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“Happy monthiversary, my padisarah,” Cyno sleepily murmurs into his boyfriend’s shoulder blades.
“Did you know there are moths that are repelled by light?”
“I did not know that.” He places soft kisses on the skin he can reach without moving too much.
“The Mormo Maura for example, or as I’m sure you would prefer to call it, the Old Lady, is negatively phototactic.”
Cyno snickers. “Yes, I would prefer to call it that. How big do they get?”
“Their wingspan ranges from 55 to 65 millimetres.” Tighnari turns around to face him. “Big.” His eyes are sparkling.
Cyno kisses his nose. “Why are we talking about moths?”
“Ah, your ‘monthiversary’ made me think of moths.”
“Ah, of course.” He strokes his pillow-creased cheek.
“Happy mothiversary, Cyno.”
—
Tighnari is inspecting a leaf when Cyno walks up behind him and wraps his arms around his waist. “Happy anniversary.” He softly kisses the side of his neck.
“Again? We had one last week.” He lets go of the leaf and scribbles something in his notepad.
“That was for becoming a couple. This is for our first kiss.” He squeezes him a little tighter.
“Right, because it took you a whole week to find the courage to do that.” Cyno can hear the smile in his voice.
“Considering it took me years of pining to ask you out, I think a week is quite impressive.”
“That’s true. So when are we having sex?”
Cyno drops his arms. “I have to go.”
Tighnari’s laughter follows him.
—
“Happy anniversary.” He flops down on top of Tighnari on the bed, who takes Cyno’s face into his hands and squeezes a little.
“What is today?”
“The first time you said you loved me.”
Tighnari ponders. “That was years ago, Cyno, before we even got together.” Then realisation comes with a smile. “Do you have a list and now that we are a couple you’re revealing them all?”
“I have to keep track of a lot of things for my work, time stamps and such. At some point you just… slipped into them.”
He squeezes Cyno’s face some more. “I love you so much.”
—
As Cyno almost dozes off with his head in Tighnari’s lap and his fingers running through his hair, he remembers to tell him, “Happy anniversary, Nari.”
Tighnari looks down from the book he’s reading. “What for?”
“The first time I heard you laugh out loud.”
He smiles. “What made me laugh?”
Cyno’s face grows sour. “Some student.”
“Oh, it wasn’t one of your jokes?” Tighnari lightly tickles his cheek.
“I have a different date for that.”
—
“Happy anniversary, my beloved.”
Tighnari looks up from where he was kissing Cyno’s thigh. “Yes?”
“Three years ago today we saw a turtle together for the first time.”
Tighnari looks at his face, his thigh, his face again. “And?”
“And nothing.”
Cyno loves turtles.
—
Tighnari stares as Cyno walks through the door in a black sheer blouse with embroidered flowers on it and tight trousers, also black. Golden earrings adorn his face.
“What’s all that for?”
Cyno walks up to him and kisses the corner of his mouth. “Let me take you to dinner?”
“Special occasion, is it?” He traces the Nilotpala Lotus on Cyno’s shirt.
“Anniversary. The first time you laughed at one of my jokes.”
Tighnari gives him that same laugh. “Which one was it?”
"What do you call a fish wearing a tie? Sofishticated."
Tighnari doesn’t tell him it was Cyno laughing at his own joke that made him laugh that day.
—
“Happy first time you let me touch your ears anniversary.”
“Archons, that made me so horny.”
Cyno drops his spear.
—
“So that’s why Sumpter Beasts faintly smell like caramel. Why are you looking at me like that?”
Adoration. “Happy anniversary,” Cyno tells him.
Tighnari takes his hand and kisses it softly. “Which one?”
“The first time you info-dumped on me.”
He giggles and kisses his wrist. “What about?”
“Dirt.”
—
“Happy… never mind, actually.”
Tighnari walks over to the desk and puts his hands on Cyno’s shoulder. He raises his old notebook for Tighnari to read.
Tighnari called me pretty today.
—
“Happy anniversary, dearest,” Tighnari tells him one Sunday morning.
Cyno frowns. “I don’t have one listed for today?”
“One year ago today, I realised I was in love with you.”
He nuzzles Tighnari’s neck. “What happened?”
“It was at the Akademiya, you were making your way over to the Grand Sage’s office, you bumped into a potted plant and apologised to it.”