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Tighnari’s fingers are not shaking as he picks up the delicate flower.
They’re not.
This is because he is decidedly not nervous for tonight. He is a grown, twenty-eight year old man. There is no reason for him to be nervous for a random blind date decided by a random app, he’s mature enough to remain composed.
Nevermind that this is his first date in years, his first date since…
No, he’s not thinking about that because he is not nervous. He’s not.
Heaving a sigh, he gently threads the thin stem of the nilotpala lotus through the buttonhole of his breast pocket. The bright blue stands in stark contrast to the dark grey of his vest, a little outside of the usual colours he wears. It will be the very first thing anybody will notice about his appearance tonight — which is good, because it’s supposed to identify him to his date.
A blind date from a dating app is usually not his first inclination when it comes to his love life, but both Collei and Nilou had insisted that he’d give it a try. The app had good reviews and apparently they both independently knew people who had great experiences with it.
Tighnari doesn’t know how much it says about him that both the people closest to him think he’s lonely enough that he needs a blind date, but he tries not to let it get to his head too much.
It helped that he had been decently impressed with the app. The profile he filled out had been extensive, and had asked for more than just general interests and hobbies. Taking the better part of an hour, he’d detailed an elaborate list of partner preferences, lifestyle and future wishes, as well as activities they’d like to do, humour he appreciated, political alignment and religious beliefs. Tighnari tends not to be too picky, but it did give him more confidence that, when the match notification came later that night, they hadn’t just stuck him with the first available person.
Closing the overhead mirror with a snap, he takes a deep breath and gets out of his car.
The bar in front of him is one he hadn’t been to since he was a student, but he did have some fond memories of this place. By day, it serves some good coffee and lunch, but at night it is a hub for local university students and sports fans. It wouldn’t be his first pick for a first date spot, but the app signified that it would be ‘a good meeting place based on his and his date’s personal history’.
Likely, his date is also a Sumeru University graduate, not that that says much. There is a very wide range of courses, from local language college courses to advanced Quantum Physics at the Akademiya building. It is equally likely that he’s going to meet a teacher or a politician tonight.
There is a gentle chime when he pushes the door open, the red-headed man behind the bar looking up shortly at his entrance. For a moment, Tighnari is met with a combination of familiar sights and smells, and something fond blooms in his chest.
Perhaps this is not such a bad place for a first date after all.
He scans the room, trying to spot if his date is already here. Like himself, his counterpart is supposed to be wearing a nilotpala lotus to identify himself. Useful, because beyond ‘male’ and ‘generally active’, Tighnari has very little preference as to what his partner looks like, and that description covers over half of the people in this bar.
There is a fit, generally attractive guy sitting by the window, but before Tighnari can even begin to look for a blue flower, he gets up to greet a woman that passes Tighnari by in a hurry. Not him then. Several groups of guys litter the standing tables by the two tv’s playing different sportsgames, but Tighnari highly doubts his date came here first to watch sports with friends. Or rather, if his date has done that, Tighnari will be out of here before the introduction.
A tall, blond man with a sharp figure stands by the coat check, chatting with the attendant there. His back is turned, so Tighnari can’t see if he’s wearing a flower, but it could be a possibility. He just about decides to wait until he turns around when a flash of blue catches his eye from the corner of his eye.
And, god, he’s glad that it did, because sitting at the bar is one of the most gorgeous men he’s ever seen.
Tan skin, hair a stark white, the man cuts an impressive figure, only accentuated by the swell of muscles visible through his dress shirt. There is a barely touched drink on a coaster in front of him, but he doesn’t pay it much mind, instead twirling with a blue lotus flower between his fingers. A small smile graces his lips, lighting up his entire face.
Tighnari should really buy Collei and Nilou flowers as a thank you for sending him on this date.
Folding his coat neatly over his arm, he takes one, two seconds to strike any wrinkles out of his outfit before making his way over.
Up close, the man is just as attractive as he seemed from afar, if not more. His eyes, a rare burnt orange red, seem to shine with intelligence and wit as turns them upon him when Tighnari clears his throat.
“Excuse me?”
The man smiles easily, albeit clearly a bit distracted. “Yes?”
“Are you here through the Akasha app?” Tighnari reaches up to gently tap the flower on his chest. “I think we’re supposed to meet today.”
Something shifts in the man’s gaze, something not necessarily pleasant. Confusion, stress. Certainly not something you want your blind date to feel when they meet you for the first time. Something almost painful curdles in Tighnari’s gut at the immediate rejection.
