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1.
It’s the very first day and Wylan manages to make it into the class barely a second before the bell rings. ( and before the door closes and everyone stares at him as he tries to explain himself and his hands start shaking and he starts stuttering andㅡ well, other unsavoury reactions. ) Avoiding any and all eye contact, he immediately zeroes in on an empty seat that nobody has taken yet and practically flings his bag on it.
"Can I- doyoumind?" He asks the other boy sitting there and he knows he’s spoken too quickly (he doesn't even know where his voice disappears when he tries to talk to strangers but he hates it because it makes him look weird and this kid already thinks he's a total freak, way to fucking go, Wylanㅡ). Oh. The boy just seems surprised that there's someone next to him and quickly nods, moving his books back to his own desk.
"Sorry," he murmurs and the fact that there's really nothing to apologise for and that he's doing what Wylan always does relaxes him enough that he actually sighs in relief before he just smiles awkwardly in a way that he just hopes isn't too awkward and quickly sits.
The teacher walks in just as he opens his book ㅡfor show, mainly, it isn’t like he can actually read it, but he has gone over the audiobook earlier and he just has to hope his memory doesn’t fail him. The teacher does the usual greeting, and when he reads out the attendance he pauses to mention, "ㅡwe have a new student joining us. Mr... er, Yuhl-bo... from Shu Han Academy is joining us for this semester. Please, do stand and introduce yourself to the class." He points out the boy next to Wylan and he cringes inside as he watches the boy near visibly curl in on himself before he does as he is told. The blonde busies himself into looking at his book when the class turns to stare.
"Uh.. yeah. I'm Kuwei and," he clears his throat "it's Yule-bo. Not Yuhl."
His voice is quiet even in the dead silent class, though he does not say anything else and collapses back into his seat. Wylan sighs in relief as the other students turn back to each other and start their tittering. He's eavesdropped enough to know they're analyzing the new kid, do you think he's hot? wonder what he's like? is he gonna be another loser for us to beat up or one of us? And the like.
The class begins.
2.
There's a project, apparently, that absolutely requires partners and it's a multiple-month spanning project that will also account for 40% of the overall grade. Fuck, is Wylan's first and foremost thought. He needs this. Practical Chemistry is the only thing he has. ( other than like, two other subjects which are still writing-based so he's dying in those too, but it's whatever ) He takes a breath. Then another. He steels himself for it, then finally manages to turn to his neighbour.
"Doyouwanttobemypartner," he asks, quickly and in a single breath; Kuwei looks at him blankly for a moment before his brow clears and he nods, his own shoulders sagging with relief. He doesn’t have many friends here either.
3.
It is astonishly hard to keep your focus when someone keeps going out of their way to watch you. Wylan shifts on his seat nervously as quickly turns once to look behind him, and, as expected, catches the black-clad senior lurking nearby.
He shakes his head to dislodge the paranoia in his head and turns back to his laptop, putting another earbud in to block off the rest of the sounds in the library. Right. Text to speech. Research. That is what he has to do right now, which does not involve looking over his shoulder to the ridiculously attractive and sufficiently threatening group surrounding a so-called delinquent.
That boy reminds him of a black hole at times, utterly mysterious yet with a pull so powerful nobody can quite ignore him.
4.
They are in the chem lab and it is one of those rare times where they can talk freely during school, without being under the watchful eye of the school's infamous gang leader. ( it may sound harsh, but he is pretty sure kaz brekker has once punched a school therapist. so, really, you can't blame him ) The point is, not even Kaz can glare at them through the walls during a class he isn't in. (though cameras are a different topic) He feels a little more relaxed without the feeling of those pitch black eyes boring into him.
Wylan hands his partner a flask, then asks him something he really should have asked before but didn't because of course he didn't, “Are.. you’re okay at chem, right?" He does kind of have to be if he’s in the AP class. But Wylan’s streak of bad luck never fails him, so it’s really up in the air at this point. Kuwei looks, just for a second, like a deer caught in headlights but then hesitantly nods.
"I guess, yeah."
Something about his manner strikes Wylan as severely shady, but he ignores it. Let people be shady; it's not his business if it doesn't directly affect him. ..which this might. "Okay. Okay. Good." He pauses. "I'm Wylan, by the way. I don't think we've properly, like, introduced ourselves."
