Archive of Our Own ^beta

​​​It was the end of a long summer's day at the clinic. The continuous and bright dry heat of the sun had faded into the cool, dark night, which cued the crickets and geckos to start making their noise. Today, Ifa had handled "the usual" number of Saurian patients and was quite completely out of juice by the end of it. After removing his coat and gloves, he groggily pulled out the old creaky chair from under his desk and dropped on it with a sigh of tired relief. Cacucu flapped onto a stack of reference books on the desk, visibly a bit strained from flying all around the place. The little Qucusaurus was almost rolling off the stack, falling asleep every other time he closed his eyes, poor little guy!

​​ "Cacucu, get to bed now. It's getting late—you need to rest up after all that, bro."

​ Despite that gentle remark from Ifa and his hand weakly nudging the sleepy Saurian towards his nest, Cacucu rooted his talons into the book under him in refute. "Common Saurian Ailments, Their Causes, and Treatment." Ahh. It was such a nice hardcover, too.

​​ "What's up, bro?" Cacucu chirped with an air of concern.

​​ "I'm going to sleep soon; just give me a moment to finish today's report, 'kay?"

The bird didn't comment any further but didn't budge from his place either. Ifa smiled as he flipped to the next page of his journal—good old Cacucu, so caring. Turning to the book, it was already filled with lines of details about today's appointments, patient conditions, and other details of work. After skimming through the cases and finishing off the details of his last patient, he marked down any new appointments on his schedule for the upcoming week. The vet rubbed his eyes, now getting a bit blurry as fatigue fogged his senses. This was all in the day's work, no biggie. Besides, tomorrow was the weekend. He could get all the rest he needed then...

​​ "Alright... Tomorrow, need to go to the market and buy some food for me and Cacucu, with snacks and jerky for the patients. Plus, resupply on some antibiotics... Been running out of bandages and gauze since that battle last week as well. Then, there's that extra appointment afterwards. Uh, I might need to get Xilonen to repair that broken syringe while I'm at it..."

​​ ​Mm, well, this wasn't that much. Just this, then he could relax. Ifa tore out a page jotted with reminders for next morning, leaving it on his desk as he yawned and meandered towards his bed. Words and thoughts swirled into a whirlpool in his mind. Was there anything else?

​​ "Oh dear! Oh dear!" Cacucu turned to face the direction of the front door. He had almost forgotten to close the clinic! Well, anybody would know it would be closed by this time. However, Ifa felt it was professional courtesy to use the clinic signage appropriately. He went out to flip the sign to its correct state.

​Just as his hand lay onto the sign hung on the door from the outside, a voice rang behind him. Right behind him.

​​ "Hi, Ifa."

​​ "AGH! What?!" The vet clutched his hat in a sudden jump, twirling around to discover his friend, the one cloaked in the colors of night. "Ororon??" That last exclamation was a combo of a voice crack, squeaky pitch, and raspy throat.

​​ Ifa quickly centered his hat back. "Bro, dude, what in the world are you doing here?"

​​ Unfazed by Ifa's shock, Ororon stood still in place. "Well, I was just walking around," (a nighttime stroll all the way to the Flower-Feather Clan?), "and your place was close by. I thought maybe the clinic would still be open, and I could see you."

​ ​ "The moon is nearly in the middle of the sky right now. What made you think that the clinic would still be open?"

​​ "I dunno." Ororon continued to talk as blunt as ever, no making up nothing, just stating the plain truth. It was a real admirable aspect of the man that Ifa had grown to see. Somehow, Ifa never got too frustrated over it, over all the I-don't-knows and the silly reasons he did the silliest things. Most of the time. "But I came, and lo and behold, it's still open!"

​ The guy jazzed his hands at the sign, boldly stricken with the words "THE VET IS IN." Ifa pinched the skin between his brows. At that point, early wrinkles had started forming there. Ororon always manages to catch the strangest coincidences. Despite the shock, however, he didn't really mind that his best friend was here.