“I… am,” the man says hesitantly, frowning. His eyes flit from the blue lotus in Tighnari’s buttonhole to the one he was holding, then up and over Tighnari’s shoulder. “But I already—”
Before he can finish whatever he was about to say, a low, cheerful voice behind them interrupts. “Sorry that it took a second. Would you like to hold on to your own tag for your coat?”
Tighnari turns around to the man that just approached and oh. He gets it now. If he met a man like that while waiting here, he’s not too sure he’d be excited for his own blind date either.
It is the man who was standing by the coat check, dressed in a sleek, well tailored red suit, his shoulder length hair tastefully pulled back. Something in his gait speaks of an inherent comfortability in his own skin that Tighnari instantly is a little envious of.
The rejection of the man at the bar still stings, but he understands. He deflates a little, put out by the turn of events.
And then he notices the blue flower, tucked behind the man’s ear.
A nilotpala lotus, just like the one at the bar is holding and just like the one Tighnari wears.
“Oh,” the blonde man breathes, wide eyed. “Hello.”
The man at the bar clears his throat. “As I was saying, I am here through Akasha, but I already met my date.” His voice trails off in a question, like he’s not too sure about that anymore.
Shot through with mortification and disappointment, Tighnari digs his phone out of his pocket. “Did I get the date wrong then?” The green screen of the Akasha app pops up immediately, and he taps on the appointment label. “No, it says so right here, Lambads’, eight PM, nilotpala lotus.”
Angling his phone, he shows it to the other two. In response, they, too, pull up their phones, only to show them an identical appointment screen. The dejectment making way for a growing confusion, Tighnari studies the information, “huh.”
The blond man frowns deeply. “Did the app mess up? How is that possible?”
“It must have,” the muscular man replies, eyes gliding over Tighnari. Now that that initial look of confusion has cleared up, he looks Tighnari up and down with keen interest. Something that Tighnari would have found rather flattering, hadn’t he been distracted by the mystery of the date.
“Did either of you know we’d be with three?” he asks instead. “Is this some kind of speed dating thing?”
The blond man shakes his head, just as the bar guy replies, “Not that I know of. Anybody I knew who had a date through this app just had a regular blind date.”
Frown deepening, the blond man looks them both over, opening his mouth to say something, but then the bell of the front door jingles, drawing all their attention.
The man coming in is tall, young despite the fact that his hair is a silvery grey, headphones on his head. Pinned to the breast of his shirt is a bright blue flower.
“Oh,” Tighnari breathes. “So that’s what happened.”
“What a shit show,” the blond man says, but there is a laugh in his voice as he plucks the flower from behind his ear and waves the newcomer over. “Hey! Yeah, you!”
If the guy at the bar’s face was intense when Tighnari approached him, this new guy’s expression takes the cake. He is handsome, yes, but he looks so stoic and unamused that Tighnari is half convinced he’s going to turn around and walk out.
He doesn’t though, instead settling in front of the three of them with his arms crossed over his chest, smushing the flower a little. With the way his eyes flick across their little group, visibly catching on all the flowers, Tighnari gets the feeling there is very little he doesn’t notice. “What’s the meaning of this?”
The blond man doesn’t skip a beat, seemingly unperturbed by the new guy’s brusk attitude. “We think perhaps the app accidentally planned two dates at the same place with the same identifying flower.”
“Hm,” the new man says, something unreadable in his face. He seems guarded, but not in a way that is dishonest. “Seems like a rather inefficient system.” The guy at the bar chokes back a sound that sounds like a laugh. The new guy’s teal eyes flick over to him for a moment before saying, “So do we know who is supposed to be on a date with who?”
Finally, something different stirs in the blond man, that bubbly happy expression making way for something a little annoyed. “If we did, we wouldn’t be standing here, would we?” The way he says it is almost like he’s daring the new guy to argue back.
The new guy bristles, but the guy at the bar interjects before anything can happen. “Hold up, let’s do this right.”
He hops off the stool he’d been perched on this whole time, and it provides Tighnari significant relief that at least he isn’t super tall either. The other two are approximately the same height and had been towering over him for a bit now. At least the muscular guy stands shoulder to shoulder with him, and shoots him a wink before continuing. “How about I buy you all a drink, we take a table, and properly figure this out, hm?”
He directs the question pretty much solely at the new guy, like he’s already certain neither Tighnari or the blond man is going to say no. Tighnari wasn’t, and the easygoing character of the blond man also didn’t make him likely to decline, but it still strikes him as interesting that bar guy had figured it out that quickly.
Speaking of ‘bar guy.’ “Perhaps we could start with some names,” Tighnari suggests.
