Chapter Text
The sky floods with dense clouds, like they are trying to follow Kimi around like his own personal bodyguards. He laces his backpack strap, pulling it tightly as he hears the booms of thunder looming closer to him, the bright flash of lightning blinding him for a mere moment, but who knows what could have happened in that mere moment. His step quickens, the thoughts in his head pound relentlessly, but the street remains empty, and nothing’s there chasing him…suddenly, he brakes, letting his soles drag against the cobblestone of the sidewalk of the suburban town, as he turns behind him instantly, his cape slapping his forearms and his denim jeans, as he grinds his teeth, lifting up his arms like he was giving an offering, before yelling out the words, “Fiat lux!”.
Clouds pull away from each other, and before that, you’d say that they were inseparable like they were married to each other, revealing the morning sun hovering in the sky. Its morning rays greets Kimi, thanking him for letting him shine, like Kimi had performed some witchcraft that was meant to be considered impossible. But, the naive Kimi struts away, like he needed to be somewhere even more important, like no one else notices the sudden brightness in their mornings. He glances at his wrist, and starts sprinting without even properly processing whatever his watch showed. He shakes his head, slapping his forehead repeatedly. “The fuck was I doing?” He scolds himself, continuing to run his path, as his soles and the slippery floor many a time try to betray him, but Kimi was too conscious to let himself be betrayed by inanimate objects.
Finally, the try, try, try-again method works to Kimi’s advantage, which leaves a moment for smiles to spread across his face before he has to leave that moment behind to focus on what’s ahead. The only problem now is getting to school on time on the first day. He heard from many of his older friends that the teachers he was assigned to were going to make sure he never sees the light of day again if he were even late to the morning school assembly even once. He could just teleport to the school, but of course, he had to stay at home for the entire winter break, and not even map out the path to school until the very last minute, so he doesn’t even know where he was heading if he didn’t look at the creased antique map his father provided him. Trees of different species, and colours, loom over Kimi, giving him some form of shelter for the poor Italian boy, like the curved leaves weren’t already creating funnels for water to be drained out, which Kimi always wondered how trees had the brains to come up with something like that all on their own.
Scholarship got him to a prestigious school that his father went to, maybe it was because the school was already used to his father’s antics and chaotics back when he was still schooling with this certain school, but frankly, Kimi saw nothing special about this school. His father warned him of a welcome ceremony filled with different loud music, confetti, and other things, but he told and emphasized most on the free books by the library, which he said in the exact words of “Get them before everyone else does.”, which if he doesn’t would lead for his father to be very cross. Hollow trunks echoed his name as he flew past the rest of the boulevard to the more concrete world he wasn’t much familiar with, after all, he kept the interiors of his room more than half of the time he was alive, which probably leads to the question…why did Kimi decide to go by himself? Usually, parents of students would drive their children to the universities they’re all so proud of getting into, and then there’ll be tears, and well wishes, and whatever you expect from your average parents; for Kimi, it was expected for him to be in this prestigious university, if not, better. So, his father or mother didn’t show up, not only because they wouldn’t bother to, but they’re way too busy doing a government job handling all types of unknown magic, and frankly, they wouldn’t like to know what category Kimi was going to be put in for this university.
He slides his heels onto the cobblestone as they cry out in despair with the soles of his feet generating heat they’ve never experienced before with the cobblestone ground that had experienced too much already as he gripped onto the noticeable brick pillars by the gates as he swings his body to face the main college building–Hera’s College–which so happened to be the same college Kimi was staying at. Kimi feels his chest rising and falling at a faster rate than usual, his lungs feeling like they’re about to explode, and the heat definitely burnt through his soles because he could feel it in his actual soles. He scoffed at his own performance, letting the environment steal his breath. How pathetic, he should work out more often if he wanted to last in battles against his own roommates.
“Aw, look, a newbie.”
Kimi’s head snaps towards the slightest intonation of him being insulted, but it is just an older group of friends who are talking to another freshman his age at the other corner of the main entrance to Hera’s College. Kimi squints his eyes to the bloke interacting with the poor poor freshman backed in the corner, their back almost touching the algae growing there, analysing from the bloke’s lips what they are saying, especially since he is considered a freshman as well, and if the pattern continues, he’ll definitely be next. The victim, in this case, seems to have their eyes widened, and is waving their hands in between the group of upperclassmen and them specifically, maybe trying to form some wall between the two, but then again, hands are naturally supposed to be in front of an individual after all. It isn’t as clear as Kimi anticipated for the speech to be, maybe because it was someone he isn’t as familiar with, or maybe the accent could be the reason why he can’t read well into the situation, but while he was focused on the conversation he wasn’t even involved in, all he could hear are sneakers trotting behind him.
