"Don't." Mei's voice was gentle. "Don't apologize, It's... natural."
Neither of them moved.
The air between them felt different, different from last night's failed attempt. Something had shifted during those late hours of talking, crying and holding.
Trust, Longwei thought. We built some form of...
Mei's hand moved slowly and deliberately as she placed her palm flat against his chest, over his heart.
"I felt something," she said. "While we slept... energy moving."
She was right, his nascent core had grown overnight. Still just a spark to a small flame, barely noticeable but measurably more than before.
"Proximity," he replied. "The scripture mentions it, partners who remain in physical contact exchange energy passively. It's inefficient compared to active cultivation but..."
"But it works." Mei's eyes met his. "Even without the techniques or without..."
"Apparently."
She went silent but her hand remained on his chest, rising and falling with his breath.
"I want to try again," she said.
"Mei..."
"Not the full techniques, atleast not yet but..." She bit her lip. "Last night, when I talked about Lee, something loosened. The walls felt less... wally and this morning waking up with you, I don't feel the same fear."
She shifted, rising up on one elbow and looking down at him. The movement made her inner robe gape further, she didn't fix it.
"I think I can open a little more, not all the way, not yet but more than before."
Longwei's throat went dry. "What are you suggesting?"
"I'm suggesting we try an intermediate step." Her fingers curled against his chest, her nails light on his skin through the cotton. "More contact, more... sensation, building resonance physically before attempting energy exchange."
"The scripture calls that preparatory cultivation," Longwei managed. "Establishing bodily harmony before..."
"I don't care what the scripture calls it." Her voice dropped low with intent. "I care if it works."
She leaned down.
Her lips brushed his.
The kiss was nothing like the Emergency Resonance, that had been a desperation survival technique, but this... this was... a question, her mouth was soft against his, asking rather than taking.
And Longwei answered.
His hand came up to cup the back of her head, fingers tangling in silver hair. He deepened the kiss slowly, giving her time to retreat but she didn't retreat, she instead pressed closer, her body sliding against his with cold skin finding warm.
This is dangerous, part of him warned. She's vulnerable and you're taking advantage.
But she was the one who'd initiated, the one who'd asked and the energy he felt building between them was mutual. Her Yin responding to his Yang, creating something that neither possessed alone.
Trust. The scripture had said. Through Vulnerability and Surrender.
Maybe trust wasn't built through words alone, maybe it required this... bodies speaking when minds couldn't, vulnerability made physical.
Mei's hand moved from his chest to the ties of his shirt, he felt her fingers working the rough cotton loose and felt cool air brush against his skin as she opened the fabric.
Her palm now pressing flat against his bare chest, the contact was electric her Yin flooding into him and his Yang rising to meet it. Not a trickle this time but a whole stream.
She gasped against his mouth.
"I feel it," she breathed. "I feel you."
"Yess.."
Her hand moved across his chest then down his ribs (she was careful of the bruised ones), over the plane of his stomach. Everywhere she touched, energy flowed, her ice against his heat mixing rather than conflicting.
Longwei's hands weren't idle, he traced the curve of her shoulder all the way to her back and to the dip of her waist. The inner robe were more barrier than he wanted, he found the tie at her hip and questioned silently.
"Yes," she whispered.
And the silk fell away.
She was beautiful and soft as foam, her body smooth and graceful with Ice cultivator aesthetics making her seem almost ethereal. Her breasts were small and perfect, her nipples grew hard in the morning air. Her stomach was flat, leading down to...
Focus, Longwei reminded himself. This isn't about desire, It's about cultivation.
But it was about desire too and they knew denying that would be dishonest, and they'd promised honesty.
"You're staring," Mei said. Her voice held a bit of nervousness beneath the composure.
"You're worth staring at."
She might be blushing, color rising in those pale cheeks. It made her look more human and less untouchable.
"The scripture says skin contact improves energy flow," she said, deflecting. "You're still half dressed."
Fair Point.
Longwei removed his shirt, then hesitated at his pants. The evidence of his arousal was obvious and he wasn't sure...
"All of it," Mei said quietly. "If we're doing this, we're doing it properly."
He stripped, and he was hard as rocks down there.
They lay together naked, morning light painting their bodies gold. For a while neither moved, they just looked, adjusting to this new... vulnerability.
Then Mei reached out.
Her fingers wrapped around him.
Longwei's caught his breath. Her touch was cool... almost cold but it sent fire through his nerves, the contrast was intoxicating ice and heat, Yin and Yang, her essence meeting his.
"I can feel your energy," she murmured. "Concentrated here, the scripture was right."
"Mei..."
"Shh." She stroked him slowly, experimentally. "Let me learn."
He let her learn.
Her hand moved on him, exploring style and rhythm, reading his responses. Where she touched, energy transferred, his Yang flowing into her palm and her Yin seeping back into him. A circuit forming.
Then his own hands found her body again and he cupped her breast, felt her nipple harden further against his palm then traced down her stomach, then lower, finding the heat between her thighs.
Ohh, she was wet.
The discovery surprised him. Ice cultivators mostly ran cold, he'd expected... he didn't know what he'd expected but she was warm there, wet with arousal, her body betraying its need.
