Chapter Text
Nico hasn’t seen a worse looking uniform in his life.
It’s his first day at Uva Academy and he already misses his home. He’s lived in Galar his whole life, but he was accepted into the Uva Exchange Program, allowing him to study here with a full ride scholarship.
Two students from each region were selected to travel to Paldea, eighteen new kids from across the world, forced to leave their homes behind. You would be stupid to reject an offer to study at the most prestigious school on the planet.
The only cons were the fact that you didn’t get your own room, the school wasn’t designed for extra students, and the godsawful uniform.
The uniform is a white polo with a grey sweater layered on top, plus a tie and dress pants, both the same color, dark purple. Oh, and don’t forget the worst part, black suspenders.
Suspenders, what era are we in? At least they were black, his aesthetic was already ruined by the pants.
Nico grumbles as he removes his band tee and ripped, black jeans, both banned within the premises. They even had assigned pajamas, who makes you wear a uniform to sleep?
He walks to his dresser pushed against the end of his bed. He picked the one on the right side of the room, away from the window and close to the bathroom. He likes to sleep in, but now that he’s thinking about it, he doubts that he will be allowed to.
They are allowed to choose their own bags, shoes, hats, and tights. So at least they have a little freedom, but the fact that he can’t choose his own clothes, while he’s in his own room, is kind of controlling.
He throws his old clothes in the back of the drawer, doubting that he will be allowed to touch them anytime soon, and throws on his uniform. He puts on his own black bag and his fully black Doc Martin’s, leaving his (also) black marine cap for another day.
Nico sets his bag on the hook by the door, and runs to lay down on his bed. He wonders who his roommate is, maybe someone from Kanto, or a place equally interesting.
He looks at the clock on the wall, it’s already twenty minutes since people were supposed to arrive, maybe he got lucky and got a room without a roommate. He decides he should unpack, and maybe head down to the school store and stock up on food for the kitchen.
He wanted to improve on his cooking and his dorm had a full kitchen, with an oven, fridge, and microwave. Now is the best time to learn, without his little sister constantly taking their kitchen for baking.
Speaking of his little sister, he should probably send her a message that he arrived safely. She was too young to sign up for the program, a year younger than the cutoff.
He pulls out his Rotom-Phone fit with a black case, and sends her a message, notifying her of his safe arrival. He then grabs his suitcase and starts to unpack, pulling out his toiletries and makeup bag and piling them together to put in the bathroom.
He takes out his two other pairs of shoes, his all black converse and black sandals, setting them on the shoe rack by the door, hanging up his hat on the bag rack on his way.
He goes back to his suitcase and grabs his undergarments, swimsuit (which, surprise, is also black,) and his suit. Which apparently is allowed for school events where you need to wear something nice. He packs them all into his dresser, nicely, because if he wrecks his nice suit then his dad is going to kill him.
He saves room for his other uniform pieces that he’s planning on buying. The school only provides one set per season plus a set of pajamas. All of which were already folded and packed in the drawers by housekeeping. He’s planning on getting another set of pajamas and at least an extra of each season set, in case he needs them.
He grabs his toiletries pile and brings it to the bathroom, claiming a drawer to put his hairbrush, toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant. He uses the other drawer below it to put all his makeup and hair accessories, organizing it in the little organizer thingy that came with the dorm.
He uses the big under sink cabinet to store his hair tools and products, he had about three bottles each of his shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, plus two bottles of each curl product. He wanted to avoid using school store toiletries for as long as possible, hopefully his stuff lasts until his next care package from his family.
He pushes the items as far to his side in the cabinet as possible, wanting it to be fair for whatever roommate he’s sharing with, whoever that is.
Class doesn’t start till tomorrow so he really has nothing he has to do, so he decides to call his little sister, Hazel and give her a room tour.
~~~~~~
It’s around 2:00, three hours since the exchange students first arrived, when his roommate walks in. He has ear-length curly blonde hair, tan skin littered with freckles, and bright blue eyes. He’s wearing a yellow Hawaiian shirt with brown cargo shorts, and yellow sandals. He looks like he just walked out of a beach resort.
He’s holding a light blue suitcase, and wearing a yellow school bag. On his head sits a pink Shellos, which is currently nibbling at his hair through his white crochet bandana. The bandana holds his bangs back, giving Nico a full view of his roommate's freckled forehead, and his blindingly, blue eyes.
In his other arm he’s balancing a yellow hand-sewn quilt and a crocheted Mudbray plush. He slips off his shoes, walks over to his bed, and drops his stuff in a pile at the end of it. He then jumps onto his bed, spreading like a starfish while he sighs dramatically. His Shellos, who seems to be used to his antics, settles on the pillow.
“Umm, hello?” Nico greets, startling the boy.
“Oh my goodness, I didn’t see you there,” he sits up and moves his hands in a circle around his chest, doing what Nico figures is some sort of greeting. “I’m Will, an exchange student from Alola, though I think that would be obvious. It’s nice to meet you!”
Nico raises his eyebrow, keeping his hands at his side, he’s not about to do whatever that was wrong and embarrass himself, “I’m Nico.”
Will pouts, “you’re supposed to do it back, you know, did your mama not teach you that?”
Nico was going to respond with something related to the fact that his mom is dead, but he decided that’s not how you get to know your new roommate, “I’ve never seen that before in my life, maybe it’s an Alola thing?”
Will tilts his head like a confused Rockruff, “are you not from Alola? I thought they would group us with our region?”
Nico shakes his head, “no, I’m from Galar. Maybe they wanted us to get to know different cultures? What was it that you were doing anyway?”
Will’s face lights up, “so basically it’s a greeting, you take your hands and put them in a circle,” he takes his hands palms out, and puts them in front of his chest, he moves them up on the same level as his nose, and then he separates them, making them go in a circle, using one hand for each half, lastly putting them back to their starting position. “You’re supposed to say ‘Alola’ while you do it, but I assumed a ‘hello’ would just work.” He looks at Nico expectantly, “are you gonna try?”
Nico nods slowly, attempting to mimic Will’s motions, “did I do it?”
Will shakes his head, “you did it too big, let me help you,” he leans over to the other bed, where Nico was sitting and grabs his wrists. He helps Nico do the greeting by moving his hands for him. He leans back, “see? Not that hard, now you try on your own.”
Nico’s face flushes red from the sudden contact. “Okay,” he mumbles while attempting again, this time doing the greeting correctly.
Will smiles ear to ear, “you did it!” He looks to his pillow where the pink
Shellos was laying, peacefully sleeping. ”Oh I totally forgot to introduce you to Shellbert!” He picks up the slimy creature, waking them from their slumber. “Shellbert say hi,” he leans over and shakes them in front of Nico’s face.
Nico giggles and accepts the pokémon, setting it in his lap and scratching its back. “He’s so cute! I don’t have a pokémon yet, I have a Stoutland back at home, but he is more my dad’s.”
Will smiles, “actually she’s a girl, I named her when I was three.”
Nico looks at him funny, quirking an eyebrow, “isn’t Shellbert a boy name?”
Will sighs, "that's what everyone says! And to that I say end gender norms!” He lowers his voice to a whisper, “it definitely has nothing to do with me not being able to identify her gender till long after I had caught her.”
Nico rolls his eyes in amusement, holding back a laugh. He passes Shellbert back to Will, who puts her on his pillow.
“I should get to unpacking, then after we can go explore the school?” He offers.
Nico smiles, he hasn’t made a friend this easily since before he lost Bianca, “definitely.”