Study Group
"I'm sure It wasn't that bad, Diluc," Mona says pulling down her purple mini-skirt.
"It was. I was so embarrassed, Mona. What if they find out what happened? I don't want those stares or the 'I'm so sorry', 'you're so brave'." Diluc sighs, repositioning himself.
Just outside the heart of Celestia, in Mona's apartment, Diluc and Mona sit on her bedroom floor.
"It's not that he was trying to single you out. He's crazy, not mean." Mona attempts to comfort Diluc. Sighing after looking up and seeing Diluc's soft glare, Mona tries again. "I know you don't want anyone to know, but maybe it would be a good thing? You could try to find a support group."
"Mona, no. I told you, I don't need therapy or some support group." Diluc's voice borders on anger, but Mona knows it's not actually directed at her.
"I know, I know. But maybe finding someone who's been in a similar position would help, you know...with the panic attacks?" Mona tries to be gentle to not send Diluc into one of those said panic attacks.
"I'm fine, it's just...hard...to think about what happened," Diluc admits, pulling his legs closer to the core of his body.
"I know, Diluc. Do you want me to call Kaeya?" Mona asks, noticing Diluc's mood start to drop even more.
"No...I'm fine, I just. I just don't like talking about it." Sniffling a little bit, Diluc wipes at his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie.
The carpeted floor feels like sandpaper even through his socks, the air thickens in his lungs and Diluc can feel his airway start to close.
"Hey, wanna get some pizza?" Mona asks, standing up. She's learned from experience that the best thing to do is act like nothing is wrong and just wait it out.
Diluc hates pizza, but he finds himself nodding anyway. This is what they had been doing for months. Diluc would start to freak out sitting on Mona's floor, she would order pizza and they would cuddle in her bed or on the couch while they rewatched Diluc's favorite cooking shows.
Coming back from ordering the pizza in the kitchen, Mona finds Diluc, still sitting on the floor, staring at his hands. His soul mark.
"Do you think anyone could actually...love this...love me?"
Sighing, tears forming at the corners of her eyes, Mona sits down next to Diluc, pulling him for a hug. "You know you're my platonic soulmate."
Diluc smiles a small smile, letting himself melt into the hug. He might have known Jean longer, but Mona was his best friend, and nothing would change that.
"Let's go watch tv in the living room," Mona says helping Diluc to his feet.
Making it to the couch, Diluc flops himself down. "I'm sorry you keep having to take care of me."
Mona shakes her head. She doesn't mind, what he went through was hard, and she knew that. He was her best friend, her platonic soulmate.
Shaking her head, Mona turns on the tv and lays down behind Diluc, his back against her chest. Wrapping her arms around him, Mona smiles a sad smile. "It's ok, Diluc. I don't mind."
A knock sounds at the door a little while later, they've only made it through one episode of The Great British Baking Show, but Mona gets up to answer it anyway. Diluc is half asleep so she puts it in her fridge for them to eat in the morning.
Laying down behind Diluc again, they both drift off further into sleep.
/////
Hours later, Diluc groans, already drowning in homework. Most of it is busy work, but he sits in the library with Jean, Kaeya, and Mona anyway.
"So how did your class with professor Tighnari go?" Jean asks, turning the page of her textbook. Her class isn't reading the textbook yet, but Jean always loves to be ahead on her homework. Makes it easier to study later.
"Not the best, not the worst." Is all Diluc says, trying to avoid talking about it?
Jean looks like she wants to press the issue but before she can a group of boys walk into the library laughing.
Looking up from his binder, Diluc sees the boy from his class walking in with two other boys. What was his name? Ven-something?
Quickly looking down again, Diluc gives another soft groan. He did not want to interact with that boy again. It's not like Diluc didn't notice the boy staring at him like the rest of the class when Tighnari singled him out.
Only feeling safe with his friends, Diluc slides down in his chair a bit, trying not to be seen.
But Mona waves to them, earning a wave from two of the boys. The other one from the cafe, the guy with black and green hair, and a new boy, one with white hair with a streak of red running through the hair on the side of his head.
The two boys walk over while the other, while Ven-something picks a seat for them at a different table in the library.
"Hey, Mona." The white-with-red-streak hair says while holding the other boy's hand.
"Hi, Kazuha, Xiao, how are you?" She asks, moving her hand from on top of the table to under it so Diluc can hold it. He's struggled with new people a lot, especially after what happened.
"We're good, and you?" An almost curt reply from the boy with green in his black hair.
"That's good Xiao." Mona smiles. "I'm doing alright, school is already hard, but that's ok."
The other boy, presumably Kazuha, nods and pulls something out of his pocket. It's a class schedule, Diluc realizes. "We're actually meeting some kids from Tighnari's class here, so we have to go, but it was nice seeing you."
Kaeya lights up at this information. He wasn't really paying attention, focused on this literature homework, but this was as good of a chance as he was going to get. Diluc would make some more friends, especially if Kaeya had anything to say about it.
"Why don't we put some tables together? Diluc here is also in Professor Tighnari's class, so maybe you guys can help him study." Glancing over to Diluc, Kaeya smiles and Diluc does his best not to glare.
Before Xiao can say something Kazuha smiles. "That sounds like a great idea...None of you are transphobic right?"
Diluc's group all shake their heads signaling no. "No, and most of us are queer anyway," Kaeya says giving Kazuha and Xiao a huge smile.
"Ok, I'll go get Venti." Xiao nods, squeezing Kazuha's hand and then turning away.
Mona also gives Diluc a reassuring squeeze, going unnoticed by everyone. This might as well have been hell for Diluc.
Diluc and Mona help Kaeya and Jean move the tables while Kazuha goes back to Xiao and Venti, bringing them over to the rest of the group.
