fishingforcompliments: (Default)
a nice girl who is definitely your age ([personal profile] fishingforcompliments) wrote2020-06-06 12:53 pm
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shixiong: would anyone listen to this? (57)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-29 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[ "how much that meant to me." it's hard to believe that anything he's done has ever been enough, but, hearing it from flayn floods him with warmth. there are so few people he's ever allowed himself to be vulnerable around, but she is an exception, to so many things. she is an exception to the emotional walls he's built up around himself for the past few centuries. with patient, gentle hands, flayn pulled them down, and stepped in somewhere where yin yu really needed it the most.

he looks down at her properly, takes the moment for what it is. the fact that they're even sitting like this feels like a miracle. no more glitches, no separation of a screen or a veil between the dead and the living. no charades, or written letters: they're together, both living. who knows what that thing will do tomorrow - it may sooner decide to kill them all. but for right now, "keep going" meant "we made it".

he won't argue the point. if flayn says it helped her, then (even if it wasn't enough) it helped. ]
I tried to reach out to you how I could.

[ there's a brief pause, and he huffs, a quiet, not quite laugh. ironic, more than anything. ] ...Truthfully, I thought I would be the reason you were caught, last week. I had sent those along with young master Junpei before anything began, and I had no idea what had been done. Between the letter, and the flowers...

[ he'd noticed her covering the flower meanings in the feed of the trial. at that time, he thought because they are private - and, really, the part of him that is a baby was grateful - but as things began to unfold, it really may have done her in. ]
shixiong: can anybody see? (23)

DW? MY NOTIFS?

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-30 02:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[ he's had time to deal with the aftermath of the final trial that they had, but it's still a pretty fresh, vulnerable memory. watching flayn suffer -- knowing what she had done, and knowing no one would grant her the kindness of catching her...

the last thing she says confirms exactly what he'd thought. he hadn't figured out the 'role' until afterwards, but yin yu had said it to guy. she will be devastated. his initial thought was that flayn had gone to the same dark place that he had, so many years ago. even if things were different, even if they were not in all technicalities 'dead', it still - it aches to hear her confirm what he knew to be true. that she would rather have been dead.

his hand squeezes hers, and yin yu shifts, leaning against her a little more solidly. the benefit of the bizarre effect this week is maybe that there is an extra limb, because he can drape the wing that's half sprawled on the bed around her, instead, as if he could possibly do anything to comfort it, even a week later. yin yu knows what it's like, better than anyone, to want to be dead. ]


I'm so sorry. [ he says again, because words fail him for a moment, to say anything else. sorry is the only thing that seems to encompass it all: sorry that she had to do this. sorry that she had to feel that way. sorry that he left her behind, that they left her behind. that they failed her, as a whole. someone who had been so kind to him, so good to him, someone who has more or less changed yin yu's life, suffering the same kind of agony he had when chengzhu found him and asked, do you want to live? ]

...I didn't want to be right. [ about any of this. ] Sometimes continuing to live is the worst punishment you can ask for.

[ and doesn't he know it? doesn't he understand how hard it is to survive with guilt and suffering on your shoulders? it's been his entire life. he exhales. ] It's over, now, but... [ but it's not. he knows that, too. every waking and living moment will be guilt, recovery, steps forward, steps back.

yin yu squeezes her hand again, the empathy and sorrow a blanket, heart too big, hurting for flayn. ]
...I'm not going anywhere. [ not again. he will not leave her until this is over, and even then -- even then, he's thinking of ways to help. his dice, that will have to do. tomorrow. ]
shixiong: maybe i'll just descend to dirt (51)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-30 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[ the first time that yin yu saw flayn cry, it made him panic. he's seen ghosts cry, little children and soldiers and wives alike, all crying over anything and everything, but it wasn't the same. maybe it was because even from the island, he had come to see flayn as someone so good, and so kind, that it was hard to watch her be upset. even then, without really understanding why, he'd reacted, reaching up to wipe her tears.

now, six weeks later, it makes a little more sense. he'd come to care for her even then, because she always, always cared for him. flayn always saw him, always sought him out, and then she was gone.

hearing her voice waver solidifies that same feeling, replaces the panic with care. he still doesn't know how to make it stop, but he's been trying, since day one, to make these awful games a little easier. to protect that kindness that meant so much to him, to keep that little, warm light that he'd needed so badly flickering onwards for herself, for everyone in the camp. there were so few things he could do, there was nothing she could say, but right now i'm glad you are here means the world.

me too, he can't say. the words get caught in his throat. he's never been the best at expressing himself when it was necessary or otherwise, but as flayn leans in, he pulls her just that little bit closer, and covers their joined hands gently with his own. yin yu has hands suiting of his height, long, delicate fingers, and he encloses hers between his, like maybe he can hold her enough to try and take some of that suffering away.

i will not let you slip away again. he won't. not even death could keep him from flayn's side, for that long. the true duty of a retainer is to return to the side of their lord or lady, but more than that, yin yu had a promise to keep.

it's a long moment where he doesn't talk, just squeezes her hand, holds her close. flayn has been his anchor to reality more than once, too, and he wants to make sure he returns the favor. eventually, yin yu tips to rest his cheek against the top of her head, and says, quietly: ]
We're here.

