Chapter Text
“Guys. I think I really, really fucking hate this.”
Rin looked up as Kitay slammed his laptop shut with a vehemence that was enough to rival her own and covered his face with his hands. She reached up and squeezed his arm sympathetically, despite the fact that she was quite ready to march into Jun’s office and roundhouse kick him in the face. Maybe she could bribe Jiang to do it for her, so as to avoid the aggravated assault charge. Although, realistically speaking, he'd probably be happy to to do it for free.
”You and me both.” Nezha's voice droned from beside her, sounding equally as murderous.
Every year, in Jun’s science and industrial modeling class, he subjected any students unfortunate enough to have enrolled to what was infamously known as the worst group project in the entire STEM program. It was everything students hated the most - long, tedious and had a million requirements to fulfill. To top it all off, Jun happened to be the worst grader in the entire fucking university.
To put it simply, they were fucked. Everyone was fucked. The Gods had left them.
The only mercy he had given them was letting them form their own groups - so naturally, Rin had formed a group with her three closest friends, who were now gathered in Rin and Venka’s dorm room, papers strewn everywhere, accompanied by the overwhelming smell of coffee and despair.
While the assignment itself wasn’t due for another three weeks, it was becoming increasingly rare for all four of them to have a completely free night without having something more urgent due, so being the high achievers that they were, they’d jumped at the chance to get the data research and methodology done.
And so here they were, all four of them, at their absolute wits’ end.
At one point, Kitay had spilled black tea on one of his immaculately annotated notes and screeched so loudly Rin was sure that his pet dogs back home had probably heard it, Venka’s hands had started shaking from the sheer amount of black coffee she’d consumed in the past four hours and Nezha had been wearing his contacts for so long that they’d dried out and he’d been forced to wear a pair of glasses that were, according to him, from a period in which he could actually see without them. Rin hadn’t actually minded that so much at first, until she realised what a distraction it was. Stupid Nezha and his shit eyesight.
As for herself, well. She’d definitely been better. Her eyes were stinging from staring at her screen, watching the words and equations swim in front of her, her neck was sore and her hands had cramped at least four times. To make matters worse, she’d barely slept in the past week, with work and study keeping her busy, and was so exhausted that she thought she might pass out at any given minute. However, she was also full of spite, and therefore was going to get this goddamn graph done if it was the last thing she ever fucking did.
“This is the fucking worst. I hope that asshole is on one of Nezha’s shitty little boats when it inevitably sinks.” Venka gritted out, her familiar agitation breaking Rin out of her daze. She snorted, while Nezha made an indignant sound of offense at his best friend’s completely unprompted (but also hilarious, in Rin's opinion) insult.
”Fuck you too?”
“You shouldn’t wish death on people, Venka.” Kitay added flatly, failing to sound even a little convinced by his own statement.
”Keep going and you’ll be next.” Venka muttered under her breath, gripping her pen so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Kitay just grinned, leaning forward to take a sip of Rin’s cold coffee.
“Hmm. We’re all losing it, aren’t we?”
”Did we ever have it though?”
”Fair point.”
Nezha suddenly groaned, placing his glasses on the disgustingly messy coffee table and wrapping his arms around Rin’s waist so that he could bury his face in the crook of her neck. She stiffened slightly at the sudden contact, breath catching in her throat, before unconsciously leaning into his touch.
Usually, Rin would’ve shoved him off in favor of concentrating on her work, but she was so tired that her rationality seemed to have taken a fatal hit. All she could think about was how nice and warm he was and how soft his skin felt against hers. That stupid, pretty face of his wasn’t helping either.
So she just sighed and shifted so that she could wrap her arms around his shoulders, pressing his head to her chest and resting her cheek on his hair. Since she’d already made the decision to relinquish sleep for tonight, Rin figured formatting that stupid graph could wait just a few minutes.
“Get a fucking room.”
”Shut up, Venka.” Nezha’s voice came out muffled and Venka snickered in response.
Kitay moved down from his place on the couch to sit next to Rin, leaning his head on her side. Venka joined the three of them a few minutes later, sitting on Kitay’s left. Somewhere along their sleep deprived haze, they’d talked about everything from the godforsaken project to plans for their break at the end of the semester to how much Rin hated Nezha’s complicated order at the cafe they frequented (”It’s fucking disgusting and barely even qualifies as coffee!” “You just have horrible taste.”) to what Kitay’s favourite new updates in Nikan’s taxation laws were (”You’re a fucking weirdo, you know that?” “Says the guy who’s carnally attracted to boats.”) to what they wanted to eat for breakfast tomorrow.
The room still smelt like cold coffee, and Rin’s eyes still stung, and her hands were still sore and she was still exhausted beyond belief. But somehow, sitting on the floor of her and Venka’s dorm, with Kitay leaning on her side, Venka’s voice piercing through the air and Nezha’s breath fanning her chest as he hugged her tighter, she’d never felt more at peace. She was still gonna finish that goddamn graph, but right now, she wanted this moment to last just a little longer.
And it did.