Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the desert kingdom of the King Deshret, they say that it is impossible to ever dream. People had no wills of their own, they weren’t allowed to. Because their very own king was a power-hungry, blood-thirsty tyrant who made sure that every citizen in his kingdom that was under his thumb FEARED him. Well… almost every citizen.

A peculiar figure, masked by the shadows of the night for his own advantage, held a can of purple spray paint in his hand and leaped across the roofs of multiple buildings gracefully without a sound as he sprinted across the kingdom.

He didn’t stop until he got to the heart of their kingdom, where a not-so-flattering portrait of the king was hung up.

Purely for the purpose of a narcissistic reminder for the citizens of their place. This strange figure landed softly in front of the portrait, a twisted grin stretched across his face as he uncovered his hood, allowing his white hair to flow with the breeze and his red snake-like eyes glinting mischievously in the moonlight. The boy shook the spray can a few times before spraying the most vulgar things that came to his mind.

Unfortunately for him, he was caught sight of by a few of the king's guards on their usual daily patrol. Of any unruly law-breaking citizens they needed to slay for treason.

Out of the corner of one's eye, they immediately noticed the bright purple streaks on their majesty’s picture, and then the culprit with his head covered before anybody could recognize him.

"Vandal!" the royal guard bellowed, pointing towards the perpetrators. All they saw was a shit-eating grin before he escaped into the night.

"Guard 0718 to all forces, we've got the infamous vandal on the loose! I repeat, the infamous vandal is on the loose!"

The vandal felt giddy as a bead of sweat dripped from his forehead when the adrenaline pumped in his veins. He had always loved a good chase after all.

He dashed into the alleyways when the purple lining of his hoodie sizzled to light, becoming seemingly electric as his eyes glowed similarly. With the guards hot on his tail, he somersaulted between the space in the 2 narrow walls and managed to clamber on the ceiling before the guards can even process what was going on.

But a few of them were already patrolling the rooftops, looking for the criminal. He had no choice but to deal with them directly. He pulled out a few strange-looking objects from his pocket and threw them. Upon impact, the items exploded with a spectacle of purple and gold glitters. "Shit," the guy muttered and cursed under his breath, "must’ve accidentally packed the glitter bombs."

He used the dazzling disasters (alliteration!) to use this chance to escape. But it didn’t deter them for long.

At this point, more squadrons of guards had located him at the ceiling. If he didn’t play his cards right, he was done for. He threw more glitter bombs in their direction, the sparkling explosions bringing the lifeless sky a bit more color. At last, he leaped from across the ceiling, pulled out a pair of daggers from his pocket towards the portrait, stabbing both the daggers into it as he came down, completely shredding it, adding injury to insult.

Multiple guards threw polearms at him, which he managed to avoid easily as he landed on the ground flawlessly.

He even fought a guard hand-to-hand, or hand-to-leg and hand and electric shocks in this case, it being obvious the criminal didn’t intend to play fair. He gripped either their necks or their arms and administered electric shocks from his glowing gloves and hands before punching them square in the nose or kicking them where it really hurt.

Finally, when he was sure that all of them were out of his way and absolutely no one was tailing him, he made his way to a more secluded corner of the kingdom and let himself breathe again.

He was satisfied he had his fun for the night and did the king a favor by painting over that ugly-ass portrait. So what was his course of action now? Suddenly, the angry exclamations of the royal guards seemed to be getting way closer. The vandal prepared himself for a fight, unbeknownst to him that a metal tube was positioned over his head.

Before he could even realize what was happening, the vacuum of the tube had sucked him in. He sped through the smooth, cold metal tube with a gust of wind (totally not screaming the entire time, no way) before landing in a heap

When he got up, he recognized the room he was now in; flasks of strange alchemy materials and humongous shelves, stacked with books of all kinds and a giant wooden desk with papers scattered all over it.

When he felt a firm tap on his shoulder, he turned back to see a gray-haired boy with his arms crossed and beautiful bright turquoise eyes gazed into his and his lips curled slightly in an annoyed frown.

"And just what the HELL do you think you’re doing, Cyno?"

Chapter Text

"Doing what Hayi?" Cyno asked, batting his eyelashes with sugary sweet faux innocence, the mischievous glint in his eyes never fading. "I simply have no clue to what you're referring to."

'Hayi' pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed in exasperation, already predicting where the conversation was bound to head. "You KNOW I'm not always going to be around when you get into too much of your shenanigans!"

"They're not SHENANIGANS." Cyno argued, striding towards a table scattered with papers. He took out his daggers and started chipping at its edges, to which the other boy told him to stop. "You'll ruin my table," he complained. "And if you say the incredibly stupid things you do aren't shenanigans, then what would YOU prefer calling them?"

Cyno hummed in thought, now absentmindedly carving a skull into Hayi's table much to his disdain. "Y'know what, shenanigans sound good yeah.  Get that stick out of your arse Alhaitham, it's not like vandalizing a table is going to hurt anyone."

"You do realize I'll get executed by the KING HIMSELF if he realizes that you were the one causing chaos all around the kingdom, don't you."

"Only if I get caught," Cyno said, clicking his tongue and giving Alhaitham finger guns to which he rolled his eyes before the other boy pocketed his daggers and stood. "Which I won't, because I have you Hayi~"

"I already told you I won't always be around to save your sorry ass, when you DO get caught— which you will, by the way." Alhaitham pinched his eyebrows this time, deliberating on what to say carefully.

Whatever comes out of his mouth, Cyno wasn't bound to take any of it seriously. The only reason Alhaitham hadn't up and abandoned him already is because Cyno had a he did not want to be associated with that horrible and traumatic childhood (and he didn’t want to get beheaded by the king for disobeying his orders of keeping Cyno ‘under control’ like some sort of animal).

His 'father' (in double quotes because this absolute ass did not deserve to be called one) had sold him to a cult the minute he was born and only took him back because he realized he needed an heir to his throne. That's right, Cyno's biological father was the very King Deshret himself. No wonder he had been going around defacing pictures of the King and directly disobeying his majesty’s orders on many occasions. There were also plenty of unspeakable things that were done to Cyno at said cult.

Alhaitham was pretty much Cyno's therapist at this point, who he skipped seeing for about two weeks. (Metaphorically, of course. Cyno always avoids talking about his problems, and that isn't really a healthy thing.)

"It's not JUST that," Alhaitham somehow steered with his face blank and voice a monotone. "As a concerned citizen..."

"Ehhhhh?" Cyno made a confused noise just for irritation at Alhaitham.

...a royally appointed advisor of the prince..."

Cyno blew a raspberry at his face in disgust at the title. "AS YOUR TUTOR—"

"Hmmmmm..."

"Fine, as your friend..."

"Blehhhh..."

"As YOUR BEST FRIEND...?!"

"Better, try again."

"Fine, as your BOYFRIEND."'

"MUCH better." Cyno gave Alhaitham a soft kiss on the cheek to which he blushed just the slightest but barely any reaction crossed his face. "As your boyfriend, I'm obligated to tell you that this is unhealthy."

Cyno scoffs and blows a wisp of his white hair away from his forehead. "I didn't have nightmares again today if that's what you insist on implying."
"Don't you think this is UNHEALTHY Cyno? Taking out your anger on poor posters instead of actually talking to anyone?"

"Well, who do you suggest I talk to then? Mr. Sensitive over here," he gestures to Alhaitham, who rolls his eyes "or maybe daddy dearest perhaps?"
"You know EXACTLY who I'm referring to."

"I'm not talking to him."

"And why not?" Alhaitham asks, crossing his arms.

"Because even if I TRY talking to Professor, he’s going to start spewing that 'you can always have a future outside of the desert kingdom' bullshit." Cyno's ignorant attitude was slowly replaced by one of anger and spite fairly quickly.

If the memo wasn't entirely clear yet, Cyno was the desert kingdom's very own prince, being Deshret's son and all, and was the heir to the throne. Except, he didn’t want to be king. And he ESPECIALLY didn't want to become like his dad, the person he loathed the most. His old professor, Cyrus (who he thought was more of an actual dad to him) constantly gave him false hope of him not ending up as the next ruler of the kingdom. Maybe it was just his professor's wishful thinking of a better tomorrow, or that he might actually care for his well-being and all, but whatever.

"I see," Alhaitham mused, expressionless, "so if I understand correctly, you wouldn't want to see the package he had sent for you then."

He pulled out a parcel wrapped in brown paper and held it in front of Cyno temptingly. Giving in to his curiosity, Cyno snatched it from his hands and tore it open. He pulled out a small, delicate object that glinted in the moonlight.

"A pocket watch," he stated.

"It appears so."

"Why the SIGMA would I need a pocket watch."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that."

"It also came with a... very detailed letter."

Alhaitham's eyes scanned the letters rather quickly. After all, reading was his favorite hobby, and he could read through things rather quickly as a result.

"Apparently this is a time machine." He deadpanned. This had caught Cyno's attention. "A time machine?! This tiny thing?! Are you messing with me or something? You're messing with me aren't you, Hayi?"

"If you're that adamant, why don’t you read the letter yourself?"

"No, I believe you now."

"You're just too lazy to read."

"Jackass."

"It's a prototype made by Cyrus himself." Alhaitham exclaimed, taking the pocket watch from Cyno's hand and held it up. "It can only work once, but the minute you press the button on the top," he gestures to the stopwatch button, gleaming "it'll take you to the time where you can achieve what you desire."

"What the sig—" Cyno was cut off by Alhaitham's glare, daring him to say the godforsaken word again. "Shit. What the shit does that even mean? 'A time where I can achieve what I desire.' What if I desire world domination?"

"We all know you'd be way too lazy to even try."

"Piss yourself."

"Never mind that," Alhaitham said. "What matters is that you and only you can control your past, present, and future. If you change even the slightest thing in the past there's no telling how it could impact the future."

"Blah, blah, blah," Cyno mocked, already tired of the same old conversation. "Real poetic. Got that from one of your little books you've always got your nose buried in?"

"Cyrus wrote that in the letters himself."

Alhaitham retorted, tossing the pocket watch to him, much to the other boy's surprise.

"Hold on. You're going to give it to me, just like that? Don't you think I might do something stupid with it?" He sputtered indignantly.

"Knowing you, you'd probably steal it from me anyways."

"Why are you the actual worst boyfriend ever?! Don't care about me at all."

"Oh yes, what a pity." Alhaitham muttered sarcastically, sitting on a chair and reaching out underneath his desk. Cyno narrowed his eyes and braced himself, already aware of what was bound to come.

"DON'T YOU DARE..."

Yet again he was sucked into one of those gosh darn... as metal tubes, literally hitting every bend and edge possible. Totally not screaming because he is the sigma alpha epitome of manliness (again) before he landed on the floor of his bedroom. He could’ve sworn he heard a bone crack.

"I think I broke my back." He groaned to himself, trudging over to his bed and flopping into it face down in agony.

He turns over and takes the special pocket watch in his hand, examining it closely, and carefully. The numbers were represented by tiny studs of rubies and the watch was rimmed with gold.

Undecided about his feelings about the device on a whole, his finger moved towards the button but stopped itself. Not wanting to ponder on it at the moment, he put the watch in his pocket and shut his eyes, letting the blissful feeling of sleep overcome him.

Chapter Text

He let the blissful feeling of sleep overcome him……for about an hour. Until his alarm clock went off loudly next to his ear. Extra annoyingly he might add. He groaned, head throbbing from the lack of sleep and threw the alarm clock to the opposite wall to his without a second thought, shattering it instantly. Outside of his room, he could hear the sounds of the hustle and bustle of guards and the royal staff louder than usual. That could only mean one thing.

He lazily got out of bed, not even bothering to change out of his pajamas, brush his hair or teeth, and padded down to the stairs to the main court of the grand palace he wished he could blow up with fireworks. He wondered what the big drama was for this time. 

The last time his father had called for a court session, it was to impose new taxations. BORINGGGG. And being the prince and all, he had to be present for EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Unfortunate, he knows.

He dragged his feet down the long and winding staircase, passing all the intricate carvings of his ancestors that had been all scratched out by his father. King Desheret had wanted to destroy the legacy of his predecessors and create a even bigger one himself, one of a tyrant everyone knew and feared. Before his rule, nobody even cared about the desert kingdom. Now, people stayed away from its borders as far as possible. 

When he got to the grand courtroom, all eyes were on him. The scene before Cyno hadn’t shocked him in the slightest. A guard was tied up in front of the king, trembling terrified, awaiting the fate that was his judgment. Judgment on whether he deserved a life. 

When the king finally looked up at his son, his face immediately contorted into one of disgust and disapproval. “All hail, Prince Cyno!” A minister bellowed, other soldiers standing at attention as the victim looked at him with pleading eyes. 

A horrible feeling sunk into Cyno’s chest as their eyes met. He had recognized the guard from the other night, the one who was in charge of the squadron for apprehending him for his, um, mischief. 

“You couldn’t have POSSIBLY dressed up better than this?!” the king growled in anger, scrutinizing Cyno in his pajamas as he rolled his eyes. “What’s wrong with these?” Cyno smirked mockingly, trying to play off his feelings of guilt. From the corner of his eye, Cyno could see Alhaitham give him a look of, not disapproval, but more of disappointment (as much as that man could muster anyway). Which honestly, made Cyno feel even worse than if Alhaitham was just MAD at him. Someone was about to be punished because of what he did, and here he was potentially making things worse by poking the tiger. 

“How many times have I told you to dress APPROPRIATELY for court Cyno?!” he demanded, glaring him in the eye. With no fear, and an annoying facade of calm, he gazed right back at his “Oh? Would you rather I dressed half-naked like you, father dearest? Alright then.” He tries to take his shirt off but the older man stops him in exasperation of the boy already.

“PUT YOUR DAMN SHIRT BACK ON BOY.” He spat, gesturing wildly to the smaller throne next to him. Cyno begrudgingly put his shirt back on and slouched in his seat with a childish pout.

“Now, back to business,” King Deshret cleared his throat and replaced his previously angry demeanor with one of calmness, which made the victim even more terrified than when he was angry. “Have you perhaps heard of what happened last night, my boy?”

Cyno’s heart raced. 

He knew. 

HE KNEW. 

“...no?” Cyno replied, almost sounding like a question. He gripped the sides of his throne tightly, saying his prayers to the archons that this was about something else. But even he knew that was a lie.

Deshret surprisingly didn't get angry with him again. His right hand gripped at his spear, finger drumming on it. "Well, an atrocious act of vandalism had been reported early this morning."

He spun his staff, quick as lightning, and pointed it to the neck of the accused, scratching it ever so slightly that just tiny drops of blood dripped on the floor as he made the slightest whimper of helplessness.

"Despite giving these VERMIN ample time, they still haven't imprisoned the vandal." he ranted, standing up and inspecting the blood that stained his spear. He touched the blood ever slightly with his finger and licked it. Cyno immediately flinched in disgust, eyes wide.

"And we mustn't encourage this kind of inefficiency and indiscipline in our kingdom now, can we? What do we do with people that simply aren't FIT for being a part of the court now?"

"You kill them." Cyno mumbled quickly, mentally preparing himself for the bloodshed.

"Yes, that is what usually happens, isn't it? But that's not what we're going to do this time."

".....we're not?" he asked hesitantly, gazing at the man suspiciously, not believing his lying words for one second.

"Well, atleast, I'M not." he clarified, his eyes with a strange electric gleam in his eyes as his face stretched out in a smirk that gave everyone goosebumps.

"YOU are."

Chapter Text

M….me?!” Cyno shook his head in denial. No, there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY he was going to KILL someone. “C..can’t I maybe do it some other day? I have some other things I need to do right no-”

Now,” King Deshret demanded, his voice dropping to a whisper that cut through the court like a knife. Silence fell, thick with anticipation. “Unless, of course, you'd prefer to add another name to the list of those awaiting execution…

The air was suddenly filled with more tension than it had before. Cyno’s shaky hand reached for the spear and traced his finger through the intricate details carved ever so delicately. It was almost impossible to believe the lives taken away by this very object.

“I know what you’re doing, stop stalling.”

The boy pitied upon the pathetic state of the guard awaiting his doom. He just sat there, not moving, tears running down his expressionless face, saying his curses to the terrible empire in his mind in his last moments.

The atmosphere was suddenly incredibly chilly. Cyno raised the spear, eyes shut tightly, unable to face the pain he caused, muttering a few words under his breath as he drove it through the man’s back and drew it out. The spear was dripping with warm blood, the man’s clothes full stained with bright red as he slumped on the ground holding his chest in pain, body limp. 

“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” he said, almost comfortingly, as Cyno's breath became more shaky as if what he did had just sunk in. 