The brunette's lip quirks. They know each other's names already, but this feels like it needs to be done. "Kuwei."
5.
The teacher’s voice continues to drone on in his head, divide your work evenly, you will be tested individually also, this is a team project and you must collaborate with your partner well. He is right, partners are supposed to know stuff about each other. Considering that, you know, they’re usually supposed to be friends. He takes another deep breath, ignoring the persistent feeling of eyes boring into the back of his head. "Uh, and I'm turning 16 this year and I like practical sciences and art, I guess. You?"
Kuwei processes for a second and then nods. "Cool," he says kind of lamely, "I'm fifteen too. I don't like school much,” he stops as if he’s thinking of something else to say. “But you know what you said about those serials? I'm all for those shitty daytime dramas."
Wylan snorts, readily recalling his step-mother’s infatuation with them."The soaps, or the hot doctor ones?"
Kuwei pretends to look genuinely surprised, but his voice is an overly dramatic tone that betrays him. He leans over the cafeteria table and stage-whispers over his tray, "There's a difference? Don't tell my dad yet."
Wylan actually laughs. He might even be hopeful about this.
6.
Kuwei is kind of an asshole, he soon decides. Wylan clearly enunciates several messages through his phone, and he reads the texts but doesn't reply which he can see from those two checks, considering he'd like to think that he is not all that dumb or illiterate, despite what his father loves to say. What he is doing is just about freaking out because he needs this dumb grade and the project really is hard so it needs two people to carry out the experiments and so he can't just do it himself but his stupid partner is not giving him the time of day and he doesn’t have any other friends in his grade andㅡ
He picks up on the fourth fucking call.
"Kuwei! You fuh- uh, hey, listen are you actually gonna," he laughs more than a little hysterically, "like, do this project or you know, just let muh, me, fucking fail?" Because when he does and his father returns from his business trip and sees that dip in his already-low grades, he is going to look at him with that look in his eyes, that smug satisfaction and mutter of disability-friendly schools. Or if he's in a bad mood... Wylan's legs turn to cold jelly just thinking about the possible consequences.
He sighs, and pinches the bridge of his nose so he doesn't cry. His voice still cracks, though. "Listen. Can you," he swallows past the lump in his throat. "Just, come over? Meet me at my house as soon as you can." He speaks quickly, partly for himself and partly to stop Kuwei from making any more shitty excuses. "Please. I, ugh- if you want to fail, don’t make me do it too. You know the address. Get here, please."
7.
Kuwei shows up drenched, dark hoodie not doing much about the rain. Wylan, who has been stationed at the window since he’s gotten the affirmative ‘yeah sure’ on the phone, sees him and dashes to the door and flings it open before any maid gets the chance to. "Kuwei!"
"Hey," Kuwei says quietly and shifts on his feet nervously. "Can I come in?"
"Of course!" Wylan pulls him in by the wrist. 'We'll get you a towel," he announces and the maid quickly dashes to get one. He keeps his mouth shut until Kuwei's sopping wet jacket is off and there's a pristine white towel snug against his shoulders. "I'm glad you came," he says quietly. "I'm.. sorry if I was, uh, rude in school earlier."
Kuwei shrugs. "Yeah. You kind of were. I mean, you are a jerk sometimes."
He blinks. That was not how it was supposed to go. His voice is little too high when he speaks. "Wait, what? I’m the asshole?"
Kuwei holds up his index finger with the pen-as-nail-polish he put on in class on it, smudged but still surprisingly intact. "But," he says, "so am I." He shifts his index and holds out a pinkie. "So, truce?"
Wylan grins despite himself and curls his pinkie around the brunette's. "Truce."
8.
Kuwei keeps trying to sit on his heels and also keeps almost toppling over because he is a child who cannot balance himself. Wylan rolls his eyes. "Just sit normally, drama queen," he hisses under his breath as he shifts on his elbows to make sure he's eye level with the measuring cylinder. Handling dangerous chemicals laying down on the floor is probably not the best idea, but it is the best workplace they have so they don’t really have a choice.
