#xie lian is a marbled shrimp(3in) and hua cheng is a scampi(12in)(yes. like the dish.) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

illuminatedferret · 2 months

Note

for the one word prompt ficlets; I thought long and hard before realizing the answer was so simple

shrimp

not me writing domestic shrimp

Xie Lian was in the process of tilling over a particularly grimy-looking pile of pebbles when the currents around him shifted, foretelling a large body approaching.

Even a few months ago, his first instinct would have been to grow tense and alert. Though he never let himself think the worst, he had become long conditioned to canvassing the area around him for the best hiding spots. But now, he had someone to look forward to seeing. Someone so dear to him that the very currents their body made were carved into his mind like diamond, impossible to mistake.

So rather than worry, a warmth bloomed within Xie Lian’s thorax as he waited to be approached.

“Gege,” came the brush of a firm carapace along his side, ruffling his feathery setae. Embarrassingly, he could feel his exoskeleton flush, but if he pretended it wasn’t happening, it was even odds that the large scampi settling at his side would ignore it too.

“San Lang!” he said cheerfully, letting himself pause in picking clean his pebbles. Now that Hua Cheng was close, he could taste the blood stuck in the crannies of the scampi’s carapace. “How are you? Are you hurt?”

“Ah, I’m fine, gege. I was just taking care of some trash. But afterwards, I was so dirty, I thought perhaps gege might be willing to help me clean up a bit.”

“Of course!” Xie Lian agreed. This was the usual way things went. Back when they’d first met, Xie Lian had thought Hua Cheng might be dead, for the gruesome injuries that covered his form. Any other marbled shrimp would have left him there, but Xie Lian was never good at leaving well enough alone, and diligently kept the scampi clean of parasites and bacteria until he had the chance to heal. Ever since, they had circled each other like a school of two, sometimes parting but always reuniting.

“Thank you, gege.” Hua Cheng let himself settle upon the seafloor, tucking his legs beneath him. Xie Lian was large for his kind, but he was still many times smaller than Hua Cheng, and he was always taken aback by how majestic the scampi looked when he let himself settle down like this. “But enough about me. How has gege been?”

“Well,” Xie Lian said as he started to clean the blood off the scampi’s shell, “the water’s been unusually warm lately, so yesterday I...”

#tgcf #hua cheng #xie lian #hualian #juicedpeachy #tian guan ci fu #heaven officials blessing #xie lian is a marbled shrimp(3in) and hua cheng is a scampi(12in)(yes. like the dish.)#enjoy domestic shrimp #illuanswers #illuwrites

52 notes · View notes