Chapter Text
“Hey, did you hear about that witch who managed to turn their familiar into a human being?”
“Weren't they the same one who had got a tail and furry ears? I thought they were just a beginner.”
“Not at all, quite the opposite in fact. Some say they are the only student who never cast temporary spells.”
“What?! That's not possible! Permanent spells are high-level stuff. It’s impossible for a student of our age to be able to do them by themself already!”
“It's probably all luck because they made a deal with an ancient spirit. So it's only thanks to the familiar if they really succeeded.”
“Yeah, you're right. If I had a lot more magical power to draw on I would know how to do even the most advanced spells too!”
“Believe me, I've even heard that that witch only does potions instead of free spells, so as to be inconspicuous and unnoticed.”
“This is crazy! It's really irritating that some people are born so gifted and everything comes so easy to them, while others have to slog a lot to get even a fraction of the same results.”
“Sshh, keep your voice down! They’re coming this way!”
Tighnari's ears twitched a bit, all perked out in plain view for all to see.
He had tied a lanyard to his hat so that he could take it off when needed, wearing it comfortably around his neck when his ears began to bother him too much, forced under its brim. In recent times there were more occasions like that, than those when he kept the hat on his head, as school etiquette required.
He walked with his head held high through the hallways, impassively ignoring the stares of the students who looked at him, some with curiosity, some hiding a half-laugh of derision, some annoyed.
His ears perceived every single word of that chatter and the rumors about his appearance. The boy still couldn’t completely block out everything he didn’t want to listen to of his own free will. He needed to practice this more, he thought. Maybe Cyno could give him some more tips for improvement.
Tighnari felt his tail sway calmly behind him, following his walk, and rubbing against a small furry body that trotted beside him.
A cloud of purplish smoke billowed into the surroundings and just as quickly dissipated, disappearing.
From it, emerged a boy with white hair and tanned skin. From the messy hair that fell haphazardly over his shoulders, a pair of soft jackal ears twitched in turn.
He wore a long jacket open at the front, revealing the sheer T-shirt underneath, and with a deep slit in the back to make room for a white, bushy tail, leaving it free to move as it pleased.
Cyno adjusted the long purple scarf he wore loosely around the neck, and slipped his hands into his pants pockets.
In silence he continued to walk nonchalantly beside his partner, knowing perfectly well that he was making a spectacle of himself but deliberately not giving a damn about it. From time to time he would cast a few sharp glances at the faces of those staring at them along the road, and then the chatter would instantly stop.
“They are still talking about us.” Tighnari sighed, trying to keep his tone as neutral as possible. He increased the grip on the books he was carrying, hoping to relieve some of the tension he was hiding inside. “Apparently, we are still the jesters of the Akademiya.”
“Just leave them to talk, why do you care?” The familiar’s answer was calm and quiet.
“Are you really not the least bit bothered by all this gossip about us? I can understand that they didn't touch you when I was the only one in the middle of attention, but now unfortunately you are in it too.”
“Why should they bother me?” Cyno shrugged his shoulders. “I have the most spectacular witch in the universe all to myself, and this one even managed to fulfill my greatest wish. I couldn't think of anything better. What the rest of the world thinks doesn't matter to me.”
The witch rolled his eyes and cast a sideways glance at the familiar.
In response, Cyno gave him an affectionate smile and his crimson eyes twinkled mischievously.
In his human form, Cyno was slightly taller than Tighnari by a few inches. If one also counted his ears, however, it was Tighnari who was taller. His fennec ears were even longer and pointed than his companion's white ones, which were more proportionate and less showy.
On his jackal ears, the two pairs of round, gold earrings, the symbol of their contract, were the only trace that indicated that he was really his familiar.
Tighnari still didn’t believe they had really succeeded.
In fact, the potion they had created had turned out even better than he had ever hoped. Amazingly, they had soon discovered that the spell allowed the familiar to switch from his jackal form to his human one and back forth at will, when he wanted to, with no limits. An absolute success, in short!
Deep down, the witch was extremely pleased with the result.
The last time he had felt so proud of himself, he was a simple child taking his first steps with magic, getting excited about every frivolous and useless spell he could perform. After so many years, he found that not much had changed, remembering how fascinating and fun it was to be able to perform new spells without anything going wrong.
