Before the seniors move on to exams and shit like that, we give them a gift. Which involves writing, which involves finding out shit about them and no one knows shit about the seniors. And I’ve been picked.”
Aether cocks his head to the side. “You have to… write about the seniors? As a gift? Do they really want that?”
Lumine breathes a shaky laugh. “Probably not. But the teachers say it’s tradition, and they nominated me, and I can’t really disappoint them, can I?”
“Oh, that sucks for you.” Aether laughs, and then stands, while next to him Lumine glowers. “Bye.”
“No. You are not leaving me here.”
“Watch me.”
“I’ll beat your ass.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
Lumine grabs his wrist before he gets the chance to leave and shoves him back in his chair. “You’re not leaving me.” Her scowl turns into a wicked-looking smile. Aether shivers. Lumine stifles the urge to laugh. “You’ll be helping me! I can’t gather information on them all by myself, after all.”
Aether groans. “No. I have a life, y’know.” He turns down to the ground, muttering, “Unlike some people.”
“Okay, now you’re definitely helping me.”
Aether gives her a dirty look. “Okay, fine. But I’m not writing.”
“Okay, thank you. And don’t worry, I will.”
“Did they give you like, any idea, what to write? Wait, when’s this due?”
“Uhh, the end of the year. And yes, they did.” Lumine gestures to the pile of books on the table. “That’s what this is.”
Aether snatches the one at the top. He flips open a page, then wrinkles his nose and scowls down at the book. “Ew, this fucking stinks.”
“I know.”
He flips open a page, squinting. “Uhh, what does this say? ‘Josephine is a kind and caring person, always looking out for her peers-’ ew, gross. Good for her, I guess.” He raises an eyebrow, looking back up at his twin. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to write this about the seniors?”
Lumine chokes at the line he reads, before shaking her head. “Our seniors? Being complimented? They all are fucking rancid, of course not.”
“Too true. You should just bully them.”
“That’s the plan.”
Aether slams the book shut, placing it back on top of the pile on the desk. He stands up, and peers at her with his eyes narrowed. Lumine gives him a strange look, about to ask what he’s doing before- “Hey, have a notebook?”
She frowns. “What the fuck? Why do you need a notebook?”
“To note-take? About the seniors? Are you fucking stupid?”
“Why would I have a notebook?”
“I dunno, it just seems like something you’d have.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“Then who would have one?”
Uh. Lumine has friends. Lots of them, in fact. She can think of at least one person who has an unused, unwanted notebook in their back that they’d be willing to give to her idiot brother. Or her. That would go down better, considering she’s much more likable than Aether (true facts, right there, despite how much Aether would deny it).
“Um. I have a friend who might have one? Otherwise, we could just use a workbook. School’s not that important.”
“Which friend?”
“I don’t think you’d know her. And even if you did, I doubt she’d want to be friends with someone as fucking weird as you.”
“Hey,” Aether hisses, when Lumine finally catches sight of the sophomore standing beside two tall boys (probably seniors, she thinks, Or just some really tall sophomores. But there aren’t many of them). “I know Ayaka. We’re friends, dumbass.”
“What? No, you’re not.”
“We are. Besties, in fact.”
“No, you’re not. Shut up.”
“Do you want a notebook or not?”
“I never said I wanted one, it was all you.”
“No, I’m pretty sure it was you.”
“Are you fucking stupid? You asked for one- hi Ayaka!” Lumine gives the girl a bright smile, lifting a hand to wave over at her. Behind her Aether (the bitch) says the exact same thing right after her, waving his hand too. Honestly. The audacity. What an asshole. She sends him a glare which he sends back before she approaches Ayaka. She looks up at the tall boys, suddenly feeling very small. The only thing that makes her feel less uncomfortable is that Aether is basically the same height as she is, so he must be feeling the exact same thing. Or a gay panic. She doesn’t really want to know. “Um… Hi?”
“Hi Lumine, hi Aether,” Ayaka says softly, a small smile on her lips. “How are you two?”
“I’m great, thanks,” Lumine says. “What about you?” She pauses, looking up at the two boys who have now fallen quiet. They look familiar, but she doesn’t know their names. Maybe when she learns more about them they can go in her book. Give the teachers something to finally be proud of. “Oh, wait, um, who are these two uhh… seniors? Sophomores? I don’t want to assume-”
“We’re seniors, you’re right,” the boy with blue hair says with a nod. “I’m Ayato, Ayaka’s older brother. This is Thoma, our…” He trails off.
“Servant,” Ayaka chirps with a small giggle, her eyes teasing as she looks up at Thoma. Lumine feels a strange tinge of jealousy. Huh. Odd.
“Malewife,” the boy, Ayato, says, and Thoma chokes, while Ayaka giggles some more and behind her Aether full on cackles.
“Or you could just say friend,” Thoma offers with a shrug, scowling in Ayato's direction though it looks rather teasing, before directing it over to the twins.
“No, I’m not that nice,” Ayato says with a smirk. He then leans down towards Lumine and Aether, watching them with narrowed eyes, the smirk on his lips vanishing, replaced with a frown. “Now, what did you two want from my sister, hmm?
