Hua Cheng watched his children cuddle up to their still unconscious daddy, both of them bawling their eyes out. It would be a normal enough reaction, especially after the bullshit both of them had to experience during the past few weeks, but Hua Cheng couldn't help but notice some rather strange mannerism that hadn't been there before.
Like the fact that, even though they were in bed, safely cuddled up to their parent, both of his kids still had a tenseness in their backs that made it obvious they didn't feel entirely safe. Before Hua Chang had left for Guishi, both Ruoye and E'ming had been very much like cats whenever they cuddled up to one of them; basically liquid bones and impossibly sticky. While they were still rather sticky now, none of them was able to really sit still; they were constantly changing their positions.
At first Hua Cheng had thought it was because they couldn't find a comfortable one with his gege being unable to assist them, unconscious as he was, but he quickly realised that whenever Ruoye readjusted her position, she did so in a way that allowed her to see whatever she had her back to previously. Hua Cheng didn't think it was a conscious act on her behalf, since she did seem to be rather preoccupied trying to cuddle up as close to her daddy as she possibly could, but the fact that she wanted to be conscious of all of her surroundings as if she expected danger from every direction at any given moment was certainly concerning.
E'ming behaved just as strangely, though he didn't go so far as to move his whole body around; he simply couldn't look into one direction for long. He'd cuddled up to his daddy with his right cheek squished against Xie Lian's shoulder, before he turned his head into the other direction, pressing his left cheek against it instead. Until he realised he couldn't see his daddy's face like that, and turned his head back, though not without glancing around the room first.
This behaviour was much too disturbing for Hua Cheng to witness, so he sat down on the edge of the bed, deciding he needed to have a serious talk with his kids. He understood that getting kidnapped in E'ming's case, and seeing a monster sending her daddy flying in Ruoye's case were traumatising events, but it had been several weeks since these things had happened and he trusted YanLi to have done all she could to alleviate their fears. They really shouldn't be this skittish anymore at this point.
"Ruoye", Hua Cheng said quietly, once their crying had died down.
She looked at him, but didn't budge from her position on Xie Lian's lap.
"Father? Will daddy wake up?", she asked in a quivering voice.
"He will. It's just going to take a while. Right now he needs to rest and get his strength back before he wakes up", he tried to reassure her.
Hearing this, Ruoye hesitantly left her spot on her daddy, and came crawling over to Hua Cheng, until she was sitting on his lap.
"Father, I need to tell you something", she whispered, looking extremely worried and scared.
"What is it?", Hua Cheng whispered back.
"When you found us in the forest-... you were too far away but there was this- this thing. It was huge and ugly- and it was really fast and strong and YanLi-jiejie said it probably wouldn't show up again but it was hunting daddy and- and-", she whispered, probably in an attempt not to scare E'ming, but Hua Cheng could tell she had trouble keeping her voice steady. So he interrupted her.
"Ruoye, that thing won't be coming back. You were distracted by my little butterfly friend at the time, but that ugly thing died before we even left there", he lied, though the thing truly was dead the moment Hua Cheng had seen it attack his gege. He was just twisting his words a bit.
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The King's Mate - Part 2: Yaoshi
Fanfic--- Arc 2/3 --- Hua Cheng had just left Guishi behind and was on the journey back home to his palace in Banyue. He'd already been excited to finally see his gege and their two children again, after having been separated for a few weeks because of hi...
