#kamaetewrites

[thegoldenavenger]

musings about nyy's relationship to sqq and why i think one of the most interesting lenses to look at it is thru one where sqq did not explicitly abuse her the way he is accused of

so nyy who loves sqq because he's a source of stability and safety for her. nyy is the only female disciple (donghua only) (in any case the most important girl on the peak by a long shot) on a peak who's lord is capricious, aloof and rumoured lascivous who encourages his disciples to emulate him. being sqq's favored disciple carries with it safety and some privilege, perhaps financially but definitely socially on qing jing

sqq dotes on nyy by his standards. sy successfully argues that it is in character for sqq to help lbh (who he hates) on the basis that it will make nyy happy. this implies that there are instances where sqq gives nyy favors even when it makes lbh's life better (incidentally, mirroring qjl giving sj favors when qht wants it even though that ends up making sj's life worse later). the mission wasn't in pidw, we only know that og!sqq didn't put lbh in his carriage (or else it would've been important enough to include in the pidw text) but it is likely that nyy spoke up the same way in PIDW and sqq just handled it differently (perhaps letting lbh on nyy's horse and letting nyy ride in the carriage). (also, obviously, sqq picks up another disciple bc nyy asked for one once recreating the cycle of giving basically a dress up doll to a sheltered girl)

regardless, this shows that sqq does favor nyy in tangible ways and she isn't projecting the relationship. however, sqq does Not reciprocate or provide for nyy in typically paternal fashion. for example, the system says that it is in character for sqq to stay inside instead of accompany nyy to the market enough so it makes him tell her to ask literally anyone else (including lbh who he doesnt trust or see as competant) to walk around town while a murderer of young girls is on the loose.

i love interpeting this as some kind of terrible codependancy where sqq is using nyy to mirror and fix or overcome his past traumas by projecting qht upon her and replacing qjl as himself. now he holds all the power. and nyy imprinted on him, feeling the closest to him compared to her shixiong, as well as herself being likely isolated by sqq's favor, which leaves him as her closest relationship prior to lbh.

the thing with children is that, even for adults it's very hard to reconcile a person being nice to you, and then being mean to someone else. so for nyy whose whole safety system is sqq, and whose closest relationship was with sqq before lbh, it's no wonder she has a terrible time believing that lbh's treatment is cruel and unusual. besides the genre conventions of the premise and corporeal punishment perhaps (not confirmed) being accepted, nyy's own experiences help blind her to the reality of lbh's circumstances. because sqq treats her fairly, and she sees lbh failing at cultivating, being late to class (bc of extra chores or whatever), and she doesn't always see first hand him being punished or bullied, she automatically assumes the treatment lbh recieves at sqq's hands is deserved. this is compounded by lbh literally telling her to her face that sqq and his shixiongs are doing him a kindness aklsjfslka when she DOES try to help him

(obviously not his fault, her help often gets him into more trouble that she isnt there to see but it does help keep her believing the narrative that it's lbh's fault for making sqq mad or disappointed to the point of punishment.)

so we have nyy who things sqq isnt doing anything bad to lbh except that sometimes it makes her sad when lbh is hurt. we have lbh who turns to nyy for comfort even though that comfort often returns to him worse later. and sqq who is purpetuating cycles.

i also think, it would be very interesting if, to add to the weird ambiguous nature of sqq's and nyy's relationship, would be if sqq used her to help regulate his own emotions. i believe in the novel mf informs nyy when lbh gets punished by sqq (i am not sure if that's something im making up, sorry i dont have access to the novels rn) but regardless, i like to think it's because sqq is repeating behaviors he learned in the past, specifically, finding a calm in a girl nearby after letting himself go off on lbh for whatever reason. i like this reading for several reasons. the first: it adds another layer onto nyy and sqq's relationship that continues to make it suspicious and odd to outside viewers. the second: it reinforces nyy's believe in sqq's perspective of the narrative because she'd see sqq's aftermath before lbhs (due to cultivation and lbh's nature, giving him time to recover before nyy sees him). and third: it creates an unstable surface for nyy to stand upon.

sqq is her safety net but she is not unaware that he has lines that can be crossed that result in punishment. being a girl and sqq's favorite shields her from having to excel in swordsmanship and cultivation, but it can't shield her from everything and her closest friend being lbh who she knows is working hard but still gets punished all the time has to instil some sort of uncertainty upon her that if she steps wrong sqq may turn on her. she IS unaware that she could never cross sqq's line though, what with being a girl and sqq not believing that women have agency or are, like. people.

(RE sqq's benign misogyny: i believe that just doesn't. see women as fully realised complex human beings. i think his past as a slave really imprinted him the helplessness that girls are subjected to and even (to his perspective) foster. like? the girls he grew up with were taken advantage of, and then qht was so naive that she couldnt comprehend that sj's life might actually be a little bit bad when she wasn't looking. i think women, to him, are creatures to be pitied that cant actually harm him. he doesnt, as far as i remember, ever blame qht for her participation in his trauma. nor blame nyy for her participation in his trial whether her accusations were true or not. if he blames anyone it is the men he sees as manipulating them when he cannot be that man himself. so, there's that)

and then. the lingxi caves and the demon invasion arc. sqq murders liu qingge and fails to murder lbh. (allegedly)

i think it is heavily implied in the novel if not outright stated that the invasion arc was the turning point in lbh's views on sqq. previous to this he was holding onto the belief that he was doing something wrong and if he was just good enough sqq would praise him. that his shixiongs were mean but he'd become stronger for it. but after winning an impossible duel and his peers on the sect praising him, but sqq still hating him finally proves to him that sqq hates him and nothing can change that. that all this time sqq had just been cruel to him for no reason. (also, meng mo's influence upon him cementing that truth to him)

and on top of this we and liu mingyan, who sees lbh win and sqq's disdain of him and then finds out her only remaining family has been murdered in a cave by someone who should have been able to be trusted. AND. then watch as that murderer is pardoned by everyone.

so i think this is the point lmy starts hanging out with lbh and nyy. lmy and lbh bonding over sqq being a pos and lqg's murder and how unjust cang qiong is. i think it is possibly lmy that helps lbh see that it's not just sqq that's rotten, that the entire sect is aiding and abetting him. when sy wakes up in sqq's body and asks where lbh is yqy already knows sqq had him strung up in the shed. why? bc yqy was the one to find them and didnt do any thing about lbh? or someone reported that sqq qi deviated while punishing lbh and made the conscious decision not to tell anyone to let lbh down? whatever way it's obvious yqy has deferred to his shidi's decisions on his peak and seeings as yqy also did not pursue sqq for lqg's murder lmy would have reason to dislike him just as much as lbh, and perhaps help lbh see the dissonance between sect leader and his favoritism

so nyy's best friend lbh is now friends with a cooler, older girl who keeps talking shit about sqq. and i think, nyy could respond one of two ways. 1) distance herself from lbh and lmy and cling to sqq even harder. or 2) start becoming a little rebellious. lmy, raised on a peak of women for women who already is suspicious of and hates sqq, whose own brother talked about sqq's presence at brothels, would obviously be concerned about nyy's closeness with sqq. i think, either out of genuine worry and comeraderie or calculation, she could start pressing on nyy's relationship with sqq, with lbh helping

the thing is, i think both lbh and lmy could have genuine worry for nyy but i also think theyre both absolutely capable of manipulating nyy as well. just depends on the story youd like to tell. they both can be true at once, even.

anyways, nyy is jealous and in a precarious position, wants to keep her place as lbh's best friend and maybe be cool in her shimei's eyes as well, so i think it is very very plausible that she lets them talk her into also being a bit worried about her relationship with sqq. she's already living with the uncertainty of knowing sqq can be cruel, and now her two closest peers being suspicious of him all coalescing into unstable footing for nyy

THEN we have the immortal alliance conference and lbh's presumed death.

five years where nyy has to wonder if sqq killed her best friend and lmy is there to tell her, well. he killed my brother and hated lbh who would have stopped him? c:

five years of nyy wrestling with her grief as sqq spits on lbh's memory and lmy is there to comfort and grieve with her and protect her from sqq.

and then lbh comes back and nyy and lmy are there to be his inside sources at cqms (besides sqh who is. you know, another thing this isnt about him)

lbh comes back and can tell nyy to her face that sqq tried to murder him, that means of course he murdered liu qingge and this just. has to recontextualise everything for nyy. (at this point, lbh has also canonically dragged nyy into his dreams so, there is a fun additional element where lbh could have influence nyy's perception and memories through that)

by the time qiu haitang is added, and lmy and lbh can build an entire trial around her story, nyy is in the perfect place to join that testimony. she cannot refuse that lbh was mistreated, that lmy's quest for revenge is unfounded, she no longer can hide behind her doubts. :3 and qht, she's an older nyy isn't she? she was the innocent young lady who's entire world was turned upside down by sqq. she knows what nyy is feeling, her grief, the inability to believe sqq is capable of something like this! but he is! and she's there to help her.

so nyy, filled with guilt and not able to 100% trust her own memories, and still filled with a childish sense of justice… that's how she decides to testify against a man who has shaped her childhood regardless of whether he was, personally, intentionally, abusive of her. (though i do think even at his most charitable he was neglectful of her needs)

and i'm so ENCHANTED by the idea that she does this to help her friends lbh and lmy, and this stranger who she comes to know qht, get justice and then is shocked and horrified and betrayed when this leads to the razing of cqms, that this leads to sqq's prolongued and disproportionate torture. and i am ENCHANTED by the concept that she still loves lbh and cant blame him bc he's earnest and open and she remembers him as this sweet boy who came to her to hide from bullies and she still cannot rectify that a person can be two things at once, or, that she cant overcompensate for the difference bc look at what happened to sqq when she did that so she still loves him and closes her eyes to all his faults. he's kind to her.

this may be. my own bias but i like to think she blames lmy because everything was fine before she started hanging out with lbh and talking about how sqq killed her brother! maybe, if she hadn't convinced lbh that sqq hated him, lbh would have been a better disciple and sqq would never have tried to kill him and they could all be a happy family on qing jing peak. :)

and that's how nyy and lmy nasty hatefuck

uh addendum is how sqq gives lbh his view on women. that they're pitiable creatures who can't ever truly hurt him. by recreating the cycle that traumatised him, sqq also perpetuated his own view about the passivity of women, teaching lbh that. the way sqq never blamed qht for her complicity in his trauma, is the way lbh never blames a woman for hurting him and abusing him, instead folding them into his harem. lbh doesn't conceptualise women as real people, merely objects that have been acted upon by men and he should be the man who helps them. but that's a different essay i think?

[thegoldenavenger]

You heard of Shen Yuan fingering Liu Qingge's gills for 3k, now introducing Shen Jiu fisting Liu Qingge's gills for 7k. I'm not even sorry. It was not supposed to go there. Unbetad as always.

Cw: sexually explicit, dom/sub overtones, underdiscussed uhhh everything. Bad fantasy medical practices, what can be interpreted as aelf harm I guess. Also bugs and parasites. The whole thing is bugs and parasites. And gill play.

"You insipid little clownfish," Shen Qingqiu hisses between his fangs, "I knew you were acting suspicious."

Liu Qingge shuts his operculum down tight, suppressing his wince. He should have been far enough away from the main reef to avoid this confrontation, shadowed in a protective cup of coral and sunken debris to avoid prying eyes. Importantly, he'd swam this far away from Cang Qiong territory specifically to avoid other mers of his school.

"It's none of your business." He twists to face Shen Qingqiu properly, squaring his body to him. He debates on whether to drop the kelp in his hands or not: Shen Qingqiu has already seen so it's useless anyways, but having his inflamed gills showing under Shen Qingqiu's sharp gaze is not ideal.

"Yes," Shen Qingqiu gives a condescending laugh, "And what shall I tell Yue Qingyuan when he comes back to the reef to find a school full of sick, infected—"

"I'm isolating well enough I wouldn't—" Liu Qingge's fins flare on instinct and he snarls flashing his teeth when Shen Qingqiu is suddenly in his space, his serpentine body eating the distance between them in a burst of power.

"Wouldn't what?" The frilled fins around Shen Qingqiu's face are spread wide and angry, the inky cloud of his hair floats in the ambient current of the waters like a dark halo. Shen Qingqiu's tail is nearly twice as long as Liu Qingge is himself and it's coiled threateningly underneath them both.

His long, sinuous body is built for punishing ambush speeds and power. Being this close and compromised itches at Liu Qingge and he can't help the wary glare he throws across Shen Qingqiu's form. He doesn't move though, even if Shen Qingqiu grew a spine enough to attack him face to face, Liu Qingge can defeat him. Liu Qingge has never lost a fight with Shen Qingqiu, even when the eel does ambush him in the dark waters of the reef's night.

"Would never host a breeding pair of—" here Shen Qingqiu's cold eyes rake over the flushed edges of Liu Qingge's gill covers, "—flathead gill worms?"

"There's not a breeding pair!" Liu Qingge defends himself. For all his pride, he'd rather swim off the edge of the trench and sink into the black depths before opening his school up to such a risky situation. He'd managed to claw the other one out before the pair had burrowed deep enough into his gills that he couldn't get a good enough angle, and he'd delighted in shredding the thing. "I already removed one."

"Then you got the wrong one! This inflamed I should think the thing has already laid it's insidious spawn and you're just an ink sack waiting to burst on all of us."

Liu Qingge hisses again, under Shen Qingqiu's furious face, but he can't help the twist of shame in his gut pinning his fins against the edges of his face. "It's not that—I have been taking care of it!" Shen Qingqiu scoffs in disbelief and Liu Qingge raises his voice. "I have! I've been packing my gills to suffocate it out. That's why they're irritated."

When Shen Qingqiu doesn't reply he forces himself to take a cycle of water through the gills at his neck. Small as they are, it's not very satisfying and the drag of water puts a pressure on them they weren't necessarily built to handle on their own, but the worm had settled in his fourth gill, so this is what he has to work with.

"If it weren't gone by the time Yue Qingyuan returned I would have gone to Mu Qingfang."

Shen Qingqiu lashes his tail at that, angrily churning the water beneath them. He turns with it, swimming a short distance away before coming back in an agitated circle of movement. "How did you even pick them up, they're only in—"

Shen Qingqiu falls silent and Liu Qingge represses the urge to laugh. He bares his teeth in a half smile, half snarl instead. "The western ship wreck?" He says, like he's offering the information Shen Qingqiu might have forgotten. As if Shen Qingqiu had forgotten exactly where he'd assigned Liu Qingge to patrol the moment Yue Qingyuan and his entourage had left Cang Qiong's reef boundary.

If Liu Qingge had been able to go with the traditional three-pod team one of the others might have been able to spot the danger in Liu Qingge's blind spot while he'd been focused on fighting off the juvenile colossal squid. If not that, they'd have been able to grab the offending little worms before they'd gotten all the way under his operculum. Shen Qingqiu had held back no theatrics when he pressed that the school was just so short finned with Yue Qingyuan away.

"I truly have erred," Liu Qingge says, lofty. "Thanking Shen Qingqiu for correcting me, I should have reported to Mu Qingfang immediately. With Shen Qingqiu's permission I will correct that now."

He doesn't actually make a move, though the way Shen Qingqiu's tail twitches as if to block his way makes him grin, fangs glinting. Shen Qingqiu glares and pulls back from his threatening curl; message well enough recieved. If Liu Qingge had gone to Mu Qingfang, Mu Qingfang would have asked what Liu Qingge was doing in the shipwreck alone and Shen Qingqiu's abuse of power would have gotten back to Yue Qingyuan.

Yue Qingyuan wouldn't do anything drastic about it, of course, nothing more than a scolding at least. But Shen Qingqiu's thin face could barely handle that, it seemed.

"What are you using?" Shen Qingqiu asks, breaking the tense quiet between them.

"Salt." The thick kind from the dead basin, the saltwater so dense there you could cup it in your palm, so toxic that fish who swam unthinking through it fell dead before reaching a tail length in. It burns the delicate edges of skin around his claws let alone his gills, but diluted enough he would live through it and the worm wouldn't.

Shen Qingqiu moves in again, sharp, and Liu Qingge does jerk back this time, swirling a burst of bubbles between them with the fast movement of his tail.

"Let me look. Leaving salt burns is just as bad." He glares at Liu Qingge, his dark hair framing his face making the jet chips of his eyes seem bigger. The little shining crown of shells and scales he wears glitters.

