38 for the cliché prompts jahdishd it is my weakness 😌💛
38. Everyone thinks we’re already dating, but we’re just best friends- oh wait
in my head theyre def together by the time quynh and andy catch up to them but it is HILARIOUS if they werent so we’re doing that for this lil thingo
they’ve been travelling together a few months now, still working out how to move around each other after spending so long as two distinct and separate pairs. nicolo hadn’t had a clue that the recurring dreams he and yusuf shared were of actual people, so far removed from their sphere of the world had the dreams been. mountains that looked more like pillars, animals and landscapes so wildly different they could have easily come from a story. but now andromache and quynh were bringing them east so they could experience this strange new world for themselves.
neither he not yusuf knew quite what to make of the two women who had abruptly dropped into their lives and announced themselves even older then them, with the same gift (or curse, as he’d once considered it) of life. they were closer then he and yusuf were, that was something certain, even if it hadn’t been made apparent by the quiet kisses the pair sometimes stole, it would’ve been by the heavy, heated looks they exchanged sometimes.
sometimes, he wondered if he looked at yusuf the same way. sometimes he wondered if that eternal love could be them too, but then that blissful illusion would be shattered by the next morning and the new day. yusuf was his best friend and his closest companion- and he wouldn’t dare jeopardise that, not for anything in the world.
so when quynh squats down next to him as he sharpens yusuf’s scimitar late at night (it had taken a long time for the other man to trust him with his weapon, and nicolo treasures this knowledge along with everything else yusuf had gifted him) and casually asks, “the inn we’re arriving at tomorrow morning is safe for those like us. two beds only, then?” he chokes on air.
quynh just fixes him with a flat stare, one eyebrow twitched upwards. “two. beds. two rooms, nico? you and yusuf have been so shy around us, and me and anh want some... personal space too.”
it takes a moment for nicolo to find the words he needs to respond. “quynh, me and yusuf are just... companions. friends. i would hate to make him uncomfortable.”
the older woman’s eyebrows have inched higher and higher with every word he’s spoken, and she quickly barks out the beginnings of a laugh before muffling herself with her hands, her shoulders shaking with mirth. nico can feel his cheeks warming and he puts down the whetstone to swat at her. she dodges, giggling.
“stop laughing at me! stop that!”
“just companions! oh, nico,” she says with so much exasperated fondness that nicolo feels very young again. “i owe andromache so much money.”
“you made bets on us?” demands nicky, aghast, and she nods, breaking into quiet laughter again. behind him, yusuf grumbles sleepily, and nico would be flaming with embarrassment if he didn’t already know that his friend was a dedicated heavy sleeper.
“i guess it serves me right for thinking too highly of either of your intelligences.” quynh shakes her head in mock disappointment, and nico feels like he has to defend himself, somewhat.
“i don’t know how he feels, and i’d rather wait until my emotions make more sense to me before springing anything onto him-”
“oh, save the speech, nico. how long have you felt this way about him?”
“and have your feelings lessened? have they changed? do they make any more sense to you then when you had begun to feel them?”
“no. they’ve only grown with every passing day i spend with him.”
“and there you go.” quynh smiles at him, and its a little sad. “you are not supposed to rationalise your emotions nicolo. love-” and he flinches a little at it, because there it is, the word that rises within him like the sun whenever yusuf smiles at him- “is not supposed to make sense. stop trying to make it make sense, nico. and i swear to you, i’ve been on this earth long enough to know when it’s returned.” she embraces him, then, and he drops his head down onto her shoulder, trying to calm the erratic beat of his heart.
“you’re telling him exactly how you feel in the morning,” she whispers in his ear before they break apart. she smirks at him, and privately he marvels at it, how he’s managed to find such a perfect older sister so long after his own biological family had turned to dust. “and i’m booking you that room.”
