Work Text:
Xie Lian excitedly pushes open the door to Puqi Shrine, hardly able to wait to show off to his precious husband how good of a scrap haul he had come across today. He’d actually been having some really good luck with his finds lately — which is still a very foreign concept to him, as he was devoid of it for 800 years. Of course he would be ever so thrilled to share this with the person he always looked forward to seeing at the end of the day, the one he knew would always be there, waiting for him on the other side of whatever door he opened.
“San Lang!” He greets as he enters, not even looking for Hua Cheng because he doesn’t need to — he’s already right there, receiving Xie Lian with a warm embrace and gentle kiss to the lips.
Hua Cheng keeps his hands on Xie Lian’s waist and glances at the bag which is already overflowing onto the floor. “Gege, I missed you this morning. I see you have quite a lot you’ve picked up today?”
Adjusting his position so that he can place down the scraps while staying within his husband’s hold, Xie Lian places his own hands on Hua Cheng’s shoulders. “I did! I haven’t found this much in so long!”
Xie Lian is met with an exquisite grin from his husband and he wants to melt right into his arms. However, he’s not sure what he did to earn such an earnest look from him. Was he blushing? He always did whenever Hua Cheng looked at him so intensely, but he really doesn’t think he’s as red as usual right now.
“San Lang? Is there something on my face?”
His husband chuckles. “No, nothing like that. It’s very endearing to see my Gege so excited about his scrap collecting.”
Okay, now he is definitely as red as his husband’s robes. Xie Lian tries to squirm out of his husband’s grasp in embarrassment, but Hua Cheng will have none of it and pulls him tightly back against his chest.
“San Lang, you speak so much nonsense sometimes…..” is all Xie Lian has the willpower to respond with at this moment, and Hua Cheng makes what little of that willpower remains completely dissipate as he spins him around and rests his chin on Xie Lian’s shoulder.
“I only speak the truth,” his husband teases, and Xie Lian could not hide his face if he tried, Hua Cheng's embrace leaving absolutely no room for him to attempt an escape.
Hua Cheng never lets go of Xie Lian as he lowers them both to the floor, Xie Lian ending up right on his husband’s lap. Next to them is Xie Lian’s haul from the day, and he had almost forgot that he wanted to show quite a few things he had collected to him!
Even after being married for so long, Xie Lian still gets too flustered at his husband’s antics each day. Which, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to Hua Cheng’s sheer and eternal love for him— the fact that the one he, too, loves the most, feels the exact same way? Xie Lian heart feels as though it wants to burst when he thinks about it too much.
“I almost forgot, San Lang! I wanted to show you what I got today. There’s so much,” Xie Lian exclaims. “Can I start? Do you mind if we keep sitting like this?”
“Of course I’d love to see and hear all about them,” Hua Cheng’s eye sparkles with genuine interest, Xie Lian wants to cry at just how earnest his husband is. “And no, I never mind having Gege in my lap. Please, begin.”
Xie Lian blushes again because he cannot help it whenever his husband is just too much for his heart. He doesn’t dwell on that too long, though, because he truly is excited to get started sharing with his husband the amazing things he found today!
“Okay! First of all, look at this ink bottle. It’s a bit broken, but I think we can fix it and use it to replace the last one you somehow made disappear…….” Xie Lian starts, pulling out the first item from the bag.
As Xie Lian shows off each item to his husband, he explains exactly what it is, what they could use it for, where he found it, and the like. Every single object has a meaning behind it to Xie Lian, and Hua Cheng listens, ensuring he does not miss a single detail. His husband asks short questions, clarifications, but only a few times; never interrupting his thought process too much. Throughout it all, his husband always responds with gentle affirmations, simple hums here and there as if to encourage him.
Xie Lian talks as Hua Cheng runs his fingers through his hair. He talks as his husband undoes the bun atop his head and lets the strands fall loose; he keeps talking and Hua Cheng continuously kisses the top of his head and he is always hanging off of each and every word.
Hua Cheng lets him just talk, for hours and hours (which, Xie Lian does not know how long it’s been, and Hua Cheng does not dare disturb him, because the look on his beloved’s face, the way his eyes light up with each trinket and the way he is so passionate about mere scraps just makes Hua Cheng so happy to see his beloved having fun, that he wants Xie Lian to keep talking forever.)
“Oh, and finally! Look at this, San Lang,” Xie Lian’s enthusiasm has not died once the entire time he has been speaking. “It’s a sword! Well, part of one, but I think I found all of the pieces, so we can add it to the armoury….”
Moving to grab the other part of the broken sword he’s most excited about that lies at the bottom of his bag, Xie Lian’s eyes catch on the window. He almost misses it but notices at the last second — it’s dark outside.
When he first returned, it was mid-afternoon, the sun high and blazing. Now, the sky was completely dark with only the faint reflection of moonlight to illuminate the night.
“Ah! San Lang, why didn’t you tell me I was talking until nighttime!!!” He feels so embarrassed! How rude of him - especially to his husband! “I must apologize, I didn’t realize….”
