This Silence a Sanctuary

Word of Honor/Rated E/3200 words/on AO3

It happens late at night. The hall where they sleep was made for the training of many disciples, and as a bedroom it is too big for the three of them by far. But something is so fragile about the life they’re building here, so tentative, that finding separate rooms was just never an option. None of the three of them is free of nightmares.

Chengling’s soft snores sound in the corner of the room. Across from him, Zhou Zishu can’t sleep. Something is restless, moving along under his skin like a jagged bolt of lightning. He’s alert and awake, and his senses are sharp, free of that muted muffledness that plagues him by day and dulls him to sleep at night. He feels sure that if he were to lift a jug of wine to his lips, he might even taste it.

He sits up. The air is cool tonight, a draft wafting in from the wooden doors out to the courtyard. He stands, looks around the room. Chengling sleeps on his side, curled in on himself like a pillbug. Tonight, at least, he seems free of dreams.

Wen Kexing’s bed is empty, Zhou Zishu realizes with a start. The sheets are in disarray. Where could he have gone? Wen Kexing is enjoying this little game of house they’ve been playing; surely he wouldn’t sneak away in the middle of the night. Still, Zhou Zishu’s heart patters a little faster at the sudden doubt. There’s something so elusive about him. The way his smiles fly by, the way his eyebrows arch. Zhou Zishu sometimes feels like he’s constantly reaching out, and Wen Kexing is always flitting away.

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redrew my fave scene in shl hehe :>