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Rating:
Explicit
Archive Warning:
No Archive Warnings Apply
Category:
M/M
Fandom:
人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Relationship:
Luò Bīnghé/Shěn Yuán Shěn Qīngqiū
Characters:
Shěn Yuán Shěn QīngqiūLuò BīnghéShěn Yuán's family
Additional Tags:
AngstSuicidal ThoughtsSuicide Attemptre-transmigrationAngst with a Happy EndingHurt/ComfortFluffAnal FingeringAnal SexWeddingПеревод на русский Translation in RussianIntercrural Sexno beta we die like Shen qingqiu
Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of Bingqiu retransmigrate au Next Work
Stats:
Published:2019-11-10Completed:2020-02-09Words:42942Chapters:7/7Comments:215Kudos:2145Bookmarks:468Hits:27810
Let's Do This Again
marizousbooty
Summary:
[originally titled "Rewind and Start Over"]
Modern science is so good it kept a dead man alive.
Shen Yuan is dragged forward but his feet are stubbornly digging in the ground.
Luo Binghe is running as fast as he can to catch up.
Russian Translation by tinte07
Notes:
hey whoops this makes it all three mxtx books that ive written for now (will i finish GoY who knows i dont). This is another spur of the moment oh my god write it now or die fic i didnt time myself with this like i did with the plage one but i wrote fast and hard too wink wonk.
I like re-transmigration fics so i wanted to write my own with all the flavors i enjoy its hard bc this fic integrates my two narrative voices and its hard blending the two into one im only a student homie.
And we now have a Russian translation! Thank you so much @tinte07 on Twitter!
(See the end of the work for more notes.)
Chapter 1: Morning
Chapter Text
Inhale. A mechanical beep rang muffled in his ears. Exhale. There was an unnatural chill to his skin.
Inhale. The room smelled like chemicals. Exhale. His mouth tasted like ash, stuffed with cotton too deep down his throat to the point it burns.
Inhale. It took all of his willpower to make his finger twitch. Exhale.
--
An error message had blared across his mind's eye during afternoon tea. The System suddenly awakened after almost a year of hibernation with a dozen pop up screens and flashing warning messages. He tried to shift through them but all he got from the glitching screens was that there was a serious problem. As soon as it started it all stopped, and one screen blinked in front of all the glitching windows, simply saying [Thank you for using the System! We hope to see you again soon!]
Before he could fully comprehend what it meant, a sharp pain overtook him and with a gasp, he felt the all too familiar tug of his soul exiting his body. The last thing he heard as his vision fizzled out to glowing long lines of code was the sound of a teacup shattering and Lou Binghe's startled " Shizun!"
--
Fourteen months. For the twenty years he spent as Shen Qingqiu, his body had laid comatose in a hospital, an empty shell with no soul to host it and yet thanks to modern technology, his body was still breathing artificial air and his heart was still beating artificial pumps. Science refused to accept death, chasing immortality as a cultivator would.
It took him a while to actually wake up, but during his brief spells of consciousness he would hear the voices of his family coming in and out, voices he hadn't heard in twenty long years. They'd only been whispers of them left in his dreams and he'd woken up with his heart in his throat and his eyes burning with Luo Binghe tucked under his chin.
When he did finally manage to pull himself out of the pool of sleep, blinking his sticky eyes open, he wanted to shield his eyes to the dim lamp sitting at his bedside and the electronic time of the TV mounted on the wall reading it was a little after three in the morning. He fell back to sleep.
--
The System was silent. No matter how much prodding he did it's mechanical voice never whirred to life in his head.
--
He was officially discharged after a month. He needed physical therapy to get his limbs back in order and psychological therapy to deal with the "depression". Maybe he was depressed, he was depressed after being pulled from his home away from his family and friends back to his old family and friends. He didn't dare speak a word about his time transmigrating into the shitty stallion novel during the therapy sessions if they knew they'd cart him off to a very different hospital. He couldn't bring himself to feel anything but painful longing, a numbing sadness filling his limbs with faux filling.
Shen Yuan was happy to see his family again, to see his two older brothers and younger sister, his mother's sweet eyes and his dad's gentle smile. He cried when he saw them once more for the first time in many years. It was a year to them, but a whole lifetime to him.
How could he be okay going back to this wretched modern world where he was nothing but a nobody who mooched off his parents' fortune, spending his days crassly reading novels and hoarding collections of waifu material and spent the nights tucked into his phone reading raunchy novels and manhua until he couldn't keep his eyes open only to rinse and repeat bright and early the next day at two in the afternoon? He had been an immortal peak lord! A revered shizun with many disciples in the path of cultivation! He had a husband who loved him dearly and he back.
He had heard his parents whispering sharply to one another about Shen Yuan just going back to wasting their money away on more anime figures, living in an apartment paid for by their money and eating food paid from the allowance they gave him, growing grosser and uglier by the day.
--
Because he had been comatose for so long his stuff had been moved from his apartment and either crammed in a storage unit or back into his old bedroom at his parents' house. He needed to be under surveillance until he was able to walk down the stairs on his own without pausing to take a break. Right now he could do nothing but rest and recover.
He went back to reading web novels, sank deeper into a Shen Yuan shaped hole in his bed, the LED screen of his phone reflecting off his glasses until his vision blurred and he fell asleep. He had found fanart of Luo Binghe, the face too square and eyes too narrow, the demon mark not quite the correct shape, and the slim shape of his mouth a little too cunning to be his Binghe, but he still set it as his lock screen.
Airplane Shooting Toward the Sky had passed away while Shen Yuan was in the coma. Found dead in his apartment after a neighbor reported the foul odor seeping through the cracks in the walls and the landlord found the decaying body slumped over on the floor. Death by electrocution, the news article said. Proud Immortal Demon Way will never be complete.
Meanwhile, Shen Yuan progressed splendidly in his physical therapy and stumped his psychological therapist. There was nothing to say. He was sad, unmotivated to do anything at all besides sink back into his homebody self, pull his head back into the tortoiseshell cage he grew himself. He couldn't tell the therapist why he was sad. He was prescribed antidepressants. They might have helped.
—-
He took walks, as instructed by his physical therapist, and ate lots of protein.
He wondered if he died again if he'll be transported back to Proud Immortal Demon Way, die vehemently cursing it until he's taken back into the novel. But who's to know if he'll be put back where he left off, or if he'll start over and make a whole new timeline? What about his Luo Binghe?
What if he only died?
—-
He was going stir crazy. Before, a lifestyle of him living in his bedroom with nothing but his PC setup and an incredibly powerful WiFi connection would be the dream. Now he found himself unable to look at his computer for too long, his phone left behind more often than not.
—-
He had bought a fan, a cheap one that was beautiful, but the plastic was made to look like wood. The bottom of the fabric was already fraying a bit, but the beautiful cranes and chrysanthemum had caught his eye. He would keep it in his hoodie pocket, or tucked under a pillow. Sometimes he'd snap it open and shut, open again, then shut, alone in his room with his eyes on the faraway mountain peak. He tapped his own head.
He googled how to kill himself in the least painful manner, but Google gave him suicide prevention hotlines instead. He couldn't self-destruct like the second time nor does he wish to take a dick so massive with so little prep it kills him like the third, but he wants to die quickly and painlessly.
Then again, will it work? His family will mourn again, but he was the third son and they had two much more reliable sons.
—-
There had been a movement not too long ago in China to bring back the traditional flowing Chinese hanfu to everyday wear. He ordered some robes online, exquisite silky white with trims of green, bamboo embroidered on the hems and sleeves, a matching headpiece tied with a pale green ribbon.
Before his coma, his hair had been relatively short with just a swoosh of bangs where at its longest would sometimes tickle the collar of his shirt to indicate it was time to get a trim. Now it had grown shaggy and long past his shoulders. His mother scheduled an appointment to get him a haircut. He didn't go. He got a green scrunchie to tie his hair half up in a weak imitation of how Shen Qingqiu wore it, but messy and not at all graceful.
He stopped taking his antidepressants. He tries to drown himself in the bathtub with a cinderblock on his chest. The overwhelming pressure of the cement block was nothing compared to the pain in his heart, his lungs screamed for air and his chest lurched and twitched, attempting to throw his body up out of the clear water and save his life. He fought as much as he could until one particularly powerful jerk rolled him over and pulled him gasping and heaving from the tub, water overflowing and flooding the bathroom.
After hanging off the edge of the tub trying to catch his breath, he stood up and cleaned the bathroom. The physical ache of the cinder block digging deep into his ribs left a dark bruise on his chest that took over a week to fade.
—-
His parents were worried, his mother especially. They sent him away to a relatives estate out in the country, thinking the pollution and noise, the crowds and overbearing presence of everything, was too much for him and a nice trip in the mountains would relax him.
It didn't. He couldn't bear to ever go outside his little room, the house old in style with the curves roofs and bamboo furniture hand made by his aunt. There was a bamboo forest outside his window. The blinds were firmly shut the whole time.
His uncle tried taking him out on short walks. He went once and refused to go again. There was no WiFi here so he settled to lay on the porch and watched the summer roses sway while eating his aunt's pickled vegetables.
He didn't last a week before he begged his parents to take him home. He couldn't stand the misty peaks, the bamboo forest, the thin, clear air that reminded him so much of home. He couldn't live like this, crying himself to sleep every night and crying himself awake every morning and crying to nothing tucked under his blankets during the afternoon heat.
--
He stood in front of his mirror dressed in actual clothes and not sweaty and grimy anime shirts, no weak imitation cultivation robes. A pale green button-down with the short sleeves rolled up, a pair of slim-cut black jeans, beige boots with the laces were done up nice. His hair was neatly tied back.
Later that afternoon he came home with a job down at a local department store.
The next day he stood high atop the office building his brother worked in, the wind whipping past him ferociously. He closed his eyes and remembered his self-destruction to save his ass from being turned into a human stick. He was gone before he fell. If he fell now he would feel the fear coursing through him, making his last moment the longest moment of his life.
His breath caught in his throat when he looked down, his sneakers toeing the edge of the concrete border. A strong gust of wind can make him lose his footing. The fall was almost a hundred stories down.
He stepped down and went back down the stairwell.
--
He quit therapy, and physical therapy was finishing up. He passed with flying colors and was deemed fine to go about his business as usual, but to come back once a month for check-ins for the next six months. He re-enrolled back into his university and was accepted for the upcoming semester.
There were more phone numbers than ever in his contact list thanks to his nice coworkers who genuinely wanted to spend time with him outside of work, send him funny memes related to conversations they held whispering behind racks of clothes when the manager wasn't looking nor when a customer was tracking them down. His feet ached from all the standing he did, his back hurt, and it took every ounce of his Shen Qingqiu patience not to bodily throw himself over the counter and strangle the next customer who asks after they've paid if there are any additional discounts they could add.
--
Sun Mei is a coworker of his with hair she's styled like the California beach waves and wore a bold red lip. There was a beauty mark on her forehead and she was instantly drawn to Shen Yuan's side when he first stuttered over to the register during his first week. She took him under her wing and showed him the ropes and was usually first on the scene when a customer was giving him a hard time. He couldn't help be drawn to her because her favorite lipstick is the exact shade of red as Binghe's demon mark.
She asked him to get coffee sometime. He agreed. Pre-transmigration Shen Yuan would have been over the moon, now he was just grateful he could have another distraction from nighttime eyes that still illuminate his dreams with the star-like tears.
--
Luo Binghe hadn't come to his dreams. He's always haunting his dreams, his lips like the softest rose petals tracing his bare skin and rough, large hands tenderly stroking up and down his arms, tracing his clavicle and counting down his ribs. He was a memory, a whisper of what he truly his. Shen Yuan's hands always messed up the mirage whenever he tried to touch him back.
There were countless nights where his hands would unconsciously trace down his body and under the band of his pajama pants and grasp himself firmly in his hand, slowly bringing himself to completion with his eyes firmly shut, Luo Binghe playing on a constant loops behind his closed lids and Luo Binghe's name dripping from his trembling lips, his trembling body arching toward Luo Binghe's body that was so, so far away. He only cried sometimes when he opened his eyes and found the blank ceiling above him and not Luo Binghe's bottomless eyes.
It happened less often, him waking up with tears dried on his cheeks and pillow. He didn't know if it's a good or bad thing. Sometimes when he was doing the most mundane things he truly dangerous thoughts ran across his mind- was any of that real in the first place? Was that just a really intense coma dream? He had "died" cursing Proud Immortal Demon Way , so what's the chance of it playing over again so realistically for fourteen months?
He still had the Luo Binghe lock screen.
--
One of his coworkers also liked reading web novels to the same intensity as he (had). During after-hours recovery, they'll have heated discussions about novels and tried to thrust recommendations upon each other. They had each other's forums usernames and he was the only person he physically knew who had his Twitter.
During one such closing shift, the lights in the store half on and buried deep in the clearance rack did his coworker recommend Proud Immortal Demon Way.
"It's really, really long and there's a lot of pandering, but the protagonist is pretty OP," his coworker explained. "So many cute sisters to choose from! And it's such a twist seeing the protagonist going from the common hero to a black-hearted demon, justifiably so."
"I've read it," Shen Yuan said. He showed off his lock screen. "Luo Binghe is my favorite."
Even with strings sawing away at his heart, pulling taut enough to cut it to shreds with just a little more pressure, he still participated in the discussion. After work, he sat in his car in the parking garage and cried until he gathered himself together, cranked up Hatsune Miku, and drove home recklessly.
--
It had been nine months since he woke up from his transmigration coma and started his first day of school. There was a nervousness he hadn't felt in forever, a tingling to his scalp and his heart danced an uncomfortable rhythm in his chest. His hair was tied back at the nape of his neck in a messy bun, his glasses were brand new with an up to date prescription (a whole new frame style too, going away of his old rectangle plastic frames for a more stylish horn-rimmed shape). He was much shorter than Shen Qingqiu, he figured the top of his head would barely brush Luo Binghe's shoulder. He had on new clothes he and his sister went out shopping for- nice fitting jeans rolled up at the cuffs, a light army jacket, a simple striped shirt, new sneakers that still smelled the new shoe rubbery smell. The cheap fan was tucked away in his backpack.
He felt daring going out with his ankles bare, then he remembered this is the modern world. He can go out with his whole leg bared and no one would bat an eye. He rolled them back down when he got in his car.
The classes were interesting, the professors genuinely enjoyed their subjects and were energetic for the new semester. He found a spot he liked on campus, a hidden bamboo grove he remembered the tour guide had mentioned offhand during his original campus tour. There was a stone bench and that's where he ate the lunch he bought at an on-campus sandwich shop. He might have cried.
--
Shen Yuan found it uncomfortably easy to fall into a rhythm of school and work. The few people he'd met since he reverse-transmigrated could probably be considered as more than acquaintances but less than friends. On most days he would have someone to share a meal or go get coffee with, sometimes it was just sitting in the school library doing their work together.
Sun Mei went to his school. She was in a whole different department and thus their paths rarely crossed, but at least once a week they would have a break that lined up just right for them to go sit at the campus cafe and do homework together. She asked him once if he wanted to go to a party a friend of hers was hosting, tucking an artificial curl behind her ear. He declined.
There was a mid-autumn festival on campus. Sun Mei asked him out for the event with a couple of other coworkers. He agreed to go. At the event they had food stalls set up, live music, games, and little wares sold to commemorate the day. Lanterns illuminated the night and for a heart-stopping second Luo Binghe traced the edges of his mind. He shoved him way back deep, deep down into a little box he crafted just for him to sit.
A stand sold hand-painted paper fans, much nicer than the one that had lost a screw in his backpack and held together by scotch tape. He let his eyes linger on them, his fingers traced the intricate paintings on the delicate surfaces. One looked oh so similar to his favorite one- a simple white fan with deep, nearly black wood and watercolor bamboo. It was a little expensive, but it's a price he's willing to pay for art. This one, he promised, will stay in his room so it wouldn't get damaged.
The rest of the event was pleasant. He ate plenty of mooncakes and other delicious sweets. Luo Binghe's mooncakes were much better.
At one point in the evening, he did a double-take while passing a stall, there on the table were little porcelain figures of animals. Particularly, a little, black, Pomeranian with its pink tongue peeking out caught his eye. It was a little ugly, but it's big, round eyes tempted Shen Yuan to pull out his wallet and purchase the damn thing.
That night, he placed the tiny Bingpup on his windowsill next to his paper fan, the big, beautiful autumn moon throwing his room into a decadent silver.
--
He moved out of his parents' house and back into an apartment t. Most of his merch was kept in storage or in his childhood bedroom, but the Asuna body pillow moved with him to the new place. A simple one-bedroom with a kitchen and bath, a balcony that overlooked the city and laid a walking distance from campus (an uncomfortably long walk, but a walk nonetheless) and a few blocks from his work. He furnished it with his last apartment's furniture and even took the time to go out and hunt for more pieces to build an actual home and not the nerd nest he made before. The bookcase was towering with books, he had a nice coffee table and matching mugs. There was a wall scroll of a beautiful watercolor bamboo forest hanging from his wall. The Bingpup rested on his nightstand that was the same wood as his desk, dresser, and bed frame. He commissioned an artist online to draw his version of Luo Binghe, the eyes softer and glittering with a thousand stars, his cheeks were tastefully angular, the shade of red for his demon mark exactly right. It was yet it wasn't Luo Binghe because he's starting to doubt that his version ever actually existed or if he was still dreaming of a canon-divergent storyline. The picture was framed on his desk.
Su Mei came over with a few other coworkers for a house warming. They brought beer and snacks and someone had brought out a Bluetooth speaker to play ambient music. He was not supposed to have a lot of alcohol due to his delicate body, his frame a flimsy bamboo shoot compared to the lofty, full-grown stock of Shen Qingqiu, but he still had a few beers too fast and found himself throwing up, Su Mei holding his hair back as he sobbed into the toilet. He thought he heard Luo Binghe's name slip from his lips, but the rest of his words never made it past his garbled tongue. The next morning he woke up stiff, his mouth tasting sour, and only a slight headache. He stayed in bed all day rereading the beginning of Proud Immortal Demon Way and cried himself to sleep after eating his one meal that day- cup noodles and leftover guacamole. No chips, just the guac he spoon-fed into his mouth.
He felt he might have kissed Su Mei. There had been lipstick smeared at the corner of his mouth.
—-
Midterms came. He's never been so stressed out in so long in this specific way. Yes, he had run from his life, been locked in the Huan Hua Palace water prison, found himself chased by blind corpses while dragging an unconscious Luo Binghe behind, had the worst anal sex ever to save the world. Sitting in front of his monitor, eyes tearing up behind his glasses and hands twitching, numb from overwork as he tried to write his analysis paper on old American poetry and its significance at almost four in the morning because it's due in six hours and he still needed a little bit of sleep made him doubt if everything in Proud Immortal Demon Way could ever hurt like this. Why couldn't he have the perfect immortal body of Shen Qingqiu where he could not eat and sleep for so long? That would be perfect right now, no need to spend his already meager paycheck on large cups of coffee. His doctor had warned him against large doses of caffeine, but his aching body told him no.
—-
After a majority of his midterms were done, he fell ill with the flu. Curse his weakened body.
—-
He applied to study abroad in America for a year. He wouldn't hear back until February. He's smart, he knows he'll get in. In the meantime, he brushed up on his English by investing time in American TV, movies, novels, and music. It was a neon-bright culture with a gritty feeling in his teeth, the exact opposite of his Xianxia novels and his old Xianxia lifestyle.
If Luo Binghe, all of Qing Jing Peak, Cang Qiong Mountain and its disciples, were truly just a feverish dream he was crazy. If that was really real than he had abandoned his husband (unintentionally!).
It was getting harder to tell as time blended together in a seamless chalked out blur. He nestled himself back into his life as Shen Yuan- or rather, his new life as Shen Yuan. Maybe his twenty years as Peak Lord Shen Qingqiu really changed him
His brother made a point to mention one day over lunch.
"You're more responsible," he said, stirring his coffee. "Before you were locked up in your apartment all day reading novels and manhuas and watching donghuas and spending your allowance on useless things."
He didn't say anything, his eyes tracing the leaves of his salad. "It's a little scary how your disposition changed so drastically, but perhaps its for the better. You're going to America for a year you say?"
Shen Yuan nodded. "I'm setting aside money from my paycheck to pay for expenses while I'm there."
"No girlfriend yet?"
He nearly choked on a crouton. Of course, I don't! I have a husband! Is what he wanted to say. "No, I'm still focusing on recovery and getting used to balancing school and work." And I'm married!
… right?
--
It's been exactly a year since he woke up from his coma and there was no sign of Luo Binghe sweeping in through his bedroom window and taking him back.
--
Su Mei asked him out a third time. They went to a popular movie and got a nice dinner after. She slid her hand across the table and tapped his with her pink painted nails.
"I want to put a label on us," she said, her cheeks red.
What label? They're friends, right?
The look of confusion gave away his thoughts. "I want," she continued. "To be your girlfriend."
Taking in her unnaturally curly dark hair, the red lips in an achingly familiar shade of red, dark eyes framed with mascara laden lashes, the black scoop neck shirt with a thin, silver necklace she always wore. It hurts.
He's married.
He gave her the same spiel he gave his brother, paid his part of the bill, and walked out. She didn't text him goodnight as she always did.
--
Midterms blended into a calm before the storm and then he suddenly had four exams, three monster papers, and three presentations due in a span of a week. Work was piling on the hours and his days were growing so mundane he'd stopped crying himself to sleep at night as he was too tired to spend it wasting what little energy he had left. The Luo Binghe lock screen was turned into a pretty picture of a sunset he took from the library window.
There was a desperate hope at first that Luo Binghe would find him again, he always did. The days simply continued to wear on as he fell back into being Shen Yuan, or a newer Shen Yuan his parents were much more approving of. They were no longer worried about him being depressed, as he's managed to bury the sadness away into a chest deep in his heart.
He put on the cultivation robes (fake, itchy) and sat at his low coffee table with a cheap tea set he bought and served himself tea, the little Bingpup stared up at him from the other side of the table with big, glittering eyes. He flickered open the bamboo fan and hid his face behind it.
--
He got accepted to study abroad in Los Angeles for a year. His parents easily paid the tuition and boarding fees. His sister bought him a nice set of luggage.
--
The crane and chrysanthemum fan he kept with him at all times broke completely. Instead of throwing it away he tossed it in a desk drawer.
--
His hair had reached past his shoulders. It was easily tied back into a knot at the nape of his neck, or in a neat ponytail when he needed to clean up. He collected clips to pin back the loose strands when he found himself hunched over his monitor for long hours or with a nose buried in a book. It will never, ever be as long as Shen Qingqiu's long mane of hair, tracing his knees as he walked and whispering around his arms.
On a day off he went to a barbershop and got it all chopped off. It was long enough to donate. He did so and walked out with a weight off his shoulders and a needle-like pain in his chest.
--
His brother came over and helped him clean up his apartment a little bit. He tossed out the broken fan. Shen Yuan didn't realize until he opened up his desk drawer a week later looking for a stapler and found it meticulously organized, the scrapped fan long gone.
--
He got himself a betta fish, black and sleek like an ink splot in his tank. He named the fish Bingmei.
--
Bingmei died.
--
During a break from school, he took a weekend off from work and went back to his relative's house in the mountains. This time, he forced himself to appreciate the whispering bamboo forest, the misty mountain peaks, the tranquil silence that was muted by the pitched hum of the city. He took up piano playing again, tapping the keys awkwardly as if he was six years old again and his mother made him go to be more proactive with his life besides staying home after school every day and watching cartoons and reading comic books. His older cousin could play and she helped him get back on track, his fingers stiff on the keys and his wrists cramping from disuse. He taught himself a song he knew Luo Binghe loved him to play for him on the guqin. It tasted different.
He went home after the break and let his lungs fill with smog once again. He went to a music store and bought a cheap electric keyboard and continued to practice in his spare time. He would always start with that song Luo Binghe liked so much.
--
The fingers he used to caress the monochrome piano keys were used to finger himself wide open, face pressed into his pillow and ass arching up into his hand. Nothing will ever be as big as Luo Binghe unless he wanted to spend a small fortune on one of those embarrassingly large dildos and honestly, he didn't have a face thick enough to order something like that. Even if he had one in his cart with a credit card held out in his hand ready to type in the numbers, his hand still led him to exit the page and tuck his card back in his wallet. He never touched himself often, maybe once or twice a month the pressure will get too much, a weight shaped like Luo Binghe was only relieved for maybe three seconds at the peak of his orgasm when his name traced his lips like a lullaby.
--
As much as he was letting go of Luo Binghe and everything to do with Proud Immortal Demon Way, Luo Binghe always found a way to nestle back into his chest cavity, make a home amongst his ribs and laid back against his lungs, his curls tickled his throat and his sticky, sticky arms wrapped around his whole heart.
--
The rhythm broke with a crack, a little over a year and a half after he returned to his world.
A literal crack.
He came home from class, one of his last classes before finals kicked in and was going to head to his bedroom and take a quick nap before he had to close at work when he heard a deafening crack echo from his bedroom. He quietly sat down his backpack, a scraping and muted thump followed. He grabbed the umbrella he had by the door as quietly as he could, stepped with care into his apartment. He had his phone out with 1-1-0 already dialed, thumb hovering to hit call at a moment's notice. A muffled voice sent a lurch from his feet to his throat. He isn't the powerful immortal cultivator Shen Qingqiu, he can die! Well, Shen Qingqiu did die a few times (oops), but he's still hard to kill! Not Shen Yuan in his soft, mortal body with fragile bones, paper-thin skin, and a heart so delicate only Luo Binghe's metaphorical glass heart could be compared. He didn't have a spare body laying around to launch his soul into nor does he have the System to swoop in and save his ass again with a magic reboot. Once he's dead, he's dead.
