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“ That’s the problem?” Aether scoffs, eyeing Cyno up and down as the man leaned back in his seat, arms crossed over his chest.
Aether tried to look for the smallest of hits that the man was joking. A crease on his forehead, a twitch at the corner of his lips, or even a raised eyebrow. However, there was nothing to indicate that the General even attempted or had the intention to make a joke about his current issues.
“That is indeed the problem, Aether,” Cyno nodded, not breaking the one sided eye contact. “Tighnari prefers hugging his tail as he sleeps, although I’m always right next to him.”
It didn’t seem like a huge deal to others, but Cyno started to feel more and more inferior to his boyfriend’s tail . It was ridiculous, he knew that. As well as severely out of character for someone of Cyno’s stature, but he didn’t care anymore. It had been around two weeks since Tighnari chose not to hug him anymore, and that got him thinking. Did he do anything wrong? Did he say something that made his boyfriend upset?
“I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about, but if you’re still curious as to why he’s doing that, why not just ash him ?” Aether sighed, pressing his thumb against the crease between his eyebrows, trying to smooth them out.
Tighnari and Cyno, although being friends since they both were attending the Akademiya, had a very rough start in their relationship. Both of them were busy settling in their positions, and they had no time for each other. There were days when neither of them contacted each other, and although Aether came long after they’ve smoothed out their relationship, he could still see some of the consequences of neglecting each other. One of them being their lack of communication.
Two mature men, now doing their best to live together and come home to each other by the end of the night, ended up having communication issues which Aether tried his absolute best to mediate. He saw how Cyno’s eyes were lighting up everytime Tighnari came up in the conversations, and how Tighnari wasn’t bothered when the other was interrupting his research, even if it was just to play Invokation TCG. It was obvious that no matter how rough things between them would get, they would still end up back together, one way or another.
Cyno took a deep breath, resting his hands on his thighs for a second before standing up. “You’re right,” he whispered, but Aether couldn’t miss it since it was so quiet in his home. “I’ll head over right away and speak to him.”
“Okay, maybe not right now…?” Aether’s eyebrow twitched as he tried to remember Tighnari’s patrol hours. “He should be out on patrol with Collei, maybe wait until tonight. You’ll have a better chance of speaking to him then!”
Cyno nodded, “Thank you, traveler.”
With that, he made his way out of Aether’s residence and just chose to head back to his and Tighnari’s shared home. Just thinking about it made a smile tug at the corners of his lips, the memory of how they ended up living together crossing his mind once again.
It was a very rainy day, not surprising weather in the rainforest, but it still caught Cyno off guard. He wasn’t prepared for the rain, so he was caught in the thick of the forest, with only tree leaves to cover him from being drenched completely. Cyno decided to wait there until the rain had stopped, but unluckily, it lasted almost all day. Once he saw that the sun was setting, he started to worry that he might have to walk through the rain towards the closest village he could find, which wasn’t as close as he thought it would be.
Either way, he still thought it was worth a shot. He tried to walk underneath the trees, just to spare himself from an inevitable cold, but he still ended up soaked from head to toe by the time he had reached Gandharva Ville, his original destination. Luck struck him as he finally laid eyes on Tighnari, sitting under a tent, writing in one of his notebooks. He was so focused that Cyno didn’t want to interrupt him, but he still took a deep breath and knocked on one of the wood pillars that were supporting the roof.
Tighnari turned towards him immediately, his eyebrows almost uniting into a line as he saw the state Cyno was in. From then on, they both decided that it was safer for Cyno to move in with Tighnari for the time being, both of them seeing the road from Cyno’s quarters to Tighnari’s house. That night was the last night Tighnari had hugged him in their sleep, and the simple memory of it made Cyno sigh once more. It was a happy memory, truth be told, but everytime Cyno remembered that it was the last time he felt the other’s warmth during the night made him rather sad.
By the time he finished his business at the Akademiya, Cyno thought that it was late enough for Tighnari to finish his forest watcher job as well. And so, he started heading back towards Gandharva Ville, this time trying not to take the short way through the forest. He followed the road, watching as carts and merchants were passing by, kids already heading to their homes after a full day of playing, and the lamps by the side of the road lighting up.
