If Only they Were Friends
"Venti!" A small shove hits Venti's arm as someone attempts, and fails, to wake him up.
"Venti you have to go to class!" Venti groans at who is no doubt one of his siblings.
"Fine, fine, I'll get up." He slurs, having no clue about the time...or the fact that he doesn't have the time to wake up if he wants to get to Professor Tighnari's class on time.
Finally opening his eyes, Venti sees that Xiao and Kazuha have already left, probably this morning.
It wouldn't have been the first time Xiao and Kazuha have taken Nahida to school in the morning after cooking her breakfast.
Speaking of Nahida. Venti throws his head to the side, his eyes searching for the sibling who woke him up. "Nahida, why aren't you at school?"
"School got out thirty minutes ago, I ran home to make sure you were up." Nahida frowns. "Now get up, you have less than twenty minutes."
"Thanks, Nahida!" Venti calls after his sister when she leaves the room. Leaving him to scramble to get ready.
Rushing out the door, barely having the time to change his clothes, Venti makes it to the building with three minutes to spare. And it would take him those three minutes to walk up the stairs.
The noise from the classroom could be heard from down the hall. Carefully, not to disturb the commotion, Venti opens the door.
Tighnari stands at the front of the room, the class yelling about something. Too many voices layer on top of each other that Venti can't really hear what they're yelling about.
Sitting down in his seat next to Xingqiu, Venti looks up at the teen, who's standing yelling at Tighnari.
"What do you mean! It's two weeks in, you can't just change the coursework!" Xingqiu yells, his voice only clear because he's closer to Venti's ears.
"What's going on?" Venti calls out into the room, having enough with the yelling, even though he just got there.
"He's changing the coursework, we're not doing wine production anymore," Chongyun says when the class quiets down to look at Venti.
"Ok, and? Most of you are only eighteen right? What are you held up on?" Venti looks at the group of basically children, looking for Diluc.
But Diluc isn't the one who speaks. It's Tighnari. "I told you all at the beginning that these classes were dissemination of information. The Akademiya doesn't want you all to learn how to make moonshine."
"You still can't just change it!" A kid Venti recognizes as one of Kazuha's old friends, Gorou, yells.
Venti meets Diluc's eyes from across the room. A slightly worried look is on Diluc's face. He doesn't want to be a part of this, Venti realizes.
Venti watches Diluc look away from his, sigh, and then raise his hand, waiting for the class to notice.
The class quiets at Diluc's raised hand. "I know a lot about the production of alcohol, a lot more than just moonshine if you all actually want to learn. But if Tighnari can't teach us then that's that."
Tighnari smiles at Diluc, and the class stays quiet, waiting for Tighnari's next words.
"That sounds like a great idea, Diluc. I can't legally teach the same course, but there's nothing about another student teaching you all." The eccentric professor smiles when the class seems to calm down a bit.
"What about this class though? What will you teach us?" Chongyun asks, raising his hand as Diluc did earlier.
This gives Venti an idea. "What if we kept it a secret?" He asks, purposely keeping his eyes from meeting Diluc's.
"What do you mean? Keep it a secret?" Gorou asks, turning his attention from Tighnari to Venti.
"Diluc could teach us the same coursework, but Professor Tighnari could pretend to teach us something else." Venti smiles at the way Xingqiu and Chongyun smile at him, nodding in agreement.
"That sounds excellent, Venti." Tighnari's entire body shaking with laughter.
"What other things do you teach? We could do something similar enough that no one would question it." Diluc's looking at Venti instead of Tighnari, but Venti does his best not to meet Diluc's eyes.
"What about the identification of certain plants? We don't have to tell anyone that we're learning about the best plants to make mead with." Diluc took control of the class easily Venti notices, making his tummy tight in places.
No, this can't be happening. Venti clearly said he wouldn't fall for Diluc. Diluc isn't interested in him, Venti doesn't want to waste his time, but there he is. His stomach tied in knots, the soul marks on his chest stinging with electricity.
Tighnari laughs again, happy that his students are working together to turn a disappointment into a happy ending.
"That sounds like a perfect idea you two. We start on Wednesday, for the rest of the class you can talk amongst yourselves. Venti, Diluc, will you come help me with some lesson plans?"
Diluc stands without a word, but Venti can't get his legs to move for a moment.
Finally stumbling up from his seat, Venti walks over to where Diluc and Tighnari stare at a computer screen.
They both look up when Venti joins them, Diluc going as far as to smile at the smaller boy.
"What plants do the two of you know most about? And how much research are you willing to do?" Tighnari gets right down to business, scaring Venti a little bit.
