Dihua - Tumblr Posts

paying extra attention to costume changes on my rewatch for fic writing purposes (i was a little sloppy about it in my first 飞花 fic, simply too horny to bother double checking) and found this little gem in episode 11 (ie the ep that puts li lianhua into a wedding dress):

beforehand he's just wearing one of his usual 青色 color scheme. note that before this he'd just gone to di feisheng's room, where fang duobing interrupted their... mhmm... case discussion plans

(they looked rather put out at being interrupted, mind you)

then of course they do the wedding dress thang, but it gets all wet. side note: di feisheng is very interested about the bruise on li lianhua's neck. hm. after they interface with the guo house people, there's a cut to li lianhua being dry, and another costume change:

fellas that is not the green robe. that is li xiangyi colors.

you cannot convince me that di feisheng didn't pick out li lianhua's clothes. thank you 《莲花楼》 costume designers. you're doing god's work.

I wrote some Di Feisheng/Li Xiangyi battle couple, because the show itself hinted at it but didn’t deliver. Please enjoy.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 莲花楼 | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Di Feisheng/Li Lianhua Characters: Di Feisheng, Li Lianhua 

Additional Tags: Battle Couple, Fight Scene, Action, Action with Feelings (is that a thing), Wuxia, cultivation, Canon-Typical Violence, Married Di Feisheng and Li Lianhua, a larger than life wuxia fight scene, the battle couple the show hinted at but never delivered, takes place before the ending sequence of episode 38, dropping in some Di Feisheng and Li Xiangyi backstory in everything I write

Summary: Shan Gudao sends a force of Wansheng Clan disciples to waylay the joint Sigu Sect and Tianji Manor company on their way to the Imperial Capital to rescue Princess Zhaoling and Minister Fang. As they battle the enemy, Li Xiangyi and Di Feisheng discover just how complementary the energies of Yangzhouman and Bitterwind Poplar are when intertwined.

ugly sobbing at this beautiful fic 😭😭😭

ah, i'm told i should post that previously posted short fic to ao3.

so i finally set my account up.

here it is:

On tumblr

On AO3 - the moon is a bright today as it was before

I loved this fic!!

Candy Hearts exchange has revealed authors, so I can finally share the dihua fic I wrote for the amazing @mademoiselle-red, thank you for sharing my obsession with these two and thank you for the fantastic prompts <3

Moon and Wind, Li Lianhua/Di Feisheng (rated Explicit). Five times Li Lianhua and Di Feisheng could not say what they meant to each other, and one time they did.

Li Lianhua was a liar, an enemy, a ghost, a miracle. Di Feisheng had lost him once. It would destroy him to lose him again. If only there were a way to tell him so, and be believed.

Read on ao3 here!

18+ mysterious lotus casebook dihua server

sometimes when you want a thing to exist you have to make it yourself. please come talk about mlc and dihua and their ridiculous relationship! https://discord.gg/4jAsHeH3nB

i keep asking people for their dihua first kiss headcanons (feel free to tell me yours!) so i figured it was about time i wrote mine out. reminder that requests are open, so please don't be shy about sending some in.

*

so, a'fei kisses him. it doesn't quite feel familiar but it doesn't feel wrong, and after a moment li lianhua parts his lips and reciprocates. it's a sweet, slow thing, exploratory and with a tiny hint of teeth. a'fei tries to chase it when li lianhua pulls away, but a firm hand on his chest stops him.

"ah," li lianhua sighs, regretful and faintly aggrieved, "no, no, that won't do at all."

"you liked it," a'fei says. "why not?"

"oh," li lianhua says, schooling himself into a somewhat proper posture and not the dreamy slump of the recently kissed, "you'll understand when you're older."

a'fei squints at him.

"there are a lot of reasons," li lianhua amends, aiming to sound prim and not quite succeeding. "you'll remember them someday."

"i don't think i'll care," a'fei says, and li lianhua smiles at that.

