tiger telling lynx he’s bad at faking sleeping and therefore implying that he knew lynx was asleep during the sponge bath scene really does add so many layers. cause like, on the one hand, does it still count as dubcon if the other person doesn’t know you know they’re consenting? like lynx would have every right to think of tiger as Weird For That, but also he WAS awake and COULD have stopped tiger if he wanted to and clearly didn’t, so does it even matter? it’s consent debates all the way down!
but then also with the new information, the sponge bath scene now kind of reminds me of the kanthua sleep kiss from the eclipse? like that scene was an entirely different take on the sleep kiss trope. kan and thua were both awake but PRETENDING to be asleep, and it was the safety blanket of the plausible deniability that allowed kan to feel comfortable enough to kiss thua and thua allowed him that because he understood it wasn’t easy for him.
and i feel like it’s kind of similar here, where tiger gives lynx the chance to experience the vulnerability of being taken care of with the plausible deniability of the fact that he was “asleep” the whole time, and therefore couldn’t “agree” to it even if both he and lynx knew he was awake and lynx just didn’t realize tiger knew that. it’s actually… very sweet in that sense?
