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“Cyno, we aren’t sleeping with your polearm tucked under the sheet. The one, thin sheet that we’re sharing.”
The two of them had just bid the traveler and Paimon a good night, and to their indubitable and grand loss, co-loss-al loss (heh), neither of them had opted to take the Staff of the Scarlet Sands to bar the entrance to their flimsy tent. Rather, they were quite insistent on using this dull, unassuming blade the traveler always seemed to carry around. Cyno couldn’t at all fathom why, and figured it wouldn’t be hardly as effective at scaring off wild creatures and treasure hoarders as his glorious staff would have been, but sure. Use your dull sword.
Archons forbid he hear a single noise out of line with the usual peaceful stir of the forest, he would be awake and on his feet in an instant. Not only were the traveler and Paimon his good friends, but Collei was out there in her own tent, and worry blazed dimly in Cyno’s chest for her. Always.
“You know, Nari, my staff hails from the desert. Who’s to say she won’t get cold if she’s left out and about all carelessly?” Cyno stroked the shaft of his polearm, sitting criss-cross on the soft mat they’d placed on the floor of their tent.
“Oh, so, it’s a she?” The sleep shirt Tighnari pulled over his head muffled his voice. Valuka Shuna ears poked out of the shirt before his head did, which only served to widen Cyno’s smile. Tighnari flushed as he locked eyes with Cyno immediately after his shirt was on, and Cyno realized then that he’d been caught staring. Oops.
“Scarlet sounds like more of a girls' name.”
Tighnari chuckled slightly at this, and that blissful noise had to have been one of Cyno’s favorite sounds in the whole world. Hearing him laugh felt like how a sweet rice, meat, yogurt parfait tastes on his tongue, how employing a new deck with remarkable success feels in TCG. A wondrous sensation, the highest tier.
Tighnari finally kneeled down to sit on their mat, but not without raising an eyebrow at the staff tight in Cyno’s grip.
“But— if we don’t put it in the cover, it won’t be a polearm anymore. It’ll be a cold arm.”
Tighnari’s face fell flat. Cyno was used to this expression on the forest ranger.
“No more jokes for the night, nobody’s awake to hear them.”
“You are.”
“Nope!” Tighnari without warning, dropped so quickly to his pillow that it deflated a little on impact, pressing his hands against each other and curling his knees into his chest. He closed his eyes, but the smile on his face was a tell-all.
Liar, Cyno smiled, already brainstorming ways to get Tighnari to open his eyes again. “Okay. I’ll stick it in front of our tent then.”
Tighnari dropped the spoof and propped himself up to speak with concern. “So you really want our little tent to look like a mastaba? What are you doing next, erecting the Great Sphinx?” Tighnari joked. Cyno thought he was really funny, and wished that his own expressions could convey that to him.
“If not a threat, it will be like our axis mundi.” A centerpiece, a wayfinder. A connection from the earth to the heavens. Cyno liked this idea.
Tighnari sighed, a gentle thing. “Look. My bow is over in that corner,” he gestured to the far right corner of the tent, where his bow indeed laid atop his day clothes. It was lucky enough to have that sort of cushion, as Cyno’s day clothes consisted of his helmet and a sprawl of assorted bands and elastane. “If you really insist, your polearm can ‘sleep’ next to it. Maybe that’ll make it a little less cold.”
“Really?” Cyno looked at the other man like he’d returned home with news of a promotion, or that he’d won a limited edition TCG card.
Tighnari’s gaze softened, and he massaged at one of his temples as he tilted his head to the side. “Yes,” he said, a laugh heavy in his voice.
Cyno scrambled up from where he sat—careful to step over Tighnari, fluffy tail and all (that took a wild amount of surface area)—and placed his staff ever-so carefully beside the Hunter’s Path.
“Here, the valiant warriors shall lie to rest, in preparation for their nigh skirmish.” Cyno declared, brushing off his hands and admiring his dutiful work.
Tighnari giggled softly, and Cyno was grateful his pillow didn’t obscure it. “I sure hope there aren’t any battles nigh . I haven’t had to actually use that thing for ages.”
