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It started off small, like with Qiqi forgetting her lunch money at home.
“LUNCHTIME!” Klee screamed as the bell rang, immediately quieting down after Aether gave her a knowing look. He would never understand how she was always filled with energy, even at 12 in the afternoon.
“Lunchtime!” she whispered, her cute voice hushed as she and all the other kids grabbed their lunchboxes and money with their grubby hands, leaving for the cafeteria.
“Hey Qiqi, why aren’t you heading off to lunch with the others?” Aether asked, noticing how the girl lingered at her table, continuing to swirl her crayon around the paper in front of her. He pulled out the little chair next to the child and sat down, “Are you not hungry?”
“Qiqi forgot her money at home,” the purple-haired girl frowned, “Mister Baizhu gave a book for Qiqi to write down her to-do list, but Qiqi forgot to write down to ask for lunch money.”
“I’ll come with you and get you something, how does that sound?” Aether smiled, standing up and gently taking the crayon out of her hand, “I’ll even get you a dessert!”
“Ice cream?” Qiqi softly spoke, slowly standing up and locking her hand with Aether as he tugged her to the cafeteria.
“Sure,” Aether smiled, mentally noting to email Qiqi’s guardian later that night or speak with them in person. He was curious about this Baizhu character, Qiqi’s guardian never came to any of the Parent-teacher conferences.
Xiangling was more than happy to give Qiqi an extra scoop of ice cream as Aether watched fondly as she waddled over to where Klee waved her over, chocolate smeared all over the blonde girl’s cheeks.
Aether thought nothing of the situation, kids forgot their money at home all the time. That was until it happened every day for two weeks.
Eventually, Aether created a separate lunch account and told Xiangling to just charge him when Qiqi came for lunch, but being the sweetheart she is Xiangling offered to give it to her for free of charge. As long as Qiqi was getting food in her it should be fine.
He had sent an email to Qiqi’s emergency contact, but alas, he received no response. He even tried to phone them from the school’s number, but no one picked up. He decided they must be busy and would just wait for them to come pick their child up.
But that did not happen either.
Aether stood with Qiqi near the front of the school one Friday afternoon, then opting to sit beside her on the benches outside when another hour went by as they waited for her car to pull up. He didn’t realize how late it had gotten until Xiao came out and was surprised to still see him there.
“I thought you went home?” Xiao asked, coming up to the two of them, sending a wave to Qiqi as he gave Aether a perplexed look.
He and Xiao had taken separate cars to work that day since Aether had an appointment earlier that morning, usually, they would both arrive and leave together.
“I was waiting for Qiqi’s guardian, but they haven’t shown up and it's been two hours,” Aether frowned, looking over to the girl. Qiqi had pulled out a manga to flip through, munching on a granola bar Aether gave her as she swung her legs.
“Qiqi, when do you usually get picked up?” Xiao asked, glancing at the empty parking lot, apart from the handful of cars from teachers who stayed longer like them, it was empty.
“If Mister Baizhu doesn’t come in three hours, Qiqi just walks home,” the girl explained, to which Xiao and Aether shared a worried look.
“Let’s drop her off,” Xiao offered, “I’ll go look up her address,” he added, heading back inside to presumably check with the files containing her information.
“How about Mr. Xiao and I drive you home, is that alright?” Aether asks, to which Qiqi slowly nodded.
“Okay,” she simply said, watching as Xiao came back, showing him her address on his phone.
“Alright, come on,” Aether called out, helping Qiqi off the bench and leading her to the car Xiao drove to school, it was a bit bigger and more comfortable for a child. They would both have to carpool tomorrow since Aether was leaving his car in the lot.
Neither of them had a car seat for her, so they said a prayer to Barbatos as Aether strapped her in, putting the child’s lock-on and getting into the passenger seat. Xiao turned the GPS on and followed its directions, turning down unfamiliar roads as they headed towards her house.
Seems she lived on the more populated side of the city, since there were quite a few businesses and buildings on the way, but eventually they turned onto the final road, the GPS indicating they had arrived when Xiao pulled into the parking lot of a pharmacy.
Aether peered out the window, seeing how there was a building above the pharmacy.
“Qiqi, is this where you live?” Xiao asked, looking back at her as Qiqi nodded, taking her seatbelt off.
“I think the apartment is above the shop,” Aether pointed out, looking over to Xiao who looked at the building with a look of caution.
“No way could she walk home, this place is too far,” Xiao thought aloud, Aether nodding along. It was probably a two hour walk for an adult, he couldn’t fathom a young child walking home this late at night.
Aether got out and opened the door for Qiqi, unbuckling her seatbelt and letting her lead the way inside.
The bell rang as they entered ‘ Bubu Pharmacy ’, according to the sign on the store’s front.
Qiqi bounded up to the front counter, taking them past rows of what looked like herbs and medicine as she rang a bell on the counter, bouncing on the heels of her feet.
“Coming–Oh hello Qiqi,” a deep voice drawled, it belonged to a man with a head of long green hair.
