@thunderpo asked for “on a particularly difficult day HC [cause I’m BiasedTM] sneakily seeking cuddles from his fave person?”
I hope this is everything you wanted!!!
banish the lonely echos with your smile (tgcf, hualian, ~1300 words)
Eight hundred years of loneliness and separation hadn’t vanished into the ether the moment Hua Cheng had Xie Lian regularly in his life, as much as he wished it so. There were days when he was fine, when everything was magical and he was filled with so much love and joy that the dark times he’d survived felt so far away that they could barely touch him. Then there were the days when it hung over him like a cloud, just waiting for a chance to bring him back to those long, hollow years of searching.
When he awoke in a cold bed, devoid of Dianxia, and felt emptiness clench around his heart, he knew immediately that it was going to be one of those days.
He remained bed for several minutes, staring up at the ceiling. Xie Lian’s side of the bed was cold; he’d been clearly up for hours. It was almost as though he wasn’t really there, still wandering the world, lost to Hua Cheng.
Ghost kings did not lie around being maudlin. Hua Cheng forced himself out of bed and started his day.
Upon rising, he couldn’t locate Xie Lian anywhere in Paradise Manor, so he sent a quick inquiry through the communications array.
“Oh, San Lang!” Xie Lian replied, sounding distracted. “I had to help Mu Qing and Feng Xin with an issue. I’ll be back by noon!”
“Let me know when you’re back, gege,” Hua Cheng replied; what else could he do? He was hardly about to burden Xie Lian with how empty he felt. He tried to comfort himself with hearing Xie Lian’s voice, but it wasn’t quite the same.
His morning continued along the same vein. He had a tense exchange with Black Water via array about settling a debt between them, trying very hard to save at least some face and not cut the connection in frustration. By noon, two different ghosts had shown up to complain about various conflicts around Ghost City, hoping for his intervention – this hadn’t happened until Xie Lian’s constant presence had made him seem more approachable. (He promised to send Dianxia to mediate in the coming days, even though what he really wanted to do was to tell them all to fuck off).
Midday also brought the promised return of Xie Lian, all the light of heaven accompanying him as he swept into Paradise Manor with his cheeks aglow from the exertion of returning to earth. His hair was a bit windswept, as were his robes, which provided an excellent excuse for Hua Cheng. He put on his sappiest smile and moved close to tidy Xie Lian’s hair, breathing in the scent of him. Dianxia was here. Hua Cheng wasn’t alone anymore.
“San Lang!” Xie Lian exclaimed, laughing. “What’s this about?”
Hua Cheng continued to groom Xie Lian’s hair with his fingers. “You’re windswept, gege. I’m fixing you.” Xie Lian’s hair was silky and smooth, and Hua Cheng loved the texture of it beneath his fingertips. An excuse to do so was worth the price of a horrible day.
He moved on to rearranging Xie Lian’s robes before stepping away and giving him a once over.
“Better?” Xie Lian asked with a smile. His cheeks were still pink, but Hua Cheng hoped his flush was now from their proximity rather than travel.
“Perfect,” Hua Cheng declared.
For a long moment, the two beamed at each other. Hua Cheng’s fragility was still there, lurking beneath his long-dead heart, but it felt lesser with Xie Lian in front of him like the sun.
As the afternoon progressed, Hua Cheng didn’t let Xie Lian out of his sight. The aching loneliness inside of him wouldn’t allow him to pretend that everything was normal. Instead, he gathered a comb after lunch and seated himself behind Xie Lian, combing through the strands of his still-messy hair until he had all but melted against him. Taking care of Xie Lian made him feel more grounded, but it wasn’t enough.
“I think it’s time to practice calligraphy,” he declared as the afternoon shifted into early evening. What a perfect excuse for Xie Lian to curl up behind him, guiding his strokes expertly. They no longer needed such excuses to be close those days, married as they were, but Hua Cheng still liked that he could use calligraphy to get close to Xie Lian without having to express it out loud.
Sure enough, after he seated himself and began his practice, Xie Lian curled up at his side and “helped” him. The feeling of Dianxia’s soft hands around his, the small puffs of breath against the back of his neck, the way Dianxia radiated the warmth of a hearth – Hua Cheng closed his eyes, desperately memorizing the sensations.