“If we have to fight, we’ll dominate. Together.” Cyno asserted, stepping as carefully as he could back to his position on Tighnari’s right. He failed, a little, and the tent waned to one side as he pushed against it.
“Ahh! Careful, there!”
“Threat dissolved, we’re still standing.” Cyno said, stabilizing the tent before dropping back down to his knees.
“Good. We don’t want the traveler and Paimon to think we’re…” Tighnari shuffled in place, now facing Cyno, and bringing the thin sheet up to his chin. “...roughhousing.”
Cyno smiled warmly. “Is that what it’s called?”
Tighnari swatted at his arm, with hardly any strength at all, as they were lying down and their bodies were ready to shut off. He then lifted the sheet from where it completely covered his body, and used it to cover Cyno, too. He wasn’t satisfied until Cyno also had full coverage. Truthfully, Cyno would manage just fine without any sort of covering in the night, as he was used to sleeping on rocks in the extreme, polarizing temperatures of the desert. But this was something Tighnari did often, caring for him, and Cyno lovingly embraced the way his heart sang whenever it happened.
Before Tighnari made the complete cross back over to his side, he leaned down to cradle Cyno’s cheek. Cyno’s heart stuttered, as it never failed to do when this happened. The general closed his eyes as their lips met, careful not to groan into the kiss when his friends were asleep only inches away.
“Thank you for today,” Tighnari uttered, hardly above a whisper, as they pulled apart. Cyno would kiss Tighnari forever if he didn’t have to breathe.
“What’d I do?” Cyno dumbly asked, his mind still a little stunned from the intimate gesture. And from looking at Tighnari’s eyes, which shone with ethereal color, even through the dimness of the tent’s interior.
“For helping me make all of this happen. It started as just a silly idea, and now here we are, in a tent you sent up. On our camping trip.”
“Executing ideas is part of my job,” only those ‘ideas’ are laws, Cyno thought, smiling, “and you always have the best ideas, Nari.”
“I don’t know, you have some pretty good ones yourself.” Tighnari said bashfully, leaning back onto his pillow. Cyno wondered if now was the time he could pull him closer.
“I think that’s what makes us so good together.”
Tighnari smiled at Cyno just then, and everything inside of him felt warm and light. Until the forest watcher turned away, facing the other direction. There was something in the way he hummed softly with each breath, and how relaxed his body seemed, that Cyno figured he was being teased.
Cyno was too baked just then to say anything, allowing the gentle rustling of leaves to take up space where words did not. He wanted Tighnari in his arms, to hold him as the forest held the growls of tigers and song of birds, as the forest gently nurtured their home—their family.
“Are you going to hold me?” Tighnari asked, because he was especially good at reading the general’s mind.
“Can I?” Cyno breathed. He always wanted to be certain Tighnari was comfortable—that came first.
“Yes, you lummox. I only just asked you t—”
Cyno scooted closer to Tighnari in the swiftest, gentlest movement and slunk an arm around his waist, drawing him in as he longed to. Tighnari faintly gasped and grabbed his tail before it could tickle Cyno’s thighs, drawing it in for himself to hold just as Cyno held him. Cyno thought it was impossibly cute when Tighnari slept like this.
“I haven’t heard that one in a while.” Cyno whispered against his lover’s neck, referring to his creative ways of calling Cyno an idiot.
“I was saving it for a time like now.” Tighnari teased.
Cyno nodded, even though the other man couldn’t see him, and their conversations subdued into silence as the night was getting shorter. He knew he needed to say one last thing before Tighnari completely drifted off, and spoke when he knew Tighnari’s breathing wasn’t quite relaxed enough to be considered sleeping.
“Tighnari?”
“Yes? If this is another conversation, let’s have it tomorrow. We’re lucky if the others are still sleeping with how much we’ve been talking…” Tighnari warned in a whisper. He seemed tentative (tent-ative, hah, Cyno would have to use that one before the trip ended), which was perfectly endearing as he was only nervous about being a disruption.
“I was just going to say good night.”
“Oh. Good night, Cy.”
