Chapter Text
You rub your eyes sleepily and walk out from your room, only to be greeted by the sight of Cyno who is now wearing his usual attire at the living room.
“I’m heading out.” Cyno says. “Don’t use the stove while i’m away. Your meal is already prepared on the table, you can eat it if you’re hungry. Don’t forget to lock the door—“
“Yeah, sure.” You cut his nagging, following Cyno who is now walking toward the doorway.
“Take care, Cyno.”
Cyno stops. He looks at you who is now waving your hands to him cluelessly. He hasn’t used to another company in his house yet, but to have someone sends him off like this, it feels strange yet pleasant.
“I’m off.” And so, Cyno leaves.
On his way to Akademiya, Cyno realizes something.
“… right, i forgot to tell her not to open door to anyone who come visiting.” Cyno mutters to himself. “Well, i doubt no one would come to visit anyway.”
You look at the clock. The sound of ticking clock filling the silent living room. It has been two hours since Cyno left. You already cleaned his house, probably a little too clean since you don’t have anything to do except waiting for Cyno to come back home. You even already ate some of food he prepared for you.
“I’m bored.” You mutter as you throw your body on the couch.
Suddenly, you heart stops briefly at sound of doorbell ringing. You walk slowly to the door.
***
“And that’s what i heard from the circulating rumors at the town! They couldn’t stop gossiping about how they saw the General Mahamatra with a girl. They even said he spoonfed her!”
“Kaveh, stop over-reacting.” A man with dark green medium-length hair is walking alongside the blond male, his tail is swaying around as he moves his foot forward. “Cyno is still a human, is it that wrong for him to find love?”
“But this is Cyno we’re talking about!” The blond-haired male groans. “I can’t imagine him being in relationship. That guy never done anything except scaring out every scholars in Akademiya, playing Genius Invocation TCG, and telling his jokes.”
“What concerns me is why Cyno didn’t tell us anything? It had been a while since he last visited me. He haven’t sent me any letters yet. By the way, where is Alhaitham? Did you ask him to join us?”
“I did. But, he only shrugged then keep reading his stupid books, saying it was a waste of time.”
“Typical Alhaitham.” They stop before the Cyno’s house. “I doubt Cyno would be in his house at this hour. Usually, he would probably be at the Akademiya.”
“We’re already reached his house. Might as well try to ring his doorbell.”
The blond-haired man rings the doorbell, they decide to wait. After a minute, the door unlocks, revealing you who look at them in confusion.
***
“Uh…” You look at the two men standing before you in confusion, both of them have their jaw on floor staring at you. They begin to whisper to each other.
“See!? I already told you—!”
“But Cyno didn’t tell us anything…”
“What if Cyno is actually feeling that lonely and asked a girl to stay in his house—?”
“Kaveh, you’re thinking too far! You know Cyno won't do things like that…..” the green-haired man stops. “…… right..?”
“Even now you’re starting to doubt him!”
“Um, how can i.. help you?” You ask waryly. They look at each other.
“We’re looking for Cyno.” The man with the fox ears answers.
“About Cyno..” you begin to explain to them carefully that Cyno already left to work early. They only let out a hum.
“I see. Well.. figured.” The blond chuckles. You think they leave immediately after asking where Cyno is, but the green-haired man crosses his arm. Looking at you with curiosity.
“If you don’t mind answering, may i know what is your relationship with Cyno? Are you one of his relative? Do you live with him?”
You can feel your head spinning, this is your first time meeting Cyno’s acquaintance and you don’t know how to react. Cyno didn’t say anything about their visit. Eventually, you're left clueless with absurd excuses to respond.
You’re just a goddess in disguise wanting to learn more about human. You can’t possibly answer them that.
“… friend..” those words leaving spontaneously from your lips. “I’m Cyno’s friend.”
“Friend… but why were you—“ the blond-haired man’s remark cut by his friend. “I see. Well, Cyno’s friend is ours too! Nice to meet you. I’m Tighnari, and this is Kaveh.”
“Oh..” your eyes glistens at his statement. You lift your face to see Tighnari smiling in friendly manner, you turn to look at Kaveh who is also smiling. Despite just meeting them, you can feel that these two aren’t a bad person at all.
You decide to let them in. You remember how Cyno treated you yesterday when you first came to his house. You decide to try to make them tea.
“Come to think of it, this is my first time visiting Cyno's house..” Kaveh looks around. “It is smaller than i thought. Considering how he had almost all the expensive TCG cards collections.”
“He is the type of person who doesn’t like flaunting his wealth.” Tighnari turns to your back in the kitchen. He lifts his eyebrows as he stares at you rubbing your head looking around the utensils in the kitchen. He stands up and walks to you. “What’s wrong?”
Your eyes widen after catching Tighnari’s voice next to you. “Ah.. it’s just.. i want to make some tea… but….” You fidget nervously. “I don’t know.. how to make it.”
