Chapter Text
“They say General Mahamatra adopted a teeny tiny kid!” Amal leans over the mushroom samples to get his attention. “I can scarcely imagine it! All strict and uptight and—”
Aslan gently pushes her backward so she wasn’t in the light as he prepped his sample to go under the microscope. “I’m not surprised. Cyno’s not as intimidating as you students think he is. Once you’ve seen him playing card games or nearly blowing himself up playing with potions as he often did in his own student days you’ll know what I’m talking about.”
Hmmm… The plant cells don’t seem much changed despite the different growing conditions.
Amal is gaping at him when he looks up from the microscope again. “You knew Cyno as a student?!”
Aslan laughs. “He might have white hair, but I assure you I was a professor here before he even walked through the front door as a tiny tod. I’ve seen generals before him and hopefully, I’ll never have to see one after him—I’ve become fond of him, over the years. Now, go get me the pot we planted these in. You said something about a child?”
Amal nearly bounces over to the small greenhouse in the corner of the room. “Yes! Apparently, something was going on with her? An acquaintance called him over about a Sumerian child lost in a foreign land—my friend wasn’t sure if it was Fontaine or Mondstadt, though I suppose it could’ve been either. Both have connections to the Akademiya, after all.” She rummages through the pots to find the right one. “I’m a little sad, though, Mina said that despite the adoption he already took the kid to his partner. A forest watcher or something? Quite a bit away from here, at least.”
Aslan hums as she hands him the pot. He wonders how much of it is true. Then he puts it out of his mind to look at his specimen again.
The next morning it becomes quite apparent that Amal still has some way to go as a student checking her sources, because he runs straight into Cyno carrying a teeny tiny green-haired child on his hip as he strides towards the city gates—away from the Akademiya instead of toward it like Aslan is.
The child is covered in bandages, and frightfully thin and small in ways that make it very obvious what kind of situation Cyno must’ve gotten her out of. It smells of more than just “a Sumerian child lost in foreign parts” but Aslan did not become a lauded professor by not knowing when to stick his nose into his student’s business and when to refrain from satisfying his ever-growing curiosity.
Still, as Cyno stops to give a short, respectful bow to his elder, Aslan cannot help but try to catch a glimpse of her. Two big, purple eyes peer back at him from beneath the shaggy mop of green hair. Aslan smiles at her, but her eyes widen before she buries her head into Cyno’s chest to hide.
Aslan chuckles—what a shy little thing! “Heading to Tighnari?” he asks Cyno.
Cyno nods, rubbing the child’s back carefully as he hitches her higher up his hip to support her better. “He’s far closer to what Collei needs right now. I’ll be back in about two weeks.”
The child—Collei, he said?—grips his robes so tightly her knuckles turn white. Cyno gives a low rumble, “Hey now, I said two weeks, right? I’ll only go once you feel comfortable. If you don’t, you can go back with me.”
Little Collei says nothing, only snuggles even closer. Cyno sighs noiselessly, shaking his head at Aslan as if to say: Children, you know how it is.
Aslan wouldn’t, in fact, know how it is, because he gave up on family life long ago in order to pursue the beautiful study of amurta, but he can’t help but laugh nonetheless. “May your journey be safe, General.”
As he watches Cyno leave the city gates with his precious cargo, he wonders when exactly his students got together, before shrugging it off: after all, there was not one person in the Akademiya who didn’t know where that was heading since their student days.
That said, he’s glad he’s never been one of the people who had betted on them getting together on a certain date. He’s pretty sure that Sage Naphis is set to lose a lot of money there.
He forgets about the whole ordeal until the ordeal itself tumbles through his lab door, dressed in an adorable poncho and bearing her father’s dendro green. “Hello! Is this Professor Aslan’s place? Master Tighnari send me with a paper you asked for?”
Aslan blinks. “Is that you, Collei?”
She blinks back. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry! Have we met before?”
Aslan waves her away as he puts a bookmark into his reference material. “It was only once, years ago. You were so small I could scarcely believe it.” He laughs. “I remember the whole city being in a tizzy over General Mahamatra walking around with a child. One of my students at the time in particular—”
Someone knocks on the door behind Collei, and she jumps a little, only just barely holding on to the bundle of paper in her arms. The door opens and Amal steps through. “Aslan, do you have the student roster ready? I need it to complete the administration for the upcoming semester.”
