#cihro

oh gosh I didn’t even reblog it NOW I GOTTA GO FIND IT..

7 - An Angry Text (Cihro to Yvir)

Hey, I’m on to you! I know you said something to Vee today. They’ve had this awful base track on ever since you left and has been speaking (?) to me exclusively in this horrible auto-tuned voice. I’m not letting you out of my sight next time you’re on my ship.

18 - A Drunk Text (Cihro to Yvir)

you’re smart!! some human said something that didn’t translate and i need your hgelp figuring it out

“cool as a cucumper” 

a) what’s a cucumper

Kishore: How?

Cihro: How what?

Kishore: How could they be worse?

[171]

Cihro watched Aritian stalk off through the garden. With him left the weight Cihro had been carrying for nearly a year; the weight of secrecy, the weight of having to decide when and how, the weight of having to prepare for the worst. He couldn’t undo time and take back the words. Whatever their future, they would have to figure it out with that truth shared between them.

It mattered that Aritian was angry. Anger stemmed from hurt and betrayal, which meant he trusted him, in his own way. It mattered more that Cihro had told him. 

He rarely got to indulge in honesty. Lying and getting away with it felt good, but bearing his heart did, too. Living alone with his secrets had been heavy; the more family he had to lean on, the lighter he felt about his sorrows, past and present. 

Cihro: I can make that happen. Just let me know.

Kishore: I'm sorry?

Cihro: (weakly) If I was dying, could I do this?

Kishore: What are you doing?

Cihro: Cartwheels.

[162]

Cihro had learned that being a master of stealth wasn’t about being the quietest he could be; it was about control. He controlled exactly how much weight he pressed into the ground and where. He was intimate with how sensitive everyone’s ears were in the group. When he crept into Kishore’s room, he made his steps just loud enough to disturb Kishore without waking the sleeping mound that was Ameya. 

He pushed his new glasses onto his head as Kishore sat up slowly like a rising tide, meeting his gaze through the pale light. He smiled. She returned it and waved a hand, like she was brushing him back, and he slipped backwards into the hallway. 

She met him outside a moment later, filling the height of the space nearly up to the ceiling and closing the door softly behind her. Her arms were around him in the next, squeezing him tight, and he sighed, linking his hands behind her back and pushing his cheek into her ribs. 

He relaxed, unaware he’d been tense to start. Not his most tense, but tense; it wasn’t an hour ago he was flying close to the wall, arrowhead pointed at the crook of the jaw of a lich while spells flew off in flashes of a morbid, acerbic green. 

She patted his head from above, first bumping the glasses then correcting herself. He tried not to frown. 

“Is everyone alright?” she asked, her naturally-low voice dipping even lower.

“Yeah,” he said, drawing back with a shrug. “Tired but okay. We got what we were looking for.” He swept his knuckles over his forehead, lifting off a smear of leftover sweat, dirt, and dust. “It’s not even noon and I killed a lich today.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Is this one actually dead?”

He shot her a pained twist of a smile. “Nope.”

Her shoulders slumped in a tired sigh. “I see.”

“Yeah, I’m not gunna bog you down with the details right now. Just wanted to say hi.”

“I’m relieved you all made it back safely.”

He nodded. A shriek stabbed his mind from his left ear, reverberating in his abused temples—he winced, but at least curbed his instinct to look wildly over his shoulder. He hadn’t slept well. In the cavern, it had felt suitable, a disturbing noise for a disturbing place—outside, in the peace of night, it was unruly. Uncalled for.

Kishore tilted her head, but he shook his, didn’t care to explain. Hope suffered the same, she’d learn soon enough. He’d tap Elspeth about it on the way out. 

“We’re probably gunna take a day then head back to Rexxentrum,” he said. “I’m gunna go dump a bucket of water on myself.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

Cihro: I promise.

Elspeth: There's this guy at church—