Chapter Text
“Okay- settle down, everyone!” The teacher stated in a somewhat loud voice as she entered the room. She made her way to the centre of the classroom, where she quickly opened up the notebook that was previously in her arms. She skimmed her eyes down the page, checking over the information that was there.
“As you are all aware, we have a science presentation project due in two weeks- on April 17th.” she muttered, raising her eyes up from the book to stare down at her students. “I’ve finally gotten around to assigning you all partners. You will not be allowed to change partners, or ‘switch’ partners like you have in previous years.”
That earned a loud groan from everyone in the class, including Venti- who had planned to do exactly that if he wasn’t given one of his friends as his partner this year.
“Okay, so starting with.. Ganyu! You’ll be working with Kaeya,” the teacher began to read down the list, reading through all of Venti’s friend’s names, but not yet mentioning his own name.
Eventually, she got to the very end of the list, where she finally read out Venti’s name.
“And lastly, we have Venti, and.. Uhh..” she paused for a second, staring intensely at the page. “Who even is this?” she mumbled under her breath, hoping nobody would hear. But Venti did.
And oh.
That did not sound good.
“Is it.. Zeow?” she asked, her voice rising in pitch towards the end- she clearly didn’t know her students well enough, considering the fact that she just butchered that poor man’s name.
A heavy sigh could be heard from the back of the classroom, which was then followed by a raspy voice with a Liyuean accent. “It’s pronounced Xiao, miss.”
“Ah- right! Venti and Xiao, you’ll be working together.” she exclaimed, snapping her notebook shut again. “And with that, I’ll give you all some time to find your partner and begin your project. You should already be aware of what the project is about- but in the case that you are not, the slides are available through your cloud spaces.”
Venti let out a small sigh, getting up from his chair to go and find this ‘Xiao’ guy. Because he had never heard of him, either. But he should be sitting towards the back of the class- based on the direction of his voice that Venti had heard earlier.
And he got there, just to find a rather short guy, with tanned skin and sharp hazel eyes. He also had dyed hair, much like Venti did- and in similar colours, too. He looked up towards Venti, seemingly surprised by his sudden appearance. And Venti couldn’t tell what he was thinking at that moment- his facial expressions weren’t very varied.
“Are you Xiao?” Venti asked, a small smile forming on his face. He didn’t want to come across as unfriendly or rude.
“Mhm..” Xiao responded, nodding his head. Well that wasn’t much of a reply.
“Cool! Do you want to go back to my table? We can work on the project over there,” Venti grinned. He pointed towards the direction of his table, hoping that Xiao would agree. All of his stuff was still over there, afterall. He hadn’t even thought to bring it over with him.
“Uhm..” Xiao blinked a few times, seemingly trying to come up with an answer. He didn’t appear to be very good at social things. “Is it okay if.. Uhh.. we stay here?” he mumbled out, suddenly fidgeting with his hands.
Wow, he really wasn’t good at social things.
“Oh- yeah, sure! I’ll go grab my things.” Venti chirped, making his way back to his table to grab his pencil case and workbook. Venti loved his school stationary- it was so cute, while still being practical. Like- he could bring in cute pencils with hearts and stars all over them, and little erasers that were shaped like small animals.
When Venti made his way back towards Xiao’s table, he sat down in the seat next to him and placed all of his stuff onto the table.
“Okay! So what are we working on?”
“The science project?” Xiao furrowed his brows a little, staring back up towards Venti. He looked a little bit scary like that- especially with his piercing gaze.
“Oh, no- I mean like. What are we choosing for our theme?” Venti explained, giving a light chuckle.
“Oh.” Xiao looked down towards his work book. He drew out a circle into it and wrote down one simple word in the middle of the circle; ideas. He then nudged the book so that it was more in between the two of them, rather than more towards his side of the table. “There’s our mind map. Put any ideas you can think of on it.”