“San Lang, how can you write with your eyes closed?” Xie Lian asked with a laugh, letting go of Hua Chang’s hand and leaning over to cup his palms against Hua Cheng’s face. He studied him for a long moment; Hua Cheng stared back at him, trying not to betray the broken pieces of himself, but he sometimes underestimated how startlingly perceptive Xie Lian could be. “What is it?” his husband murmured.
Hua Cheng froze. They’d never talked about it, not really – Xie Lian rarely discussed the years before his third ascension, other than through offhand comments that were always guaranteed to be disturbing. Hua Cheng had a different method of ignoring the pain of those years, putting on a smiling face and pretending they’d never happened. “I wouldn’t want to trouble gege,” he demurred, half hoping Xie Lian would drop the subject and half hoping he’d pry and shine his light so far into the dark places in Hua Cheng’s soul that it would burn all of the pain away.
Xie Lian frowned as he continued to study him. “I could never be troubled by San Lang’s mood,” he insisted, reaching up to run his elegant fingers through Hua Cheng’s hair. Hua Cheng leaned into his comforting touch. “If you want to share, this one will listen.”
Hua Cheng wished he could turn away, feeling desperately seen by Xie Lian’s compassionate gaze. He swallowed, thought about it, put the words together in his head and then discarded them. He tried again. “Sometimes…it is difficult. To remember those years before I found you again.”
Xie Lian made a small sound, turning Hua Cheng’s face towards him so that he could press their foreheads together, still pressed up against his side. “I’m here, San Lang. I’m not going anywhere.”
The feelings that those words brought up in Hua Cheng were so overwhelming, there wasn’t really much to do other than turn sideways to face Xie Lian, hearing him squeak as he was jostled. Hua Cheng pressed their foreheads back together and took the opportunity to stare deep into Xie Lian’s eyes, reveling in the honest, calm love that he radiated, before he pressed their mouths together. Xie Lian returned the kiss, sighing as he pulled Hua Cheng tightly against him. They traded several kisses, sweet and affectionate, before parting.
“Gege,” Hua Cheng murmured.
“Let’s go to bed, San Lang,” Xie Lian whispered, petting his hair so tenderly that Hua Cheng had to deeply suppress the urge to make a completely undignified sound. “You can get some sleep, and I’ll still be here when you wake up.”
Hua Cheng reached out and tangled their fingers together. “Promise?” he said.
“I promise,” Xie Lian said, pressing a gentle kiss against his forehead.
For the first time since he’d awoken that morning to an empty bed, Hua Cheng felt at peace.
I commissioned this from the amazing @thunderpot /@thunderpo for To Sleep Perchance to Dream from this scene:
“What’s the look for?” he asked without breaking stride.
“I just... I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Me? I’m not the one who was just threatened by a youkai.” Kagome frowned, clinging to his shoulders a little more tightly. “Kagome, he really freaked you out, didn’t he?” he murmured, slowing down and nuzzling her cheek.
Kagome hugged him even closer. “He said he didn’t want to kill me, he wanted to go after you. I couldn’t...” A sob cut her off. “You have to be careful, do you understand me?” she whispered desperately.
Inuyasha sighed as they landed on her balcony, sliding into her room. He locked the door, pulled the curtains and took her back into his arms. “Kagome, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“Not me, you!”
Inuyasha rolled his eyes since she couldn’t see. “I’m not going to let anything keep me from protecting you, how about that?” She didn’t respond verbally, tugging his face down to plant an intensely fear-driven kiss on his lips. He could feel her desperation and struggled with the way his youki spiked in response. His youkai wanted to assert dominance, not over her, but over her fear. Unfortunately his youkai tended to get a little out of control and the last thing he wanted to do was scare her more. A growl rolled in his chest as he gently lifted her onto the end of the bed, kneeling between her knees and resting his forehead against her stomach. He tried to let her scent fill his nose and soothe him. Kagome’s hands found his ears, not helping his control any. “Kagome...” he breathed against her.
“You’re afraid to let yourself be you,” she murmured. “I will never be afraid of you. No matter what happens, I will never be afraid of you.” Inuyasha still fought his youki down even as his body relaxed and his youkai half purred at the level of trust his mate had in him. She’d never seen him the way he could be, had never seen the beast he could become.
