Chapter Text
Tests can be exhausting.
We've been doing different activities ever since we got here, and I must say, it's very competitive. Because we're competing against ourselves 100% of the time, forming different teams; the competitive spirit is everywhere, which for me can be immense pressure. I see the alphas as really committed, trying their best to win, which results in very complicated situations; it's true what they say, that adolescence is when we make the most impulsive decisions. I wouldn't participate in situations like that, but sometimes we're forced to.
And I must say, today was intense.
Like every day, we're presented with some kind of challenge or competition. And we've been given something very...intriguing. You see, we're three classes, each with at least 30 students. Therefore, it's possible to form many teams with more than 12 people. In a competition, it doesn't matter if your friend is on the other team; you simply need to win, especially when the prize is PIZZA.
Not to say anything, but the food at this place is terrible. So imagine our despair when we found out our reward would be different food after so long!?
Okay, five days isn't much. But let me be dramatic, please.
#justicefordramaticômegas.
Anyway, the situation was this: There are five radios hidden in the woods by our teachers, and we would need to find clues and hunt them down. The winning teams got pizza, the losers got nothing. There are seven teams, so each team has 12 participants. The thing is... imagine we're allowed to use our abilities. Great, now remember there's Kujou Sara, it has wings—so it flies (that cursed bird!), and then who do we see? Xilonen and Varessa. Both are insanely fast thanks to their elemental abilities, and then we have Furina and Columbina, both of whom can simply walk on water. Want to know more? So how about I mention that Venti has an interesting ability that allows him to propel himself with that cursed wind of his?
Incidentally, Kujou Sara was on his team.
That was definitely very difficult.
...
"Ugh... I can't believe we ended up falling behind this time!" Itto grumbled, slapping the ground in a whimper after losing. Ayaka and Shenhe were consoling him, or rather, trying to.
I kept quiet, distant. I had lost too, and I was tired. It was a good hunt, though.
I saw Columbina further ahead. Laughing, in that silly way she can, with a victorious look while some people around her fawned over her, along with Furina; they were on the same team.
Together
Partners
Sometimes I remember what was said on television, in Columbina's words. It still..saddens me.
"Tired?" I felt an icy bottle against my face, I looked up startled only to see Hutao's smile.
Its scent was recognizable, something like scented candles; soft and not too sweet. Just enough to impress, but not strong enough to be cloying. This alpha really smelled good.
There are very few alphas whose scent I can inhale without feeling like vomiting. In fact, it had been a while since I'd smelled an alpha; it's difficult to identify scents that aren't very subtle.
"Hmm...a little dead." I took the bottle from her hand, feeling her fingers brush against mine for a second. She smiled in a funny way.
"Seriously? You're lucky, I'm going to be the future owner of a funeral home." She said sarcastically, hands on her hips, with that somewhat unsettling smile.
"Are you...trying to bury me?" I grabbed the bottle and looked at her, startled.
"Hmm, maybe"
"How scary!" I felt a slight shiver, but ended up laughing. It was kind of funny in a way.
She sat down beside me, under the tree where I was, while I drank the water. It went down my throat, making me feel relieved. I sighed; I hadn't realized how much I needed this. Honestly, I don't usually drink that much water, but today it feels like I've drained away 75% of the water that the human body possesses.
"Why are you almost always alone?" Hutao looked curiously, her pupils fixed on Sandrone's face as if she were almost in a hypnotic state.
"I think I just like being alone," she murmured, her eyes wandering, not quite understanding how that question was, in fact, a little invasive.
"Hmm, isn't that sad?"
Sandrone thought, her eyes following a small leaf that fell from the tree they both stood beneath. It stuck in her mind. She had never truly noticed how much time she spent alone; sometimes she was near Tartaglia, Lumine, or Arlecchino. But she always lagged behind, almost never fully engaging with their conversations.
This was different from being with Columbina, in general.
Being without Columbina was sad.
"I think it's relative," Sandrone finally replied.
Hutao laid her face on hers knees while muttering something, and then accepted the answer.
"I can—" Hutao was saying, but someone arrived just in time.
"Sandrone, can you tell me why your robot is bumping into my things?" Columbina subtly struck such an innocent pose that for a second Sandrone imagined it might be Furina.
"Ah— what do you mean? But I left my robot turned off."
"Then follow me and see what he's up to," she said a little sharply. Hutao gave her a slightly crooked look, and Columbina simply returned the gaze.
"You know, it's a bit rude to show up and not say hello, you know?" Hutao said, before Sandrone could even say anything.
"Seriously? I don't really remember asking anything, sweetie."
Columbina grabbed Sandrone's hand, pulling her to her feet. "Sandrone, help me get that robot of yours out of my room, it's bothering me," she continued, leading her away. Sandrone barely had time to say goodbye to Hutao, only able to apologize quietly.
