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"We already know he appreciates my jokes -"
"For no reason I can fathom -"
"So I think it's the perfect way to make our intentions clear in a casual manner that doesn't put too much pressure on him."
"We're not telling him we want to Albedo him, Cyno! This is non-negotiable."
"Well, he turned the flowers you chose to communicate your point into a salad, so it's not like your plan was more effective,” Cyno said, delivering the final blow as swiftly and mercilessly as per usual. He added, utterly deadpan: “I think it's time for the expertise of a seasoned adventurer here."
Tighnari rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It was … a good salad."
"Could have used more spice. But that's Mondstadt for you." Cyno tapped his fingers on his casket of tomes in contemplation. "So my plan ... it's a Cyno for you?"
"I am going to kick you out of this inn room. See where you sleep tonight."
Cyno's face barely moved, but the curse of having been with him for years was that Tighnari could read the pleased smugness radiating off the man no problem. Feeling torn between shoving Cyno’s face away and kissing him, Tighnari chose the third option with a big sigh. After all, yesterday’s excursion with Albedo had been very fruitful, and there were a lot of samples still waiting to be pressed and preserved if not in their living glory, then in shape and existence.
Besides, the methodical work usually helped him clear his head - which was full of blue eyes, clever hands, and possibilities.
Letting a festival such as Windblume pass them by when there was a man like Albedo right there … keen-minded, sharp-tongued, and effortlessly fitting with them both in his own ways. And, quite frankly, not very subtle in his own intentions. It would simply not do.
Tighnari touched the petal of a Cecilia, waiting to be preserved without being able to capture the lush beauty of it in bloom in its natural habitat, and he sighed. “We will have to find a way to be clear about things without making his name a sex pun.”
“It is not a sex pun,” Cyno corrected from where he had settled on the floor, methodically laying out his deck. He tended to ponder new strategies to clear his own mind. “It is a euphemism. There is a difference, I am not that crude.”
“It is crude enough.” The truth was, Cyno was right. It could probably work. It would most likely work, because Albedo was as delighted by Cyno’s sense of humour including all its explanations and footnotes as he was by sharing knowledge with Tighnari. Their scientific fields, after all, had overlap but did not match: yet they were equally delighted to listen to each other and share their own expertise.
Tighnari was utterly smitten, and maybe, he just wanted things to be a little … special? Alas … his way of doing things had, in fact, ended up as a salad.
Tighnari sighed deeply. "There must be a compromise between each of our approaches. Look at us! We are attractive and intelligent, it shouldn't be so hard to seduce a man so obviously interested in both of us."
Cyno carefully twirled a card between his fingers - Tighnari knew more than enough to recognize the gentle blues of 'Strategise'. How very apt. "So what do we do?"
"I think you are asking the wrong question," Cyno replied, turning his head to hold direct eye contact.
Tighnari furrowed his brow in painful anticipation. "By the archons, if you are going to repeat -"
"What will we Albedo -"
“There will be no Albedoing ,” Tighnari declared at unacceptable indoor volume, and froze when he heard a pointed knock at the door.
Cyno’s crimson eyes darted over to him and they shared a brief moment of mutual understanding that these walls were way too thin, and whoever was out there had most likely heard their exchange.
Tighnari cleared his throat and approached the door feeling mildly hysterical. It had to be some kind of divine joke that it was Mondstadt’s Chief Alchemist himself, standing there perfectly poised, a Cecilia blossom twisted into his hair and his expression perfectly unruffled.
“Is this a bad moment?” he asked, one corner of his mouth quirking up with a hint of mischief.
He heard that. There is no way he did not hear that!
“Not at all,” Cyno said from behind Tighnari, sounding as measured as ever and buying Tighnari a little time to retain his own calm expression. This was all perfectly fine. Just men discussing the potential seduction of another, with everyone in the room aware of the fact.
"Perfect,” Albedo said, pleased. “I came to discuss an updated version of the itinerary with you. The relevant section is the one for this afternoon, in fact." He lifted the clipboard he was carrying to illustrate.
Tighnari swallowed hard, and forced the awkwardness away. With both Albedo and Cyno so composed, he was not about to act like some youth at the first blush of Spring who had never been infatuated - or more - before. He stepped aside to invite Albedo in, and accepted the clipboard offered to him. "We were supposed to tour the Goth Grand Hotel with Collei, no?"
"Yes," Albedo said calmly, even as he closed the door behind himself and trapped the charged atmosphere with them in the room.
Cyno got up to look over Tighnari’s shoulder as he flipped to the relevant section. “What changed?”
"Collei and Sucrose seemed rather excited to spend more time together. Their bond seems to serve them both a great deal, so I figured giving them space to simply be would be best." Albedo smiled. "I promised I'd be the one to bear the news and field any complaints."
Cyno snorted. "As if we'd mind."
