You wouldn't then, would you now?

You Wouldn't The, Would You Now?

"Hua Cheng," Mu Qing hates to go to him of all people, but he's really the only other one who could possibly understand what emotion surges deep in his gut every time he watches Xie Lian and Feng Xin smile, laugh, joke, reminisce, and just hang all over each other. "How often does Feng Xin come over here?"

Hua Cheng only spared Mu Qing a glance from the side, deeming him and this conversation much less worthy of his time and energy than the image of a soft and purely laughing Xie Lian presented in front of him to enjoy. "Too often. Take him back." He did at least grace the question with an answer. Even if Feng Xin was the cause for such pure happiness on his gege's face when he visited, it still cut into the time the two newlyweds had together.

Mu Qing was silent for a moment when Hua Cheng spoke again, "He slips out of the Heavens without you noticing?" Now that is a topic worthy of at least some of his attention. Anything going wrong between the two most annoying gods turned lovers is of great interest to the ghost king. How else is he supposed to know how to get under their skin?

"It's not as if he's sneaking around. He doesn't need to tell me every time he leaves and where he's going."

"Obviously, but this conversation is quickly losing what little of my attention it had. Tell the truth or shut your mouth." Hua Cheng rolled his eye, clearly interested much less than a moment ago. These words, these pretty words Mu Qing is trying to pass as his own thoughts grate on Hua Cheng's nerves.

"He doesn't!"

Hua Cheng let out a sigh, his annoyance now very clear. "Obviously." He practically hissed, trying to keep from becoming too agitated and alerting his husband. "If he were to tell you every single time he went somewhere, your ears would fall off. He talks so damn much."

"He does n-" Mu Qing tried to refute Hua Cheng's rude statement, but with one skeptical look from the ghost himself he shut up. "He may talk a lot, but that doesn't mean you can comment on it like that." He finally settled on saying, an annoyed growl cleverly hidden in his words.

Hua Cheng rolled his eye again. "Whatever. How much that idiot talks isn't relevant right now anyway. What is relevant, however, is that you are having doubts."

Mu Qing flinched, he had to consciously stop himself from retreating a step or so away from Hua Cheng. "I'm not- I don't doubt him." He doesn't. He, he may wonder just why spending time with Xie Lian so often is of such importance to Feng Xin; he may wonder why Xie Lian takes precedence over him; he may wonder just where Feng Xin is when he needs him most...

But he does not doubt him!

"You may think you don't doubt him, but you don't trust him either." Hua Cheng couldn't help the sigh he let out at seeing Mu Qing's distraught expression, his non-beating heart softening ever so slightly as he thought about the way he would feel if the person he loved had seemingly hated him for centuries, not to mention if he had a ghost wife and son that came about during the time when you needed each other the most. The two gods of the South have always had an overly complicated relationship, Hua Cheng has heard a lot of it from his husband, and it's honestly no wonder Mu Qing hasn't yet been able to fully get over what they were before.

"Look," Hua Cheng started, feeling a lot more sincere in his treatment of Mu Qing than before. "you want idiot one to choose you, I know you do, and I know why. This doesn't mean you can just assume he doesn't already. Either give him the benefit of the doubt or talk to him already." And get the fuck out, was left unsaid but not unheard in his statement.

Mu Qing was silent for a moment or two, his brain working to catch up to Hua Cheng's pretty good advice. "Why are you helping me?" He asked, looking at the ghost skeptically. "You hate me. You hate us."