Work Text:
Tegiri does not like his job.
You kind of pieced this together over a short conversation, early in your relationship. He’d been snuggled into your side, and you were watching his little anime show - the one with the dragon girl who works at a maid cafe or whatever, you’re bad with names - when he’d yawned. You made a little comment about it, and he told you that he was tired from his job.
His tone of voice was bitter as fuck, and when you pressed it a little, he just huffed, and muttered something about how court is stressful and it’s ‘more paperwork than you’d assume’ so you left it at that.
When he comes over to your place after work, or he invites you over, he’s always drained for a while. Tense, resigned, and a little snappy. He’s lucky that sour comments roll off of you like water off of… off of… That one animal that’s waterproof. Look, the point is, you’re really good at just not letting words get under your skin. And it’s not like Tegs ever means to upset you. He might think that’s what he wants, in the moment, but he doesn’t really want to hurt your feelings. So you’ve never held it against him.
You do feel… bad about it.
It’s kind of basic troll instincts. Your mate comes back upset and irritable, you want to soothe his upset feelings over. Not like you could help it, not like it’s bad, but he doesn’t like depending on other people.
Something about being ‘a dark samurai’ who’s ‘destined for the shadows of solitude’ or whatever. It is what it is.
Okay, it’s not what it is. You genuinely don’t feel bad when he snaps at you, you’re just worried about how he’s always so upset after work. Especially after court. Actual legal battles drain all of the happiness out of him like some kind of emotional leech. The build up is a lot of looking around, paperwork, arguing, stress, and then it’s followed by the ultimate headache of actual legal process in action.
Needless to say, he shows up at your hive completely exhausted after it, and… You just pity him.
“Bad day?” You ask, knowing damn well what the answer is. Though, it comes to you in the form of Tegiri groaning and throwing himself bodily onto your recreational platform in front of you. Face-first, arms at his side. Dramatic. “That bad, huh?”
Tegiri makes a little sound of pure agony. Ah, the working class. Must be hard to pull off that kind of grind. “I want to die,” he responds, muffled by your blanket.
You rap your knuckles on his back, and he doesn’t respond. Poor thing. “Hey, babe. Wanna play Pyralball? I’ll let you pick Gyokuu,” you offer. Despite his miserableness, you really want to cheer him up. He just whines. “Come on, it’ll be fun, you know you’ll love stomping my noob ass into the ground,” you prod, and press your palm flat on his back, pushing down a little, just to get his attention.
The resounding series of cracks is horrifying.
Silence settles over your block after, and Tegiri slowly lifts his head to meet your mortified gaze, with a nonchalance you don’t think is appropriate. “I think you just rearranged my entire spine.”
“Yeah, me too, what the fuck, Teg?” You knew that his job was grating on him and way more stress than he needed, but holy shit. Not to that extent. You’ve never heard a spinal column make that kind of noise to that extent. You didn’t even know they could do that. “Do you not like, do any stretches or at least try to crack your back? Like… At all? Ever?”
He rolls over, lazily, to lay flat on his back, and then shakes his head. “Never.”
Alright. Okay. Alright. You are not leaving this the way it is. Your poor little heart, no wonder he’s always tired! He’s got to be exhausted, and tense. Muscle-wise.
You point firmly to the ground. “Lay down so I can crack your back. Fucking shit, Tegiri, you shouldn’t be walking around like that, you’re wound tight enough to die.” He reluctantly does what you ask, and flops down on your floor like a dead fish. You roll your eyes in response, and then get down on your knees next to him. “You’re in pain, so I’m going to choose to ignore what a little shit you’re being,” you inform him.
Tegiri grunts vaguely in response, but you ignore him because you’re already flexing your fingers. This is something you can fix for him. This is something you can actually help. This is something you can do for him. It’s not like there’s many ways you can help Tegiri with his government assigned career, but you can do this.
Deep breath, Zebruh. You got this. Hell yeah you do, you remember learning to do this because Galekh was always hurting his back. Dumb fucker.
