Training Days (Momo/Xochi)

Before they were Imperial Guard, Momo and Xochi were in training, like everyone else. And Xochi dislikes being stuck with the annoyingly lazy Momo

Xochi glanced over at his training partner and bit down the urge to hiss in irritation. The big oaf was asleep. Again.

He hunched over his tablet and grumbled under his breath about stupid, overgrown, spoiled, self-indulgent snakes as he tried to force himself to remember every name of every ruler from now until the beginning of scale-shedding time.

It was just his luck that he’d gotten stuck with the partner that was not only massive and already had the upper hand on the training field, but also happened to be related to the emperor, and of course, already knew all of this information. Xochi sighed and knocked his forehead against the tablet with a solid thunk, vaguely hoping he could beat the information into his skull, since all other options hadn’t seemed to work so far.

There was a shift of scales sliding over each other and a warm chuckle next to his ear. Xochi didn’t startle, but it was a close call, and he could feel how he’d tensed up his tail, now coiled tightly around himself. He glared up at Momotzli, who just smiled that stupid smug little half grin that never failed to piss Xochi off. It was like he couldn’t be bothered to do anything with actual effort; all half smiles and lazy movements, and worst of all, he still did it all perfectly.

Xochi fought and clawed his way to every accomplishment and still had to take the mocking of the other guards-in-training for his small stature and unintimidating looks. As if he’d asked to be born a snail-eater breed. He was the smallest of the guards in training, and they didn’t let him forget it. He paid them back by making them eat dirt by the end of every sparring match, their heftier builds unable to keep up with the agility his smaller body gave him.

Momotzli tapped the tablet, that half-smile still tugging up the corner of his mouth. “It can be quite frustrating to learn so many names and important events. I remember it took me years to stop mixing them all up.”

Xochi yanked the tablet away and lifted his chin as he frowned up at Momotzli"stupid giant boa breed, taking up so much space with his tail and being so tall"as he tried to figure out why he was telling him this. “So what? You think the fact that you got to learn all this when you were barely broken from your egg is going to impress me? It doesn’t.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Momotzli sighed, and Xochi felt a tiny bit bad for being so sharp with his words. Despite being gigantic, and lazy, and annoyingly good at everything, Momotzli was the only one in the training that didn’t make fun of him or talk to Xochi like he was beneath his notice.

“Then why are you telling me this?”

Momotzli waved a hand in the direction of the tablet Xochi was holding. “I can help you study.”

Xochi paused, his mouth half open with a scathing reply ready on his forked tongue, and just stared for a moment. “What?”

Momotzli smiled again, this time a real smile, and Xochi was half-tempted to go wrap his tail around a pillar and tie it in a knot when that smile made his insides feel suspiciously warm and a bit tingly. There was no way, no scale-shedding way, that he liked Momotzli. “Are you going to sleep half the time? Because I’ll just do it on my own if you’re planning on being useless.”

Momotzli actually looked a bit hurt at the statement and Xochi found himself wanting the smile to come back. “I’m your partner, and it is both my duty and pleasure to be such. I would not take helping you so lightly.”

Xochi looked away, unable to stand the intensity of Momotzli’s gaze, so different from his usual laid back manner. “If that’s so, then why have you never offered your help before?”

Momotzli curled his tail and shrugged, posture relaxed but tone serious. “Because you have not needed it before. You fight with more ferocity than most of the others and you may be small,” Xochi grunted at the reminder, “but no one can deny that you hold your own against anyone in the fighting circles.”

Xochi shifted his tail restlessly, his coils sliding over one another as he fidgeted at the compliments, unused to receiving them. “Well, then they should learn to keep their mouths shut before they bite themselves in the tongue, now shouldn’t they? I’d be nicer to them in the ring if they refrained from taunting me.”

Momotzli laughed, a low, slow chuckle that had Xochi feeling warm all over again. “That is true, but then where would I get my entertainment? It is the highlight of my day when you do your best to break their fangs on the floor.”

“That was only once! And Lokoli should learn to tuck his fangs or it never would have happened.”

Momotzli laughed again. “The fool nearly poisoned himself, he was so angry. And now he never wants to bare his uneven fangs.”

Xochi grinned at the memory of Lokoli’s crooked snarl. “Serves him right, for what he said about my tail.” More specifically, the size of it, and how small other parts of him must be as well.

“Ah, there’s a first. Smiles look good on you, Xochi.”

The smile slipped into an open-mouthed gape as Xochi stared unbelievingly up at Momotzli. “What?”

His reply was another smile in return. “Are we back to this again? Your smile is nice. You should do it more often. Now, we have a bit of time before we join the others outside in the rings, would you like to start from the most recent ruler or the Ancients?”

Xochi stared determinedly down at his tablet, scraping his nail absently against the edge as he shrugged, unsure how to respond the first statement. “The Ancients, I suppose.”

He went still as he felt scales brush against his own, Momotzli’s huge body half curling around Xochi’s as he leaned over his shoulder to trace his finger over the tiny carved image at the enter of the tablet. “Then we must start at the beginning. Our first ruler was the great Quetzalcoatl, and he was the beginning of our people, a true god.”

Momotzli’s voice was low and soothing, and even though it was information Xochi had been told before by the training masters, he was drawn into the story when Momotzli told it.

He waited for a pause in the story. “Thank you, Momo"“ His words cut short when Momotzli curled himself the slightest bit closer around Xochi, sliding their scales together for a moment before leaving just the tiniest bit of space between their coils.

Warm fingers brushed his hand holding the tablet and Xochi almost felt the words more than he heard them when Momotzli spoke. “Momo,” his thumb stroked across Xochi’s wrist before moving away. “I like it.”