#snippery for #DuetForATrio from today because posting snips helps my momentum! Bing'er is having trouble adjusting still...

Snippet:

"...Bing'er..."

He pauses where he's begun to collect the dirty cooking dishes.

"Can I... help?"

Binghe is reaching out to him again. The man took time to lick his wounds and calm down and then, like so rarely happens, came back to him. For him. Bing'er should be happy about this. He's wanted just this to happen for so long. Someone finally cares. This isn't even the first time. He would think the last few days a dream if he didn't know better. None of that knowledge quenches the rage in his chest.

Why now when he's safe and doesn't need it? He's safe and so he doesn't need it, not like he did in the abyss, like he did the first time he lived on Qing Jing peak, like he did when he mother died and he was alone.

@crownlessagain.bsky.social snippet:

There's a strange ruffle of air, and Xie Lian turns.

There, in the door, Hua Cheng. Xie Lian tries a stiff smile, suddenly unsure of his welcome after all, despite every dream of the last several centuries. Perhaps he should have stayed a perfect memory instead of coming here. His hair is still atrocious. He's only as clean as rubbing away grit with a dirty hand will get him, starved and dehydrated and still wearing the same clothes he was buried in. Hua Cheng though, this isn't a form he's seen before and certainly not the one the man wears when alone. For one thing, the form takes the shape of a frog, though he stands upright like a human. It's probably quite an inconspicuous disguise around the city.

Xie Lian has seen enough of this man not to be fooled. The way he holds himself is unmistakable, and the soft wonder is an expression he knows well. He can't help but truely smile.

#snippery

This WIP's name is "Hemp on Silk", see thread for context, etc. I managed a 500 word gain on this one today  

Snippet:

Hua Cheng lays his head down, ear not quite pressed against Xie Lian's stomach, but near enough to hear the living gurgling sounds. "Don't worry beloved." An incremental relaxation sends him on a deeper wave, up and down with Xie Lian's every breath. "You're doing perfect, paying such close attention and collecting every scrap of pleasure I can give you." Xie Lian's thumb pets across his cheekbone, under his good eye, and Hua Cheng smiles. "Gege is good at anything he sets his mind to. This is no different." He continues, spouting little truths, until his head bounces with his beloved's giggles. "Good, beloved. I like to hear when I make you happy."

Xie Lian's hands take both of his cheeks, so warm he feels he may as well blush.

"But San Lang, I would never be quiet again!"

He buries his smile in white hemp cloth and hugs his beloved's waist.

#Snippery

Once again writing myself towards a kink or fetish my brain did not already give me... :3 anyway, hope I did a little justice to the eroticism of ears.

Context is the thing mentioned earlier in this thread

Snippet:

"I'll start just like this gege." He dips in for another deep kiss. "I'll kiss you everywhere." A chaste peck to his beloved's lips. "Your mouth." A breathy line across Xie Lian's cheek. "Your jaw." Open and with the lightest trace of pressure below the ear. "Every last corner of you." He licks up, catching the join from jaw to lobe and wrapping his lips around it. With each kiss, Xie Lian has wound tighter against him. Now, he sets his teeth barely against the skin and sucks, feels the slight catch of the pierced hole pulled into his mouth. His beloved moans, hands catching in his hair and shaking as if unsure whether to clutch him closer or push him away.

With a soothing lick, he lets go. He traces his nose up the shell of Xie Lian's ear and whispers, "Soon there won't be a single cun of your skin that I haven't kissed."

#snippery

It's also only in outline notes format, otherwise I'd put a snippet here.

...

Actually, this stage is analogous to posting a sketch before the finished piece which I am fine with. So. Yeet.

#Snippery

[Hua Cheng stumbles into the cave, finds a statue that would hold a fresh flower in its outstretched hand, and presses his face into its palm. Xie Lian has to watch, seeing the obvious distress and desperation and not even inhabiting the statue Hua Cheng is seeking this pale echo of comfort from. Acciental voyeurism and guilt time! Hua Cheng presses his cheek into the unyielding touch, and sobs, his hands clench in the fabric of his robes, bunching it and tearing and there's nothing Xie Lian can do to help! One of Hua Cheng's hands drifts over his crotch, and is swiftly removed, nails lengthening to claws and piercing through the fabric of his sleeve. Uh oh though, something seems to break through Hua Cheng's desperation and he rips off that sleeve. Xie Lian thinks Hua Cheng is going to take care of the wound just inflicted, but Hua Cheng looks at it, and sees that the clawing missed the tattoo of Xie Lian's name and sinks onto the floor like his knees have gone out. Xie Lian can't read the writing, but Hua Cheng is tracing it and saying his name so it's pretty clear what it says, repeating it like a mantra, like it's the only thing keeping him here. Xie Lian is starting to find it hard to ignore that Hua Cheng's faith in him might be more than just faith. Hua Cheng smooths a hand over the tattoo and then grips at his wrist and grits his teeth. It's like a wave of pain rolls down his body starting at the face. Hua Cheng ends up writhing on the floor, shirt half ripped off, crying and very obviously trying not to touch himself, eventually pressing his face into the shoe of a statue and grinding his cock against the floor.] [Xie Lian remembers the land of the tender and almost wishes Hua Cheng would just work off whatever is driving him to this desperation. Except then Hua Cheng does come, sobbing out his title, and the desperation doesn't go away. This hurts Xie Lian's heart real bad.]

[It must be nearly morning by the time the pain fades and Hua Cheng is left limp on the floor. Xie Lian wants VERY MUCH to go pick up Hua Cheng and soothe whatever aches remain, hug him and hold him and make everything be okay again. Hua Cheng shouldn't suffer like that.]

#Snippery for Ubiquitous Gaze, the fic in which Xie Lian is stuck inside his statues instead of dreaming when he sleeps. This bit is from Hua Cheng's stay in Mt. Tonglu.

Snip:
Often, he can hear the sculptor working. The sounds of the chisel only grows faster and more sure between visits.

Xie Lian dreams.

Helplessly, he tries to gasp, reflex fighting impossibility. He can see the cave's wall, smoothed and flattened, crude blood and pale ash sketching out a familiar scene. The ugly choice of material should be a harbinger of the bad luck following the events depicted. He can't think that though, not when it shows a young boy saving a falling child. The shang yuan festival.

Months pass before he sees it again, painted into a proper mural, fresh jagged characters still wet. A dark figure stands before it. The sculptor, painter, <i>artist</i>. This strange believer reaches out, and stops short of touching his painted face.

Xie Lian wishes this ghost would turn, though he doesn't know how he will react.

Would he laugh, to find Hong Hong'er still believed in him?

Would he cry, to find his last believer still wearing a nameless and faceless mask?

The ghost only tips its head to consider the mural. It returns to work, painting the child a blood red smudge.