Archive of Our Own ^beta

"You want me to escort you two to Yyasulani again?"

The subtle bewilderment on Shayun's face despite his flat tone as he looked down at Uvlo in his lap made him realize he'd skipped a few steps, so he elaborated. "I didn't get much of a chance to talk with people about how they live before they got weird about me because of the time pressure of the preparations, so my hope is that if I do so with someone better able to spot attempts to get in my pants I'll actually be able to get actual information this time."

Shayun exhaled hard out of his nose, but nodded. "I can teleport you two there so you don't need to worry about travel time, at least."

Uvlo grimaced. He had made the mistake of being carried through a teleport he lacked the anima or attunement for a couple of times, and it was always a horrible, gut-wrenching experience. But Shayun was right that doing that would vastly reduce the time away from the shop and Shunye's other travel preparations the trip would take, even with recovery time, and having an excuse to force Shayun to slow down would be worth it, even if it came at the cost of extreme nausea. The pause as he considered went long enough for Shayun to start plucking loose tufts of undercoat from Uvlo's ears, grumbling near-silently about how Uvlo needed to brush out his ears more frequently as he did.

After one particularly large tuft was extracted, Uvlo finally worked up the resolve to respond. "I'd be fine with it, but I'd need to check with Shunye too."

"I'll ask once you look less like a mess, then."

—

Shunye had agreed. Two days later, they stood outside the gate across the other side of the bridge (the reduced distance making it less of a strain, Shayun had explained), as they waited for Shayun to catch up. He had gotten a weird look as they passed by the docks and told them to go on ahead while he took care of something, leaving Shunye and Uvlo with nothing to do when they arrived but wait. Shunye was leaning into Uvlo, looking out over the desert with a look in his eyes he couldn't quite define, and when Uvlo had draped an arm over his shoulders to get the metal on it out of his way, Shunye had grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers.

It was pleasant, even with the growing heat as the sun rose.

"Sorry for the delay."

Shayun looked mildly harried as he returned, but didn't offer further explanation or a request for aid so it probably wasn't a huge problem. Shunye stopped leaning in order to give Shayun the space to stand between them, and Shayun held them each around the waist in one arm before beginning the preparation.

—

"Any better, puppy?"

Shayun's voice was very low as he sat with Uvlo and rubbed his back, he having taken the trip the worst. Shunye had merely been very disoriented, but had bounced back in a few moments.

Uvlo had collapsed and nearly retched where he knelt.

The other two had gently lead him to a bench where he could curl up and recover, and Shunye had gone to get something for the nausea while Shayun kept watch. It had been over thirty minutes, and he still wasn't feeling well enough to move.

"Barely," he answered in a similar volume.

"Would lying down help?"

Uvlo shook his head as slowly as he could, to keep from making the nausea worse. There was a faint noise, probably Shayun nodding, and the light pressure of his hand resting on his forearm. Another ten minutes passed with only minor improvement, and Shunye returned with a cup in one hand and something unseen held in the other.

"Here. I'm told this pill should help."

He took it without further questioning. The delay had probably been Shunye asking any questions he would have asked for him, anyway. Slowly, over the next fifteen minutes, the nausea ebbed.

"…I wish I didn't have to think about the trip back, too." They didn't prepare enough to be outside of human habitation longer than one night.

"I was told that can also work to blunt the effects of aether sickness as a preventative. You'll have some before we return." Shunye's tone made it clear that his phrasing was not an oversight, but a gentle command, and after what Uvlo'd just dealt with he was happy to obey.

They began to plan where to begin, with some guidance from Shayun's personal experience, when a bright voice cut through their conversation.

"Shayun, babe! Didn't expect to see you here."

A garishly-dressed Shetona man with the most vibrant green hair Uvlo had ever seen and darkened-lens glasses walked up, and Uvlo was struck by the realization that he knew extremely few Viera men who were as tall as he was, but this Shetona could casually look him directly in the eye.

"Don't babe me. I didn't think you'd be the type to leave Everkeep."

"You know this man?" Shunye's eyes narrowed slightly at the newcomer, his jealous streak visibly flaring up despite the fact that Uvlo was pretty sure it was just how he talked given that Shayun looked merely mildly annoyed by it rather than outright murderous.

"I told you about the Arcadion, right? Eheeya was one of my opponents."

The flashy man—Eheeya—nodded. "Hadn't gotten beaten that soundly in months, it was incredible. But yeah, I'm only here to visit my older sister; she can't stand Everkeep."

Eheeya glanced between the three, looking like he wanted to ask something but didn't want to be rude about it. Whatever it was, he kept it behind his teeth and moved on to another statement. "So, tall-and-blue clearly isn't a local; any reason he risked the lightning to come here?"

"Uvlo, and it was to ask about how the Shetona here adapted after the dome, as well as anything remembered from life before it and what had to change." It was a struggle to keep from sounding like he had been seconds from violently succumbing to aethersickness a few minutes ago, and he wasn't sure he succeeded.

"A historian?" Eheeya pulled down the glasses enough to give him a skeptical once-over above them, and Uvlo couldn't really argue with it. He didn't look anything like any scholar he had encountered, after all.

"Not quite, but close enough for now."

Eheeya looked at Shayun, and when he ignored whatever that look was trying to communicate, sighed and looked back at Uvlo. "I'm not old enough to actually remember life before the dome, but my sister is. She could probably answer any questions."

Uvlo looked down at Shayun, looking for his opinion, and got an unimpressed and annoyed stare back.

"I trust Eheeya to not deliberately lead you astray. I'm not your mentor, make your own choices."

Uvlo barely suppressed a flinch. He loved Shayun, but the man was. Often much sharper than Uvlo suspected he meant to be, especially when giving advice. Like grabbing knapped obsidian with my bare hands, he thought as he mindlessly ran his thumb over the scar on his palm where he had done exactly that as a child. It did not escape his notice that Shunye grabbed Shayun and the two started whispering intensely after that, though Uvlo couldn't imagine why—he'd heard worse with less benign intent from older Woodwarders before.

He had a conversation to continue, though.

"Is your sister nearby?"

"Ish, she's a couple miles out. Can't stand the sight of the city."

Uvlo couldn't really blame her. The warped aetheric balance left a constant metallic tang on his tongue, and he had always been relatively insensitive to levin. He could tell it got stronger by the city, so if she was sensitive enough even that may have been too much.

"We should probably get moving, then. Lead the way, Eheeya."

—

Shunye and Shayun watched the younger Shetona-Veena duo leave, having a lively conversation that from the bits they heard was about the current state of life under the dome, and Shunye looked as if he had bitten into a lemon, peel-first.

"There's no need to be so upset, jackrabbit."

Shunye turned away, the only sign that he wasn't just trying to ignore Shayun the way his ears rotated to face him. He didn't respond immediately, so Shayun just watched the younger men slowly advance into the horizon.

"…I worry about him."

If they weren't both Viera, Shunye's confession would have been inaudible. Shayun stood, and gently headbutt Shunye's cheek. "He'll be fine. Eheeya's a headache but he's a good man, and Uvlo didn't make it to Tural unscathed by being a fool."

Shunye inhaled deeply, grimaced at the lightning suffusing the air as soon as he finished, and nodded. "You're right. Still…"

"We can follow at a distance to give them privacy, if you need. Besides, there's bound to be something of interest along the way."