Chapter Text
The sun uncomfortably pierced his eyes accompanied with a cold breeze down his neck when he stepped out of the shadow of one the Akademiya buildings. A group of new chattery students were following him, he had the displeasure of showing them around on campus after his roommate claimed feigned illness to avoid this fate.
„Mr. Alhaitham!“ a high-pitched voiced called as he heard small steps close the gaps between him and the group of students following him. „Where are we still going? I feel like i walked across the entire campus twice already.“
Alhaitham turned his head to look at the girl now trying to keep pace with him, „The eating halls, after you’ll be dropped off to your dorm buildings.“. His answer sounded flat, he wanted to avoid any unnecessary chitchat since he wasn’t here voluntarily. “Oh, Okay” getting the hint the redheads happy expression faded for a few seconds and she fell back to her group of friends.
Yikes, well that wasn’t a good look, but that wasn’t important since most of the students piling behind him were part of the new arts branch of the Akademiya, so Alhaitham won’t be seeing them again anyways.
-
“well that face wasn’t promising.” Nilou sighed at her friends observation. “awh it can be that bad!” Dehya threw her arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer into a half hug to not impede on their walking. “I mean he was pretty short with me, kinda intimidating, I didn’t even get to ask him for his major” Nilou said while sulking a bit into her shoulder.
“I’m sure he had a long day as well, imagine being responsible for a bunch of newcomers who won’t stop asking questions.” Dehya let a small chuckle slip while trying to comfort Nilou further, she really got upset when people turned her down. “I mean yeah, of course, but it just felt like he didn’t even sign up for this and wants out as soon as possible, I just hoped that I could maybe get us a friend from a higher year so we don’t just to stick to our dorm floor!”
“Well you need to stop sulking one way or another, I’m sure there’s plenty more people who will be nicer!” “ Yeah, you’re right Dunyarzard, thanks” Nilou straightened up as Dehya let go, grabbing the hand of her girlfriend again. The big smile and sparkling eyes returned as Nilou bolstered her resolve for the next time she would talk to a higher year.
-
„Here we are.“ Alhaithams raised but still monotonous voice coaxed the attention of the students to him, who promptly seized all talking. “This where you’re going to get all your food on campus” he began, dragging the mob of students behind him, into the building “Simply pick a dish from whatever line you want and don’t forget to scan your Student ID on the scanner next to the handouts. Any questions?” “Yes” a fairly short girl with noticeable eyebags emerged from the group of students, “what if we don’t like the food served here?” “Then you’re welcome to use the community kitchen in the dorms” Alhaitham delivered flatly.
“anything else?”, some murmurs went through the group but no one spoke up for another question, what a relief!; thought Alhaitham, soon he will be done. “I’ll be taking you guys to the dorm buildings then” He turned to march out of the exit, hearing the students feet shuffle to follow him outside.
“While we are on our way I will still outline some of the dorm rules, which will also be posted to the inside of your guys dorm room doors” he had to raise his voice slightly against the oncoming breeze “curfews are 10 pm, so either be there or be quiet when you return, after using the community kitchen clean it up, generally clean up after yourself” “what about the inside of our dorm rooms?” one of the students interrupted his speaking flow, he sighed “as long as you don’t cause an infestation you can do whatever you want.” “so fire is allowed?” this drove a few snickers out of the group of students, Alhaitham couldn’t do much more than simply roll his eyes.
“No, okay, I’ll make it shorter, no noise past 10pm, no property damage, no active bullying and no other wise illegal stuff” Alhaithams response was sharp and cold, making clear that he really didn’t want to entertain any jokes right now. There were still a few meters left to the dorms but due to the lack of his talking, chats began to flare up again behind him, although more quiet than before, to not entice another reaction.
-
“well safe to say his day is really bad” Dehya whispered to her friends, Nilou looked to her and just shrugged “I mean we figured already, but the good news is that I’ll be able to do my own Padisarah Pudding here” Dunyazard had to chuckle at Nilous overly happy expression, “I swear whenever you’re not all up about your Dance and Performances, all you talk about is cooking sweet treats”.
Nilou started to pout a little,”Im just really passionate about some things okay?” “We know!” her friends singsanged in sync barely hiding their amused expression. “You’re really mean guys” Nilou replied barely being able to hold back her own smile “You know we only want the best for you” said Dehya while lightly tapping her hand on Nilous back.