It was a chilly evening, and the air was so clean that he couldn’t help but take a deep breath and close his eyes for a few seconds. It was one of the days where Cyno could finally relax and enjoy the beauty of Sumeru instead of defending it. He looked down at his bare feet walking like that for a few minutes before he finally started to notice the wooden boards at the entrance of Gandharva Ville. He headed straight towards Tighnari’s home, seeing the lamp lit up through the windows, and knocked a few times before opening the door.
Cyno didn’t want to startle him, as there was the risk of being struck by an arrow, or tied up with some vines.
“Come in,” he spoke, not even taking his eyes off of his notes to spare Cyno a glance.
Without hesitation, Cyno walked up to Tighnari and wrapped his arms around his neck from the back, resting his chin on the other’s shoulder. He felt his lover flinch, but he relaxed immediately as soon as he realised who was holding him. Dropping his pen, Tighnari looked over his shoulder at the General, and a tired yet gentle smile spread on his lips.
“Welcome back! I prepare some food, it’s still warm in the kitchen. I’ll join you in a minute,” Tighnari leaned his head back to press a soft kiss on Cyno’s cheek before returning to his notebook.
Cyno didn’t say anything in exchange, since he noticed Tighnari immersed himself in words once again. He just walked to their now shared closet, eyeing his boyfriend by the corner of his eye as he started taking off his clothes, changing into some more comfortable attire. Luckily, Tighnari and Cyno were the same size, so he took the liberty of stealing one of the other’s shirts, combining it with a pair of shorts from himself. Tighnari didn’t even raise his head from his notes as Cyno changed his clothes, which made him sigh in disappointment.
He decided not to think too much into it, since Tighnari was obviously busy with his research, and just headed straight for the kitchen, where his eyes laid onto the delicious food spread out on the table. Tighnari was right, it was still warm and it took all the patience Cyno had to not dive right into one of the dishes. They always ate together, he knew that Tighnari would walk in at any moment and scold him for starting without him.
However, as Cyno waited for what seemed like hours, although it was barely ten minutes, his eyes started to flutter shut. He was tired, he had eremites to chase and merchants to track down, he was physically exhausted and the warm shower he took in his quarters at the Akademiya wasn’t helping in the slightest. Cyno just wanted to lay down next to his lover and sleep until tomorrow morning when he had to wake up and head back to work once more.
“Cyno?” he felt a warm hand on his shoulder, and he flinched awake immediately. “Ah, I’m sorry. I know you must be tired, but you shouldn’t sleep on an empty stomach,” Tighnari spoke with obvious concern in his voice, and Cyno couldn’t agree more.
Over the day, he barely had time to snack on some fruits he would pick from the forest, he needed a proper meal. And what better meal than Tighnari’s home cooked dishes?
Cyno looked up at him, nodded, and then shifted his gaze back to the table filled with warm food. By the looks of it, it wasn’t made long before Cyno arrived, since it was still warm even after he waited for Tighnari to finish his paperwork. With a smile on his lips, he dug into the bowl of food placed in front of him.
They were both silent, enjoying each other’s company as they ate, before standing up to do the dishes together. Tighnari was washing them, Cyno was drying them off with a clean rag before putting them in their designated spot in the drawers and cupboards.
“Naphis asked about you again, Nari,” Cyno finally decided to speak, his voice quiet due to his sleepiness.
Tighnari tried to convince Cyno to head to bed first, and that he can finish doing the dishes himself, but Cyno was stubborn when he wanted to be.
“You had a meeting with the sages?” Tighnari raised an eyebrow as he turned off the water, wiping his hands on a dry towel. “That doesn’t seem to happen often, did anything happen?”
Cyno shook his head, his eyes almost falling close as he tried to keep his balance. He wanted to explain that it was just their monthly meeting, and that it wasn’t anything for him to worry about, but the words didn’t seem to leave his mouth.