"Hah," Liu Qingge scoffs, then pauses under Shen Qingqiu's sustained glare. "As if I'd let you so near!" he says, his arm automatically moving to shield his gills.

"Mm," Shen Qingqiu's eyes go half-lidded, condescending in their relaxation. "Of course, if the War God is afraid of this scholar I will be more than happy to let you rot here by yourself."

The worm takes that moment to wriggle, the hard edges of its segmented body clipping the thin filaments of his gills. He makes a face that must be interesting because Shen Qingqiu loses his perpetual sneer in favor of a calculating focus. Shen Qingqiu sweeps the coil of his dark tail behind Liu Qingge, the movement buffering them closer with the water displacement.

"Let me look." Shen Qingqiu demands again, voice even and cool.

He doesn't look concerned, nothing like the professional consideration Mu Qingfang displays when Liu Qingge swims up to him with another injury, and nothing at all like the gentle empathy Yue Qingyuan sometimes casts his way when he decides debriefing is more important than visiting the healing beds. But he also doesn't have the sneaky, scummy cast to his face that normally rests there.

Shen Qingqiu looks even keeled, composed. The model of a senior who can be turned to when someone more specialized isn't available. Shen Qingqiu has never been someone Liu Qingge particularly trusts, is not even at the bottom of his list of people he would let close to him for help, but Shen Qingqiu is part of Cang Qiong's school.

He lifts his arm away from his gills.

Shen Qingqiu comes closer slowly, the stalking movement not at all helping Liu Qingge's nerves, but he can at least acknowledge that something quicker would be worse. Shen Qingqiu first rests the pad of his fingers against the inflamed edge of Liu Qingge's gill flap, making a face at the grit of the salt sticking to them.  His fingers are cold against Liu Qingge's skin, even more so than the ambient temperature of the ocean.

It could be just Shen Qingqiu's nature, he does run cooler than most of the other reef mers, but Liu Qingge has traded enough wrestling blows with him to catch the difference. Liu Qingge is running hotter than normal, his innate defense against illnesses jacking up his core temperature. He hadn't noticed.

"Messy," Shen Qingqiu chides under his breath as he brushes the clinging granules of salt away from his gills. "Open up, let me see."

Liu Qingge swallows before relaxing his tense muscles, letting his gills open and cycle fresh water. The cloud of denser salt water he'd been holding in seeps out and falls between the two of them.  Shen Qingqiu makes a noise just this side of neutral.

He lets himself drift lower, Liu Qingge guesses to get a better look, sinking in a parallel to the salt water. Liu Qingge tracks his slow descent.

Shen Qingqiu stares, his tail coiled around them both, his hand framing the open gill slit. His hair billows in the water, the loose tie it is bound with doing nothing to keep it contained. The silky black cloud of hair obscures Liu Qingge's view, his eyes catching on the sparkling, vain crown decorating Shen Qingqiu's head, following the delicate waving hair, glancing along the dark patterned coils of Shen Qingqiu's tail.

He feels warmer, noticing these things. Not for the first time, but the first time in a long, long while. Since Yue Qingyuan first brought the eel to Cang Qiong, probably. Before Shen Qingqiu opened his mouth and spit venom enough to distract from his long, shiny hair and his smooth flank.

It'd been so easy, at first, to understand Yue Qingyuan's bias. Shen Qingqiu had hovered at Yue Qingyuan's side, a portrait of striking contrast, a study of shell white and ink black and jade. His fins had been—still are, where they are covered by layers of diaphanous billowing material—tattered but far from weak the angle he'd held them at fanned the frayed edges like a crown themselves.

A threat, an invitation.

Too bad his temperament turned out to be so rotten, then, lashing out at even Yue Qingyuan. Spitting vitriol against any percieved slight and clawing desperately in even the most benign of spars.

Shen Qingqiu taps his finger idly as he observes.

Liu Qingge can't see, but his hand must be covering most of his side; Shen Qingqiu's finger is so close to his third gill which carries the reminder of what letting Shen Qingqiu under his guard can do. 

"You've burned yourself already." Shen Qingqiu finally says. "You'll recover but less so the longer you keep filling yourself with this concentration of salt."

Liu Qingge huffs. "Any less and it won't work."

"It's almost as if salt baths aren't the recommended procedure any more for a reason."

"Do you want me to go to Mu Qingfang or not."

The grip on Liu Qingge's side tightens as Shen Qingqiu looks up and glares at him. There's the lightest of sneers on his face, annoyance at the question. The lift of his lip shows a wicked curved fang. His mouth is only a few handspans away from Liu Qingge's gills.

Likely, Shen Qingqiu won't bite him.

Liu Qingge has been bitten by those teeth before, the long, needle like fangs sharp and piercing. They're meant for gripping onto wriggling prey as he slinks back into hiding, afterall. Nothing at all like Liu Qingge's own set of teeth, knife like, for wounding and tearing.

Shen Qingqiu has even drawn blood from Liu Qingge's gills before, getting his venomous claws under his third gill flap and tearing. He can feel it like a phantom now: the cruel edge of nail slicing through the flesh at his side.

Shen Qingqiu tilts his head at whatever he sees in Liu Qingge's face, furrowing his brow by the smallest of degrees. Liu Qingge blinks.

"Brute." Shen Qingqiu spits, rolling his eyes. He sways away from Liu Qingge, that intimate hand span opening up between them.

Liu Qingge bristles, but without knowing what he'd done this time to set Shen Qingqiu off, refrains from returning the insult.

"Well?" He demands instead. "What has looking got you?" His tail lashes at the water and he crosses his arms. The cool water replacing Shen Qingqiu's body sends a shiver through him that he resolutely ignores. Shen Qingqiu needs to offer a solution or go away and let Liu Qingge take care of it. At this rate, Liu Qingge is going to be quarantined for an entire moon cycle, riding through the parasite shed and his budding fever.

Shen Qingqiu sways in the water, the disconetent mou on his face shading towards disgusted as he observes Liu Qingge. He wants to bristle under the weight of that stare; he knows that Shen Qingqiu is looking at him and dissatisfied with what he sees.

He isn't self conscious, nor particularly vain, but he supposes it's easy to be that way when everyone around finds you handsome enough. All the mer in the reef eyeing the length and shine of his tail don't affect him as much as Shen Qingqiu deliberately scanning him head to fluke and then finding him wanting.

Him!

As if Shen Qingqiu has anything to brag about! His hair is long and smooth, waving like kelp in the loosely bound style he prefers to make himself look larger, but that's because the vain man spends half his day preening and grooming like a flirting lionfish! The long, muscled form of his tail he keeps curled up unless threatened, the dappled patterned fading away into the reef's shadows. He distracts from his scars and torn fins with layers of gauzy material, woven and beaded netting, prized scales from trophy hunts, like he's ashamed of the proof of his survival.

Liu Qingge tilts his chin up, his facial fins spreading arrogantly, and meets Shen Qingqiu's gaze with his own glare.

Shen Qingqiu turns calculating.

"I'll remove it."

Liu Qingge's fins flare up all at once, his tail even curling in warning. "Hah?" The exclamation is more out of disbelief than anything else.

"Are you a guppy now? Do you need me to rephrase for your jellyfish brain?"

"If it's that bad I will just go to Mu Qingfang!" Mu Qingfang has only ever snapped his teeth in warning, never actually bitten Liu Qingge. Looking was one thing, Shen Qingqiu can't actually think Liu Qingge would let him—

"I'm sure Mu Qingfang will love you showing up with salt burns and a parasite days after you should have. Forget the healing beds, he'll seal you up in the sea dragon cave himself. At least I'll have some peace and quiet then."

Liu Qingge should call Shen Qingqiu's bluff.

Liu Qingge should have bent his head and gone to Mu Qingfang first thing, but getting caught unaware by worms of all things... well. He'd thought he could take care of it on his own, the puckering little scratches the squid had left on him more than enough to distract anyone from noticing anything else. Whatever embarrassment he'd felt then is compacted doubly so now,

Being sealed up in the Sea Dragon cave for quarantine and spiritual healing this late into everything meant he'd still be shut away when Yue Qingyuan returned. Shen Qingqiu shouldn't have withheld a proper pod formation from Liu Qingge, but the blame for this would rest squarely on Liu Qingge regardless. First of all, there's little guarantee he'd have even taken a pod in the first place. He likes patrolling alone. Second, it was his decision to hide his affliction and try to take care of it himself.

There's always the possibility the worms had a chance to spawn and he's a been a potential swimming vector for infection for as long as he's been back at the reef.

Shen Qingqiu hums, a patronizing little sound as Liu Qingge wilts under the guilt.

"You aren't going back to the reef until it's gone." Shen Qingqiu declares. "Either let me take it out now or wait for me to send Mu Qingfang here."

Liu Qingge's fins twitches. "Did it spawn?"

Shen Qingqiu draws out the silence before he responds, probably enjoying Liu Qingge's blanching face. He finally clicks his tongue. "I didn't see anything like that. Still, the risk is too high without being sure."

Liu Qingge fights his instinct to curl and instead straightens out the length of his body. "Fine." He grits out, turning his head to glare into the distance.

"Fine, what?"

He hisses and clenches his fist in affront. Like Shen Qingqiu doesn't know!

"Really, Liu Qingge expects me to assume and then get accused later of malicious intent?" Shen Qingqiu pitches his voice higher than normal, like he's explaining a complex problem to one of the fry he teaches. "I won't go near you unless you ask."

It's Liu Qingge's turn to flick his tail and vent his irritation by swimming in tight circle. Shen Qingqiu watches him cooly as he laps around again, and again. It doesn't do anything but make his gills itch more at the exertion.

He finally slows in front of Shen Qingqiu, who raises a thin eyebrow in an expectant arch.

"Fine! Shen Qingqiu! Help me get it out!" He demands in a burst of bubbles.

"Of course," Shen Qingqiu says, magnanimous. He stays still, though, and it's a long, awkward moment before Liu Qingge realises that he's waiting for Liu Qingge.

"You! I already said to help! Come here!" His face feels far too warm for this and he closes his eyes to block Shen Qingqiu's smug face from his vision.

With his eyes closed he feels it more keenly as Shen Qingqiu draws closer, the currents shifting with the bulk of his body. He tries bearing it for as long as he can, but flicks his eyes open when Shen Qingqiu gets within a tail length.

"Move," Shen Qingqiu abandons his wordier inclination when he finally gets close enough to touch. He bats at Liu Qingge's arm so that he lifts it away from his gills before holding his hand out lengthwise against Liu Qingge's side.

"What..." he says before trailing off, because with the dark flash of Shen Qingqiu's eyes Liu Qingge suddenly understands.

Measuring.

Shen Qingqiu's hands are not a significantly different size than Liu Qingge's own. In fact, they're more slender, the joints in them fine and well shaped. But held against him like this they look twice their actual size. When Shen Qingqiu stretches out his fingers, Liu Qingge's muscle flinches where they graze against his skin.

"Hold still," Shen Qingqiu orders, "And hold these wider." Liu Qingge does, struck with the thought of the spur at Shen Qingqiu's wrist catching on the lip of his operculum. He stretches the barrel of his chest, flexing open his gills to their limit, but furrows his brows as he watches the black claws of Shen Qingqiu's hand.

"Your venom," the words fall out of his mouth softer than he intends them to be.

"Mm." Shen Qingqiu looks at his claws.

It's his spurs that are venomous, not his claws or his fangs, but Shen Qingqiu habitually spreads the viscous oil along his nails and lips. It's an irritant at that level more than dangerous, but Liu Qingge isn't keen to have any more of Shen Qingqiu inside him than necessary.

Shen Qingqiu delicately brings his claws to his mouth and laps around the hardened black tips of them. Liu Qingge's own mouth drops open as Shen Qingqiu licks the venom from his nails, wiping them clean with flashes of surprisingly pink tongue. He watches as Shen Qingqiu swallows and studies his hand before he looks back up.

His sneer resettles when he sees Liu Qingge's face. "This? Really?" He asks, condescension dripping through his words.

"What." Liu Qingge bites back. He jerks his head, "Stop—" showing off? Liu Qingge ignores the buzzing heat under his skin, the fever no doubt clouding his brain, "Just get on with it."

"You were the one so concerned," Shen Qingqiu says, but he does slip his hand back to Liu Qingge's side. He sinks down so that he's eye level with Liu Qingge's open gill flaps, studying them with the same intensity as before. His splays one hand underneath Liu Qingge's bottom most gill, the other hand against his side, thumb resting against his third gill.

His hair again wafts around him, veiling Shen Qingqiu's sharp expression from Liu Qingge. He looks up and away, at the dancing lights up at surface.

"Hmm, what's this?" Shen Qingqiu's thumb has found the edge of the scar there, the one that should have healed clean but clotted because of Shen Qingqiu's poison. It is slim enough to be nearly invisible from an appropriate distance. Shen Qingqiu is not at an appropriate distance. Liu Qingge feels him slot the tip of his claw at the edge of the scar, feels him follow it down its path across Liu Qingge's skin to where it slips inside him.

"Shen Qingqiu!" He forces out between his grit teeth. He's holding himself so tense now that his tail is twitching with it. His hands flex where he has them raised, hovering over Shen Qingqiu's head. Shen Qingqiu doesn't even acknowledge him, just hooks his thumb under Liu Qingge's gill flap without preamble, making the same tugging motion he'd done to make the damn scar in the first place.

"Shen—" his words break off into a warning hiss as he jerks backwards. He pushes Shen Qingqiu automatically, one hand knocking at his face and the other at his shoulder to create distance.

"Don't move!" Shen Qingqiu orders, his tail curling ominous behind Liu Qingge's back, boxing him in, and his other hand digging in to hold on. His claws aren't especially gentle with it, five points pricking into Liu Qingge's skin enough to draw a bead of blood each. The thumb hooked under his gill flattens enough to avoid tearing at least, and Liu Qingge steadies himself.

As soon as he stops pushing Shen Qingqiu backs away, contrary as always. His lips are pulled back in a snarl and he fusses at the mess Liu Qingge had made of his hair.

"Brute," he condemns.

"Don't just stick your hand in!" Liu Qingge cries, full of offense.

"And how am I supposed to get that worm out without sticking my hand in?" Shen Qingqiu blows a frustrated stream of bubbles, a shockingly childish move for him.

Liu Qingge forces a cycle of water through his gills to calm down. This time able to draw in water from his neck and pass it down to flush out at his sides. He can feel the foreign parasite sway inside him with the water's movement. It scuttles. Liu Qingge bites his lip.

"I— Try again." He demands. "I won't move this time."

Shen Qingqiu scoffs and tosses his hair. "You're not worth this much trouble. Getting Mu Qingfang involved would be less tiresome."

That doesn’t—Liu Qingge does not feel any way about that. His stomach does not swoop. It's nothing different then Shen Qingqiu's usual shameless critiques, his hypocritical insults. Just because Liu Qingge is feverish and had let Shen Qingqiu get under his guard—

"You already said you'd help!" He works on not curling in on himself, instead shifting uncomfortably as his gills flex. The flathead gill worm—if that's what it was—seems to spread out as his gills relax to a natural position. Without its partner and with the repeated dosing of salt it's been acting more agitated, writhing through his gill structure in increasingly distracting ways.

"I said I wouldn't be accused of something malicious later. I'm not letting Yue Qingyuan or Mu Qingfang accuse me of ambushing you just because you can't stay still and get clawed up!"

"I'll tell them—"

"That I was only helping? You'd get us both checked for brain worms. You'd be better off letting them believe whatever they came up with, like you usually do."

He clenches his jaw as Shen Qingqiu's tail curls over itself, agitated and jumpy. Shen Qingqiu isn't wrong, if Liu Qingge jumped to his defense the entire reef would think he was posessed. In his defense, Shen Qingqiu is usually in the wrong and with Yue Qingyuan unwilling to put any pressure on him, Liu Qingge was one of the only ones who would call him out, for whatever little good that did.

"I won't move." He repeats instead.

"Tch." Shen Qingqiu turns his back.

But he stays, so be doesn't really want to leave Liu Qingge to Mu Qingfang's care. Or at least, he doesn't want to deal with the messy fallout that would cause more than he doesn't want to deal with Liu Qingge. Does he want to be coaxed? Liu Qingge is bad at negotiating.

He swims in a crescent around Shen Qingqiu so they face each other again. He can't think of anything to say except to repeat himself so he does again.

"Yes, you clearly did so well the first time."

"Then what do you want me to do?" He asks. "You'd just startled me. I won't be caught unprepared again."

