Masozi can say SENTENCES in Mandarin now!

....Well, he does need to have his notes out, and look up or check the words he needs - he's gotten very fluent in the International Phonetic Alphabet now, and has that alongside the word-meanings in Chichewa and the Mandarin characters - and some of the time it still ends up with the grammar very mangled. But, taking that into account. Sentences! 

He carefully prepares a sentence. 

"I think we should practice doing scary things," he says to Wen Ning in Mandarin. (At least, hopefully he's saying a sentence that means approximately that.) 

"...why?" he says, hoping this sounds like a request for information and not a protest.

Masozi has super not prepared his response to that! 

"I need a minute," he says, because he has memorized that phrase in Mandarin. It comes up a lot. 

He consults his notebook. Scribbles shorthand notes on his scrap paper to prepare his answer. 

"I - think both of us are - scared of things that are - important to be able to do?" he tries. "And practice makes things easier?" 

He doesn't want doing scary things to be easier because then he'll have to do scary things.

"...okay," he says.

Masozi has gotten some practice by now at interpreting Wen Ning facial expressions, and that is not an especially happy one! 

"You - now - scared?" he asks, without referring back to his notebook since he just checked all of the relevant words. 

"Doing scary things is scary."

"I know." Another phrase he has memorized. "Want - hug?" Hopefully that's the word for 'hug', at least, he's pretty sure he remembered it right. 

"Yes, please."

Hug! 

It is slightly harder to consult his notes while hugging Wen Ning, but Masozi manages it one-handed. 

"If - talking about it - already scary, we - start there?" he suggests. "While I hug you, so easier?" 

"Okay. What kind of scary things should we do?"

"I think - us do different things?" Pause while he hunts for words. "I get scared of - loud noises. If someone drop something in shop, I scared and hide." (He's allowed to attend shop again now! On Tuesdays, though, which Masozi is still irritated with Lan Xichen about.) "Could practice with - you make loud sound, surprise me, when we study?" 

"I don't... think... I can? Make a loud sound?"

"Because scary?" Hug hug hug. 

"I don't want to bother anyone."

"You bother me? And I ask, so - not bad?" 

"May... be?"

It's scary to tell Masozi no but it's also scary to make loud noises! Probably arguing with Masozi is the scarier thing.

Masozi can tell that he's scaring Wen Ning! But practicing this is kind of the entire point, so he's not going to back off just yet. 

"You are my friend," he says, quietly - he doesn't have to check his notes because he's memorized that phrase too. "I - I want -"

He makes a frustrated noise and flips through his notebook. "- I want you not die. So have to - do things. To not die." This is probably a very unclear way of conveying it but it's easier than tracking down more words right now. 

"I know I need to do things in order to not die."

(He feels the sick sensation in his stomach of being a disappointment.)

"Is - too scary - this?" Masozi tries. "Or - scary but learn from?" 

"I... don't know?"

"...I think enough scary," Masozi declares. And now he should make sure Wen Ning feels rewarded for it. "I so proud of you!" he declares. 

"Really?"

"Yes! I am! I -" words, aaaah, "I - make you think thing? Scary thing? And you - not run away, not hide, not cry? I think if I that scared I hide at table." Frown. "'Under'," he adds in English. 

Masozi has at this point sort of given up on grammar. It takes way too long to have a conversation if he has to carefully plan out each sentence before he says it. 

"No one has ever been proud of me before!"

"They stupid then!" Masozi says fervently, with enough emotion in his voice that it makes his Mandarin accent mildly harder to understand. "I - be proud lots of things. Your -" aaaaah did he ever even learn a Mandarin word for 'flashcards', apparently not, "- paper? words?" He gestures at the flashcards instead. "Good." 

He is so happy that he is kind of shaking a little bit. 

Awww oh no! Maybe Wen Ning is having one of those delayed responses to a scary thing happening where afterward you get shaky for no reason. Masozi hates it when that happens, it seems so pointless! 

Maybe he can give Wen Ning a neckrub again since that seems to help him relax after something scary happened? 

!!!!!!

This does not seem to be helping with the shakiness problem. He is making a very tiny little noise though.

Masozi doesn't stop but he slows down and makes sure to be very gentle. "I hurt you?" he asks worriedly. "Not mean to." 

"I am happy."

"Good! I happy too!" 

Masozi will give Wen Ning a backrub for another minute or so, since this seems like the right amount of giving Wen Ning nice things after he tried very hard to do scary things. 

Physical touch!

He's so happy. 

"I like you a lot."

"Like you too." That's easy to figure out because he's mostly repeating back what Wen Ning said. Then he has to consult his notes, which requires ceasing the backrub. "You...help me now? Practice scary thing that - not too scary for you?"

"Okay. So you need to do homework and then I'm going to make a loud noise?"