[ you and i both. we're here. it's over, for the most part. it's over.

despite everything, they survived.

he can tell flayn doesn't want to cry. she is that way; when she was upset, how few people actually saw her? who could actually tell the reasons why she was hurting so badly? how few people did flayn show herself to, really? yin yu had wondered it in the graveyard; was he one of the only ones who really knew her, at all?

so, he will do his best to keep her from going to far down that rabbit hole of pain, just as she's done to him, so many times. ]
I'm not sure how much longer I could have stood it over there. [ a pause, and then. ] I have to confess something to you that may surprise you.
shixiong: so i've got nothing to share (8)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-31 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
[ there's a pause, and he closes his eyes, just briefly. ]

...I punched Ogata.

[ and his mouth twitches up, a little, into a wryly amused half smile.

how's that for a subject change. ]
shixiong: so i try and transcend my ego (49)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-31 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
[ -- too, she says, which surprises him. yin yu looks down at her, pulling back a bit, surprised.

and then he just - ]
--Pfft!

[ ridiculous. yin yu doesn't laugh loudly, as ever, but the noise was startled out of him, and he finally removes one of his hands to cover his mouth to be polite. oops. ]
shixiong: so i've got nothing to share (8)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-31 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
[ it dies down after a second, successfully muffled. ahh.... ]

I think it's the irony of at all. He hasn't changed so much. [ well. mostly. yin yu knows that's not entirely true. ] I wish I hadn't done it: it certainly didn't make me feel any better.
shixiong: lost my sense of home (43)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-31 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
Was he trying to provoke you?

[ because ogata is like that. ]
shixiong: lungs filling up with fluid (87)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-31 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
It was the same for me.

[ he sighs, thumb absently stroking over the side of her hand. ] He's been trying to provoke me since before he was executed, and did the same for much of our time on the other side. Unfortunately, I gave into it.
shixiong: would anyone listen to this? (57)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-31 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
[ he does not say that he was really ready to lay him out again, today, at the trial, because yin yu doesn't see any sense in dwelling on it, but he definitely was ready to, if push came to shove.

yin yu huffs, a quiet noise. ]
I don't particularly enjoy fighting with others. I never have.

[ it's a bit ironic, for a former martial god, but. there are very few things that will get him that angry.]
shixiong: (101)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-31 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
[ hm... there's just a soft, familiar touch of fondness at that, the warmth he associates now with flayn. he glances down at their intertwined hands, the gentle, familiar fit. ]

That makes two of us. [ he doesn't really regret punching ogata all that much, though. there are some things in life that are worth punching someone in the jaw for. ]

For that reason more than many, I hope tomorrow will be kinder.
shixiong: and maybe it's upsetting (74)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-31 01:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[ looking down at flayn, settled this close to her, all he can do is agree. ]

I do too. [ love can change a person, shinobu had said. she was right—it may have taken him death to really understand it, but yin yu is starting to.

he ducks his head in a little closer, squeezing her hand. there are still a million things to say, but none of them feel right, or enough. ]
This time, I will endeavor not to leave it.
shixiong: into my internal being (80)

[personal profile] shixiong 2020-07-31 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[ can't believe the "this is our last night together" setup and they're going to hold hands and kiss cheeks all night, terrible

the gesture is soft and sweet, and he closes his eyes, for a moment, mouth curling up in a small smile. flayn isn't the only one hopeless. what a strange, wonderful feeling, to be known, to be loved.

the small, pragmatic, cynical part of him worries that it will end, even if they do survive tomorrow. all he can do is give her his dice, and hope maybe... maybe she'll remember. he wants it. so, so badly, he wants her to, wants to hold onto this sweetness and light for what it is. in the end, yin yu's not just a servant, or a retainer, or a masked officer, or a no one - he's a human being. a real person, not a ghost, no matter how hard he tried to convince the world otherwise.

the wing wrapped around her back squeezes, the feathers ruffling gently. for a moment, he falls silent, content with their present moment, but, with the dragon horns of flayn's so close in his eyesight, it does bring something else to mind. ]


...I am not one for superstition, or charms, or anything of the sort, but, there's a saying... "lóng fèng chéng xiáng--" [ who knows how they can all understand each other, really, but the intent of saying it in the correct language comes through. ] - That is, that the dragon and phoenix together bring good fortune, and prosperity.

[ it feels very embarrassing to say this, for some reason. too cheesy, maybe. his cheeks pinken, a little, and he stares down at their hands. ] ...so perhaps we will be lucky, after all.
Edited 2020-07-31 17:05 (UTC)

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