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Port Dornman is a busy place. Being on the water means the city is permanently a little cooler than Mondstadt proper is. That fact means little when there is a heat wave making you melt.
You have the day off from work, so you’ve spent your time inside laying on the couch with a cool towel on your neck while you sulk. It’s just so hot. You hardly want to do anything at all. The high heat isn’t supposed to break for days.
Lohen is supposed to come over at some point today. He had told you that he had something to give you. You don’t believe him, not entirely. He says that sometimes and his ‘something’ is just giving you his full body weight, laying on you until you complain.
From the other room you can hear the front door lock twist. Speak of the devil. You don’t move from your spot on the cushions. The door creaks open and then shuts with a soft thud. A clink signifies that he’s tossed his key in the dish you keep in the hall.
You hope he takes his boots off. You don’t want nor need him tracking dirt inside. Again. You’re certain he leaves them on his feet on purpose to irritate you. It’s clear that your scolding is one of his favorite things, so there’s only so much you can do to get him to listen.
Maybe you should threaten to cry and make him feel bad. The idea is tossed out as soon as you think of it. Lohen might like the tears on your face more than he feels particularly guilty about upsetting you. Ugh.
The sound of his voice interrupts your thoughts. You hadn’t heard him come into the room, but you rarely do. His footsteps are near inaudible at the best of times. How he does it is a mystery. He wears enough on his outfit that should logically make noise, the heel of his boot should at least click on tiled floors, but no.
Lohen comes and goes with the silence of a cat. A particularly bad cat at that.
“I knew I’d find you here,” Lohen tuts. “Is this what you’ve been doing all day?”
“It’s so hot,” you wave a hand at him dismissively. “It’s too hot for you to be talking.”
“You’re dramatic,” he says. You crack open an eye to glare at him. Lohen looks perfectly unaffected by the heat, his layers unruffled and smooth. His hair curls slightly from the humidity. He’s still wearing his boots. A flash of irritation curls in your chest, both at the shoes on your floor and how he can wear those things in this weather with no issue at all.
You wouldn’t put it past him to be faking how little the heat impacts him, you learned the hard way that he hides when he’s feeling unwell in the same way an animal goes off to the woods to die, but he seems genuinely fine. There’s no flush to his cheeks, he’s not covered in sweat, and he isn’t swaying from exhaustion.
It’s so unfair. He’s been running around all day and you’ve been napping. Lohen should be warmer than you are, if only because seeing him miserable is satisfying.
Lohen raises a brow as he stares down at you. He takes you in silently. You become hyperaware of how pathetic you must look. You resist the urge to curl in on yourself, or, the more appealing option, throwing a pillow at his head.
He leans forward to pinch your cheek once, giving you a little shake. “Alright, you baby,” Lohen says, “let's get you cooled off.”
You aren’t given time to protest before Lohen is hooking his arm under your legs and standing up. He tosses you over his shoulder without ceremony. Rude. You smack his shoulders.
“Put me down.”
“Nope,” Lohen pats your leg, “stop complaining. I’m helping you.”
“You’re tossing me around,” you argue. You’re too hot to complain properly about being manhandled like this, so you settle for making a disgruntled noise and slumping. Lohen pays you no mind, continuing his march to the bathroom.
He pushes the door open and plops you on the counter, pushing your clutter to the side with little regard to where it pushes up against the wall. That was intentionally sorted, thank you very much! It so happens that in sorting your things they needed to be all over the counter.
“At least you aren’t entirely hopeless,” Lohen flicks the damp towel where it lays draped over your neck. It’s long since warmed up. You watch as he pulls his gloves off and tosses them on the counter before peeling the cloth off of you. Cold fingers brush over your skin.
Your eyes light up. Cryo vision, of course! That’s why he’s not bothered by the weather. You grab his hand and press it to your face, forcing him to splay his palm so you can use him as your relief.
Lohen laughs slightly as you close your eyes. This feels wonderful. Without his gloves, he exudes a steady chill that has your brain melting. He lets you hold him close for a minute more before he extricates himself from your grip. You wilt at the loss of contact.
He taps your nose playfully. “You’re so cute like this.”
He’s the worst.
He pulls your shirt up and over your head next, exposing your skin to the air. He drops the fabric somewhere on the floor. You feel sticky. And gross.
