Chapter Text
January 2nd,
Sunday Afternoon
The relaxing rainforest atmosphere in Gandharva Ville gives Tighnari a place to be at ease.
Plants, creatures, ravines, and everything else within the nature category is what made him decide to move here for his high school years after attending middle school in the city. Additionally, after all the time he's spent in this small area, he's gotten to know all the locals and made connections with others. If he were to be true to himself, staying within the realms of Gandharva Ville would definitely be the ideal lifestyle.
Every morning, Tighnari's elder neighbours greet him with smiles and help build a community around him. He's gained a significant amount of respect since arriving, and it's only accumulated over the years.
His first year at the University of Avidya Forest shortly after secondary graduation entailed of specialising in biology. There were many other students his age who shared the interest and field of study, so it wasn't difficult to make friends at all. Honestly, his life was great.
Except, now finished his first year of studying biology, Tighnari realises that everything he's learning is too general and too broad. Sure, the field of biology includes everything that he ever wanted to study including botany and entomology, but it also has many topics that he really could not care less about—human anatomy, genetics, marine life—and getting good marks while learning something he doesn't want to is not the greatest experience.
Eventually, he finds himself at the door of his childhood best friend's apartment in the middle of Sumeru City, standing with a backpack of personal items.
Collei, two years younger than him, lives in the city after moving out of Gandharva Ville for her dream of attending Sumeru University in the future. She and Tighnari text each other often and complain about their personal lives, and after being piled with sighs of how specialising in biology is not as good as Tighnari thought it would be, she suggested for him to move to Sumeru City and transfer to Sumeru University.
Although Tighnari knows that Collei only suggested this option because she just wants to see him and hang out more, he had to admit that there were some decent benefits he could gain from transferring for his second year.
Sumeru University is ranked as the number one post-secondary education: not within Avidya, or even Sumeru as a whole nation, but the entire world. This would be more surprising if not for the fact that Sumeru is known as the nation of wisdom.
Because of this, Sumeru University has the most options of fields of study to choose from. To Tighnari's amazement, they even have botany as its own major. With that revelation, he had made up his mind and immediately took the chance to apply for a transfer.
However, the requirements of majoring instead of specialising in a topic include having at least one minor or a second major. Tighnari decided on double majoring in botany and cell biology, two fields that he told himself he would enjoy and be fine with. So, this is his fate, he guesses.
"Tighnari!"
The door swung open as fast as the wind could blow, revealing a shorter girl with short, green hair, beaming with a smile and the brightest mauve eyes. A smile made its way onto Tighnari's face at the sight of her.
The 17-year-old quickly stepped out of the doorway and signalled for the man to come inside. "I haven't seen you since your first break from classes! That was, like, four months ago?"
"Yeah, around that time. How are you doing these days?" Tighnari steps inside and closes the door behind him, taking his shoes off and setting his bag on the couch in the living area leaning against a wall.
"I'm doing good. I hope you are too," Collei responds. "Anyway, how is everything going? Are you ready to start anew in Sumeru City?"
Tighnari gave the question some thought before settling on a vague answer, "Yeah, ready enough I think."
His first day at his new university was tomorrow, which is a little soon, but he could deal with it. He did all his research beforehand anyways. For example, there's a get-together party tonight at the Grand Bazaar, Sumeru University's theatre, for new and returning students of all years which he reluctantly will attend, but only because he's allowed to bring a plus one and Collei really wanted to see the students of the university that she was hopefully going to attend next year.
There were also dormitories for students; however, Tighnari chose to not pay that fee and instead opted to crash at Collei's rented apartment—while paying half the rent of course—because it was a cheaper option and he saw no urgent need to live in the student dorms for now.
"C'mon! Cheer up a little, even I'm more excited than you and I'm not the one attending the school," Collei exclaimed, watching him unpack some of his things.
"I am excited," he retorts.
Collei lets out a small sigh, "Why don't we head out early after you're done setting your stuff up in here? I can show you around the city—well, the new parts of it—and we can head to the party after. It's still three hours before it starts, and it's like a ten minute walk from here."
Tighnari looks at his phone briefly, the time reading '15: 32' back to him.
He mostly finished making his home in Collei's rental's living room, resigning to his destiny of sleeping on the couch everyday. He didn't bring much anyway, since he didn't want to crowd the space with anything. Also, he wasn't exactly planning on staying too long either, considering that Collei was thinking of moving to the dormitories herself when she started her first year in university.
