Chapter Text
Aether couldn’t believe it. Okay, he could, but it didn’t make it any less unpleasant. The day before the paintball finals, of course venti had gone out drinking and was now suffering from a huge hangover. Aether stared at him as he walked down the street with his other teammates, Xiao and Kazuha. Venti trudged along behind them, wearing extremely dark sunglasses even though it was cloudy.
“Come on, Ae! Don’t be mad! How was I supposed to know those drinks were that strong?” Venti whined, clutching at Aether’s hoodie arm.
“You always drink them! They were the same!” The blonde shrugged him off and glared at him. “And now you’re too incapacitated to play, and we’re gonna have to come up with another plan. Teams are required to have four able-bodied players. You know this!”
Xiao and Kazuha just looked at each other, the former rolling his yellow eyes.
“Let’s just hope that Lumime has something to fix Venti up. It usually helps.” Xiao offered as a peace treaty between the two that were bickering.
Aether just crossed his arms and walked faster. They reached their destination a few minutes later. It was a small coffee shop on a side street that wasn’t known for having much foot traffic. Still, it has a warm and inviting atmosphere,
They stepped in, the air conditioning lightly ruffling their hair and instantly cooled them off after walking in the sweltering summer heat. It was fairly empty, with only a few of the people Aether recognized as regulars going about their business.
A brunette manned the cash register, ringing up an elderly lady. “Okay, that’ll be 250 mora for the medium coffee!” She said cheerfully.
The elderly lady thanked the cashier, patting her hand as she handed her a tip, Then the brunette, spying the group of four, gasped and waved. “Hey guys! What brings you here so early? Lumi’s break isn’t for another 30 minutes.”
Aether just jerked his thumb in Venti’s direction. The brunette grimaced when she saw him still wearing shades. “Ah…”
Aether nodded and Venti sheepishly grinned. “Yeah, he’s hungover the day before our match. Can you grab Lu for us when you can spare her?”
She grinned and also nodded. “Sure! I bet Jean won’t mind if she takes a small break a bit early.” She turned and walked to the back door, opening it.
The smell of coffee grew in strength as Amber poked her head into the back room. “Hey Lumi, can you come out here? Your brother’s here!”
An affirmative was called in a sing song voice and Amber turned back to the cash register. “She’ll be right out, want anything while you wait?”
The boys each ordered a small drink, with Venti’s being extra strong. A few moments later, the spitting image of Aether if he had short hair came out of the back, dusting her palms on her apron. She beamed at them as she looked up, briskly walking over.
“Ae! Guys! You’re early. What’s…ah.” She paused as she saw Venti, who has laid his head on the cool table. “I see.”
Aether sighed and clasped his hands in front of him, getting straight to the point. “Oh please, dear sweet baby sister of mine, can you make Venti one of your famous hangover cures?” He gave her a puppy dog expression, and she just rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder.
“Stop calling me your baby sister. I’m less than ten minutes younger than you! We’re almost the same age!” She huffed, blowing her bangs out of her face.
He just gave her the same look, shaking his hands as if in prayer. “Pleaaaaaase, Lu? We have our match tomorrow and we desperately need him!” He begged.
Lumine sighed and put her hands on her hips. “I can make it, but with how rough Venti is looking… I’m afraid he won’t be well enough to play by the match tomorrow.”
Aether immediately looked crestfallen and put his head down on the table as he sat heavily, mirroring Venti’s position. He sighed dejectedly and pushed his coffee cup back and forth across the table. Xiao and Kazuha exchanged glances and nodded.
“Well…” Kazuha began.
Aether didn’t let him continue before he whined and tangled his hands in his blonde hair. “Ugh and tomorrow’s match is against him . What’re we gonna do? I’ll literally never hear the end of it if we don’t play.”
Kazuha cleared his throat loudly and obnoxiously, making Aether look up. “I think Xiao and I have something in mind,” he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
Aether looked between them. “Well unless you have a way to clone one of you, nothing is gonna help us. We’re a man down, and Childe would take all of us at our best to beat.”
To this, Kazuha laughed. “Well, we can’t clone ourselves but…” his grin widened. “You have a double.” Xiao nodded sagely in agreement, letting Kazuha do the talking.
Aether slowly raised his head, and they all turned to stare at Lumine. She took a step back, eyes wide. Aether suddenly jumped up and ran over to her, clasping her hands in his. He turned to look at the others. “You two are geniuses!!” He laughed almost maniacally as Venti started snoring peacefully at the table.
He turned back to Lumine and repeated his earlier sentence to her, now with a new goal in mind. “Oh sweet, sweet sister of mine, we have a proposition for you.” She glanced in between them and pursed her lips , taking her hands out of Aether’s and put them back on her hips.
“You have got to be kidding me. What about the hangover cure?”
“Forget the hangover cure.” Venti snapped his head up at that, wincing as his sunglasses fell off. “Hey!”
Aether ignored him. “You said it yourself! He won’t be able to play by tomorrow! And… AND we know you’ll do amazing! You even have tomorrow off, right?”
She rolled her eyes at how doggedly he was pursuing this idea. He scooted closer to her, leaning close to whisper in her ear. “I’ll take out the trash and scoop Paimon’s litter box by myself for 3 weeks.”
She turned her head to him, her eyes narrowed. “4 weeks and you’ll pick up Inazuman takeout once a week for those four weeks. AND you’ll do the dishes when we cook.”
“Deal.” He said instantly and grinned, his fist pumping the air. He went and downed the rest of his coffee. “Okay after work we’re gonna fit your armor and do the rundown on our strategy, okay?” He eyed her. “All of my armor should fit you just fine. Even the chest piece, cause you’re not that big.”
Lumine squeaked, covering her chest with her arms. “Hey!”
Before she was able to react to Aether any further, he had already dashed out, dragging a semi aware Venti behind him. Xiao and Kazuha just smiled as they also walked out, waving goodbye to Lumine which left her standing alone in the middle of the shop.
She groaned and went back to the counter where Amber was watching her with curiosity shining in her eyes. “What was all that about?”
Lumine sighed and started cleaning up the area around the espresso machines. “I guess I’m going to be playing paintball tomorrow.”
Amber’s eyebrows shot up. “Have you even ever played?”
The blonde shook her head, indicating that she hadn’t. “This is going to be a disaster.”