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Alhaitham might have been the only one not bothered by the fire alarms.
Standing out in the middle of the grass on the side of the driveway, blades of wet grass slicing against his bare ankles and soaking his sandals, Cyno looked around sourly. He could see Layla leaning against Dehya, dozing off like she hadn’t just been made to walk all the way over from their dorms to the gazebo where Kaveh and Alhaitham had had their first kiss. Something Cyno wished he wasn’t privy to, but unfortunately he and Tighnari had heard all about it when—
Wait.
“Where’s Tighnari?” He asked, glancing at Kaveh and Alhaitham. Looking at him, hearing aids still off, Alhaitham tipped his head to the side. He couldn’t hear them. (Probably why he wasn’t bothered by the fire alarms. Lucky jerk.) As for Kaveh, he dropped his hands from his ears in shock, eyes widening.
“What?” Kaveh yelled, a bit too loudly. Turning away, Cyno brushed through the different people. He could see other people he knew. Dehya’s Room Advisor, Faruzan, who glanced after him worriedly as she stood with their RD Nahida. Nilou, Candace, Scara, Collei—
“Collei!” He shouted to her. She turned away from Scara and Amber, who both looked at him quizzically. “Have you seen Tighnari?”
“Wasn’t he meant to be with you?” Grimacing, Cyno glanced around again. Surely this had to just have been a fire drill. It was a fire drill, wasn’t it? Surely it had to be—
“No, I—he headed up to go and grab something from his dorm.” Not good. Definitely not good. If Tighnari wasn’t with Collei, and he wasn’t with them, then—where was he? Where could he have gone? He would have gone to his dorm. We were waiting in the lobby for him, he couldn’t have used the elevators—
Is he stuck in the elevators? No, he wouldn’t be allowed to use them. How else would he have gotten down? Could he have been in the elevator at the time? Pacing the grass, Cyno looked around. Maybe he was just dramatizing. Maybe Tighnari was just—somewhere else. Sumeru wasn’t the only floor section; it was just theirs. Maybe he was caught up with Liyue. Somewhere else. He was sure that there was plenty of space for Tighnari to have slipped in with someone else. He and Albedo were friends. He talked to Bennett, Razor, Chongyun, and Xingqiu pretty regularly when it came to tutoring them for their Biology classes. There were plenty of people who Tighnari would know, who he might have run into. People who he might—
Walking over to one of the security officers, he said, “Sir, I—”
The officer walked away.
He didn’t even pay attention to him. Great. Thanks for that. What was that about protecting the students, again? Glancing back, he found Kaveh and Alhaitham hurrying over. The alarms had finally turned off. Tighnari was probably having an absolute nightmare of a time. If he was still in the building—“They won’t give me any answers.”
“Of course. You know how Azar can be,” Kaveh rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. Then, he glanced at the building. His eyes narrowed slightly. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, already typing, Kaveh frowned as he smudged ink on his screen protector. “I’m going to see if he has his phone with him. Maybe we can get some answers about where he is, or at least what happened.”
Alhaitham tapped Kaveh’s shoulder. Casually, Kaveh held up a finger, finished typing, and then handed the phone to Cyno. Turning, he signed to Alhaitham. They exchanged signs rapidly, Alhaitham beginning to gesture broadly with a frustrated expression. While they did, Cyno focused more on the phone, going back to pacing.
Tighnari was missing. The fire alarms had been going off. They couldn’t go back into the building, because if there was a real fire then they were going to be putting themselves at risk, but if there wasn’t a real fire then Tighnari would scold them in case there had been one. The fire station was right across the street. They didn’t have to worry that much, surely the trucks would have responded by then if there was a real fire…but Tighnari couldn’t have used the stairs. Not like everyone else. He had a heart condition.
(Cyno still remembered the day like he had just gone through it. Like he was still living through it. It was their freshman year, right before finals week. Since they had had the free time, Tighnari, Alhaitham, Dehya, and Collei had banded together to drag Cyno from the law school’s library and Kaveh away from his current work. They had been hiking in the mountains barely an hour from the university—one of the selling points of the place for him had been those mountains. If he wanted, he could easily get to the mountains, the forests, the beach. It didn’t even take very long, just a few buses and maybe thirty minutes’ walking at most.
It hadn’t even been that long since they started. It was going to be a late-night hike, twilight hike, one of those two. They were going to camp for the night, go stargazing. It hadn’t even been cloudy, or rainy, or foggy. He’d double-checked the weather six different times, before and after.
