Hu Tao X Reader || Business Meeting

Hu Tao x Reader || Business meeting

You woke up in a coffin. Again.

You racked your semi-conscious brain and put your hands to the top wall. With all your strength, you pushed the heavy oak lid up, and it wasn't until the deaf knock convinced you that your efforts weren’t in vain.

You closed your eyes when the bright sun struck your eyes. You felt like a vampire taken straight out of romanticism, but after a quick blinking, you got used to the brightness in the room.

"Hey, hey!” you were greeted by a joyful voice as you sat down. "Did you sleep well?"

You looked at Hu Tao, who as usual was dressed in her dark, official outfit. She tied her hair in two ponytails, and put her hat on her head, even if you two were in a room that always was more likely to not have sunlight than it was.

She bowed over the coffin and let you lean against her arm as you stand up.

"Like a dead," you replied with a heavy sigh. You could only guess that you fell asleep while working and by this, you exposed yourself to tricks from Hu Tao. By these pranks, workers either quickly quitted their job, or gained resistance to all obstacles and every joke "funny-until-you-are-victim".

She sent you a snappy smile.

"Excellent. Because today we have a small corporate mission!”

‏‏‎ ‎

Hu Tao has not particularly given you time to prepare.

Less than ten minutes after she disappeared from the vestibule, you were able to dress up for work, wash your face and correct your hair before she showed up again.

You've put up several posters promoting the wangsheng funeral parlor (which will be taken off again by the guards within hours), and palm business cards off on several passersby until you reached a remote building where a young woman was waiting for you.

She quickly signed some of the papers Hu Tao brought with her and promised to come to her in person later, to complete the formalities related to her cousin's death.

Hu Tao was far more relaxed after you left that house.

In the jumps she walked past you, wandering through the uncrowded streets, energetically talking about everything and nothing. Sometimes she got lost in her thoughts for a moment and smiled at her own ideas, which you started asking her about.

"Hehe~ Everything that's going on in my head is a mystery," she gently tapped her fingers about the roundabout of her hat.

As you passed restaurants and food stalls, you were overwhelmed by the smell of all the Liyue delicacies.

Something twisted in your stomach.

On a par with the loud sound your belly made, you realized that you ate nothing today. You left so quickly that you forgot about breakfast. Ha, you couldn't even drink anything!

"Ho, ho," Hu Tao sighed theatrically. "I see that we have to stop and eat something.”

You burned with a juicy blush.

"A-ah, no, no," you protested quickly. "Let's finish what we have to do first. I'll eat something when we're done with work.”

"Come on, it’s my treat!" she clung to your arm and forced you to follow her. "Or rather... I haven't had the opportunity to have someone as my official taster for a long time!”

You found yourselves in the kitchen.

Hu Tao, almost all in the flour, which she had been brushing off from her dark outfit for the last fifteen minutes, took the dumplings out of the oven. She had to be inspired by a dish from Wanmin Restaurant, but she made them far quicker than anyone else who ever prepared dumplings.

Several of them were put on a plate and with a loud "bon appétit!", she placed them in front of you.

"They look... suspicious,” you glanced at the dumpling and came to the conclusion that they all look... very pale, even for a dumpling.

"I'd like to say you don't have to eat it. But I want you to try them," she used the chopsticks to pick up a dumpling from the plate and pressed it into your mouth. She covered them with her hand so that you wouldn't spit it out and watch as you chewed her culinary work precariously. "And how is it?"

You grunted when you felt how an extremely slippery dumpling was being swallowed by you.

Although you could not say that it was so bad.

Something just... was off. Maybe not enough spices? Or some strange ingredient in the stuffing?

"It's good," you replied. "I guess.”

"You sound very convincing," she said, giggling quietly. She seemed very proud of these dumplings. "I see that cooking is another of my hidden talents.”

You didn't answer, but you smiled gently.

Being indifferent while spending some time with her was... impossible.

‏‏‎ ‎

On the table was placed a pot of hot black tea.

In addition to decorative cups with patterns that evoke plum flowers, the pile of cards grew on the countertop every minute. Soon Hu Tao threw the last card she had in her hands and smiled triumphantly.

"I won!" she scooped the cards off the table and deftly began to shuffle them. A few of them fell out of her hands, but she quickly collected them and began handing them out between the two of you.

This was the eighth round of the card game she presented to you less than two hours ago. Throughout the game she seemed to give you forums, but as soon as you got to the end, she showed her mastery skills and within minutes made up for what you collected the whole twenty minutes.