“And this,” Thoma says, grabbing Ayato’s shoulders and pulling him away. “Is our cue to leave. Bye, Ayaka. Nice meeting you two!” The two boys vanish into the hallway, leaving Ayaka with the twins, her cheeks reddening.
Lumine blinks, partially stunned, before she remembers why she came in the first place.
Of course, Aether beats her to it, and says something entirely unexpected, “Ah, Ayaka, so this is your brother. It’s good to finally meet him!”
He glances over at Lumine and elbows her in the ribcage. “Oh- ow, hey! Um. Yeah, he does seem like a, uh, pretty interesting guy. Don’t think he likes us, though.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” says Ayaka, her small smile growing a little larger. “He likes to tease.” She then straightens, her expression going poised and her eyebrows furrowing a little. “What brought you guys along?”
“Do you have a notebook we could use? Maybe permanently?” Aether blurts. “We, uh, need it for a project.”
Ayaka looks surprised, her lips parting. “O-oh, I, um, I do. Why do you… need a notebook?”
“A project,” Lumine says. “We need to take notes and we have nothing to take notes with.”
“Ah. U-um… do you need it now?”
“Yes please.”
Without another word, Ayaka lowers her bag on a nearby bench and opens it up, pulling out a notebook and a pen. “Thank you so, so much,” Lumine says as her friend hands it to her.
“It’s no problem at all,” says Ayaka. A blush colours her cheeks, her pretty eyes sparkling in the sun. Wait… pretty? That’s a thought for another day, she later decides, then thanks Ayaka again before saying goodbye and returning back to the library with Aether.
She sits down, facing him. “So,” she says. “How are we going to go about this?”
Aether gives her a blank stare. “Remind me who’s assignment this is again?”
“I swear to God, would it hurt you to help-”
“Hey, I already am!”
“How?”
“I got the notebook!”
“And we’ve done nothing with it.”
Aether scowls. “And who’s fault is that?”
Lumine huffs. “Not mine.”
“How is it mind?!”
“I never said it was yours.”
“Well, you implied it.”
“Still, it’s only an implication.”
Suddenly Aether snickers, covering his mouth with his hand. “What,” Lumine demands. Aether’s laughs only grow louder, and he hugs his stomach. “What.” He shakes his head, wheezing, before staggering up from his chair. “What’s so funny?”
“Follow me,” he says, which doesn’t answer her question at all.
She does, for a lack of any better ideas. The second they leave the library; she grabs his shirt and shakes him. “What were you laughing at?” she asks.
“You,” he says.
“What did I do.”
“You and Ayaka.” Lumine frowns, and Aether waits a beat before continuing. “You like her.”
“Of course, I do,” she says. “She’s my friend.”
“No, not like- you know what?” He pulls himself away from her and she lets him go. “Never mind. C’mon, it’s time to interview seniors.”
“Okay- wait what. We’re not going to interview them-”
“Then how else are we supposed to go about this?”
He raises a challenging eyebrow, arms spread wide.
“I don’t know,” Lumine snaps. “Normally, perhaps? C’mon, some of our friends have siblings who are seniors, we could ask them.”
“Sure,” Aether mutters. “That’s not creepy at all. ‘Hey, can you tell us about your sibling so we can write about them? The teachers made us, I swear’”
Lumine only barely stifles her giggles, shoving her hand over Aether’s mouth. “Shut up,” she says in between laughs. “Now come on, we’re going to go find Hu Tao. She’s Zhongli’s sister, she can help us.”
“Wait, isn’t Zhongli adopted?”
“Same thing.”
“True true, I was just wondering.”
He pauses. “Hey, is it just me who thinks Zhongli’s like, really hot?”
“I’m a lesbian,” Lumine says in a blank tone. “But yeah, he’s pretty hot.”
“I’m glad I’m not the only one,” Aether says.
“Of course, you’re not,” she replies. “I’m pretty most people have had, like, a crush on Zhongli at least once in their lives.”
Aether turns to her, both eyebrows arched. “Even you?”
“Again, I’m a lesbian, of course not,” she says. “That’s why I said, ‘most people’.” She taps his arm. “Hey, dumbass, call Hu Tao.”
“Why can’t you?”
“My phone’s flat.”
“Haha, that’s shit.”
“I know.”
“The day has barely started.”
“I know.”
“Sucks to suck.” He pulls out his phone. “Alright, I’ll call her.”
Then his face falls. “Oh fuck. My phone’s gone flat too. Guess we just have to search for her then.”
Lumine groans. “This is going to take an eternity.”
“Woah, you’re using grown up words now.”
“Oh, fuck off.”
Lumine trudges through the mud left by the rain, feeling dirt splatter up her leg with each splash she makes as she steps in the puddles littering the path. She shivers as a fat raindrop falls on her nose. Next to her, Aether scowls, his wet hair sticking to his face.
“I can’t wait till this weather is over,” he mutters.