It was a bolt from the blue.
A sudden lightning strike, one that hit Tighnari directly. An unusual thing, too. Most Lichtenburg figures faded after time. They were in that funny space of not technically juniors and not technically seniors now, and Tighnari still had those figures. He still had those marks.
They were meant to be having s’mores. Instead, Tighnari was struck and thrown into a tree, standing in maybe four inches of water as he stepped in a creek. He’d turned and smiled at Cyno. Then the strike, and Collei had been sobbing over her adopted brother as he laid limp on the pine needles and dirt. Dehya had grabbed Alhaitham and Kaveh and run them down the mountain to try and get help. Cyno had stayed with Collei and Tighnari, staring in shock.
The only good thing it had done was make him realize he wanted to do search-and-rescue. He would get his law degree, he’d use it, but he’d do search-and-rescue, too. The paramedics who had arrived had been so kind, helping Tighnari when he woke up in severe pain and bleeding where he had hit his head on some rock. They’d helped calm Collei and checked in on Cyno, who hadn’t even been crying.
He wished he had known their names.)
Shaking his hands, Cyno took a breath. He wasn’t an anxious person. He really wasn’t. When it came to Tighnari, especially after the lightning strike and the hospital visit afterwards, though, all that went out the window. He’d pace until his feet bled if he wasn’t careful. He still had Kaveh’s phone in his hand. Frantically, he dragged a hand through his hair. He couldn’t breathe.
“Cyno. Cyno, come here. Come here, right now.” Kaveh’s voice said. Turning, Cyno buried his face in Kaveh’s chest, let himself be wrapped in warm arms. Something rattled in his chest. He wasn’t a huge crier. He wasn’t.
Murmuring to him, Kaveh rubbed a hand between his back. Cyno didn’t even really hear what he was saying. It didn’t quite matter. He was freaking out anyways, gasping for breath as he had a panic attack.
Tighnari still hadn’t replied.
They found Tighnari sitting in the stairwell right next to the doors for Sumeru, being lectured by Azar and looking thoroughly unimpressed.
Knees pulled to his chest, chin resting on his knee, Tighnari stared up at Azar. “…reckless, mindless, thoughtless actions. This is highly immature and far from what I would expect from you.”
“Hold on, whoa,” Kaveh started, striding up the last few stairs with Alhaitham, Dehya, Cyno, Collei, Nilou, and Candace on his heels. Crossing his arms, he looked at Azar. The man turned to look at him, eyes narrowing. “What’s going on?”
“He didn’t come down the steps.” Azar replied.
Stepping in, Dehya crossed her arms as well, pointing out, “He has a heart condition.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry that you have a heart condition, but you need to go downstairs when there’s a fire drill. You can’t just stay in the stairwell.”
“I asked Nahida what to do. If there’s a fire, I can’t take the elevators because they’re closed. I can’t take the stairs because it makes my heart rate escalate. I have tachycardia. I’ll pass out.” Tighnari replied. “What am I meant to do then? I can’t go down the stairs. I am literally not allowed to do so, I have to take the elevators. I live on the third floor.”
“Well…” Looking frustrated, Azar paused. “You have to go through the proper channels. This would need to be discussed with the accommodations office.”
“And what do I do before that?” Tighnari asked. Turning, Kaveh met Alhaitham’s gaze flatly. Alhaitham shrugged, shaking his head. He’d turned his hearing aids on some time ago. Then, they both looked back at Azar and Tighnari. “Just sit here and die?”
“You have to go downstairs.” Azar insisted.
A few beats passed as Tighnari stared at the security officers in confusion. He wanted to say something. Archons, Kaveh wanted to say something. Then, Dehya sighed. She glanced around, gesturing to the others to make them move. Without another word, she turned and walked over to Tighnari, turned, and crouched down in front of him.
“Come on, ‘Nari. On my back.” She said. Meeting Kaveh’s gaze, Tighnari grinned. He pushed himself up, climbed onto Dehya’s back, and laughed softly.
“What are you doing?” Azar demanded.
“Getting him downstairs.” Dehya replied. Adjusting her grip on Tighnari, letting him cling to her back like a little creature, she started down the stairs with a bark of, “Come on, all! We’re heading to Puspa Café!”
Grabbing Alhaitham and Cyno’s hands, sending a smile Azar’s way, Kaveh followed after her.