“Are you…the welcoming ceremony is in the auditorium,” someone from behind him approached Kimi with a cautionary tone, standing right beside the Italian, but just giving Kimi enough space to make it seem like they weren’t talking to him.
“Huh, sorry?” Kimi immediately asked for clarification, his gaze immediately shifting to the floor once he realised the dude was standing, and actually wanting to hear his response.
“I’ll bring you there then.” The dude sighed, gesturing to Kimi to follow them, but Kimi couldn't process the whole conversation. What was happening, and why did some random fellow want to help Kimi to the welcoming ceremony, and in the back of Kimi’s mind, he tries to remember it, but it felt like an old memory from all the way back, and all he could really remember realistically is his father speaking to him, just his voice, not the message. Kimi reluctantly followed anyway, clutching his bag strap close to his chest, whilst avoiding everyone in the way, head still down, but he tries to focus on the exact path to the auditorium, because who knows if he needs to be there in future lectures or practicals.
“You don’t look like you’ve been here before,” the other bloke suddenly opens up, climbing the stairs at the same pace, and not looking at Kimi at all, it was as if they were talking to other people, but they seemed to be focused on Kimi.
Kimi scoffed, lifting his head slightly to see the bloke’s reaction, but it just looked more neutral, and their attention seemed to be more drawn towards navigating through the swarms of people, so naturally, Kimi pushed his own head down again, as the voices in his head tell him to never attempt that again. “I’m from the town near here, you probably have never been so you assume I don’t know jackshit.” Kimi mumbled the last few words, which the other dude seemed to ignore probably on purpose, which Kimi thinks it’s to keep their ego at a high bar, seemingly making it too high for Kimi to reach.
“So you’re a nepo baby?” The dude asked out of the blue, walking out of the stairwell like he was abandoning Kimi all alone in the filled-to-the-brim stairwell. Bricks surrounded Kimi like an endless stairwell to heaven, like it was his turn to start walking up, though no one pressured him, he felt the stares from behind his back, ushering him to move forward and not block the way. The windows wanted to provide escape, but knowing how they are, if Kimi were to jump out, they’d snitch and cause a commotion. Kimi kept his head down, shutting his eyes close before lifting his head up again and biting his bottom lip.
“Moron, wait up! I still don’t know how to get around!” Kimi shouted, his toes barely touching the stone stairs before they were reaching for the next one, and at breakneck speed, he managed to make it to where that dude was. Upon first glance, it seemed that they had vanished into thin air, which was theoretically possible since it was a world of magic after all, but after a glance to his left, he saw the same bloke leaning against the brick wall, a smug expression trying to look cool, but looked more like they were trying not laugh and keeping their composure.
“So you’re not a nepo baby.” The bloke scoffed, rolling their eyes, as they drummed their fingers on their elbows with their arms crossed, the cotton sweater they don on particularly had this soft sound emitting from their drumming distracted Kimi slightly.
“I didn’t even say anything–” Kimi argued, waving his own arms in the air like some maniac, with his posture slightly hunched like a drug addict on his favourite substance of drugs who was experiencing some form of euphoria from all of that, except that Kimi was feeling frustration tensing up his muscles everywhere.
“Didn’t need to,” The bloke chirped, “we have a welcoming ceremony to attend, don’t we?” The bloke started strolling to the auditorium, leaving Kimi stunned by the same pillar, before Kimi followed closely behind like some stalker stalking some random idiot, which in this case, Kimi hoped that this bloke that brought him here was really an idiot for how they were treating him so far. Why did that bloke even think he was a nepo baby? Where the fuck did that come from to even make assumptions about that? Was it the fact he said he was from around town? No, it couldn’t be, the people, his neighbours, were never rich to begin with, just that there’s this top university around the corner that so happen to be in the middle of a quiet town far away from the city central…if Kimi wasn’t wrong, the university was built because it made it more convenient for people to have a proper education without going to the central business district, and be strapped in the tourist extravaganza.
