#yaohui

The beginning of hell (as seen from Mortefi's pov)

“Mortefi!!!!” the girl entered the man’s study like a tornado, grandly interrupting the quiet calm of the room “You will not believe what I just saw!”

Two pairs of eyes turned to look at the intruder, with different levels of curiosity and annoyance, but she didn’t seem deterred, nor did she particularly notice, engrossed as she was in her recounting.

“So I was in the ecoacoustic lab, because I thought I left my papers there yesterday – by the way did I leave them here? You know those results from the artificial sonoro in Banyan I was looking over yesterday…”

The man wordlessly nodded at his desk, where a pile of papers sat neatly in a corner.

“Ah thank you!” the girl quickly snatched the papers and immediately took their place, sitting on the desk, much to the man’s resigned annoyance.

“Anyway I was in the lab and, you know Jian? From ecoacoustic. He’s the one that published that paper on the resonance of those plants in Guixu last month. Anyway apparently he mixed up his samples with Baizhi’s when he went to take them back from processing today and I ended up in the lab just when she realized! I swear her glare is sooo strong, I was about to go and apologize to her, and I didn’t even do anything this time!”

“It’s not hard to believe that someone’s incompetence led them on Baizhi’s bad side. So yes, I can believe what just happened. Now if that’s all, I have work to do, if you people could stop invading my personal study.”

Just then did the girl notice the other person in the room, and her face promptly burst in a violent shade of red.

Now. That’s a pretty guy.

“Uuh… Hi! I mean- hello..?” she quickly jumped off the desk, cleared her throat – hoping to clear herself of the embarrassment too – and offered her hand “I’m Jiahui. Uh… Xu Jiahui. Nice to meet you.”

“Xiangli Yao” the man shook her hand, an amused smile on his face, “and likewise.”

“Xiangli?” she perked up at the name “I think I’ve read some of your articles! Automata Mechanics, right?”

He nodded.

“Oh you- they’re amazing! Really interesting read!”

“Thank you. You work on sonoros, right? Was it yours, that study on the overwriting of natural sonoros?”

“Oh yes! That was probably my favorite to work on!”

“I can see why, it was brilliant.”

“Really?” she smiled bashfully.

Her mental gushing on the guy appreciating her articles was abruptly interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

“As I mentioned,” the dry tone made even Jiahui stand on attention, actually willing to comply to the request, “I have work to do, so I’d appreciate you not do that in my personal study.”

“Oh uhm… right sorry… gotta go, see you-”

“Your papers.”

“Oh shit thank you!” she quickly turned to grab the papers from where she left them during the conversation, “well it was nice meeting you… uh... see you around!!”

And with that she was gone, slamming the door behind her with what was probably too much strength, and leaving the room in the same quiet it was in before she arrived.

After a few seconds of silence, Yao spoke up.

“Is she always like this?”

“Hyper, awkward or uncaring of my study’s privacy? The answer is yes regardless.”

“Well, she is amusing if anything…”

The other glared at him.

“Do not indulge her. She doesn’t need it.”

“It seems to me like you indulge her enough.” he smirked.

“I don’t, she just doesn’t listen to what I say.”

The other just chuckled.

“For your information,” the older man started, “I was kicking you both out of my study.”

When the other man finally left the room, Mortefi allowed himself to lean back on his desk, a hand instinctively going to the bridge of his nose. He could already feel a headache coming. This was going to be hell.

--

--

As she walked down the hallway to her study, Jiahui could feel herself buzzing with energy. After a whole afternoon spent at the Academy for a (far too thorough) checkup, a whole day of mandated rest at home (which she spent sleeping off the previous all-nighter) she was finally ready to get back at it. She had a few things from before this little expedition to finish looking over, she definitely needed to study some of the material they managed to gather from that sonoro, maybe she could draft a proposal for some study on interwoven sonoros… but most importantly, she’d finally be out in the open.

At first she had wanted to use the free day she’d been given (imposed) to take a nice walk in the nature, but as soon as she touched the bed she instantly collapsed, exhaustion taking over, and stayed unconscious until the following evening... So much so that she didn’t even eat anything until dinnertime.

Point being, she hasn’t been out of her house or the Academy for almost 48 hours.