"well, that's for the you of then to decide, not the you of now."

*

"if you say so," a'fei says, doubtful, but doesn't try to stop li lianhua when he makes his escape toward the tower door.

"well," li lianhua says with the sly look he gets when he's sure he's got a winning hand, "it wouldn't be the first time di-mengzhu kissed me."

di feisheng's scowl is thunderous. "i wasn't myself," he says, "it doesn't count." it doesn't! a'fei had done a lot of things di feisheng wouldn't, and even if this, perhaps, was not one of them, it doesn't count.

"don't deny it, you'll wound my maiden heart," li lianhua says with an exaggerated swoon.

"did you like it that much," di feisheng says, frown deepening. li lianhua had quite liked it, hadn't he. di feisheng feels vaguely wronged, as if something has been taken from him.

"why, lao di," li lianhua says, sounding positively delighted, "are you jealous? of yourself?"

"preposterous." di feisheng crosses his arms. he is a man who simply takes what he wants; he does not get jealous! especially not of some other version of himself taking initiative that he hasn't.

"you are, aren't you," li lianhua says, nearly glowing in the moonlight. it's a terribly good look on him.

"they'll find us if you get any louder," di feisheng says, deflection as threatening as he can make it sound. li lianhua makes a show of covering his mouth as he laughs.

"come now, lao di," he says, crossing over to di feisheng's side of the table. "it's a fairly easy problem to solve, isn't it?"

di feisheng glares at him. li lianhua doesn't seem to notice, easing himself down onto the bench and twining his arms around di feisheng's neck. "isn't it?" li lianhua repeats, smiling up into his face.

it's awfully unfair of him, some beleaguered corner of di feisheng's mind notes, but they're kissing before he can finish the thought. his hands come up to anchor themselves on li lianhua's too-thin waist, squeezing possessively. it's less gentle this time, more teeth and more tongue, the edge of frustration making him impatient. li lianhua nips back gamely, and it isn't long before they settle into a rhythm of give and take, retreating and pursuing.

di feisheng drags li lianhua's lower lip out between his teeth as he pulls away, surveying li lianhua's blown pupils and flushed face with an air of proprietary triumph. he brings one hand up to cup li lianhua's face and trace his spit-shiny lips with his thumb.

"that," he says, "is our first kiss."

I love this so much! @cheetahing this is absolutely perfect, soft husbands dihua is everything, and you wrote them so well 😍😍😍

written for @yijiangchunshui1203 for the @cdrama-action event!

Di Feisheng lets down Li Lianhua's hair with the practiced ease of familiarity, running his fingers through it a couple times before retrieving the comb from the vanity. "What do you do to get it so tangled," he murmurs, working through the knots at the bottom first, "All you do is water plants and lay in the sun." It's not a question that needs an answer and Li Lianhua simply hums in response, letting Di Feisheng tilt his head this way and that as he combs through his hair.

Fandom: Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Rating: E

Relationship: Di Feisheng/Li Lianhua

say you're fifteen and you see a swordsman dancing on a roof with a red ribbon, and you did not understand beauty until that moment. say you meet him near a waterfall and you spar together, half-friend, half-foe. entirely something else. you've wanted before, wanted to survive, to eat, to kill, to be stronger than anyone else. when you look at him, you want to win a different kind of war, one you have no experience in, one he has all he tools and medals for. you see him with different lovers hand in hand. you steal into his bedroom in the dark of the night. the two of you write a peace treaty together. during a storm he comes howling vengeance for a crime you did not commit, tears in his eyes. you kill each other.

say you never find him again. you find a man who wears his face, a man you think is him. he takes you home in red robes. you hold his hand while he wears silver and burgundy. the two of you drink together in a wedding chamber with a bright moon. you find a way to save him, you turn your back, and you never see him again. he does not show up to the memorial. the absence is the point and everything you love has slipped out of your hands before you knew it was gone. he won this type of war, you realise, standing there on that desolate beach, waiting for a ghost.