Sitting down, Venti looks to the door, waiting for the others to show up. Lisa gives him a warning glare, telling him to make sure they're quiet.
Xiao doesn't even manage to sit down when two blue-haired kids from Diluc's class walk in. One a dark blue and the other so light it looks like ice.
"Xingqiu, Chongyun, over here!" Venti calls, waving the two teens over.
They sit next to Venti, who's sitting across from Diluc.
"Hello," The one with dark hair says, holding the ice-haired individual's hand.
"Hey, we ended up running into someone else from class. I hope you don't mind." Diluc can tell that Venti isn't exactly thrilled about Kaeya inviting them over, but he takes it in stride.
"Oh, we don't mind, right Xingqiu?" The other boy, Chongyun presumably, says, looking at the dark-haired boy.
Xingqiu nods, smiling. "Of course, that's what Tighnari said right? To meet up with as many people as we can and get to know each other."
Mona can feel Diluc go ridged. He was only half paying attention in class, he didn't hear that part.
"That's splendid. I'm Kaeya, he/they pronouns, and this is my brother Diluc, he/him, right?" Diluc nods at Kaeya, confirming his statement.
"I'm Jean, she/her." Jean doesn't look up from her book, 'intently reading' while Lisa eyes them from the front desk.
"Mona, I also use she/her, it's nice to meet you both." Mona smiles warmly despite being worried about Diluc.
"I'm Kazuha, he/they, and this is one of my boyfriends, Xiao. He also uses he/they, but only by close friends."
Diluc doesn't miss how Kazuha said Xiao was one of his boyfriends, wondering who the other was.
"I'm Chongyun, I'm genderfluid so my pronouns for the day are she/her." Chongyun smiles, sitting down next to Venti.
"Xingqiu, he/him. what are you guys studding for?" Sitting down next to his partner, Xingqiu also gives a warm smile to the rest of the group.
"We're all studying ahead of the class. We all either printed the books of the internet, bought them, or were given them by the professors, so we're trying to get ahead of the game." Kaeya says, showing his phone where he's reading the syllabus for his advanced lit class.
"Oh cool, we only planned to meet up with some other students from class. Professor Tighnari wants us to present on either one or more students from a class that we share." Pulling out a book, Venti looks at everyone in the group with his best smile.
"What book is that?" Diluc asks though he recognizes the style of the paper. He says it quietly, just above a whisper, but Venti hears it anyway.
"It's a notebook made of music sheets. I play a few instruments so I like to keep it with me for when inspiration strikes." Giving a genuine smile this time, Venti slides the book over to Diluc, who takes it in with a gentle hand. "Here, take a look, you look like someone who played piano as a kid."
This makes everyone from the Mondstadt district laugh. "He still does when given a chance, though he used to spend most of his time practicing the great sword." Jean laughs, not realizing that Diluc was more private now, not wanting people to know too many details about him.
Flinching, Diluc carefully flips through the pages before speaking. "These songs are really good, I like that you have the instrument written in the corner of the page." The notebook has annotations, lyrics, and thoughts too, but Diluc feels like he should probably keep that part to himself.
"How do you know how they sound?" Chongyun asks, pulling out a textbook of her own.
"Diluc can hear the music in his head, he used to write without a piano." Jean smiles, not catching the glare that Mona gives her.
"You write music?" Kazuha asks, the idea of another artist piquing his interest.
"Not much anymore," Diluc mumbles, making Mona squeeze his hand again. If they keep talking about it, Diluc is likely to have another panic attack. Diluc hates his panic attacks, they make him feel weak, and like he was having a heart attack.
"So um, what major are you guys going for? I'm double majoring in swordsmanship and agriculture." Giving Diluc a worried glance, Kaeya changes the subject under the guise of getting to know the others better. Though he is quickly regretting inviting them over, Diluc wasn't ready.
"Oh, you practice with weapons too? Is it a family thing?" Xingqiu asks, looking from Kaeya to Diluc, the two people that it's been briefly mentioned that they have experience with weapons.
"If you read different studies, all of the factions provide and almost expect everyone to train with some kind of weapon. I'm personally an archer." Venti says, earning shocked looks from everyone at the table.
"Venti is from the Celestia district, but he grew up going to schools in Sumeru," Kazuha explains. The other districts don't value information or status like Sumeru and Celestia do, Venti hailing from Celestia and Sumeru schools means that Venti has a leg up on everyone else when it comes to prestige and knowledge.
"That's so cool," Kaeya breaks the silence, and everyone lets go of the breath they were holding. That was big information, Celestia is the riches of the districts, and other than Mona, the people Diluc had met from Celestia were total snobs. "We hail from Mondstadt, so this is like our first time in the bigger districts."
"Other than Mona, we just graduated high school, so this is kinda similar and vastly different at the same time." Jean is oversharing again, earning glares from Mona and Diluc.
"Where do you come from Mona?" Xiao asks, trying to be a part of and interested in the conversation. His people's battery was getting low so he and Kazuha would have to go soon.
"Liyue originally, but I moved to Mond in middle school and then Celestia after I graduated." Xingqiu, Chongyun, and Venti all nod at Mona's words, before Venti notices Xiao start to lean on Kazuha.
"We should go, Xiao's getting tired, but it was nice meeting you all. We should do this again." Venti says, which Diluc picks up as code for never talking to me again.
"We should." Kaeya and Kazuha say in unison, both of them smiling like they mean it.
"We should go too, I need Diluc's help building some furniture." Mona never let go of Diluc's hand so when she stands she leads him up too, showing everyone that they were holding hands.
Venti frowns, though no one seems to notice, before standing up himself.
Kaeya and Jean say something about being late for class, but Diluc's not listening.
The rest of the group stands too, and walks out of the library together before going their separate ways.