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💌
Valentine’s, birthdays, denial
ft. librarians that sacrifice students for books
” You want some more, more “
–
Y/n leaned onto her palm with a dazed look reflecting back into her eyes from the window outside that had yet to show the sunlight. Legs lightly shaking back and forth beneath the desk, she stared at the small tents with blankets and pillows by the back of her class that she set up a few months prior, not long after her arrival to the secondary. The teacher often found herself missing the chaotic laughter of children running around, but this was nice too. Her lashes fluttered slowly like a butterfly leisurely flowing its wings on a leaf.
The second last week of January. As soon as the calendar flipped to next month, the entire city would be decorated in pink and heart shaped candies of all sorts. As much as she loved seasonal decorations, but Valentine’s….
Another wave of headache rolled on. She sighed and pulled out the sticky note drawer. This time, a blank lilac purple note was slipped out— the pen was millimetres away from the surface of the page, before it paused. Her eyes squinted at the paper devoid of any marks, untouched and pure.
Tempted to scribble a void into it, she closed her eyes yet again and placed the pen down. The teacher sighed subtly and flopped her upper body onto the desk’s tauntingly inviting surface. It was half past six, she was here ridiculously early due to have waking up at 2 in the morning and unable to fall back into slumber. That monster in 206 was here since 5:30… Well, he was a calculus teacher— he probably had more to mark and prepare. Y/n stared at the page in front of her.
After a good five minutes of staring holes into the poor note, she finally got an idea.
☆
Scaramouche stood aimlessly in the printer room, pretending to tweak around with the printer that was probably ancient enough to belong in a museum. His students always complained that their printouts looked like scattered splashes of black ink, which he rolled his eyes and told them to suck it up. In reality, he was constantly nagging at the school to replace the printer. Sending 5 page long emails every few days would make them pay some attention.
He looked down the hallway, listening for any footsteps in the distance. This had been continuing for quite some time, of him moving back and forth between his empty classroom and the printer room for the past thirty minutes without much purpose. But every time he popped back in to act like he had a reason to be there, his eyes would subconsciously graze his desk— which was still empty of a piece of paper that should’ve been there by now.
If he realized this, he would’ve mentally screamed and marched his way back to class. The only reason he managed to keep doing this was because he refused to accept his motive of aimlessly wandering in and out of his class.
He finally decided how pathetic he was being and ruffled his hair while entering through the door and clicking it shut. Just as his gaze landed on his desk, his eyes sparked for a single split moment. There was a light purple paper sitting on the surface of the filth free surface. Placing the papers down on a random desk by the front row, he peeled the small page off and brought it an arm’s distance away from his face. The middle seemed to be covered by a thick layer of whiteout..? In sparkly blue pen below the mess of whiteout, there were familiar bubbly letters.
Scratch to win !!
He scoffed at the childish antics and opened a drawer to bring out a coin he took from a student the other day for jingling and making noise in his pocket. The student was too terrified to ask for it back by the end of the class (this would technically be considered theft but it was the student’s choice of asking for it back). Kunikuzushi gripped the cold metal between his index and thumb, gently scratching away the white residue piled on the surface of the paper. Slowly, it was revealing bits and pieces of black letters underneath.
Sorry, next time ~
Scaramouche stared at the three words for an almost stupidly long time. A tiny snort left his lips.
☆
“Ms. L/n, are you tired..?” Nilou worriedly asked with a concerned tone lacing her soft voice. Y/n blinked and snapped back into reality with a grin. “The answer will always be the same if you’re asking a teacher that question. I was busy climbing into the window of whoever that decided to hand in their perspective assignment one minute before the due time so I didn’t get much sleep~” She sighed. The redhead let out a polite laugh while the student in the story flinched from the back of the class.
“If you say so.” She nodded and placed finished organizing the dry erase marker collection. “Thanks a bunch Nilou, I’ve been meaning to organize that monstrosity for weeks now.”