"Sure, let's go." Tighnari pockets his phone and portable charger, walking towards the door.
"Ah- wait for me!" The green-haired girl grabs her dark purple sweater from the counter and slides it over her head.
Putting his shoes back on, Tighnari opens the door and waits for Collei to catch up. A minute later, the two of them are walking side-by-side on the streets of Sumeru City.
—-+=+-—
"Over here!" Collei runs a few meters ahead and points toward a cozy-looking shop with many potted plants and flowers outside the front. "This is the florist I work part-time at after classes on weekdays."
Tighnari looks up and spots a sign reading 'Sumeru Centre Floristry'. For a store with 'Centre' in its name, it doesn't seem very big and looks more like a small local business.
Collei had mentioned before via text that this florist is the most popular in the city, which Tighnari finds amusing. Perhaps the city-folk aren't as interested in flowers and plants as the locals back in Gandharva Ville. The thought of that made him a tiny bit sad, although it wasn't a complete surprise.
"It looks like a nice place." He catches up to the girl as she peers through the glass door.
"Ah.. I wish I could take you in, but it's closed Sundays," Collei states with a hint of disappointment.
"It's fine, I can come visit you tomorrow while you're working."
"Sure!"
They walk away from the shop, heading further down the road where they spot many restaurants and cafés lined up beside each other. Most of these buildings Tighnari has already seen before during his years living in the city. He's even been to all of them. However, one small bakery around the corner catches his eye.
The windows were tinted a light blue, matching the awning above. There was a chalkboard on the sidewalk near the entrance, listing parts of the store's menu in lots of colour.
"That wasn't here before, was it?" Tighnari looks at Collei and points in the direction of the bakery.
"Ah! No, it just opened two months ago," the girl responds with a smile, "actually, I haven't even gone there before. So, unfortunately I think that's the only place where I can't give you a review on. But, any other new place I could probably talk about."
"Alright."
As they continued walking, Collei directed them towards a café with a nature theme that Tighnari had never seen before. This café was decorated with many potted plants and flowers around the entrance.
"I think you'll definitely like this place! I come here like, at least twice a week." Collei brings her hands up to her chest in fists, brimming with excitement. From the look of the café, Tighnari already had gotten a good impression. It definitely suited his likings and aesthetics.
The two walk into the café, with a small bell ringing as the door opens.
The first thing Tighnari could perceive was the scent of freshly ground coffee beans, involuntary making him frown with the memories of how much coffee he had to drink the past month to stay up and study. It wasn't bad and he didn't hate coffee or anything—in fact, he liked it to an extent—he just felt a little sick of it.
The rest of the place looked extremely nice, considering the medieval-ish architecture and the potted plants. It made everything feel significantly lively.
"Wow.. Seriously? Where was this when I was in the area?"
"Pff-"
Collei walks up to the counter as Tighnari followed behind her. She spoke with the barista casually like she was a regular at this place. They ordered their drinks and opted to sit in the outside seating area at the front of the café.
They caught up on stuff in their lives and talked for an hour, sipping on their drinks. Collei had ordered a Vanilla Frappuccino with extra sugar while Tighnari got a warm Latté.
If the weather was any colder, he would've scolded the other for getting such a cold drink in the middle of Winter, but since the day was relatively neutral at 14 Celsius, all Tighnari did was eye her from time to time.
Meeting up with Collei again made Tighnari space out a bit and appreciate the moment. He looked at the girl who was currently ranting about her annoying math teacher and smiled to himself.
—-+=+-—
January 2nd,
Sunday Evening
It wasn't very late, but the sun had already finished setting, leaving only the remains of scattered light that created twilight in the sky. Most of the stars could be seen from the ground now.
Tighnari and Collei walked into the Grand Bazaar, having arrived twenty minutes early than the given time of 18: 30. They looked around and saw a few people sitting on the stage in a small circle.
The area was extremely fancy, like one would expect from a famous university. It didn't look like any regular theatre. Sure, there was a stage and seats and not much else, but what surprised Tighnari was the architecture and ceiling, which didn't look anything remotely modern at all.
The place looked more like a considerably large piece of mosaic art. The stained glass that created a dome seemed like it could let natural light in if the sun was up. After admiring the ceiling a bit more, Tighnari redirected his attention at the people in the room.
The group of seven all looked like young adults, so Tighnari assumed they were also students of Sumeru University. Before he could do anything, Collei called out from beside him.