“were at the dorms” Alhaithams voices beckoned the girls to stop talking to each other and turn their attention to him. “If you look at your Student ID, the crest on it will tell you in which dorm building you’ll be living, it is also your key card to get into the dorm buildings.”
“into every dorm building or just ours?” the same girls voice from the eating halls perked up again as she hoped for an answer. “Yes, you’ll be able to access every dorm building since there are different past time activities in the buildings.” Alhaitham seemed to be fed up with any questions at this point.
“Also reminder, if you enter your dorm buildings, please scan your Student IDs at the Terminal in the Lobby, it’ll give you your room number and play a individual key to your dorm and locker in the House of Daena onto your ID.” He pressed those words out barely slowly enough to be understandable.
Nilou still saw her chance to maybe get some more information out of Alhaitham, “Mr. Alhaitham if we still have any questions later, where do we find you?” The deadpan expression she received made her hope crumble again “well I won’t be available for any questions, you can turn to Kaveh, who is actually supposed to care for new students, you’ll find him in Dorm number 326 in the house behind me.”
-
“oh okay” Alhaitham observed the same downcast expression on her face as the first time he answered one of her question, what was her deal? He watched as she returned to her group of friends with slightly slumped shoulders, as if he just rejected her for a date night.
Well, he certainly didn’t want to linger any longer than he had to “If that is all, I’ll be excusing myself” he announced and turned around to slide into the dorm building behind him, finally he didn’t have to look after a mob of chattering birds.
He thought about how to best chew out his roommate while he was waiting for the Elevator to put him on the desired 3rd Floor. The doors slid open and he made some hasty steps towards his dorm, he held his Student ID against the door scanner, a short beep and a click, he pushed the door open. “I’m back from hell” he shouted into the shared living space.
“No need to be so loud” Cyno replied with a mocking tone “we can hear you” “well I feared our sick little chicken might’ve had some hearing loss” Alhaitham dryly replied “besides weren’t you responsible for a pack of students as well?” Cyno nodded and set his hand of cards, face down of course, on the table “well we started two hours earlier than you, so I was done earlier as well” “He has forced me to play TCG since then” Tighnari chimed in, the 4th and last person in this dorm space.
“we can stop anytime, I’m not forcing you” Cyno grimaced and folded his arms. “if we were to stop, you would just look at me with puppy eyes till we start again” Tighnari sighed and turned his attention back to the cards on his hand, trying to figure out his next move. Cyno also picked his cards up again and looked at Alhaitham one last time “you can check on the sick chicken, was still alive when I checked last, but his coughs sounds like he smokes 20 packs a day.” Alhaitham raised a brow but turned to the door closest to the entrance.
As he opened the door, light from the living area washed in, the blinds in front of the window were closed. “You can stop being sick I’m back”. A light murmur was heard from the bed “go away.” Well certainly not now, he thought, slowly tiptoeing around the various projects the architecture student has littered around his room. When he was close enough, he pulled back the blanked the reveal the blondes face.
“I said go away” Kavehs voice tried to become louder but died, what he got out sounded very raspy. Alhaitham examined his face, well it certainly was still red and he what looked like a wet towel on his forehead. “Oh so you’re really sick, I thought you just pretended to slack off” genuine surprise was evident in his Tone, Kaveh opened his mouth to protest but no word left it.
“Well I guess I should not be bothering you then, you can’t even follow your favourite activity of talking. But for the record, I told the new students youre the guy to ask questions, so you better recover quickly, I don’t wanna do that for you too” Kaveh gave him a cold glare before pulling the blanket back into his face, well that was Alhaithams que to leave.
“How’s the chicken doing?” Tighnari glanced up from a seemingly lost game of TCG “well he’s not dead and still responsive, can’t talk tho, he might’ve smoked 30 packs a day” Alhaitham kept his ever stoic expression even tho there was a slight chuckle delivered with his last sentence. “All right ill make him some more tea against the throat problems later then” Tighnari said while putting all his cards into a neat pile and putting them back into the deck box.
“You wanna play a round?” Cyno looked at Alhaitham expectantly. “I pass, enough social interaction for today, I’ll be in my room” he turned away and walked to his door, before he could close it behind him he still heard Tighnari asking for another deck since Cyno kept winning.
-
Dehya hugged her friend while watching the tall grey haired man slip into the dorm building in front of them “We should really take a look at our student IDs” Dunyarzard tried to change the subject, and the other two girls followed her advice scrambling in their bags for the IDs. Examining the crest they found out they all shared the same one “Oh that’s great, were gonna be in the same building at least, and we don’t have to walk from here as well, cuz were standing right in front of it” Dehya expressed and Nilou started nodding heavily “yes I’m so happy!”
