Archive of Our Own ^beta

  Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals never slept, Matterhorn thought. Operators and personnel moved constantly, filtering through the hallways and halls and offices and lifts and… He checked his phone and sighed. Ten hours. Who needed to be in a meeting for ten hours and counting ? His boss, apparently, that was who. Absolutely ridiculous and yet there they were.

  His main concern right now wasn’t SilverAsh, though. No, they had slowed down by a settlement for long enough to exchange supplies, he knew, and were now back to full speed…And Weiss hadn’t left their quarters since he’d boarded the landship. Nine and a half hours ago. Which, he knew most people would not find concerning but he knew Weiss, had worked with the man for almost two decades now… And this was not good.

  Usually he would leave it all to SilverAsh, he was under no illusion Weiss’ relationship with the man was purely professional considering what he had seen more than once, but with the meeting still going strong…

 - Excuse me, Doctor Kalt’sit ? – She looked up from the tablet in her hand. He knew from the gossip she rarely left the labs but here she was, a little before midnight, in the communal kitchens. – Do you happen to know how much longer the meeting is going to go ?

  She just raised an eyebrow. Matterhorn knew they were guests, more or less hitching a ride to a settlement three days from where they were, but he also knew perfectly well what he was allowed to ask and what was none of his business.

  SilverAsh tolerated nothing less.

 After a few seconds of intense staring she shook her head and rubbed the back of her neck. Matterhorn had seen her in combat exactly once, the woman rarely left the landship, and he had decided there and then to never ask anything personal. Her…Combat style was a thing of nightmares.

 - They were supposed to be done four hours ago. – Ah. - Herman Doykos’ catastrophe messenger has been causing problems left and right and last time I checked they were shouting in there. – She shrugged and he understood. SilverAsh almost never raised his voice simply because there was no need. And also he considered it a display of lack of control. And the man who ran the landship, well, Matterhorn wasn’t sure if he could shout even if he wanted to.

 - Thank you, ma’am. – She nodded. And then, because it was late at night and she was looking the closest to ruffled he had ever seen her, he nodded towards the tray on the rack he’d just taken out of the oven. – Fresh scones, still warm. Help yourself.

  A covered plate of scones in his hand and his medical kit over one shoulder, Matterhorn navigated through the maze of hallways and levels of Rhodes Island. Another hour and a half had passed and there had been no sight of anyone in the meeting room so he had taken the matter into his own hands.

  Almost twelve hours after boarding the landship and Weiss still hadn’t texted him. Or gone to the infirmary. Kalt’sit, while suspicious, had told him at least that. And he hadn’t asked anything else.

  The guest quarters were quiet, he was pretty sure right now it was just them and some government officials from Lungmen who were either at the meeting or the cafeteria, so it was just him and…

  The door slid open without making a sound. The thick steel would not allow him to know and he knew the doorbells were not a good idea when Weiss was potentially on the edge. So he walked inside, noting the complete darkness, and after the door slid closed, he rapped on the nearest wooden dresser.

 - Here !

  Still without turning on the lights in the shared room, he gently placed the plate on a side table and stepped in the master bedroom. Weiss wasn’t even pretending to be on his way to his dedicated bed, choosing to instead spread out a first aid kit on the huge bed and try to, well, Matterhorn wasn’t sure what exactly he was trying to do but he didn’t appear to be succeeding.

  Just in a towel around his hips that was more or less open, Weiss was digging through the box with a frown. Matterhorn couldn’t see blood or even fresh scars but the one small bedside lamp was making the old ones stand out in sharp relief.

  Burns, cuts, a few large spots of oddly melted skin along his upper back he knew were from a rare Arts weapon that had almost killed him. SilverAsh had dealt with the caster personally in a display of efficient brutality and it was the one and only time Matterhorn had ever seen his boss show his sadistic side outside of a boardroom.

  And, he thought…

  They had picked Weiss from one of the oasis settlements. Artificial humidity and extreme heats so very much unlike Kjerag that…

  Oh.

 - Wait, I have a better one. – Bright blue eyes met his for a moment before Weiss shook his head. – This is for burns, it won’t do anything..

  Picking everything from Weiss’ kit up, he closed the first aid box and cleared the bed, freeing space. Weiss has tried, definitely, but the kit was equipped with, well, first aid supplies. And Weiss was not hurt, at least not in a way that called for them.

 - Turn around, I’ll do your back last so it can dry. – For a moment Weiss seemed to hesitate before rolling with a sigh.

 - I’m fine. – The towel dropped on the floor but all the other man did was cover his eyes with his arm. – It was a routine run.

