Inky

A date (sort of)

A chit-chat (epilogue)

Vox had learned from the best after all.

Fanart of a fan story called "In Blackwater Woods"

The problem with Skinmas was in general it was harder to remove it from your life than let it cling like the parasite it is. After all, the stupid trees and decorations tended to grow into your house unless you warded against them. Shen Jiu might have decided for the sake of Shen Yuan he will allow a tree but that was it.

The problem was he killed the tree…and he was not telling Yue Qi that actually he’d be fine with sort of celebrating this year. Not after all that. So instead, he’s left to look at the stump on the floor as Yue Qi hands him a cup of coffee as black and bitter as his personality. He hates admitting things and this would be an admission. An admission that Yue Qi was…not even right just…okay when he brought that up.

That stupid stump is mocking him. He knows he can just call the tree back…but he can’t. It’s too humiliating to even pretend to voice.  Much like how he doesn’t want to tell Yue Qi that he made the coffee too strong by mistake. He’ll just drink in silence. Yue Qi also glances at the spot. “Xiao-Jiu,” they start and seem to want to say something but hold silent. They instead just focus on petting Shen Yuan’s cute little head.

He can’t stand it, “What? Out with it!”

Yue Qi tries to be as still and professional as possible but all he looks like is an idiot as he opens his mouth, “I noticed that our little A-Yuan keeps patting at where the tree was.”

Oh, great. This.

Ugh, just because Shen Jiu regrets his actions doesn’t mean he wants or needs for his husband to be the one to recover for him. There are more than enough ways for him to fix this on his own, thank you. “What of it?”

“Well, I think maybe he’d like a bingmas tree to cuddle under. Before I tore it down, he was resting in the roots at the base.”

He hates those roots. They’re a tripping hazard and they ruin his living room by flipping up the corners of his nice Persian rug. He hates the way that the base of the trunk will smile and look at him. He hated it even when he was a child and the stupid things would sprout in the drafty tiny apartment he spent his childhood scraping by in after he finally got off the streets. The only part he’d like was chopping the thing down to eat the flesh.

He'd hated the taste, but when it was cold and there was nothing else it was what he’d have. He’d suckle fatty marrow out of the awful branches and chew on the skin. He hated the pine smell. Hated that laugh and assurance that he was more than welcome to do this by this disgusting thing. Hated the holiday promise and way other people prattled on and on about their families’ traditions.

Hated the way he’d be made to help decorate the Qiu’s like he was a part of the family even though he’d always be thrown out like a dog in a handful of hours.

It just stung to look at. Why should he enjoy that stupid tree?

“Fine. Have whatever you want.” Don’t even give Shen Jiu the chance to make an excuse himself. Just fix it yourself and leave him the villain like you always do. Because obviously, Shen Jiu is the grumpy scrooge making the whole house miserable!

Yue Qi coughs lightly and then lifts his eyes demurely, “Well, I actually don’t remember how to call the tree back. Xiao-Jiu, will you do the honors?”

He sat up and perked his nose, “Tch, fine. Someone has to be capable then I suppose it’s me.”

“Thank you.”

“Shut up,” he huffs and walks up that empty bloody stump in their living room and knows he’s going to regret this. He always regrets this, but he’s going to do it. He claps his hands and puts on the biggest smile he can muster. Why must you call back this stupid tree with a smile? He hates forcing a smile, “Oh Bingmas tree, Oh Bingmas tree, please come back home to me...” even just saying this makes him want to vomit. Disgusting and saccharine on his tongue as ever.

There’s a stirring in the foundation of the house a shift and a lurch as the floor pulsates and sinew crawls through the walls. The ground shakes and there’s a muttering voice slowly chanting louder and louder as the stump bubbles and turns- it comes in a sudden awful pop. One instance nothing and then it stands! Tall, imposing and already growing red round ornaments from its appendages. He hates these things SO much. Every time it is never not repulsing and wrong to look at and yet for some reason he’s the weird one for thinking this is an affront to nature. He’s the sacrilegious one? Pah!

Shen Yuan jumps off Yue Qi’s lap and runs around the base of the laughing tree overjoyed and already trying to knock off the flesh ornaments. Shen Jiu hates the bingmas tree, but he will admit watching Shen Yuan terrorize the thing is actually deeply soothing.

He’ll admit it but not out loud. “There. Are you fine with that?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Never ask me for anything else.”

But if you asked him if HE wanted it and kept pressing him to actually answer he'd go "It's sex with Luo Binghe! It is a fact of nature that everyone wants Luo Binghe! And if they don't it's because they are asexual. That's the only possible way they could not want sex with Luo Binghe: the sexiest man in the Universe. That doesn't mean I'm gay. I'm a victim of the fact that he's perfect. I have to ride him! I have no control over this!"

" In that instant, a flood of parallelism and other stylistic devices flooded through Shen Qingqui's heart, passages after passages jumbling together into countless stanzas of praise that almost spilled forth out of his mouth." SVSSS vol.1 on.26

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