Chapter Text
Albedo walked into his first period Physics class with a smile. He was so ready to take on the new semester.
He went out and bought fresh notebooks and highlighters, which were colour-coded for every subject. On the weekend, he went through all his pens to make sure they still worked. He had deep-cleaned his backpack, which suddenly felt ten times lighter. His uniform was ironed out and his hair was just how he liked it—a crown of braids held back with a small ribbon and his bangs tickling his cheeks. Perfect.
Everything was perfect.
Until he looked to the board and saw the seating arrangement projected onto it. Normally, he wouldn’t have cared. By senior year, all the loud, annoying classmates had been weeded out.
All except for one.
Kaeya Alberich.
“Good to see you, Albedo,” he said in that frustratingly silky voice, loud enough for the whole room to hear. Albedo refused to make eye contact, but he could hear the smirk in Kaeya’s voice—the same smirk he always had before making some stupid remark. “I’m looking forward to spending the rest of senior year together.”
Albedo could feel the eyes on them, and he did his best to stop himself from bristling like an angry cat in front of everybody. Archons, he didn’t know if he could manage a whole semester of this.
“Good morning,” he responded curtly, taking his seat beside Kaeya and burying his face in his phone, furiously texting Mona. He didn’t even bother to take his backpack off, which left him sitting on the very edge of the seat.
“Not happy to see me?” Kaeya put his elbow on the desk and leaned on his palm, staring right at Albedo.
“Not particularly, no,” Albedo said, sending an absurdly long paragraph to Mona before swiping away to open up his messages with Sucrose.
Kaeya chuckled. “It’s a shame you're stuck with me for the next five months then, isn’t it?”
Albedo huffed in frustration and looked up from his phone. He finally met Kaeya’s eye, which was twinkling with mischief. He couldn’t stand it. “Once the teacher gets here, I’m switching seats.”
“I already tried that,” Kaeya said with a sigh. “She didn’t think ‘the most annoying person I’ve ever met’ was a valid reason.”
“Of course, she didn't,” Albedo groaned, throwing his head into his hands and tugging on his hair.
“Careful now, you’ll ruin your braids,” Kaeya teased, gently patting Albedo's head before ruffling his hair.
Albedo jolted up, glaring at Kaeya while trying to tame his mussed up hair. “You’re the worst.”
“I know.”
Kaeya hadn’t changed since Albedo first encountered him in freshman year.
He still remembered watching Kaeya saunter into his math class on the first day of school. He looked a lot different then; he was still growing out his hair and his uniform was haphazardly thrown on every morning. But even then, he still had the same cocky attitude.
Albedo wasn’t one for competitions, but there was something about the way Kaeya answered questions in class, the way he made sure he was first to finish each test, and the way he shared his perfect scores to his friends. Never in his life had Albedo been so irritated.
Halfway through his first semester of high school, Albedo swore to win every Kahoot, finish every test first, and show Kaeya his test scores with a proud grin.
It wasn’t long before the class knew them as rivals, constantly competing for the best marks, down to zero point one percent. Their rivalry carried into their second semester science class, and they were only encouraged by their teacher, who played along with their silly competition.
From there, it only spiralled. It seemed like the universe was against them; every year, they’d have at least half their classes together. And, in their junior year, they’d both joined the Student Council.
But at least they’d never been forced to sit together. Every morning. For five months straight.
Archons, strike me down, Albedo pleaded.
He was soon saved when the teacher walked into the class. She looked young—probably only a few years older than him. She spent the whole class introducing herself. Turns out, she was fresh out of uni and this was her first time teaching a full class. Albedo tuned her out after that, too busy updating his friends about his current situation and trying to ignore Kaeya peeking over his shoulder.
When the bell rang, he was pretty sure that he’d never run faster.
-
“I can’t stand him,” Albedo said to Mona with a groan.
Mona was a childhood friend of his. Albedo’s mother—his biological one, not Alice—was quite close with Mona’s mother. Naturally, they were forced to hang out as children. They’d always gotten along, and they’d only grown closer when they began high school and didn’t know anybody except each other. In more recent years, Alice would occasionally force Mona to come over to help Albedo look after Klee. Mona never had a problem with it as long as she got paid on time.
The girl laughed in response, her pigtails swaying with the motion. “Did he even say anything?”
“He told the teacher that I was the most annoying person he’s ever met. And it’s her first semester teaching, so that was her first impression of me,” Albedo said, exasperated. He was so grateful he had a free period next block, another class with Kaeya might kill him.
“You’re fine, Albedo,” Mona assured him. “After a week, she’ll see you’re one of the best students in, like, the whole grade. Don’t stress about it.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Albedo huffed. “I’m worried that Kaeya will stop me from getting any work done.”