“Hmm.. That’s a good idea,” Venti stated. He grabbed his pen and leaned over towards Xiao’s book, before quickly writing the words ‘space’. He then looked up towards Xiao, seeking approval from him. And by doing so, he captured the exact moment in which Xiao’s eyes lit up upon reading the page in front of him.
Maybe he liked space?
“That’s a good one,” was all he said. Venti could sense the excitement in his voice, as well as the fact that he was trying to hide how truly excited he felt. That brought a smile to Venti’s face. It was kinda cute.
“You like space?” he asked. Xiao seemed to be excitedly fiddling with his hands- almost as if he was stopping himself from flapping them around too much.
Xiao nodded eagerly. “I love space. I’ve loved it ever since I was a kid.” A very light smile was visible on his face, and suddenly his eyes weren’t so sharp anymore- they were somewhat gentle, possibly even kind.
“Why don’t we go with that, then?” Venti looked back down towards Xiao’s book and doodled a few little stars and planets around the word ‘space’, effectively brightening the page and making it look a lot prettier.
Once Venti had finished doodling, Xiao grabbed a yellow highlighter from his pencil case and began to fill in the stars. He also coloured some of the planets with some different colours. “I don’t know- I think I’d talk too much.” he mumbled, still colouring his page as if it were a colouring book.
“You can never talk too much in a science presentation. It’s probably better to do a topic you’re passionate about so that it isn’t a bore.”
“Hm.. Maybe.” Xiao hummed, seeming as if he were thinking about something. “What are you passionate about?”
“Nothing that could be turned into a science project.” Venti joked. He was more so a creative person than a mathsy sciency stem person.
“Hm?”
“I love music and poetry- if that’s the answer you’re looking for.”
“Ah- those are cool subjects.” Xiao’s mood almost immediately dropped, no longer seeming anywhere near as excited as he previously was. “You seem like the creative type.”
Venti giggled at that. “I get that a lot.”
Xiao moved his head up from his book, placing his highlighter back into his pencil case. Venti looked down at the book, only to find what he viewed as an absolute masterpiece. The doodles looked so pretty, so full of colour.
“I take it we’re choosing this, then?”
“If that’s okay with you.”
“It very much is!” Venti grinned. “I’ll go grab a laptop- we can get started on the slides, then.” He got up from his chair and headed over towards the laptop cabinet that was across the other side of the room. There wasn’t much of a queue, as many students had already gotten theirs at the very start of the lesson. In fact, now that Venti looked at it, there were only ten minutes left of the lesson.
Was it even worth getting a laptop at all?
Probably not, but Venti did so anyway. That way, he could get Xiao’s email down somewhere so that they could continue to work on this outside of class. Once he had unplugged the laptop from the charger, he hastily made his way back to his chair. Venti typed his login information into the laptop and made a slideshow presentation.
“What’s your email? I need to share you in,” Venti asked. He pulled open the ‘share’ button and tried to type Xiao’s name a few times- but nothing showed up.
“Oh- uhm..” Xiao grabbed the laptop, typing in his own email. He then clicked the ‘share’ button. “It’s got my old name on my email- I’m working on getting it changed.”
“That’s okay- just as long as I know who it is.”
“Mhm..”
And then, all of a sudden, the bell sounded.
Class was over.
“Alright then, everyone! Please put any laptops back in chargers, and pack up your things!” the teacher called out. She was also seemingly packing away the items on her desk, preparing herself for her next lesson.
“Do you wanna meet up after school tomorrow? My parents don’t let me have guests in the house- so we would have to go to yours,” Venti suggested. He had just put the laptop back on charge and was now hurriedly putting all of his belongings back into his bag.
And Xiao seemed to tense up a little at that. He froze, no longer putting his things away into his bag. “Uhm.. How about we go to a library?”
That was a strange reaction.
But maybe Xiao just had strict parents?
“A library seems good! What’s your number? I’ll send you some times,” Venti sneakily pulled out his phone, opening up the contacts app.
“I’ll type it in,” Xiao mumbled, snatching the phone and quickly punching in a series of letters. Venti stared in amazement- he was a very quick typer.
“Thanks! I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”