downswing | inbox | eastbound

You tease to excess.

Edited 2023-03-04 20:50 (UTC)

Out of affection, and, sometimes, hopeful entreaty.

( A pause, then, mildly: ) Are you dissatisfied?

Not when our choice of beds is so poor.

Then? ( No. A shift. ) May I speak freely?

Please.

( He takes his time, weighs each word, lets it slip like sand granules, gravelly. )

I am... tempted. Where Wei Ying is concerned. To... resolve... his difficulties. See his wishes answered, needs met.

Do not position me where I cannot do so. ( Teasing, taunting, knowing full well there can be no recourse, for want of time, of means. ) It distresses.

( granted, this whole conversation was one meant to really just let lan zhan know what was done, so he was abreast of developments as much as wei wuxian was in the aftermath of delivering.

so he listens, as his husband has in small steps become a man who tries, to whatever degrees, to create understandings. to bridge between them in words. to frame those words in ways that can help bring context and clarity to what is, after all, decades of mourning and more recent years of conflicted, complicated living on the move. )

Mm, I don't intend to distress you, Lan Zhan. You don't need to resolve my difficulties, ah? For me, knowing you want to, that I can rely on you wishing to try, and doing what you can? That means more than I know how to say.

I would like us to have the time we haven't for the time most couples have following a wedding feast. For ourselves, can we look forward to that? After we're gone from this place, this Alem.