"I'm not letting your hands anywhere near me." Shen Qingqiu says. Hippocritical, considering that Liu Qingge wasnt the one to scratch anyone, but this means Shen Qingqiu will try again. So Liu Qingge nods.

He raises his hands, but Shen Qingqiu shakes his head sharply. "No, behind your back."

"Fine." He hesitates though, before folding his dorsal fin down and clasping his arms behind him. Without the large fin catching the current he sinks in the water. His small anterior fins flap, useless in trying to tread the waters.

Before he can give up and break position to rebalance himself or sink much further, Shen Qingqiu curls his tail under Liu Qingge, stopping him.

"Better," Shen Qingqiu says, curling around him. Liu Qingge follows his movements as far as he can, before Shen Qingqiu slips behind him.

"Hey—"

"This is a better angle," Shen Qingqiu says, "And I don't trust you to keep your hands to yourself. Stay still."

Liu Qingge subsides as Shen Qingqiu hooks his chin over his shoulder. His tail loops around Liu Qingge, curling tight in a way uniquely suited to his eel body. The thick flex of muscle stabilizes him, but it also makes his heart beat faster, the threat of letting an ambush predator so close, to sneak up behind him, hanging palpable in the water.

Then Shen Qingqiu wraps his arms around Liu Qingge's sides, his fingers encouraging the gill flap to lift open more, holding it out just a bit further than it's supposed to go.

"Ah—" he cuts himself off, unsure of what he was going to say. Stop? Of course not, he needs that worm out even by Shen Qingqiu's hand. Be careful? Shen Qingqiu would either be careful or not, any platitude Liu Qingge gives is less than useless and more likely to turn Shen Qingqiu sharp.

"Quiet," Shen Qingqiu says anyways, "Don't distract me."

Liu Qingge focuses on being still and not the cool fan of water against his skin where Shen Qingqiu's gills work.

There's a pause and then, "Brace yourself, if you must." Before clever fingers slip under his inflamed operculum and slide two, three knuckles inside with a smooth motion. He flinches, reflex, but throttles any further motion. His hands clench into fists behind his back, something Shen Qingqiu can surely feel, plastered to him as he is.

Shen Qingqiu doesn't give Liu Qingge any more mercy than that first brief warning. He stretches his fingers, feeling the structure of the gills settled inside Liu Qingge, curling them to get a feel for the space. They're cold against the heated flush of his skin. He crooks his fingers through the fine filaments of Liu Qingge's gill structure and he itches, the prodding of Shen Qingqiu's fingers leaving a trail of hypersensitive tingling.

He twitches, his gill flaps trying to flinch closed. It's almost ticklish, the way Shen Qingqiu combs his claws through the thin strings of his gills. The hand Shen Qingqiu is using to hold him open pinches at him, and Shen Qingqiu makes a warning noise in his throat.

It vibrates through the water and settles somewhere in Liu Qingge's spine, and he stills.

"Sorry," he breathes and forces himself to pull his shoulders back. It draws him like a bow, arching so that his gills are forced to flare open a bit more. "I'm staying still."

At this, Shen Qingqiu stops his own movements, going eerily quiet and still behind him.

Liu Qingge belatedly remembers he'd been ask to be quiet and frowns. A questioning noise slips out from the back of his throat before he cuts himself off. When Shen Qingqiu still doesn't restart, he casts a  strained look out of the corner of his eye.

He can't see much, just his own chest and Shen Qingqiu's pale arms against him, and the ink black of Shen Qingqiu's hair unfurling around them.

He resists squirming.

Is he still doing something wrong? He can't be, Shen Qingqiu delights in correcting him with the most venomous of words at the smallest provocation. He wouldn't just let Liu Qingge flounder when he could instead verbally flay into him. He bites his lip, just to bleed off the unusual anxious energy and instead let's himself sink into his body the way he does before hunts.

He knows what he needs to do: stay still, be quiet. He's already let Shen Qingqiu this far, questioning it at this point is a little too late for use.

It's the correct choice because Shen Qingqiu starts moving again. He doesn't acknowledge Liu Qingge, which is right of him. He is focusing on something.

Shen Qingqiu pushes his hand deeper into Liu Qingge, until his fingers are fully sheathed in Liu Qingge's gill cavity. The meat of his palm stretches the mouth around it, and he knocks into the gill arches when he moves.  He isn't particularly gentle about it, caring little about Liu Qingge's comfort as he flexes and reaches further.

He spreads his fingers out, pushing the curved back of his claws into the inflamed walls of Liu Qingge's irritated cavity. It burns, both the stretch at Shen Qingqiu's palm and the insistent prod of his fingers. Liu Qingge draws water in, flushing it through his gills trying to cool the heated flesh. Instead the water streams around Shen Qingqiu's fingers, whirling into little eddies, curling back through his gills and tangling his filaments.

"Do that again," Shen Qingqiu says, voice cold. "Keep up a steady flow; it will encourage the worm out."

He does, gulping the water and pushing it through in repeated cycles, each new rush rippling inside of him, dashing off Shen Qingqiu's hand and tearing through the sensitive, fevered and salt burned flesh. His throat clicks with it, the feeling of churning inside him, like a basin being worn deeper with every tide. Shen Qingqiu grunts by his ear, an annoyed noise as he sharply jerks his fingers but catches nothing.

He pulls out in a swift long motion, leaving Liu Qingge feeling hollowed, scooped out in the wake of Shen Qingqiu's hand. He makes an involuntary noise as his gill flap tries to close. Shen Qingqiu keeps it held open, peeling it back even more.

"Ah—Shen—" he starts but Shen Qingqiu cuts him off.

"Brace, Liu Qingge. I need to reach deeper." His voice is still passive, aloof even. Liu Qingge feels almost dizzy, the influx of oxygen from the rapid cycling through his gills making him heady. He can feel, in a distant kind of way, the flathead worm curling inside him.  The lip of his gill feels puffy and tight, still burning from the salt water treatment and where it rubbed tight against Shen Qingqiu's hand.

Deeper? There couldn't be much room left in the space inside him.

Shen Qingqiu plunges his hand back between the splayed lips of Liu Qingge's gill slit catching again at the thickest part of his palm. It feels like he tries to flatten his hand out to narrow it, but his fingers knock hard into the gill arches inside, jostling straight through Liu Qingge, shuddering up his spine and sending a prickling tingle through his scalp.

His breath catches and he clacks his teeth, choking on a noise. He doesn't quite choke up on the full body flinch, jolting Shen Qingqiu against him again. The fat stretch of Shen Qingqiu's palm at his gill, Shen Qingqiu's fingers twitching in surprise at his sudden movement, the uncomfortable sway of the worm deeper inside him, Liu Qingge jerks, caught on the hook of Shen Qingqiu's hand.

His body slips out of his control, wriggling to pull away, the overwhelming glut of sensation inside him shoving him out of his senses. He thinks he's making noise—embarrassing to be be whining so close to Shen Qingqiu—but he's barely cognizant of it as he flicks his tail and tries to spread his fins.

Weight envelops him, almost suffocating, as he writhes and jerks. He'd closed his eyes at some point in his tossing, trying to cut off at least one overwhelmed sense.  Gradually the weight increases and he becomes aware of his heaving gills, struggling to keep up with his breath. He swallows, deliberately slows his breathing, let's his awareness rise back up.

The weight is Shen Qingqiu bearing down on him in all ways: his arms locked tight, his tail coiled in several loops, his chin digging into Liu Qingge's shoulder. His hand is curled into a tight fist, stretching Liu Qingge's gill painfully. But his claws are tucked neatly away from Liu Qingge's delicate viscera.

His heart still pounds but he can hear a rattling growl over it. Beside him. The deep rumble from Shen Qingqiu's chest is mostly vibration in the water, with just enough sibilant hiss to prick at Liu Qingge's skin.

"You'll stay still, will you?"

Something plunges to the pit of Liu Qingge's stomach at Shen Qingqiu's tone. "I—"

"You can't stay quiet, either?" Liu Qinnge snaps his jaw shut hard enough the clack is audible in the water.

Liu Qingge isn't a fresh faced fry, to quail under Shen Qingqiu's disappointment, but it chokes him anyway. Shen Qingqiu's fist tight against his opening and the suffocating press of his tail coiled around him have Liu Qingge desperate. What for he isn't quite sure but it has him biting his tongue.

He leans back in Shen Qingqiu's grip, displaying the long line of his neck by dropping his head against Shen Qingqiu's shoulder. It's to accomodate the backwards arch he needs to flex open his gills just that bit more, lacking the privilege to use his hands to pry himself open more effectively. Failing to stay still or keep quiet, the least he can offer is stretching himself out and open for Shen Qingqiu. To make it easy for him.

He strains as he tenses his operculum, holding it splayed and curled open. He leverages himself against the loop of Shen Qingqiu's tail, even, to push the barrel of his torso up into Shen Qingqiu's hand.

He stays resolutely quiet.

Shen Qingqiu stops growling at least.

He turns his face towards the column of Liu Qingge's throat, nose brushing against his facial fin. It's an awkward position, but Liu Qingge tries shifting it out of Shen Qingqiu's way, holding it pinned back and lifted.

There's absolutely no reason to give Shen Qingqiu this much leave, this close to his neck. The worm won't migrate to the smaller gill cavity there and letting Shen Qingqiu so close is an actively bad idea.

Liu Qingge tilts his head anyways.

If Shen Qingqiu bites it's the least admonishment he'd deserve.

Shen Qingqiu clicks his tongue, hooking his chin back over Liu Qingge's shoulder.  He uncurls the fist he'd made, pressing inexorably forward. Then he rocks his hand back, letting Liu Qingge's gill tug with the motion. He keeps his fingers lax and his wrist stiff as he pushes and pulls his hand like waves lapping at the shoreline. With each withdrawal Liu Qingge feels his gill stretching a little more, and with each press in, Shen Qingqiu's hand advances.

Liu Qingge bows back more, trying to help, trying to ease the pressure of Shen Qingqiu plugging him so full, when finally something gives and Shen Qingqiu's hand slips past the ring of Liu Qingge's gill, burying itself fully inside Liu Qingge's thoracic cage.

Liu Qingge gasps.

Each breath feels shorted now, trying to work past the mass of Shen Qingqiu's hand. He recalls Shen Qingqiu telling him to brace. Deeper? Still? Any deeper and Shen Qingqiu will be reaching into his throat. Any deeper and he will be holding Liu Qingge's rapidly beating heart in his palm.

His hand is so big. And cool: a block of ice inside him, right at his core. His hand is intrusive, making the gill arches bend to accomdate it's heavy presence. His nails are so sharp, Liu Qingge can almost feel them tickling at the individual lamellae lining each filament. Evened bent as far back as he is, his operculum half shutters, tensing against Shen Qingqiu's blessedly slim wrist. It reminds him of the spur there, at the joint.

Sharp and actually dangerous, in the real way Shen Qingqiu's threat displays often lack, the venomous spine at his wrist rubs at Liu Qingge's skin. Shen Qingqiu really can't go any further or he'll tear Liu Qingge on the way out.

"What now?" Shen Qingqiu asks, and Liu Qingge realises he's made a noise so indescribable he is just going to forget that it came out of him.

He doubts Shen Qingqiu actually wants an answer, and even if he does, Liu Qingge is not going to attempt to articulate the thoughts swimming in his head. He doesn't even understand fully himself. It's just the cool threat of Shen Qingqiu, his teeth so close to his neck, the venom so close to his gills, the long coil of his tail wrapped tight around him.

Shen Qingqiu doesn't push for an answer. No longer needing to hold Liu Qingge open, his free hand hooks around Liu Qingge's collar. Some tension eases out of Liu Qingge. Shen Qingqiu can pull him back, now, if he untenses from his bowed posture.

"Cycle again," Shen Qingqiu commands.

Liu Qingge does so, switching from passively letting water through his gills to sucking it down and forcing it through his system. It feels like breathing around a rock. He does it again.

Shen Qingqiu hums lightly as the water buffets against his hand. It is settled in the open cavity of Liu Qingge's gills like it's made a home there. Like Shen Qingqiu has remolded the very shape of Liu Qingge to fit inside of him. Shen Qingqiu doesn't move his hand, not even a twitch, and at once Liu Qingge is grateful and longing.

If Shen Qingqiu had kept rocking his hand in that rhythmic undulation he'd used to get inside, surely Liu Qingge wouldn't have been able to withstand it. Even the water rushing through his gills teeters on the edge of too much. It would surely feels as though Shen Qingqiu were punching through him. But his tail tenses and relaxes in an echo of that same rhythm, held tight as it is by Shen Qingqiu.

It presses his scales against the smoothe hide of Shen Qingqiu's porous skin. It is almost the same motion as breathing, an imitation of the swelling waves. A heartbeat, between them.

"If you come," Shen Qingqiu says, startling Liu Qingge, "Do not come on me."

His voice is as cool and distant as ever, the perpetual shade of disgust veneering it. Liu Qingge lifts his head to glance down, sees Shen Qingqiu buried to his wrist inside him, and groans, closing his eyes. Shen Qingqiu scoffs at him.

His arm slides away from Liu Qingge's neck, slipping down the length of his body, past his chest, past his gills, down below—

Liu Qingge opens his eyes and jerks his head down sharply.  His claspers are embarrassingly engorged, standing out of the hollow channel they usually rest in. Even the v-shaped slit between his pelvic fins has slid open, winking as he trembles.

Shen Qingqiu's free hand slides right over his slit, his palm catching on its lip enough to make Liu Qingge groan, strangled. Shen Qingqiu grabs the elegantly tapered columns of Liu Qingge's claspers and folds them back along Liu Qingge's body into the hollow they belong. The pressure and slide as Shen Qingqiu tries to fit them flat back against his body has Liu Qingge's vision hazing and his mouth dropping open. He manages a weak twist before Shen Qingqiu's teeth snap at his facial fin.

"No," he says, simply, and Liu Qingge stops again.

Shen Qingqiu holds Liu Qingge's claspers back down and slides the coils of his tail up in a sinuous motion. He slips his hand away, but Liu Qingge is held bound tightly by Shen Qingqiu's thickly muscled tail.

Liu Qingge thinks, if he comes like this there is no way he isn't getting it on Shen Qingqiu.

Liu Qingge focuses on staying as still as he can, but he can feel Shen Qingqiu's pulse through the soft skin of his tail against his own throbbing arousal. Shen Qingqiu keeps shifting as well: a soft flutter of his body length fins to keep them steady, the clench of his muscles to keep his tail wrapped securely around Liu Qingge. It's a different kind of pulsing rhythm, one much more familiar to Liu Qingge's body. It makes his teeth ache.

He wants so much.

He flushes a new cycle of water forcefully through his gill system. Shen Qingqiu had not told him to stop.

Then Shen Qingqiu moves so sharply it really does feel like Liu Qingge is being speared straight through. It punches the voice out of him, leaving him warbling a long, wrecked note as Shen Qingqiu thrusts his hand what can't be more than a knuckles length but feels like the entirety of his arm.

He feels a flood of thick liquid inside of him, a sudden burst of molten heat against the sensitive lining of his gills. Shen Qingqiu's hand is fisted again, grasped tightly around something.

"Ah—" Liu Qingge tries clamping his mouth shut, but the noises escape even through his teeth. Shen Qingqiu has certainly speared something on his sharp claws, but the parasite's writhing death throws only twist itself against Liu Qingge's gills, jolting him with each frantic roll.

"Ah— uhn—" each little noise gets dragged out of him as it's rough carapace catches inside of him. He can't even tell if it's tearing at him, he's so tensed and stretched tight. He eyes sting with heat, the second lid shut tight as he convulsed, scaling up the tiny dying movements inside of him.

"Not a flathead," Shen Qingqiu observes as its twitching gentles. "Lucky. I don't think you could hold still for me to pull it from you slow enough that it didn't break."

There's a moment that Liu Qingge is actually there, with a flathead worm wrapped around Shen Qingqiu's fingers, being drawn segment by segment, achingly slow, from between Liu Qingge's gills. Flatheads tangled themselves in the filaments as well, each fingerwidth hard-won with the tearing pain of separating the worm from his viscera. Trembling to keep holding still, to keep from clamping down tight and snapping the worm. Having to do it all again, the fingers, the stretch, the fist, if he failed.