“And… I love you.”
Tighnari exhaled partially, nuzzling further back into Cyno. Cyno repositioned his arms to better fit their bodies together; closer. “I love you too. So much.”
As they drifted off to sleep that night, Cyno couldn't help but think he must be the luckiest man alive, to purge criminals by daylight just to lie beside the man he had loved for so long at a campsite surrounded by their friends.
***
Tomorrow, everything will be resolved.
A wave of relief rushed over Cyno, as the nonstop activity that happened from the moment he had to leave Tighnari at their campsite, till now—when everything seemed to slow down for just a moment.
He would be dueling Sethos tomorrow for both Ba Fragments, encompassing the entirety of Hermanubis’ power. Cyno had been blessed with Hermanubis’ might for as long as he’s known, as he couldn’t remember much of his life before it. He was curious whether Sethos and him had been friends, or even something akin to brothers, as they were raised together in the Temple of Silence.
He wondered if Sethos felt the same deep connection to Hermanubis that he did, and if it was too brash to attach such high stakes to a duel. With the legendary traveler, and more importantly Tighnari at his side, there was no possible scenario in which he could suffer a loss. There wouldn’t be, even if Cyno were to take on all three opponents alone. The general knew his ability—he knew his strength, his body, his limits, his tactic, and himself, and Sethos’ disorientation was so palpable when speaking to him. That was why it was so clear that Sethos wasn’t a villain, only a boy.
As Tighnari had reminded him, he needed this power, both as General Mahamatra and for himself. To protect Sumeru, and to be whole. Cyno doubted that while he was with his family he could ever feel incomplete, but he figured that Hermanubis led him to them, too.
When they split off with the traveler and Paimon, it was finally just him and Tighnari again, for the first time since being in their tent. He was thanking the Seven that they were here together, and that they were alright, even with Tighnari’s severe heat sensitivity. A part of Cyno knew that even when he begged against it, Tighnari would still follow him here. And he had, and the two of them would see it to the end.
Cyno leaned against the wall of the little room they’d filed into as Tighnari set up shop for the night. It was nothing too extravagant, just a couple of mats on the floor and a blanket, but Cyno had slept through much worse conditions prior. Tighnari would be by his side, and this alone would make sleeping easy.
“Whew,” Tighnari sighed, after creating what loosely resembled a comfortable living space. Perhaps a part of the comfortability came from looking at the man kneeling atop the mats, smiling up at him even though he just worked. “Do you want to head to bed now? The more rest the better, I suppose, but the duel isn’t until 8 p.m. tomorrow. That gives us plenty of time to sleep in, if we need.”
Cyno mused on his thoughts. If everything was on the line tomorrow, why not enjoy tonight?
“Let’s go for a walk first. We can talk, and explore this place a little more.” Cyno held out his hand.
Tighnari grabbed it, and Cyno hoisted him up in an easy, one-armed motion. “Sounds good to me!”
The two peeked around the doorframe of their little room before exiting, scoping out the area. Nobody seemed to be roaming the halls at this hour, which was perfect for them. Cyno couldn’t help but notice that the structure kept honorably to its name, as not even their footsteps made noise as they maneuvered their way through winding corridors.
“Are your feet okay?” Tighnari asked, as they walked. “This temple has floors with all sorts of textures and contraptions. I’m just worried about you getting hurt.”
“I’m fine. My feet have traversed so many lands, they have an extra protective layer of skin on the bottom. Want to feel?” Cyno offered, lifting his foot off the ground.
“I’ve already felt, thank you.”
“You could even say my feet are undefeetable.”
“Oh, c’mon—“ Tighnari shook his head, continuing along their undetermined path. Cyno thought that was a pretty good one.
“And you.” Cyno quickly pivoted, “We’ve been in the desert for a long time now. Are you drinking enough water?”
“Mhm! I have my canteen right here!” Tighnari held up the circular flask a little too easily, signaling to Cyno that it was nearly empty. “Oh—looks like I’m running a little low.”
“We’ll find you some more then.”
