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It was a cold winter night, Kuhlan and Exene had decided to spend the afternoon at home, seeing as the snow that lightly tapped the windows around them, they weren't exactly in the mood to catch frostbite.
The sound of crackling fire and some quiet, lo-fi music rang through the living room that Kuhlan had been sitting in, watching some random movie that had caught her interest.
Though, she hadn't heard anything from her boyfriend in a while - completely abnormal behavior from him. At times like these he'd usually be holding her or trying to tease her in any way possible but.. he wasn't.
That worried her enough to get up and go to check their bedroom.
She knocked on the door lightly, trying her hand at the doorknob to no avail. He had locked the door. "Exene?" she nearly yelled. She heard them talking to someone, and whoever it was clearly didn't like him very much.
After nearly 2 minutes of Exene and the person he'd been calling arguing about heaven knows what, it came to a stop.
Kuhlan kept her ears peeled for any noises, only to hear muffled sobbing.
"..Exene," Kuhlan let herself rest on the dark wooden door, her arms crossed as her brows furrowed. "are you alright?" she asked. "M-mhm! All good!" he hollered back, his voice broken. Kuhlan closed her eyes and let out a long, exaggerated, sigh.
"Yeah, totally. What's wrong?" she heard steps coming from the door and watched it slowly creak open. In front of her stood a 6'0" tall miqo'te with tears staining his reddened cheeks. Their tail was wrapped around their legs, ears shivering lightly from either the cold or the fact that he was nearly vibrating himself.
Their eyes stared down at the ground, their arms crossed as his long nails lightly poked his skin. "..Hey." they said quietly, nearly inaudibly. When they didn't hear a word come from their partner in front of them, they began to panic.
His eyes slowly shifted up, a few tears welling back up into them. Kuhlan stood there in something akin to shock. She'd never seen Exene fully break down like this. Sure, they'd cry a few tears whenever they'd watch some sad romance movies but.. never like this.
He seemed genuinley hurt.
Kuhlan opened her arms in front of him, looking up at him. Exene quickly found himself in his arms, an odd feeling seeing as they were often in the opposite places. They sobbed into her dark hair, arms resting gently on her shoulders, down her back as her arms were wrapped tight around his waist.
"I hate him. Gods, I hate him." he said, his voice muffled by Kuhlan's hair. "Hm?" she slowly moved her hands to his upper back, lightly scratching as a way to show him that she was listening. She knew he always liked having his back scratched.
"Yesterday, Thancred kept.. he kept talking about his damned family. How they'd brought him gifts through the mail, told him that they were proud of him, told him they loved him." he nearly growled as he spoke out those last few words.
"It's like.. it's like he was trying to make me feel bad! He knows how my father is! Gods, everyone does!" He backed away from Kuhlan, finding his way to the comfortable bed that had stood behind them.
Kuhlan followed, sitting next to them with an arm resting on their back. Exene sniffled and put his hand over his mouth, trying to silence his sobs.
"Xee, it's alright. You can let it all out, I'm right here. Just me and you, okay?" Kuhlan left a soft kiss on his forehead as she rubbed circles onto their back.
He let out a loud sob, resting his head down on Kuhlans shoulder. "Why doesn't he even try? Aren't fathers supposed to love their children?" he asked no one but himself. "Why doesn't he love me?" he gripped at the sheets below him.
"I'm here, Exene. I won't leave you, ever. No matter what happens, I promise you, I won't." she reassured, her hands finding their way into his disheveled hair.
They sat in silence for a while, only a few quiet sniffles and sobs coming from the brunette. They nuzzled into her neck, light warmth radiating off of the au ra. It felt nice.
"You know, you're really the only stability in my life, Lana." he laughed lazily, his stuffed nose being audibly evident. Kuhlan smiled and laughed along with them.
"That's.. good. In a bad way." they both chuckled again as Exene slowly lifted himself back up off of his girlfriend.
"Oh.. oh I am so sorry." they said immediately as they looked down at Kuhlans shoulder. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she looked down at her shoulder. It was practically drenched in tears and what she assumed to be snot.
She waved her hand at him dismissively, "Darling, it's fine. Not like it's something a bit of water can't wash off." she reassured as she kissed Exene on the lips, the slight saltiness making her pity him a bit. He'd clearly been crying for a little while before.
"Lana, I.. thank you. Just you being here for me makes me happier than anything and I just," they paused, looking into her eyes. "I love you more than anything in the world. I don't think there's anything I could ever do to repay you for how much you've done for me, in all honesty." they said sheepishly.
Kuhlan smirked and kissed Exene on the lips, "You don't have to 'repay me', Xee. We're in a relationship. Me helping you feel better about this.. situation of yours.. doesn't mean you need to do something big for me, you know. I'm just glad to be of help, since you've done the same for me many times." she replied as she cupped the miqo'te's face into her warm hands.
His lips quivered lightly as he closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face yet again. "I love you, Kuhlan." he said as he learned forward and kissed her deeply, but also made sure not to, you know, slam his face into hers.
As Kuhlan finally freed herself, her cheeks now tainted a light shade of rose, she looked into Exene's mismatched eyes.
"I love you too." she smiled. The words she spoke didn't feel foreign. They felt nice to say out loud, instead of write down. It had a sense of comfort and freedom to it.
A gust of wind flew by the window, leaving trees rustling against the window behind them. The moon shining through it and giving the room a bit of lighting.
A comfortable silence rested between them as they both let themselves fall back into the bed, hands now intertwined.
"So.. want me to bake some cookies?"
Kuhlan looked to the side only to see Exene practically back to normal, a wide grin plastered onto his freckled face. She sighed.
"What kind?"
"Those really sweet ones from the market in Gridania! I spoke to Y'shtola a few weeks ago asking her about the recipe, and she gave it to me after only a bit of persuasion."
She nodded as Exene dragged her to the kitchen by hand in a swift motion. They grabbed all of the utensils and bowls that they needed and looked back at Kuhlan, "Could you take out the eggs and the lavender for me, please?" they asked.
Kuhlan grabbed said ingredients and walked back towards Exene, wrapping her tail around his leg gently. They smiled as they cracked the egg into the bowl, then whisking it.
"You actually, oddly enough, look cute when you bake." she said as Exene turned his head to look at her. "Thanks." he said sincerely.
As they continued baking, Kuhlan watching the process from a fairly close distance, before long the cookies had been finished.
Exene placed them down onto the counter, placing his oven mitts down next to the warm pan that held the warmed pastries.
"They look almost exactly like how Y'shtola made them! I'm impressed, dear." she smiled as she took one for herself, making sure to blow onto it as not to burn her entire mouth.
"Almost?! Oh, how you wound me, love." they said, clearly teasing. Kuhlan smirked and took a small bite from the baked good, nearly analyzing the food.
"It's good." she said blatantly. Exene's expression turned into a 'are you actually serious right now' type of face as she laughed.
"Joking, joking. They're really well made, super sweet. I like it. Didn't expect anything less from you." she smiled as she took another bite from the cookie.
Exene took one for himself, eating nearly the entire pastry in one bite. He raised his brows, "Didn't expect it to work this well, actually. Thought Y'shtola was going to tell me some random ingredients and it would just turn out into one big mess of a pastry." he said.
As the two enjoyed a few more cookies in the kitchen, Kuhlan moved to the couch and Exene soon followed.
As he learned back into a smaller pillow, Kuhlan found herself leaning into him. Exene gently wrapped their arms around her frame, asking her nearly 20 times over if she was comfortable and if their hands were in the right spot.
The couple soon found themselves falling asleep, the sound of the TV playing slowly fading away as they let themselves fall sleep together.