He did it. 

Why did he do it? 

WHY DID HE DO IT?!

************************

“Don’t let down your guard, head up!”

Tighnari parried a strike from a sharp saber, swiftly moving out of the way and jumping up on the table. An older man with a confident and proud smirk lunged towards him with another strike which Tighnari backed up the stairs with the man coming at him, thoroughly engaged in their duel.

However, it wasn’t long before Tighnari advanced towards him with a riposte, touching the man on his shoulder with the blade. The man took off his mask and gave him a victorious grin. Tighnari looked down at his chest, only to see that the other man’s blade touched his chest.

“A double,” he commented offhandedly, pulling off his mask and wiping the sweat off his red, flushed face. 

“Let’s stop here, shall we?” the man huffed, slumping against the wall exhausted. “I don’t think your mother would want us turning the house upside down any more than we already have, don’t you Samia dear?”

“I’d certainly prefer that, Karim.” A woman’s voice came from outside. Samia was tending to a few tender flowers in their large verdant garden herself, despite having staff just for the job. It had an earthy scent mixed with the sweetness of a flowers nectar and the strong sour smells of medicinal plants like Tulsi leaves.

“How are the Qingxins coming along ma?” Tighnari asked, sitting down on his knees next to her as she was peacefully engrossed in her work. “I didn’t think they’d come along well in Sumeru’s climate, but the gardener had done a very good job in taking care of them.” 

“Hm.” he touched one of the delicate flower’s soft petals, deep in thought. “I’m gonna miss the palace gardens when I leave.” he murmured softly.

“And not us?” 

“Of course I’ll miss you all mama!” Tighnari exclaimed, hugging his mother with a sad smile. She took his hand and squeezed it in hers. “I can’t believe my son is going to the same school I’ve gone to after all these years..”

“The same school WE’VE gone to.” Tighnari’s father, King Karim, came up from behind them. He had changed from his fencing outfit into his formal, regal one. A blue tunic with intricate sequin and stonework and woven from cotton with pants made with the finest of silk.

“How could I forget?” the woman said, kissing the man on the cheek with a playful smile on her lips “after all we-”

“Fell in love there. I know, I know.” Tighnari groaned, covering his face with his hands in second hand embarrassment, tired of hearing the same old story for around the thousandth time. 

“Well, sorry for falling in love and getting married before having you if you’re THAT apprehensive about it.” Samia snickered. “You know that’s not what I meant mama,” Tighnari sighed, blowing a green wisp of hair away from his forehead “I just genuinely hope you don’t expect ME to find my first love there.”

“No son, of course not.” It was his father’s time to laugh at Tighnari’s expense, much to the boy's discontentment. 

Tighnari excused himself from the conversation and went to his room to freshen up before his long journey to the academy. It was quite the distance from their kingdom, and he wasn’t a fan of road trips to say the least. Walking amongst nature, feeling like a part of it was just far more appealing to him. But it was just unrealistic to just WALK all the way there. Unfortunately. 

His thoughts of displeasure of the journey ahead were interrupted by a soft knock on his door. Tighnari swung his door open to find his mother standing in front of him, a soft smile on her face as she held a box in front of her to him. 

“What’s in the box?” he asked, taking it in his own hands and observing it. He took off its lid to find dozens of tiny trinkets, each with different colors and shapes and sizes, every item more interesting than the last.

“These are belongings, belongings of your father.” she said, giving him her usual soft smile “Your father and I have agreed that, well, you may take any item you like.”

Tighnari stared at the box hard, taking in everything. It wasn’t often he got gifts. He was never one to even like gifts, and found it hard to appreciate them at times. It was like an obligation of indention or a reminder of his purpose to excel. But this, this interested him. 

“Why? What’s the occasion?” He asked suspiciously, raising his eyebrow. His mother, well aware of her son’s doubts, explained.

“We’ve noticed how very hard you had been working on your duty as a prince and on your studies as well. So we wanted to reward you for your hard work.”

Just as he expected. His parents were discreetly telling him that he had better keep up his hard work, thinking that the incentive would keep him on his track. But he knew what his purpose was already. He didn’t need one. 

Nothing even interested him that much.

Nothing…..

A barely noticeable red glow was emitting off one of the trinkets, but he couldn’t tell which one though. It was buried in the rest of them. He shifted through the various objects without a word as his mother watched and took out a small notebook. 

It was covered in brown leather, torn at the edges with frayed bits hanging. When he touched it, a strange, fiery warmth spread across the tips of his fingers. The burst of energy made him want to open it and pore through every single detail at this very moment. But he was short on time.

“Can I have this?” he asked without second thoughts. 

His mother shrugged, “It was in the box, so it’s yours.”

“Yes!” he punched the air in excitement and hugged his mother before running down the stairs to his carriage “Thank you ma!”

He pattered down the castle stairways until he got down to the main entrance. A large, golden carriage was seen, awaiting him. It was studded with jewels of all kinds, and was large enough to fit a whole adventurers party. If it was up to Tighnari, a carriage this big and flashy wasn’t necessary for the journey. But it wasn’t up to him, because he wasn’t the only one on the road trip to the academy.

A figure around Tighnari’s size stepped out of the carriage. He was adorned in jewelry so much as he was nearly as flashy as the thing he stepped out of, but he was dressed in a way that it wasn’t jarring with his outfit. He had a childishly annoyed pout on his face. His short golden hair framed his face perfectly with clips that kept it away from his face.

“You have kept me waiting for far too long Tighnari.” he drawled, fanning his face “I’m practically dying of boredom here! Hello?!”

Tighnari rolled his eyes, completely used to the other boys' dramatics “Apologies for keeping you waiting, your highness prince Kaveh. I suppose you wouldn’t want to hear about the gossip I’ve heard from the palace staff about the Qixing conspiracy?”

Kaveh’s eyes lit up as he suddenly grabbed the other prince's hand “Tell me EVERYTHING.”

Prince Kaveh. Or more like King Kaveh, but he claims being called a prince sounds much classier considering his youth. He was the only one who ruled the kingdom of Kshrewar, the kingdom of innovation and creativity. 

His father had died at a very young age, and according to the laws at the kingdom, the offspring of the king was next in line to become king. He was a charming, charismatic man who seemed to have a heart of gold, and Tighnari knew that was all just a facade.

 Kaveh was an intellectual figure, despite his bimbo-like traits of obsessiveness over his appearance and love for rumors and gossip who despised being forced into such an important position at such a young age, and blamed nobody but himself for it. 

But Tighnari and his family had helped them through tough times, and Tighnari was always the voice of reason to Kaveh’s irrationality. He supposes that was why they were best friends.

As the two young boys clambered in, Kaveh signaled to the man reigning the horses to prepare for sending them off. 

“So?!” he asked, propping his chin up on both his fists. “It’s fake.” Tighnari deadpans, grinning mischievously, to which Kaveh’s face immediately falls as he groans “YOU SAID THAT LAST TIME TOOOO. Unbeliever!”

“You can’t tell me the lady Yuheng of the QIXING speaks ill of the Liyue Adepti. It’s just ridiculous Kaveh.”

“You’re no fun.” Kaveh groans, taking a sleeping mask out of his bag and putting it over his eyes. “It’s a long journey Nari, I suggest you get some rest.”

Chapter Text

It was a strange feeling. Tighnari’s head felt light as he gripped the ground beneath him and sat himself up. He massaged his temple as he took in the surroundings. It was a nice, peaceful day. The breeze was blowing lightly through his hair, the sky was swirling with clouds that looked like pink cotton candy and the sky was a mix of purple and red. It was evening time. The ground was covered in soft grass and sweet smelling dandelions. Unable to resist the temptation, he knelt over to a single flower, not wanting to harm it by plucking it, and blew on it. The seeds took off into the air, flying with the wind. 

“Why didn’t you just take the flower?”

A smooth, slightly soft yet deep voice came from beside the boy. Tighnari turned to see where the unfamiliar voice was coming from, and had his breath taken away. He had the most beautiful dark brown skin with scars covering a considerable amount of his face, his eyes the color of roses and his white hair gracefully falling over his shoulders.

Despite how his heart rate was suddenly increasing by the second, he managed to reply “The dandelion would die if we ripped it out of the ground, just like that! Why not just blow on it, no harm would’ve been done.”

Tighnari’s eyes glazed over to the multiple dandelion stalks in the other boy's hand and raised an eyebrow. The other boy laughed sheepishly as he tossed it away behind his back. “Hey, at least it could be used as compost.” He joked.

“Not funny.” he stated, his expression indifferent, but his mind a state of confusion. What was he doing, talking to this random boy he’d never even met before?! Didn’t he need to get to the academy?! He shouldn’t be here! 

But..there was something. Something that had drawn him to this strange boy. He was somehow perfectly content at his side, his chest filled with a strange warmth as he felt their fingers brush against each other.

The boy, ignoring Tighnari’s previous snide comment, brought his knees closer to his chest, still with that dumb tiny smile on his face. “Why are you looking at me like that?” Tighnari asked, unable to contain himself. “Looking at you like what?” he teased, poking his shoulder affectionately.

The boy leaned in closer to Tighnari. Closer…closer…Tighnari could practically hear his heartbeat in his ears and his stomach was suddenly filled with butterflies. What was going on? But he leaned even closer. Suddenly..

BANG

Tighnari practically jumped five feet in the air in absolute shock, even Kaveh made a shriek of surprise. Wait..Kaveh? What one earth? Was Tighnari already losing his head?! He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he let out a yawn. A yawn? He was asleep, it was a dream! That made more sense. 

But why…

Why did it feel so real?

“ASMDKXSJASNXWI!” Kaveh exclaimed, suddenly opening his bloodshot eyes and flinching violently. He leaned over to the person reigning the horses and exchanged a few words with him.

“We just hit a rough patch.” Kaveh reassured, mostly for himself. “Nothing to worry about. Hey, are you okay? Your face is really red.”

Tighnari massaged his forehead, except this time it wasn’t in the dream. “Nothing, it’s nothing. It’s just this really weird dream I’ve had.”

“Ooohh, do tell!” Kaveh said, his eyes with the same gleam as when he expects good gossip.

Tighnari rolled his eyes, but decided not to spare any details. There was no point in it. “Well, I just saw this random boy. This…this really handsome, gorgeous boy with the most perfect skin and soft hair….”

“NARI?!” Kaveh gasped loudly, much to his disdain, a wide suggestive smile stretching across to his face. “Mr. I’m too good for having a crush? Mr. I think everyone looks ugly? Mr….”

“OKAY! Okay, I get it! I’m not exactly the first person to fall in love or whatever.” Tighnari admitted, already regretting his actions “But it’s not even that! He doesn’t even exist. Can we PLEASE stop talking about this.”

“Alright, alright. We better freshen up, we are almost there.”

********************

“Move that portrait over there! No, not there, there! Are you blind?!”

A boy with white hair, a red streak running through it tied up in a ponytail flinched at the orders. His expression was unclear on whether he felt fear or annoyance, yet didn’t say anything in protest and went towards the place where the man was pointing.

He had a bowl cut of dark blue hair and a hat large enough to cover his entire face, but his violet eyes gleamed in the shadow of it.

“Hmm, you know what, I hate it. Throw it away. Or even better, burn it” he said, a mischievous grin spread across his face. The other boy grit his teeth and drew in a sharp breath of exasperation but muttered “Of course.” under his breath as he took the painting of a certain figure out of the room.

The blue haired boy stretched across the couch he sat on lazily and let out a yawn as he tugged his hat to hide his face even more than it already did. He gazed around the room he sat in, a comfy room with sunlight pouring through the windows in copious amounts. Way too copious for his own liking, he preferred the darkness instead. 

The room was certainly comfy, but he simply didn’t have the privilege of being able to enjoy it. He wasn’t exactly supposed to anyway. He had a job to do. Run this academy and whip these prissy and pompous high privileged students into shape.

His ears picked up the sound of light pattering feet on the ground, he looked behind the couch to see a child-looking silhouette with a horrified expression on her face, frozen in her spot as she gaped at the bare mahogany table, shelves and walls.

“What happened to all of the portraits?! The magical artifacts?! THE FURNITURE?!?!! Hat guy!” she exclaimed, pulling at a ponytail tied to the right, eyes widening in a panic.

“Don’t get your ponytail in a tangle Buer.” Hat guy replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes and a frown stretching across his face. “This place felt way too….full. I simply emptied it.”

“But!....” Buer was about to say a few words in protest, but decided against it. There was no point in arguing with him. She didn’t want to. “Could you atleast store it properly in the archives?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Hat guy waved his hand dismissively.

“If Venti and Xiao were here….” Buer started.

“Well, they’re not.” He interrupted, finally looking Buer in the eye “And why did you think Barbatos put me in charge, if not to shake things around here? You clearly don’t know them as well as I do.”

Buer blinked and stared at the floor, a slight sheepishness crossing her face. For a second, a look of slight guilt crossed Hat guys face “I’m sure you’re aware of my past with Venti? I’m sure you know, but you might need some recalling with how full your mind can get at times.”

He gazes over to a portrait of two boys, one with teal braids and a mischievous grin, and another more mature, serious looking gentleman with a look of adoration to his partner.

“We reconciled,” he muttered softly. “He saw the goodness in me, and helped me finally make up with my sister. Which, speaking of, reminds me of something.”

Buer cocked her head to the side, resisting the temptation of looking into the other’s thoughts “What?”

“Venti and Xiao gave us villains a chance, even when we didn’t deserve one.” He took a letter out of his pocket. A letter of acceptance. A letter of acceptance to the academy. “It’s time we gave the desert kingdom one too.”

Buer’s expression turned to one of even more shock than before “Is that..?!”

“This is for Prince Cyno.” Hat guy replied smoothly, handing the letter to her. She glazed over the letter. Everything seemed to be in order as far as she was concerned. But she still had her doubts. 

She believed more than anything that a person has the power to change who they can be. The only thing she feared was his fathers influence might be far too strong and might be a threat.

“I know you might be skeptical Bu….Nahida.” he spoke up again “And you don’t have to do if for me. But…” 

He walked over to his desk and picked up a newspaper that lay on it. He handed it over to the girl as well. When she scanned its pages, all of the color drained out of her face.

“....do it for Kasala.”

“So he finally passed away..” she muttered morosely.

“Passed away?!” Hat guys face suddenly contorted to one of anger and spite. “If you seriously believed one of the fortresses of metropede’s longest jailed and most hated ‘criminals’ had passed away just like that, then you’re even more naive than I thought.”

His expression became softer as he continued to say “He can’t even be called one. Everything he had ever done had been out of good intentions, and had never even harmed a soul in his life. And this is how the world rewards him back, with death.”

There was a deathly silence. One of morose and mourning.

“You believe Cyno could change for the good.” Buer said slowly, not taking her eyes off the ground. Her statement had caught hat guys attention. 

“If I can reform, he definitely can. He doesn’t deserve to live under that king's tyrannical rule any longer.”

“Then I shall send for him.” She replied, gripping the letter in her hand.

“Thank you, Buer.” Hat guy said, muttering under his breath.

She looked back at him, her holographic green eyes sparkling in the sunlight as she smiled “I’m proud of you Hat guy. You really have changed for the better.”

Chapter Text

Cyno couldn’t think straight. All he could see is the blood on his hands and the eyes of the courtroom burning holes into his back. whydidhedoitwhydidhedo nononononoNO! The voices of reason in his head were reprimanding him, while his father patted him on the back and returned to his throne. 

The loud ringing in his ears of despair only worsened when his eyes met Alhaithams. They weren’t mad. They weren’t disappointed like they were before. They weren’t even frustrated. They were cold. Cold and uncaring. Like he had no soul. Or simply that his soul wasn’t for Cyno to see anymore. 

What had he DONE? He got someone in trouble because he insisted on causing trouble, and yet his very hands were the ones that had caused the end of him. And he was so cowardly he couldn’t own up to his own mistake. 

He fell to his knees, silent tears running down his face. Helpless. He was helpless. Why had he even hoped of turning out different than his father? It’s what he was meant for all along after all. Maybe he shouldn’t even try to feel pain or guilt. Maybe this was who he was meant to be all along.

At that sudden moment, a piece of paper had suddenly materialized in the air with a little flash of light and a hissing sound above his head. Cyno looked up with his bloodshot eyes as the paper floated down slowly, slowly, slowly. He caught it and stained the paper with his blood covered hands. 

A letter, it was a letter. Addressed to him? Who on earth would address a letter to him? It was clear it wasn’t from anyone in the desert. Letters were prohibited in the kingdom after all, immediately arousing the kings suspicion as he immediately snatched it out of his hands.

