Chapter Text
“If you want some more cheese, take it, Collei. Please, don't make compliments..."
The girl thanked Alhaitham with a nod and a very shy ‘Thank you’ before putting more cheese slices on her plate. They had organised that dinner to celebrate the end of the academic exam period, which certainly meant more freedom, although the students would have to continue studying and researching. Collei was really excited, she couldn't wait to put Tighnari's teachings into practice and show everyone how much she had improved. When she had arrived at the scribe's house, she had thought she was attending a normal dinner, but it had turned out to be a party in her honour. She was not used to being so much the centre of attention, but Tighnari had patted her head and said ‘You deserve it this year...’, alluding to all the improvements she had personally witnessed.
Cyno, on the other hand, had commented on the event by saying that she and Tighnari would one day become ‘Collei-gues’, causing some awkwardness. But the girl was too honoured to not crack a smile.
“Can you wait for me to at least open the liquor before you say such things?” had been Kaveh's witty, understated reply, now smiling more than usual. Everyone had noticed it. But how could one blame him? Things were finally going great for him! It was obvious not only from his constant good humour, but also from the way he looked after himself. There wasn't a moment when he didn't look good. Even that evening he was wearing soft grey trousers with a new wicker belt and an almost transparent peach-coloured shirt. His body was clearly visible to all. Those clothes did not leave much to the imagination. And the whole house smelled good because he had certainly chosen that enticing fragrance.
Kaveh was incredibly attractive that evening. Even Tighnari had blinked a couple of times as soon as the blond had opened the door for them.
“What kind of liquor is it?” the ranger asked, following his friend's movements as he poured himself a drink. Kaveh wanted to answer, but was interrupted by Alhaitham who took the bottle from his hands, commenting:
“Don't you know that it is offered to guests first?”
The blond man snorted, then replied: “Dandelion. It is very sweet, but has an interesting aftertaste…”
Then Tighnari allowed Alhaitham to pour him a drop. He drank it slowly, deciding whether what Kaveh had said was true or not, and enjoying the slight tingle on his palate. Finally he nodded before shaking his long ears at the arrival of the bitter aftertaste. Kaveh promptly handed him a cigarette:
“Here, smoke on it!”
Tighnari hesitated: he did not like smoking in front of Collei, but he was too curious and wanted to indulge Kaveh to please him. Because that's how you deal with attractive people. Especially if they are right.
“...What's this?”
“Mourning flower petals, heheh…”
Tighnari opened his eyelids wide and let smoke slowly escape from his lips.
“And where did you find them?”
Tighnari asked the blond, but looked at the scribe who had emitted a grunt before answering:
"Lately we've been on a foolish spending spree..."
“You talk as if you didn't smoke half a bag yesterday!” was the handsome roomate's shrewd reply.
Then Cyno took the strange cigarette from Tighnari's fingers and smoked it too as he was seized with suspicion. He puffed the smoke quickly so that he could say through clenched teeth:
“Kaveh, have you been to Sangemah Bay again ?”
“He is the only one who has them, what do you mean? He even gave me a discount!”
“... Except I doubt it was convenient in any way, but she gave it to you because the mourning flower hurts if overused. How much did you buy?”
“Two... maybe three bags?”
Alhaitham placed the ashtray on the coffee table, facing Tighnari, in case he wanted to put out his cigarette. Then he picked up the glasses used for tasting liquor and washed them. As he dried them, he realized something that now did not quite add up.
... Had Cyno said ‘again’ ? How did he know that Kaveh had already gone to the mysterious merchant? Perhaps he was missing a passage, which was unusual, since he had always been able to connect one fact to another. Had Cyno seen Kaveh go there, or had Kaveh told Cyno he had gone there? And when had it happened? Alhaitham put the small glasses in their place and retrieved the sweets stored on a plate while he was still thinking about it. But only Tighnari and Collei remained in the parlor. The scribe offered them dessert, which was received with great enthusiasm. He handed a slice to the girl and one to the forester.
“Where did they go?”
“To check the ‘goods’.”
Alhaitham understood because he could indeed hear voices coming from Kaveh's room, whose door was wide open. There was nothing wrong with that, but he still perceived it as a very strange occurrence. So he cut more slices, took his share and sat down on the sofa to continue the conversation.
“How did it go in Ashavan Realm?” he asked Tighnari, but looked at Collei to include her, since her mouth wasn't even busy. And she blushed, but he didn't know why.
“We arrived at the Pardis Dhyai quietly because the weather was good and the humidity bearable. Very fortunate indeed!”