WIP Wednesday MLC edition

I've never remembered to do this in time before! I'm working on a fic where Di Feisheng decides to kidnap Li Lianhua to save his life in episode 13, instead of threaten Fang Duobing. Li Lianhua's cooperation remains about as you'd expect for a good while, but now they're finally communicating:

Li Xiangyi broke the silence first. "I thought you needed the Yang leaf for yourself, to break through the eighth level of bitterwind poplar," Li Xiangyi said steadily. "It was only a guess that it might work," Di Feisheng said dismissively. "I'll try it if anyone ever finds a second flower." Li Xiangyi stared at him, his pupils very large. He breathed shallowly, and seemed to find no words. "You said you don't need me to live a long life," Li Xiangyi eventually managed, sounding distinctly hurt. Di Feisheng didn't know what to say. Without Li Xiangyi, Di Feisheng being alive didn't mean anything. Maybe the truth was that neither of them were destined to live long lives. Either way, he wasn't going to explain himself to Li Xiangyi. Li Xiangyi peered back down at the paper, running a finger over some of the characters. "It's not certain to work," he said eventually. "The Yin leaf will work on anyone, sure. But the Yang leaf might not cure me. I've had Bicha poison for so many years and my inner power is too spent." Di Feisheng frowned. The flaws in this logic were painfully obvious. "And what if you spent this time building up your inner power instead of resisting it? We should be dual cultivating together, and when you get the wangchuan flower, I will feed you as much of my power as you can take. Bitterwind poplar seeks survival in dangerous situations. I think with it, your odds would not be so low." Li Xiangyi bent his head so that Di Feisheng could not see his face. He didn't say anything. His chest rose and fell very rapidly. But when he looked up again, he seemed calm and unaffected. "I see," he said. "It wasn't that I don't know you. It's just that we've been misunderstanding each other these days." Di Feisheng sighed, and bent down to take his boots off. He sat down on the bed next to Li Xiangyi. "We can talk about dual cultivating tomorrow," Di Feisheng said wearily. "It's late. Can we put the candles out and sleep?" "You want to sleep here?" Li Xiangyi said, giving him an inscrutable look. "Is your fortress missing a bed suitable for the alliance leader?" Jiao Liqiao had cornered Di Feisheng in what was theoretically his bedroom yesterday, wanting to help him change and bathe. He could not bear to sleep there tonight. He didn't say anything, but waved a hand, putting out the candles, and then lowered himself down onto the bed. Li Xiangyi made a sound that might have been laughter. "At least this bed is larger than the one we shared in Lotus Tower," he said, settling down beside Di Feisheng. It was much larger, although Di Feisheng was not sure that was a good thing. It had been nice, to be that close to Li Xiangyi, brushing against each other's limbs, waking up almost entwined. He fell asleep dreaming of Li Xiangyi's skin.

dihua, sword dance + kiss

 fic meme requests are still open, please feel free to send some in!

*

it's not really much of a sword dance by most standards, just two or three stances; one where he pictures di feisheng in the place an opponent might be and one for his shifu, who died for him, because of him. as the image of his shifu's smiling face fades, di feisheng alights in the exact spot li lianhua visualized him in a moment before. it seems natural to flow through another form, leaves swirling to match the river of his inner power, to come to rest directly in front of him. since he's being sentimental anyway, li lianhua leans up and kisses him. it's only when di feisheng starts with surprise that li lianhua realizes he's real and not a figment of his imagination.

he turns with a cough, acting like nothing happened. "lao di," he says with forced cheer, "what are you doing here?"

di feisheng contemplates him for what feels like an excruciating long time beore he speaks, mercifully not mentioning the kiss. "you tell me," he says. "i felt called."

ah. well that was unintended. li lianhua was trying to say goodbye, not call the man to him.

"how funny," he says, "i was just running some sword forms—"

"li xiangyi," di feisheng says, hand suddenly on li lianhua's face, turing it so di feisheng can look at him, "what's wrong?"