"Cyno!" she yells while waving her hand in the air, grabbing the attention of a man in long, white hair that covered one of his eyes with side-swept bangs.
Collei runs up to the group, dragging Tighnari by the wrist.
"Hey, Collei," the man, who Tighnari assumed was Cyno, responds.
A collective 'Hi's and 'Hello's came out from the group as the teen and her friend stepped onto the stage.
"Looks like we have some new people! Welcome!" A woman with long dark brown hair and a few bleached highlights stood up from where she was sitting and greeted the two. "I'm Dehya, heading into my second year at this uni, and the rest of them are the same. I haven't seen you guys around before, so I assume you'll be joining us?"
"Ah!" Collei bowed her head before bringing it back up, "My friend here is, but I'm still in high school.. It's nice to meet you! I'm Collei." The green-haired girl gives Dehya a smile.
"Guys! Let's all sit in a circle and then introduce ourselves," a red-haired woman says.
Everyone scooted back a little, leaving space between Cyno and Dehya for the two to sit down. Collei took a seat next to Cyno which left Tighnari seated next to Dehya and Collei.
"Do you guys know each other?" Tighnari looks to his side at Collei and Cyno.
"Yeah," she replies.
The man next to her simply nodded.
Tighnari was kind of expecting a bit more than just that, but he didn't want to pry into anything.
"Okay! I'll start us off then," the same woman with the long red hair exclaimed. "My name is Nilou and I am a professional dancer." She smiles and passes a pen to a woman with indigo hair in a bob cut complimented by twin tails. Tighnari notices she also had heterochromia, one of her eyes being an ocean blue and the other being gold.
The woman takes the pen confusedly. "What is this for?"
"It's a talking stick," Nilou states.
A blonde-haired woman from the other side of the circle snickers, whispering to a man next to her who looks like a spitting image of her. Nilou looks at her with her finger on her mouth.
"Okay.. well, I'm Candace, and I guess.. I like running?"
Candace passes the pen to Dehya, continuing around the circle.
"Well, I already kind of introduced myself, but whatever! I'm Dehya and I like hanging out with my friends," Dehya smiles and holds out the pen for Tighnari to take it.
"Hey, I thought we were telling them our interests and stuff," Candace says.
"And who made those rules?"
Tighnari accepts the pen and looks at everyone. He doesn't really know what to say now, other than his name, since Dehya kind of destroyed the theme. On another thought, he feels like sticking to interests.
"I'm Tighnari," he starts, "I study botany. I finished a year at the University of Avidya Forest, but I'm transferring here to Sumeru for my following years. So, this is also my second year of university. I believe we would all be the same age then."
"Wait!" A blonde haired man with around shoulder-length hair raises his hand slightly, "by any chance, did you go to Lokapala Middle School?"
"Uh.. yes," Tighnari replies.
"I knew you seemed familiar, I also went there!"
"Hey Kaveh, stop talking, it's not your turn!" The blonde girl who snickered earlier scolds him.
"Sorry."
Tighnari chuckles at the banter, "It's alright. But, Kaveh, was it? I'm not sure I remember you, sorry about that." With that, he passes the pen onto Collei.
Collei takes the pen and fiddles a little bit before speaking. "Um.. I'm Collei and I'm still in high school, but! But, I eventually want to attend Sumeru University in the future! Also, it's really nice meeting all of you. You're all, like, my role-models!"
Everyone smiles at the statement, including Cyno, which shocks Tighnari a little considering the man didn't smile when greeting Collei today. It turns out, he wasn't the only one because Dehya was staring holes into the white-haired man.
"Um, anyways, Tighnari and I are best friends. And, I also want to start studying botany like him. That's all."
Although a bit nervous, Collei was able to get all the words she wanted out and Tighnari was proud of it. The girl was quite socially awkward when they first met, and over the years it's definitely gotten better.
She holds out the pen for Cyno, and he was about to take it when she pulls it back. "Wait, I have a question. Is this event, like, run by anyone in particular? I know we're a little early, but I was just wondering if it's like student-run or if there will be any teachers-"
"It's student-run, don't worry," Cyno responds, slightly cutting her off.
"Yeah, our leadership club hosts this every year," Nilou adds, "their leader was actually supposed to be here.. hmm.. five minutes ago? But, it seems she might be running a bit late. As long as she's here before the event begins.." The last part was more whispered to herself.