Everyone had noticed the normally cheerful teacher’s off demeanour by now. The empty look behind a layer of a fraction of its usual sparkle in her eyes spoke for her voice that almost dragged on while speaking, as though she was trying to speak with a tongue tied back. She gave a faded smile to wave it off. “Why’re you all staring at me like that— am I growing white hairs already? I’m not that old.” Y/n pouted and ran a joking hand through her hair.
Hu Tao and Nilou made eye contact. Something wasn’t right, with mr. Raiden’s ignoring behaviour not exactly helping the situation by much. There looked to be a very visible wall between the two teachers as of recently. Y/n was enthusiastic to make her moves before nevertheless whether they were reciprocated or not. But these days, she seemed tired herself. No one could really blame her since she probably spent all her energy into getting that man to somewhat open up at the beginning. However.. This seemed a little different than that.
The semester was ending soon, so students were grinding for their final marks. Same with the facing classroom.
Scaramouche crossed his arms and stared at the document in front of him, blinking and hardening his gaze before reading from the beginning after losing concentration halfway through….. For the fourth time now.
Fuck..
His fingertips ran halfway down his scalp in frustration, soon flattening the ruffled indigo locks after.
The class was in the middle of their test. From the corner of his eyes, Scaramouche could see a few students by the back silently jerking their back softly to silence their sobs. Whatever, as long as they didn’t stain the test papers with their dirty teardrops.
He took a short breath and glued his eyes back on the screen. Yet another parent had sent a two page long essay on how his teaching methods were somehow mentally straining and abusing on their child. The teacher blankly glared holes into the document in realization he just wasted a perfectly good five minutes on reading this.
As of recently, the classroom across had been near abnormally quiet. Scaramouche frequently found his students eyeing through the slightly open door to see what was going on the other side before they were sent a warning gaze to pay attention.
Everything was confusing. It felt like he was trying to untangle a ball of yarn, just to realize the end of the yarn was just a cut off bit and he had to restart over and over again. From the absentminded look his roommate would bear in her eyes while pacing downstairs with her thumbnail softly being chewed on, to the awkward tension that would linger in the air whenever one of them entered the room the other was in. Only a wall between them, yet it felt two worlds apart.
Kunikuzushi didn’t know what to say around her anymore. She had become one of the few people who were immune to his pessimistic comments and sharp gaze, managing to find his true words he hid in those words without even realizing. Whenever he spoke facing her, his eyes would only drift around the ground or the wall nearby.
A man who drowned once avoids water.
He avoided her like a plague patient, as if afraid he would catch a disease if he went within five feet near her personal space. A disease in which one’s heart would constrict and breaths shortened as though he ran a marathon, and eyes froze stuck in place. Kunikuzushi is a coward, despite his high and mighty words.
As a child, he despised sharing things. Most adults assumed he didn’t like germs or uncleanness in general since he rarely involved himself in sports and exercises that involved him sweating and getting out of breath. That was partially true. But no one would listen to his reasoning he mumbled to himself when they turned their backs.
Everything that was returned back to him was broken, scratched, or damaged in some way or another.
Everything.
Things he let others borrow without hesitation or selfishness with faith they would gently use it. By the time it reached his hands again, nothing remained the way he gave it to others. And yet when he needed it, no one would step up to offer anything.
This wasn’t about sharing things with children.
So why should he share if it was only himself who was experiencing the consequences?
The bell rung yet again, as the students stood up and placed the papers onto his desk flipped over. Some of them were still trying to write as much as they could on their way to the desk. Finally, second period over. It took around ten minutes for the hallways to fully clear out and become devoid of noise.
“….” Scaramouche stared at the framed pictures sitting on top of the shelf by his seat. Y/n had left them there by the beginning of her job, when she first decorated his room. Despite telling himself he would clean it up sometime soon, his hand never reached out to them with the purpose of getting rid of it.
In the one in the middle— the most recent one, was the picture taken on his birthday. One of the students had taken it, so it was slightly blurry compared to the other ones.
Y/n had managed to turn to the camera last minute, tugging softly at the bottom of her eye and sticking her tongue out for the picture. He was standing a few feet away from her, staring with disbelief at the scene that unfolded in front of him. There were students popping party poppers as they rushed up from behind counters, and many who were spilling out from different doors to the office.