“A letter, for you? Hm, how curious.” He simply mused, tearing apart the envelope already. Cyno, filled with desperation and guilt, didn’t know how much more of this he could take. 

“Give. me. My. LETTER!” He balled up his fists in rage, too afraid to actually strike him.

The king simply ignored him, tossing the ripped envelope aside as he read the letter. With every single word he read, his eyes widened more and more and he opened his mouth just the slightest. 

Then, without a word, he actually handed the letter over to Cyno to read. Cyno just sat there, blinking in shock. His father just held it out, before drawing his hand back in realization “Oh right, you’re illiterate.” “And who’s fault is that.” Cyno muttered under his breath

“Respected Prince Cyno

  It is our greatest pleasure to cordially invite you to study in our prestigious school, the                                                                    Akademiya for the upcoming semester this year. Our esteemed staff are some of the most dedicated educators in the entire kingdom, so we can ensure you the best education possible. Our facilities are top-notch and the housing conditions for students are already taken care of. We hope you would consider our offer and attend our orientation ceremony today evening at half past 5 sharp.

 The Akademiya’s assistant dean

 Nahida.” 

When Cyno heard it, all he saw were gaping faces at him in shock. Even Cyno couldn’t process what was happening at the moment. He got invited to an academy?! How? When? Why!? Why him!?

The shock was evident even on Alhaithams usually inexpressive face, mouth agape and eyes wide.

“So?”

The initial electric buzzing of the court died once the king uttered that single word, and Cyno flinched instinctively “So what?”

“Are you going?”

This was confusing. His father wasn’t going to let him go anyway. Why did he even bother asking him that if it was irrelevant. Perhaps just to torture him even more. But he wasn’t going to fall for his mind games.

“What do you mean?!” Cyno spat venomously at him, before his father shot him a steely glare to keep his mouth shut.

“I’m afraid I wasn’t clear enough.” he said, a sinister smile stretching across his face “You WILL go to the Akademiya. And I will be coming with you to the orientation. Is that clear?”

What.

WHAT.

WHAT?!?

“You have an hour to get ready,” he says, dismissing the court with a wave of his hand “AND DON’T COME IN PAJAMAS.”

*****************

Alhaitham, as Cyno’s personal advisor, had been appointed to help Cyno prepare for the journey ahead. He helped him fold his clothes, not uttering a word. No curses, no scoldings, no lectures, just an eerie silence that cut through the air like a knife.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Cyno muttered silently, to which Alhaitham replied without even looking him in the eye. “What really is there to say?”

“I’m sorry, okay?!” Cyno said, his voice suddenly raising in volume, “I never wanted any of this to happen! I didn’t want to kill that guy..I!”

“Of course you didn’t mean for it to happen! But it did! And it was all because of your recklessness and your horrible coping mechanisms and NOTHING ELSE!” he spat, “I told you I can’t be able to get you out of all the bullshit you get into! You deserved to deal with your own problems for once.”

Cyno flinched, an overwhelming feeling of betrayal washing over him. Wasn’t Alhaitham supposed to be the person who loved him the most? Why..why did his words hit him so much harder than his father’s ever did?

“If you hate me this much,” he whispered, “why do you even say you love me.”

Alhaitham gripped the cloth he was holding tightly, and let out a sharp exhale.

“I’m sorry Cyno.” he murmured, one of the first times he actually apologized for something. He often didn't need to apologize for things.

“But I think we should end things here.” he said flatly. 

Cyno could feel his heart shatter into a million tiny pieces, each of them cutting deep into his skin.

“Huh?” he muttered weakly, hoping, BEGGING he hadn’t heard right.

“You’re going off on a journey on your own, you don’t need anything, especially a person like me, to hold you back from the world you have yet to see.”

“Bullshit liar.”

“...what?”

“I said,” Cyno said, his voice so low it became a growl “BULLSHIT LIAR! I KNOW YOU’RE LYING! WHY ARE YOU LYING TO ME?!” his eyes suddenly started glowing a deep purple as sparks started to fly from them “ANSWER ME!”

“I’m not lying!” Alhaitham said, suddenly worried that maybe this wasn’t the best way to go about things “What are you even talking about?!”

Cyno went silent for a few minutes, his body suddenly glowing purple as bolts of electricity started sparking out of control.

“I understand now.” he said, barely a whisper before he started laughing, tears rolling down his face as he started to lose his grip on sanity “I understand now, it's all so clear to me! You never really cared about me at all, did you?! No, no, you just wanted me under control. So you wouldn’t get into trouble, you manipulated me, you gaslighted me, YOU SELFISH BASTARD!”

The crackling electric volts were striking across the room, Alhaitham frantically trying to avoid it as Cyno was struggling to control his immense power “That’s not!...”

“Get out, I never wanna see you again!”

“But…”

“GET. OUT!!!”

Alhaitham could do nothing but get himself out of the room in a panic as the boy and his powers went completely out of control. The next thing he knew, huge blasts of lighting broke the door down.

But after that, nothing. Nothing but utter silence. The last glimpse Alhaitham had of Cyno was his burned body, uncontrollably sobbing into his knees.

Chapter Text

After like, half an hour of wallowing in self pity and crying his eyes out, Cyno finally decided to man up and pack his bag. Like, Alhaitham can go piss himself, right?! So what if it was absolutely Cyno’s fault for being an absolute degenerate and being so clueless when it comes to love and being so naive that he let the one, THE ONE person he cared about, manipulate him, or maybe he just proved that he was just as much of a cold, heartless murderer like his father that feasts on the blood and souls of innocent people.

Whatever. Whatever! He had something else to care about now. He just got accepted in APPARENTLY the best school in the entire nation. And how, he had no idea. But all that matters is that now, he had an actual future that he could build up to. And maybe, finally, he could break free from this stupid kingdom and his even stupider father. 

He went to his bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like he got run over by a truck. His skin still had burns and his clothes were torn from his….minor freak out. He had eyebags and his eyes were red from crying, and his hair was singed. He’s certainly going to make a wonderful first impression at the academy. 

He took a large bundle of bandages and used that to cover his burns after applying an ointment on it (a nasty smelling one at that) before changing into his more decent clothes. He packed a notebook too, he didn’t exactly have the textbooks or any of the other materials he needed. Or he thinks he didn’t. He hasn’t exactly gone to school before, or studied, or learned how to read or do math. But that’s not actually his fault, for once. He 

Come to think of it, this was probably a power play by the kingdom. Why else would they want a LITERALLY UNEDUCATED prince to attend there?

While he was finally zipping up his suitcase, a glinting reflection had caught his eyes. It came from the top of his desk. When he went over to examine it, he realized it was the pocket watch from earlier. The TIME TRAVELLING pocket watch. The one Alhaitham said was from Cyrus. Probably just another lie of his. 

But what..what if…it maybe wasn’t? Against his own will, he pocketed the watch and made his way out. His father was there, waiting for him rather impatiently in a car.

“You have a jeep?!” Cyno asked, gaping. 

“Of course I do. Now don’t dawdle, hurry up. We’ve got no time to waste.” Cyno hesitatingly got into the jeep. Maybe this was just some elaborate plan to…um…kill him in a jeep crash or something. But then again he was literally driving the jeep himself, it would definitely kill the both of them.

But he was being so weirdly..civil. That was majorly concerning. He had ulterior motives, Cyno just needed to figure out what they were. 

“Why are you so eager to send me to this place anyway?” he muttered grumpily and slightly childishly under his breath, scratching at his bandages covering his arms. “Oh, pardon me if I don’t want my son to rule this kingdom a dimwit.” he said sarcastically, mocking the boy. Cyno gripped the seat so hard his nails ripped into the fabric and the sound of his teeth grinding was apparent.

“I’m not dumb.” he hissed under his breath, slumping in his seat. “What’s school like anyway. I don’t even have a pencil with me.”

“School is a place that would break you down until you bend to confine yourself to societal norms. You live on a stage, having to put on a facade of a perfect version of yourself only to get by. At Least that’s how it was at this school.”

“You went to the Akademiya?!” Cyno suddenly exclaimed in surprise at the revelation.

“It wasn’t even called that yet.” he corrected, taking out a strange looking key from his pocket and handing it to Cyno “keep this with you for now.”

“I bet you were REALLY popular with the ladies.”

The king slammed Cyno into the window roughly without even sparing him a look. “One day, that mouth of yours is going to get you killed.”

“Mpmmph!” Cyno grunted against the window before shoving off his fathers hand and rubbing his cheek in pain and glaring at the man intensely. He, of course, ignored him and slammed his feet hard on the accelerator. The car sped up quickly, surprising Cyno so much he started screaming (again, like the alpha sigma male he is).

“Stop screaming like that! It’s humiliating. Have you never been in a car before?!” the king hissed, taking a sharp turn out of the road in the towns to the forest, where they proceeded to slam into multiple trees, breaking them.

“NO, I HAVEN’T!!?” Cyno screeched, hugging his seatbelt in an attempt to stay alive. They drove, more like wrecked, through more trees, until they got closer to IT. The barrier. The barrier that separated the desert kingdom from the real world. Come to think of it, how WERE they going to get past it?

When the outside world came to know of the king's tyrannous rule over the kingdom, they did all they could to make sure none of it affected them, like the selfish people they were. Not even giving a second thought to the people suffering here and not bothering about the blood that was shed in pointless struggles of freedom. 

“Take the key out, and when I tell you to, yeet it out in front of you.” 

“What?!”

“And could you perhaps not try to mess up this singular, simple thing I’ve asked you to do for ONCE in your life.” his father rolled his eyes. Cyno had often wished that they would roll so hard they would roll out of the back of his head.

He picked up the now glowing key, and it started vibrating violently. When Cyno threw it, it practically flew to the front of them, suddenly enlarging into a portal. A large swirling portal. 

The kings face is a bored one, looking perhaps upset or maybe disappointed “Pity this piece of junk couldn’t go faster,” he mumbled, picking at his nail and letting go of the steering wheel.

The minute they entered the portal, Cyno’s life was literally flashing before his eyes. All of his memories were flashing against his face. His horrible closeted past, the pain he went through, his first murder, his breakup..his breaking-off with alhaitham. He could see everything. And he hated it. He closed his eyes as tight as he could, praying that it would be over soon. 

The jeep suddenly landed with a crash on the ground. King Deshret looked around, and then actually started driving at a normal pace. “We’re here.” he said “the place where all hope is lost and all dreams are crushed.” 

“Wow, how encouraging.” he mumbles so low the king couldn’t hear it. It truly was a wonderful pep talk.

Out of the corner of his eye, there were two particular figures that struck him. Two boys stepped out of a carriage so bright that it could permanently blind anyone who gazed in its direction. One boy had blond hair and an excessive amount of jewelry, his outfit practically screaming ‘rob me’. 

The other boy…the other one was different. He appeared to be a kemonomini, having the long ears and tail of a fennec fox. Except he had dark fur, when the rest of his species usually had a lighter tone. Like all normal princes do, he had perfect skin, elegant clothes, graceful yet powerful movements…his rambling thoughts of the boy were interrupted when the boys green and brown eyes suddenly gazed through his.

All of the sudden, Cyno suddenly found himself getting flustered, attempting to hide behind a tree and hid his blushing face in his hands. The most surprising thing, however, was the fox boy’s reaction. His eyes widened a considerable amount, and physically stumbled behind himself. Was it out of fear? Confusion? Familiarity? He didn’t know. Perhaps it was because of his fathers presence. Yes, it was probably because of him.

But why was he acting so…like this! When he hasn't even met him before! The king noticed Cyno’s sudden movements and shift in demeanor, and proceeds to raise an eyebrow at him before scoffing and making his way to the entrance. Meanwhile, with the two boys, the flamboyant one looks at the fox boy in concern

“Nari, are you okay?! You look like you either had a stroke or you just saw a murderer.” Kaveh prompted, lightly slapping the boy's face.

Tighnari snapped out of his initial shock, and sighed, waving Kaveh’s hand out of his face “I’m fine… it's nothing.. I'm fine.”

Kaveh raised his own eyebrow, unconvinced after Tighnari’s recent theatrics. “Alright, if you say so. I trust you to be your usual reliable self if you actually do have any problem with something. Wait, was it about your dream?! Nariii~”

Tighnari only responded with a nod, writing off the boy he just saw an illusion after noticing that he had disappeared from the spot he saw him in. 

After all, how ridiculous was it to see the same boy FROM HIS DREAMS?! The same handsome boy who was nearly gonna kis…who was really close to him. Yeah, that. 

“When are your parents gonna arrive, Nari?” Kaveh asked, looking at him like he just farted. 

“Soon enough,” he responded, looking around for any possible signs of them. A more modest carriage came up from a distance. As Tighnari expected, out of it came his mother and father, trying to look for them.

He gave them an awkward wave and smiled fakely. If they found out Tighnari had just developed a possible crush on a person he hadn’t even MET, he’d never hear the end of it. All he needs now is for Kaveh to maybe keep his big mouth shut.

“How’s my little boy after the journey?” Samia, Tighnari’s mother says endearingly, ruffling his hair “your cheeks look a little pink.”

“Now that she mentions it,” Karim, Tighnari’s father mused, “you do seem quite flustered, my son. Is everything all right?”

“THAT’S BECAUSE HE…” Kaveh exclaimed, but he caught Tighnari’s piercing glare. With a shake of his head, it was unfortunately clear to him about what he had to do. “Because he is very very nervous about his first day of school…”

Tighnari smacked his forehead internally. A bit of an improvement, but not better. Still, it sufficed.

Both of Tighnari’s parents looked at him strangely “I didn’t think you would be worried about those kinds of things Tighnari.” Karim mumbled, scratching his chin worriedly “That isn’t really like you. I hope nothing else is bothering you.”

“NO!” Tighnari exclaimed way too suddenly, much to the others' concern. “I mean, I’m going to rule over a massive kingdom one day, ain’t I? I need to learn how to conquer my own fears 8f I wanna help defend people from theirs”

Samia and Karim looked at each other and nodded in approval “I hope you know what you're doing, my boy. But I'm proud of you all the same. Come now, we wouldn't want to be late…”

Trailing off, Tighnari's father patted him on the back as the two followed Kaveh and him to the prestigious academy.

They stood towards the main entrance. When Tighnari walked past a silhouette, he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck heighten as his ears immediately pick up the sound of footsteps coming next to them. When his eyes met with the ones of the person next to him, it felt like time had just stopped. Those ruby red eyes filled with that same fiery inferno that made his heart race like in his dream.

No, he wasn’t just seeing or hallucinating anything. He couldn’t be. A hallucination couldn’t possibly be invoking emotion this passionate, especially in someone who can’t recognize the same. Also, the fact that the boy was gazing into his soul . More like staring soullessly, but that doesn’t matter. The tension in the air suddenly felt thicker, but it wasn’t between them.

"Deshret, it... certainly has been a while." his father said, shattering the spell of Tighnari’s trance, voice heavily strained.

"Can’t say I’ve been missing you, Karim." a cold, monotone voice responded, his amber eyes shifting lazily to the other man, his soul as cold as his son’s.

Chapter Text

The tension in the air was so thick he could cut it with a knife. The two older men were just gazing at each other, no emotions readable on their faces. But Tighnari could see his father picking his nails off his finger, and he knew his father long enough to know it was a nervous tick of his. 

His mother’s eyes were wide, trying not to show her levels of her uncomfortableness, but failing miserably as her face twisted in contortions of anger, fear, and absolute confusion. She instinctively pulled Tighnari and Kaveh behind her, glaring at the ruthless dictator. 

Kaveh bit his lip so hard it drew blood, eyes practically bulging out of his head and not daring to say a word for, like, the first time in his life. He slowly backed away from the two, not understanding a bit of what was going on, but knew it was best to stay away from this peculiar situation.

Meanwhile Tighnari, mentally absent Tighnari, still couldn’t wrap his head around how the boy from his dream was HERE. He wasn’t hallucinating, HE WASN’T HALLUCINATING. But somehow, even with the repetitive chanting of that same phrase in his mind more than a few times, he still can’t lead himself to believe it.

“Name, please?” the orientation receptionist asked the unfamiliar older man timidly. He scoffed, and suddenly drew a dagger and put it to the person's throat. “Oh, I believe you know EXACTLY who we are,” he growled. The receptionist whimpered as he backed away rapidly “Yes! Yes…apologies King Deshret of the desert Kingdom and Prince Cyno!”

Oh.

OH.

THAT King Deshret.

WAIT, WHAT?!?!

THE POWERFUL EXTRA TERRIFYING RUTHLESS DICTATOR KING DESHRET.

