Chapter Text
Barely a month had passed since the semester started, and everything was already turning out to be so much more than she’d expected.
As she glanced down at the time on her phone, Terra suppressed a sigh of frustration. Half past noon. She only had about twenty minutes left before she needed to be back on campus and heading to her next class. At this rate, she would be lucky to get just a few minutes’ worth of relief to drink her tea and clear her thoughts.
Today, in a rare moment of indulgence, she had thought she would treat herself to something from the new café that recently opened a few blocks away from the dorms. Thursdays were brutal, after all, with math first thing in the morning and a biology lab that dragged out the afternoon. The choices she’d made in planning out her classes were turning out to be a disastrous mistake. In her eagerness to fill up her schedule, she had not given quite enough thought to the workload involved. And with several months left until classes wrapped up at the end of the year, she was beginning to worry that burnout would eventually show in her grades.
At last, the barista set her order down on the counter hastily. It was clear that the small staff was overwhelmed by the lunch rush. Unsurprisingly, the place had become popular quickly, with its trendy menu and upscale decor, but Terra found her mood sinking further still as she grabbed her drink and turned to face the seating area behind her.
From wall to wall the tables had filled with students, more than a few taking up excess space with laptops, purses, and piles of books. Nobody looked like they were going anywhere any time soon, either. Between the noise and crowd, it almost didn’t even seem worth it to stick around at all.
Still, she stood up a bit on her toes, scanning the room for a spot. If she left now, she would have to give up on taking a break altogether and simply walk straight back to campus. And, stubbornly, she did not want to give up the luxury of air conditioning and a chance to bury herself in the book she had recently become engrossed in.
So, when she spotted a free chair in the sunny far corner, she clutched her cup closer and weaved her way past the line to take it.
But the table was not, in fact, unoccupied. To her immediate embarrassment, she didn’t realize that until after she had thumped her bag and drink down upon it. And, because her day wasn’t turning out to be troublesome enough—
It just had to be that guy from Calc II.
He was a striking mix between delicate and academic, lean beneath a loose smoke-gray jacket and aubergine silk button-up. Sleek silver hair fell low down his back and framed sharp features in soft wisps. With one chestnut leather boot curled around the chair leg, his gaze was roaming the page of an impractically thick book.
Oh, she definitely remembered him. And it wasn’t his sense of fashion that had left an impression on her.
No, it was the fact that he’d wasted no time in making an enemy of the professor with an incredibly irritating habit of correcting his every error. That those corrections were unfailingly accurate had all but guaranteed that the feud would continue. For the past weeks, Terra had watched the tension play out between them with quiet discomfort and a great deal of relief that it was not her grade that was being jeopardized by an unnecessary ego battle.
Really, she couldn’t even conceive of being nearly that bold. Or maybe more honestly, that stupid. Avoiding confrontation had always served her just fine, and she planned to keep it that way.
Her thoughts were abruptly silenced as his eyes roved up to land on her where she now hovered at the table’s edge. So much for avoiding confrontation this time. With her belongings already laying claim, there was no longer the option to simply slip away.
She hesitated briefly, summoning politeness before she spoke. “Would it be okay if I sat here?”
The stare that her question was met with was entirely without warmth. An unwelcome feeling of being vulnerable under scrutiny had her chest tight. Why did she have to be dealing with this today?
But he only shrugged, after a moment, adjusting his far too stylishly practical glasses before returning to reading. “If you must.”
Relief washed over her, a bit more than she wanted to admit. She sat down with a soundless exhale, sweeping her braid over her shoulder as she settled in to relax for the very first time since she woke up that morning. But before she could get too comfortable, the sound of her phone vibrating in her bag called her attention back to the world of responsibility. It was probably her roommate, texting back about their dinner plans.
Flicking the message open, the news immediately brought with it more disappointment. She was on her own for dinner tonight. It was typically their custom for Celes to pick up something on Thursday nights. Her classes ended much earlier on those days, and in kind, Terra had been handling it on Monday nights when the situation was the opposite.
They were longtime friends, going all the way back to grade school, and living together had seemed like it would be the perfect arrangement. In reality, Terra was finding herself picking up slack more often than she liked. She didn’t resent her friend, but it did hurt at times. This was the second time in a row that Celes had skipped out on one of her household duties. This time it was a campus event with her new boyfriend. Couldn’t she have at least given her some more notice?
Too annoyed to be tactful, she stuffed her phone back into her bag with an audible clunk. And then, more annoyed still, she stirred the ice in her tea and set her head down on the table in a sulking heap.