"Oh, okay!" Collei thanks.
Tighnari's mind was now swirling with confusion. He knew that Collei didn't do well with teachers or anyone of authority in the education system, so it's normal for her to ask something like this so that she could at least brace herself if she were to run into any professors from this university.
This wasn't the issue. The issue was Cyno, who responded with 'don't worry', which implies he also knows that Collei is uncomfortable around teachers. From what Tighnari knows, Collei's problems were only known by people really close to her, especially those that stem from her past. Tighnari doesn't know her full past, but he does know some of it.
What's weird to him isn't that Collei and Cyno might be close, but the fact that he's never heard of Cyno before. Collei has talked to him about all of her close friends including Amber and Sucrose who he knows of, but she's never brought up Cyno before. He keeps it in mind to ask her later.
Cyno, with the pen in his left hand, begins talking.
"I'm Cyno."
He passes the pen to Kaveh, but the other refuses it. "And?" Kaveh asks.
"And?" he asks back.
"Say something about yourself, or something.. I don't know."
"Well," Cyno looks up to mimic thinking, "I like playing Genius Invocation TCG."
Three or four groans could be heard, one of which came from Collei.
"What's so bad about it? I think it's a pretty decent game," Tighnari responds to the groans from the group. "I used to play it back in high school-"
"Really?" Cyno leaned forward and looked at him in the eyes.
Kaveh snatches the pen from Cyno's hand, "Nope! Tighnari, I beg you, don't get yourself into this. Anyways, my turn!"
Tighnari looks back and forth between Kaveh and Cyno, the latter with his red eyes sparkling and staring at Tighnari. He was starting to understand that he may have gotten himself into something he can't back out of.
"I'm Kaveh and I'm studying architecture. I also was the one who designed the Palace of Alcazarzaray up northeast, if you two know of it."
Tighnari did know of the place, but he's never been there. He was definitely impressed if Kaveh was the one to design it. Collei nodded at Kaveh beside him.
The man gives the pen to the blonde-haired woman. Her hair was short save for two longer strands at the front, and she had eyes that matched her hair.
"I'm Lumine, and honestly, I do a little bit of everything. I guess one thing about me would be that I'm part of our university's leadership club. The guy next to me is my twin brother." She hands the pen to said brother, who introduces himself next.
"I'm the last, I guess. Well, I'm Aether, and I.. also kind of do a bit of everything? I'd say I'm less into the STEM subjects if anything."
"Okay, we're done with introductions! Though, I think we might have to do this again when everyone else comes.." Nilou says and takes her pen back from Aether.
Before anyone could say anything else, Cyno shouted to Tighnari. "Tighnari! Will you play TCG with me?"
"I mean, sure, why not?" He smiles.
"Sister Nilou!"
All heads turn toward the sound of a small child who just entered the theatre. The little girl looked at least seven but no more than twelve of age. She had white hair and a few streaks of green tied into a side ponytail.
Nilou stands up and walks towards her. "Nahida, where's your sister?"
"Big sister is on her way here, she told me to come here first and find you. She said you need to come help and sister Lumine too."
"So cute!" Collei says under her breath.
"Lumine! You heard her!" Nilou called back to the group and walked out the entrance with the child. Lumine gets up from her spot and hurriedly walks to leave as well.
"So, Tighnari." Cyno grabs his bag from behind him and pulls out a deck of Genius Invocation TCG cards. "Let's play."
Tighnari sees Collei facepalm herself while Dehya mutters to him, "You're on your own, sorry."
"Right now? I don't exactly have my cards with me at the moment.." he begins, but is shortly cut off.
"I have a spare deck."
"Alright then." Tighnari watches as the other hands him a casket of tomes, having another one for himself.
"Collei," Candace calls out to the girl, "why don't you come join us in a conversation?"
Collei scoots over next to Dehya, "Sure!"
Tighnari has not played this game in at least a year and he's sure that his skills are pretty rusty, so he wouldn't be surprised if he lost. He took some time to set up his deck and reread what all the different cards do. Cyno waited for him with his three characters already placed down.
Collei, Candace, and Dehya were talking about things, and Aether and Kaveh were playing Game Pigeon on their phones, occasionally talking here and there.
"We're going to give Collei a small tour of the campus," Dehya exclaims to the group.
"Bye," Tighnari says in response.