THE KING DESHRET WHO BASICALLY BUILT HIS KINGDOM OUT OF THE BLOOD AND BONES OF THE PEOPLE HE SLAUGHTERED IN HIS REIGN.

King Deshret and Prince Cyno…..the boy in his dream was the dictator's son. Because of course he was. 

Why would such an ABSOLUTELY DANGEROUS AND VOLATILE personality even be allowed into the Akademiya? 

He was very well aware of Akademiya’s past of helping the most notorious and cruel villains' children redeem themselves. But the desert kingdom had been sealed away from the entire joint kingdom of Teyvat, and for a very good reason. Any chance they would or could offer, the king would use it to seize the kingdom entirely. And if it wasn’t obvious from these copious amounts of information, that would be very, very bad.

It appeared to Tighnari that Prince Cyno had registered for the Akademiya. He took in a deep breath, if they were going to be classmates, he might as well at least TRY to get them both off on the right foot. A tugging feeling in his heart felt like he was just doing this because he only saw Cyno as the boy from his dreams, not the son of a murderer. 

No, this weird obsession with a boy he literally just met was spiralling too out of control! He was dangerous! He couldn’t avoid to be foolish.

“Uuhh, hello!” Tighnari chirped up way too perkily than he intended “I’m Tighnari, the prince of the Sumeru rainforests! It’s so nice to meet you, I’ve always wondered what the desert kingdom was like, ehe..” What on earth was he doing?! He messed up. He messed up and he knew it.

It was now Kaveh’s turn to internally facepalm. His friend was being unusually perky, and for what?! His parents snapped from their awkward states and glared at Tighnari in confusion, wondering if their son got hit on the head or whether this was Kaveh’s doing.

King Deshret blinked at the nervously sweating Rainforest prince in absolute confusion, caught off guard for a second. Did this dumb kid not know who they were? He ought to fear them, not socialize with them. 

The kemonomimi's ears were a dead giveaway to how Tighnari actually felt, twitching way too much for a person who wanted a normal conversation with a fellow peer. 

Prince Cyno, meanwhile, was filled with absolute disgust and immediate apprehension. He could clearly see his two-facedness, who did he think he was? A strange anger boiled inside of him. More fake people were just too much for him to deal with. Professor Cyrus, Alhaitham, most probably his father, and now this guy?! No. NO!

He shoved the other prince violently, sending him tumbling to the ground. Cyno’s sudden burst of emotions had administered a blast of electro to him accidentally, making the situation much worse. 

“Back off..BITCH.” he hissed in his ear. Kaveh’s face immediately contorted into one of anger, balling his fists with his nails digging into his palm, not hesitating to push him away 

“Leave him alone, who do you think you are?!?!”

Both of Tighnari’s parents held Kaveh back immediately, with almost as much as, if not more anger than him. 

“What does your son think he’s doing?!” Karim yelled, attempting to hold back a very pissed of Kaveh, rage laced in his voice

The king suddenly smirked, leaving and twisted feeling in everyone’s chests before leaving. He knew he had won this round, and wanted everyone to know it.

Suddenly, Cyno felt regret. Why did he do that?! He’d been asking himself this question too many times today, and for what? He kept doing cruel things after cruel thing. And he didn’t even remember why he was angry at the boy. 

He..

He really was becoming just like him, wasn’t he.

His father. 

He followed his father, blindly into the Akademiya, blinded by tears of anger he refused to let flow. He had already cried too many times today too, damn it. Damn it all.

Tighnari’s parents and Kaveh immediately rushed over to his side after the King and the Prince had left, worried for his safety. Tighnari was in a terrified, confused heap on the floor, clutching his chest in pain.

“Tighnari, are you alright?!” His mother asked him, helping him stand up. Tighnari decided on an impulse to ignore his mother and whispered in Kaveh’s ear, breathing rapidly. “KAVEH,” he whispered shakily.

“What did he do to you,” Kaveh asked dangerously under his breath, but making sure the adults didn’t hear.

“Kaveh, the boy, Prince Cyno, I know him,” Tighnari blurted out “He was the boy from my dream.”

Chapter Text

“No, no, noonononononononononon. No. No! NO!” Kaveh exclaimed shaking his head in frustration, trying to process Tighnari’s words “There is absolutely no freaking way that…that… ASSHOLE was the one who was being kissy-kissy romantic there with you. Maybe he has an identical twin or something.”

“Shut up!” Tighnari hissed, putting a hand over Kaveh’s mouth, his parents giving him strange looks before focusing on finding a seat for the ceremony. The seats were fairly close to the main stage, so they had a decent view of the stage. Most of the crowd had already occupied their seats and were just waiting for the whole thing to start.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Tighnari saw the King and the Prince in the front row. King Deshret had an air of arrogance and pride, like he was a dark storm ready to break. Cyno, Prince Cyno, was the exact opposite of his father. He looked sad, no, not even sad. He looked miserable. 

Almost…defeated. 

Did he not want to be here? 

Tighnari blinked, squinting at something he thought he saw under Cyno’s clothes. Under his sleeves, he got a glimpse of white bandages wrapped carelessly around his arms. Bloodstains stained the white with red, seeping through the fabric. 

He was injured, and quite badly at that…! Why was he here?! What even happened to him?! And most importantly, what kind of father would not let his son rest and make him go to one of the possibly most boring and unnecessary ceremonies of the year. He’s sure the school administration would understand the reason for his absence. 

Even after how horribly the prince had treated Tighnari on their first meeting, he could feel his heart clench in pity for the boy. Not even when his mind was screaming at him to condemn the boy for his actions. 

Upon closer inspection, Tighnari could see the singed edges his hair and the burns that traced his face, covered with a sort of foundation, possibly to avoid suspicion. Was he thrown into the dungeons and tortured or something?! 

With a father like THAT, it wouldn’t be so hard to believe.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sounds of trumpets blowing into the air. Very loudly he might add. Him along with the rest of his family folded their ears downwards to prevent too much sound from coming in, their species being sensitive to the loud noise.

A figure with an air of authority and significance suddenly strode down the middle of the audience. Tighnari must admit, he thought someone like the acting principal of the academy would be a lot more…taller. His face was covered by perhaps the largest hat he had ever seen, was dressed in what seemed like clothes from the kingdoms of the constituency Inazuma. His clothes were shades of gray, blue, black, white and gold, and his skin was pale.

He and Kaveh managed to hold their laughter, but accidentally let out a few snorts. The man, or boy? Tighnari wasn’t sure. The..guy suddenly looked right into his eyes, a purple hue but somehow ethereal in nature, and the both of them immediately stopped, intimidated in a way by his silent assertiveness.

He looked away from the two of them with a silent huff and stepped up to the podium on the small stage that lay in front of them. Suddenly, a little girl dashed in the main entrance, sprinting behind the hat guy and panting with exhaustion. The hat guy looked down to the tiny child and frowned at her.
“You’re late.”

“I had to check on things with the staff and security. Were you aware of the display of violence between a certain two students earlier?”

“Quite aware Nahida.” Hat guy sighs in disdain, eyes lowering with his back turned to the audience. Tighnari could pick up on the two’s chatter quite easily, but at that moment, he wished he couldn’t. “The prince from Advidya and the..”

“And prince Cyno.” she says, looking at him with her wide, green eyes. Her appearance was one that seemed quite childish, but the thing that shocked Tighnari was that her demeanour, her words, everything else about her carried a wisdom that was far, far beyond her years. “Are you ABSOULUTELY sure about this Wanderer?”

“I’ll handle it later,” he grunted, moving the ornaments that hung from his hat out of his peripheral vision “right now, let just get this useless thing over with. I hate socializing and parties.”

“Ceremony,” Nahida corrected “it’s a ceremony, an annual one at that. We couldn’t afford NOT to hold it.” 

Nahida she said her name was? It sounded quite familiar.

..oh! He learned about her in history, hadn’t he? She was one of the 5 beloved archons that brought the great change apon the akademiya’s. 

Born villains that were always meant to become heroes at the end of the day.

Hm.

The wanderer scoffed and turned his back on Nahida, adjusting the microphone in his podium and coughing into it as the reverberation echoed round the room. “Is this damn thing on? Testing, one two three, one two three, supercalifragalisticexpila..okay it works.”

“Before we start this whole….thing, I’d like to thank everyone for taking their precious time off their busy lives ruling kingdoms to come and celebrate this new era of the Akademiya. As you all know, the archons, who were meant to all manage this school together, are helping with inter- constituency relationships to keep peace in our beloved nation.” his sudden change in demeanour shook Tighnari. His aura was now one of pleasantness, with an air of authority, without even a hint of a smile.

“So, unfortunately, things will be different. Not unfortunate for me, by the way. Because Venti and Xiao had put ME in charge. I’m going to run a tight ship in this place. Misbehaviour and infractions of all kinds will not be tolerated.”

After a moment of silence, his violet eyes softened ever so slightly.

“But know us as true to or word, our students will have a safe environment to grow in. They will become great leaders of kingdoms, and will be a crucial role in maintaining the peace of our society. On that note, let us start the new semester of our prestigious academy and carry forth the beacon of light and hope within us.”

The crowd immediately erupted in applause at the wanderers speech, and he made a huff of pride and Nahida nodded in his direction in approval.

“Now, I’d like to welcome one of our…..prestigious guests up on the stage to perhaps say a few words. The king of the desert.”

King deshret wasn’t even paying attention to the wanderer’s speech. He was fiddling with a little spark of magic in his hands, like a little child playing with a rubix cube. Cyno was glaring at him, but didn’t dare say a word. 

Wanderer narrowed his eyes in frustration and glared at the man “Ehm, excuse me, do you mind?!” he said, sarcasm creeping into his voice. The king looked up with a bored expression on his face and the sparks on his hand grew wilder.

“Actually, I do.”

The king sat up and went to the front of the audience. By now, the sparks were practically flying out of his hand, people edging away from him in fear of either getting too close to the strange magic, or were just too afraid of him himself. 

Cyno’s heart dropped to stomach and his gut wrenched in knots. “What are you doing?!” he yelled at the king, despite his better judgement. His jaw tightened, before he looked at Cyno with a smile that gave him chills to his spine.

“Why, I’m only playing my favourite game,” he hummed, twisting his neck to look him dead in the eye.

He took out his staff, and channeled his power into it before slamming it into the ground. The crowds absolutely freaked out, jumping onto their chairs and pulling out their weapon. Tighnari and kaveh hugged each other in fear, before remembering they were in a public place and shoved each other off in embarrassment. 

Before long, multiple grotesquely deformed bodies dug there ways through the ground. Bandages were wrapped haphazardly around their bodies, dried bloodstains staining it. The skulls were of rotted bones, with eyes that gave glimpses of the burning bowels of hell. 

Mummies

“Sorry!” he cackles echoed into the air "but it's a game of SWEET REVENGE after all!".

Those were his final words before the mummies attacked the crowd.

Chapter Text

Of course, the crowd reacted to this predicament appropriately, with screams and mental breakdowns. At this point Kaveh jumped into Tighnari’s arms and were both screaming their lungs out, as were everyone else.

“WHAT ARE THOSE?!” Kaveh stuttered, pointing at one hideous monster, and another, and another. Tighnari shook his head. He was a prince, this was no time to be freaking out. He needed to be level headed and control the situation, like all royals should. Although most of them sounded like screaming goats at the moment.

He threw Kaveh aside and he landed on his backside. “Owww,” he mumbled, rubbing his behind wincing in pain. “We need to do something Kaveh!” Tighnari stressed motioning around. The zombie like mummies weren’t causing any harm, but they were detaining all of the guests at the orientation ceremony. Tying them to anything they could find, restraining them with their rotten yet solid bones. “We have to fight back!”

Kaveh took a few tiny breaths holding his chest, in and out, in and out. “You’re right.” he nodded, looking at the weapons the monsters held as the dictator watched on with glee, taking a sick pleasure at everyones cries for help. He seemed to be controlling them with his own will, his fingers fidgeting and moving around strangely. “We don’t have any weapons, mine’s in my suitcase. And you don’t have your bow and arrows either Nari.”

“We don’t.” Tighnari agreed. He rushed over to a couple who were trying their very best to fight off a pair of the monsters. He came to their rescue almost immediately, delivering a sweeping kick to their wobbly legs when they didn’t notice, toppling them over. He grabbed the two old rusted spear like weapons and tossed one to Kaveh “Now we do.”

Kaveh catched the weapon and gave a grin of reassurance to his friend before he started striking at the mummies. Tighnari struggled to make his way to the front of the ballroom in the chaos, a shadow casting over it. It was the wanderer, and he wasn’t pleased. He wasn’t pleased at all. His eyebrows were furrowed deeply, and his eyes deep set. Strong currants of magic flowed from his veins onto the tips of his fingers and he was launching blasts at the king.

“We invite you to our kingdom out of the goodness of our hearts,” he seethed under his breath “And this is how you reciprocate our hospitality?! We’ll make sure you pay for this Deshret.” with the first blast of the energy, the king immediately leapt out of the way. The magic was harnessed of the energy of the wind, it slashed right into the ground, large clumps of the ground flew out and everyone was reppeled backwards by the sheer force of it. His body was crackling with electricity, and an illusion of some sort of godly figure covered him, his arms turning into large claws and his person glowing a bright shade of purple.

“‘Out of the goodness of your heart?’” The dictator scoffed amusedly “You just wanted the desert kingdom to join your silly little nation. A large power play was all this was. But I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”

He somehow managed to leap towards the wanderer floating in the air and clung onto him. His eyes widen with sudden fear and shock, desperately trying to pry him off “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” he yells.

He says nothing, but rips his arm off, Kaveh yelped and covered his eyes to protect them from the bloodshed and Tighnari stared in absolute horror. But there wasn’t any blood. There was only……

“…….wires?” he muttered, squinting to make sure he saw right. Deshret tore of another one of The wanderers metallic limbs as he slowly fell from the sky. He made no sound, but the pain was apparent on his face. “Hat guy!” Nahida suddenly exclaimed, tears in her eyes and made an attempt to go to him, but was held back by the monsters.

The kings purple claws tore through his metallic body as everyone watched with absolute horror, making desperate attempts of escape. How were they going to get out of this?! The wanderer came crashing down, his parts dismembered and no longer looked human.

He didn’t move a muscle on the ground. Tighnari could feel himself tearing up over the man. Even though he didn’t know him, he had already a sense of great respect for him. Besides, nobody deserved a death that brutal. There was an ear piercing silence that followed. Not a word uttered.

Until a tiny clank of metal vibrated through the waves of the atmosphere.

Before Tighnari could even process what was going on, he saw a glimpse of his father. And he held a sword towards Deshrets neck, the metal glinting near the tip. “This ends now old friend.” he said calmly, with anger creeping into his voice.

Deshret’s eyes widened for a split second, his jaw tightening and teeth grinding “Never, never EVER call me ‘friend’ again, you filthy. disgusting excuse of a human.” he spat venomously, as he crouched on the floor, as if making sure the Wanderer was actually dead. Tighnari had never seen someone’s mood change so quickly, it was unsettling. Letting him and his son into their kingdom was the worst mistake they’d ever made.

Speaking of his son, where even was Cyno? Tighnari tried to analyse the parameter, but just couldn’t catch a glimpse of the boy. Probably ran away from this nightmare of a situation.

Deshret took a spear laying on the ground and used it to strike at Karim, to which he parried and blocked. Tighnari immediately sprung into action. He needed to be fighting with his father side-by-side. Kaveh was handling himself perfectly fine, almost enjoying the new adrenaline rush of the battle.

All of the sudden, a sudden pain shot in all directions in Tighnari’s head. His ears started ringing and the world suddenly turned into a carousel, colors flashing in front of his eyes and his vision switching from light to dark. He had been hit on the head, badly. Before he could even process this statement, the weapon was knocked out of his hand and he was restrained. His eyes started watering on impulse, his heart beating wildly against his ribs as he struggled to escape the stone grip as his knees buckled.

The duel between the king and his father was getting heated. Their skills were perfectly matched. They easily predicted each others moves, moving so quickly barely anybody could keep track.

“Why are you doing this Deshret?!” Karim exclaimed, finally letting his anger get the better of himself, panic raising in his person.

“Why am doing this?” Deshret laughed, like it was some sort of joke “Why am I doing this? Well, because it’s oh so amusing, dear Karim. Look at you, the most perfect, rule abiding person out there! How terribly, utterly mundane! But me?…”

He grabbed the other mans shoulder and knocked out his weapon, twisting his arm as he gave a yelp of pain “I play by my own rules.” he shoved him to the ground, and multiple spears were pointed at his neck. Tighnari could feel his windpipe closing up as his breath became more ragged.

