Work Text:
It had been a long day.
Despite his best efforts a fight had broken out at the casino, it was nothing they couldn’t handle, but it drained their energy way too much for how early in the work day it had happened.
He’d gotten misgendered far too many times that day. A few times it was by regular guests at his place of work who were quick to correct themselves but it still stung. He had to listen to one of the older fellows talk about “this new generation,” and you can imagine how that went.
His binder was too tight. Their ribs and back ached with the reminder that they were flawed. For someone ‘born’ from the book, made for a specific purpose, they should be perfect right? Was whoever wrote him into the book in a rush and forgot to include their gender or something? Did the book just hit the randomize button for what quirky problems he’d have?
Of course they didn’t have the answer and pondering on it further would only increase their anger.
Right now all he wanted to do was to get up to their room and see their beloved…and hopefully everything would still be intact. He loves his boyfriend but he doesn’t know if he can handle cleaning up broken porcelain, or putting out a small fire.
When they get to their room however, they check for neither.
Nikolai had been standing right across from the door, knowing Sigma’s schedule by heart, waiting there like a puppy.
As soon as he’s through the door, Sigma walks straight into Nikolai, resting their forehead on the other man’s shoulder.
He felt Nikolai’s long arms wrap around his waist, giving him a gentle but firm squeeze.
“Welcome back Cookie, did my little birdie miss me~” Nikolai coos.
Sigma doesn’t answer, doesn’t feel like speaking. Instead they just bring their arms up to return Nikolai’s hug, trying to bury their face impossibly deeper into his shoulder.
“Uh-oh, that’s a trying-to-disappear-via- hug, hug isn’t it?” Nikolai moves his hand to the space between Sigma’s shoulder and neck and they groan, knowing what he’s doing. Seeing if he’s still binding.
“How long has it been, doll?”
Sigma moves his head just slightly so he can look at Nikolai.
“...Thirteen…” they mumble.
Nikolai frowns at them and they instantly feel guilty, not much can wipe a smirk off of that stupid (read; their stupid) clown’s face.
“I meant to take it off during my break earlier, it just slipped my mind.” Sigma insister, pouting.
Nikolai shakes his head, “How is it my boyfriend,” Sigma smiles at that, “ can memorize the wants and needs of every guest that walks through their door, yet they're so forgetful when it comes to their own cute self?”
Sigma rolls his eyes, opening his mouth to retort but Nikolai shushes him rather obnoxiously. Pushing his index finger to Sigma’s lips and everything.
“Hush hush pet, there’s no need for words from your pretty little mouth right now, how about you go start a bath? I’ll be there in a second!” he says in a sing-song voice.
Sigma reluctantly detaches himself from Nikolai, “You’ll be quick?”
The white haired man laughs
“Oh how I love it when you’re clingy love! Just for you I’ll be as fast as that little blue hedgehog man.”
He smiles and places a kiss to the top of Sigma’s head where liliac meets white.
“Okay,” they nod, showing the tiniest bit of a smile before heading to the bathroom. They don’t bother asking what Nikolai is up to, he probably wouldn’t tell them if he did. How they ended up with such a peculiar partner was beyond them, but he wouldn’t trade Nikolai for the world. He was the only thing that felt real, solid.
He closes the door and heads to the tub, turning the water on and giving it time to heat up.
Meanwhile, they look at themself in the mirror. The circles under their eyes had grown darker and they were looking paler than usual. Maybe Nikolai was right, he should worry more about himself than the casino…but it was the only way they felt they could justify their existence, by being useful.
They turned to the side, still looking in the mirror, and their face settled into a deep frown. The binder helped a lot but there was still a bump where their chest was. In theory, he knows that most cis males aren’t completely flat either. Someone could easily mistake him as just being more muscular under all his layers, but despite all that, they know what's under those layers,they have to live with that reality once the binder comes off. Why couldn’t they have been written differently. His abnormal birth could have made it so easy.
Their thought process is interrupted by the door opening, revealing Nikolai balancing a mug in one hand and his sweatshirt (the one he knows is Sigma’s favorite to steal, and a sweet smile.
He sets the mug down on the countertop next to the sink before he slides in between his partner and the mirror they’re glaring daggers at.