“We’re just going to take their water? Come on Cyno, we should at least ask.” Tighnari reasoned, scratching the side of his neck.
“It’s way too late for that, I’ll tell whoever asks that it was an emergency.” Cyno affirmed, already determined to find water. Tighnari had already traveled all this way, Cyno would be damned if he dehydrated on top of that.
“Committing a crime with the General Mahamatra wasn’t on my bucket list for the year.”
This hardly counted as a crime at all, but Cyno knew Tighnari well enough to know that he was making a joke. “You’re going to have to make a new one.”
The Temple of Silence was a massive, and gorgeous edifice, with bounds upon bounds of large rooms and looming hallways. Cyno half-wished that walking around the place would resurface any sort of memories he had here, but there was nothing. However, it didn’t bother him. His life was so heavily concentrated with the forest, the Akademiya, and the man whose hand he held tightly now, that knowing more of his distant past wouldn’t change how he viewed his present and future.
They found themselves in another small room that veered off to the end of a hallway, much like their own for the night, although this one was lined with counters and filled with storage boxes that suggested it was a food storage unit. After a quick glance-over, his eyes landed on a faucet in the back right corner of the room.
“Aha. Hand me your flask.” Cyno held his hand out until the cold metal pressed into his palm, and filled that canteen to its brim.
Tighnari was definitely reluctant about drinking straight from a tap, as he always filtered his water at home. Cyno tried reassuring him by telling him he’s drank from a murky puddle in a desert temple before when an expedition got really intense, so at least this was better than that. Somehow, this only served to make Tighnari more mortified.
“Fine, one sip. But I promise you, I just barely finished the last of the water I brought only thirty minutes ago.”
“Don’t care. Drink.”
Tighnari’s eyes widened, and he brought the flask tentatively to his lips
“Don’t tap out on me now.” Cyno added, in light of the situation. Tighnari’s lips frowned around the opening as he tilted his head back and took a good sip. Cyno watched the bob of his throat as he gulped down the water.
“Ah,” Tighnari gasped, wiping the excess water from his lips with one arm and balancing himself against the counter with the other. “Your turn. I know you don’t drink enough, Mr. Puddle Water.”
Cyno exhaled a laugh at that, gladly taking the canteen from Tighnari and taking a swig himself, closing his lips around the nozzle in the same way the other man had. He realized then that he’d been yearning for more than an indirect kiss, placing the canteen on the counter behind Tighnari instead of handing it back.
“Hey, wait—“
Cyno lightly cupped Tighnari’s jaw in his hand, looking at his lover with a gaze that asked for permission to move forward. Tighnari smiled bashfully and lifted his hands from the counter to Cyno’s neck, tantalizingly hovering before his hair. Cyno eagerly leaned forward to bring their lips together, which Tighnari graciously reciprocated, finally tangling his fingers in Cyno’s long white hair just as he ran his hands down the forest ranger’s back. The kiss began slowly, delicately, before Tighnari opened his mouth and Cyno shivered with the full spectrum of delightful feelings. He wondered then if tomorrow’s victory would feel as good as kissing Tighnari did.
Cyno wasn’t shy about groaning this time, undoubtedly disrupting the “silence” that this temple’s namesake suggested. They broke apart shortly after, Tighnari blushing furiously.
“Hydrated…” Cyno murmured, and Tighnari brought their lips together again for a final kiss.
“I guess we’ll gain our dignity back tomorrow…” Tighnari mumbled, and Cyno didn’t care what on Teyvat were to become of them as long as they were together.
The moment soon passed, and then it dawned upon the two that they’d have to make it back to where they began. Tighnari was a particularly good pathfinder, so Cyno trusted him to take the lead. Cyno would trust Tighnari with absolutely anything.
It started with a hold on his wrist as they walked at a jogging pace through the corridors, until Cyno tripped a little on a nick in the floor. Tighnari’s hand slipped from Cyno’s wrist to his hand, regaining a tight grasp of Cyno’s fingers.
They walked hand in hand like this, mixed intervals of chatter and comfortable silence, for a couple of loops and detours before Tighnari decided it was best they actually try to get some shut eye before tomorrow’s momentous day.