What was happening?! What were they going to do with his father?! Kill him?! And where on earth was his mother?!

“How awfully amusing,” the king smirked, strolling around the struggling man in circles, his gaze on him. “I wonder how we should deal with people who try to directly disobey orders from their KING. If only there was someone who could help us answer this question.”

He silently went over to a table filled to the brim with snacks and pasteries and lifted up the table cloth over it. Underneath it was a crouching Cyno covering his ears, eyes shut tight muttering ‘please be a nightmare please be a nightmare pleasebeanightmare pleasebeanightmare pleasebeanightmare.’

Deshret kicked the boys side without a second thought, glaring at him almost in embarrasment. Cyno immediately toppled over, and made a tiny squeak of pain. And no one but Tighnari heard it.

“Get up, you look patheric.” he hissed, turning back to Tighnari’s father “Now, for an old friend, I’m willing to make an exception. Kneel.”

Karim looked at the other man in absolute indignation and scoffed, eyes lowering “Never. Not to you.” he growled, his sharp canines baring.

Deshrets eyes narrowed, his eyes slowly warping into a shade of ethreal electro purple, his nails digging into his fists. “Cyno, what do we do to people who fail to comply with their majesty?”

Tighnari’s eyes widened as he shook his head. Cyno was right, this HAD to be a dream. He had hyper-realistic dreams before, why couldn’t this be one of those?! He couldn’t stand to lose one of the people he loved the most, especially like this…

Cyno’s eyes darted back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. “Look,” Cyno replied towards Karim frantically “all you have to do is swear allegiance to him and get on your knees. Is that really so hard to do?!”

“If it means going against everything me and my country stands for,” Karim murmured, looking at the king in the eye. “then yes, child. I suppose it is.”

The king grinned a twisted smile, as if waiting for something in anticipation. He looked at his son, who immediately flinched under his gaze. “Too bad then,” he shrugged nonchalantly, much to everyones confused whispers.

There was an almost deafning silence that followed. Tighnari could almost see the boys pupils shrink smaller. But at his words, any pity he had ever felt for him had evaporated into thin air.

“Off with his head.”

Gasps echoed in the crowd. Tighnari’s heart dropped to his stomach and his gut twisted into tight knots.

A loud ringing rang in his ears, the same words ‘off with his head’ playing in his mind over and over again in his head like the chorus of a sick melody. His father had just recieved a death sentence.

Why?!

It was so unfair!

WHAT DID THEY DO TO DESERVE THIS?!

Tears burned in the back of Tighnari’s eyes, biting his lips so hard it drew blood. His fear and sadness was slowly disappearing, a cold, horrible RAGE boiling the blood in his veins. Deshret seemed to take notice and smirked in joy “Oh no, you poor child. But I suppose it would do you some good, losing your parents. I grew up an orphan after all, now look at me!” he struck a dramatic pose, Karim physically cringing even with the precarious situation he was in.

“Atleast you have your mother….oh. Where is she?” he asked with fake innocence. The ringing in Tighnari’s head got even louder, until he couldn’t hear what else Deshret was yapping on about. He couldn’t stop the hot, angry tears from flowing down his face.

He saw the other prince gaze at him for a quick second, daring to have pity in his eyes. It was all his fault, wasn’t it? IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT! Just becuase he had to come here, just because this school was FOOLISH enough to let them in. Just about the moment he was reaching for something in his pocket, he felt something inside him just……snap.

With a sudden surge of strength, he managed to shove off the monsters holding him down, grabbed a stray dagger on the floor, and lunged towards Cyno, much to his and everyone elses shock, with a cry of agony, the metal glinting in the air. If the king was going to take away something Tighnari loved, he was going to take away something HE loved.

But before he could do anything, the world became hazy and flashed a million colors.

*************************

Cyno felt bad for saying that. Really, he did. The pain on the boys face made him regret his words even more, but he made a resolution not to dwell on it. After all, if his plan worked and all went well, he never had to worry about his father ever again.

Cowering in fear gave him plenty of time to contemplate his next course of action. Because OF COURSE his father had an ulterior motive which involved conquering and making him even more powerful than he already was.

He took out the pocket watch he was gifted by the professor from the package, and observed it even more carefully. If this thing was able to ACTUALLY take them back in time, then he would be able to fix EVERYTHING.

If you change even the slightest thing in the past there's no telling how it could impact the future.

Cyno’s mind blanked out, before he shook his head. The statement had already lost it’s worth, coming from the lying, bitchy manipulative Alhaitham. But he was right, unfourtunately. It referenced a theory Professor Cyrus had proposed to the two through letters. But the ability to finally change things, this absolute POWER. Was hardly something he could refuse.

While his father was going off on another one of his LONGGGG monologues, his thumb hovered over the stopwatch button of gleaming gold. But the minute he tried to press it, he could see the soul of the kings son leave his eyes. Had his father pushed him too far?! He lunged towards him with an extremely sharp dagger, and in a shock, Cyno pressed the button in that instant.

It was like an explosion of light. Nothing but swirling colors and sounds. The next thing he saw was the dagger wedged into hard concrete under him, with the kings son dangerously close to his face, tears streaming down his face with a crazy look in his eyes.

“YoUu, I’M GOING TO KILLL YOU!”

Chapter Text

Tighnari’s face was dangerously close to Cynos. So close that he could clearly hear the others trembling voice and laboured breathing. But he was frozen in his place, knowing he didn’t have the heart to actually kill a person. But he needed to figure out what on earth was going on. The atmosphere was different. It smelled stale, and there was a breeze that wasn’t there before. It was brighter than before too.

Cyno shoved the other boy off, trying not to harm him, and dusted himself off before getting an actual good look at his surroundings. They’d ended up outside of the school somehow, and this new, or old, era looked different. The sky was just a little more gray, he could feel a strange new surge of magic course through his veins. He felt powerful. But that was hardly a concern for him now. He hadn’t expected the boy to get transported with him. Now that he’s here, only the archons know what reprecussions might occur with his presence.

“Where…..where are we?!” Tighnari demanded, trying his obvious best to sound brave, but his ears twitched violently and bent backwards, an animalistic telling of fear. He grabbed Cyno’s collar and shoved him back to the ground with a thud, his weirdly strong grip not giving way.

“It’s….” Cyno heaved between words as Tighnari held him down, struggling to get himself free “it’s not where we are, It’s when we are.” Tighnari’s eyes widened, replaying Cyno’s words in his head. No matter how many times he thought of it, it just didn’t make sense. When? Had they…travelled through time? This was bad. No, this was horrible. He needed to save his family, and he needed to save them now. There was no time to be fooling around. Just what kind of power did this prince have?!

He pulled the silver dagger out of the concrete by it’s hilt and quickly moved it towards Cyno’s neck. The edge was bent, but still sharp enough to pierce through ones skin. He wouldn’t kill a person, he could never. But Cyno didn’t know that. “Explain. NOW.”

Cyno didn’t respond, only lowering his eyes at the other man. In a swift movement, he grabbed Tighnari’s hand and channelled all his magic through his arm. In an instant, it felt like his veins were on fire. He had beed shocked. He let out a yelp of pain as Cyno roughly shoved him aside “I don’t need to explain myself to you. It’s your own fault for trying to attack me.”

“What was I supposed to do, NOT get mad you just put my father under a death sentence?!” he hissed, shivering from the shock of pain.

“If my plan goes well, then you won’t need to worry about that at all,” Cyno replied, standing up. The wind caught his silvery-white hair, it flowing gracefully with the current of the breeze. Tighnari had to admit, in that moment, he had a slight understanding about his dream. His voice was soft, not angry, not sad, but hopeful. Maybe he could actually help him. maybe he wants to make things right.

But he had no reason to trust him.

He simply didn’t give him any.

What if he decided to make things worse instead of better. What even was his ‘plan’. He couldn’t trust him. Which is why….. “If you actually have that much faith in your plan, why won’t you tell me what it is?!”

Cyno snapped out of his trance, his eyebrow knitting together in a frown as he looked back at Tighnari “You? No. You’re probably one of those do-gooder princes that insist on ‘sticking to the rules’ or ‘doing what’s fair’. Even if it compromises anything at hand.” he says “this is dangerous. I’m afraid you might not be able to handle it.”

Tighnari could feel his blood boil in sudden rage and his skin become clammy. Did this guy actually have the nerve to mock him?! “I should be saying that to you. Who was the one hiding under the table when things got dangerous?” he shot back sarcastically, waving his hands around a smug smirk forming on his face “all I know is it wasn’t me.”

Cyno flinched immediately, the colour immediately draining out of his face upon being called out by the person he decided to insult. “That’s different!” he snapped back, turning and glaring at Tighnari right in the eyes.

Tighnari’s peripheral vision had suddenly caught the glint of something shiny. Something shiny in Cyno’s pocket. It looked like…..a pocket watch! It must’ve been what sent them back in time. If he had it, he’d be the one calling the shots, not Cyno. Then maybe, just maybe, they could actually pull this off.

Because Cyno didn’t know SHIT.

Tighnari didn’t either, but he could figure something out. He always does. And its only logical to assume that Cyno knew as little as he does. In a device as small and non-complex as a pocket-watch, it would be nearly impossible to set the time and place they could go accurately. Even though he might know what period he landed in, he doesn’t know everything that happens here, which doesn’t make a knowledge of history very reliable in this situation. There would be finer details that if ignored, could ruin the whole thing. He needed to be the one in control, not Cyno. Because it was the only logical option if they both wanted to get out of this situation alive, or without tearing down the boundaries of space and time.

He needed that watch.

And he was willing to fight for it.

But…..this isn’t right, is it.

It was wrong. It wasn’t what he stood for. It wasn’t what his father sacrificed his life for. But he didn’t have a choice. It would be illogical to sideline Cyno completely, since he was the one who bought them here. As much as Tighnari hated to admit it, he couldn’t bear to deal with this high stakes situation on his own. But Cyno was going to be difficult about it. Maybe he’d actually care to listen to him once he was in control.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw multiple swords hung on the traditional stone wall behind them, with a shield emblazoned with Sumeru’s old emblem on it. So Teyvat hadn’t been a united nation yet. They must be far into the past.

“Different how?” Tighnari replied, trying to keep a conversation going to distract the other boy. He backed towards the swords carefully, a step at a time to avoid any possibility of suspicion. “Your father was the one who brought chaos into the occasion, yet you decide to let others deal with it instead. I call it cowardly.”

“It’s not my fault you’re too narrow minded to comprehend my motives,” Cyno spat venomously, his body tensing up at Tighnaris reply. He was right, and he knew it. Which is why he needed to solve things as fast as he could. And he wasn’t going to let this stuck-up kid get in his way.

He noticed the princes hand behind his back, then the two swords and the shield on the wall. So this was how he was going to play it, huh? Maybe he wasn’t as gullible as he thought he was, but he was still going to be a hinderance. Before the other could do anything, with a swift movement, Cyno jumped towards the wall, grabbed the sword by its hilt and pointed the sword at his throat.

“Nice try.” he says, almost casually, but a hint of distrust and fear in his voice “And you wonder why I won’t tell you my plans.” Tighnari glowered at him, in embarrasment of being caught. In a last resort of an attack, he quickly swiped up the damaged dagger and used it to defend himself from Cynos attack. He swung his sword at him, and the metal of both the weapons clashed together with a clank. Tighnari grunted with struggle, the blade of the sword being too large for the dagger to handle.

“Just give up! You’re so annoyingly persistant.” Cyno said, pushing the blade even closer with the one of the dagger, forcing Tighnari to get on his knees. His eyes were glassy, he was just tired of everything. Why did this dumb prince decide to come along and make things difficult for him.

“I won’t give up!” Tighnari replied, his voice strained. Then he smirked. A very smug, annoying, smirk. Which just made Cyno even more irritated. Tighnari put a hand in his pocket and pulled out the watch. Then he procceded to kick Cyno where the sun didn’t shine. He was petty, but atleast he had his morals.

When Cyno’s knees buckled as he fell down, Tighnari rushed towards the wall and pulled out the other sword. Now the stakes were even. He had what he needed, but he knew the other prince wasn’t going to go down without a fight, and he wasn’t. Once the pain decreased just a little, he was back on his feet, swinging his sword at the other while loosing his patience.

Their combating styles couldn’t be more different. Cyno’s attacks were heavy, more focused on the impact it delivered, and were more focused on attacking than defence since Tighnari was the one who had the time-watch at hand. Tighnari’s were more quick, controlled and calculated. They were focused on defence against Cyno’s heavy attacks. But little did he know, Cyno’s attackes were just a distaction. He struck at Tighnari’s side, which he managed to avoid easily. Yet, he seemingly forgot that he struck near the pocket of the watch, and shortly noticed tho familiar gleam of the chain on the blade.

Tighnari lunged to get it back, but Cyno threw his own weapon away to hold Tighnari back “Why are you being so difficult?!” he demanded. “I’m being difficult?! Me?! YOU’RE being difficult!” Cyno shot back “Just leave me alone.”

“How!? How could I possibly leave you alone?! Don’t you get it?!” Tighnari exclaimed, shoving Cyno up to a wall roughly and pinning his arm with the watch up, closing up the space between the two, their faces close to touching. “If you leave me here, I could cause a time paradox or a rip in the time-space continum! I can help you! WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER!”

Shocked by Tighnari’s sudden proclamation of an alliance, Cyno just couldn’t find a good retort to say back, before suddenly getting flustered at how close the other boy was to him “Ummm, what the hell are you doing?”

Tighnari didn’t say anything, before suddenly realizing what Cyno meant and immediately let go of his arm and backed away. A shade of red tinted his face as the words in his mind suddenly became a big, melted pile of mush. “Uh..I just…um…the watch..” he coughed to cover up his fumbling, and leaned against a wall, panting and heaving while wiping the sweat dripping off his forehead. Cyno just said and did nothing, standing frozen in his spot, a million thoughts going through his head at a moment.

Was he trustable? Was he saying the truth? All he knew was he had a point about the time paradoxes. They needed to keep each other in check, they couldn’t afford messing up the timeline. And how could Cyno even trust himself to do anything right anymore. He always messed up whatever he did. This was too volatile of a situation to event trust himself. Was this really the best option to prevent the debacle of the orientation? He knew he needed Tighnari’s help all along, but he was too stubbourn to admit it. Because deep down, he knew. He knew that he was the last person anybody would rely on to hold the fate of the world on his shoulders.

“If I let you help me…” Cyno mumbled, not having complete faith in the words coming out of his mouth. “you need to promise that you will have your complete trust in me. And let me keep the watch.”

Tighnari bit the side of his lip in deep thought. He didn’t really have a choice, did he? Not if he wanted to keep this petty squabble going. Time was running out. And again, he may be of some help. But letting him keep the watch? That was risky. Far too risky.

“Tell you what,” Tighnari said, then walked out of the concrete floored pavilion and crouched down on the grass. He dug into the dirt, digging a hole big enough for the watch and then motioning at it. Cyno’s face scrunched up, almost comically “Seriously?!”

“I don’t trust you with the watch, you don’t trust me with the watch,” he digressed, motioning towards it once more. “This is the only viable option.” Cyno looked at the hole for a few seconds before giving Tighnari a look of suspicion “What if one of us tries to steal it?”

“We’ll be around each other nearly all of the time,” he reasoned “we have to be. We can’t let each other out of sight if we don’t want to risk messing up the timeline.” Cyno groaned childishly “Never out of your sight? Sounds just peachy. Do you want to watch me take a shit too?”

Tighnari could feel his face heat up in embarrassment and anger at the boys obvious pettiness “You know what I mean! So, are you in or not?!”

Cyno huffed and lazily threw the pocket watch into the hole before him, Tighnari grit his teeth trying to hold back an incoming lecture on treating objects with such immense magical power carefully, but he had absolutely no energy for said lecture.

“C’mon.” he muttered before walking towards a large open stone gate in the distance. It was grey all around, and on the gate, the words “Irminsul Academy.” emblazoned on it. Tighnari took a deep breath, before following Cyno’s footsteps.

Chapter Text

The minute they stepped through the stone gate of Irminsul Academy, the atmosphere seemed to change immediately. The rays of sunlight that didn’t seem to be there before scattered all across the campus. Greenery was spread all over the lawns of the courtyard. Flowers of colors purple, red, pink, and yellow littered the path ahead of them.Both Cyno and Tighnari could almost instantly feel his mood rise instantly. If this was what school was actually like, maybe Cyno wouldn’t have been so apprehensive of it. It looked like something straight out of a fairytale.