Mona groaned, exasperated. “You’re so dramatic, Albedo. You’ve dealt with him for, what, three and a half years? You’re almost done.”
“I…”
I don’t want to be, Albedo thought to himself, before he realized exactly what his brain just said. What the fuck?
“You..?” Mona prompted, poking him gently. “Where did you go?”
“Sorry. I just remembered something,” Albedo bit his lip. It was a bad lie, and it was obvious. Mona looked at him skeptically but didn’t say anything. “Anyways, I suppose it’s just strange to think about. I’ve gotten used to him by now.”
Mona snorted, brushing a pigtail off her shoulder and adjusting her tote bag. She refused to carry a backpack around because, according to her, all the cheap backpacks were ugly. Admin hated her for it. “I should get to my next class. I need to get there early so I can get a good seat.”
Albedo hummed in acknowledgment. “What do you have next?”
“AP Psych,” she said. “I have no idea why I took it, but Layla is taking it with me, so...” Mona shrugged and stood up from the bench, adjusting her skirt before waving at Albedo. “See you later, ‘Bedo.”
“Bye, Mona,” Albedo said, leaning onto the bench with a quiet exhale before gathering his things and heading down to the library.
Albedo liked his school; it was nice, it had lots of diverse programs, and it was relatively… tame compared to what he’d seen from other schools online. His only qualm was the size of the school.
The classrooms were small, the halls were cramped, and, worst of all, the library was barely bigger than a classroom. It only had a few circular tables in the centre and a couple of computers against the window. The librarian’s desk was tucked into a small nook, so Albedo had to carefully maneuver between the bookshelves just to greet the librarian.
“I have a free period. Is it okay if I stay in here?”
“Of course, Albedo,” the librarian said, smiling. “Feel free to sit wherever you’d like.”
“Thank you,” Albedo said hastily, making his way to the table in the far corner of the library. He set his bag down beside a spare chair before deciding to grab a book to read. He didn’t have any work to do and he doubted that the librarian would appreciate him sitting on his phone for the whole period.
Albedo headed for the science fiction section, his eyes skimming the book spines for a pretty design or interesting title. When he found one that caught his eye, he plucked it from the shelf and flipped it around to read the summary.
A huff of frustration left his lips when he was met with a wall of reviews from editorials. He sighed and opened the book up, navigating to the front flap and—
“Fancy seeing you here, Albedo.”
A smooth voice cut through Albedo’s thoughts, like a hot knife through a stick of butter. A sinking feeling of dread and some nervous butterflies rose in his chest when he realized who it was. He turned around to see Kaeya, standing over him with a grin.
“Kaeya?” Albedo huffed. “Shouldn’t you be in class?”
“I should be asking you the same thing.”
“I have a spare.”
“So do I.” Kaeya grinned. “I guess we’re stuck with each other for the whole morning, hm?”
For the millionth time, Albedo wished that their nutrition break was longer.
“There’s an AP Psych class going on right now. Don’t you wanna study criminology? Go do that instead,” Albedo said, closing the book in his hands so he could put his full attention towards Kaeya.
Kaeya’s eye widened for a second, his eyes practically shining in the light. He quickly schooled his expression back to his typically teasing grin. “Oh, Albedo, I can’t believe you remembered. But I already took AP Psych last year. Got a five on the exam, too.” Kaeya winked—well, blinked—and it looked a little charming, but mostly stupid.
Albedo groaned. “Of course you did.”
“Why don’t you go? See if you can get a five.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Another point for me, then.”
Albedo scoffed. “Whatever. Go… anywhere that isn’t right in front of me.”
Kaeya grinned. “As the prince demands. But first—” Kaeya paused, reaching for a book beside Albedo’s head, practically pinning the blond against the bookshelf. Kaeya’s taller frame was intimidating, but it also made Albedo’s stomach swim with a strange, fuzzy nervousness.
“Wha…” Albedo’s voice died on his lips as he looked up at Kaeya. He was so close. Why was he so close?
Before Albedo could properly process what was happening, Kaeya was pulling away with a book in his hands. “I’ve heard this one is good. Anyways, I’ll leave you alone now. Wouldn’t wanna argue in the library, hm?”
“You—”
Kaeya chuckled. “You’re cuter when you don’t wanna bite my head off, you know.”
“Excuse me?” Albedo said, a mixture of anger and disbelief in his voice. Kaeya was a notorious flirt—he’d even flirted with Albedo before, but never like this. Never so… intimately.
“See you later, Albedo.” Kaeya waved, before rounding the corner back towards the centre of the library.
Albedo stared after him, his fingers loosening around the book in his hands. It fell to the ground with a thump, but he didn’t make a move to pick it up.
What was that?