childe X aether

Chapter One: The lantern Rite Festival

The lantern rite festival was finally here. Ever since Aether and Paimon had learned about Liyue's yearly lantern festival it has been their favorite celebration to attend.
"Traveler, Paimon's hungry! And- and Traveler and Paimon have been walking around all day! Taking a break sounds like a good idea to Paimon- and maybe find some food, preferably some sticky honey roat- mmmh!" Paimon, whined as they strolled around and waited for the fireworks that night. "Again? You just eat; honestly, I don't know how you eat so much, where does all that food go? And what do you mean you're tired? You just float around." Aether laughed at Paimons nonsensical behavior; but he could use a bite to eat himself. "Alright, let's find a food stand, Paimon. Oh- those kabobs over there smell great!" The traveler rushed over, Paimon following after, trying to catch up to Aether. "Wait for Paimon!" She called after.
As he reached the stand, aether looked around at them, his mouth watering at the sight. "We'll take two-" he began to say before Paimon interrupted. "Only two?! But Paimon's hungry! You can't do this to Paimon!" Aether tried to calm her down, chuckling a bit and smiling nervously. "Sorry Paimon, but that's all we can afford right now. Maybe we can find a chest or a weasel running later?" He reassured her as someone behind them had ordered 5 kabobs. Aether looked back at the familiar voice, Paimon had heard it too. "Is that-...?" She started. Childe was standing there, he paid the stand worker before holding out the kabobs that had been wrapped in paper. "Oh dear, looks like I've bought too many. Would you two like some?" He asked, although it was clear he had heard their conversation and wasn't doing his best to hide it. Aether opened his mouth to decline but Paimon was much quicker, having been motivated by the free food. "Well, it's not like Paimon can let them go to waste, but what are YOU doing here" she interrogated as she took the kabobs right out of his hands. "Why, enjoying the lantern rite festival like everyone else of course. This is one of the only days I get off so I like to come down here and see what kind of delicacies Liyue has to offer and admire the decorations they've set up. Oh, and not to mention the fireworks, you can't miss that." Paimon, being rightfully sceptical. "Paimon doesn't buy it!" Childe laughed and held up his hands defensively. "Alright, you got me. I'm actually here to run some errands for the fatui. But when I finished and started heading back I saw you two over here so I could resist!" He sighed in disappointment and crossed his arms, shaking his. "Too bad it wasn't the truth though, I really don't get too many days off."
Childe suddenly lit up, having thought of a new idea that played his mind "hey, I've got an idea, how about we spend the rest of the festival together? I don't have anything else to do now and I can't remember the last time I had a good time with a couple of friends!"
Aether's brow furrowed when he heard him call them "friends". He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Friends is an overstatement... Don't you think?" Childe looked a bit offended by aether's remark and let out an audible gasp. "I'm hurt, here I thought we've gotten close."
"It's clear you're not really hurt!" Paimon accused making Childe chuckle. "Fumbled again I see. But, don't you think you owe me for the food? Unless you have the money on you right now~" he teased, knowing that he trapped them in a corner. "Come on, all expenses will be paid by yours truly, so don't worry about the money! All I ask is that you come have fun at the festival with me."
Aether groaned knowing there was no way out of it now. "Fine." He managed to grumble out, Paimon looking just as down, both wondering how things have ended up this way.
They wandered around a bit, it wasn't as bad as they thought, plus they got to enjoy the festival free of coast. Besides the Childe fee that was thrown in. Aether figured he might as well enjoy the brief moment of being rich and asked Childe to buy him the most expensive drink he could find. But a small part of it was to get back at Childe for tagging along. Of course; though, he was more than happy to and once he came back he had two in his hand. "Comrades! I brought the drinks, I could only get two though, they said that hardly anyone buys them because of how hefty the price is! Heh heh, You should have seen the look on their face when I ordered two!" He handed one to Aether and began to sip the other one. Aether felt a bit bad for making him get the drink, way more than he thought. So he quickly gulped it down so he wouldn't have to see it anymore, the drink burned his throat, but he didn't think much about it. He assumed they had put jueyun chillies in. After all it wasn't unheard of to do so. But as he wiped his mouth could hear Paimon whine to Childe about not letting her have the other one. "Paimon wants a taste, why couldn't you have given the last one to Paimon?!" Childe chuckled "well, even though I could only buy two, I wouldn't have bought you one. There's a lot of alcohol in this, and giving it to you would just make me irresponsible. Sorry Paimon, how about I buy you something else instead?" Paimon still wasn't happy but accepted the offer anyway as they walked off to get an alcoholic free beverage.
Aether paused. "There was a lot of alcohol...?" He thought to himself as he felt his mind fog up and it suddenly had gotten hot.