aires | psl | homophonic

[ first of all, nahri gets to see the inside of fei du and luo wenzhou's apartment! it's not a particularly large apartment - there's a kitchen with a counter space, a small dining table with two chairs, and a fairly nice seating area with couches and a television. doors lead out to a small balcony, and nahri might see there are plants in a variety of places in the house, too, all well taken care of, along with bookshelves piled with all kinds of literature that look a little newer. there's a cat tree and a basket full of cat toys, and there are pictures on some of the flat surfaces - including a picture of luo wenzhou and fei du, so, at least she's in the right place. the house is... cozy. it's the sort of place that just feels like home.

a small hallway leads to a few doors - one to a bathroom, one just slightly open to what looks like a guest bedroom, and a third one where light spills into the hallway from the windows and the open door. and in the meantime, in the room with the natural light...you know how sometimes, you just get this gut feeling that you're about to get caught at doing something? or maybe that's just fei du. he has misbehaved for many a reason in his life, and he has been caught doing said misbehaviors by luo wenzhou enough times that he's usually very good at wheedling free... even if he's not always so good at knowing exactly which misbehavior he's wheedling free from. he's got sort of an instinct for it.

so that's what's on his mind when luo yiguo starts to sit up, roused from his doze by the sound of clicking in the lock, his ears pricking and swiveling forward at the idea of litterbox attendant one returning home early and fetching him food. wenzhou never comes home early becuse yan city police bureau is constantly metaphorically on fire, so if he's here... well. fei du probably did something wrong? (or he's worried. it could be either.) he weighs his hands internally and finally decides its probably better to just stay in bed, adjusting his position and shutting his laptop, trying to make himself look a little bit more adorably sleep ruffled. yiguo sits up, and as fei du is rubbing at his eyes under his glasses with one hand, he looks up properly and

that is nahri.

well.

the sight's not great. dressed in a loose sleep shirt, it is increasingly obvious that that are horrible, if healing, bruises wrapped around his throat like he was wearing some kind of thick collar, and his pretty face is bruised up in browns and yellows, a faded black eye and a split lip that's still slightly visible. the way he freezes suggests nothing but absolute, genuine surprise - a combined, distinct feeling of "oh, you're here!" and "oh, you're here" and "oh no" that plays across his face all at once.

pause. ]

... Hello.

[ nailed it. ]

[ nahri really should have thought to ask. nahri really should have planned this better, instead of relying on the element of surprise. but she isn't know for her strong decision-making, so now she gets to reap what she's sown of her impulsive behavior. if asked, she'd suggest that she'd be turned away for one reason or another, expected to be told not to come. and she is too bullheaded to simply accept that. at least there is the meager consolation that her feeling about something not being right was correct, but. well.

this is beyond the scope of what she was expecting. she didn't have a strong sense of what to expect, just not... this. she thought maybe she'd break in, re-organize a few innocuous things to be annoying, play with yiguo, and work over wenzhou if he dare question why she was here until she was fed and all was forgiven. it wasn't a very well-constructed plan, but being flexible is key when you know you're doing something you shouldn't. had to leave room for unaccounted variables. this, however, is too big for her to reconcile her plan with, so she's left there frowning and shocked for a moment until she can process the scene in front of her. ]

I'm... here to make a house call.

[ grace under pressure isn't one of her strong suits, so her attempted recovery here - placing her hands together, trying to smile - would look contrived to even to people who don't know nahri's mannerisms. ]

[ there's a beat of silence as fei du processes what's happening in that super-speed mental processor of his, starting to click together the correct neural pathways of how a normal human being should potentially react in a situation like this. namely, the facts are these: he's alive, he's a little more injured than he probably could stand to be, nahri just broke into his and wenzhou's apartment, nahri found a way to travel across dimensions somehow (?) and there is absolutely no way in hell she should know that he was hurt unless wenzhou ratted him out so she's probably lying, sort of, in the way that he also lies, sort of, most of the time.

okay. he can work with this.

slowly, fei du pushes himself up on an elbow, and looks at that facial expression - the attempted smile, and laughs, just a little one. it's light as a feather and elegant, like absolutely nothing is wrong. ]

Are you? [ liar, his tone says. he will not be addressing his injuries at this time.

in the meantime, luo yiguo sits up imperiously, leaning off of the couch to stare down this person. potential... litterbox attendant? he has a brain the size of a pea. fei du gives him a light push with one hand, and the cat hops off the bed and starts sniffing around nahri's legs to see if this is a familiar person or not. ]

Looks like you could use one.

