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Heartbreak. That’s what it was at first. The repeated stabs of a knife of some sort was being planted into your chest. Across the room was him: the boy you loved so dearly. His smile was endearing, his laugh was loveable, and his persona an addiction to be around. His dark raven hair, tinted in a lemon lime green and ears perked up in excitement. At the moment he was experimenting on a plant, laughing and smiling. But not at you. Not anymore.
“ Very funny, Cyno. I’ll let you know that I have to get back to work. You’re distracting me .” he spoke the last sentence in the form of a singing voice. Cyno leaned his elbow onto the wooden table, smirking in response.
“Maybe that’s a good thing, no?” Tighnari rolled his eyes, but kept his lips in an easy smile. You stood far off near the doorway of Tighnari’s laboratory, observing the two in love. You were frozen in horror, your eyebrows twitched in a wicked hurt while your tears were battered in your eyes. It hurt. Oh how it hurt so bad. The one sided love stood once he broke off your relationship with him, claiming that he was in love with someone else. It was clear on who it was weeks later. The constant flirting, the exchanged looks, the disappearing off to who knows where. Probably to make out.
One time you found the two in the tree you and Tighnari used to hang out in. The two were laughing and exchanging love with one another. Upon this discovery, you ran off in tears, the heartbreaking notice too painful to succumb to.
One thundering day, you ventured out to visit Cyno upon Collei’s orders. He was waiting around near the sign of Tighnari’s laboratory.
“General Cyno, sir?” he turned to face you at the mention of his name and nodded, “Ah, yes? Something the matter?” The thunder boomed overhead while the rain pattered along the roof of your head. The sun hardly peeked through the clouds.
“Oh, nono. Just concerned about Tighnari’s whereabouts. Collie’s orders. He hasn’t been back in awhile.” Cyno’s mouth made an ‘o’ shape, sticking up his right pointer finger to the sky.
“He’s out in the forest collecting dendro substances. Orrrr so he told me. I’ll be sure to report back to the kid when he’s returned, yeah?” He faced away from you, his ears bobbing while he swayed. You frowned when his eyes were out of view, suddenly remembering Tighnari. You hoped he was okay.
Later that evening, Tighnari returned to his laboratory with his stash full of items and dendro-associated materials. You were there to make sure he actually returned, and fortunately, he did. With a few cuts and injuries of course.
“Tighnari?” He glanced up at you, dumping his satchel while the items scattered about on the table.
“Ah, hey, y/n. You’re here to inspect me, yes?”
“I am. I can already see a few injuries located on your upper arm.”
“Well, there’s no need. I need to go back out to grab a couple more things. There’s no point on checking me if I’m heading back out.” You sighed, approaching him from across the table. It was peculiar that someone like him would say that. Maybe he really had changed.
“Tighnari, that doesn’t matter. You have open wounds. Even the slightest bit of infection can cost you your life out here, and you know it.”
“Well,” he started, sorting his items into different corresponding piles. “I eat healthy, so there’s a chance I should take that risk. I promise, I’ll be fine.”
“Tighnari-” He gave you a look that you couldn’t resist and you sighed, forcing your blushing face away.
“Fine, but I want you back in less than twenty minutes.”
“Youuu got it!”
That’s the thing though. He wasn’t. An hour later, you hurried to find Cyno who was conversing with a worried Collei near the outskirts of Tighnari’s home. She was waving her hands around and that meant she was freaking out.
“Cyno, you said that he’d-”
“I’ll find him. Don’t worry.”
“That’s the thing, Cyno. I am worrying!” You entered the conversation, a tusk of breeze whisking past the two of them. It caught their attention and they turned their heads to face you.
“Any leads?” Your question caused the two of them to look down, and Collei glanced at Cyno who held his lip between his teeth. She searched for a reaction or answer out of him, yet there was none.
“Ahem, don’t worry. I said I’d find him, and that’s what I’ll do. Dead or alive.”
“ Don’t say that!” Collei shouted, her voice cracking.
“It’s the hard truth, Collei. If he’s dead, we need to know.” Collei stormed off, leaving Cyno with you and his inner thoughts.
“Last I saw him was with you. So what do you have?” he quietly asked. Yet his question sounded like he was accusing you of theft. You gave him a blank look and that’s when Cyno froze.
“So we have nothing to go on? Jesus.” he rubbed his temples and brushed past you.
“I’ll find him, even if it’s the last thing I do.”
Two more hours went by and neither of them returned. You watched over Collei who was now asleep on her desk. You hoped she was having a good dream besides all this chaos. The night drew darker and you were starting to worry about the both of them now.
“Where could you be, Tighnari..” you wondered aloud as sleep began to enclose your mind. It was evident in your body features that you were tired and began to drift. You decided that Collei wasn’t going to wake up, not even from the bark of a boar, considering her snoring, so you turned off the light and made your way to your own cabin. That’s when you saw him.
Cyno.
He was painted in blood from head to toe, but he wasn’t bleeding.
“y/n! y/n!” he called your name in a shaking shout.
“Come quick, please !” Your body jolted in a frenzy and now you were wide awake. You ran to him while he grabbed your wrist and rushed you inside your own house.
Minutes passed by and you finally gave Cyno a cup of nice beguin juice to calm him down. You sat in front of him, focused and curious. You gave him time and the poor boy looked frightened. It was hard to frighten someone like him yet here he was, looking down at the ground in pure silence while his eyes clouded over in a haze. He didn’t even drink his juice.
“Cyno?” he flinched at the call of his own name, darting his eyes to meet your own. You bit your lip.
“Are you ready?” he hesitated but gave you a curt nod.
“I found Tighnari.” He started, hope beginning to arise within you, but then Cyno held up a finger.
“So where is he?” you asked, swallowing a lump in your throat. Cyno tightly closed his eyes, looking as if he was fighting back tears, but then put down his cup onto the table, searching through his bag. Then there it was, the yellow flower that Tighnari kept located on his clothing. Yet this time, it was soaked in blood, draining the original color of the flower into a pink.
“This,” Cyno started, “is all that’s left of him.”
He wasn’t with you. Not anymore.