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" you will never beat me. "
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modern au
oh yes, the modern au is back
ladies and gentlemen and raz.
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you were competitive as hell.
you and childe were in the same sports academy, and while he excelled in taekwondo and basketball; you succeeded in vertical dancing and archery. there was however and unfortunately, one thing you both were good at, and you constantly wanted to get better at him at.
track racing.
your coaches were always putting you and childe together to train not because you both were only good, but because you both would go for each others necks to win over the other. you would even go so far as to try and trip him over so you could win him, and he would yank on your braids so you'd fall backwards.
those never worked though, as you both would always come together. tie. it was always a tie. there wasn't anything else you could win against him apart from this; and he couldn't shoot for crap, so archery competition was out of the contest.
long story short, you just hated him.
xingqiu came over to sit next to you while you stretched your legs and arms to prepare for your training. there was going to be a competition tomorrow, you and childe vs another school of sports. you were ready, and you just needed some extra practice. as long as you had confidence, nothing could drop you down.
"hello y/n, how's prep?" he asked, leaning his head over to you as his short blue hair fell onto his face. you giggled at how cute his hairstyle always was, and you always wanted to ruffle it, but he'd slap your hand away before you even could.
"better than your chinese ribbon dancing prep, haven't you been losing your touch these days?" you pointed out bluntly. xingqiu was apart of the traditional chinese ribbon dances, and he used to be very good in it, but these days, he had been hanging around that light blue haired boy too much and lost his focus.
xingqiu sat down next to as you bent your body over to touch your toes. he sighed with a smile. "well you don't have to point it out like that, my liege."
you sighed and stretched your body up again. "im just worried you'd lose tomorrow you know. its the big day for all of the top students here, and im sure you know that."
"ill get my act together, don't worry, i won't throw away the name of the school so easily like this." xingqiu said with a smile, and you gave him a pat on the back.
"i know you'll do well xingqiu~"
"and you better not throw away your dignity tomorrow, y/n."
you grumbled. you knew that tone of mockery anywhere- it was childe. you whipped your head around and glared at his childish smirk as you got up to your feet and folded your arms. his younger brother tuecer was right next to him, and you didn't wish to say anything offensive that his brother could understand, so you smiled back at him.
"you mean like how you lost it to zhongli?"
he deepened his glare on you as he stepped a little closer, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "not like how you died in front of xiangling."
you smirked even more. "at least my parents still love me."
"damn." xingqiu said as he clapped his hands. he got up and placed his hands on both of your shoulders, to try and calm you both down before one of you decided to actually stick a knife through each other. "alright stop fighting now, your brother is here."
teucer looked up at you and smiled happily. he was always happy to see you , since you were his biggest idol. (not even his brother was his biggest idol hah, what a joke.)
"y/n onee chan! are you going to win tomorrow?" he asked, running up to hug you tightly. you hugged him back and smiled, right in front of his brother. you gave childe a wink.
"i'll be first, dont worry."
"oh you wanna test that theory?" childe challenged as he stretched his hand out to grab hold of one of your braids. you glared at him and slapped his hand away from your pretty hair. his hands weren't allowed to touch that.
you rolled your eyes and pulled teucer to your side. "you're on. to the tracks, now."
it took a few minutes of verbal arguing, but you got xingqiu to be your whistler and teucer to cheer you both on at the same time. as you got ready at the start, childe bent down next to you, getting ready as well.
he shot you a glare. "be prepared to lose."
"you too."
xingqiu blew the whistle loudly, and your engines started. you took off running off at full speed, anger fueling your fire. your legs accelerated to the max, trying your best to outrun childe who was neck to neck with you. you felt the wind slapping your face the faster you got, and your heart rate shot through the roof.
childe was starting to fall behind you, and you were proud that you were winning. your engines started up on second gear, and you shot your legs forward, somewhat jumping in your run. you allowed the wind the carry you, and just before you turned the track, you caught a glimpse of childe coming in hard next to you.
not today rich boy.
you accelerated, but you must have twisted something in your ankle since you felt the stinging sensation of burns the moment you stepped onto your right foot. you groaned with every step on your right foot, and every speed up you made just made things worse. you didn't care though, you just wanted to win him today.
three more seconds-
and again, it was a tie.
you collapsed onto the tracks and started to breathe heavily as the heavy numbness from your ankle took over your entire right leg. you sat up and pulled your right leg up and groaned slightly. it wasn't the first time this happened, but it hurted badly.
