𝖘.𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐲 ― ( honkai star rail collection )

iv. DUE RESPITE ( jing yuan ).

i. SYNOPSIS : he demands his affection. it's long overdue, in his opinion. ( jing yuan x reader ) // evenfall event - prompt xi ( ❛ honey, just put your sweet lips on my lips.❜ ) + daisy.

ii. WARNING(S) : mild mentions of blood and one fucked up appendix, this is lowkey selfship coded, reader is a doctor and is lowkey tired too, jing yuan is just a wee bit touchy, a tiiiny hint of angst. very small but i swear but it's all fluff and sweet talking.

"Come here."

He smiles in indulgence, fingers pattering playfully over hardwood. You consider his request, sugar melting over your tongue with the passing moment. You reach out for more candy as the twisting in your gut persists. A wingbeat draws your attention again. Jing Yuan is still staring straight at you.

"Why?" you ask carefully.

"Let me kiss you." Blunt, to the point, so unlike the lilting riddles he'd spin and confuse you with. You shake your head.

"I smell of blood." you'd overseen the surgery of one insistent patient, a short lifer whose stomach cramps stemmed from an inflamed appendix. Even after washing yourself down you can't quite rid the tang iron rimming your fingertips.

Jing Yuan laughs. To him, everything may as well be a joke. Or a threat. Or a simple amusement. You consider it the happy experience of going senile with age ( you had expressed it to him. He'd laughed even harder till the birds in his hair clear out and his shoulders shook and trembled like his being was wracked with earthquakes ).

"Trust me, I've smelled far worse." he assures you, leaning forth to take your hand, his lips pressing up against the palm. "Come." A tug. You're a slave to the way his eyes shine. You hate how he has you so easily stringed up and weak for his words ( your heart is racing, it's a traitorous little thing ripping away at your chest and stealing your breath and warming your cheeks ).

His large hands settle you easily on his lap, drumming staccato over your hips. His lips find your temple next. "Darling mine." he whispers. "Darling mine."

"Yes."

Jing Yuan smiles and shuts his eyes, curling his grip around the hook of your legs. The action in firm, steady, half patient, half wanting. "Look at me."

You turn your head away.

He presses his face to your hair. "No?" he intones with feigned disappointment. "I cannot see your face?"

"No." you play along, reaching for more of the rock candy. Jing Yuan stops you, and it's warm, warm, warm all over. There's is something tempered in his gaze. It's a lazy adoration.

"Is there any way I can appease my beloved then?" he muses. "Should I beg on my knees? Wax poetry?"

You groan. "No, no poetry, Jing Yuan."

"No poetry either? My, you are a tough case, aren't you?" he's sweeping you away from the floor, draped on his lap and his chest. Your grasp lays upon his heart. You feel it beat. Your head turns and you face him, lips pursing as you try to stifle back the flustered curl tugging at the corners. "There." he whispers. A finger taps at your jaw.

He lets you close the gap and steal away gaping kisses.

"I'm weak for you, aren't i?" you mumble mournfully between them. Jing Yuan softens to it. "An utter fool. An idiot."

"Maybe. But I'd be a hypocrite for belittling you for it, no?" he's chasing after your lips again in a rare moment of greed. He's not a selfish man. Jing Yuan would let himself be rend by a thousand swords or scorched by starfire if it means another lives a life in peace. It's a simple truth nestled in him, so blatant in its presence yet artfully tucked away beneath paraphernalia and other quirks picked over the centuries.

( Jing Yuan who'd let himself bleed, bleed, bleed. )

Your nose nuzzles at the column of his neck. You will not be thinking of tragedy today. "Just keep holding me."

His eyes crinkle at the corners. He is flesh and blood in your grasp. he is whole. He is him.

The respite is welcomed.