Wild Creatures

Chapter 117

And from the moment the children see that there's someone in the back with them, they grow extremely quiet, staring at him owlishly with their big, innocent eyes.

In many ways, they're worse than the scary one.

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Mo XuanYu ignores the whispering kids in front of him as Wei Ying takes them both to a washroom to clean up before they eat. Lan Zhan escorts him to another bathroom on the opposite side, waiting for him outside.

He's still glowering.

Wei Ying and the children come out first, and Wei Ying takes one look at his face and dissolves into giggles.

"Be careful, my love. We don't want him to piss himself." He laughs even more when Lan Zhan stares pointedly at the bathroom door, because that's the whole reason why he's waiting outside one.

It opens and Mo XuanYu comes out, still a little starstruck.

"I've never had my toilet sing to me before," he says in a daze, and the children laugh.

"You could always sing back," JingYi tells him, while A-Yuan smiles politely.

"We don't talk while we eat," Wei Ying warns Mo XuanYu, and his eyes flicker towards the children.

Mo XuanYu nods, understanding him immediately.

He wouldn't have said anything, anyway. His story isn't a pretty one.

*************

There's a lot of food, is his first thought. He's actually hungry after that terrifying car ride, which is his second. He couldn't have spoken anyway, because he's only got one mouth.

The children finish eating and come around the table to hug their parents, both the kids, and both of the parents.

It's this which makes tears spring to his eyes, and Mo XuanYu keeps his eyes down after that.

How bad could the scary one be, if both kids hugged him, and lingered? It wasn't even as if they were doing it because they HAD to, he had no doubts. They hugged because they wanted to, and in doing so, reminded Mo XuanYu of what he never had.

"Have you finished?" Wei Ying asks him, pushing a glass of water towards his plate.

He sounds much kinder suddenly.

Mo XuanYu obediently takes the glass and drains it, pushing away from the table with a new resolve in his eyes.

They want answers? Well, he's going to give them some.

Mo XuanYu follows the scary one to another room, and he's aware of Wei Ying following behind them. It's a study with books all around and a high-backed chair opposite a love seat and a couch. Mo XuanYu drifts towards the couch and sits on one side, feeling too exposed to sit in the middle of it. He watches Wei Ying sit right next to the scary one, and lets the scary one hold hands with him, while his free hand wraps around his waist. Wei Ying is leaning back towards the scary one, and the position looks entirely intimate.

It must be nice to have someone you can trust, he thinks.

"It is." Wei Ying tells him, and Mo XuanYu realises then, that he must have spoken out loud.

He blushes. "That's good." Why? He wonders, why can't he shut up? This is beyond embarrassing.

He looks around the room. It's a bright place, and welcoming in its own way. He wonders what it might have been like to grow up here, as a child.

"How old are you?" Wei Ying asks him.

There have been flashes of his innocence hidden in the depths of his deep eyes that made Wei Ying wonder about this, that Mo XuanYu might be younger than he looks.