Although you'd like to win with her, you were not particularly angry with that. Because you two were talking a lot, you mostly didn't notice the key moves you could make. It wasn't until you put another card down that you noticed your mistake, and Hu Tao, with a too-sweet and teasing smile, reminded you that you can't undo your moves.

What a stupid game.

With resignation, you have brought together a newly shuffled card tray.

"So that's what your corporate meetings look like, hmm?" You asked, propping up your chin with your hand and browsing through your new options.

"That’s weird to call date a business meeting," she replied, throwing another card on the table.

"Huh?" you shivered, almost biting your tongue in surprise. "So, it was a date?"

"Wasn’t it?" she said surprised. "Don't think I treat every employee like that. You are the exception," she hesitated, and for the first time in a long time raised her eyes from above the cards and looked at you. You couldn't tell what feelings were painted on her face. Gratitude? Joy? Love? In any case, it made you feel such strange, pleasant warmth... “But if so... How about another "corporate meeting", [Name]? You know, you have to take care of your customers, but you need to take care of your loyal employees even more.”

You were sure she had invented it just now, but...

"I shouldn't say no to my boss, shouldn't I?" you answered with a smile that she returned with big grin.

"Surely!"

Aether x Reader || Glaze Lilies

"This one is delicious too," you said, swallowing another piece of the dish. “Paimon would probably create another stomach for these miracles.”

Aether chuckled softly as he bites off another piece of hot roll filled with traditional Liyue-rich stuffing. “I guess even that is not enough when the competition is the Sticky Honey Roast that Amber offered her.”

You smiled in response.

Late fall in Liyue was a beautiful time of the year.

The city was always full of red and gold colours like towns straight from fairy tales, but in this time, when the leaves have already turned dark orange and the air was carrying an aroma of seasonal seed cookies, Liyue looked even more breathtaking.

You were sure that it was Amber who made it possible for you to go somewhere on Aether's day off from doing… everything. Normally, you would be sitting in some restaurant watching Paimon heartlessly ordering all the dishes from a menu without looking at the number of zeros of each price.

But when Amber heard you mention dates accompanied by beautiful, falling leaves, she blushed as the flame of pure determination appeared in her eyes. In the evening she appeared in front of Paimon and offered her to go out to the city for one day.

Oh, if she only knew how much it will cost her...

"[Name], stay close to me, or I will lose you in this crowd." Aether gripped your hand tighter.

"Getting lost in such a big city would be romantic, wouldn't it?" you giggled.

"Getting lost and being found in the wrong place and time wouldn’t be," he replied. “Every city is much more dangerous when the night comes.”

You turned into another street to finally reach the viewpoint in Liyue.

You could see a lot more from there, but less people could see you. Who would twist their neck to see two little dots on top of a mountain?

"It's going to rain soon," Aether nodded at the clouds, which were moving quickly toward the city. He clicked his tongue. “If we don't want to get wet, we should be getting ready.”

"Oh, isn't that Aether?"

You turned around to see a girl approaching you two.

She was gorgeous—her long blonde hair waved in the breeze as if it existed only to be an effect for them. She had every girl's dream figure, bright, sparkling eyes, and rosy cheeks.

Perfect girl.

And the perfect person to compare yourself with to create a trillion complexes about your body.

She had a very charismatic, attractive aura around her, but the way she behaved towards Aether was slowly starting to bother you. Of course, it might just be some kind of funny, totally wrong prejudice against her, but ...

“[Girl's name]?” Aether muttered, not noticing your pleading gaze saying: ‘let's get out of here.’ “—What are you doing here?”

"I was just passing by," she laughed, her voice soft, pearl-like. “I couldn't go without saying hi, haha!” Then she looked at you and fixed you with a stare. It wasn't a cold look, but it wasn't friendly either. “And who is that?”

"Ah," Aether shook his head, as if only now remembering that he had not come here alone. He put his hand around your waist. “This is my girlfriend, [Name]”

“I didn't know you had a girlfriend! You always have to be so mysterious?” Aether rolled his eyes at her words, even if he smiled slightly. Then she turned to you. “Could I kidnap him for a moment? I need help moving my luggage to my new apartment.”

She grabbed his hand without waiting for your answer, as if it were a rhetorical question. As Aether released his hand from your waist, you felt as if you were left alone in a foreign land.