Tighnari furrows his eyebrows, though he doesn’t question anything further. “Let me help.”
He begins to show you how to make a tea, letting you observe carefully at how he boils the water, putting some teabags in each glasses, meticulously pouring the water into the glasses as the water turns into reddish-brown color. The soothing aroma seeps from the glasses. You try to deflect the subject when he asked about some scorched parts from the stove, not wanting to tell about the incident yesterday. In addition, he also makes one tea for you.
Kaveh perks up seeing you and Tighnari heading to the living room. he then puts the tea on the table attentively. Kaveh sips the tea silently, looking at you sharply.
“So..” he breaks the silence. “Right, we haven’t asked for your name. What should we call you?”
“(Y/n).” You answer.
“Uh, so, (y/n).” Tighnari clears his throat. “If you don’t mind me asking, i take it you live with Cyno? Since when?”
“Since two days ago.” Your answer left them surprised. “I met Cyno when i ran away from home… then i fell to the pond and he helped me, then he asked to stay with him for a while.”
It’s not fully a lie. You ran away from your duty to guard the moon, after all.
Kaveh and Tighnari look at each other. Tighnari utters. “That means Cyno really trusts you. He is a bit sharp, he wouldn’t trust people so easily.”
“He is the General Mahamatra." Kaveh adds. You tilt your head curiously at the word. You remember how every people at the city called him such, yet you never know more about his title.
"What is 'General Mahamatra' means? I know it’s his title. But why?"
"Allow me to explain." Kaveh snaps his fingers. "In the Akademiya, there are these officers that had the duty to enforce scholars who violated the rules. They’re called 'Matra'."
"Cyno is their leader, hence he is called by the 'General Mahamatra'." Tighnari continues. He sips his tea leisurely. "Cyno is infamous for his strict, ruthless methods on disciplining scholars. A rule is a rule, and he won't compromise for any reasons."
"It seems the rumors affected people outside the Akademiya as well, so you might find people wary with him wherever he is around." Kaveh shrugs.
Now, that makes sense. Considering how people react with his presence. You hug your knees, pondering and trying to understand every bits of new information. "But, he is not as bad as how people saw him. He even helped me, a lot."
"That's just how Cyno is." Tighnari replies. "Despite how stern he is at work, he is fairly relaxed outside that."
"I wonder what kind of job he’s doing, i want to see.." your low mumbles doesn't go unnoticed by Tighnari's keen hearing, immediately he answers.
"Most of times, he would be at the Akademiya. But he would be at the desert for his missions. Cyno is quite busy."
You nod your head silently, making notes for yourself to ask Cyno about this later. You can't help but intrigued with how mortals work, specifically, Cyno working.
"Since we're already here, let's kill some time while waiting for Cyno to come home." Kaveh proposes, he looks at Tighnari. "Let's teach her how to play Genius Invocation TCG, considering she is living with him i think she needs it."
”Why?” You ask.
”Because it’s his favorite game. You probably will have to deal with him nagging you to play with him later.”
"Well, it's not like I have anything to do today." Tighnari says. Both of them look at you. "Let's play some games and chat. We still want to know better about you."
***
The sun starts to set. Fortunately for Cyno, he can leave work earlier today. Though his face contorts to slight bewilderment when he sees pairs of familiar shoes in front of his door.
"Aren't these belong to Tighnari and Kaveh?"
Cyno opens the door, he is greeted by the sight of you, Kaveh, and Tighnari playing Genius Invocation TCG. There are three empty tea cups, even some half-eaten snacks (it seems Tighnari prepared it), and scattered cards on the table. The three of you are obviously having fun.
"... ah." You look at Cyno who is crossing his arms at the doorway, thinking about what he wants to say. You can't help but wondering if he is upset.
"Welcome home, Cyno." Tighnari waves his hand. "How is it going?"
"The usual." Cyno answers curtly.
"Cyno..." You look at him, concerned. "... are you mad? I know you already told me to lock the door. I did, but i couldn't ignore your guests. Not after they told me they're your friends."
Kaveh immediately clarifies. "(y/n), i don't think he is mad. He is just..."
"... I’m just thinking how unfair it is that you're playing Genius Invocation TCG without me."
Your eyes widen in puzzlement, while Kaveh and Tighnari aren’t surprised, they’re only giving you a look that say: "This is how Cyno is."
"Well then." You happily cheer. "Let's play together."
Chatters, occasional laughters, are strangers in Cyno's home. Usually it would only filled with silence or quiet activities he did whenever he decided to relax after work. The only person who would visit him was Tighnari.
But now, you are here, living with him, gradually bringing his home to life. Something that makes Cyno secretly feeling warm inside. Not that he is used to it, though he won’t complain.
That is until Tighnari suddenly brings up a heavier topic. “Say, Cyno, i heard that some Rtawahist scholars are already planning to research about the moonless sky anomaly. Did they already send some of their proposals?”
