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Tighnari woke up to Cyno brushing his hair out of his face.
He didn’t think that Collei or the other Rangers were in the room, thankfully. Considering he couldn’t breathe, Tighnari could only thank the Archons. And his husband. And his friends, because Collei already had enough stress and—
He couldn’t breathe. He really couldn’t breathe. Panting, reaching back, he grabbed onto Cyno’s hand. Warm fingers tangled with his own, intertwining and then locking together. With a ragged gasp, Tighnari snapped his eyes open. His head hurt. It felt like he’d bashed it into something on the way down. The familiar wood-plank floor of his and Cyno’s shared apartment was right next to his face. Oddly enough, that was comforting.
“Nari, what’s your sixth favorite flower?” Cyno asked, voice breaking through the panic. (If he were anyone else, Tighnari would probably smack him. As it was, Cyno was asking him because Tighnari didn’t automatically know that he had a sixth favorite flower. Or, he didn’t know what it was. So it made him think. Something about the absurdity.)
The floor being by his face also meant he had probably just smashed his face into the floor during the party Kaveh insisted they hold for Cyno when he officially got the role of General Mahamatra back. The Matra were also there, if he remembered right. The last thing he remembered was…
“Did I pass out after stretching my arms above my head?” Tighnari asked. It had been a bad day. He was already pushing it. Even when he had woken up, he was already struggling. He got dizzy getting out of his and his husband’s bed. Something about…he didn’t actually remember that part, anymore. He remembered…feeling sort of ill. He just—
“No. There was a little bit where you got really pale, and then you collapsed.” Kaveh said. Carefully, he took over holding Tighnari’s head off the ground. Letting his husband go, Tighnari watched him leave the room. “He’s heading to take care of the Matra, Collei, and the Rangers.”
“I guessed. Good man.” Tighnari mumbled. When he listened for Alhaitham’s footsteps, he couldn’t hear him. “Where’s ‘haitham?”
“Making you a hot chocolate, you silly man.” Kaveh said. The words were heatless. Instead, he brushed Tignari’s hair out of his face again. His fingers smoothed over Tighnari’s ears, brushed some loose strands away from his neck and shoulders. Then, he pressed his fingers into the familiar sore spot, where he had been struck by lightning. It was usually sore after he passed out. A new thing, he supposed. “Haitham, can you go and fetch Nari his, uh…what are they called…his heat patches!”
“That sounds so wrong.” Tighnari mumbled, snorting. “You’re going to make my neighbors think Valuka Shuna have—”
“Nope, nope, we’re not having this discussion again.” Kaveh said, settling Tighnari’s head in his lap. “Come on, come on. You need to get your feet up so the blood comes back to your head.”
“I’m moving, I’m moving.” Tighnari mumbled. “ Quit manhandling me, Kaveh. I’m fine.”
“Mhmm, sure, Concussion Risk. You never responded to Cyno, by the way. Sixth favorite flower?”
“Hyacinthus.” Tighnari replied, shrugging. “They’re pretty. They also remind me of Alhaitham.”
“Why? Because they never do what you want them to at the speed you want?” Kaveh raised his voice so that his husband could hear it. In the kitchen, Alhaitham snorted derisively. Tighnari smiled, even though Kaveh couldn’t hear his husband. “You just snorted!”
“You can’t hear me!”
“Tighnari ratted you out!” Alhaitham huffed again. “How’s that hot chocolate coming?”
“I do not control the speed at which hot chocolate is made.” Alhaitham fired back with a sharp tone. With a huff and a roll of his eyes, Kaveh turned and then began brushing his fingers through Tighnari’s hair again. His other hand was still working at the spot on his shoulder. Humming, Tighnari closed his eyes. He slumped against the floor.
“Please tell me you didn’t pass out again. What kind of flower am I?”
“Snapdragon.” Cracking an eye open to look at him, Tighnari cracked a smile, too. “Because you’re very snappish and very recognizable.”
Looking at him almost sourly, Kaveh replied, “I’m going to chalk that up to the concussion.”
“’m not concussed, Kaveh.”
“Huh, really? Then you won’t mind letting me look.” Gently, Kaveh took Tighnari’s head and tilted his face up. The familiar callouses of his fingers settled against Tighnari’s jaw. There was still a slight throbbing in his head, still. Probably where I smacked it into the floor. Kaveh’s eyes darted across his face, scanning him. Red eyes narrowing, he hummed. “I’m going with at least a headache. You’re resting, anyways. I will tell Cyno.”
“Kaveh, I can’t call out of work every time I have a cardiac—”
“Don’t—fight me on this, Tighnari.” Kaveh snapped, shifting his tone to something gentler. Shoulders relaxing, he took a breath and then continued, “We almost lost you once, Nari. It wasn’t even that long ago. Let us take care of you, okay? Please?”
Before Tighnari could respond, Alhaitham came back into the room. He had Tighnari’s preferred mug in his hands. “Kaveh, help sit him up. Slowly. We don’t want him passing out again.” Carefully, Kaveh pulled Tighnari upright. There were knees pressing into his back. Kaveh was still pressing his fingers into the familiar knot in his shoulder. Then, crouching, Alhaitham wrapped Tighnari’s fingers around the mug. His hands stayed on the mug, holding it for Tighnari.
(They’d done this before. The first time he’d passed out, he’d been too shaky to be offended. The second time that it happened, that he passed out, he had been offended. It had been rough. He’d been used to surviving on his own, to thriving on his own. Even with Cyno, even being married (or, well, engaged), he had been able to do a lot on his own. That was how they worked best, it was why they had their own separate houses. They shared them, sure, but there was more to it than that. And—changing that was hard. He had a lot more pride than he wanted to admit.)
“I’ll go get the heat patches. Kaveh, help him drink.” Alhaitham said, then disappeared. He and Kaveh had shifted jobs flawlessly. It wasn’t like they practiced. At least, Tighnari knew they hadn’t practiced for this reason. They’d probably had to hand each other cups plenty of times when it came to making sure the other ate or drank. Both of them sucked at that part.
Cyno came back in shortly before Alhaitham did, settling down next to Tighnari’s side. “We should get you a…a thing. A service fox.”
“No.” Tighnari set the cup to the side and tipped forward. For a split second, he saw the sheer panic on all three of their faces. “I’m fine.”
They deserved a little bit of terror.
Tighnari, meanwhile, was going to get some sleep.