The King's Mate - Part 1: Banyue

Chapter 23

Annnd once again the chapter has to be up a day early lol
According to the poll on twitter, everyone has to get used to that for now xD
But because things are happening at work these days it's a bit difficult to stick to my normal schedule so I guess it just can't be helped... I hope nobody minds too much ^-^;;

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

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Xie Lian hated having to say goodbye to Hua Cheng. Of course he was well aware that it would only be a temporary separation, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt any less.

Hua Cheng hadn't even been gone for a whole week yet, and Xie Lian was already missing his alpha like crazy. In fact, he'd taken to sleeping in their nest in the mating room. Though of course he'd taken the blankets and pillows from their usual bed with him. It had seemed like the rational thing to do when he was missing Hua Cheng so much, but Xie Lian had felt rather embarrassed about his actions when he woke up in the nest the following day. So he'd decided to consult Shi QingXuan.

In fact, he was in the doctor's office already. He just needed to wait for his friend to finish up on his other patients first.

Xie Lian was pretty sure he'd been influenced by that medicine to behave in such an undignified way, but he also wanted to know whether this was normal behaviour for omegas, or if he should be worried. Well, if he was honest, he was worried either way, because he wasn't used to feeling like... this.

It was true that while Xie Lian had been on his mission to Xian Le, he'd missed Hua Cheng, and he'd felt rather homesick, too. But he hadn't felt this-... this miserable .

Luckily, Shi QingXuan managed to make time for him soon enough, and came barging into the room with a big smile on his face.

"Xie Lian! Long time no see! How are you doing?"

"QingXuan... we've only seen each other two days ago", Xie Lian sighed in amusement.

"Semantics", his friend replied with a wave of his hand, before he sat down. "So. What brings you here? Don't tell me you're out of medicine again. It's not something you should overdose on, you know."

Xie Lian sighed.

"I know that. I'm actually here because, well... I feel like I've been behaving strangely since San Lang left. So I wanted to ask you if it's because of side effects from that medicine or ... something else", Xie Lian explained.

"I see. Well, what are your symptoms?"

"Well, I-... Last night I couldn't sleep because I was missing San Lang so much, and I-... I actually ended up sleeping in our nest. I don't know why it made sense to me last night, but now I feel like that's just... very weird. And much too dramatic."

"Xie Lian, is that by any chance your first nest?", Shi QingXuan asked with a smile.

The question caused him to blush quite a bit, because it was such a personal thing to talk about.

"It is...", he admitted quietly.

"Have you ever been in another omega's nest?", Shi QingXuan asked clinically.

"No", Xie Lian replied with a frown. Why would he-?!

Shi QingXuan laughed at the expression Xie Lian must have made at the thought of entering another omega's nest.

"See? Nests are very, very private things to us omegas. I'm actually amazed nobody has ever taught you about them", Shi QingXuan said, and looked about as stunned as he sounded.