Li Chenyuan looked sleepy enough to topple over at any moment. He had been perfectly lucid seconds ago--how had he suddenly gotten like this?!
"I'm scared," Li Chenyuan muttered, swaying. "I'm worried I'll get a nightmare from my demonic qi."
Qiu Yunru could feel himself starting to sweat.
"Isn't that something mothers do for their kids...?" He said out loud. "Are you sure you want to sleep in my room? Isn't that a little...?"
Li Chenyuan's tired face transformed into a pout, and he released Qiu Yunru's sleeve with a pitiful look on his face. "It's fine. I'll go sleep in my own room."
"Wait!" Qiu Yunru called out, grabbing Li Chenyuan's sleeve. This kid was incredibly confusing--clinging one moment, and grumpily stalking away the next. What exactly did he want?! "It's...It's all right. You can come sleep in my room if you really need it. I have an extra blanket; I can sleep on the floor."
Li Chenyuan's face lit up. "I'll sleep on the floor," He said quickly.
"Aren't you asking to sleep in my room...? Wouldn't you be more likely to get nightmares if you sleep on the floor and your back starts hurting...?"
"I said, I'll sleep on the floor!" Li Chenyuan muttered, looking cranky. "This shidi thanks gege."
The hairs on Qiu Yunru's neck stood up again at that word, 'gege', but he didn't say anything. After all, he'd decided before that it must not be a big deal, so why make a fuss about it again?
In Qiu Yunru's room, Li Chenyuan snuggled into a pile of blankets on the floor like a cat burying itself in a cat bed. Qiu Yunru let his hair down and went to change into his night robes. He couldn't help but smile a little to himself at the sight of this kid burrowing into the covers like that. It was strange to call a grown man cute, but that's really what it was.
As Qiu Yunru began to change, he felt a prickling sensation on his back.
He turned around and saw Li Chenyuan's phoenix eyes peering out at him from among the blankets with a strange look in them. The back of his neck prickled again.
"Are you...watching me change...?" He asked hesitantly. Maybe Li Chenyuan just happened to be looking in this direction?
Li Chenyuan promptly turned over, pulling a blanket over his head.
"No," Came his muffled voice.
Qiu Yunru had a strange feeling. It wasn't weird for a man to see another man change...right? But why did it feel...? Ah, whatever. He was tired and couldn't bring himself to think about it too much. He pulled on his nightrobes and slid into bed.
"Good night," He said.
"G'night," Li Chenyuan mumbled under the covers.
Qiu Yunru blew out his lamp then, and lied down and went to sleep.
About halfway through the night, he woke up to the sound of crying.
It wasn't his own. As his eyes adjusted and he sat up and crawled to the edge of his bed, he saw that Li Chenyuan was shaking under his mound of blankets.
Ah...so he hadn't been lying. he really was having nightmares.
Qiu Yunru's heart hurt hearing him cry. Poor kid--after a life of mistreatment, he still had to endure nightmares and the fear that he might lose himself to demonic cultivation one day. It must be incredibly painful to endure such things.
He went over to find Li Chenyuan's face among the blankets. That kid was unnaturally pale, and he was sweating profusely, droplets pouring down his forehead endlessly. His hair was stuck to his skin, and his cheeks were flushed with nightmare fever.
Sighing, Qiu Yunru bent down to wipe this kid's face with a nearby cloth. He gently patted the droplets and adjusted the blankets so that they weren't strangling Li Chenyuan so much. It seemed he might have provided a few too many of them; they were now tangled around the poor kid like a mummy's wrappings.
As he was crouching there and considering whether or not to wake him up, Qiu Yunru was suddenly yanked down.
One of Li Chenyuan's hands had freed itself from the blanket confines and grabbed onto Qiu Yunru's arm, pulling him down into the pile. Qiu Yunru held in a yelp as Li Chenyuan wrapped his arms around him and even threw a leg over his waist, clinging to him like a leech, or a kitten to its mother.
Well, now I really can't wake him! If he wakes up and sees this, he might think I'm a pervert! That, or he'll be really embarrassed...What an awkward situation...
Qiu Yunru, though surprised, didn't blame Li Chenyuan for acting like this. Wasn't it natural to cling to people when having bad dreams or experiencing fear? When going through a nightmare, it made sense to seek comfort. It was just that, this was a rather awkward position. Since they were about the same age, both men, and in their nightgowns, it looked rather strange!
However, they were in a private room, so he didn't need to worry about an outside perspective. Also, he was still tired from the day of training and mountain-shopping yesterday.
So, Qiu Yunru relaxed, allowing Li Chenyuan to grip him tightly. It wasn't uncomfortable to be held like this--at least, not yet. He would just have to wake up before this kid and extract himself so that there wasn't an awkward situation in the morning...