Lohen turns away from you to run cold water over the towel. He hums to himself as he works. He wrings the excess water out and runs it over your skin. He brushes it over your shoulders, your throat, your stomach, and your sides. The relief is instant. You sigh.
He re-wets the towel and wrings it over your back. You make a sharp noise as the cold water slides down your back. Lohen flashes you a mean smile and drapes the towel over your nape. If he wasn’t actively helping you, you would have pulled his hair.
“Don’t wander off, I’ll be right back,” he says. As if you’re in any mood to do anything but mope over the weather. You watch his back retreat down the hall. You stop paying attention once he leaves your line of sight in favor of basking in the wonderful cold water on your skin.
It’s not enough, but it is nice.
He comes back a few minutes later with a glass of iced water. “Drink that, slowly,” Lohen pushes it into your hands. The cold from the glass seeps up your fingers. You hold it with both hands, letting the warmth of your body dissipate before pressing one hand to your cheek and then your forehead.
“I said to drink that,” Lohen reminds you. “I didn’t even put anything in it, you should be thanking me.”
It’s like some little voice in his head tells him to ruin everything by saying the most annoying thing that he can think of at any given moment. You open your eyes to stare flatly at him. Lohen smiles back, gesturing again to the glass in your hand.
You make sure to glare at him a bit longer before you lift the water up to drink it. The ice clinks against the glass. It’s both instant relief and only highlighting how hot you are.
You don’t drink it as slowly as you could have, but you try to mind his warning anyway. It doesn’t take you long to drain the glass. You keep holding it to enjoy the cold of the leftover ice.
Lohen doesn’t let you bask in it for long. He takes the glass from you and sets it on the counter, taking your wrists and pulling them to the sink. His touch is cool enough that you don’t complain. He turns the sink back on, holding your hands and wrists under the cold spray.
“You’re smarter than this,” Lohen chides, “I know you’re perfectly capable of keeping yourself cool. Have you really just been sulking all day?”
You don’t want to answer that. Sure, you can take care of yourself fine. You got tired in the heat and decided to lay around and sleep, that’s not a crime. Lohen takes your silence as an affirmative. He exhales a breathless laugh. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Not all of us have a fancy vision that keeps us cool, this is a lot of work,” you complain.
“‘A lot of work,’” Lohen repeats pointedly. “It takes five minutes to get a glass of water and refresh the towel on your neck. Lazy, that’s what you are.”
“Whatever,” you close your eyes. The cold water running over you feels amazing. You won’t tell him this, but you like the sound of his voice, even when he’s chiding you. Maybe Lohen thinks in a similar way when he intentionally riles you up.
The sound of the tap fills the room. You only open your eyes when you feel sufficiently cooled off. You find him already looking at you. He’s wearing that same neutral expression he so often is, the one where you can’t really tell what he’s thinking or how he’s feeling.
The two of you look at each other in silence.
“Feeling better?” Lohen asks only after the quiet has stretched on for too long.
“Yeah. Thanks,” you nod. “I would have died without you.”
“I’m sure,” he returns with mock seriousness. He releases your wrists and turns the water off. “Good thing I was here to play your knight in shining armor.”
You hum in agreement, drying your hands off. You don’t let him step away from you, grabbing onto his hands again. He lets you press his hands to your skin like a human ice pack.
Lohen offers no protest when you let go of his hands to wrap your arms around him and bury your face in his chest. Even through the fabric of his clothes, he’s cool to the touch. You don’t want to let go of him.
You’re cooling down but you’re still unwilling to do anything today. You feel him exhale in exasperation, but he doesn’t push you away.
Lohen pats the top of your head. “Alright, come on then,” he hoists you off the counter and onto your feet. You try to keep your arms around him to no avail. Your hands dangle at your sides as he makes you stand up straight.
“You can lay on me all you want in a few minutes, I had something for you, remember?” Lohen snatches the discarded glass from the counter. You blink. You had completely forgotten in the face of finally cooling down and then clinging to him.
Lohen shakes his head. “You’re hopeless after all. It’s in the kitchen,” he offers you his hand. You don’t hesitate to take it, lacing your fingers together. It’s nice when you get to hold his hands without the gloves he’s almost constantly wearing.
He gives you a tug to indicate that he’s leaving, taking a step toward the hall. You follow him out of the bathroom, content with the prospect of a gift and then using him as a human cooler. Lohen squeezes your hand.