“I'll be back in a minute!” After these words, he turned to the blonde and at an equal pace, they turned around the corner of some house, behind the wall of which you could see an extremely high pile of boxes.

"It probably won't be a minute," you sighed.

You leaned against the railing and stared at the toes of your shoes, telling yourself that you should have opposed her. Would that be selfish? You've been dreaming about a date with Aether for so long, without third parties, and now that the moment has come, it turns out that someone will take from you your boyfriend anyway.

Five minutes passed... eight minutes... ten... thirteen...

After fourteen minutes, you got up and decided to check how much was already packed. Some of the super-heavy boxes seemed to be gone, but that was up for discussion since there were dozens of them here.

You couldn't find a familiar face in sight. Did... they just leave you here? More likely, they were just carrying some luggage into one of the nearby houses, but you couldn't knock on every door to find them—it would take hours.

You felt yourself slowly breaking down.

You knew you were a little (a little very much) jealous of this girl, but more depressing was the fact that this was going to be yours and Aether’s day. COMMON. Now you thought you were the loneliest person in the universe.

"I'm not going to get upset," you repeated aloud, trying to motivate yourself to leave this place. "I'll go... I’ll go somewhere and have a good time... alone."

With a quick step, as if you didn't want to think about this anymore, you turned back and followed the alleys you and Aether had previously travelled. You came to the food stores that you had only glanced at before, but you didn't have time to taste anything else because you were in a hurry to get to the viewpoint.

It is true that you ordered take-out rolls, but the whole range of different types of food seemed very tempting despite the filling bread.

And the smell of such highly seasoned dishes was tempting—very much.

"Sorry," a young girl approached you after you shoved a piece of meat into your mouth. You swallowed it quickly, almost choking on it. “Would you like to buy some flowers?”

“…Why not?” you replied.

The girl put the money in the pocket of her dress. Instead of putting a flower on your hand, she came closer and gently braided a glaze lily into your hair near right ear.

"Here you are," she replied and looked at you. A smile beamed across her face. “You look really pretty!”

"Thank you," you replied. You noticed that this was the last flower in her basket, and because of that, the ten-year-old girl seemed proud of herself. She walked away, thanking again for the purchase.

I think that one more on the other side and all would be perfect...

You glanced at the setting sun and concluded that you could give Aether a similar lily. Wouldn't that look cute on him? There was still some time before it will get completely dark. Even the rain clouds that had previously seemed to be crossing the sky at an alarming pace now seem to have stopped.

You finished eating and walked briskly towards the Danyu Ruins, hoping to find some pretty lilies on your way.

The silence, or rather the sound of the wind and the leaves rustling against each other, were the only thing that accompanied your footsteps since you left Liyue. It seemed relaxing at first, but now that the skies were a deeper blue than orange, you concluded that a travelling companion would not be a bad idea.

“They're here!” you finally found two lilies that glistened slightly in the dark. You collected them quickly and turned to head back into town.

…You were surprised when you encountered many, many roads, each of them unfamiliar.

"I should have left a trail of breadcrumbs," you joked, though panic had already paralyzed your legs.

Your problems were not diminished by the fact that you heard mad laughter near you. You felt your heart leap into your throat, tears welling up in your eyes as a figure emerged from behind the bushes.

Abyss mage.

You have heard about them from the stories of Aether, who sometimes told you about his adventures when you tried to bandage his wounds with a bandage, herbs, or other medicines.

As soon as your heart was beating, so quickly the magician saw you. He teleported a meter away from you and you started running.

Faster, faster, faster.

Before you ran a hundred meters, a mage appeared before you. You didn't even have time to stop when he waved his hand, and a large ice crystal formed in front of him. Huge and pointed towards you.

Almost as soon as it was launched, a certain force pushed both of you backwards. You felt pain in your left leg, but somehow you didn't fall. Strong arms held you and made you be in a comforting, familiar embrace.

You looked up to see Aether running towards the cliff to finally jump, open his gliding set and take you two away from the icy monster.

You didn't say a word to each other all this time.

As soon as you touched the ground, you stepped out of his embrace, as if feeling that you had abused his closeness too much. Instead, he grabbed your wrist, turned to face him, and initiated a long, passionate kiss.

He didn't pull away until you both were breathless, and your cheeks were burning like hot coals. You couldn't say you were cold anymore.

