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Mydei has a set morning routine that he follows every morning. From three quints after curtain-fall hour to just shy of the first quint of entry hour, he goes about the parts of routine that only involve him—waking, a small workout, showering, shaving, reading. Meditating has been added to that list now that the Coreflame of Strife resides within him, but it varies on the day if he does it by himself or with another.
That part of his day is calm and organized. There are no delays or changes, everything is done as planned. However, just before the bell tolls for the first quint of entry hour, that is when his routine becomes…varied.
Like a recipe that’s always being changed to suit the baker’s tastes. And in this little apartment, there are three main ingredients—one scholar and their two cubs.
(However, more often than not these days, there are only two ingredients in his household. One of their cubs has been away from home for some time, sick, but under the watchful eye of the caretakers of the Garden of Life.)
Making sure the curtains are open in the living room just enough to let in the small sliver of light in for Fig Stew to lay in, he moves toward the kitchen to begin breakfast. Fig Stew has a deep love for the early morning sunlight, going so far as to step on Mydei’s face if he decides to take the morning off and sleep in a little late.
(And if Fig Stew’s fur got fluffier in the sun as he cleaned himself and reminded him of proofing bread…well that’s between him and his thoughts.)
The next few steps were where things got tricky, and the recipe always turned out differently.
Sometimes, it would be Fig Stew who exited the bedroom first. Sometimes the chimera would stumble out, still tired, but sometimes he would exit with his head held high, and beeline it to the ray of sun. Regardless of his state of drowsiness, he would flop down, eyes closed, and go back to sleep, content in the light. Sometimes, it would be his partner who awoke first, and the steps that followed were rarely the same.
Today was one of those former days. Stumbling out of the bedroom, fur all over the place, Fig Stew makes his way to the ray of light on the carpet. Flopping down, the chimera curls into a little ball, like bread waiting to be kneaded, and falls back asleep. Mydei says nothing, just goes about taking the fruit from the icebox and pulling the ingredients he needs for the morning’s breakfast from the cabinets.
Then, the next step of the morning occurs.
He hears a yawn before he sees the man, but it doesn’t take long for the Sage known as Anaxagoras to make himself known, drowsily making his way to the kitchen. He rubs his sleeved hand against his eye as he walks, trying to hide his yawn as he does. Like this, so cute and adorable, it’s hard for Mydei to remember just how fearsome his lover is when he’s fully awake.
Especially when he makes his way over to Mydei and plasters himself to Mydei’s bare back, wrapping his arms around the king’s waist. Something in Mydei stirs at how Anaxagoras’s fingers don’t touch.
Shaking his head, he clears his thoughts. “Good morning, sweetheart.”
“Food.”
“In progress.” The waffles are in the mechanical contraption that the Trailblazer had gifted him several visits ago, one that he deeply enjoyed using. “Come, let me look at you.”
Anaxa grumbles but does as he’s told, moving around so he’s in between Mydei and the counter. The hood of his dromas onesie gets in Mydei’s way so he uses both his hands to remove it from Anaxa’s head.
“Must you?” Anaxagoras grumbles, but does not make any motion to lift the hood back up. So Mydei follows through on his plan and drops a kiss to the drop of Anaxa’s mind head before moving his hands to cup slightly pink cheeks, lifting Anaxa’s head up, and leaning down to draw his lover into a kiss.
The kiss lasts for a beat, then two, then several more. Neither of them make a move to deepen it, comfortable and enjoying the gentle press of their lips against the others. But then, the waffle maker beeps and Mydei draws away, taking a step back and over to flip the heating plate. By the time he’s hit the button and turns back around, Anaxagoras has just settled in his seat on the stool at the bar outside the kitchen.
He’s about to ask how the scholar’s sleep was, when Anaxa’s head sharply turns toward the door, eye narrowing. It puts him on guard instantly, and he moves swiftly. It’s rare that anyone notices a presence before him, so it must mean one of Anaxa’s wards was tripped.
Slowly, he opens the door to no one and it sets him even further on edge. If—
“…aw…wW….oooOOoOo…” That has him looking down to see—
“AWOO!!”
Only by reflex does he manage to scoop up Fig Stew before he tackles Nanus to the ground. Fig Stew struggles against him, biting at his arm (which is very unlike the chimera), but he holds the pup tightly. Meanwhile, Nanus is breathing heavily and shaking, barely able to hold himself up.
