His grin returns, this time, he makes sure Chance can see every tooth. He offers something between a chuckle and a sigh, lightly punching his fist against Noli's chest. "That's... Good. Shit, this is so cheesy."

And they kiss or something idk how to end this

"I just wanted to make you laugh... Like everyone else does." Chance follows up, purposefully avoiding eye contact. Noli blinks, taken aback by the sudden shift.

"Y-Y... Y-You make me le-laugh. P-Pretty often." Noli stammers, placing his hands on his knees as he leans down.

Pointing a mocking finger at his classmate. Noli, on the other hand, does not find this humouress in the slightest. His smile falls into a deep frown, which then slowly turns intimidating. Not a word uttered, yet Chance already seems fidgety.

"Alright! Alright! Ugh—I get it, not funny."

Third option! Looks like I win~! Or something similar to that. "Right, I get tails then. Come, huddle in close." Chance urges, to which Noli follows—with much skepticism.

Chance's thumb flicks and—clink—the coin hits Noli right in the middle of his eyebrows. "HAHA! PRANKED!" Chance yells out—

"Heads or tails?" He slyly asks, the devious smile on his face is telling an untrustworthy story. Noli's head tilts with confusion, pondering to himself.

"H-Heads." He finally decides, although begrudgingly. Surely it'll be another one of his lousy card tricks. Oh, look at that! There's a secret—

"Breathe." He adds, tapping the little trickster on the shoulder. What's he up to now? It's never good when he comes in such a rush.

"Yo, hey, look at this coin for a sec." He finally exhales after a good 20 seconds of catching his breath, a gold coin sitting neatly on his thumb.

Was this what Kaveh felt when he first taught a Junior Alhaitham how to braid his hair? How troublesome, and an awful drag.

With a tone filled with dry sarcasm. To which he earns a badly stifled chuckle from the traveler.

Slowly, Alhaitham goes through the process once more, explaining every detail needed to create an attractive braid. Suddenly, a feeling of recognition swarms to his gut.—

"Fine. But you'll need to pay me back. After all, nothing comes free in this world." Alhaitham bargains, looking far too proud of himself.

"Aargh... Whatever! But you better not touch Paimon's bag of food, you hear!?" She squeals, hands angrily on her hips.

"Of course." The scribe responds—

She chimes in, excitedly pointing to her companion.

"Your sister used to braid it, right? Maybe it'll bring up some past memories...!"

"No way." Aether shuts down, waving his hand dismissively.

"Paimon was just being optimistic!" She argues, to which Alhaitham scoffs in amusement.

Back at the Akademiya. The time he curled a sleepy Kaveh's hair into a long braid. The time Kaveh showed him how to style his hair correctly and stop looking so intimidating. His thoughts, however, are broken off by a little fairy.

"Uuu! Can Paimon learn? She wants to help the traveler, too!"

"Thank you." Alhaitham quickly responses, fixing his gloves.

"You're super good at this," The blonde continues, touching up his bangs. "How do you do it?" He innocently asks, lips pursing in curiosity.

"I have... Some prior experience." He trails off, reminiscing about the time—