“Why?” He took a deep breath. However, his voice still trembled. “Why didn't you wait for me? If I did not make it on time—"

“I was waiting for you!” You interrupted him. You bit your lower lip as you tried to contain the tide of frustration. “It's you who disappeared somewhere. You went somewhere with that girl. I already thought you weren't coming back.”

Aether, an intelligent boy, immediately paraphrased your words "I was maybe jealous". At the thought, he smiled apologetically.

"Sorry," he said, scratching his neck. “I accidentally dropped a box on her leg and, oh, it was hard to treat someone who screams in pain before even a finger touches them…”

"Oh," you felt a deep flush of embarrassment coming up to your cheeks. Indeed, the previous redness of the cheeks did not disappear, but now it only preserved their shade for the next minutes. “I'm really sorry. I left you, put you and myself in danger, just to find some stupid flowers...”

For the third time since finding you, Aether hugged you tightly. He planted a kiss on the top of your head. You stood for a few minutes in pleasant silence, cuddling tightly to each other, and finally, you both relaxed completely.

You took the tangled lilies out of your pocket; one was practically worn out, but the other seemed to be in good condition. You dropped the massacred one, and you tried to straighten the petals with your fingers.

"Turn around," you told him.

He did it without batting an eye. You ran your fingers through his hair and braided his plant into a braid.

Out of the corner of your eye, you thought yours, still artfully arranged, flashed a pleasant blue light as Aether examined his looks.

"It suits you," you said. You both decided to go back to Liyue and spend the rest of the night there. You held hands all the way back.

"You too," he replied. "We are complementing each other very nicely now with these flowers ...and also without them," he added with a smile.

"So, you still think getting lost isn't romantic?" You looked at him from under your lashes.

“Still. I wish I could have you with me without any excuse that you will get lost.”

hi there - just binged your “how to win a heart” twst series and oh my GODDD PUTS IN MOUTH!! CHEWS!!!! it is so scrumptious and wonderful and it has kept me so fed i am LIVING thank you!! you do amazing work, cannot say enough about how much i ADORE it! have a nice day!

Thank you so much!!

Thanks to this message I actually motivated myself to complete one dialogue on Trey's "guide"...!

I hope you will find my further writings to your liking~

Hmmm, a Honeyworks fan, I see, I see 👀

Hmmm, a person of culture, I see, I see! 👀

Saying that I didn’t fall in love with Suzumi Hiyori, at first sight, would be a lie when I have other profile pictures of her on almost all my accounts on media. And, the animation!! As much as it is a pain to find any content in English, HoneyWorks did an incredible job with all its videos. Those animations!! Those lovely characters!!!

I can’t wait for the movie that will come in April~~

Target: Tartaglia „Childe”

No. 11 of the Eleven Harbingers of the Fatui

A small knife flew towards a boy with hair in the color of ginger.

Surely the blade would have hit his scalp, between amber curls, if the boy hadn’t turned around and sprang it with his weapon.

“Good morning, [Name]” he raised his eyes to see a small—or at least in the presence of the surrounding wooden beams and marble columns—silhouette crouching almost under the ceiling.

"Hello, hello," you replied, jumping off the raise. You neatly landed next to him and smiled broadly. "I can see that you are still in good condition.”

"To your misfortune," he shrugged, but also smiled.

Your afternoons usually followed this pattern: you break into Fatui's base, attack Childe, he avoids every hit, and later, as if nothing ever happened, you both go into conversations about everything and nothing. Sometimes you do a little sparring for skill.

Days like these had been going on months, but apart from your two, no one knew about them.

Not that you wanted to tell someone.

[First Name] [Surname], was a hair to a small outlaw-military organization. The organization disagreed with Fatui's actions and pursued its own policies to oppose the removal of Gnosis from the seven Archons.

The problem is that your family business employed no more than half of the employees compared to Fatui. Although every person who joined your organization was trained (in combat – like you or even in law or speaking), every day you have been overwhelmed by another load of tasks to be done since there were no people to fulfill all the missions.

One of them, which began exactly two months ago, was a task to murder Tartaglia.

You knew it wasn't going to be easy.

You also knew he was probably much stronger than you.

But you tried anyway – in the name of your honor and for your family.

You couldn't admit that you can't kill him. And it was no longer about the skills themselves.

Every day you spent with him, made you feel frustrated, excited, and full of butterflies in your stomach. Each day, whenever some feelings were growing up in your body, you wanted to find out why you felt that way. Why only with him?

Your work should have never allowed you to let your personal feelings into your thoughts.