Shen Yuan stuck close to the hallway wall and tried to peak through the crack in his door. From this angle, he couldn't see anything. There wasn't a sound at all and Shen Qingqiu started to lower his umbrella thinking it might have just been a loud neighbor when a definite rustle of clothes could be heard from his room. He tried to back up quickly, smart enough to know that this is something the cops should deal with not him!
He stumbled and fell flat on his ass, the air pulled from his lungs with a sharp gasp. His phone clattered loudly to the ground, screen dark, and the umbrella nailing the hallway wall. Oh no, oh no, oh no the intruder would have definitely heard him!
The door was thrown open and for a half a second all Shen Yuan saw was a dark blur before he pushed his glasses back up his nose, bringing the intruder into full 20/20 focus. Whatever breath he had left in his body left with a sharp gasp.
" Binghe?!"
Chapter 2: Noon
Summary:
Binghe's perspective of Shen Qingqiu dropping dead back to life.
Notes:
slapping this here again then i'm gonna fuck off i upped the chapter count because i'm estimated 5 chapters total with constant POV switch. finals are here and i have projects so im trying to haul ass and bust this out before school ends.
the chapter titles only vaguely indicate the time of day when shit happens i guess i dunno dont @ me im going in this with only half a page of notes when my last fic had at least 4
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
He promised. He promised he wouldn't leave Luo Binghe ever again. Shizun said he would stay with him forever!
It fell away with the shatter of a broken teacup and a sharp inhale, his last gasp of air, from Shizun's chest as his eyes rolled back and he collapsed in a heap on the other side of the low table. Luo Binghe cried out his name and lurched forward, the tea set shaking from the sudden movement. He shakily pulled Shen Qingqiu up in his arms, completely limp and not a trace of life left in his body. It was as if he'd fallen from the tower all over again- an empty kite with a hole in its wing with no cultivation or soul to give it flight.
Shen Qingqiu remained beautiful even in death, his layers of robes fanned out like he was a fallen flower, his hair loose from the impact of his fall and slipped from his silver and jade crown, a lock tracing his temple and the pale ribbons trailing his inky black hair like a green river in volcanic meadows. Luo Binghe gently lifted him, his name spilling from his lips and tears falling from his eyes stained the pale face already losing its shades of life and gave away to a deathly grey. There was no pulse, the warmth dripped away with each drop of a crystalline tear. No flutter of his eyelashes, no gentle rise and fall to his chest.
Luo Binghe worked quickly to preserve Shizun's body all the while his mind scrambled to find a solution. There has to be a reason behind him suddenly dropping dead, something must have pulled the soul away. He promised! Something beyond his control had reached in and snatched Shen Qingqiu's soul out from his body- the real body this time! He wouldn't break a promise! Last time it was his useless father that had to pull Shen Qingqiu back to his real body from the Dew Seed body. There was no powerful demon to pull him away so suddenly, he was one of the most powerful demon lords there was absolutely no one who would dare to mess with him!
After pouring his spiritual energy into Shen Qingqiu and arranging him comfortably on the bed, he dropped the silken drapes to hide him away and set off toward Cang Qiong Mountain.
--
Even after digging through the whole of the mountain and threatening every Peak Lord and every disciple, he came up with nothing. No one knew anything and was shocked to learn of his sudden passing. He didn't believe a word.
A scurrying mouse caught his attention and he chased after it.
--
"I don't know anything!" Shang Qinghua squeaked in fright, the wall behind him blown in from the sudden force of Luo Binghe's fist. He was trapped by Luo Binghe's leering form, shivering under his glare. "I'm just as shocked as you are!"
"But you had a different look on your face when I told everyone," Luo Binghe sneered. "You looked confused. Did you do something?"
"Nothing, nothing!" Shang Qinghua shrank deeper into his collar. "How-how about this. Leave me alone, but! I have an idea of how to get him back."
"Talk," Luo Binghe spat, eyes on fire.
"I have a hypothesis that his soul might… might have been sucked off somewhere far away," Shang Qinghua stuttered. "You can easily go traipsing through the human and demon realms with your demon and human blood, but-but this might be beyond our reach. Don't ask how! It's an untested theory!"
"Who did this?" He drove his fist deeper into the wall by Shang Qinghua's head. He whimpered pathetically.
"I don't know!" He cried out. "But give me time, I'll think of something to help Cu- Shen Shixiong out!"
Luo Binghe stepped back, a couple of crumpled rocks fell to the ground from the wall. "I'm going to continue physically searching. I'll be back, for now, you must think of something before I return."
With a flourish of his black robes he left. Shang Qinghua's legs gave out and he slumped to the floor with a mutter of "scary, too scary!" under his breath.
--
Nothing. He searched every crevice of the mortal and demon realm, shouted to the heaven's to give him back. There wasn't a whisper of his soul anywhere. He dug through holes in the mountains, swam down to the deepest parts of the lakes, turned over every rock and leaf in the world and there was no Shizun.
He returned to Shen Qingqiu in his demon palace, resting in their grand bed and shielded away from prying eyes. He was stripped to his under robes, bathed in soft jasmine flowers, and his hair was brushed daily by Luo Binghe. It was always silky and knot-free. The long locks were braided loosely and he would lay him on his back and pull the silken blankets up to keep the chill off. His body was well preserved by Luo Binghe's own spiritual energy as he did during the five year period of his death and for the first time in years, he went searching for humans with high spiritual power to help balance out his clashing demonic and spiritual energies. Every night, no matter how far away he searched, he always came back to lay next to Shen Qingqiu, curled up next to him under the blankets and cried real, hot tears onto his lukewarm chest, kiss each finger, bury his face into the junction of his neck and inhale the subtly sweet scent of jasmine flowers, tea leaves, and something that's so distinctly Shizun.
Every morning he'd rise before the sun, press a kiss on Shen Qingqie's forehead as he always didoes to his demon mark, fills him with more spiritual energy, and disappear to find him.
--
He reappeared to harass Shang Qinghua over half a year later.
"You need to reforge Xin Mo," Shang Qinghua said. "But you'll need to do more. As you might have found, Shen Qingqiu is nowhere on either world and the heavens have not sent a sign yet that he is with them. No soul has responded to inquiry, not unless he was split apart beyond anything recognizable, he must have been pulled far away." His eyes shifted. He wasn't telling Luo Binghe something. "But we can't be certain. Try your alternate Bingge's world and see if he's been sucked in first."
"That's exactly what I'm planning. What will it take to reforge?"
To mine the steel of an immortal mountain, forge it in the fires of a mountain of blood, and slaughter a hundred thousand demons to stain the blade black with its malice. For at least one moon cycle it needs to be embedded in a corpse, preferably a full thirteen moon cycles but they were pressed for time.
"It won't be as powerful, but it should be enough" Shang Qinghua finished.
Luo Binghe set off to start. How long it would take, he didn't know. Shang Qinghua said it would take at least three years. He will do it in one.
—-
The cloying darkness of the mine was nothing compared to the anguish in his heart, the burning flames of the bloody mountain were nothing but an added flame to his determination. His hands were bloody and raw, his skin dry and filthy- almost like he was back in the Endless Abyss again.
Every night, he returned to bathe and curl up by his Shen Qingqiu, filled him with spiritual energy, then rose in the morning to take a human or two brimming with fresh spiritual energy and balance out his demonic energy. He wouldn't have cared if the demonic energy laid waste to his body, but the flash of Shen Qingqiu behind his closed lids- laying stripped and raw and bloody from his uncontrolled hands would always send a shudder of fear deep in his heart. No matter the torment, how easy it would be to let go, he refused to fall for Shizun's sake.
—-
The new sword was forged in record time (Xin Mo 2 is what he called it) and after a brief reprieve to rest at Shen Qingqiu's side, kissed his naked cheek, wrapped his arms around his slim waist, and buried his head into his slender neck. He left at the break of dawn drained of spiritual energy and brimming with demonic energy.
First, he tracked down Luo Bingge's world and traipsed through his cursed realm. It was colder here with Shen Qingqiu's blood staining the soil. He crashed through the doors of Luo Bingge's demon palace and found him in the arms of three wives.
"Get out," he pointed his sword toward the three unfamiliar women. They quickly gathered their clothes and fled from the ominous blade, his ominous gaze.
"I thought you destroyed your sword," Luo Bingge snarled. He lounged back on the large bed, uncaring of his nudity. He was exactly like Luo Binghe, minus his the scar on his chest and hand, the faithless look in his cold eyes, a cutting edge to his words.
"I did, but I needed it again." He pointed the blade to Luo Bingge. "Where's Shizun?"
Luo Bingge arched his brow. "He's not with you? I only have the remains of mine, do you wish to see him?"
The bloody, lifeless hunk of flesh Luo Bingge kept preserved in his dungeons could not be Shen Qingqiu, the blood soaking the walls and floors and ceiling were not his Shen Qingqiu's. He felt a whiplash of cold strike through his heart at the thought of and Shen Qingqiu suffering a fate like that, limbless, half-blind, wholly mad, completely shattered even in death. Sometimes, the corpse swinging listlessly from the chain would haunt the deepest recesses of his dreams.
"No. I need mine."
Luo Bingge spread his arms in welcome. "Feel free to search my realm, turn over every stone and leaf, to find him. But know you are wasting your time."
With a flourish of his robes, Luo Binghe turned on his heel and marched out of the bedchamber and proceeded to search.
This time it went faster with the help of his demon sword, stopping to flood his system with this realm's cultivator's spiritual energy then returned every night to put every drop into Shen Qingqiu.
When he dug through the last mountain, he laid on his back and stared up at the bleak, grey clouds and let his tears drip down to his hairline.
--
He broke through Cang Qiong Mountain's barriers with ease and kicked down Shen Qinghua's private chamber's doors down. A startled screech met his ears followed by a rough thump on the bamboo floors. Luo Binghe went around the private screen to find Shang Qinghua half out the bed, his robes pulled open, and Mo Beijun sitting up next to him, blinking the last remnants of sleep from his eyes. He gave Luo Binghe a short bow of his head and pulled Shang Qinghua up off the floor.
"Can't you knock? Politely wait outside until I let you in?" Shang Qinghua hissed, pulling his thin robes tightly over his chest. Mo Beijun's hands were still resting firmly on his waist.
"Good morning to you, too," Luo Binghe greeted. "Xin Mo 2 is done."
"Xin Mo 2…" Shang Qinghua muttered, a look of disbelief crossing his features. "Okay, okay let me get dressed and we can discuss what to do next."
Not long later, Luo Binghe sat with Mo Beijun at Shang Qinghua's low tea table where he served them fresh tea and snacks. Xin Mo 2 laid across the table, it's blade an obsidian black, a pale, green jade was mounted in the hilt.
"Interesting touch," Shang Qinghua noted.
Luo Binghe nodded. "For Shizun."
"We should test to see if we can reach him in the first place. Have you tried opening a portal yet?" Shang Qinghua asked.
"How do you think I got here?"
"Ah, makes sense. Okay, and you've checked Luo Bingge's realm?"
Luo Binghe nodded darkly. "Get on with it, what else can I do?"
"Since it might be such a far reach, you might not be able to reach him. Here, I thought we could use this to help. Mo Beijun brought this back from the demon realm we might at least be able to use this to catch a glimpse of where he may be at before you go jumping into any portals." Shang Qinghua stood and bustled to the back of his house, emerging a moment later with a large, smooth obsidian disk. It was about the size of the tabletop, the surface polished to a glossy reflection where even after he cleared off the table and placed it in the middle, his fingerprints dissolved on the surface before their eyes. It didn't radiate malicious energy as most things from the demon realm would, but a sort of calming threat as if it can strike if striked first.
"Luo Binghe, can you slash the surface with, uh, Xin Mo 2?" He asked him.
Luo Binghe nodded and stood. In one fluid movement, he drew his sword, cut the starless surface, and sheathed it.
The slash in the middle where it was precisely cut seemed to suck in light, the polish surface that had their faces reflected around a moment ago swallowed by the expanding black hole until they were looking down a dark hole carved through the wooden table. They leaned forward, breaths held to catch a glimpse, a sound, of anything.
After a moment of nothing, Shang Qinghua piped up. "You focused on Shen Qingqiu specifically, right?"
"What else would I be thinking of?" It's not like he could have anything on his mind but Shen Qingqiu.
"I have another hypothesis," Shang Qinghua stood. "Try again, but let me hold the sword, too."
Luo Binghe grasper the hilt and pulled it away from Shang Qinghua's outstretched hand. "No."
"Do you have any ideas?" Shang Qinghua snapped, a moment of boldness. There was a tilt to his tone, an unfamiliar accent Luo Binghe here crop up when Shang Qinghua thought he was out of earshot with Shen Qingqiu. "I don't like this either but… ah, I really hope I'm wrong, please Binghe let me try just once?"
He kind of didn't want Shang Qinghua's hands anywhere near him or his sword, but he pushed that away and hesitantly held out Xin Mo 2. For Shizun, he told himself. Shang Qinghua's clammy hand wrapped around his and together they raised the sword and slashed the obsidian mirror.
Like the first time, a black void spread across the surface, but then there were blinding lines of green accompanied by a high pitched, repetitive noise. Shang Qinghua next to him choked on a gasp, a barely heard "oh fuck." muttered under his breath.
"How did you do that?" Luo Binghe asked. "Why were you able to open a portal to him, and yet I, his own husband , wasn't?"
Shang Qinghua didn't answer right away, his eyes glazed over, a similar look She Qingqiu would have sometimes. Mo Beijun watched Luo Binghe and Shang Qinghua with sharp eyes, not caring for the mirror at all. It took a moment before Shang Qinghua responded, blinking himself back down to the present.
"How do I start- uh, I guess with the most obvious, no use tiptoeing around it anymore," Shang Qingqiu straightened up, his eyes focused on the trailing green lines. "Shen Qinqiu and I transmigrated into this world together. I was hoping my assumptions were incorrect because as being the creator of this world I could come up with a way to get him back, but by the looks of it he was pulled back to where we came from. I have no jurisdiction over there."
No one spoke, the repetitive noise from the mirror echoed in the chamber.
Surprisingly, Mo Beijun broke the silence first. "Are you a god?"
"Oh my god no, no? Uh, well, yes maybe?" Shang Qinghua was flustered. "I'm a writer back in our realm. This is a story I wrote to pay the bills. I… I died due to unforeseeable circumstances and transmigrated into this world a long time ago at the beginnings of Shang Qinghua's life. Cucumber bro was a devoted reader who also passed away, a heart thing or whatever. Remember back, what was it, I think about twenty years ago? When Shen Qingqiu suffered from qi deviation and was changed, losing his memories and his nasty personality?"
Luo Binghe's heart pounded in his chest, trying to absorb this new knowledge as calmly as he could. This person, this not-Shizun who is Shizun but there hasn't been a Shizun in many years is the one he's so thankful for.
Shang Qinghua continued. "This realm's Shen Qingqiu passed away and as Cucumber bro died cursing my novel, his soul was plopped into his body and told to fix the story if he thinks it's so terrible." He turned to Luo Binghe, his accent tilting once again to something he used privately with Shen Qingqiu. "The Luo Bingge you met who tried to take Cucumber bro, that's the original Luo Binghe I wrote. All because Cucumber bro swore to hug your thigh and treat you better, the whole course of the story changed from my daring stallion novel to this BL. Isn't that crazy? So many people are alive now all because Cucumber bro took the reigns of this story and changed it for the better.
"Aaah, I originally wanted to write a BL, but it's not what my readers wanted!" He flopped back down to the ground with a sigh, the harsh green light emanating from the obsidian mirror throwing shadows across his face. "I needed money, I hope you understand but seeing the original scum villain making the protagonist fall in love with him, even I didn't see that coming!"
"Protagonist?" Luo Binghe finally spoke up. "Scum villain?"
"Yes, you." He pointed up to Luo Binghe's looming figure. "You're the ultimate protagonist! And now Cucumber bro went and made you gay on accident. I'm not terribly mad, but there's still so much fanservice we're missing out on!"
"Why did you write such a shitty protagonist the first time around?" The thought of Luo Bingge being his original counterpart made him sick to his stomach.
Shang Qinghua gasped, clutching his chest. "I'll have you know that despite hating the work as a whole your husband adored the protagonist!"
At that moment the high pitched sound stopped and the green light faded, putting their conversation to a halt. They all leaned forward with their heads crowded around the obsidian mirror as the green lights fizzled away and replaced by a dark room.
Luo Binghe held his breath afraid it might shatter the surface. The room was barely lit, shrouded dark except for lines of pale light striping the edge of the bed and floor. Everything looked weird, too square and smooth. There was a person on the bed, curled up improperly with an arm thrown up, a pale hand knocked against the headboard and a tuft of dark hair were the only things visible.
"Your world is ugly," Luo Binghe noted, examining what he could see of the smooth walls with glossy portraits hanging from them, the simple furniture all had items he couldn't figure out what was for. Clothes, at least he assumed so, were spilling out of a basket in the corner and draped across a chair, piled at the foot of the bed, even on the bed. This is most certainly his Shizun's room, and that must be Shizun asleep.
"Our world is practical, now hush let's see if he's gonna wake up," Shang Qinghua said. As if roused by them, the figure in the bed shifted, rolled over and stretched. He reached over and grappled something on the side table, a smooth, black item that was rectangular and sleek like the obsidian mirror and brought it under the blankets with him.
"A scrying mirror?" He asked.
"Not quite," said Shang Qinghua
They watched as the figure shifted again and pulled himself up. This man was not Shen Qingqiu, his face too slender and his cheeks too low, the brows and nose broader and his lower lip was fuller to an almost natural pout, but Luo Binghe suddenly recognized those features as to that of the Dew Seed body Shen Qingqiu hid himself in, the features on that one only a 40% match to his body but the other 60% was unmistakably this.
The difference was the short hair. It made Luo Binghe want to weep, especially how it stuck up flat on one side and was a tangled mess on the other. The not Shizun, yawned widely, uncaring for his posture as he slouched down and rubbed his eyes and face hard to wake himself up more. The clothes he wore were unusual, the sleeves short, only reaching to his elbows, and there was no tie to indicate how he got in it.
Not Shizun rolled himself out of the bed, shuffling papers and books that were tucked in the folds of the blankets into a pile and stood with a stretch. Luo Binghe choked and pushed Mo Beijun, turning to Shang Qinghua to do the same but he already had his eyes closed and turned away with a shout of "I'm not looking!" Not Shizun didn't have anything on his legs! His legs were completely bare, save for the little piece of garment hanging from his hips that barely passed the tops of his thighs. Luo Binghe wanted to cover his eyes for Shizun's privacy, but also he couldn't help take in the figure
Shen Qingqiu was slender like a steel-blade, but this Not Shizun (he will never call him Cucumber bro) was paper-thin as if the slightest breeze would send him tumbling. The ends of his hair barely traced his nape and his skin was pale to the point it was almost sickly. Not Shizun leaned over the side table again and put a weird contraption on his face, blinking blurrily into the clear glass and stumbled out the room, most likely to freshen up.
"I think," Shang Qinghua started. "We were able to locate him only because I have a link to this world too." He didn't meet anyone's eyes through his whole explanation, his gaze firmly fixed on the shapes of the furniture, a melancholic notes to his words. "You should be able to just jump right in and get him back but how will you do that?"
"What do you mean?"
"He has two bodies and one soul," Shang Qinghua pointed out. "He can't easily leave his current body without dying again, and Shen Qingqiu is only preserved due to you dutifully replenishing him with spiritual energy. How will you get him back? And consider this." Shang Qinghua straightened up, an unusually sharp look in his eye. "Will he want to? This is how he lived, everything he knew, until a little over ten years ago he suddenly died and was thrown into a whole other culture and told to survive. He lost his friends and family, everything he worked at and was blessedly given another chance of life but not his life. Now he's back somehow and he's clearly making strives to live life to his fullest. Look."
He pointed to the mirror and Not Shizun was back pulling on clothes that covered his legs and arms, but they were so form-fitting they left nothing to the imagination! His socks barely covered his feet and he watched him roll up the leg of his pants a little, revealing tantalizing ankles. The papers and books he had piled up at the foot of his bed were put into a strange bag and with a strange sound, he sealed it shut, tucking the obsidian rectangle into a pocket at his side. His hair was smoothed down (except when he turned, there was a stubborn cowlick on the back of his head), his face flushed with wakefulness, and he left the room.
"I'll… we can figure it out once I see him." There was a moment of silence, the sounds of Not Shizun moving around in another room. "I need to see him at least and if he doesn't…" he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.
There was a loud clacking sound from Not Shizun's end followed by the deafening sound of a door shutting, muted clicks concluded his exit.
"I'm heading over." With a solid location finally set, trying to hold back his hands from quivering, he raised Xin Mo 2 and slashed open another portal, one that will link to the little, messy bedroom viewed in the obsidian mirror. The image in the mirror dissolved without Xin Mo 2's energy directed into it.
"Wait!" Shang Qinghua stopped him. "Promise me you won't leave the room until Cucumber bro comes back! Don't go running after him you might cause a scene just- just wait there in the bedroom until he returns."
Luo Binghe harumphed and stuck his foot through the portal. "No promises," he said and lept through.
--
The room was cool, cluttered with unfamiliar items yet done familiarly, like when Luo Binghe first moved into the bamboo house and found out despite his immortal exterior, his Shizun was a mess.
At first, he politely sat by the bed on his knees facing the door, ready to greet his Not Shizun the moment he came home. He watched the light grow brighter through the weird window covers, strips of white that only allowed light in like prison bars. The golden lines moved across the bed, a hum came from outside the window, people moving around above him, below, to the sides.
Curiosity finally got the better of him and he stood to explore the room. Everything was blocky, made of strangely smooth, cool material that wasn't wood sometimes but lighter, sometimes hollow. The weird white bars on the windows could wiggle. He peeked outside and was met with a textured wall, down below was a grey ground framed with sparse grass between the narrow alley. He turned to further explore the room.
Everything was strange. Books bound in hard casings lined the towering bookshelf, stacked on the floor and dresser. God statues and portraits hung on the walls in vibrant, glossy colors. Clear cups with gunks of something stuck to its sides made Luo Binghe's nose twitch.
The room was strangely stuffy, outside sounds muted by the hard walls and floors. There was an uncomfortable itch to his neck. Guilt ate at him for snooping around his Shizun's room and he quickly shuffled back to his spot and knelt o the weirdly soft ground, back straight as a blade and eyes trained on the door with a guard dog concentration.
--
The sun trailed across the room, a peak of a muted blue sky from the pains of glass was the only sense of time he could gather. He could wait, he waited for three years, he waited for five more, and after finally- finally - receiving his Shizun's affections, he had to wait another year. Determination was the only thing leaving him from straying too far into an aimless wander, but it was still an aimless path he carved himself. Now here the aimlessness was coming to an end and all he had to do was be patient, very patient.
Luo Binghe was a generally neat person and his Shizun was not, but here it felt like he had given up on even trying to keep anything somewhat orderly. It's fine, it's one of Shen Qingqiu's cute traits that only he has the pleasure of knowing about, but a mess like this with the undertone of something rotting in the air mixed with dust and dirty clothes, he couldn't take it. After sitting diligently on his knees for a few incense sticks time he sprung to his feet and started a mad dash to clean. He easily found the source of the rotting smells (a bowl of something with green fuzz starting to stick to the bottom, a cup with a handle with black stains on the bottom and rim, and a few crushed metal cylinders that read it was energy drink on the sides) and didn't hesitate to throw them in the can by the door with more trash in it. He gathered all the clothes on the bed and set to sorting out the clean from the dirty based on smell (and if he stuck his nose into a soft coat to take a really good sniff of this new smell he could associate his shizun with, who would know but him?), and gathered the remaining books and stray papers back onto the bookshelf.
It was in the middle of neatly cramming the clean clothes in the wardrobe did he here the distinctive click from the doors opening. He froze, wanting to run out and greet the Not Shizun and yet unsure if the rule applied to him staying in the bedroom only or the entire house. Not wanting to cross any lines and realizing he wasn't done, he quickly went back to trying to put away the rest of the clothes, dumping the dirty remnants into the wicker basket already packed full. He rolled to the ground and started picking up anything he could, accidentally bumping into the bookcase and one of his god statues came tumbling down. With a suppressed curse on his lips, he brushed her off and gently placed her back up, along with the snapped off arm and did a quick prayer for forgiveness.
He bodily slid back to the ground to his knees by the bed facing the door, trying to adjust his robes to make him look less disheveled. Quiet footsteps were approaching the door slowly, his Shizun was back! He's almost here! He gripped his clammy hands to his pants in anticipation almost vibrating on the spot.
A sudden clatter and painful, hollow-sounding thunk echoed outside the door instead. Panicked, Luo Binghe lurched to his feet and in two long strides opened the door to find-
The Not-Shizun from the obsidian mirror, sitting upon the ground, one hand holding some weird contraption and the other held up on the narrow wall. The weird lenses he wore had slid down the bridge of his nose to reveal his wide, frightened eyes and his hair was tousled much more than when he'd originally left. With a shaking hand, he pushed it back up to his eyes and the fright turned to shock.
" Binghe?!"
Notes:
-the figure was in fact an Expensive 1/7 PV Hatsune Miku figure that'll make sy cry when he sees the broken arm
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Chapter 3: Mid-Afternoon
Summary:
Luo Binghe is adjusting and Shen Yuan is conflicted.
Notes:
Sorry this took longer but I HM am on the cusp of finals hopefully I can get this all out before school is all over im like, just about halfway done writing the last chapter.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It was a douse of hot water to find Binghe standing at his door, towered above in his midnight black glory, his hair even wilder than he could recall and redwood eyes sunk deep into his tired face. He was frozen in the spot, had half out as if he wanted more than anything to grab Shen Yuan and pull him back into his arms. He wanted him to do it.
"Sh-shizun?" Luo Binghe said hesitantly. His face. He has a different face, one that could not hide his emotions as well as Shen Qingqiu's naturally cold mask.
"Binghe, it's me," Shen Yuan gulped and shakily climbed to his feet. After all this time, after all the waiting, he was finally here to take him back but only after he'd finally fixed his gaze to the approaching horizon instead of checking every second to see if Luo Binghe had followed him. The luggage his sister had bought him was sitting as a painful reminder in the living room; of how he was paying to leave Luo Binghe behind for good. "It's Shizun." He pulled his spine taught, and fixed his best cool and collected immortal Shen Qingqiu mask over his face. He'd been practicing, but he wasn't nearly as good as the original.
There was a moment before the dams broke and tears flooded Luo Binghe's eyes and his face scrunched up in what would be an ugly, twisted mess, but he was still very handsome. " Shizun!" He sobbed and with all his demon strength, he gathered Shen Yuan into his arms and held him close. "Shizun, Shizun, Shizun!"
Ignoring the painful cracking of his spine, he reached up and wrapped his arms around Luo Binghe's broad shoulders, the width spanning larger than he remembered and his head pressed firmly into his chest. His original body is smaller than Shen Qingqiu's, less lean and more skin on bones and vertically challenged, perhaps that's why he felt so large. Luo Binghe was bigger than him before but now it felt as if he was being wrapped in a sticky, heated Binghe blanket.
"Binghe I-" he choked off, his heart overflowing with the year and a half he spent missing, yearning, for him.
"Is it really you, Shizun?"
"It's me, I promise it's me."
Luo Binghe seemed to sink into him, letting his wound-up joints relax and rested his weary weight on Shen Yuan's body. His hands gripped the back of his jacket so tight, shaking with unbridled emotions, Shen Yuan swore it might tear the fabric.
The words he wanted to say were caught in his throat. The nights he had spent staring up at his pale ceiling with the street lights ruining the opaque night and the seamless noise pollution disrupting however much sound of Binghe's voice he could recollect. Hours and days and weeks and months spent with a weight on his chest that he couldn't pull off and now it was forced into his lungs waiting for him to-
To do what?
Tears blurred his vision. He wants Shen Qingqiu's face back.
They pulled each other into Shen Yuan's room, which he noticed was much neater than when he'd left it that morning. Finals were just beyond the horizon and the looming threat had left him careless in taking care of himself and his space. He only caught a glimpse of it before Luo Binghe had walked them back to the bed and tumbled down onto the Tempurpedic mattress, sinking into he duvet with a soft gasp of surprise from Luo Binghe. His body was still pressed firmly against Shen Yuan's, arms wrapped around his narrow frame with no will to let him go.
Simply relishing in their warmth was what they needed right now. Shen Yuan stroked his tear-stained cheeks and brushed stray locks from his brow, the glimmering demon mark tempted him to bring his lips down to a soothing kiss, which he gave into easily, to the first kiss in so, so long. Luo Binghe sighed into his hold, his eyes fluttering under his tender touch, long fingers stroking a pattern in the small of Shen Yuan's back.
Neither wanted to break the peace and neither dared to try.
--
It was later after Shen Yuan let his heavy head rest on Luo Binghe's warm chest and dozed for a bit did he curse the phone alarm that went off to remind him to get ready for work. Luo Binghe half sat up with him and glared at the phone in his hand.
"Give me a second, Binghe," Shen Yuan painfully extracted himself from Luo Binghe's warmth. "I need to clear something up."
He stepped out of the room, leaving the door open and himself in view for Binghe's sake and quietly called his work to use up a little of his sick hours to ditch his short closing shift. With an apology, he hung up and went back into the room. He finally peeled off his jacket, his skin feeling toasty from intensely cuddling Binghe. He crawled back into bed and felt Binghe's eyes lingering on his exposed arms.
"What?" He asked, flushing under his gaze.
"This place, tell me about it," Luo Binghe said slowly. "It's… different. You're different."
Ah. "I- well, you've probably figured it out but this is where I'm from."
Luo Binghe nodded. "Shang Qinghua told me you two transmigrated into our world he wrote, but that's it."
Shen Yuan breathed, sitting up from his warmth and proceeded to tell Luo Binghe everything. The System isn't here to deduct points as he's technically offline, so he was free to tell him everything that's been gnawing at his bones since day one. His old life as Shen Yuan, a second-generation third son with too much time on his hands and a heart too weak to keep him going, his brutal curses and a fading death that lead him to rewrite the novel. His requirements, the tasks he had to complete.
Luo Binghe was crying, full-blown sobs toward the end when he told him about how he had no choice but to push him and Bingge came from a System punishment meant to kill him originally.
"If Shizun had asked," he wept, "I would have jumped into the Endless Abyss a thousand times and more if its to save you."
"I couldn't," Shen Yuan wiped away his hot tears. These weren't his crocodile tears used to pull and push Shen Yuan around. "That was dangerous, too. The condition of the System is that I must never speak of it and never imply your world was a novel or I would have died again."
"The other Shen Qingqiu, from the other me's world," Luo Binghe started. "Is…?" He could almost see the original good's limbless, blind body dangling reflecting in Luo Binghe's star shine eyes.
Shen Yuan nodded. "Yes. That's why I ran away."
A fresh wave of salty tears broke dripped down Luo Binghe's sobbing face and he pulled Shen Yuan into a crushing hug. "I would never! I could never hurt you! I don't even want to think of hurting you!" He cried his big, fat tears into the thin cotton of his shirt.
Shen Yuan hugged him back tighter, his usually shy exterior thrown away for the moment only to soak up his Binghe. They sank back into each other's arms and felt the dripping daylight fade to molten gold and then a sleepy grey, the only sound besides the constant city humming was their sweet whispers, old endearments they swore they would never be able to say again, and hushed cries when their hearts grew too full.
--
"My name is Shen Yuan."
Luo Binghe nodded. "May Shizun… allow this lowly disciple to call you as such?"
"I would rather you call me that than Shizun here." He could feel the flush staining his cheeks.
"A-Yuan," Luo Binghe murmured, slipping his arms around his waist from behind. He pressed a kiss to his nape, relished into the hitched gasp from Shen Yuan's throat. "I called you A-Jiu once and you didn't like it and I thought you didn't want to get that close with me, but now it all makes much more sense. It was never your name."
"Yeah uh, please let go just for now? I need to move around." Shen Yuan ducked out of Luo Binghe's corded arms and went back to the stovetop where he was making dinner.
"I'm sorry, A-Yuan, please continue." Luo Binghe stepped back into his space and with a large hand placed on the small of Shen Yuan's back, he leaned in and closely watched Shen Yuan mix together the last of the vegetables into the fried rice. "This disciple wishes to learn how to utilize your kitchen in order to make you excellent meals again. But I also don't mind A-Yuan cooking for me, too."
"This is the only thing I know how to make besides a mean scrambled egg," Shen Yuan said. "It's not the best tasting fried rice, my brother makes it so much better."
To prove his point, he turned off the heat and served the lackluster fried rice into bowls, shuffling awkwardly around the already too-small kitchen with Binghe latched to his side. He served it at his kitchen bar with mismatching cups of his favorite iced jasmine tea and with a flourish presented his go-to meal to his husband.
Luo Binghe's eyes sparkled and dove right into the bland meal, the eggs a little too jiggly for comfort and the vegetables almost tasteless from being overcooked. A crunch of undercooked rice hit Shen Yuan's molars and he did his best to bury his face into his bowl so Luo Binghe didn't need to see the face of the man who made the pathetic meal. How could he compare to the perfect protagonist?! This is a meal he makes to eat alone if he doesn't want to buy meals at school and work the next day or two! It's not supposed to be fed to anyone but him, who cares if it tastes good if he's the only one eating his shame?!
"Shizun this is delicious!" Luo Binghe said between bites, his bowl already almost empty. He scraped the rest of it into his gaping maw, not leaving a single grain of rice behind, and chugged his whole glass of iced tea in one go. "May I have seconds?" His eyes, his smile, was all so bright. A bit of green onion was stuck to the corner of his mouth.
Shen Yuan felt a warmth in his core melt his aching heart. Of course, he loves it, Shen Yuan could feed him dirt and he'd say it's the best meal he's ever had simply because Shen Yuan gave it to him. "Go ahead, have as much as you'd like." Without thinking, Shen Yuan reached over and picked the green onion from Luo Binghe's mouth.
"I almost missed a bit, thank you Shizun." And with no shame, Luo Binghe leaned in and took the fingers that'd pinched the green onion from his face and licked them into his mouth.
"Shameless," Shen Yuan hissed, his thin face flaming.
"I will not let a scrap of my A-Yuan's hard work go to waste." As if to prove his point, he rose and piled himself another bowl.
—-
"How are we going to get you back?" Luo Binghe asked.
Shen Yuan froze at his laptop, fingers hovering over his keyboard. "I don't know. I died the first time I transmigrated. There could be a chance it just takes me to die again to go back to Shen Qingqiu's body, but…"
"No."
"No?"
"Not unless we're certain your soul will go back. How did you do it the first time, with the Dew Seed?"
—-
They decided not to try yet, to take their time working on a solution to get him home without even the slightest chance of failing. Luo Binghe had already tried popping back to their world and grabbing Shen Qingqiu's body, dropping it on the bed and asking Shen Yuan to get in.
He asked him instead to put more clothes on him and put him back. He obliged, promising he got the sect lords to take turns daily replenishing Shen Qingqiu's spiritual energy so he wouldn't rot away. He didn't say anything about redressing the body.
—-
That night they laid curled up into each other in Shen Yuan's too small bed, sleepy kisses pressed into their skin until they couldn't anymore. Shen Yuan could smell the horny on Luo Binghe, especially after he unceremoniously shoved his hand down the loose waistband of his pajama pants and was batted away. Another time, he promised. He's been abstinent for a year and a half, and this body has never felt Luo Binghe before. It would be like the first time.
"I'm going to class tomorrow, you should stay here and relax-" Shen Yuan started
"Absolutely not." Luo Binghe left no room to question. Shen Yuan sat up and found Luo Binghe's face amongst the silvery traces of moonlight bleeding through the blinds. Determination laced the lines of his face and Shen Yuan, unrestricted finally, softly trailed a light finger along his strong jawline. Luo Binghe melted under his touch, but the firmness never left his gaze.
"You don't have proper clothes to be going around," Shen Yuan tried to reason. "I'm only going to my classes, I'll be home by dinner. You'll just be bored waiting for me to finish."
"But I'll be near you."
"You're not allowed in the classroom unless you paid to be there too."
"I can wait outside."
"You can wait here."
--
Home, he realized. He had said "going home" without realizing the true implication. This is his home, this modern China where he had an apartment and a car and a job and so, so close to graduating with his Bachelor's degree. Shen Yuan is a student and a son, a brother and a friend. His home is where his family is in their lovely manor uptown where lived his mother with her string of pearls necklace gifted to her by his father for their 20th anniversary and his father with his favorite coat with the patches on the elbows like some eccentric literature professor. His eldest brother is going to inherit the company once their father retires, his second brother recently passed the bar exam, and his little sister is working at her first salon as a hairstylist.
This is a home, but not his home now. His home was now, wrapped in Luo Binghe's arms as his sleepy breath tickled his neck, his unruly hair brushing his cheek and sticking to his bare arm. There was no rush to go back to the Proud Immortal Demon Way, Shen Yuan felt he was fine where he was now that he at least had Luo Binghe next to him again. He wasn't shy to whisper a soft "I missed you so much, husband." into his hair. They needn't force themselves back so soon when they just found each other again.
Going home, he'd whispered into countless nights, was going back to Luo Binghe. He didn't feel the need to rush back just yet.
Besides, Shen Yuan put all this work into this semester so far he wanted to at least finish it off before he disappeared again.
--
Luo Binghe pitifully waved goodbye from the door as he left the next morning a little after dawn, a painfully early morning class that left a sharper burn than usual when he had to leave Luo Binghe behind. He didn't do any work last night and lugged his laptop case and heavy anthology book with him to school to work on during his break (and during one of his lectures that was a little boring, it wouldn't affect his grade if he hunched over his laptop in the back the whole time). He'd showed Luo Binghe how to work the TV and where he kept the tea and snacks and, by Luo Binghe's insistence, his cleaning supplies.
Coming home a little after four, he found Luo Binghe shaking with unshed tears in the middle of the now spotless living room.
"This disciple tried going to buy some fresh food to make Shizun a grand dinner today but they wouldn't take my money and had people take me away when I tried to shove it in their little boxes and take the food anyway. I gave them more than enough but it wasn't the paper stuff they had so I was forced to leave," Luo Binghe blubbered, tears now freefalling down his face and dripping across his exquisite black robes. "I'm so sorry, Shizun. I wanted to make sure you ate very good so you can do your work with a full stomach but I can't even do this for you here."
Shen Yuan reached up, uncomfortable with how high he had to reach with their new height difference, and patted his lovely husband's head. "I told you to stay here. I appreciate the effort, Binghe. We can go shopping now, I have the money they use here." He was between paychecks right now but his credit card was nearly paid off. This constituted as an emergency in his head so figured this should be fine.
--
First, he found some too big clothes for Luo Binghe to wear. A pair of sweatpants he bought too large for the purpose of wanting to swim in them or when it was really cold he would layer those over a smaller pair of pajama pants. They fit quite snug over Binghe's figure and considered he might have to go a size or two up to find a pair of pants that would fit. There was a shirt he dug up from the depths of his closet that also fit a little snug, too snug across Luo Binghe's chest, stretching poor Hatsune Miku's face into a warped mess. He mentally poured one out for her. A too-big hoodie he had he liked to relax in was thrown over, the sleeves short but it covered how the pants stretched across his firm butt and his too big…. you know. For shoes, he found the sandals his older brother left at his place over the summer, Binghe's heels slipped off the back but it would do. A beanie was the finishing touch, olive green knit used to cover his demon mark.
He took him to his work, a department store with a little bit of everything (plus his employee discount) and dug through the racks to find the largest size of everything. It took a little too long and he tried to not meet his coworker's eyes (which he could certainly feel on the back of his head) and pushed himself and Luo Binghe into the fitting room to try it all on. It was a chore showing Luo Binghe how to put everything on and finding what sizes worked best until finally, he had a handful of outfits plus a pair of sneakers, underwear, a soft hoodie, and a baseall cap to cover his forehead. Luo Binghe was nearly vibrating with interest, his head swinging left and right to take everything in.
"A-Yuan would look good in this color."
"I like this, A-Yuan should get this for himself."
"A-Yuan. I think you would look good in this."
He had to restrain Luo Binghe from making him buy more clothes, he was already stretching his budget buying new clothes for Luo Binghe. After almost two hours they shuffled to the register with their armload of clothes to check out.
"Hey, Shen Yuan." It was Sun Mei. The awkwardness had worn off a couple of months ago and they were back to being friends thankfully, but he couldn't help feeling he cheated on Luo Binghe especially when her artificial waves pulled back into a bouncy ponytail and red lipstick as vibrant as always.
"Sun Mei, hi," he greeted warmly. He felt Luo Binghe shuffle closer. She rang them up efficiently and the two of them chatted idly until another coworker strolled over to the registers with a mischevious grin.
"You called out last night and have the nerve to show face today and buy half our stock?" He indicated the two large bags of clothes.
"I wasn't feeling good, dude," he grunted. "I'm better today, tomorrow I'll be here for opening."
Luo Binghe had pulled himself closer to Shen Yuan, a possessive hand hovering over his waist. He could almost taste the vinegar rolling off his skin. He quickly finished up and bid them goodbye and took Luo Binghe back to the fitting room to remove the tags and put him in his nicer clothes. He tried not to think about the number of people who'd tried them on before and the factory smell that still lingered in the fabric but this was just for their last errand. He wore taper cut jeans, black sneakers, grey heather and black raglan shirt, and a soft, black hoodie that fit his larger frame much better. The green beanie still sat on his head and Shen Yuan retied his hair into a simple low ponytail with a spare hair tie. He was undeniably handsome in the clothes that were closer cut to his figure, his heart tumbling summersaults in his chest over the nicely stretched fabric over the swell of his muscular chest.
They stepped out and headed to the market down the street, a different one from the one closer to his apartment where Luo Binghe was kicked out of. With Shen Yuan at his side and non-cosplay looking clothes, this will go much better. It was like taking a child to a supermarket, his sticky husband constantly wandered off and reappearing with a new item and tossing it into the cart. He decided to indulge him this time and tried not to look at the total as he blindly swiped his credit card again and promised to make a payment tonight to soften the blow when the bill came in.
Luo Binghe was almost walking on air in his new sneakers, all the groceries in his hands and the fresh bag of clothes, Shen Yuan left with nothing to carry but the crippling debt he was throwing himself under. He tried reaching out to take a bag and Luo Binghe, completely misunderstanding his intention, switched all four bags from his left hand to the right with the other five and took Shen Yuan's hand. Show off.
--
Living idly like this, domesticity so different from his previous life as Shen Qingqiu made it feel like he was living in a fanfiction. It was so soft, his days passing easily with Luo Binghe at his side again. They decided that there was no rush to pull Shen Yuan away from his current life just yet and let him finish the semester at least before they figured out how to get back.
A part of Shen Yuan was itching to go back to what he'd considered home for the past twenty years. Another wished to live here again with Binghe freeloading in his apartment to cook and clean for him. Their rhythm didn't change, except Luo Binghe wasn't pulled away to deal with demon lord business constantly, only watching dramas on TV that he said is helping him learn about this world's culture, but Shen Yuan kept telling him things don't actually work that way. He was so enthralled with the TV Shen Yuan was scared he was going to start neglecting everything to glue himself to the screen, much like Shen Yuan did his second year of college when a particularly thrilling and long anime came into his life.
He was a househusband to Shen Yuan, once or twice even coming on campus with him and hanging around outside his classes until he got out, but most often stuck at home and kept the house clean and meals hot for when Shen Yuan came back from work and school.
It was interesting teaching Luo Binghe everything he could of the culture and technology and as convenient as Luo Binghe found a rice cooker to be he still had his complaints.
"There's no spiritual energy. I can barely pull anything from myself and there's nothing in the air to feed me more," he said.
"We don't need them," Shen Yuan answered. "There's no monsters, and immortality is nothing but a fantasy."
--
Luo Binghe found his fake robes one day while deep cleaning.
"They're lovely," he said, neatly folding the top layer. "A-Yuan should put them on more. You would look very beautiful."
Shen Yuan never associated his original self with that adjective. Cute in a masculine, handsome according to his mother, but he was never handed compliments for his appearance. In fact, he was pretty plain looking, especially in comparison to Shen Qingqiu.
He put them on with Luo Binghe's help. His hair was too short for the delicate jade hairpin he'd bought to match it. In the mirror, it was jarring seeing his plain face with short hair and glasses atop the graceful body of an immortal cultivator. It was silly in comparison when Luo Binghe saddled up next to him in the mirror, passing him his nice fan and placing his hands on his waist. His demon mark was on display and hair tied up messily, broad chest trapped in a black v-neck. Shen Yuan snapped open the fan and covered his bland face and Luo Binghe's own beautiful one leaned down and brushed a kiss to his flushed cheek.
--
The first time Luo Binghe was in Shen Yuan's car he kept the music off as to not overwhelm him with how different everything was. Luo Binghe had sat with his eyes wide in the passenger seat, his head swiveling around to take in as much as he could. It took a couple of drives before Luo Binghe fully relaxed, questions he had were already aired (most left unanswered because he doesn't know jack shit about how engines work). Now, after all the TV Luo Binghe has seen, one of the tricks he picked up was shamelessly rubbing his large hand over Shen Yuan's thigh toward the prize, only to be slapped away each time with a sharp threat of "I'll drive us off the freeway if you don't cut that shit out."
—-
Speaking of sex, they haven't done anything since Luo Binghe's arrival. It's been two weeks and on top of the year and a half apart, Shen Yuan was surprised Luo Binghe wasn't more forward with what he wanted.
Actually, he had been. On the third day he seemed to be vibrating with want, his hands lingering like hot brands on whatever bit of Shen Yuan he could grab, his eyes dark with hunger.
"No." Shen Yuan told him firmly. He's thinking about how much it hurt in the peerless immortal Shen Qingqiu's body. He's already very fragile, very mortal body would suffer. He would die! Actually die this time! There was no System to do a magic reboot, nor a homegrown spare body hanging around! "We can ease into it but right now can we… can we just cuddle?"
Luo Binghe had pouted, but obliged, especially to an obviously shameless request from Shen Yuan. His face was much too thin to be asking for anything like that! It took all of him just to ask him to hold him!
He remembered a coworker, during a shameless conversation during recovery after store hours, talking about practice. Maybe… maybe he'll look into it. Or alternatives for them.
Thank the gods Luo Binghe doesn't know how a computer worked, let alone be able to check his search history.
--
He let slip he was debating on canceling his study abroad trip to his brother during a video chat and shortly later received an angry phone call from his mother about how he was throwing everything away for nothing. The worst was when his sister dropped by for a surprise visit. She brought lunch, his favorite take out place, but was taken aback by the sight of Luo Binghe relaxed across the small couch with an arm obviously out from where Shen Yuan had been cuddling into him.
His sister was polite and had thankfully bought a lot of food anyway to give Shen Yuan the leftovers for later meals. They ate crammed in his little living room with Luo Binghe on the floor pressed up against She Yuan's legs. It would have been nice if it weren't for her eyes shifting from Luo Binghe to Shen Yuan to the luggage tucked in the corner, the price tags still on. She didn't say anything until she left and texted him aggressively about ditching his future for "a fling". He chose to leave it on read and went to bed with his husband.
--
Finals nearly killed him. Thanks to Luo Binghe's support, staying up with him every night and checking through his resources with him, quizzing him and feeding him, he pushed through the last week of school with a heaving gasp that left him collapsing face-first at the front door the moment he kicked off his shoes. Luo Binghe yelped and ran over, rolling him over to hold him in his arms.
"Shizun? A-Yuan?" Luo Binghe pleaded, tears gathering in his wide eyes. "Are you okay?"
"'M fine. Just wanna sleep a bit." He refused to open his eyes, snuggling a little deeper into Luo Binghe's arms. "Let's get drinks later to celebrate."
They ended up not getting drinks, but Luo Binghe made him the congee he missed so much and laid kisses all over him.
--
His parents were aware that there was a "someone" that influenced his decision to stay in China despite all the work he put into getting accepted into the program in the first place. His plan was to finish this semester at least then go back to Proud Immortal Demon Way. He would like to stay longer and get his whole degree, as he only had a semester left, but he missed that shitty world so much the ache weighed heavy whenever Shen Yuan left to go to class or work. He'd sit in his little car and sigh. This second chance at being Shen Yuan had left him mourning for the life he fought so hard to have
He figured at first when Luo Binghe found him again he would be happy at least with him at his side, but a gnawing restlessness ate through his insides. He craved the badly written world of Proud Immortal Demon Way where he idled away as a Peak Lord and taught children how to better themselves. Luo Binghe didn't say, and never will, but he wasn't totally happy living in modern China even with Shen Yuan. Finals were over and with America becoming a fading dream it was time to start figuring it out.
—-
"We should get married again," Luo Binghe suggested. "We're married back home, but not here."
"We could do a courthouse wedding, sure, but you don't have any form of ID. I technically can't marry a person that doesn't exist," Shen Yuan pointed out.
"It could be for show, for your friends and family."
Luo Binghe hadn't even met his whole family yet and Shen Yuan didn't know if he wanted him to. He already met his sister against his will, but his brothers and parents? He didn't even want to play with the idea, let alone consider introducing them as his husband. Most people in China weren't very, ah, agreeing to same-sex marriage as of yet and he didn't want to test if his parents were part of the smaller percentage of those who were okay with it.
"I'll think about it." Shen Yuan stopped when he saw Luo Binghe's widen, tears brimming at the corners unshed. "I want to, it-it would be lovely, but let me figure out how we can make it work here, yeah?"
The main issue was his family thinking he ditched America to get married to some unknown man when, well, that's what he's doing isn't he?
Notes:
comments and kudos r greatly appreciated! next up a TOUCH of smut and lbh POV
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Chapter 4: Evening
Summary:
Luo Binghe is the perfect modern house husband but he still aches.
Notes:
slapping this baby out now ch5 is done and ch6 was added because i couldnt cram it all in ch5 also i got comments saying they should fuck from lbh perspective and youre right they should so thats why ch6 is a thing
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Luo Binghe had found himself at a loss staring down at the smaller Shen Qingqiu. He had said his name was Shen Yuan and to never call him Shen Qingqiu and Shizun, especially in public. When he called him A-Yuan for the first time his whole demeanor softened, the prickly look in his eyes melted away to the soft look only his Shizun-ah, A-Yuan, could give him. When he had explained how he transmigrated and why, Luo Binghe's world tilted on its axis, only to stand upright because it turns out he had been spinning in a crooked circle the whole time. The past clicked into place, Shen Qingqiu's fear changed to a different flavor that left a whole new taste in Luo Binghe's mouth.
He held him close and never wanted to let him go.
--
The top of his head barely brushed his shoulders, his hair painfully short but painfully fluffy, much like a duck's soft down feathers or the fluff of a bunny. His eyes were wider, almost innocent in comparison to Shen Qingqiu's fox-like sharpness, but they held the deep wisdom and kindness that was known only to his husband.
There was a scar on his chest like Luo Binghe's placed above his heart, except this one was a precise cut with criss-crossing stitches, another like that dragged across his abdomen.
"I wasn't supposed to live past childhood because I was born so weak," Shen Yuan explained when he'd asked. "As you can see I'm fine, but I still have problems. I can't do a lot of physical activities besides walking and slow stretching and I have a hard time keeping weight on. I was severely underweight up until I was nineteen but during my coma, I lost a lot of weight. I'm still trying to put it all back on."
He was unusually small for his age. The medical scars that traced his skin were bumped with the ridges of bones, the knobs of his spine visible from atop the loose collar of his shirt where his hair didn't quite reach to cover, his wrists and ankles had nearly no meat on them. He had Shen Yuan teach him how to properly utilize how to use his kitchen and after the fiasco at the market he got everything he thought he needed to feed Shen Yuan and never let him out of his sight again
Thought, being the keyword here.
Shen Yuan disappeared during the day for work and school, much to Luo Binghe's displeasure, but he'd at least showed him where the cleaning supplies were, gave him a rundown on this world's currency, and got his own too-revealing clothes for him to wear. There were also things to idle his days away while waiting for him to return.
The bookcase, for example, held many books on many different subjects with a variety of stories, most of which were portrayed with pictures in strange, box-ish formating with a heavily stylized art. He consumed as much of the bookcase as he could, leaving the books in strange languages reading the wrong way on the pages. More interesting than the numerous books was what Shen Yuan explained was the "television". He couldn't tell him exactly how it worked, but that sound and movement were captured and edited to fit an aesthetic and broadcast through waves in the air for anyone to see at any time. He showed him how the controller worked and showed him "channels".
His favorites were the array of dramas and cooking shows. The dramas because he learned more about this world's culture and practices, but the cooking shows for anything he could make for Shen Yuan. He sat poised on the couch every day at the same time with a pen poised over a notebook he dedicated to taking down recipes with annotations. With laser focus, he took in every second of their instructions and usually for the next meal he'd make something he learned that day.
Shen Yuan was delighted at the creativity and deliciousness of each meal. Luo Binghe had even take it upon himself to learn about the nutritional value of foods in order to help Shen Yuan, as the people on television would say, stay focused and alert and nourish his brain so he may continue to work hard on his studies.
--
The most painful realization was that Shen Yuan had purposefully been restraining himself even around Luo Binghe. He knew he was holding back, but he marked it off as his thin-faced shyness. That was part of it, but Shen Qingqiu was stiff, uncomfortable in his own skin as if the immortal shell would crack with the slightest misstep from Shen Yuan's part.
Luo Binghe knew he was lazy due to it always being a struggle to wake up, but not this lazy. Shen Yuan, if allowed, slept well into the late morning brushing unto lunch. He would come home and barely kick off his shoes (most of the time not even putting them back into the shoe rack he had by the door) and slouching onto the couch and seemingly taking every bit of strength to push himself up to start his homework later in the evening. His dirty clothes rarely made it in the basket and the counters in the bathroom and kitchen were left cluttered with whatever he had been using, the cabinets near empty. The bed was never made and if Luo Binghe wasn't around, Shen Yuan admitted he only cleaned his sheets maybe once a month. He slept the last possible second before he had to leave in the morning, but with Luo Binghe rousing at dawn to make him breakfast he's become a little more awake earlier in the day.
His sweet tooth was atrocious. Luo Binghe would make him delectable treats for tea and snacks back when they were in his world, but only now he realized how bland they must have tasted to Shen Yuan's palette. He would never speak ill of Shen Yuan ever, but he shared some of his "candy stash" with Luo Binghe and a single bite left him reeling with its sickly sweetness. He shook his head at another offered bite, his tongue still coated and teeth burning from the intensity. Shen Yuan shrugged and moaned delightfully into his treat. The food he ate was so high in sodium it left Luo Binghe's lips stinging. When Shen Yuan was out, he tossed every frozen, premade meal and box of instant noodles loaded with a painful amount of sodium and promised to make him everything he had here from scratch and with his own hands.
His attitude was… how would Luo Binghe put it, sour? No, he was still oh so very kind to Luo Binghe, but without the mask of Shen Qingqiu there was an extra bite to his words, the curses spilled from his lips easily, every bit of critique spat out accompanied with filthy curses set Luo Binghe reeling in shock. He had opinions on a lot of things, most often negative, and his mood seemed to always be set in grumpy. His shyness was more vocalized where he would loudly state no he did not want to cuddle right now because he had an "essay" to finish, then would proceed to rant about how strict and awful his own shizun was to assign such a difficult task with vague instructions and little source material to work off of. That was something Luo Binghe didn't understand, the schooling he did all day and night. Shen Yuan was already so smart, the smartest person he ever knew, but he swore he didn't have a proper teaching degree to technically be a shizun and that made Luo Binghe wonder just how smart everyone in his world was.
"Airplane-bro is a genuine dumbass so of course all the characters he wrote aren't very smart either," Shen Yuan bit. "You're excused from that because you're protected by the protagonist halo and thus making you inherently smarter and better than everyone else. It seems like you have all the brain cells from the novel." Luo Binghe knew they were scalding words that somehow looped back into complimenting him, such as the way of Shen Yuan's paradox.
Lastly, the thing that threw him off the most was the sex. Or, the lack thereof. Shen Yuan said right off the bat day one they will not be doing anything penetrative from either party. As stated above, Shen Yuan didn't think his body would hold out for a round or two of "intense demon fucking that would leave him crippled for the next four fucking days or even in the hospital again". Understandably so, but after a year and a half of abstinence and missing Shen Yuan's touch so badly he felt as if a sweet treat was dangled in front of his face. There was no way he would ever do anything to hurt his A-Yuan and respected his wishes to not do anything further than some heavy kissing and petting. With how outward his personality was now, unrestrained by the laws form Luo Binghe's world, he restricted his body more both in fear and shyness.
Luo Binghe prodded him one night, his previous answer about him worried about being fucked to near-death sat a little uneasily in him.
A flush rose high on Shen Yuan's ears. "I'm… I'm not ready yet."
"But this is something we've done a lot before, why are you suddenly not ready anymore? Did this disciple do something to make you hesitate now?" Worst-case scenarios flashed across Luo Binghe's mind's eye. Shen Yuan was having second thoughts about being with him because he was bad in bed, he was getting tired of Luo Binghe's body, he didn't want-
"No," Shen Yuan cut in quickly as if sensing Luo Binghe's rising panic. "It's not at all your fault, Binghe. It's all me I'm just…" he loosely waved a hand vaguely toward himself. "I'm me again. I'm not the beautiful immortal peak lord written to be graceful and ethereal. I'm normal, bland compared to Shen Qingqiu, weak and-"
"You're not Shen Qingqiu," Luo Binghe bit in. Heat was coiling in his gut, a bitter taste on his tongue as Shen Yuan's self-deprecating words rang through his head. "You're my A-Yuan and I love you regardless of whatever body you inhabit." His grip around his waist tightened, the slim figure in his arms like a flimsy willow branch easily caught in the breeze.
"I'm still weak. I might last one round with you then blackout for like twelve hours." Luo Binghe calculated in his head how many incense sticks of time that was and mentally flinched.
"We don't have to go all out, we can start small." He leaned down to press a kiss at the top of Shen Yuan's head, his grip loosened from his waist to trail down to the small of his back and traced his waistband. "And if you really don't want to do anything at all, we can do that too." As much as he loved sex with Shen Yuan, he would rather him be comfortable and happy than forcing himself on him unwillingly.
Shen Yuan said nothing but quietly pushed himself closer to Luo Binghe's chest. He felt the nod of his head and the affirmative hum.
--
The robes Luo Binghe found while cleaning once was neatly folded away in a drawer. He managed to get Shen Yuan every once in a while to put them on and have tea with him. The revealing clothes of this world were… interesting, easy to move in at least. His sleeves didn't get caught in doorways nor was he shuffling to arrange his robes to fall just right whenever he sat, but wedgies happened often.
But seeing this little Shen Yuan, his hair curled around his ears and glasses slipping from his nose, wrapped up in the gorgeous silks ad embroidered swaths of robes left him breathless. The generous layers left his slender waist burrowed away and the expansive sleeves were like delicate wings. Shen Yuan, with the hidden grace of a Peak Lord, settled himself down at the low coffee table where Luo Binghe had set up afternoon tea. From his sleeve, he pulled out a beautiful fan with bamboo painted on the delicate paper and snapped it open with the usual grace, his lower face hidden and his eyes shining. From the other sleeve, he pulled something out and placed it delicately on the table. A tiny porcelain dog with a pink tongue peaking out.
"A little friend to join us for tea," Shen Yuan said, a tilted tone of mirth in his tone.
"What's our little friend's name?" Luo Binghe played along, his heart so light it felt like a skipping stone midair above a shining lake.
Shen Yuan dove completely behind his fan, fluttering it furiously as he does when he's especially shy. "B-Bingpup," he stuttered.
The little pun turned Luo Binghe's heart from a skipping rock to a soaring bird, untouchable, light, and bathed in the warmest sunshine.
--
A still night burned Luo Binghe's skin just thinking back on it. Shen Yuan was shy, he always had been, but under the nest of blankets he liked to make himself while the air conditioning was turned down low to keep the apartment chilled to a level Mo Beijun would love, their hands strayed a little further than the usual sensual petting. Perhaps it was the wine from dinner that made Shen Yuan a little loose, or maybe he really was just feeling bolder than usual, but as they laid sleepily exchanging deep kisses with hands kept firmly on the waist up, Shen Yuan's hand trailed a blaze of fire down Luo Binghe's side to his hip. His breath caught in his throat with anticipation.
Their bodies were dragged closer, who grabbed who, it didn't matter. The kiss deepened and something rumbled in Shen Yuan's chest that made Luo Binghe's knees jelly. Shakily their legs intertwined and unconsciously rolled their hips together. He let his hands trail a little further, gripping Shen Yuan's thigh and hitching it over Luo Binghe's leg to bring him closer. He couldn't help the twitch of his cock in his pants at their deep, slow grinding. A small hand sent blazing shocks of heat across Luo Binghe's abdomen as it boldly traced down, down, down. He couldn't help but lurch up to the touch and press his own hand fully on his naval. It didn't move from there.
Shen Yuan parted with a gasp and pressed an awkward kiss at the side of Luo Binghe's neck. It sucked whatever breath he had remained away with. The duvet was suffocating him, but it wrapped them in a private cocoon where no prying eyes of Shen Yuan's apartment could witness. Cold air brushed their heated cheeks and sent a shiver down Luo Binghe's spine.
"Is this okay, A-Yuan?" Luo Binghe whispered. He let his lips trace the shell of Shen Yuan's ear. A shudder ran down his spine. His hand still gripped his thigh, the other played with the hem of his soft sleep shirt.
"I'll tell you to stop if it's too much," Shen Yuan said pressed against his throat. He kissed his neck languidly, completely pliant in Luo Binghe's arms.
Nervous he'd break the spell, Luo Binghe slowly pulled Shen Yuan's shirt up and tenderly traced over each knob of his spine, up and back down, goosebumps trailing in his fingers' wake. Shen Yuan never stopped him. He didn't when he pressed hot kisses to his throat, his hands tugging down the waistband of his sleep pants to rub idle thumbs over his sharp hip bones.
Boldly, bolder than Luo Binghe dared to be in such a long time, he gently wrapped a hand around his slowly hardening member. Shen Yuan choked on a gasp but didn't say stop. They kissed, unrefined and wet with a heat that hasn't been felt in too long. Luo Binghe let himself drown in Shen Yuan's tender touch, light and hesitant, as it mirrored Luo Binghe in pulling his cock out with shaking hands. He let out an encouraging moan and feeling braver, Shen Yuan gave it a few experimental pumps, his hand not quite wrapping around the girth of it.
They pulled close together, hands gripping each other's lengths in shivering hands, their hips slowly grinding a stuttering rhythm that grew more frantic as they reached closer to the peak. Shen Yuan was mostly quiet, save for the shuddering gasps Luo Binghe would pull from his throat. He let his tongue rove over the pale column of his throat, his teeth nipping and tugging on sensitive skin. One particular bite pulled a surprised moan from Shen Yuan and it drove Luo Binghe wild. He wanted to devour him, press him into the mattress and spread him open with his tongue and fingers, mark his neck and legs with his teeth so everyone would know he was his and his only.
Driven by the sudden madness of possession, Luo Binghe extracted himself from Shen Yuan's hold, pressing a hot kiss on his navel, Shen Yuan's hand frantically reaching for Luo Binghe's cock which had disappeared down with Luo Binghe crawling down his body.
"No, no not tonight. Don't put your mouth there," Shen Yuan broke through his fevered haze sharply. Nodding, Luo Binghe bypassed his hard cock, still being pumped in his hand with languid strokes, and hoisted a leg up to press a hot, open mouth kiss to the inside of Shen Yuan's leg on top of his sleep pants a few inches above the knee. He reluctantly released his cock to trail kisses to where the leg of his pants rode up, his lips meeting the skin of his knees and trekking downward until he latched his mouth on his ankle- an ankle he bared so easily here it made his blood boil- and sucked hard on the skin until a deep bruise formed. He gave the same treatment to the other ankle, leaving two there, then moved back up his leg and made sure to stop a little above his knee before wiggling back up to trail kisses up from his exposed collarbone, over his bobbing Adam's apple, around the jut of his jawline to lay siege upon his ear.
Shen Yuan giggled and lightly smacked Luo Binghe's shoulder. "What was that for?"
"You're mine, and I'm yours," Luo Binghe said and caught the stray hand and kissed across each finger, over the top of his hand, and down his arm to where the sleeve rode up to his bicep.
He dove back into Shen Yuan's mouth and devoured him whole, hands back on their cocks with a new vigor that stole Luo Binghe's breath away. The force of the kiss tipped them from where they languidly laid on their sides to Luo Binghe half on top of Shen Yuan, their chests pressed together and the hot slide of their cocks sending shivers of pleasure up his spine. Shen Yuan's free hand pushed the unruly locks of Luo Binghe's hair out of his face, over his shoulder where Shen Yuan cupped his cheek so sweetly, his lips tender in Luo Binghe's hunger, he came with a shuttering moan over their bared stomachs. Shen Yuan worked him through and after a whole second to recuperate he pleasured Shen Yuan with all of his attention, his thumb swiping the head of his heavy cock and quickly jerked Shen Yuan into his own completion.
After they caught their breaths, Luo Binghe wiped them down with tissues from the bedside table and moved to get up to toss them in the trash but Shen Yuan's arms were locked around his waist. He didn't say a word.
"Let this husband throw these away?"
"Later."
With a firm grip around him, Luo Binghe dropped the tissues to the floor and dove back under the covers, pulling Shen Yuan's shirt down to cover his belly and pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head.
"Later it is," he murmured. His only response was the deep breathing of Shen Yuan already fast asleep.
--
Shen Yuan's family had been harassing him. They would call and Shen Yuan would turn his phone over or toss it on the couch, dutifully ignoring it after catching a glimpse of the name on the screen. Messages would come in and he would swipe them away.
"Why don't you want to talk to them?" Luo Binghe asked. In his world, they're both orphans with family found in each other, here Shen Yuan had loving parents and siblings, extended family who doted on him.
"I did something I shouldn't have and they're mad at me or, well," Shen Yuan shrugged, his eyes flitting over to the large suitcases gathering dust in the corner. "They're worried I'm throwing myself away again."
"Do you think you are?"
"Probably, but that's okay. As long as I have Binghe by my side."
Luo Binghe couldn't help but smother him in kisses and crocodile tears over that, his own heart worried for his A-Yuan.
--
It might be better to let Shen Yuan stay here even after he finished his schooling. He had a solid place and with the amount of stress he submerged himself in it felt wrong to uproot all the work he'd done to take him back to Proud Immortal Demon Way .
He also had business to attend to as a demon lord. When Shen Yuan left for work or class he would either clean or cook or watch TV, but once or twice a week he'd open up a portal with Xin Mo 2 and jump back to his world to see how affairs are going or deal with any problems. Mo Beijun is a reliable right hand and had kept mostly everything in order but left things that only Luo Binghe could handle organized and ready for Luo Binghe to deal with. He would visit Shen Qingqiu's body every time where he, unfortunately, left the Cang Qing Mountain Sect in charge of keeping the body clean and ready for Shen Yuan to hop back in. During his visits, Shang Qinghua would harass him about the other world and how "Cucumber-bro" was doing. Ning Yingying would try and catch him for tea but he was always in a rush to get all his business done as quickly as possible before heading back to Shen Yuan's world to beat him to the apartment.
Maybe living part-time in both worlds would be ideal, but first, they needed to figure out how to get Shen Yuan back in the first place and in an ideal world… he would like to come back again and see all the places Shen Yuan's talked about and support him as he finished getting his degree.
--
Shen Li looked like Shen Yuan but didn't. He'd met her a couple of times since her initial visit and each time it was jarring. Technically, she was his family now, too. She was small and petite, her own head barely reaching Shen Yuan's chin. Her fringe was cut bluntly and the sharp cut of her hair barely brushed her shoulders. She spoke with her hands like Shen Yuan did when he was passionate about a topic and the same eyes and jawline as him. She wasn't nearly as bitter as he was, but her tongue was just as sharp.
It was a day she came over after work to hang out a bit to wait out the traffic when she rounded on Luo Binghe while Shen Yuan was in the bathroom.
"Are you guys a thing?"
"What?"
"You guys have those eyes with each other, and you're always close. It's fine if you are, or if you're just bros or whatever," she went on. "But I want to know what your intentions are with my brother."
"Intentions?" He loved his husband and wanted to be with him, but Shen Yuan made a point that they weren't married here and it would be hard to do so. Papers were involved, many of which would be impossible to get Luo Binghe. They would have to travel far to find someone to officiate the wedding in the first place. It wasn't as simple as bowing a few times like their first wedding, but a lot more legal stuff. Things like joint bank accounts and deeds and life insurance sent Luo Binghe's head spinning when Shen Yuan tried to break it down for him.
He wanted to serve and protect, love and worship, simply stay with Shen Yuan as long as he permitted it.
"Yeah. A-Yuan was getting back on his feet before you came along and he suddenly said he wanted to refund his whole study abroad trip." Shen Li's eyes were painfully sharp. "I'm not saying he did it for you, but I'm saying he did."
He chose to remain silent. The suitcases were still peaking out of the closet where they'd moved them.
"Well?"
Luo Binghe was nothing but honest. "I will never do anything to jeopardize A-Yuan's future, nor will I do anything to ever make him uncomfortable or upset. I want to support him as best I can."
"What are you studying?" She fired.
"I'm undecided."
"What are you doing now then? You're a little old to be undecided."
"I'm taking the semester off to find myself a bit while working in the family business."
"Which is?"
"Real estate."
"How much are you making?"
"A-Li, leave him alone." Shen Yuan interrupted. He plopped back down on the couch between them and lounged back lazily, his shoulder pressed into Luo Binghe's side.
"I have to head out, anyway," Shen Li said, rising to her feet. "Bring him around to a family brunch sometime, A-Yuan."
The look on Shen Yuan's face made it seem like she threatened them.
--
Shen Yuan had tests to take which would evaluate his knowledge of what he learned during the period and no matter how many times Luo Binghe told him how smart he was and how it'll be okay to rest, Shen Yuan would let the words fly over his head.
"I may be smart but this is too much work due during a short period of time and maybe I should have started earlier," Shen Yuan said, sitting up to briefly crack his neck and fingers before hunching back down, his fingers click click click -ing away. The papers and books around him were marked up in bright colors and the smell of caffeine had already seeped into his normally mellow scent. "Professors are cruel, malevolent creatures who like to push everything to the last week not caring that you already have four other classes to deal with all their own essays and presentations and exams. I have to do an interview, an interview, and I haven't even contacted them yet to set up a date and it's due in-" he paused and checked the date. "Five days. Okay. This is fine."
Luo Binghe knew it wasn't fine. He watched his A-Yuan erode away under stress and overwork, his sleep schedule going awry as he would stay up and work until the crack of dawn, one night not even sleeping at all simply packing up his bag, changing his pants, eating a quick breakfast, and headed out. Luo Binghe stayed up with him every time but after the all-nighter, he fell asleep after that and awoke right before Shen Yuan came home from class.
With Luo Binghe nearly spoon-feeding him while he worked he was still somehow dropping weight again which frustrated Luo Binghe when Shen Yuan eventually rolled into bed and Luo Binghe wrapped his arms around his spindly waist, feeling how there was a little less to cuddle up to. It was as if his stress was eating away the calories before Shen Yuan could and it didn't help even when Luo Binghe tried making him larger portions, he would somehow eat even less.
With his coffee-stained health, his tongue grew sharper, complaints dripped from his mouth like oil as exhaustion wore him down. Once it was "I need to schedule an optometry appointment because my eyesight is somehow worse than before but who has time for that anymore? Certainly not me. Bull fucking shit that I have to pay to see. Insurance should cover everything I shouldn't even have to pay insurance seeing shouldn't be a luxury it's a human right," he complained while vigorously cleaning his glasses on the hem of his shirt.
Another time, "Fuck fuck fuck I fucking hate this," he said at roughly three in the morning the last weekend before finals. He stood and slammed a couch pillow to the floor with a muted shout. "I don't care about the sublime we get it! Coleridge you piece of shit fucking fuck you, fuck you!" With each word, he punched the pillow. "You didn't have to write all that fucking shit on it! Don't you have better ways to spend your time besides writing on and on about how we can't physically handle the sublime? I'll kill you if you weren't dead!" With a final shout, he dropped himself on the pillow and rolled onto the ground. "It's endless, Binghe."
In the midst of finals week, Luo Binghe went to brush a strand of hair from Shen Yuan's head and felt the duck fluff was gone, replaced by grease. Sweat and grease and caffeine lingered over his natural scent and it took everything in Luo Binghe not to wrinkle his nose. He was naturally more sensitive to smells and he'd noticed Shen Yuan hadn't been grooming himself as well as he usually did.
"When was the last time you bathed, A-Yuan?" He asked, not at all intending to offend him but genuinely wanted to make sure he was taking care of himself.
The furrow to his brow and the fact he took too long to answer told him enough.
"Come on, let's get you clean."
He bodily dragged Shen Yuan in the shower and stood with him under the spray and let him chatter ceaselessly under his breath about his paper. It helped him gather his thoughts, he'd told Luo Binghe once. He might not have a clue what he was saying, nonsense like "metaphors" and "allegory" and "paradox" went over his head but he found it warmed his chest that Shen Yuan found he could use Luo Binghe to help him in any way he can, even if he was just standing there with his eyes glazed over unable to comprehend what he was saying. He washed him thoroughly, shyness erased with his exhaustion, and helped him out of the bathroom. The black shirt he's been wearing (for five days straight, Luo Binghe realized) was tossed away in the laundry and will not touch his skin again until it's been thoroughly cleaned.
Shen Yuan's hands were nearly always shaking, a combination of too much caffeine in his system and sleep deprivation. He got maybe two hours of sleep in the night and that was if he was lucky.
"You need a break, let's go cuddle and nap a bit on the couch?" Luo Binghe tried to pull him from his desk, a book out on his lap, at his side, another pressed to his chest, and a notebook with tons of notes scribbled out in his neat handwriting which he was flipping through with a pen between his teeth. The coffee cup next to his elbow was long cold.
"I can't. I'm in the zone right now," he said around the pen. "I already procrastinated and if I went and took a break I'll need another moment to procrastinate before I could start up again and I really need to get at least three more pages typed up tonight if I want to finish this in time and it's already- oh it's only eleven, still early."
It was nearing midnight, that's very late, A-Yuan!
As the week wore on he got more tired but the weight was slowly lessening from his shoulders. Luo Binghe would dig his thumbs into his shoulder blades and work out the thick knots of stress and that seemed to help a bit.
The night after it was all over A-Yuan was asleep right after dinner and didn't rise until mid-morning the next day where he sleepily woke up pressing delicate kisses to Luo Binghe's cheeks with a soft whisper of thank you on his lips.
--
He watched a lot of dramas and movies and one thing that always stuck out where the wedding scenes. They were different now, grander, draped in decadence and luxury as if to frame a single moment of happiness in gold and flowers. Their wedding was quick with them draped in red Luo Binghe dug up and tried to do everything they could possibly do in half a day of preparations. These weddings took months to plan, sometimes over a year in advance. Everything down to the most minuscule detail was planned out and Luo Binghe felt a pang of guilt over their rushed wedding. Did Shen Yuan want this? To be a bride draped in pearly white? Or should he wear the white veil for him to uncover? After a little research, he learned they both could wear white, or even wear red still. He liked Shizun in red better than any color (besides his usual cool greens and blues).
There was paperwork that they wouldn't be able to acquire easily, Shen Yuan had pointed out, but he said he'll think about it.
If he said yes, Luo Binghe promised, the first thing he'd do is acquire a ring and he's going to recreate one of the movie proposals so Shen Yuan can have a much better experience than his bumble the first time around. This was his chance to do it all again.
Notes:
quick notes
-its my finals and im venting. i finished this chap a while ago so i edited and slapped it out to warm me up to shit out 8 more pages of my paper bc this is like a looming threat i need off my back so i can focus better.
-i made sy whats essentially an english major bc i read a fic once where sy wanted to be an editor and i fuck with that as an english major who also wants to write shit and work in a publishing house so im throwing my problems on him. i dont hold this much hatred for the sublime that shit slaps but also being forced to learn about it 3 seperate times im a little Sick Of It
-when hes stressed hes mostly fucking around online until he works up his anxiety levels high enough to get on his assignments
-im like chanting in my head "show not tell, show not tell" which is like an ESSENTIAL rule of creative writing but this is hard when the whole fic is written to tell so im like beating myself up over my stylistic choice i hate it but you guys like it so i guess its fine
-also im very unsure how im going to make everything work out i dug my own grave and when i think i got it i have another issue like the law in the way i know this is fanfiction but im the kind of person who spent a solid hour on wikipedia looking at diseases victorian children could die from for the sake of maybe an offhanded comment buried in a whole ass fic (morning glory this is YOU)
anyway thank you so much for reading if i cant get ch6 done soon ill kick out ch5 so youre not waiting too long.
comments, kudos, bookmarks etc are appreciated!
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Chapter 5: Twilight
Summary:
They both escape and return to face the next step together.
Notes:
hello! sorry for the delay! chapter 6 is almost finished im like 1k away and i. added another chapter bc im not gonna b able to cram everything i planned into 5.5k. also i upted the rating you'll see why
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The underlying threat of Shen Yuan's sister dragging him and Luo Binghe to a family dinner kept him a little too stressed out after finals and to avoid the upcoming gathering his mother set up, an attempt to have a once in a while family dinner now that all her kids have moved out, he planned a trip for him and Luo Binghe to take. The semester was over and he only had work to take up his days, leaving plenty of time to idle with Luo Binghe as he used to so he had plenty of time off saved up and on good terms with his managers to ditch work for a little vacation.
He hadn't gone out since his second visit to his aunt and uncle's house in the mountains and decided as he was familiar with the area, he reserved a small cabin for two on the same mountain. He took off with his mother's shouts ringing through the phone with his shiny luggage in tow with a week's worth of clothes for him and Luo Binghe.
Luo Binghe most likely knew what he was doing, but took the chance for a getaway with Shen Yuan with only a judging side-eye as a complaint.
--
Before they left, his older dropped by while Luo Binghe was at the market. Not the eldest, he was busy working as their father's right hand and nurturing a budding family. The second son was a little lax with his time despite working for a small law firm. He broke into Shen Yuan's apartment (with a spare key all his siblings and parents had) plopped himself on the couch. Shen Yuan came out of the kitchen thinking Luo Binghe came back without his usual loudly sweet "I'm home!" instead it was his second brother, his shiny loafers kicked off and tie loosened.
"You could have told me you were coming," Shen Yuan growled.
"I was in the area and I thought I'd stop by," his brother said. He was unlike Shen Yuan's grumpy, thorny personality, and their sister's sharp-tongued wit, but more of a roguish charm that made him popular in school with all the girls as he was the star on the basketball team and on the honor roll. His grin was predatory and he took great pleasure in bullying his younger siblings in their youth. Actually, scratch that, he still loved bullying them. "You haven't been around the house as much and I wanted to see what's going on. We can go get a drink if you're free? Or at least dinner, my treat because I dropped in so suddenly."
"Can I take a rain check? I already have dinner plans." Luo Binghe was making Italian food. He was so inspired by today's cooking show he went straight to the market right after the credits started rolling with Shen Yuan's debit card in hand.
"Frozen pre-made dinners don't count. Come on, let's go, let's go! Did you hear me? I said I'll treat you," his brother said. "Food tastes better free and with company."
"I'm having dinner with a friend." He winced. Reducing his husband down to a simple friend really tore at his heart.
"Oh! Is this the friend A-Li was talking about? The big guy with the long hair?"
As if summoned by the mere mention of him, Luo Binghe came barrelling through the door with an armload of groceries with a shout of "Shizun! Shizun, I'm home! I have bread so fresh and soft it's just like a pillow!"
Ah. It's happened. The forbidden name drop.
"Hello, Binghe." He stepped aside to allow Luo Binghe to move past him to put the groceries down.
His brother's brows arched so high up his forehead was like a wrinkled raisin. "Shizun?"
"A fun nickname," he rushed out awkwardly and quickly jumped to introductions. The two awkwardly shook hands.
He ended up staying for dinner and it took all of Shen Yuan's willpower not to bodily harm his brother for his offhandedly rude comments. Luo Binghe was as charming as always, but how he clenched his knife told Shen Yuan he clearly wanted this to be a romantic dinner for two, like the movie he saw yesterday. The candles were left unused on the counter and the red wine was used to fill his brother's glass instead. He easily drank half the bottle and thanks to his freakishly strong liver due to working it out far too much during college, he left almost right after dessert without even a hint of a flush to his cheeks.
"I'm sorry my family is so…" Shen Yuam gestured vaguely, hoping to get the point across. "Like that. They're never usually this nosy."
"They're probably making sure your husband is treating you well," Luo Binghe. "There's no need to investigate because this husband is. It's good knowing that Shizun's family cares for him."
"More like snooping around for gossip," Shen Yuan grumbled.
"... Why don't you wish to go to your family dinner?" It was a sudden question, but Shen Yuan knew it was bound to come eventually. "Is Shizun ashamed of his husband perhaps? Or afraid something might go wrong?"
No! Shen Yuan's head snapped up from where he'd been lazily scrolling through his phone. "Binghe, no. I could never be ashamed of you. I'm… I guess I'm nervous?" He's never brought anyone home before and he doesn't want his family harassing Luo Binghe. Most of all, there was that unsettling "what-if" factor that his family would not approve the same-sex relationship.
"Is there anything this disciple may do to ease your anxiety?" His eyes were wide and shimmering with unshed tears.
Shen Yuan sighed. "I don't want to go. It's a little tense between us because I'm still unsure about America."
"I think you should do it," Luo Binghe said simply. "As long as I'm allowed by your side we can go anywhere."
--
The trip was a bit of a drive up, a little over half a day nonstop, but they made plenty of stops for Luo Binghe to take in the sights of the countryside and passing towns.
The little house was a farm stay in a cabin styled to look old, but certain aspects of it gave off the artificial feel. The open lower floor with bamboo blinds that rolled from the floor to ceiling and the bamboo furniture would have reminded him of his bamboo house but it wasn't. There was a little loft upstairs where they would sleep that opened to a little balcony tucked into the niche of the roof and a hammock in the main room. Set with the modern kitchen and bathroom it was a delightful blend of old and new that suited Shen Yuan's taste that longed for his old Xianxia lifestyle- but also plumbing and wifi. The house sat on the edge of the lake where the back patio opened over the water to its own personal dock. The lake was crystalline clear with delicate lotus tracing the surface at the shorelines. With a deep, lungful of the fresh air and Luo Binghe warm and steady at his side, he felt immediately at peace.
Per Shen Yuan's insistence, they drove into town a few miles away to try the local delicacies and wander down their main street to explore. Luo Binghe was happy to eat his food but kept asking if everything was okay for Shen Yuan.
"The food is excellent, Binghe," Shen Yuan said after swallowing a mouthful. "I would like to come here again before we leave." He was not going to let Luo Binghe wiggle a compliment out of him that easily he knew he was fishing for comparison to his own cooking. There was nothing to compare to Luo Binghe's heavenly dishes!
That night they cracked open a bottle of wine they got from a local winery and curled up in the hammock overlooking the lake, glasses long forgotten and passing the bottle between the two of them until it was gone. They dozed until the screeches of the cicadas became too much and they traipsed upstairs to collapse into bed.
--
The vacation was truly a vacation. Shen Yuan hadn't felt this relaxed since he spent his days dozing at Luo Binghe's underground palace where he wasn't allowed to lift a finger to do anything. They went on hikes (or really just walks along trails already worn down by tourists and travelers found off the side of the highways) and lazed around the little cabin. At least once a day they went swimming in the lake and one night Luo Binghe procured a boat from somewhere and took them out to the middle of it to have a picnic.
This felt like another honeymoon, Shen Yuan realized halfway through the trip. It was only the two of them and the nearest house to theirs was barely a peek through the trees much further down the shore of the lake. They spent the days in each other's company, hands barely straying from the other and drowsy kisses put them to sleep and woke them every morning, kisses caught between bites of their meals and soaked in lake water, kisses that tasted of wine and sweat and sweets and the little lotus pod seeds they plucked from the water. Only the sharp reminder of his account balance that was steadily draining over the course of their trip kept him tethered to the city and his life as Shen Yuan, a fourth-year literature student with a retail job and a family to disappoint.
Escaping. He wanted to escape again with Luo Binghe like this. He wanted to go back to Proud Immortal Demon Way and let the modern stress slip off his shoulders. He would rather fight monsters than go through another round of exams. America was still on the table and the more he thought about it the less he wanted to go.
Of course, he expressed this to Luo Binghe.
"We need to figure out how to get you back still," he said sadly. "I would love to go home with Shizun, but…"
"But?"
"Only if Shizun is absolutely certain he wants to go home."
Despite how much he missed it, he couldn't still say he one hundred percent wanted to go back yet.
--
They visited his aunt and uncle on a particularly humid day. On their side of the mountain, the weather was less extreme so they took the hour and a half drive to outrun the wet heat to the cool, cloudy side where it was an expanse of farmland.
His aunt greeted him with open arms and even pulled Luo Binghe down to give him a warm hug. His cousin was out at the moment on a delivery and his uncle was inside working diligently on a little wood carving. They were served by his aunt tea and pickled plums as insisted they stayed for lunch.
Shen Yuan wanted to decline but his aunt's burning gaze wouldn't let him. He was tense the whole time, worried that she might have talked to her little sister about what was going on with them but she nor his uncle ever brought it up. She simply showed him her embroidery projects and his uncle took him around the farm to show him everything growing for the budding summer season. They left not long after his cousin returned in the early evening and his aunt pushed plenty of goods into the trunk of his car to take back. Sweet jams and pickled fruits and vegetables, homemade beer, fresh tomatoes, plump berries, and a couple of fragrant summer roses she kindly tucked into Luo Binghe's arms with a wink. They drove back laden with their goods, the sweet-smelling flowers stayed firmly in Luo Binghe's hands, their pale petals bouncing with the bumps of the road.
--
His mother called toward the end of their trip and said she was sad he wasn't there for tonight's dinner. In the most passive-aggressive way possible.
"It was the only week I could before our summer stuff started at work," he told her. "I wanted a trip ASAP before my summer schedule kicked in."
"What about America? You have to decide by the end of the month if you're going or not," she said bitterly. She wasn't going to drop it, huh?
It took a while of wrestling with her over the phone before he hung up and turned back to where he and Luo Binghe had been sitting on the dock with their feet dipped in the water, a bowl of fresh fruit Luo Binghe had cut up all cute between them.
"Is everything okay with A-Yuan?" Luo Binghe asked, brows furrowed, his hair unbound as it was more often these days, Shen Yuan's grey bucket hat perched atop his fluffed up hair.
"It's fine," he sat down with a defeated sigh. "Hey, Binghe?"
"Yes, Shizun?"
"Would you be okay with meeting my family?"
Luo Binghe but down the grape he had halfway to his mouth and turned to look at Shen Yuan with the full force of his wide, glittering eyes. "Nothing would please me more than to be welcomed into A-Yuan's family as your friend and husband."
Both of them were orphans, but here Shen Yuan had a family to lean back on. Guilt and sadness welled up in his chest because he was holding back on something Luo Binghe hadn't had the pleasure of in many years. Anxiety chewed away his bones and spat it out with a leering grin. He forced that feeling down with a firm snap to be quiet with a reminder how his sister and brother reacted. If his parents weren't okay, he at least had two people at his back.
As his friend and husband, Luo Binghe had said.
"... I'll call my mom when we get back."
--
The second to last night was the first time they really tried sex. Sure, they'd tumbled around in Shen Yuan's Tempurpedic bed and his small loveseat, wandering hands and lips reaching them to their climax, but they haven't tried anything really… penetrative, or, well, really anything up to what they did back in their world. Shen Yuan still flushes with heat thinking of the wine thing.
This was planned yet unplanned. They've been practicing to help loosen up Shen Yuan, literally and figuratively, but always with the lights off for Shen Yuan's comfort (even though he was pretty sure Luo Binghe could see in the dark).
Now, Luo Binghe was three fingers deep in his painfully stretched hole and he figured it would take forever to get even close to the stretch he would need to take his monster-sized cock. He moaned around the thick digits, his thighs wet with lube, spit, and precum as they quivered under the moonlight pouring in through the skylights. The lights were off but the moon was shining bright enough it didn't matter much to Shen Yuan's chagrin. There was something sensual about the silver haloing Luo Binghe's wide figure, circling his hair like he was a man of heaven and hell. He gasped, his eyes not straying from Luo Binghe's beautiful face where his brows were furrowed in concentration and his midnight eyes with sparks of red. He methodically thrusted his fingers in and out, his free hand tracing soothing patterns over Shen Yuan's weak, trembling form.
"A-Yuan, A-Yuan," Luo Binghe chanted. "Let me taste you." He leaned in and traced heated kisses along his collar bone, traced a path to his nipple where he gave it a few tender kitten licks before he took it into his mouth and sucked firmly. Shen Yuan gasped and arched up on the bed, his arm coming up to cover at least his lower face to hide his embarrassingly gaping mouth. Another shudder and moan wracked through him when Luo Binghe nudged his fingers right on the bundle of nerves buried deep inside him, white-hot sparks of pleasure shot through his body. He felt more precum leak from his aching tip, his whole body wrought tight like a bow about to snap and could do nothing under Luo Binghe's attentive tongue and fingers.
"Binghe," he gasped. Luo Binghe hummed and moved to lave at the other nipple. "Binghe, Binghe." He could only spill Luo Binghe's name from his lips, muffled from his covering arm. He shuddered and quaked, the pleasure danced over his sensitive skin and traced his bones with its sensual touch. It left him breathless and gasping for more.
"Don't hide from me, A-Yuan." Luo Binghe reached up with his free hand and pulled his noodle thin arm off from his face. He placed a heated kiss on his trembling lips, his own form shaking over Shen Yuan.
He continued his hot path down Shen Yuan's body, humming in satisfaction when he reached his sensitive naval and nipped at the skin that made Shen Yuan jolt and gasp out a moan. His hand roved freely over the thin expanse of Shen Yuan's body until he grasped his hip firmly and swallowed down all of Shen Yuan's cock with barely a hitch of his breath. He jerked and cried out from the sudden heat engulfing his already overly sensitive cock and it took all of his willpower not to cum right then and there. He shook under Luo Binghe's attention, his hand still ruthlessly pounding a rhythm into his wet hole while that thumb traced the sensitive skin of his taint, his mouth licked and sucked and dragged his cock over his lips like it was the most delectable treat on the menu. His whole lower half was on fire and all he could do was scrabble for purchase over the damp sheets and dig his heels into Luo Binghe's back.
Shen Yuan was close to coming when Luo Binghe pulled off with a gasp, yanking him from the edge of the precipice. "A-Yuan, I can't," Luo Binghe choked. He rutted his hips fevered into the bed below, his cock swollen and red to the point it looked painful. "Touching A-Yuan like this makes me so close. Can't I- can't I stick it in only a little?"
A lightbulb suddenly went off over Shen Yuan's head. He did not want that thing anywhere near his hole just yet, while his mouth can barely take it without nearly making his jaw click painfully and his lips burn from the stretch. Instead, he lifted up his shaky legs and placed his calves on Luo Binghe's equally shivering shoulders and pressed his thighs together.
"Like this, Binghe," he said.
Something hot flickered alight in Luo Binghe's eyes. He didn't need to be told twice. Luo Binghe deftly pulled his legs open and slathered more lube between his thighs and for good measures over Shen Yuan's already aching, wet cock and hole. He was slick with lube, drenched even. Luo Binghe then poured more over his painfully hard cock and gave it a few tugs, ragged moans and a stuttering cry of his name falling from his lips. He slid his cock over Shen Yuan's and closed his thighs over the pulsing member. He could practically feel the blood throbbing between his legs to Luo Binghe's racing heartbeat. He squeezed his thighs shut and Luo Binghe gripped them tighter for good measure. Without a moment's pause, he pulled back slowly and thrust in hard.
Guttural moans were torn from both of them as Luo Binghe set a punishing pace, his thick cock rubbed painfully good over Shen Yuan's own and he cursed himself for not thinking of this earlier. Luo Binghe looked like he was on the brink of ecstasy, his hair a wild mane glued to his back and Shen Yuan's calves with sweat, his cheeks flushed deep and eyes glassy with lust only Shen Yuan could sate. His thrusts were only smooth at the beginning before they quickly melted away to match his erratic breathing pierced by his shuddering moans and gasps. Shen Yuan watched dizzily as Luo Binghe's cock pushed in and out from between his strained thighs, the burning read head appearing then disappearing between flushed skin and the tip leaving trails of precum over his already drenched skin. There was something erotic seeing his member traced with lines of precum that wasn't his own that smeared down the sides and dripped down Shen Yuan's heaving naval. He could feel the pulsing cock dragging across the sensitive skin of his inner thighs, setting his nerves into a tingling fire that drove him higher and higher as it rubbed harshly over his own achingly hard cock.
As Luo Binghe approached his climax he pushed closer to Shen Yuan, pulling his whole lower body off the bed. Shen Yuan could only release a choked cry at the sudden manhandling. Luo Binghe's thrusts grew faster, the rhythm lost to Luo Binghe chasing his pleasure to the cliff edge. His pleasure was Shen Yuan's own and Shen Yuan trailed a hand down his own shuddering body to grasp his own aching cock and used that to pull him over with him.
With an arch of his back that pushed Shen Yuan to the headboard where the pillows saved him from knocking his head against the hard bamboo, Luo Binghe came long and hard, gasping moans spilling from his lips and his seed spurted and dripped between Shen Yuan's thighs and up his front. Shen Yuan came with a jerk right after, his knuckles painted white from both their cum. He kept his thighs clenched tight to let Luo Bignhe ride out the rest of his orgasm. Only when Lup Binghe pulled his softening member out did Shen Yuan finally relax and let his legs fall open, baring his filthy front and heaving chest to Luo Binghe. He kept his dirty hand on his stomach in fear of dirtying the sheets further, but he could feel cum dripping down the curve of his ass and soaking the sheets under him.
Unfortunately, the sight of Shen Yuan spread out and debauched in front of Luo Binghe caused his eyes to darken again, his lip and cock twitched in response. Too soon! Let this weak body recover!
"A-Yuan," Luo Binghe said, his voice still shaking from the orgasm. He crawled up next to him and laid down on his side to curl up against Shen Yuan. Their skin stuck in the humid air and Shen Yuan sort of minded but didn't have the strength nor willpower to push Luo Binghe away. "That was amazing. A-Yuan is so smart. Can we do it one more time tonight?" Shen Yuan could feel Luo Bignhe stirring against him. No! Wait!
He was weak in mind, body, and soul, and allowed Luo Binghe to ravish him again, this time from the back where Shen Yuan reached his peak with Luo Binghe thrusting his thumb in and out of his weakened hole, pulling his cock out from between his thighs to come all over his shuddering back before they collapsed for good this time. He drifted off with the familiar feeling of Luo Binghe murmuring sweet nothings to him as he wiped him down.
--
When they returned home, Shen Yuan refused to let Luo Binghe go to the market and cook for him just yet and dragged him to one of his favorite cafes in a shopping district for dinner. He didn't want to admit this had been a dream of his to take a significant other here and sit at the little iron table for two under the eave of the building people watching while they sipped delicious coffees and ate tiny, warm pastries. Luo Binghe didn't like eating out a lot and Shen Yuan always had to find an excuse solid enough to convince them to eat out, most of the time hurting Luo Binghe's feelings because he thought Shen Yuan was growing sick of his cooking. He truly wasn't! Luo Binghe's food is the most delicious food he'd ever had, but sometimes he just wanted to get a greasy burger or sip a pretty latte while picking at a coffee cake with his significant other in the romantic, date-like setting. He'll never admit it out loud, though.
Luo Binghe and he split a cafe sandwich with a side salad and sipped their respective drinks in the wide porcelain cups with little house shortbread cookies teetering on their saucers. This district was lined with strings of lights and illuminated signs of the storefronts left the dark sky alight with a warm glow. It threw Luo Binghe's handsome face into angular shadows that defined the sharpness of his cheekbones and the fullness of his lips. He would peek over the rim of his Americano with a flutter of his long lashes at Shen Yuan and it made his heart jerk a bit in his chest.
Of course, he saw the looks of passerby pausing to whisper and shoot looks over at the handsome man with long hair tied into a messy bun at the nape of his neck. Shen Yuan appreciated how relaxed he'd become, melting slowly out of his Xianxia uptight 'dos to letting his hair down literally and figuratively. It did shoot Shen Yuan in the foot with the passerby glancing longingly over at how handsome his charmingly messy husband was. He had to shoot a sour glare at one woman who dared to try and sneak a picture of his angular profile.
Summer was truly starting to sink in and despite the late hour, twilight had only just sank away to the midnight blue. The air was chilly despite the warmth of the sun during the day. Shen Yuan shivered and drew his army jacket closer to his body.
"Would A-Yuan like to leave soon? Or if you're cold, this husband can give you his jacket." Luo Binghe was already shedding his denim jacket to drape over Shen Yuan.
"I'm okay, another layer would make me sweat." Shen Yuan said hurriedly. "Let's finish our drinks before we think about going home."
He was just putting aside his problem. If he stayed a little bit longer, he'll get back to his apartment a little later and thus an inappropriate hour to call his mother. He would have to do it tomorrow, but that's if he didn't sleep in before work then he would have to do it during his break, but the break room might be crowded and he wouldn't have anywhere to step out not loud and public besides the parking lot to his car (which would be a little far from the breakroom). Thus he'd have to wait until after work tomorrow unless Luo Binghe waited to do the grocery shopping together then he would-
"We should go home now," Luo Binghe said with a shake of his head. "You need to call your mother."
Shen Yuan looked at his last pitifully cold sip of latte and craved to have a refill only to waste a little more time.
They tipped and left. Shen Yuan was finally forced to call his mom with Luo Binghe's sharp eyes staring him down from over the kitchen counter where he was brewing an evening tea for them.
She said she missed him. His heart clenched. He said he was sorry for being distant and planned a dinner with her and father. She said she'll have the cooks whip up his favorite.
"Whoever has been taking my A-Yuan's time, make sure to bring them, too," she said softly. Shen Yuan jolted in his seat and the gender-neutral pronoun. Oh? His mom paused. "And your sister told me they're a fantastic cook. I want a dish as an apology for not coming around sooner. Something that will best showcase their skills to impress your dad and me."
He promised and with a bid of goodnight hung up. He turned fully to face Luo Binghe, who was standing straight as a board, eyes wide, and the teapot steaming dangerously.
--
The dinner came the following weekend. They arrived promptly at four with Luo Binghe nervously shaking the beggar's chicken he held decorated pleasingly in a large dish Shen Yuan had to go out of his way to purchase. He didn't tell Luo Binghe that, of course. Shen Yuan held a still steaming case of dumplings in one hand and the other a pyrex of hand-pulled noodles. Luo Binghe had spent the whole week panicking and digging through recipes both online and handwritten by himself to find the "most perfect food to present to A-Yuan's family to showcase that he is truly worthy of his hand in marriage". Shen Yuan suggested to simply make what he felt was best and Luo Binghe decided that meant making not one but three dishes.
Shen Yuan teetered on one foot and kicked in the doorbell. Its artificial chimes could be heard echoing in the grand hall followed by the clicking of his mother's expensive heels on the marble floors.
She opened the door wide with a grin and a gasp and an abundance of dishes. Her black sheath dress with her hair in the tight wrap bun she preferred made her appear stern, but the crow's feet and smile lines told a different story. She hugged Shen Yuan awkwardly around his dishes and gave him a firm kiss on the cheek before she turned to great Luo Binghe. She faltered for a heartbeat at the size of the imposing, yet very handsome man. They had bought concealer and such for his demon mark and as long as he wasn't in a dimly lit room the subtle glow wouldn't show through the layer of goo and powder and sprays. He wore a nice fitting button-down under his freshly laundered denim jacket and well fitted black jeans. He got a new pair of shoes for this, a pair of canvas oxford shoes with a casual brown sole. His stern mother drank in Luo Binghe's appearance, from the top of his barely tamed mane down to his spotless shoes.
They shook hands and formally introduced themselves. She led them through the main room to the parlor where Shen Yuan's dad waited by the unlit fireplace in his favorite blazer with a glass of rye he enjoyed sipping on his nights off. His parents radiated money, from the real string of pearls around his mother's neck to the sophisticated parlor, the first of several, in their three-floor mansion in an expensive neighborhood amongst the rich and the famous. They had worked for this house and this lifestyle and taught their kids the same by raising them with a firm hand and steady morals to keep them from plunging into decadence.
Conversation was stuttering at first, mostly between Shen Yuan and his mother, but it warmed up with her prodding at Luo Binghe until he was a little more comfortable and slipped into his own sophisticated, charming self that had made so many women in Proud Immortal Demon Way swoon, his mother an easy victim to his charms. Yuck.
Dinner was served with fanfare, a four-course meal with Luo Binghe's dishes strewn into the courses. With each new set, his food was made the star of the show despite the head chef's seething, silent rage at his own painstakingly hard work. Instead, he asked if Luo Binghe would like to join him in the kitchen between the second and third courses and Shen Yuan suspected it could have been beating him up with how long he was gone but arrived just as the third course came out with Luo Binghe's beggar's chicken. He was wiping his freshly washed hands on the side of his jeans, a sweet smell lingering from his hair.
His parents never directly asked about their relationship, but they poked and prodded into Luo Binghe so much it set Shen Yuan at the edge of his seat. Thankfully, they'd gone over a story to cover up the whole transmigration fact. Luo Binghe attended the same university at Shen Yuan and they had a couple of GE classes together where they would study a lot together and became fast friends. He was a culinary arts major, he was an orphan, he lived nearby with distant relatives who did real estate and he was always at Shen Yuan's to avoid overcrowding the house.
Luo Binghe easily sank into his role. It suddenly slapped Shen Yuan across the face just how much Luo Binghe had slipped into this new person in an unfamiliar space all for Shen Yuan's sake. He'd changed a lot over the past couple of months they've been here. A painful twinge of guilt lurched through Shen Yuan's chest. Luo Binghe caught him staring from the corner of his eye and sent him a soft smile that immediately melted the sharp stab wound.
Dessert was served and lo and behold, Luo Binghe was asked by the chef's to make it a little extra special and Shen Yuan nearly cried into his spoon at how deliciously sweet it was.
--
They stayed late, right up to his father's bedtime, and left with as much food as they came with prepared as to-go from the chef's and his mother along with a throw pillow for his couch because his mother saw it shopping the week before and thought it would match his living room.
When they piled back into Shen Yuan's car they sat in silence for a moment until Luo Binghe turned to him with a dazzling grin on his handsome face.
"A-Yuan, I think they liked me and even said to come back for brunch soon!" Luo Binghe was vibrating in his seat.
"We should, the place they like going is uptown and has a gorgeous view of the cityscape," Shen Yuan hummed in agreement and started the car.
"A-Yuan?" Luo Binghe asked suddenly tentatively. Shen Yuan looked from where he was getting the car started and found Luo Binghe staring down at him with the softest look on his face, his eyes glimmering with some unnamed emotion. "Thank you for letting me meet your family and see your childhood home."
Notes:
thank you for reading! i wanted to finish this within the last weeks of school but right now im on the cusp of finishing my second to last semester and its all crashing in on me at once so ch 7 might be delayed but fear not! it will be out before christmas!
comments, kudos, bookmarks, etc are greatly appreciated!
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Chapter 6: Midnight
Summary:
Is it time to go?
Notes:
sorry sorry for the heavy delay finals and. stuff you know. i literally only had a second to breathe like the day after christmas. this came out MUCH longer but you know i needed to slap all this in one chap. i had to delete and rewrite and cut out a bunch of stuff too oof.
the last chapter should come out in january lmao i have a new fic ill b posting within a week for a tgcf secret santa so look out for that! have i done a lot for it? no bc im working on prints and trying to get this done so i can actually focus this has been eating at me for far too long rip.
anyway enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
There was no immortality here, no cultivation to make one's body young and the soul inextinguishable. It scared Luo Binghe when his eyes traced the fine crow's feet of Shen Yuan's mother's eyes and the very little shades of black in his father's hair. Medicine is far more advanced, yet there's no magical cure for anything. Immortality is impossible, yet science had stretched the human lifeline further than ever. Shen Yuan is in his early twenties and has yet to finish growing into his whole body, a few years shy before he started to wither away. The decay would be slow, but in Luo Binghe's immortal eyes it would be a blink and he would be gone.
It didn't help either that Shen Yuan was weaker than the average human, sickly to where it was a miracle he was alive to this moment. He nearly died as a child, he did die for a moment, long enough for his soul to traipse to Luo Binghe. He found out, unfortunately through his brother, how he nearly died a third time only a couple of years prior when he ate expired noodles and doused with intense food poisoning. He was glad he was in charge of every meal of his and if Shen Yuan protested when Luo Binghe dove for the first bite of any food that did not come from Luo Binghe's kitchen, it's a price he's willing to pay.
--
He was going to try and properly propose. When Shen Yuan was gone on a midsummer day for a long shift at work, Luo Binghe took the initiative to take the public transit down to his parent's house. They'd gone there a few more times since then and Luo Binghe had long learned the directions. In the car with Shen Yuan driving, though.
Public transit was a little nerve-wracking to do the first time by himself, but he and Shen Yuan had taken public transit one day to a mall that had interesting shops and even more interesting food but for the sake of not having to pay for parking they paid the cheaper bus fare. The ride was long, over an hour, and after trekking through the neighborhoods of large houses he was let in through the gate that led to the even bigger, richer houses. They were expecting him as he did call ahead the night before.
Shen Yuan didn't know exactly what he was doing, but he will. They had discussed telling his direct family at least the truth about what had happened, using Xin Mo 2 and his glowing demon mark as evidence, but today he needed to do something else first.
A servant let him in and he was seated in a sunroom overlooking an English garden with roses tracing the wide windows and a stone fountain bubbling mutely, the summer sun bounced off the dancing surface and sparkled across the statue of a lady in very thin clothes.
Shen Yuan's mother came in, dressed much more casually in linen capris and a blouse, but the firm click of her heels and the glint of her expensive jewelry told otherwise.
"Binghe, hello," she rose on her toes to press a ghost of a kiss to his cheek, he bent to accommodate her.
"Madam," he said politely.
"Please, drop the formalities," she said with a wave of her hand. "Sit, have some lemonade and cake."
The drink was refreshing after the journey over. Flying swords were much more convenient than buses, Luo Binghe mused.
"My husband will be here in a moment," she continued. "Will A-Yuan be joining us later?"
"He's not off work until eight tonight," he said with a solemn shake of his head. "And I won't be here long, I only wish to discuss a few things with you two."
Shen Yuan's mother daintily sipped her lemonade, the severe bun tied tightly atop her head put not one hair out of place. She held herself as royalty would. When Luo Binghe asked if Shen Yuan was actually a prince because of how large his house was and how elegant his parents were, Shen Yuan had simply laughed and said they just had a lot of money to throw around thanks to their hard work. Business partners, he had explained, building their own empire from the ground up where they reigned supreme. This sounded like Shen Yuan was the third prince to Luo Binghe.
He'd be marrying into royalty.
They chatted idly until Shen Yuan's father entered in tailored khakis and a pale blue polo that matched the exact shade of flowers printed on his wife's blouse. After greetings were made Luo Binghe went straight to business. He had things to do, like making a light after-work snack for Shen Yuan and deep cleaning the stovetop.
"This one has a request to make," he said, his dialect slipping back into his old, formal tongue. Television made him too loose, too informal. Shen Yuan made him relax.
Shen Yuan's parents looked at him questioningly, not a trace of anything but innocent curiosity. They liked him, he reminded himself. Shen Yuan said his mother adored him and his father found him to be a great man.
He bowed, the fringe of his hair dipped into his lemonade almost unnoticed. "This one wishes to ask for your blessings to marry A-- Shen Yuan."
Shen Yuan's father sharply inhaled and said, "Wha- where did this come from?" Shen Yuan's mother smacked his arm with a hiss of his name.
"This one has loved Shen Yuan for a long time and wishes to be by his side for as long as he shall permit it," Luo Binghe said in a rush. He didn't dare to look up. He could feel the lemonade in his hair. "A-Yuan and this one have already discussed marriage but wished to seek your approval before we did anything at all." He gulped back the truth of how Shen Yuan didn't even know he was here. "This one will do anything for Shen Yuan and will dare not ever tarnish his good name. There is no family to this one but I have a fortune under this name to share with Shen Yuan where this one brought a dowry to-"
"No, no," Shen Yuan's mother rose. "There is- put whatever you have in that bag of yours away there is no need for a dowry in these days." Luo Binghe quietly shuffled the bag full of gold bars and priceless jewels back under the table. "Sit up, please."
Luo Binghe raised his head to see both the parents were standing. She sighed and pursed her lips, her full standing height she was only a little taller than Luo Binghe sitting down. "I was hoping for grandkids but oh well, I have three more I can get them from. Adoption is always an option."
Eh?
"A dowry?" Shen Yuan's father chuckled. "We don't need that, but thank you for the offer. We can easily pay for the whole affair ourselves out of pocket."
Eh?!
"Well, Binghe, don't you at least have a ring to show yet?"
EH!?
--
Shen Yuan's mother happened to know Shen Yuan's ring size and shooed him off with an address written down to a jeweler she knew well. They made him promise to hold off the wedding until Shen Yuan was out of college and held a stable job so his parents would only have to pay for part of the wedding, not all of it. Per Luo Binghe's insistence, they gave them their formal blessings and asked if he would want to take up the Shen name or if Shen Yuan would take the Luo to continue on the Luo line.
His head was spinning on the way home. They loaned him a chauffeur to drive him back instead of trekking through the city at the hottest time of the day. Luo Binghe didn't mind the heat nor the walk, but the offer touched him.
It was barely four when he found himself back at the apartment, the air conditioning blasting at full force to cool the place down to Mobei-Jun temperatures for Shen Yuan's liking. He tucked the address away in his dresser drawer Shen Yuan had cleared his stuff out for Luo Binghe to store his clothes in.
Shen Yuan didn't suspect a thing when he came home, weighed down with exhaustion as he let Luo Binghe rub the ache from his back and scalp. They made love that night on the very small but very comfortable bed, nothing penetrative as of yet but still pleasurable for the both of them.
He laid awake long after Shen Yuan dozed off, his fingers combing through the short strands of his hair (which had grown longer now, tracing the collars of his shirts and easily tucked behind his ear). He held out his left hand and could imagine a slim band wrapped around his ring finger. In the dark of the night where only a sliver of light showed through the blinds where it had broken a while back, a warm streak tracing Shen Yuan's cheek and up to his temple. Luo Binghe followed the artificial trail with his fingertips and traced down, down, down his arm and pulled up his left hand. The ring finger was bare, but Luo Binghe pressed a kiss to the knuckle and fell asleep with the hand held close to his heart.
--
He bought a ring. He exchanged the dowry for money (a lot of money, by the looks of the teller). He shoved the rest away in his drawer and the ring box rolled up in a pair of socks buried deep. Shen Yuan would never dig through his stuff and he wouldn't mind if he did, or when he did. His husband was thin-faced but during their time together he's grown a little bolder. Perhaps after Shen Yuan would once in a while on a lazy day in don a shirt of Luo Binghe's or if they went out to run errands together he would take his jacket instead, his slim figure swimming in the swaths of fabric. It always sent Luo Binghe's heart into overdrive. One time he came home from the market with Shen Yuan with his earbuds on and the music cranked up loud as he swung around the kitchen making himself coffee wearing a long sleeve shirt of Luo Binghe's. He must have been cooped up from sitting hunched at his computer and was stretching his body with offbeat shakes of his hips and his arms wiggled to an unmatched rhythm, the sleeves rolled up but still too long and the collar dipped down past his clavicle.
Of course, he left a few fevered marks on his throat after that.
He changed his mind about the dresser drawer and instead climbed a step stool and placed it atop a shelf in the closet behind a stack of winter blankets where Shen Yuan definitely couldn't reach without aid either.
--
Summer drifted into its latent season and Luo Binghe was running out of time. Shen Yuan was preparing for his year-long trip across the whole world and Luo Binghe could not come with him.
"I would love you there, perhaps you could visit me, but I need to focus on my studies," he reasoned. "You need to settle your affairs in the demon realm, too." Luo Binghe admitted, there was a steadily climbing uprising to the east he should deal with, but he'd left all those affairs to Mobei-Jun and was doing his best to stay out of it. It's grown to the point where it would need his attention for a very long, very difficult time.
He decided to propose before he left.
--
This is how he found himself barging into his own castle where Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua were relaxing on a large divan, cuddled up intimately close with Shang Qinghua nearly in Mobei-Jun's lap.
"I need your advice," Luo Binghe said as he strode in, his regal robes billowing intimidatingly behind him. He was so used to the constraining jeans and slim-fitting shirts it was unusual feeling the swaths of fabric around him. Was this how Shen Yuan felt when he originally transmigrated?
"What kind of advice?" Shang Qinghua asked around a bite of blueberry. One Mobei-Jun personally fed him from a tray of delectable fruit.
"Shang Qinghua, what do you suggest for a romantic proposal for your world?" Luo Binghe has seen so many movies and read so many novels since arriving and he's noticed a trend of proposals, usually very dramatic with someone chasing another after an epiphany or caught in the rain or the heat of the moment. His first proposal was… less than perfect… very bad, in Luo Binghe's opinion, nevertheless Shen Yuan had said yes in his own roundabout way. If he did this perfectly romantic up to Shen Yuan's modern standards, then he could get a tearful yes with lots of jumping and crying and hugging. He did play with the idea of chasing him down at the airport as Shen Yuan was leaving for his study abroad trip and confessing to him at the terminal, the jets of the planes roaring loudly and their hair and clothes being whipped around them from the force of the wind as Shen Yuan turned around and gripped Luo Binghe's hands as he spilled a proposal to him. He had immediately trashed the idea that after proposing Shen Yuan would still load himself on the plane and leave for nine months and Luo Binghe will have to sulk back in the demon realm for his return to properly shower him with affections.
"I dunno, bro," Shang Qinghua said, his speech reduced down to the modern tilt Shen Yuan used. "Like, write it in the sky? Do it at a romantic location like a beach or a park or a restaurant? Some people like, put it in the dessert but then he might eat it. Uh… it's hard to say because despite how in love he is with you he's not really the romantic type."
Luo Binghe preened at Shang Qinghua stating the obvious. Of course, Shen Yuan loved him! Anyone could see!
"Write it in the sky?" His interest piqued at that. How would he do that? Yet technology is so advanced it feels nearly everything is possible. Nearly.
"Yeah uh, they get a plane and it like twirls around in the sky while releasing smoke or something from the back to spell stuff out, or it'll fly by with a banner. It's a little tacky so I don't think Cucumber-bro would appreciate it."
Nothing super public got it, but still out at a romantic location, perhaps secluded.
"You weren't really much help, but thank you." With that, Luo Binghe turned and went back to Shen Yuan.
--
They got him his own phone. Shen Yuan surprised him with it.
"It's actually my old phone I was just due for an upgrade." Shen Yuan waved his new sleeker, larger phone to show Luo Binghe. His old phone was outfitted with a new unscratched cover of chrome black.
He thanked Shen Yuan profusely for it. He was already familiar with the device as Shen Yuan had showed him everything a long time ago. It was now outfitted with a blank camera roll (which he will fill with pictures of his A-Yuan) and a few people in his contacts (namely Shen Yuan himself and his family plus the coworker that came by sometimes and seemed to like Luo Binghe a lot).
"This one does not mean to be ungrateful but…"
Shen Yuan quirked a brow.
--
They got him a new phone case. He saw someone with the case once and now that he had his own phone he wanted it badly. It was large and would barely fit in his pockets now, made of the rubbery silicone and shaped his phone like a fluffy dog with big wide eyes and a little pink tongue lolling out. They hunted far and wide for it and now Luo Binghe was satisfied with his phone, the lock screen a picture of A-Yuan smiling widely, cheesily, at the camera by a fountain outside and his lock screen a different picture of A-Yuan smiling, much softer this time, in their kitchen. He'd only had the phone for a couple of hours and the camera roll was already almost a hundred pictures in of Shen Yuan, the occasional really cool view from the car window, and a dog he saw at the apartment complex.
--
A botanical garden. There was a bamboo forest exclusively at this location (he found it while searching on his phone!) and with autumn drawing in fast he had to hurry over before they shut down some parts of it for the season. Mind reeling, he drew up plans to propose.
Take Shen Yuan on a romantic date to the park
Set up a romantic picnic at one of the many dining areas scattered throughout the gardens
Map the route to direct them to the bamboo forest
Once there, do the classic "get down to pretend to tie his shoe only to whip out a ring" and propose!
What got him was… well, what could he say? Last time was such a disaster he could barely get a word out over his stuttering.
The solution was drafting a speech and memorizing it. In the meantime, he managed to secure a day for Shen Yuan to take off from work and allow them a romantic day out. It was too soon for Luo Binghe's liking and to make up for it he woke up extra early every morning leading up to the day, the ring box out and open on the coffee table as he sat on the floor with a pen and paper scribbling out potential proposal speeches until the sun broke the horizon and told Luo Binghe it was time to make breakfast.
—-
He dreaded the open suitcases half piled with clothes. Luo Binghe knew Shen Yuan was dragging his feet packing. It was a deadline neither wanted to meet.
"This is a fantastic opportunity but I'm going to miss Luo Binghe," Shen Yuan sighed one night two weeks before he had to leave. He was slowly folding clothes into his suitcase, packing them tightly to fit as much as possible.
"Why won't this husband be able to accompany you on the trip?" Luo Binghe put down the pants he was folding, tracing the seamline with his finger. It's a question he's heard the answer to many times, but each time he hoped he would get a different response.
"I'm staying in a dorm with three other strangers. There would be nowhere for you to stay," Shen Yuan explains again. "I can't afford to house you and you can't come with me without raising suspicion from my family. I know you've been in contact with my family- no, no don't give me that I'm not upset I'm actually glad you guys are talking."
"I can buy a place!" Luo Binghe had an endless fortune.
"There are too many factors we need to go over before we can even consider letting you come. It's too late for that please I'll…" Shen Yuan stopped and sighed. "Visit me instead, okay?"
--
The gardens were absolutely stunning with paned glass greenhouses and gorgeous lily ponds, gardens for all sorts of faraway nations and terrariums, so many of which Luo Binghe had never seen before. They went around everywhere and stopped to have lunch at a beautiful lake clustered with lily pads and dripping willow branches tracing the water's surface. They picked a stone bench engraved with a donator's name and ate simple sandwiches with fresh fruit and iced tea Luo Binghe packed. The day was humid to the point it was nearly sticky with heat and it put a bit of a damper on the mood, nevertheless, Luo Binghe remained positive, nearly shaking with nervous excitement. The ring was a heavy weight in his pocket.
They passed through arching walkways of dripping wisteria that cooled the blazing daylight, wound through clear-cut paths in English rose gardens, over waterways by teetering boards across ponds of koi fish and lotus, stopped at every intricate glass dome of humid life until they reached the ideal spot.
A bamboo forest, artificially placed around the cement walkway. It wasn't the wild, clustered nature of the bamboo at Cang Qiong Mountain, but it would do.
"I do miss the bamboo house," Shen Yuan sighed, looking up above the green canopy. Birds chirped a twittering song through the hazy air that stank of ozone. It weighed on his lungs.
He needed to hurry.
"Shizun, my husband," Luo Binghe said.
Shen Yuan turned with a questioning hum and just as Luo Binghe was falling to his knee, a crack of lightning illuminated the air and a quick scatter of rain suddenly poured down. Light in warning, but the sky quickly darkened and rained a sticky halestorm down on them.
Shen Yuan cursed as he ducked his head down to protect his glasses from the worst of the rain. "They said it wasn't going to rain today!"
Luo Binghe, with nothing but his own thing shirt and shorts on, could only leap back to his feet and throw his backpack full of their leftovers and water over Shen Yuan's head to protect them as they ran back down the path out to the opening where a gazebo laid as a beacon of shelter. People were already clustered under its shield, confused by the sudden thunderstorm.
They huddled up and waited for it to lighten up with the rest of the tourists, the ring burned a hole through Luo Binghe's pocket.
--
He tried again with a much more simple approach. Breakfast in bed, followed by a foot massage and a cramped shower together where they frotted up against one another into completion. Then, not willing to try and test Mother Nature, a trip to a beautiful modern museum full of ancient collectibles. It was weird seeing things he was used to using daily displayed behind glass cases and under the gaze of the spotlight and tourists. It was packed due to the summer season as Shen Yuan explained, but he thought this place was cool and that Luo Binghe might find it funny.
"I came here once by myself you know," Shen Yuan explained as they looked out over a dining set that looked similar to one he had in his palace. "To get a taste of what I was missing. I didn't even finish it because I got so nostalgic it hurt." He shrugged and continued. "Now I figured it wouldn't hurt anymore but would be a lot of fun with Binghe at my side to laugh at the inaccuracies on the post cards." He gestured to a basic pot Luo Binghe would use to store honey or some other locked behind a bulletproof case.
Luo Binghe wanted to find a moment of them alone to propose, but it couldn't be too sudden. He needed a good lead up. Unfortunately the museum was too packed to find even a single exhibit empty enough for Luo Binghe to make a scene by popping the question.
He left disappointed, but wholly happy with his day out with his A-Yuan.
--
He was leaving in a week. They tried to spend as much time as possible together before then but unfortunately, things didn't work out that way. Thankfully, Shen Yuan quit his job and had a lot of free time now, but that free time was used for doctor's appointments, trips to his school and government buildings to get his documents in order, and his mother fussing over him near the entire day.
One night he had a farewell party at their apartment. His siblings all came and his parents briefly dropped by to say hello, but it was mostly for a few school and work friends to relax in the living room sipping beer and talking exuberantly about anything and everything. Luo Binghe had met most of them already and they were somewhat familiar with him. He cooked all the food for them like a mini banquet and kept the alcohol flowing. He drank more than any of them yet due to his high cultivation and half-demon powered liver it did nothing.
Shen Yuan and his friends were another story. Most of them were casually sipping their drinks just enough to get a good buzz, able to hold their alcohol with ease and knew how to control it. Shen Yuan's liver was very weak and with his frail body, he spent the night cradling one drink and halfway through he was gently swaying, his speech sticking to the roof of his mouth. Luo Binghe gently took the beer away and finished it himself to the jeers of Shen Yuan's friends and siblings.
That night, he downed two whole bottles of wine, a whole pack of beer, a few shots of burning liquor that had him choking at the awful taste much to the delight of everyone in the apartment, and found himself pleasantly warm and pressed to Shen Yuan's side. He pushed passed his limit but felt much better than one of Shen Yuan's friends who was passed out curled up at the edge of the couch. He forgot his usual inhibitions for the sake of lowering himself to Shen Yuan's own loose, warm stupor that made him feel truly safe here.
There were no monsters, no cultivators out for his head, no intense formalities amongst demon sovereign that had him on his toes, he had to title to throw around nor people to scare off. He was simply Luo Binghe and the scariest thing he's encountered here was the two-week gap where Shen Yuan had not worked a lot and thus for a couple of days until the money his parents had wired to him took a moment to deposit they were painfully low for food funds and had to eat pre-packaged foods. Luo Binghe had done his best to spice up with whatever they had left in the fridge and spice cabinet to make it less painful on their digestive system.
But alas, the demon lord title he worked so hard to gain, the wondering disciples Shen Yuan loved to teach, the places they had yet to see back home, would be lost of Luo Binghe were to stay.
He should just stay. Shen Yuan smiles so easily here, just as he was now over a joke his friend made, where he was laughing so hard he was shaking and choking, the sound breathless and ugly yet Luo Binghe wanted him to never stop being so happy.
They all left so late at night it was technically morning with a mess of trash and drinks in their wake. Luo Binghe was tired and Shen Yuan was dozing at the sink where he sleepily brushed his teeth, still pleasantly warm from the one beer.
"I don't even like beer," Shen Yuan grouched. "It tastes like piss. I'm more of a wine guy but all the wine I like is worth a paycheck. I could get a bottle from my dad's collection, but I technically shouldn't be drinking a lot, or at all really." To mark his point, he gulped back a couple pills and downed two whole glasses of water before tucking himself in bed. "If I don't wake up tomorrow that'll be a problem for later me."
Luo Binghe, has already changed into loose shorts and a tank top and crawled into the small bed with Shen Yuan and curled himself around his slender frame. "That would be a problem for me," He murmured sleepily. He had vertigo from the leftover alcohol, the world slowly settling as he sunk into bed.
He loved this. He loved A-Yuan. If it meant losing his title and all he's worked for to stay with A-Yuan, who was frail and mortal and could die again at any moment. As if to prove his point, Luo Binghe squeezed Shen Yuan close and heard the soft pop from his back followed by a sleepy grunt from Shen Yuan. Luo Binghe threw himself off the bed, the world spinning in his wake.
"Binghe? What's the matter?" Shen Yuan sleepily stirred. He rolled over to face Luo Binghe on the floor shivering with too much of everything toiling through his system.
"A-Yuan, Shen Yuan," Luo Binghe said, the words out before he could stop. "Will you marry me?"
"We are married?" Shen Yuan sat up and flickered on the bedside lamp. The warm light pooled through the midnight dark room and made Shen Yuan look so much softer, more vulnerable, more beautiful and lovely and Luo Binghe swore he was falling again.
"Marry me as Shen Yuan with your parents' blessing, with a wedding of us in white and a honeymoon to the Hawaii's-"
"Hawaii is singular- ah, sorry go on."
"I- I," Luo Binghe's dam had already shattered and it was all pouring out too fast yet he didn't want it to stop. "Marry me, A-Yuan, I want to marry you again and again until we've had all the weddings and I've got to kiss you at every altar." He was shaking as he pulled the little ring box from his jeans he threw in the hamper (like an idiot) and fell to one knee at Shen Yuan's bedside just as they did in the movies and dramas and asked, once more, "will you marry me, A-Yuan?"
Like a breath of fresh air, Shen Yuan said, "What kind of question is that, of course I'll marry my husband again." He sat up and allowed Luo Binghe to place the little gold band on the left ring finger. There was no swell of orchestrated music or raucous applause to follow, but he heard the thumping of his heart matched the rhythm of his own movie soundtrack and he found it to be good enough.
They tumbled back into bed with heated kisses peppering each other's faces and fell asleep almost right away, their hands and legs intertwined and Luo Binghe swore he has never been more comfortable crammed into the tiny bed.
--
Luo Binghe awoke with an awful stream of light blinding his right eye. The only residue of a hangover was a heaviness to his body and a light spell of fatigue he figured would go away after moving around a bit. That burning liquor was poison. He stared up at the bland ceiling for a moment, tracing the midmorning rays that lined the walls and ceiling and traced one down to where it touched the top of Shen Yuan's head. Their hands were clasped together and Luo Binghe stroked the metal band over his finger.
Wait.
He jerked the hand out from under the blankets and found indeed the gold wedding band he had been saving for a very special occasion fitted perfectly over Shen Yuan's ring finger, the gold twinkling in the morning light. His heart lurched up and last night came jolting back, fully pulling him out of his fog of sleep.
He ruined it! He went and did it again by ruining the perfect proposal! Stumbled all over like an idiot then proposed while they were getting into bed! How unromantic! How stupid of him! How-how…!
This could be fixed. Shen Yuan was a heavy sleeper and thus if he gently tugged the ring off his finger and put it away he could pretend it never happened. Who knows, maybe A-Yuan would humor him and pretend it didn't happen either to give Luo Binghe the third chance he needed to make it right.
Working quickly, Luo Binghe went to tug the ring off his finger and found it stuck. His warm, sleepy hands had swelled just enough to make it a bit tricky to easily slide off and Luo Binghe had to twist the ring a few times to wiggle it off his finger.
Too late, Shen Yuan stirred. He froze and waited for him to settle down before continuing.
"What are you doing?" A hoarse voice interrupted him. He jumped and looked over to find Shen Yuan gazing sleepily at him, brows furrowed. He curled up his hand into a fist to prevent Luo Binghe from trying to remove it further.
"Nothing, but you should give me that back and pretend nothing happened," he said. He felt a tidal wave crashing through his chest, his throat seized with the sudden onslaught of horror.
"Why should I?"
"Because this lowly disciple is an idiot and ruined the proposal again and should be punish-"
Shen Yuan lightly smacked the top of his head but kept his hand atop Luo Binghe's sleep-mussed hair. He patted the spot and traced his hand down to cup Luo Binghe's cheeks.
"Don't cry, my Binghe," Shen Yuan sat up. He was crying? A thumb traced something wet from under his eye. Oh. "You don't need to do it again. The first time was perfect, and last night was perfect, too."
"Can you let this one try again?" Luo Binghe tugged the ring enclosed in his fist fruitlessly. "Isn't it third time's the charm?"
"Yes, but really, you don't need to do anything extravagant," Shen Yuan sighed. He stretched out the kinks from sleep with a waking sigh and pulled Luo Binghe back down onto the bed to cuddle up into his chest. "I like it personal like that. It's cute and one of a kind, and an interesting story for later."
Luo Binghe groaned in embarrassment. "But A-Yuan, that means you'll be telling people about how much of a mess I was."
"But you're my mess." Shen Yuan pressed a sweet kiss to Luo Binghe's clavicle with a giggle buried behind his lips. "Besides," he continued with a sigh. "There's not much we can do until we can get you, you know, a birth certificate, an ID card, plus it's actually illegal so we'd have to go somewhere else to get it done so there's the passport situation and…" he trailed off thinking, a furrow indented in his brows.
"Oh, I already figured it out," Luo Binghe said. He might have done his own research and found that there were ways to obtain such documents through the right people and with a little money here and a few threats there he was able to completely forge fake documents of one Luo Binghe. It was all just waiting for the okay to pick up said documents. Thank you, smartphone.
"That is also… very illegal… " Shen Yuan said, both appalled and amazed. "We- what about the wedding? We can elope again or something quick-"
"No," Luo Binghe sat up fully on his knees. He could feel the draft from the air conditioning hitting his bare shoulders. "I really want a big wedding. One we plan together and not rushed like last time, with tons of money thrown at it and lots of guests and you can have a wedding outfit, a reception outfit, a honeymoon outfit-"
Shen Yuan's brows climbed up to his hairline, his eyes squinted slightly to see Luo Binghe now that he sat so far away. "For real this time? You want to plan a wedding and not change your mind last second and dig up robes from who knows where and marry me on the spot?"
Luo Binghe wanted to protest, but the mean twinkle in his eye had him playing along. "And what's wrong with that? I found our first wedding to be perfect."
"I married the perfect man, of course no matter what we do it will be perfect."
"Even if a fight breaks out and someone is pushed into our twelve-tier wedding cake?"
Shen Yuan snorted out an ugly laugh but stopped abruptly. "Binghe… how big are you thinking this wedding will be? I personally only know like, five people not including my family."
"Large. Everyone can come and have some cake and see us getting married. And maybe if there's enough people, someone will try and stop the wedding by objecting and confess their love to you, but then I'll beat them up and we fall into the fifteen-tier cake but I'll have a backup made."
Shen Yuan was full-bellied laughing now, loud guffaws that warmed Luo Binghe's chest.
"Binghe," Shen Yuan said once he caught his breath. "We can do whatever we want, within a budget, as long as I can marry you again, too."
"I want to marry this Shen Yuan. I have Shen Qingqiu, but not my Shen Yuan," Luo Binghe said, tracing a finger up and down Shen Yuan's delicate back. A shiver followed his trailing finger.
"You can have every me, and all of me," Shen Yuan said softly against Luo Binghe's chest. There was a strange tilt to his tone causing Luo Binghe to pull back a bit to look down. He didn't know what he really meant until he saw the hot flush to his ears.
"All of you?" He asked slowly.
"Mn. All of me."
"... Right now?"
Shen Yuan hesitated. "Yes."
--
When he said all of him, he meant all of him. Luo Binghe didn't want to waste a second, but Shen Yuan pushed himself from the bed and scrambled, blind as he'd left his glasses on the nightstand, to the bathroom and told him to wait. He tried, vibrating with excitement and tried getting himself ready. He didn't know what that would entail, really, but he took off his clothes so it wouldn't be in the way later, made the bed, then wondered if Shen Yuan would want to be on the sheets then pushed the blankets off, but felt bad for the mess then neatly arranged them half untucked instead.
Shen Yuan wasn't long until he emerged, red from the shower steam and only the hair at the nape of his neck damp. He had on his sleep shorts and shirt and squinted slightly to navigate back into the room where he froze halfway when he realized Luo Binghe was lounging naked across the bed already. He flushed red and averted his gaze.
They came together with languid kisses and trailing fingers, Shen Yuan pulled atop him and his thighs slotted between his perfectly. Sweet kisses from A-Yuan traced his jaw and cheeks, the corners of his lips and the glowing demon mark until he shyly kissed his lips. Luo Binghe opened up and drove deeper, hotter, pulling fire from their embrace. He tugged the shirt at Shen Yuan's back with a low grumble at the back of his throat.
"You should have not put your clothes back on," he said between soft kisses down Shen Yuan's throat. "You should have kept them off, I was going to take them off you anyway."
The answering negative reminded Luo Binghe how thin-faced his husband-to-be is and knew he wouldn't allow himself to strut in naked even if he were alone. He remedied that by stripping his thin clothes and putting his hands on every inch he could reach. Hot skin met his fevered palms, gasps pulled from Shen Yuan's mouth met his lips, his neck, his cheek. The steady slowly building heat ruptured when Shen Yuan pulled away with a whisper of, "Let me do this."
He pulled himself down the slim mattress where he nudged Luo Binghe's thighs apart to settle between them. His breath hitched at the sight of him framed by his legs, hands rubbing absentmindedly at his hips and one kiss swollen lip caught between his teeth. His arousal was almost to full hardness just from the hot press of his shower-fresh skin on his and the sweet kisses he had laid over Luo Binghe and he couldn't imagine what will happen if he tried anything else.
As if testing his limit, Shen Yuan leaned down and placed a warm kiss over his shiver naval. Oh, Luo Binghe realized.
"A-Yuan!" He lurched him to push at his head, using his legs to try and wiggle away. "There's no need to do that!"
"But I want to," Shen Yuan replied simply.
"I can't let you- you service me in this manner! You're already doing so much by letting me take you!" Luo Binghe argued. He could easily manhandle Shen Yuan back up to the top of the bed and roll to lock him under his weight, but the sharp heat in his eyes stopped him from even trying.
"Exactly. In return for letting you do as you please, I want nothing more than to please you with my mouth…" Shen Yuan wouldn't look him in the eye, his cheeks aflame with color and his thumbs pressed firmly between the junction of his thigh and hip. Luo Binghe was weak to his heat and slowly let his legs fall back open, his hand still brushing stray tresses out of Shen Yuan's face.
Hesitantly, Shen Yuan wrapped his delicate hand around Luo Binghe's girth and slowly pumped him to full hardness, which did not take long. His fingers could not fully wrap around the thickness and Luo Binghe worried he'll hurt Shen Yuan's small mouth just from trying to take in the sheer size. Shen Yuan had seemed to have already thought of it and was tentatively licking the head. Shocks of pleasure coursed up Luo Binghe's spine and he couldn't help the gasps spilling from his lips. They were slow and hot, the wet heat a tease of what was to come. He didn't know he could last this round very long, Luo Binghe thought nervously. Shen Yuan started slow and licked his way down his cock to the base where he pressed a heady kiss.
It took everything in Luo Binghe's power not to come right then and there under Shen Yuan's heady touch. It was so soft and tentative it drove him crazy. He licked up and down and pressed kisses to its sides and weeping tip as if in worship. With a deep breath and a final test of Luo Binghe's limits, Shen Yuan engulfed the head with a hard suck.
He really didn't last. With a choked cry he came with the warning still stuck in his throat into Shen Yuan's mouth. He almost started crying over tainting Shen Yuan's mouth like that until he pulled himself off his cock, cum dripping down his chin and splattered on his flushed cheek and gave him a shushing kiss to his naval.
"Really," Shen Yuan said, using the corner of the sheet to wipe his face. "I wanted to make you come at least once before you stick it in so you don't ravish me too much."
--
Luo Binghe had all but maneuvered Shen Yuan onto his back and dove down between his legs to eat out his cute ass before he could stop himself but with the first stroke of his tongue, he found the muscles soft and relaxed.
He jerked back, bewildered. "Did you…? In the shower... ?"
Shakily, Shen Yuan nodded, his face shielded with his hands. "It's supposed to be clean for this. I tried doing a, er, thorough job s-so we could get onto it."
Luo Binghe only softly sighed a sweet, "Oh, A-Yuan" before he dove down to his feast. He couldn't help his hands trailing over delicious skin, shaking under his tender touch. Over his thighs and cock, down the dips of his hips and navel, Shen Yuan's muffled moans were like music to his ears. He licked and sucked the skin of his hole, fucking his tongue and fingers to pull the sweet sounds from him. Lube was added to the mix and he stretched him with two, three, four fingers until they slid so easily in and out Shen Yuan was whimpering with stimulation.
His small hands covered his face and refused to move no matter how much Luo Binghe gently pulled. He took a pillow that had fallen to the floor and slipped it under Shen Yuan's hips, situating himself between his spread legs with his cock already back to full hardness, lubed up and ready to go, but he stopped.
"A-Yuan?" He asked softly, nuzzling at the hands shielding his face. " Can I see you?"
Shen Yuan shook his head, his breath was raspy.
"Do you want to keep going?" he asked.
A pause, then a small nod. "Yes, just-just go really slow."
He hummed and nudged the head of his cock against his fluttering hole. "Here I go, A-Yuan."
His head barely breached his hole before he stopped and waited for Shen Yuan to give him an affirmative. Inch by slow inch he slid in, Shen Yuan shaking under him as he gave a whispered "keep going"s and "okay"s, his hands never leaving his face. Luo Binghe really wanted to see his face more than anything but knew he would come out on his own, almost like a startled tortoise.
Halfway in, he slowly started pumping his cock in and out of the incredibly tight heat, a hot grasp on him and it felt like heaven. It took everything not to come again so soon, his shivering thighs giving away just how excited he was. It's been so long since he last felt joined as one with his Shizun, his husband, his A-Yuan. He could melt right into his body, the pleasure coursing through him sent his heart into rapid palpitations and his breath stuttering over where he was hunched over Shen Yuan's chest. He placed soft kisses on the exposed skin, coaxing Shen Yuan out of hiding as he slid almost all the way in.
Shen Yuan was shaking under him, his breathing labored and cock red and weeping with pre-come. It made Luo Binghe dizzy.
"You can move," Shen Yuan said from behind his hands, fingers flexing and shivering over his flushed face. "Slowly."
He pulled out only halfway, the drag of his cock against his hot walls ripping a moan from his chest and pushed back in. He started a slow, steady rhythm that kept the heat trapped between them in a bubble of swelling lust. Shen Yuan made choked out gasps with each thrust, his hands dragging slowly down his face as Luo Binghe picked up speed slightly, his heart beating so much faster than the push of his cock.
"Binghe, Binghe," Shen Yuan gasped, his body arching under his touch. It drove him wild. He wanted to push his cock all the way in, bend him in half and fuck him into the bed so hard he could only cry and scramble to hold onto Luo Binghe.
"A-Yuan," he responded to his weakened call, his own voice shaking.
"Kiss me." His hands had slid down to cover his mouth, his eyes near black with lust and cheeks aflame.
Luo Binghe leaned down, his hips rocking steadily into his body, deeper, his pace picking up slowly, and said, "I can't kiss you with your hands on your mouth."
"Yes you can," Shen Yuan argued. He choked off with a gasp when Luo Binghe nailed him in that sensitive bundle of nerves deep within him, his body jerking up and his nails dragging pink lines down his cheeks and lips. Luo Binge kissed his hands, his twitching fingers and nudged them out of the way to press deep kisses into Shen Yuan's mouth, their tongues tracing hotly against one another. Shen Yuan's now freed hands gripped the back of Luo Binghe's head tight and dragged him down, his heels digging sharply into his back where Luo Binghe held him at the backs of his knees. "Faster," he gasped against his wet lips.
The pace was still nowhere near how hard and fast he wanted to fuck into him, but pulling back from his lips to see Shen Yuan moan openly and grip the pillow atop his head, his body stretched into a taut bow under him, kiss marks shining under the mid-morning golden haze and lines of sunlight traced his cheeks, caught the reflective strands in his hair, it made Luo Binghe dizzy.
He was getting close, his cock pulling whimpers and moans out of Shen Yuan's mouth like it was made for nothing but a tool to please his A-Yuan. It made him swell with heat and pride. Faster, harder he drove himself in deep, but never as hard as he truly wanted as Shen Yuan was barely taking what he was giving him. He was writhing underneath him down, spit trailing down his chin from their sloppy kisses and chest heaving with labored breath.
"I'm gonna- I'm gonna," Shen Yuan said between cut gasps and dragged out moans. His hands scrabbled for purchase and settled on gripping his face to hide away again. Luo Binghe growled and pulled them off and nailed him onto the bed, his hips driving deep as he dared and that was more than enough to drive Shen Yuan over the edge with a cry deep from his chest, his body seizing around his cock and thighs clamped to his waist as he came hard across his stomach.
Luo Binghe hovered over his body, not even daring to blink as to miss a single moment of Shen Yuan's orgasm under the hazy light of day, his lips wet and swollen shaped to a perfect o, his hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. With a few wild jerks of his hips, he finished. Luo Binghe followed shortly, pulling out and adding cum to Shen Yuan's stomach with his own heaving moan, the pleasure tearing through him hot and fast just from seeing Shen Yuan reach his peak.
He rolled and collapsed to the side, Shen Yuan still trying to catch his breath with his eyes closed and hands still shaking by his head.
In all honesty, Luo Binghe could definitely go another round or two, but Shen Yuan looked near ready to fall asleep again. They caught their breaths instead, hands interlocked between them and Shen Yuan was the first to move, pulling Luo Binghe's hand up to place a sweet kiss on his knuckle.
"We can do it again… tomorrow maybe…" Shen Yuan breathed. He wiped the drying drool from his chin with the back of his other hand, the one with the ring on it. He stopped and held it up to admire it, the gold band caught in the daylight. It looked more beautiful on his hand than the sleek velvet box it rested in for so long. "I'm glad you didn't do some grand proposal. All you need to do is ask and I'll always say yes."
He froze.
"A-Yuan?" Luo Binghe sat up to stare down with concern at him. He could see the gears turning behind his furrowed brow.
"Just ask me…. Luo Binghe… have we tried asking the System?"
"The System?" Did he need to ask that for permission, too?
"Have we tried using Shang Qinghua to just ask the System what we could do about my body?"
Oh.
Oh.
In no time he sprang from the bed and went straight to his drawer where he kept his robes folded neatly and started hurriedly pulling them on. He stopped in the middle of tying on his belt when he heard Shen Yuan getting up, the cum drying pitifully over his abdomen.
"Wait, let me clean you up first before I go." Luo Binghe motioned to help him up and Shen Yuan batted his hand away.
"I can take a shit by myself, thank you. I'll hop in the shower after and get this cleaned off, you go and see what we can do."
"But-" he always cleaned up Shizun!
"Don't worry!" Shen Yuan said with a laugh. "Go see if the System knows how to get my body back!"
Luo Binghe nodded, dipped his head to allow Shen Yuan to press a kiss to his glowing demon mark, and dashed to grab Xin Mo 2 where it laid against the wall. He slashed a hole to jump back to his world- their world - and, with his hair still unbound and outer robes barely tied on, he jumped through.
Notes:
thank you for reading! comments kudos bookmarks etc are always greatly appreciated! after this i might do a one shot series of scenes i cut out or just rly want to add but couldnt find room without this dragging for too long but i absolutely promise ch 7 is the last chapter for real! thank you for sticking with me and i hope everyone has a happy new year!
Chapter 7: Another Day
Summary:
They tie up loose ends and tie the knot
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Shen Yuan took his time pulling himself together before he got up and cleaned himself up thoroughly. He let the shower run hotter than he usually liked it, his skin turning a flushed pink and his aching limbs relaxed under the hot spray. It took a while for him to pull himself out of the shower and wrapped himself in comfortable sweats and a t-shirt of Luo Binghe's.
The gold ring glinted on his finger, a simple band with no grand adornments. He let out a huff of laughter at the thought of Luo Binghe presenting a painfully large diamond ring to him and now grateful for the smooth, simple band.
He brewed himself some tea and made a breakfast of eggs and floppy toast, his thumb rolling over the ring idly. He thought about calling his parents and siblings to tell them the news but he put it off to start picking up the mess around the apartment. Luo Binghe would have done a much better job than him and definitely much faster as twinges of deep-rooted aching shot up his back and down his legs slowed him down immensely. Curse Luo Binghe's well-endowed dick!
He left the dishes on the counter but took the trash out of his apartment and down to the dumpsters, the day only midmorning and it was already unbearably humid. He got back to his apartment with a sheen of sweat on his skin. With the dishes cleaned and the floors properly swept and vacuumed he booted up his computer and tried reading the most recent web novel he had gotten into.
His brain kept drifting away from his screen and to the slim band, then to the bedroom door as if Luo Binghe will come back any second. He tried again and found his finger twisting the band around his finger. It was long warm against his skin.
Unable to sit still he sprung up from his spot on the couch and changed into clothes that were a little nicer; chino shorts and a short sleeve button down Luo Binghe picked out because he thought the little cacti printed all over were very cute. He sat back down on the couch and almost immediately got back up to start pacing the room.
His nerve ends were frayed, unable to rest on anything but the time and the ring on his finger.
Strange how he was getting so worked up over a little ring. It's not like he was already married to the love of his life, but this was different, a little special. Nothing could ever beat Luo Binghe's original proposal and their rushed wedding, but the intimate gesture of doing things Shen Yuan's way as he grew up knowing it, a second chance given to his first body, he couldn't help but let his heart flutter high in his chest.
--
He called his mother. She sounded very happy for him yet something told him she wasn't all that surprised.
"The boy came to us and asked for your hand in marriage, even offered a dowry," she said lightly into the phone. "Are you going to call a planner soon? I have a friend who knows someone in the business. Have you thought about colors, or a theme yet? What about what you'll be wearing? A penguin suit is lovely but a little overdone a nice velvet-"
The conversation rolled on, mostly one-sided from her end. There was a brief interlude where his father gave him a gruff congratulations and offered the country club as a possible venue choice. He briefly imagined he and Luo Binghe in matching suits with little rose boutonnieres standing in the middle of a golf course sandbar with the sprinklers on somewhere behind them.
His mother made him hang up to call his siblings, but didn't let him get off the phone as she was talking about potential appetizers.
The reason he sort of didn't want to call his mother right away was because he was nervous Luo Binghe would return while she was talking his ear off. And that's exactly what happened.
Luo Binghe stepped out of the bedroom, resheathing Xin Mo 2, and stopped at the doorway to watch Shen Yuan stressfully give his mother the "Okay. Yes. I know. Yeah. Okay. Uh-huh" in an attempt to make her very long goodbye go faster.
"Well?" he asked once he was able to get his mother to actually hang up.
"A-Yuan, it's so simple," Luo Binghe said, his eyes wide, the stars within glittering.
"How?"
"I asked Shang Qinghua and he said you would just need to walk back."
Shen Yuan paused. Walk… back?
"You just need to go back through Xin Mo 2's portal," Luo Binghe nodded. "All we need to do is put your old body in the little space between here and there and when you walk in you soul will supposedly latch to your other body and you'll come out the other end as your other self."
"... Can it be reversed?"
Luo Binghe nodded, eyes somehow shining brighter. "If we take Xin Mo 2 back here you will walk back into this body. It's like a, ah, interdimensional storage unit?"
It was that easy? They just needed to rent a space in the little demon sword dimension traveling pocket and drop his body in while the other will remain fresh and ready to use? He could have gone back from the moment Luo Binghe found him? In a way, this was absolutely hilarious. Oh, if he weren't back in this world he would laugh in Shang Qinghua's face for the poor writing! What a lazy solution! The only reason he didn't think this was thanks to Shang Qinghua's particular style of storytelling was that there was no fucking to get to the actual solution!
… But they did fuck right before they realized, right? So maybe even without Shang Qinghua's direct influence sex was still involved to find the "cure".
He couldn't help but bust out laughing at his revelation.
Luo Binghe tilted his head in confusion at Shen Yuan's sudden hysterics. He nearly doubled over, relief lightening a deep-seated ache that had buried itself deep in his chest as it took flight up, up, and away from his little apartment in the middle of a bustling city.
"A-Yuan?" A smile full of mirth twitched on Luo Binghe's lips. "What's so funny?" The glow of his eyes gave away his own light-hearted joy, but the content, pure, unadulterated love in the softness in his gaze and the sweetest smile touching his lips left Shen Yuan brimming.
His laughter tapered off and truly, he didn't know what to say. Luo Binghe did. He gently took Shen Yuan's hand and led him back to the couch and sat them close together, his hand firmly trapped between Luo Binghe's big, warm palms. Shen Yuan curled his fingers securely around his hand.
"What should we do?" Luo Binghe asked. Go back, of course. Shen Yuan wanted to say. The words were trapped on his tongue. His parents and siblings came to mind, the second chance at life he swore he lost when he awoke as Shen Qingqiu, the two years he had left before he would graduate and receive his bachelor's. The wedding Luo Binghe promised him.
The wedding didn't matter, or it sort of did. No, it really did. It gave him another excuse to flaunt his love for Luo Binghe in front of everyone. He couldn't help but imagine a beautiful modern wedding with them in matching suits (not on a golf course) and with his family on one side in spring brights and the whole of Cang Qiong Mountain sect on the other in their cultivation robes and clapping politely when he dips Luo Binghe into a kiss.
His thoughts came to a startling halt. "What do you want to do, Binghe?"
"I want to do whatever A-Yuan wants to do," said Luo Binghe. He would not meet Shen Yuan's eye.
"Do you want to go back to your world?" He leaned forward trying to catch Luo Binghe's shifting gaze.
"I do if-"
"No," he snapped. "What does Binghe want? I will only want to do something if my husband wants to, too."
Luo Binghe didn't say anything, nor would he meet Shen Yuan's eyes.
"Husband, my fiance," Shen Yuan cupped his cheek and pulled his face up to meet his eyes. They were wide and uncertain. "Do you want to stay here?"
"I don't like where I came from," Luo Binghe said haltingly. "It's only nice when A-Yuan is there. I only want to go if you want to go."
"And I really only want to go back if you do, too."
A smile tweaked at the corner of his lips. "The people there always stood aside and watched me suffer, or personally inflicted the pain upon me. You never did, you clothed and fed me, gave me a roof over my head and medicine for my pain, and kindness that can wash away any hurt everyone gave me. I feel no love for my roots, but here it feels like a new start."
"I'm in a mortal body, a frail one at that, are you okay with watching me live maybe another twenty years if I'm lucky?" Shen Yuan wasn't supposed to make it to the end of elementary school. His time has been borrowed from the beginning, his days marked down on an invisible counter that only the daily doses of pills he took and the menial amount of exercises he managed to keep his body somewhat strong added days to his small calendar. The allergies, the sensitivity to practically everything, those days it was too much to get out of bed and chose to stay in bed with a heating pad and a glass of water, and every light and sound shut off made life almost worthless, solace found in novels and anime, gaming and the brief friendships he made over forums. If he made it to forty he would consider that cheating death. He has cheated death a few too many times.
"I would love to stay with you as long as you let me," Luo Binghe said. He pressed his cheek firmly into Shen Yuan's palm with a sigh. "And then I guess we can go back to my world and remain together forever."
"Only if you permit this old teacher to stay by your side."
--
After almost an hour of Shen Yuan frustratingly working through calculations and sending Luo Binghe back and forth he managed to figure out the exact amount of time that passed between each world. It didn't help that it seemed to flow differently with Shen Yuan in Proud Immortal Demon Way as he found while going back to triple-check his calculations by using his time there as a reference. Time sped up with him away and slowed considerably with him there forcing him to do two separate equations and a whole lot of prayers to Dianxia he's correct.
--
He called his siblings first to tell them the good news and as a treat Luo Binghe and he were taking a three-day trip "out of town" before Shen Yuan will be leaving for America, giving him plenty of time to see his family.
The trip was back to Proud Immortal Demon Way . Luo Binghe had placed Shen Qingqiu's body in the weird space-time pocket and came out the other side to Shen Yuan empty-handed.
"Ready?" He asked. Shen Yuan nodded. He already double-checked the apartment doors were locked before he took Luo Binghe's hand and allowed him to guide him through the rippling hole cut by Xin Mo 2.
It was like a breath of cold air, sharp and uncomfortable, pulling the heat from his lungs with an icy hand. It was over in an instant.
He stepped into the imitation bamboo house nestled in Luo Binghe's palace. It was a shock, his senses and height increased and his hair was back down to his knees, flowing freely around his shoulders as a familiar weight he dearly missed.
He, Shen Qingqiu, felt the cool bamboo floors under his bare feet and with the dignity and grace of a Peak Lord, not a college student working a retail job, he looked himself over and groaned.
"Binghe, didn't this one ask you to please put clothes on this body of mine?" He was in very thin silky under robes, the fabric so light it practically felt as if he wasn't wearing anything at all. If he stood close enough to the window spilling in artificial sunlight he bet Luo Binghe could see right through the flimsy fabric to Shen Qingqiu's figure.
"Ah, this husband-to-be forgot," Luo Binghe said with a devious grin tugging at his lips. "I have so many things to do here and the only thought on my mind is to always get back to you."
"Liar," Shen Qingqiu huffed fondly. He was tall enough now to easily pat his head, no more reaching up high and forcing Luo Binghe to tilt his head down enough to properly pat.
Luo Binghe cocked his head down enough and pursed his lips, begging for a kiss. When Shen Qingqiu didn't comply right away, he made gross, kissy motions accompanied by the wet, suctioning sound. He wanted to tease Luo Binghe a bit, but he was also eager to kiss him without the creek in his neck.
With a huff, he leaned in and met the kissy lips with his own overly pursed lips and earned a dissatisfied groan before Luo Binghe lurched forward to deepen the kiss. Shen Qingqiu moaned openly into his mouth, allowing his tongue to slip in and reacquaint himself with the mouth it's been so long since the last kiss. Arms curled around his nearly nude body and dragged him close, grumbling vibrations of satisfaction rang deep in Luo Binghe's chest and reverberated to Shen Qingqiu's.
The hand hiking into his thin inner robe has Shen Qingqiu pull them to a halt. "Later, Binghe," Shen Qingqiu chastised. "Let this one get dressed and greet everyone first then you may have your way with me."
Luo Binghe's eyes grew dark. "They can wait." He leaned in as if to take a bite out of his skin and Shen Qingqiu stopped it with a peck to his perfect nose.
"You had your way with me this morning, let this old teacher rest before you go at it again."
He couldn't stop Luo Binghe from helping him get dressed as he was a little rusty in putting on his old cultivation robes. Luo Binghe picked out one of his old favorite robes, the pale green with sea green details, intricate silk brocade, and real silver trimmings. He even tried to get on his knees and put his boots on for him. As if! Then Luo Binghe sat him in front of the mirror and gently rubbed oils into his obnoxiously long hair, humming under his breath as he combed through each long lock thoroughly and finished by braiding smaller sections of hair and twisted it up into a top knot atop his head held in place by an intricate silver crown and a jade pin Luo Binghe had bought him as an anniversary gift.
To complete the look, Shen Qingqiu picked out his favorite fan from his extensive collection- a simple monochromatic watercolor mountainside with a tassel that matched some of the finer details in his robes. It was a very old fan, from when Luo Binghe had been a mere flower bud at the top of Cang Qiong mountain.
He huffed in the mirror at his final look. It was strange taking so long to get dressed. Certainly something he didn't miss. But he did miss this body. He was taller, so much stronger, and more elegant than Shen Yuan could ever be. Yes, jeans and a t-shirt were freeing compared to these stifling robes, but he now had the face to match- all sharp angles and neat brow. But…
"I forgot how big my forehead is."
Luo Binghe laughed and leaned into him. Shen Qingqiu watched in the mirror as he laid a few lovely kisses over his large forehead. "I love it because that means I have more forehead to kiss."
Shen Qingqiu snapped open his fan to hide his flush. Oh, he missed his fans to hide behind. Shen Yuan could only duck down as close to his phone screen as possible before his eyes burned out of focus.
Luo Binghe pulled him into a searing kiss, only able to pull back and whisper gruffly to his lips, "I missed you."
"Do you prefer me as Shen Qingqiu?" Shen Qingqiu asked honestly.
Luo Binghe pulled back further with an aggressive shake to his head. "I love you as you are, whether you're my unattainable, untouchable immortal shizun, or my sweet, funny, adorable little A-Yuan I love you regardless. This is like another facet I get to experience, another you I get to explore and cherish."
He was pulled into another hug and nestled in close to Shen Qingqiu's willowy neck, pressing a tender kiss where the collar ended and skin began. "I don't think I've ever heard you fart as Shen Qingqiu, though. A-Yuan can really rip a nasty one-"
Luo Binghe didn't get to finish as Shen QIngqiu shoved him away with a shout and smacked him over the head several times with his fan.
--
Luo Binghe made him stay to eat a meal before they went up to Can Qiong Mountain where everyone was waiting. They had heard from Shang Qinghua that Shen Qingqiu would be back and the whole of Qing Jing Peak and the sect Peak Lords were waiting for his arrival. It's been a hot second since Shen Qingqiu had ridden his sword and chose to fly with Luo Binghe, wrapped up in his arms as they descended to the emerald green lawn.
Shouts of excitement filled the air and he barely stepped off the sword before he was nearly mowed down by Shang Qinghua with a tearful shout of "Cucumber bro!"
His disciples surrounded him, yelling and crying into his robes. Ning Yingying was beside herself with tears and had to be pulled aside by Liu Mingyan to compose herself. The sect leaders were a little kinder with their greetings. Liu Qingge gave him the most awkward yet most heartfelt shoulder pat he's ever had, Yue Qingyuan looked like he wanted to throw himself into Shen Qingqiu's arms as Ning Yingying had. He remained the steady sect leader he was and gave him a warm smile, grief buried deep under his relieved eyes.
"You need to stop doing that, Shen Shixiong," Yue Qingyuan said grimly. "We're glad you're back."
"I'm glad to be back," Shen Qingqiu said with a polite bow, a smile twitching at the corners of his lips. He wanted to take the time to be with the NPCs he missed so dearly but he knew his time was limited. His eyes shifted to Yue Qingyuan smiling warmly at him, staying within his orbit as if Shen Qingqiu will drift away again if he was further than arm's reach. It was a needle-sharp pain remembering he will have to leave them again.
It also hurt knowing he'll leave his family.
"Shizun and I are getting married again and will take another honeymoon," Luo Binghe said cheerily, pulling him close. "A much more public affair for anyone who wishes to attend."
His heart stopped. Luo Binghe you can't just-!
"Another wedding?!" Ning Yingying gasped. She leaped to her feet and pushed her way back to the center of the Shen Qingqiu circle.
"Binghe," Shen Qingqiu hissed.
"A third wedding?" Luo Binghe whispered close to his ear, eyes wide and hopeful. "Our last one was so rushed. I need to really show everyone you belong to me now." He said that with furtive glance at Yue Qingyuan and Liu Qingge.
"We'll talk about it," he huffed with a snap of his fan.
"Can we have a wedding in the demon realm, too-"
"Don't push your luck."
--
There was a large banquet in honor of his return. He was told no one had truly believed he was dead. He's dropped dead so many times they figured it wasn't too serious this time as Luo Binghe didn't seem stressed. They had faith he would be back. It was a large banquet with every single person of Can Qiong Mountain present in the giant hall usually reserved for major sect meetings. The kitchens produced a feast in almost an instant and Zui Xian Peak brought a large supply of their most delicious wines. It was a loud, raucous party, something even as Shen Yuan he was unfamiliar with.
No matter (for now at least), he had to remember how to navigate back in Shen Qingqiu's body. His body now. He felt bad stumbling around in his robes but his long, willowy limbs and billowy sleeves already having dragged them through his tea made things very difficult. Luo Binghe was a delight and when he noticed his struggle would gently tug back his sleeve before Shen Qingqiu could make a fool of himself.
The party ended up going on well into the night. He drank a little and only felt the slight warmth to his cheeks unlike the half a beer it would take him usually to get wasted. Luo Binghe drank with him but took a bite of all his food before Shen Qingqiu was allowed any of it. An old habit he wished Luo Binghe would break but sort of didn't want him to.
Well into the very early morning hours the two of them trekked back to Qing Jing Peak where Shen Qingqiu's bamboo house stood as it always had. It was spotlessly clean inside.
"This one cleaned it whenever I could," Luo Binghe explained. Shen Qingqiu hummed a soft thank you and placed a sweet kiss on his jaw. He felt more than saw Luo Binghe swell with pride.
"Draw us a bath?"
By the dark look that crossed his eye he knew he had said the wrong thing. "This one will be more than happy to do that." Before Shen Qingqiu could clarify what he meant, Luo Binghe had already scurried off.
They had sex this morning! In his much weaker body! Let this poor master rest his body before he had to take his heavenly pillar again! Or, Shen Qingqiu realized, Shen Yuan had taken his huge cock but Shen Qingqiu certainly hasn't taken him in quite a while. Though he was pretty worn down from the morning's activities plus the sudden banquet, he couldn't help but still idly imagine the smooth slide of wet skin on skin, a hot mouth on his throat, his chest, sliding down to his-
"Shizun? It's ready!" Luo Binghe called.
--
They didn't fuck in the bath but nearly did. Luo Binghe dragged him out of the cooling water, pressed him into the bamboo bed, and fucked him hard and deep until no more cries could leave his lips and the wracking shudders left him beyond boneless.
Even with his sated self, the bamboo bed still dug harshly into his shoulders and hips. He missed his memory foam mattress already. Perhaps he'll cut back his nights here, or take day trips and go home to sleep there instead. After the pleasure of a memory foam mattress for so long, he could never truly go back to a hard bed. Luo Binghe said he'll fix it and lugged a soft, feather mattress to the bamboo hut.
--
They didn't stay as long as they should. To satisfy both Luo Binghe's need for a showy wedding and Shen Qingqiu's need for an excuse to disappear, they had a lavish wedding arranged in a flash. A dowry was gifted to each; rare jewels, priceless artifacts, and lines of carriages loaded with money came climbing up Cang Qiong Mountain while Shen Qingqiu procured his own lump sum as only a scratch of what Luo Binge gave him.
Shang Qinghua was the one who tipped them off about a priceless metal said to chill when the other part of it was in danger. Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu made it a quick journey to harvest the metal for them to be molded into matching rings as betrothal gifts. The glimmering iridescent metal sat comfortably on Shen Qingqiu's ring finger and, admittedly, he had been missing the now-familiar weight of the gold band on his finger. When Luo Binghe asked him which one was the prettiest he couldn't give him an answer. Both were priceless.
--
The richest robes were procured and tailored to their sizes, an exquisite banquet was cooked up with a flurry, and every member of Cang Qiong Mountain plus one or two demons Luo Binghe sort of liked RSVP'd. The ceremony itself would remain private to only the sect leaders and the Qing Jing Peak disciples as neither of them technically had families to attend. They were each other's family and will forever be.
Red very much wasn't Shen Qingqiu's color but the look in Luo Binghe's eyes when they knelt at the temple altar made him feel a little more beautiful. The clink of the gold jewelry, the heavy silks embroidered with soaring phoenix and glittering peonies shifted with each bow presented to the heavens and earth, to the long lost ancestors, and to themselves. Their first wedding still held true but under the eyes of these witnesses, there would be no room to question who they belonged to. Their bonds were deeper than ever and it was Luo Binghe wanted to marry the man again to show how much he loved every side of Shen Qingqiu, Shen Yuan.
The reception was somehow bigger than the welcome back party, draped in more red and lit with hundreds of candles and lanterns to set the large hall ablaze with warmth. Many guests greeted the couple with gifts and well wishes, so many familiar faces with beaming smiles. Shen Qingqiu was unused to all the attention and found himself half behind his fan all night- a stunning filigree gold with red silk painted with a glittering phoenix and charming peonies. Luo Binghe had gifted it to him that morning with the new robes and it was by far his favorite wedding gift.
Long after the festivities wore down, they retreated back to the demon realm to escape the prying Cang Qiong Mountain sect eyes.
--
They made love once again over the silk, white sheets. Luo Binghe insisted he kept some of his robes on and that's how Shen Qingqiu found himself riding Luo Binghe's monster dick as if his life depended on it, the heavy brocades and crimson silks drooped down and rested on the crooks of his arms, his hair unbound and stuck to his sweat-slick skin. Luo Binghe's roaming hands traced his sternum and stomach, held his thighs and waist, and each punched out groan dripped sweet, simmering praised and declarations of love.
--
"I don't feel the need to tell them the whole truth," said Shen Qingqiu, "but it would make things easier if they knew what was happening."
"If that is what A-Yuan wants to do."
"Should we show them Xinmo 2? Or is that too much? They might think your demon mark was some weird gang thing and kindly call security on you if you tried starting with that."
"Hahaha! I will gently beat them up!"
"I'm serious! Let's figure out what to tell them, okay?"
"Anything at all, A-Yuan."
--
He might have pushed off telling his family for a while. In fact, he went to America first before he got the courage to tell them.
A whole nine months of skewing his time so much, jumping between his schoolwork, traveling as much of the locale as he could, teaching at Qing Jing Peak on the weekends while still maintaining sect leader duties (perhaps sneaking his homework to meetings), and making sure to shower Luo Binghe in plenty of affection he collapsed with a bad fever during his language class and had to take a week off. Luo Binghe, despite Shen Yuan telling him to stay away from the dorm to not draw attention practically lived in his closet to nurse him back to health. As hilarious as the game of hide and seek Luo Binghe played to hide from his roommates was he had never been so stressed out in his five lives.
A whole nine months and he couldn't find the words to tell his parents the truth.
--
The following summer when Shen Yuan returned he returned to an easier rhythm. His last year could be condensed into one semester allowing him to graduate early and marry the next spring. His parents weren't keen on the idea of him rushing his education to marry Luo Binghe (who as much as they approved of, they were still trying to make them hold off another year before they married).
--
When he got his diploma in the mail he confronted his parents.
"Is this why you haven't had a job?" His father asked.
He had a temporary job to keep him afloat, but they didn't consider his at home job a real job unless he was making six-digit figures.
"Is this why he tried to give us a dowry?" His mother asked.
Perhaps. It was a little old fashioned.
"Is this why you keep dropping off the face of the earth?"
And so what if it was?
"I love it there. I'm strong and healthy. There's a new adventure every day."
"Will you come back?"
"I'll always come back."
--
It was a destination wedding. Luo Binghe could have easily paid for the whole of it and every guest plus some without putting a dent in his fortune, but as a wedding gift Shen Yuan's parents paid for the accommodation and catering, his eldest brother the florist, his second eldest the photographer and music, and his sister the stylist (it's really her and a couple of friends she pulled favors from) and their suits, which left them to pick up the rest of the details. Even the honeymoon they'd vaguely planned to maybe visit America again and go back to Proud Immortal Demon Way for a bit was taken care of as his main family, a rich grandmother, a couple aunties and uncles, and a cousin already a father of two high school kids all pitched in money for a two-week stay in Bora Bora. He nearly fainted with the hotel reservation confirmation, the plane tickets, and a pass for a helicopter flight to a volcano. Shen Yuan knew his family had money but this is too much!
Of course with having an all paid for destination wedding there were still people who weren't very eager to partake. The bridegrooms weren't to their taste and chose to protest by turning their noses up to the embossed invitations mailed out. Not everyone in the family got one, but it still sent a twang of hurt when a firm no was sent back.
The guest list was thirty people at the end complete with family, a few close coworkers, and friends he made in America. Compared to the lavish wedding they held for Binghe, this one would be much smaller, more intimate. It's exactly what he wanted.
--
"A wedding cape would be really cool."
"It's a spring wedding. You might overheat in something like that."
"I just won't get fur trimmings. I want one of us to be flowy, if I don't get a cape will you get a veil?"
"No, I would look dumb. You can wear a veil."
"We can both wear veils. Cathedral veils."
"Absolutely not."
--
"White is going to wash me out. I'm already pasty. Can I wear a beige or a black suit?"
"White would look very good on A-Yuan, but if you don't want to wear white I will."
"Weren't you going to wear black?"
"I always wear black. I'll wear a white suit with a veil."
"... If I say yes to the cape will you drop the veil thing?"
"Maybe."
--
"Calla lilies for sure, and green hydrangeas?"
"Roses."
"How romantic, Binghe. How about more greenery? I do like the dusty miller and silver dollar eucalyptus."
"Myrtle is pretty. Baby's breath?"
"Everyone does baby's breath."
"Baby's breath."
--
"My sister said bottles are a thing right now and would fit the theme."
"We have a theme?"
"I guess. Aren't we just going for what looks good?"
"I guess. She said it's technically 'rustic' and 'romantic' but whatever."
"Aren't all weddings considered romantic?"
--
It was a few months over three years from waking up when they got married for the third time.
The wedding was pale and breathlessly beautiful, with a seventeenth-century European styled mansion and a charming garden in full bloom. They did everything their wedding planner recommended with the complete "first look" photoshoot that put Luo Binghe to tears down to the signature book sitting atop a well decorated in precious jasmine and sweet lily of the valleys.
Luo Binghe cried enough until he got his wedding cape and was decked out in a glowing white three-piece suit with a champagne tie, the silken cape fluttered in the gentle spring breeze, the hems traced with woven lace traced with champagne threads that glimmered in the late morning sunlight. Shen Yuan admittedly felt handsome in his beige suit and white tie, the green and calla lily boutonniere clipped over his white silk pocket square and his hair laid in place for once. His sister insisted he wore contacts and by Luo Binghe's glowing, tear-stained smile, she might have been right about it.
The ceremony was casual and after more pictures of their party all over the garden, they settled in for the reception with too many embarrassing toasts and plenty of wonderful food. Luo Binghe had kindly baked the wedding cake, a smooth, three-tier cake decorated with silky green ribbons and their wedding flowers. The bite Luo Binghe delicately fed him was of Shen Yuan's favorite flavor and definitely the best he'd ever had. Luo Binghe shouldn't mind baking more of this in the future.
Luo Binghe unclipped his cape and draped it over Shen Yuan's shoulder and Shen Yuan chuckled and draped it over his chair before he swept them away to the dancefloor for their first dance. He was nervous, but they had taken dance classes together to prepare for this. He stumbled once, but Luo Binghe swiftly rightened him up before he could make a fool of both of them.
The party wore on well into the night where the strings of fairy lights and white paper lanterns were lit and warm heating lamps were brought out to fight off the spring chill. The open bar left the guests in a rioting mood of laughter and boisterous dancing, cheeks numb from smiles and hearts full of light. Shen Yuan was red-cheeked and dizzy from a little too much champagne.
Luo Binghe sat him down on a stone bench a little away from the party to let him cool off a moment. He placed tender kisses atop each knuckle, counting to ten and placing two more on the backs of his hands. He barely put his hand down when the audible click of a camera shutter, a noise Shen Yuan had muted from the day had echoed in their bubble of privacy. He jumped in surprise and the wedding photographer waved a hand in apology and swept away back to the party. He hoped the picture turned out good, of them surrounded in lavender and illuminated by the golden lanterns that highlighted the plains of Luo Binghe's straight nose and perfect jawline nicely.
--
The night ended with guests stumbling off to their hotel rooms and them sweeping upstairs to the master suite to have their third night of wedding sex. Shen Yuan had invested privately in white lace stockings and Luo Binghe had surprised him with his own white lace briefs. They fell into bed full of soft giggles until it turned into steady, steamy sex with Luo Binghe driving into him deeply, slowly, pulling every sound from Shen Yuan's throat. His legs were thrown over Luo Binghe's shoulders as he kissed along the sheer stocking, mouthing at his ankles and whispering over his knees.
"I love you, I love you. I cherish you, I adore you. I want to keep marrying you, keep loving you."
"Yes." Was all Shen Yuan could choke out. "I love you."
"Let's do this again, over and over."
"The-the fucking or the marriage?"
"Both, if you'll have me."
He already had him! He was already balls deep! "Sure."
When they came, stars and shudders ran through his blood and Luo Binghe held him so close their hearts beat in a single tandem
--
Their honeymoon reminiscent of their trip two summers ago to the lotus filled lake. This time it was with crystal clear blue waters and diamond white sand they still picked out if the crevices of their bodies a week later. Shen Yuan got a sunburn after they tumbled around on a private cove of the beach in which Luo Binghe took too much pleasure in rubbing aloe vera into his tender skin. Two weeks were spent wonderfully alone as they ate the delicious local cuisine, swimming and snorkeling in the coral reefs, hiking through mountain trails, and every night falling into each other's arms.
--
On the last night, Luo Binghe whispered against his skin, "Can we do this again?"
"Hm? Bora Bora?" Shen Yuan said sleepily. He was just about to drift off.
"No, declaring my love to you in a ceremony with everyone to see."
Shen Yuan softly laughed. His hand drifted up to stroke Luo Binghe's silky curls. "How many more times do you want to marry me?"
"As many times as I can. I want to marry every Shen Yuan, every Shen Qingqiu."
"Where shall we go next, then?"
"There's Taiwan."
"Canada."
Australia."
"Equador."
"Belgium because they have chocolate."
Shen Yuan hummed. He does like chocolate. "Soon we can do this again. Maybe." There was always the renewal of the vows ceremonies. It was getting harder to shape words with his sleep numbed lips. The hand stroking Luo Binghe's hair was getting too heavy.
"Belgium it is."
"Belgium... Mm. maybe."
--
They flew back only to drop their luggage off. Xin Mo 2 cut a portal to Proud Immortal Demon Way and hand in hand they stepped through. The wedding band shifted from gold to the dazzling iridescent metal and Shen Yuan became Shen Qingqiu.
"Keep track of the days," Shen Qingqiu said with a snap of his fan. "It's my brother's birthday soon and we need to get him something beforehand."
"We can get him something here?" Luo Binghe suggested with a mischevious twinkle in his eye.
"Absolutely not. Most things here are sex-driven and I don't even want to think about it in the same vein as my brother."
"He was talking about old radios, maybe we can browse some vintage stores for something?"
"Sharp ear, Binghe," Shen Qingqiu said with a pat on his head. Luo Binghe preened under the attention. "Now let's go, Qing Jing Peak is waiting for this old Master."
"This one has some duties to attend to with Mobei Jun. I will see you tonight for dinner?"
"Of course."
With a parting kiss, they went on their way with a promise to meet again. And again. And again. To this world and the next, they won't stray too far from one another as the rings that bind them and the hearts that call for them will always bring them back together.
And if they declare their love for all to see a few more times in the process, who's going to stop them?
Notes:
OOOH SORRY FOR THE DELAY GOT LIFE HAPPENING YOU KNOW! BUT ITS DONE! FINALLY DONE!!!
thank you SO MUCH everyone for commenting and leaving me kudos i read and reread every single word yall have said it makes my heart FULL. this was fun to right up until the end i felt like i was dragging this plot through the mud and i had to gnash my teeth and Finish It. thats why the ending is kinda hm im just trying to get it done so i can say its finished OTL. In the future tho i might have some extras hanging around i cut from the original draft (mostly nsfw even tho im like Subpar at writing nsfw rip).
thanks again! thank you!!! aaahh! hopefully now i can get on with my next 3 fics i have swimming around! maybe they wont be this long but i dont trust anyone especially Me. next up i have another hualian or a fresh wangxian who knows! i dont.
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Notes:
i have the next two chapters written let me write another then ill edit and post the next ill try and get a chap out in a week i dont think thisll b more than like 4-5 chapters i dunno im going in on this with a vague idea of what i want to happen i keep going back and editing stuff OTL
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Series this work belongs to:
Part 1 of Bingqiu retransmigrate au Next Work
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