singlelogbridge | Inbox: Ximilia

[He's not mad about it. His cheeks flush red at the slip-up (and there's a lot to say about Gwen pulling out that side of him) but he grins all the more for it.]

Yes, I am Xianxian! Xianxian is three! [Pause.] What's Elmo?

[ gwen mock frowns. ]

Now, wait. Is Xianxian three or is Xianxian too old to tickle? Because I don’t think you can be both at the same time.

[ as she speaks, the hand in his briefly tightens its hold: crossing into uncomfortable, not enough to be painful. it coincides with her eyes flicking toward something (someone) in the room that only she can see. her legs pull closer into her body. ]

[Wei Wuxian is caught, his eyes growing larger as he realizes she has seen straight through the flaws in his logic. He could try to argue his way out but he'd seen that shift and he squeezes her hand instead, pouting harder.]

...the cut off for tickling is 2 years and 11 months, of course.

Oh, of course. How silly of me. Gwennie would like to say “I’m sorry” to Xianxian.

[ it’s easier to keep the game going. she focuses on his face and his ridiculous pout and pretends like her life and sanity depend on it. (lately she fears they do.) ]

[He doesn't have to force himself to smile to keep up the distraction, the beaming grin he shoots her entirely sincere.]

Gwennie is forgiven because she is Xianxian's best friend. How old is Gwennie? [As he asks, he curls closer to her, turned into her like they're passing secrets between them.]

Gwennie is three and a half.

[ she holds up three fingers. not two. not four. three. ]

The half is important.

[He nods very seriously.]

Then Gwennie is Xianxian's jie. [It only hurts a little and mostly it's a good hurt. Verbalizing what has been true for a while now doesn't change anything that he hasn't already accepted.]

That makes me your didi. And it means...it means we'll always look out for each other. [He pauses, eyes gone soft and shy. It's a lot to ask of her. Presumptuous to claim her as family. But he's dead and it's not like he has anything to lose. Here on the Ximilia and in all of the worlds it takes them too, aren't they all orphans of a sort?]

[ her eyes, blue as a summer sky, do not move away from his hopeful face. her heart feels like it has been caught in a vise, but as is true for wei wuxian, it’s a strangely good ache…more because she too needed the reassurance.

more than once she has had to bite her tongue to stop herself encouraging him to leave. they have a mission, a purpose. he never signed up to play nurse to a girl vividly hallucinating. she hates being a source of worry. (she hates feeling so powerless.)

wei wuxian, though… he makes it easy. they just clicked. like they were always meant to know one another.

gwen reaches for him. ] Yeah. [ her fingers tenderly brush his jaw. ]

It means you can always count on me. No matter what.

Edited 2022-04-16 03:22 (UTC)

[The slight hesitation in his face vanishes and his expression blossoms into unadulterated affection. He squeezes the hand still threaded with his own and curls closer to her.]

You too. You'll never have to face anything alone.

I know. [ he doesn’t need to reassure her. he has proven it with every song he has sung, each time he speaks to her just so she can listen to a different voice, each time he returns with a rare treat or trinket he thought might amuse her. he has been proving it every day that he stays.

she settles her head against his shoulder. her hand drops from his face to his chest. his heart drums a steady beat beneath her fingers.

her voice is quiet, barely more than a whisper, when she says, ] Thank you.

[When he'd first arrived on the Ximilia, the casual touch between men and women he'd encountered had been one of many parts of his culture shock. It wasn't that he didn't understand it (on the hardest nights in the burial mounds, sometimes he would reach for Wen Qing's hands and she wouldn't swat him away) but it took him some time to realize that it was acceptable. Now, he doesn't feel even the slightest hesitation as he lays an arm around Gwen's side, hand resting on her shoulder and casually drifting up and down her arm.

It doesn't feel scandalous. It feels right. It feels warm and important and good.]

Mmm. Go to sleep. I'd braid your hair while you sleep but you'd wake up to a tangled mess.

[ relaxing into the closeness, gwen makes a face. ]

Thanks to you I end up with an undercut.

[ and wei wuxian is not allowed to like her haircut. ]

[He doesn't know what that is but he chuckles anyway, low and quiet in his chest. It isn't long before he too is back asleep.]

Inbox: Ximilia

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