The Boy Who Cried Fox

Friends

"WHAT THE HELL????" Childe's jaw dropped at the sight of the shippers.

"Hello?" Aether nervously waved at them. Zhongli got off Childe and stood normally.

"Did you guys want to join us?" Zhongli's naivety kicked in. Despite being the smartest out of all of them, Zhongli had the strongest sense of innocence. Which kind of made him the dumbest in the room.

"Uh...Yeah! But it seems you're done!" Venti went along with it and received a glare from Zhongli. They left with no further hustle. On the way back, Zhongli approached Childe.

"About your question earlier, I think you are fly for a white guy." Zhongli chuckled at Childe's reaction, which very much had a resemblance to an overexcited puppy. They walked back in almost complete silence. Childe and Zhongli went their separate ways when they got back. The brunette avoided Jiafei, who stopped him to ask something, and Baizhu, who he wanted to stay away from at all costs. He only stopped when he saw Al'Haitham at his dorm, looking relatively excited.

"Zhongli, there's a surprise for you inside." Al'Haitham opened the door. There seated on his cheap couch besides his siblings, were three other people.

"Hey Morax!" The female of the three waved enthusiastically at him. Behind her were two males.

"Guizhong? Osial? Azhdaha? What...???" Zhongli was confused. Weren't they supposed to meet tomorrow?

"Well, we wanted to see you now." Osial plastered a smirk on his face at his friend's shock.

"Wha-" Zhongli, still surprised, sat down next to them. They caught up and the three of them explained their disappearance for four years, which was basically them moving out and settling down.

"Hey, I heard from Al that Baizhu was getting a little bit too comfortable around you." Yun Jin had just been talking to Al'Haitham about the incident yesterday morning.

"Uh...a bit." Zhongli didn't know how they would react nor how he would respond, which was why he didn't tell them.

"Also we got this from a girl, I think her name was Jiafei? Anyway, she left a box by our door. No context whatsoever." Itto pointed at a medium sized box on the kitchen counter. Zhongli moved over to open it. Inside were several things that couples would usually buy, to which he had no use of.

"Can we have those? We're running a bit short on things." Azhdaha nervously asked Zhongli as he looked at the contents.

"Why not? I forgot you and Osial were dating." Handing the box over to him, Zhongli prepared an extra room for the three of them to stay over for the night.

"You're going out with a friend tonight, am I right Noelle?" Zhongli overheard Albedo asking their younger sister.

"Yep. I'll be back before 12, don't worry." She replied as she strolled to her room. Zhongli caught a glimpse of her entering her room before rejoining the rest.

(This part will focus on Noelle for now as they do nothing but talk.)

"You have everything?" Gorou made a last check with her before she headed out. Zhongli gave her a little pat on the head. Noelle nodded in response and bid the rest goodbye. To be honest, she had only met these 'friends' twice and that was when they stumbled on them in the cafe and when she did her assessment. But they had clicked so there was no harm. Walking in black high heeled boots similar to her brother's, the edges of her rose pink knee length uneven cut dress secured with a black belt tickling her calves. She straightened her white turtleneck with a small diamond shaped hole above her breasts as well as fixed the rose pinning her hair back and went to the place they said they would meet.

"Noelle! Glad you could make it!" Hu Tao ran excitedly to the girl. No, ran was an understatement. More like sprinted. She was not the only one there. Barbara, Ganyu, Keqing, Ayaka and Yoimiya were all there. She's only met Ganyu, Hu Tao and Keqing before and heard about Ayaka and Yoimiya from Zhongli.

"I love your dress. Where did you buy it?" Yoimiya ran up and showed the same enthusiasm as Amber.

"Oh, well, me and my brother made it together." Noelle shyly smiled as she remembered the fond memory of the two of them having chaos over this dress.

"It's so cute! Maybe you could make one for each of us." Yoimiya joked with Noelle.

"But your outfit is really nice too." Noelle argued back in a teasing manner.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce you to Ayaka." Amber grabbed the ice haired girl and wrapped her arm around her. Ayaka nervously waved at Noelle.

"We should get going. If Ayato knew I was staying out this late, fufufu, what a fit he would have." Ayaka chuckled at her older brother. The girls walked away to the city, talking about their family.

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