Jelly day 16

[stardustofdawn]

Who: Xingchen and you!
Where: Kitchen, dining car
When: Jelly 16, on platform day, today
What: Helping assemble a belated birthday party!

[With his vision and sight returned, Xingchen discover a simple joy of learning to cook again. To see food, working with food and utensils in the kitchen, he can feel being more useful. Wearing an apron, the kitchen is starting to smell really good, but he realized he needed help]

Hello? Hi, everyone. You know, I not good at aligning the days with the calendar, but I realized my birthday is actually last week on the 25th. While it was belated, I was exhausted from the last mission. I don't celebrate my birthday for years from where I'm from, considering I lived in poverty, so there wasn't much to eat.

I would like to assemble a lunch and dinner, a birthday party today. I haven't baked a cake yet, but this is where you can help. You can meet me in the kitchen. I'm looking to assemble ice cream as well.

If you like to eat, come a little later today to join me. It's on me and my treat.

Comments

[stardustofdawn]

"It's my special fried rice." Xue Yang is helping him with cooking...and eating, so the food wouldn't go to waste. He appreciates it. "Yes, you're on red team, so it's your turn to help with the meal preparation."

He chops up the meat, eggs, and vegetables that go into the fried rice over the pan to stir fry it and he makes a lot to cook for many. "Remember when we used to live together in that house? I always tried to cook for you two. You and A-Qing. But I can't see, so we end up hungry all the time. I had my own recipes that I wanted to share with everyone."

[xue_yang]

"I'm helping you cook so this counts." This is how Xue Yang gets away with not having to do chores. He finds the loopholes.

"How could I forget, daozhang? We weren't that hungry. We had what we needed." Xue Yang would never complain about what they had to eat because he enjoyed that time and he always did enjoy messing with the people in the market to make sure they got the decent vegetables.

"Now you can share whatever recipes you want."

[stardustofdawn]

He was blind during those days, so there isn't much he can do with his disability. He relied on A-Qing's help and Xue Yang's help when he feels like it.

"When we had what we needed." Xingchen took a pause, wondering if he had what he needed it. Song Lan left more than emptiness in his eyes, but also in his heart when he turned him away.

"Besides candy and pasteries, is there any food you like?"

[xue_yang]

"I'll eat whatever you cook, daozhang. I'm not picky." Xue Yang was used to eating very little at all or whatever was available. It's not like he really cares if he has a small meal or a buffet.

He just likes sweets because he was denied them for so long. A sign of wealth that he didn't figure he would ever have. Now he gets to indulge as much as he wants to.

[stardustofdawn]

"I know you like me to cook for you. Now that I can see, I will try to cook recipes that I remember from my time in the sect. But I recall we don't eat much meat, so it's mostly vegetarian." At least, some of his dishes now have meat mostly wholesome chicken or beef.

"I hope you like yours and it's not too plain. Eat a full meal first, and then you can eat dessert. We have cake and ice cream, so there's lot of sweets and we can eat plenty."

[xue_yang]

"If you are done cooking then come and eat it with me. Stop trying to cook for everyone and enjoy your day instead."

Xue Yang doesn't care if everyone else gets to enjoy xingchen's food. He is greedy enough to want to eat it all himself. But he knows that the daozhang will fuss at him if he refuses to let anyone else eat.

[stardustofdawn]

He is enjoying his day, finding purpose in his work. "Xue Yang be patient. I'll be done. I don't want the food to get burned and everyone deserves a piece." He's that generous. It's the least he can do to payback for their kindness and that's making meals for everyone.

"I'm done." After he shuts off the stove and all the food is neatly arranged by the trays and plates.

"You know if you want me to eat with you, we can dine together in the quiet car."

[xue_yang]

"I've been waiting for you to finish so that we can." He is almost whining as he flattens his upper body onto the table and lays his head on it as if completely exhausted from all of the cooking and waiting for the cooking to be done.

But his pout it short lived as he hops back up out of his seat so that he can collect the food and the daozhang.

[stardustofdawn]

Once the cooking is done, collecting and carrying the food, the drinks, and desserts on a tray as he walks through the corridor carefully to the quiet car. Inside the quiet car, there's two benches and a table, easily moved so they can sit down to face each other.

"Here we are. Now we can eat quietly." After a few moments of mindfulness, he picks up his chopsticks to quietly eat.

[xue_yang]

He settles into the seat across from him and then takes his food, "Do we really have to eat quietly?" He isn't one to talk about a lot but he also isn't one to simply eat in silence either.

"What if I make sure you have to talk while you eat?"

[stardustofdawn]

He eats and nibbles in little pieces, "It's being mindful of the food we're eating, Xue Yang. When we show gratitude quietly, it feeds the body and the spirit better."

He's flustered a little. "What's there to talk about?" Xingchen doesn't think he's good at conversing. The man knows stories from books, verses of sutras, and the rules of the sect he memorized and never forgotten when he left as a teen. Being curious, "Is there a subject you're interested in Xue Yang?"

[xue_yang]

"I don't know, Daozhang. I just figured I could come up with something. How about...what do you want to do for your birthday besides cook?" Because shouldn't he do something fun? Xue Yang didn't really have any plans so harassing the man was his plans unless Xingchen wanted him to leave him alone. If that was the man's desire he would honor it even if he didn't want to.

