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“This is cruel…”
“He’s just a baby…”
“He is five years old. He has to learn.” Yingxing’s harsh tone lingered in the darkness of their shared bedroom. The other two had protested his methods but there was no other solution for the situation at hand.
“He has to learn how to sleep on his own again. He doesn’t tell us what’s wrong so we can’t solve it and he can’t keep sneaking into our bed. We have simply coddled him too much. Besides, it’s not like he’s there alone. Mimi is with him every night and she has soothed his nightmares for years.” Yingxing has purposefully taken the outside spot of the bed to ensure neither of his husbands would fall weak and let their son into their room again.
Yanqing slept on his own for years, and while they occasionally let him sleep with them, they also prioritized his independence. Around a week ago, Yanqing started begging to stay with them at night. They had let it go the first couple of times as just children being children or that he had woken up and was unable to fall asleep again. Yanqing never spoke of any nightmares or things that could possibly cause him to wake up so they never suspected anything of the sort. While Yingxing did feel very bad about potentially turning his son away, there truly was no other solution and having a child in their bed was messing with everyone’s sleep schedules.
“Besides, I’m not just going to lock him out. He’ll probably go to bed if no one responds anyways. If not, we’ll just tuck him in again.” Yingxing hoped it would soothe his husbands’ worries. Jing Yuan always found it hard to turn away their child, especially when he begged so pitifully to stay with them. Dan Feng was worse, he didn't even wait for Yanqing to beg; one look was enough for the high elder to pick him and curl his tail around him the entire night.
“I know. It’s just, he doesn’t tell us what’s wrong. I know kids sometimes don’t remember their nightmares, but still…” Dan Fen hugged his tail to his chest. Obviously both distressed and sleep deprived from Yanqing kicking him in his sleep last night.
“You’re going to have to answer the door though. I don’t think I can turn him away.” Jing Yuan mumbled, his head resting against Dan Feng’s back.
“Trust me. I know. You can barely muster up the ability to discipline him half the time. Why do you think you're on the inside?”
Yingxing was starting to fall asleep when he heard the pitter-patter of feet against the hallway rugs.
“Speak of the abomination” That comment earned Yingxing a slap to the head from Dan Feng’s tail.
The handle jiggled back and forth, each time more violent than the last. “A-die? Ba? Baba?”
Yingxing sees from the corner of his eye his husband moving to sit up. He quickly pressed his hand against the vidyadhara’s back and gently pushed him down. “He has to learn.” The comment was met with sad teal colored eyes. “We aren’t doing this to be cruel. He has to learn how to either be independent or communicate his issues with us.”
“A-die? Ba? Baba?”
“Trust me. It hurts my heart just as much to do this to him.” Yingxing laid down, his back towards the door.
A gentle growl was heard. “Oh, hi Mimi,”Yanqing whispered loudly. “I think they’re sleeping.”
Mimi replied with a soft growl before settling down and laying against the door quite loudly. “You’re right, Mimi. We’ll sleep here too. That way A-die and Ba and Baba will be here too.”
They could see Yanqing laying down on Mimi from the light underneath the door. After a couple moments of them shifting back and forth, Yanqing seemed to have found a comfortable spot on the white lion and seemed to be dozing off.
Yingxing didn’t know whether to laugh or be angry. The whole purpose was for Yanqing to learn to go back to his room and sleep, not invite Mimi with him and sleep outside the door. Besides, the hallways were cold and the rug was dirty, who knows what germs people dragged in from their shoes. Yanqing was going to catch a cold or something worse.
“What’s the plan now?” Jing Yuan sounded deeply amused. If Yingxing wasn’t struggling to process his current plan falling apart, he surely would’ve whipped around and told his husband off. The general was the youngest of the three and easily the snarkiest, during their days on the battlefield they bickered like cats and dogs.
“We could wait.”
“But the ground is dirty and it’s not good for him to sleep in the hallway.” Dan Feng sat up; his eyes, horns, and tails now glowing. From the dim lights, the high elder looked just as confused as he did, obviously not expecting this result at all.
“Also, the servants could see him. The rumor mill would have a field day with this.” Yingxing was starting to suspect Jing Yuan saw this coming. He wasn’t called the Divine Foresight for nothing.