You were a spy! A killer! How dare you think in such a girlish way since you have such a tainted innocence card?

"[Name],” your parents called you to the office. Ever since they founded this organization, your relationship has been more like an employee-employer than a daughter-parents. "We decided to change your mission.”

"Is... is it because I did not get rid of him?” you asked. Your hands started to shake, even when you clenched your hands on your shirt. "Give me some more time, I promise I'll eliminate him!"

Father shook his head.

"We've already lost too much time," he said. "We'll get rid of Fatui later. If we get as many allies as possible now, we can actually gain an advantage” with his right hand, he moved the some paper towards you, and even without reading, you could tell it was someone's data. "We want you to improve your relationship with this man. Try to convince him to sign with us.”

You nodded wordlessly.

You knew you should have killed Childe beforehand.

Maybe then you wouldn't feel that today was your last, relatively friendly, encounter.

‎‎‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

Childe turned around again.

For several days now, he has been constantly checking if anyone was following him. But he no longer felt this familiar, playful sight.

And that was the problem.

He didn't want anything other than for you to jump out and try to take his life. Of course, he wouldn't get hurt, but he'd watch you start pouting that in this four-day break for attacking him, he didn't forget your tactics.

Then he would smile, pat you on the shoulder and say that "the loser is not forever a loser, but in your case, it is" and allow you to lightly hit him with your elbow. He didn't even realize how much he enjoyed your meetings until you stopped appearing.

"Have you seen how cute she is?" he heard whispers from excited teenagers. Both were dressed in floral outfits and held small, elegant handbags in their hands.

Ah, yes.

There was a holiday in Liyue, right? On the occasion of the new year?

Tartaglia found himself in the main square, not noticing all the stalls surrounding him and the floating lanterns and aromas of Liyueian dishes. Most of the passers-by wore elegant robes in warm colors, but in their normal attire did not stand out from the crowd.

"Yes!" her dark-haired friend replied. "Do you think we can get the same hairstyle as hers?"

Childe lurched when he finally took his eyes off the cobblestone path and looked ahead. His heart stood when he recognized you.

You were standing next to a man, dressed in a kimono-inspired by lilies – light blue, made of delicate material, which sleeves flowed down your shoulders. You had your hair tied up in a high bun, and through it came a gold, decorative hairpin, the ending of which resembled a flower. Light make-up and long earrings further completed your outfit. It flashed under the light of all the lanterns as if you were their beloved person on this festival.

Tartaglia knew you were beautiful.

He always met you in dark, practical, and comfortable clothes that would not get anyone's attention. Even in them, he thought that you would be able to outdo many beauties.

And now, in such a beautiful outfit, you were standing there, attracting eyes of passing constants... in front of him... and with a man putting his hand around your waist.

He frowned when he took a step (or at least wanted himself to look confident since his mind was surrounded by doubts) he moved towards you.

"Good evening, [Name]," his voice didn’t betray the nervousness as you turned harshly towards him. "I did not think we'd meet here.”

"Ah, good evening... Tartaglia," you replied, breaking eye contact with him. One more second and you'd forget your name and how you breathe.

"Is this your friend?" asked the man standing next to you. You nodded as he turned to Childe. "Excuse me, but tonight I will kidnap her from your company," he laughed at his own joke.

"Kidnap?" Tartaglia repeated, smiling friendly. "I'm sorry to say that, but you don't know anything about kidnappings.”

As soon as he said it, he grabbed your wrist and snatched you from the man's embrace. You collided with Childe's torso before he took you in his arms and rushed into one of the side streets. You were all confused when people started talking louder about the call of the guard. Childe slipped through a few less crowded streets as you tried to punish himself with his strong embrace, only seeing a rapidly changing floor in front of his eyes.

"Let me go! "You hit him with your foot and tried to push him away with all your might. "Childe, leave me!"

"Hehe," he laughed bitterly. "And why is it? It's a penalty for running away from our daily workout.”

"This is the end of our training!” you swung your knee again, but after this attempt, you gave up. "I couldn't get rid of you, so now I have to do something else.”

"And that's something to do with that man, right?" he was silent. "Believe me or not, I definitely preferred that mission with my assassination. At least then I could see you every day.”

…

"I... I also liked these days," you admitted. You sighed loudly, feeling the smell of the forest. This meant that Childe had already took you out of Liyue and you two were far from the city. "But... I can't object to my parents, so—”

“As I said before," he interrupted you, and a mysterious flash came in his eyes. He smiled at you as if ensuring that everything would be fine. "This is a kidnapping.”