Things like this don't happen very often.
"There's no robot, is there?" Sandrone asked as he followed Columbina.
The alpha sighed, moving away from the crowd, she turned around. She approached Sandrone and decided she would kiss him right there; her lips seemed impatient, and this almost frightened Sandrone.
When it was over, Sandrone looked at Columbina, who simply collapsed onto Sandrone's shoulder.
"Stay like this, I want you with me," Columbina pulled her closer, a little possessively.
Sandrone couldn't really be mad when the alpha turned out to be slightly cute.
"Hmm, okay."
...
"Kujou, you were very wise?" Tighnari said, the girl seemed thoughtful. Cold, as always.
"My drive is what gave us the victory!" Venti said, excitedly. Some around him laughed, but in a way he wasn't wrong.
Raiden and Yae Miko were near Kujou, and they also congratulated her for being helpful. Some of the other teams showed up too, which was really cool. But Kujou just stayed quiet; she vaguely remembers something.
"I'm going to the bathroom," Kujou murmured, walking away from everyone and heading towards the camp's houses, a little distance from where they were.
In the middle of the competition, against Kokomi, she decided to disrupt the team, which made sense at the time; it's a competition, it's valid to do that. But she didn't imagine that she would end up actually hurting Kokomi unintentionally. A small gust of wind from Venti blinded Kokomi with dust, causing her to fall onto a sharp branch. Almost no one noticed, but Kujou did, since she was higher up.
Kokomi was in the room, alone, tending to the area that hurt.
"Did you come to laugh at my defeat?" Kokomi asked, already annoyed by the noise of the door; she didn't need to guess who it was.
"You're a chatterbox even when you're hurt?" Kujou scoffed, rolling hers eyes but closing the door and going inside. Her went over to where Kokomi was, looked at what she was doing.
"You're to blame for this, Kujou," she said, her voice spitting venom.
"Oh, of course, of course. It's all my fault that the princess wasn't careful and was stupid enough to fall off the branch," she retorted, with a cold expression.
"If you've come here just to annoy me, please go away."
Kujou thought about it, but decided he wanted to stay.
"Let me see," Kujou mumbled softly.
Kokomi found it strange, she thought about hitting Sara on the head to see if she was really serious. But she ended up not doing it. The girl let him see; the branch hadn't actually made a deep wound, but it would obviously leave a mark for some time, since it had torn the skin.
"Are you taking responsibility for what you did?" Kokomi joked.
"Don't try my patience," Kujou sara said, looking at her with her usual icy stare. This made Kokomi want to tease her a little more, but the pain in her leg wouldn't let her.
"I'll help you only because I consider myself a great person," Kujou murmured.
"You're anything but not a great person..." Kokomi said lazily.
"My opinion is more valid than yours," she smiled, one of the few smiles Kujou usually gives.
"You're just a boring and mediocre crow."
Kujou felt offended, but only glanced at Kokomi, saying, "I'll let it slide this time." She decided she would see what Kokomi had that she could use to treat that wound. Kokomi felt slightly uncomfortable with the idea of letting Kujou take care of her; in fact, it was kind of insane. Why would her greatest enemy be there taking responsibility for something that was partly her fault?
"Let's wash this off." Kujou grabbed a bottle and filled it with water, placing a bucket under Kokomi's foot. She bent down and slowly applied water to remove the blood that was there. Kokomi felt strange, really strange... but also a little comfortable seeing Kujou in that position.
But being bent over reminded her of that particular night.
"Why?" she asked softly. "I can offend you now if I want to"
"I can too," Kujou murmured, taking some kind of ointment and applying it to the areas that were visibly more painful.
Kokomi stayed quiet, even though she wanted to fight, she held back a little.
"I always treat you badly, but that doesn't mean I can't be kind," she grumbled.
"You're kind even when you treat me badly," Kokomi laughed.
Kujou paused for a second, grimaced, and looked at Kokomi. She seemed to want to say something, but swallowed hard, and Kokomi notice, But for the first time, she let it go because her didn't want to make her uncomfortable.
What's strange is that Kokomi doesn't care about Kujou.
"I want something sweet," Kokomi whispered.
"Hmm, why are you telling me this?"
"I know you always steal candy from that teacher of ours..." She laughed.
"Why didn't you ever rat me out?" Kujou stood up, having already cleaned and applied the ointment. It would still hurt, but she had done what she needed to do.
"I knew I'd have the opportunity to intimidate you and take candy" Kokomi said as if it were obvious.
But she wasn't intimidating her.
Kujou sighed, she simply nodded.
"I'll get you some candy"
...
"I can't stand this place anymore," Clorinde said, sounding somewhat depressed.
It's no surprise that many of the students are already tired of this place, especially those who are more socially awkward or who generally don't like people, like Neuvillette.
