Between the Desert and Rain - Tighnari x Cyno

Between the Desert and Rain - Chapter 5: Dinner time talk

After a few hours, Cyno called for Tighnari to come down for dinner, he walked downstairs and sat down in front of the meal Cyno had prepared for him. It smelled of spices, lots of spices. Tighnari couldn't normally handle spicy foods. Afraid of upsetting Cyno, he took one full bite. It burned his mouth and he felt like choking, but he held it in. Cyno watched him carefully, observant as he was, he could already tell that Tighnari was forcing himself to eat.

He watched as Tighnari took another bite and this time he really did begin choking. Cyno jumped up to help him, spilling his food in the process. He ran over to Tighnari, who was hacking on the piece of meat stuck in his throat which was swollen from the spices. His eyes began to water, and he coughed aggressively trying to get it out of his throat, finally Cyno moved around the back of him and yanked up hard under Tighnari's rib cage, knocking the wind out of him. The meat fell to the floor.

Tighnari began gasping for air, his throat completely closed from the swelling, and he couldn't breathe. Cyno realized it was an allergic reaction. In a panic, he grabbed the EpiPen his mother kept in the medicine cabinet, he shot it into Tighnari's thigh. He started coughing, trying to take deep breaths as the swelling in his throat lessened. Cyno gave him glass of water and sat with his hand on his back, monitoring his breathing. Cyno had learned a trick from his mother when trying to get someone to calm down or 'take deep breaths'. He decided he had no other choice. Tighnari's breathing was hitching and staggered, causing him to take sharper breaths. His breaths got sharper and sharper leading to hyperventilation.

"Hey, hey, hey. Look at me." He grabbed Tighnari's hands and looked directly into his eyes. "Okay, um...deep breath in; deep breath out, okay?" He felt a little awkward, after all Tighnari was 3 years older than him, but he kept on with his strategy anyways. "One in." He paused, Tighnari's breath staggered, "And one breath out."

Tighnari's breaths were hard and sharp, but eventually he could take a breath without hitching. Cyno repeated this 'one breath in, one breath out' routine until he felt that Tighnari was breathing normally again.

Cyno walked Tighnari back to the dinner table. Tighnari sat down and Cyno removed the plate of food from in front of him.

"Hey, I was still eating that." Tighnari protested, his voice was raspy from all the coughing and choking. Whenever his mother had removed food from in front of him before he was finished, it was a clear sign that she was disappointed or angry at him for whatever reason.

"You literally just had an allergic reaction to the food. If you couldn't eat it, why didn't you just say something? I would have made you another dish that was more suited to your tastes." Cyno asked, in a slightly reprimanding tone, but also concerned.

"I didn't want to make you upset or waste it. I don't eat much anyways, the meals my mother prepared were always less than a quarter of a portion. We have no money because of father's drinking-" He stopped himself. "Sorry, I said too much. I'm going to go upstairs and rest a bit."

"Hold on a second, I have something for you."

Cyno walked back over to the medicine cabinet and returned with a few different things. "This one is throat medicine, it's like a cough drop but stronger, my mother made it. If you drink it, it will numb your throat for about 4 hours so that it doesn't hurt anymore. Here are some bandages for when you replace the one on your head, and here are some extras, for...um...well, you know why." He glanced down at Tighnari's arms. Tighnari quickly pulled his sleeved down to cover the exposed parts of his wrists. "I saw them when we were at the hospital, you don't have to hide it or be embarrassed. I know that they hurt, I grabbed you when we got here earlier today, and it looked like I hurt you. Sorry about that. I don't know why you do it, and I won't pry into it, but will you let me at least take a look at them?"

Tighnari shook his head.

"My mother is a doctor; she works with medicinal herbs. She teaches me a lot about them, and I've learned a few medicine practices from her. Based on the wrapping job you did on your head, I can tell you know what you're doing when it comes to this, so I'm not worried. It's just nice to have some help you out once in a while, you know?"

Tighnari smiled at the compliment, someone had noticed the fruits of his studies in medicine. "I studied medical practices at the Akademiya in my free time. It was something that interested me so I thought I'd learn it. Botany too." He looked down at his arms and then extended them to Cyno nervously. "You can look but don't do anything unless you tell me exactly what you're doing first."

Cyno nodded and gently rolled back Tighnari's sleeve exposing small cuts and scars over his arms and wrists. "It looks like most of scabbed up while you were in the hospital, the other ones though..." Cyno examined Tighnari's arm again before getting up to grab something. He grabbed a few alcohol wipes and a fine pair of tweezers.

"There are a lot of sandstorms around this area, a few of your cuts must've been open when the wind was picking up. These one's are infected." Cyno pointed out that 4 or 5 of the deeper cuts had large sand grains lodged in them. They had been infected for a while, but Tighnari didn't have the material to fix them. "I'm going to get the sand out now, if we don't it could get worse."

"Okay." Tighnari replied meekly. He was already self-conscious of his cuts without someone staring directly at them. Though, something was different about Cyno, Tighnari didn't feel like he judged him for it, but instead, he genuinely wanted to help.

Cyno cleaned the cuts with an alcohol wipe before using the tweezers to get the sand out from under Tighnari's skin. Tighnari winced at the pain.

Once he was done, Cyno applied some antibiotic ointment to the infected area, placed a thin layer of gauze on top, and wrapped the cuts in bandages. Tighnari expected his arms to feel thick and uncomfortable, but he was surprised to find that the technique Cyno used made the bandages feel almost nonexistent.

"See? All better, don't removed those until tomorrow before bed. If you ever need any help wrapping them up again, feel free to ask. Also, if you're uncomfortable with anything, please speak up. If the food is too spicy or room is too cold or your bedsheets are too heavy, whatever it is, I'll do my best to make you feel comfortable here." Cyno gently patted Tighnari's head, making sure not to touch his injury and Tighnari wasn't sure how to feel about it, but something told him that he liked it.

"Thank you." Tighnari managed to squeak out, his throat was sore and he was on the verge of tears. He had never been shown that sort of kindness in his life. He thought about what Cyno said again, and really started crying.

"Woah, woah. What's wrong? Does something hurt? Should I loosen the bandage?" Cyno frantically asked Tighnari what was wrong, only to receive a bright smile on a tired, tear-stained face. Cyno blushed, he felt embarrassed. "W-well if nothing's wrong, it's time for bed. You look tired. You didn't eat much today so I'll make you a big breakfast in the morning. I don't know what you like so you'll have to tell me." He was flustered, he turned around and hid behind long, white, silky bangs.

"Fruit and waffles. I think that's what sounds good for breakfast."

Cyno turned around at the request looking startled.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was that too much to ask? If it's too much than anything's fine-" Tighnari was interrupted.

"Fruit and waffles sound great." Cyno giggled and motioned for Tighnari to follow him upstairs. He grabbed the extra bandages and the throat medicine and followed Cyno.

"Goodnight! Get a good night's sleep. I'll wake you up when breakfast is ready." Cyno retreated to his room looking flustered and acting strangely giddy.

"Kids these days." Tighnari joked to himself.

Though Tighnari thought his behavior was strange, he felt that his friendship with Cyno was moving forward. Tighnari slept peacefully that night. He felt safe, cared for, relaxed; relieved of some kind of burden he had been carrying around, Tighnari felt peaceful.

(Do not copy any medical practices depicted in this chapter, Cyno is 14 and not a professional.)