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Hua Cheng was a fox hybrid.
Tricky, seductive, noisy. Those were the stereotypes at least. He really didn’t care what others assumed about him though. What mattered most was this:
Xie Lian was a ferret hybrid.
And fox and ferret hybrids were surprisingly well matched.
Days were meant to be spent tumbling around aimlessly wrestling to let out their extra energy and natural instincts; they had both been born with an urge to play.
They were well matched in strength and it only made their games more fun. One of them only had to pinch or posture and they’d both be running to an open room or clear field to knock each other to the ground. To tackle and roll. To play at dominance like kids, no heat or stakes, just laughter. Just joy.
And Hua Cheng had already loved Xie Lian for so many years, so to get this chance to be his friend, his companion in play… it was really more than his heart could take.
It was during one of Hua Cheng’s visits, the pair of them having finished rolling around together on Xie Lian’s floor, that Xie Lian rested his head on Hua Cheng’s shoulder.
It wasn’t uncommon for Xie Lian to nap after their play, so Hua Cheng simply nuzzled him, happy to let his tail brush against Xie Lian’s. He liked this just as much as their play tussles. This softness. This quiet. This trust.
And then Xie Lian just. Dropped.
It was like all his ability to hold himself up had gone out of him. Even leaning on Hua Cheng, there was something more… lifeless about it than he was used to.
Confused, Hua Cheng pulled back, gently guiding Xie Lian to lay with a nervous pit rolling in his stomach as he noticed how limp Xie Lian was in his grasp.
“Gege?”
Usually Xie Lian was a very light sleeper. Usually he had a little snore.
Right now he looked dead.
Heart in his throat, Hua Cheng put a finger beneath his nose, focusing on the extremely faint exhale he could feel.
Why was it so shallow? Had they played too hard? Xie Lian hadn’t seemed sick but this was… this wasn’t right.
He picked up Xie Lian’s hand, blood running cold as he registered Xie Lian’s body temperature wasn’t nearly high as it usually was, but at least the pulse was still there.
Did he take him to a doctor? Was he napping? Cursed?
“Gege, can you hear me?” He shook Xie Lian gently, still gaining no response.
People used smelling salts to wake others up from fainting right? Could that work?
Hua Cheng turned towards the kitchen, trying to think of something that might wake Xie Lian when he caught sight of the salmon oil that always got added to Xie Lian’s cooking.
Grabbing the bottle, he unscrewed the cap and sat Xie Lian up, waving it beneath his nose and breathing a sigh of relief when the ferret instincts had Xie Lian licking the air to try to taste it, even in his sleep.
Slowly, Xie Lian came to, blinking up at Hua Cheng and then down at the salmon oil.
“Are you alright?”
“Of course, San Lang, why?”
“Gege wasn’t responding.”
Clearly still disoriented and groggy— not a state Hua Cheng was used to seeing Xie Lian in after naps— it took Xie Lian a few moments to process that.
“Was I in dead sleep?” He yawned.
“Dead sleep?”
It seemed to take him a moment to realize Hua Cheng didn’t know about the phenomenon. “It’s not dangerous, it’s just a deep sleep where ferret hybrids sort of become unresponsive. I guess I haven’t done it around San Lang before.” He tried to blink the sleep away.
Eased by the knowledge nothing was wrong, Hua Cheng coaxed Xie Lian to bed to nap properly.
And so he made it through his first experience with dead sleep, vowing to himself he’d become used to it so he didn’t disturb Xie Lian’s rest again.
***
Hua Cheng was much more used to the sight of Xie Lian in dead sleep now that they were a couple.
It didn’t happen every day, and it didn’t even happen every week, but now that Hua Cheng could recognize it, it wasn’t so scary. Actually, it was cute.
Especially when it happened after sex.
Xie Lian didn’t resist being taken care of, not really, but it was clear he wasn’t ever expecting to be and often had the habit of simply doing things himself, forgetting that help even was an option.
So perhaps it was silly, but Hua Cheng’s favorite part of Xie Lian’s dead sleep was pampering him.
Fighting back his own yawn, he wet his towel and got to work, cleaning up not just the lube and cum, but the sweat too. He wanted Xie Lian to feel refreshed when he woke up after all. A halfhearted cleaning wouldn’t do, even if he was stifling back another yawn.
It was a slow process to make sure Xie Lian was clean to Hua Cheng’s satisfaction, but he’d found before that a sudden bath could in fact wake him from dead sleep if the water wasn’t the perfect amount of lukewarm, and he couldn’t risk disturbing his beloved.
Rubbing his eyes, he ran a dry towel over Xie Lian so he wouldn’t get cold, lifting each arm, lifting each leg, and finishing off with a thorough fluffing of his tail.