"nothing's wrong," li lianhua says, but di feisheng's hand is already sliding down, fingers at his wrist, frown deepening. li lianhua sighs.

"you're still poisoned. you didn't use the flower?"

for a moment li lianhua considers lying. to anyone else, he probably would, but it's never been particulary effective on di feisheng. "i gave it away," he says lightly. "there was only a thirty percent chance it would have worked anyway. why keep it when there's a dynasty to save?"

di feisheng's face darkens like the sky before thunder. his hand closes around li lianhua's wrist, tightening. "the flower was for you. no one else."

"i know," li lianhua says, and his contrition is honest, at least. "but the emperor needed it and the fang family was in trouble…"

"ah," di feisheng says, and looks away. his hand drops. "i see."

"i'm sorry, lao di. i can't duel you."

"i wanted to," di feisheng says, and then stops. "i should go."

li lianhua has the absurd urge to stop him. it's ridiculous, considering li lianhua is the one planning on disappearing. still, is this the last memory he wants to leave di feisheng with? it's crueler than he was planning on being, but perhaps being kinder wouldn't ease anything but his own conscience.

"all right," he says softly. "i won't keep you."

the look di feisheng is deep and dark; a man could get lost in there if he wasn't careful. "i know," he says, and then he's gone.

Title: this is the nonsense of love // 只想跟你说些温暖的废话 [Read on Ao3]

Fandoms: 莲花楼 Mysterious Lotus Casebook (TV)

Warnings: Rated E.

Relationships: 笛飞声 Di Feisheng / 李莲花 Li Lianhua

Words: 6,008, one-shot

Summary:  Everyone knows Li Xiangyi and Di Feisheng aren't really dating. Everyone knows that they can barely stand each other, and they're just pretending to be together for various reasons that make life easier.

Li Xiangyi doesn't care about the gossip, and he assumes Di Feisheng doesn't either — until an old friend comes back into the picture.

[Written for the prompt: they're actually dating but everyone else thinks they're faking it]

written for @yletylyf for the @cdrama-action event!

“Oh, meat buns,” he says, the vendor down the street catching his attention. He pulls A’Fei along by the hand, ignoring the perplexed look he gets in response. This is science! He orders two, biting into his own while A’Fei is still examining the one in his hands like it might grow legs and run off. So suspicious! “Eat, eat,” Li Lianhua urges, chewing. It’s good. The meat is fragrant, spiced just enough to bring out the flavor, and the dough is tender without being so soft that it falls apart in the hand. “If we eat enough here,” he says, “I won’t have to make dinner.” That does it.

Fandom: Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Rating: G

Relationship: Di Feisheng/Li Lianhua

feihua, true to form 😂

笛花 Dihua/Feihua prompt fill for @kingsandbastardz The groupchat had a burst of inspiration from @lyselkatz's post-canon fanart of silver-haired Li Lianhua and bearded A-Fei, and wanted to play around a little.

[Being officially dead doesn't mean they no longer solve problems. Dead bodies keep appearing with distressing regularity.]

-----

Normally, a dead body found in the streets of Jia Town isn't their problem. But three bodies scattered in different places in one night? Even Li Lianhua's old fox ears begin to twitch as the news breezes through the morning market bustle. 

“Don't,” Di Feisheng warns, as his husband stops to inspect some radishes being sold by Sun Erniang and ever so casually inquires about the strange nature of the injuries found on all three corpses.

She claims she doesn't know much, but the excruciating detail with which she is able to describe the blood which was seeping from the corpses’ eyes, nose, and ears, and the bloom of black bruising on their necks when they were discovered, means that the farm wife rumor mill has been hard at work.  

After he's wrung out every last scrap of detail that Sun Erniang knows—for her neighbor's cousin’s brother-in-law works at the local yamen—Li Lianhua turns and deposits an armful of radish and cabbage in the woven basket Di Feisheng is holding. The farmer has been well-rewarded for her information, he observes.