It concerns Mydei a great deal. Not only because his pup is clearly struggling but also that Nanus shouldn’t be here. The Garden of Life is on the other side of the city and one floor up.
Anaxa enters his field of vision, kneeling down with a plate of water and cut up honey cake from last night's dessert. Nanus sniffs at the plate before drinking the water. In Mydei’s arms, Fig Stew squirms harder to get loose, whining and snarling. It’s very unlike the chimera to be so aggressive, but when it comes to Nanus, Fig Stew puts even the meanest chimeras to shame with his protectiveness.
But Mydei won’t let him go, not until he calms down. He could hurt Nanus in this state, with Fig Stew’s concern and Nanus’s exhaustion. So when Fig Stew growls at him, baring his teeth, Mydei returns the expression. But then Fig Stew is taken from his grip and he turns to see Anaxagoras next to him, holding the chimera like one would a baby.
It’s. It’s.
He blinks to focus himself, returning his attention to the mint chimera who is nibbling at the honey cake. He kneels down, then changes his mind and sits down, pushing the plate closer to Nanus and gently pets his flank.
Behind him, he can hear Anaxa’s scolding.
“Fig Stew, cease at once. Your behavior is unacceptable.” He turns his head to watch, knowing that Fig Stew hates being scolded by Anaxa. Not because he doesn’t think he should be scolded, but because Fig Stew doesn’t like when Anaxagoras is mad at him. Immediately, the little chimera’s ears flatten and his eyes widen. He lets out a small whine, but Anaxagoras isn’t phased. “You should be making sure Nanus is okay. Instead, you rushed toward him, almost startling him. You have to remember to be gentle with him, taking slow and cautious steps. Such behavior is unbecoming of you, and I believe I will need to be talking to Phainon about how much time you are spending with Beagle Coconut to be exhibiting such behavior.”
Fig Stew lets out an upset ‘awoo…’ as he reaches one paw out for Anaxa’s face. “Yes, yes, I know you are sorry. But I am not the one who you almost startled. And look, now Nanus is worried about you. So I am going to see you down and you are going to slowly see how he is doing, alright?”
At Fig Stew’s responding ‘awoo… awoo.’, Anaxa gently sets the chimera down and takes a few steps forward to crouch down next to Mydei. Together, they watch as Fig Stew slowly walks toward Nanus, letting out soft ‘awoo’s and purrs. When the red-orange chimera is within touching distance, he slowly moves to rub his nose against Nanus’s.
“He shouldn’t be here…” He says, sliding the shallow bowl of water to the right so that Fig Stew has room to lay next to Nanus. He knows their position in the doorway isn’t the greatest, so with a nod to Anaxa, he takes the plate and bowl and moves them into the living room near the sliver of light while Anaxa carefully scoops up the chimeras and follows after them. He takes a seat and Anaxa follows, keeping Nanus on his lap while Fig Stew slides off, but keeps his paws on Nanus. “How is he doing?”
The waffle maker beeped some time ago, but Mydei cares not for the burning waffles.
“Better, but his breathing is still heavy.” Anaxa has stripped himself of the top of his onesie at some point, now just in a loose tank top, his hands free. Mydei watches as he cards bony fingers through Nanus’s short mint fur. “Go check on the waffles, I’ll watch over him. It might be good for him to have some hot food. He’s a bit cold.”
Mydei nods and stands, moving toward the kitchen. As he opens the waffle maker and sighs when the waffles aren’t burnt, he thinks about how well Anaxa knows him too well. In a situation like this, there’s little one’s hands or fists can do. Nanus just needs them to be there for him, watch him as he calms down, but Mydei needs to do something with his hands to settle his nervous energy.
So he plates the waffles—one plate being his and Anaxa’s covered with pomegranate syrup and the other being left plain, grabs a set of forks and knives, and returns to the living room.
“And there he is now, with breakfast. You see Fig Stew, this is how you take care of someone you care about. Isn’t that right, Mydeimos?”
“Hm?” He sits down to Anaxa’s left, plates balanced in his hand. Handing the plate of plain waffles to his partner, he pulls the small round table that was housing a few scrolls toward them and sets their waffles on it along with fork and a knife, handing the other set to Anaxagoras. They are taken from him and the scholar makes quick work of cutting the waffle into small pieces for the chimeras.