The auditorium was rather empty, with the stage being at the end of the elevation from where Kimi and that moron that was guiding him were, with the microphones being checked once in a while they were both standing there, unguided to their seats. The bloke dragged him to follow him down the long array of carpeted stairs to the bottom of the auditorium as the other upperclassmen were adjusting and testing microphones Kimi swears it came straight out of The Hunger Games with brass painted in weathered gold paint, and rust decorated like wreaths across the unpainted parts of the microphone stand.
“Ollie,” one of the background crew members waves to the bloke guiding Kimi around, and bringing the Italian to many irrelevant places, questioning the guy many equally as irrelevant things, “what brings you around town recently?”
“What do you think?” The bloke snickers before gesturing to Kimi, scoffing along as the fabric catches winds from the natural air-conditioning built from centuries ago by ancient magic, creating this whip-like sound, like the bloke’s fabric is warning him to never move his arm that quickly again. The background crew member slowly communicated to their neck muscles to move to take a glance, before adrenaline shoots through their veins as they take a fast turn back to presumably Ollie, the bloke standing right next to Kimi, with sweat climbing its way down the pores of their skin.
“I see…” they mumbled, walking lightly across the stage to the back, the wood creaking ever so slightly like they were hiding something in their lungs with every breath they took as they traversed across the wooden plain to be even heavier each time, even the people around were wondering if they were doing alright.
Kimi crosses his arms, facing his shoes towards Ollie, the tap of his soles sending a form of an echo through the natural amplifier of the auditorium, like it was the Colosseum, and how everyone was saying they could hear things from the top. Ollie turns his body slightly towards Kimi, a smug smile still on that darn face of his, whilst he was nodding to the multiple microphone checks conducted throughout the silence between the two, as if the fucking microphone checks were more important than whatever Ollie and that crew member were talking about before Ollie met Kimi.
“Your name’s Oll–”
“Call me Oliver, let’s go find some seats at the back, shall we?” Oliver interrupted, his tone shifting almost a whole octave down, dismissing Kimi entirely, and before he even finished his sentence, he was already walking up back to the back of the auditorium where people were gathering for seats already. Maybe Oliver just wanted to make sure he got the seats he wanted to sit at, but Kimi kept his guard up as he followed Oliver back to the auditorium as well; Kimi’s denim jeans and cape were urging him to not follow Oliver back considering how badly Kimi was treated by Oliver, with the denim jeans and cape pulling back Kimi slightly, but with a light brush by his ankles, and a firm push to the cotton of his cape, the Italian continued moving.
A simple glance over Oliver’s shoulder made the taller bloke pause for a moment, before quickening his pace to the seats; Kimi followed behind like a duck chick following a mother duck, but in this case, Kimi was only following because he knew almost nothing about the auditorium they were in, so basically, he just assumed Oliver knew best. Or maybe not, and Oliver was trying to mess with Kimi again, but with the way Oliver was moving, it made Kimi assume that Oliver was trying to actually get some better seats.
“Does it sound better up here–”
“Why are you following me?” Oliver stopped, asking through his teeth as they make it to around the middle of the long array of cushioned seats made out of the finest unblemished lamb’s wool as Kimi leans into the cushions with glassy eyes, facing Oliver with slight confusion. Oliver’s eye was already twitching, and Kimi could see Oliver hesitating with his arms moving forward in a fast motion to presumably push Kimi, but they fell back to his side with an accompanying sigh. “Never mind,” he murmurs to himself, before pushing down his seat and falling onto it with a thud. Why was Oliver suddenly so much more…aggressive? Did Kimi do something wrong? Oh, he should’ve never followed Oliver down to the stage, it was definitely that that caused all this concourse that Kimi would never understand until much later for some reason. Just because Oliver was fuming in one corner by himself, Kimi moved aside by a single seat, and took the seat right next to that one, elegantly and quietly sitting on that seat without even glancing at Oliver.
“Testing, testing, can you guys hear me back there?” Another crew member tested one of the newer microphones, which don’t look as weathered and rusted as the others that were being tested previously. Startled, Kimi threw up some reassurance as the wind grazed his thumb like they were approving of that response as well, or it wants to tell the crew the same response, either way, the wind agrees with Kimi for now.
The PA system started cackling, the speakers right by the entrance of the auditorium squeaking for help like it hadn’t been used in a while till a rather enthusiastic “Weather check: The Sun’s shining more than usual. We don’t know why, because it was forecasted to be super moody with storms all around the country today, but everywhere else is, so we might be in the midst of a very powerful wizard or witch today at Poseidon-Hera’s college today!”