Chapter Text
Navia halted her steps in front of an apartment, looking around to make sure it was the correct address. As soon as she confirmed it was indeed the right place, she made her way inside the apartment that would be her new dorm for the semester. She took a deep sigh, to relieve the nerve she had since earlier.
Already in sophomore year, it was not new for her to live in a foreign country far from her family. She used to live in the campus dorm, but the accommodations were limited and she had to move out for the new semester. The thought of meeting new housemates made her a little nervous. She just hoped she wouldn’t be too awkward with them.
As she continued to drag her huge luggage, Navia texted one of her new housemates to inform of her arrival, Jean. She was a senior from her course, who was also a foreign student, and they got along well as fellow pupils from abroad. Jean reached out to Navia when she was looking around for a new place, and offered as the dorm she stayed at with other foreign students had one room available.
Navia knocked on the apartment door unsurely, just in case it was the wrong place. The door burst opened immediately, Navia didn't have time to react when a blonde female with a ponytail greeted her enthusiastically with a smile.
“Hi, Navia! Welcome to your new dorm!” Jean said warmly as she led her inside, when Navia seemed to be hesitating to enter.
“Thank you for having me Jean.” Navia replied, and walked inside sheepishly, trying not to embarrass herself too much. It was her first day, she didn’t want to make any bad impression.
“Come in, don’t be shy. Let me help you with your luggage. The others are here too.” Jean assured her, and took her luggage, while ushered her inside.
Once she was in the apartment, Navia saw a female with light blue hair and a male blonde male were sitting on the sofa in the living room, it seemed like they were also waiting for her. They greeted her happily, and introduced themselves as Eula and Thoma respectively. They had some small talk about themselves, before Navia excused herself to see her room.
Jean showed the hallways that had four bedrooms, one was a master bedroom and the other three were single bedrooms. Jean and Eula occupied the master room as roommates, and Thoma’s bedroom was on the opposite of their room. While the other two rooms were for Navia and another student named Wriothesley who was not home at the moment.
It was a nice single room with a small window. Furnished with a single bed, a closet and a study table. Navia sat on the bed and looked around the room, it was decent and she was actually satisfied with it.
“I’m sure you are tired from your flight from Fontaine, take a rest Navia. Just tell me if you need anything.” Jean patted her shoulder, went out and closed the door behind.
Once Navia was alone, she sighed heavily as reality finally set her in. She plopped her body on the bed and took her phone to text her papa. Apparently Callas had been waiting for Navia’s text for hours and was anxious, despite this wasn’t even her first year in Inazuma alone. Navia assured him she was fine and everyone was very nice.
After she was done texting her papa, her eyelids suddenly felt heavy and she went for a nap.
It was already past midnight when Navia awoke from her nap, and it seemed like everyone already retreated to their room as the apartment was quiet. She took her phone to check the time, and saw the notification that Jean added her to their dorm group chat. In the group chat, Jean texted that they got a takeaway for Navia to eat for dinner, but didn’t want to wake her up, as it seemed like she was still very tired from her trip. The food was kept in the refrigerator for her to eat it later.
Navia realised she was still in her airport clothes and decided to get a shower even though it was late at night. The bathroom was at another side of the apartment, near the kitchen. She just took a quick shower as it was cold.
Immediately went to the kitchen after she was done cleaning herself, as she was feeling famished not eating dinner yet. She rummaged inside the refrigerator and found the takeaway covered in foil, with her name written on it. They got her a Fontaine dish, the flaming red bolognese. They were probably worried about getting her Inazuman dishes since she had just arrived, and decided for an easy dish for her to digest.
So thoughtful.
She heated it in the microwave, and started to dig in without paying much attention to her surroundings. The bolognese was better than her expectation, that her mind went back to her own home, already missing her family. Navia deep in her thought, she didn’t realise someone approached her from behind.
“Hey Jean, is that you?” A deep husky voice suddenly reverberated throughout the kitchen.
Navia was so surprised, she accidentally threw her fork on the floor and spun her head to look at the person who came behind her. A male with black-hair, still damp wearing a white t-shirt with long black pants. Navia’s mouth was agape for a moment, and didn't know what to say as her brain was short circuiting seeing the dashing man, his damp hair didn’t make it better for Navia as it made him appeared more attractive.