“I was just informing Fig Stew how one should take care of someone they care for.” Anaxa explains, ending his statement with his mouth open. Huffing a laugh, Mydei picks up a piece of waffle with his fork and feeds it to Anaxa.
“You just like being spoiled.”
Anaxa likes his lips, savoring the pomegranate syrup. “I do.” And before Mydei can take a piece of waffle for himself, the fork is taken from him. Anaxa leans across him and stabs it into one of the bigger pieces, drawing back when he’s got it. The waffle is then placed against his lips and he opens his mouth to eat the offered piece. “And I know you do too.”
“Of course. I like when my wife spoils me. He’s quite prickly, my darling mint kitty cat, but I know he just wants to be spoiled back in return.”
“You’ve taken too many hits to the head…” Anaxa mumbles, turning his attention to the chimeras. But despite his words, Mydei can see how his cheeks are red.
He can also see how Anaxa’s eyepatch, a soft white material that he wears for sleep, has shifted. WIth great care, he reaches out to fix it and has to bite his lip to refrain from further commenting about Anaxa enjoying being spoiled when he leans into Mydei’s hand.
Silence falls between them as Mydei eats his breakfast and Anaxa watches the chimeras. Fig Stew is so close to Nanus that he might as well be laying on him, but the mint chimera has finally stop shaking.
Mydei brings the topic back up and Anaxa sighs.
“I feel that I should have seen this coming. Nanus… He’s sensitive for a chimera and I think he’s grown too lonely in the Garden of Life. That is why I believe he decided to come here instead of wait for us. I was going to speak with Hyacine and the caretakers in the Garden about possibly relocating him for a few days out of the week, but I think that’s no longer a good idea.”
“You…don’t?” He asks, confused, as he holds up another bite of waffle for his lover. Anaxa takes it, but his gaze never leaves Nanus. They stay like that for some time, Mydei’s question hanging between them as they watch over the chimeras, eating their breakfast. But soon the waffles are gone from both plates and Fig Stew and Nanus have curled around each other, asleep.
Together, they stand with the plates and make their way to the kitchen to wash them. Mydei shoos Anaxa to sit on the counter as he cleans, handing him a glass of water to drink as he does. They exist in a comfortable silence for some time until—
“To answer your previous question—no. I… We should consider having him stay with us full time.” The scholar pauses, lips pursed and brow furrowed, and Mydei knows why.
The rooms they are currently staying with are simply too small. They barely fit as they do right now, and that’s also not accounting for the fact that this is simply their temporary residence in Okhema. Just a place for them to stay when they are both in the city. There’s not much here to truly make it a home where they can raise two chimeras full time, but they have made it work.
“I see.” He thinks about possible solutions to the issue of space, but there’s very few outside of asking for new rooms, and space is already very limited. “I could see about getting a smaller bed—”
“No.” And Mydei blinks in confusion, looking up from washing his hands. As someone who hates to be interrupted, Anaxagoras rarely interrupts anyone.
“It would be the easiest way to make more room, Anaxagoras. I’m fine with a smaller bed.” Sure, his feet may hang off, but he’s slept in worse conditions.
“No, it’s not about that, it's…” Anaxagoras is not one to struggle with words, so Mydei gently places his hand over the one that’s curled around Anaxa’s knee and squeezes. That sharp gaze flicks to him for a second, then two, then looks away. “Your offer…the one you mentioned…is it still open?”
Offer? Mydeimos has made many offers to Anaxagoras, some of them in jest, some of them serious. He thinks on what he has offered his lover as he watches Anaxa’s gaze drift back to the sleeping chimeras, the scholar absentmindedly drinking his water.
The sight makes his chest squeeze. He wishes he could have more mornings like these—soft and warm, like fresh bread from the oven. Mornings where all the main ingredients to make a soft domestic life are in one place, altogether.
Oh.
Oh.
It is that offer Anaxa speaks of.
With reverence, he lifts the hand of his beloved to his lips. “Of course. That offer will always be open. Nothing would make me happier than you coming to live with me in Castrum Kremnos.”
He tries not to let hope bloom in his breast, but he can’t help it. The sight before him happening, but in his homeland. In a kingdom rebuilt to its former glory but walking a new, brighter path. Where Anaxa can have all the space he wants to build a library of his choosing and all the eager minds, both young and old, to teach to his heart's content.
