Flowers?
A Hualian ficlet
word count: 717 prompt: tulip (big thx to @nelweensfic for the prompt)
“Gege, what are you doing?”
With his fingers still in the dirt, Xie Lian looked up at Hua Cheng. “I believe I’m planting flowers.”
“Flowers?” Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow. He glanced down at the small sprouts of green that peaked out of the earth.
“Yes.” Xie Lian nodded, wiping his dirty hands on his white robes. Hua Cheng sucked in a surprised breath.
“A travelling merchant came by the shrine a little bit ago,” Xie Lian continued, “He said he came from a faraway land, and showed me these.” He held up a little brown ball with small sprouts of green growing out of it. “He called them tulips. Some kind of flowers from his home land.”
“Flowers…” Hua Cheng mumbled. His eye narrowed suspiciously as he glanced at the planted flowers once more. “Gege’s sure they’re just flowers?”
Confused, Xie Lian furrowed his eyebrows. He stood from where he had been kneeling on the ground, Hua Cheng immediately reaching out to help him up. “Well… yes? The travelling merchant told me they were. I did not detect any malice behind his actions.”
“Hmm, I see.”
Hua Cheng looked thoughtful, though he didn’t ask any further. Instead, he took Xie Lian’s hands in his own, bringing them to his mouth and placing a gentle kiss on each one. “Gege shouldn’t be dirtying these precious hands,” he said softly, one corner of his mouth lifting up in a half-smile. “I know some better ways they could be useful instead.”
As those words left Hua Cheng’s mouth, Xie Lian could feel the tips of his ears burning hot. “San Lang!” he exclaimed, playfully smacking the side of Hua Cheng’s arm.
He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
~*~
They didn’t return to the shrine for a little while. It was only a couple of weeks later, after a rather stressful mission that had brought them to the desert once more, that they could finally go back to the tranquil haven Xie Lian had created over the years.
He took a deep breath, savouring the sweet smell of the blooming plum trees around them. “I feel like I could sleep for days.”
“Oh?” Hua Cheng turned to look at Xie Lian. His expression looked slightly concerned. “Does Gege need to borrow more spiritual power?”
Xie Lian chuckled, shaking his head. “I’ll be fine for a little longer.” He wrapped his arms around Hua Cheng’s waist. “This mission was just… mentally more taxing than usual.”
“Hmm.” Hua Cheng nodded, placing a gentle kiss on Xie Lian’s forehead. “We can rest for however long you want.”
Eyes closed, Xie Lian hummed happily. “That sounds heavenly.”
The two of them made their way further into the garden of the shrine. They passed the small patch of now blooming tulips. Xie Lian glanced down, frowning.
“San Lang,” he started, crouching down to inspect the flowers more closely, “do you notice there aren’t as many tulips here as I planted before or am I finally going crazy?”
“Ah…” Hua Cheng kneeled next to Xie Lian, scratching the back of his neck. “About that…”
Xie Lian turned to Hua Cheng, confused. “Did something happen?”
“Some of those flowers weren’t real flowers,” Hua Cheng said. “They were ghosts disguised as tulips. But I had sensed them when you were planting them. So I got rid of them before they could do anything.”
“Ghosts?” Xie Lian tilted his head to the side, confusion written all over his face. “But I didn’t sense anything at all…”
“They were ghosts I had never seen before,” Hua Cheng continued. “They might have come from the travelling merchant’s home land. That might be why Gege couldn’t sense them. Their energy felt… different.”
“I see…” Xie Lian looked at the handful of tulips that remained. There weren’t many left but at least they were pretty.
Hua Cheng took one of Xie Lian’s hands in his and tangled their fingers together. “I can get more tulips if Gege still wants some?”
Xie Lian smiled, leaning closer and giving Hua Cheng a tender kiss on the cheek. “I appreciate the gesture, San Lang. Thank you.” He laid his head on Hua Cheng’s shoulder as he continued to admire the tulips. “We can get some another time. Now, I just really want to rest.”
Thank you for reading!! This is the first little bit of writing i've completed in MONTHS so i'm happy i could share it! It's not long, and it's not much but i'm definitely planning on writing more of these smaller fics until i can finally find the passion and motivation to continue writing longer ones. If you want to send me a prompt that you want me to write about these two, you can always send me one in my inbox. I'm open for suggestions :))
