for @citer

[cashewlater]

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[citer]

You'll burn off what skin the sun hasn't scoured off of you.

[ but there's a laugh in there as he considers this. hotter, then - the corollas could do the trick, but there are several things involving steam that tighnari had been interested to try. next week, then. ]

Well, heat is good for the circulation, and for your overtaxed muscles. There's a technique from Liyue where you use little glass cups of fire to draw out ill humours and the like from your body. I'm interested in seeing it in action; the world really has all kinds in it.

[cashewlater]

Glass cups? [ cyno's having a difficult time visualizing it. ] Well, as ever, I'm glad to be your test subject.

[ opening his eyes, cyno tips his head back to look up at tighnari through the veil of his pale hair. it's good to see his face. ]

Thank you.

[citer]

[ like this, cyno's hair framing the titian sunset of his eyes, he looks younger. happier, he thinks, his head tilted back and the warm water like an embrace. tighnari's ears dip. his hair falls around them like liquid jungle, green and greener still like frames to a waterfall. his hand gently finds the contour of cyno's cheek, drawing its line and curve from memory. ]

You're welcome. [ he says, and then: ] Welcome back. You've been missed.

Though if it's by me, or my penchant for experimentation - well, that's for you to find out.

[cashewlater]

[ it's moments like these that make cyno's heart skip up into his throat. it isn't like him to be so arrested by someone, but tighnari - well, he supposes that he's begun to understand just why valuka shuna have been valued by the higher echelons for so long. still, it's not tighnari's soft features and lustrous hair that makes him beautiful to cyno, it's the way he speaks, the things he says. how he carries himself. his strength. the draw of tighnari's fingertip against his cheek makes cyno's eyelids flicker. ]

Mm. I have something of an idea.

[ i missed you, too. ]

[citer]

[ everyone knows that the valuka shuna have a sense of hearing unparalleled in the natural world. a pin drops, and that moment of the world is changed for it. that's the way it has always been. but hears something in cyno's tone that he thinks no being should be able to hear, and it has the corners of his eyes crinkle in pleasure. ]

Good.

Now, get out of the bath; you have a massage to get to.

[cashewlater]

Yes, sir.

[ loathe as he is to pull away from tighnari's hands, there's only more to greet him in the near future. so cyno braces his hands on the edge of the bed and hauls himself up without preamble, water sloughing in rivulets down his bronze skin as he stands, carefully scaling the shallow tiled steps out of the sunken bath.

he snags a towel, rubs it through his damp hair and over his arms. as for his nudity - well, cyno's never been ashamed of his body, and like as not tighnari has surely seen him bathe and change plenty of times by now, and if he hasn't.. enjoy the show i guess!! ]

I brought something back, for you.

[citer]

[ cyno slips from the bath, and tighnari pulls his legs from the warmth of the water in turn. they drip side-by-side as they procure towels. it follows, then, that today, it's cyno's turn to break their routine. tighnari looks up from where he had been rubbing cream into his ankles, his ears pricked. ]

Did you? What is it?

And if it's a plant, did you ensure the roots are intact?

[cashewlater]

Seeds.

[ with his hair sufficiently dried, still damp but fluffy, cyno scrubs the towel at his body. ]

A type of prayer plant. I wrote it down.

[citer]

[ sufficiently intrigued, he corrals them both out of the bath, his ears pricked with interest. ]

Let me see, then. Where did you find time to find a prayer plant? You hardly eat or sleep.

[cashewlater]

If I don't eat or sleep, I have plenty of time to find you prayer plants.

[ cyno smiles, dropping the towel into a wicker basket, then wanders back toward his clothes, to retrieve two small brown paper packets from his pockets, wrapped in a scrap of parchment. he hands it to tighnari, where he'll find scrawled in cyno's cramped handwriting: maranta arundinacea and calathea musaica. ]

[citer]

[ he gathers them into his hands as if they are but minute treasures. the little brown packets smell of earth and vine and temple incense. he flips it to the back, and cyno's scrawl, cramped handwriting provides context.

tighnari smiles. ]

Arrowroot will be a fine addition to my garden. The people of the village by the Vissudha river often eat poorly; the children will be able to sleep better at night for it. As for the Goeppertia kegeljanii, you have set a challenge before me. They're temperamental plants to raise. You must think that I'm terrible bored when you're away.

[cashewlater]

Aren't you?

[ he teases, gently, then brushes past tighnari to retrieve his customary sleepwear: underclothes, and those comfortable loose black cotton pants. ]

You like them, then.

[citer]

It's a grand gift. Thank you, Cyno.

[ tighnari says, as he walks past cyno. his tail brushes gently against cyno's shin, a moment of grace. ]

Come to bed, and lie down on your front. I'll have to make sure this massage is a good one.