"That's..." Her voice cracked as his fingers explored. "That's where my Yin concentrates, but also..."
"Here?" He circled her entrance, felt her shudder.
"Yes. There."
He slid one finger inside her.
Mei moaned, her hand tightened on him dick, rhythm faltering. Her internal muscles clenched around it and he felt her energy pulse, a deep primal throb of Yin that resonated with his Yang like a bell struck.
This is it. he realized. The resonance the scripture described, not just contact but union. Bodies joined and energies merging.
He added a second finger as her back arched, pressing her breast harder into his other hand. She was panting now, composure cracking, her ice-queen facade melting under the heat they were generating.
"More," she gasped. "Please..."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." Her eyes opened, finding his. The fear was still there, distant but desire was drowning it. "I want... I think I can..."
She grabbed and pulled him toward her.
He positioned himself between her thighs, his tip pressing against her soft entrance. Her Yin was overwhelming here, concentrated and hungry and his Yang responded with equal intensity.
"If you need to stop..." he started.
"I'll tell you." She wrapped her legs around him. "Now stop talking."
He pushed fully inside.
The sensation was...
Cold.. Exquisite cold, her body gripping him with Yin energy that should have been painful but instead felt like completion, like finding a part of himself he hadn't known was missing.
Mei cried out but not pain, he could tell the difference. This was something else. Surprise, pleasure, the shock of compatible energies finally joining.
"Oh gods," she breathed. "I can feel... I can feel everything."
So could he.
Their cultivation bases were connecting and her Yin was flooding into him through their joined bodies, his Yang pouring into her. The exchange was nothing like the parasitic draining she'd described, this was mutually balanced with both of them giving and receiving in equal measure.
He began to move.
Slowly at first, letting them both adjust. Each thrust sent fresh waves of energy crashing between them. Her Yin cooled his fire and his Yang warmed her ice. Where they conflicted should have been destruction, but the scripture's techniques... patterns he'd memorized, positions he'd studied, channeled the conflict into creation instead.
Mei's nails deep in his back and her hips rose to meet his, finding rhythm. Her moans became more urgent, less controlled.
"I feel it building," she gasped. "The energy... it's... Ummmm"
He felt it too, their merged cultivation bases were approaching a critical point. The exchange was accelerating and feeding on itself, building toward something
And then Mei's walls slammed up.
The energy connection severed and the warmth vanished, replaced by ice. Her body went rigid beneath him, her face changed from pleasure to terror in an instant.
"No..." She shoved at his chest. "Stop, stop, I can't..."
Longwei pulled out immediately, rolling off her, giving her space.
She curled into a ball, shaking violently. Frost crystallized on her skin, her breath freezing in the air. The Yin that had been merging with his Yang was now running wild, uncontrolled and consuming her.
"Mei!" He reached for her..
"Don't touch me!" The words were heavy. "If you touch me now, I'll freeze you I'll..." Then a sob. "I saw his face. Right at the end, I saw Lee's face and I couldn't..."
She was hyperventilating, the frost was spreading, coating the bed and floor around them.
Longwei forced himself to stay calm.
"Mei, listen to my voice. You're not in the ritual chamber, you're in a cabin and you're safe."
"No one is dying."
"I felt the energy taking... I felt it taking from you..."
"It wasn't taking." He kept his voice steady, soothing. "It was exchanging, and I felt it too."
"your energy was coming into me Too, Mei. Not just mine, it's Both directions."
Her shaking slowed, a little.
"Both directions?" Her voice was low, like a whisper.
"Both directions. Look at me."
She uncurled enough to meet his eyes. Her face was streaked with frozen tears and her skin so cold it was turning blue.
"I'm still here," Longwei said. "You didn't drain me, you didn't kill me. We stopped before it became dangerous that's all."
"But I almost..."
"Almost doesn't count." He risked extending his hand but not touching her, just offering. "You panicked and that's understandable, trauma doesn't heal in one night but Mei... before you panicked, it was working."
She stared at his hand.
"It was working?"
"Better than I expected, the resonance was real and the exchange was balanced. If we can get past your barriers..." He let that hang.
Slowly, the frost on her skin began to recede and her breathing steadied. The wild Yin calmed, returning to its normal suppressed state.
"I ruined it," she whispered.
"No." Longwei lowered his hand to rest on the bed between them, still not touching but it was closer now. "We can try again, as many times as it takes."
"What if it never works? What if I can't get past..."
"Then we find another way." He met her eyes steadily. "I'm not giving up on you, Mei Xuefeng. Not today, not ever."
She stared at him for a moment.
Then she reached out and took his hand.
Her skin was still cold, but warming.
"You're an idiot," she said quietly. "I'm damaged goods, a weapon that backfires. You should find someone else, someone without..."
"Without what? Without trauma? Without fear?" Longwei squeezed her fingers. "Show me this perfect partner and maybe I'll consider it. So until then, you're stuck with me."
Something that might have been a smile flickered across her face.
"Partners," she said.
"Partners."
They lay in the morning light, naked and vulnerable holding hands. Not touching anywhere else, not pushing further.
But closer than they'd been before.
Trust. Longwei was learning, couldn't be rushed.
But it could be built.
One conversation. One touch. One failed attempt at a time.