Chapter Text
In the months following the coup against the sages and freeing Lesser Lord Kusanali, life in Sumeru slowly and steadily changed. Change was inevitable, so Alhaitham had not been naive enough to think his own life would be unaffected. But he had thought the major changes would be temporary. He agreed to be Acting Grand Sage until a permanent Grand Sage was found, and then he planned to go back to life more or less as it was before he helped reinstate a god.
Finding a romantic partner was never part of the equation. Alhaitham honestly thought he wasn’t the sort to ever desire romance, but the General Mahamatra was the expectation of many of Alhaitham’s rules and beliefs about himself.
Cyno’s intelligence, diligence, and stubborn, quiet kindness had captivated Alhaitham. Through the hard months of restructuring the Akademiya and Sumeru as a whole, that captivation grew and evolved into love. Sometimes Alhaitham still could not believe that love was returned.
Returned it was, though.
Alhaitham had believed himself incapable of desiring romance, but he would be bereft without it now.
Their love was a quiet kind. In the beginning, their friends (Kaveh) often made comments about how un- romantic Alhaitham and Cyno were together. But they were not privy to the moments when the world became too much for Alhaitham to handle, and Cyno immediately noticed and tried to make it more bearable. They did not know how Cyno allowed himself to truly take off his General Mahamatra mantle and be vulnerable at Alhaitham’s side.
Their romance was not the conventional kind, and Alhaitham preferred that. But the words that escaped his mouth one fateful evening were all he could say as his mind went blank and his heart went racing.
“Why don’t we get married?” Cyno asked while getting into bed, tone no different than if he were considering breakfast options.
Only Cyno possessed the ability to render Alhaitham so speechless, and so the idiotic words left his lips. “That’s not very romantic.”
The low light of the bedside lamp danced across Cyno’s grin. It was a rare, smug one that few were graced with. Alhaitham received it whenever Cyno caught him off guard.
“Well, we’re not exactly the romantic type.”
Alhaitham would be the first to agree, but this was also marriage Cyno randomly proposed. Proposed! Was this supposed to be a proposal ? As they were getting settled to go to sleep, a night no different from the last?
“What spurred this idea?” Alhaitham asked instead, pushing himself upright to lean against the headboard. This was not a conversation to be had while prone.
Cyno took that as an invitation to slot himself under Alhaitham’s arm and cuddle into his side. He looked up, cheek pressed into Alhaitham’s chest, bangs falling back so both vibrant red eyes met green.
“I’ve all but moved in these past couple of months. I’ve been using my room in the matra barracks more as a second office than a place of residence. If you’re amenable to it, I thought I might as well officially move in.”
The logic was sound. It was Alhaitham himself who had started the process of moving Cyno in, convincing him to leave more and more of his things in Alhaitham’s house until he rarely had to go back to the matra barracks. However-
“I’m not sure how this relates to marriage.”
“It’s regulation for matra to live in the barracks unless housed with family in the city. As my husband, you would thus be my family and I could officially move out of the barracks.”
My husband . Alhaitham hadn’t put much thought to marriage. It was merely a certificate from the government acknowledging their relationship. It wasn’t necessary. But something about those words sent a hot shiver down Alhaitham’s spine.
“Ah, so you just want me for my house.”
A sharp bark of laughter from Cyno shook them both. He was quick to cover his mouth to smother his following giggles, ever so considerate of Alhaitham’s unpreferred roommate. His unrestrained joy made Alhaitham smile, even as his brain whirled.
Did he want to get married? He certainly wanted to call this house their home. He never wanted to have Cyno staying the night in the city anywhere other than his bed and his arms. Would anything fundamentally change in their relationship? Not really. Alhaitham had no intentions of letting Cyno go, and knew Cyno felt the same. Marriage would merely be the paperwork expressing those intentions.
Cyno’s laughter had quieted, and he pushed himself up to stare at Alhaitham as he waited for him to process his thoughts. A crease of worry furrowed its way onto his forehead and his jaw minutely moved, betraying how he was chewing on the inside of his lip. Alhaitham focused on the brilliant man beside him and gently brushed his thumb across the worry line.
