"A-Yuan! You're making friends!" Wuxian says brightly, nudging his son with his shoulder. Yuan smiles a little sheepishly and ducks his head with a nod.
"Everything is fine, all in hand." he answers Jingyi's question briskly - which is at least mostly true, and that's good enough right? No sense in worrying any of them, least of all Yuan. "Why don't I leave you boys to do whatever mischief I hope you're up to?" he adds, standing up with a grin.
"We can come back if you're busy, Wei-qianbei?" Zizhen adds politely, glancing between the two of them "We didn't mean to intrude."
(Not that he wants to sneak off with Jingyi on his own or anything)
~~~
In Qinghe, Huaisang sits down in his private rooms and stares at the comb in his hands. It's the first time he's really stopped - other than sleeping last night, poorly - since he left Jiang Cheng, the first time he's actually given himself a chance to feel what he's feeling.
The ride back from the fight was too hellishly unpleasant to think about much, and then it was a flurry of activity getting ready to travel back to Qinghe, and then he'd basically just collapsed into bed. This morning, he had been arranging spies - he'd taken most of his spies out of Lanling after Jin Guangyao had been dealt with, leaving only one or two to keep an eye on things. Clearly that hadn't been enough. Orders had been passed on for them to ferret out any remaining plotters who might wish Jin Ling harm, and to ingratiate themselves with the elders in order to prevent anything like this happening in the future.
He wishes he could say it was something nice he was doing for Jin Ling's sake, but in truth this is about protecting something Jiang Cheng cares about and he knows it. Which brings him to the comb.
Did Jiang Cheng even mean to give it to him? He doesn't know, he doesn't think so - or if he did he probably regrets it as much as he clearly regrets them sleeping together (could it still be euphemistically called 'sleeping together' if there wasn't even a bed involved?) Huaisang still isn't going to give it back, though, not unless he's asked for it. The bruises will fade and this will be all he has left of that shining, glorious moment where he had everything he wanted.
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"A-Yuan! You're making friends!" Wuxian says brightly, nudging his son with his shoulder. Yuan smiles a little sheepishly and ducks his head with a nod.
"Everything is fine, all in hand." he answers Jingyi's question briskly - which is at least mostly true, and that's good enough right? No sense in worrying any of them, least of all Yuan. "Why don't I leave you boys to do whatever mischief I hope you're up to?" he adds, standing up with a grin.
"We can come back if you're busy, Wei-qianbei?" Zizhen adds politely, glancing between the two of them "We didn't mean to intrude."
(Not that he wants to sneak off with Jingyi on his own or anything)
~~~
In Qinghe, Huaisang sits down in his private rooms and stares at the comb in his hands. It's the first time he's really stopped - other than sleeping last night, poorly - since he left Jiang Cheng, the first time he's actually given himself a chance to feel what he's feeling.
The ride back from the fight was too hellishly unpleasant to think about much, and then it was a flurry of activity getting ready to travel back to Qinghe, and then he'd basically just collapsed into bed. This morning, he had been arranging spies - he'd taken most of his spies out of Lanling after Jin Guangyao had been dealt with, leaving only one or two to keep an eye on things. Clearly that hadn't been enough. Orders had been passed on for them to ferret out any remaining plotters who might wish Jin Ling harm, and to ingratiate themselves with the elders in order to prevent anything like this happening in the future.
He wishes he could say it was something nice he was doing for Jin Ling's sake, but in truth this is about protecting something Jiang Cheng cares about and he knows it. Which brings him to the comb.
Did Jiang Cheng even mean to give it to him? He doesn't know, he doesn't think so - or if he did he probably regrets it as much as he clearly regrets them sleeping together (could it still be euphemistically called 'sleeping together' if there wasn't even a bed involved?) Huaisang still isn't going to give it back, though, not unless he's asked for it. The bruises will fade and this will be all he has left of that shining, glorious moment where he had everything he wanted.
But it's over now.