#flirting the glahadian way

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

Heart of Thunder - Chapter 2

It’s here people! Also a Link to AO3 like always!

Nyx and Cor talk about what happened like the responsible grown-ups they are. Nyx flails and Cor is way too stubborn for his own good. 

List of words: Galahkari = people of Galahd ahtri = spirit; umbrella term for everything from actual nature spirits to the presence of their ancestors kohna = swearword; along the lines of shit 

Nyx threw back his head and laughed. He laughed and laughed until he cried and the muscles in his stomach started to protest. Some of the onlookers still mingling around the General – Leonis – Cor – and him stopped and stared, but didn't dare to come any closer. Right the opposite. They seemed to be happy to stay where they were and loudly, with quite a few exaggerated movements, discuss what they had just witnessed.

Cor – and he really was Cor now was he? Not General, not Ser. But Cor. Nyx squashed the voice in his head whispering about how this could go south so damned fast it wasn't even funny. His fiancée – oh ahtrii, he had a fiancée now! - still hadn't moved since Nyx had touched their foreheads in a Galahdian greeting between close family members. That must have been a bit much.

He... probably shouldn't have done that.

Kohna.

They had been engaged for less than 15 minutes and already he had messed up.

Nyx barked another laugh at the utter ridiculousness of the situation and grinned at Cor, wide and free and possibly a touch hysteric.

He could practically hear the Elders complain about this already.

For but a moment he looked from Cor to his best friend. Libertus stood there, grinning from one ear to the other, and gave him a thumbs up when their eyes met. Nyx would have liked nothing more at this exact moment but to painfully murder him. Crowe stood half a step behind Libertus and flashed Nyx a smile that made him want to hide in a hole. Then she proceeded to size Cor up like he was a piece of meat. It was better not to think too hard about this, for the sake of his own sanity.

The warm hand coming to rest on his free forearm nearly startled him bad enough to hiss. It was Cor. His stormy eyes blazed with something Nyx could not name and made his stomach flutter. The older man leaned in the tiniest bit and just kept looking at him with a slight frown on his face. In a sudden bout of nervousness Nyx licked his lips and jerked his head towards the nearest door leading into the barracks.

Cor nodded, his frown getting a bit less intense, and let him go.

They walked in silence. It wasn't tense exactly, but charged with something Nyx really didn't want to think about right now. Thankfully the crowd let them through without incident. It made him so happy that his people weren't prone to sticking their noses in other peoples businesses, unlike most Lucians.

Their gossip rags were a thing of his nightmares. Not that he would ever admit that to anybody. Nyx opened the door towards a small break room he knew to be empty at this time of the day. There wasn't much in it. A small table with four chairs grouped around it and a tiny kitchenette with barely enough space for an electric kettle, an assortment of teas and a few cups.

He could really use a tea right about now. With practised motions he set about preparing two cups of bamohn root tea after getting a silent nod out of Cor. Nyx suppressed a sigh. This was going to be so difficult.

They waited another few minutes in utter silence until the tea was finished. It didn't help Nyx' nerves at all. Barely there tremors shook his hands as he waited for the tea to be ready. In an attempt to calm himself the fuck down – he was the man who could kill a behemoth in one hit; he shouldn't need to calm down when he was about to have a talk with somebody, damn it – he stroked the soft fur of the coeurl's skin he still wore wrapped around him.

It was utterly beautiful. Judging from the form and width of the two long conducting whiskers this one had been a fully grown male that had probably lived somewhere near the Taelpar Crag. There and around the meteor plants and animals tended to grow... strangely or not at all. This coeurl had been nearly as big as his Galahdian cousins, but still lacked their horns.

Cor was watching him, lounging in his metal chair like a confident predator waiting for his prey.

Both of them stared at each other over their steaming cups, the smell bringing a certain comfort and a stab of painful longing to Nyx. It reminded him of a home that was long gone. He sighed.

“It just had to be a coeurl's skin,” Nyx started, more to himself, with a weak smile that was gone as fast as it had appeared.

“Coeurls and Ulrics belong together. That much I learned over the years. What I don't know is what it means,” said Cor, his hands wrapped around the garishly yellow chocobo cup in front of him.

Nyx tried to keep the pleasant surprise off his face, but he knew he had failed at that endeavour with the way the other man looked at him.

“I have worked with you – you call yourselves Galahkari, right? I have worked with the Galahkari for over a decade now; since before Galahd proper fell. During that time I was able to pick up a few things.”

“What kind of things?” Nyx couldn't help but ask. This... actually bode pretty well.

For them.

Potentially.

Better not get ahead of himself there.

“I know the colours of every clan within the Kingsglaive as well as any potential feud between them. My apologies for not always managing to keep them separated. What I managed to pick of your language is mostly limited to curse words. Other than that your people are hard to pin down. I do not give much stock in the things 'most people know'. To me, they have been mostly proven false.”