The very visceral feeling of Shen Qingqiu pulling his hand out of Liu Qingge's gill mouth snaps his attention back. He watches as Shen Qingqiu's wrist withdraws, his fist catching again at the lip of his gill. He can't possibly pull out like that, Liu Qingge thinks, not with how much it took to get it in there. But Shen Qingqiu can't let1 go of the worm either—

Shen Qingqiu's fist tugs at the raw edge of Liu Qingge's gill, stuck and pulling. Tighter and tighter it draws at Liu Qingge, until it feels like Shen Qingqiu is trying to remove his entire thoracic cage with the worm. It so much, pressure, pain, over sensitive fleshed being rubbed, that he's about to make a protest when Shen Qingqiu's needle sharp teeth ghost along his neck.

He gasps, hoarse and raw, and his gill opens just enough with the surprise that Shen Qingqiu's fist pops out. A flood of red murky water follows, presumably from the limp segmented worm in Shen Qingqiu's grip.

It looks, in almost every possible way, like Shen Qingqiu gutted him.

"It's just a rainbow feathered worm." Shen Qingqiu says, holding the long thin body in front of them. Not a gill parasite then, no danger at all to the reef just Liu Qingge's gills.

Liu Qingge watches, dazed, as Shen Qingqiu snaps it between his teeth with an audible crunch.

[thegoldenavenger]

until into your gentle hand i lie

Liu Qingge is a mermaid at Shen Yuan's research center, and Shen Yuan keeps looking at him.

He had not been prepared for the way Shen Yuan’s gaze pierces him as easily as fang, straight to the core of him. There are moments Shen Yuan looks at him like he wants to devour him, like all Liu Qingge is can be splayed out and documented, recorded in the scratching taps of Shen Yuan’s pen. Shen Yuan looks at Liu Qingge like he wants to cut him open and reach inside him just to feel the way Liu Qingge’s muscles are shaped, how his skeleton is articulated. If it wouldn’t kill him, he’s sure Shen Yuan would do just that. If it wouldn’t kill him, Liu Qingge thinks he’d let him.

was encouraged to put the gill fics onto ao3!! here's the first part. part two will happen sometime soon, hopefully tomorrow~

[thegoldenavenger]

Very Quick AU, I've used before and will use again:

Soul Marks that move around and can, with a trusted friend, transfer between people! Maybe for cultivators, when you get to a high enough level of cultivation your soul mark can separate from your body for periods of time!

Shen Qingqiu's soulmark is a miniature sized crane about the size of a cat or so, that mostly stays hidden underneath his robes. Occasionally it will peak out of his collars and glare. When Yue Qingyuan would reach for his hand, it would snap at his fingers! (Post transmigration, all that is left of the crane are some feathers. Shen Yuan thinks sqq has some weirdly symbolic tattoos for a hot minute)

Luo Binghe's soul mark is a cacoon that looks like a tightly closed lotus blossom. It's located over his heart. In PIDW it hatched in the Abyss into, like, a black demon butterfly or something, that he showed off to girls to woo them. In SVSSS sqq accidentally stabs the cacoon and it doesn't hatch.

Liu Qingge's is a hummingbird: quick, pretty and aggressive. It flies over his knuckles, his collarbone, often hovers at his cheek and temple to look around. It's always been daring, and often as a disciple Liu Qingge would have to chase down the shixiongs he'd defeated that day to find it because it would flit over to them through his blows in its enthusiasm. It's a bit more restrained as a Peak Lord's soul mark (or perhaps he touches less people as a Peak Lord) but as his cultivation grew it did develop a nasty habit of landing on the monsters or demons he is fighting to drop a devastating spiritual blast upon it before returning to Liu Qingge.

I would say that this is PRIME fodder for the five years bingliu where Liu Qingge's hummingbird keeps trying to attack Luo Binghe and getting stranded on the demon lord when Liu Qingge is defeated. It would be so pissy about it too, always zipping all over Luo Binghe's body, especially his face and eyes to annoy him. Enough so that Luo Binghe would try and rip off his own skin to remove it (it's too fast, and binghe isn't willing to take a dip in an acid lake to remove it. Again.)

It would eventually find binghe's torn cacoon and start bothering it, eventually nesting in it. In thr process, it would help complete the cut Shen Qingqiu started, which scarred badly, and tear it all the way open, freeing the trapped butterfly within.

It would be cute! But it won't happen at all because while Liu Qingge was clearing Shen Qingqiu's meridians, his humming bird became very comfortable living on Shen Qingqiu's skin instead. Because it could leave skin for short bursts, Liu Qingge often left it with Shen Qingqiu deliberately so it could either return to him as an SOS message or try and defend Shen Qingqiu with a qi blast.

So! When Binghe and Shen Qingqiu reunite, it definitely tried to attack Luo Binghe, but Shen Qingqiu talked it down. It stayed with Shen Qingqiu instead of fleeing to call Liu Qingge because it was worried. Smash cut to Shen Qingqiu's self demolition with Liu Qingge's hummingbird still on his skin. :)

[thegoldenavenger]

Fusion au in a series of vignettes. Non beta'd and it's 4am so I'm very sorry for any mistakes. Cw for relatively brief shen jiu related backstory. This is Bingqiu with Word Of God (me, I'm god) bingliushen intended endgame thought it ends before it gets there.

Standing at the edge of the rift, Shen Qingqiu wields Xiu Ya against his beloved disciple while the System flashes red at him.  The countdown blares like a siren in his head, a dual layer alarm in four-four time. It buzzes in his chest alongside his heartbeat and his hand sweats around his sword's grip.

Luo Binghe's starry eyes are wet with tears, his face red and twisted in fear and confusion and grief.

Shen Qingqiu is about to wave his sword when Luo Binghe reaches out to him. Luo Binghe's palm slides against the blade of Xiu Ya, blood spilling into the open air.  The System whines, counterpoint to its own buzzing bass, as the seconds dwindle. 

"Shizun?" Luo Binghe has followed his momentum and his hand now grips Shen Qingqiu's sleeve, shaky and pale.

Shen Qingqiu needs to push him down.

The timer hits zero, the whaling in his ears hits its peak, Luo Binghe's sniffling face fills his vision. And then he trips. It's so simple. He trips and the tip of Xiu Ya pierces Luo Binghe's chest when his disciple automatically moves to catch him. He lets go of his sword, startled, and Luo Binghe catches his hand. The System fades into a continuous ringing as his weight falls entirely into Luo Binghe's hold and his disciple through tears and pain, takes one step back to support him.

It looks like a dip.

It feels like a dip, Luo Binghe timed perfectly the the System's whining and Shen Qingqiu's own heartbeat.

A flare of qi rises around them and he feels untethered from his own body once more.  Everything fades away except for the light and Luo Binghe's startled face. Shen Qingqiu's soul floats and he goes from looking at the star-lit depths of his disciples eyes (he goes from staring up at their jet-dark coolness) to blinking, disoriented, as the System-induced headache (the hot pulse of pain in his hand and chest) fade away, and the light flares and softens the edges of reality.

He doesn't remember dying, but he feels soul-deep like this is familiar. It's not painful though, not like the seal breaking, wouldn't dying be painful? No, he dismisses the thought, dying doesn't have to be painful. Most things aren't painful, as they're happening actually.

He can accept that, but this still isn't dying. He feels full, overflowing, but alive. Because the seal is broken? Or because his body has been—oh the seal. That rift. The Sy— the fall.

But there's no one standing by the rift's edge except for him. Is he too late? Did he already push him (did he already fall)? He's not dead so that must mean he went through with it (that must mean he stopped).

Where's Binghe? (Where's Shizun?)

He should ask what's going on (he already knows) but when he glances to his peripheral nothing stands out to him.  He raises his hand in an instinctual gesture to summon something but he's distracted by the pink-line on his palm.

It's where Xiu Ya cut him. Them? Him.

Oh. They fused.

They fused!

Oh no, they fused!

A flash of light and their souls rip apart, Shen Qingqiu flinging himself backwards and away from Luo Binghe. Him? Fuse with the protagonist? As if pushing the boy into the Abyss wasn't enough now he's gone and mixed his soul up with Binghe's when even the original Stallion Protagonist had never done that particular dance with anyone.

As if Luo Binghe needs any more reason to peel Shen Qingqiu's limbs from him! Wasn't he the one who speculated about the intimacy of fusing and fusion dances in the forums?! Didn't he say that Luo Binghe refusing to fuse with even any of his many wives symbolized a deep chasm of mistrust and justified fear of vulnerability?

Didn't the forums go ballistic when the Original Scum Villain's scummier past was revealed where that Qiu Haitang sister accused him of force fusing with her brother and using the power to wipe out their entire manor? Did that make him as bad as the original goods?

The moment their souls separate back into two distinct bodies the system's red warning screen comes back to life in the corner of Shen Qingqiu's vision. He's not terribly concerned about that because, after everything, Shen Qingqiu jerking out of Luo Binghe's hold is what sends the boy stumbling off the edge of the rift.

"Shizun!"

"Binghe—" Shen Qingqiu forgets himself and flings himself forward, land on his hands and knees to look into the rift's opening. His hand is outstretched, as if he can do anything in this moment other than watch as Luo Binghe falls.

When Liu Qingge and Yue Qingyuan find him he's still kneeling where the rift pulled itself closed.

----

Yue Qi is the oldest of the kids and the strongest, but he never really feels strong.  Not when Xiao Jiu goes to bed hungry more often then not. Not when Yue Qi gets sick, and Xiao Jiu has to work even harder to cover for both of them.

There is something that does make Yue Qi feel strong, though. Oh, he knows they're not supposed to do it, just like practicing making dancing lights or Xiao Jiu's sharp-tricks. He can't find it in himself to discourage it all too much though.

When he and Xiao Jiu dance together they become closer than anyone could even dream. Together, as one being in mind, spirit, and body, they are strong. Xiao Jiu has always been the one to shore up Yue Qi's weakness but like this it feels as though they have no weaknesses at all.

Where Yue Qi is too trusting, placid, ox-strong and (Xiao Jiu says) too stupid to live, and Xiao Jiu is suspicious, mischievous, cutting and mercurial as one being they are balanced. They are even-keeled, clever, optimistic but not naive.  They're beautiful as well, in their own opinion. Longer, deep hair and pale skin with Xiao Jiu's sharp eyes and Yue Qi's friendly smile.  They also have Yue Qi's eyes, set above Xiao Jiu's, and another set of arms.

If anyone saw them they'd be called a demon and even together they aren't strong enough to fight or fast enough to run...

So they don't stay fused for long.  It's not smart to be caught looking like a demonic freak (Xiao Jiu says) and Yue Qi isn't strong enough to protect them. Not yet. He thinks, if he gets better in his own body, then surely someday they'll be strong enough to run away together.

Someday they can run away together and maybe they can find a place no one will bother them even if they stay fused together. Yue Qi thinks he'd like that; together as one with Xiao Jiu forever.

----

"You know, fusing isn't actually a metaphor for sex." Shang Qinghua says to his black-powder fan, who cracks his fan open in front of his face.

"Everything you wrote was a metaphor for sex."

"Okay!" He says, because. Well. It's not like Cucumber-Bro is wrong. "It's not just a metaphor for sex. If it was just sex, my son would've been fusing with every new sister in his harem. You think I didn't see how many requests I got to write what a Sha Hauling and Luo Binghe fusion would be like?"

"But fusing represents the more vulnerable aspects of sex!  That's why—" Cucumber-Bro starts to say before Shang Qinghua interrupts him.

"It's a metaphor for relationships! Intimacy in relationships!"

"—Ah?" Cucumber-bro shuts his mouth and taps his fan against his lips.

"It can be any type of relationship, not just a sexual or romantic one.  It's just meant to represent vulnerability between individuals expressed in a tangible way and..." Shang Qinghua trails off when he notices Cucumber-bro's eyes narrowing at him.

"Great Master Airplane," he starts, "you never added any of that into your story."

"It was subtext?" He tries.

"I think you just wanted to write a knock off dragon ball gimmick so you had cool villains for Binghe to fight!"

"Well! It's not like anyone wanted to pay for a meta narrative focused on cannon fodder!"

"Why did you abandon all your best ideas!?" Cucumber-Bro wails, throwing his fan at Shang Qinghua's head.

Shang Qinghua catches it this time and grins triumphantly at his friend. Shen Qingqiu makes a frankly hilarious face and dives fist first at Shang Qinghua. 

"Give that back—let me—it's absolutely my right to hit you for every cool plot you abandoned, you hack!"

"No! I saw you in the comments! You think fusing is cool, that means you can't hit me over this one!"

"Can't I?" Shen Qingqiu grapples over the fan with Shang Qinghua.

Their palms slide together and Shang Qinghua laughs, because Cucumber's face looks exceedingly out of character: flushed red and comically angry.  "You can't if you can't catch me!" He sing-songs and tries to slip away.

Shen Qingqiu quickly flips his grip to hold Shang Qinghua's wrist, jerking him closer.  Shang Qinghua reflexively rests his hand on Shen Qingqiu's chest, and when he tries to grab at the fan again Shang Qinghua dances away, spinning out from where Shen Qingqiu still holds his wrist.

He laughs, buoyed with the momentum and when he opens his eyes he sees the fan in his hand.

"Got it!" He says.

His voice sounds different. In fact, his hand also looks different.

Oh, we fused. He—they—think.

A slick curl of nausea rises from the pit of their stomach while the rest of them sparks in confusion.

Nonsensically, their last thought is I'm not even gay? before the fusion destabilizes and Shang Qinghua is stumbling backwards, unbalanced.

Shen Qingqiu looks pale. He's holding the fan, and half his robes are in An Ding colors now. "I—" he says, then takes a step backwards. "I didn't mean to—Sorry."

Then he's gone, fan no doubt in front of his face as he glides out the door. Shang Qinghua finds himself sitting on the floor, blinking in confusion.

He plucks at the collar of his robe, Qing Jing teal.

----

The Abyss is hell. Every day longer that Luo Binghe spends in it is another flood of blood and filth staining him.  It's too late to salvage the bits of Shizun's robes that were mixed together with his after their fusion... separated.  His disciple uniform and Shizun's robes were of similar quality and color so he hadn't even noticed the different embroidery and slight differences in cut until he'd been forced to tear at his clothes for strips.

It's pointless to try and save the pieces of Shizun's wardrobe he found himself carrying but he tries to anyway. If only because each time he sees them he's reminded that Shizun walked away from their fusion wearing the matching pieces from his uniform.

He doesn't know if that means much to Shizun right now. It's possible Shizun had taken the first moment he could to scour every sign of Luo Binghe from his Peak.  Could Luo Binghe even blame him, concealing his heritage from him and hiding in a righteous sect right under their noses.

Shen Qingqiu had tried to push him into the abyss.

But he hadn't, actually, pushed him.  He'd reached out.

They'd fused.

It was confusing, a jumbling mess, but however disoriented and brief they were one in mind and soul.  Luo Binghe had felt, then, the desperate need to know what had happened to his Important Person. It got muddied with Luo Binghe's feelings for his Shizun, he knows, but he remembers feeling fearful, anxious, frustrated.

He remembers feeling like he wouldn't do this, if he had a choice.

For all Luo Binghe knows, Shizun just regretted that his favorite disciple was an irredeemable demon. He was scared, because Luo Binghe was revealed to be a demon, he was anxious because of what that could mean for the sect. Frustrated because Luo Binghe was making things difficult.

But couldn't it also be that Shizun was fearful for Luo Binghe? He was anxious about their fates, frustration coming from the situation? That Shizun didn't want to push Luo Binghe, but felt he had to?

Maybe Luo Binghe can show Shizun that he is more righteous cultivator than he is demon. He'll settle things in the demon realm, learn to conceal his blood, and then when he makes it back to the human realm he'll prove to Shizun that he's good.

It's a slim hope to stake himself on, but Luo Binghe has never given up once yet. He is not about to start.

He forces himself up the obsidian-black stairs to the raised dias in the center of a bone covered field. A sword stands upright in front of him, black and sharp and heavy with intent. His hand itches.

He just needs to get out of the abyss first, and then he'll prove everything to Shizun.

----

Shen Jiu tries to gasp for breath under Qiu Jianluo's hand. He kicks his legs to no avail. Qiu Jianluo just tightens his grip.

"Come on, Xiao Jiu." Shen Jiu has to focus to hear him through the whooshing noise of his own blood in his ears. "Just fuse with me already."

Shen Jiu wants to lick the blood off his split lip and spit in Qiu Jianluo's face.  He wants to claw the man's eyes out.  But across the manor is his new fiancé, sitting in her room with her maids taking down her hair and getting her bed ready for the night.