The campus was just plain crowded too, it was a miracle none of them overheard or saw the two’s little scuffle and argument. They all wore the exact same clothes. “Sumeru’s uniforms.” Tighnari stated out loud, looking at Cyno. “Each province had a specific uniform so everyone could tell where they were from. There was a historic academic rivalry between all the nations, but Sumeru almost always topped in academics. Natlan excelled in athletics, however.”

“I didn’t ask for a history lesson.” Cyno grumbled. His mood was better, but only by a bit. He was still hung up over the decision they made in the end of the squabble. He understood it was only fair, but was fairness really what they needed now? Plus, the absolute last thing he wanted was a do-gooder passive-agressive rusty harmonica on his back. And yes, he meant prince Tighnari. There was really no other word to describe him than a rusty harmonica. He couldn’t explain it, it just suits him.

Tighnari was going to immediately shoot a retort back, but he bit his toungue back. Not literally, because that would hurt. But he kept his mouth shut. For like five seconds. “We need to know the history of this place if we’re gonna live here for archons knows how long.” he stressed “so please, for the love of the gods, shut up and listen.”

“No.” Cyno pouted childishly. Tighnari gave a huff and gave up on even trying to talk to him anymore. They paced further into the middle, trying their level best not to get noticed in the crowd. And they didn’t. The crowd was bustling with chatter and happiness, far too involved in their own conversations and activities to notice the very out of place princes.

A large, moisac designed building reflecting the beams of light with different shades of golden, green, blue and teal stood in front of them. It seemed to be the place where classes took place. Tighnari took Cyno’s hand and pulled him into the building.

“We need uniforms,” Cyno murmured as the two strode in, shrinking in the sea of people and students. Tighnari nodded his head, satisfied that Cyno had his priorities in place for once. “Where do we get them? After all, uniforms don’t fall out of the sky…” suddenly, something came hurtling towards Tighnari at full force, knocking him directly in the face. Voila, a pair of two uniforms!

“Well, it didn’t fall out of the sky.” Cyno snickered, his happiness increasing almost immediately. Tighnari darkened at the jab and shoved the uniform into Cyno’s arms “Just hold these, and help me find the little boys room.” he grumbled under his breath.

*********************

Tighnari was in the bathroom, his dirty, slightly bloodstained clothes in hand impatiently waiting for the other boy to put his uniform on. And he was getting impatient. He tapped his foot on the floor, grumbling to himself. How long does it take for one to get changed, honestly? The uniform wasn’t even that hard to put on. It simply consisted of a teal robe with golden intricacies, and white linen pants. There was a hat too, but it was optional. And considering Tighnari’s fennec ears, it would be a disturbance to say the least.

“I change my mind,” Cyno’s voice suddenly came out of one of the toilet stalls, much to Tighnaris anger “I don’t think I wanna wear the uniform anymore.” he sounded more embarrased than anything, but Tighnari didn’t notice that in his annoyance. “Don’t be an idiot!” he snapped “Do you WANT to get out? Stop being a spoiled brat and come out.”

He heard the lock click before he stepped out. Before Tighnari could even utter a word, he burst into peals of laughter. Cyno’s clothes happened to be far too big for him, his robe so big that the sleeve could only be held by one shoulder, and his pants sagged down to the floor. Cyno tried to hide his flushing face with the oversized robe.

“Oh..oh my…I never realized how short you were..how adorable!” he said between gasps for breath. Cyno didn’t laugh, holding his pants up while walking before shoving his clothes in Tighnari’s arms. If looks could kill, Tighnari would’ve been dead then. He’d never seen Cyno look so angry and upset, was he really that embarrased?

“I..am NOT…a spoiled brat.” he seethed, attempting to storm out of the lavatory. Tighnari blinked, looked at the clothes in his arms, and threw them all in the toilet and flushed it on an impulse. It suprisingly went down easily. Magical toilets he supposed.

‘Spoiled brat’ Cyno scoffed under his breath. Tighnari wasn’t the only one who ever called him that. He wasn’t a problem. It was everyone else who bothered him.

‘You’re a nuisance, boy. I should’ve left you behind at the orphanage’ a horrifyingly familiar memory echoed in his head. He remembered how his cheek stung. How the blood inside his mouth tasted. ‘you spoiled brat’

He could feel the oncoming tears prick his eyes and an oncoming headache. He’d already cried too many times today. Its humilating. He can’t cry, especially not in front of him. That’d make him look even more pathetic than he already did. This was so stupid. He was used to his father mistreating him, so why did it still hurt? Maybe he was right when he called him weak.

He accidentally let a few tears slip and wiped them off quickly, hoping that nobody saw, and gave a sigh of relief when he thought that nobody did. But oh, how wrong he was. Tighnari just so happened to walk out of the bathroom at that moment, but froze in his tracks when he saw the tears running down his face with the pain in his eyes. He quietly crept back in the bathroom, pondering what he just saw. What on earth did he say that made him so upset. He might’ve gone too far with the teasing, but that shouldn’t be enough to make someone with an ego as big as his cry. Maybe he should just..not say anything to him for a while.

The sympathy he had for him before he declared th death sentence hit him like a frieght train. Perhaps something he said must’ve reminded him of his father. He never took the time to think about how Deshrets influence might’ve affected him mentally. He was just a plain psychopath after all. Maybe he wasn’t willing to admit it, but his probably horrible idea of parenting left Cyno with scars deeper than it seemed.

After waiting in the bathroom for a while, he went out quietly. Cyno looked at him, his eyes slightly bloodshot “What did you do with our other clothes?” “I flushed them down the toilet.” Cyno’s sadness seemed to disappear for a while, staring at him in confusion “Did it go down?'“ he asked, without questioning his course of action. “Surprisingly, yes.” he said, putting a few fingers on his chin “I hypothesize magical toilets.” “I’m going to flush everything I can find.” Cyno resolved quite seriously, which Tighnari found whimsical in a way. He was happy he managed to cheer him up significantly, but he wondered if he should apologize. He didn’t even know what he was going to apologize for.

The crowd seemed to be significantly smaller in size then. It wasn’t long until they were the only ones in the hallway, which Tighnari was quite unnerved by. He had been homeschooled most of his life, so he knew how school worked as much as Cyno did, which was definitely going to be a hinderance to their mission. Suddenly, a husky voice stopped them in their tracks “What do you think you two are doing out of class, hm?”

The two suddenly turned, startled by the appearance of a sudden voice. Behind them stood a man with a serious expression. He had a mop of neatly combed blond hair, and wore an incredibly regal dark and navy blue outfit. He had a cape of black, blue and gray with golden intricacies which flowed behind him like a shadow of darkness. He had a dak blue tattoo of some sort over his right eye, which made him even more foreboding. Cyno and Tighnari could feel themselves shrinking under his gaze, an otherwordly sense coming from him.

“I..uhm..I..” Tighnari stuttered, words for the moment seemingly escaping him. He didn’t do too well under authority figures. King Deshret was the exception, but he was allowed to disrespect him. “We’re new.” Cyno blurted, no particular expression on his face.

The man didn’t adress the statement, instead eyeing Cyno’s loose fit with amusement, even with his stone face. “Hm, I can’t let you go on like this, can I?” he muses. He mutters a few words, and Cyno could feel the clothes suddenly feeling less saggy on him. When he looked at them, he saw a strange midnight like energy enveloping around himself. It shrunk and adjusted to his face, and found himself more comfortable than before. His clothes fit him perfectly now. “Whoa…thank you!” he replied. “Sir.” Tighnari muttered under his breath. “Thank you sir.” Cyno repeated.

“It’s alright,” he says “And it’s headmaster to you. Headmaster Dainsleif. I believe we haven’t met formally before. How strange, I never got the information of new students arriving today. Hm, I suppose it must’ve escaped my memory," He murmured, putting his hand on his chin as if trying to recall something. "However, it had come to my attention earlier this morning that all of the dorms had been filled."

Of course, they were. Tighnari had expected this scenario and ran through a couple of other solutions of their need for a place to stay in his head. Maybe they could live in the forest, but that was too far away from the academy. They could go to the village nearby and look for a hostel to stay in, but they would need money to pay for the rent, which meant balancing their mission at hand, studies which they needed to tackle, and a part-time job.

It wasn’t realistic. Maybe if they begged really REALLY hard, some nice couple would let them crash at their house. Or maybe...

"We’ll take it...sir." Cyno replied, suddenly snapping Tighnari out of his thought process. He suddenly realized he had been zoning out and missed nearly half of the conversation between Cyno and the headmaster.

"Very well then," the headmaster nodded. "I don’t have anything of dire importance at the moment, so I will personally escort you. Follow me, please."

He turned on his heel, leading the two in the hallway. Tighnari nudged Cyno with his elbow, bringing a hand to his ear. "Where are we going?" he whispered.
"The attic," he replied simply. "It’s where we’ll be staying. By the way, how was lala land?" Tighnari found himself flushing in embarrassment at Cyno’s jab. He really enjoyed making a fool of him, didn’t he?

"I was just zoned out," he protested. Cyno rolled his eyes mockingly.
"And I was supposed to entrust this mission with someone who couldn’t even focus for two minutes?" he scoffed.

Tighnari found himself forgetting Cyno’s pain, shoving it to the back of his mind. He felt sorry for him, but that didn’t give him the right to be insufferable.
"Look, I’m sorry. I just got too lost into my thoughts, okay?! It happens sometimes to all people with brains. But I suppose it doesn’t apply to you, not having a brain and all," he rambled.

Cyno puffed his cheeks up at the retort, trying but failing to come up with something smart or as witty as Tighnari’s well-placed comebacks.

"Well... I... you... you..." he stuttered. "Your mom doesn’t have a brain!"
Tighnari felt himself lose more than a few brain cells at the dumb joke. The only thing that would make the phrase even worse was if he actually thought it was a good comeback. And from the proud look on his face, he certainly thought it was.
"Take my mother’s name out of your mouth," he spat, a sudden feeling of morose and loneliness overcoming him. It was his sudden realization that he missed his mother too. His mother and his father. Both of who were probably dead in his timeline... Their lives, along with probably the fate of the entire nation, rested on his shoulders. He’d say Cyno’s too, but how much of a help would he really be? How seriously did he take this?

"Everything alright, boys?" the headmaster suddenly asked, turning back and eying the two menacingly. They stopped their bickering immediately, only walking alongside glaring at each other.

Good.

The tiles they walked along were either cream, turquoise, teal, golden, green, mint, or silver, its colors reflecting the sun’s rays, similar to how the structure of the building did as a whole. The lockers and doors to the classrooms were all muted shades of yellow, blue, red, green, purple, and brown. They were definitely symbolic of something. Tighnari just couldn’t put his fingers on it. All he learnt about history at home just seemed to be out of his grasp.

The headmaster led them up multiple cascades of winding stairways. Each ten steps was a torch lit with a purple flame with a blue core. Cyno moved his hand through a flickering flame, the magical fire dancing between his fingers as he watched, fascinated. Was this the kind of magic that existed in Teyvat? It was... wonderful. Enticing, perhaps.

"Hey, Cyno!" Tighnari yelled out with that mocking tone ‘I'm a smarty-pants who will be better than you in every way’ “Who’s distracted now?!”

"Still you!" he yelled back as his gaze tore away from the torch, dashing up the stairs in an effort to catch up with him. Tighnari did the same, adamant on not allowing the other boy to catch up. He was never usually this petty, but it was like the other boy had brought out a side of him he didn’t know he had before. And if he was being truly, awfully honest, he quite enjoyed it. He couldn’t explain why.

By the time the two had reached the top of the stairway, where Dainsleif seemed to have reached a long time ago, they were covered in sweat, their breaths coming out in puffs and pants.

He eyed them curiously before taking out a set of rusty keys from his pocket and inserting one in the keyhole. He carefully opened the door, crumbled rotting remains of the wood falling off the top of it. The two stepped into the room, immediately getting hit with a cloud of dust, inducing multiple sneezes and coughs. By the time Tighnari could finally stop coughing, he looked at the room incredulously with apprehension. Cyno immediately scrunched his face up, having the same grievances as Tighnari did at that moment.

"Why is there only one bed?" Cyno deadpanned.

Chapter Text

The headmaster had left the two on that note, leaving no trace of his very presence. Cyno and Tighnari pondered on this very strange situation, and they needed to decide their next course of action quickly. For night had already befallen them, and they didn’t realize how tired they were until they saw the bed.

“I’m not sharing a bed with you.” Cyno said frankly, looking at Tighnari. He obviously felt the same way, especially with scenes from his earlier dream flashing in his brain. But he couldn’t help being offended by the statement for some reason. “We need to make use of whatever we have right now. We’re lucky we even have a bed.” he stated, his pre-ordained morals from childhood coming into play at that moment. “You take it,” Cyno said dismissively with a wave of his hand “I’ll sleep on the floor.”

The floor? The cold, hard floor?! “Don’t be ridiculous.” “I’m not, I’m used to it. Besides, I’m pretty sure princey can’t bear not having a bed all to himself.” Tighnari would get mad, but he actually found himself getting used to his retorts.

He couldn’t help thinking about his statement ‘I’m used to it.’ Why would someone raised in a royal family be used to sleeping on the floor?! It didn’t make sense. He wasn’t just being dramatic either. He was serious, and that made Tighnari concerned. “I’m alright with sharing.” he said calmly “really, its okay.”

Cyno suddenly found his heart warming slighly, no argument or retort this time from Tighnari. He found the actual concern in his voice strange, and he couldn’t tell if it was in a good way or a bad way. It had only been a day the two had met each other, and their relationship was already this complex. Was he faking it, just like Alhaitham did? He had no reason to be nice to him, other than a desire to make things right. After this was all over, what would their relationship even be? He’d probably ignore him.

Was it strange…that despite everything that happened…he wanted more than a situational alliance?

“No,” he shook his head, his tone suddenly becoming softer than usual “I’m fine…your tail would probably take up a lot of space anyway.” he pointed to Tighnari’s incredibly bushy fennec tail, which tighnari internally admitted would be quite annoying.

“But that isn’t fair..” Tighnari murmured under his breath, internally cringing on how goody-two shoes like it sounded. He couldn’t help it, and as cringy as it sounded, he knew he wasn’t wrong “I’ll sleep on the floor too then.” Tighnari’s declaration confused Cyno, to say the least “Whats the point of me sleeping on the floor then?!” he asked. “I’m petty, I’m not THIS petty.”

“It’s not out of pettiness,” Tighnari reassures “And I..I don’t know why actually. It’s not fair for you to wake up aching while I’m perfectly comfortable.” Cyno processed his statement for a moment before letting out a scoff of amusement “You really are a goody-two shoes aren’t you?”

“I suppose I am then.” he replied, actually breaking out into a smile and chuckling. His eyes crinkled at the corner just the slightest, and his eyes seemed to shine just a little brighter. Cyno usually wouldn’t have noticed it, but there was something suddenly so enticing about it. He realized that he had been staring at the boy for too long, tearing his eyes away in fluster.

He was probably just tired. Everything seemed like a weird fever dream at this point. “I wasn’t trying to be funny.” he muttered grumpily, crossing his arms before pulling the blanket “I’m taking the blanket, I get cold at night.”

“I was gonna take the pillow anyway,” Tighnari replied, taking the pillow and fluffing it up before putting it under his head. “It’s better for my neck.” Cyno didn’t say anything, going over to the small overhead lamp, the only thing that lit up the room, and pulled the trigger line. Darkness enveloped the room, and Tighnari could immediately feel himself relaxing, his thoughts drifting off like usual. So did Cyno’s, and their thoughts aligned quite well.

Why had they been sent to that time in particular? What did they have to do to ensure the safety of their timeline? The tension was palapable. They were exhausted, but worries and anxiety held off the need for sleep. Tighnari never had the chance to properly comprehend nor mourn his parents deaths. He was going to do everything in his power to bring them back, so why did he feel so alone and helpless? Alone, helpless, and afraid. He was far from ready for something with stakes as high as this.

He pulled his tail through his tail and hugged it closer to him. Scared. He thought he was just angry all this time, but he was just terrified. Terrified one of them might royally screw up so much they’d destroy life as they know it. That and his teenage tendencies for mood swings, romance and all the other things hormones do to him. AND his animalistic tendencies of course. It all made his blood feel cold.

So..so..cold..

The dread in his chest along with the piercing cold of the hard wood floor. He shuffled a bit to try and get warmer, and found himself looking out of the large glass window that was behind the both of them. The sky looked like something straight out of the paintings Kaveh collected. Swirling bunches of stars littered the sky, flickering in its glorious light. The sky was different shades of dark blue, and dark clouds over it all.

