#i miss my nightly tgcf reading ritual

[yumaisbored]

who am i without tgcf? a depressed shell of a person. and what of it? move on.

[thatgirlonstage]

(OH MY GODS YOU CHANGED YOUR THEME) Ahem, I would like to request a TGCF mermay fic with either Hualian or the Earth & Wind masters, dealer's choice ^^ inspiration word: tradition. I'm really excited you're doing these again, they're always so cute!!

Who knew I was this ready to write mer-creature!Hua Cheng fic? Not fuckin me that’s for sure

So uhhhhhhhhhh to say I went overboard (pun always intended) with this fic would be... an understatement... Look I don’t know, I had an idea and then it was 3:30AM and there were several thousand words involved and then I went to bed and woke up and wrote MORE words. So. Here’s the plan. I’m gonna post down here the actual like, nice fluffy postcanon scene that actually fills this prompt and if you just want to read that then that’s totally fine lol it SHOULD stand on its own, I think, and you definitely did not send this request to have me write you nearly 5k bizarro mercreature canon rewrite (￣ー￣；

But I’ve posted the whole thing on Ao3 for you or anyone else who is interested in whatever the FUCK my brain got up to last night.

Anyway.

———

Hua Cheng closed his eyes as he leaned back against the edge of the bath, Xie Lian’s fingers working his scalp as he washed his hair. His tail glimmered under the water. He used to hate this room, to avoid it at all costs the same way he avoided the sea, and to hate to let Xie Lian see his tail. But bit by bit, like coaxing a cat, Xie Lian had persuaded him to try, to join him, to let him wash his hair — and after all, Hua Cheng was helpless to refuse whatever Xie Lian wanted, especially if it was so simple as to join him in the bath. Now it was a nightly ritual. Xie Lian leaned over him and pressed a kiss to Hua Cheng’s forehead, humming in contentment. His fingers ran slowly down the strands of Hua Cheng’s hair, gently prying apart tangles. Hua Cheng heard him giggle and cracked open his eye.

“What is it?” he asked. Xie Lian blushed.

“Your tail,” he said. “Your fin does a little— this little flick when you’re happy.” He demonstrated with his hand. “It’s cute.” He pressed another kiss to Hua Cheng’s forehead, this time to the edge of one of the crimson scales just over his missing eye.

“I’m glad Gege is amused,” he said wryly. He settled back between Xie Lian’s legs, gaze towards the ceiling. “Gege?”

“Hmm?”

“Would you do something for me?”

Xie Lian’s fingers stilled. “Anything,” he said earnestly.

“You know the sea and I don’t… get along,” he said. “But while I was looking for you, I would go, once a year and… ask if the sea had seen you.” He swallowed. “It was the most we’d… talked, if that’s the right word for it, since I left.” He turned to face Xie Lian, catching one of his hands and holding it gently. “I want to tell the sea that I found you.”

Xie Lian’s eyes were so warm, Hua Cheng reflected. His gaze conveyed more affection than most people’s embrace. Xie Lian leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips.

“Of course, my love.”

Send me two characters + an inspiration word before May 31st for a mermay fic, or request a continuation of one I’ve already written! (But oh please god don’t expect me to do another 5k one this was absolutely a fluke)

(oh and PS I changed my theme bc the last one had started like, reversing posts on me??? Like textposts were showing up in reverse order. Also I hated that it italicized the text from anything except the most recent addition to a text post, especially since I post fic a lot)