Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was the first day of school, and Lanfear was walking through the mostly empty hallway to get to her class. It was still quite early, but Ishamael was there already, waiting by the door.

“Hey, Ishy,” she said, leaning against the wall in front of him. “I see you woke up early today, too.”

“Yeah, I guess I wanted to get the best seat,” he chuckled. “You know about the scholarship, right? I intend on getting it.” Smiling, he straightened his shirt.

“What, so you can go to the same college as your best friend forever Lews? Bet he gets the scholarship, too; he’s the best in his class.” Asmodean was panting, as if he had been running to get there. Lanfear glared at him with disgust at the mention of her ex-boyfriend. “What? Come on, don’t look at me like that! Is it that I’m sweaty? I had to pick up Logain and I thought I was gonna be late.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s not that, Asmo; although you do smell kinda bad. Haven’t you heard? They’re not best friends anymore. Lews ditched us both when he started dating her… Besides, I’m gonna be the one to get that scholarship. Sorry, Ishy!” She needed that scholarship if she wanted to study Physics, and she would do anything to get it.

“Sure… You know the whole class is gonna be competing, right? We all want it, so we should think of a strategy to study and make sure Demandred or the others don’t get it.”

Ishamael started laughing. “You realize only one of us is getting it, right?” He began to argue, but Lanfear stopped paying attention to what those two were saying when she saw who had just entered the other classroom. Lews Therin. She took out her phone and started scrolling on Twitter, to try and not think about him.

…

Tugging her braid, Nynaeve strode through the hallway until she got to the counselor’s office. It had to be a mistake! Last June they promised her that, since she was in the advanced students class, she would get to be a senior this year; but just last night she received an email saying she would remain with her usual classmates, therefore making her a junior. It was just not fair! She was way ahead of her class, and she didn’t understand why she couldn’t skip a year.

When she opened the door, there was already another student talking to Sheriam, the counselor; so she sighed and sat in one of the chairs by the door. “Please, you can’t make me repeat a school year,” a boy with long, dark hair said. “It’s not my fault that I was in the hospital for a month. I even took all the exams and passed!”

“I’m sorry, Logain, but you missed more than 20% of school-days, and that means you can’t pass the school year.” Sheriam, with her mostly white hair, was looking at him with pity in her eyes. “There’s nothing I can do. But…” She looked through her notes until she found the right one. “ You know you can retake the exams at the end of term, right? Talk to the teachers, and they will tell you what you need to study.”

Resigned, Logain collected the piece of paper with the teacher list Sheriam gave him, and left. Before Nynaeve could even get up, the counselor began speaking. “I know why you’re here, Nynaeve. You didn’t get a high enough grade in Arts, that’s why we couldn’t allow you to skip a year. Nevertheless, you can retake the exams at the end of term, just like I told your new classmate Logain. So I suggest you go speak to him and study together.”

“But-”

“You heard me, Nynaeve. Now get to class!” Gathering her things and tugging her braid, she ran out of the counselors office, hoping to find Logain before he got to class. 

This was ridiculous. She couldn’t help not being a good artist! Besides, it’s not like she failed the subject, so in her opinion, this was just another way for the school to mess with her. Yes it was. She saw Logain was about to turn the next corner, so she quickened her pace. “Wait! Logain, was it?” He turned around, and nodded. “Counselor Sheriam told me you’re also taking the exams at the end of term.”

“Honestly, I don’t know if I will. I’m tired of studying, this is pointless.” Some of his hair was covering half his face, as if he didn’t want Nynaeve to see he had been about to cry.

“Do you really want to be stuck in this shithole another year? Maybe we can study together, what do you think?”

He considered it for a minute, then sighed. “Sure, why not. I don’t have anything better to do. By the way, what’s your name?” Nynaeve introduced herself, and they both walked together to their class.

…

After three hours of class, Lanfear finally had a free period. She didn’t have any homework yet, being the first day; so she decided to go to the gymnasium to check out the new clubs and extracurriculars. It’s not like she was going to join any of them, but she had nothing else to do.

There was the usual book club; the baseball team; the poetry club, which she did her best to avoid, Lews was probably there; and a new cooking club. They had some food samples, and without even looking at the people at the stand that were ready to give her information as to how to join them, she took a handful of the samples and left for the next one.

There wasn’t anything she wanted to join, really; so she was about to leave, when she saw the most gorgeous red-headed man she had ever seen. One of the new juniors, she thought. Tall as he was, he was at the basketball team’s stand, talking to the captain. Lanfear ate the remaining food on her hand, and approached him.