Li Lianhua turns, bidding her a good day. He cozies up to Di Feisheng, relieving him of the basket and uses the excuse of steering him through the crowd to hang off his arm so they can convene in low tones. 

“So, A-Fei,” says Li Lianhua lightly. “Do you think this is the Qiankun Wudu Shou 乾坤五毒手 or the Tiangang Xuanwu Zhi 天罡玄武指?”

Di Feisheng strokes his beard thoughtfully. Since his retirement from Jianghu ten years ago, between the travels, the sunsets, and the chores to do around Lotus Tower, he's managed to amass quite the collection of esoteric martial arts tomes. Between the two of them, there's not a single technique that can escape their discerning eye, but that doesn't mean that the old fox should be poking his snout where it doesn't belong. If the Emperor ever gets word that Li Lianhua yet lives…well, Di Feisheng doesn't need to remind his husband of how suddenly the quiet life they've managed to lead will come to a juddering halt.

“I'd have to see the bodies myself to know for sure,” Di Feisheng hears himself saying, even though he knows where this is going to lead. 

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Li Lianhua agrees, with a mischievous grin playing about the corners of his mouth. “The yamen is that way,” he says, nudging Di Feisheng to turn right down the next street. 

“Don't worry,” Li Lianhua continues, before Di Feisheng can even open his mouth to voice his concern. “Sun Erniang’s neighbor’s cousin's brother-in-law works there. They won't tattle on us.”

Di Feisheng merely grunts, and lets his husband lead him onto the next mystery. It's only been a week since the last one. He begins to wonder whether they are somehow cursed, or if his husband is just terrible at minding his own business. Perhaps it's a bit of both.

笛花 Dihua/Feihua prompt fill for @dharjeeling Still on the topic of @lyselkatz's post-canon fanart of silver-haired Li Lianhua and bearded A-Fei.

[When Di Feisheng finally woke up, Li Lianhua's hair was so lily white. But he was standing, his cheeks flushed with life, and Di Feisheng would do it all over again.]

-----

When Di Feisheng finally wakes up, sunlight is already streaming through the windows of Lotus Tower. He pushes himself up to his elbows, and the motion catches Li Lianhua’s attention. The old fox hurries over to the side of the bed from where the congee has been simmering in the kitchen.

It smells like congee now, like something that an ordinary person might actually want to eat, instead of reeking of noxious fumes like a medicinal warehouse that’s been set on fire. It’s a sign that Li Lianhua’s senses are returning, that he can smell and taste again, that what the Bicha poison took from him is slowly being restored. 

The light captures Li Lianhua’s silver hair as he stands at Di Feisheng’s side, framing his benevolent features with the radiance of a bodhisattva. The next thing that comes out of his mouth, however,  shatters that illusion. 

“You went too hard last night, A-Fei. I don’t approve.” 

Di Feisheng wants to tell him there’s no such thing as going too hard, that the way Li Lianhua’s cheeks are flushed with life and vitality prove that more than anything, but it’s too early in the day for such melancholy sentiment. 

So he says instead, “I know my limits,” and before his husband can protest, he adds, “and I know yours too.”

Li Lianhua purses his lips. “I’ll get you some food. You know, you’re lucky I can walk today,” he mutters, as if that’s his chief concern, and not the fact that every time they dual cultivate, Di Feisheng uses up a little more of his internal energy to dissolve what remains of the Bicha. Li Lianhua doesn’t like it, but how Di Feisheng chooses to use his internal energy is not for him to say. 

It has taken almost two years for them to get here, for the majority of the poison to be cleansed, and it may take another two to five before it is driven out completely. Li Lianhua’s hair has turned completely white, and Di Feisheng already has a lock of white at his temple. Li Lianhua plays with it often, curling it around his finger, or paying it extra attention when he brushes his hair. Di Feisheng knows that he may also go completely silver before the last of the Bicha is gone, but he takes it as a sign that they will remain together well into the white hairs of old age, as the expression goes. The thought pleases him. 