You can say whatever you want about him, positively of course, but yes, he is antisocial. Even public figures can end up being socially useless. It makes sense that he's always clinging to Furina or Wriotheley.
"You're exaggerating, Clorinde," Tartaglia grumbled, trying to cheer her up.
"Shut up, cheddar hair!" Clorinde insulted him, which made the boy sad in a second.
"How mean!" he dramatically put his hand to his head. "Wait, WHY CHEDDAR HAIR!?"
"Those two never get along?" Navia muttered under her breath, unsure whether Clorinde and Tartaglia were friends or enemies.
"Let them fight all they want," Arlecchino commented. "It's not like they're really going to a real fight."
"They look like two children," Lumine laughed, observing everything with the utmost caution. Clorinde is normally very calm, but perhaps she's a little stressed today.
"Well, I guess this place messes with the weaker minds, doesn't it?" Yanfei appeared behind both of them, startling them as a result. Lumine sighed, exhaling nasally and watching the argument unfold. Considering how long they've been there, things seem to be going great.
From a distance, Arlecchino watches Furina gently scolding Neuvillette; her hand being tended to, the girl mutters something while the alpha listens quietly. Injuries are normal, they happen, Arlecchino himself sees no problem in Furina helping a friend. But Neuvillette always seems to try to project an air of superiority with every glance Arlecchino gives her, and this stresses her out. Even swallowing hard, she seems not to like what she sees.
"In the time we've been here, we've done too much..." Venti said, lying on some leaves, a small gold watch in her right hand; the hand moved very slowly.
"Hmm, I think it's been a good way to pass the time," Alhaitham murmured, sitting down and leaning against the tree. The teachers were talking about some plans, student performance, and of course; they were talking about pizza.
"Do you think we'll have another opportunity to get everyone together like this again?" Collei said, sitting cross-legged. Aether and Ganyu were beside her.
"High school must have a lot to offer us, I just hope nothing bad happens to my grades," Alhaitham said, clearly more concerned with his performance as an exemplary student than with seeing his friends.
"Nerds...you guys are so weird." Venti made a bored and confused expression. His performance was minimal, as was his desire to study. His grades were close to average, not bad but not the best, just enough to pass the year.
Some teams were evenly divided, others laughed and chatted. Some were already making plans for the evening; things were calming down a bit after so much fun, mess, and competition. That peaceful atmosphere was welcome.
"Heyyy, Tighnari, what are you doing here?" Cyno asked, slowly approaching the other boy who was watching the lake and observing the movement of some fish. "Are you hungry? Do you want me to fish?"
"I know how to do these things myself, you know?" He turned around, looking up. Cyno looked a little confused, scratched his head, and made an embarrassed expression.
"I...know, I just wanted to offer help, you seemed...alone."
Tighnari sighed, but ended up smiling involuntarily. Cyno was, in fact, very kind. Despite first impressions of him seeming intimidating, he was quite indifferent and difficult to understand, perhaps because he was slow and silly.
"Alright, just sit with me"
Mavuika watched some birds on her perch; Xilonen was nearby, sleepy. Her tail wagged from side to side, once accidentally brushing against Mavuika's face as she rested, but she didn't complain. The girl actually just sighed and laughed; perhaps their intimacy allowed moments like this to be anything but awkward.
Some had already left, gone to take a shower to relax as they pleased. There were still some activities to be done, simple ones of course, but they still existed.
That night, Kujou, Raiden, Neuvillette, and Mavuika carried the pizza boxes—a little over seven boxes in total. Plenty for everyone, and most of them were excited. The losers weren't around; some had already gone to sleep.
Arlecchino was a little annoyed; Neuvillette was between her and Furina, not giving them a chance to talk, and this irritated her because Furina had sided with him and Columbina. It was agonizing that she couldn't talk to her friend. The conversations revolved around the morning's events, the funny things, some even getting excited and acting out funny things—like Bennett managing to throw a huge branch and hit Aether between the legs, almost losing something precious...
Kujou was quieter than usual. Yae Miko tried to pull her and Raiden into a conversation, but the two were difficult to get along with; even Zhongli was talking, but they weren't. However, at least Raiden was saying a few things; Kujou only responded when necessary. Kokomi was alone in the room, the beds of the others were empty, and she couldn't sleep. Kujou Sara hadn't come to see her after helping with the injury; nothing between them had changed since then. Kujou Sara still treated her badly, and Kokomi did the same, but Kokomi felt that there was something about the alpha that she controlled. Her mind repeatedly took her back to that night; that look and that pose gave her a satisfaction that was slowly fading from her memory, and she wanted to relive it all.
"I need to sleep," Kokomi grumbled, irritably pulling the sheet over her entire body. "I don't want to be near her."
