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Kunikuzushi watched as the door to his quarters slid open unceremoniously to admit the Ninth. There were few that he allowed into his personal rooms, and even fewer that he allowed unannounced, but Pantalone fell into the latter category, so he simply raised an eyebrow as his fellow Harbinger slid into the room with little fanfare.
Pantalone offered a smile, one so markedly different from his placid, meaningless trademark that it set something in Kunikuzushi’s chest beating at doubletime.
(If he’d had actual blood running through his veins, Kunikuzushi wondered, would his cheeks have warmed by now?)
Pantalone strolled assuredly further into his quarters, so confident in his welcome that he was, but Kunikuzushi was certain that he wasn’t imagining it when he saw a suppressed shiver that the Ninth tried to hide.
He tsked lightly. Too long spent undercover in the warm lands of his birth had eaten away at his not-paramour’s already abysmal tolerance to Snezhnaya’s weather, and the Ninth was clearly suffering for it, no matter how much he would deny it if asked.
Kunikuzushi sighed. Well, he supposed he could be generous this once. It was only polite, for a man who Kunikuzushi was technically in some form of non-antagonistic relationship with.
(Hah. Which was more than could be said for any other of his Harbinger colleagues.)
How fortunate, that he had insisted on a kotatsu for his room when it had been remodelled a few years ago.
He shifts his weight to the side, pushing himself to the right and opening up a space beside him where there had previously been none. He sees something lighten in Pantalone’s gaze, and the man slips under the warmth of the heated table without so much as a by-your-leave.
Tch. Perhaps he was being too lenient with his not-paramour, if he had become so comfortable in Kunikuzushi’s private rooms.
(He ignored the small purr of satisfaction that started low in his chest at the sight of Pantalone’s body relaxing into the needed heat.)
“Aren’t you glad that you approved of my request for the kotatsu now, Ninth?” Kunikuzushi asked instead of attempting to puzzle out the warmth that had taken root in the empty space where he did not have a heart. “It serves a purpose, doesn’t it?”
A moment of silence, and then Pantalone chuckled. “I am not some of our… fairer colleagues, to pretend that I am not enjoying a pleasure offered freely.
“For now,” his not-paramour hummed, reaching into his cloak. “I come bearing gifts. Far be it from me to be a rude guest, Kunikuzushi. The latest import of trade from Inazuma has finally made it past their borders to arrive at ours, and you are the only other person in this palace who can appreciate a good sake.”
Kunikuzushi eyed the bottle that Pantalone had just produced. It was from a good brewery, one that had withstood the test of time. It was not of the highest quality, no- Kunikuzushi knew the Ninth, and the banker would never freely offer something of that price.
Still, it would suffice, and it had been a while since Kunikuzushi had enjoyed a decent sake with decent company.
“A good way to warm you up,” he remarked, grinning at the way Pantalone narrowed his eyes at him. “Let me get the stove. Sake like this can be enjoyed hot, without worrying too much about destroying its finer qualities.”
Standing to collect his sake cups and other various implements from his shelf, Kunikuzushi brought said items over to the table. He set the portable stove down first, lighting it and setting a bowl of water atop.
While waiting for the water to boil, Kunikuzushi opened the sake that Pantalone had so generously brought, pouring a portion into the tokkuri bottle and helping himself to a cup on the side.
Temperature made all the difference in the taste of a sake, and Kunikuzushi wondered idly at the difference it would make on this one.
He raised the cup to his lips, a sip just making it past his lips when his not-paramour ever so politely interrupted him.
“Starting without pouring your guest a cup?” Pantalone asked, fingers interlaced. “One might begin to suspect that you were never taught manners, Kunikuzushi.”
Coming from anyone else, he thought that maybe he would have felt rage. But the Ninth was still smiling that smile that made Kunikuzushi feel something, and he couldn’t find the anger that had always a constant companion.
Besides. Kunikuzushi found that he quite liked the sound of that name from those lips. It wasn’t often that he heard it, after all. In front of their colleagues, he was only ever the Sixth, or the Balladeer, or Scaramouche on rare occasions.
His chosen name, from the mouth of his chosen person… Kunikuzushi could admit, at least to himself, that there were few things more gratifying than that.
He clicked his tongue lowly, and slid the cup across the table. “Tch. You can have this one, then, if you’re so insistent about it. A sake like this is best served warm anyways.”
“Hm. Pawning off something you deem unworthy onto me, then? How bold.” The Ninth tilted his head up slightly, arching a brow, but reached for Kunikuzushi’s cup despite his words.
Kunikuzushi spared a moment to watch as his not-paramour took a sip, humming a low, “Adequate, I suppose,” before busying himself with the now boiling pot of water.
He placed the tokkuri in the heated water and let it sit for a minute before reaching out to swirl its contents once and placing it back in its position.
“How tedious a process,” Pantalone commented by his side, stolen sake still cupped between his hands. “Would a pyro slime core not have easily sufficed?”
“And destroy all complexity in the drink?” Kunikuzushi scoffed. “I should think that you would know better, Ninth.”
Pantalone took another sip from his cup, and lifted one shoulder in what passed for a shrug. “I’ll defer to you for the enjoyment of sake, I suppose. As you well know, I’m far more partial to a fine burgundy, myself.”