​​ "Also," Ororon blinked his big eyes. "If the sun in the middle of the sky is called 'high noon', couldn't this be called 'high night'? Sounds a lot better than what you just said." The way those bright, vibrant cyan and magenta eyes glowed in the dark made Ifa's widen in a kind of awe. Ororon blinked again. "Or, maybe 'high moon' would work better?"

​​ "Man, I—what? Before we start debating over this, how did you sneak up on me like that?"

​​ "Hm? I've been standing at this spot the whole time." He looked down and shuffled his feet a little. "I thought you saw me when you exited the door. You didn't?"

​​ "Huh... Guess I really didn't." Ifa tried to rationalize the situation in his head already chaotically scattered with tasks. The initial surprise burst him awake momentarily, but it seemed that fatigue was creeping back. "You just don't make any sound, like at all. And you always wear those pitch-black clothes, so it's impossible to see you in the dark!"

​​ "It's not impossible to see me. I'm not using any invisibility arts."

​​ "You know what I mean! At least make more sound next time, bro."​

​​ "Still... I was sure you'd notice me." Ororon stepped closer to Ifa, gently pushing aside the pale tuft of hair covering some of the vet's face. His pupils carefully shifted in all manner of directions as he inspected Ifa's visage, like the Supersonic Oculi Ororon would summon in battle. And Ifa thought the night could obscure his dark eyebags. "You should really get more rest. With the state you're in—if I was an evil bad guy, I could have easily snuck up on you and stabbed you or something."

​​ "That's..." He narrowed ​his dull eyes. "That's not the thing most people say to me when they find me like this." To be honest, not many had seen tired Ifa. In front of anyone else, he'd be trying to keep his easygoing appearance. People just know that he works like crazy.

​​ "I know. I wanted to give you a new perspective, maybe a more convincing reason to start getting better sleep. Because whatever everyone else is saying doesn't seem to help." Yikes, man.

​​ "Look, I was just about to go to sleep before you came. I'll—I'll sleep now, alright?" There was a pang of disappointment in his heart at the conclusion; his conversation with Ororon had to be cut short. No point in arguing about it, though.

​​ "Ifa. Make sure to get more rest next time too, okay? I'm not just talking about today." Furrowed brows, and a frown. "You could close the clinic earlier, or perhaps redirect people to other vets sometimes? I don't know... But you can never predict which night a guy with bad intentions might show up." He really was trying to get Ifa to fix his god-awful work-life balance. Ororon knew him so well too—trying to shift the focus away from Ifa's own well-being, because he knew Ifa didn't care about that. Ifa didn't really know how to respond. "I'll go now. We'll talk about 'high moon' later. Sweet dreams, bro." A soft smile now painted his face, the harsh light of those eyes reduced to a gentle glow in the squint of a genuine smile. For a moment, the crickets and geckos went silent, and only wind continued to sing. Ororon did a little wave and went on his way. The air was cold, but Ifa felt warm.

That's way too cliché. The famed Tlalocan veterinarian lay sprawled on his bed, wondering if he had contracted a slight fever. ​​He swept back the hair on his face to feel his forehead temperature, then remembered how Ororon pushed away that hair. Oh no. Who was he kidding? This wasn't how fevers worked. Ifa was all too familiar with these feelings for Ororon. He was way past the part of fighting with himself over whether he liked him or not. Ifa took a heavy sigh and rolled to face Cacucu, who was watching him on the side of his bed. This Qucusaurus seemed to only want to sleep when Ifa did.

​​ "Cacucu... Bro... What do I do about this? If I told him, wouldn't it get all weird between us if he rejected me?"

​ ​ Cacucu only stared blankly at Ifa. The Saurian was definitely out of it.

​​ "I can't tell anyone... It would be a whole mess if I did. I can only tell you, man." Ifa splayed his scarred hands over his face. Never has he ever had this kind of problem with someone so close. It had always been romantic from the start with everyone else, you know? Ifa had already decided long ago that he wouldn't do anything about it, though. He could only dream.