Before Yingxing could retort, they heard a soft whimpering, almost like Yanqing was crying. Whatever was left of Yingxing’s resolve crumbled like a defeated Illumination Dragonfish. Even he was a doting parent at heart and the sound of his child in distress was enough for him to forget everything he intended to teach. He made his way quickly to the door and yanked it open, his eyes squinting at the bright lights in the hallway spilled into the room.
“Baba?” Yanqing asked, trying to decide if the person in front of him was really his Baba and not a blurred vision from his tears. The tears quickly dried up as Yingxing picked him up and held him against his chest, his chin resting upon his son’s head. “Baba’s here. He’s so sorry he left you out here for so long. Were you scared?”
Yanqing shook his head. “No. Yanqing was just lonely.” His little fists clung so closely to his father’s sleeping robes.
Yingxing’s heart ached deeply as he pulled his child as close to him as he could. Mimi, on the other hand, looked unamused at the sight, instead squeezing past him, carrying Yanqing’s plushies in her mouth. She plopped the toys on the bed before settling in a corner of the room. Mimi always slept where Yanqing slept and it seemed that Yanqing would be sleeping here after all.
Setting Yanqing on the bed, the other two quickly pulled him into a hug. “We’re sorry we left you out for so long. Are you cold?” Jing Yuan said as he pulled the thick blanket over Yanqing. The child wiggled under the blanket, trying his best to warm his cold hands and feet, as Dan Feng started to gently stroke his head.
“Yanqing,” Yingxing said. “I understand I’ve asked before but why do you keep coming here? I know you can sleep on your own.”
Yanqing paused for a moment before pulling his plush lion to his chest. “I ash-a wa shream.”
“What?”
“I had a bad dream.” The child hugged the toy harder, hoping to hide behind it.
“Oh baby, why didn’t you tell us before? We could’ve helped.” Jing Yuan said as he rearranged the haphazardly thrown plushies.
“Yeah, why didn’t you tell us?” Dan Feng inquired.
“Because if I tell you, it will be true.” Yanqing fidgeted with the lion's paws. “At school, Daiyu said if you have a bad dream and tell your family it will come true. Daiyu had a dream that her parents would go away and now they’re getting a divorce.”
“Hmph-“ Yingxing quickly slapped his hand over his mouth so he wouldn’t laugh at his son’s most pressing worry. Leave it to children to be so silly yet blunt at the same time, he was familiar with Daiyu’s family from parent gatherings and he is pretty sure the divorce had more to do with Daiyu’s father’s gambling problem than a simple night terror. The other two seemed to share the same sentiment as well. His Dan Feng’s face merely looked pinched, a testament to centuries of etiquette training. Unfortunately, his beloved Jing Yuan had to shove his face into a pillow to muffle what Yingxing can only assume are tears of laughter.
“That’s not true at all. It is simply a coincidence.” Dan Feng soothed the child’s anxiety. “Now, why don’t you tell us what you dreamed?”
“You promise it’s not true.” Yanqing stared at him wide-eyed.
“I promise that it is not true.” Dan Feng smiled, amused that only a simple promise was needed before his child settled down. If only the Preceptors could be calmed in such a way.
“I dreamt you and Baba were really angry at each other and then you got angry at me. Baba attacked me with a sword and you threw a dragon at me and hurt me. And then when A-die came, he didn’t help me at all.” Yanqing recounted as tears threatened to spill again. “I don’t want you to be angry at me.”
Yingxing couldn’t help but be stunned. Attack Yanqing? He couldn’t yell at him, how could he bear to attack his child. Dan Feng doesn’t even have the heart to spar against Yanqing, the idea that he would launch a full on attack at the boy was impossible for him. A single scratch on Yanqing is enough to make the Vidyadhara abandon his meetings to heal the boy. As for Jing Yuan, even after minor training sessions, Jing Yuan is there with bandages and ointments. He knew it physically pained Jing Yuan to know that Yanqing was injured in his presence.
“None of us could ever be angry at you. We would never do anything like that to you.” Yingxing consoled the poor boy, gently placing a hand on top of Yanqing.
“Promise?” Yanqing looked around. Awaiting the responses of all three of them before he could settle down.
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
“Promise. Now, go to sleep, little bird.”
Yanqing smiled before wiggling into a conformable position. His plushies held tight to his chest as his Baba laid his arm on top of him. Yingxing supposed one night will be okay, tomorrow, they can talk about Yanqing sleeping on his own again.