“Can I help you?”

Kiran looked up from the book they had engrossed themself in when they realized that Valentia’s God of Strength had been right behind them, far too close, far too intimate for someone who was in a library. Duma’s eyes were closed, seemingly deep in thought, but his nostrils flared and Kiran couldn’t help but suspect that the dragon was intently focused on what lay before him and not what was within his head.

“Do you need something, Duma?”

“No, I’m simply enjoying your scent.”

Kiran blinked. Had Duma actually said that, without a shred of irony?

“Sorry, I don’t think I caught that.”

“You smell good, Summoner, and I am indulging in it.”

Yeah. Kiran had heard right. Duma was either coming onto the summoner or simply oblivious to both human social norms and the concept of personal boundaries.

Kiran shuddered, wondering if there was anything besides the contract that bound Duma as a Hero to recognize them as his commanding officer stopping him from snatching his summoner up right then and there for his personal use, but before they could voice any complaints a small voice spoke from behind the dragon.

“Mr. Duma…”

Duma stepped to the side as he turned, revealing to both Hero and Summoner that Sophia had been hidden behind his massive frame.

“You’re needed at the Aether Keep… they’ve reported an incoming invader.”

“Hm… I suppose if my strength is needed then it can’t be helped. I look forward to spending more time with you, Summoner.”

Duma walked out of the library with a smile on his face and left Sophia and Kiran alone.

Kiran turned from the doorway Duma left through back towards Sophia.

“He’s not on the defense rotation for this season.”

“Yes… I…”

Sophia averted her gaze, a small, guilty but wholly unrepentant smile on her face.

“You did that for me?” Kiran smiled back, “I appreciate it, Sophia. He can be such a handful sometimes.”

“I’m glad to help…”

Now that Kiran had a moment to digest that unwanted encounter, they realized that there was the one thing that stood out as more ‘strange’ than ‘uncomfortable’.

“He mentioned my scent, which I found a little odd. Do I smell like anything specific to you? Nobody’s commented on it yet, but to me, this body has always smelled like…”

Well, it smelled like a lot of things. Formaldehyde and paraformaldehyde, isopropyl alcohol and carbon tetrachloride; Kiran smelled like a lot of things nobody else here would have known by those names, but would certainly have commented on the repugnant, oppressive odor if they had the displeasure of experiencing it.

“Yes… you remind me of back home… there was a yearly ceremony that involved some potions… you smell like them.”

“Oh? We probably used these potions for something else, but I smell a lot like what home was for me as well.”

“Do you miss home?”

“Yeah… quite a bit. I had a sister who I worry about a lot, and I wonder how she’s doing.”

“Oh… Fae was the closest I had to any siblings, but she’s here with me now… maybe you’ll be able to summon your sister someday?”

“Maybe…” Kiran didn’t particularly enjoy thinking about the possibility of that happening, “Now that I’ve thought about it, Duma’s a dragon and you’re half-dragon, right? Maybe that’s why nobody else has noticed it?”

“Of course it is. There are things Beorc cannot smell that Laguz can.”

Kiran turned back to the table they had left their book on to find Lethe standing on the far side of it, her scowl a bit more intense than it usually was.

“Oh, Lethe! Were we disturbing you?

“Yes.”

“Sorry about that, we were-”

“I heard the whole conversation. There’s a special type of fluid used by Beorc for embalming because they cannot smell it, but Goldoa uses it because tradition dictates that the smell is something that needs to be overcome to properly send somebody off. Goldoa only having funerals maybe once or twice a year probably has something to do with it not falling out of practice, since Gallia, Phoenicis, and Kilvas all use a different embalming fluid that is far less noxious.”

That made sense… formaldehyde was a fixative agent, so it could be used in embalming and, if anything, that would be the only use for it in a pre-industrial fantasy world like Tellius.

“Goldoa?” Sophia looked puzzled.

“It’s where all the dragons in Tellius live.”

“Oh… that makes sense… I don’t think any of the humans in Arcadia could smell those potions… not even Arc-”

Sophia cut herself off before revealing that Athos had been a resident of Arcadia, but Lethe didn’t seem to pick up on it.

“There are things some humans find bitter and others cannot taste, are there not? It’s no different from that.”

“Are you able to smell me?”

Lethe shot Kiran a look, clearly displeased at the implication that she would do something so intimate to someone who she held at an arm’s length.

“Sorry, that’s a weird way to word it, isn’t it?” Kiran let out a halfhearted laugh, “Are you able to smell this embalming fluid on me?”

“With you it’s…” she paused, sniffing the air, “it’s faint but it’s definitely there, though I can barely detect it over the scent of caramel flan.”

“Oh, you’ve had flan? I’ve been craving it ever since I came here, but I couldn’t remember the recipe.”

“I hate to break it to you,” Lethe sighed, “but I’ve never made it. It was always my sister, and she’d have me try it before giving it to whoever she was trying to win over. By the time she gave up on using sweets as the way to somebody’s heart she had mastered making flan, but until she is summoned I wouldn’t be able tell you how it’s made.”

“Oh, so I smell like home to you, too? That makes three of us, so I wonder if that’s intentional…”

Lethe raised an eyebrow, and while Sophia didn’t noticeably react, she seemed to be listening a bit more intently than she had a moment before.

“What do you mean by ‘intentional’?”