Very gently, you brace both of your palms, flat, fingers spread, on his upper back. Push down and up slightly, very fucking softly because he’s delicate and you’re a little nervous, admittedly. But the pops follow immediately and with ease. Amazing.
It also immediately makes Tegiri sigh in relief. “Oh, fuck, that…” He trails off, but you get it. You never realize how bad your back is until you either really fucking hurt yourself, or you finally pop it and feel all of the relief at once.
You move your hands down and repeat the motion, following the cracking noises until they stop and the resistance pushing back on you is at its limit. You are the master of cracking backs, it is you. Once more, right at the small of his back, and it’s considerably less than the previous two, which makes you a little proud. Fuck yes, you’re doing great so far, and you haven’t even accidentally hurt him.
Not to downplay the threat of it, but you are a lot less strong than your peers. You doubt you’d hurt him. But it’s never a definite no, is it? Always a possibility, and the only answer you have for why you wouldn’t is just that you wouldn’t, because he trusts you and you…
Nevermind that. You shake off the thought in favor of bracing your hands on both his shoulders. You put the force into your palms and push, down and forward, at an angle, and Tegiri whines as you force the joints back into place, stretch the muscles, move his bones around or whatever this move does. It’s kind of a weird thing. You don’t actually really know how this stuff works, you just know that it does, and when you back off, Tegiri’s whine turns into a happy little sigh. Fuck yeah.
You scoot up to right by his chest, and take a moment to just… Admire how much more peaceful he looks, already. He’s purring, just a bit, faintly. Your cheeks are hot.
Gently, you reach over his back to grab his opposite shoulder. You take a moment to assess if he’s uncomfortable first, and then you give him fair warning, because you don’t want to hurt him. “I know you’re pretty fit, but this might be kind of an annoying stretch. Just bear with me, alright?”
“I trust you,” Teg murmurs, and your pusher skips a too-pale-to-be-red beat in response.
But you have to shake that off and focus on the task at hand. You pull his arm towards yourself, over his back. This, you get. It’s stretching his muscles in the shoulders and the chest or whatever. He makes a little hissing noise, but that’s all. Your mate is so brave and strong. Even when you have to step over his back to do the other side, he doesn’t even flinch. Trusts you with his back turned.
At this rate, your poor pusher is getting abused. Nonetheless, you do the same with his other shoulder, and this time he’s prepared enough for it that it doesn’t bother him much at all.
Such a strong, dedicated, resilient little guy. You would say something along those lines, but he’d fucking hate it. Can’t stand your grub talking, doesn’t like it when you lather him with too many compliments, gives you a little look like he thinks being soft and vulnerable is bad. Like it’s your fault he’s the cutest little cutie to very cutely cute? So fucking unfair.
You shift your movements to more of a massage, digging your thumbs in, rubbing circles along his shoulders and up the back of his neck. The purring kicks right back up, and you smile fondly despite yourself.
“Cute.”
Tegiri grumbles under his breath at you, but you’re not really listening. Not accepting criticism, sorry. You’re too focused on slowly loosening all of his back muscles, making sure he can move again freely. Enjoying this moment. It’s quiet, just the sound of his purring, really. But it doesn’t feel empty. It feels warm, and full, and you’re more content than you can ever recall being in your life. This guy, man. He makes you do all kinds of things. Makes you feel all kinds of things. Somehow, he makes you enjoy sitting with him on the floor of your block, rubbing circles into his back, just trying to take some of that stress off of him.
He trusts you. He trusts you with his back, his neck, his everything. And for some reason, that trust feels heavy. Like a weighted blanket. It’s heavy with something warm and soothing that settles in your chest, in a place it shouldn’t. Not with him. Not between you two. And yet there it fucking is, despite it all.
You know this isn’t really red. It’s too light, too close, too sensitive, too gentle, too soft. Too pale. Not red. You ask yourself if you even care, and the answer is a resounding ‘not a fucking bit.’
He falls asleep on your floor. You try not to let it get to you.