Without even noticing, the edge of his mouth had dragged upward a microscopic amount for the second time that day. Different time, same reason.
☆
“I swear— my lifespan is shortened by half from watching those two nowadays.”
“Hehe, you’re still young and healthy dear~”
Lisa smiled as the art teacher’s homeroom students buried their heads together in frustration. Only Xinyan and Hu Tao were present at the moment, along with Sucrose who wasn’t actually in any of Y/n’s classes. The green haired girl was fiddling with her fingers by the corner of the group, the only person who knew being ms. Minci who introduced her with the other two. “How adorable this is. But doesn’t the semester end in a month?” Lisa tilted her head.
“Mhm. That’s why we need everyone involved. The whole school might just burn down from the rage by everyone who knows ms. L/n and mr. Raiden if they continue like this for the next few weeks.” Hu Tao sighed. “If ms. L/n wasn’t involved…. Mr. Raiden would’ve looked quite fine in a urn or a coffin—”
“..Let’s leave that there.” Xinyan laughed before frowning in thought. “Hah… It would be nice if there was some kind of occasion outside of school to involve them.” She thought out loud.
The brunette teacher lazily grinned in an amused manner as she organized the books into their respective shelves. Mondstadt had the largest library other than Snezhaya— which was practically a separate school at this point since it was a private department. And their librarian wasn’t terrifying for no reason. She would probably sacrifice one of the students in a fire if she had to choose between them and the books…
“Hmm.. An occasion outside of school you say.” She pondered. “Is the school throwing any kind of events that are upcoming? Like— a band concert, club fair, anything.” Xinyan chimed in. Lisa placed a finger near her lips and narrowed her eyes in thought.
Sucrose, who was standing around awkwardly by the corner finally stepped forward hesitantly. “Um…” She flinched as everyone turned to her. After a short breath, she continued while adjusting her glasses. “It’s ms. L/n’s birthday soon.. I- I’m sure everyone knew this already, but maybe we could do something similar with what we did on mr. Raiden’s birthday..?” She quietly suggested. A suffocating silence hung in the air.
“WHAAAT..?!”
“Quiet now darlings, this is still a library.”
Sucrose sweatdropped. “Oh.. You guys didn’t know..?” She questioned. Hu Tao’s eyes looked like they would bulge out from their sockets, as she and Xinyan shared a dumbfounded look. Y/n never told anyone her birthday— only responding with that it had already passed, or turning the topic as a whole. The reason? Unknown, just like the reason she avoided many questioned shot towards herself. Ms. Minci had a lightbulb go off in her head. “Come to think of it, I do remember hearing around that she shares a birthday with Beidou. Valentine’s day, how convenient.” Sucrose nodded in confirmation.
Valentine’s day.. That was almost too perfect.
“Wait, wouldn’t ms. Beidou feel a bit left out if we center things to ms. L/n?” The brunette in spiky pigtails tilted her head. Lisa hummed. “She isn’t one to get upset from such trivial matters. Plus, she’s good friends with L/n herself— I’m sure she would be more than understanding if things go well with her.” Her eyes turned elsewhere as the corners of her mouth crawled upward. “..Plus, I heard her bragging around that she had special plans with Liyue Economics teacher on that day.” She slyly added, about to reach for the next pile of books.
Just then, the library door creaked open. While the other three were talking about something, Sucrose turned her head to the entrance, expecting a student she didn’t recognize. The poor girl nearly choked on her breath and froze into the ground.
“H-hu Tao… I think we should get going now, lunch is almost over..”
“Hm? Anyways, mr. Raiden better—”
“I better what?”
…Maybe this would be even more disastrous than everyone imagined.
—-
A/n IM SO SORRY FOR MAKING EVERYONE WAIT the kitchen got burnt and the chef was fired but your food is ready 🍽
i was almost finished with the chapter but then my power went out so it didnt save lol ty everyone for waiting patiently 🫶
Also if anyone would like to give me ideas on how to continue the story, pls msg me ab it bc im slowly running out of ideas on continuing the plot.
Unless yall want the earlier angst ofc ❤
2617 words
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