You stop talking at the word ‘moonless sky anomaly’ — something that you and Cyno know well why it happened, Cyno only gives you a look briefly and turns to Tighnari. “The proposals i examined today were all theirs. The topic is the same, but each of their research has different procedures. It’s intriguing, to say at least.”
”I wonder how they would manage to do their research.” Tighnari ponders. “This is the first time such anomaly happened.”
“Still, it’s weird.” *Kaveh says. “A moon suddenly disappears from the sky? I wonder if this is like some kind of bad omen.”
“We don’t know for sure yet, at least we still haven’t heard any bad or dangerous effect from it.” Tighnari says.
***
Tighnari and Kaveh left after dark, you look at Cyno who straightly sit on his desk, looking through some documents. You peer around his desk curiously, albeit carefully since you don’t want to disturb him.
“Hm? What’s wrong?” Cyno asks. You shake your head.
“I’m just curious with your work.”
From his peripheral vision, he can see you sitting on the edge of his desk. Minutes later, you head to the kitchen and start to boil water. Cyno wants to stop you, but seeing how well what you’re doing, he lets you be, but guarded, just in case the kitchen set on fire… again.
Or not.
You walk to his desk bringing a cup of hot tea. Cyno looks up to you from his documents. His lips turns upward slightly, giving appreciative nod. “You have my gratitude.”
“Tighnari taught me how to make tea. He also said it has some calming effects on your body.” You puff your cheek and put your hands on your hips, proud of your first attempt on making drink. “How is the tea? Bet it’s the most delicious tea you ever drink!”
“Too much sugar.” He says, yet he keeps sipping it as he works. “But i guess it’s special, it’s a tea made exclusively by a former Goddess of Moon. I’m glad you didn’t mistake salt with sugar, otherwise it would be salt-tea instead.”
You huff. “Are you mocking me?”
The room is occasionally filled with the sound of Cyno flipping the pages, combined with his feather pen scratching the paper, signing the documents. You’re silently admiring his side profile while he is engrossed with his work.
“Hm?” Cyno turns to you. “What’s wrong?”
Averting your gaze, you let out a small mutter. “It’s nothing.”
“Are you thinking about what Tighnari and Kaveh said about the anomaly?”
“We both know why that happened.”
Cyno puts down his pen. “The scholars at the Akademiya are starting to research about it. I’m curious with how they’re going to interpret the anomaly.”
“Hmmm…” you hum lazily. “You’re not going to tell them?”
“Why? I already told you that i won’t tell anyone about this.”
“Still..” you’re hesitating. “Aren’t you feel bad? Hiding the truth from anyone.”
“…” Cyno is left speechless for a while, he lets out a sigh. “It’s my choice to help you, to grant your wish learning about humans. As long as i see no threat, no danger, i will not taking any actions.”
“Cyno…”
You look out to the window, staring at the night sky illuminated by the lonely stars without the moon’s luminescence. “I wonder if people in Teyvat missed the moon…?”
“Of course it is.” Cyno answers. “If not, there wouldn’t be any proposals to research about its disappearance.”
“What about you, Cyno…?” You look straight at his red-orange eyes. “Do you love the moon…?”
“I love it.” He answers without hesitation, you let out a small chuckle.
“Even though if it’s just a giant stone floating on the sky?”
“Whenever i was out for my missions, walking alone through the cold desert night. I would gaze at night sky sometimes.” Cyno reminiscences fondly. “The moon was always shining brightly. It was always beautiful, no matter what phases it was: crescent, half moon, full moon. No matter which direction i went, it was always following me, keeping me company.”
You look at Cyno in disbelief, sensing the unexplainable fondness in his tone.
“But even if I can’t see the moon again right, it’s never a loss for me.” Cyno says. “I finally understood that there was a deity behind its beauty, all alone up there. Hoping to learn more about mortality.”
“….”
Your heart beats faster at his words.
Joy. Relief. Your heart feels full.
All this time you thought whether the moon is up there or not, it wouldn’t matter. That was why you decided to descend after years of doubt, leaving your identity for the time being.
You smile at Cyno, leaving the General stunned. That smile of yours again, for some reason it is always catch him off guard.
However, he is just glad that you’re happy, not having any difficulties expressing your emotions.
Different from him, a mortal, but easily misunderstood.
“If you love moon that much, let me promise you one thing.”
You stand tall in front of Cyno, your eyes gleaming with determination.
“One day, i shall give you the prettiest moon ever!”
”The one that you could never take your eyes from.”
”It’s my promise, as a thank you for helping me out in Teyvat.”
Cyno is stunned, but he responds. His gaze filled with intensity that you can’t grasp. You know he has high hopes for that.
You can vaguely feel his trust for you.
“Make sure to keep your promise then. I can’t wait to see it.”
The promise is made, between the Goddess and the General.
You might be naive, but you know well not to break a promise.
Even if you’re not certain when you can fulfill that.