Illegally occupying the lab and breaking the rules for the umpteenth time had totally been worth it. Nor did he care much about the lecture and the huge extra workload the professors had imposed on him as punishment for his stunt.
In the end, it wasn’t true that the seal Tighnari had applied to the lab was indestructible.
Despite having used an enormous amount of magical power, in the middle of the night someone had managed to break through the barrier, literally reducing it to dust and causing the entire Akademiya to shake from the ground.
That someone was obviously the principal Nahida.
She had discovered the occupation from the sages, so she had decided to intervene herself, since none of them had been able to solve the problem on their own.
Caught literally red-handed, or rather, asleep and exhausted on the floor of the laboratory, among pots, stills and potions, Cyno and Tighnari’s guilt was obvious.
The two had had a heart attack when the lab’s door had suddenly been thrown wide open by a multitude of green sparks bursting like fireworks in every direction.
In fright, Cyno had returned a jackal by jumping into the arms of his partner, who panicked as he looked around frantically.
The principal, looking like a white haired child, had squared them from head to toe with a vaguely amused grin on her lips. Over her shoulder, a certain indigo cat of their acquaintance was perched lazily waving his tail, with a rather annoyed expression.
Cyno and Tighnari should have expected it, from the principal and her familiar. However at the same time, they could consider themselves lucky that they had been discovered when the potion was already finished… although maybe it was no coincidence at all.
It was also a miracle that the professor didn’t expel them.
The principal had been lenient, despite the fact that all the sages and professors thought otherwise, insisting on expelling that - in their view - really problematic student instantly.
Indeed, for some strange reason, it had seemed to Tighnari that the principal underneath was almost smug and satisfied with the student's accomplishments, when they had been discovered.
During the sages' lecture, Tighnari could have sworn he heard a little girl's voice in his head complimenting him. But when he had told Cyno about it, the latter had burst out laughing, dismissing the matter that he had probably only imagined it so as not to listen to the complaints of those grumpy old professors.
Fact, it was that the principal hadn’t shown any rage even for a second toward them, despite the immense amount of rules transgressed in just a few months.
Nahida was always on the students' side when it came to allowing them to explore and test the boundaries of their own magical knowledge.
Often, however, the council of sages ran the Akademiya autonomously overruling her when she wasn’t physically present. This time the sages hadn’t only failed to hide the whole situation from Nahida, handling it without her. But they had even needed her help to break into that illegal occupation and thus they had to bow their heads to the principal’s will.
Tighnari had gotten by with a strict curfew and endless social work shifts in the cafeteria, library, and cleaning, virtually every spare minute not occupied by classes, until the end of the academic year. Fortunately, the summer break was only a couple of months away. He would be patient.
In the meantime, Tighnari and Cyno could calmly begin brainstorming ideas and hypotheses about their new planned curse spell. It wouldn’t be easy, but both were confident that together they would be able to find a way to make everything run smoothly according to their purposes.
One spell at a time.
A pair of slender fingers grazing the base of the witch’s tail, made his fur stand up and arching his back. Tighnari gasped, caught off guard by that sudden gesture.
“Cyno! We are in public!” The witch hissed at the other with a furious look, his cheeks already red as a bell pepper from the way his body had reacted to the stimulus he had just experienced.
“So what?” Cyno didn’t flinch in the slightest, tilting his head as if he didn’t understand what was strange about that reaction. “You've let me touch you before, and you seemed to get a lot of pleasure out of it...”
“Not in front of others! You know pretty well too how much a tail is... sensitive!” Tighnari replied, huffing annoyed. “I wouldn't want people to misinterpret your behavior and start coming up to me and getting all touchy-feely!”
“Well, in that case, your faithful guard dog will take care of them. I will not allow anyone to approach you without your consent.” Cyno grinned mischievously, showing his slightly sharp canines.
“You are doing it right now!” Tighnari huffed again, rolling his eyes, trying to sound angry. "Plus, you really need to learn more about human decency! Humans don't usually go around flirting with others by letting go of their instincts in public. Have you ever heard of privacy? The spell is one thing, but I don't want people to start gossiping about our relationship too."