Probably seeing how Navia didn’t answer him, the man cleared his throat to clear the air. “Oh hi, sorry about that.” He apologised.
“You must be the new girl came today. I’m Wriothesley, my room is just in front of yours.” He introduced himself, and picked up the fork off the floor to clean it in the sink, before handed it to Navia.
“Uhm, hi yeah, call me Navia.” She almost stuttered, embarrassed to even look at his face because of her reaction, as she took the clean spoon from Wriothesley.
“I hope everything is fine so far, Navia.” Call her delusional, but Navia swore he purposely purred her name at the end. Wriothesley rested his body against the kitchen counter top, while he had his eyes on her.
“Everything is good, don’t worry about it.” She answered bashfully, fixing her loose hair on the back of her ears, gave a brief eye contact and took a mouthful of the bolognese, to keep herself from talking as she didn’t know what she should say to him. Suddenly she felt so hard to chew the food in her mouth as she was being stared at.
Again she dared herself to look at him, as he didn’t move and kept looking at her. Navia raised her eyebrows, waiting if he wanted to say anything.
He smiled at her meaningfully. “Well good luck, you can tell me if you need any help.” He said as made his move out of the kitchen.
“Thanks, Wriothesley.” She nodded at him, continuing her late dinner.
Wriothesley suddenly stopped and looked at her, “This might be rude, but I think you need to be careful with what you wear outside your room even if it’s late at night, it’s a mixed shared space after all.” Wriothesley coughed a little, avoiding eye contact. Without waiting for any reply, he continued his steps towards his bedroom.
She was confused for a moment to decipher what he was talking about before she remembered that she was wearing her sleepwear which consisted of a thin t-shirt with a pair of shorts, and she wasn't wearing a bra at the moment as she had just finished her shower.
On instinct, she covered her front pathetically with her arms even though it was useless, and she could feel her face burn. Internally holding her scream, holding herself from banged her head on the dining table because of her stupidity.
Her appetite was gone in an instant, and she was no longer hungry, she quickly covered her food with foil before heading back to the room in a dash, and jumped on the bed covering herself with the blanket.
Stupid Wriothesley!
She cursed him in her head, despite knowing that it was not his fault.
The next day Navia tried her very best to avoid Wriothesley, she was still very much embarrassed by what had happened between them last night.
Wriothesley was watching the TV when she arrived from the grocery store. It was awkward but she managed to nod her head slightly to greet him. She was about to get away before Jean excitedly introduced him to her. Not knowing they already met the night before.
“This is Wriothesley, the one who stayed in front of your room,” Jean pointed her fingers at him, introducing them to each other.
“It's fine Jean, we already met last night.” Wriothesley butted in and looked at Navia, raised one of his eyebrows teasingly.
“Oh really?” Jean looked between them.
“We came across each other in the kitchen last night.” He said without a beat, hearing that Navia was once again reminded of what happened last night. She tried to not cringe herself, or at worst jumped down from the building.
Composing herself, she agreed with Wriothesley’s statement, “Errr, yeah. We met already.” She almost stuttered her words, and cleared her throat as a cover.
“Oh, I need to organise my room, it is still too messy.” Navia excused herself from the awkward interaction, by the corners of her eyes she could see the slight grin Wriothesley directed towards her. But she ignored it in case Jean would interrogate her more than necessary. She knew he did this purposely, to tease her. If only she could wipe the shit eating grin on his face.
That Wriothesley!
It was finally the time to start the first day of the semester on the campus. Their apartment was not that far, and it was only 15 minutes away by walking. Navia went alone as none of her housemates had class that morning.
Navia had an elective class in the evening, but she couldn’t find the class as it was not in her usual faculty buildings. She was wandering around, between the buildings when she accidentally met Wriothesley who was on his way to his class. It seemed like he could sense her trouble and made his way to her.
“Navia? What are you doing here?” He asked her.
“Goodness Wriothesley, can you help me, I can’t find where this hall is.” She said in a relieved voice, finally someone she knew. She was lost for quite some time and the class was about to start soon.
Navia showed the hall name in her phone, “Ah, I’m on my way to this hall too. Professor Zhongli’s class isn’t it?” Wriothesley said as he recognised it. “Follow me, I know the place.” He moved his head to show the way he was going.