The new man, who hadn’t even confirmed yet if he’d stay, looks at him in consideration for two, three seconds before dipping his chin down slightly. “Sure. I’m Alhaitham.”
“Tighnari,” he offers in return and, after a moment of hesitation, extends his hand.
For the first time, that stoic, slightly annoyed face cracks into something more open, the corners of his mouth twisting up in a smile. He really is handsome, Tighnari realises belatedly as he shakes his hand, he just has a lot of walls up.
That’s alright, he thinks to himself, I like a challenge.
He catches himself immediately. This guy might not even be his date. It wouldn’t be good to already start feeling one of them out like this. Besides, the other two are definitely not hard to look at either. Far from it, really.
The blond man smiles wide, straightening up. “Ah, I’d forgotten we’d only introduced ourselves when you two weren’t here yet. I’m Kaveh, and this is Cyno.”
Alhaitham, Kaveh, Cyno. He can remember that.
Bar guy, Cyno nods in agreement, lifting his glass from his coaster. “Pleased to meet you. Now, what would you like to drink?”
A first test, perhaps. Tighnari knows that there are plenty of people who expect their counterpart to drink while having a first date in a bar. He despises being expected to do anything, however, which is partially the reason he came by car, and despite having a good impression of this guy, he doesn’t have the greatest experience with alcohol and guys this muscular.
The blond man, Kaveh, swipes up the drinks menu, eyes scanning the list. “Just the house red for me please. I’ll go snag up a table.”
Cyno nods, “Sounds good. How about you two?”
Bracing himself, Tighnari straightens his back. “I’m driving.”
“Cool,” Cyno just shrugs, “So do you want a soda or a mocktail? They do some pretty good alcohol free stuff here.”
The ease with which he rolls with it throws Tighnari for a loop enough that he stumbles through his reply. “Eh, maybe later. I’ll just have a ginger ale for now.”
Cyno grins, eyes darting over to Alhaitham, who shrugs. “I’ll have the same.” He takes off his coat — a long, comfortable looking thing with a large hood — and looks over to where Kaveh has wandered to a free hightop table. “I’ll join him.”
He’s gone before either Cyno or Tighnari can say anything in reply. Blinking, Cyno raises a hand to run through his hair. “He, uh, he means he’ll have a ginger ale too, right?”
For the first time since walking into this bar, Tighnari lets out a genuine laugh. “Yeah, I think so.” He watches Alhaitham take a seat across from Kaveh, saying something that has the other man responding immediately. “He’s a bit of an odd guy.”
“A hot one, though,” Cyno replies in what almost seems to be a reflex, looking a little guilty for having said it. Tighnari just grins.
“For sure. All of you are, which doesn’t particularly make this easy.”
The redheaded bartender stops by, taking their order. When Cyno’s tapped his card against the payment terminal, and the guy has set off to make their drinks, he turns back to Tighnari with a slightly apologetic look on his face. “I want to apologise. I didn’t mean to look as startled as I did when you showed up. It had nothing to do with you, I mean, you’re fucking hot, I was just—”
“Surprised?” Tighnari saves him from his babbling. “I can imagine. And I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed, but then I saw Kaveh and was like, yeah, that tracks.”
The first of their glasses clink against the counter but Cyno pays it no mind, instead nudging Tighnari’s shoulder. “Hey now, don’t sell yourself short, you’re literally just as attractive.” He looks over to the two at the table and runs a hand over his face with a groan. “How are you all my goddamn type? It's ridiculous.”
God, Tighnari really hasn’t dated in far too long if a throwaway comment about being attractive has warmth coiling in his gut. He can feel a flush rising on his cheeks, already getting a little hot under the collar.
Unable to really respond to the compliment, he instead redirects the attention to the other two. “By the way they’re already bickering, you’d think they’ve known each other for years.”
Cyno hums, handing him his ginger ale before gathering the other three glasses in his hands. “Perhaps not the best match then.”
Do Tighnari’s ears betray him or does Cyno actually sound a little disappointed at that?
He studies the way Kaveh’s cheeks have gone red, the way Alhaitham is leaning over the table ever so slightly. “I don’t know about that, they both seem kinda into it.”
Cyno huffs a laugh, beginning to walk over. “I think you might be right.”
They slide into the seats next to the other two, Cyno next to Kaveh and Tighnari next to Alhaitham. There is still something unstable in Tighnari’s chest at being in such close proximity to three of the most stunning people he’s been around in a while, but something about the way Kaveh turns that shining gaze upon has him momentarily feel like he’s the most interesting person in the whole wide world.
