Work Text:
~nilou~
“Sit!” Faruzan said.
I was confused, one moment I was leaving the Grand bazaar early, the next Madam Faruzan was dragging me across town, and into a diner.
Not that I haven’t been here before, me and the crew usually met here after a show.
But I barely knew Faruzan.
“I’m sorry, what am I doing here?” I asked her.
Faruzan sighed, “look, don’t ask questions! Just sit there and look pretty and your life will change tonight.”
And with that Faruzan left.
I sat there for a while, trying to figure out why Faruzan would do this then leave.
No logical explanation came to me.
Which was odd because usually I could come up with some reasonable explanations for any situation. But Faruzan was someone I barely knew.
After sitting there awkwardly for a good 30 minutes, a drunken man walked up to me.
“Heey gIrlll, did YoUr dAte Abandon YoU?” The man asked.
He was uncomfortably close to me.
I looked over at the worker at the counter hoping he’d something!
But no such luck! The man just shrugged like he was saying ‘I don’t get paid enough to care.’
I was about to ask him to leave me alone when someone walked up to the table.
“Sorry I’m late, work ran longer than expected.” The new man said.
He looked directly at me in a way that said ‘I’ll get rid of this low life!’
“HEy go away! ThIs Girl ain’t waIting for yOu! plUs i WaS hErE fIrSt!” The drunkard stated.
“Actually I was waiting for him!” I said with as much confidence as I could.
The drunkard glared at me and then he turned to the man who was trying to save me, fist up, and went for a punch.
I closed my eyes because I couldn't bear to see this guy get hit.
But the hit didn’t happen.
I opened my eyes to see that the drunk man was tackled.
The worker ran over, and apologized for the drunkard’s behavior. But my hero didn’t believe a word of it. He just told the worker to go get a Matra to throw the drunkard in jail to sober up.
The worker ran out without any hesitation, only arriving a moment later with a matra and was explaining what happened.
The drunkard was taken by the Matra.
Then my hero turned to me.
It was only at this moment that I realized that I was looking at the Grand Mahamatra himself.
“Are you alright?” Cyno asked.
I nodded.
“Good, I hate when people like that just get away with crap like that.” Cyno stated.
“I don’t think he was going to hurt me!” I said to make him worry less.
“Oh he was going to try and get you alone. He has done the same to several people. I’ve been here enough to recognize that slime bucket!” Cyno said.
I always look on the bright side of any situation, but knowing that I was almost taken to a dark corner and was forced to do unspeakable things was definitely troubling.
“Is that why you were here? To catch him?” I asked.
“Actually no, I was going to meet a friend here. But when I saw that guy I knew I had to intervene.” Cyno said.
“Oh, well I’m ok now I wouldn’t want to ruin your evening.” I said.
“Protecting you won’t ruin my evening. Besides, Tighnari is very late that he will probably not show.” Cyno said reassuringly.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I’m sure, now that we got that settled, have you ever played Genus invocation TCG?” Cyno asked, holding a deck of cards.
I shook my head.
He gasped and explained how everyone should play.
It was like I flipped a switch and saw Cyno not the Grand Mahamatra.
This Cyno was clearly still protective but there’s something interesting about this side of him that when he asked if I wanted to try, I said yes.
~Cyno~
I was distracted,
That’s the only way it made sense that I lost.
I wasn’t going easy on her.
But there was something about the way she paid attention to every word I said. And was seriously focusing on the game that was distracting.
At first I had thought she was just using this as a distraction, to not think about the guy I finally caught that hurt so many people. But then she was seriously listening to every word I had said.
A strange heat rose to my face when I thought about it.
After the game she thanked me for the help then left.
I was so distracted by my thoughts that I didn’t realize Tighnari was there until he said. “I’m so sorry, some idiot ate a poisonous mushroom.”
Then he sat down where she was a moment before.
Apparently he saw something in my face because Tighnari asked. “Are you ok? Did you drink enough water! Because if you didn’t I will shove water down your throat.”
I rolled my eyes and satisfied his worries.
Although I was speaking and playing the game with Tighnari, my mind was elsewhere.
To a redhead who had beat me! That wouldn’t happen again. And one thing was clear!
A rematch was going to happen!
Soon.