Magician School for the Elementally Inclined

31

"Do you mind?" Childe glared, crossing his arms. 

"No," Venti smiled, hugging Zhongli, or trying to, but Zhongli kept avoiding him which led to the two dancing around Childe. 

"You should leave my boyfriend alone already," Childe frowned. "Go find your own." 

"Your life is going to be over faster than we can blink. Don't get so full of yourself. He'll forget you soon enough." 

"Venti," Zhongli stopped abruptly and Venti slammed his face into his back (which was almost the same as slamming his face right into a stone wall). Zhongli picked Venti up (much to Venti's surprise). 

"Zhongli?" he blushed, staring up at his face. 

"You need to learn how to think before you speak," Zhongli stated, before throwing Venti down the hall and directly out of the open window. Venti screamed as he fell, completely forgetting that he could control wind and break his fall, which led to him being caught by a shirtless Diluc. Meanwhile, Zhongli clapped his hands together as if wiping off dirt from them and grabbed Childe's hand, walking in the opposing direction. 

"Oh..." Venti looked up. "You're very..." he eyeballed Diluc for a moment. Diluc promptly dropped him on his ass and turned around. "Thanks for catching me?" Venti stared, watching Diluc walk away. "Wait!" He scrambled to his feet and followed behind. "Aren't you going to say anything? Ask me why I was thrown out a window?" 

Diluc glanced down at Venti but didn't reply. He was getting an odd sense of deja vu to the beginning of their interactions with each other. He was trying to keep his distance because he didn't want to accidentally make the situation worse. Diluc thought Scaramouche's concerns were valid and reasonable. He didn't want to force memories back that weren't authentic but he also didn't want to be so desperate as to try and forcibly get Venti to notice him. Now that Venti himself seemed interested enough to ask him questions instead of following Zhongli around...Diluc was doing everything he could not to just blurt all his feelings out at once. 

"If you're not going to ask, should I tell you anyway?" Venti snickered. 

"No." 

"No?" Venti blinked, confused. "Are you that disinterested? So cocky for a mortal." Venti ceased walking and crossed his arms. 

Diluc stopped and looked over his shoulder since Venti was now a step or two behind him. "No, I'm not going to say anything." 

Venti's face flushed, realizing Diluc was just answering his first question first. Of course. That made perfect sense actually. "Say," Venti elbowed Diluc and smirked, "are you a Pyro user because I'm Anemo so you'd be the first thing I'd pick up." 

"Yeah." 

"Huh?" 

"I am a Pyro user but you do know that's not actually how swirl works, right? Pyro and Anemo work well together since fire needs a stable source of air but Anemo doesn't necessarily pick up one element more than the other. It's just whichever is first." Just when Diluc thought he was getting the hang of not really saying anything to Venti...he completely ruined it. "In any case," Diluc pointed, pressing his finger into Venti's chest. "Anemo and Geo don't have a reaction to each other." 

"Are you trying to say I need to stop pestering Zhongli?" Venti laughed. "That's hilarious." 

Diluc's eyebrow twitched. He flattened his hand against Venti's chest and pushed him up against the school's wall. "I'm saying," he leaned down, "if you really want chemistry you should stop trying to talk to a geologist." 

"That would've been really smooth except for the small fact that all scientists essentially need a background in every other science in order to become successful," Albedo spoke. "Geologists need a background in chemistry, biology, physics, and so forth." 

"What are you doing here?!" Diluc turned around, holding his hands up in the air, as if trying to prove to himself he wasn't doing anything even though that wasn't true. 

"Getting materials," Albedo held up a basket. 

"How long have you been here?" Venti asked. 

"Oh," Albedo looked up, mimicking Venti in a falsetto (although his voice remained deadpanned which made the whole experience more amusing) "You're very...Thanks for catching me?" 

"You've been here the whole time..." Diluc inwardly cringed. 

"Don't mind me," Albedo began walking. "Carry on, I've gotten what I need anyway."