He has to restrain himself from staring, getting sucked into this gorgeous man’s orbit.
“Should we make a toast?” Cyno asks, nudging his glass closer to the middle of the table.
Tighnari raises an eyebrow. “On?”
Cyno looks like he might have something to say in reply, perhaps even having expected the question, but is interrupted by Alhaitham’s deadpan voice saying, “A dating app fucking up the one thing it’s supposed to do?”
Unable to help himself, Tighnari whirls around to gape at him in surprise. From the corner of his eye, he can spot the same bafflement on the other two’s faces. In response, the corners of Alhaitham’s mouth turn up.
“What?” he asks, tone dry. “Does my first impression of being a little overwhelmed with a sudden change of situation dictate that it is impossible for me to have humour?”
Now, Tighnari can recognise a jest when it’s directed at him, and it seems that so can Cyno, but Kaveh is quick to throw up his hands apologetically, “No, no, it was just a little surprising, that’s all. It had nothing to do with our opinion of you.”
Alhaitham does not reply. All he does is bring his ginger ale to his lips with a small hint of amusement crinkling his eyes.
Kaveh heaves an indignant sigh but doesn’t say anything further either.
Trying to break whatever tension — or teasing foreplay, his brain provides — Tighnari raps his nails against the table. “So how would we like to go about this?”
Cyno sends him a crooked grin. “You sound like you have a suggestion.”
This is the second time that this man reads him like a book, but it feels a little less uncomfortable this time.
“I think we could start with what we each filled out for partner preferences,” he replies. “See if there are any significant alignments or misallignments.”
“Why, are you partial to any of us?” Kaveh chimes, tilting his head as he runs his finger over the rim of his glass. There is something impossibly seductive and sultry about his tone, his eyes once again swallowing Tighnari whole.
“I—” Tighnari chokes on his own tongue. He can feel a flustered blush begin to heat up his cheeks, brain looping in horror, trying to find something to say.
Cyno lets out a low laugh, nudging Kaveh with his shoulder. “Don’t break him now. Not before we figure out who he belongs to, at least.”
His voice, too, carries a certain amount of heat that stokes that burning pit in arousal in Tighnari’s gut even more. It makes him feel wrong-footed, off-kilter, like he’s trying to play catch-up in a game he’s not even sure he’s playing.
God, he’s been out of the dating game for far too long if a bit of flirting puts him so behind. He used to be the one who’d run in circles around his date, but he’s years out of practice now.
He finds himself looking over at Alhaitham as a last resort, desperate for some semblance of a foothold or support. But Alhaitham just arches one perfect eyebrow and leans his chin on his hand. “Don’t look at me like I’m not equally as interested in taking you home tonight.”
Tighnari buries his burning face in his hands.
This was supposed to be a simple blind date, damnit, but instead he feels like he’s having a face-off with three hungry wolves. Hot hungry wolves who are getting a real kick out of teasing him.
It’s not a bad thing, far from it. It’s actually a huge confidence boost, injected straight into his veins, but it’s a little overwhelming. It’s been years since he’s gotten this kind of attention, and it’s a lot to process all at once.
“Okay, let’s be nice,” Cyno finally spares him. “I’m afraid my preferences won’t get us very far. I think all I filled in was ‘well-spoken’ and ‘competitive’.” Something about the way he says it implies he’s long since deduced that those terms apply to all of them.
Kaveh makes a soft sound. “You did better than me, all I filled in was that I prefer relatively muscular men.”
It should be objectifying, the way they immediately seize each other up like pieces of meat, but somehow it doesn’t feel as such.
Cyno very visibly carries the most muscle out of all of them, but Alhaitham, broad shouldered and clearly well-built, isn’t far behind. Tighnari does not have nearly the same amount of bulge as them, but he’s quite proud of the way his archery and running habits have sculpted his shoulders and arms, especially when Kaveh’s eyes seize him like that.
The eyes on him now, Tighnari winces as he recalls, “I didn’t get much further than ‘male’ and ‘generally active’, I’m afraid. Oh, and that I have a slight preference for light hair, but like,” he gestures to the white, blond and silvery grey hair respectively, “that tells us nothing.”
Kaveh groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Alhaitham, please tell me at least you were a little more specific. You seem the picky sort, no?”
Laughing, Alhaitham shakes his head slightly. “Sorry to disappoint. I didn’t fill in any preference.” Seeing each of their shocked expressions, he shrugs. “I couldn’t quite figure out how to fill in ‘intelligent’ without coming off as an ass, nor how the app would even judge that, so I figured I’d decide on the date itself.”