Aslan chuckles, pushing his glasses up his nose bridge. “Ah, speak of the devil and he shall appear! Amal, I’m sure you recall Cyno and Tighnari’s little girl?”
Amal’s eyes widen. “This is her?” she asks him, only to abruptly turn towards Collei, a little manically. “This is you?”
Collei takes a step back, an unsure look on her face. “I… guess? I’m Collei from the Forest Rangers, if that’s what you mean?”
Amal rubs her neck sheepishly. “Ah, I’m sorry for scaring you! It’s just there have been so many rumors! You’re Cyno and Tighnari’s daughter, right? I swear, the betting pool about when they got together still hasn’t been resolved, but at least we have proof they’re together now. Nothing clearer than having a kid together, right?”
Collei puts the papers down on one of the desks. “Well, you’re half right?”
Amal cocks her head, a little disappointed. "So they aren't your parents?"
"Oh no, they adopted me, alright! It's just that they aren't involved themselves." Collei shrugs.
And Aslan, who has seen Cyno and Tighnari do their whole mating dance since they were only a little older than Collei herself right now, chokes on his own spit. “What do you mean they're not involved?!"
Collei makes a helpless gesture and bumps into the very desk she put the papers on in the process. She winces. “They just aren’t? It would be nice, though, if they got together!”
Aslan groans, head in his hands. “Naphis is going to have my head for reporting their relationship status wrong. That particular betting pool’s already been paid out!”
Amal leans forward. “They never have to know, though,” she whispers, “if we matchmake them before the Sage finds out.” She nudges Collei, who looks startled but happy to be included. “You in?”
“I-I’m in!” Collei stutters, and Aslan sighs.
“You don’t leave me much choice, do you?”
They get to planning.
“We have to make them get closer. All that distance is doing their relationship no good. How about we get Tighnari to return to the Akademiya?” Amal muses.
“That would be perfect!” Aslan can already imagine the wonders Tighnari would do for the department.
Collei shakes her head. “That wouldn’t work, though, Master is needed in the forest and his actual job notwithstanding, his research requires him to be in the jungle. He doesn’t want to go.”
Amal stares at her. “Who wouldn’t want to go back to the Akademiya.”
Aslan hums. “Tighnari always has been an eccentric.”
Before Collei can get offended about that, Amal distracts her. “Why do you call him Master, anyway, if he’s your father?”
Collei perks up. “I recently turned old enough to join the patrol, so I refer to Papa as Master on duty as is appropriate in work settings!” She huffs. “The other forest rangers were stupid about it, though. They were all ‘You’re twelve and we’re humoring you’. Like, they actually said that! I’m fifteen!” Her puffed-out cheeks make her look like a squirrel, but neither Aslan nor Amal say anything as they try their utmost to keep the corners of their mouths from twitching up.
Back in his hut, Tighnari stops grinding medicine to sneeze for the nth time that day. Cyno puts the cards he was sorting down on the table to lean forward and put a hand against his forehead. “Are you coming down with something?”
Tighnari’s tail twitches. “I should get some nilotpala lotus to make a fever reducer just in case… If I have it, it’s likely to spread to the troops.”
“You truly are a general,” Cyno chuckles, the orange light of the evening sun catching on his white hair. “Maybe someone’s just talking about you.”
Tighnari laughs. “That many people mentioning me in one day? That would certainly be something!”
He takes a quick look out of the window. The sun is going down, the sun down painting everything blue-orange-pink. “Accompany me to harvest some flowers? The luminescent effect is quite striking at night.”
The corner of Cyno’s mouth quirks up. “I’m sure it is,” he says, putting on his cloak. “I’m sure it is.”
“What do you mean, they’re not together,” Alhaitham says as he nearly drops his research, in line behind them in the café.
Collei winces. That’s the fourth person today who found out… She wonders if leaving Professor Aslan behind for their coffee run was such a great idea. It seems his presence was the only thing that kept Amal somewhat restrained. Speaking of—
Amal’s eyes brighten as she turns around, clasps her hands around Alhaitham’s and breathes, “Welcome to the cause, comrade.”