“You probably already know this since you’ve been here almost as long as I have, Sophia, but I was summoned too.”

Sophia nodded in agreement, but Lethe was a bit shocked.

“I had no idea. I thought you were an Askr native, or you came here some other way.”

“Nope. The only time Anna was successfully able to wield Breidablik was a few years back and the end result was yours truly. I’ve been thinking that parts of myself that are different from what I was before are changes Breidablik made to make me more ‘ideal’ as a summoner, so maybe I smell like things other heroes would like.”

“That may be so. As much as I hate to admit it, I do get a vague sense of nostalgia when I’m near you, though if it weren’t for you earning my trust through other ways I wouldn’t have paid it much attention. Are you suggesting that Breidablik is sentient? That it’s able to make conscious decisions?"

“I’m not sure…” Kiran paused, before laughing nervously, “I’m don’t know if I even want to know if it does. I have enough trouble keeping some of the Heroes here under control.”

“I saw was Duma had done earlier, why didn’t you just push him away? He may be large, but he can’t fight back against you.”

“Oh, that’s…” Kiran looked around to see if anybody else was listening, “I’m not supposed to tell people about this, but I was summoned as a non-combatant Hero. I can’t do anything that I perceive as physically fighting for the same reason why Ike can’t deliberately cause harm to Zelgius; it’s forbidden in my contract.”

“Not even in self-defense?”

“I’m not sure, but I’d rather not be put into the situation…”

Kiran thought back to the encounter at the end of the previous summer that involved a ravenous bear and shuddered.

“That’s… a difficult position you’re in. You’re essentially forced to rely on us, but since we don’t bend to your every whim outside of deployment orders, you have no choice to be pushed around.”

“Have you tried… thinking of it as discipline?”

“Oh!” Kiran suddenly stood up, causing Lethe and Sophia to recoil in surprise, “That’s a great idea! I wouldn’t want to hurt anybody anyway, but if I can do something that’d act as a deterrent… or maybe even a punishment… Thanks for the idea, Sophia!”

By the time Sophia and Lethe had the chance to react, Kiran was already out of the library and off to parts unknown.

“Are they going to be alright?”

“Kiran is… strong in ways we are not,” Sophia turned away from the door to face Lethe, “They’ll be fine.”

 

---

 

It took less than ten minutes for Kiran to find the materials that needed to be found and the people they needed to perform the experiment that they wanted to.

The materials amounted to a spray bottle filled with water and the people involved amounted to Azama, Kiran’s longtime confidant.

“Just do something to annoy me.”

“So you can spray me in the face with water?” Azama was incredulous, “I understand why this is something you want to test, and I sympathize with your discomfort, but I don’t see why you need to test this out on me. Go get Sharena to help you with this.”

“I’ve told you this a million times: we can graft skills onto Sharena, Alfonse, and Anna because of a ritual they’ve all undergone, but they’re not Heroes and-”

Kiran’s words came to a halt as the hairs on the back of their neck stood on end, and they noticed Azama rapidly making eye contact and then looking over Kiran’s shoulder, as if to silently say ‘turn around’.

It seemed like someone had approached Kiran from behind, and Kiran didn’t expect it would be difficult to guess who.

“Duma. Is that you?”

“Yes, it is I.”

Kiran turned around to face the divine dragon.

“Summoner, it seems that Sophia was mistaken in the need to deploy me. I will allow this to slide for now, as she has previously bested me in combat, but inform her to be more careful next time.”

“I’ll be sure to do that.”

“Very well. I will be resuming where we left off, then.”

Duma closed his eyes and leaned towards Kiran with a slight smile on his face, and Kiran was going to have none of it.

pschitt

Pulling the spray bottle from the depths of their robes, Kiran was going to have none of this unsolicited sniffing. They aimed directly at Duma’s face and pulled the trigger, letting loose a torrent of water that left Duma’s striking facial features soaked.

“No, you will not.”

Duma frowned

“I-”

pschitt

“This kind of behavior may have been acceptable to your subjects in Rigel, but you are in Askr, and you will behave yourself.”

“I…”

pschitt

“I do not allow just anybody to smell me, much less someone who does not respect the boundaries of others."

“You-”

pschitt

pschitt

“If you want to indulge-” Kiran’s tone nearly reached sultry with that single word, “-you need to give me reason to reward you.”

Duma took a step back and paused before he spoke again. His expression was as stony as ever, but there was a hint of defeat in his eyes.

“Very well. I will try this ‘respect’ you speak of.”

And then he walked away. Not sulked, not swaggered.

He just walked. He carried himself in an unusually mundane manner, and it failed to escape the notice of both Azama and Kiran.

Azama waited for Duma to leave earshot before he turned to Kiran.

“What would ever make you think trying to classically condition a god was a good idea?”

“Dunno.”

“You better pray this doesn’t awaken anything in him, Kiran.”

“I’m not so sure… I think it might be fun.”

Azama let out a sigh of exasperation as he started to massage his temples, trying to get a head start on the stress migraine this was going to give him. He was still -as the summoner had described it- ‘ride or die’ with Kiran, but today was definitely going to be one of those days where ‘ride’ would be looking less and less appealing.

 

---

 

Afterword

Title comes from how formaldehyde and paraformaldehyde are used as fixatives. Fic concept comes from an ask meme thingy on tumblr, where someone assigned you some characters based off of two scents you gave them.