There is a beat of silence, followed by the sound of Kaveh slapping himself against his forehead. “This is useless.”
For a moment, Tighnari hesitates. Despite the goal of this being that they figure out who matches with who, he hates the idea of being disappointed in any of these three men. But he’s going to have to bite this bullet at some point, so he might as well do it now.
“I can make this really easy,” he says, voice noticeably more quiet. The eyes turning onto him give a slightly more uncomfortable feeling than before. Pushing through the dread, he takes a steadying breath.
“I have a daughter.”
He can’t help the way his gaze drifts to the rough grain of the table, unable to watch whatever look might be on their faces. He doesn’t expect them to be outwardly hostile about it, but he suspects that even seeing the consideration of whether he’s attractive enough to weigh up to that news will hurt.
But instead, there is barely a moment of silence before Kaveh bursts, “Really? That’s amazing. What’s her name? How old is she? Do you have pictures?”
Tighnari blinks up in surprise, and Kaveh, likely mistaking his look for something else, quickly backtracks, “Although, you just met us, I could understand if you’re not comfortable showing pictures.”
“No, that’s not it, it’s just—” God, why has he been so off-kilter all evening? “You don’t mind?”
Kaveh’s smile is blinding. “I love kids.”
Before, when Tighnari was preparing for this date, he’d thought extensively about if he wanted to bring up his daughter and what kind of reactions he’d consider appropriate. He’d told himself that if someone would unequivocally accept his daughter without giving it a second thought, the person was being too easy about it and didn’t understand the weight of being a parent.
And yet, as he watches Kaveh’s sincere, adoring expression, he wholeheartedly believes this man is up for the task.
Tighnari smiles, holding his gaze for a moment before looking over at the man next to him. Cyno dips his chin down in confirmation. “I have long since accepted that dating at this age includes people with kids. I have no problem with it, we can figure out what that means for us as we go.”
Now that, that was the response the Tighnari at home had determined to be the right one, the perfect one.
He looks over at Alhaitham, who, for the first time since entering the bar, actually full-on smiles. It transforms his face into something stunning, and Tighnari struggles to keep breathing evenly. “I’ve always thought the one shame of being attracted to men is that it’s much harder to start a family. So a partner who already has a child is, if anything, a bonus to me.”
Fuck. Fuck, oh fuck. Tighnari sucks in a sharp breath. “So you mean to say that all of you checked ‘no objection’ to the children category?”
Two shrugs and a nod, Kaveh saying, “Pretty much.” He smiles sweetly, tilting his head. “So tell us about her.”
It’s like some weight around Tighnari’s ankles is cut loose. He hadn’t realised how much this had been holding him back until it was gone. He feels a smile of his own bubble up, reaching for his phone to pull up a recent picture.
“Her name is Collei, she’s fifteen.” Cyno’s brow furrows, Alhaitham’s brow twitching ever so slightly, making Tighnari laugh. “She’s not biologically mine, I’m technically her uncle. She’s my older sister’s, but she and her husband died over six years ago in a car accident, and I’ve raised Collei ever since.”
Kaveh swipes the phone from his hand to get a better look at the selfie Collei took with Tighnari a few months ago. “She’s so cute.” He zooms in a little. “She looks so much like you.”
Chest feeling lighter, Tighnari smiles fondly. “What can I say, my family’s genetics are strong.”
The phone exchanges hands quickly, both Cyno and Alhaitham getting a look too. Feeling brave, Tighnari scratches the back of his neck and says, “This is also the first date I’ve been on since my life started to revolve around her, so yeah.”
Cyno, stapling his fingers together under his chin, leans a little over the table with a sly smile. “I hope we haven’t disappointed you yet.”
The way he says it stokes something in Tighnari's chest that has him leaning in also and teasing, “Not yet, but the night is young. Plenty of time for me to decide you’re an ass, still.”
Next to him, Alhaitham leans back in his chair. “You’re on a date with three other men. Somehow, I doubt ‘ass’ is your non-negotiable.”
Kaveh, halfway to drinking a sip, loudly chokes on his own spit. Cyno lets out a sound that’s a mix between a giggle and a snort, eyes sparkling in mirth. Tighnari just lifts an eyebrow in Alhaitham’s direction. “Already thinking about my ass, are we?”
Most of that initial stoicism has long since vanished from Alhaitham’s face. Tighnari can still see how he’s got some walls up, walls that likely never come fully down, but he does seem way more at ease than in the beginning.
