Xingyun School Angst au

Chapter 3

Chongyun's POV

I knocked on the door to XIngqiu's house and his dad pulled the door open. "And you are...?" he asked coldly. "Eh... I'm Chongyun. A friend of Xingqiu's? I brought some Moon Pie from a friend for him." I replied. "Ah, Chongyun. Xingqiu's talked about you." "WHA~!? I mean... he... he has?" I was stunned. Xingqiu talked about me. "Yeah. He seems to like you a lot and trust you a lot. Come in. Sorry about the mess, we haven't had company in a while. Since Xingqiu's mom and brother passed away." he said. "Oh. I'm sorry." "No, no, it's alright." "Your house looks amazing... It's no..." "Big? Yeah... that's what most people say." he laughed. "Mr. Yukuaki?" (I don't know Xingqiu's father's name either, so it will be Xifuyu) "Call me Xifuyu." "Uh... okay... Xifuyu, is Xingqiu doing any better?" "Oh yes. I have a feeling he's asleep right now, and his fever has gone down some. If you want to go check, you can." Xifuyu seemed to be warming up to me. "Okay. Thank you." I walked up the stairs and rested my hand on the doorknob. Xingqiu's room. I didn't want to open it at the same time that I really badly wanted to. Slowly, I pulled the door open.

It smelled just like Xingqiu. And it looked just like I expected. Bookshelves lined the three of the four walls, a desk was positioned near the all without bookshelves, and a bed. The room was dark. I turned the light on and Xingqiu whimpered. "Father, turn it off please..." "Er... It's me, Chongyun." "C-Chongyun?" "Yeah." I turned the light off. "Does it hurt your head?" "A... a little." "Sorry." I sat next to him, still marveling at my confidence. I was in Xingqiu's room. Xingqiu's. My crush's room. This was insane. I sat on the edge of Xingqiu's bed, trying not to stare at him. He looked perfect, even feverish. His long hair was covering his pillow and part of his face, his hands open in front of him and his legs pulled halfway to his chest. "Are you feeling better?" "Yeah. Thanks." "Does it hurt when I do this?" I squeezed his ribcage. He laughed blankly. "No." He rolled over to face me. "Don't you have homework?" he murmured. "Yeah. A little bit. But you come first." I touched his cheek with my finger lightly. He smiled faintly for a second. "So why are you here in the first place?" "Xiangling made you a Moon Pie for when you're feeling better. I just came here to drop it off and check on you." I was in Xingqiu's room. Talking to Xingqiu, who looked on the verge of sleep. Sitting on his bed that he was in. This was all like a dream.

"I should probably go now. You need your rest." I said. "Right now?" Xingqiu murmured. "Y-Yeah. I'll see you later." I stood up, but stopped. Xingqiu had his arms wrapped around my waist. "Just stay a little longer... please. Just for a little while..." he mumbled. I felt myself turning red. "O-Okay." I sat back down with him for a minute. "Thanks." he said. "Just for a few more minutes." I told him. "Nmmm... okay." I realized then that I was playing with his hair without even knowing it. It was so soft and long... but I pulled my hand away, knowing Xingqiu would think it was weird. But he didn't. He wasn't even awake. His head was tilted to one side, but other than that, resumed the same position as before. "X-Xing...qiu...eh...sleep well."

Xifuyu was filing some papers at the counter when I came back downstairs. "How is he?" Xifuyu asked. "He's... he just fell asleep." "Well... I hate to boot you out, but I have Hu Tao from the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor coming to check on Xuqi's grave and she's stopping by before. I don't think you'd like to meet her." He winked. I laughed. I'd met Hu tao, and she kinda has that reputation. "Okay. Thank you for having me here." "Oh, I'm sure Xingqiu enjoyed it more than you did. Thank you. Have a nice day." Xifuyu said as I walked out the door.

Aether's POV

Lumine and Paimon walked with Amber to school today, and I went with Chongyun. I knew he was a little lonely since Xingqiu stayed home. I was curious to see how Xingqiu was doing, because I knew he wouldn't skip school for a cold or anything. "So how's Xingqiu?" I asked. Chongyun adjusted his bag over his shoulder. "Qiu? I think he's doing better. Feverish still. But better." he said. I laughed at his nickname for Xingqiu. I think he subconsciously said it without even thinking. "What's so funny?" he asked. I kept laughing. I would stop if I could; I didn't want him to think he did something. "You called Xingqiu 'Qiu'." I said in between laughs. "Eh~!?" He turned bright red. "I... I did?" "Yep." He just got more red as I realized my mistake. "Ah, er, sorry..." I tried my best to apologize. He shook his head, adjusting his bag again. "It's fine. Everything goes back to Xingqiu. No matter what I think of. It's frustrating." He turned red again. I wrapped an arm around him. "You just need to tell him. I can round up the gang and we can help you." "You don't need to do that. Xingqiu'll just get suspicious." "We can just text after school or something. We'll figure it out." "Thanks. That means a lot. I just can't tell him the right way, I know I'll blow it and he'll get mad at me." He ducked his head and his hair fell over his eyes. "You won't. I'll help you think of something. We all will. Even Diluc."

"What about Lumine? She seems weary of you lately." Chongyun said, then bit his tongue. "Sorry," he added. "Yeah... she's been a little... *sigh* She's just been a little controlling lately. Always against me." I admitted. "Huh. Interesting. Well, I can help you with that, I guess. If you need it. But you seem to have everything under control at the moment." he offered. "Thanks. So I'll help you confess to Xingqiu and you can help me talk to Lumine." "Deal." "Oh. And I think Kaeya's going to try and give you some spicy food at lunch today, just a heads up."

First period seemed empty without Xingqiu. I was really confused about the whole photosynthesis thing, but Sucrose explained it well enough. Xingqiu would explain it in more detail though. In the hallway, I was texting Diluc and wasn't looking where I was going, then ran into someone. I put my hand out to apologize, but she just got mad. Lumine. 

At lunch, I stayed as far away from Lumine as possible. She was hanging out with Amber, Xiangling, and Paimon, who I had nothing against. But avoiding Lumine came first. I scanned the... well, outside. We had no cafeteria, so we ate outside. A bunch of people were sitting in their groups. Diluc and Kaeya were yelling at each other from several yards away and Chongyun was sitting on a ledge, eating some cold noodles. Alone. So I sat next to him. He looked up at me. "Uh... Aether. Hey." he said, shifting uncomfortably. "What're you doing here?" he asked. "You looked lonely. So I decided to join you." I said. He smiled at me warmly. "Thanks. I tried texting Xingqiu, but I think he's either reading or sleeping." he said. "Oh. Yeah, that makes sense." He finished his noodles in the next five minutes of silence as I just started on my food.

I think Chongyun enjoyed the company, even if we didn't say much to each other. "Hm...?" he murmured suddenly. "What?" I asked. "Xingqiu texted." he showed me his phone.

9:15

Chongyun: Hope you're feeling better

10:01

Chongyun: Text me if you need anything

11:15

Chongyun: Or if there's anything you want from out here

12:03

Chongyun: or something; I can bring books if you want

12:42

Xingqiu: bookmark

My first thought was that Chongyun was getting clingy toward XIngqiu, but of course, I didn't say that out loud. I just judged it by his consecutive texts between periods. My second thought was confusion. Xingqiu normally used capitalization and punctuation in his texts. My third thought was that he only used one word. It was really indirect and could be taken lots of ways. I was just as confused as Chongyun was. "Book... mark...?" Chongyun trailed off. I shrugged. "I dunno. But he's obviously trying to tell you something."