“Silly sugarpea, it’s bath time and you’ve been wearing the teetus-deletus device for way too long, what are you doing still dressed, hm?”
Sigma punched him in the arm, “I hate when you call it that.”
Nikolai fake winced, clutching the arm they had just punched.
“You wound me my love, I’m only trying to cheer you up.”
“I know.”
Sigma stole a quick glance at his boyfriends face, his real smile was there, all soft and cheesy. They turned their gaze down to the floor, leaning on the taller one again.
Nikolai used his index finger to tilt Sigma’s face towards himself, “Do you want me to undress you instead?” he asked gently.
Sigma flushed but nodded. He didn’t want to look. He didn’t want Nikolai to see either, but he had proved long ago that he was safe, well at least when it comes to Sigma, that is.
Nikolai removes their vest first, then moves to slowly undo the buttons on Sigma’s shirt, peppering Sigma’s face with soft kisses as he goes. Once that's done, he untucks the turtleneck from Sigma’s pants and tugs it off, complaining about how complicated their clothes were, like his were any better.
Once Sigma is fully undressed, Nikolai leads them to the tub, prompting them to get in. Sigma furrows his brows as he looks to his partner.
“You’re not joining?” they tilted their head like a puppy.
Nikolai smiled and shook his head no, “I’ll stay and help, though. I’d never pass up an opportunity to pamper my little casino owner.”
Sigma gives him a weird look but gets into the bath, closing his eyes and sighing as the warm water envelops his body and eases the tension out of his muscles. After a few moments of content silence they open their eyes again and make grabby hand motions at Nikolai who was just sitting next to the tub smiling at his love.
The white haired man swipes the mug off of where he had placed it on the counter and makes a show of presenting it to Sigma.
“Here you are, your majesty!”
Sigma rolls their eyes but accepts the mug, taking a small simp and humming in approval.
“My favorite apple cinnamon tea,” they state, setting the mug down on the edge of the tub. “But that’s not what I was motioning for.”
Nikolai looks confused for a brief second before his cheeky grin returns, “My most humble of apologies, my liege. I shall fulfill anything you ask of me to atone for my most dreadful sin of getting your favorite tea.” He even tries (and fails) to do a British accent for some reason.
Sigma just huffs and reaches for their boyfriends hand, being careful to not get water all over as they intertwine their fingers.
Nikolai freezes, a look of surprise on his face as he looks down at their hands.
“What?” Sigma grumbles.
Nikolai shakes his head, “Nothing nothing, I just- wasn’t expecting it.” He punctuates his sentence by bringing their joined hands up to his lips, gently kissing Sigma’s knuckles.
“Oh? Has lil’ ol’ me managed to render the great clown speechless?” They tease and expect to be teased back but what they receive instead are words so genuine it almost makes him emotional.
“More often than you’ll ever know my sweet.” Nikolai says.
After just soaking and sipping on his tea for a while, Sigma declares that he actually needs to get clean, and despite his protests, Nikolai insists on doing all of the work for him.
He took the shampoo from the corner of the tub and worked it into Sigma’s dual colored hair, massaging it into Sigma’s scalp before bringing it down to the lengths of their hair. Once he was done and had rinsed his boyfriend’s hair, he grabbed the soap, running it over Sigma’s soft skin.
Nikolai then began to rub his beloved’s shoulders, gently digging his thumb into the particularly stubborn knots that had formed there.
Sigma occasionally winced but he would have told Nikolai if he was being too rough. He knew just the right amount of pressure would make them feel better.
They sigh into the feeling.
“How are you so good at this?” He asked as Nikolai gave him one last rinse.
“A magician must never reveal his secrets!” The white haired man beamed and Sigma just pouted
“Come dove, no time for pouting! You need to get dressed before you catch a cold, not that I mind looking at you without that annoying barrier clothes make…” he trailed off.
Sigma punched him in the arm before slipping into Nikolai’s hoodie that the clown had brought with him to the bathroom, and a pair of sleep pants.
Sigma brought the hoodie up to his nose and breathed in. He smiled, the hoodie smelled like Nikolai. They made him take turns wearing it as well so the scent would stay. It's incredibly grounding, especially when Nikolai himself isn’t there.
