When Rose's Thorns Attack my Sides (But my Eyes Stay Trained on You) (Xingyun)

Ch. 24

Chongyun never stopped thinking about that day in the music room, and especially not as Xingqiu's birthday neared.

It was late September now, and Chongyun continued to wonder why Xingqiu had never mentioned that day since.

Was he embarrassed? Did he not hear him properly? Chongyun remembered it vividly since he didn't black out, just became more truthful. When he had next seen him Chongyun was incredibly embarrassed (much to Xingqiu's amusement) but regardless, it still never came up.

One night when Xingqiu invites him down to the harbor to watch fireworks, he decides to try something out to see if he'd say anything.

He waits by the edge of the harbor while the Traveller and their pyro friend start setting up fireworks (he wasn't sure who she was, but he heard she was from Inazuma and was visiting Liyue for fun), and when he notices Xingqiu heading over, he starts humming the all too familiar tune.

"Are you humming that song of yours again?" Xingqiu asks, taking a seat next to him.

"Yeah. The song." He says, giving him a knowing look.

"What's that look for? I recognize it, don't worry." He gives him a smile.

"Does he really not remember?" He thinks. There was no way he didn't!

He doesn't get time to argue about it any further though, because suddenly the sound of a firework being shot in the air distracts them as it explodes into a big shower of red sparkles.

"It's starting!" Xingqiu whispers, leaning in close to him as he watches the sky.

They watch the firework show quietly and point out the different shapes while they explode into lights, sitting close and looking on in awe.

"That one looks like Guoba, doesn't it?" Chongyun nudges him.

"It does! And that one looks like a-!"

A big pink heart explodes in the sky and his easy smile drops, quickly replaced by a rosy blush.

"-A heart?" Chongyun finishes for him.

"Yeah. It's pretty neat, isn't it?" He asks awkwardly.

"Mmhmm. I think it's pretty neat too." Chongyun turns to look at him.

The lights continue to flash in the sky and illuminate their faces, but their eyes stay trained on one another's.

They slowly start to move closer together again, and the same as before, they split up immediately after brushing lips.

Only this time, they didn't pull apart as gracefully.

Xingqiu falls off the edge of the warf and slams into the ocean with a splash, bubbles floating up to the surface while Chongyun frantically leans down to look for him.

Before long, he resurfaces, coughing and sputtering while wiping the salty water from his eyes.

"Here, grab my hand!" Chongyun says, holding onto a post and holding his arm out to him.

Xingqiu quickly takes it and tries to pull himself up, but his hand is so slippery that he ends up slipping out of his grasp and falling back into the water, accidentally sending Chongyun in after him.

They both fall into the water and Chongyun quickly grabs him by his shirt, trying to make sure he doesn't fall too far away. They swim back up to the surface and try to push the saltwater out of their face, the freezing water making their clothes cling to their bodies.

"Are you okay?" Chongyun asks him, pushing Xingqiu's wet bangs out of his eyes.

"Yeah, I should be oka-" he stops and frantically feels for something on his clothes before he looks up at him in shock. "My tassel is gone."

"Your tassel? Where is it?" Chongyun asks.

"I don't know, it must've fell off when I fell in the water!"

They both look down into the dark abyss below them, and only when another firework goes off do they see a small orange tassel falling deeper and deeper into the ocean.

"There it is." Xingqiu says dismally.

By the time Chongyun looks down though, it's so far down that both of them doubt they'd be able to reach it.

"My tassel..." Xingqiu says, his voice breaking while Chongyun pulls him towards the boardwalk again.

By the time they're both back up on land again, they're soaked, unhappy, and embarrassed.

"I'm sorry Xingqiu. Are you okay?" Chongyun asks lightly.

"No. My tassel - your tassel that you gave me - it's gone!" Xingqiu says, burying his face in his hands.

Chongyun pats him on the back, trying to calm him down. "It's okay, really Qiu! I'll make you another one."

"It's not about having another one. That one is special to me because you made it, and there's a story behind it, and-" he sniffles and tries to keep quiet so passerby don't notice him. "-and I don't want to fall asleep without it!"

Chongyun looks at him quietly, glancing out at the dark water and internally cursing it for taking something so precious away from Xingqiu.

"You aren't going to fall asleep."

"How do you know that?"

"I don't. But I'm going to do everything I can to prevent it."

Xingqiu looks up out at the water with teary eyes and leans a head on Chongyun's shoulder. "This whole 'true love' thing is a disaster. Because of it, I've lost my tassel, and I keep making things awkward between us."

"What's awkward?" Chongyun asks before retracting his sentence when Xingqiu gives him a 'seriously'? Look.

"We've kissed. Twice."

"I mean...it kinda wasn't technically a kiss? Since we barely stayed together?"

Xingqiu lowers his eyelids and sighs, leaning more against him to try to get warm.

Chongyun sits up and pulls Xingqiu to his feet, starting them on their way back home to warm up. "I don't know how much this helps, but I don't think it's ever awkward to kiss you. It's good. No wait, that's not right to describe a kiss, is it...? Ugh, I just mean it isn't bad or anything!"

Xingqiu has to stifle a smile because how could he stay upset for long when Chongyun was being Chongyun? He knew what he was trying to say, and he accepted his attempt at trying to make things better, even if the looming thought of leaving his tassel behind in the pit of the ocean made him want to do anything but move further and further away.

**********************************************

Written: June 16th, 2023

Finished/Published: August 1st

(Word Count: 1,058)