Kavehs paintings….Tighnari never thought he’d miss the boy so much. What had even happened to him in the midst of the chaos?! He didn’t even think of his safety once. He was a bad friend, no, a horrible friend. What if he..no..no..no! He couldn’t handle it anymore. If Kaveh had been killed..he wouldn’t know what to do. Unshed tears burned the back of his eyes, a headache pounding in his head. Without thinking, he let out a tiny sob. He felt horrible and helpless, how was he going to sleep that night?

Cyno wasn’t doing much better, and that was an understatement. He barely had any time himself to contemplate everything that happened that day, and he’d rather keep it that way. He’s literally living in literal hell. Why he said literal twice, he didn’t know. But lets pretend he did that on purpose for symbolism. Every time he looked at his hands, they were covered with blood. He couldn’t get it off, no matter how hard he tried. But he didn’t want this, he didn’t want it! Why won’t it go away? It was sticky and warm reminder of how he won’t be able to make up for his sins, and it was a horrid feeling. He can’t get rid of the image at how everyone looked at his with either absolute fear or disgust at the orientation.Because they knew how horrible of a person he was. He didn’t want to be horrible! Why was he like this? He pulled his blanket tighter around himself. The floor felt hard under his head, and his injuries from earlier were suddenly flaring up in pain.

Every thought that went through his head, ever image that flashed in his memory of that nightmarish day made him want to scream. It wasn’t long until he realized he couldn’t breath and started hyperventilating loudly, much to Tighnari’s shock. “Cyno?!” he said aloud, his protective instincts coming into action. He got up and immediately rushed towards him. This can’t be real. This CAN’T be real. Was he having a panic attack? What should he do?! The other boys eyes were wide and bloodshot, and was clearly having a hard time breathing. Cold sweat was dripping down from his forehead, and he was pulling his hair in strands.

“Look, just..um..” Tighnari stuttered. Focus Tighnari, just remember what your mother told you about these kind of things. “Focus on me, ‘kay? Focus on me, then breath in and out. Breath in for three seconds, then breath out for five seconds. I’ll help you count. One, two, three…” Despite himself, Cyno found himself listening to Tighnari’s instructions. Three seconds of breathing in, then five seconds of breathing out. Then again. Then again. Then again. “Okay, good, good.” he said, feeling himself shiver in relief. He was actually helping, thank god. “Now think of something or someone who makes you happy. Or a happy memory! It’s gonna be alright, we’re safe. We’re both safe.”

Happy….something that made him happy. In that moment, an image of Alhaitham flashed through his mind. He hated him, he hated him so much at that moment. But some of his happiest moments in his life were with him. His first kiss, him reading out his books to him, and him telling him about what it could be in the outside world of Teyvat. His heartbeat slowly decreased a bit, and his wounds stopped hurting a bit. His breathing steadied, and his vision got more stable being able to look at the fennec clearly in front of him.

Then, without a second thought, he wrapped his arms around Tighnari and grabbed him in a hug. You could practically see the ‘window not loading’ banner in Tighnaris head at that moment, as literally every thought he had before vanished into thin air. Was he supposed to hug back? Was he even supposed to touch him? He decided on a soft embrace in return, supporting his neck and bringing him a bit closer. “Sorry..” Cyno muttered against Tighnari’s shoulder. The sadness in his voice practically made Tighnari’s heart break.

That’s when the realization hit: It seemed to be a cycle at this point, Cyno becomes vulnerable, Tighnari feels bad for him and attempts to understand him, then Cyno says or does something stupid that makes him mad. It was tiring. He couldn’t let this go on. They needed a mutual understanding. But he’ll only bring it up later. Definitely later.

Tighnari had the sudden desire for a breath of fresh air, but it was past curfew. And he couldn’t afford to get in trouble in the first day, especially with the headmaster. He didn’t know why, but he had a strange feeling about him, and couldn’t tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing. The way he managed to fix Cyno’s uniform that easily without any visible signs of effort was a difficult feat, yet it was like nothing to Dainsleif. He didn’t know all that much about him from history books, just how powerful was he?!

Crap, he was spiralling again. He desperately needed that fresh air, but could he even afford to leave Cyno alone? Maybe he should ask him. “Hey, uhh, Cyno. Are..are you okay now?” He looked at him and just grunted and shrugged. He didn’t want to interact with anyone right then, he was drained, exhausted and embarrased, covering himself with a blanket as if he was trying to hide himself.

“Ok, I’m just gonna…take a shit. I won’t be long.” he said, trying to control his ears from twitching. He didn’t know why he lied, but he wanted to get away from here. He didn’t want Cyno to blame himself for it either. But the tension was so thick it suffocated him. Cyno nodded silently and rolled over to his side, shutting his eyes tightly.

Tighnari took that as an affirmation, and opened the rotting door before going down the stairwell, the magic fire alighting his path. His steps were slow and careful, making sure he doesn’t slip. He felt exhausted, but restless at the same time. He needed to make use of all the free time he had. He took out a pen and paper he had in his pocket, and started making note of all the passages and rooms on different floors. He always, ALWAYS kept a pen and paper with him. It was especially crucial at this time. They needed to investigate how they could change the timeline for the better, and he needed to remember every single detail for this to work out well with as little repercussions as possible.

It wasn’t long until he reached the schools gardens. All he had to do was go out through the back of the school. As grandiose the place was, it all looked the same everywhere, and that would certainly make it difficult for them. But he was going to figure it out. For them.

The gardens were wonderful, astounding really. Poppies and roses bloomed everywhere. Trees bore the sweetest scented fruit he’d ever seen, and he’d never seen flowers and leaves of so many colors before. The aroma of medicinal plants filled the air. It wasn’t home, but it was certainly the breath of fresh air he needed.

He started doodling the cartography of the labyrinth of a garden, walking aimlessly not paying attention to his surroundings. With a single step, he suddenly found himself colliding with someone or something. He tumbled backwards, losing his grip on his pen and piece of paper, sending them both flying in the air. He rubbed his head, groaning in pain. He’d already been hit in the head too many times today. When he looked up, he saw a boy with brown, messy hair in a ponytail rubbing his head. There were multiple scrolls of parchment littered around the floor.

“Here, let me…” much to Tighnari’s surprise, the other boy shushed him almost immediately “Hush! Quiet, quiet! Shush shush! Do you WANT to get us caught?” he said eccentrically, waving his arms around. He got up and kneeled down to pick up his scrolls. Tighnari picked one of them up and unrolled it. It was a complex schematic diagram of a strange looking object.

He rolled it back and handed it to the other boy, who said “I didn’t think there were others who also broke curfew,” he snickered “What are you doing out here of all places?” The events of the past few hours flashed through Tighnari’s mind in the blink of an eye as he sighed “Just…needed some fresh air.”

The other boy said nothing, gathering scrolls in his arms. Tighnari handed him the last few scrolls he picked up, a silly looking smile stretching across the other boys face “Say, I bet you’re new! I’ve never seen you around before! I’m Cyrus.” he stuck his hand out, a few stray schematics falling through his arms. “Oh no, oh shit, I..awh fiddlesticks” he grumbles, trying to pick them up but ends up dropping more much to Tighnari’s amusement.

“Say, can you help me carry these?” Cyrus asked, scittering all over the ground like a tiny spider desperately gathering everything for the second time. Tighnari’s face scrunched up in contemplation. He shouldn’t be out for too long, more specifically, he couldn’t leave Cyno alone for that long. But this boy….somehow, he intrigued him. “Alright…” he replied hesitantly, scooping a few up, pocketing his pen and paper away from the other boys view.

They walked past a few ombre orchards, gorgeous gazebos, and petite pretty plants before reaching a seemingly secluded area far away from the academy itself. There was nothing there but the soft grass on the ground and something that looked like a sewer hole. “Just put them through there!” he instructed, jumping up and down giddily. Tighnari raised an eyebrow, but did as he said. He turned the hole covering anti-clockwise in direction and pulled the lid open, dumping the scrolls through the hole. After atleast five seconds, he could hear unclear agitated exclamations and a boistrous laughter from the bottom. Cyrus immediately grabbed Tighnari by his shirt and threw him down before launching himself down as well, much to his shock.

He landed on a crumpled heap on a dirty floor, letting a few curses of agony out. He immediately scrambled up and went full defence mode, raising his fists in the air. He was met with the sight of Cyrus grinning sheepishly along with another boy and girl. The boy looked massively pissed off, with a haircut far too similar to Tighnari’s with the largest spectacles he’s ever seen. The girl was covered in multicolored band-aids all over her person, her hair blonde and scruffy with a few red pins in them.

The boy seemed to be repremanding Cyrus for something “I TOLD you not to throw the blueprints down like that! No matter how many times I tell you you won’t listen to me!” he points a finger directly at his face. “Yes Naphis, sorry Naphis.” he cooed, only making the other more agitated than he already was. The girl cocked her head at the sight of Tighnari and stuck her lip out while furrowing her brows. “Cyrus, who the hell is he?” she asked, pointing at him like he was some kind of animal. He was, but that wasn’t the point.

The other boy, Naphis, didn’t seem to acknowledge Tighnari's presence until the girl called it out. He took Cyrus by the collar and started shaking him back and forth aggressively “WHY. DID. YOU. BRING. SOME. RANDOM. KID.” he demands. “We are doing this IN SECRET for a reason!”

“What’s going on here!?” Tighnari demanded more aggressively than he had intended. He was tired of shit. All he wanted was to get some fresh air, and he got pulled into whatever this was. Just like how he just wanted to have his first day of school, and now had been yanked into the past and are in a life or death situation to fix things.

“Illegal stuff!” Cyrus chanted happily, motioning around the room. “Uh, dipshit,” the girl said sarcastically “you know you don’t usually TELL people when you do illegal stuff, right? I might be wrong.”

Cyrus blinked for a few moments, as if the idea of it hadn’t occured to him before. But his bravado came back as quick as it gone away. “It’s fineeee,” he digressed, a shit-eating grin stretching across his face “He helped me anyways! So thank you..um..” “Of course you don’t even know his name Cyrus,” the girl cackled, taking a wrench from a table and twirling in around in her hand. The table was filled with all sorts of tools, gadgets, plants, and strange looking vials. He scoffed and playfully glared at her “Shut your pie-hole Zaha. I know! I’ll guess your name! Uhmmm,”

“No need for that,” Tighnari said frustratedly “I’m Tighnari. Who’s going to..” Leave. He was going to say that he was gonna leave. But he needed people to help them here. And they looked insane enough to answer any questions they have, as weird as it may be. “Who’s going to..?” Cyrus prompted. “Who’s going to…uhm…ask you all what you’re doing that was so illegal?” Tighnari asked. Naphis pinched the bridge of his nose exasperately “You just had to run your big mouth didn’t you?” he hissed as Cyrus just grinned at him dumbly “We’re doing research that’s prohibited by the Academy.”

Tighnari blinked in surprise “Research? How bad is whatever you’ve been doing to be considered illegal?!” he exclaimed, his morals shining through. Zaha rolled her eyes “Don’t go all goody two shoes on us, the academy just hates creativity and innovation.” she drawled, crossing her legs. “So we do this in secret. We’d get kicked out if anyone found out, so don’t go blabbing on about this to anyone.”

“That’s the third time someone’s called me a goody-two shoes today.” “With it being someone like you? Yeah, go figure.” “Yeah! I bet you’re picture is near the word in the dictionary!” Cyrus teased. Tighnari could feel an annoyed storm brewing up inside of him, but he couldn’t afford to piss anyone off. “I’ll be on my way then,” he spat “Wouldn’t want to disturb you three any more than I already had.” “Toodle oo.” Zaha deadpanned with a dismissing wave of her hand. “Come sit with us at lunch tommorrow Trevor!”

“Tighnari.”

“Tighnari!”

“Where the shit did you get Trevor from Tighnari.”

Tighnari sighed, and climbed a ladder that was nailed to the wall. He walked back to the attic, no thoughts swirling around his mind for once. Just…blank. Nothing but blank. It was refreshing, but concerning all the same. The tiredness must have finally hit him. He blinked both of his eyes slowly, hoping he didn’t collapse while he was climbing the stairway again. When he opened the door to the attic, he peeked into the room quietly before walking in silently.

There Cyno was on the floor, curled up with the blanket, sleeping peacefully like a small child. Tighnari could feel a small smile form on his face. He took the pillow he had claimed previously when Cyno took the blanket, went over to him, lightly lifting his head before placing the pillow underneath. Tighnari himself went over to the bed that was left untouched, before hugging his own tail and drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

Chapter Text

The sun gleamed brightly, its light pouring in through the large window. Tighnari was the first one to wake up, immediately feeling cranky as he could feel the heat and light on his eyelids. He managed to only fall asleep for one hour, unfortunately for him. Thats what he gets for fooling around, he supposes. He sits up on the bed, rubs the sleep away from his eyes, and grumbles under his breath. He checks the watch on his hand that he had been wearing since yesterday. “7’o clock.” he mutters under his breath. He stretches his arms, letting a yawn before practically rolling off the bed. He prided himself on his punctuality, but that doesn’t mean he follows it willingly.

He stood up and poked the sleeping Cyno on the floor with his foot a couple of times “Get up,” he mumbled “We need to go to school.” “Nooooooooo, I didn’t draw that dick on the poitraits face Alhaitham, you did, heheheheh.” Cyno giggled in his sleep, burying his face in the pillow, much to Tighnari’s confusion. Alhaitham? Who exactly was he to Cyno? Would he be prying if he asked? Maybe.So, Ignoring that statement, he knelt down and shook him “Get upppppp, I’m not gonna be late on my first day of school because of you, idiot.”

Cyno giggles again “Give me a little kiss Hayi~” before his eyes fluttered open. He blinked lazily for a short while. The minute he processed the image of the fennec in front of him, his face slowly turned into a bright shade of red and a look of horror spread across his face. “I..um…did you hear anything?” he asked frantically, failing to hide the fact of his embarassment.

Tighnari stood silently for a moment, a look of gloom almost flashed across his face. “Not a word.” he muttered. He felt strange. It was like a sudden weight on his chest. And a lump in his throat. And his heart clenching. So Alhaitham must be a lover of his then. He didn’t know why he felt disappointed. From the moment he actually met him in real life, they couldn’t get along a single time. It had been disaster after disaster, and not to mention the cycle of pettiness and arrogance. He was fixating over that stupid dream again, wasn’t he?

He shook his head, the dejection still in the back of his mind. Cyno heaved a sigh of relief. “Oh thank god..” he murmured, a look of slight sorrow crossing his face. There was an awkward silence that hung in the air for a while. Tighnari turns on his heel to freshen up, but Cyno stops him. “Wait!” he says, standing up and putting a hand on his shoulder “I’m sorry.” he splutters.

Tighnari blinks in shock for a few moments “Sorry?” he says slowly “sorry for what?” “For, um..y’know…yesterday..” every word that came out of his mouth seemed to get quieter than the last. He sighed in defeat, his eyes unable to look into Tighnari’s in shame. Tighnari couldn’t speak, caught off guard. He grabbed Cyno’s shoulder and held him firmly “I already told you yesterday you didn’t need to apologise, didn’t you?” he said “I may be petty, or tired of shit, or too much of a know it all. But I know this is a lot for both of us. I mean, for archons sake, we travelled through time! Both of my parents are probably murdered, along with my one and only best friend. And I have no idea what’s up with you, but I know it isn’t great for you to freak out like that.”

Tighnari paused for a moment, taking in a deep inhale and exhale “So I propose a truce. And I know what you’re gonna ask. No, I am not going to dig up a hole and throw you in it like I did for my last proposal. Can we just, TRY to get along?” he begged “Not just tolerate. We have to get along if we ae going to get out of this alive. No snide comments, no mischief, and no hiding things. Deal?”

Cyno nodded his head almost immediately. “I..I want to make things right.” he admitted boldly. Tighnari gave a nod back “So we’re in agreement. Good.” “All we need to do now is find a way to brush our teeth and take a bath without toiletries and a bathroom.” “@#!&!”

“Would people notice how stinky we are?” Cyno asked as they casually strolled through the halls of the Irminsul academy. The truth was, nobody honestly gave a single shit. Being holed up with pita pockets and despair in their dorms for weeks on end during exam days will do that to you. But this wasn’t how Tighnari saw it.

“S…so unclean…” he shuddered, rubbing his hands over his arms like he was trapped in a blizzard storm, trying his very best to stay out of the vicinity of every single student that passed him. He hadn’t brushed his teeth, he didn’t take a bath, and worst of all, he hadn’t even cleaned his fur! How horrid! He couldn’t even bare to think about what others thought about him.