Hi! uhhh I don't really know if rqsts are open so you can just discard this if you want. n e wayssss can I get a oneshot of a dense fem!s/o who isn't really dense but she just pretends to be because she's scared of heartbreaks. make it a vil please! (btw she is so dense to the point where vil is almost making a fool of himself just to get a shred of affection from y/n) and again if the rqsts are closed please just dismiss this thanks!

a/n: Sorry for a month-long (??) delay!!

Vil Schoenheit x Pretending to be dense in terms of love! Reader

There were times when Vil thought you were doing that on purpose. You never got a hint. You never noticed that you always had his eyes follow your every move, orbs light up whenever you greeted him and darken with worry whenever you laughed your head off with another student. Vil couldn't really remember the times when he thought of you as a friend. Perhaps he never did so; in childhood times, when you were one of the kids that stuck to his side and without a complaint respected his limited time to play with other children, you were just an acquaintance and neither of you put any effort nor time to tighten the bond between you two. And three years ago, around the time when he entered Night Raven Collage walls, you two were almost inseparable. Messaging each other every day, getting fashion tips from him every morning and sincere compliments (or whining) from you in return. He supposes that you were already someone more than “acquaintance”, maybe even more than a “friend”. With his entrance, he promised himself that he will figure out his feelings by the day he graduates from NRC. Now he is in his third year, and still has no idea what the hell is going on in his mind. Why it's so hard to keep composure with you around? Is your heart so sensitive around him too, ready to jump out of your chest whenever he seems to care about you? Then, why do you never look interested in him? Should he just confess to you... and risk your relationship that he cherishes so much? Why is he the one that fell in love? It would have been easier if you were lovestruck. It is torture and Vil believes it will still be one. As much as obliviousness was a cute trait of yours—or so he thought, when he was still thinking of you only as an acquaintance—now it made him feel despondent. “What?” Vil recognizes your voice and halts. As much as he wants to just walk past the overhearing area, he can't bring himself to. He just stays quiet as you continue talking to Epel, who just spotted Vil next to you two. His muscles tense, and Epel seems like he wants to jump to you and stop you from sating anything more, but isn't fast enough. “I am not in love with Vil. Why would you think that?” Epel's eyes widen a bit, a concern fills his eyes that turn into a stormy-grey timbre. You use sudden diversity as a sign to turn around and look straight into Vil. …

He is the first one, who starts speaking. He thanks himself for his ability to control emotions. At least on the outside. Saying “disaster” would be an understatement of the turmoil tugging his heart. He just knew that there was no point in figuring these feelings anymore when they weren't going to be reciprocated. “...Good morning, potatoes,” he says after a pause, forcing himself to keep calm. “Why aren't you heading to the laboratory yet? If you will be late for classes, I will have to put you for extra etiquette lessons. No one wants that, no?” “Ah, yes,” Epel replies quickly, casting you a subtle glance. “I mean, we were planning to go there just now. [Name], hurry up, and let's go-!” “I- I think I just lied.” There is an almost visual hesitance in your voice. You tightly grip the hem of your uniform's shirt, almost poking holes in the white fabric. “About.. uh, my interest in Vil,” you continued, your voice quieted with each word. “I am not saying I am in love... and even if I am, I would like to keep such a... precious person like himself by my side even... even as friends.”

It doesn't take a long time before Vil speaks. “I think,” he says, his mind that filled with different thoughts, that he could as well have an empty space in his thoughts, “that Vil would be really happy if you risked your relationship with him. I can see him... almost struggling with confirming if your feelings are mutual. He does his best to see if he has a chance.” You look at him with surprise. “He does?” “I do,” Vil says, his smile lustres with gratitude and bliss. “And I assure you that I will use it properly when the time comes. You may expect it very soon... but this time not with a close audience.” He looks at Epel, who winces at his remark, somehow still overenthusiastic and stunned by the (half-)confession. “Am I at fault for just standing there?! You are the one who interrupted our very walk to the lab!” The ringing bell engulfs his last words, and Epel shifts uncomfortably as you dither if you must go to classes right now. Vil places his hand on your head, but in a way that doesn't mess up your hairstyle. “Try to focus on your classes today... And wait for me until I will ask for your heart officially.” With these words, he gracefully turns around, and you aren't sure if Crewell will be able to get your attention in a while.