"My legs go numb," Kuwei whines, but he decides to sit cross legged anyway. Wylan makes sure that the other boy sees him pointedly roll his eyes again and then turns back to the beaker labelled with a cross-eyed stick figure drawn on it (with a cartoon skull next to it, obviously a result of Kuwei's admittedly weak artistic capabilities). "This is the sulphuric acid, right?"
The other boy leans over, gripping Wylan’s shoulder for support as he tilts his head back to see it. "No, that's the dilute hydrochloric." Kuwei's fingers dig into his shoulder blades for just a beat too long before he withdraws, but it's nothing to mention so Wylan just turns back to the experiment while Kuwei clears his throat and reads out the textbook instructions.
9.
Kuwei is lurking uncomfortably close, and while Wylan knows it’s so he can clearly see and observe the process, he can feel his elbow dig into his side and it is ridiculously distracting. He shakes his head and licks his chapped lips, making sure his hands are steady as he carefully pours from a flask labelled with a… he’s not exactly sure, but it has the red cross-eyed figure they use to mark acids. He’s assuming it’s the chemical they need for their experiment except as he’s pouring it Kuwei suddenly jolts, his elbow knocking against Wylan’s arm as he lunges for the bottle.
“Wait-wait that’s notㅡ” But the damage is done, as Wylan’s wrist tilts further because of the impact and he ends up accidentally splashing the liquid all over, half into the bottle and half onto the other substances set out beside it, ruining them too.
“‘Kuwei!” he snarls as the other boy grabs his elbows and yanks him back. “What the actual fuck?”
The solution suddenly hisses and fizzles, and Kuwei’s fingers tighten around his arm as he shakes his head rapidly, his brown-golden eyes fixed on the now alarmingly loud, fizzing solution.
He mutters something under his breath that sounds like baka. “That wasn’t the one we were supposed to use, dumbass.” Wylan’s brow clears. Oh, no. Mixing two things that aren't supposed be mixed is what science is made up of, but they do not exactly have the setup for that kind of '???' reaction.
However, another major problem is that their papers and everything important is also here and they need to protect it, and they've been camped in the same position for so long that Wylan knows his legs will cramp and buckle if he tries to get up. But his phone is also right next to the volatile mix, at great risk of harm. He reaches over for it while Kuwei does the same for his pages of notes, grabbing them and immediately snatching his hand away. Yet as Wylan is pulling his own arm back the reaction finally goes through; the solution fucking exploding inches away from him. A burst of light leaps into the air and sends splashes of liquid out that tingle against Wylan’s hand (but don’t harm the phone, thank Ghezen).
Kuwei pulls him further back as they stare, stunned at the intensity of the result. He wants to punch the guy for his ridiculously shitty labelling skills, but when he whips his head to glare at him his face is frozen in a comical expression, a hand pressed firmly over his heart. Wylan suddenly wants to laugh. Kuwei finally turns away and then frowns at him for a moment before he bursts out laughing first, which of course sets Wylan off too and then they’re both laughing like psychopaths.
It takes more than a few minutes for them to stop, stilling and then turning serious when they process that they’ve technically destroyed the previous results of the rest of the experiment. Oh, then Wylan wants to cry, because they’re barely a couple weeks away from the due date and it took them this long to get this far andㅡ oh, this is new.
Kuwei reaches over a hand and shakes out Wylan’s curls. It's a strange realisation, but his eyes are really really pretty and is he blushing right now or is it the humidity? Kuwei's face is surprisingly serious as he looks at him, and out of nowhere he suggests that he check a mirror.
Though confused, Wylan complies, reaching for his phone camera and then bursts out laughing again when he does. It is at himself this time because yeah, he really should have listened to the Japanese boy’s earlier advice to wear a headband because the front of his hair is singed and some chunks of his curls are slightly lighter in some areas. ‘Holy shit.’
‘Well, at least we know it’s exothermic,’ he says in that dead-pan way of his and refuses to stop snickering until Wylan threatens to shove him out of the window overlooking the canal outside.
10.