She glanced up after a moment to see she was being watched by the menace on the other side of the table. Now he wore a look that landed somewhere between curious and disdainful, though no warmer than before.
She could have just recomposed herself again and said nothing, but her sour mood had her itching for the reassurance of small talk. Her options were pretty thin, and though she felt she was going to quickly regret it, the words were out of her mouth before she could think better of it.
“You’re in Calc II, right?” she asked simply, trying for friendly but sounding undeniably tired and just a little exasperated. “The 10am class? With Dr. Mateus.”
His expression let slip a hint of surprise, just the slightest tilt of his head. But it was gone just as fast, replaced seamlessly with indifference again.
“Unfortunately,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “Another unqualified instructor wasting my tuition. Imagine my shock.”
Terra blinked, caught off guard by the frankness of it. Well, that did seem to confirm that he was exactly the same outside of class. She was quietly thankful his ire wasn’t directed at her— yet, anyway.
“What did you think of the exam this morning?” It came out with a touch of unguarded apprehension when she spoke it. She had been anguishing over that test ever since class had ended. Going into it, she had felt prepared, but by the time she’d walked out of the classroom, she was hoping she’d even passed it at all.
“A joke,” he answered without delay, teasing two fingers languidly along his jaw as a smug smile appeared. “Most of it was review from Calc I. I doubt he even wrote it himself, honestly. Hardly surprising that he was passed up for department chair last year.”
God, could he possibly make her feel any more stupid? Terra resisted the urge to groan into her arm where her face was currently nestled. He didn’t even seem to be doing it on purpose, and that somehow made it feel even worse. At this point, she couldn’t even bring herself to care if saw her moping about it, either.
Instead, she followed his gaze to where it had fallen on her book lying between them at the table’s edge. Unconcerned with permission, he slid it over and glanced at the title—A Good Sign: Astrology for the Soul—before flicking it open. She watched as he flipped through the pages, taking in the contents with an expression that made it entirely clear that his derision had found a new target.
“Don’t tell me you actually buy into this nonsense,” he finally said, just as she’d anticipated. His eyes were on her again, lowering the book to properly glower at her.
Terra frowned, prepared but no less defensive. “It’s only for fun,” she answered, her gaze now moving to the heavy book resting on the table before him. “You have heard of fun, haven’t you?”
She lifted the cover to see what it was, expecting something dense and boring, and somehow it exceeded even her dismal expectations. On the Futility of Joy. She dropped it again to stare at him pointedly, taking great satisfaction in the way his smugness deflated into something much more wounded.
“Well, I can’t say I see the fun in entertaining this... pseudoscience.” He emphasized the word like it was something filthy, pushing the book back to her side of the table. “You could be using that time to learn about—I don’t know. Actual astronomy. The history of the universe. The lifecycle of stars. The inevitable heat death of the universe...”
The more he went on, the bigger her smile grew until a small laugh finally ended his thoughts entirely. He looked perturbed, and she couldn’t help but say what was on her mind now.
“That’s all very...” she began, resting her head on folded arms. “Aquarius sounding, I’d say. I’m getting strong air sign energy from you. What's your birthday?”
She got a very unimpressed glare back. “I’m not even going to gratify that with an answer,” he sniffed, predictably determined to keep the upper hand.
For the moment, she let him have it. But now she really wanted to know. Was there some sneaky way she might be able to find out?
Her musing was cut short as she realized that the lunch crowd was slowly beginning to empty out of the café. Ah, she had lost track of time! Was she late for class? She glanced down at her phone again to see that it was already ten minutes to one o’clock. Just enough time to get back to campus.
She rose at last, grabbing her tea with a weary sigh. Three hours of biology awaited her. She offered one last smile and words that were much gentler this time. “See you in class next week?”
“Mm,” he returned dismissively, but his gaze lingered on her just a moment longer before he was buried in his book again.
That was when she decided it. She was not going to give up that easily. One way or another, she was going to figure out his sign, maybe taking him down a peg in the process if she was right after all.
Of course, that meant she would have to get to know him better first. That gave her pause for a moment, considering the implications. Well, it was only because she was curious, right? He definitely did not have a cute smile when he was being totally unbearable.
Hurrying her steps, Terra sighed. She was in trouble.
She thought about it that weekend. A lot more than she should have, in fact.
Maybe it was more honest to say that she was trying to rationalize. Why was she so intrigued? Was she really that starved for interaction that didn’t have any obligations attached to it? As strange as it sounded, the fact that he’d been too wrapped up in himself to make demands of her had felt like a relief. When had she turned into such a pushover?
