Chapter Text
“HALTE!” Clorinde raised her fencing mask from her face, wiping sweat from her face. She lifted her opponent up, shaking their hand before leaving. As she left the changerooms, she received a text from Navia that she was waiting outside. Hurriedly, she walked to the exit, where locks of familiar yellow blonde were seen. “Navia.” Clorinde greeted warmly, and the two soon caught up in idle conversation. “What are you doing here anyway?” she asked, eyebrows furrowed. At that, Navia froze mid sentence, like a deer caught in headlights. “Ah.. well I happened to be nearby, so I thought I should pop over and wait for you!” she looked away, pink gracing her cheeks in a delicate blush. ‘Cute..’ Clorinde thought, before shaking that thought away. What was she thinking?
She was just about to walk out under the shelter they were standing under, before Navia dragged her back. “Clorinde! Can’t you see? It’s raining!” she pointed outside, where lo and behold, rain was falling down. “Ah..” This time, Clorinde was blushing in embarrassment. Alas, the purple-haired girl realised that she hadn’t brought an umbrella, and took out her jacket, preparing to run back to the bus station. Before she could even move however, Navia grabbed her bag strap. “Clorinde! Don’t you dare try to run out into the rain again! Last time that happened, you caught such a bad cold you had to go to the hospital!” The blue eyed teen glared at Clorinde, still holding onto the bag. “Here. Take this instead.” Navia swept out an umbrella, its large girth making it able to easily block out the rain. Opening it over their heads, she offered the handle to her, the gesture obvious. Reaching out, Clorinde quickly took the umbrella, her face pinker than before.
“Be careful out there, alright? The rain can be slippery.” Navia whispered, the pair still holding eye contact. “I- uh, will do.” Clorinde stammered in reply, still clutching the umbrella. “Well then, see you later!” Giggling, Navia ran down the stairs to the black car waiting for her. Looking back one last time, she shyly waved and then climbed in. The car zoomed off, leaving Clorinde in the rain, with her umbrella. ‘Ah. I’m in love, aren’t I..’ She thought in a daze.
Clorinde began her trek to the bus station, unaware that the blooming blossoms in her heart would only continue to grow as time flew by.
***
1 year later…
“CLORINDEE!!” Navia shouted wildly as she ran down the street, causing passersby to stare. “Navia!” Clorinde embraced her best friend in equal parts fervor and excitement. She would be lying if she said she didn’t miss Navia. After all, her friend had spent all summer holiday in Australia, and as a result returned significantly darker than she had been the year before. “Here Take this!” Navia handed her a basket of various pastries, steam still lazily drifting from it. "I made them myself, and I know that you get hungry way too often, so I packed some for you!” beaming, she shoved the goods into Clorinde's arms before said girl could reject them. “I learnt a few ‘classic Australian’ desserts as well, so I made sure to add some of those in there as well!” At that, Clorinde internally sighed, now firmly holding the basket. Of course Navia had to go above and beyond, but Clorinde supposed that it was just a part of her character. Though it wasn’t rare for her to be a taste tester for the blonde, almost never had she received a whole basket of pastries and desserts from her.
Before she could ask Navia, they had reached the school gates. Since Clorinde had first period English, while Navia had a free period, they were forced to split up. As they parted ways, Clorinde couldn’t help but wonder if she had done something to deserve such a gift. Immediately she dismissed the idea. ‘She probably just overbaked again.’ she thought.
***
Clorinde blocked a left hook, jumping over Wriothesley’s sweeping right leg, before she flipped him over with lightning speed. “Ok, ok I give up.” he raised his arms in defeat, and grabbed Clorinde’s offered hand. As they walked out of the gym, the purple haired girl frowned and stopped in her tracks. “Clor? You good?” Wriothesley turned to face her, concern plastered over onto his face.
Crossing her arms, Clorinde grabbed his arm and dragged him off to the side of the road. “I should be asking you that. What’s up with you today? You’ve been off your game and you look super stressed.” She gestured to Wriothesley’s face, continuing. “Did you procrastinate another essay? You know that we can help you right?” The boy waved his hand, dismissing her concerns. “It's just that Neuvi’s birthday is soon and I suppose I put off getting something for him. After all, it's such an important day and nothing seems to be a good choice..” Clorinde could feel a headache forming in her head, and she massaged her temples in vain to alleviate the pain. “Wrio, do you- you know what, I’m not dealing with this. Just follow me.” Rolling her eyes, she took off, heading towards the library nearby. “Hey- Wait!” Wriothesley followed her, catching up.