“You were standing with your back turned to me when I first came in. I fail to see how your ass could not have been a consideration.”
Tighnari tries to suppress a grin, going for something a little more nonchalant. “I don’t know, not all of us are perverts like that.”
Alhaitham just smiles. “One thing you don’t yet know about me is that I lipread. So I definitely saw you and Cyno talk at the bar about how hot you think me and Kaveh are.”
“You lipread?” Cyno asks before Tighnari can reply. “How come?”
Some of the mirth slips from Alhaitham’s face, one hand coming up to tap against the dull gold hardware covering his ears. “I mean, I appreciate that all of you haven’t said anything about my headphones yet, but it’s a little obvious, isn’t it? I’m partially deaf, and will on occasion forget to put enough battery in my hearing aids. Lipreading comes in handy at times like that.”
If Tighnari is honest, he’d say he’d been far too occupied with Alhaitham’s face to really register the hearing aids beyond a passing notice. Even more than that, he hadn’t registered that they were hearing aids. He’d thought they were just regular headphones and hadn’t really noticed he hadn’t taken them off yet.
“Do you sign?” Cyno asks, something almost eager about it. When Alhaitham nods, he brings up his hands in a complicated flurry of motion.
Alhaitham, face a little perplexed, signs something back. “Interesting.”
“What did he say?” Kaveh urges when neither seems to be inclined to explain.
Cyno just grins, Alhaitham shrugging. “He said he’d be glad to have someone to practise with. Well, he used the sign for ‘train’, but I got the meaning.” Cyno furiously signs something again at that and Alhaitham laughs. “Oh, that’s a fancy word.”
Wrinkling his nose, Cyno huffs. “I called him pedantic.”
There is something so strangely comfortable about the dynamic going round the table, like they’ve known each other for years. Tighnari struggles to fight against the familiarity, to put his best face on instead of being his usual snarky self, but it feels like a battle he’s already lost.
Sighing, he rubs his temples. “Oh god, Nilou is going to have a fit when I tell her about this date.”
Kaveh perks up, brows raised. “Nilou? Nilou who dances at Zubayr Theatre?”
Surprised, Tighnari nods. “Yeah, she’s my best friend. She’s the one who recommended Akasha to me in the first place.”
“I know her!” Kaveh says excitedly. “She’s actually the one who recommended the app to me in passing, too.”
Holy shit, sometimes the world is so small. “No way. She’s actually going to have a fit now.”
Kaveh’s smile turns a little more flirtatious, head tilting as he very visibly looks Tighnari up and down. “Such a shame she never introduced us before.”
Tighnari mirrors the same grin right back. “A real shame.”
They spend the next half an hour or so exchanging information about themselves, trying to find any misalignments where any which way there wouldn’t be a likely match. The problem, however, is that all of them are frighteningly aligned.
All of them studied at Sumeru University, but in wildly different departments; criminal law for Cyno, language for Alhaitham, architecture for Kaveh.
Out of those three, Kaveh is the one who’s still properly working in their field of study. Just turned thirty, he is an architect with an incredible portfolio that he shows gorgeous pictures of. In his downtime, he likes to work on cars, paint or take pictures at the beach for inspiration.
Cyno, twenty-nine, is the lead detective of the local police precinct with a big family he likes to visit often. He goes boxing, or running or hiking when he’s got time to spare and has been looking into getting a dog.
Alhaitham is a courtroom stenographer who collects antique books and reads anything he can get his hands on. He is the youngest out of all of them at twenty-seven, even if the way he carries himself doesn’t seem like it.
All of them seem to have a good sense of humour and like to be active. All of them seem perfect in Tighnari’s eyes.
He shares with them that he works in the botanical gardens of the university, half his time spent taking care of the plants and half his time spent doing research in the laboratory. All of them are intelligent enough to ask relevant questions about the research he’s doing.
As the time passes, they gradually grow more comfortable with each other. Alhaitham’s expression grows less and less guarded while Kaveh slowly becomes a little less energetic. Tighnari hadn’t noticed just how much of that bubbly attitude had been performative, but it’s clear that as he becomes more at ease, he seems to deem it less necessary to put on a front.
Cyno begins to make more and more bad jokes — really bad jokes — but somehow, it’s not annoying. At times, they’re so out of left field that it actually becomes funny.
It is in response to one of those jokes, Kaveh throwing his head back with a chuckle, that something in Tighnari snaps.
Kaveh’s laugh strikes him hard, and the feeling comes with a tough sense of foreboding. He likes all of them too much, and no matter how much he tries, he is actually going to somehow fall for them all if this continues any further.
