Until you wake up in the morning. [ It's his own way of reassuring him. He knows Shino likes to be held, and he knows he likes to sleep curled up beside him. With how exhausted Shino sounds and how much he's clinging now, he thinks Shino must need this sort of comfort and affection right now.

His hand was still smoothing over his hair when Shino pulled his head back, and then it rests on his shoulder instead.

Would he still...? ]

Huh??

[ ?!?! Shi Qingxuan stares down at him with wide eyes.

This is what he was worrying about?!

Ah, well... Shi Qingxuan purses his lips in thought. He had been stuck as a nine-tailed fox-woman (that poor dress will never recover), so Shino must have been stuck in that deer jinba form...

Naturally, Shi Qingxuan would love Shino no matter his form - male, female, human, jinba, demon - but loving and making love are two different things here... Of course Shino has some concerns.

...but, like the last time this came up, Shi Qingxuan has some concerns, too! Rather than blushing, his face is a little paler as he closes his eyes, takes a breath, and then meets Shino's eyes as he carefully says: ]

I love you in any form, but I don't know if making love is physically possible in all of them. If you were a deer jinba, I don't know if we would be physically compatible...?

[ Which, even saying that as delicately as he can, he feels like that's not the answer Shino wants to hear. ]