  Matterhorn hummed, digging through his own kit and pulling out the large jar of salve he kept for that specific reason. He used it much less than Weiss but since he didn’t seem to find it necessary to carry some…

  He might need to mention it to SilverAsh, something about the kits needing to be restocked. He knew his boss would see through it right away but if it got what was needed where it was needed, it didn’t matter.

  Clicking the switch of the lamp, he turned to the blinds. He could do this with his eyes closed since he knew Weiss’ body almost as well as his own, but they were moving through the desert, no settlements for hours in each direction, and the moon was almost full. The light was softer, dimmer but also gentler on the other man’s eyes. And with SilverAsh not here to take care of his lover, Matterhorn would instead take care of his friend.

  The salve was thick and smelled sharply of spearmint but unlike the thin oils most pharmacies sold, this one worked on thick scar tissue, not doing anything cosmetic but softening the skin and helping with pain and itching.

  He’d gotten the recipe from his father and then spent quite a while to improve it, and now both him and Weiss benefitted from it. Plus, he knew where to press so that even if the salve only worked on the scarred flesh, he could also work on the tense muscles underneath. Of course, it would all be for nothing unless…

 - Weiss, you have to breathe. And relax. – Silence… And then his friend breathed out loudly. – That would do it, I guess.

  And then he got to work. He knew that when it was like this, when weather became too much, all the scars bothered Weiss, not just the biggest and deepest ones. So he started from his calves and worked his way up. Weiss was quiet, breathing uneven and hitching from time to time but didn’t seem to be in any actual pain outside of what Matterhorn was working on at the moment.

  So he kept going.

  Calves, thighs, up his stomach and chest and then down his arms. They had been both in this and the opposite position way too many times throughout the years for Weiss to be shy, plus even outside of medical emergencies Matterhorn had seen more than enough of both him and SilverAsh for anyone to make things awkward.

  Weiss was neither ashamed nor tried to keep his relationship a secret and Matterhorn did his best to approach the matter with the same casualness.

  A little over an hour later he sighed. And then had to quickly grab Weiss by the good shoulder before the other man had rolled to his front.

 - It needs to dry, give it a few minutes. – That got him a halfhearted glare with one open eye. – What happened at the oasis ?

  Weiss groaned.

 - That bad ?

 - Worse. – Matterhorn raised an eyebrow. – They found some Originium on the bottom of a well.

 - Working one ? – Weiss nodded. – Moons.

 - Exactly. I had a catastrophe messenger look at it because honestly if you had seen the experts they had hired… - The other man shook his head. – A child would probably know more than them.

 - Let me guess, it wasn’t ore ? – Weiss opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling.

 - Just dust that had somehow stuck together in tiny little… - He lifted one hand from the bed and made a circle with his fingers. – Very small.

 - And useless.

 - Yeah. And yet they had already started plans for a mine. And there was nothing there but… You know newly rich people. They had mercenaries playing bodyguards.

 - They didn’t get to you ? – Weiss laughed in his low, soft way, the sound barely there.

 - Their leader had some brain and knew who I was. Knew the trouble they’d be in if they attacked me unprovoked.

 - Small graces. – Weiss glanced at him. – Okay, now you can roll over.

  Later, almost three hours after midnight, they were on the floor where the air conditioning hit just right, shirtless and splitting the plate of scones. Weiss, after a deep massage and a short nap was as lively and cheerful as usual and was going into deep detail on the layout of the ancient mine shaft he had found at the well. The door sliding open made them look up but not really move – If SilverAsh wanted to the stand up or look presentable, he would had warned them.

  Still in his suit despite the sweltering summer heat and not a hair out of place, their boss gently let Tenzin on his perch before blinking at them.

 - Twelve hours ? – SilverAsh shook his head before slowly working the buttons of his coat open. – Let me…

 - More. And don’t, I know you’re exhausted. - Weiss dropped back on the floor, leaning on the hand he had reached out with. – I’ll just go…

  And then he paused, clearly trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing…Before heading for the bedroom.

 - More ?

  Matterhorn shrugged.

 - It started in the morning. – And it was almost three in the morning now. No wonder SilverAsh had looked like death after dropping the mask he wore in polite company.

 - Damn. – Weiss kept looking after his lover for another few moment and Matterhorn took pity on him.

 - I’m sure he won’t mind…

 - It’s fine. – Matterhorn shrugged. He wasn’t going to push, he was sure they understood each other.

 - More iced tea ? – Weiss glanced at him with confusion before his face softened in another small smile.

 - Sure. Do we have more… - Matterhorn glanced at the fridge he’d checked before leaving the quarters earlier.

 - We’re fully stocked up for when the boss shows up in his pajamas and joins us.

  Weiss blinked at him before shaking his head with a laugh.

 - You really think of everything, don’t you ?