Pushover | Aether x Reader

Two

"Now, I know this is everyone's last year at school with you being seniors and all, but I wanted to ensure you all know the importance of art in our lives. Once you're out of high school and in college or at work, you will miss the times when you can just sit down and draw or paint whatever you want! Oh, the bliss!"

All eyes were on their art teacher, Miss Miko, the bubbling bundle of energy at eight in the morning. Miss Miko was quite an attractive lady. The fact that she was the art teacher and did not care whether or not you turned in your projects late made her even better. She was the absolute talk of the school with boys and girls admiring her from afar!

"Since we aren't having actual classes yet, today we will do a simple warm-up exercise to introduce us to our main medium this year! Oil pastels!" Miss Miko clapped her hands happily."Bring out your set of oil pastels that you bought over the summer and begin drawing a scenery you liked to see."

(Y/n) sighed as she watched her classmates bustle around the blond boy sitting in the front rows. No matter how many times their teacher told them to buy a specific art supply, they never, I repeat, never, actually listened.

"Freeloaders," she muttered under her breath as she brought out her own set of oil pastels that were of a high-end brand. "I'll probably draw the beach scenery from our company outing." She hummed, already forgetting about Aether.

"Good morning, (Y/n)." A gentle voice came from her side as a very light-haired boy plopped down on the seat next to her. "Is Hu skipping again?"

"As always." (Y/n) nodded. "She always complains about being bad about art but never does anything to get better at it."

"There simply are individuals like that." Albedo chuckled, opening his sketchbook and pulling out his own oil pastels that were quite battered up by now. "I found out about our lessons this year in advance and decided to get a headstart."

"Knowing you, you probably got a head start for college as well."

"You're correct. I found using baby oil on cotton buds to smoothen the pastels very satisfying, thus, allowing me to create two pieces a day."

"... You're crazy." (Y/n) gawked. "Is that all you do every day?"

"Not at all, just for my afternoons," Albedo shrugged.

"Sure..." (Y/n) rolled her eyes and focused on her own piece. She definitely did not believe that creating two pieces only took one afternoon for him... Unless he wasn't human.

However, as the girl tried to focus on her art piece, she couldn't help but look at the blond boy, the voices coming from his direction distracting her.

"Thank you so much, Aether! I promise to give it back!" A girl with purple pigtails said as she held 4 oil pastels in her hand.

'She definitely won't give it back.' (Y/n) thought to herself. She wasn't necessarily being mean– Mona truly just built up a reputation for herself by not returning borrowed items. 'Yet he still gave her supplies. This guy...'

As a result of lending his supplies to other people, Aether was left with only two oil pastels: black and white. Though he was quite unfortunate to have to work with only those, he still somehow had a content look on his face.

'Very concerning, indeed.'

"Perhaps he's planning to do a black and white piece," Albedo commented. "It would take longer, however, especially with pastels."

(Y/n) sighed and got up, "You don't mind having an extra seatmate, would you Albedo?"

"Not at all." Albedo shook his head. "There's enough space for four."

(Y/n) nodded and made her way over to Aether, waving her hand in front of him to get his attention.

He looked up at her, the same soft smile on his face. "Yes, (Y/n)?"

"Come sit with us," she said. "We have a ton of pastels you can borrow. You'll probably want to use mine more though, Albedo's are so small they rival those jewelry studs."

"Are you sure? I'm fine with using my own, it's not like I didn't bring any pastels," he said.

"Right, your own that you distributed to the entire class." (Y/n) deadpanned. "Look, I'm not asking you to sit with us, I'm telling you. I'm still the class president so you have to listen to me."

Aether sighed. "Well... Since you don't really give me a choice..." He got up from his seat and brought his things over to (Y/n) and Albedo's desk, joining their little artistic circle as they completed their art project.

Even though Aether felt bad for "taking advantage" of (Y/n)'s numerous, expensive oil pastels, she never made him feel like he owed her anything for it. In fact, he felt a tad bit safe in their presence despite Albedo's bluntness in criticism.

Nevertheless, he hoped he could sit with them again in their next art class.

__________

Aether walked through the doors leading to the school cafeteria, his next challenge awaiting him.

Going to classes without Lumine was a tad bit easier than finding a table to sit at for lunch. In classes, you had assigned seats, but for lunch, you better have a group of friends to sit with otherwise you'd be alone.

Aether debated whether or not to pull out a textbook and pretend to study while eating in order to not look lonely, but he didn't feel like going through the effort.

He could just try his luck and sit with Lumine's usual group (he always tailed her), but he never actually spoke to the talkative girls which would, therefore, make him sit with them awkwardly.

Amber, Fischl, and Mona were very lovely people, however, he felt like he'd be intimidated by them trying to include him in their conversations... Not to mention Fischl spoke such fancy words that he'd zone out after her first sentence.

So the blond boy decided to settle on sitting alone in a corner. Fortunately, next to him was a big window that let in cold air from the fields near the cafeteria. It was quite nice.

Sitting alone went great for a bit. He enjoyed not going through the stress of trying to interact, but then he suddenly felt very aware of some judgemental gazes. There were people who simply had nothing better to do than look at people who they felt were better than them with contempt.

Usually, he would ignore them. But he felt vulnerable at this very moment. And he missed the conversations he had with his twin.

That's when two other trays of food were placed on his table, a brunette and (h/c)-haired girl standing in front of them.

"Can we sit here? The other tables are full."

That was, in fact, a lie. Even Aether could tell as there were at least 7 empty tables behind them. However, he simply smiled and accepted their offer.

"Sure."