#the quote from folio of foliage has no hidden meaning i just wanted cyno to be reading something
Note
if you are comfortable with cyno or childe then may i ask for cyno/childe bc i think it's funny (also bonus points if they're roommates/gym buddies/partner project partners/whatever scenario forces them together)
chicyno
[i see, you are also a creature of taste!! I couldn’t decide whether to make this gay or keep it platonic so I leave it up to you to decide ^^]
roommate applications at the Akademiya are…. stupid, in Cyno’s opinion.
The Akademiya sprawls on a slope overlooking the Visshudha Fields, but if Cyno stands on the furthermost balcony and pushes up on the banister until he’s on the tips of his toes he can see-- distantly, like a mirage wavering in the heat-- the sand dunes that denote the existence of his home. Even now, three years into his studies, Cyno finds it hard to ignore the heavy knot of homesickness that settles uneasily in his stomach, harder still when he knows he’s about to be forced to spend the next year with yet another poor unfortunate foreigner. It’s by some cruel twist of fate that Cyno always ends up with roommates who speak entirely different languages to him, and not even Alhaitham’s monotone tutoring had helped him in any way.
No matter, Cyno thinks, turning away from the balcony and returning in the direction of the dormitories. I have weathered far worse. I can survive once more.
---
Cyno cannot, in fact, survive once more.
He pushes open the door to his suite, bag dropped haphazardly at his feet, only for his eyes to land on the last person he had expected to be lounging so comfortably in the living room. Childe Tartaglia, of all people, a rather infamous exchange student known for the chaos that follows him with every step. He exudes an air of impropriety, from his sharp smile that digs into his cheeks, to the way his eyes-- dull, like sea glass or stillwater-- glint inhumanly in the low light of the living room.
Childe, though an exchange student from the frozen forests of Snezhnaya, was well-versed in the language of Sumeru, though he oddly spoke it with the accent of someone who might be from Liyue. He definitely didn’t look like he was from Liyue… Mondstadt maybe, but the easy sunburn along his nose spoke of far less resistance to the sun.
“Cyno!” Childe chirps, smiling like a cat. “What a fun twist to the story, wouldn’t you say?”
Cyno just stares unblinking for several seconds too long, very aware of the role he plays as the canary, before promptly bending down to pick up his bag and breezing through the living room to lock himself in the privacy of his room.
---
When the moon's shadow shattered, hordes of beasts emerged from the deepest depths of the abyss and devoured living creatures by the thousands. Of those she created, none could escape their destined annihilation. The goodness, peace, and wisdom she had bestowed — all perished before this pure malice without exception. Under that sneering waning moon, the black tide of decay surged--
A mop of unkempt red hair pops up in Cyno’s peripheral vision, the tightening of his hand at the spine of the novel the only telltale sign of his sudden discomfort. “Ooh, are you doing some light reading or is this coursework?”
Cyno slowly closes “The Folio of Foliage”, closing his eyes briefly against the tide of unkind words that rise to the tip of his tongue. The words themselves almost sound like Dehya-- perhaps he’s spending too much time around her. “I didn’t know you were coming home so early. You’re usually out late.”
Childe just hums, one hand grasping the back of the couch as he leaps over it to settle clumsily at Cyno’s side. The shorter boy feels the muscles along his shoulders tense, and he forces himself to remain still as Childe adjusts to a comfortable position. “I got stood up, so I decided to cut my losses and come back. Goddess help me, the women of Sumeru are just as, if not more fickle than those in Liyue.”
Cyno traces a finger along the cover of his book. “You’re not from Liyue, are you?”
“No, Snezhnaya born and raised, but I--” Childe pauses, and Cyno looks up through his bangs to find Childe frowning briefly at his hands. They’re long hands, those of an archer maybe, with red knuckles and finely shaped nails. Cyno blinks and looks away just as Childe turns back to him. “I studied there, before coming here.”
“That’s a long time to be studying abroad. Do you not miss your home?”
“Do you?”
Cyno thinks of the endless expanse of sand, and the warm embrace of a never ending sun. “My home is not so far away as yours is. And I’m sure you miss the cold. We don’t have that here.”
“Oh, I’ve noticed,” Childe laughs, throwing one arm along the back of the couch, too close to where Cyno’s head rests. “After so much time in Liyue, though, I’d like to think I’ve acclimated to the sunny weather. I definitely don’t think I’d fare very well in the desert.”
Cyno smiles, ducking his head further. “I imagine you’d turn as red as a zaytun peach. If you thought Sumeran women were hard to please before, the desert would not be your wingman.”
There’s a brief moment of silence that hits Cyno like a sumpter beast straight to the chest, and he recalls Alhaitham once telling him that what he considers jokes, sometimes become unfunny in the time it takes to travel from mind to mouth. He turns toward Childe with every intention of apologizing, only to find Childe already looking at him with a stunned sort of smile on his face. It still cuts across his cheeks like a suture, but the deep crescent dimples it leaves look softer than usual.
“And here I thought you were as rigid as stone, mahamatra.”
Cyno winces, feeling his ears burn. “My personality is not always a reflection of my prefect title, Childe.”
“Ajax.”
“What?”
Childe just grins, and his hand brushes Cyno’s shoulder as he pushes himself back to his feet. “I’m gonna make pierogies out of boredom. If you decide to run to your room again, mahamatra, I’ll leave some for you.”
And with that he walks around the couch and toward their shared kitchen, and Cyno…
Cyno enjoys pierogies very much, actually. He enjoys more the way Childe, once seated beside him once more, throws that same arm across the back of the couch, fingers occasionally dancing along Cyno’s shoulder.
#genshin impact#childe#tartaglia#cyno#my writing#i'm sorry this took so long i've been very sick#anyway if you like this and want more of...... whatever this is??#i'm definitely down to write more about the hijinks they might get up to#the quote from folio of foliage has no hidden meaning i just wanted cyno to be reading something#I thought about having him play genius invokation but decided that that's definitely not something he'd just do casually in the living room#even if childe wasnt home#(he fears childe's opinion of him)
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