Cyno's heart skipped a beat at the word relationship. Happy more than ever because he had discovered in the last few days that Tighnari also reciprocated his feelings.
By opening up to him, even the tangle of magic enclosed into the witch's spirit and heart had finally melted away, and the familiar had been enchanted by the new shape it had taken.
No longer constrained and twisted in a tangle of branches and roots, Tighnari's magic now danced freely in the air, shaping itself into a multitude of varied buds and flowers, constantly changing shape.
Invisible to normal human eyes, Cyno instead felt privileged to be able to constantly witness such a marvelous spectacle. From time to time, he gazed off and contemplated it deeply fascinated, never being satiated by it.
When Tighnari brought him back to reality, he realized that this was not a daydream at all, but he was really living it. He was truly amazed.
Cyno’s tail began to wag happily and his cheeks also colored slightly, swelling his chest with joy and pride as he walked side by side with his witch.
“Talking about human decency and spells-” Cyno continued, partially changing the focus of the speech, looking up and nodding his chin at his partner’s head. “I'm rather surprised that you decided to keep them. I thought you were looking forward to getting rid of them.”
Tighnari shrugged, with his ears twitching imperceptibly.
“Well, let's just say I've changed my mind and now I think they're pretty neat. They're not so bad, once you get used to them.” He gave him a plain and simple smile, swaying his dark hair.
“Liar. It's actually because if you get caught doing more spells they'll expel us, right?” Cyno commented slightly amused, unable to hold back a half-laugh.
“Busted! I'll have to be patient a little longer to fix myself. They seized the rest of our potions, remember? They took everything away from us… again.” The witch admitted, chuckling in turn. “Anyway, I'm serious when I say I don't mind staying like this for a while longer. So we're matching, right?”
“Yeah, I can't say I don't appreciate them in turn.” He nodded, lingering on them. "Maybe you could make another potion that would allow you to go back and forth like me. That would be cool! You're an expert in transformations by now, and in my opinion you'd be absolutely capable of it. Stay pawsitive!"
The familiar gave the witch an affectionate nudge, winking at him. The other rolled his eyes at the subtle allusions between the lines, masked by Cyno’s usual unfunny puns.
“Tighnari, Cyno! Here you are!” A familiar, cheerful voice greeted them, interrupting their personal conversation.
Tighnari turned and was nearly run over by a panting Kaveh running in his direction.
The blond’s cloak, normally red, was an intense fluorescent fuchsia that day.
Exuberant as usual, the blond witch unceremoniously pulled Tighnari and Cyno into a warm hug as he began to speak in bursts.
“I’m so glad to know that the rumors that the sages locked you in an underground dungeon of the Akademiya before your possible execution were unfounded!”
“Wait, what?!” Both the witch and the familiar snapped in unison, caught off guard by that unexpected hug.
However, the blond witch's ringing voice continued like a train, with a dry tone, as if he was suddenly in an incredible hurry. “I don't even need to tell you that you have to share with me everything, you know! Let's make it Tuesday?”
“Kaveh, slow down for a moment! I can't-” Tighnari tried to free himself from the senior's firm grip, while Cyno coughed up a feather - also bright fuchsia - which had accidentally ended up in his mouth. “I have a curfew until the end of the year, as well as a series of extra works outside of classrooms to make up for-”
“KAVEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!!” A high-pitched eagle shriek echoed through the hallways, startling the three of them and several other students nearby.
The blond witch paled and cursed, letting go of the two instantly. Stumbling to his feet, a good amount of fluorescent feathers fluttered through the air, detaching themselves from his messy clothes and hair.
"No problem! You’re on cleaning duty in the cafeteria that evening, right? Perfect, then I'll come and give you a hand! That way it will be faster for the two of us, or rather, pardon me, the three of us, to clean up everyhing. I won't take no for an answer, also because I'd like to talk to you about an important business involving a certain potions business that might interest you quite a bit!"
Quick as a flash and with a jaunty smile, Kaveh winked allusively in Cyno's direction.
Without adding anything more and without giving the two time to reply, the blond witch was already down the hallways again, running and dodging people along the path as fast as he could.