“Thinking of playing basketball, huh? Well, you certainly have the height for it.” Looking at those shining gray eyes, she smiled at him. “I’m Lanfear, by the way.” She unconsciously started playing with her hair.

He smiled back. “I’m Rand. You’re one year ahead of me, right?” She nodded, getting closer. “Nice to meet you, Lanfear. And while I enjoy basketball, I’d prefer to join the fencing club, if there was one,” he laughed.

“Oh, come on, Rand!” The team captain, Aviendha, looked at Lanfear. “I’ve been trying to recruit him for years. Maybe you can convince him for me?”

Lanfear smiled, looking at Rand. “Well, Rand, I’d certainly enjoy the matches if you were a player. Besides, if the captain here wants you on her team, it must be because you’re good at it.” She winked.

Rand looked away, blushing. “Maybe you’re right. Fine, I’ll sign up!” He did, and then turned back to face Lanfear again. “What about you? Are you on any of the teams?”

She shook her head. “I don’t really enjoy it…” She bit her lip. “Hey, my friend Graendal is throwing a party tomorrow, would you like to come? I’d really like to get to know you better.” He blushed again, and nodded. She smiled and put her phone in his hand. “Give me your number, I’ll text you the address.”

Rand added his number on her contact list, then handed her the phone back. “See you tomorrow, then?”

Perhaps Rand lingered a bit too long when he touched her hand while giving her phone back, and she blushed too. “Yeah, see you.” 

Chapter Text

“Will I see you there tonight?” Lanfear’s text read.

Rand had been texting her for most of the afternoon yesterday, and they were texting again today. “Yeah, I’ll be there :)”  

He was so absorbed in the conversation that he didn’t notice Egwene snooping. “Who are you talking to?” He almost fell from his chair, startled.

“A girl I met yesterday. She invited me to a party tonight.” Rand quickly turned off his phone and put it upside down on his table.

“A girl, huh?” Egwene said, narrowing her eyes.

“Party, you said? Where? When?” Mat cut in. His friend would never miss a chance to go partying. “Let’s go!” And that’s how he ended up taking most of his friends to the party.

He decided to wear a simple white shirt and some red eyeshadow and subtle eyeliner. Mat had let him borrow one of his dagger earrings, so his friend was wearing two little fox-head ones instead. He stopped his car in front of Elayne’s house, to pick her and Min up. Perrin would be meeting them at the party some time later.

When they got to the address Lanfear had sent him, they were greeted by a blonde woman wearing lots of jewelry and makeup. “You must be Graendal?” he asked.

“Yeah that’s me. I assume you’re Lanfear’s new little pet?” She asked, and right in that moment, Lanfear appeared behind her.

“Rand! You made it!” Her eyes narrowed when she saw his friends; but she gestured to them to follow her inside. “I see you brought some company?”

“I hope you don’t mind? They insisted on tagging along.” While they followed her inside, Rand noticed her half-moon shaped hair clip and her silver star earrings. She was wearing a stunning white dress, too, and she looked beautiful.

“No, that’s alright.” She smiled, and then showed them around. Mat and Min went to grab something to drink with Elayne, while Lanfear took him outside. Rand recognized a few people, most of them were seniors from high school, but there were others he had never seen before. 

Graendal’s house was bigger even than Elayne’s, richly decorated, and with a lovely garden. They sat outside talking for a while and watching the sunset. It was unbelievable how fast they had gotten along. Sometimes Lanfear would turn her gaze toward some of the people there, and slightly change her facial expressions, depending on who she was looking at. It was so subtle, that Rand was sure even she herself didn’t know about that. He wondered who those people were, but he couldn’t stop looking at her, or her beautifully applied eyeshadow, sprinkled with some white dots, resembling the night sky.

At some point, she brushed his hand while gesturing, and they both stared at each other for what felt like hours, and he could feel her leaning in. That’s when Mat had to barge in.

“Finally, there you are! We’re about to play Truth or Dare, come on!” And he left without saying another word.

Blushing, Rand got up slowly, and helped Lanfear. “Do you wanna play?” She nodded, and they both followed Mat inside.

Mat sat down with Elayne, Min, Perrin, Graendal, and Mesaana and Demandred, who were introduced to him by Lanfear. He sat between her and Mat, and they started playing. Mat was the first one to be asked. “Truth,” he said.

“Who would you like to kiss in this room?” Elayne asked him.

He eyed Rand for a second, then turned his gaze back to Elayne. “Starting off strong, are we? Dare.”

“Ugh, fine! Give me a minute.” She went to the kitchen, and came back a minute later holding what looked like a couple of oreos. “Eat these.”

