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"The way your mom glares at me every time I show up at your house, you'd think I'm here to desecrate your honor," is what Xie Yun whines at her in greeting, when she opens her bedroom door to let him in.
"We've been dating since freshman year of college, I'm pretty sure she knows there's nothing left to ruin in that department by now."
"A'Fei!"
"What? You're the one who started saying nonsense the second you got here!"
A'Fei goes back to her stretching, moving through the low-impact cooldown yoga poses slowly, making sure every muscle is fully stretched, that there's no leftover strain in her limbs from the workout sessions and the grueling pre game night practice match from earlier in the day.
She breaths deep, in and out, moving into the next pose, while Xie Yun putters about her room, putting down his backpack and plopping himself down on her bed with a grunt.
"Are you ready for the dramatic reveal of what Yan Lirong is hiding from Bai Cheng?
A'Fei huffs out a laugh, fluidly transitioning into the last pose in the set.
"Xie Yun, we both know I don't even remember which show we're watching, let alone who Yan Lirong and Bai Cheng are."
"Every day you hurt me with your lack of appreciation for the finer arts."
She rolls her eyes at him, a smirk tugging at her mouth despite her efforts to curtail it, coming down to the rest position in her stretching, holding it for a few seconds before standing straight with a deep exhale.
Xie Yun is stretched languidly across A'Fei's bed, long ponytail a messy halo around his head, and he grins brightly up at her when she walks towards him.
A'Fei takes the last few steps in a run and jumps onto the bed beside him, the mattress bouncing and creaking a bit with the impact of her added weight, Xie Yun jostled in place by the movement. She wriggles till she's right beside him, propping up her chin on one fist to look down at her boyfriend.
Xie Yun still has a little smudge of shimmery pastel glitter on the corner of one eyelid, probably leftover from the dress rehearsal he was at right before he came over.
The latest play by the local drama troupe that Xie Yun is a part of is about to have its opening day in just a scant couple of weeks. Xie Yun, as both a leading actor and screenplay writer in the play, has been working his butt off trying to get everything together for the big day. And that is on top of juggling his final year courses at Uni, being captain of the cheerleading squad, and the tutoring job he keeps up on the side to earn some extra cash.
He looks exhausted.
"You could've just gone home to sleep, you know?" A'Fei says, moving to run a gentle finger over the puffy bags under his eyes. It's a testament to how incredibly tired he must be that he's not even complaining about his currently less-than-ideal complexion to her. "I know how busy you've been all week."
Xie Yun smiles softly and takes her right hand in his own, intertwining their fingers, turning it to press a sweet kiss to her knuckles.
"Little beauty, no busy schedule is going to keep me from meeting for our pre game night tradition. Especially not right before an intercollege championship finals match."
Tomorrow, A'Fei's college field hockey team will be playing against their biggest rivals. She can already feel the conflicting nerves and ebullient excitement of the night before a big match settling in her stomach, sending her nerves blazing with building energy.
That's how this little tradition of theirs began, after all.
In their very first year of college, when their relationship was still just a couple months old, A'Fei had nearly vibrated off her skin from restlessness the night before a big match, unable to calm her thoughts about the tournament enough to sleep and clear her head, even though she desperately needed it to be at peak performance the next day.
Finally, after a couple of hours of futile attempts at relaxing, she'd texted Xie Yun.
And he'd showed up at her door barely thirty minutes later, coming to visit her with an overnight bag and a brilliant smile.
Thus had formed this tradition of pre game night unwinding, where Xie Yun distracted her from her own buzzing thoughts by occupying all of her attention himself.
He has that special something about him that lets him do that for her. A unique presence that somehow can occupy all her thoughts to the absence of everything else, or else help her find the peace to empty her mind of all distractions so she can laser focus on some other task at hand.
Tonight, it will definitely be the former more than the latter, her thoughts filling with Xie Yun as she sinks into the comfort of his presence, his voice and smiles and soft touches. It relaxes the last of the tension in her muscles, drowns out all the ambient noise in her head.
Xie Yun gives a quick peck to the corner of her mouth, then gets up to start unpacking the contents of his backpack, pulling out a nail polish kit to lay on her table, and then fishing out his pajamas and toiletries to change out of his day clothes. The pajamas are the soft, full body black kitten adult onesie she got him as a gag gift two years ago, that's somehow become an actual favorite for Xie Yun to wear on nights spent together like this.