He's realizing now, after three years, that he absolutely cannot wait any longer.  If Qi-Ge was going to make it back he would have by now, and if Shen Jiu let's himself be married to Qiu Haitang he won't ever be seeing himself leave the Qiu house at all.

He swallows, can't speak past Qiu Jianluo's hand, and tries nodding instead.

"Oh? Have you decided to stop with your tantrum already?"

Shen Jiu could cough blood, he's so mad. He makes himself nod.

Qiu Jianluo pulls back his hand. "Well?" He asks, expectant.

"Fine."

Shen Jiu still remembers what it felt like to fuse with Qi-Ge, years ago now. Even then, with the person he trusted most in this or any other life, he'd felt too much. Too big and to small for his skin. They'd looked like a demon and he knew it was his fault, always needing to look at things for himself, never trusting anyone else's hands but his own. Still, the paranoia softened when he was fused. It gentled into a tame thing that cautioned and warned but never consumed.

Shen Jiu often slept curled up next to Qi-Ge, hand clenched in Qi-Ge's clothes—the better to wake up if something happened to the guileless fool—but sometimes Qi-Ge would shift closer and hug him in their sleep.  Fusing with him felt like being wrapped in that hug.

Shen Jiu was never really conscious, when they fused. When they separated he remembered what they did, what they were thinking, but it wasn't entirely him and it wasn't entirely Qi-Ge. It was them. Together.

Shen Jiu had no intention of knowing what together felt like with Qiu Jianluo.

He could bring his suspicious eyes, and his distrustful hands into something as soft and warm as his fusion with Qi-Ge and they were stronger for it. He's positive, with his experience and his rage fueling him, he can bring his whole mind into whatever paltry form Qiu Jianluo thinks they can take.

When he opens his eyes, taller and stronger, with Qiu Jianluo nowhere in sight, he knows he's right.

The manor burns, and so does every man in that house. Qiu Jianluo does, too, once Shen Jiu lets the fusion go. Not before Shen Jiu pushes him onto his own sword.

(Not before Qiu Haitang sees them—him—hulking and monstrous, as he pulls her out of the burning wreck.)

----

"It's be faster if we fused."

"Are you saying you can't handle it by yourself, shidi?"

Shen Qingqiu's fan waves softly in front of his face.

"I can handle it."

"Of course you can. There's no need to put ourselves out."

Liu Qingge huffs out a breath, mad at himself. His own pride won't let him pretend weakness he doesn't have, so he can't claim to need to fuse. Shen Qingqiu must have been counting on that.

He isn't lying though, it would be faster to fuse. All of Shen Qingqiu's knowledge and cool diplomacy combined with Liu Qingge's might. The den of succubus would stand no chance. They would be in and out before the evening wore down, he's sure.

Just like he's sure that fusion would have streamlined the last handful of missions they've been on together.  For sure, if they'd been fused while facing that Dancing Crystalline Boar Shen Qingqiu's third favorite fan would still be with them.

No matter what Liu Qingge tries, Shen Qingqiu dodges every attempt he makes to ask his shixiong to fuse.  Literally dodging in some cases.  When Liu Qingge suggested they practice fighting fused as part of their sparring sessions, the man had nearly barrell rolled off the mountain.

If his younger self could see him now... he remembers a time he was furious at the prospect of having to fuse with Shen Qingqiu.  He and his Shixiong's relationship was, thankfully, so vitriolic none of their Shizun's attempts towards improving their Sect Sibling relationship ever came close to bearing fruit. Yes, ideally all the Peak Lords would be able to fuse in case needs arose, but Liu Qingge didn't have a problem fusing with any of the other Peak Lords. It was just Shen Qingqiu, the murderous bastard.

That Shen Qingqiu would then save his life... and with a partial fusion even.

He can't remember even most of what happened while he was dying in the Ling Xi caves. What he does recall is hazy with the after effects of qi deviation and confusion.  He holds onto what he remembers with two hands though.

A soft, cooling light and nervous almost bemused thoughts. They couldn't have done a fusion dance, or even any of the ritual martial forms for fusing. He can't imagine with how badly he'd been qi deviating, that he had the coordination or intent to do so.

Still, somehow his soul had called out and Shen Qingqiu's soul had answered. They hadn't fused but they'd mingled well enough in each other that Liu Qingge was pulled out of his qi deviation.

The Shen Qingqiu that Liu Qingge had known—had thought he'd known—up until that point would have sooner killed Liu Qingge himself than open himself up to fusion. At least, that's what Liu Qingge thought.

He'd been wrong.

Oh, he didn't know it at first. He'd wasted his first attempt to fuse with Shen Qingqiu because he wanted the fast and easy way to determine exactly how Shen Qingqiu was planning on playing him. Because Shen Qingqiu must have an angle, and fusing would force him to expose it.

Well, they never fused, but Liu Qingge still realised Shen Qingqiu didn't have an angle. He was just, changed.

Shen Qingqiu hides a smile behind his fan as they approach the Sucubus cave, eyes flashing merrily at Liu Qingge as he says a final joking sentence.

Liu Qingge had once been faced with the prospect of fusing with Shen Qingqiu for duty. Then, because he was dying. Then, as an effort to force the man to be honest for once.

Now, Liu Qingge wants to, with Shen Qingqiu, for no other reason than simply because he, well. He wants to. He wants to be closer to Shen Qingqiu, he wants to show how much he's grown to trust his Shixiong. He wants his Shixiong to trust him.

He thinks they'd be good together. Strong, obviously. But also smart, and quick, clever. Liu Qingge isn't stupid, whatever anyone says, and he doesn't do himself the disservice as to discount his own strengths, but he wants to know what it's like in Shen Qingqiu's head. What it's like to be able to call up words like water from a pitcher, what it's like to be able to smile warmly and speak cleverly.

He wants to share with Shen Qingqiu his side as well. Wants him to feel the power and constancy of Liu Qingge's own strength and will. 

Shen Qingqiu gestures at him, his fan firmly in place between himself and the rest of the world as he steps into the cave.

Liu Qingge, as ever, follows.

----

It happens so quickly, neither of them have a chance to realise it.

It's not a dance, but the honed tempo of two martial gods coming to the same blows day after day after day.

They're just. In synch. Mind, body, souls.

Liu Qingge snarls something about desecration and disrespect.

Luo Binghe sneers something condescending back.

Xin Mo and Cheng Luan cross blades once more.  As repetitive as it is, perhaps it does count as a dance.

And then they are one. Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe no longer existing as separate beings but united into one consciousness.

They cut an impressive figure against the dimming sky, broad shoulders narrowing into a slim waist and dense, inky, feathery hair cascading from a thick ponytail. Their robes are cut in Bai Zhan's severe style but dyed in the demon lord's dark colors.

They have claws, fangs, senses sharpened by nature first before cultivation. This doesn't bother them as much as it should, every hunter needs it's weapons. They feel solid, settled, confident in this body despite their newness. They have a mole, on their finger.

They don't really register this.

There's one thought in their head: Shen Qingqiu.

Everything else is paralyzed.

There's a dual sense inside of them; that they should get to Shen Qingqiu's side immediately, that they shouldn't be near him, that he's in danger, that he's safest where he is.

Over it all is a bone-deep, aching grief. He's gone, he's gone, he's gone and it's all their fault. No matter what they try, they'll always fail when it comes to him, won't they?

They stay there, on their knees, well after the sun sets into the night.

-----

The first time Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe fuse it's ugly and emotional and the fate of the world rests like a cracked egg in their palm.

Shen Qingqiu doesn't know he'd say it's worse then fusing at the moment one is about to push one's disciple into hell though.

Shen Qingqiu much prefers the third time they fused or the fourth, or the fifth.  They honestly spend more time fused than not, though Shen Qingqiu has responsibilities he still needs to take care of that require them to split.

He wonders if it's so terrible, how easily he loses himself in their fusion. Certain member of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect sure act like it's a tragedy.  He's resigned not to care. He loves Luo Binghe: stickiness, partial darkening, and all whether fused or not.

The System is still a problem. When fused it completely blacks out, like a blind spot in his vision. Any train of thought that even runs parallel to it gets forcefully redirected. It makes him feel like a dog being clicker trained, but it isn't thorough enough that Binghe doesn't walk away from their fusions with unvoiced questions that Shen Qingqiu still can't answer.

Despite this, or maybe partially because of it, Shen Qingqiu warms up to fusing with Luo Binghe as a flower warms up to the sun.  It's both him and Binghe, as one. He doesn't have to try and find the face to speak. For one, it seems Binghe's shamelessness melds really well with Shen Qingqiu's unbridled face for criticism so speaking his mind is never an issue. If there is something he gets stuck on, he only needs to meditate on it and let it resolve itself internally. Both Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu will come out understanding the resolution.

This isn't to say Shen Qingqiu prefers being fused. Not at all. What would he do without being able to see Luo Binghe's peerless face? Spending time alone being them is grand, but he also loves spending time together with his Binghe.  He would miss it, if he wasn't able to squish Binghe's cheeks and toothlessly scold his manners.

And how he has to scold Binghe for his manners.

Well, he supposes Liu Qingge does deserve it more often than not. "Luo Binghe is dead." Truly, shidi? The one time in your pristine life you decide to lie and it's when it's liable to send Shen Qingqiu to an early grave?

Between that and "You have me here before you and you're going to choose him?" Shen Qingqiu could think Liu Qingge isn't dealing with his least favorite Shixiong moving off the mountain so well.

As if Shen Qingqiu knows what to do with that!

Of course Shen Qingqiu chose Luo Binghe! The man was all alone, without any support network at all! Liu Qingge is a good, a great friend even, but he isn't alone. He has the sect, his disciples, his sister, and surely the many theoretical sisters who must be throwing themselves at him any time he steps foot off the mountain.

It's not like Shen Qingqiu doesn't visit! He misses Qing Jing Peak, Cang Qiong Mountain, and his shidi, too! He even, in consideration of Liu Qingge’s surprisingly delicate sensibilities, avoids doing business with him while fused. 

As frustrating as Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe can be while in each other's vicinity (tension growing between them thick enough Shen Qingqiu often wants to test it on Xiu Ya's blade, an epic rivalry that never got to bloom in the original storyline, maybe?) it's miles more tolerable than whatever happens while they're fused and Liu Qingge is forced to interact with them.

"Husband!"

"Mm," Shen Qingqiu hums in distraction.

"Husband, stop thinking about Liu Qingge." Luo Bingge pouts, tugging Shen Qingqiu's sleeve.

"Shishu." Shen Qingqiu absently corrects even as he can't help but smile at Luo Binghe's put upon face. "You should show him respect, Binghe."

"Liu-Shishu," Binghe obediently repeats.

"What makes you think I'm thinking about your Shishu?"

"Shizun always looks like he's trying to decide whether or not to let in a stray cat when he thinks about Liu-Shishu. For the record, he shouldn't let the stray cat in. It'll claw the furniture." 

Shen Qingqiu laughs, forgetting for a moment, to hide it behind his fan.  Luo Binghe's eyes sparkle and he swoops in, locking his arms around his husband.

"Even if he does scratch some furniture, won't Binghe just fix it for this master? It shouldn't be so hard, since you have to fix the furniture you break any how."

Luo Binghe pouts and buries his face into Shen Qingqiu's neck.  "If Shizun insists."

Shen Qingqiu brings his hand up to pet at Luo Binghe's fluffy hair. It's thanks to how open they've been together that Shen Qingqiu can catch the undercurrent in Luo Binghe's voice.

"If Binghe doesn't want to entertain Liu-Shidi he doesn't have to." Shen Qingqiu starts. "Binghe and Liu-Shidi did have a... contentious relationship while this master was... gone." Luo Binghe's fingers tighten in Shen Qingqiu's robes and Shen Qingqiu winces but forges on. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable, Binghe. I can have tea with Liu-Shidi at one of the pavilions today, and finish things on Qing Jing Peak quickly."

Luo Binghe is quiet as Shen Qingqiu's words settle over then.  He butts his head closer to Shen Qingqiu's collarbone.

"But Shizun likes Liu-Shishu."

"Yes," Shen Qingqiu concedes, "But that doesn't mean I want you forcing yourself to be uncomfortable for my own sake. I see him at Peak Lord Meetings, we can always catch up then.  This is your home, too, you shouldn't be made uncomfortable in it."

This time the quiet stretches longer.  Shen Qingqiu would be inclined to panic and overthink, but he forces himself to breathe instead. It's Luo Binghe who needs the time to think, to actually sort through his feelings instead of conceding to what he thinks Shen Qingqiu wants.

That's one of those things they meditated on while fused. It was much easier when their desires are actually one, but together they had unpacked the snarl of Luo Binghe's chronic desire to prove himself worthy and fear of failing his Shizun.

Shen Qingqiu had spoken, Liu Binghe had to trust that Shen Qingqiu wasn't lying or couching the truth for his feelings. He wasn't for the record. Shen Qingqiu does like Liu Qingge, he really enjoys spending time with his recalcitrant Shidi, but he can arrange those times around Luo Binghe if he needs to. 

Liu Qingge is always pestering him to tend his Peak Lord duties and do a mission or two. He'd be thrilled if Shen Qingqiu started going on nighthunts again, perhaps while Luo Binghe has to do his Huan Hua Palace Master-ing or his Demon Lord-ing. Definitely, Shen Qingqiu can at least start hosting their little tea parties outside of the Bamboo House if it bothers his husband.

Finally, Luo Binghe inhales deeply and sighs against Shen Qingqiu's skin before his shakes his head.

"There's no need for Shizun to do that. Shishu isn't that bad." He draws back enough to smile, watery eyes striking Shen Qingqiu all over again. "And Shishu would be sad if Shizun distanced himself."

"I'm sure he'd understand."

"Hmm." Luo Binghe doesn't outright contradict Shen Qingqiu, but Shen Qingqiu knows that particular sound is Luo Binghe's Shizun-Thinks-He-Knows-What-Is-Happening-Here-But-It's-Funnier-If-I-Don't-Tell-Him noise.

There's the thud of a foot connecting with the door frame. No guesses as to whom that announced. Shen Qingqiu glances at the door but doesn't move towards it.

Luo Binghe breathes a laughing sigh out. "Shizun, this disciple has already gone through the trouble of making Shishu's favorite."

"Fine, but you'll tell me if you need space."

Luo Binghe smiles at him, pout and tears already a long-distant memory on his face. He moves past Shen Qingqiu to open the door himself.  He's answering Shen Qingqiu, but his eyes are already locked onto Liu Qingge when he says, "Husband takes such good care of me."

"You!" From over Luo Binghe's shoulder, Shen Qingqiu gets to see Liu Qingge’s face flush that particular shade of pink he inevitably turns when in Luo Binghe's radius. "I—I'm on time!" He says, flustered, as he catches sight of Shen Qingqiu.

"No need to defend yourself, Shidi." Shen Qingqiu allows. "You're exactly on time, please come in."

Luo Binghe stretches to lean against the door frame, not moving from Liu Qingge's way.  Shen Qingqiu can't see his face but he doesn't doubt it's expression when he says, "Well, Shishu?"

Liu Qingge huffs, aggrieved, before shouldering his way into the bamboo home. "Welcome back," he says to the air as he crosses the threshold.

Luo Binghe's mouth curls into a smile that he shares with Shen Qingqiu over Liu Qingge's head, and Shen Qingqiu decides that he believes that Luo Binghe, despite their rough history, is as fine with Liu Qingge as he says he is.

"This disciple will go get everything ready."

"Thank you Binghe." Shen Qingqiu smiles. "Sit with me, Shidi?"