“You want me to eat some cookies? Sure.” Mat ate the first one whole, and immediately spit it out on his hand. “Mayonnaise?! Really??”

“You chose Dare, Mat, you have to eat it!” Mat shot glares at her, but he ended up eating it reluctantly.

The game went on for a while. Mesaana had to reveal her secret stalking instagram accounts, Graendal got Demandred to admit he had a crush on Lanfear’s ex, even though he was jealous of him, and both Rand and Elayne got dared to drink half a bottle of wine. 

Lanfear kept asking Rand questions about his love life, which for some reason he always replied while looking at Mat? He was definitely sober, this was weird. It didn’t help matters that Mat blushed whenever Rand talked about him. Or that whenever Min asked Mat some more questions of the sort, he also glanced at Rand while answering.

At some point they discovered that Demandred writed fanfiction, and they made him read some aloud, while Graendal was dared to cut a lock of her hair. Lanfear revealed her most listened-to artist on spotify was Olivia Rodrigo, and then she was dared to eat a raw onion like an apple. Poor Perrin got dared to act like a dog and reply only by saying “woof” for the rest of the game.

“Should I go grab some drinks?” Lanfear asked. Rand nodded, and she got up to head to the kitchen.

It was his turn again. “I dare you to kiss someone now.” Graendal said with a mischievous smile. 

Rand’s first instinct was to look at Mat, who was strangely avoiding his gaze. “Mat?” His friend looked at him and blushed, then nodded, so Rand leaned in to kiss him. It was meant to be a quick kiss, but when their lips met, Mat ardently kissed him back and cupped his face. Rand didn’t want him to let go, but he could feel the others staring at them; and apparently Mat could, too, because he finally let go and they stared at each other for a few seconds, in silence. 

That’s when Rand caught a glimpse of a white dress out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head around to see Lanfear looking at them with a shocked expression, slowly backing away, until she found the door, dropped the drinks, and left.

Chapter Text

With a drink on each hand, Lanfear was going back to Rand when she saw them. Rand and his friend making out. In front of everyone. And there she was, all alone, holding a drink for a guy who hadn’t even looked at her for the past 2 hours. She slowly backed away, and when Rand finally stopped kissing Mat and turned around to face her, she dropped the drinks and made a run for the door.

She started crying as soon as she got in her car; but she made it home safely, somehow. Her phone was ringing when she got to her room, but she just closed the door and threw it across the room, then lay down on her bed without even changing clothes, and cried until she fell asleep.

She woke up the next day around noon, with her makeup smudged, the sheets stained with eyeshadow, and her dress wrinkled. Her hair was a mess, too, so she decided to take a shower. She didn’t bother to straighten her hair, she was in no mood for going anywhere today; but she applied a face mask and went back to her room.

She found her cat, Bumma, sitting on her phone. When she turned it on, Lanfear saw she had a call from Rand’s number and a couple of text messages. “Hey. Are you okay?” they said.

Lanfear didn’t want to reply at first, not after what she saw last night; but after half an hour, she ended up sending a simple “Hey.”

Rand replied soon after. “Are you okay? You left without saying goodbye.” Pretending to be worried, was he?

“I didn’t think you were in the mood to talk to me after that.”

“It was a dare, Lanfear; just part of the game.”

“Really?” she asked sarcastically. “You seemed pretty into it.”

“Mat and I… We have history:” What does that even mean? “Besides, we were pretty drunk. I don’t even remember most of what happened afterwards.”

“Right… I just-” She wanted to say more, but it felt irrelevant now. “Nevermind.”

“What is it?”

Her hands were shaking while she typed, “I thought we shared a connection. I thought… I thought you liked me.”

It took Rand a few minutes to reply. “I do. I really enjoyed getting to know you yesterday while watching the sunset.”

“...Really?” She was unsure, he could be lying. “But, Rand, you weren’t even paying attention to me while playing that absurd game.”

“I’m sorry. But as I told you, I was pretty drunk.” Ugh, he was just making excuses. Why should she waste her time with someone like this? “But I’ve been thinking, the basketball team tryouts are on Monday, and I would like it if you were there. For good luck. What do you say?”

He genuinely seemed interested, though. “Alright, I’ll see you there.”

…

On Monday, Mat saw Perrin on his way to the canteen for lunch break, so he quickened his pace. “Hey, Perrin! Wait up!” His friend stopped until Mat caught up to him, then they kept walking together to the canteen.

“Hey, I wasn’t expecting to see you today. You were pretty drunk when I dropped you off the other day,” Perrin said while eyeing Mat up and down.