This was all they'd wanted for her - perhaps even more they would have dared to hope. For all their own goals, first and foremost, Cyno and Tighnari had come here to support Collei. Because for everything she'd witnessed here in Mondstadt, all the darkness of her past, this city and its people meant a great deal to her.
If anything, Tighnari was beginning to understand exactly why. That, too, was something he was grateful for.
“As it turns out, my own plans have changed as well,” Albedo said, stepping closer to the simple desk Tighnari had turned into his temporary work station. “Thus, I have taken the liberty of planning this time slot accordingly. We should have until evening for my suggested adjustments. Do you have objections to my presence?”
Next to him, Cyno’s energy shifted. Tighnari could feel it, the moment his goofy husband shifted into a stance more tense, his gaze hungry, watchful. A predator gearing up to hunt. It made his own heart miss a beat even before he read the simple line Further research regarding compatibility.
“None,” Cyno said, low and dark. Tighnari, gripping the paper a little tighter, looked up to see Albedo had lazily been unbuttoning his coat this whole while.
“Excellent,” he said, shrugging it off his shoulders. Cyno’s eyes wandered hungrily along his arms, the bare skin revealed as Albedo continued to tug off his gloves. Tighnari was more drawn to the strange birthmark at Albedo’s neck, its starburst shape just begging to have Albedo’s head tilted back and throat bared to kiss along its lines -
Albedo put his coat over the back of Tighnari’s chair, no hurry in the world despite the burning eyes on him. What a man indeed. “We have thoroughly confirmed our compatibility intellectually and personality wise. Before we decide whether to process or how … I reckon we should confirm our physical compatibility so long as the chance presents itself like this, don’t you think?”
A tremor ran through Cyno’s body, poised and ready as he was, holding himself back from giving in to the single-minded instinct that had been so effortlessly awoken. His gaze cut to Tighnari, urgency in his wordless question for permission. Tighnari licked his lips and relished his own shudder, the way the possibilities left him feeling drunk and aching in the best ways. Then he put two fingers to the small of Cyno’s back and gave him a nudge.
His husband reacted with the immediacy of an arrow fired, taking three strides across the room, no movement wasted. Tighnari watched, breathless, as he pushed Albedo back against the wall, took his face in his hands, and kissed him hard.
The lovely sound Albedo made sent a shock of heat through Tighnari. He watched Cyno’s fingertips shift up, brushing the braid with the Cecilia woven into it as he cupped Albedo’s face to tilt it better, coaxing another gasp from the man.
Hands unsteady, Tighnari placed the itinerary down onto the desk, eyes never leaving the men who had already begun working on their collective hypothesis - that the three of them could work well together, during this journey and perhaps beyond it.
They had time until the evening, Albedo had said. With the noon sun high in the sky as it was, it truly would be more than enough to explore this hypothesis, as thoroughly as they wished to.
By the time Cyno had gotten enough of a first taste, Albedo’s calm assurance had been melted to something softer, leaving him dazed and a little unsteady on his feet. Tighnari knew Cyno’s intensity well, the way he made a man feel like he was the only thing still existing in the world. He was not surprised to find another man who failed to stay immune to such single-minded focus.
Albedo licked his lips, slick and flushed as they were, as if chasing Cyno’s taste on them. And then he lifted his gaze to Tighnari’s, pupils blown and dark. He was not even close to satisfied - the hunger in his eyes compelled Tighnari like a line pulled taut, daring and asking him to come closer.
Tighnari stayed firmly rooted in place, smirking at the impatience Albedo showed - the perfect poise long forgotten.
“You’ve made lovely work of him, Cyno,” Tighnari hummed. “I would daresay that confirms a third of our hypothesis, though it needs a lot more rigorous testing. I will be very happy to observe, of course.”
Albedo reached out, closing his pointer and thumb around Tighnari’s sleeve. For the gentleness of the touch, it felt like a vice, and one Tighnari was more than happy to be bound by. Albedo’s voice was rough, affected, but his words remained steady enough. “Let us confirm the viability of the final part of the equation before further testing, though.”
Cyno shifted, accepting Tighnari into the circle of their bodies, his eyes as hungry as Albedo’s as he waited for Tighnari to make his move.
“You could simply ask me to kiss you, you know,” Tighnari hummed. “But it is only scientifically sound, of course.”
He managed half a step towards Albedo before the man was upon him personally, kissing him with the same fervor Cyno had shown, making Tighnari gasp with the sudden perfection of it. Albedo’s cool fingers settled against Tighnari’s hips like they belonged there, alongside Cyno’s warm touch.
Albedo’s kiss tasted like the promise of a future, and already Tighnari knew their hypothesis confirmed - their compatibility, and his own hopes for the future, blooming to life by this touch alone.
He pressed his smile against Albedo’s lips to share it between them - the assurance and the joy of it all. Cyno’s fingertips trailed up his spine, leaving shivers in their wake. All these hours ahead, and all the future awaiting them like a seed planted that needed only a little attention, and time.
Tighnari was excited to see what it might bloom into, between the three of them.