He groans, burying his face in his hands. “Look, I’m just going to ask, do any of you have any preference by now who you’d want to continue dating? No hard feelings, it would just make figuring this out so much easier.”
In response, the table stays deafeningly silent. Alhaitham takes a sip of his drink, neither Kaveh nor Cyno meeting his eyes. Tighnari sighs. “Yeah, I figured. Me neither. Somehow, I’m into all of you.”
Kaveh gives him a crooked grin. “I’d say I’m sorry, but that would be a lie.”
Cyno makes a gesture that seems to be a mix of frustration and resignation.
“I’m going to voice what I think we’re all thinking and needs to be put on the table,” he says, laying the palms of his hands flat on the table. Despite the lightness of his voice, there is a seriousness in his face that hasn’t surfaced much yet this evening. “We don’t have to choose. There is nothing that says we have to walk out here two by two.”
“What are you saying?” Alhaitham asks immediately, leaning his chin on the palm of his hand.
Cyno rolls his eyes, almost fondly. “You know exactly what I mean. I’ll admit I’ve never been interested in something beyond monogamy before but— I don’t think I’d be able to pick between any of you if you put a gun to my head.”
“I’m game if you are,” Kaveh chimes almost instantly, eyes bright. “I’m willing to try everything once and it’s not exactly a hardship to try with all of you.”
The world is spinning a little on its axis, the dizzying realisation that this is a possibility both daunting and exciting. Tighnari swallows thickly, looking over at Alhaitham, whose face has grown pensive.
“I—” For the first time all evening, Alhaitham seems to be overly considerate of his own words. “I can’t promise anything. I don’t date much and I don’t tend to click with a lot of people. I don’t fall in love easily. I’ll admit I’m pleasantly surprised because I fully expected to have been out of here in an hour and instead I’m enjoying the company of all three of you, but that might not mean anything.”
He sighs, folding his hands together in his lap. “I am attracted to you, sure, but it’s so rare I actually fall for someone, let alone three. I can’t promise you this is going to end well.”
For a moment, he looks so sad, so dejected at the thought of letting them down. Then Kaveh loses his patience, bulldozering all over it.
“Are you kidding me? You think we can make any promises? None of us have tried something like this before, what makes you so damn special?”
Alhaitham’s brow furrows under the barrage of words. “What? Didn’t you just say you’re a romantic?”
“A romantic, yes, but not an idiot!” Kaveh swats at him with a menu. “We’re not asking you for a lifetime commitment, we’re asking if you wanna fuck us and go on a couple of dates.” The couple on the table behind him whirls around to look at them, Kaveh’s voice rather loud. The blond man hardly seems to care however as he swats at Alhaitham again. “Well?”
“Yeah, alright, calm down,” Alhaitham laughs, catching Kaveh’s wrist as the menu comes down. Something about the way his thumb shifts over the delicate bones almost looks fond. “I am willing to try. Just don’t expect too much too soon.”
Kaveh’s eyes flicker down to the fingers around his wrist with a mix of amusement and indignation but he says nothing. Instead, he gently pats Alhaitham’s hand with his own free one, before, like the other two, turning his gaze upon Tighnari.
In the midst of Kaveh and Alhaitham’s bickering, Tighnari had forgotten that he himself hadn’t answered the question yet.
There isn’t a doubt in his mind about where he wants this to go, though. It seems like a ridiculous idea to be jumping into some four-way arrangement on his very first date back in the dating scene, but he can’t help it. Something about this dynamic between them feels so strangely right, it feels like a crime to put an end to it.
And well, even if it doesn’t work, it’ll have been worth it if he even gets a single night with these three smoking hot men out of it.
Still, he struggles to voice that out loud, instead running a hand over his face and groaning, “God, this is going to require so much communication, isn’t it?”
Cyno laughs, foot shooting out underneath the table and hooking around Tighnari’s ankle. “Looking at how we handled this entire evening, I’m not too worried about that.”
Kaveh lets out a bright laugh, leaning back in his seat casually. “So how do we go about this? Do we try to plan a date? Do we make a group chat? Do we stay here and talk?”
Tighnari winches a little at that last suggestion. Over the last twenty minutes, the bar has been getting busier and busier, and with it, the noise levels have risen significantly. Perhaps he’s getting a little old, but he finds he doesn’t particularly enjoy feeling like he needs to shout to talk to someone.
“Well,” Cyno says, sounding like he’s trying a little too hard to seem casual. “How about we start a little smaller? My apartment is only a couple minutes away on foot. We could head over, have another drink on my couch and be able to hear each other a little more clearly. If need be, I also have a guest bedroom and the couch pulls out.”