Kunikuzushi hid a smile at the words- he had spent enough time around the other man to know that most of what his not-paramour meant was hidden in what he didn’t say, and it was telling, that the Ninth had chosen to bring Kunikuzushi’s preferences instead of his own.
Still, he would never admit the way that the thought set something warm alight in his empty chest.
“Because you’re a lightweight, Ninth, and sake is more alcohol than you can handle on a usual day,” Kunikuzushi said instead, snorting at the indignant sound Pantalone made in the back of his throat.
He reached for the now-warm tokkuri and poured a cup, huffing when the Ninth coughed pointedly and placed his now-empty cup down.
Kunikuzushi rolled his eyes, but reached out to pluck the empty cup from the table anyway. He poured another portion of sake into it, then levelled a half-hearted glare at Pantalone, who simply shot him a smug grin.
The Ninth -with truly all the audacity in the world- picked up the fresh cup of sake from the table instead of the one in Kunikuzushi’s grip, leaving him to, very grudgingly, begin drinking from the very same cup that he had just taken from Pantalone’s hand.
Truly, Kunikuzushi thought, he had been far too forgiving with his not-paramour.
By his side, Pantalone shifted slightly, pressing the sides of their thighs together under the kotatsu’s blanket, and Kunikuzushi let the corner of his lip curl up at the sensation.
It wasn’t often, that the Ninth initiated contact between them, but Kunikuzushi could admit that he valued the times when he did. There was something about the warmth of his not-paramour against the false life thrumming in Kunikuzushi’s veins that made him feel almost human, a feeling that he surprisingly did not detest.
“Ths Eighth suggested a ring on my fourth finger,” Pantalone hummed non sequitur over his next sip of sake, and Kunikuzushi bristled slightly at the words. No matter that he had not been raised in Snezhnaya- he had lived here long enough to understand the mortals’ strange customs, and he knew the meaning of a ring on a fourth finger.
For La Signora, of all people, to suggest that to Kunikuzushi’s chosen- the familiar rage that had been missing for the beginning of the night came rushing back with a vengeance.
“To ward off the nobles,” his not-paramour continued, and Kunikuzushi felt a portion of the rage fade as quickly as it had come. He unclenched his jaw, cocking his head as a sign for Pantalone to finish making his point. In this context, Kunikuzushi supposed that he could understand the suggestion.
It was not that La Signora meant to steal away what was rightfully Kunikuzushi’s, or that she meant to imply something malicious. (A rarity, when it came to the Eighth Harbinger. About three quarters of what spilled from her lips was venom, and the remainder was nonsense.) For once, though, if it kept those simpering fools of Snezhnaya’s noble daughters away from his chosen, then perhaps Kunikuzushi could even manage to scrounge up a fraction of gratitude for his bothersome colleague.
“Perhaps a white gold one, with a big diamond inlay.”
Kunikuzushi listened as Pantalone began speculating on what would be the best course of action to take, given La Signora’s suggestion, and huffed under his breath as he imagined the looks on the noblewomen’s faces if the Ninth truly did turn up with an “engagement ring” three times more ostentatious than the rings he already wore on his other fingers.
Still… Kunikuzushi’s mind darted to the drawer by his futon, where he kept items that he never again wished to wear, but knew that may one day play a part in fulfilling the promise he had made by naming himself as he had.
There was a ring, in that drawer. One that Kunikuzushi would never stoop to wearing, but- no matter his disdain for his origins, there was no denying that the symbol on that ring was Kunikuzushi’s birthright, and if he could see it displayed ever so prominently on the Ninth’s person…
Kunikuzushi was already pushing himself to his feet before he’d even truly thought about it.
“Tch. Why go to the trouble of having one made, and then having to wait the time for the commission to be completed? You’re in luck, Ninth, that I’m feeling generous enough to share my castoffs today.”
Well. It was too late to turn back now, and besides- Kunikuzushi was quite certain that the ring would look far better on the Ninth’s finger than it would simply sitting in his room. He removed the silver band from its resting place and threw it in Pantalone’s direction, gaze following the arc that metal made before his not-paramour plucked it from the air.
Pantalone tilted his head to the side, rolling the ring between his fingers as he appraised it with an eye worthy of his title as the Banker, and Kunikuzushi scoffed under his breath.
Truly, leave it to the Ninth to put a price on anything that crossed his path.
No matter, though. Although Kunikuzushi himself was loath to ever wear that ring again, he knew that its monetary value was worthy of even Teyvat’s richest man, and not even the Ninth Harbinger could find it wanting.
True enough, Pantalone slid the ring onto his fourth finger with a pleased hum and held it up. Kunikuzushi smirked at the sight of light glinting off the silver band before padding back over to the kotatsu and picking up his cup of sake once more.
The alcohol was no longer warm, not in the frigid cold of a Snezhnayan winter, but it mattered little to Kunikuzushi when compared against the heat of his unbeating heart, faced with the sight of silver on the Ninth’s finger.
Downing the last bit of alcohol in his cup, Kunikuzushi widened the smirk on his lips, and shot his not-paramour a look out of the corner of his eye. “I believe thanks are necessary, for the hassle of commissioning a new ring that I just saved you from?”
Pantalone laughed, and tipped his cup back to drain his last mouthful of sake as well. “I suppose that would be only polite.”