#and to the-surreptitious-albatross for finding the twin's name

[bbcphile]

WIP Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! Have some more of LLH's POV, specifically, some lighthearted banter covering up some secrets and a whole lot of angst.

(You can find earlier excerpts here.)

Li Lianhua opened his eyes, refusing to meet either of the sets fixed on him, and tried to scrape together whatever remained of his dignity. He scratched a spot by his nose and cleared his throat. “I know you and Xiaobao like to fight, but don’t you think using my qi to blast him across the room is a touch excessive?”

A-Fei scoffed, an eye roll made audible. “He was being annoying.”

Li Lianhua tsk’d at him. “You really must learn to control your temper, Di-mengzhu. What kind of example are you setting for him?” 

“Very funny,” Xiaobao said. Li Lianhua sneaked a look out of the corner of his eyes in time to watch that bright mock smile fade into an impressive pout. “As if we didn’t all know how impressive a-Fei’s rein on his temper is.”

Li Lianhua blinked at him. Xiaobao sounded almost offended on a-Fei’s behalf. What on Earth had happened while he’d been asleep that could have wrought a change like that? He risked a glance at a-Fei to see how he was taking it. It was hard to see with his vision this blurry, but a-Fei’s eyes looked slightly narrowed and from the set of his jaw, it looked like he was deliberately trying not to react. So either he was surprised, too, or he was looking for the catch.

“That is,” Xiaobao continued, a mischievous glint lighting up his face, “as long as it doesn’t involve doors.”

A-Fei rolled his eyes. “I didn’t have a key. And my arms were full.”

“That’s no reason to step on them! Twice! And right on the design!”

A-Fei shrugged. “It was in the way.”

“What doors? What design?” Li Lianhua asked, straining his eyes to try to bring any of the entrances to his home into focus. “My doors? But they don’t have locks!”

“They do now,” a-Fei muttered. 

“Xiaobao? Care to explain?”

“I just didn’t want anyone to break in! I didn’t realize he’d blast it off its hinges instead!”

“Your lack of imagination is not my fault.”

“Hey!”

Li Lianhua rubbed at the bridge of his nose as though to ward off a headache and tried not to smile. It was a relief to have these two bicker again. “Alright, alright,” he said, waving a hand to dismiss the argument and trying and failing to suppress another smile as they instantly stopped to listen to him. “Just fix it later, alright, a-Fei?”

The atmosphere instantly changed. A-Fei’s expression became a neutral mask and Xiaobao’s eyes darted anxiously between a-Fei and Li Lianhua.

“I can do it,” Xiaobao said, plastering on an incredibly unconvincing smile. “I had started it earlier anyway, so I don’t mind finishing.”

 Li Lianhua’s stomach sank. “And why exactly are you fixing it if Di-Mengzhu broke it? Shouldn’t he take responsibility?”

Xiaobao hesitated, glanced guiltily at a-Fei, then held his sword more tightly. “He was . . . busy. Keeping you warm while you both slept. So I volunteered.”

Li Lianhua’s heart began to race. Xiaobao had never taken on a-Fei’s chores before, not once in the months the three of them had lived together. If a-Fei had ever convinced Xiaobao to do so, he would have gloated about it. Insufferably. And for a-Fei to even consider sleeping while Xiaobao was still awake and moving about, something was very wrong. 

Something that would have affected a-Fei’s health to such an extent that he needed to sleep in front of others and was too weak to repair a door.

He pushed his rising panic down, along with images of the the spiritual cave snakes, shriveled and dead from his poisonous blood, of Li Xiong, groaning and twitching in pain as Bicha coursed through his veins from receiving Yangzhouman, and pasted on his own innocent smile. “Really? So very generous of you, Xiaobao!”

Xiaobao’s answering grin was a touch too bright to be believable. “That’s me! Always ready to help.”

“Naturally,” he agreed, nodding. He waited until they both relaxed, until some of the suspicion lurking in a-Fei’s posture had waned. “And why exactly does a-Fei need help?”

A-Fei froze.