Learning Diabolism

✨Late nights✨

"It's not that surprising," rolled Wan Yunque her eyes, "besides, it's probably for senior Mo."
"Not surprising? Have you ever seen liquor within 4 kilometers of Hanguang-jun!" defended Lan Jingyi, as he attempted to get is chicken back, altho it was mostly to get back at the demon, because now he sure as hell wasn't gonna eat it. What a shame. It looked so tasty!
"Not only that," chuckled Wan Yunque in response, "I even saw him drunk."
"You WHAT!?" Lan Jingyi has completely forgotten about the chicken at this point and stared at Wan Yunque in awe. He wasn't alone, as half the room, including both Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling mimicked his behavior.
"I don't believe that," shook Lan Jingyi his head when he finally recovered from his shock and with a sad heart he finally noticed that Fox ate most of his chicken by now.
"I have proof!" defended herself Wan Yunque, as she folded her arms over her torso, "A-Yu and Fox saw it too and senior Mo is the genius who got him drunk in the first place."
"I still have a hard time believing it," mumbled Lan Sizhui apologetically.
"She's telling the truth," perked up the black fluffball of fur from under the table, "he. Was. Wasted. From just one cup, mind you."
"B-but... he's Hanguang-jun!" Lan Jingyi was furiously pointing at nothing in particular with his chopsticks, which honestly looked funny, "he wouldn't drink!"
It actually earned him a chuckle from Song Anyue, who has been suspiciously silent and, despite never agreeing to it out loud, Lan Jingyi was proud of this achievement.

"Since it was Senior Mo giving him the thing..." shrugged Wan Yunque, "I wonder if all Lans are such lightweights..."
"Well we don't drink..." smiled Lan Sizhui apologetically.
A comfortable silence started seeping through the room, until Song Anyue carefully put down her chopsticks and stood up.
"A-Yu, come back, you almost didn't eat! M- Senior Mo is going to be angry," Wan Yunque quickly grabbed the other girls sleeve.
"I'm not hungry," the redhead shook her head and with a sad smile, she pried her hand away, "I'll be fine tomorrow, good night."
And with that, she departed up the stairs into her room, leaving a now uncomfortable silence behind her.
"She was Song Lan's niece, right?" someone commented when Song Anyue's steps stilled.
"I wonder how that works," added someone else.
"Song Lan had a brother, the brother had a wife, they had a kid, boom: Song Anyue. That's how it works," Wan Yunque once again rolled her eyes at this, the dinner was changing moods way too rapidly. One second it was funny and light, the other there was something heavy hanging above everyone.
"I've never heard that he had a sibling tho..." spoke someone new up and the group fell into astonished chatter.
Wan Yunque wanted to be angry, but she saw similar scenes many times before, now she just chuckled, it was easier that way. In this moment, she really felt like she was at least 13 years older than every single person in the room. She almost felt her hair going grey, as she remembered how long it has been since she had a dinner with people her age - excluding Song Anyue.
Wan Yunque sipped from her jar, her mouth moved slightly into a frown, as she remembered it was just water. She could really use something more... spicy?
"Poor A-Yu," she spoke after putting her cup back down and shook her head. Even that girl wouldn't say no to alcohol thus time.
"Yes, she is very unfortunate," agreed Lan Sizhui and he gave a sad smile to the empty space by their table.
"Someone should cheer her up," agreed Lan Jingyi, who finally acquired another piece of chicken.
"Ooooh, yeah... someone~" came from below them. The black furball known as Fox appeared once again, but this time, he changed into his partially human self, to finish Song Anyue's food. More than half of the boys, who accidentally looked their way at this moment blushed furiously. After all, despite being a demon, Fox had handsome features, he was the type to charm anyone with one well measured look, the only thing tipping him off were his bright gleaming eyes, with which he scanned the room. When his eyes met Jin Ling, he chuckled and turned his eyes to Lan Jingyi.
"Someone~~" he repeated in a teasing tone and than he pointed at the poor man with chopsticks, "and you bought her something, if I remember correctly."
"It's not FOR her," Lan Jingyi's face blew up, not for the first time that evening and certainly not the last, "besides, she definitely doesn't want ME there. Plus I'm terrible at this stuff Sizhui is much better choice."
"Nice, he admitted it," smirked Fox in triumph and almost poked his own eye out. Not that it would be a problem, people just don't like seeing him pull the ting out and the eye immediately repairing itself. It is not a pretty image.
"I don't! You are the worst, you demon. I bet you're some kind of a "haunting" demon," spat Lan Jingyi angrily and stuffed his mouth with more chicken.
"Actually foxes are "seducing" demons," shrugged Wan Yunque, "tho he can't seduce sh*t."
"Excuse me! Of course I can!" argued the demon.
"Oh yeah, try it," smirked Wan Yunque in triumph.
"Here?" squeaked Fox, already displeased at the mere idea of seduction.
"Where else," added Lan Jingyi, this is gonna be fun, he thought, as the demon tried everything he could think of to get himself out of the situation. It probably worked, because that's how they spent the rest of the evening. With Jin Ling looking at them weirdly from time to time... what was his deal?