[cashewlater]

[ cyno's work days are always long. one day feels like three, and these past four have been longer than most. he'd hardly realized how much he'd missed tighnari's haughty presence, his company, until now. he moves past cyno, smelling sweet, of lotuses and earth and petrichor.

tugging on his clothes, cyno obeys, climbing onto their bed - gods, has it always been so soft? - and stretching comfortably, before lying forward on his stomach. ]

You spoil me too much.

[ but his aching shoulders and back scream out for attention. ]

[citer]

[ as cyno lays himself out, he retrieves the scented oils that knead into muscle and unknots the tension there. cyno's a lean, sun-kissed figure upon the bed. he unlaces the back of cyno's bedclothes, revealing just enough back for him to begin work, rubbing the oils between the palms of his hands to warm them before he runs his palms over cyno's back. ]

If you call this spoiling, then your standards are low. Well, we've only had a month; I haven't had a chance to raise them, so I can forgive you.

[ he begins to knead, testing out the knots in cyno's back, and then settling into bed so that he can put his weight into it with firm, uncompromising twists. ]

How goes the case? Were you able to find their den?

[cashewlater]

[ the scent of the oils is pleasant, and tighnari's hands are warm, and soft. they press against his skin with ease and confidence, and soon enough he's pushing harder, drawing a low, slightly pained grunt from cyno, followed by a hard exhale. ]

Mm. Good. I've zeroed in on their location. In two days time, I infiltrate.

[ tighnari's weight is on him now, and it's sweet, pleasurable agony as he works through the hard knots there. much as it aches, it also feels good in a way he's only just recently begun to understand, since tighnari has walked into his life and begun to spoil him. ]

And then - nn - then I'll show you what you want to see.

[citer]

[ in two days' time. he'll have to pay attention, then, these next two days. wounds, fatigue, changes in behaviour. cyno is taciturn on the best of days, the sort of man to bear his difficulties in silence. it's not a comforting thought, though tighnari knows that is in part due to his own nature, the part of him that wants to know, to understand, to solve problems as they arise.

he presses into another knot, carefully teasing it apart. ]

You've made up your mind?

[cashewlater]

Yes.

[ cyno's eyes close, and he hums, low and soft, lost in the feeling of tighnari's strong fingers pressing into his back. ]

Once the den is secured, I'll take you there, alone. You can see whatever you'd like to see.

[ it goes without saying that this is a fierce display of trust, that cyno has taken the time to weigh tighnari's heart and not found him wanting. many people have attempted to bribe cyno in the past, to win him over with kindness and charm and all manner of things, and he has had to learn how to cut through a person's facade to the meat within. the truth. what they've built here together is not only something comfortable, it's something real. ]

Be ready by the end of the week.

[citer]

[ in truth, tighnari knows that he does not understand the full implications of the decision. he has no way of doing so. a month is time enough to build a friendship; it is not enough time to call a palace a home. but what he does not know, he supplements it by knowing cyno. cyno, steadfast, who walks through desert storms and ignores the needs of his own to find two packets of seeds for tighnari's garden, simply because he thought tighnari would like them.

cyno has made a decision. there's something rare and humbling in it that has tighnari's hands pause in his ministrations.

he smiles. ]

You may promise to secure the place, but I'll be bringing my bow regardless. Who knows if there's something that pops out of the woodwork that needs burying.

[cashewlater]

Of course you will be.

[ cyno wouldn't have it any other way. now that tighnari has learned how to use a weapon, cyno would prefer he keep it handy at all times. he has no doubt of his own ability to keep tighnari safe and well-protected, but all the better if he knows how to defend himself, as well. secure or not, things happen, and there are plenty of dangers between here and there. ]

And your dagger. Have you been practicing?

[citer]

Of course. Isn't it the reason why the head of the household and the chef have gone conspicuously missing? I can't imagine how else I would be feeding the plants.

[cashewlater]

Very funny. I'll have to test your improvement.

[citer]

Best out of five. I had someone come around with a Sumpterbeast to flatten the little courtyard in the back, to better provide footing. I'm running low on targets to practice on, however. The cloth archery targets you brought last time are now more hole than cloth - and I don't have the expertise to repair them.

[cashewlater]

Glad to see you've been making - ah - good use of them..

[ tighnari's hard work is paying off. though cyno is aching all over, he's slowly beginning to settle against the bedding, the stiff tension in his shoulders bleeding away, his breathing slowing, softening. ]

We'll get you more. Straw ones, this time.

[citer]

[ his hands run over cyno's back one last time, a rub of scented oils that help with sleep. tighnari laughs. ]

Will the straw ones hold up, I wonder. I've managed to have the arrows split. It's made quite a dent in the back.