The blonde sighed relieved, “Thanks, I’m glad..” Wriothesley saw how nervous she was and patted her back to reassure her.
“Calm down, let's go.” Navia smiled and followed beside him.
They managed to arrive at the lecture hall in time, it was a huge lecture hall, probably fit like 300 students at a time. Wriothesley signalled Navia to follow him and they sat next to each other on the right side of the hall in the middle.
It was a world history class they needed to get a pass to graduate. Professor Zhongli's lecture was well elaborate and he seemed to be very experienced, except he didn’t stop or pause at all for a breather. Navia felt like she was losing focus not even 30 minutes through the lecture.
She was scribbling on her notes to distract herself, and from the corner of her eyes, she saw Wriothesley covered his face with his cap and was already napping. Navia chuckled to herself. Without wasting a time, she took out her phone and took a picture of him sleeping in class.
While looking through the pictures she took on her phone, Wriothesley out of nowhere whispered close to her ears, “Don’t you think it’s a crime to take someone's picture without their permission.” Navia's eyes widened, and she spun her head to look at him. Their faces were close, Navia’s heart almost lunged out from her ribcage but she ignored it.
“Didn’t you napped just now?” Navia whispered back at him confusedly, hiding her phone away from his sight. Trying to compose herself in front of the man, despite the distance.
“I just close my eyes, you idiot.” He said, looking at her accusingly.
“What did you just call me?” Navia pursed her lips at him.
“Nothing,” He feigned innocence and just laughed at her face. Navia punched his shoulder from the side, obviously in a joking way.
“Ow.” Wriothesley quickly rubbed as if it was painful.
“Liar.” Navia accused him, Wriothesley just stuck his tongue out at her, sliding back to his seat and she rolled her eyes at him before trying to focus herself on the class.
The class ended almost 2 hours later, they walked home together since Wriothesley also didn’t have any more class that day. On their way home, they stopped at a cafe nearby as Navia wanted to buy some desserts.
She also got a slice of cake for Wriothesley as a thanks for earlier. Navia handed the cake to Wriothesley who was waiting outside the cafe for her.
“For me?” He asked as he took the cake from her hand.
“Thanks for today, I didn’t know if it’s to your liking, but I hope you like it.” She said gratefully.
“I’m not picky with food so, don't worry about it. Thanks for this.” He took the cake, and smiled dashingly at her.
“You are welcome.” She said and smiled back, continuing their way to the dorm.
They arrived at the dorm, and Wriothesley immediately went to the kitchen, “My throat is so dry, I need some tea, this cake is perfect for my tea time. Do you want some tea too?” He asked Navia who was putting her cake on the dinner table.
“Sure, I love tea.” She beamed.
“Really? Which one do you like?” Wriothesley then opened the cabinet and showed her his whole collection of different teas. Navia was surprised to say the least.
“Wait what, these are all yours?” She was flabbergasted, as she didn't expect to see a massive tea collection, especially from Wriothesley.
“Yup, I’m really good at brewing tea, I can tell you that.” He said proudly. Navia chuckled at his remarks.
“Just pick any, I don’t mind.” She said, before going to her room to leave her bag and removed her coat.
When she went to the kitchen, Wriothesley was already brewing a big pot of tea. “Wow, that's a lot of tea.” She said as she took a seat at the table.
“Well, I don't think this is enough for me. I might need to brew another pot.” He said nonchalantly.
“Are you serious?” Navia was looking at him, in disbelief.
“Dead serious.” Navia snorted at him, and didn't question further as Wrothesley poured her a cup of tea.
“It’s delicious.” She praised him, she usually had her tea with some milk in it, but the one Wriothesley made with sugar also tasted so good.
“I can make more if it’s not enough.” Wriothesley offered when she just finished one cup. She nodded and he poured her a second cup with a proud smile. Navia just looked at him amusedly, and they both enjoyed their simple tea time with the cakes she bought earlier.
Ever since that day, Navia and Wriothesley would go to the classes together whenever their schedules crossed each other and their housemates noticed this too.
Jean and Eula even started to tease Navia for it. Navia just told them that they are just friends.