“I’ll never understand why you love that sweatshirt so much, I’m right here you know!” Nikolai feigned hurt.
“I like your clothes,” was all Sigma replied with.
Nikolai smiles, “Of course, what was I thinking.” He kissed their cheek.
“Now off to bed, I’ll do your hair for you.”
Sigma nodded but didn’t move. When Nikolai shot him a questioning look, they just raised their arms, holding them out towards their boyfriend. If he was in such a giving mood, he might as well let himself indulge in it.
Nikolai chuckled and grabbed their towel before scooping Sigma up into his arms.
Sigma rested their head on Nikolai’s shoulder and he smiled down at them.
“There you go, princess.”
Just as the words left Nikolai’s mouth, his eyes widened as he realized what he said.
“I’m sorry,” he backtracked. “I didn’t mean to- you’re not-”
Sigma bit his lip and shook his head. He was thankful that his boyfriend was so worried about the slip up, however…
“It’s okay Kolya, if it’s you… I kind of like it”
They could feel their face burning but it was true. They didn’t want their lover to think they had messed up or offended him. He knew Nikolai didn’t see them as a girl and just enjoyed the use of such endearments.
The smile Nikolai gave them was so soft they thought they might cry.
“Right,” he said, setting Sigma down on the bed and grabbing a brush and hair elastic before sitting behind the other, who had situated themselves to sit crisscrossed on the edge of the bed.
Nikolai set to work gently towel drying purple and white strands while Sigma leaned back against his chest. It made the angle a little weird and the task itself more difficult but there was no way Nikolai was going to say anything to prompt Sigma to move.
“Do you want to talk about what happened today, toaster strudel?”
Sigma groaned, half at the dumb name, half at the reminder of his awful day as Nikolai started to comb through his hair.
“Nothing happened, it was just a long day…and my dysphoria has really been acting up again,” They said the last part a lot quieter. “Old people are annoying.” He added to take the attention off of his previous statement.
“Some of them have certainly overstayed their welcome,” Nikolai chuckled. “We could fix that you know!”
Sigma hummed, “We could. But not now. It's soft boyfriend time.”
“Oh you’re right! I must have forgotten to check my watch!” Nikolai began braiding the shorter’s hair, crossing white sections over purple.
“Have I ever told you that I love your hair braided? It looks so perfect with how the colors combine!”
“You have,” Sigma smiled. “I’m glad you like it… though maybe I should cut it.”
“Baby,” Nikolai frowned. “You know I think you would look amazing no matter what length your hair is, but I also know YOU love your hair the way it is.”
The clown paused to brush Sigma’s bangs out of their face. Once the strand was out of the way Nikolai dropped his hand to his partner’s cheek, gently rubbing his thumb over the bone there.
“Having long hair doesn’t make you feminine, it makes you you. The genderless god I love!” He said.
Sigma closed their eyes, leaning into Nikolais hand, “Thank you, Kolya”
“Anything for you, my muse,” he kissed the tip of Sigma’s nose. “Now come cuddle, you said it yourself after all! Soft boyfriend time now, murdering those who wronged you later!” Nikolai exclaimed as he laid down on their shared bed.
Sigma rolled his eyes but followed suit, tucking themselves into Nikolai’s side so that they could rest their head on his chest.
Listening to the other man’s heart beat had always been grounding for Sigma. A reminder that he was real and there. He wasn’t using Sigma. He wasn’t going to leave them. He loved him.
Nikolai busied himself by rubbing soft circles into his lovers back and occasionally kissing their face
“I love you,” he whispered. “You’re perfect.”
Sigma nuzzles closer to him. “I love you too, Kolya. Thank you”
Nikolai shook his head.
“It’s nothing, I’d burn everything to the ground if it meant making you smile.” He said
“You’d do that for fun,” Sigma laughed.
Nikolai smiled at them, “You got me there, I would still do anything for you, though.”
“I know.” Sigma says against his lips. Kissing him softly to cement it. They did know.
When Sigma pulled back he went back to his position on Nikolai’s chest with the intention of getting some rest in his boyfriend’s arms.
“Hey Sig, did you know the human anus can stretch enough to fit two live raccoons?”
“Oh my god.”