Now, Tighnari drove here because he didn’t want to get forced into drinking and wasn’t planning to go home with anyone, but the suggestion has him considering whether or not this area is safe enough to leave his car in overnight. Collei is staying with Nilou tonight anyway, so there is nobody he needs to be home for. When he decides it’ll be alright, he knocks his foot back against Cyno’s and says, “That depends, do you have enough good alcohol?”
Cyno’s face brightens, shoulders lowering nearly a full inch. “Oh, you’d be surprised how many petty criminals try to bribe their detective with a bottle of good booze. It never works, of course, but I do always claim the liquor.”
Grinning back, Tighnari looks at the other two. “In that case, I’d prefer to go somewhere quieter indeed. How about you?”
Alhaitham, who has been sinking deeper into his chair since the volume in the bar has been going up, exhales deeply. “Please get me out of here.”
Within a minute, they’re all bundled up in their coats and out of the bar.
True to Cyno’s word, his place is just a short walk away. He lives in the upstairs apartment of a large, two story house, the hallway dressed in warm colours and little knicknacks. Cyno ushers them in quickly, trying to keep out the early spring cold, before telling them to look around all they want.
It is a cosy place, with pictures on the wall and a thick rug underneath the coffee table. The couch is large and looks like it could pull out into a comfortable two-person bed. Along the wall sits a liquor cabinet that does, indeed, seem to hold a variety of liquor bottles, all of them looking some level of fancy.
Cyno takes a second to turn on the lights, after which he joins them in the living room. Tighnari tries really hard to seem interested in the decor around them, but suspects he’s failing.
For a moment, an awkward silence lingers before Kaveh clears his throat. “So, are we really just going to sit on the couch and talk?”
The heat that has been simmering in Tighnari’s gut bursts into an inferno. He takes two large steps forward, hands finding the red lapels of Kaveh’s blazer and hauls him down. “Fuck no.”
Kaveh stumbles a step back, back against the wall before he seems to catch himself, lips searing hot against Tighnari’s. The kiss consumes him whole for a moment before Tighnari assumes control, one hand coming up to catch and hold Kaveh’s jaw.
Someone presses up behind him, warm hands fitting around his waist and fingertips already sliding under the waistband of his pants. Alhaitham, likely, because Cyno’s voice sounds a little further away as he groans lowly, “Oh, hell yes.”
Grinning, Tighnari pulls back, leaving Kaveh keening after him a little. Nails skimming down the exposed vee of where Kaveh’s top buttons have popped open, he casts a look at Cyno. “How about you show us where the bedroom is, detective?”
When Tighnari wakes, it’s with a lot more hair and sticky limbs around him than he’s used to. There is a pair of legs tangled with his own from the right, a warm body on his left, and he feels surprisingly rested for the night he’s just had.
Rolling over on his side, he blinks his eyes open to be immediately faced with a nice set of chest muscles. Even nicer are the litany of bitemarks that trail down the expanse of said chest, courtesy of his own teeth.
“You know, when I first met you last night, I would not have said you’d be this self-assured in the bedroom,” says the voice of the man who woke him up by getting up.
Tighnari grins at Cyno, standing at the foot of the bed. “I told you I just needed to get back in the groove of things, didn’t I?”
An arm flops over his side from behind, Kaveh’s face pressing between his shoulderblades. “Hm, it’s too early for this. Sleep first, then brag.”
Extracting himself from Kaveh’s grip, Tighnari snakes out of the bed. “Go cuddle Alhaitham or something. I need to pee.”
Kaveh grumbles but does roll closer to Alhaitham, arm worming around his shoulder. Cyno, who lingers by the door, grins at Tighnari as he gets up, tossing him a shirt to wear. “Bathroom is down the hallway. You can also take a shower if you like.”
Tighnari shrugs the, far too large, shirt on with a nod. “I think I just might."
“Do you want a cup of coffee when you’re done?”
Tighnari can’t help the way this warm feeling in his chest has him leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to Cyno’s cheek. “That would be lovely.”
Cyno grins, wrapping an arm around Tighnari’s waist and pulling him close. He looks at the bed, where Alhaitham, who has clearly been awake since the moment Cyno got up too, is trying to get comfortable with Kaveh clinging to him like an octopus, and his smile turns a little soft.
“You know, I have a good feeling about this.”
Tighnari catches Alhaitham’s sleepy gaze, Kaveh burying his face in his chest, and smiles, leaning into Cyno’s shoulder. “Yeah, me too.”