Xingyun Oneshots

122 - Baby Blue & Sugar Hues

Chongyun has always been, if nothing else, painfully aware of things around him.

How terribly hot will the sun be today? Well, he's already checked the forecast, and it's supposed to be hot enough he'll need to bring a cooler for his popsicles. What are his plans for the week? They're already written out formally on his desk, as well as the rest for the next week. How many different spirit sightings is he tracking at the moment? So many he's got an entire notebook full of horrid drawings based on people's descriptions and tiny, jotted down notes.

Chongyun likes to be prepared for things, just as much as he seems to almost always be unprepared for things. He likes to set himself up for greatness in his exorcism journey, to train as hard as he can and to push himself to his limits to try and earn every possible milestone just as much as he seems to like to punish himself by not being where he thinks he should be.

His Yang energy has always been the sole driving force in his life; what will he eat for lunch today, will he end up even going outside today, will he be able to attend this event with his friends or will it end in Yang filled disaster? All questions that make up Chongyun's daily life and seem to drive his every move to the point he often gets so fixated he doesn't notice other things, like the people around him.

So for as much as he himself thinks he's very aware and good at analyzing and reading things, to most everyone he knows he's so oblivious one could deliver a heart filled love confession and Chongyun would be none the wiser - certainly the case with his best friend when he did such a thing.

Chongyun adamantly sketches in the little notepad, writing out his idea of a half-snake half-hilichurl-like beast that someone had described to him (which someone overhearing joked might just be a mermaid), sticking his tongue out slightly as he sketches each individual scale on the horrendous being just as Xingqiu bumps into his side, plopping himself down into Chongyun's personal space with a grin and a new book in his hands.

Chongyun doesn't mind Xingqiu's eagerness to always...how should he put it? Place himself within Chongyun's personal business. Don't get him wrong, Xingqiu's not asking personal details like his family's inner working or his deepest darkest fears and insecurities (though he doesn't doubt Xingqiu already knows them in the perceptive way he knows most things), but he's always first to come right up to Chongyun to put himself into his company as if he were always there to begin with.

Chongyun has always admired Xingqiu's ability to just put himself into situations when he wants to, to always make space for himself where he wishes and do it so gracefully and naturally it's as if the space was always his to begin with. Maybe that's why whenever Xingqiu sneaks up on him and dances his nimble fingers across his shoulders in greeting, he's never surprised or annoyed because it's just Xingqiu's place to do so - Xingqiu's place to exist.

Xingqiu drums his fingernails against the book cover, making a dull tapping sound as they hit the cover repeatedly. Chongyun notices his nails are shorter than usual since Xingqiu usually keeps them beautifully long, so he suspects his father must've told him it was 'improper' or 'unbecoming of someone of your status' and prompted him to cut them.

"I payed a visit to Wanwen Bookhouse today, and I was so lucky as to find the third book in the Land of Catastrophe series. I nearly found myself opening it several times on the way here, but I caught myself every time because I thought we should read it together." Xingqiu grins, placing his chin into his opposite hand, jankily balancing off his knee.

His cheek comes out squished against his open palm, eyes half curved into golden crescents with a teasing look that always seems to be his default around Chongyun. Despite the usual mischief, Chongyun sees a little behind it at the details he always seems to notice, like the things that aren't always there, and he notices that Xingqiu's much more relaxed and casual than he'd be if they walked past Feiyun Slope.