#probably seeing a 7th dimension from the sleep deprivation + substance ingestion (legal) (except for the homemade 4loko)

[vermillioncrown]

College AU, LXC-endgame, intro

People have hot TAs all the time. It's not special. You just look (respectfully), clasp your hands and beg for their forgiveness before you do the homework for that class ("Forgive my for loops, TA Jason - I'm on the 3rd cup of espresso and Kahlua"), and save the disrespectful behavior for gossip among friends.

It's a situational thing. Like, a little bit of bad luck, not a big deal. Two mis-steps, fine, fuck it's typical college suffering.

The streak of bad luck: missing the first registration deadline for a stupid general education course, getting it re-opened only to click the wrong course, and now not only is the stupid credit-filler class more work than its worth...

In walks Hot Violin Asshole. The very same Hot Violin Asshole that years (okay, two years, at most) of effort that has been expended in carefully picking a safe path through campus, physically and education-wise, has now been laid to waste. Hot Violin Asshole that was a waste of three ounces of pu'er tea leaves, destroyer of composure, a cold-faced killer (just metaphorical, but it's pretty apparent that Hot Violin Asshole would be good at getting away with premeditated murder), all sorts of assignations -

He's in this art history lecture.

He's walking up to the podium.

Wasn't he a junior? How was he a TA?

Side note: come late to lectures. Eyes could have been averted, bliss in ignorance, coffee in hand - the world would have been in hand -

"Hey! You're... Zhu Yunxun, right?"

Hot Violin Asshole is in front of her.

Hot Violin Asshole is speaking.

Hot Violin Asshole is speaking. To her.

"Am I already in trouble? Already?" Fuck, mouth - why?! Next time: come in late, Starbucks in hand, braincells safely in her head rather than wherever the fuck they leaked out at home.

His face is... doing things contrary to typical Hot Violin Asshole expressions (not that she would remember she did her best to wipe her brain fuck fuck fuck this guy -)

Hot Violin Asshole looks taken aback, for once. His mouth opens a couple of times, trying to form and reform the start of a sentence.

Thankfully, the actual professor walks in and she's saved.

=

"Drop the class," Shen Yuan suggests.

"I already begged the professor to reopen registration for the course - if I quit now it's like... like saying goodbye to an acquaintance, and then you end up walking in the same direction as them!" She needs her friend to understand. "I'd rather die than deal."

Shen Yuan's long slurp of his iced drink and deadpanned stare is wholly unsympathetic. "Sounds like a 'you' problem."

"Of course it's a 'me' problem - I'm the one dealing with it!" Complaining keeps her awake, but in moderate doses. She's reaching the end of the requisite amount. "Also, I tried very hard to fit my mechatronics course this quarter, and this was the only GE that could. Or. you know, the other, easier art history class. Free A class."

"Or... you could grow up... and actually have a conversation with Lan Wangji."

"I also would rather die."

"He's not that bad - honestly, the Second Lan is so serious he doesn't have time for other people's bullshit." Shen Yuan fishes for reservoirs of drink left in the crags of ice in his cup. "He probably wipes his memory of any irrelevant people every night. Poof. You're gone."

"No," Zhu Yunxun insists, "he holds grudges. He remembers."

"I'm in that fu er dai old money social circle, I've seen him since we were kids. Trust me - most people are irrelevant to him."

"He knew my name."

"... oh. Huh, I thought it was weird that - nah, that's probably his brother, Lan Xichen."

Zhu Yunxun's feet stumble over themselves, and she barely rights herself before faceplanting. At this time of day on campus, everyone's so busy that the student population would treat her as part of the pavement.

"There are more of them. Twins. Triplets?"

"No, older brother. Three years, I think."

"He looks like an exact doppelganger."

Shen Yuan shrugs. "It's a thing. They don't make a big deal about it."

"No, don't you understand?! When there are doppelgangers, whichever one you meet second is the Evil one." The theory needs massaging. "While Hot Violin Asshole is evil, to me, personally - he must not be evil within the framework of society's morality. The doppelganger... must be very, truly evil."

The coffee is yanked out of her grasp, and tossed into the passing trash can. Shen Yuan looks vaguely smug at his rare show of coordination, but the expression switches to disconcerted.

"Go home now. Take a nap. I'll send you the lecture notes."

Her feet start agreeing with her friend and walks her towards the bus terminal instead, even as her mouth keeps running. "See? See? He's more evil! My attendance streak this year, ruined!"

"Shang Qinghua and I were betting you'd ruin it yourself by next week, either way."

=

So, Hot Violin Asshole v2.

(Never mind that she doesn't actually know if he plays the violin, too. He probably does. What else would be a more evil instrument to play?

The oboe?)

He makes several attempts to catch her eye during the week's lectures. Too bad for him, Zhu Yunxun has mastered the technique of Disappearing Post-Lecture, and can be gone within a blink's duration.

Her luck runs out when he's handing back the weekly quiz throughout the lecture hall. The professor called for a mini-break mid-lecture, so it's not like she could sprint off now (she could, but that's not the optimal usage of her time).

"Sorry, I didn't get a chance to introduce myself. Lan Xichen," he says, handing back her shitty quiz and following up with a handshake immediately, "You know my brother, Wangji. He's spoken kindly of you."

1) Fuck, she'll have to spend more time than she wants actually studying for this fucking class.

2) Her lizard brain automatically reaches for the handshake, like a little grabby chameleon.

3) The implication that Hot Violin Asshole has opinions on her, actively discusses those opinions, and those opinions appear to be... Not Correct is fucking bonkers.

At Lan Xichen's sincere smile, sweet, single-dimpled, Zhu Yunxun adds another clause.

4) Hot Violin Asshole v2 must never, ever find out anything about her.