“I’m sorry to suddenly spring this on you,” Cyno blurted out, as if the words had been contained in that single crease on his forehead. “I know we haven’t previously discussed marriage, but I assumed we held the same belief that it’s less a development of a relationship and more a bureaucratic declaration. I shouldn’t had assumed- You know what the say about assumptions, after all, they-”
“Cyno,” Alhaitham interrupted, trailing his fingers down the side of Cyno’s face to brush against his lips, and then to pull the bottom one out from between his teeth where it immediately returned once Cyno stopped talking. “You were right in your assumption. I do believe the same. You just caught me by surprise, and I had to reconsider my beliefs in relation to us. And now I can say I still feel the same. I would love for you to officially call this home, and if marriage is the way to do that, then I’ll happily call you my husband.”
A beautiful blush filled Cyno’s cheeks as he smiled wide and delighted. He leaned in to give Alhaitham a quick kiss, then snuggled down into his side again.
“Wonderful, I have the paperwork on the desk already filled out. Just needs your signature. If we submit it to the registrar office in the morning, we can get our license by the end of the week.”
One of many reasons Alhaitham loved this man; he wasted no time in going after what he wanted and was relentlessly efficient in the process.
“I have no complaints,” Alhaitham said, sliding down into the pillows, holding Cyno close as he moved. To think, by the end of the week he could legally call Cyno his husband. Wait.
Alhaitham pinched Cyno’s side with a frown. “That’s just the license. Don’t we need a ceremony to get the certificate?”
“Stop that,” Cyno grumbled, capturing Alhaitham’s hand and snuggling it close to prevent future harassment. “The registrar can officiate us. I figured you’d rather not make a big production out of it. I asked Nahida to be our witness.”
Relief crashed over Alhaitham. The last thing he wanted was a wedding and all the fuss around it. Archons help them if Kaveh caught wind. He’d certainly want to, ugh, wedding plan. Yes, a simple exchanging of words in front of an official was all that was necessary.
Alhaitham hugged Cyno closer to kiss the crown of his head. “Knew I loved you for a reason.”
Cyno laughed and pressed a kiss to his chest. “Love you too, Haitham.”
On the morning of the new work week following his nuptials with Alhaitham, Cyno found himself uncharacteristically airheaded. He almost forgot his helmet while leaving the house, and now he had left behind in his office a report necessary for the start-of-week meeting. Having to backtrack from the meeting room to his office was going to have him arriving at the same time as the new recruits. They were punctual, Cyno would accept nothing less, of course. But he usually was in the meeting room waiting for his matra to inquire on how they were doing personally before getting into work talk. It was good for team building.
If this forgetfulness were the result of anything else, Cyno would be making silent pledges to himself to never allow such behavior again. However, in this one instance… Cyno was willing to cut himself some slack. There was no stopping his smile as he searched his desk for the missing report.
He was a newlywed afterall.
Cyno had meant every word he spoke to Alhaitham when proposing the idea- Or well, when simply proposing . The concept of marriage as a hallmark for a relationship was one he did not put much weight into. He would have been just as content spending the rest of his life calling Alhaitham his partner.
But there was no denying the joy that bubbled up whenever Cyno thought about his husband .
Now that they were married, Cyno had to slightly adjust his views. He already knew Alhaitham was devoted to him and planned to spend the rest of their lives together. But having it in writing, recognized by the law and their Archon… It made it feel all the more real.
So, under extenuating circumstances that would never be repeated, Cyno did not swear off this happiness and simply laughed at himself for letting it distract him from inconsequential things. Alhaitham had certainly been amused this morning as he tugged Cyno back into the house to kiss him farewell and to drop his forgotten helmet on his head.