They sit down at the table together, Di Feisheng’s bowl filled almost to the brim, Li Lianhua’s own only half full. 

“I’ve already eaten,” he explains. 

Di Feisheng stares at his own husband with a faint frown, but then picks up his spoon and digs in. He can tell when Li Lianhua is lying—the subtle shift in his voice and gaze, the flex in his fingers—the old fox isn’t lying right now. 

There’s a rule that Fang Duobing set when all this all started—when you eat at Lotus Tower, you eat together. It means that Li Lianhua has had to eat whenever they do, has to snack whenever they snack. It’s gradually put some meat back on those skinny fox bones, and Di Feisheng is thankful that Fang Duobing had the good sense to make up that rule and then enforce it.

Li Lianhua reaches forward, and Di Feisheng thinks there must be a fleck of rice stuck in his beard. Instead, Li Lianhua takes his chin and strokes a thumb through the short, rough hairs there. 

“You’re getting a bit of white in here too,” he says.

That’s news to him, but Di Feisheng finds he doesn't mind. “It matches the hair,” he replies and shoots Li Lianhua an easy, reassuring smile. For all that Li Lianhua is an old fox, sometimes he is afraid—of wanting too much, of Di Feisheng is sacrificing too much, of being undeserving of whatever he receives. The fear rears its head less and less as the Bicha recedes, when Li Lianhua can see that he is needed and he is loved, and that not all of the ills of the world were born from the hubris of his youth.

There is a long road yet ahead of them, and it is precisely because of that that if Di Feisheng were given the choice, he would do it all over again. He wants to walk this road with Li Lianhua, and Li Lianhua only. 

They finish their meal, and there is much to do before the day is done—dishes to wash, floors to sweep, a whole field of golden wangchuan flowers to tend to. They get up, and set about the chores, together. 

笛花 Dihua/Feihua prompt fill for @magicknightriderjellyfish02 Still riding that burst of inspiration in the groupchat from @lyselkatz's post-canon fanart of silver-haired Li Lianhua and bearded A-Fei.

[How the beard thing became permanent part of their life and llh's reaction towards it, esp when they are intimate with each other]

-----

“That tickles!” giggled Li Lianhua the first time that Di Feisheng scraped the unshaven stubble of his chin across the smooth surface of his husband’s thigh. 

He would have shaved earlier in the morning had it not been for Li Lianhua’s imperious demand that he come back to bed, and between those vigorous morning activities and everything else they’d done during the day, Di Feisheng had simply forgotten. From the way that Li Lianhua’s cock swelled in response to the new texture, it did not seem that it was unwelcome. So Di Feisheng rubbed his chin and jaw once more against his husband’s skin, before taking him into his mouth. 

“Growing your beard out, hm?” asked Li Lianhua the next day during breakfast, noting that his husband had eschewed shaving again. 

“Is that going to be a problem?” 

Li Lianhua reached out a hand, rubbing a thumb across his chin. “No,” he replied, the sunlight glinting off his silver hair lending his smirk a particularly mesmerizing glow. 

Di Feisheng leaned into his husband’s caress, turned his head to kiss his palm, and then breakfast was soon forgotten. 

Two weeks later, Fang Duobing positively yelped the moment he stepped past the threshold of Lotus Tower. 

“What is that thing on Lao Di’s face?”

“A beard,” Di Feisheng replied. “You’d know what it was if you could grow one.”

Fang Duobing made a strangled noise of protest and took a threatening step forward, forcing Li Lianhua to intervene. 

“You can’t possibly like that,” Fang Duobing accused, pointing at Di Feisheng’s face over Li Lianhua’s body, which was positioned squarely between the two of them. 

“Actually, I like how it feels,” said Li Lianhua with a saucy grin. 

Fang Duobing made a small noise of revulsion as the images of what the old fox meant rose unbidden in his mind. 

“It lends him quite a distinguished air, don’t you think?” 