Telling Celes about it turned out to be a mistake. Terra had mentioned that guy from math before, but her tone must have let slip something new this time, because her friend picked up easily on it. Sounds like you’re kind of into him, she’d smiled over pizza that Saturday night.
Terra had responded with a rueful stare and curt denial, but it was probably futile. Ever since their earliest school years together, Celes had always teased her like that about the opposite sex. She had been the first to point out, gently but accurately, that Terra was painfully oblivious to flirting, and even moreso to the handful of boys who’d harbored affections for her in high school.
As much as she tried to take it with a bit of humor, it still stung at times to be reminded that she struggled in an area that seemed to come so easily to other girls. Was something wrong with her? She had never really known how to change that part of herself, or if she even wanted to.
Still, when class came around again the next week, she was determined to follow through on her plan. Exam results would be in that day, and she just had to see what grade he’d gotten, after all that posturing. She would have to pay attention and catch his name this time too—Mr. Obnoxious Aquarius didn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
It wasn’t difficult to snag a seat next to him that morning. The class was well below capacity by now, with nearly a third having dropped after the first week. Unsurprisingly, her presence did not escape his notice. She felt that glare on her before she cornered it with short, unflinching eye contact, shooting a small smile back. His face was stony and unreadable, but she did not doubt that he remembered her.
That was apparently enough to ensure that he would avoid her gaze for the remainder of class, because he did so very deliberately after that.
Nonetheless, she let herself subtly observe him. He’d worn muted teal this time, another jewel tone, already leaning hard into autumn in mid September. The weather hadn’t even started to chill, Terra thought with some perplexion. She was holding on tightly to summer for as long as she could, and so today she had worn a soft floral dress with her light hair tied loosely up. Her choice of fashion had slowly become one of the only areas left that she felt free to indulge.
As lecture dragged on, she learned quickly that he did not bother with taking notes. Boredom permeated his mannerism, and he seemed almost like an unimpressed cat as he leaned his cheek lazily against the back of his hand. A few times he buried himself in his phone, and Terra did not hesitate to spy even as she felt just a little bit guilty for it. She expected to find him scrolling social media, only to realize with a roll of her eyes that he was in fact day trading.
No, he truly was not familiar with fun, she decided.
Class passed by without much incident, and surprisingly, with no snide undermining directed at the professor. Mean-spirited tyrant that he was, he left it until the very end to return exams, and Terra felt her heart racing as she awaited her own. She was close to the last to get her test back, and when her eyes fell on the grade at the top, her stomach curdled.
At least she’d passed, she thought, though disappointment ached louder than she could soothe away. A low C was honestly more than she had expected. She struggled to take much comfort in that, knowing the material would only get harder, and that she had managed to fumble the chance to cushion her grade early in the semester.
Before she could properly school her frustration back into place, her head ended up on the desk. She flicked through the test pages irritably, taking in the red ink that covered it with a small but audible huff. It was only Tuesday, and this week was already going just as poorly as the last.
When she at last moved the paper out of her face, she found that she was now the one being watched. That cryptic gaze was clearly assessing her, and she realized with bitter embarrassment that she’d fallen into a pile of self-pity in front of this jerk yet again. She didn’t bother to feign politeness this time.
“Do you mind?” she grumbled, only half-hearted. “I’m trying to have a moment here.”
Terra thought she saw the faintest bit of amusement flicker through the cold stillness of his expression. His voice, however, didn’t reveal anything but unaffected disinterest.
“Don’t let me stop you,” he answered briskly, attention falling back to a small black notebook that he was writing carefully in. Then, after a moment, and without looking at her, “Is now not the best time, then, to ask why you decided to follow me today?”
Dread twisted in her chest at the casual accusation. She should’ve expected that he’d challenge her on it, with how contrary he seemed to be, but it left her without a reply for just a little bit too long.
“Well, you seemed so confident about the test...” The confession came out quietly, and at last she rose up to sit properly again. She didn’t want to cower. “I wanted to see your grade. I know it’s kind of nosy, but...”
His pencil stilled, and his gaze slanted to her again. The lingering ice pointed to dissatisfaction with that explanation, but just the same, he grabbed his test from where it sat on the desk and flashed it at her shamelessly. At once, her eyes were called straight to the red circled number at the top: 98% . Then, the name in the corner in clean script, just a hint of flourish on the downstrokes: Kuja. It registered only faintly in her memory, lost amidst the sea of classmates rattled off during attendance.
“Of course he couldn’t bear to write a perfect score on my exam,” he sighed, a little too dramatically this time. “Points off for skipping steps. Really, at this level you’d think a bit of basic algebra could be assumed by anyone with half a brain.”
