Chapter 30: The Nest

The spare bedroom had stopped being a spare bedroom.

Xiao Chen found that out on Wednesday morning, when he went in to look for a file and could not reach the window.

Every blanket in the flat was on the floor.

Shen Yan had piled them into a low, round heap, with the grey one from the storeroom on the bottom and Xiao Chen's old winter coat on top.

Two pillows sat at the centre.

Shen Yan lay in the middle of it, with the duck thermos, a bag of dried plums and the look of a man who did not mean to explain.

"It's a nest," Xiao Chen said.

"It's a pile."

"It has walls."

"It's a pile with walls," said Shen Yan, and ate a plum. "The doctor says it's normal. I woke at four and couldn't be anywhere else."

Xiao Chen stepped over a sleeve and sat down on the edge of it.

The bite on his neck had faded to a pink crescent, and the new bond hummed quietly under his ribs.

Shen Yan's mood was in it, warm and a little sleepy, with a thread of embarrassment.

"You're embarrassed," Xiao Chen said.

"Stop reading me."

"I can't. It's loud."

Shen Yan laughed and pulled him down into the heap.

They lay with their heads together, looking at the ceiling.

"There's room for you," Shen Yan said. "I made it big enough."

"I noticed."

"I want you in it every night. And I want a cot in the corner, a plain one."

Xiao Chen's chest went tight and warm.

He turned his head and kissed the crown of Shen Yan's hair.

The post lay on the hall table where he had left it two days ago.

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