WIP Wednesday (Happy MLC-versary, everyone!)
Mysterious Lotus Casebook started airing two years ago today!! So I figured that called for a WIP Wednesday excerpt!
Here's more of my dihua collaboration with @greentealycheejelly (the sequel to the dihua anniversary fic for @exitvelocities).
Li Lianhua thought back to one of a-Fei's more inventive ways of encouraging him to be honest about his health back when he was in the throes of Bicha. It had already been adapted previously, after all, and multiple times; modifying it for these purposes seemed like the best plan they had.
He leaned in and turned his head, his lips nearly touching a-Fei's ear. "Shall we resurrect an old tradition?" he murmured, pitching his voice low enough to be heard by a-Fei and a-Fei alone. "Three questions for a kiss? The usual rules apply?"
For a moment, a-Fei stilled. Then he huffed out an almost amused breath and shook his head. "Two," he said with a hint of a smile.
Li Lianhua snorted and bopped him in the knee with his own. "Oh, now the rules are negotiable? Fine, you menace," he pretended to grouse, letting a hint of a smile play on his lips. "Two. But I get to ask a third if you pass on a question." Not that a-Fei had passed once in the fifteen years they'd played this game, but given how much a-Fei was struggling to tell him anything at all, the contingency seemed wise.
A-Fei hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Ask," he said at last. His hand started to tremor again. He clenched it to force it steady.
Li Lianhua stroked a-Fei's hand with his thumb as he thought through his strategy. With only two questions, he couldn't ask about the scope of the problem, the solution, and why it was happening at all. He'd have to choose. And of those, only the third could wait safely. He'd just have to hope he could figure it out on his own. For now, he'd start with the simplest question, for all that he knew a-Fei would hate it. "Alright," he said, patting a-Fei's shoulder, then holding him more tightly. "How extensive is the intermittent paralysis, or is it only your wrists?"
A-Fei tried to scoff. "That's two questions," he said, his voice pulled painfully tight, making a valiant attempt at a lopsided smirk.
Li Lianhua rolled his eyes, bumping their shoulders together. "Fine, you impossible man. I'll revise it," he said, trying to match his Lao Di's banter while his own worry escalated rapidly. "Is it only your wrists?"
There was a long pause. A-Fei took a slow, deliberate breath. "Usually," he said, his voice worrying hoarse.
Li Lianhua was torn between wanting to pull him onto his lap and hold him close, sheltering him with his body from whatever had done this to him, and wanting to whack his stubborn fool over the head with the fishing rod. "Lao Di-a. Unless you've changed the rules on me again, I'm not wasting my second question guessing limbs and joints."
With a scowl and an attempt at an eyeroll that he'd clearly hoped would cover his shaking exhale, a-Fei squared his jaw. Then he glanced quickly at his shoulder near his collarbone, right where half of a pair of jagged scars lay under his robes, then down to his ankles.
Ah. So, it only affected damage that occurred while he was Jiao Liqiao's prisoner.
A-Fei tensed further, his free hand clenching into a fist so tight his knuckles turned white.
Li Lianhua winced. Time to lighten the mood before a-Fei's nails drew blood from his own palm. "Thanks," he said, patting a-Fei's shoulder again. "And since you so generously let me revise my question," he teased, "I think you deserve an extra reward, don't you?" He darted in and pressed a quick, light kiss to a-Fei's temple. "There," he said, smiling, and bopped a-Fei's knee with his own again. "Better?"
A-Fei's only response was a small dip of his chin, a barely-there nod.