Hua Cheng felt his own tail swish happily as he picked up Xie Lian, carefully cradling the dead weight in his arms and sat him on the couch, a sheet already laid out to swaddle him up as he arranged Xie Lian just right so his hair tipped over the back of the couch.
Tears pricked Hua Cheng’s eyes as he ignored another yawn. Not yet.
He took his time on Xie Lian’s hair, the same gentleness he’d use if Xie Lian was awake. Slowly working his way up to avoid tugging or creating new knots. Gently smoothing out any damage they’d done.
It felt so soft. He wasn’t sure if it was his own imagination or not, but some days he was sure that it was softer than when they’d first become a couple. Like Hua Cheng’s care for it was actually working. Like the gentleness he used to brush it out or even wash it on days Xie Lian humored him was shining through and making it silkier.
He tweaked Xie Lian’s ears to smooth the fur there too, a bit disappointed they didn’t twitch in dead sleep, but not the least bit surprised.
“Ponytail or braid today, gege?” He asked, though he knew Xie Lian wouldn’t answer.
Running his hands through the locks was intoxicating. Like water flowing through his fingers. So soft. So beloved. It was a decadent gift.
“I think I’ll braid it,” he announced, as if Xie Lian had been waiting on the answer.
He fought off sleep a while more, going to find the hair oil.
He wasn’t really sure what the smell was, something generically floral, it was probably marketed towards women. But he remembered Xie Lian catching a whiff of it in the store and lighting up.
“It smells like cut flowers.” He’d said. Which was so specific and absolutely terrible as a description that Hua Cheng couldn’t help but love him more for it. He loved him more for everything really.
He ran some through his own hair, making sure to get his ears and tails too before getting started on Xie Lian.
Xie Lian liked it lighter on himself. Liked it when he smelled only faintly of the oil, as if he had only gotten it on him from being around Hua Cheng wearing it.
So Hua Cheng let whatever was lingering on his hands be enough as he ran his fingers through Xie Lian’s beautiful black hair. He liked the way his ears faded white, the fur so stark against the backdrop of black, but resisted the urge to touch them again. Xie Lian didn’t like his ears oiled.
He yawned again, tail curling around himself sleepily as he pleated Xie Lian’s hair, refusing to speed up the process even for his own exhaustion.
Still, it was a relief when he finally got to tie off the soft strands.
Because it meant he could move on to his favorite part!
It took hardly any time at all to change the bedsheets and bring Xie Lian back, arranging his limp form and smiling at the way it was almost like handling a cooked noodle.
Luckily he had a lot of practice with this noodle as he grabbed the lotion and got to work.
He liked massaging Xie Lian best when he could actually see Xie Lian’s reactions to it, but he didn’t need to be rewarded with praise and sighs to feel the effort was worth it.
Xie Lian never complained about back pain, but it was fairly clear to Hua Cheng that he had some. And well, that simply wouldn’t do. He couldn’t let his beloved suffer such a fate.
So Hua Cheng worked out the knots he could find, relying on touch and past experience since he couldn’t have Xie Lian tell him where was best.
Like this, he couldn’t focus on his own exhaustion, too wrapped up in the hypnotic pull of caring for his beloved.
It wasn’t enough to just massage his back either. Xie Lian gathered tension everywhere after all. So although the subtle elegance of his back was mouthwatering, Hua Cheng worked down his thighs and down his calves until he got to Xie Lian’s feet and could turn him onto his back again.
When Xie Lian was awake, it was nearly impossible to give him a foot massage. He was too ticklish for it, and the laughing squirming often devolved into the two of them wrestling out the newly awakened energy.
But when Xie Lian was in dead sleep he didn’t even twitch.
So Hua Cheng took his time, digging his knuckles into the soles of Xie Lian’s feet and feeling his heart soar at the knowledge that when his beloved woke up, he would be clean and lighter. Less tension to burden him.
Xie Lian knew he cleaned him up and moved him around during dead sleep of course. There was no point in hiding it from him when he clearly woke up in a different state than he’d fallen asleep in and Hua Cheng had no reason to lie. But he wasn’t sure Xie Lian completely understood the full body worship Hua Cheng was blessed enough to give him during these times.
It was strange to think he’d once panicked at dead sleeps and found them unnerving when he delighted in them so much now. They were little pockets of opportunity for Hua Cheng to give Xie Lian everything he deserved.
And perhaps, selfishly, everything Hua Cheng craved giving him.
So although he could feel himself nodding off again, he massaged Xie Lian’s feet until he was absolutely sure he could do no more and then still found the energy to grab one of Xie Lian’s robes and dress him in at least a single layer before crawling over to his side and curling up, still naked himself and now completely spent.
He barely got the blanket over them both before he fell asleep, warm and cozy by his beloved’s side, safely curled up in the best place in the whole world.
It was what they both deserved.