The three girls stand up and leave. Tighnari had wanted to ask Cyno many questions concerning Collei and he could now that Collei was gone, but he didn't want to feel like an intruder or know things without Collei's consent. Instead, he opted for the most normal question.
"So, how do you know Collei?"
"Mmm," Cyno waited a bit before responding, "It's a long story. Let's just say, I'm her brother of some sorts."
Tighnari didn't particularly like the answer, given it was very vague. When Collei first arrived in Gandharva Ville, she lived with Tighnari in his house for the four years she was there until she moved back to the city. Given the time they've spent together, you'd think he would know if Collei had a brother of any sort.
"Well, that's interesting," Tighnari replies. He finally decides on which three characters he wants to use and places their cards down. "How long have you known her? I think I've been friends with her for around five years now."
"I know. She's told me."
Tighnari puts the cards in his hands down and looks at Cyno with a raised eyebrow.
He doesn't elaborate, he instead asks a question of his own. "What do you think a magician without magic is called?"
"Huh?"
"Ian."
Tighnari's brain takes a few seconds to process the other's words, letting out a small laugh after he understands it. "Pfft.."
"Because if you remove the magic from magician, you're-"
"Please stop!" Kaveh exclaims from across them, lying down on the stage with his phone on his face. Aether giggles next to him.
"Are you always like this?" Tighnari laughs, but then halts, realising that Cyno didn't answer his question originally. "Wait, you're avoiding the question."
Cyno seems to have paid no attention to Tighnari's words. "Funny, right? I think so too. Are you ready preparing your cards? Let's begin." He gave Tighnari no time to retaliate, already rolling his dice on the floor.
Tighnari wasn't entirely in the mood to argue, and there must've been a reason for avoiding the question, so he just let it be for now. He would simply ask Collei about it when she comes back.
While the two of them started their match, Nilou, Lumine, and the little girl who he believes is Nahida came back carrying some portable tables. Behind them, two other women walked into the room carrying bags and boxes. One of them had the same white hair with green streaks like Nahida, which Tighnari assumed to be her big sister that was mentioned earlier. The other one had light turquoise hair in twin tails.
Lumine sets one table up on the stage with Nahida helping as much as she could. "You four will have to move soon, by the way," she states.
"Got it," her brother responds.
Tighnari looks back at his game, and he was already off to a bad start. How did one of his characters already die? They were only on the second round.
"Have you played TCG with Collei at all?" Cyno asks him.
"I have a few years ago. I haven't played the game entirely for around a year and a half now," he replies honestly.
"Was she good?"
Tighnari tries recalling those memories of playing Genius Invocation TCG with Collei, but they didn't play it that often, so it was a bit difficult to judge. "If it's worth anything, she did win against me quite a lot."
Cyno smiles for the second time today, "I taught her how."
Well, that gives Tighnari some information. The first time Collei and Tighnari played Genius Invocation TCG was at least four years ago, around two years after the game came out. That would mean that Cyno knew Collei at least four years ago, and possibly even more.
"I see.. you do seem very good at this game."
"Thank you." Cyno places an active card down. "Actually, I did in fact know Collei for a long time, but we lost contact when she moved to Gandharva Ville. I found her again when she came back here, and she told me how you helped her a lot."
Tighnari was surprised that Cyno started talking about this since he heavily avoided it before. He wasn't complaining, though.
"So, thank you, for the compliment and for taking care of her."
"Of course."
This made Tighnari wonder again. If Cyno knew Collei before she even moved to Gandharva Ville, then he would technically be part of Collei's past. Perhaps this is why Collei never brought him up. Even if they're close, he would remind her of her trauma.
It was completely understandable. Collei had told him before that all she could really remember of her childhood was experiencing immense pain in a small area in the desert before arriving in Sumeru City and living in an orphanage where she was at least taken care of. This time of her life was when she met Amber, who Tighnari has never met, but has heard of from Collei.
So, considering that Amber was mentioned to him while Cyno wasn't, Tighnari could only assume that Cyno was there before she even got to Sumeru City. Well, he won't cloud his mind with this any longer. He can ask later.
Focusing his attention back onto the game, he notices the huge gap between where he is and where Cyno is.
"Can I surrender?" He looks between his cards and Cyno's cards.
"You give up so easily." Cyno points at Tighnari's only character who's still alive. "This guy alone could kill two of mine if you play your cards right."
"Well, clearly I'm not playing any cards right if I'm losing this badly."
"I'll teach you."