Lan Jingyi could not sleep. He was lying in bed, changing positions, he even got Sizhui to play him a lullaby at some point (early), but nothing worked. As the moon went on it's journey through the sky, it started to shine in Lan Jingyi's face very annoyingly and that was the point the man decided he was not gonna sleep. He got up, put on a few layers of clothes and slowly walked out of the room. He could hear senior Mo laughing from one side of the hallway and so, he quietly slithered around the other. The inn they were staying in was rather big and Lan Jingyi's mind was too tired to register where hw was even going, so imagine his surprise, when he found himself standing in front of one of the most luxurious rooms in the house and suddenly, he realized: he didn't know how to get back...
as he pondered what to do, he decided that asking the occupant of this room for directions would be a good idea. He was really tired...
At first, he knocked lightly, when there was no answer, he slowly pushed the door open. He did not expect to see a table full of half painted pictures and a figure with her head in the papers and someone else's robe around her shoulders. The redhead was however, clearly only half asleep, as she raised her head, when he entered.
"Mas-, oh, it's... you?" she mumbled, eyes half closed.
"Wow, thanks, is it so bad to see me?" chuckled Lan Jingyi. Song Anyue straightened her back and meowed in stubborn agreement. When she noticed Jingyi probably didn't take it as a joke, she blushed lightly and mumbled something inaudible.
"What was that?" asked the Lan, "well it doesn't matter, if I'm really that bad, than I'll excuse myself."
"N-nonono, it's okay," she quickly stopped him.
"You're acting weird," the boy shook his head and closed the doors behind him.
"I'm tired," yawned Song Anyue, "and sad."
Yunque said, she gets moody and awkward, thought Lan Jingyi, but she just acts like a cat... cute. Wait! What am I thinking! Not cute...
"Than you should sleep," he raised his eyebrow, "and not on top of your... stuff?"
"Hmmmm," was his only reply, "my stuff... I don't wanna get up tho."
"Still, you should," shrugged Lan Jingyi and with nothing better to do, sat down by the table with her.
"It's too much work," mumbled Song Anyue and laid her head on the wooden board. There was a barely dry drawing in front of her and Lan Jingyi was half certain she just got ink into her hair and onto her face. The girl didn't seem bothered by this fact, closing and opening her eyes and slower and slower intervals, while staring at him.
"Hey, hey, don't sleep," suddenly Jingyi realized and shook her shoulder, he wasn't letting her sleep here and maneuvering this sleeping grown woman wasn't an option he liked either.
Song Anyue let out a "mruuuu" sound of disappointment and opened her eyes once again. She looked up at him expectantly and to be fully honest, her companion didn't know what to say. Suddenly, he remembered something, as if a light bulb went up above his head, he quickly rummaged though his pouch, taking out a bag of nuts with a triumphant smile.
"Well... uh..." suddenly he grew nervous... how does he approach this?
"You weren't at the market and..." he tried to explain, "I got this there. And I didn't eat it yet. So... here you go..."
He placed the paper bag on the table, slightly nervous. But in his mind, he thought he did well, now she won't think this was weird, right? Is it weird to buy nuts for your friend, with full intention of giving it to them, without liking them... romantically?
"Mmmmh," Song Anyue meowed tiredly, effectively turning Lan Jingyi's attention back to her.
"Nuts," she smiled and grabbed the paper-pocket happily, putting a few into her mouth immediately, "these are good."
"Not even a thanks?" Lan Jingyi raised an eyebrow, but if he were honest, she was being rather endearing.
"Oh," as if remembering he was there, the girl's sleepiness stepped away for a second, she sprung up into a straight sitting position, blinking her sleep away. Her face was more red than was probably normal, but the good thing about abnormally red colored hair is that it looked normal in comparison.
"Uh thanks," she muttered out, than her eyes went to the door and back to the Lan, "shouldn't you be sleeping tho?"
"Ah... yeah... couldn't," the boy quickly replied, he was taken aback by the shift in acting, but...
"Yeah... I get that," Song Anyue nodded, "it's gonna be a long night..."
And surprisingly it wasn't. A few minutes of comfortable small talk later, they were both in beds, snoring contently. And if it was 4 am at that point and they didn't get much sleep anyway... it's understandable.

A/N:
You ask for chapter, I deliver xd
(I know I said I would post it yesterday, but things happen you know... and sometimes it's hard to write...)

Also, Song Anyue is definitely tipsy in this chapter, she wasn't drunk, but she did drink some 😏.