But Terra was already back to staring at her own paper. With the classroom mostly emptied out, she finally let the slightest sting of tears prick at her eyes. Should she have just dropped too? Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe she would be better off just repeating Calc I, getting her bearings again after the haze of summer. Or maybe it was time she faced the facts and changed majors to something easier, even if it meant putting her dreams aside.
“May I?”
Startled out of her brooding, she quickly blinked the wetness from her eyes before daring to glance over. The severity hadn’t budged, but a hand was now offered stiffly toward her. When she hesitated, Kuja curled his fingers slightly, clearly prompting her with a hint of impatience.
Reluctantly, Terra surrendered her paper to him, unnerved before he even looked upon it. She didn’t think she could handle ruthless commentary on her failure when it already had her ready to rethink her career plans. Her heart fluttered sickeningly as she waited, watching him scan through the pages, his gaze sharp and exacting.
After only a minute or two, in which Terra busied herself anxiously with stuffing away her notebook, he finally broke the silence.
“You started out strong,” he said simply, too flat to be praise. “Then, around the halfway mark, you got intimidated by the way this problem was phrased.”
He brandished the paper, indicating that familiar problem that had haunted her dreams for the past week. “So, I assume from your work that you doubted your knowledge, and from there, you finished the rest in half-measures. By the end, you didn’t even attempt the final problem, and that pretty much sealed your grade.”
Terra felt the heat rising in her face as she stared. Yes, that all sounded about right. Was it that easy to see her thought process in her solutions? Unintentionally, her eyes caught his again, and she found herself at a humiliating loss for words.
It didn’t surprise her that Kuja picked up on her flagging bravery. He sighed, gently setting her exam back in front of her.
“I realize the first semester isn’t easy, but these classes will eat you alive if you allow them to.” He snapped the small notebook closed, tucking it away as a wince crept onto her face.
“Was it that obvious?” she asked, cramming her test into her bag with much less grace.
He leveled a deadpan glare at her. “Yes.”
And at last he stood, tossing his hair behind him lazily as he straightened his coat. Terra watched, both transfixed and irritated at his preening—and then a question tumbled forth before she could properly audit its stupidity.
“Would you—” she began, faltering when he flicked an annoyed gaze at her again. She steeled, then continued. “I mean. I want to go through and redo my answers... could I convince you to have a look at them after?”
She could almost see the effort the decision took him to weigh, first in a humorless twitch in his lip. Then his gaze wandered sidelong, full of misgivings, before landing on her again with haughty boredom in renewed glory. “And that would benefit me how?”
Wordlessly, Terra rose to leave. She could’ve guessed, but she hid the hint of hurt in her expression no less stubbornly. When another far more world-weary sigh greeted her ears, however, she dared to look back.
“Fine,” he relinquished, just barely. This time, he was the one to refuse her searching stare. “I might have some time later this week. But don’t expect it to be more than a one-time arrangement.”
She had to bite her lip to avoid the victorious little laugh that she wanted to let free. Even moreso when he very reluctantly scribbled his number down before hastily exiting to make it to another class. They agreed to figure out a place and time later, but as far as she was concerned, a win was a win.
The afternoon passed by slowly after that. She had already punched his number into her phone before biology, and she spent an embarrassing proportion of her idle thoughts on what she would say when it was time to make contact. By the time evening rolled around and she was curled up in bed with a trashy drama droning on the television, she found herself staring at an empty message entry screen with a tightness in her chest that was not appropriate for an academic relationship.
At last, she typed in a tentative greeting. 'hey! it's terra. now you can save my number :)'
She cringed as she hit the button to send. What a great way to start a conversation. Well, what else was she supposed to say?
The message flipped to read almost immediately, but it took a solid three minutes before the reply came. 'who?'
Terra scowled. Seriously? She was already tapping a message before another one popped up in rapid succession. 'oh. astrology girl?' Another long pause, then, 'noted.'
Clearing away the offended retort she had begun to type, she already had another one ready to go. A vicious little smile was on her face as she sent it. 'want me to start bugging you about your birthday again?'
He didn’t take long to respond to that one. She was laughing into her pillow as she watched the three dots bouncing furiously as he typed. 'do you really think it's wise to test me before you’ve even gotten my help?'
Her expression fell into an injured frown once more. She thought about it for several moments before she tapped the words out spitefully: 'you. are. NO. FUN.'
He read that. And did not reply for now.
Terra was already half asleep an hour later when the phone buzzed again. Her eyes scanned the text. 'does friday evening work for you?'
She typed in an answer with a mind barely hanging on to wakefulness. 'yeah.' And then, without thought, 'can’t wait.'
He read that, too. And did not reply at all.