"goddamn you, i could have won if you weren't so-" childe stopped speaking the moment he saw gleaming tears in the corners of your eyes. he dropped his act and flew straight to you, holding you in his arms slightly. "hey, you alright?"
you smacked his hand away slightly as you hid your face from him. "im fine, just leave me alone."
xingqiu and teucer jogged up to the both of you, and xingqiu quickly bent down in front of you, holding your right foot into his hand. he slowly cranked it, but that made you yell, and he stopped. "looks like you sprained it."
"but.. but don't you have a race tomorrow?" teucer cried, coming down to hug you. you hugged him back as you wiped away your tears. crying wasn't something you did, and it was just a sprain, nothing more. why did you have to be so serious?
"i'll win it don't worry little guy~" you said as you poked his nose with your finger. childe then looked at you with a scowl.
"how are you supposed to run with this again? you're pretty much pathetic now, why hurt yourself further tomorrow?" he asked, and he gave your forehead a flick.
you rolled your eyes as you rubbed your forehead. "thats none of your concern, now you just wait for tomorrow. i will beat you."
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"hey, is your leg okay?" xiangling asked as she handed you a water bottle at the sidelines. xingqiu had told xiangling what happened, and she got so worried that she came over to your dorm to do whatever she could for your ankle with the help of baizhu.
you nodded your head as you took a long sip of the water. you handed it back to her and stretched your arms again, giving her another nod. "wish me luck?"
"always!" she cheered, and you got up.
twenty thousand students from different schools cheered for their respective teams, and it was a double on double race. you and childe vs two people called scaramouche and signora from the opposite schools. you bumped into childe, and without saying anything, you both gave nods to each other.
despite hating each other, you two always worked together if it came time to win for the school.
you and childe met up with signora and scaramouche on the beginning line of the track. you took one look at them and immediately stated to yourself that they weren't to be messed with. you had heard of scaramouche, and he was the most ruthless runner in the school, and as for signora, she was speedy.
the one you were truly worried about was scaramouche.
the young boy grinned at you with his handsome features, giving you a wink. "well you must be y/n, i heard that you have been training well for this moment, wouldn't it be a shame to lose now~?"
signora laughed behind him, her hand coming to her face and you could notice the long black and red nails. "ah, you both look like children with dreams to fly to the moon. its impossible to win us."
childe was about to say something, but you opened your mouth first. "and you look like you've sold your body to multiple boys."
signora's smile dropped immediately and she flipped her blonde hair to you, ignoring your comment. childe gave you a good sign and you smiled at him for it. scaramouche ignored you two and he and signora went over to the starting line as you and childe did.
zhongli was there on the side, whistle in hand. "rules apply, no running into each others lanes, and may the best school emerge champion."
you took a deep breath and waited for zhongli to blow on the whistle. your ankle stung still, but with the help of baizhu's remedy from yesterday, you figured that you would be fine. you were here to win, not to dissapoint.
and as zhongli blew the whistle, you took off flying.
childe was right beside you, but to your surprise, signora and scaramouche were already a few meters in front. you silently cursed yourself for not training for this moment, but you fueled your running engine with the fire you were saving for the last strive.
childe and you ended up running neck and neck with them, and you could feel their piercing eyes on you, angry that you had managed to catch up. you forced yourself to keep running, and although the ever-growing pain begged you to stop running, you didn't.
your body was burning, and the pain in your ankle was starting to get too heavy to ignore. your confidence fell, and so did you.
gasps and screams came from the crowd of students, and once you registered what had just happened, you started to cry. you had fallen, and scaramouche and signora had dissapeared further away. there was no way you would be able to catch up to them even if you forced yourself to get up now, there was no more confidence in you.
you had already dissapointed your school.