Nahida's older sister calls over to the men sitting on the stage, "Wrap it up, guys! Sorry, we need the space for one more table coming in!" She walks onto the stage carrying one side of a portable table with the twin tails girl on the other side.
Cyno immediately starts packing up, so Tighnari does the same. "Yes, mother." He puts both casket of tomes back into his bag and gets on his feet.
"Well, you won that match, but you'll teach me how to play better?" Tighnari looks at Cyno.
"Yeah, for sure. Next time," he responds.
Tighnari smiles and walks over to Nahida's sister, who just finished setting up the last table in the area they were sitting in. Everyone else's bags were also moved to a corner.
"Hi, I'm Tighnari. Do you need any help?" He asks.
"Hello, thanks for offering, but we should be fine after we just set up the food and drinks." She opens one of the boxes and brings out a rectangular cake, sliding it in the middle of the table. "I'm Rukkhadevata, nice to meet you, Tighnari."
Just from her manner of speech, Tighnari could tell why Cyno referred to her as his mother. "It's nice to meet you, too. You're the leader of the leadership club, then?"
"Yup, that's me." She smiles and opens another box, this time taking out plates and cutlery.
Just then, another group of people walked into the theatre. It was a pretty large group of people; eight or so people if Tighnari counted correctly. They all look foreign, to Sumeru at least.
"Is that my greatest friend of all time, Rukkhadevata?!" One guy with dark green-ish blue gradient hair in twin braids yells across the room.
"Hey Venti, welcome!" she calls back, still unpacking food from bags and boxes.
Well, it seems like a lot more introductions still need to be done.
—-+=+-—
January 2nd,
Sunday Night
The clock reads 20: 43 and Tighnari is already exhausted, even though it hasn't been particularly long since the gathering began. He was more of an introvert himself, so he didn't exactly have a never-ending social battery.
However, he did get to meet everyone and have a chat with most people. The lady with the turquoise hair and twin tails who helped set things up was Faruzan, a fourth year student, like Rukkhadevata, studying mechanical engineering. What surprised him was that most students who attended this party were in his year, starting their second year tomorrow.
Additionally, he found out that the group of eight people were all transferring from Mondstadt, a region much further northeast of Sumeru. He was able to meet Amber as well—they had a delightful conversation about things mostly surrounding Collei. Amber had the type of energy that could seriously light up a room, and he was glad that Collei had her to rely on.
Speaking of, Collei is currently having a great time with Amber and Sucrose right now. Tighnari heard from Collei that she met Sucrose when she moved back to Sumeru City a year ago in her new high school, and the two instantly became best friends. Sucrose is the same age as Collei, so their friendship is absolutely good for Collei to have since Amber and Tighnari—and Cyno, too, now—are all slightly older. Apparently, Amber was the one who brought Sucrose as her plus one.
Anyway, he's really happy for Collei.
Tighnari sits on the floor with his back against the stage, closing his eyes and drowning out all the noise around him, recalling everyone he met. It was a lot of people, so he's trying his best to remember all of their names.
All the Mondstadters he believes including Amber were: Venti, a second year who seemed like a good friend of Rukkhadevata. Varka, who is going into his fourth year at this university. Jean and Lisa, who are both in their third year and were very respectful. He recalls Lisa having gone to high school in Sumeru for a few years, sort of like Sucrose's situation where she is originally from Mondstadt, but it enrolled in high school here.
The rest include: Lohen, a third year who gave Tighnari a slight scare when he first spoke to him. Dahlia, a very friendly second year. And lastly, Albedo—who also has a similar case with Lisa and Sucrose—who is a second year that Tighnari shares some interests with. Albedo also brought his little brother, Durin, and he's the same age as Nahida.
There were also a few people who came from the neighbouring region, Liyue: Yanfei, a first year studying law. Xingqiu, a first year studying literature. And Chongyun, also a first year who was a little hard to talk to but Tighnari completely understands being unenergetic.
Another student from Liyue that he met was Xiao, who Tighnari could feel it in the air that he did not want to be here, but he was apparently forced here by Aether. Tighnari soon found out that the two of them were dating, so that makes some sense.
The last foreign student that Tighnari could think of at least was Heizou, an Inazuman first year wanting to be a detective in the future.
Other than the new student transfers, he encountered some locals as well including: Sethos, Cyno's younger brother by one year. Nefer and Dori, who seem to still be arguing about something since they came. Dunyarzad, Dehya's childhood friend. And Alhaitham, who also definitely did not want to come but was in the same situation as Xiao, except with Kaveh.
