Work Text:
Complete darkness, stifling air. Is he deep in a cave or a cramp room?
Shen Qiao looks around only for darkness to continue at an unknown expanse. But somehow, beyond all reason, he is able to see a body in front of him. A man, whose face Shen Qiao recognises after a pause; of course, how can he forget the person?
‘It’s this dream again,’ one close to a nightmare, but no, Shen Qiao won’t ever call it that. These thoughts lay in his subconscious while his body act as though on a script, taking the hand of his shizun.
“A-Qiao,” a call comes, but it doesn’t sound like the ill-stricken voice of Qi Fengge which he expected to hear.
“A-Qiao,” it comes again, this time along with a course of emotions. The sadness travelling through Shen Qiao’s veins conflicted.
He feels a solid shake to his body, “A-Qiao.”
Shen Qiao wakes; he wakes to a face mildly concerned.
‘Why do you look like that?’
He reassures his husband by touching Yan Wushi’s cheek, head resting on his chest.
“You were crying,” Yan Wushi gently thumbs the side of Shen Qiao’s eye, warm tears sliding on his skin.
‘The Huanyue sect’s master, worried for this daoist over a dream,’ a faint smile crosses his face. ‘Were you watching me, so deep in the night?’ he wonders with his eyes closed.
“You gripped my arm. Of course I had to check on my beautiful husband, to make sure he's fine.” Shen Qiao huffs, bearing endearment.
A hand cards through his hair, steadying, much like the warmth seeping from under him.
After a while, Yan Wushi starts humming—a song Shen Qiao notes as the one children sometimes sing in the streets. Yan Wushi seems to fancy it, likely due to its whimsical lyrics.
An upbeat melody now rearranged and slow, sounding like a ballad’s. Shen Qiao never thought such a song could be so soothing.
The hand doesn’t stop, running those comforting motions over and over again.
Shen Qiao’s breathing eases, he caresses Yan Wushi’s neck. Soft lips meet his forehead.
He looks up at Yan Wushi, who gazes back at him. Shen Qiao’s eyes narrow with a smile before he settles his head back on Yan Wushi’s chest. He knows it was only for a moment, but he had expressed his appreciation for his husband.
Yan Wushi understood it.