Work Text:
Adis Truth-Bloom hates nothing more than second period comparative biology.
As a healer by passion, warrior by circumstance, and ambassador by birth, it's the one class Adis should pay the most attention in. So he really, really tries. They're really good at Sentient technical biology! Trust!
It's just that the human body is one of the grossest things to ever grace the universe. That's not a very kind thought, but it's one they have fairly often.
Adis likes plenty of humans! That's the issue, actually.
Do you know how weird it is to look at your friends and know they have food sitting inside an acid-filled ballon with a unique microbiome of acid-loving microbes? There is acid. It is in their bodies, and they cannot remove the acid without serious medical intervention and advanced prosthetics!
Adis hates it. They hover at their desk and they hate it for the full two hours of class time.
After dismissal, Garris always gets a second lecture about everything Adis hated. This particular rant comes just before lunch.
(Garris, whipped to all hell, likes to listen to whatever Adis has to say and, additionally, considers the impassioned rants a study method.)
"Eyelashes need no mites. Why? Why have mites?"
"We do need them," Garris says around his straw.
He loudly slurps his drink as Adis gives him a look. The look says 'do not argue with me about your weird eyelash mites, you strange organics-only being'.
Garris can't help but laugh. It is a funny look to give someone.
"Listen, it's not our fault. Humans love our microorganisms! It's called co-evolution, Adis,"
"Adis does not think you evolved," they chide.
Garris rolls his eyes, "Whatever,"
They continue, "Void spit you out, mites include. You sully our shores, make Tau dirty,"
"Whatever!" he throws his head back dramatically.
They both giggle about their pseudo-argument as they settle around the lunch table where Elaine, Garris' little sister, is already sitting.
(The lunch period for Tenno students is supposed to be class time for Sentient students, but Adis tested out of Tau history.) (The special treatment sort of embarrasses them, but don't look a gift kaithe in the mouth.)
"So, Adis, what terrible new thing did you learn in bio?" Elaine asks faux innocently.
Garris whips his head in her direction, ready to protest, but it's too late. The shit has already been stirred.
"Do not get him started-" Garris warns, preemptively rubbing his temples.
"Humans are too strange! Very, very poor design!" Adis proclaims.
Both their claws press flat on the table, as if they are about to jump into a speech worthy of a last quarter 2-0 lunaro comeback.
"He has opinions," Garris sighs.
They are quick to agree, "Many! Many opinions! Humans have too many organisms. Just be one,"
"We can't just be one," he retorts.
Elaine smiles, happy to have gotten Adis riled up and thus annoying her beloved older brother. Win win, in her book.
"Juliet seems pissed, Romeo," she teases.
Garris harshly kicks her leg under the table, causing the whole structure to shake as he shoots her a very sharp look.
The joke and its many, many implications whooshes harmlessly over Adis' head.
"Mites are disturbing. You're too like infested. Creepy!" they continue.
Seeing how they didn't catch on, some of the tension in Garris' shoulders drop.
"Adis, you can't even see eyelash mites! This is such a nonissue," he says.
Elaine laughs, "That's what he's freaking out over? I thought he meant lice,"
Adis gasps in terror as they re-remember what lice is.
--
Seventh period artistic applications has round tables instead of singular desks. This gives Adis an excuse to do the strange amount of staring they've suddenly become addicted to.
Garris chews on his cheek, a terrible habit, as he drags his quill along the swirling lines of Orokin calligraphy.
Adis' quill lays useless in their claws as they examine and reexamine their best friend.
There's so many things about humans Adis is still attempting to parse through. Did you know it takes considerable aesthetic effort to maintain a perfectly straight hairline? The human body abhors straight lines. Garris doesn't have a straight hairline. It's got these subtle curves, making the faintest 'm' shape.
Overall, humans take great pride in their hair. The aesthetic effort that goes into it seems daunting.
Garris' hair is militaristicly shaved all around, with the top kept too short to wave in the way it naturally wants to. There's a particular piece that always falls away from the bunch and rests on his forehead. It's a warm blonde, darker than most of the paler blondes among the Tenno.
Adis thinks the normal amount about Garris' hair. It's what's expected of someone who's struggling in biology, no? To pay attention? Wouldn't a bad student not study?
For those reasons- and nothing else- Adis pays an increasingly absurd amount of time studying Garris' face.
That face is deep in concentration now. He's tilted downward to make his angular bump nose more prominent on his strong, narrow face. His skin tone is warm, however comparatively pale it is. His lips, warped from being busted open too many times, are curled down in annoyance over a particularly curvy word. They're pink too, just like his favorite color.
Handsome is one of the words that comes to mind. Cute is another contender.
And let it be known that these thoughts are solely based on an interest in understanding the human species. Garris is their best friend! Don't get it twisted.
Twisted as an adjective belongs solely to the glee in Adis' core when Garris glances upward and notices that he's gained the rapt attention of audience of one. His cheeks flush pink as he quickly looks back to his work.
Pink may be Garris' favorite color, but the longer they spend looking at him, the more and more it's becoming Adis' too.
--
Garris' dorm room makes Adis sad.
They know he is a maximalist who loves decorating spaces with cute things. They've heard him lament endlessly on not being allowed to rescue his childhood floof collection from the Zariman. They've watched him pierce his own ear with an Ivara arrow (don't ask) just because he was too impatient to clear the cosmetic decision with command.
He loves things, and his room is so painfully absent of them. The minimalist space is so un-Garris that Adis hates being in it.
It's not fair watching their best friend strain under the haughty lord's control. Adis is powerless to do anything as Garris pulls himself apart to be a better solider.