“It’s not that bad,” Cyno reassured, far too casually while tugging on the Fennecs arm. “Now you seem to know all theres to know about this school, where is our first class?”

“You don’t…” Tighnari started, before sighing. He’s right. Maybe he was overreacting. His musk couldn’t be THAT bad. He took out the schedule Headmaster Dainseleif had subtly given to them yesterday, and pored over it for a short while. “We have Alchemy! I don’t know much about that, but it could be fun!”

“Right…alchemy! I totally know what that is.” Cyno said. Something about how he said it made Tighnari think that he, in fact, did not know what that is. But he didn’t ponder on it much and pulled the other boy into the classroom excitedly.

The class had a mixture of scents earthy, floral, celestial, and airy all at the same time. In the front of the classroom, there was a blackboard that consisted of many intricate drawings and diagrams with little descriptions that labeled all of the little parts that were important. 

There were tiny drawers surrounding all the corners of the classroom which were overflowing with pieces of parchment that seemed to contain spells and incantations inscribed in it. The desks scattered in every nook and cranny of the classroom held different brightly colored liquids which seemed to have personalities of their own.

The only light sources in the room were candles all over the classroom and the natural light from the sunlight that seeped through the gigantic beautiful glass window.

The seating arrangement resembled one of a lecture hall in a collage, with rows and rows of seats lined up step by step. Tighnari gazed at the classroom like it was the very person he was going to get married to, and Cyno strangely found himself wishing that he would look at him like that. That meant nothing however…right?

The class was already filled to the brim with students, some laser focused on the potions they were concocting or the runes they were forging. Others lazily chatting with each other on various topics to pass the time. Tighnari looked around, absolutely awestruck, until he saw something that shattered all of his excitement. Actually, someone. Multiple someones.

There Cyrus was, at the back of the class with an embarrased Naphis and a bored looking Zaha were. Cyrus was grinning a toothy grin as he agressively waved towards the pair. Tighnari turned around to check on Cyno’s reaction to the boy seeming to know them, and he was….less surprised than he thought he’d be. Cyno tilted his head, his eyes narrowing as if trying to connect dots that didn’t make sense. That grin... that energy... “There’s no way,” he muttered.

“What do you mean?” Tighnari asked. “How do you know Cyrus?”

Cyno looked at Tighnari like he just farted “How do YOU know Cyrus?!” Tighnari blinked and then flushed, realizing that he had forgotten, more like hid, what had happened when he went out. “Well, um,” he stuttered sheepishly, walking as slowly as he could towards the trio “so maybe taking a shit wasn’t ALL I’ve done yesterday.”

The other boy raised his eye suspiciously, not grasping Tighnari’s guilt properly. But he went over to the man waving at him despite his protests “Excuse me, but do we know you?”

Cyrus’ expression changed in an instant when he saw Cyno. Almost like he was startled by his mere presence. He scrutinized the boy from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, like he was trying to figure him out. Cyno noticed this immediately and covered his arms before shying away in the slightest. Zaha was just examining her nails, painted with different colors on each finger and Naphis was just trying to actually do their assignment, disgruntled by Cyrus inviting the sudden interruption.

“No way,” he said, nudging Naphis on the shoulder multiple times. This made him accidentally spill an entire bottle of the solution he had in hand into the cauldron that was boiling with multicolored fluids, which immediately blew up in his face with a BANG! A plethora a smoke spilled through the classroom, multiple students either coughing or cursing at the trio. Naphis’ face had a layer of potion residue which covered the lens of his glasses. The minute Cyrus saw his face, he burst into laughter. Naphis, did not take this well, practically grabbing the others neck and choking him while the other was still in peals of giggles as Zaha just watched the chaos unfolding before them.

“They should just kiss at this point,” she commented wryly, standing up and stretching her arms as she took a cloth from her pocket to wipe up the mess “it’d relieve the tension between them. I’m sick of listening to them argue like an old married couple.”

The two immediately stopped their bickering to comically stare at Zaha in indignation. “No way!” Cyrus said, laughing it off while he grinned in Naphis’ face like a flirtatious crocodile “although I woudn’t hate that..”

Naphis’ face quickly turned a shade of reddish purple, shoved his friend away without a word, hiding his face in his hands whilst mumbling incoherently. Zaha simply rolled her eyes and Cyrus threw an arm over Tighnari’s shoulder. Cyno suddenly felt a slight tinge of jealousy, although not completely sure of the reason of it.

“Imma give you the lowdown on this place,” he drawled “This place is FULL of the typical rich and slash or stuck up kids. Princes and princesses, vessels or ancestors of gods, and the kids of people with all high and almighty titles. Its rare to find kids who got in with their pure talent.” he rambles “Me and these two rays of sunshine,” he motions towards the other two “are one of the few kids who got in with a scholarship. We’re GENIUSES.”

“And humble too.” Cyno mutters under his breath, rolling his eyes. They continue chattering with each other for a while, until someone clears their throat. Silence suddenly befell in the formerly noisy classroom as a boy that looked around their ages stood in front of them, posture erect, messy albino hair with a few strands tied up, framing his face perfectly. His expression was soft, yet quite serious, somehow differing in mannerisms to the headmaster.

“Top of the morning to you professor Albedo!” Cyrus chuckled, giving the man a two fingered salute. Cyno and tighnari looked at the professor, and then each other with puzzled looks all over their faces. They knew the same thought hung in their minds like how wet clothes hung on a rope to dry.

Professor?! This kid?

Professor Albedo didn’t seem offended by the boys casual yet brazen gesture, giving his head a slight nod. “Good morning Cyrus. Please take your seats everyone, for class is about to commence.” his gaze wanders towards Tighnari and Cyno as unfamiliar faces, eyes squinting as he takes his book in hand, yet choosing not to regard them. Cyrus leans over to whisper something in Cyno’s ear, well aware Tighnari would be able to hear him perfectly no matter what distance he spoke from. “He looks so young, right?! I need his skincare routine, he’s actually 500 years old!”

“Of course he is,” Tighnari replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes while taking the others words as a joke “Very funny, Cyrus.” “I’m not joking!” Cyrus protested “His literal family tree had DRAGONS it it!”

“Quiet down back there, you two.” Professor Albedo sighed, turning back from the board to face the two. Tighnari immediately felt his face flush as he cowered into his seat, afraid of being patronized by the authoritarian figure “Right..right..sorry sir….” he mumbled, as Cyno and Zaha giggled at his expense quietly.

Before the Alchemy professor’s back would be turned on his students, the main door suddenly burst open wide, in the most flamboyant way possible. The dramatic enterence was something that was hard not to attract attention to, and soon enough even the professor had to acknowledge the brazen interruption that had come to his class. When Cyno and Tighnari turned to see the source of the commotion, Cyno could literally feel his heart stop beating while all of the color drained out of Tighnari’s face.

“Ah yes, late again Deshret. Take your seat now.”

Chapter Text

Cyno was zoning out in despair, unintentionally tuning out all the sounds and chatter around him, slack jawed and wide eyes, his mouth slightly open as a chill ran down his spine. He was practically frozen with fear and shock. Why was he here?Why, out of all people, was he here?!

Tighnari was as shocked as Cyno was. Shocked, but not surprised. If the time-watch was as advanced as Cyno had claimed it to be, then it must’ve brought the both of them here for a reason. And maybe…perhaps..that very reason was right in front of them.

Deshret gave a large grin to the professor, but his smile somehow looked and felt…different. It looked more genuine. Out of happiness, rather than malicious intent or sick pleasure. Tighnari could easily tell, but could Cyno have? “Sorry Professor,” he said, rather sheepishly, his tone slightly dignified and carried a sort-of respect “But I was caught up with the preperations for the prom again, I swear it won’t happen again!” With every little thing about his character Tighnari noticed, he grew more and more suspicious.

Could it be that the blood thirsty, brutal and cruel dictator of the desert kingdom used to actually be…nice?! No, it had to be a facade. People didn’t just change like that. There had to be something lurking beneath that smile, something dangerous. Something psycotic, something sinister. Maybe he was just a plain manipulative sociopath. If he was just acting right about now, he was certainly doing a good job.

At first, the room seemed to shift with Deshret’s presence, conversations halting mid-sentence as curious eyes followed him to his seat. The once vibrant chatter turned to a hushed murmur, as if the air had thickened. Then suddenly, everyone started waving and smiling at Deshret. “Yo, what’s up dude!” “Deshret, did you snag a date for the dance yet?” “Can I copy off your homework, I forgot to do mine again…” “What’s the theme for prom?”

“Guys, guys, one at a time!” he laughed good naturely, the sound immediately making Cyno flinch in his seat. Deshret’s expression was calm and optimistic, not so much that it was annoying or overbearing, but it brought a different atmosphere to the room. One that was…better?

Professor Albedo had to silence everyone yet again, turning his back to the classroom as he explained the signigicance of elements and elemental spirits. Deshret’s eyes wandered towards Cyno and Tighnari, immediately recognizing the anomaly in the classroom as he regarded the two with a pleasant, yet serious expression. Then, before he could have the chance to hesitate, he quietly took a seat next to Cyno.

Cyno was still frozen in his seat, cold beads of sweat running down his forehead but managing to hide the panic in his expression far better. He still avoided the boys eyes, trying to focus on anywhere but him.

“Are you alright?” Deshret asks, looking towards Cyno with concern. Genuine concern. It was a side Cyno never thought he would see of his father, but yet… “I’m fine.” he mumbled, shielding his face,giving a pleading look towards Tighnari from behind his hand. Tighnari sighed before he spoke “He’s just shy, don’t worry about him.”

Deshret pursed his lips the slightest then nodded his head in understanding, the white hair tucked behind his ear falling. “Hmm,” he hummed “alright then, I won’t bother him.” he raised both his hands in the air and gave him a cocky smile. It was incredibly familiar. It looks exactly like how Cyno smiled when he patronized him. How awfully strange…it was quite a beautiful smile. He didn’t quite deserve a nice smile.

Tighnari looked over towards Cyrus and his group of friends to check on whether they even noticed Deshrets presence. Zaha nor Naphis payed any heed to the boy, actually paying attention to the professor’s lecture. Meanwhile Cyrus was practically glaring DAGGERS at Deshret, the comical menace in his expression almost startling Tighnari.

Yet Deshret ignored it, tending to his own buisness. “I haven’t seen you in this class before. And I know almost everyone,” he claims, picking up a flask of a colorful solution and swirling it around “I assume you’re new then? A rather strange time for new recruits, wouldn’t you say?”

Tighnari shoots him a gaze of suspicion “Yes…” he mumbles “I…we’re new here. Am I supposed to know you?”

“Oh, no! No! That’d be far too pretentious of me to assume.” he said, an embarrased blush forming on his face as he rambled. “I’m not that important really. I’m just the prince of the desert kingdom…well, technically, I’m the king since my parents are kinda dead..but I like the term prince better!” Tighnari scrunched his forehead. Not a big deal?! The desert kingdom is big enough to practically be its own nation! What kind of game was this guy playing?

“Are you a prince of some sort?” he asked in a hushed whisper, cocking his head to the side. Tighnari paused at the question, biting his bottom lip in thought and shoved-back annoyance. Why was he asking so many questions? It was annoying, or atleast he’d consider it annoying if he didn’t do the same. He was a prince of the forest, but he couldn’t say that! If he assumed correctly, his mother must be a princess by now. And attending….the academy.

He had almost forgotten that.

“No.” Tighnari replied firmly, crossing his arms. He looked at Cyno, who lay his head on the desk. He was simply taking different beakers filled with fluids, and looking through them as they swirled in his beaker. He was tuning out everything the professor was rambling about, his words coming in through one ear and going out through another. Deshret nodded understandingly, not enquiring further, and diverting his attention from the conversation.

Tighnari poked him with slight affection on his cheek, giving him a slight smile. Cyno gazed at him, then brough his attention back to the potions in his hand. It was not much for their friendship, but it was a start! Atleast he didn’t frown at him, or hiss at him. Granted, Cyno never actually hissed at him like a cat, but he seemed like the type of person to do it. He was incredibly cat-coded. Or maybe even puppy. Unconciously, he did it a few more times, not failing to notice how soft and weirdly chubby they were. He didn’t even seem to mind, either ignoring it or not even noticing it.

Zaha eyed the two and rolled her eyes with a playful smirk “Oh, so you’re THOSE types.” Tighnari raised his eyebrows, making the decision to not question the girl’s logic. It wasn’t long till the class ended, Professor Albedo dismissing the class and everyone immediately getting on Deshret’s case. None of the other students even payed heed to them other than Deshret. It was definitely suspicious, but it worked in their favour, so he didn’t dare question it.

Cyrus and his friends payed their respects and heeded a farewell, as the two navigated their other classes. “So what do we do about the situation?” Tighnari said, coming out with it. A frown formed on Cyno’s face, him being as clueless as the other was. “I don’t know. But don’t expect me to talk to him. I didn’t even know he ws a student here until yesterday. Not really yesterday but…”

“I get it.” Tighnari cut him off. “And I suppose it would be quite the understatement to claim that this wasn’t what you…we, expected at all.” “Yeah…” Cyno mumbled from under his breath, shaking his head in indignation “I can’t believe he’s actually…nice.” he spat, the word tasting bitter in his mouth“It’s probably all just an act. You don’t know him like I do.”

“I never said I did.” Tighnari sighed “And you might be right, but we need to think about this logically. Why would the watch send us to this particular time period in the first place?”

Cyno’s forehead creased, and Tighnari could practically the gears in his head creaking with effort of thought. “The letter that came with this said that ‘it'd take me to the time where you can achieve what you desire.’” “So what do you desire then?” the boy asks, accidentally bumping into a person and mumbling quick words of apology.

“World domination.” Cyno’s lips twitched into a smirk as he joked about world domination, but the unease in his chest didn’t waver. The words felt wrong, like they belonged to someone else—a version of him he didn’t want to become. As much as Tighnari hated it, his mind went back to the dream he had the previous day. Compared to then and now, his eyes lacked a soul behind it, it was unsettling. Was it really fair to compare the Cyno he knew now and the Cyno from his dream? It was almost perfect. Idealized. Flawless. But this version of him was…broken, easily aggravated, immature, and had some of the worst coping mechanisms he’d ever seen.

“Don’t do that.” Tighnari said, his jaw tightening up as his heart compressed in his chest. Cyno grumbled under his breath childishly and stuck out his tongue. When they fought after arriving in this time-period, he was far more mature and serious. Now, he was like…THIS. Was it because it was how he truely was, or was he genuinely afraid of Tighnari knowing how he felt?

“You act so stuck up.” he grumbled. Tighnari rolled his eyes in exasperation “We’ve already been through this before. Have you just run out of things to call me?”

“You think that we could actually be friends, right? Because everyone loves Tighnari.” He paused, his voice dropping to a whisper, laced with venom as he edged menacingly towards him. “You think you can change me, right? To fit whatever messed up mold I have to fit in to be your friend Because you hate how I am now. You won’t admit it, but you think I’m below you. I know all about people like you.”

Tighnaris breath hitched, biting on his bottom lips so hard he drew blood. Where on earth did this sudden proclaimation come from? He had never thought of Cyno as someone lower than him…right?

Broken, easily aggravated, immature, and had some of the worst coping mechanisms he’d ever seen.

Oh. OH.

“I..I don’t..” he sputtered “I don’t think of anyone as beneath me…”

“Lies,” Cyno growled under his breath as he attempted to walk away “I hate lies. I hate liars even more.” before he could leave, however, Tighnari had grabbed his wrist tightly, holding him back. Cyno’s eyes flickered towards him in anger, but the glare faltered when he saw the others eyes filled with a sort of affectionate sadness that made his heart crumple in his chest.

“I….really don’t like thinking about people like that.” Tighnari admitted “but I have. And I’m sorry. I’m just…worried about you..”

Tighnari, worried about him?!

Cyno’s face suddenly flushed a shade of red as he shook off Tighnari’s hand “I know its hard, trying to be nice to him. And I’m not going to ask you to do that either. But if we have a chance of changing things, we need to take it. I can do all the talking if you want but…” he faltered “its not much easier talking to someone who probably murdered my parents. And Kaveh. But I’ll do it. For you.”

For you

For you…

For you……

“For…me?” he scoffed sadly, the pain in his voice evident as he averted Tighnari’s eyes “That’s stupid. You shouldn’t do something for anyone who hurts you.”

“But I know you’re hurting.” he murmured under his breath “And I know it’ll never stop. But maybe, if you’d let me, I could help make it hurt less.”