“Hello Mister Baizhu,” Qiqi greeted, bowing.
“Move along now Qiqi, we have customers,” Bazihu informed, gesturing to Aether and Xiao.
Qiqi nodded and turned back to face Aether and Xiao, tugging on Aether’s pants and mumbling a thank you, before turning around and running past the counter and into the back room.
“How can I help you?” Baizhu greeted, leaning against the counter.
“Actually, we aren’t here to buy anything. I’m one of Qiqi’s teachers from school and noticed she was staying late so my husband and I drove her home. I’m Aether,” he explained, reaching out a hand to shake as Baizhu took it slowly.
“This is Xiao,” Aether introduced, to which Xiao waved, not giving his hand.
“Thanks for driving her, but there is no need. Qiqi needs to learn to be independent,” Baizhu replied, his voice changing tones as he realized they weren’t here to buy anything.
“The thing is, I’ve messaged you multiple times this past week to ask about Qiqi’s lunch situation. It seems she didn’t have one for the past two to three weeks since she didn’t have money, she got meals free of charge but it’ll be charged unless there’s a financial situation,” Aether smiled, trying not to let Bazihu’s demeanor get to him. The charging part wasn’t true, since he put Qiqi under his name, but he wanted to see if the other male even cared.
“Qiqi doesn’t get lunch money unless she helps out at the pharmacy, and recently she’s been spending too much time on homework and not helping me out. I’m just doing some parenting and teaching her responsibilities,” Baizhu sighed, “So stop giving out lunches to her, or else she won’t learn.”
“That’s child labor,” Xiao said, stepping forward with his hands stuffed into his dress pant pockets, “You’re not allowed to make your child work to earn basic necessities.”
Baizhu squinted at him, “She’s not my legal child, I just took her in out of the kindness of my heart. She has to earn her place here.”
Aether was starting to grow worried, he hadn’t expected the man who took care of Qiqi to be so stubborn.
“Doesn’t matter, you still can’t force her to work,” Xiao repeated.
“Whatever,” Baizhu spoke back, “I’ll raise her how I want.”
“Mister Baizhu, may Qiqi have a snack?” Qiqi spoke up, coming out of the backroom and holding up a bottle of some sort of drink.
“Did you stock the shelves?” Baizhu asked, turning to face her as Qiqi’s head turned down in shame as she shook her head no.
“Then no, you may not,” Baizhu answered, reaching over to take the drink and placing it on the counter, watching as Qiqi’s hands deflated to her side, moving past the counter and towards the shelves near the front of the store. She pulled out some boxes and started to restock the shelves, moving sluggishly as she did so.
“If you’re not gonna buy anything I’ll have to kindly ask you two to leave,” Baizhu smiled, pointing towards the door.
Xiao simply stared at him before looking behind him, nodding to the fridge.
“I’ll take a cocogoat drink,” Xiao stated as Aether pulled out his wallet and handed over a bill to pay as Baizhu gave them an odd look. The green-haired man turned to take one out of the fridge and slid it across the counter, taking the bill and placing it into the register.
Aether followed Xiao who picked up the drink, making his way to where Qiqi struggled to stock up the higher shelves and popped the lid off the bottle he bought before handing it to her.
“Thank you, Mr. Xiao!” Qiqi smiled, gulping down the drink with both her hands as Baizhu stared in disdain.
“I can’t provide my services if you’re just going to give them to her, if that’s all I’ll be off,” Baizhu reprimanded, swiveling in place to go into the back room.
Aether watched as Qiqi finished the drink and tossed it into a bin, going back to filling up the shelves.
“What should we do?” Aether asked as they both bid her farewell and left the pharmacy, now leaning against their car, “We can’t take action unless we get evidence.”
Xiao stared aimlessly at the pharmacy sign before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone, his thumb pressing the pause button since he was on the camera app. He handed the phone to Aether whose brows rose as he played newly recorded video. It was a little quiet but Baizhu’s voice rang out from where the phone sat in Xiao’s pockets.
“I’m really attracted to you right now,” Aether sighed, sending the video to himself as Xiao’s soft laughter rang in his ears.
The rest of the month was stressful, to say the least.
It seems Baizhu didn’t take the hint to be a proper guardian and continued to send Qiqi to school with no lunch or money and went on to not pick her up. It became routine to drop off Qiqi, so much so that the girl would be waiting either outside his or Xiao’s classroom after school. During days when they both had to work a bit after the school day Aether would just let her paint something while she waited.
They had been talking to a lawyer for the past week, they brought up the situation to their coworkers and friends and Hutao gave them her girlfriend Yanfei’s contact information, since she happened to be a lawyer, to set up some meetings.
It led to many late nights since all of the staff was concerned, they couldn’t do anything to make her situation worse or do anything rash, it was just a lot of sitting and planning.
“If she moves to an orphanage she’s gonna have to drop out and switch school districts,” Yanfei explained from their dining table, Hutao had come along too but she had taken their cat out for a walk. They didn’t have the heart to tell her she didn’t need to but she had looked a little too excited, …they should probably check on her later.
