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Vansell sometimes felt like he was the only one in the entire academy who actually came there to learn. Some subjects weren’t as captivating as others, such as the one he was currently reading—but he still believed it important to study. He had a warm mug of coffee on his left and an open notebook on his right. He’d scribble down anything of significance into his notebook while reading.
Just when he got into the flow, he was interrupted by the sound of the door sliding open.
“By Rassilon’s robe, if this keeps happening—”
Vansell slammed his histeoronomony textbook hard. “Thete,” he said, immediately recognising the voice. He shut his eyes and took a steadying breath. There was nothing he craved more than utter silence and this brat couldn’t shut up if they had a gun to their head. “Don’t complain to me. If you want to yap someone’s ear off you’ve got your brother and your boyfriend to do that with.”
Theta visibly deflated. “Come on! I want to be vindicated! Borusa summoned me to his office because apparently I wasn’t following the dress-code.” They waved to their uniform and made a shrug.
Vansell looked at it and then looked back at Theta’s stupid face. He was missing his gloves, had rolled up sleeves and his hair was touching his shoulders without a tie. It was a complete violation of the standard. “What do you want me to do,” he deadpanned.
“Ugh, Brax said I deserved the lecture because my clothes weren’t up to standard,” Theta said. “And Koschei said that they were showing too much too. But—come on!” They paused, and then tried a different approach. “You’re the smart one, right? Isn’t it obvious that my—”
“You are a terrible liar and are terrible at convincing anyone of anything,” Vansell said. He took a small sip of his coffee and opened up his book. “You’re annoying, too.”
“Oi, now!” Theta yelled. “If it weren’t for me you’d be limping right now!”
“You should rephrase that,” Vansell suggested, holding back a laugh.
A moment of silence passed. Then Theta dropped his jaw. “HEY!”
That silly whine was apparently loud enough to be heard from the outside. The door swooshed open, and Millenia had popped her head in, worriedly.
“Is everyone alri—”
“No,” Vansell told her. “You need to quarantine this kid.”
“I’m the same age as you!” Theta insisted.
“If only you acted like it. Millenia?”
Millenia blinked, her brow raised. “Uh…did I interrupt something?”
“Millenia—”
“What’s all the fuss about?” another voice said.
The door opened again, with Drax and Magnus coming to find out what was going on, and within a few moments almost the entire Deca was here. Vansell was just trying to read.
At first he tried blocking them all out, tried his best to just focus on what was written on the page, but when he tried to write down the notes he’d accidentally write what he heard the others in the room were saying at the time. He tried again, tried plugging his ears, tried telling them to leave again, but nobody was paying attention to him anymore as Theta kept complaining.
The sounds and the light and how there were so many people in here when he was expected to be left alone for at least two more hours wasn’t helping anything. His eye twitched, his hand shook, his leg bounced up and down.
More yelling, more arguing about whatever. He heard Theta mention his name angrily to Koschei. He tried breathing exercises, but it was futile. As the noise kept building, so did the ringing in his ears. He held his pen so tight in his hands as he scribbled furiously into the paper of his notebook. He made an anguished scream as he tore out the page, crunkled it and threw it at the nearest person.
“GET OUT!” Vansell shouted. “I’m trying to fucking STUDY!”
All their shocked faces at Vansell losing his temper would have been something to cherish and commit to memory if he wasn’t too damn blinded with rage. He hit his forehead repeatedly and screamed behind his gritted teeth.
Some of them had left, but Koschei, Theta and Ushas stayed—perhaps a little worried for him. Vansell was still hitting his head, as if it was the only thing left that could soothe him. Theta placed a hand on his shoulder and he slapped them.
“What the fuck are you doing!?” Vansell yelled. He sat back down in his chair and stared at the desk, hoping—waiting for them to leave.
Koschei had no interest in staying, clearly, but was only staying for as long as Theta did. Which made Vansell so damn annoyed. Why do those two get to be so close together, best friends and more while he had nothing? It only made him angrier at Theta and he scowled at them.
Vansell threw off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, waiting for his nervous system to calm down.
He scratched at himself. It took a while—or maybe only a few moments of rest for him to recover and come to his senses.
“What happened?” Ushas asked. Her voice was cold, analytical as ever—like he was an experiment and she needed data. Or maybe he just didn’t like her all that much. He doesn’t really like anybody, if he was honest.
“I’m going to kill that kid,” Vansell said as he sat back down. He was adjusting his books and making sure he hadn’t broken his pen. “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to make sure every single regeneration of his is destroyed, and I want it to be all because of me.”
“Thought you were all about legality,” Ushas said. She took a sip of Vansell’s coffee, but he didn’t mind.
He took his cup back and sipped it himself. “I am. You’re not so naïve that you believe killing to be illegal? There are always loopholes for that kind of thing.”
“Suppose so, but how do you intend to go about it?”
“...you know, if you weren’t so anti-government, I’d believe you to be a secret CIA agent.”
Ushas smiled, but Vansell couldn’t read what kind of smile at all—he was bad at reading faces in general and hers was even harder than most. He sipped on his coffee and went back to reading. After an hour of sitting in mostly silence, Ushas got up and left, leaving Vansell completely alone. He had wanted to be alone in the first place but he found himself feeling something missing once she left.
“No matter,” he said to himself. Ushas was intelligent, as was Koschei (and Rassilon forbid, Theta too), but none of them really studied the way he did. He was the only one who got good test scores in the Deca and he still believed himself to study more than everyone in the academy combined. Even with a mental breakdown here and there.