“We were also in good company…” added Tighnari, and as a result Collei lost her words. Faced with the scribe's puzzled expression, his friend continued:
“Sethos was with us the whole way. That boy has a good sense of direction and memorized plants easily. I guess living in the desert prepares you to think about the world in a certain way…”
“Sethos? Cyno wasn't there?”
“Cyno's departure had been delayed a day, so he accompanied us…”
Here's the part he missed. So Cyno and Kaveh did indeed meet, perhaps by chance or business.
Mystery solved.
After a few minutes the two of them had returned to the sofas to eat dessert, still debating about mourning flowers, Sangemah Bay and the expense, until it was Tighnari who ended the conversation. Then they changed the subject immediately. Alhaitham remained silent, still thinking, and stared at those present.
He wondered why Collei had fallen silent as soon as her master had uttered Sethos' name, and now stood there with dangling feet staring at the empty saucer with flushed cheeks and a dreamy grin. Oh... well: teenage crush. Alhaitham sighed, smiling. At least this time she was over the architect!
The scribe then looked at his roommate, who was eating quietly seated next to him. And immediately he noticed that he was no longer wearing make up. Yet he could swear he had seen it drawn on his eyelids. Then he realized that in fact the make-up was there, but it had melted away, or Kaveh had most likely cleaned it off clumsily. Alhaitham didn't have that kind of naughtiness, but he knew there was only one reason why Kaveh's make-up could be untidy, and it was all closely related to the way the blond's lips were slightly swollen: oral sex. Kaveh tears when he practices it and the rubbing makes his mouth pleasantly soft. The scribe has no trouble believing that Kaveh has just given Cyno a blowjob, but he wishes they would be more careful about acting smart.
“Wow, this cake is delicious!” exclaimed Kaveh with his mouth full of cream, addressing his housemate.
Alhaitham smiled: “I knew you would like it. Yesterday you were craving coconut..”
The blond blushed at that thoughtfulness and thanked him.
Alhaitham finally stared at Cyno, who noticed after a moment the scribe's insistence, but did nothing to ignore it.
The other only cared about one thing, that Cyno knew that he knew.
He had always known.
Not only because he was well aware of Kaveh's sexual needs, but also because the whole thing had been planned by him.
Alhaitham smiled.
Oh, if Cyno knew...
If Cyno knew what Tighnari was keeping from him, and especially why.
If Cyno knew why Tighnari could not do without the wild sex with the scribe.
If he could understand that it was not pure sexual tension, or fear of risk, but was so much more. It was above love. It was nature.
Alhaitham had discovered this just over a year earlier - before that seemingly improvised, adventurous exchange. The scribe had read an ancient ‘bestiarium’ cited in one of the heavy and eloquent essays he devoured in his spare time. He had found the volume in a forgotten section of the academic library and leafed through it.
He had thus discovered the primitive nature of the Valuka Shuna, the race from which Tighnari was descended. Nothing he had read was related to the legends and stories his friend had told him, yet a doubt had seized him when he read the paragraph that mentioned the ‘ yaun jaagrti ’. There was only one definition that could explain yaun jaagrti : mating awakening. It was not a trivial ‘being in heat’, but the search for a seasonal partner to mate with. The Valuka Shuna chose their partners according to their strength. No surprise, then, that Tighnari was with Cyno and wanted to be with him.
But Alhaitham had also discovered that the Valuka Shuna were not loyal to their life partners and also mated with other members, usually younger because they were stronger. And they did this both because they were social beings and for the interest and well-being of their community. The yaun jaagrti functioned like the imprinting between mother and child in nature, manifested as a sudden revelation, an epiphany.
Well...
Tighnari had had the imprinting with Alhaitham.
Not with Cyno.
That would have hurt the Mahamatra, would have driven him mad with rage and jealousy.
The rest of the events were easy to guess: it had only been necessary to inculcate in Kaveh the idea of an exchange, for fun or in earnest, alternating the two tones and leading him to think that there was nothing wrong with it after all. When it came to sex, Kaveh was always ready to experiment and loved novelty. That's why Alhaitham knew that with Cyno he would go all the way. And Cyno, well... he had always shown a special affection for the architect and would gladly fuck Kaveh because... who wouldn't? It would also have meant offending the scribe, something General Mahamatra could not have done without.
But the scribe had played it in advance and now knew very well how the yaun jaagrti worked. He had realized it the moment he had entered Tighnari the first time. It was proof that he was right.