They lowered onto their mats, Tighnari first who laid on his back. Before Cyno could do the same, he remembered something very important.
“Our weapons.”
Tighnari, fully expecting Cyno to join him on their mat, looked up at him bemused. “What?”
“The skirmish is nigh, which means they must sleep together to charge up energy.”
Tighnari closed his eyes, chuckling softly through his closed lips. “I don’t think that’s how it—“ They both locked eyes, and suddenly Tighnari’s expression morphed into a gentler one. “The Path is over there.”
Sure enough, the Hunter’s Path laid flat across the floor across the room where Tighnari pointed, and Cyno practically skipped over to lay his Staff beside it. The longer that they owned them, the more their weapons seemed to belong together, when laid out like this. Cyno couldn’t help but smile at the sight.
“Perfect,” Cyno decided, climbing onto the mat beside Tighnari. With careful practice, he settled his head carefully on Tighnari’s chest, draping an arm over the rest of it. The forest ranger hummed delightedly and brought his hand into Cyno’s hair, fondling it. “Mmm, that feels amazing.” Cyno muttered, already feeling himself start to drift.
“So does your hair. Finally using that product I gave you?”
“Of course. I use everything you give me.” Cyno murmured, tilting his head to be even closer to Tighnari.
“Then I need to start giving you some common sense, so you don’t go running into the desert and telling everyone not to follow you again.” Tighnari lightly scolded.
“‘M sorry.”
Cyno heard Tighnari sigh and click his tongue. “Okay, we’ll resume talking about this the next time we’re alone. What matters now is that you win tomorrow.”
“I’m not afraid. I’ve dealt with greater threats before. I just hope that… we learn something new about him tomorrow.”
“You sure seem pretty inclined to like him.”
Cyno supposed that was true, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why that was so. Did he see himself in Sethos? Not really, not other than their bind to Hermanubis. Sethos seemed a lot more exuberant than Cyno was when he was younger. That was another important factor; age. They were likely around the same age seeing as their Ba Fragments were implanted at the same time, very early on in their lives, but Sethos just seemed younger. Cyno knew it was because he had a long road still ahead of him.
“I do. But tomorrow, I will make my final judgment.” Cyno proudly declared through his sleepy haze.
“Sure.” Tighnari agreed.
This time, before either of them drifted off, Tighnari was the one to break to silence.
“And Cyno.”
“Yes.” Anything.
“Remember, you’re not alone.”
Cyno thought then of the decades-old familiarity between Hermanubis and the Tighnarians. Perhaps he didn’t need an axis mundi to connect his earth to the heavens, perhaps the fate of his ancestors had done that already. And perhaps it was fate that connected him with Tighnari. Cyno quite liked this idea.
I’m not alone.
***
“Tighnari, I’m very sorry. I understand that I’ve worried you.”
The group had finally said their last goodbyes to the traveler, and after reconvening at Puspa Café with Collei, they all walked back to Tighnari’s place in Gandharva Ville together.
Cyno loved today. Today was perfect. As was the man who stood directly before him, pointing a finger in his face just as his master had done to Cyno’s own Professor Cyrus just hours prior.
“A lot. You worried me a lot.” Tighnari emphasized, with a tinge of hurt in his expression and his tone. Cyno hoped that his own was enough to convey his apologetic feelings.
“You went into the desert for me. You get heatstroke way quicker than most.” I was worried about you too , Cyno said through these words, so worried.
“Of course I did! I wasn’t just going to let you go on some desert pursuit alone, alright? Not when I knew about it. It wasn’t work-related, it was personal, and that means I have full agency to get involved.”
Cyno had no choice but to resign. He would always put up a fight when it was just and reasonable for him, but when his opponent was Tighnari, it was hard—if not impossible—to find any fault in his argument.
“I appreciate you so much.” Cyno said all at once, because it was true.
He watched something shift in the forest ranger’s face, morphing from expression to expression, settling with something worried. No, astonished. Some mix of the two. “Yeah… well… good.” Tighnari finally conceded, casting a sidelong glance to the floor.
