Work Text:
“My stomach hurts!” Qingning whined for maybe the fifth time in the last half hour.
Lao Jun continued to rub her back, occasionally brushing stands of hair over her shoulders to minimize the risk of snagging it.
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry,” He mumbles, his tone heavy with care. He hardly hadt he energy to enunciate his words properly. It was so, so late. The only reason he was up was because her stomach hurt. She hated to suffer alone, and he hated to let her suffer alone.
Xuan Li was awake with them for a while, but he eventuallly fell asleep and was snoring in a corner.
The ball she was curled in got tighter, a pained whimper sadly eliciting.
Lao Jun hates that he couldn't help. He could numb the pain, very easily actually--- but that’s like creating a dam in the middle of a powerful river. Once the dam is gone, the river— her pain— will continue it’s flow with more power.
“ ‘M dying.”
“You have a stomach ache, you’re not dying.”
”Liar.”
Even depsite her tone, as little and whispery and frustrated as it was, she moved closer to him. Even uncurling herself to hug his waist and hide her face in his stomach.
Lao Jun, fighting every instinct his body had evolved, does not coo.
He does give a sympathetic hum, with an equally sympathetic, sad look in his eyes. He pets her hair, ignoring the way her fists grip his robes in such a way it definetly stretches the fabric.
He’s drifting in and out of conciousnes , swaying and jerking his eyes open.
The third time he flinches awake, Li Qing’s hold on him is much more relaxed. He leans back just enough to see her face, calmed to see it no longer with a grimace.
He carries her to her mat, almost tripping — he’s pretty sure he fell asleep while standing up at least once— and pulls up her quilt. He’s learned she writhes and squirms all uncomfortable-like when tucked in, so he doesn’t.
He doesn't go to his own mat; he falls asleep with his arms cross under his head and most of his upper body slumped over QingNing's mat. When she wakes up just enough to kick him away, it's hours later and the sun is gleaming through the windows with it's morning hues.