And when he was right, Alhaitham was turned on.
He fucked Tighnari mostly to honour that discovery and the nature of his companion.
After the first time, Alhaitham had sent him the bestiarium and written him a letter explaining part of the truth, describing the reasons why he believed Tighnari had had yaun jaagrti with him. And the researcher had asked him to meet, and when the scribe saw him, he was in tears because he did not want to do that to Cyno. He wanted to tell him what happened, but Alhaitham had made him understand very rationally that it was not worth it because it was a short period, it would end as soon as possible. Then he had suggested that they see each other a couple of times a month to keep track of symptoms and timing.
But in a single year Alhaitham had fucked Tighnari more than thirty-five times - more than expected! Because Tighnari's body reacted to Alhaitham's presence and voice, associating it with the need to mate and awakened in him the desire to do so. Neither of them had planned an excuse to meet: they simply hung out and enjoyed a relationship. No one would have found it strange for two academics to meet. Nor would Kaveh or Cyno have thought it unusual. Because Alhaitham and Tighnari already spent time together, whether it was for research or to write theses. They did it in front of everyone. So at the end of the evening, after dinner and dessert, Alhaitham had asked Tighnari if they would see each other the next day. And he, in front of Kaveh, Cyno and Collei, had said yes.
“You are almost ready to take me…”
Tighnari sighed and emitted a faint groan when Alhaitham moved his fingers faster inside him. They were both still clothed, but the scribe had wanted to tickle his friend to tease him and had slipped three fingers inside his soft, already lubricated anus.
“Do you have Kuadeshava?” asked the Valuka Shuna, trembling with desire.
The scribe nodded quietly: “I do, don't worry…”
“And the...?”
“ That too…”
“Who did you get it from?”
Alhaitham laughed: “You don't want to know…”
“Sangemah Bay?”
“Maybe... Do you want to smoke?”
Tighnari thought about it. Or at least he tried because he couldn't think with the scribe's body towering over him. “Maybe later…”
“Yeah... We are ready now…”
Tighnari shuddered: Alhaitham had a lot of patience dealing with him like that. He understood at once what his friend needed and how. In fact he was convinced that the scribe had unbuttoned his cloak to show his body wrapped in the thin black cloth. The shorter man's body had reacted immediately to the sight of his chest and abs, they were so inviting and reassuring.
“Now, please…” he said in short breath.
Then Alhaitham removed his fingers from his body and undressed him so he could kiss and suck slowly on his erection and small anus, while Tighnari climbed on top of him in the reverse position and swallowed his cock. A perfect, harmonious sixty-nine that prepared them both for the act.
Alhaitham realized that Tighnari was ready even before he realized it himself. His friend had started sucking his cock angrily, tightening his lips. Then he reversed positions and settled behind his friend who had arched his tail and bottom and was begging to be fucked mercilessly. Like a magnet, the forest guard's moist buttocks pushed against the scribe's erection and Tighnari cried. This time not to avoid betraying Cyno, but because he needed to do that obscene and unfaithful act.
So Alhaitham did that: he entered Tighnari and fucked him with blind rage, reveling in the yelps and little cries that the submissive lover emitted from the abrupt movements of the aroused scribe's hips. The scribe's hands were holding him to the mattress, gripping his hips. The scribe was taming him like a fury. And little Valuka Shuna trembled as he reached his first orgasm, soiling the bed sheets of the scribe, who nevertheless did not stop and continued to fuck him in that same position for almost an hour, until they were both exhausted.
“You know that Cyno and Kaveh are fucking, right?” Alhaitham had asked him as they both showered after a quick shower.
Tighnari pricked up his ears, surprised not by the revelation, but by the fact that he too knew.
“Cyno only told me he had been with someone else, but I had already smelled Kaveh on his clothes... I'm actually glad it's him and not a stranger... It makes more sense if it's between the four of us.”
Alhaitham nodded and finished dressing himself. Then from his trouser pockets he pulled out a pouch and handed it to Tighnari.
“A gift for next time…”
“When shall we meet?”
“Well… When do you need it?”
Tighnari thought about it: “In two days?”
Two days? Too soon. The scribe noticed how the occasional shag was becoming more recurrent now. But he would never point that out to him.
“Great. Tomorrow we can also go back to the Akademiya for the new student's thesis.”
"Has she written the third chapter yet?"
The scribe grimaced: “Rewritten. Completely.”
“I have new research on rain flowers…”
“So… there is so much to do tomorrow. Business dinner then?”
Tighnari nodded.