Chapter Text
Kaeya sits in the back of his AP Mondstadt class, falling asleep. He can only endure so many lectures on religion, especially right after lunch.
The bell rings, and Kaeya thanks any god that exists that he can get out of this classroom. Is he a hypocrite? Yes. Does he care? Absolutely not. He leaves and gets out of there.
Thankfully, he likes AP Lang much better. The class, of course, but more importantly, it’s not a lecture-based class. He walks in, and the teacher greets him with a smile.
“Kaeya! I want to commend you on our last school event! I heard from Jean that it was all planned by you!” She smiles.
“Thank you! Yes, I did plan a lot of it.” He smiles back, and takes a look around the room. Someone is in his seat, a girl with white-blond hair tied back in braids and a bun. Her neck is covered in a scarf, even though it’s not cold at all.
“Oh, yes! We did change seats, by the way. You’re just one seat in front of your old one.” She gestures. He nods, and makes his way to his new seat.
The girl behind him doesn’t look up when he sits down, clearly engrossed in some reading. Upon further inspection, it’s a physics textbook. Kaeya pulls his eyes away and turns to face the board. The teacher clicks the slides to an introduction slide.
“Hi class! Since we have new seats, introduce yourself to the person behind or in front of you, depending on which row you’re in. Uh, say your name, and a fun fact about yourself. If you’re in an odd row, turn behind, and if you’re in an even row, don’t. Now go!” She claps her hands.
Kaeya turns around to see the girl looking intently at him. Her skin is extremely pale, and Kaeya just wants to take some blush and give a little warmth to her cheeks. She has wire-rimmed glasses and navy blue loops in her ears. Earplugs, perhaps?
“Hi, nice to meet you! I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Kaeya. Kaeya Alberich. A fun fact about me is that I have consistently journaled every day for three years. You?” He smiles, tucking his hair behind his ear. She wears a pair of dark cloth gloves, which look incredibly soft. He restrains himself for offering his hand for a handshake.
“I’m Albedo Kreidenprinz,” she says softly. Her voice is smooth, and that name is familiar. Albedo’s gaze moves from one eye to the patch to eventually settling on his nose.
It hits him like a truck.
“–Aren’t you the genius two-time science olympiad winner?” Kaeya blurts out, his words getting the best of him. Albedo chuckles quietly.
“I do think I am the person you’re referring to, but technically, no. Science olympiad is a different organization. I did get medals in both the international chemistry and biology olympiads, though: gold in chem, silver in bio. I suppose that could be a fun fact about me, but I’ll throw in another one. Let’s see… I really enjoy knitting, I suppose.” She taps her fingers on her open book while talking, almost as if she’s nervous.
“Ah, I see. Did you knit the sweater you’re wearing?” Kaeya looks at the delicate cream-colored sweater she has on. Twists run up and down along the front with a sort of squarish design.
“I did. It took me two months.” Albedo looks down at it.
“Alright class! So, as we discussed last week, today is a work day for our discussion tomorrow. You have an analysis assignment online, so get to it! You can talk to the people around you, but this is an individual assignment.”
Kaeya grins. He loves work days, because he can procrastinate and do nothing at all. He takes out his computer and opens up snake.
“Didn’t take you as a procrastinator.” He hears Albedo’s voice from behind him.
“Why? I’m a teenager. All I do is procrastinate,” Kaeya says flippantly.
“That’s… rather reductionist.” Albedo mutters.
“I’m just not that good at English as a subject,” Kaeya shrugs.
“I mean, you’re skilled in literary analysis. You had some very interesting things to say for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Are you just not a fan of The Great Gatsby, or do you come up with everything spontaneously?” Albedo leans her head onto her upright arm, her hand squishing her cheek. Her other hand holds a thin blue mechanical pencil, fidgeting with it.
“Hah, The Great Gatsby, more like The Gay Gatsby,” Kaeya jokes. He honestly hasn’t done the reading, and only knows of this book from the movie that he slept through most of, or the pop culture references.
“Interesting. You’re not wrong, but everything you say in this class has to be corroborated by evidence. Consider writing about how your view of the novel contrasts with the version that the author may have intended it to be viewed, with different subtext. After all, it is a book written in the 1920s. Social constructs have changed since then. I personally think the story has more depth to it when it’s acknowledged that homosexuality is slightly alluded to, but it’s genuinely dealer’s choice.” Albedo then turns to her computer and starts typing quickly, her pencil still in her hand.
She genuinely just went on a short academic rant about the merits of Kaeya’s choice to replace one word in a title and just stopped nonchalantly? Interesting. Kaeya turns back around, opening the tab of the assignment. He wants to write this down before he forgets.
After class ends, he watches Albedo as he methodically packs her bag and stands up. She’s actually fairly short, at least half a foot shorter than him.
“What’s your next class?” Kaeya asks.
“I have AP Chinese, room 200. What about you?” Albedo responds, walking out of class with Kaeya.
“Perfect! I have Calc in 210, I’ll walk you.” Kaeya smiles, and Albedo simply nods in return.
“So, AP Chinese?” Kaeya asks as soon as they get moving in the hallways. This hallway always sucks, but it makes for a good conversation.
“Yes. My adoptive mother spoke it to me when I was younger. I’m just not particularly good at writing it. What language do you take?” Albedo stands on her toes to try to see what’s causing the hallway blockage, which Kaeya finds funny.
“I tested out. I speak Tamil,” Kaeya says. He holds back anything else he wants to say. The hallway clears up a bit, so they start walking very quickly. Five minutes is not enough for this freaking hallway.
“That’s cool. I wish they had my primary language.” Albedo pushes through and arrives at room 200. “See you around, I guess.”
“See you!”
Albedo’s a very interesting person. From what’s he’s heard from other people, she’s a stoic genius who is kind, but intensely focused. She’s supposed to be almost robotic, but she really isn’t. She’s fascinating, and something burns in him to know her.