Over the time, Tighnari did strike up a conversation with Kaveh, and they got along quite well. Kaveh was a decent guy and Tighnari did start to remember a seeing him before in the hallways of middle school—the two were able to bond over memories of teachers and specific classmates.
However, he didn't get much time to talk with others since he was forced into playing more matches of Genius Invocation TCG with Cyno. He didn't mind it much, but he did understand now why many of Cyno's friends were tired of him bringing the game up.
"Hey, want some?" Tighnari feels a cold glass lightly touch his head and tilts his head up, meeting a familiar face holding out a glass with some sort of drink in it that he can't really make out.
"Sure." He accepts the glass and takes it from Cyno's hands, staring at the liquid. "What is it?"
Cyno takes a sip of his own and responds, "It's a White Lady. Never seen one before?" He sits down next to Tighnari on the floor.
"Ah, I don't drink gin," Tighnari says, apologetic. He stares at the glass a little longer, feeling a little guilty that the other brought him a cocktail that he probably won't drink.
"Oh, I'll get you a different one."
"No!" He raises his free hand to prevent Cyno from getting on his feet for his sake. "I mean- no, it's fine, but thank you anyway. I don't really drink much."
Cyno gives him a pointed look, but didn't say anything; Tighnari noticed it and raised an eyebrow. He didn't think telling someone his age that he doesn't drink is weird at all, but perhaps the city people are more judgemental about that topic.
"There's non-alcoholic drinks, too," he states. "I'll get you one of those."
Cyno stood up and Tighnari followed with his untouched White Lady in hand. "I'll come with you, then."
Walking over to the table with an array of drinks on it, Tighnari notices a commotion a few tables away, with many people surrounding the area. If he remembers correctly, he believes that is the dessert table with the cake and a bunch of other stuff.
It seems Cyno had also noticed, since he was looking in that direction for a few seconds before turning his head back toward their destination.
"It's fine! Puahaha-"
"No it isn't!"
"C'mon, let her do what she wants, she's just a kid.."
"Pff-"
"Awh, So cute!"
Rukkhadevata could be heard yelling at someone, while everyone else in the area was laughing and keeping the older woman away from the scene. For a second, Tighnari saw a glimpse of Nahida between the crowd with green frosting all over her face.
"Kusanali! You're grounded for one week!"
"Hey, isn't that kinda unfair for her?"
"Justice for Nahida!"
Tighnari was brought back to his current situation after hearing Cyno's voice next to him, "You wanna go see what happened?"
"Yeah." He lets out a small laugh and turns his head to evaluate all of his drink options from the table.
He could recognise most of the drinks, though they all seem like very fancy cocktails or mocktails. Of course, there was also the option of plain water; warm or iced both available. Trying his best to not be indecisive, he resigned to choosing a cup of warm water.
Tighnari did not have the best past experience with alcohol, developing an alcohol addiction in his teenage years. He doesn't want to think about it at all—having been clean from drinking for a year now, since he started university.
Mocktails don't hold any alcohol themselves, but they do share a similar feeling to drinking alcohol, hence the name 'Mocktail'. Drinking a mocktail might get Tighnari to relapse and he doesn't want to risk that.
He picks up a paper cup from the stack and pours some water from the kettle into it. "Alright, let's go."
"Okay." Cyno doesn't question his choice, and they begin walking towards the dessert table.
As they move closer to the commotion, they could hear Nahida wailing and many people including Nilou, Dehya, Collei, Amber, and a few more attempting to console the child.
"Dude, you made her cry," Dehya verbalises. She grabs a napkin, kneels down next to the girl, and tries to wipe off most of the cake on her face.
"She's just being spoiled." While everyone else showed concern for Nahida, her older sister scoffed. "I know she's not actually crying. She learned to do this from her damned brother—such a bad influence.."
After hearing this, the little girl turned her head quickly with a "Hmph!"
Tighnari and Cyno join the circle as Collei giggles at Nahida's act. Tighnari can't help but find it a bit funny as well, but also endearing at the same time, so he joins Collei in the giggling.
"Big brother would've let me eat as much as I wanted!" the girl retorts at her sister.
"Yeah?" Rukkhadevata looked very annoyed. "Well that's why he isn't here! This cake was supposed to be for everyone to share, you can't just plant your face in it!"