[thegoldenavenger]

not gonna write this right now but!

svsss / lotr fusion au

proud immortal demon way is a grimdark fantasy story sorta like game of thrones/song of ice and fire which shen yuan hate read because he liked the protagonist and really wanted him to get a happy ending but, that, uh. DID NOT HAPPEN. EMPHATICALLY.

anyways, shen yuan transmigrates into a hobbit, waits for the plot to Happen, and when it doesn't for almost 10 years he realises he must have transmigrated to sometime before or after the plot happening and dives head first into being a hobbit. the food! the books! the gossip! yes, he'd love to get out an explore this fantastical world a bit more, but hobbits weren't very adventurous and shen yuan didn't want to stumble into the plot any more now than at first.

shang qinghua is his fellow transmigrated hobbit. once shen yuan realises this, he latches onto shang qinghua and they become somewhat antagonistic friends. shen yuan cherishes him! despite having written the novel, shang qinghua also does not know exactly where in the plot they are. the shire got very little mentioning in the original novels so they could really be at anytime at all except for the part where the shire gets burned down or what not.

this is all very well and good until someone knocks on shen yuan's door in the middle of the night and he opens it to find a strange, tall, extremely, tall, extremely beautiful, man who waltzes into his little hobbit hole like he owns it.

this is shen jiu, a wizard. who... knows? shen yuan? shen yuan does not know shen jiu. shen jiu does not seem to be worried about that. shen jiu, after making himself QUITE at home in shen yuan's little abode, gang presses shen yuan into a fun little quest. shen yuan is not quite sure how exactly he ends up on the trail towards a mountain to free it from a dragon but he is--in a word--excited.

a dragon? he's only read about them! in two worlds now! and he'll get to see one, and possibly more amazing creatures. he is accompanied by shen jiu of course, snappy and acerbic, stern and moody by turns, but obviously and intimidatingly powerful. he is also accompanied by ming fan, a relatively young dwarf who falls all over himself to impress shen jiu; ning yingying another excitable dwarf happy to be on this quest of some import; yue qi, a solemn but friendly man who falls over himself around shen jiu more than ming fan does; also like three to five more people i cant be bothered to squish in. this isn't about them!

anyways, it turns out that this is the prequel story--shen yuan only finds out when he returns from his adventures with an unbearable amount of treasure, to a shocked shire and an even more shocked shang qinghua who explains that Shen Jiu, whom shen yuan has grown a bit fond of in spite of himself, is actually Shen Qingqiu, the wicked wizard who set Luo Binghe on his path to becoming the dark and gritty protagonist in Proud Immortal Demon Way.

shen yuan boggles. surely not????? shen jiu is prickly, yes, but he didn't seem like the man the book described. shang qinghua shrugs, said this was a light hearted fantasy he wrote when he was younger and more idealistic but it is definitely the Same Dude.

but, shang qinghua says, they obviously aren't following the same plot since Shen Yuan was definitely not in shang qinghua's writing, and several things didn't happen or were changed. in any case, this prequel was decades prior to anything that occurred in the main novel so shen yuan delicately decides he probably doesn't need to worry about it.

he fingers the jade pendant he'd been given on his journey.

the pendant, of course, belongs to Luo Binghe. in Proud Immortal Demon Way Luo Binghe started the novel out as an orphaned halfling, without family or community, and barely the clothes on his back to his name. he struggled to survive on his own, his only treasure the jade pendant he'd always had since he was a baby. he could only imagine that his parents bequeathed it to him before they--died? probably. luo binghe had never known what happened to orphan him so thoroughly.

he'd stumbled into wardship with a powerful wizard who was meant to mentor him, however instead of nurturing luo binghe's relative youth (halflings aged much slower than men, a hearty thirty years was mere teenage years in comparison) he had set jealous eyes on luo binghe and made his life miserable. when he caught sight of luo binghe's pendant, he'd stolen it and with it released the other half of luo binghe's heritage.

su xiyan was a creature much like a hobbit, as these things go, but his father was a powerful demon (dark elf? listen i am not deep in the lotr lore but w/e the hell sauron is haha). the union wasn't meant to be, and when separated, tianlang-jun tried to raze the realms in fury, and almost managed it with his demon sword of power xin mo. however, he was defeated, xin mo shattered, and sealed under a mountain.

luo binghe's heritage was also suppressed. whatever su xiyan carried from her entanglement with tianlang-jun, resentment or pity or fear, she evidently cared enough for her child to try and give him a normal life free of a tainted ancestry. she gave him a pendant and set him adrift on the luo river where his tale of misery began.

when shen qingqiu removed the pendant, in the situation it happened in, luo binghe's powers and heritage manifested. shen qingqiu disavowed his newly unmasked disciple and abandoned him among the shadows of the badlands around mount doom.

embittered and adrift, luo binghe fought through what was tantamount to hell, laid claim on the throne his father left empty, commanded the wayward bands of orcs and goblins and other unsavory creatures, and worked on claiming or conquering all else. the realm of men never showed him any kindness at all, and so he would burn it all to the ground.

what started as a fairly interesting, if dark, coming of age story morphed into a grimdark grapple for power, politics, and sex. shen yuan, who had been charmed by the young luo binghe's enduring effort to find somewhere he belonged, became swept away with the darkened and awakened luo binghe's effort to create somewhere he belonged, without mercy if necessary.

however, somewhere during luo binghe's rise to power more and more of the plot threads were being dropped. luo binghe's cunning coups and strategic battles became more single note. at some point the adversaries became one dimensional, canon fodder. luo binghe's plans came to fruition with barely any struggle. as a power fantasy, shen yuan supposed it was fine-enough. one could, theoretically, turn their brain off and enjoy luo binghe's methodical scouring of the realm, conquering of power, and claiming of women. but everything shen yuan had started reading for, and had stayed for, was stripped away except for the protagonist himself.

in the end, the only place luo binghe could make for himself was a cold, lonely world empty of anyone luo binghe could turn to.

it was, perhaps, no wonder that shen yuan had frothed himself into such apoplectic fury he had died cursing the author's work.

the point is, though, that there was absolutely no way the cute youth shen yuan had encountered in the goblin caves had been luo binghe. the boy hadn't introduced himself, but when shen yuan was fleeing the wrath of the goblin king, the boy had given shen yuan his necklace.

"it will turn you invisible, so it can help you escape." the boy had said.

"what about you?" shen yuan had asked, reluctant to take the boy's only means of defense.

"it's fine!"

"but it's your treasure, isn't it?" shen yuan recalled the hours of commentary he had coaxed out of the boy as he'd been led through the dank tunnels trying to reunite with his wayward band of dwarves and wizards.

"it can help you now, i want you to take it!" the boy's eyes had been starry in the dark.

"but--" shen yuan was forced to hold the pendant as the boy shoved it into his hands. with reluctance, he settled it around his neck. "how will i return it?" he asked instead.

the boy had smiled at him, eyes wet with emotion. "i'm sure we'll meet again, shen yuan from the shire."

"okay then. i'll give it to you next time."

the pendant had turned him invisible and shen yuan was able to escape the goblins, somehow rescue his teammates, sneak into the dragon mountain, steal the treasures he'd been tasked to steal, liberate the mountain he'd been tasked to liberate, and even accomplished his own secret goal: save the dragon.

(you see, shen yuan loves creatures of all sorts, and he'd always sort of been sad when things like dragons had to be killed to save the day. didn't they also deserve to live in peace? so, when a snake like creature conspired with him to help relocate the dragon under the guise of burying it with melted gold, what could shen yuan do but agree? and the plan had worked! the mountain was liberated, the city nearby was freed from constant dragon-induced fear, his traveling companions were happy enough, and the dragon and presumably its snake-friend were safely living somewhere else probably.)

anyways, the boy can't have been luo binghe and the pendant cant be the pendant because the pendant never turned luo binghe invisible in the novels shen yuan read, and luo binghe would have never given it away! he'd reliably become berserk if the pendant had ever been in danger and of course the moment shen qingqiu had stolen it luo binghe had erupted into a coalescing tornado of unleashed power.

that did not happen when the starry-eyed, lonely, somewhat skittish but still kind and receptive young kid had given shen yuan the pendant. therefore, that kid wasn't luo binghe and this pendant is not The Pendant. there are probably a hundred sad orphans and a thousand more magical pendants in the wide million-word history of proud immortal demon way.

so when shang qinghua points at the pendant some years later and starts yelling hysterically, shen yuan has no idea why. shen jiu, who is visiting for shen yuan's birthday celebration, and quite used to shang qinghua's hysterics, offers to look over the pendant. shen yuan lets him, though if shang qinghua was awake he might get scolded for that. yes shen yuan knows shen jiu steals the pendant in the book! but! shang qinghua said it himself: shen yuan has already changed things! probably shen jiu won't steal from shen yuan! they're friends! also, this isn't the pendant so it's all a moot point.

this leaves shen yuan completely open when shen jiu does actually steal the pendant. he whisks it away, barely touching it, folding it into his billowing sleeves, eyes as flinty as shen yuan had ever seen them.

"i need to find out what this is," shen jiu explained, as shen yuan angrily stormed after him on his way out. "it feels-- hungry."

"i--" shen yuan is stopped when shen jiu whirls around and places his hands on shen yuan's shoulders.

"do you not trust me?"

shen yuan thought that was very unfair, as he had just determined to himself to trust that shen jiu wouldn't steal his pendant and the wizard had just gone and done that. but the look in shen jiu's eyes stayed shen yuan's tongue.

"do you think i would just take from you for no reason? have i not labored enough under your ceaseless expectations of me to have earned your trust in this?"

shen yuan carefully breathed out through his nose. "is it not the same question for me?" he asked, "do i not deserve an explanation? must i always sit here in the dark as though even the simplest of truths would make me suspicious of you. do you not trust me to listen?"

shen jiu seemed to struggle.

shang qinghua managed to recover, at this point, and catch up to them. he interjected, for once his tremulous tone evened into a sober enough inflection that even shen jiu listened. "It is exactly what you suspect! we can do whatever tests you need right here, in shen yuan's hearth, you needn't journey with it yourself."

shen jiu's eyes narrowed, and shen yuan cast confused glances at both his friends. even if it was luo binghe's pendant, wasn't it just a seal limiting binghe's power?

"you're not even touching it and can feel it whispering, can't you?" shang qinghua asked.

"what do you know of it?" shen jiu snarled, but his eyes betrayed a sort of fear shen yuan had never seen from his friend before.

"it won't do you any kindness to keep it, whatever you mean."

shen jiu, for a minute, looked as though he would ignore shang qinghua, but in the end the wizard closed his eyes and lifted the handkerchief covered pendant from where he had stashed it.

"it's heavy," shen jiu said, and dropped it into shen yuan's waiting palm.

it turns out the pendant is actually xin mo. "xin mo was actually uh, pretty fucked up? it corrupted tianlang-jun's mind, that's why he tried to destroy everything. su xiyan sealed its power into the pendant, but as luo binghe gets older and his heritage closer to awakening, xin mo grew more powerful." shang qinghua explained once shen jiu left ostensibly to research the predicament they were left in, but more realistically to recover from his brush with xin mo's corruptive influence. at least according to shang qinghua.

"but binghe didn't have the pendant when he started his conquest." shen yuan pointed out.

"no? he didn't need a hell-artifact trying to corrupt him. you read the story bro, his life sucked. he didn't need much of an excuse to get revenge."

"then why the pendant at all? isn't that too confusing? a macguffin you don't even use?"

"that was the point though!" shang qinghua was picking up enthusiasm now. "Luo Binghe had Xin Mo, the same thing that drove his father mad, but Luo Binghe could have resisted that. but being treated the way he was? his master undermining him and, ultimately abandoning him? magical artifacts don't make people into all of that," he said gesturing as if he could encompass all of luo binghe in his hand, "People make people into monsters quite enough on their own."

shen yuan bit his lip. that was, of course, why he'd stuck with reading pidw after all. he couldn't refute shang qinghua's words. watching luo binghe's slow descent into more and more anti-hero grimdarkness was enthralling because of how thouroughly the bright niavety had been beated out of him. shen yuan had wanted luo binghe to get his revenge, to get his power, and to create a place he could call home. he'd had plenty of the first two, but the latter had never come to fruition.

"wait! that was the point?" shen yuan asked, "but you never explained xin mo at all? or all this about the pendant! after shen qingqiu stole it, it might as well have disappeared! even after luo binghe captured him, the pendant wasn't brought up again. i had to bend over backwards to try and gather all of your loose plot threads! half the novel was just him winning another fight or finding another woman!"

"well, i mean, it was supposed to be the point. but ah, well i lost my notes and then--" he made a noise as shen yuan hit him. "But! I tried! Luo Binghe got a sword didn't he? after he captured shen qingqiu? that's xin mo! that's why he does all the fighting and fu-- uh, women. shen qingqiu couldn't destroy the pendant, and breaking it only released its true form. so luo binghe got his father's sword after all and it doesn't matter at all that he could resist it, because he didn't want to."

"why is shen jiu so worried about it anyways? i mean, i didn't feel anything." shen yuan looked skeptically at the drawer they had hidden the pendant.

"uhm, most people can though." shang qinghua said. "that's a lot of why luo binghe's life sucked so much? everytime someone was around him they felt xin mo."

shen yuan frowned, remembering the bright eyed youth from the caves. that had been luo binghe then? with his messy hair and messier clothes and dirt stained hands and feet. shen yuan, breathless from fear and running, had still not been able to resist the urge to wipe at the kid's face with his sleeve. people looked at that and what? felt compelled to be mean?

"most people are petty," shang qinghua said, correctly interpreting shen yuan's furrowing brow, "not everyone can be as peerless as the great peerless cucumber--"

"shut up." shen yuan frowned and crossed his arms. "you didn't answer my question! okay so, it has bad vibes. what about it? it's a pendant? i'm certainly not going to scour the realms. even if i wanted to, i could be squashed like a bug. who cares? why steal it from binghe?"

"because, if someone squashed you like a bug or stole it from binghe then it would eventually find someone who was powerful enough to scour the realms. i mean, even shen qingqiu wasn't immune to it! he thought taking it from binghe was the right choice, because he was worried someone stronger would take it, but obviously it wasn't. even with binghe's heritage being revealed, shen qingqiu ended up fracturing a lot of his connections while he held onto the pendant. he thought he was protecting the realms from it, but really he was just protecting it until binghe picked it up again. he practically laid the ground work for his own imprisonment with that. besides that, there are plenty of people who would think xin mo was a tool they could use for good. and they'd be wrong. so it's best to destroy it."

"but if binghe can resist it, and taking it from him is half of what makes him turn into you know, bing-ge, isn't it best just to give it back?"

shang qinghua boggled. "how did you come to that conclusion?"

"well, it's his treasure, and he wasn't doing anything wrong with it. you said yourself he could resist it! so isn't it best if the protagonist holds onto it? binghe's strong enough no one could take it..." well, besides the time someone had taken it.

a look came over shang qinghua that shen yuan couldn't identify. "i don't know. maybe he had such a tolerance because he built it up while it was in his posession all those years. but you've had it for like ten? twenty? years?"

Shen Yuan frowned. it wasn't that long for a hobbit, but it was incredibly long for the human shen yuan had been once.

"who knows how he'd react to it now! and absolutely no one is going to agree to just give an artifact of ancient evil to some kid no one knows!"

"he'd be almost thirty now, wouldn't he?" shen yuan said, almost without his own will putting together the timeline. in the novel, this is when luo binghe would be meeting shen qingqiu for the first time. thirty was too young for a hobbit to be on his own, never mind that shen yuan had been living by himself in both lives by the time he was 19.

"you are, frankly, impossible." shang qinghua gave up.

shen jiu came back in the middle of the night, as he was prone to doing, and whisks shen yuan and shang qinghua away on a journey to bring the pendant to a meeting of the realms in order to further discuss what to do with it.

"destroy it," shang qinghua murmered.

there were whispers of a dark power coalescing in the north at the bad lands bordering mount doom. orcs and goblins and other sort being organised and turned against the villages and townships close to the border, each raid pushing their powers further out.

"it's too early for binghe yet, isn't it?" shen yuan asked under his breath.

the worst of it. "they know the pendant is in the shire." shen jiu informed shen yuan and shang qinghua in the middle of throwing things into packs for travel.

"what? how?" shang qinghua quailed.

"who knew about the pendant? ming fan? yue qingyuan?" shen jiu asked, at once correctly inferring the only possible time shen yuan might have come across it.

"no--" shen yuan faltered. luo binghe had been the only other one to know, as he'd given it to him. but would luo binghe sell that information to the dark forces rising against them? or was he, indeed, the dark forces themselves?

shen jiu tsked. "it doesn't matter just now. we have to leave."

so they left, headed towards the cang qiong mountains where shen jiu hoped they could foist the responsibility of the pendant onto some other poor sucker.

[thegoldenavenger]

struggling under the cresting waves

Liu Qingge has a gill worm. Shen Qingqiu takes issue with this.

“Move.” Shen Qingqiu abandons his wordier inclination when he finally gets close enough to touch. He bats at Liu Qingge’s arm so that he lifts it away from his gills before holding his hand out lengthwise against Liu Qingge’s side. “What…” he says before trailing off, because with the dark flash of Shen Qingqiu’s eyes Liu Qingge suddenly understands. Measuring.