He's a different person when in formation. It tears Adis up inside, knowing the real boy underneath. The boy who should be excitedly reading aloud those shoujo stories from Earth. The boy who should be grinning at them with that malicious smile Adis has grown to associate with trouble.
It's not right. His spine should be straight not because the drill sergeant demands so, but because Garris thinks good posture elevates an outfit.
Regardless, the two sit in that cramped dorm room on that ugly red fainting couch and attempt to drill the biology study guide into their heads. It's not working.
"Adis does not understand why digestive system curly," Adis frowns.
Garris laughs humorlessly, "Same,"
When they turn to look at him, he's chewing his cheek again. What a terrible habit.
"Quit that," they lightly smack his arm.
"It's fine," Garris pushes their hand away.
He attempts to tap at something on the screen he's balancing in his lap, but Adis decides to push the issue.
"It's autocannibalism," they say.
Garris' face twists into a smile, which is annoyingly charming.
"That's a big word," he teases.
Adis huffs. They will not accept such an insult into their ability to say big words, nor allow the autocannibalism to continue.
They reach out and grasp Garris' face with both claws, using one to peel back his lip and examine the wound inside.
Garris makes an inelegant squeaking noise, but otherwise does not prevent this.
They squint that the weird almost-wound on the corner of Garris' mouth. It's not like the gory holes they see on the battlefield, but rather a raised ridge; paler pink than the healthy tissue around it and unevenly shaped.
Adis spends a socially unacceptable amount of time just looking inside of Garris' mouth. Equal parts weirded out and enchanted by the complex organics beneath their hard-light claws.
After letting Adis spend said socially unacceptable amount of time just staring into his mouth, Garris gently shoves them away.
He's blushing so hard it looks like he might pass out. Those sharp blue eyes are dilated to all hell, his breaths come in short bursts, embarrassment covers his face like a mask.
"You-," Garris sputters, "You're too much,"
Adis tilts their head to ask, "Is bad?"
Garris looks at Adis with a sincerity that melts Adis' spine and turns their heart to mush.
"No. I like you're too much," he all but whispers.
Adis pays attention in class. Intellectually, they understand what is happening here. Their heart tentatively lets them hope that, yes, this is real. Yes, this beautiful boy likes you too. Yes, you can have this. This is real and it is yours and it isn't wrong to want.
Garris closes his eyes. As Adis copies, their heart sings yes.
They meet in the middle. Awkwardly, stiffly, with the twofold fears of kids their age doing something as audacious as this.
Adis lips are cool ceramic, perfectly smooth, and completely unyielding. Garris' are full of ridges, body heat, and all those many human skin-fluids Adis can only remember the names of in formal test settings.
His lips meld into theirs. It's all squishy Human things touching rigid Sentient things, and it's a sensation unlike anything else. It's a comfort and an elation.
With the same gentleness in which they met, they pull apart. Garris exhales a long sigh as his lips curl into a dreamy smile.
"You're beautiful," he breathes.
"Tease not," Adis deflects, flustered again by his sincerity.
Garris isn't having it, "I mean it. You're beautiful,"
Hands that have been laying in timid fists in Garris' lap slowly reach up toward the clasps of Adis' first face.
"Let me-?"
The ceramic releases with a soft click. Adis feels a nameless but all too present flash of fear.
Their first face has all the human things humans are used to. Eyes, nose, lips. What use does a human have for a fully Sentient face? Sharper, alien, unable to make the facial expressions his kind evolved to intrinsically understand at a glance? What if-?
Garris, apparently a mind reader, cuts through their anxious thoughts with one clean strike.
"I like all of you," he reassures, "Every little part,"
Then, he returns. All cushion and contortion to the firmer shape beneath.
Their second face doesn't have actual lips like the first, so Garris improvises by kissing the little triangle shaped divot at the bottom.
Adis' core gleams celebratory in their chest, banishing all shadow from the room.
While it is true that Adis doesn't exactly have 'nerve endings' (yuck) or 'erogenous zones' (super-duper yuck), they are still capable of losing their shit over having their first kiss with a beautiful boy.
They feel utterly and completely lost in the bottomless well that is their feelings for Garris. They feel consumed by it. They feel their core make room to fit him inside.
Human lungs need air. Garris leans back and away from their chaste but lingering kiss. (Their first! Holy shit!)
"Hi," Garris smirks, feeling some sort of victory.
The poor boy should never put on an air of bravado, because Adis will always be there to knock it down.
"Hello, my bride," they reply, sickenly sweet.
Their evil plan works, as Garris' entire body lights up an even bloodier red. His eyes shoot wide like saucers as he stutters a retort.
"Thats-!" he recoils, face flushing even harder, "Too much,"
Garris doesn't like that it's now his turn to be the bashful one cringing away from sweet talk.
He does not appreciate this nickname, as it might lead to a cardiac episode. There's only so much he can take.
Adis laughs, "Is that not what you are, Bridehart? Adis will not say,"
"No!" Garris says far too quickly, then immediately backpedals, "Uh, I mean. I don't really, mind. It's just a bit much, isn't it?"
"My bride," they sing, half pet name half taunt.
Something light like sunsshine fills the space between them. Even though Garris squirms like the affection is the opposing end of a very, very strong magnet. Even though Adis is fully aware of all the reasons this might become, to put it politely, a shitshow.
Let the world outside this dorm room crash into this moment as the tide laps up a cliff side. Let this moment stand unweathered by it. Let all these obnoxious too-large-for-their-chests feelings remain obnoxious and impossible.
Garris, in an effort to get Adis to stop trying to give him a heart attack, takes their hands into his own as the two kiss again.
Its the sweetest thing two weapons will ever get in a war zone.