​ "I really... I love Ororon."

​So, he dreamed of beautiful colors of cyan and magenta spotted on dark hues of black and blue, warm recollections of sweet moments, and imaginary kisses that night. He thought of that 'high moon' thing, what he might say to Ororon the next time they meet. Midnight is equivalent to midday, so 'high midnight' wouldn't work... All worries of tomorrow had left his mind, to reside only on the piece of paper on his desk.

​Cacucu watched Ifa hard as the man mourned this... predicament he was in. Humans were never as straightforward as Saurians when it came to love, so it had taken some time for Cacucu to fully understand Ifa's line of thinking. He had it all figured out now. All that was needed was a certain phrase. All of Cacucu's attention was focused on what Ifa was saying, waiting for three words.

​ "I really... I love Ororon."

​ Boom. There it was.

​ Ifa was completely sound asleep a few minutes later. This would be the best time to practice, Cacucu thought. He fluttered over to the next room, where he wouldn't be heard, and got to work—flying a little topsy-turvy, since he really was tired, but still determined to reach this resolve nevertheless.

​Ifa yawned and stretched as he got out of bed, cracking his back a bit in the process. The sun had woken him up by flashing some rays at his eyes rather unpleasantly through the windows. "Good morning, Ca... Cacucu?" He rubbed his eyes, still stained with dark circles.

​ Cacucu was awake beside him, flapping his little wings as he continuously attempted to choke out some words.

​ "I—I!! Loo—o!"

​ "Are you good, buddy? Do you need some water?"

​ "I lo—oove Ororon! I love Ororon!!" Cacucu shot up in victory.

​ "..."

​ Finally! This feat was far more difficult than learning any other phrase, due to the lack of frequency of hearing it. However, as Ororon himself would put it, Cacucu was an awesomesaurus who could do it all. The next step of this little Saurian's plan could now commence: the plan to get his bros together. Now, if Ifa were courting anyone else, Cacucu would likely be the greatest obstacle in their relationship. Cacucu would be the stubborn child who hated his new stepmother, as described in some novels he had heard of. Ifa was precious to him.

When Cacucu overcame his first struggle in life, breaking out of his egg, the first thing he saw was the human with curly white hair contrasting his dark skin, shading the hatchling from the searing sun, greeting him with a shining smile.

​ "Hey there, lil' bro. Welcome to the world."

​ Cacucu would have never been hatched if it weren't for Ifa treating his mother. The Saurian's life was saved again by the same man later on, when injuries and wounds accumulated until Cacucu was on the brink of death, ostracized and alone. It was a lightless and chillingly cold night, but the world felt as warm and bright as those earliest waking moments when the burning pain subsided and the Qucusaurus' surviving eye opened to see that face.

​​Basically, Ifa was Cacucu's second mother. If Ifa was considered his second mother, then Ororon would be his... third mother? Ororon was how Cacucu ended up getting adopted in the first place, with his genius plan of having Cacucu ruin his vegetables to put Ifa to blame, along with a lot of persuasion (begging). He was caring and kind. Additionally, Ororon was simply a fun guy to be around. This man was 100% Cacucu-approved.

​Using this new vocabulary, Cacucu could tell Ororon what Ifa could not. Of course, this plan might have been more effective if he didn't just say what he learned in front of Ifa and kept it secret, but the guy's reactions were just too good to not exploit.

​ "Cacucu, Cacucucacucu CACUCU!!! When did you learn that?! No...!" Ifa shook Cacucu like a maraca.

​ The bird continued to play dumb. "I love Ororon! I love Ororon!"

​ "No!!! Please man, stop it! Don't say that in front of people, okay?"

​ "You got it, bro!"

​ He shook Cacucu once more for good measure. "Do not. Say that in public."

​ "You got it, bro!"

