Shen-gongzi is kind to think so. I shall be by shortly.

--Switch to Action!--

And so he arrives like the spring, fresh and warm with only a hint of winter's chill clinging to him. There is also a gauntness to his features that was not there before, as though he had not been eating well. Four months of being alone with your grief will do that to a guy though.

When Shen Yuan answers, however, Xichen beams at him. For so long, he thought Trench was a dream, dredged up from his atrophied imagination to pull up thoughts of loved ones from another time, another place, and the idea of having an actual friend.

The point is, he's missed Shen Yuan. Dearly. And seeing him feels him with a gentle relief, to know that he is, indeed, real and alive.

"Shen-gongzi," he greets, tone soft and eyes crescented with his smile. "It has been a while."