“That's... quite a lot.” For a Lucian, he didn't say, but by the way the General tilted his head in an acknowledging nod, he had heard it anyway.

A short silence followed, in which Nyx busied himself with sipping at his tea. He tried his best at gathering his thoughts. No matter how he would explain this, it was bound to get messy. He swallowed his dread and looked the other man square in the eyes.

“What you did,” Nyx started and motioned with a hand in the free space between them, “is a commitment for life on both our parts. It's ancient and sacred; it has been done this way since the first of my ancestors settled on Galahd.” He stopped, not quite sure how to continue.

“And what did I commit us both to?” asked Cor, his face utterly serious.

Nyx' first instinct was to grin and say something along the lines of 'nothing too bad', but... well. So he took a deep breath and took the plunge.

“We're engaged.”

It took great effort not to wince.

“Engaged,” repeated Cor, his voice flat and without any inflexion whatsoever.

Nyx nodded. “Yes.”

“...How?”, asked Cor after a few heartbeats of tense silence.

With a mirthless grin Nyx stroked the silver and grey fur over his shoulders. Stormy eyes tracked every little movement his fingers made.

“It just had to be a coeurl's skin,” he repeated his earlier words. “Anything else – anything at all – and I could've declined without losing face or angering my ancestors and the spirits. But with this? Declining now means we're inviting a worse fate than death. It means curses, and those are not to be trifled with. You just hit all the right marks to make it impossible to say no. A coeurl's fur given to me – an Ulric – in front of a full hunting party and those closest to me in the absence of clan members and blood family.”

He knew he was starting to ramble, but right now he didn't care. He just needed to make the other man understand that he hadn't had any other choice but to accept. That would just have invited tragedy. There were stories from the early days of his clan, where members had declined such an Offering of Intention, and none of them ended well.

“So you made this decision for both of us because you fear being cursed by ghosts,” stated Cor. Through the cracks of his iron composure Nyx could finally see the disbelieve and fury he had expected from the moment they had stepped into this room.

Nyx wanted to wince, stand up and go somewhere where he could throw himself off a cliff or something, but he didn't. Because that would be denying himself the chance to... he didn't know what, but he wouldn't let it slip his grasp. So instead, he bared his teeth in an aggressive snarl. How could he make this man understand?

For the first time the older man broke eye contact and shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts.

“My apologies,” he murmured in a low voice that sent shivers down Nyx' spine, and inclined his head. “If somebody should know that spirits and ghosts are more powerful than most people think, it is me.”

Taking a deep breath, Nyx tugged at his clan-braid and tried to calm down. It was okay, they were not going to kill each other, everything was fine.

“It's alright,” he said. It wasn't Cor's fault that he was a straahnos – an unknowing outsider.

Nyx felt the other's gaze weight heavily upon him. It clearly communicated how convinced he was of that statement: that was to say, not at all. Okay, so maybe it wasn't alright, but Nyx was hardly going to admit that now. There were more important things to focus on right now than his religious believes, or why Cor Leonis of all people had insight into spirits and curses.

“Explain this to me. From the beginning.”

It sounded more like an order than a request, but sill, Nyx couldn't help but feel grateful about having a chance to explain all of this. Again he tugged at his braid. His mother and sister would have berated him for that habit. He started to talk before his thoughts could linger on them.

“You said you already know that coeurls and my clan are connected in some way. There are stories about how Ulrics are reincarnated coeurls, another says that in the early days we were blessed by the Queen of the Jungle and then there is one about a coeurl that took on a human form to marry a member of my clan.

In Galahkari culture, when we are interested in marrying someone, we present that person with a hunting trophy. It can be anything from any animal – bones, teeth, fur, feathers, even the meat or blood – as long as we hunted it ourselves and without help. The more difficult the better and the chances of the suit being accepted are also higher the closer the animal is tied to the clan in question.”

Nyx took a sip from his now lukewarm tea. His nervousness had largely left him. Cor sat in his chair across from him, straight backed and attentive, listening carefully to every word he said. That was... good.

“When you presented me with a coeurl's skin you acknowledged their ties to my clan, and that you didn't hunt it down but killed the poachers who did it, and did that alone, shows that you respect the sanctity coeurl's have among my people. You did everything right without even knowing what you were doing! You even presented me with it in front of the all the right witnesses.”

Cor had no idea how ridiculous that was. It was almost as if... oh please no. No. If his ancestors truly had decided to meddle, he was getting Libertus to find the nearest snake so that he could have a talk with them. Meddlesome old coots, the whole lot of them.

“I couldn't say no!”

He looked at the General with carefully guarded eyes. Maybe they could make this work. Nyx could only hope. And, oh, did he hope in the deepest parts of his very being. Greyish blue eyes bore into his own, their intensity nearly stealing his breath away. They sat there for a long time, both deep within their own thoughts, their gazes tangled into each other. Neither seemed able to look away.

“What does it entail?”

The sudden question startled Nyx into blinking and breaking eye contact. “What?”