"I don't know the first thing about making alcohol," Venti admits, a little embarrassed.
"That's okay, as long as you're willing to learn." Tighnari smiles at the two of his students, looking at both Venti and Diluc.
"It's not too complicated, I'm sure you can pick it up quite quickly." Venti smiles at Diluc's enthusiasm and faith in him.
"Ok then, what are the best plants to ferment for this?" Venti tries to sound confident, but he knows he sounds unsure.
"Dandelions are great for wine, so are grapes, blueberries, strawberries, any fruit really." Diluc's knowledge surprises Venti, even though he knows it shouldn't. If he remembers correctly, Diluc said he lives on his family's vineyard.
"What about things like Firewater? What goes into that?" Tighnari frowns at the question, sharing a look with Diluc before speaking.
"I'm not sure we should teach them to make something so strong. This information is already really risky to teach to a bunch of Akademiya college students." Diluc nods, making Venti feel just a little bit embarrassed.
"Why don't we focus on wine with a semi-low alcohol level then?" Venti smiles when both Tighnari and Diluc nod, agreeing with him.
"What if we don't just teach wine? It would be easier to hide if we have them do something similar." Diluc offers, making Tighnari nod again.
"What about teas? Or coffee substitutes. I know a lot about that, my brother runs a café in his spare time." Suddenly feeling excited about the subject, Venti tugs on his braids lightly. A stim of sorts.
"That makes a lot of sense. Thank you both, I was having trouble thinking of what to do for a lesson plan. But I can really work with these suggestions." Tighnari laughs a bit, scratching at one of his ears.
"Does that mean that this counts as a health class? Tea and coffee substitutes can be very important to one's health. Depending on what you use. Dandelions are very good for your heart health as long as you don't use the seeds." Looking at Tighnari, Venti can feel Diluc looking at him.
When he turns his attention to Diluc, Venti can see a smile sitting firmly on his face, and when they make eye contact, it makes Venti's heart beat just a little harder.
"A health class sounds perfect, and dandelion wine is very popular in the wine industry so it makes sense for that to be our first assignment." Diluc almost burst into laughter when he looks up to face the rest of the class, making Venti look up too.
Xingqiu and Chongyun are glaring at Gorou, who's being held back by Albedo, a friend from some of Venti's art classes. Though Venti's has seen him hang out with Xingqiu.
"I'm not a dog!" Gorou almost yells, his face scrunched up in a snarl. But Albedo only laughs, making Gorou attempt to glare at the boy behind him.
"I am not a dog!" Gorou yells again, trying to pull himself out of Albedo's grasp. "Stop laughing!"
Venti doesn't even want to ask, but something in the way that Diluc smiles makes him want to know what's going on.
"All I said was you had a good sense of smell." Another student, one Venti doesn't know the name of laughs as he stands next to Chongyun.
Hearing Tighnari laugh, Venti turns his attention back to his teacher and his new friend. Friend, that's it, Venti thinks, that's all he is. A friend.
"That's Itto, he's not the brightest." Diluc has to hold back a smile while telling Tighnari that he isn't supposed to say things like that.
"I'm not sure you can say things like that Professor." He starts, only to be cut off by Tignari.
"Please, Tighnari is fine. Besides, even Itto himself says that he's not the sharpest." Tighnari laughs.
Diluc gives a small chuckle, looking at his classmates before looking at Venti again. Though Venti doesn't notice.
What Venti does notice, is the way Diluc stares at Albedo's hands when he lets go of Gorou. The way that Diluc looks tense and uncomfortable, the same way he looked when Venti stared at him when they first met, or when they were at the library and Diluc was holding onto Mona.
Venti wants to ask him if he's okay, but Tighnari seems to have noticed too, and the look Tighnari gives the two of them is disappointment. Sighing, Tighnari looks over to the clock, the same clock that tells him that class was over twenty minutes ago. They had forgotten about the time.
"Go to you're next class, Venti." It's more of a command than anything else, and usually Venti would say no, but something about the way Tighnari looks at a shaken-up Diluc like he knows what's going on makes Venti think that it is best if he leaves. Give Diluc some space, even if that's the last thing he wants to do.
Sighing, Venti nods, listening to Tighnari's request.
Venti tugs at his braids slightly, guilt tangling itself around Venti's stomach and chest, sitting firmly in his lungs and at the back of his throat. It almost makes him gag, though Venti is sure he can hold it down until he gets back home.
If only they were friends, real friends, then Venti could have stayed, he could have tried to help.