Hua Cheng meets his gaze with a soft smile, and lifts a gentle finger to prop Xie Lian's chin upwards. “Why would you apologize for merely talking about things that clearly make you happy, Gege? Your words are enthralling. Of course I would not want to interrupt you.”
Xie Lian frowns. “That doesn’t make it better! I was so disrespectful, not letting you talk……”
“Gege,” his husband says, voice firm yet kind. “If I wanted to talk, I would have said something.”
Hua Cheng moves his hands from playing with Xie Lian’s hair down to his waist and turns him around so that they are facing each other. Xie Lian readjusts, still in his husband’s lap, but moves his legs so that they are wrapped around Hua Cheng’s waist.
“If I said something while you were talking, you would have paused and let me, yes?” Hua Cheng asks.
Xie Lian is slightly confused by the question. “Of course I would, San Lang! I always want to hear what you have to say.”
His husband shakes his head fondly. “….And do you not think I would also always want to hear all that you have to say?”
Xie Lian is about to speak and then pauses. His husband does, indeed, have a point.
As if reading his mind, Hua Cheng rests a hand upon Xie Lian’s cheek. “Your Highness, please never apologize to me, or feel bad, for simply talking. Especially about what you enjoy. I want to hear every single word, every single feeling, that comes across your mind.”
Xie Lian leans into his husband’s touch and returns it, delicately placing his hand atop Hua Cheng’s and interlacing their fingers together. He cannot think of a response, because he is overwhelmed by just how much that statement means to him, especially coming from his husband.
He can only show how much those words truly mean by bringing their lips together in a kiss so full of love and passion and understanding. Hua Cheng eagerly returns the kiss, and Xie Lian pulls Hua Cheng as close as he can get him, letting their bodies become one with the other — at this point, they practically are, because they definitely spend more time together than apart.
“I love listening to you talk, Gege,” Hua Cheng says, parting their lips (to Xie Lian’s chagrin). He makes it up to him by resting his forehead against Xie Lian’s, and Xie Lian is content once again. “Never be ashamed sharing your thoughts. Promise me?”
“Okay, Sang Lang. I promise,” Xie Lian assures. “However! I want you to promise me the same thing. If you ever want to talk just as much, you do it, okay! I want to hear everything that you think and feel, too.”
Hua Cheng laughs and Xie Lian can feel the vibrations as he is still pressed close to his husband’s chest — so full of warmth and comfort and Xie Lian never wants to leave.
“Of course, Your Highness. I will do just the same,” his husband promises, and Xie Lian responds by bringing his head down to rest on Hua Cheng’s shoulder.
Xie Lian enjoys relaxing against his husband as he rubs circles on his back for a moment, before Hua Cheng speaks again.
“Gege,” his husband says, “I don’t think you were finished telling me about the sword?”
“Oh! You’re right!” Xie Lian sits up, and pauses only for an instant before remembering his husband’s words from mere seconds ago. Reinvigorated, he continues exactly where he left off.
For 800 years and then some, he had gotten used to people brushing off his words as if they meant nothing. At a certain point he had just started keeping everything in — the bad, the good, anything that he thought at all, because he assumed that no one cared, and his words were meaningless. Other’s reactions – in the mortal realm, and even in Heaven, certainly give him any reason to doubt those feelings, either.
Now, though, as Xie Lian tells Hua Cheng about something that seems meaningless to those on the outside — he knows that to the one whose embrace he is currently wrapped in, they are anything but. Xie Lian’s words mean something, to someone — the someone who had stayed by his side when no one else had; the someone who had loved him for those 800 years — the someone who he loves with his entire being.
If his talking makes Hua Cheng happy, then Xie Lian will gladly continue for another 800 years. He will let his husband listen; and he knows, for a fact, that Hua Cheng will.
So, Xie Lian keeps talking, deep into the night, and Hua Cheng listens, never stops listening with a beautiful and gentle smile. He keeps going until his speech is interrupted by a yawn, and even then, Hua Cheng never tells him to stop.
Finally, his last sentence breaks off into an incoherent mumble, and he falls asleep in his husband’s arms.
Hua Cheng’s face softens at the sleeping form of his beloved husband; exhausted from a full day of enthusiastic babbling (very adorable babbling, and Hua Cheng will admit that to no one except his beloved himself.)
Leaving a gentle kiss on his husband’s forehead, he settles Xie Lian into bed. Hua Cheng smiles fondly as he slips under the covers and pulls his husband flush against him. As he watches his husband’s gentle features as he rests, the devotion and adoration he has for his beloved, his God, his husband overwhelms him.
He thinks of how he looks forward to another day of listening and watching his beloved simply exist, enthralled and excited about each and every small thing — and just how lucky he is to be the one who gets to be on the receiving end of every single word.
Because now, Xie Lian has someone who will listen to him talk, and Hua Cheng will forever and eternally be that someone.