Dehya took big steps to the door and pulled her friends behind her, while the rest of the student groups dispersed to their respective buildings, a few following the three girls. Pressing her card against the sensor, a short beep and click, the door opened. They filed in along with some students behind them.
A short scan around the room and Dunyarzard spotted the terminals “Over there! Follow me” this time taking the lead from Dehya, there were 4 terminals so every girl could immediately scan their ID and receive their room and locker number. Nilou stared at the lit up screen asking her to insert her student ID into the Card slot, after a short glance under the screen she was the Slot.
Welcome to the Akademiya, Nilou!, she stared at the screen starting to suddenly realize she was finally here, she shook her head, emotions are for later Nilou!; Press here to continue, she pushed the virtual button and the screen showed a loading screen for a brief second. She started to rub her hands, nervous she might not get good roommates or a good locker spot.
The screen changed again,
Your Room number is 210
Your locker number is 1853
You can check this whenever by reinserting your card into the terminal
Press here to gain your individual key
Nilou tapped the screen again, 210, well that’s the second floor, good thing there were elevators, she did not want to use the stairs after a full day of training.
“You can take out your card” Nilou jumped a bit from hearing Dehyas voice over her shoulder ripping her out of tought. ”Sorry didn’t mean to scare you, what room did you get?” Nilou took a deep breath and reached to take her ID out of the slot before turning her attention fully to Dehya “210, and you?” Her face lit up at the redheads reply “Me too! And Dunyarzard as well, guess we don’t have to part ways too soon!” Nilous face now also lit up with happiness. “Well then let’s go, we don’t wanna hold up the other people here.”
The girls entered the elevator, excitedly chattering about the time they’re going to spend together by sharing the dorm, and the doors slid open, they couldn’t wait to see their dorm. Walking down the hallway, it wasn’t far. “210, here!” Nilou exclaimed, running ahead of the other two girls, she held up her card to the scanner, a short beep and click, the door opened.
They stepped through a small entrance room into a fairly sizeable common area, 5 doors leading away from it, the only door facing inside was the shared bathroom with a twin sink, a toilet and a fairly big shower. The other 4 doors led to the individual bedrooms, all a blank slate with a bed, desk and closet, waiting for the individual touch a student will give them. The bags the girls brought in this morning were brought to their dorms, neatly lined up at one of the walls in the shared living space.
“soooo there are 4 rooms but we are only 3 people, some poor soul seems to have to be here alone” Dehya expressed, looking at her friends she asked “should we split up the room already? I mean no offense Nilou but I’d really like to share a wall with my girlfriend” Nilou snickered “no its all right, the rooms all look the same anyways, just mover you guys stuff in, we can wait for our 4th roommate together.”
They barely moved their stuff to their respective rooms, including the mysterious 4th roommates stuff into the last room, when they heard a silent beep and a click indicating someone was coming in. The girl turned to the door wanting to catch a glimpse of the girl coming in. “Hey uhm- I guess this is my dorm, I hope I’m not disturbing you guys.” Her timid voiced matcher her appearance, it was the girl with the eyebags, tired yellow eyes and blue hair.
“You’re not disturbing us at all, I mean this dorm also belongs to you as well, we already put your stuff into a room since we figured the room distribution already, anyhow, I’m Nilou and those are Dehya and Dunyarzard” the girl overly excited told the newcomer with barely taking a breath. A bit stunned the other girl let silence linger awhile “Uhm- well uh- thank you so much, I’m Layla, nice to meet you guys” she gave a tired smile while heading into the living area of the dorm.
„Can you guys maybe point me to the room you put my stuff in? I’m Tired” “Oh sure, it’s that one” Nilou pointed to the door next to hers, shortly before Layla disappeared behind the door Nilou wished her a goodnight. What a shy girl, she thought, maybe she just needs some sleep for proper introductions first. Nilou turned to her friends “any plans for dinner? Cooking yourself? Takeout?” “Takeout, I’m exhausted!” Dehya was hungry like a bear and didn’t feel like cooking, plus today the eating halls were closed. “Sure takeout it is! Ill order something for Layla as well if she wants to eat later, I mean we have a fridge here for something” Nilou grabbed her phone from the pocket and fell onto the couch to look at the menu together with her friends.