Headcanon: university student! Wriothesley
University student! Wriothesley x gn! reader
tags: fluff - word count: 1.2k
Wriothesley is what you would call 'the misunderstood "bad boy".' That is to say, he isn't bad at all but rather has a bad-boy exterior that intimidates your peers.
Wriothesley, as a student, is the quiet type and can seem threatening at first glance. But once you get to know him, you realise he’s quite relaxed and has a sharp wit. He’s always seen with a flask in hand, leading everyone to assume it contains alcohol. But it’s filled with tea. He doesn’t bother taking notes during lectures because he’s already read all the material for the class. His attendance at lectures is more about the atmosphere than the content, and it was even rarer before he met you.
Even the professors noticed a change in his attitude towards attendance after he met you. It was as if your presence sparked a newfound interest in him to attend lectures more regularly despite already knowing the material.
At the start of the second term, you arrive late to the lecture. To avoid the walk of shame down the stairs to find your friends, you choose to sit next to him at the back of the lecture hall. You side-eye him cautiously the entire time. However, the moment he turns to offer you some tea from his flask, you realise you have misjudged him. You’ve been sitting with him ever since.
If you happen to be in the same seminar group, Wriothesley will bring an extra flask lid to share his tea with you just in case. He’ll also catch you up on any notes you missed while daydreaming or dozing off from a late night of studying.
Wriothesley always hangs back after class, patiently waiting as you pack up your bag. Then, he walks you back to your place, even though his place is on the other side of campus. He says it’s because he enjoys the extra time to discuss the day’s lecture with you. In reality, he simply enjoys your company in any form--no matter the subject of conversation, and the long walk back to his place is just a small price to pay for that.
Wriothesley is the student you never see on campus unless you actively go looking for him. He’s part of the boxing society, so he often comes to lectures and seminars covered in bandages, which only fuels the rumours of him running an underground fight club.
Wriothesley often assumes leadership roles and no one objects. His presence commands both respect and a certain level of fear. It’s not that he actively seeks these positions he just doesn't like injustice. In fact, rumour has it that the previous president of the boxing society abandoned his post after Wriothesley challenged him to a match. The challenge was to verify if the president was truly as skilled as he claimed, or if he was merely rigging matches in his favor. As it turned out, the president was a no-show for the match, leaving the society without a leader. That day, it was unanimously decided that Wriothesley would assume the president’s duties. And he did so without batting an eye. You had been relieved by the strangely peaceful turn of events.
Wriothesley has an anonymous fan club of people who submit extremely blurry pictures and updates of him around campus, unbeknownst to him. You once opened your Instagram to see a picture of him holding the door open for a fellow student, followed by another picture of him helping one of the known aggressive campus cats down from a tree. You'd followed the Instagram page as a joke, but the images were quite cute, so you never unfollowed.
Wriothesley isn’t on any social media platforms, so you two keep in touch via text messages. Initially, you had him saved in your contacts as ‘His Grace’, a playful nod to the way people treat him with the reverence of a duke. But now, you’ve changed his name to ‘Ricecake’, much to his chagrin. He regrets ever letting you in on that annoying nickname. You’re always curious about how he has you saved in his phone. He teases you by saying he’ll show you if you can correctly answer three questions about the class material. But he’s crafty, always making the last question about something you haven’t covered yet in the readings. So, to this day, you still don’t know what your name is on his phone, and you probably never will. That’s just how Wriothesley is, always keeping you on your toes.
Every week, before the lecture, Wriothesley sends you a text asking what you’d like from the campus cafe. He knows your order by heart and doesn’t really need to ask. Plus, he always has his own tea prepared in his flask, so he doesn’t need to spend money there. But he does it anyway, just to see the smile on your face when you rush into the lecture hall, inevitably late, but relieved to have your weekly fix. Initially, he started doing this in an attempt to help you avoid being late to lectures, which didn’t quite work out. But over time, it’s become a habit he cherishes.
Wriothesley is your steadfast study partner in the library. Despite your best intentions, you often find yourself falling asleep at your keyboard, promising each time that it won’t happen again. Yet, there you are, waking up to find fifty pages of the letter ‘L’ on your Word document, and Wriothesley’s large jacket draped over you like a warm blanket. He continues to work quietly beside you, unfazed by your slumber. He doesn’t mind the late nights. In fact, he prefers them, especially when he’s in your company. And even after pulling an all-nighter, he somehow manages to look more put-together than you in your shared 8:30am class the next morning. Every time you call him out on this, he just laughs.
One night, you’re in the library with Wriothesley, half-asleep, buried under a three-thousand-word essay due by noon the next day. In the midst of this academic haze, Wriothesley looks up from his laptop and asks you out on a date.
"You know, there’s this supposedly fantastic spot in town I think we should check out after we're both done with all of this. That is, if you’d like to accompany me?" he suggests. His words hang in the air, a question wrapped in casual conversation.
Startled, you lift your head, which had been precariously balanced on your hand, and quickly wipe away the trace of drool from your mouth. "Huh?" you manage to utter, caught off guard.
Wriothesley leans back in his chair, a fond smile playing on his lips. It’s a look you’ve seen before, but never really pondered over. He’s often looked at you this way, so it’s not entirely unexpected. Yet, this time, it feels different, as if it carries a deeper meaning.
With a hint of amusement in his eyes, he repeats, "I am asking if you’d like to go on a date with me?"
It doesn't surprise anyone when you walk into the lecture late holding hands with Wriothesley. From the beginning, everyone, including your professors, had suspicions about the two of you. After all, the pairing of the quiet, bad boy and you, who always arrived late to lectures, seemed inevitable.
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