Home Is When I'm With You - Cynonari

Cyno POV

Sunlight seeped through my decorated dorm window and my eyes blinked open. I groaned in my grumpiness and tiredness. I spent the last two days in my dorm and avoiding other people and giving passing glares whenever I saw Alhaitham around campus, he'd return them just as quickly. Me and Alhaitam weren't enemies, we were friends, I wouldn't really say close friends – mostly because I'm still annoyed at him. Alhaitham and I fight often, we're both people with rather short tempers. It started on Friday, when the school welcomed the students back, although most of the older students lived on campus year in and year out. I was joking about how Alhathiam and Kaveh had to be roommates for another year, so the Akademiya must have really wanted them to be together. Most of the time, first years aren't placed with roommates. But last year, Alhaitham and Kaveh got unlucky due to the lack of 1 person dorms. Alhaitham didn't like the joke. Kaveh, as per usual tried to mediate our dispute, we caused so much commotion that after orientation all three of us were told off by one of the supervising matra.

However, today, classes were starting back up again, so I wouldn't be able to avoid Alhaitam for much longer, since we had the unfortunate mishap of both enrolling in the same subject in the same year. That's how I met him, through our first few classes in Haravatat around a year ago.

I crawled out of bed and put on my uniform of delicate white silk robes that came down to my ankles, and a teal-like green coat, rimmed and patterned with thin strips of golden fabric. I grabbed my textbooks and shoved them into my book bag and slung the bag over my shoulder. Once I had grabbed everything I needed, I headed out the door.

The courtyard was full of disoriented students. I could sympathise with them, I was just as confused around this time a year ago. I figured most of the students I knew were already heading to their first classes. I navigated my way through the maze of confused new students towards the entrance to the main building. I walked past the large stained glass doors, inside were even more disorientated students and... Alhaitam. Great... He and Kaveh seemed to be talking. He noticed me almost immediately and his gaze hardened just a little bit. I walked over to them and they continued talking but I wasn't paying attention.

"Come on, let's head to class," I said once their conversation ended and Kaveh had walked off, waving us goodbye. This was always how me and Alhaitam acted, whenever we fought, we never really apologised, just silently agreed to make up.

"Apparently Sage Khajeh is going to directly address us on a couple of things today, considering we're now in our second year," Alhaitam said as we walked to our first class. Unfortunately, we had a long way to go, the language classes were on the opposite side of the building from the dormitories.

"Oh really? That doesn't happen often. Sage Khajeh always seems to be out on expeditions to different ruins," I replied as we entered the House of Daena. We talked a bit more about our subject, upcoming tests and a couple of other things. When Kaveh or a couple of our other friends weren't around, Alhaitham and I didn't talk very much besides the same dull topics we were currently discussing.

As we left through the far exit to the House of Daena, we were nearing our class. When it comes to Haravatat, there are a few mandatory languages, like the ancient King Deshret script. So some of our classes focused on those required languages and other classes focused on how to go about language study. We were currently headed to a class focusing on the methodology of studying ancient languages.

***

Tighnari pov

I silently begged myself that I wouldn't get lost on my way to my third class as I left today's second class. Despite spending the entire weekend getting used to the layout of the campus, on my way to my first class, I got completely lost and was almost late. It took me almost twenty minutes more than it should have to find my class. Which is the same reason I used my free period to look for my second class, so I wasn't late for that one. It was about 1 PM now and this time, I didn't have a free period, so I had to go straight to my next lesson.

My next lesson was focused on elements and the study of them. Being enrolled in Amurta, this wasn't a subject that was particularly important compared to the rest of what I was studying, but it would still be very useful information.

I took a couple more turns and entered the far exit to the House of Daena. I had walked through it a few times over the weekend but it didn't cease to amaze me each time. I never thought I would see such a stunning library. The marble columns were even taller than the ones at the entrance, it spanned multiple stories up with rows upon rows of books and scrolls lining shelves on each floor. I continued to marvel at the sight as I made my way through.

I didn't have much further to go once I left the main exit to the library. I turned right towards a set of doors. Most of the classes were separated based on courses, but sometimes, depending on which you enrolled in, you would have to take classes that also expanded into a different darshan. Since I enrolled in Amurta, most of my classes would focus on biology, and it was required that I take a class on the elements. But it meant that I would get just a little bit more lost than I wanted to be.

I had already walked into the hall and was scanning the letter above the door to find my room. Further up the hall, I noticed a few students walking into a class. That must be it... I thought. I speeded up and made my way to the end of the hall just as the last student entered. The letters above the door matched the ones on my schedule. I stood in front of the doorway and peered in, it was a lecture hall-style room, it was a lot smaller than general lecture halls. There were about 25-30 people in the room, most of them were already sitting and a few here and there were settling into their seats. A couple of people noticed me as I entered and to my dismay, a young girl gasped which caused more than a few heads to turn. Like anyone, I didn't like being stared at and it didn't help knowing what people were staring at. I picked a seat in the back trying to ignore the shocked or interested gazes following me.

"Good afternoon students," A gentle voice coming from the front of the room broke the painful silence. The staring eyes turned their attention back to the teacher. "My name is Lisa, you needn't call me 'miss' or 'professor' since I'm only substituting for your real professor,"

She smiled widely as her eyes scanned the room, and then she locked on something behind us.

"And you must be Cyno," she exclaimed. I looked in the direction of her gaze, my eyes widened as I spotted a boy that couldn't have been much older than me. He had fluffy white hair that fell just beneath his shoulder and covered most of his face, including part of his left eye. He was short, very short, but that didn't change how intimidating he looked. I looked a little closer and realised it was the boy from orientation, the one who was arguing with the taller one. He was leaning against the back wall looking down on the rest of the room. How did I not notice him...? I hadn't seen him or heard a thing despite how sensitive my ears were.

"Yes, I'm Cyno," he said in a cold, monotone voice

"So you're here for your matra training, right dear?" Lisa asked with a warm smile

"That's right, you may continue with your lesson, I won't be a bother, I'm just here to observe and write a report" he explained and with that Lisa had begun her lesson. I hadn't even noticed I was staring until his cat-like red eyes met mine. I turned around quickly and hurried to busy myself. I pulled a notebook out of my bag and kept my eyes fixated on the front of the room, though tempted to look back. I felt his gaze burn through the back of my head.

***

1462 words