“Let’s get you to bed, hm?” Tighnari chuckled, grabbing the rag Cyno was still holding onto and pulling him gently towards their bedroom.
Tighnari’s house was small. The bedroom and kitchen were connected, and there was a separate room for his bathroom. It was small, but comfortable and enough for two people to live in. Unlike Cyno’s room which the Akademiya provided; large and rather empty with just one person living there. However, he knew that Tighnari wouldn’t leave Gandharva Ville and go back to the Akademiya no matter how much or for how long Cyno begged him to.
As soon as his back met the soft mattress, he felt as if he was losing the fight with his eyelids. But he couldn’t fall asleep just yet, he had to speak to Tighnari about his small issue. Aether was right, even though they’ve been in a relationship for such a long time, they still had their communication issues, and fixing that had to start somewhere.
“Nari…?” Cyno rolled on his side, watching as Tighnari was cleaning up the notes from his desk.
“Hm?” Came his answer, making Cyno sigh.
The sigh only caught Tighnari’s attention even more, stopping in his tracks only to shift his gaze towards a sleepy Cyno. He analysed every single inch of his face, trying to figure out what was bothering Cyno, but there was no way of telling what his boyfriend was thinking about. Instead, he placed the pile of paper back on his desk, pushing the chair underneath it, and walked up to sit on the side of the bed, tracing his fingers through Cyno’s soft, silver hair.
“Why do you… Not hug me anymore?” Cyno mumbled, his eyes finally falling close.
However, he still didn’t allow himself to sleep just yet, biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself awake just to hear Tighnari’s answer. Which took a while to come, so Cyno forced himself to sit up at the edge of the bed as well, his head falling onto Tighnari’s shoulder.
“When we sleep, you… Don’t hug me anymore…” This time, he decided to speak even quieter, since he was close enough to Tighnari so the other man could hear him, though his ears were rather sensitive to sounds, so Cyno didn’t doubt that the man would hear him even if he whispered from across the room.
His breath hitched as he heard a soft laugh come from Tighnari, his shoulders shaking along with it. Cyno tensed up, frowning as the thought that maybe he shouldn’t have asked in the first place crossed his mind. But he had to, whether or not Tighnari was laughing at his foolishness, he had to speak his mind.
“You always curl up in a corner on your own, I thought that maybe you didn’t like being held,” Tighnari brought his hand up to Cyno’s hair once again, patting the top of his head before resting his fingers hear his nape. “When you got sick, two weeks ago, you pulled so far away from me that you almost fell off the bed…”
Processing those words was harder for a sleepy Cyno than he thought, but once he did, his cheeks lit up into the deepest and brightest shade of red Tighnari had ever seen. Of course the other was unaware of his own sleeping habits, and of course that once he found out, he would turn into a tomato. That was one of the main reasons why Tighnari never mentioned it to Cyno, to spare him the embarrassment, but he had to admit that the sight was somewhat worth it.
“I thought…” Cyno took a deep breath, shaking his head as if to banish bad thoughts, and then climbed under the soft handmade blanket which Collei gifted Tighnari on his birthday. “Nevermind…” He mumbled once more, hiding his face in his pillow.
Tighnari felt something tug at his heart, and a wide smile spread on his lips. Seeing Cyno so vulnerable was rare, and he knew that one of the main reasons why was that he was very sleepy. However, he decided to take full advantage of it by sliding under the blanket as well, wrapping his arms around Cyno’s waist to drag him close enough that their bodies were stuck together. To take it to the next level, Tighnari coiled his tail around Cyno’s leg and nuzzled his face in the other’s nape.
He pressed a soft kiss there, and he could clearly feel the shivers run through Cyno’s body before he relaxed in Tighnari’s arms. It was a certain type of warmth which made Cyno drift off to sleep almost immediately, all worries soon vanishing from his mind. They had to continue the conversation in the morning, when both of them were well rested and clear headed. But still, even if Cyno just asked the question and received the answer, it was enough to serve as reassurance for the future.
Who would’ve known that the reason of his worries were Cyno’s stupid sleeping habits?