Report in hand, Cyno returned to the meeting room, intent on focusing on his work for the rest of the day. Or at least, until his lunch break where he would allow himself to fawn over thoughts of his husband . Maybe he would treat himself and seek Alhaitham out to have lunch together…
Frantic, hushed voices in the hall leading to the meeting room had Cyno halting on instinct to eavesdrop.
“He’s not there, what do we do?!”
“The rest of the matra don’t look concerned; I’m sure everything is fine and you all are just overreacting.”
“Or maybe they DON’T KNOW!”
“What if he died ?!”
“They would know. All of Sumeru would know! We would not be finding out from the cleaning staff!”
The latest batch of new recruits stood huddled together, peeking into the meeting room as they speculated on the absence of… Cyno truly had no idea who they could possibly be talking about.
“Is everything alright?” Cyno asked as he approached them.
They yelped and jumped apart. It was impossible to parse through their overlapping voices as they tried to explain themselves. With a raised palm, Cyno brought them to silence.
“One at a time.”
The boldest of the group, Jeetendra, stepped forward to exclaim, “General Cyno, sir, we’re so glad to see you’re well!”
“Why would you suspect I wouldn’t be?”
The voice of reason, Nilofar, spoke up then, gesturing to her peers with poorly concealed disdain. “We saw your room getting cleaned out this morning. The cleaning staff didn’t know why you’ve suddenly left the barracks, so they jumped to insane conclusions.”
The spectacle had begun to draw attention from those waiting for the meeting, but Nilofar’s words had the entire room suddenly focused on them. Cyno held back a sigh and ushered his new recruits inside. Well, it seemed the cat was out of the bag. Already.
“What’s this? Cyno, don’t tell us you got married and we’re only finding out because you’ve finally left the barracks!”
“Why are you even asking? Of course , that’s what our dear general has done. Would you expect anything less?”
“I’m honestly more surprised we’re finding out now and not from all the gossip about the wedding. How in the world did you keep that under wraps, General?”
A year ago, Cyno never would have entertained this sort of conversation with his matra. However, a year ago his matra never would have dared to be openly friendly and outright tease him like this. His former peers and superiors had done their best to support him when he was appointed as general, which meant putting their personal relations aside so Azar and his spies couldn’t use them to undermine Cyno’s authority. Now that Azar was gone and the matra answered to Lord Kusanali… well Cyno’s matra were getting brazen . But Cyno didn’t have the heart to shut them down, not when he knew they still respected him. Not to mention Tighnari said the teasing helped humanize Cyno in a way his puns never would. The latest recruits weren’t terrified of him, so maybe Tighnari was on to something.
This understanding did not stop the blush that heated Cyno’s cheeks as he pulled the brim of his helmet down and pushed his way through the room.
“It’s not as big a deal as you’re making it out to be,” he said, resisting the urge to grumble like a petulant child. “I’ve already been essentially living with Alhaitham for the past few months. We got married this weekend so I could officially move in with him.”
The cacophony of voices that followed suit almost had Cyno shutting the whole conversation down. This wasn’t worth such a fuss. People got married all the time. Yes, his marriage was a bit unconventional, but no worse than other tales he’d heard of. Before Cyno had to step in to bring order back to the room, a barking laugh rose above the noise and brought silence in its wake.
Lawahiz, one of the most senior matra and source of the laughter, smacked the table in her mirth. “You got married instead of just changing the rule? A rule that was probably made with the belief no one under the age of 40 would be appointed as general? Only you Cyno, only you.”
“Of course I got married,” Cyno argued with a frown. “It wouldn’t be fair to make myself an exception to the matra regulations merely because I’m in charge. If anything, that would be a gross abuse of power.”
“I think you just wanted to get married,” Lawahiz shot back, laughter still in her voice. “Congratulations, General.”
More matra shouted out their congratulations and Cyno gave up hope in refuting Lawahiz’s claim. No one was going to believe him anyways, not after half the senior matra saw him come in smiling and acting so forgetful.
“Thank you everyone, but now I propose we turn our attention away from my matra-mony and on our weekly meeting.”
