A Matter of Time (Momo/Xochi)

The day of their promotion ceremony into the Imperial Guard, Xochi works himself up into knots and Momo can't seem to be bothered.

“Momo!” Xochi yelled, barging into the room. “Momo! Get your lazy tail up and ready!”

Momotzli just mumbled sleepily and curled his tail closer around himself, practically burying his upper body in his own coils. Xochi threw his hands up. “Come on, Momo. We need to be ready for the ceremony.”

Even though he was trying to stay frustrated at Momo’s inherent need to sleep as much as he possibly could, Xochi couldn’t hold onto his irritation, not today. Not when they were about to be officially promoted to the Emperor’s Guard, and not just as the usual temple guards, but as Emperor Tezcacoatl’s personal guards!

Xochi had nearly passed out when he’d heard the announcement, and despite the rumors that slid their way through the other trainees, Xochi knew Momo would never use family ties to try and ease his way into such a high position. Momo was as lazy as lazy could be, but only when he wasn’t on duty, and he took his responsibilities seriously. At least, he usually did.

Xochi shoved and tugged at Momo’s massive coils, only managing to move them a bit before giving up and slumping against them. Time for a different tactic. “Please, Momo? We both worked so hard for this"even if you did your best to look like you weren’t working at all"and I know you’re just as excited as I am. You know how important this is.”

That got a reaction. Momo sighed heavily and the thick coils under Xochi shifted until he could see Momo’s upper body sprawled half on a coil, half on his cushions. His hair was mussed with sleep and splayed around his head and shoulders, and his mouth was tilted in an expression halfway between exasperated and fond. “Xochi, it is barely sunrise.”

“Barely sunrise! The sun has been up and shining her blessing for at least an hour. I know because she rose around the time I finished getting dressed.”

“Not my fault you dress so early and quickly. So much energy in such a little body, I don’t understand how you keep it up. Not that I mind in some situations,” he grinned, slow and easy, probably thinking about the night they’d spent together, “but getting dressed is something I would prefer you do much more slowly.”

Xochi felt his face heating up at the combination of Momotzli’s tone and the memories of their celebratory night together. “You move slowly enough for both of us. Now please get up and dressed before we’re late and make a bad impression, because then what will happen? We’ll get demoted, and forever be stuck with gate duty and"”

Despite Xochi forever accusing him of being slow, Momo could move with surprising speed when he wished, and just as Xochi began to panic, Momo uncoiled himself and was upright before he could say the next word. “Calm, love.  We will not be late, I promise I will look fine, and no one will be demoted.”

He wound himself around Xochi, curling their tails together and wrapping his arms around Xochi’s slim shoulders as he nuzzled into the smooth skin of his temple, where his head was shaved smooth except for the thick strip of long hair down the middle. “And as I’ve been trying to tell you, because you were obviously too caught up in excitement to listen to the whole announcement yesterday, the ceremony is not until the sun reaches her zenith and her full glory is upon us. We have hours until then, which I think should be spent in ways far more relaxing than yelling and fretting.” 

With that, he simply let himself fall, taking a flailing Xochi with him and landed on his bed cushion in a heap of limbs and coils. Xochi hissed at him but settled down quickly enough when Momotzli just pulled him closer and tangled their tails into a makeshift cocoon of smooth scales and muscle. He methodically unlatched, untied and stripped Xochi of his dressings and decorations, even going so far as to pull the thick golden pin from his topknot and pulling free the strip of leather holding his hair in place.

“Hey, what do you think you’re getting at? We can’t do this right now!” Xochi complained loudly, though he wasn’t actually giving more than a token struggle, and was soon as naked as Momo, who snorted and tossed the last of his jewelry to the side.

“I’m not going to do such things before our induction, but your ceremonial dress is jabbing into my stomach. You’ll wind your tail into knots if you don’t relax a bit, so just settle down and curl up with me for a while.”

Momo hummed contentedly as Xochi finally settled loosely against him with a sigh. “Fine. But only for a little while; then we’re getting dressed.”

“Of course,” Momo murmured lazily as he slid their tails against each other in a loose pile of coils, peeking from under a heavily lidded eye at the position of the sun. They had a good while before they needed to be ready, plenty of time for him to smooth out Xochi’s anxiety before he worked himself into the ground.

Soon enough, they would be the Emperor’s personal Guard, and Momo was sure there would be plenty of times Xochi would need some calming down"just as Momo needed a bit of energy now and then"and he was determined to be the one to provide it.

It didn’t hurt that he would be spending his days with his mate, always watching each other’s backs, and with the luxury of their own private quarters when they had their off time.

Duty, honor, and everything he wanted, all just a few hours and a ceremony away. Momo smiled and curled even closer to Xochi, who would never admit that he’d dropped off into a doze so quickly, and decided to spend his last bit of free time as well as he could, doing absolutely nothing.