"Pull up the show on the TV, will you?" Xie Yun calls out, walking towards the bathroom do his night time skincare routine and get changed. "We need to start at episode 46."
"I still don't know the name of the show," A'Fei calls back, but a bit of fumbling on their shared Tencent streaming account helps her figure it out.
'The Spy Concubine', the title reads. A'Fei is dubious as she looks at the unfamiliar looking plot summary and story description. Seriously, she watched 46 episodes of this thing?
Xie Yun comes out then, smelling like his minty moisturizer and looking hilariously adorable in the onesie pajamas, as always. A'Fei smiles, lifting an arm in invitation for a cuddle. Xie Yun joins her with a happy hum.
They watch nearly thirty minutes of the - predictably overdramatic - show in the typical way, A'Fei listening quietly while Xie Yun mutters about various story choices. A'Fei's hand idly strokes through Xie Yun's long hair while he hugs her around the middle, head resting on her chest, his breaths matching the rise and fall of her own chest.
This, more than anything, quietens the clamoring noise in A'Fei's mind, calms and focuses her.
She can take on anything, if only she can always return to have moments like this with him.
Finally, when the episode is done Xie Yun rouses himself a bit.
"I think we should get started on the nails so they have enough time to dry and set before we sleep," Xie Yun says, reaching for the nail polish kit, then settling back facing her.
"What are you going to do today?" A'Fei asks over the closing credits for the episode. Auto-play will start the next episode in a few seconds.
"Holographic nails are still in style," Xie Yun says with all the seriousness of one discussing a life-or-death situation, taking out a file to lightly buff and shape her nails to his satisfaction. "And geometric patterns. So I was thinking, holographic silver-green nails with patterns like hockey pucks in bright gold to match the team uniform. And I'll have the reverse color scheme on my nails to complement you!"
"Sounds good," A'Fei says, which she probably would have said to almost anything he suggested anyway. As long as it won't impede her mobility in the match, like the long fake nails she's seen some people wear for example, she's happy to go with whatever he decides on.
The settle into comfortable camaraderie again, Xie Yun working on her nails, occasionally commenting on something going on in the show. A'Fei settles back into the meditative silence from earlier, contented.
"You know, I just realized," Xie Yun says, countless minutes later, speaking over some old Emperor monologuing on the screen.
"Hmm?"
"You know those medieval Western movies, where the Lady gives her Knight a favor token before he goes to fight in a tournament?" Xie Yun says, a hint of laughter in his voice.
A'Fei blinks at him for a second, then feels her own lips twitch upwards despite herself as she catches on.
"I just think," Xie Yun finishes his thought, dramatically holding up her own hand with its freshly-painted nails to display to her, to make his point. He puts on an affected breathless voice, like a fair maiden waving to her chosen warrior from the stands in one of those movies. "Please wear this humble token of my affection and return victorious back to me, Great Heroine."
"You're utterly ridiculous," A'Fei says, unable to smack his shoulder as she usually would, because her nails are still drying.
"It is but a small thing, but I still hope the tender care and well wishes I wove into its creation will protect you from evil gaze and entice lady luck to smile upon you," Xie Yun continues, getting properly into the role now, looking moony and dreamy-eyed as he clutches her hand to his chest.
"Stop or I really will hit you," A'Fei laughs, not even trying to feign a threatening face.
"No, don't, you'll ruin my masterpiece," Xie Yun says, carefully laying her hand back on her lap, quitting his small charade.
He smiles at her for a second, soft and bright, then gets busy painting his own nails in a matched pattern to hers.
A'Fei watches him work, captivated by the way his large hands are unbelievably precise and graceful as he slowly works on the nail art. She tilts her own hand this way and that, admiring the shimmery holographic effect on her nails in the muted light of the TV.
They really are very pretty.
And she will wear it happily and with pride, this visible ephemeral token of the constancy of support and affection Xie Yun so readily grants her.
Yes, A'Fei will wear it and she will win, because how can she not, when she carries Xie Yun's favor with her?
A lucky token from her own lucky charm.