“We won’t have clear skies for a while, I think,” she says, taking pleasure in the way her brother’s posture wilts and his pout grows. If her phone wasn’t flat, she’d take a photo. “Well, that’s what the weather app said.”
“When,” Aether says, gesturing dramatically to the skies, “is the weather app ever right? The odds may be in our favour.”
Lumine blinks, before shoving her hand in his face, pushing him away. “Shut up, you complete nerd! Who made you like this.”
“Mom and dad when they had sex-” Aether says with the blankest face before bursting into laughter, hugging his stomach as he hunches over.
“Shut up, I don’t want to think about that!” she almost screams, but thankfully she has a little self-control left and manages just to hiss it at him. “Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up- oh, thank Gods there’s Mom.”
Lumine makes her way to the front seat before Aether can, only to see that Dad’s there. Oh fuck, she thinks, and trudges to the back seat, strapping herself in the car seat on the right side of Paimon whose eyes light up when she sees Lumine.
“Lumine!” she exclaims. She leans towards her, and whispers in a not-so-quiet voice, “Can you ask Mom and Dad to get Paimon out of this stupid baby seat? I’m too grown-up for that now!”
“No,” she says, tuning out Paimon’s overdramatic wails and waits for Aether to get in the car so he can resolve the issue himself.
“How was school today?” her mom asks, peering around her seat while Aether lumbers in.
“It was okay,” Lumine answers. “It’d be better if Aether wasn’t there, but we can’t all get what we want, can we?”
Aether exclaims a disgruntled, “Hey!” while their parents laugh and Paimon covers stifles her giggle by shoving her hand over her mouth.
“Any homework?”
“Lumine’s got a lot-”
“It’s just an assignment,” Lumine says. “It’s not due for a while, anyway.”
Their dad nods. “Well even if that’s so, it wouldn’t hurt making a start on it now.”
She purses her lips. “I can give it time.”
“I could always help you?” Dad offers.
“There’s no need. It’s pretty simple,” Lumine says, because she really, really just wants to get this done by herself (with some of Aether’s assistance, of course) because more people on the job just make it more difficult to complete.
“Are you sure?”
“Mhm.”
“Well, if you do need help, just ask your brother.” Dad sends him a pointed look. “He needs something to do with his free time.”
Lumine nods. “Oh, don’t worry, he’ll be helping me.”
On the other side of Paimon, Aether buries his head in his hands and groans.
Conversation comes easily for the rest of the drive back, Aether and Paimon complaining most of the time every time Mom and Dad both suggest something for them all to do as a family on the weekend, while Lumine tries (and fails) to keep the peace.
Thankfully the drive is short, and soon they’re all out, Mom and Dad returning to work, Aether falling on Lumine’s bed with a shitload of homework while Paimon colours in on the floor of her bedroom.
Lumine sighs as she sits at her desk, opening her laptop and opening a document to begin the assignment in.
Seniors’ Farewell Gift
"Hey,” she calls to Aether, though Paimon looks up too, a frown on her face. “How should I start this?”
“Weren’t you just planning on bullying them?” he asks, not looking up. “Just write some shit about them or someth- I mean… friendly teasing? Hey, what did the other one’s have in it? That one about that ‘Josephine’ girl, remember? ‘Josephine is a kind and caring-’”
“’person, always looking out for her peers’,” Lumine finishes, laughing. “Something like that?”
Absentmindedly, she begins to write, recalling the names of the seniors she knows. There’s like, five of them. This is unimpressive.
“Just start with people you know,” Aether says. “Even if you don’t know them all that well. Hey, you’re friends with that Childe guy, right? He’s a senior, start with him.”
Lumine grits her teeth. “I am.”
Childe is a gay disaster, she begins to type, smirking, and has had a crush on Zhongli that everyone knows about except him since 8th Grade.
“What’s he like, then? I’ve never talked to him so I wouldn’t know.”
“Ugh, what are you guys talking about?” Paimon demands. “Seems kinda boring to Paimon.”
“Just school stuff,” Aether answers, patting her on the head even though he knows she hates it. She slaps his hand away, huffing.
“Oh, that’s really boring.”
“Uhhh, he’s a bit of an asshole to some people, I guess? But he’s friends with me and he knows I could and would beat him up so he’s nice to me. Also, we’re friends, but I said that before…”
She deletes what she had typed and is left with nothing once again.
“Then, um… maybe you could write that?” Aether suggests, a frown on his lips.
“You’re no help,” she huffs. She pulls out a sheet of paper the teachers handed her and begins listing the seniors’ names on the document.
“Oh, fine then, do it yourself,” Aether mutters, returning to his stack of homework.
Childe is bad at showing it, but he cares. About his friends, his family, even his peers and teachers.
She deletes that line, scowl growing.
I met two seniors named Ayato and Thoma today. They seem interesting, for a lack of better words.
She deletes this line too.
Lumine pulls out her phone, now at 20% charge after being plugged in for over thirty minutes. She opens one of the many group chats she’s got, the one with all the students in her grades.
Lumine: guys
Lumine: i need ur help