Chapter Text
“What a waste of time.”
The complaint came under his breath with a biting tone as T’suri shrugged off his coat, falling backwards onto his nearby couch with a heavy sigh. The people down at the Wolves’ Den recently called adventurers across the realm to try out a new game they invented, and his competitive nature took to the concept immediately. Naturally, of course, not everyone shared the same level of competitiveness - or the same level of skill. He had endless games fraught with bad teamwork, bad sportsmanship, and more than a lifetime’s worth of bad calls, so needless to say his mood was not a positive one. Sinking back into the plush fabric, he only had a moment’s reprieve before his ears perked up - someone was at the door. Semi-relieved at the fact he quickly recognized the grumbling outside to be Khein’a (meaning he didn’t have to get up from his sulking position), he closed his eyes and let the last few moments of quiet wash over him before the door swung open.
“What a waste of time!”
He was never in the business of keeping his emotions at bay, after all.
Khein’a huffed angrily as he shook his boots off, clearly annoyed at the amount of effort it took when already frustrated. His spear gave a quiet thunk as he leaned it against the wall, his jacket (if you could call it that, really) was hung next to the one already on the coat rack - and this was finally when he noticed he wasn’t alone. T’suri heard him turn to look at the couch, and as footsteps shuffled over, he cracked an eye open; Khein’a froze, suddenly looking apologetic.
“I’ve been awake.”
A sigh of barely concealed relief. “Good. I thought I woke you.”
T’suri closed his eyes again, offering only a noncommittal hmm as he continued his brooding session. The couch’s weight shifted as Khein’a sat down next to him, a sigh drawn from him not soon after T’suri felt a head come to rest on his shoulder.
“And what were you up to that has you so down?” Khein’a prompted, clearly having noticed the more-disdainful-than-usual state of his companion.
T’suri scoffed. “Dealing with the idiocy of fools that fancy themselves good fighters.” He didn’t have to see Khein’a roll his eyes to know it happened, though he knew it wasn’t derogatory. “If I have to hear one more person waiting for a match talk about how they’ve reached…diamond, was it? Regardless, it may drive me insane.”
Khein’a gave a pained laugh. “Tell me about it.” T’suri hadn’t expected an agreement - sympathy, maybe, or for Khein’a to call him a stick in the mud, but not agreement. His eyebrow quirked upwards as he shifted to look down at where Khein’a lay on his shoulder. “I assume you were the same, then?”
“Doing that stupid game in the Wolves’ Den? Yeah, duh. So is everybody.” Khein’a let out another sigh, and T’suri almost felt bad for him, were he not being a drama queen. Though he hadn’t seen Khein’a during his time waiting there, it had been completely packed with people to both edges of the dock, so it’s not like they would have been able to find each other. “That stupid ranking system is a pain in the ass. All I do is bounce up and down between the same two ‘stars’ or whatever. I’m over it.”
So it hadn’t just been him.
T’suri couldn’t help but think he should intervene somehow. “You can’t blame your losses on everyone else, you know.” Despite the fact that -
“Isn’t that what you were doing?”
…So he was caught. Khein’a laughed at the embarrassed silence from his husband before letting his entire weight fall against the seeker, clearly worn out from the day so far. “Though, you know, I wanted to ask. Do all Red Mages really have to yell out their attacks like that? I thought it was just you, honestly.”
As if T’suri wasn’t embarrassed before, this time he felt his face heat up. With the lack of response, Khein’a merely kept going - “Though, I think it’s impressive you can remember all those complicated names. Kind of makes stealth hard, thoowww?! Ow, Suri, c’mon -”
In the middle of Khein’a’s teasing, a hand had reached up to tug at his ear with no small amount of force.
“Quiet.”
“Huh, you really are grumpy, aren’t you. Fine, I’ll shut up.” T’suri felt the smile on Khein’a’s face grow. “For now.”
Somehow, the response of complete silence prompted Khein’a to disregard his promise entirely.
“You sure your teammates weren’t just distracted by how good youuuuuow ow ow ow ow. Quiet! Being quiet!”