*cries as my hands drag my body to the keyboard*
But I already have so many AUs to continuuuuueeee...
"Jiu-ge, you should really try being nicer to Liu-shidi. Having looked at him long enough, this one can tell he's just emotionally constipated. The man has barely considered an emotion in his life."
Shen Jiu raises an eyebrow, the Heart Demon in the Mirror prattling on as they comb through their hair.
It was a habit he already had, but this ritual has new meaning to him now.
The Mirror Demon doesn't always mimic his movements. Sometimes he defies his actions and does something else, but when he does something harmless, like caring for his body, they move in sync, like a dance to a song only they can hear.
It reminds Shen Jiu of swans, necks bent and turning in tandem.
"He's a thorn in my side."
"He's just trying to feel you out after you let him take that disciple you both wanted. Which, you were very gracious to let him do that, Shen Jiu. Besides, this one doesn't think you would've had much enjoyment with the little one running around. Your hands are full enough with the current children, especially since you've decided to take on a more hands-on approach with them."
Shen Jiu scoffs. "You're the one who suggested it."
"Which, this reflection only did because I believe you have much more to teach them directly!"
The Mirror Demon opens his eyes where he'd had them closed, his irises an inexplicable green, somewhere between moss and malachite. Shen Jiu's are slate, with frown lines seemingly etched in place. The Mirror Demon has many expressions, a swath of them, like the guilty amusement making him push out his lower lip as he continues explaining himself. It makes Shen Jiu's face look like it belongs to someone else. It feels like someone else entirely.
"You learned so much from your time in the streets—and I know you don't like to talk about it. You don't even have to mention or reference it. But this is the peak of the arts and strategy, and knowing how the world works in its darkest places is imperative for that, isn't it? Your experience is perfect for that role, moreso than anyone else."
His Mirror sways his head as Shen Jiu does, switching the side their hair is on and returning to combing oil into it so it's shiny and smooth. Shen Jiu's gaze lingers on the long curve of his Mirror's lithe neck.
"Your survival is nothing to be ashamed of, no matter what anyone else says."
"Don't you 'hmh' me, I mean it!"
"In what world is it good for an immortal to be sly and vindictive?"
"This one, clearly. I mean, I'm still quite pleased with how you handled the complaint from Huan Hua regarding 'training ground infractions'. Which, what kind of bullshit was that, anyway? There are villages full of people who need help, and their disciples hadn't cleared out the Viper Ocelot-Lizards in over two months, and it was right around time for hatching season, so of course there was going to be a problem! It only made sense for you to interfere in their sloppy—"
His Mirror continues, praising him for his technical subterfuge and the tonguelashing he gave those children, then the higher ups that came after those children went crying to them. Of course, back then, he and the Mirror had questioned why a semi-demonic creature was so close to a border between two immortal sects in the first place, leading to further investigations and border monitoring that continue to this day. But, it was the thought that someone else was on the same wavelength as him that really calmed Shen Jiu while Yue Qingyuan and the others questioned his insistence as needling until they too finally understood, some begrudgingly, that he was in the right.
Someone saw him and was pleased. Even if that someone looked like himself.
That someone was a better, kinder version of himself. Someone he could never be no matter how much the Mirror coaxed him with honeyed words and subtle nudging that he knew the other was doing.
That someone mimicked his movements, but in increasingly imperfect ways, the timing still just right regardless.
Loose and relaxed at the wrists. Shoulders light. Back a little hunched until he remembered to straighten it when Shen Jiu moved.
Separate, different, but with him.
His in a way no one else has ever been.
And all he has to do to get a little gratitude is egg him on, and it spills from his lips as easily as air.
Soft. Weak. Would such a silk-made thing survive outside of the mirror?
It's an inexplicable feeling. The desire to keep him in place and take him out of it one and the same.
Shen Jiu didn't realize he had stopped combing his hair until just then, his left hand on the mirror. His Mirror's right hand mimics his, fingers separated by a pane of glass and a sliver of reality.
...No, not one and the same.
His Mirror frowns as Shen Jiu pulls his hand away, grabbing a cloth with which to wipe his own oily finger prints clear.
"Again with the 'hmh'. You're starting to sound like Liu Qingge, you know."
"Heh, that is more like it. Use your words, Jiu-ge."
"You use them plenty enough for the both of us. There's barely a moment since I've come to notice you where you shut your mouth."
The latter is clearly the stronger desire.
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