[thegoldenavenger]

Whoops demon summoner au. Just about 2k and just an intro. I could be convinced to add more but this is what it is for now.

Liu Qingge did not fidget, and just as well: Shen Yuan was fidgeting enough for both of them. The room was dimly lit with clusters of candles around a bloody circle painted on the floor. The basement was on the small side and the stench of blood clung in the stale air.

"Okay, okay." Shen Yuan mumbled under his breath as his fingers flipped through the pages of his book. "It's just the sacrifice now."

Liu Qingge gripped the pig carcass in his hand and made to symbolically sacrifice it when Shen Yuan stopped him.

"Wait! Let me! Recheck the sigils!"

"You've gone over them three times." More, really. Liu Qingge had been the one on lookout while Shen Yuan scribbled and took photos and notes in the library they were both definitely restricted from. Then, every day leading up to today Shen Yuan spent hours bent over his journal writing and rewriting, making sure each sigil and rune meant exactly what they wanted.

"Yes but..." Shen Yuan bit his lip. "It's different."

Liu Qingge rolled his eyes. "I trust you. It's fine." He would encourage Shen Yuan's self doubts if it meant he'd give up on the entire summoning idea but Shen Yuan was determined to see the ritual through. He just wanted to be the one doing the summoning.

Luckily, the demon Shen Yuan wanted to research was Fire natured, with a metal secondary. Neither Shen Yuan nor Liu Qingge had a fire nature, but Liu Qingge's was metal and that would fare much better than Shen Yuan's Wood nature.  It was an argument they had gone over multiple times.

"You don't even like demon summons!" Shen Yuan had argued.

"It's fine. I'm better suited." Liu Qingge would not say that he'd compromise many of his long held rules to make sure Shen Yuan didn't jump into the jaws of a Fire demon named Xin Mo. At least Liu Qingge's metal nature would be able withstand the heat. Liu Qingge trusted himself that much, and Shen Yuan's scrupulous research for the rest.

If only Shen Yuan had fixated on a different demon. Something with a less foreboding name at least. But Shen Yuan had reason to believe Xin Mo could be a key in landslide research in the demon realm landscape. Whatever he meant by that. Suffice to say Shen Yuan was determined. Thus, Liu Qingge was also determined.

He decided not to give Shen Yuan any more room to quibble over minor details and dug the crude looking ritual dagger he held into the pig's throat.  Then he tossed the pig into the center of the circle. The blood spilled out around the corpse. Liu Qingge didn't pause, launching into the archaic, stilted speech Shen Yuan had made him memorise.

Shen Yuan shut up mid sentence for fear of influencing the incantation, but Liu Qingge could see the outraged look from the corner of his eye.

The summoning circle flared as the candles dimmed, a dense smoke filling the center of the circle. Low hissing started, a deep buzz that resonated in Liu Qingge's chest.  He finished the incantation and the incorporeal demon's hazy form spread outwards. Testing the boundaries of the circle. Like ink in a bowl of water it's thin edges curled around the form of the circle, twisting in little fascinating fractals.

Liu Qingge met Shen Yuan's eyes.

Then he stepped into the first ring.

The demon didn't have features as concrete as eyes, but Liu Qingge felt the full weight of its focus shift upon him anyways. An ethereal voice like shale falling along a cliffside echoed in the basement.

"So this is the little mortal who wants to play?"

The smokey form of the demon gathered into a vaguely humanoid shape in front of Liu Qingge. They were separated by the thin circle of protection Shen Yuan had drawn. Liu Qingge stared at where he supposed the demon's eyes ought to be.

"Will you show yourself?" He asked.

"Why would I do that?" The question could be mocking, but it was delivered in a honeyed tone. If Liu Qingge had even an ounce less self preservation he could be persuaded into thinking the question was honest.  Before Liu Qingge could answer, however, Shen Yuan made a quiet noise and the demon's focus slid off Liu Qingge like water.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" The demon laughed, or made a sound close enough to a laugh, as it's amorphous form drifted towards Shen Yuan. Eyes wide, Shen Yuan looked almost entranced, liable to drop his guard and be talked into something stupid like stepping into the circle. So Liu Qingge did it first.

He crossed the inner circle's barrier and used the ritual knife to cut a quick line across his palm. His blood welled immedietly with the cut, hot and red. The demon whirled, becoming dense enough it was hard to see through as it flew towards him.  Liu Qingge thought he could see the flash of fang or claw in the shadows and he steeled himself for a collision of wills.

A more practiced summoner might have a contracted demon, incorporeal but bound with, to help shield his mind from the full weight of a possession. Liu Qingge did not make contracts with demon summons, did not participate in summonings, refused to deal with demons more than using Cheng Luan to fight rogue incarnated targets.  That didn't mean he had no experience with this battle.

Liu Qingge held his hand out, his blood running bright against his skin. He leaned on his metal nature, like reinforcing a fence with steel supports. Sometimes he envisioned it like a coating of liquid silver over his skeleton lending him strength.  Calling on this, trusting in his own ability to withstand whatever heat this demon wanted to throw at him, he made his deal.

"My blood for your covenant."

"Qingge—" Shen Yuan's voice, panicked, was drowned out by the hissing of the demon.

"You want to play this game?" The demon's low voice asked. "Against me?"

"My blood," Liu Qingge repeated, "for your covenant."

The words were as ancient as the study of demons, and as such did hold a fair amount of power in their own right. Still, they weren't very precise. Shen Yuan, along with the ritual summoning he'd recited earlier, had meticulously written a bulletproof contract Liu Qingge had been meant to bind Xin Mo with. It was just so wordy though, and with more negotiation and words the less power there was to command. In order to just hold this demon's attention, Liu Qingge had to lean on the power of tradition and ritual.

The voice that had sounded bemused started to shade darker. "Imagine, a mortal, barely a breath's length of life when held to mine, a candle next to my flame, dares." The hazy apparition drew closer to Liu Qingge, the buzz of its power raising the fine hairs on his arm.

"My blood for your covenant." He squeezed his fist as he repeated these words, and the fresh pulse of blood seemed to incite the demon.

"You want my covenant then? My name?" It felt as though a shadowy limb reached out and gripped Liu Qingge's arm. Pressure closed down around him, but he tensed and withstood it, even as the blood dripped down his wrist.

"Give it to me." He answered, boldly.

He couldn't tell if the taste of blood at the back of his mouth was part of the name, but the fullbody heat wave was. His body flushed so hot with his blood that he felt it tingling in his extremities, the way he only ever felt when so furious that splitting his knuckles hour after hour at the gym could barely temper it.

It was, on the surface, exactly how one could imagine a demon named Xin Mo to feel. He leaned back into himself and his core to ground himself, letting the heat wash over him. Letting the rage course through. He had been angry before and he had learned how to breathe through it and let it go.  Except that what should be passing through him, what should be working with his metal nature to make him more flexible, was creeping into his joints. Locking them.

Even if he were to be overwhelmed by the demon's power and will, which he wouldn't be, he shouldn't feel paralyzed... he should feel liquefied, melted down. He inhaled sharply. Instead, he felt almost brittle. Like the fire wasn't heating him at all.

He thought, abruptly, of sinking his fingers into dough heated over the stove. As a child, eager to help, he had dug into the steaming ball ready to knead it. He'd been warned that it was hot but his small hands had frozen—the dough felt cold at its heart. Paradoxical, like when hypothermia made the body feel overheated.

It was like the earth cracked under him—a shift in perspective that had him reeling. His fingers were stiff, numb as static traveled up his arms in waves. With the new understanding he no longer could perceive the name as hot, or even warm, instead he was trapped in a blistering cold.

Dread crept up inside of him and he briefly thought that he should have let Shen Yuan and his wooden nature handle this. The cold only ever left him sharp and brittle. Shen Yuan managed to seem charming even in winter; red-nosed and endearing when he pulled off his gloves so he could use his phone better, leaving them for Liu Qingge to find and return.

The thought knocked him out of the freeze just enough. Like hell he'd have Shen Yuan put himself at risk just because of a little cold. As if fire was the only crucible metal went through, when quenching was just as important.

What had at first felt like heat and rage had revealed itself to be cold and fear. He could work with that. Being flexible and breathing through it was not the best defense any longer. You had to shut cold out, you had to overcome fear. He could do both, and with that, the demon's name fit perfectly in his mouth.

The approximation he could say out loud wasn't a true reflection of the demon's name, but it was good enough, close enough, that Liu Qingge could wind power into it. He repeated for a final time, "My blood for your covenant, Luo Binghe." With all the draw that he could summon upon the demon's true name.

There was the impression of surprised blinking, the demon pulled back just a hair. Then the apparition fell into itself, condensing into a wash of bubbling black shadow until finally it incarnated on the physical plane.

The demon incarnated was humanoid, with long inky hair. It was crouched, it's limbs were long, jointed weirdly like an animal or insect; something inhuman in their articulation. It's nails were sharp, a killer spur on each dewclaw wickedly curved in a scythe shape. It had a long thick tail and leathery bat wings that were mantled over its shoulders.

When it lifted its head its black eyes seemed confused.

"No one has ever actually understood my name before." It said. Incarnation had rendered its voice low and rich, with a subtle dual harmonization. It stood slowly, it's tail lashing as it found a balance on new limbs. It's eyes met Liu Qingge’s and stayed locked to him as it approached gaining a confidence in each step.

Liu Qingge still held his hand out in offering.

The demon reached out its own hand, curling its claws around Liu Qingge's wrist. It's thumb swiped at the rivulet of blood over his skin. This close, Liu Qingge could see that its eyes were actually a deep, dark red. Idly, he wondered if they would flash in the light like a wolf's.

It drew Liu Qingge's hand to its mouth, its lips black and parted to let fangs peak between them. Liu Qingge could almost hear Shen Yuan's voice but couldn't exactly make out any words. "I accept your sacrifice." The demon said and turned its head just enough that it's nose nuzzled against the thin skin of his hand. Then it's mouth fit over his cut, its wet tongue lapping over his blood.

Power rushed through him: a circuit closing.

They were bound.

[thegoldenavenger]

Some LiuJiu sex pollen fic about 3k. Also extremely unresolved tension, hahaha OTL. This was supposed to be about 100% angstier than it turned out but that Did Not Happen. Rating is probably mature but not explicit.

Warnings associated with sex pollen tropes apply, but nothing really happens here. Sqq is non-verbal for the entirety of this, lqg is sometimes a little unobservant and a little too observant, but I don't think there's anything too bad.

Shen Qingqiu gets the lion's share of the burst of pollen. It only hits Liu Qingge incidentally, fast as he is to whirl away from its path. It still sends a burst of liquid heat straight through his core. Shen Qingqiu drops outright, coughing through the fat, fuzzy pollops. Liu Qingge swings Cheng Luan around, cutting through the tattered form of a ghost ant demon.

He has to end the fight quickly, compromised as he is. Shen Qingqiu hadn't been of any real help in the first place but now he's a liability. Liu Qingge grits his teeth and sends a sword glare flinging at another of the ghost ants, this one a big drone of a creature.

He can't meditate to cool his body down so he redirects the heat instead, focusing on the battle thrill. The limber way his limbs follow his commands, the strength in his grip, the coiling of his muscles, the friction of his silk robes against his tense, heated skin. He gasps, flushed and sensitive, and pierces through carapace and ectoplasm. The two other ghost ants abandon the fight.

Liu Qingge heaves breath in, swallowing thickly. He can't pursue them like this, can't leave Shen Qingqiu vulnerable in a field.

He stumbles to Shen Qingqiu, the man's trembling form curled on itself where he'd fallen. The pollen is really hitting him now. When he tries to cycle his qi, it feels like it only spreads faster.

"Shen Qingqiu." His voice is shakier than normal.

A breathy noise comes from Shen Qingqiu's form, his head tilting by degrees the only sign that he is listening at all to Liu Qingge. His inky hair falls around him like a curtain with only the shell of his ear peaking through. It is flushed.

"Shen Qingqiu, stand!" Liu Qingge puts his hand on Shen Qingqiu's shoulders, ostensibly to shake it. Shen Qingqiu is warm even through his seven layers of silk. He doesn't get to linger with the curve of Shen Qingqiu under his palm because the man flips over in a wild spray of limbs. His hair whips around his face as he kicks himself backwards and away from Liu Qingge.

His face is pink and sweaty, his dark ice eyes hazy under the pollen's influence.

Liu Qingge's throat clicks as he swallows and his hand burns.

Shen Qingqiu curses, his fists tightening. Lying like this, leaning on his elbows, he looks bullied. His lips are red and shiny, puffy almost. Liu Qingge blinks hard. Shen Qingqiu's chest rises and falls with enough force to flutter the fine lapels of his diaphanous outer layer.

Liu Qingge clenches his jaw and quickly closes the distance between him and Shen Qingqiu, whose awkward backwards crawling is laughably useless against Liu Qingge's long legs. He grips a fistful of Shen Qingqiu's robes and yanks him up. He sways dangerously, almost comically swooning into Liu Qingge's chest. His strong, thin scholar's hands brace against Liu Qingge's belt.

He can feel them tense and relax against him.

Shen Qingqiu makes a distressed noise, half whine choked with growl, but with the distance closed he doesn't seem able to pull himself away. Liu Qingge can hardly force himself to open his jaw for words, it seems that for once words are beyond Shen Qingqiu at all.

His arms move almost without his permission, locking around Shen Qingqiu, tucking him in closer. The solid length of Shen Qingqiu's body is a line of heat against him and his muscles tense in the effort to not squeeze him tighter. Another discontented noise escapes Shen Qingqiu's mouth even as the man tilts his face into Liu Qingge's chest.

"I—" Cheng Luan sheathes itself, and the sound of it sliding into its scabbard makes them both groan. There is no way that Liu Qingge can focus enough to fly. They should seek shelter but if they do...

Shen Qingqiu's hand has wormed its way into Liu Qingge's outer robe, absently flexing. Even through the layers of fabric still separating them he can feel the shape of Shen Qingqiu's nails. He doesn't even have to imagine their sting; Shen Qingqiu has scratched him in their spars before.

It's a reminder that neither of them will be happy if they fully succumb to the pollen, and if they sequester themselves they will succumb. Even now, Shen Qingqiu is pressing in closer, Liu Qingge can hear him snuffle along his lapels. He's still shaking like a leaf caught in wind underneath Liu Qingge's hands.

Liu Qingge grits his teeth and pushes Shen Qingqiu away.

His whole body aches, bereft of Shen Qingwiu's warmth and weight. The whine he voices is involuntary and embarrassing, but at least matched by Shen Qingqiu who's viper hands have locked themselves into Liu Qingge's robe.

"Let go. We need to get to Qian Cao."

Shen Qingqiu's face looks conflicted and dazed, eyes dewy, eyesbrows furrowed in a sharp angle, his thin lips curled almost in a snarl. Liu Qingge tries pulling him along but he stumbles and winds his way cat-like back into Liu Qingge's space, tripping them both up.

"Stop—Shen Qingqiu, get ahold of yourself!" It's hippocritical of him to say this, of course, his own hands locked around Shen Qingqiu's wrist, his own heart beating double time, the center line of his body yearning towards the shape of Shen Qingqiu. Shen Qingqiu snakes his arms around Liu Qingge's waist, refusing to be budged or dislodged again.

He's mean about it, is the thing. His fingers grip through Liu Qingge's robes to dig bruises with how hard he clings. He uses his sharp chin to jab into the meat of Liu Qingge's shoulder when he tries to unlatch Shen Qingqiu's arm. He stomps on Liu Qingge's instep when his knee shifts the wrong way. It's like fighting, like any of the ambushes Shen Qingqiu pulls on him, but somehow more disorienting. He isn't even sure if Shen Qingqiu is fighting to stay closer or not; keeping his iron grip on Liu Qingge's clothes but kicking at his feet in turns of spitefulness.

Withought conscious thought Liu Qingge's hand slips from its hold on Shen Qingqiu's shoulder and slides down to the small of his back. And it is small under Liu Qingge's hand. Shen Qingqiu's hands become sharp, clawing into him like little dagger points. The pricks of pain send a shudder through him and he closes his eyes but that makes it worse.

He's overly conscious of how small the amount of space is between them, of Shen Qingqiu's knee next to his, of the strong arms around him, of the hot and humid breath Shen Qingqiu gasps against his robes. He has never faltered a single day in his life but his knees feel weak.