​Luckily, Ifa was never one to make threats, especially towards his beloved Cacucu. Unluckily for Ifa, he had to worry about Cacucu blurting out the phrase as they roamed the markets for materials and such. He was seen sweating a tad more than usual. But everything went smoothly in the Stadium and Collective of Plenty, and all that was left on the checklist was going to Xilonen for syringe repair—yes, the vet must first be lulled to a false sense of security. The Children of Echoes was crowded. Flurries of excited spectators scurried to and fro, the stage pulsating with music and lights acting as the epicenter of this quake. Apparently, a big breakdancing contest was going on. Closer to the stalls and shops, the rumble dimmed to a calmer, muffled noise in the background. Here, only a few people were scattered about, with customers at stalls haggling down prices and children giggling in games of hide-and-seek. Xilonen's place was just around the corner.

​ "Ifa! Cacucu! Didn't think I'd see you two here." An all too familiar voice merrily met the duo, followed by a very familiar face, the one always surrounded by that rough, long, dark hair. Ororon was easy to notice if you saw him in daylight—he poked out like a sore thumb with his weird all-black attire. Cacucu smirked deviously. Mentally, that is, because his beak didn't really let him do that. The next stage could continue.

​ "Hey, bro! I'm here to get some equipment fixed up by Xilonen. What're you here for?"

​ "Wow, we came to see Xilonen too."

​ We? Shifting one's focus to the left and then a little below Ororon's head, turns out a lady with pale pink hair was glaring straight at them.

​ "Granny needs some obsidian engravings for a ritual she's working on, and I'm accompanying her."

​ Citlali scoffed. "Neither of you noticed me?"

​ "I'm sorry, I didn't get much sleep..."

​ "Good morning! Good morning!" Cacucu desperately tried to save face, hoping to subdue the great shaman's wrath. She crossed her arms and shrugged, so it looked like they were in the clear.

​ "It's noon, though," commented Ororon. Cacucu would have frowned at this, if he could.

​ "C'mon bro, he's proud of that phrase! Those words came all the way from Fontaine!"

​ "That was constructive criticism. I want Cacucu to be the most eloquent Saurian there will ever be."

​ Cacucu could already see the longing in his owner's eyes watching Ororon go on about the possibility of further understanding the intricacies of Saurian society through Cacucu after further developing his human language or training other Saurians to speak like him—the usual Ororon ramblings.

​ "Hmph, do you young people really not have anything better to discuss? Ororon, I'm giving the blueprints to Xilonen. Stay here! Don't you run off elsewhere." After enough time of Ororon knowing Ifa, Citlali had gotten a little sick of their back-and-forths. Cacucu noted that she had hung around for shorter and shorter periods whenever they began talking like this. She marched off with a huff.

​ Ifa thumped a fist onto his palm as he remembered something crucial. "About yesterday—I don't think 'high midnight' would be right, because it would be like 'high midday', and 'high moon' wouldn't either, since that would be like saying 'high sun'." He smirked confidently—he wouldn't let Ororon win this time (he was somehow always inclined to disagree with whatever odd remark Ororon would make).

​ "Don't worry, I know what it's called now. It's 'low noon'."

​ "Oh wow... No way, bro!" Cacucu said this in a way that signified: Damn, that one's hard to beat.

​ Ifa wasn't going to back down yet. "But isn't 'midnight' already the antithesis to 'high noon'?"

​ "It just doesn't make me think of the moon being high in the middle of the sky. I also believe that if 'day' has 'night', and the opposite of 'midday' is 'midnight', then 'high noon' deserves to have its own proper opposite as well."

​ The bro in the opposition sighed and tilted his hat so that it covered his eyes. No winning this one.

​ Oh, this was good. Both of them were here alone, with Ifa's guard down. Best to do it now.

​ The pink ball of joy cutely flapped towards Ororon. "Bro! Bro!" Needed to be low-key, to not arouse any suspicion from Ifa too soon.

