Tomonori is not looking for someone else to do all his homework. He does wonder if he should ask the crying Shanghai boy if he needs anything, but he doesn't know if he wants to give anything that would help. Better not to talk to him at all than be rude without meaning to, or be too nice and cause some other kind of offense. It's very confusing that being too polite turns into being rude, Tomonori still isn't sure why everyone else just agreed to that.

He'll focus on his work rather than the crying boy. At least he feels better today.

Oh look a victim potential ally.

"Hello!" he says. "I'm Nie Huaisang." 

"Hello. Matsumoto Tomonori."

He hopes that the conversation doesn't distract from the lab work- it's the first day.

Oh, this is going to be easy. Nie Huaisang thinks about his smile, the way his hair is mussed, how adorably flustered he'd probably be at the concept of someone being attracted to him, and-- moves his brain into the configuration where Tomonori is the cutest and most interesting boy in the world and it's astonishing (but lucky for Nie Huaisang!) that no one else has noticed. 

"Can I see what you're working on?" and his voice sounds so very interested.

"-okay. Today I want to work on distilling kun from dragon's blood. I think I could add new enchantments to my glasses by soaking them in the kun- it should help with mirror magic."

"Wow. That's really advanced," he says, his voice full of admiration. "My work for today is all about Lab Safety and Understanding the Lab Instruments." 

He sits down next to Tomonori and brushes his knee against Tomonori's leg.

Tomonori moves over slightly so the no-longer-crying boy won't bump into him by accident again.

"That makes sense. I should do that too, I just also want to spend my time thinking about the problem. I don't want to make a mistake in my first lab. Have you ever used a lab before?"

"Oh, we had some at the enclave but they were terrifying. I was so scared I was going to blow myself up. I'm not good at things like this like you."

"I'm sure you're good at something. Everyone is good at something. What do you like to do?"

Embarrassed, awkward, like he was too shy to admit this to anyone else but was opening up to Tomonori: "I like drawing."

"I can show you how to use everything, and you draw what I'm going to work on. Why don't you sketch the steps as I go? Just draw what you see."

Tomonori works on finding out how to use everything. He's worked alongside an alchemist before, although this is his first time doing it without supervision...he thinks he can figure it out, though. He backtracks a few times when he realizes he might be going about something the wrong way. Some of the other students look his way but he ignores them, continuing to narrate what he's doing.

This is a much more pleasant way to do classwork.

Nie Huaisang draws what he sees, touches Tomonori on the arm and the shoulder, regularly compliments him on how deftly he moves and how smart he is to be able to remember the difference between those two identical-looking chemicals, gazes at him admiringly, and occasionally mentions that he'd love to keep doing this, he's learning so much, but he really needs to focus on his own work or he's going to fall behind.

Tomonori is starting to think maybe this guy just touches people very casually. He can't really understand what would make a person like that but it's not interfering with his work right now.

Also being complicated this much for perfectly normal skills that everyone in Intro to Lab will have is probably going to over-inflate his ego, so he should do something about that. Maybe he'll ask the void for a history book on very accomplished alchemists as a standard to hold himself to.

"Oh, okay. You don't have to keep drawing for me."

"But I'm learning so much more this way!" He reaches up to flirtatiously tuck his hair behind his ears, belatedly realizes he's bald, and switches to fluttering his eyelashes.

What a confusing person.

"Are you okay?"

This is a stupid question to ask of someone who was wailing loudly during Orientation, but Tomonori can't think of a better one to ask what he means.

Excellent. An opening. 

He looks down at the table and bites his lip nervously. "I like talking to you."

"I like talking to you too."

"But I have to go off and do my own work and not talk to you at all!"

Come on, idiot, get a hint. 

"Okay. Do you want me to help you with your assignments?"

"Oh-- if you want to-- I don't want to bother you-- I just don't know--"

"It seems like you're very good at drawing and not so much at understanding alchemy, because you're creative but not rigorous."

At least, Tomonori hears he is supposed to be good at drawing. He should have someone look at the drawings and tell him whether they're better than average. They seem nice enough.

Nie Huaisang looks like the most water-logged, the most broken-winged, and the tiniest of baby birds. 

"I am t-- trying," he blatantly lies. 

"I can help you with your work. I just think you should do what you're good at? You should draw so you can understand alchemy better, I think it could help you. You don't have to be smart to learn. Can I see your assignment?"

A little bit sniffly, Nie Huaisang hands his assignment over to Tomonori. "Yeah, I'm not smart like you."

(He kind of wishes he was a girl and had breasts, because then he could lean over and give Tomonori a view of his cleavage, which would be much more effective than giving him a view of his flat chest. But if he was a girl he'd be flirting with girls and he's pretty sure that girls are way less easy than boys, so probably it works out to his advantage.) 

"Oh, okay. You just need to condense salt of the sages. I can work on this while you draw the steps- that way, you can make this one on your own. Let me just start mine first- I need supplies. Come with me."

And Tomonori will retrieve supplies.