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The weather is usually pretty warm in Mondstadt—as long as you stay away from Dragonspine—so today's cold snap has caught Bennett a little by surprise. He and Razor are out around the west side of Cider Lake collecting lamp grass for a commission from the guild, and so long as they're not right on the shore where the wind picks up, and so long as he keeps moving, it's okay. Good thing he has a Pyro Vision and a sunny disposition to keep him warm! Even if those clouds look pretty dark...
Thunder rumbles suddenly right overhead, so loud Bennett jumps in surprise. Razor looks up. "Rain soon," he says. "This way."
He turns toward the high ground and the forest beyond, scaling the cliffs with quick, easy assurance. Bennett follows, even though he can't think where they might be going. There aren't any settlements over here. Even the cozy hidden homes of the Wolvendom pack are further south. If you go far enough, there are ruins, but... ah, this is no time to get distracted. Thunder booms again and the sky opens up, rain pouring down in sheets as Bennett struggles to find handholds on the last few feet of the cliff.
Almost at the top, his foot slips and he starts to fall—but Razor's hand shoots out and grabs his wrist just in time, holding him steady until he can get his footing back and boost himself over the edge. "Whew!" He gives Razor a big smile. "Thanks for the save!"
Razor nods, rising from his crouch and reaching for Bennett's hand. "Quickly. Come."
He pulls Bennett along with him, loping along into the trees, taking quick turns in places where it seems like there's no sign at all. Bennett just focuses on sticking close and trying not to slip on the wet grass or get too close to the sparking, bubbling spots where lightning threatens to strike.
Then Razor ducks behind a thick stand of bushes and when Bennett follows he discovers there's a little cave back there, tall enough to stand up in. Someone has clearly used it as a hideout before, since there's charred wood from a campfire just out of reach of the rain, and maybe some boxes and barrels further back in the dark. Razor lets go of Bennett's hand, which makes Bennett realize he wishes he hadn't, but Razor is retrieving fresh firewood from a stack and arranging it where the last fire was laid.
"Bennett make fire?" he asks as he steps back.
"Right!" Bennett nods. "One campfire coming right up." He draws his sword and focuses the energy of his Vision.... "Hah!" The fire leaps from the blade to the wood, catching immediately and flaring bright. For once, it doesn't even catch him on fire!
Which is less of a blessing than it could be, actually. Now that they've stopped moving Bennett has time to notice how cold he is, his clothes soaked through and the air still so chilly. His teeth are chattering as he crouches down by the little fire. "C-c-cold," he says, trying to smile anyway.
"Too cold," Razor agrees. He pulls off his long coat and the half-shirt under it. "Take wet clothes off."
Well, that certainly makes Bennett's face warm, if not the rest of him. "Right," he squeaks, because Razor does have the right idea. Wearing wet clothes in the cold makes a bad situation worse! Any good adventurer knows that. But Bennett still can't help feeling a little self-conscious as his stiff fingers fumble with laces and buckles.
Razor meanwhile is pulling an armful of furs out of a crate and spreading them out in a pile near the fire. He takes off the rest of his clothes—all the rest of his clothes, and Bennett looks away in a hurry—while Bennett is still fighting with his boots, and burrows into the fur pile. "You too. Come quick."
Bennett finally gets his boots kicked off and his shorts off his ankles and maybe kind of for a second thinks about taking his briefs off too? But maybe that would just be too weird or too much or you know he's doing the thing where he worries too much, so instead he just goes and crawls into the pile of furs next to Razor.
Razor's skin is chilly too but already being bundled up like this feels better. The furs are ragged at the edges but soft, a nice weight on top of them. They have to fuss around some to figure out where to put their arms and honestly Bennett's not sure they've really gotten it right when Razor finally mushes his face into Bennett's neck and goes still, but it feels good all the same. Razor's breath is hot against his throat. His fingers and toes are tingly with the feeling coming back to them. The rain is still pouring down outside, but the sound of it is almost cozy when they have each other to hold onto.
"Lucky this place was here, huh," Bennett says. "With all these good supplies and everything."
"Mm. Not luck." He can feel Razor's voice hum through his body when they're holding each other. "This place..." Bennett wants to offer other suggestions, other ideas, but he bites his tongue. Sometimes words take a minute for Razor. "I pick out. Put things here. Make it ready."
"So it's your hideout!"
"My den," Razor says. "For sharing with someone special."
"Oh." Bennett has to bite his tongue not to blurt out questions. He knows what answer he wants to hear but his luck is never that good—
"I wanted to add more," Razor confesses. "Make it nice for both wolf and human. Before I brought you here."
Bennett's heart swells. "You wanted me to share it with you?"
Razor nods, the fluff of his hair tickling under Bennett's chin. "I am... happy with you. Ordinary things are more fun around you. You make me feel warm here." He takes Bennett's hand and presses it to his chest.
"Wow." Razor's heartbeat is steady and strong under Bennett's palm. "I mean, I feel like that around you, too, it's why I'm always bothering you to go adventuring with me, I love your company! You're cool and you're good at all kinds of things and you know neat stuff about the wilderness, and you're willing to keep hanging out with me despite my luck, and I just, I mean..." Putting it into words seems like too much to manage without making a mess of things, so he kisses Razor instead.
Razor kisses back immediately, licking into Bennett's mouth with a lot more confidence than Bennett feels, that's for sure. But it's exciting, and he does his best to keep up! The wet warmth feels good, and they're pressing closer, and one of Razor's hands has found the really gnarly scar on his back—the one that still aches sometimes—and is petting it gently in a way that makes him feel wobbly and warm inside. He winds up having to break the kiss just to be able to hug Razor really hard.
Razor huffs like Bennett just squeezed the breath out of him, but he's smiling shyly when Bennett pulls back to look. "You are happy?"
"So happy," Bennett assures him. "You too?"
"Mm." Razor nods.
Bennett beams at him. "Cool." He has a boyfriend now, at least he thinks he does, and that means he has a boyfriend who is naked with him under a pile of furs in the middle of nowhere and that's maybe a little much to take in all at once, like possibly a distraction would be nice. "Um. Did you say there was more stuff you wanted to bring out here?"
"Yes." Razor settles in against him again, head against his shoulder. It's so nice. "More cooking things, not just the fire. A bed up off the rock. Decorations?" He sounds uncertain about that one.
"That would be really neat! Like, what if we carved something on the walls in here? Some kind of design with flames and lightning bolts?" Razor grunts a sound that's probably agreement. "I mean, if it's okay for me to help. If I won't wreck anything by accident."
"You won't wreck anything," Razor says, a lot more confident about that than Bennett feels. "I'd like that. Both of us make the den. Not all the way a wolf den, but right for us together."
"For when we need a secret place that's just ours," Bennett says. He nuzzles into Razor's fluffy hair and just breathes him in, lightning and wolfhooks and wild things. It's a nice smell. He could get used to it.
Outside, the rain is still coming down hard, but that's fine. It can take its time. They will too.