“He looks like my father.”

“Which one?”

“Both.”

And then Li Lianhua had to try a lot harder to keep his husband and his disciple apart, lest another wall in Lotus Tower collapse in the ensuing scuffle. 

It was late into the night, after Fang Duobing had fallen asleep upstairs, his breaths becoming quiet and regular, before Li Lianhua clamped both hands around his husband’s face, and drew it down for a kiss. 

It was a long time before Di Feisheng was allowed to pull away enough to speak. “If I’d known you’d like it this much I would have grown it out ages ago.”

Li Lianhua smiled and shook his head. “You’ve changed, A-Fei,” he said softly. “I’ve changed too,” he added, holding up a lock of his own silver-white hair for emphasis, the result of the dissolution of the Bicha poison. “I don’t think it would have fit you then, as Jinyuan Alliance Chief, but now? Anonymous Jianghu Wandering Uncle? I think it looks perfect.”

“Anonymous Jianghu Wandering Uncle?”

“Xiaobao’s not entirely wrong about the look.”

Di Feisheng growled, his expression darkening. “Come here, you.”

Li Lianhua laughed, gave his husband’s goatee a tug, and then melted into his arms. 

This is written for the @cdrama-action event, requested by @miaoyincourt ^^ thank you for donating!

Fandom: Mysterious lotus casebook (莲花楼)

Relationship: Li Lianhua/Di Feisheng

Summary:

“You once refused to let me out of the room until I took the wangchun flower,” Li Lianhua says slowly, “I'm just returning the favour, Di-mengzhu.”

Warm pillow

ok mlc fandom i'm curious about something

please reblog to help with sample size!

😂😂😂

My exact words were, "I'd love to contribute art to the fandom but I'm afraid my drawing skills peaked in kindergarten with hand turkeys."

For the kiss meme, no. 20 for dihua, please!

"exhausted parents kiss" fic meme fill! always in need of more prompts.

*

li xiangyi slumps onto the sofa burying his nose in di feisheng's shoulder with a tiny sigh. "i think he's finally asleep," he says, sotto voce, and di feisheng lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

neither of them had known what they were getting into when they agreed to take in the recently departed shan gudao's hitherto unknown child, but the rambunctious six year old had rapidly disabused them of any notion of quiet or easy. he's a cheerful child, despite his circumstances, and while li xiangyi wasn't prepared for the level of care he requires, he's determined to raise him properly. di feisheng has never seen himself as a parent, but he couldn't let the child just be shuffled into the system after a lifetime of escaping it himself.

"hopefully he stays down for a while," di feisheng says, curling his fingers into the short hairs at the nape of li xiangyi's neck, but he's not too optimistic. nine times out of ten xiaobao wakes up in the middle of the night and demands to be let into their bed. the effect on the previously vigorous sex life of two healthy young men goes without saying but di feisheng finds himself worrying about xiaobao's nightmares more than anything. he doesn't talk about them to either li xiangyi or himself, but they're working on getting him into therapy.

li xiangyi makes a soft noise and then then shifts to tilt his face up. "kiss me," he says, as imperious and endearing as the day they met, and di feisheng snorts but bends to comply. they kiss lazily, indulging in this little pocket of time they have to themselves, li xiangyi practically melting into it. it'll be bedtime for adults sooner rather than later, but neither of them are under the illusion that they'll have time for much more than this.

there's a cry from xiaobao's room just as li xiangyi slides his tongue between di feisheng's teeth and they both freeze. di feisheng withdraws with a sigh, pressing his forehead to li xiangyi's for a moment. "i'll get him," he says, and li xiangyi gives him another quick kiss before moving away.

di feisheng levers himself off the sofa, traveling to xiaobao's room with quick steps. li xiangyi hears him murmuring quietly to their nephew and sinks back into the cushions with a sigh. his family is complicated, but di feisheng is with him and li xiangyi has never met a more tenacious man. they'll be okay.