Now, obviously that’s not to say she doesn’t enjoy her job in the lab… but come on, it can’t compare to some on field work! And fresh air is good for recovery, right?

She entered her study with a spring in her step, thinking about what outside projects of hers she could check up on, and was so absorbed by her thoughts that at first she didn’t notice the sheet of paper on her desk, far more orderly than her usual disposition. Once she did, she quickly snatched it from the desk, curious as to who could’ve brought her a paper to sign this early in the morning.

...

You’ve got to be kidding me.

...

“TWO WEEKS???”

Although it could probably be heard throughout the entire building, the noise made by the woman slamming the door to his office made Yao little more than sigh. He was expecting more or less something like this.

“Hey,” he leans back in his chair, awaiting the inevitable storm that is his girlfriend whens something doesn’t go her way.

“Hi. Two weeks? Really?” she closes the door to the study, before marching up to the desk and slamming the paper down for him to look at – as if he wasn’t the one who left it on her desk less than an hour earlier.

An official notice informing her that she’s suspended from on field expedition for two weeks because of “health concerns”.

“There’s nothing concerning about my health, I’m fine!”

He raises an eyebrow, “You’ve read your medical file, right?”

“Yes, I did. You’re exaggerating, I’m fine…” she was aware that the whiny tone was not helping her position in the slightest, but come on this is ridiculous.

She watched as he typed through his tablet, obviously looking for the aforementioned medical file. Once he found it, he started reading aloud.

“Prolonged exposure to unstable frequencies, prolonged permanence inside an unexplored sonoro... self reported” the stress on the words did not go missed, “nausea, headache, dizziness…”

“That was in the moment! I’m fine now.”

He put down the tabled, having made his point.

“The doctor that visited you actually recommended two weeks of full rest, right?”

“Come on, you know I don’t need two weeks of full rest.”

“Which is why I approved of you coming back to work after just one day. It doesn’t mean I’d be happy to see you throw yourself into another dangerous expeditions so soon.”

A huff left her lips, as her face scrunched in obvious annoyance. She was not going to win this one.

Groaning, Jiahui rounded the man’s desk, and promptly sat on it, completely ignoring any complaint he might have.

“I still think you’re exaggerating”

Yao smiled, seeing her… somewhat compliant.

“Look at it this way – you can use this time to work on that report you were supposed to finish last week. You complained so much that there was always something coming up…”

A bright blush quickly spread on her cheeks at the reminder.

“Fine, you win...”

Her mind split between the embarrassment for the call-out and the annoyance for his refusal to let her go on an expedition, she elected to jump off the desk and actually go to her study to start on whatever part of her job she was allowed to do.

“You know I’ll be bothering you about this, right?”

“I’d expect nothing else from you”

He watched as she exited the room and closed the door behind herself, then leaned back in his chair, an amused smile unconsciously making its way on his face.

At least she signed the form this time.

--

Real fun project, I never get tired of writing this sort of snippets

Sweet dreams

.

It always started the same way.

She’s in a cave, looking over some mechanism or another, when a screeching sound makes her turn, and she finds herself face to face with some of the biggest TDs she’s ever seen.

She turns around and starts running, finding herself in an endless corridor.

After what feels like hours of running, the TDs always close but never quite catching up, the corridor opens to the forest near Taoyuan. She’s nearly home. Her mom will help her.

She tries to pick up the pace, run just a little bit faster, her strides just a little bit wider, but the TDs don’t seem to get any further. She’s too scared to look back.

Finally, she sees it. The first few houses. And she screams.

Her voice doesn’t come out.

She tries again. Same results.

She looks around frantically, never stopping her run, to find the place deserted.

Her mother is not at the window.

She will not save her.

No one will.

The noise from the TDs becomes unbearable. Her ears are bleeding.

She turns around just in time to see them reach her.

Then her vision goes blank.

…

She doesn’t jolts when she awakes. She doesn’t even gasp. It’s happened too many times for that, she got used to it.

But getting used to something doesn’t necessarily mean her reaction is any less weaker. Her heartbeat is quickened, loudly thumping in her ears. It feels deafening. Her hands are clammy with sweat, and so are her forehead and nape.

Just because she doesn’t scream anymore it doesn’t mean these dreams don’t leave their mark.

