It had been a while since Retvik had had so few people in his home. Kayel was on a date with Psiksi and had stayed at Psiksi’s oversized mansion down the road; Nyssi was on a date with Timik and they’d gone clubbing; and Tenuk was… somewhere. Apparently he was meeting with a new house fighter. Why Tenuk was doing that at 8pm, Retvik didn’t know. Still, it meant that Retvik had the house to himself for his own date.
Retvik had been somewhat unaware that Kuta had a new job, as General of Deitic Affairs. They’d kept their Legion number, 11, but they were basically in charge of tracking the goings on of the four gods of the universe. And, apart from an incident reported by the Lanex a few days ago involving some strange, bright lights, the gods had been rather quiet. To the point that the daily emails Kuta had received from the Thantophor had been almost blank.
This meant that Kuta was able to take some time off work and spend time with Retvik. It didn’t matter that Kuta lived on the Rethan home world of Threa, in the capital city of Phos. Kuta had the ability to shadowjump, and was somehow powerful enough to travel between planets with said ability. Doing so would cause them to pass out briefly though, and Kuta was out cold for a good five minutes when they had appeared in Retvik’s bedroom the previous day. But Kuta had quickly recovered.
Really, Retvik hadn’t been happier. Sure, Kuta was a bit weird, they were a queen-caste Rethan and a (very high ranking) General and did somewhat demand to be treated as such, but Kuta was also oddly tolerant of, well, just about everything. Retvik had been of the opinion that Kuta would look down upon a stay-at-home date, however, Kuta loved the idea. Retvik did want to take Kuta somewhere fancy, there were a lot of nice places in Palaestra, but the one downside of being repatriated was that now Retvik had to pay the same incredibly steep taxes every other Rethan paid. He used to only have to pay 20% of everything he earned to the Rethan government, but now he was paying 80%. Sure, Retvik did get most of that back via social services (including, and Retvik didn’t expect this, his mortgage) but it did mean he needed to be careful over the next few months until things had settled.
Not that Retvik had gone cheap with his home-cooked meal. Rethans liked lots of carbohydrates and meat, so he’d cooked a massive dish of rice, seafood and fish, all mixed up in a creamy, buttery sauce, with lots of garlic. Retvik was worried that he’d overdone the garlic a little, however, weirdly, Kuta seemed to like garlic more than Retvik did. To an almost addictive level. Apparently Kuta had never really ate garlic until they had been accused of having Vrykolaxia, an infectious, saliva-born illness that made beings averse to sunlight, desire to only drink liquids and raw meat and gave them an allergic reaction to various herbs and vegetables, but they’d gone and eaten plenty of garlic to prove they didn’t have Vrykolaxia and found themselves enjoying it a little too much.
Of course, Kuta hadn’t come empty-handed. They had brought a fine bottle of aged, lavender-flavoured mead as well as a box of chocolates. The mead was drunk rather quickly, and, since neither Retvik nor Kuta really had anything going on the next day, they’d also had a few beers between them. They’d also talked. A lot. About everything. Despite having lived so far apart and had very different lives (and Kuta being a lot older than Retvik), they had far, far too much in common. Both of them had clawed their way to the top, in spite of their peers and their hatred, and only recently had they both stared having nicer things, like friends and doing things other than working all the time.
After clearing up dinner and Kuta rather gracefully helping with the dishes (and showing off by washing multiple dishes at a time with their strange, rather weak telekinesis), Retvik and Kuta had retired to the large seating area with multiple sofas. Retvik had sat down first, in the large, red sofa he considered his favourite. Kuta hesitated at first and, much to Retvik’s surprise, decided to sit next to Retvik. A little too close to Retvik.
“I, uh, take it you have enjoyed our date so far?”
Kuta immediately picked up on Retvik’s unease and moved away slightly.
“Sorry.”
Retvik paused, then sighed. He felt a bit bad. “Hmph. No, I am sorry. Considering that we somewhat started heading down this strange path by me abruptly kissing you and saying that you remind me of my ex. After you got dumped by a death god.”
Kuta sighed too. “I have immensely enjoyed your company, Retvik. We are both sitting here though, wondering whether we are going too fast or too slow.”
“We are both admittedly a little… rusty when it comes to normal relationships…” Retvik muttered. He trailed off and glanced at the sofa opposite, before sighing and closing his eyes. Kuta didn’t mean to pry, but they picked up some stray memories, multiple conversations. One between Retvik and the Thantophor, another a… a vastly distant conversation, between Retvik and his last (and only) partner.
“I am… sorry about what happened between you and Isaar…” Kuta frowned. “The Master of Generals can be particularly cruel at times.”
“You work alongside them, Kuta.”
“The last time I was alone with the Master of Generals, they slammed my head into a wall. I am thankful my plating is thicker than most. In hindsight, maybe I should have pressed charges, but I was still reeling from losing Arkay and did not want further hassles.”
Retvik blinked. “You were assaulted?”
“They were attempting to arrest me under the Potentially Dangerous Hidden Abilities Law after discovering I could shadowjump further than previously thought. I managed to talk my way out of being reported and analysed again by explaining that I was not shadowjumping any further than normal. After all, the distance from Phos to Palaestra is shorter than the distance from Phos to End One.”
“What a bastard…” Retvik tutted. “While being an exile has mostly sucked, I have at least… avoided abuses of power from hungry Generals… Although it seems, being a General yourself, you cannot avoid it.”
“If I did not have fangs and maybe standard golden eyes, I would be fine. Even your sibling Relkir, as small as they are, would not have had problems if they had your pretty red eyes. The downside of our tameness and overall connectivity is that we shun those who do not fit.”
“Ugh, you can say that again…”
Both Rethans fell silent. Kuta’s eyes fell to the floor, but Retvik found himself constantly glancing at Kuta. He found Kuta cute. If anything, Retvik secretly really liked Kuta’s pretty, large, ice blue eyes. Kuta wasn’t unattractive in the slightest, and, outside of the fangs, Retvik didn’t understand how Kuta had hit triple digits and was still single. So he decided to ask.
“Have you really been single your whole life?”
Kuta nodded. “Before you, before poor blessed Arkay, I had not been on a date in a decade, and, before that, I only had a handful of relationships that lasted past the second date, the longest of which lasted a month. It almost sickens me that my longest relationship was with a fucking death god who abandoned me to stop me from prematurely dying.”
Retvik didn’t respond at first. He felt bad. Sure, he’d only had one relationship, which had been forcibly split up, but at least his relationship with Isaar had been a mostly normal one. Kuta never seemed to have had a normal relationship before. Not that Retvik could offer Kuta a normal relationship, but, well, it had to have been better than what Kuta had experienced in the past.
“Well, I hope our relationship lasts longer than that.”
Kuta looked up at Retvik. “You want to make this official? You genuinely want me to be your poten-partner?”
“Yes. I have admittedly been dragging my feet, but I do genuinely have feelings for you, Kuta. I have not felt this way about another Rethan in, well, a decade. I am just not very good at saying things out loud sometimes.”
“Understandable. This year has been rather… hellish for both of us.”
Retvik put an arm around Kuta, but paused briefly, before turning to Kuta and smirking. “It has, yes, but we could… make things better. Like, right now.”
Kuta blinked. “What do you-”
Before Kuta could finish their sentence, Retvik leaned back and pulled Kuta onto him, gently kissing his cheek.
“Oh, that is what you mean…” Kuta’s confusion turned into a large grin as they kissed Retvik back. “Yes, we really should make things better for ourselves. We deserve to be happy.”
“And we will be happy, together.”
Kuta smiled some more. “I like that.”
“I like you.”
“Heh. I like you too.”