[ her tone is by no means light or gentle. she doesn't see any need to spare his feelings or dance around the subject. he can afford the best care, and she knows, but that's still her friend lying there looking far more pathetic than he has any right to be. it's almost enough to make her angry. almost.

yiguo approaches, and she squats down and the switch to someone softer and more gentle is immediate. ] Mishmish.

[ she won't be offended if he doesn't remember. she definitely smells different that before too, after having run around in teyvat. but she will offer a hand for sniffs too. see? friendly. ]

[ he always looks pathetic ok this is not that different (it is a lot different)

anyway!! yiguo sniffs...sniffs.... and with the nickname and the familiarity, he seems to accept that this is his one of his favorite litterbox attendants, even if she smells weird, and lets out a slightly indignant noise, sticking his fat little face out to demand pets for the transgression (?) of smelling weird.

fei du watches this, and makes a mental note that a guard cat is useless, and finally props himself up on his elbow, then moves a tiny bit gingerly up to a seated position. ]

Well, I can't just run myself over with a truck to get better here. [ don't make this joke ] Are your senses so supernatural you've crossed the barrier of space and time, darling? [ pause ] Does Shenhe know you're here?

[ young master yiguo gets his pets, because of course he does! she adores him! she is pleased that he has accepted her again, despite smelling weird. sorry buddy. she takes a moment to indulge him, half-ignoring fei du.

though she does eventually look up, incredulous, from her spot nearly on the floor. ]

She isn't my keeper, you know. [ this is a lie. ] But yes, I did tell her. We are capable of being apart every once in a while.

[ they're both still independent even though they're in lesbians with each other, so it's fine. it has to be, since shenhe isn't here right now anyway. ]

Lucky for you, I still know how to heal. And I don't need a pin to do it.

Of course she's not.

[ there's a very light snort. as if that would ever happen - no one is nahri's keeper as far as fei du is concerned, because that's the whole point of this endeavor in the first place. he knows her, knows that that sort of independence is important, and he also knows nahri in the way that he could 100% see her sneaking out behind shenhe's back to run off and do something because it's something he would do. they are the same.

(granted, in the more positive manners of having a 'keeper', well... wenzhou is to shenhe, so on and so forth.)

he watches luo yiguo who has forgiven all manners of nahri being away for too long to fall over on his back and stretch out his belly, because he's a sucker for pretty girls, and then glances up at her when she offers. ]

Is that going to work here? [ he sounds

just slightly dubious. ] Believe me, I'd be thrilled.

[ true, shenhe would never restrict nahri's independence, but she certainly hovers around to make sure nahri is fed and comfortable and safe. it is very cute and endearing. sneaking away would only scare her, so nahri was less of a little rat about communicating with her this go-around. shenhe will have her turn too, anyway, if this whole dimension-hopping thing works. so it's fine! everything is fine, ]

Hm. I guess I should check that first.

[ so as much as she doesn't want to stop spoiling yiguo, she just. gets up and leaves. bye.

there's rustling around in the kitchen - drawers being opened, silverware being rattled around - and then she comes back with a knife! cool! except she knows how this looks, so the moment she's back through the doorway she's trying explain. ]

So, you might remember how my healing is supposed to work. It works in Teyvat, so there's no reason for it to not work here. [ then again, there was no reason for it to not work in the underground either, but it didn't. ] If I can't heal myself, then uh... We'll figure out a second plan.

[ ok nahri. "we." but without further hesitation, she slices the side of her thumb - somewhere not as dramatic as her palm, and won't be nearly as much of a hindrance if her healing doesn't work.

except a second after she starts to bleed, the wound closes itself. she looks fairly impassive, because she did expect this to work. though a demonstration seemed necessary. also she kind of likes showing off now that she's back to being god-tiered. ]

Looks like it works to me. Although it'd be too suspicious if I healed you all the way, I can make things a little easier for you.

[ there's also the matter that healing other people isn't as straight forward as it is for herself nor how it was when she had healing aura - the one good thing she could say about the psych. but he doesn't need to know that part. ]

psl | homophonic

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject