The pinch was about as hard as he'd expected, a bright flare of pain that did absolutely nothing to change anything about his surroundings. He waited a few seconds, staring at A-Yao, before he sighed.

He beckoned A-Yao with one hand that he might lay it on his cheek. "Alright. Come here." The awkwardness he ignored, like a man on a mission. He was standing there in just his under trousers, inner robe still in one hand, and unselfconscious about it. Reaching for A-Yao's face, he searched his features, taking in the changes and the lack of them, all the ones he'd noted when A-Yao had first taken off his hat and all the ones he could see now that he was closer.