He hadn’t lost himself to his youkai for a long time. Even before he was trapped, it had been over a decade. But that had been a situation in which his life had been in danger. This time it was Kagome who had been in harm’s way. Unacceptable. He felt his fangs lengthen slightly at the thought of the big cat threatening her and he snarled at himself for his weakness. I should have better control than this! Kagome gently touched his cheek, bringing his eyes to hers. “Careful,” he growled. She only looked him over and smiled softly.
“You don’t want to hurt me,” she stated. He knew fear shone in his eyes at the very thought. “Then you won’t. You have to believe that as much as I do.” She showed him what she believed by kissing him again, pulling him into her arms as he moved forward into her kiss.
I am utterly goo goo eyed over it!
Open for commissions and the work is, as you can see, STUNNING!
If you could only draw one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I feel like it’s a cop out of I say people cause 98% of the stuff I do is humanoid lol
Eyes. If I can’t draw nothing else, then eyes. These are some of the best eyes I’ve drawn, and without seeing the rest of the face you can tell who’s sad, who’s about to kick your ass, and who’s up to something. That’s something I can easily say I’m proud of, anyway.
Two, four, six, eight - I think you're super and really great! Time to share your appreciation of any tumblr friend! Send this ask to any buddies of your choosing ~ share some love and appreciation!
003 | Give me a character & I will tell you How I feel about this character: I find her kind of sad. She is forced into this position as a villain, really. Not that she doesn't have a little bit of spit and vinegar in her, but I don't think she would ever have gone to a "life of crime" if she'd been given any choice.
All the people I ship romantically with this character: Sesshoumaru if I include her at all, and typically in an AU, since she dies in canon. :/
My non-romantic OTP for this character: Someone suggested a buddy relationship with Jakotsu and I can't let that go. Buddy Comedy ala Will and Grace 100%
My unpopular opinion about this character: I don't know that I have any opinions about her strong enough to be unpopular.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I do wish she had survived. I think that would have been the best F U to Naraku is if she had gotten her heart back and been truly free and happy.
My OTP: with Kagura? I guess Sessh/Kagu
My OT3: Oh lort... um... Sessh/Kagu/Kog??? I have no idea. I struggle to think of poly-amorous relationships to begin with and Kagura is generally off my radar. *Shrug*
psssssss Hey you! Yes, you, beautiful writer!! This is an AMAZING CREATOR AWARD! Your creations are incredible, and they light up every dashboard they land on. Pass this on to your favorite creators to show your appreciation and let them know their art is loved! ♥♥♥ ILY KEEP CREATING AND BEING YOUR AWESOME SELF!
30. What inspires you to not just make art, but to be a better artist?
I like to challenge myself, but a lot of it comes from seeing what other artists create. Sometimes I’ll get in a slump - not so much where I’m questioning myself as it is my creative box is just empty. Seeing what they create, whether it’s a certain theme, a color palette, some wild effect I’d never considered before...that makes the wheels turn.
That’s when I tell myself, “okay if they can do that, what could I do?” I don’t want to copy what they did, or even how they did it. I look at is as a new dish of food to try. Whether I like it is up in the air until I actually try it. If it’s not a good fit, at least I know, and sometimes it sends me down a rabbit hole of other ideas I want to experiment with.
Does it still count as art-related if they also reblog other things? If that’s the case then 24. I think of those, anything that’s solely art is more like..6 or 7? Of those, there’s 4 that I think have moved elsewhere, since digging through my following list it says they haven’t updated in some years.
29. For traditional artists: How do you usually start on a big piece? (Light sketch, colored lead, sketchpaper, etc)
Very lightly with an HB pencil. If it’s going to end up being finished with pencils (i.e my Merle Dixon portrait), I’ll add layer after layer when I’m 100% positive I have the feature right. If it’ll be colored with pencils, I’ll ink it with pigma micron pens, let that dry, then erase the sketch. If it’s going to be scanned for lineart, I’ll go over the sketch with a darker pencil, because my scanner has decieded that sometimes a 2B is too light to pick up properly.
I think the one time I did colored lead over a sketch was when I was planning the layers for the Mating Fever game. Each Inu was sketched separately down to the bare essentials, then I used a different color for each layer. It was a mess but it worked.