Xiao tapped his fingers on the table, brows furrowed as Aether nodded along. They had both discussed it and come to the only conclusion that would keep their minds at rest.
“Xiao and I can adopt her,” Aether spoke up.
Yanfei merely nodded, as if she had been expecting this.
“That can be arranged, I’ll send someone over to do a home inspection later this week, just make sure you guys clear out a room,” Yanfei smiled, sliding over a file with forms, “It’ll be okay.”
Xiao flipped through the papers, a neutral look on his face as he read through everything. But Aether knew him too well, he could tell the other male was relieved, and so was he.
The home inspection had gone well, one of Yanfei’s coworkers, Keqing, had visited. She was quite strict but very sweet as she asked them questions and asked if she could pet their cat. Turns out she was married and happily obliged to showing off pictures of her wife Ganyu who was allergic to cats, so they let her take pictures of their kitty and send them to her.
Setting up a child’s bedroom was the most difficult part, neither of them knew what to do with the space so they went to IKEA, a furniture store, with Venti…which was probably a bad idea since that man was practically a child himself most of the time.
“This is cute,” Venti gushed, plopping onto one of the bed displays and rolling around as Xiao picked up one of the pillows.
“This is a weed design,” he stated, tossing the pillow onto Venti’s face.
“We aren’t trying to pass on your stoner habits,” Aether laughed, helping Venti get the pillow off his face.
They both followed to where Xiao was standing by a child’s room display, picking up one of the cat plushies since it looked like their own back at home.
“I like the dinosaur room,” Venti added as Xiao tossed the plushie into the cart, Aether didn’t know if it was for him or Qiqi, but either way it was endearing.
“She doesn’t like dinosaurs,” Aether frowned as he admired the cute dinosaur wallpaper. He had an assignment where the kids had to paint any animal, mythical or real, and many of the girls screamed in terror at the oddly realistic T-Rex Timmie had painted, or perhaps it was the blood he had drawn to accompany it.
Venti picked up one of the kawaii dino plushies and placed it into the cart, bounding off to where Xiao was standing by, yet again, more plushies.
Aether shook his head but kept them in the cart, buying plushies for his husband and friend was not what he thought he’d be doing on this trip.
They eventually ventured off into different displays, passing by a racecars-themed one, a princess-themed one, and even a Shrek-themed one. They spent a little too long admiring that last one but decided to not purchase anything, though there was suddenly a Shrek plushie in his cart.
Venti found a cute purple comforter with floral designs, which they all agreed upon, and tossed it into the cart. Picking a bed was easier, they all stared jealousy at a bunk bed and placed an order for it. They decided to have the top bunk have a purple comforter and the bottom one blue.
“Beanbag!” Venti yelled, jumping into one that swallowed him whole. Xiao poked at it and nodded approvingly, pointing to it and facing Aether, “Let’s get two.”
“Never pegged you to be a beanbag guy,” Aether mused as he looked up the product number to place an order.
“You’ve never pegged him?—OW!” Venti bellowed, his voice getting muffled as Xiao suffocated him with a strawberry plush.
“You had that one coming,” Aether laughed, reaching out a hand to pull Venti up from where he sunk into the beanbag.
“Cuming—,”
Aether pushed him back into the beanbag.
Children were very peculiar because, despite her age, Qiqi seemed to pick up what was going on.
Yanfei had called for a case to investigate Baizhu and uncovered he had never legally adopted Qiqi, he merely took her in and put her to work and paid her in necessities. They filed for child abuse and provided the evidence they had collected over the past few weeks, which was enough for him to get behind bars. It was rather messy, there was a lot of yelling and papers flying, but in the end Baizhu was found guilty and they all felt their shoulders drop in relief.
None of that compared to explaining everything to Qiqi. The saddest part was that she seemed to understand and nodded along when Yanfei told her what would be happening. Because even though he and Xiao had mentally and physically prepared to take care of her from now on, it was up to her. But when she ran up to wrap her arms around Aether’s legs and then Xiao’s, that was enough answer for them.
The first day of Qiqi coming home was a bundle of nerves more for them than her, if the incessant tapping Xiao was doing or the way Aether’s thigh wouldn’t stop bouncing on the car ride home was enough of a clue.
“Do you like it?” Aether asked, smiling as Qiqi slowly walked around her new room. It had previously just been where they dumped their random clutter, like boxes and old clothes, but creating her a room had given them an excuse to finally clean it out.
“Yes,” she nodded, plopping onto the beanbag and rolling around.
The child ran around her new room, poking at the comforter and books adorning her shelves, he and Xiao had gone a tad bit overboard. Nothing compared to when Qiqi found out they had a cat, since she held it in her hands for the rest of the day until she had to let it go at the dinner table.
For most of their life, their dining table only had two chairs pulled into it, only pulling out the others when guests came over. Two placemats, two plates, two glasses, it was all the same.
And now there were three of them, hence three of everything else.
A new permanent seat was dedicated to their daughter; Qiqi.