Well, now Tighnari is aware of what actually happened, and it is in fact pretty funny.
"It's alright, we would happily give our slices to Nahida, right guys?" Nilou looks around at everyone, hoping for backup, which does indeed come to aid her.
"Yeah, Rukkhadevata, we're all fine with it," Amber agrees with a kind smile.
The club leader sighs, taking her phone off the table. "Fine. But, Kusanali, you're going home. I'm intoxicated, so your brother is coming to pick you up, okay?"
"What?" Venti cradles his arms around Nahida as if she were sacred. "Why does she have to leave?"
"Get your drunk-ass off my sister. She was already supposed to leave an hour ago before everyone started drinking and if she stays any longer it'll expose her to this bad stuff."
Venti places his hands on Nahida's shoulders, "Your sister is so cruel."
"Whatever! I like big brother more anyways! He's gonna buy me ice cream and we're gonna dump bugs in your room! Bleh!"
Everyone erupted in laughter and chuckles; Venti looking like he couldn't breathe.
"This is very lively," Tighnari shares to Cyno.
"Nahida is like, all of our little sister's. So a lot of people get overprotective of her, but, yeah, it's all friendly," the white-haired man replies. "I'm pretty glad most of the new students are warming up to her too."
"Yeah, she's very attractive."
"Huh?"
Tighnari blushes, "N-Not in that way! She, like, never mind, you get what I'm saying."
Cyno brings up a hand to his mouth, stifling a chuckle.
"Stop!"
—-+=+-—
January 3rd,
Monday Morning
It's nearing 2: 00, and Collei still has so much energy—Tighnari genuinely cannot understand how. He's supposed to go back to Collei's apartment with her together, but at this point, he might just leave by himself and pray he doesn't get lost. It would be alright, he has GPS on his phone.
But, he doesn't want Collei to feel bad for staying longer, so he'll just suck it up and deal with it. Most people are on the verge of passing out from the amount of alcohol they drank, and the only people who are still up are those who didn't drink and those with high alcohol tolerances. It doesn't surprise him that many transfer students who were from Mondstadt could hold their liquor, since that nation is fairly well-known for having good wine.
After Nahida got picked up by her brother—who didn't look related to her nor Rukkhadevata, but he wasn't going to pry—everyone had agreed to play some games with the group. Rukkhadevata offered most of the ideas for what to play, and they were mostly things that could help everyone get to know each other more.
Tighnari liked the one where they all wrote down their favourite something—food, subject, flower, etc.—on slips of paper and had to guess who wrote which. He was quite happy to know that there were a lot of people who's train of thought went to him when they saw 'mushrooms' on the paper on the topic of food.
He also took a liking to one where they went around in a circle and each person shared one fact about somebody else in the room, the others having to guess who the person was talking about.
The funniest ones were when Nefer and Dori both insulted each other when it was their turn to go. Of course, Tighnari hopes it is just friendly fire.
Anyway, he's currently sitting in silence next to Rukkhadevata at the side of the stage, both of them drained. She was one of the only people who didn't drink as much as most did, at least for someone of the legal drinking age. She had explained that she wanted to sober down before leaving since she was driving back and didn't want to bother her younger brother again today.
Tighnari found out that most students here live in or are going to move into the school dormitories, Rukkhadevata being pretty much the only one who doesn't since she has a family. The dormitories are close to the Grand Bazaar, so it makes some sense why everyone is staying so late. Really, the only people who left early were Amber and Sucrose, and that was because Sucrose lives pretty far away and Amber has to drive her.
Actually, he couldn't call that early. They left around an hour ago, which is still considered late in Tighnari's mind.
"Don't we all have class tomorrow? Is everyone really okay with being like this right now..?" Tighnari asks, more to himself than anyone else. He's seriously a little concerned.
"It'll be fine.. I hope," Rukkhadevata answers.
"You hope.."
He was about to continue speaking when he spots Collei walking towards him.
"Tighnari.. Nilou fainted while we were talking," she admits, concerned.
"That's our sign, I guess." Tighnari gets up and steps beside Collei. "We should head back."
"Aw, okay." Collei looks back over at where her new friends are, "Bye, everyone!" Dehya and Candace wave back at her.
"Goodbye, you two," Rukkhadevata calls out to them, "it was great meeting you."
"You too," Tighnari returns warmly.
Finally, the day is over as Tighnari and Collei walk out the main entrance.