"- Oh. That. I think that's happened a few times when I was sleeping but I don't remember what I'd been dreaming about before. Is it...does it happen when you dream about things related to fucking?" 

"Yeah. Or people you're attracted to, or kissing."

Nie Huaisang tries to remember if there's anything else he's supposed to mention. "Don't have sex with girls or kiss girls in private places" covers a lot of the potential problems.

"Also, if you're having sex with someone you're only supposed to have sex with people who are enthusiastic about it, having sex with people who are meh on it tends to fuck them up. If someone says 'no' don't try to convince them."

"Okay. ...So - if I'm not enthusiastic about it then I shouldn't and I should say no if someone wants to?" 

"I mean, sometimes you have to have sex with people to get things you want? They shouldn't take advantage of it but that doesn't mean it isn't the best thing for you to do."

Tricking people into thinking you're into them, he decides, is the Advanced Class.

Oh. That makes sense. 

"- Do you think there's anyone who would trade fucking for mana storage?" 

"You're really pretty-- lots of guys would kill to be as skinny as you-- so probably? Especially once I get you some clothes that fit. But I think that's the kind of thing Lan Xichen would frown on as being contrary to the dignity of Shanghai unless you're more subtle about it than I think you can be."

Is that too close to an admission? Eh. It's probably fine. 

"Oh. How - do you do it subtly? Is it the sort of thing you have to practice?" 

"You want to pretend you're just into it for the sex-- or romance, I'm not sure if you know what romance is either-- but sort of let them know through subtext that you want mana storage a lot and you'd be so happy if they gave it to you, and then they know that the sex and/or romance are dependent on you getting mana storage."

"....Oh. That sounds hard." Probably he should - ask Lan Xichen if this is even a good strategy for getting mana storage, compared to building it himself in shop or trading for mal lookout duty. 

"If you're an enclaver-- not an ally-- you have to know about this kind of thing because people are going to be constantly pretending to be into you so they can get nice things."

There. A perfectly good explanation for why he thinks about this.

"That sounds confusing! How...do you even tell when someone is pretending to feel a way that they don't really?" 

"Well," he says judiciously, "probably they're going to try to get you to give them mana storage."

"So if I don't have anything useful to give people and they seem to like me then probably they really do?" 

"Yes."

"Oh. That's less complicated then." 

Masozi waits to see if Nie Huaisang wants to show him any more nice things. 

He tries to figure out if there's anything else he should tell Masozi. "--Romance is when you can't stop thinking about someone and your heart beats fast and you feel warm and happy when you think about them, and you want to hold hands with them and hug them and kiss them and give them presents and spend time together just the two of you, and it's really important that they think well of you. You should avoid girls you have romantic feelings for because if you spend time with them you'll want to have sex with them. But if it's a guy you should tell them because romance is fun." He thinks. "I guess it is also distracting from killing mals."

"I don't think I've ever had that feeling. Is it...nice?" 

"I don't think I've had it either but I'm told it's very nice."

"Hmm." 

Masozi...is trying to figure out if he has the 'romantic' feelings about Wei Wuxian or about Lan Xichen. He...definitely really likes being around both of them, and conversations that feel one-on-one are very good, especially with Lan Xichen. That makes him feel warm and happy? Though, so does just being at the Shanghai table; it feels a little bit like he can pretend he has a family again. He wants both of them to think well of him, and...it feels like that isn't just for strategic reasons? 

He had never considered whether he would expect that to go along with wanting to hold hands. Let alone wanting to do fucking together. ...Holding hands with Lan Xichen sounds nice? His brain is still giving him an error message for the latter, though. 

"We're kind of young," Nie Huaisang says, "so we're more likely to just do kissing and things, and not have sex until we're older."

"Holding hands sounds like it could be nice, if it was with someone I liked." (Where 'liked', right now, mostly means 'teaches him interesting things and seems clever and careful enough to trust'.) "I don't know if I would like kissing, I've seen people do it and it just looks....wet?" 

"You could try kissing me? I'm a good kisser. --Kissing people you don't really want to kiss is fine," he explains. "If you're trying to figure things out. If people's clothes are coming off or genitals are involved you should either definitely want it to happen or know exactly what you're getting out of it."

“What makes someone good at kissing or not?” Masozi says uncertainly.

"Paying attention, following the other person's cues, not slobbering all over the other person's face?"

"Oh. Okay." Paying attention to what, he's still not sure. "I...guess you could kiss me so I can see if it's nice or not."