“Does this mean that he’s forgiven?”
A sudden, high-pitched voice chimed in from somewhere below Cyno and Tighnari. It was Collei, of course, sitting with her hands clasped in her lap in the dining table chair closest to the kitchen.
“Collei—” Tighnari started, and the flush and regret on the timid girl’s face was immediate.
“Eek, sorry!” She waved her hands frantically before her. “But master, you’ve kinda been telling him off the whole way home—” She added, her voice trailing off near the end. Cyno felt warmth settle within his ribcage, at the mere notion of Collei sticking up for him.
“And inside the home,” Cyno added, for laughs. Collei was on the verge of a snicker before getting cold feet and covering her mouth. He cleared his throat, it was time to try again. “It’s okay, Collei. Tighnari takes a lot after his master. First the berating, then the haircut. Hey, if the line of master to student inheritance continues, your hair is next!”
“Ahhh!” Collei squealed, bringing her hands to the sides of her head, pressing her hair down.
“Hey, don’t scare her!” Tighnari scolded, with a smile on his face. “Hold on, what’s wrong with my hair?”
“Nothing. It’s perfect. You look beautiful,” Cyno was almost too apt to admit.
“Hey! No flirting when I’m sitting right next to you two…!” Collei exclaimed with a frown, sticking out her bottom lip.
Cyno and Tighnari exchanged a glance, a wonderous thing that they must have been clairvoyants to be able to do so often, and started laughing. It didn’t take long for the positive energy to rub off on Collei, and all three of them laughing? Had to have been his favorite sound in all of Teyvat.
***
Two consecutive nights Cyno had slept with Tighnari, and he felt like doing it every consecutive night from then on. On the contrary, they were simply present-dwelling Sumerians who were going to take it one night at a time.
Cyno held Tighnari at the campsite, Tighnari held Cyno in the Temple of Silence, but tonight, they held each other. Every passing day served as a reminder of what awe-striking relationships he had built—with his friends, with his father, with his daughter, with his lover, and maybe, in the dawning future, with his brother.
Tighnari asked, his smooth voice piercing the gentle lull of the forest outside. “Do you feel any stronger now? With both Ba Fragments? Does it feel… complete?”
Cyno allowed Hermanubis’ contained energy to surge through his body just there, to most accurately assess how he felt.
“It definitely feels… right. Like I was meant to harness this power.”
“Eugh… what was that…” Cyno felt Tighnari shaking ever so slightly in his arms, and leaned only millimeters back to take a better look at him. Staticky hairs crowned his head, and Cyno laughed at the sight. He smoothed them down easily, continuing to gaze into Tighnari’s eyes.
“I do worry about Sethos. I couldn’t tell how the loss of his Ba Fragment really affected him.” Cyno continued breaking eye contact with Tighnari for a moment to look somewhere at his pillow.
Tighnari grabbed the hand Cyno left slack in the space between them and squeezed it with his own. “I think he’ll be fine. But, Cy, do you really want to have Sethos over?”
“I do.” Cyno squeezed back. Just as Cyno needed Tighnari in his Akademiya days, Sethos needed someone too. Maybe that didn’t mean family on day one, but Cyno felt a connection to him, a connection that was worth building upon.
“I trust your judgment more than anything, but…do you really think he’ll come? He didn’t seem very sure of himself.” Tighnari was quite the intuitive creature, and as this was certainly true, Cyno could definitely see Sethos trying to build those relationships just as the general had.
“I suppose we shall see. Or rather, I Seth-ose we shall—“
“I am going to turn around.” Tighnari deadpanned, and Cyno took that as his cue to hush up and allow the night to whisk them away.
Funnily enough, in the same respect as it had the previous two nights, a “one more thing” broke their descent into rapid eye movement.
“One more thing,” Tighnari spoke, barely above a whisper, “you wanted him to come here?” Tighnari warily asked, because truthfully he ended up hosting group dinners a substantial amount of times.
“Where else would he go? This is where my family lives.”
Cyno marveled then how it could be so warm, not only in the desert, but in the shade.