It's 3 am and it's the night before the due date and they still haven't finished compiling all the shit and there's a major practical text based off the stupid project too, and Wylan is freaking the fuck out again because his phone is dead. He's right next to the socket where his phone is plugged in so he can play the audio version of his textbook, or could if it actually turned on, but of course it gives up on him now. Wylan groans and picks up his textbook again, using the little post-it squiggles to roughly gauge what it's saying. His eyes hurt, his head hurts, and he just might have a panic attack. Or a nervous breakdown, whichever comes first. He groans again, louder, and kneads his eyes with the heels of his palm.
When he opens them, Kuwei has returned from the kitchen and is holding out a mug in front of him. Wylan grabs it with a holyfuckthankyou, while he just shrugs one shoulder in response. Wylan sets the coffee mug on the floor and looks back up at the other boy, who zeroes in on the most comfortable spot in the room (it's really his spot at this point, honestly).
Kuwei flops down, his chin rested on the arm of the sofa. His golden ( wylan still thinks he has to be wearing some sort of enhancing contacts, come on ) eyes are slightly crossed as he tries to focus on the redhead from his position. Wylan concludes they both may be a little high off the chemical fumes. "Sorry I'm.. difficult." He says.
It’s a surprising statement, to say the least. But he takes it in stride. Wylan leans his head back against the wall, still maintaining as much eye contact as he can. "And I'm sorry I'm a jerk sometimes."
Kuwei snorts. "Sometimes?"
"Hilarious, Kiwi."
The boy opens his mouth in protest, but then closes it and shakes his head instead, turning over and sliding back down the sofa until Wylan can only see part of his leg. It's clad in impractically tight ripped jeans. And of course, those stupid socks with the cartoon pugs on them. There's a few minutes of silence, and Wylan closes his eyes for a second and damn near doses off until Kuwei speaks again, low enough to be heard but not so loud that he actually wants to be.
" 's like," he murmurs, "m'dad is this awesome, huge deal, pharmaceutical chemist guy. And then there's just me, y’know?"
Wylan hugs his knees closer, slightly more awake and awkwardly touched by the moment of honesty. He swallows against the sudden lump in his throat and speaks his turn. "My father... hates me, pretty much. It's, uh, kind of why I freaked out on you over the whole project thing. Chemistry is... something I have. It's something I need, and I was afraid I was going to lose it and then my father was going to lose it on me."
A beat. "Your dad's a dick."
"Tell me about it."
Kuwei clears his throat before he goes on. "My dad, he's got his issues, but he does love me. It's just, that," his voice breaks off suddenly and then continues, slightly hoarser than before. "He keeps thinking I'm going to be this one thing, and I'm just supposed to be doing this stuff that he loves and he wants me to love... but I don't, and I don't even know what I have. Like how you have chem, right? I don't even know if I'll ever even be good enough to have a thing." His voice is barely a whisper when he finishes.
Wylan sighs. He's been doing that a lot recently. The Van Eck leans back against the wall and lets the textbook fall off his lap (he's done trying to interpret the diagrams without the aid of the swirly, useless mass of text he can’t read). He stretches his leg out and shakes his head. "That's rough, man. But the only thing I'm saying is, that if a failure like me can find something he can do, you just have to find it."
"Wow.. that's..." Kuwei swings his leg back and turns as he sits to look at the redhead with a glint in his eye. "Sappy as shit and useless advice." The glint dims as he speaks, voice quiet in a way that indicates honestly. "But thank you. Really."
Wylan smiles, and reaches to take a sip out of his cold, disgustingly sweet and black coffee. Cold coffee that isn't supposed to be cold may taste like shit, but it does keep you awake. Kuwei then smiles, in that close-lipped-lopsided way he does, and gestures to the empty space beside him. "Come on up. I'll read you the topics." Another beat passes before he continues, quickly and guiltily. "I did break your charger, after all.
The heartfelt moment is forgotten. "What, and you just let me freak this whole time?"
"Didn't know how to break it to you."
Wylan levels him with one of the best glares he's learnt from other, more intimidating people with canes. "I should shove you in the canal," he hisses, though he knows the effect is diminished by his unconstrained grin. "See if you know how to swim."
Kuwei sticks his tongue and a finger out to him, and sidles back to give him space. "The joke is on you, I can swim perfectly well."
"I'll definitely throw you in, then."
"Fucker."