“So why are we here again?” the black haired boy whispered as he followed the girl further into the library. Clorinde didn’t reply, walking towards a small corner of the library. They walked past the tables set out for students studying, stopping to a halt at a table housing 2 familiar people. “Neuvilette? Navia? I didn’t know you guys would be at the library!” Wriothesley whispered loudly, eyes widened in shock. Confused, Navia stopped in her conversation with Clorinde, turning to him. “Did you not know? We planned to meet up and go hang out at the shopping centre nearby!” She furrowed her brows, annoyance hinting in her expression. Embarrassed, Wriothesley shrugged his shoulders. He must have missed her texts. After all, he had been swamped with balancing his part time job, boxing with Clorinde, and finals.
***
The rest of the day flew by in a blur, and Wriothesley could barely recall being dragged around by Navia after discovering her plan to help him buy a suitable gift for Neuvillette. As Clorinde distracted said boy, the pair had wandered through store after store, before finally being able to decide on a bottle of ‘All-Natural Water collected from the banks of Mondstadt’, alongside a majestic coat that fitted his style perfectly. The items were now placed neatly on Wriothesley’s desk, in a simple blue gift bag. Sighing, Wriothesley finally tore his eyes away from the gifts. He had zoned out for at least an hour, overthinking every scenario that could happen the next day. What if Neuvillete already has these gifts? What if he doesn’t like them? The worst part is, he’d still accept them… Neuvi’s always been too kind. Before Wriothesley could fall deeper into this rabbit hole, the sharp ringing of his alarm blared loudly into his room.
With a jolt, he fell out of his bed in shock, wincing. “What the hell..” Wriothelsey squinted at his phone, still unaccustomed to the bright light. “How is it already 7?” Groaning, he stumbled out of his room, rushing through his daily routine.
***
Wriothesley shuffled his feet, not daring to look at Neuvillete’s face as he handed his present, basically shoving it into the other boy’s arms. “Happy birthday, Neuvillete.” Feeling like the world was on his shoulders, Wriothesley slowly raised his head, and was met with the elegant blue and purple, colours signature of the tall boy standing in front of him. However, his breath was taken away by the pure love and adoration that stemmed from those pupils, the emotion that seemed to travel through every vein, every artery, every singular atom that was called Wriothesley. Distantly, he thought, Oh. He’s my soulmate. Neuvillete is my soulmate. The two being soulmates should’ve been something he should have thought about in more detail, but as Neuvillete all but dragged him to an empty classroom, Wriothesley felt as if he could’ve cared less.
***
Clorinde knew that Neuvillette was the type of person to seem calm, surface as still as frozen ice. Underneath all of that, he was a raging ocean, a sea of uncontrollable wildness. Of course, his polite ‘facade’ is quite easily broken if you simply looked in the right places. As his friend of nearly 2 years, Clorinde felt confident in her skills of Neuvillette Emotion Detection. However, this time, said skills were basically useless. Probably because as soon as Wriothesley looked at Neuvillete’s eyes, the two were off to probably- “Absolutely destroy each other. Wriothesely’s gonna be absolutely devoured by Neuvi.” Furina’s voice threw Clorinde out of her thoughts, making her look away from the classroom door they had not-so-descreetly disappeared to. “They're not that brash, Furina! At most, they’d just make out.” Navia protested. “I hope you mean that they’d be doing that aggressively.” The blue and white haired girl raised an eyebrow.
“Lady Furina, the bell is going to ring. You have the Theatre Production to co-direct.” Interrupting the pair’s, frankly dirty conversation about their best friends, Clorinde handed Furina her bag and shoved her off into the vague direction of the hall. She tried to ignore the pointed look that Navia gave her.
There was still 15 minutes until the beginning of 1st period. Well, a head start was never a bad thing, Clorinde reasoned.
In any case, Neuvillette and Wriothesley’s soulmate bond would probably take up most of her mind anyway, so what did it matter. A tiny voice inside her whispered the hope of Navia being her soulmate. As always, she ignored it, despite the warmth that grew in her chest at the thought. Even if they were soulmates, they would have to wait until at least August to find out anyway.