[stardustofdawn]

Xingchen looks at him quizzically. He knew the man wanted nothing more than spending time alone in his presence. Otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to come with him to the quiet car.

"A day of peace and spending time with you." He answered. "I'm not sure what to chat about other than the worlds we visited so far, reading what I read and studied in the books in the library, or after this, we can watch a movie together." Watching the movies in the cinema was a joy itself.

[xue_yang]

"I'll do whatever daozhang wants." Like a good little puppy, Xue Yang is going to behave himself and stick by Xingchen's side. "I don't want to chat about the worlds though." He's still a little annoyed by that last one and doesn't want to deal with thinking about it again now that it has finally been pushed out of his mind.

"I've only watched one movie." It involved bees and a train.

[stardustofdawn]

He's already doing, by living peacefully. "Oh, all right." He figured talking about it must be boring for him.

Thoughtfully, "You only watched one ever since you lived here? But there's a lot of interesting movies you could have watched." He said. "We can watch a movie together, how's that? What was that one movie you watched and what it's about?"

[xue_yang]

"Something about bees on a train. it was a little dumb.." And he didn't pay a lot of attention. He had sat down in a movie theater after being mentally tortured so his brain wasn't really on the film. He was at his most broken of moments.

So watching one with Xingchen will certainly be a better memory than that was. "I wasn't really in a good mood to watch it."

[stardustofdawn]

"I think bees are cute and if you watched that, then you must have a lot of patience." He's lightly teasing him a little bit, but he can see Xue Yang doesn't look happy talking about it.

"Okay, after we finished eating, let's go and find a movie that you and I may like and we watch together. How is that?"

[xue_yang]

"It's your birthday daozhang. You should pick whatever movie you want to see. Especially since it seems you have watched more of them then me."

Xue Yang doesn't necessarily have to watch the movie. He can simply sit there and enjoy being with Xingchen more then anything. They spend every day together and sleep in the same cabin so it isn't like he never sees the man. But Xingchen is the first person who had ever been kind to him and so he is happy to simply be with him all the time.

[stardustofdawn]

He realized Xue Yang just wanted to sit there and be by his side, and a part of him knows he's a loner, and he preferred being alone too. Once they're in the movie theatre and took a seat, and the movie start playing a cartoon of singing cats, he turned the volume down, so they could talk.

He talks to him whatever is on his mind, hoping to fill him with his thoughts. "The world is different when I am able to see and read. It's been dark for me for a very long time, so suddenly it felt like a light switch on. The world has more color, fuller, and alive."

He turns to him, "What makes you feel alive Xue Yang?"

[xue_yang]

Xue Yang listens to him talk and then relaxes in his seat as he thinks about that answer. There are several things that make him feel alive but some of that he wouldn't want Xingchen to hear about. The man trusts him, so he doesn't want to talk of some of his less then pure encounters.

"Fighting always makes me feel alive. But so does being on the train with you, Daozhang." He doesn't have this opportunity back home. But perhaps it isn't so much as feeling alive as it is being happy.

[stardustofdawn]

"Fighting does that, but it only brings people pain...unless you're out fighting monsters and robots." He said thoughtfully. "That happened last time when we were together too." He said very calmly, as he remembers his own death.

He realized Xue Yang may not know that or understand the gravity of the consequences at the time. He looks at him, "Try not to fight anymore. You only get hurt." That sound like worry and concern, but it's genuine.

After a few moments, when the music part of the movie is finished, and the movie continues playing, he turns to Xue Yang, open his arms to offer him a hug. "Xue Yang, you can hold me."

[xue_yang]

Xue Yang pouts a little when Xingchen tells him not to fight anymore. When on missions that is what he enjoys the most. Not being able to do so would make those missions far less fun. They would all end up feeling like the last one.

But when Xingchen opens his arms, his eyebrows shoot up a little in surprise. He has always behaved himself, not wanting to push the daozhang into too much. The man was trying to get used to new eyes and a new place and the truth about the things that Xue Yang had done.

This is like opening a door that Xue Yang has been standing behind, waiting for this moment. He tries to keep his excitement at bay as he moves closer and wraps his arms around Xingchen.

"Can I hold you whenever I want to, daozhang?"

[stardustofdawn]

He decides to open the door and gives him a second chance. He definitely feels he's a different man than he was back home a few months. He has long knew the truth, accepting it, and still he forgave him despite everything, and perhaps redeem him for as long the train will give them, even if that future is uncertain.

This felt nice when they hold each other and hug each other alone in the cinema. His friend's body is cool, but he is warmer and his arms are strong.

"Mm-hm. If you're not sure, you just need to ask and because I want to."

[xue_yang]

He relaxes into his arms, more interested in this then the movie on the screen. He is silent for a moment as he considers those words. To simply ask...for him to want him to hug him. There is so much more that he wants to do with Xingchen but he has moved slower then he has ever gone in his life. All those years together building to this point.

He smirks softly as he leans over to place a kiss on Xingchen's cheek. "What if I want to kiss you, daozhang?"

[stardustofdawn]

He starting to see another side of Xue Yang. More relaxed, dropping his guard, showing a softer side than the usual determination and focus when he does his mission.

He's flustered as he sat still. A part of him already knew how he feels and the feeling is returned. With a nod, with a look of anticipation, and perhaps nervousness that he felt his lips and throat suddenly dry, his heart rate speeding up as he felt a flush of warmth.

"You asked. So yes you may."