No one laughed. Cyno was about to explain his pun, when the bold recruit Jeetendra spoke up.
“Sorry, General, sir, but just one more question before we start work. Did you really just get married this weekend? It was just the paperwork, yeah? Or else we would have heard about the wedding from rumors by now. So is this a secret, or do you have something more public planned later?”
“No, it is not a secret, nor are there any future plans. This was a decision made for legal and regulation reasons. Neither of us want to make a big production out of it.”
“Not even going to have a party?” Lawahiz heckled with a wide grin. “You keep saying it's not a big deal, but you were practically glowing coming in. That calls for at least a party with your friends to share your joy.”
Dammit, Cyno had been clinging to the meager possibility nobody noticed his odd behavior when he arrived. He knew better than to underestimate his matra.
“I will take your suggestion into consideration,” Cyno said with a polite nod. “Now, I must insist we engage with our work. If you would please refer to the files on the table-”
Later that evening, Lawahiz’s party idea had yet to leave Cyno’s thoughts. He stared at the top of Alhaitham’s head, where it was nestled on his lap as Alhaitham read. A party was probably the last thing Alhaitham wanted, but Cyno could not deny the appeal. As his friend circle grew, Cyno was surprised to learn he quite enjoyed social gatherings. He was extremely happy with the latest developments in his life. It would be nice to experience and share that happiness with his friends…
“If you’d like to read with me, I don’t think you’ll develop the ability to see through my skull any time soon,” Alhaitham said, closing his book to turn over and meet Cyno’s gaze expectantly.
Cyno sighed and curled down to press their foreheads together. “How opposed are you to the concept of a party?”
“I am not opposed to the concept. They serve their purpose. However, I believe you’re inquiring how I feel about being involved in some sort of party.”
With a huff and an eye roll, Cyno smushed their noses together. “Yes, yes, quit being pedantic. You know what I meant.”
Alhaitham’s smirk assured that, yes, he did know what Cyno meant. “I will attend parties. How I feel about it is directly related to how involved I have to be at said party. Why? Have we been invited to one?”
“No…” Cyno sat up and looked away. He played with a lock of Alhaitham’s hair with a quiet hum. Archons, he was more nervous asking about this than he had been proposing . “I was thinking of perhaps hosting one.”
“I thought we agreed on no wedding parties.”
“And I’m not trying to go back on that. It wouldn’t be a wedding party. Just a party. I’m happy, extremely happy, to have moved in with you and to call you my husband. One of my matra raised the idea of a party being a way to ‘share my joy’ and it appeals to me. It’s been some time since we’ve seen all our friends together. I’m sure they would understand and respect our desire to appreciate everyone’s company; and not to turn it into a wedding celebration. Of course, if you do not-”
Alhaitham’s hand covered Cyno’s mouth, cutting him off. Cyno shot a glare at his husband, but froze under the soft look awaiting him. A fond smile tugged at the corner of Alhaitham’s mouth and his eyes shone in the low light of the living room.
“Cyno, I trust you when you say it won’t be a wedding party,” Alhaitham said. He slowly sat up, waving his book before setting it on the coffee table. “I’ll even attend of my own free will and make brief conversation with everyone present before ignoring them to read.”
“That’s more generous than I was expecting,” Cyno teased. The bubbling, giddy happiness that kept rising in his chest since their nuptials returned and brought out a wide smile. “I’ll start making preparations and asking everyone tomorrow.”
“Do whatever you want. Just tell me when and where.” Alhaitham returned to Cyno’s lap, straddling him and wrapping his arms around Cyno’s shoulders to smirk down at him. “Now, I am rather curious how this conversation came up with the matra. Was the General Mahamatra gossiping during work hours?”
Cyno groaned and dropped his head back on the sofa. Of course Alhaitham wasn’t going to let that mention slide. He should have known better than saying where the idea came from. Alhaitham wasn’t going to let it go until he heard the whole embarrassing retelling of Cyno’s morning.
His husband was lucky he was cute.