In a blink of an eye, a bright feathered arrow darted out in turn in pursuit of Kaveh, messing up the hair of Tighnari and Cyno as he flew flush toward them.
When the eagle flapped his wings to turn the corner where his witch had headed, his altered shriek echoed again, followed by several shocked and annoyed cries from the students who had stood in his path. Tighnari and Cyno exchanged a confused and bewildered look.
“Was that...?” Tighnari asked a little uncertainly, shaking the locks of hair that had landed on his eyes from the sudden gust of wind.
“Yep, it seems so.”
“What do you think happened between those two this time?”
“Dunno, but I suppose it has something to do with the current flashy color of Alhaitham’s wings...” Cyno curiously stared a fluorescent pink feather passing it between his fingers. "Ouch ouch, it looks like Kaveh will have a pretty hard time when that eagle manages to capture him. I don't know if Kaveh will have a good pluck to wing it until Tuesday."
Tighnari lingered over the pink feather in turn, shrugging his shoulders to drop the ones that had caught in his own hair as well.
“I wish I knew how Kaveh does it every time to believe the silliest and most unlikely gossip and at the same time know everything about everyone in great detail.” He mumbled to himself, shaking his head. “How the hell did he know I'd be in the cafeteria on Tuesday? That witch is a bottomless pit of true and false information and news all mixed together.”
Cyno merely shrugged as if to say that he couldn’t give him a precise answer as well.
“Who knows... maybe he has good informants...”
The other cast him a suspicious glance, but the familiar carefully avoided meeting his gaze, suddenly interested in an unspecified spot in the distance.
Tighnari sighed dejectedly.
“Why do I have the feeling that this potions business Kaveh mentioned will lead us hopelessly into an abyss of endless trouble?”
Cyno didn’t have time to answer that.
A sharp trill of a bell announced the start of the day's classes, spreading throughout the school, prompting the last of the late students to hurry to their respective classrooms.
“Come on, let's go. If I'm late, it's a good time for the professors to really maul me.”
The witch started walking, hastening his pace.
In the blink of an eye, Cyno became a jackal again, following him and snuggling close to his legs.
“Maybe it’ll be a mess or maybe not.” Cyno added placidly after a few minutes, trotting beside Tighnari. “But whatever happens, you won't be alone. I promise.”
Tighnari turned to him from above with a soft smile, letting out a deep, contented breath.
“Yeah, I know.” He whispered, in a happy tone. “Now let's go.”
A pleasant feeling of peace and serenity radiated from the witch, transmitting through their bond.
Cyno returned the smile, wagging happily.
He quivered with excitement for what life would hold for them in the future, eager to enjoy and experience every second intensely.
A human witch and a spirit. Who would've thought?
Yet there they were.
Whatever their fate, he was sure, would be perfect.
The two of them.
Together.
⋅⋆ ✦ ── ⋆⋅ ✧ ⋅⋆ ── ✦ ⋆⋅
It's Fanart Time!!!
Here is the last reference sheet dedicated to the hybrid forms of Cyno and Scara! 💜🐈⬛
Why also Scara if he doesn't physically appear in this chapter? Well, I've also sketched out this little alternative epilogue if you're curious about what happened to the extra potions left over... They certainly didn't go to waste ahah 😏✨
Thank you so much for sticking around until the end of this fic, I really enjoyed writing it and I hope you enjoyed it too!! 🥰💕💕
The matter let's creating a curse for Tighnari... that will be for another time! I have some vague ideas in mind, but I would have to think about it some more to set up a plot that makes sense and comes out well overall. So let me know if you would like a continuation of this story for the future, if I see that there is interest I might think about it more seriously... („ಡωಡ„)
For now, I feel satisfied that I have made it this far! There are also other ideas running through my head about possible Cynonari fics and even though Sumeru is my favorite region, these days I'm looking forward to doing something also Fontaine themed (obviously about two silly Fontainans in particular). So I don't know when, but probably something more is coming soon ( ˘ ɜ˘)🌊
Anyway for updates of various kinds, silly fanart or just to chat about Genshin, you can find me here on tumblr, x (twitter) or insta 🌻
Thank you so much again for reading and see you around!!! (◕‿◕✿)💚💜