As she breathes, trying to get her heartbeat under control, she finally gains back some consciousness of her surroundings. The room is dark, but some light from the city’s streetlight filters through the curtains, highlighting just the shape of the door and some frames on the walls. The alarm on her nightstand – showcasing the unholy time of 1:42am – is casting a barely imperceptible glow in the room, the combined light just enough for her to make out the outline of her hand as she raises it in front of her eyes, a weak attempt at rubbing her eyes.

Finally she takes note of the arm loosely slung over her waist, and the warm body pressed against her back.

She manages to take a deep breath that’s not as shaky as the previous ones, and her thoughts finally seem more coherent.

She’s in her room, she recognized as much. Her boyfriend is with her. They had dinner together the previous night, he walked her home to her apartment in Jinzhou and she offered him something to drink, an excuse to stay together some more. He stayed the night.

She groans internally, mindful not to let the sound escape her lips. It was such a good evening… of course a nightmare had to come and ruin everything.

Trying not to awaken the sleeping man at her side, she slowly sits up in bed, and blindly reaches for the water bottle on her nightstand.

It’s empty.

Of course.

She sighs, and mentally curses herself for forgetting to refill it. Now the Sentinel would have to physically drag her out of bed for her to even considering getting to the kitchen to fix the situation. The idea of fixing her prosthetic, using her crutches or heaven forbid hopping to the other room? Yeah, no. Just thinking about it tires her out enough. She hopes the Sentinel would be merciful of her and wouldn’t actually drag her out of bed.

She shakes her head at the absurdity of the thought, just briefly getting her thoughts to sway from the remains of the nightmare, and finally feels her body starting to relax.

Knowing how nights like this usually go, she gives up on the idea of falling back asleep any time soon, so she shuffles back into a more comfortable position, her back leaning on the headboard.

Lost as she is in her thoughts, she doesn’t even notice her fingers straying away from her lap, and starting to gently comb through her boyfriend’s hair, idly playing with the soft strands.

Or at least she doesn’t until she feels a small shift under her hand.

Shit.

Her eyes widen as she hears a small groan coming from the men lying beside her.

She glances down at him, hoping to see him just switch position but otherwise remain in deep slumber. She could swoon at how cute he can be, can maybe allow herself to stare just a bit longer… and most importantly she wouldn’t have woken him up for something as dumb as a nightmare.

As it often happens though, luck isn’t on her side.

She watches as the other man shifts some more, before blinking a few times and squinting up at her. Confusion is obvious on his features, both due to the late hour and the state of his girlfriend.

“Jiahui...” his voice comes out a bit raspy, and the woman takes a brief moment to swoon at how cute he looks like this, before the guilt comes back full force.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up...” she starts, “go back to sleep.”

But it’s too late now.

“What time is it? Are you okay?” he’s almost fully awake by now, or at least as awake as someone with a decent sleep schedule can be at 2 in the morning.

“Late, it’s nothing, go back to sleep.”

She watches as he doesn’t listen to her plea, as he gets up and repositions himself to face her properly. She knows that by now he’s noticed her shaky voice, the sweat covering her face, and that his hand, gently wrapped around her wrist, can feel her heartbeat, still loud and fast from the nightmare.

“Jiahui…” his voice isn’t stern, nor is it demanding. But Jiahui finds herself unable to lie, or deflect, any longer.

“It was just a nightmare, nothing to worry about, I’m fine.”

She tries to focus on her breathing, deep and slow, but the remainders of her dream, alongside the guilt of having woken up her boyfriend, keeps the uneasy feeling heavy in her chest.

“Hey,” his hand, earlier loosely wrapped around her wrist, moves to cup her face, thumb gently stroking over the warm skin. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He offers her a small smile, but she can see he’s searching her face for anything to reassure himself that she’s present. Ugh, she knows he’s right in doing so, because for once she was spiraling, and she is aware of how her forte affects her emotions, but it doesn’t make it any more pleasant. She hates worrying her friends.

Still, she lets herself lean into the comforting touch, and lets out a small sigh.

“It was just an old nightmare, it’s not really that bad anymore but it still happens from time to time…”

A small frown appears on the man’s face, and he tilts his head a bit, trying to catch Jiahui’s gaze.

“I’m not trying to force you if you don’t want to talk…”

“It’s not that, it’s just… It’s late and we both have work tomorrow, you should go back to sleep”

He raises an eyebrow.