​ "What is it, bro?"

​ "I love Ororon!"

​ Ifa's jaw dropped to the floor, and his heart must have dropped to hell. Now, he'd have to fully confess to explain this. Cacucu only needed to be the catalyst. Here came Ororon's response...

​ "Aww, really Cacucu? I love you too." The tall man lightly grasped Cacucu in his hands like a balloon and pressed a kiss onto the round Qucusaurus' fuzzy forehead.​

​ ...This wasn't supposed to happen. Cacucu started to formulate his next course of action as he was cuddled in Ororon's arms. In the midst of this, Ifa's expression had rapidly morphed from shock to almost fainting relief, then to a distant sneer of jealousy, occasionally shifting his eyes to a crate of iron ore nearby to mask it. Wait, was that Granny over there? She was back?

​ "Ororon! Go buy me some cut amber from Muhuru's Gemporium! I need, uh... ten pieces! Here's the Mora for it." She tossed a purple coin purse at her grandson, causing him to nearly trip over himself in scrambling to catch it.

​ "What is this for?"

​ "Stop asking questions and get to it!" she barked out.

​Citlali observed Ororon hastily scuffle to the Gemporium until he was out of earshot. Then, she snapped her head towards Ifa. Both he and Cacucu gulped.

​ "You. I saw it. The look of embarrassment, then relief, then jealousy." Woah, that was scarily sharp.

​ "H-huh?"

​ "That tells me the whole story. How else would your Qucusaurus know how to say that?" Despite being shorter than Ifa, she seemed to look down upon him. A shadowy aura emanated out of Citlali in their minds, a thundercloud brewing. "You're into my grandson." She scowled.

​ Poor Ifa attempted to defend himself. "It was just something cute for Cacucu to say! Y'know, some appreciation for our best bro?"

​ "Don't you DARE lie to me. WHO in TEYVAT gets jealous of a Saurian getting kissed by THEIR FRIEND?" Her voice thundered down on Ifa, who recoiled in terror.

​ "Okay, okay! You're right, I do like him!" The vet's hands were up in the air, surrendering.

​ Just a moment too late to hear it, Ororon returned, swinging about a bag filled with gems as he trotted over.

​ "Here's the amber, Granny. Cheven even gave me a discount. What's up with Ifa? Was there anything I missed ou-"

​ "I remembered I need samples of solid Phlogiston! Go find it, five chunks!"

​ "Geez, you sure need a lot of rocks for this ritual, huh, Granny?"

​ "Yes, yes. I don't have all the time in the world, so go!" She made a shooing gesture.

​ "You're immortal, so technically you do..." He mumbled.

​ "What was that?!"

​ "I'm going to look for it, Granny!" Off Ororon went.

​ "And are you staring at him??" Citlali twisted her head back to Ifa.

​ The vet raised his hands up, proclaiming innocence. "I was just looking—normally!" Horrible blunder of a response.

​ "Listen to me, Ifa. I think romance is a pointless, tiring pursuit. It's an awful ordeal."

​ He was familiar with the ups and downs of love by then; Cacucu knew even if he wasn't present to see Ifa during those times. Those partners came and went. But Ororon was a whole different thing, his closest friend, his dearest bro. With him, Ifa feared the ups could reach as far as Celestia and the downs as low as the Abyss. Cacucu wasn't able to figure out how to address that—he just hoped that throwing Ifa in forcefully would work out.

​ Citlali drew a big breath. "But, Iapproveifyouintendtostartarelationship." The thunderstorm subsided.

​ "Wait, what?"

​ "No way, bro!"

​ "You're not some scum, and you're both adults. That's enough for me. If he's happy with you, I can't interfere." The shaman took a second to consider her next words. "I'm just telling you this so that Ororon's love life won't be deterred by scary Granny Itztli, that's all."

​ "I don't know what to say... I'm surprised." Somehow, it seemed like Ifa's chest became less burdened of weight. Perhaps this was some encouragement he needed?