Where a vibrant and sprawling garden exists solely for their cubs to play in, to grow bigger in.
“...then I will speak to Hyacine and the caretakers about travel. It may take some time for this bout of Nanus’s illness to fade, but… I believe that perhaps that would be the better choice for all of us.”
Mydei nods at his words, then blinks as he processes them. “Wait…wait.” He drops Anaxa’s hand and reaches to place two fingers underneath Anaxa’s chin, forcing Anaxa’s gaze onto him. “Are you saying…that you wish to move to Kremnos?”
“Yes, I believe I am.” And that hope in his breast threatens to burn him. This cannot be. “I have been giving it some thought and this morning… It pains me to not have Nanus here with us, like a piece of the formula to our lives is missing. I have felt that recently, that the formula of our relationship is missing variables, and have been thinking on it. And the more that I thought on it, the more that I realized that a home was missing, and all the things that come with it. So yes, Mydeimos, I want to live in Kremnos with you, to create a home with you. My research can be done anywhere, and a stable travel array between my hidden lab at the Grove and a hidden space in Kremnos should be easy to manage as the Titan of Reason. I… I see no detriments to my work by living with you.”
And Mydei’s eyes sting as he pulls Anaxagoras into his arms, holding him close. He hadn’t realized he needed to hear those words until they were said.
How long has he yearned to be able to spend his days, shoulders finally free of their heavy weight, in a domestic bliss with his partner? Too long, that is the truth.
He will always have his duty, that he knows, and Anaxagoras has his. But in this tiny apartment, they have been able to carve out a new path in their lives of soft domestic bliss with just them and their chimeras when they both find themselves in Okhema.
But to be able to have that every day? To be able to wake up every day for the rest of his life with his lover in his arms and their chimeras awooing at them for breakfast?. It is not the life he would have imagined for himself before everything but now…now that that great burden has been lifted from their shoulders…
He wants it. He craves it.
“And I want that too.” Ah, he spoke that out loud. But before he can feel embarrassed for not having full control of his thoughts, chapped lips meet his. They kiss for seconds, minutes, moments. When they pull away from each other, Anaxa’s cheeks are pink and his eye is bright with happiness.
He speaks first. “You have no idea how happy that makes me, my love, my Anaxagoras. I am going to spoil you rotten. You and our pups.”
“Oh?” The sides of thin lips quirk up. “Are you saying that I’ll have the mighty King of Castrum Kremnos, the feared Titan of Strife and Lance of Fury, at my beck and call? If I had known that moving to Kremnos got me that, I would have agreed to your offer long ago.”
He grins, leaning forward for another kissing, biting at Anaxa’s bottom lip in a bout of cheekiness. “I believe I may be the one winning out of you and I, to be able to come home after a long day of court to find you in my bed waiting for me with open arms.”
“Hah!” Anaxagoras laughs. “You speak with such forwardness, Your Majesty. If I am to move to Kremnos, then I shall be taking up your royal duties as well. After all, what good is being titled Queen if I cannot influence the people to my ways?”
Mydei returns the laugh, pulling Anaxa into another kiss. To be able to have this all the time and not just when they are in Okhema… “That is fine. I find that all I desire is you by my side, no matter where.”
For that is the truth. He sometimes wishes he could live with Anaxagoras at the Grove, but knows that with Kremnos in her early stages of a new path, he cannot be outside his city for long.
“Awoo! Awoo? Awoo awoo!”
“Awoo…!”
He turns to see Fig Stew and Nanus in the kitchen doorway, looking at him with fire in their eyes. He hears Anaxa chuckle.
“It seems you made them angry with your words.”
“That’s your influence, I believe.” He comments back, before fully turning away from Anaxa and giving the chimeras his attention. “But yes, I also want you two with me as well. You are important members of our family after all.”
And then he’s got an armful of his pups, happily awooing and licking at his face, and then the happy sigh of his scholar who leans against his back.
The hope in his breast continues to bloom into a feeling of happiness as he turns his head to pull his partner into another kiss, drinking in Anaxagoras’s happy sighs. Though he knows it will still be some time before they move to Kremnos, he knows that he will still have these warm moments to tide him over.
So he holds his family close, basks in their love and warmth, and enjoys the fuzzy feelings that rise inside of him.