“Yeah… I almost didn’t hear my alarm this morning.” He had woken up early on Sunday, ate half of the food in the fridge, then went back to sleep again, until this morning. “Hey uh… Can I ask you for some advice?”

“Sure, what’s up?” Perrin replied, curious.

Mat hesitated for a moment. “It’s about Rand. I don’t know if he likes me.”

“What?” Perrin chuckled. “Didn’t you guys hook up the other day after you made out while playing truth or dare? I found both of you half dressed in one of Graendal’s rooms.”

“Well, yes, we did.”

“I think that means he likes you, Mat.”

Mat blushed. “Something else happened, though.”

“What do you mean?” They sat by the window, and Perrin took a bite of his lunch.

“I… threw up,” Mat stuttered.

“So?”

Mat swallowed. “On his… you know!” Thinking about it made him sick with embarrassment.

“What? On his clothes? I don’t think that’d make him stop liking you.” How could Perrin be so oblivious?

He sighed. “On his dangly thing!” Half the canteen was looking at him now. Great, just what he needed.

“You did what?” Perrin exclaimed. “Light, Mat! You were right, Rand definitely hates you now.” Mat buried his face in his hands. He had been trying to avoid Rand for the past couple of days, and Perrin’s words confirmed his suspicions. Rand surely despised him. “Although, if he was half as drunk as you, I doubt he remembers what happened. I think it’s fine.” Whatever. Mat wasn’t ready to face him just yet.

…

Nynaeve had been waiting at the library for half an hour, but Logain hadn’t shown up yet. Why were all men like that! Here she was, willing to help him study, and he didn’t even have the decency to arrive on time. She wondered why she was even doing this. She had seen him at class this morning, so where was he?

Tugging her braid, she put her mind back to studying. She had been talking to the teachers earlier to find out what she had to study, but Logain had last year’s notes. Since he was not coming, she’d have to do everything herself. She put on her headphones and focused on her Physics book, trying to ignore Graendal, Sammael and Rahvin, some seniors, who were on the table next to hers speaking loudly.

Nynaeve gave a start when a shadow sat on the chair across from her; and when she looked up, she realized it was Logain. “Sorry,” he said. With his long hair covering his face and puffy eyes, he looked like he had been crying. “I was… occupied. I almost didn’t make it. Honestly, I’m still not sure why I’m even here.” He sighed.

Occupied? Taking a closer look at him, Nynaeve suspected he needed help, and not just to study. “It’s alright. Next time I’ll need a heads-up, though. Even better if I didn’t have to wait at all.” He nodded, tearing up again. Maybe she shouldn’t be that harsh with him. “You’re here now, that’s what matters. Did you bring your notes?” He nodded again, and emptied his backpack on the table. There were a few notebooks and a couple of books, along with some folders. 

She reviewed the notebooks and divided them so they could start studying. They sat in silence for a bit, each focused on their own thing. As she turned the pages, Nynaeve noticed that there were drawings in the margins. Some of them were of Logain’s classmates, while others of whatever the notes were about. “Are these yours?” she asked, while pointing at a couple of drawings of a flower and its seeds.

“Yeah, they help me concentrate and study. Although, I also draw some more personal things sometimes.”

“Wow, they are beautiful,” Nynaeve commented while shifting through the pages. “I wish I could draw like that.”

“I could help you, if you want,” Logain said. “After all, I used to want to study art.”

“Used to? Not anymore?”

“I still do, I suppose.” He sighed. “It’s just that, I don’t really see a future these days.”

“I think you should try, you only have one more year of high school left. Hopefully.” Nynaeve tried to comfort him. “You really are a great artist, and I think I could use the help. For the Arts exam, at least.” He smiled faintly, and they began to devise a plan on how to effectively study everything in two months.

They were deep in conversation when Nynaeve’s phone started ringing and the screen lit up with a picture of her with her partner, who was facetiming her. Logain eyed the phone, and Nynaeve quickly hung up the call and texted her, saying she would call her back later.

“Who was that?” Logain asked.

“My girlfriend, Moghedien,” Nynaeve replied, turning off her phone.

“Wait, you’re dating Moghedien?” he asked, seemingly surprised.  “I can’t believe this. She was my classmate last year, you know.”

“Yeah, she mentioned you once or twice.” She tugged her braid. “Why is me dating her so unbelievable to you, huh?”

“I didn’t think you’d have much in common. She’s coming back from that exchange program after this term, right?” Nynaeve nodded. “How did you two meet, anyway?”

She hesitated for a second. “We, uh… We were fighting over a necklace at the mall.” She tried to hide her blushing face and changed the subject, so they went back to studying.