“And you?”

“I’ll try,” she shrugs, “but we both know you’ll fall asleep first, by far.”

The woman watches, as her boyfriend sighs and lowers his hand – that hadn’t yet left her cheek – to hold her own.

“You’re sure you’re alright?”

She hums softly, and gives a small nod. Most of the stress and anxiety from both the nightmare and the situation have subsided, leaving her more tired than anything.

“Do you have your water?”

“I just finished it.” She knows a bright blush is quickly spreading on her face, and is kind of glad for the darkness making it hard for her boyfriend to notice. She was never really good at lying.

“Give me your bottle, I’ll fill it up for you.”

“What? No, you don’t need to-”

“Jiahui…”

She sighs, and reaches over to her nightstand to grab the bottle. She huffs a bit as she hands it over to her boyfriend.

“There’s no arguing with you, uh?”

He just chuckles, takes the bottle from her hand and gets out of bed.

Before leaving the room though, he leans over, knee pressed on the edge of the mattress for balance, and leaves a small kiss on her forehead, lips lingering for a few seconds.

Well if Jiahui was blushing earlier, somehow the situation got even worse now. She’s left speechless, eyes wide, sitting a bit hunched on her bed, and can only watch as her boyfriend exits the room.

She’s still in the same position by the time he comes back, not even a minute later. By now her blush is so bright she thinks she should count as a lighting source.

When he sees she hasn’t moved, Yao cocks his head, confused.

“Everything alright?”

Her answer comes out a choked and high pitched noise, and upon recognizing the tone, he relaxes and lets out a small chuckle.

He leaves the bottle on her nightstand, before moving to his side of the bed – the thought of him having his side of the bed at her place makes Jiahui a tiny bit lightheaded.

She only looks away from the wall when she feels a tug at her hand, and she looks down at her boyfriend.

He’s lain back in bed and is looking up at her, and not for the first time – nor the last – Jiahui finds herself mentally gushing at how beautiful the man is. The soft light from outside the window is just enough to highlight his features, a small glimmer in his eyes, the soft smile on his lips...

And having him look at her like that…

Nope! Not going there. She definitely will not sleep if she goes down that path.

She shakes her head, trying to stop the train of thought, and lowers herself to bed, laying on her side and finding herself face to face her boyfriend.

Jiahui can see he’s about to fall asleep, and for once she isn’t that far herself. So she inches closer, pushes his shoulder so he’s laying on his back, and puts her head on his chest, her arm crawls across his stomach, fingers playing with the fabric of his shirt.

She idly thinks he shouldn’t be wearing the shirt at all… it’s not like it’s cold anyway…

A small frown forms on her face. Well… if anything his presence does help take her mind off of the nightmares. Maybe she should invite him over more often…

“Hey” Yao’s voice is soft, a bit groggy and slow. He’s definitely on the verge of falling back asleep.

“Hi” she glances up at him, a small smile playing on her lips.

Then after a few seconds.

“I’m sorry I woke you up…”

He shakes his head fondly.

“I told you, it wasn’t a problem… Actually I’d rather you wake me up on purpose if you can’t sleep”

“You sure?” she scoffs, “You know what my sleep schedule is like.”

She doesn’t need to look at him to know he’s sending her a look.

“Okay, okay, I know,” she concedes, “Still… I don’t like the idea of waking you up just for a nightmare…”

“You would do the same for me, right?”

“Of course!”

“Then you know it won’t be a problem for me.”

She huffs.

“I hate it when you make compelling arguments against me…”

She can feel more than hear him laugh.

“You think you can sleep now?”

“Yeah,” she nods, “you definitely helped with distracting me… thanks.”

She elected, for the well-being of what was left of her pride, not to mention in what way he helped distract her.

“Happy I could help you.” his voice is definitely drowsy now, and on the next glance Jiahui gives him, she sees he’s already fast asleep.

She chuckles to herself, before laying her head back on his chest, closing her eyes and letting the soothing beat of his heart lull her to sleep.

--

It got reaally soft by the end I was genuinely surprised

Really how do I write such soft romance when irl I literally couldn't care less for it??

Whatever I'm not complaining, the more I write for these two the more I get to read for them too!