#it is so much more obvious when read on a platform with proper indentation that isn’t tumblr

[bbcphile]

WIP Wednesday

I'm back with more MLC excerpts!! (sorry I missed the last 2 weeks!)

In honor of it being the 1 year anniversary of my neurosurgery and of my finally being over the sinus infection from hell enough to write, here's an extra long excerpt (. . . and an extra evil cliffhanger? #sorrynotsorry. It will all work out, I promise)!

This is more from the (difanghua) MLC fic where DFS and FDB rescued LLH from the donghai beach after his shiniang tried to sacrifice herself to cure him and he shattered his own heart meridian to stop her.

For anyone who's interested in seeing how I put my analysis from the CPTSD meta into practice via fic writing, enjoy!

(To read earlier excerpts–although it’s not necessary!– you can follow these links to read part 1 (LLH), part 2 (FDB), part 3 (DFS), part 4 (DFS), or part 5 (FDB), or part 6 (LLH). Oh, and another excerpt from a WIP ask (LLH))

TW: panic attack, medical emergency, flashback (nonconsensual medical procedure)

**

He shivered as familiar icy tendrils tore through him, chilling him to the bone.

Damn it.

“Xiaohua? What’s wrong? Is–is this a trick?”

“Xiangyi, what do you need?”

He tapped the three points on his chest that had always controlled these attacks before and slid his hand down.

Nothing happened.

He tried again. A wet cough ripped itself free and black spots started to crowd in front of his eyes.

Firm hands gripped his shoulder and spun him 90 degrees. 

A large palm pressed against his back, radiating a slow, creeping warmth. Familiar callouses returned to his wrist, pushing down far harder than before.

“He needs Yangzhouman into his zhong fu,” a-Fei said, from somewhere close behind his ear. “Now!”

A shaking finger poked his lung meridian, and a sharp pain flared along his collarbone. 

“Less than that! Calm your qi if you want him to live,” a-Fei snapped. 

“Sorry,” Xiaobao murmured, his breath brushing against his face. 

Time crawled like qi through his meridians.

After a few breaths, the chokehold on his lungs began to relax, and the icicles that had replaced his bones began to thaw.

He let his shoulders fall from their perch by his ears, used some of the Yangzhouman to force the Bicha flare back to more manageable levels, and circulated some of the newly introduced Yangzhouman through what remained of his lung meridian, and through his newly reconstructed heart meridian. It did feel sturdier, didn’t it? Thicker than it used to be. As though it had been reinforced–

–his qi battering against the walls of his meridians, desperately trying to–

“Xiangyi? What is it?”

The room suddenly felt far too small. He needed more space, more air, needed this transfer to be done. Immediately. “That’s plenty. You can stop now.”

The thin stream of qi from his back cut out, but the one on his chest pulsed on. 

His skin crawled with the need to get up, this instant. “Xiaobao, I said stop. Save some for yourself.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve barely given you any yet.”

Li Lianhua’s hands started to shake. “It’s more than enough.”

“Will you quit lying? I can still see the Bicha lines on your neck.”

That was it. Another second of this and he’d make a break for the door, legs willing or no. “Brat, listen to your shifu.” He flung his arm up to bat Xiaobao’s away.

“Shifu?” His wrist was grabbed before his arm could make contact. “I’m not falling for that again, you old fox. So don’t–” a hard jab to an acupoint,

“even–” a second hit, and he forgot how to breathe,

“try it!” 

***

“–Stop fighting it, Xiangyi. Listen to Shiniang. Please, let me save you!”

“I said, let me GO.” He lashed his qi against his acupoints again, with more force than any blow he’d leveled before, even at his shixiong at the end. The reinforced structures started to shake. Just one more hit, that’s all it would take, and then–

“–Fang Duobing! What did you do?” “N-nothing! I just–”

“Undo it! Now!”

“But he was about to–”

“NOW!”

Li Xiangyi blasted his qi against the obstruction with all his strength.

There was a loud crash, the sound of splintering wood.

A wet, pained gasp from somewhere far in front of him.

“Fang Duobing!” 

“I’m fine. Xiaohua, are you ok? Say something!”

Why did Xiaobao sound so pained?

Li Lianhua blinked his eyes open to a blurry haze. 

But he didn’t need clear vision to recognize Xiaobao’s silhouette–

–slammed against the cabinets–

–with red spreading around him.

“Xiaobao,” he gasped, and tried to stumble out of bed.

“A-Fei, don’t let him–”

The world tilted wildly.

A hand pressed against his chest.

“Xiangyi, don’t you fucking dare di–”