​ "Surprised? Do you take me for some kind of overbearing-overprotective-grandmother?!"

​ "N-no, not at all!"

​ "​Hah. Anyway, if you two do get together, don't you try anything funny."

​ The not overbearing-overprotective-grandmother proceeded to threaten Ifa with various appropriate means of violence for all the different hypothetical ways he could hurt Ororon. Disrespecting boundaries? Set on fire. Cheating? All limbs broken and set on fire. The situations got more specific and less serious as she continued—it got to "having a bad marriage vow"—while Ifa just nodded and listened quietly, stroking his chin. Two-thirds of this information flew through his sleepy head like the wind. Besides, his mind was preoccupied with something else: it was still rather unbelievable that Citlali would approve of this. Maybe, just maybe—did she think there's something there? With me and him? Cacucu could guess.

​ The beating music in the background had nearly completely faded, leaving just the mumbling white noise of the people going about their individual days in the area. Yellow had started rising from the horizon, spreading into the blue in the sky, like watercolor on a page.

​​ Ororon returned, bicep curling heavy sacks of rocks. "Hey guys, I'm back. Is this all, Granny?"

​ "Mhm. These are good." Citlali stared at the orange chunks, likely trying to think of what to do with all of it. "I think that's all I need. Ororon, carry this for me. You can talk with your friend for now, just come to my house with the rocks once you're done." She speedwalked away rather excitedly, despite her cold tone.

​ "So," Ororon's bat ear twitched. His volume lowered to a whisper. "Glad she left."

​ "Hahaha!"

​ "You guys..." Ifa groaned, grinning.

​ "Honestly, sometimes I wish it could be like this more often. Just me and you guys."

​ Cacucu couldn't agree more. Ororon still met them often, but proper hangouts became few and far between after the Fontaine trip. Actually, that was probably the only time Cacucu wasn't present with the other two for a significant period. Right in that moment, a switch clicked in his little noggin (though Ifa said it was large for a Qucusaurus), and a lightbulb lit up inside with a ding. Just them guys. He needed to make the context just Ifa and Ororon, and cut himself out of the scene.

​ After dropping off the syringe at Xilonen's, the three brosketeers continued chatting about a variety of cultured and current topics—such as what Ororon's vegetables and aphids were up to these days and which Saurian one would pick out of the six different species to protect themselves while the other five hunt them down—before playing a game of "Two Fakes and One Real Title of Granny's New Light Novel" (derived from a game Kinich played with Fontainian newspaper headlines). Both Ifa and Cacucu failed to recognize that "The Good Thing About Being Reincarnated as a Hilichurl Is That I Only Need to Eat Sunsettias to Become Stronger" was the real, authentic title. Meanwhile, Xilonen made quick work: the syringe only required some part replacements and reassembly, so she was done before they could get to playing patty cake.

​ Packing up, Ifa sighed. "Looks like I gotta get back now, bro. I have an appointment soon," he said, a bit guiltily after what had happened yesterday. Before his friend could question him, he quickly reasoned his case. "I let someone book one for today, since the rest of the week was full. Just one!"

​ "Aw, man..." Ororon's ears drooped, but he tried to recover the mood. "You know, how about you come to my place and hang out tomorrow? If you're free, of course."

​ "Sounds good!" Ifa answered immediately. It seemed like both he and Ororon lit up at the same time.

​ Oh, Cacucu couldn't agree more. "Hit me up, bro!" Exactly what he needed.

​By the time Ifa and Cacucu began their return trip to the clinic, nearly the entire sky was enveloped in orange and yellow. The border between the remaining blue and the new sky formed a warm pink. This sherbet of colors reflected off the fluffy clouds, turning them into cotton candy. The little Qucusaurus could almost taste the sweetness. He turned back to give one last bye to Ororon, who remained to talk with Xilonen.

​ "See you later!"

Cacucu wished for many more sweet moments like this.