“Being engaged,” said Cor with an unimpressed look.

Nyx did his best to fight down the heat threatening to rise in his cheeks out of embarrassment. “I will give you something in return as physical proof that I accept your proposal. Everything else is decided between the couple until the wedding. That's a whole other thing we'll have to talk about later.”

Cor frowned but didn't comment. Nyx really didn't want to talk marriage customs yet, or tell the other that he normally would have put a braid in his hair as an answering claim. Ahtrii, he needed a drink.

“I'm not a Galahdi- a Galahkari,” Cor said at last.

“Galahkar,” Nyx corrected absent-mindedly. “Galahkari is the plural. But it doesn't matter if you are or aren't. What matters, is that you observed traditions and proved yourself worthy that way.”

Cor nodded to show that he understood and cast him a look Nyx couldn't discern. “This will not go over well with the royal court. His Majesty will just be happy that I'm 'finally settling down' and Clarus will say his piece, but he won't do anything. Can I trust your people to not raise a stink about this, Ulric?”

“Call me Nyx. Everything else would be strange,” he muttered, utterly relieved that he wasn't making it harder for them than it already was. He wondered amusedly, if the King had tried to get himself involved in the other's love life before. It certainly sounded like it.

Cor nodded. “Nyx, then. Call me Cor.”

The younger man nodded, barely able to hide his relief. He would have called Cor by his first name anyway, but it was nice to have permission to do so.

“You saw how they reacted when you gave me the pelt. You took it from poachers and gave it to me. Not even the traditionalists will say anything against that.”

“I sense a story there.”

“There is,” nodded Nyx. “You'll most likely hear it very soon.”

Humming in acceptance, Co looked like he wanted to ask about that, but he didn't. Instead he raked his eyes over Nyx' form until they came to rest on the silver on grey fur. “I'll see that the other four pelts will also be brought to you,” he said.

Nyx really had to fight down a blush at that comment. That man had no idea what he was doing, but he was doing it right anyway. He had nearly forgotten about the other four pelts. Another adult and three kits. He wondered if it could be considered an omen and promptly wanted to bury his head in his hands. Hopefully he hadn't jinxed it. With his luck, he probably had.

“Thank you,” he murmured and had to force himself to keep looking at the other man.

Was that a hint of a smile playing at the corner of his lips? Inwardly, Nyx floundered at the sight. This was... nope, not going there now. Right now he was having a serious talk – with a man that was flirting with him like no tomorrow; four more pelts, four – and needed to concentrate. He probably didn't even know he was doing it, Nyx admonished himself.

The sudden ringing of a phone made him twitch. Cor scowled and pulled a phone out of the inner pocket of his black jacket. His gaze grew even darker when he saw the ID.

“Leonis speaking,” he practically barked into the speaker, and just like that he transformed into the cold and stern General he had known for years now.

It was such a stark contrast to the man he had been talking to just a few seconds ago that it made Nyx realize just how open the General had been with him. And expressive, he thought as he looked at the now completely closed off face. The man kept listening for a few moments before he hung up with a terse “I'll be there.”

He looked back at Nyx and his expression cleared again. Nyx opened his mouth to say something before closing it again, and swallowed.

“I'm sorry to have this cut short, but I'm needed.”

Cor said the last part in a way that made Nyx really not want to know what was going on. He swallowed the questions burning on his tongue anyway, down and nodded.

“Of course,” he said and stood up along with Cor.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” the older man said, pleasantly surprising Nyx.

“Tomorrow?” he couldn't help but ask, just to make sure.

“As you said, we cannot get out of this, and I refuse to marry a man I barely know.”

Nyx barked a surprised laugh, he didn't manage to keep down behind his teeth. Then a thought occurred to him and he felt stupid for not having thought to ask before: “Are you okay with this? Marrying me, I mean.”

“If you're asking, if I prefer the company of men, then the answer is no, but I'm not averse to it either. And you're not exactly hard on the eyes.”

Beneath Cor's heated gaze Nyx couldn't help the wide smile growing on his lips. “You're not bad looking, either,” he said and made an aborted move forward.

When he had done this earlier, the older man had clearly been overwhelmed with no idea what to do, so Nyx held himself back. However, Cor cast him a look that settled somewhere between curious and expectant as he stood by the door, one hand on the handle, but not leaving quite yet.

With silent steps Nyx drew near until they stood right in front of each other again. He saw understanding flash in Cor's stormy eyes as he leaned in, careful to telegraph his movements this time. They met in the middle, foreheads gently touching for maybe two seconds, before they drew back again. All the while they never lost eye contact.

“It's something that's only done between close family members,” said Nyx in way of an explanation at the other's questioning look.

Cor nodded and then he was out of the door without another word. When Nyx was sure that he was gone, he slumped back down into his chair and laid his head into his arms. The day was barely halfway over and he was already tired enough he could sleep for the rest of the day. His stomach fluttered pleasantly as he thought of tomorrow.

That was how Libertus found him not much later.