But deep down she felt it was impossible; they study together and, of course, they're always playing pranks on each other.
Columbina and Sandrone seemed distant; of course, Sandrone was the loser, so she was in her room fixing one of her little robots. It was starting to get cold, and it was raining too.
Rain is good.
Hutao was there with the victors, her eyes occasionally lingering on Columbina from a distance... she had never actually found an omega irritating, but Columbina had a strangely strong presence for her, and that was abnormal.
"Hutwo, don't you think you're staring at Columbina too much?" Ganyu murmured, trying to get his friend's attention without the people around them hearing too much.
"Ah? Well..." Hutao turned around, smiled awkwardly, and turned his face away. "I was just thinking."
"Huh? You're interested in Columbina?" shenhe said, somewhat confused.
"Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. Columbina is really very attractive, she, Furina, and Yae Miko are every alpha's dream girl," Ganyu chattered. To Hutao, it was quite nonsensical; of course, she would never disagree with their beauty, but that wasn't what was on her mind.
"No, actually I was thinking about something else," Hutao said. "What if Columbina isn't actually an omega?"
"Prematurely impossible, maybe she could be a beta, but... Columbina hangs out with two omegas. It's hard to believe she isn't one." Ganyu replied.
"Have you ever smelled any omega scent from her?" Hutao asked, anxiously.
Ganyu remained quiet, in fact, there was no scent. Even betas have an essence, weak but they have one. Columbina only... didn't smell of anything, or so Ganyu thought. Hutao was certain he had sensed something at school the day she separated her from Sandrone.
"Come on, there are many ways to mask your scent, you know?" Yoimiya grumbled. "Columbina probably uses it, I've seen many omegas do it, some just don't like their own scent."
Hutao remained quiet; to everyone, Columbina was just an omega.
She suspected it, but wasn't sure.
"If you're interested in her, ask her out," Yoimiya added.
"What? No. I don't like Columbina." Hutao made a sour face, but saying it made the three of them look at her askance. Of course, Columbina was a very flashy "omega," everyone adored her. And that meant the whole school liked her because of her kindness, except for Hutao.
"But she is kind," Ganyu murmured softly.
"No with me."
"Did you annoy her?"
"I would never do that." Hutao rolled hers eyes.
The table fell silent.
"Are omegas usually protective of other omegas?" Hutao finally asked.
"Hardly, unless they are emotionally attracted to each other, that can happen... but it's difficult for two omegas to be in a relationship," Yoimiya thought for a moment.
"Do they have a strong presence?"
"What? No. Omegas don't have a strong presence, I think it's very difficult for an omega to be intimidating to the level of an alpha, they might be, but they'll never be as powerful as an alpha. You can feel the difference." Yoimiya was puzzled. "Hutao, you're asking strange questions today."
"Am I?" she laughed.
She couldn't say she suspected Columbina was an alpha, because that wouldn't be consistent.
"I'll figure it out someday," Hutao whispered to herself. The girls found it strange but remained quiet.
...
"Columbina?" Sandrone found her. She had been out for some time, lost in thought.
Some were already asleep in their cabins, except for Columbina. And Sandrone hadn't seen her until now... she approached calmly, the girl seemed disturbed.
"I'm relaxing," she murmured.
"Alone? That's strange. I'm the one who does that," Sandrone replied.
"You're not the only one with troubled thoughts, Sandrone," Columbina said with a slightly arrogant tone, which made Sandrone stop going to her and stay quiet.
She expected an apology, but it never came.
"I like it, sometimes," she said, more quietly.
"It's dangerous, you know? There are so many annoying mosquitoes around here and..." Sandrone was about to sit next to her, but Columbina pulled her onto her lap very quickly.
This was almost commonplace, but at that moment it was strange, it was almost necessary for Columbina.
"Sandrone, how much do you think you could keep for yourself?" Columbina asked.
"I..." Sandrone was confused. "I don't know."
"I don't think anyone knows, people are all very different, aren't they?" Columbina laughed, her voice sounding almost weak.
"You scare me..."
"I am...a little bit..." Columbina pulled her closer, hugging her body tightly.
Columbina remained quiet. She felt a sensation, similar to the time she was in the rain, being watched... and it irritated her, she didn't like it.
"Go away," Columbina ordered. Sandrone thought for a moment that she wasn't serious, but her expression was. She obeyed, went, but looked back... Columbina seemed motionless.
When Sandrone left, her simply told Columbina not to take too long. There was no reply.
Columbina sighed, noticing where she felt eyes were on her... a red one, she recognized them and hated those eyes.
"She really won't leave me alone..." Columbina grumbled. "Damn Alpha."
From a distance, Hutao watched her, not wanting to do any harm... but simply because she wanted the truth.
"Columbina...what do you are?"