The Boy Who Cried Fox

First day

"Barbatos! Slow down!" Zhongli was stumbling as Venti continued to ramble about which teachers taught which subject in which class. And he was doing it all in one breath.

"Eh? Oh, sorry Morax." Venti skidded to a halt, which caused Zhongli to topple onto the floor from the sudden stop. "Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

Zhongli stood up but not before he caught a glance at...nevermind. It has to be his imagination going wild as there was no possible way he was here, right?

"Hm?" Standing beside a locker was someone with shoulder length wavy black hair and glasses.

"What is it, Pantalone?" Someone with pale green hair and dead gray eyes was looking at her friend.

"That faggot is here...Pierro. I may have found our next victim." Pantalone had a grin on his face that made him look very much like a sadist.

"VENTI!" Zhongli had to yell at Venti to slow down for the 6th time.

"Sorry Morax!" Knowing that he had screwed up big time as Zhongli had used his real name, Venti walked instead of dragging him about. And he slowed down his talking until it was a normal conversation. "So that's about it! Let's see...you have your schedule, right?"

"Yes." Zhongli held up his phone to show Venti a table.

"First is...Math! I have that class too. I hate it." Venti once again made a move but skipped instead of ran.

"Wait...where's Beelzebul?" Zhongli looked around for the purple haired female but she wasn't there. Or anywhere for that matter.

"Oh, I remembered. She has a club meeting now. Oh well." Venti shrugged and continued to skip until they reached a classroom.

"Mr Draff! I have the new student." Venti waved at their teacher and then pulled Zhongli inside.

"Ah. Welcome. I'm Mr Draff. Please introduce yourself later." The teacher took a glance at Zhongli and then went back to reading his papers. Zhongli took a seat in the back next to a window and pulled out his phone.

"97 unread messages...30 missed calls?" Zhongli looked at his messages and then called back.

"Zhongli! I swear to Barbatos that if you didn't call us back we were going to barge into your college!" A muffled yet a clearly angry voice was on the other end.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'll cook tonight." Zhongli tried to reason with the other person but it was hard when you're the only one talking in a room. Finally done with the call, Zhongli noticed he still had 20 minutes before class started. Taking out the thick novel he was reading, he began to read. He must have been so engrossed in reading that his attention finally shifted when he heard Mr Draff speak.

"I'm pretty sure that most of you know that we have a new student. Please come up." Mr Draff waited for him to stand up. Zhongli stood up and strided down to the front. Hearing several whispers, he ignored them and did a small bow. He pushed his bangs out of his eyes as he stood up to full height and spoke.

"Hello. I tend to go by Zhongli and I'm 23 years of age. Pleased to make your acquaintance." A bit formal but it was all fine with him. Walking back to his seat, more whispers were heard. Taking deep breaths and reminding himself that it didn't matter what other people said. Just slay and be gay. Or so his sisters told him everyday. Sitting back down, the girl sitting next to him tapped on his shoulder. Fixing the hairpin that secured her hair back into a bow, she angled her red eyes at him.

"I'm Ningguang. Pleasure to meet you." She gave a small smile and straightened her black laced skirt. When the teacher went back to talking, the 2 fixed their attention to him. After class, Venti skipped up to Zhongli again and dragged him off to the library.

"I know how much you love reading, so...you can spend as much time as you want here and you can even check out books! You're welcome!" Venti grinned at his shocked friend's face at the amount of books at his disposal.

"Barbatos...I'm buying you wine later." And he was off. Zhongli ran off to the nearest bookshelf and began to take out some books. But making sure that he didn't get distracted and miss class on his first day, Zhongli set an alarm and began reading. 2 hours later, the alarm rang. Zhongli checked his schedule and saw that he finally had his first history lecture. Packing his things and placing the books back on their shelves, he walked out the door and soon realized that he was very lost. While wandering around, Childe noticed Zhongli looking very disoriented. Being the nice friendly person that he is, Childe walked up to the brunette and tapped his shoulder. Zhongli turned around with a start and nearly knocked Childe down in doing so.

"So, I see that you're lost?" Childe tried to keep the faltering grin on his face as he was now face to face with what he thought was the hottest man alive.

"Ah yes. I am." Zhongli held up his schedule to Childe. Nodding, Childe was glad to turn away so that Zhongli didn't have to see the growing blush on his face. They walked in silence, to which Childe was thankful for because he didn't know if he even had the guts to form a proper sentence.

"Here we are." These were the only clear words that came out of Childe's mouth. The rest were all incomprehensible mumbling. He didn't even notice that Zhongli had left.

C: Well, since I have free period, I might as well find Arlecchino and Columbina.

Childe walked around for a bit, trying to find the 2 girlfriends before coming across an albino with black streaks and a dark haired girl with pinkish tips. The albino had a jacket on top of her crop top and jean shorts that stopped half way her thigh and knee high hiking boots. Her arm was wrapped around the shorter girl, who was wearing a plain white dress with skin tights and black mary janes. On her eyes was a veil.

"Hey guys. What's up?" Even though Childe didn't exactly like them, being scared of Columbina and arguing half the time with Arlecchino, they were better than the others.

"I think someone in our friend circle has a crush on you. Or more of an obsession." Columbina showed her phone to Childe, which had a picture of a few pages of a diary. "Don't ask how I obtained this photo."

Childe didn't even want to question it. It did seem like someone he knew but it was what was written which put him off the most.

"Sounds big time like a stalker. 'Today, Tartaglia talked to me'. Who the fuck writes that?" Childe was both disgusted and concerned. While the girls flirted with each other, Childe checked his watch. 12:30. It was nearly time for lunch. Alerting the girls, the 3 made their way to the canteen but were stopped when they heard familiar voices and a lot of crashing. When they were about to walk away, Childe noticed the long brown amber tipped hair of...

"ZHONGLI!" Childe took off in the direction of the noise with Arlecchino following him and Columbina getting a teacher.

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