Shen Qingqiu's own knee shifts against Liu Qingge's, he is only aware it because it moves away from him leaving a cold space. Then Shen Qingqiu steps forward, doing something clever with the angle of his feet between Liu Qingge's, and suddenly Liu Qingge is on his back and Shen Qingqiu is straddling him.

Liu Qingge really should know by now to not let his guard down around Shen Qingqiu.

Shen Qingqiu looks smug, even with his lip curled to show his teeth in warning.

His robes drape around them like petals of a flower, the bulk of them only exaggerating the small, hesitant twitches of Shen Qingqiu's hips. It looks involuntary, like he isn't even aware of it. The golden puffs of pollen cling to Shen Qingqiu's skin and hair, catching light from the moon. They glint where they're caught in Shen Qingqiu's eyelashes. Liu Qingge swallows and Shen Qingqiu's eyes follow the bob of his throat.

Liu Qingge bucks his hip up, curling his body like a shrimp and pushing at Shen Qingqiu's knee. He hears a gasp above him, which he tries to ignore. He also tries to ignore the heat under Shen Qingqiu's robes and between his thighs. In increments, Liu Qingge wiggles from underneath Shen Qingqiu and they tussle on the ground for a few more inelegant moments.

Shen Qingqiu scrambles at him in increasingly disorganized and clumsy attempts. The elegant Qing Jing fighting forms fall away in favor of something more base and frantic. It's the same frenetic fighting Shen Qingqiu falls into when sparring inevitably tips towards Liu Qingge's favor: the tricks and low blows Liu Qingge hates the most.

Liu Qingge tries to catch Shen Qingqiu's hands and gets bitten for his troubles, tries to stop Shen Qingqiu's kicking legs from brushing too close against him and gets a line of scratches down his arm. Shen Qingqiu is still panting, muscles quivering, face heated and pink and coated with a soft sheen of sweat that his cultivation should be able to take care of, but if Liu Qingge forces himself to stop focusing on these small, intimate details and take in the whole of Shen Qingqiu...

He's scared.

Liu Qingge has managed to flip them for more leverage and is bearing his weight down on Shen Qingqiu to get him to stop wiggling. He's half between Shen Qingqiu's legs without even noticing, his blood heated and intent on winning. Like this is just any fight between them.

He throws himself backwards and away, something black twisting in his gut.

Both of them lie there, under the moonlight, breathing hard.

The heat still churns in Liu Qingge's body, and he's sure in Shen Qingqiu's as well. Shen Qingqiu shedding extra pollen onto him probably did not help. He really needs to get them both to Qian Cao, even if Shen Qingqiu would abandon him if their positions were switched.

Liu Qingge hadn't even noticed climbing half on top of him. It had been instinct and muscle memory. If Liu Qingge were more compromised... Shen Qingqiu might even be right to leave him behind.

Lucky, then, that Liu Qingge isn't more affected. Shen Qingqiu has started those small, distressed vocalizations. Not quite whining, but adjacent. Liu Qingge can feel it too, the cool night air against his skin where Shen Qingqiu's body had been is almost painful. Shen Qingqiu does not have the coordination to walk, Liu Qingge doesn't have the coordination to fly.

"Hey!" Liu Qingge sits up. "Shen Qingqiu! Come here."

Shen Qingqiu has curled in on himself again, almost looking small. Frail.

"Can you—" the words are getting harder to force out of his mouth. He just wants to growl.

Shen Qingqiu does not come here, so Liu Qingge crawls over to him. Shen Qingqiu tenses as he draws nearer. When the man uncurls enough to glare at him Liu Qingge stops. He wants to go closer, to just pick him up and be done with it. He can still run, it'll just be uncomfortable. Doubly so with Shen Qingqiu struggling.

Instead he makes sure Shen Qingqiu is watching and then turns his back on him.

Quiet, and then Shen Qingqiu makes a curious noise that sounds almost exactly like the haughty little hums he hides behind his fans when Liu Qingge does something stupid but amusing. It does not help Liu Qingge keep still. His training makes him reluctant to put his back towards Shen Qingqiu, the heat coiling in him doubly wants him to turn and face Shen Qingqiu's flushed face.

The crunch of dirt as Shen Qingqiu moves makes goosebumps spread across Liu Qingge's shoulders. He can feel Shen Qingqiu's gaze like a physical weight.

It doesn't, unfortunately, make the heat subside. It seems to magnify it, even, knowing Shen Qingqiu's calculating eyes are on him. That he is being sized up, weighed and tallied. He squares his shoulders under that attention, tries to keep his breathing even.

His can hear his own pulse heavy in his ears.

Finally Shen Qingqiu approaches, Liu Qingge can feel the heat of his body. It seems he'd stood to come closer, standing behind Liu Qingge's kneeling form. Liu Qingge's mouth feels incredibly wet and he swallows again, and again, as Shen Qingqiu just hovers behind him.

When touch comes, it's with Shen Qingqiu's fingers combing through Liu Qingge's gathered hair. It makes him jump, half expecting Shen Qingqiu to pull or yank. Instead he just runs his fingers through it. It is almost as if Liu Qingge's hair has developed feeling, each soft pass of Shen Qingqiu's fingers sending a tingle through his scalp.

Shen Qingqiu sinks to his knees behind Liu Qingge, pressed close enough Liu Qingge can feel every hot, tense line of him through their clothes. It's like descending into a hot spring, the warmth of Shen Qingqiu's body enveloping Liu Qingge's sending a shudder coursing through him.

Shen Qingqiu hooks his chin over Liu Qingge's shoulder, his nose pressing against Liu Qingge's cheek. He rubs cat-like against Liu Qingge, a lilting hum almost a question against Liu Qingge's skin. His arms come around him, and with that a pressing weight as Shen Qingqiu leans into him.

Shen Qingqiu presses into his back, down on his shoulders, against his face. Liu Qingge wants to fold over, to give himself more room maybe. Maybe to feel Shen Qingqiu follow. If Liu Qingge bent a little, maybe if he rested his weight on his elbows, Shen Qingqiu could cover him like a blanket, the sheet of his hair could fall over Liu Qingge's shoulder, blocking him in.

The thought makes his ribs ache in a deeply unfamiliar way.

Shen Qingqiu presses more of his weight into Liu Qingge, shuffles his knees closer, rubs his hands against Liu Qingge's chest. It pushes a strangled noise from him, chased by a self satisfied hum from Shen Qingqiu. Liu Qingge bows by a degree, back curving against Shen Qingqiu's firm chest. Shen Qingqiu does follow, leaning more of his weight against the plane of Liu Qingge's back than on his knees.

Liu Qingge slides his hands backwards to Shen Qingqiu's waist. Shen Qingqiu doesn't protest so Liu Qinnge follows the dip of his waist down to his narrow hips then further to the outside of his thighs. Shen Qingqiu tilts the box of his pelvis into Liu Qingge's back, his muscles flexing as if to encourage Liu Qingge's wandering hands.

Liu Qingge feels almost dizzy, his face is hot and his core is twitching with his own restraint. He lets his fingers grip tight and Shen Qingqiu moans into his ear, soft and sweet. He reaches further back, cupping Shen Qingqiu's thighs, pulling him firmly against himself. It makes another breathy noise escape Shen Qingqiu's lips and Liu Qingge feels on fire. He is sure his face is incandescent in the night.

He waits until Shen Qingqiu moves his hips in a little abortive thrust, enough to unbalance his stance, and then he moves in one big rush: grip on Shen Qingqiu's thighs pulling his legs around him as he curls forward to force Shen Qingqiu's weight higher onto his back. Then he stands, Shen Qingqiu left clinging.

He does it so quickly Shen Qingqiu can't react except for reflexive tensing until Liu Qingge is already standing, finding his balance while carrying another body. Liu Qingge waits for Shen Qingqiu's response, prepared to wrestle his limbs if he starts struggling again.

Shen Qingqiu is a line of tension, having locked up at the sudden movement. Liu Qingge clears his throat. Wets his tongue and manages to croak "Fine" with enough inflection it could be read as a question.

Shen Qingqiu takes a deliberate breath, deep enough it rocks Liu Qingge. Then he relaxes in Liu Qingge's hold. He does pull at Liu Qingge's hair, one sharp tug that has Liu Qingge barking Hey reflexively, that he assumes is meant to scold him. With nothing more violent coming forth, Liu Qingge takes it as acquiescence and bounces a little to settle Shen Qingqiu’s weight better.

That makes Shen Qingqiu hiss. Shen Qingqiu's arms flex where they grip, and he pants against Liu Qingge's ear. Liu Qingge gamely ignores the damp puffs of air and his own burning face to start walking in the direction of the sect.

Though this position seems to work best for both of them—Liu Qingge isn't looming over anyone, they are headed towards the sect, the pollen's effect is mitigated by the press of their bodies together—Liu Qingge had failed to take into account the actual logistics. Each step he takes rocks Shen Qingqiu into him.

Shen Qingqiu's thighs flex around his waist in time to his steps like Shen Qingqiu is riding him and Shen Qingqiu has buried his face into Liu Qingge's collar hiding his small gasps. Liu Qingge's foot catches a dip in the ground and he skids through the next step, jolting Shen Qingqiu against him. Shen Qingqiu whines, reedy and wanting, before he bites sharply at Liu Qingge's shoulder, ruthlessly muffling the noise. The burst of unexpected pain makes Liu Qingge stumble, his groin twitching hard.

"Shen Qingqiu!" Liu Qingge hisses, stilling himself. Sweat has gathered at his hairline, his lip, he can feel it drip down his neck. Shen Qingqiu's open mouth is hot and wet and sharp, his arms are heavy and clinging. The layers of silk that slide between Shen Qingqiu's length and the curve of Liu Qingge's spine are damp.

His teeth pulling back from the bite is almost as bad as getting bitten, the pain blooms under Liu Qingge's skin like a budding flower, and the cool air stings at the teethmarks Shen Qingqiu left. Did he draw blood? The thought briefly makes Liu Qingge's eyes unfocused.

Shen Qingqiu bucks his hips forward, too intentional to mistake for anything but a rider spurring their mount. He tugs at Liu Qingge's bang, telling him forwards. The flare of heat catches him by surprise, and Liu Qingge starts walking. Shen Qingqiu shifts against his back, his chin settling in the bruise he'd left. Liu Qingge can feel the smug radiate off of him.

It's a long walk back to Cang Qiong.

[thegoldenavenger]

I wanted to draw art of this before vomiting words all over a post but!!! Undertale Binghe au

Just, Luo Binghe falling, not into the abyss, but into the underground. He's supposed to run into Shen Qingqiu, who guides him through the Ruins, tricking him the whole while. They are supposed to fight at the Ruins' exit, Shen Qingqiu snarling invective his way acting aloof and cold, at once prideful, arrogant, jealous, spiteful. Telling Luo Binghe that he can't make it out, that no one ever can especially not the likes of him. Luo Binghe is supposed to win, killing Shen Qingqiu before stepping outside the ruins door and leaving nothing (and no one) behind.

But instead, he meets a Shen Qingqiu who takes his tutorial duties very seriously! A Shen Qingqiu who sort of coddles Luo Binghe, and teaches him the puzzle mechanics of the underground, who has a small shimmering hope that he can just live with Luo Binghe here, in the cozy ruins of his home, reading and cooking together. This is definitely not how it happened before, even when Luo Binghe was new to this endless loop of nightmares.

But, whatever this new game, Luo Binghe finds the exit of the Ruins. And Shen Qingqiu fights him.

(The leitmotif here is Heartache, and oh! Shen Qingqiu's heart aches. How naive of him, to think he could sequester the protagonist in the small starter ruins. How short sighted of him to try and stifle the young hero... maybe next time...)

Luo Binghe wins, of course, but this time things are different. Maybe. He's been through this so many times it's hard to tell. But had Shen Qingqiu ever looked so sad beneath his aloof expression? Had his entreaties ever really meant anything? Why had he sounded just as trapped as Luo Binghe?

Luo Binghe finds himself with new, different memories as he walks out of the Ruins. They plague him as he makes his way through the next area. Each battle he encounters he remembers, "just stall for time and this master will be there to help." Each simpering fool that blocks his path he recalls, "just practice talking! Look, this teacher will go first."

He runs into Shang Qinghua, who cowers and runs from him. Mu Qingfang, who watches him with a cooly detached eye. Liu Qingge, who always strikes first and doesn't give in. Qi Qingqi, mocking him from her hiding places. Wei Qingwei is surprisingly easy to defeat after it all. And Yue Qingyuan, who looks straight through Luo Binghe no matter how many times Luo Binghe marches back through the gardens to him.

And all the while Shen Qingqiu's voice in his head: come! This master will guide you through these catacombs. Do not be afraid, my child. Which does Binghe prefer? Oh, but Binghe would not turn his nose up over one or the other? Truthfully, when this master first saw Binghe... it felt like seeing an old friend for the first time.

Prove yourself to me, that you are strong enough to survive!

All Luo Binghe has been doing is survive. The next time Yue Qingyuan strikes him down, Luo Binghe wonders if he, too, can do something different. Be something different.

Once again he awakes after the long fall in the bamboo grove at the beginning of the Ruins. Once again the Shen Qingqiu he meets is not the one he is used to.

(For his part, Shen Qingqiu isn't sure he really remembers anything from his first time around. But the very fact that vague familiarity keeps hitting him makes him suspect.)

Shen Qingqiu is still bafflingly kind to him. Taking his hand and leading him through the puzzles and traps. Stepping between him and any encounters might be troublesome. "Binghe prefers— oh, you never said... well. Binghe wouldn't turn his nose at either if he had a chance, would he?"

Luo Binghe stays, a little longer, in the ruins this time. He lets Shen Qingqiu coddle him. Brush his hair. Share tea and books and snacks with him.

But in the end, Luo Binghe has to leave the Ruins, and Shen Qingqiu has to fight.

And everytime, the Ruins is left without its Caretaker.

Luo Binghe keeps waking up in the bamboo grove, enough times he feels as if just underneath the ground is a pile of his own discarded bodies. Shen Qingqiu keeps showing up, and keeps smiling, and keeps leading him to his home.

The thing is, Luo Binghe thinks that this Shen Qingqiu would keep him, if Luo Binghe didn't have to leave the Ruins. This Shen Qingqiu would keep him in his slightly disheveled home, reading to him by the fireplace, and complimenting his cooking.

So, Luo Binghe tries. He tries to stay for as long as he can. When Shen Qingqiu takes him by the hand and leads him past the traps, says in his impossibly collected voice, "This master has always wanted to be a teacher... well, perhaps that isn't surprising." Luo Binghe tries smiling and says back, "Then this one will be grateful to learn from Shizun."

It is the first thing Luo Binghe has said, directly.

From then on, Luo Binghe talks through everything. He calls Shen Qingqiu Shizun, and asks questions about everything he feels he is allowed to, and, with this Shen Qingqiu, there doesn't seem to be a limit. He asks about the Ruins, the bamboo, the books in Shen Qingqiu's cabinet. He asks about the recipe cards on the kitchen counter. He asks about the boarded room down the hall. He asks about the journal with heavily red-lined corrections and critiques.

Shizun answers all his questions honestly, even if it is with a simple, "this master has forgotten."

They both want it to stay like this. But in the end, it cannot.

"Does Binghe not want to ask about the exit to the Ruins?" Shizun says one day.

Luo Binghe is, perhaps not quite as surprised as he should be. He always has to leave, after all. Still, he tries.

"This one doesn't need to."

"Hmm. I suppose you wouldn't."

Still, it happens. Binghe cannot find Shen Qingqiu anywhere, until he finds his Shizun at the exit of the Ruins. His face is cold. Aloof. Familiar.

"This master had thought to destroy the door," he says when Binghe approaches him. Luo Binghe cannot help the way his body tenses. He won't be trapped any more than he is forced to be by this hellish circumstance. As much as he wanted to play domestic with a Shen Qingqiu that seemed willing to indulge him, he liked knowing he could leave whenever he wanted.

"There's no need," Luo Binghe says.

"This master supposes not. What obstacle could stand in Luo Binghe's way if he wanted to leave? Hmm? What's that look for? Don't tell me Binghe doesn't want to leave?"

And the thing is, Luo Binghe does want to leave. He cannot stay in the Ruins forever. He has to leave the underground. But... "I don't want to fight you again." This is suddenly the most important thing. Luo Binghe does not want to fight Shen Qingqiu. Every time they fight, Luo Binghe wins, and that means killing Shen Qingqiu for the freedom to escape the Ruins.

He's done it more times than he can count, but this time it is too much, and, horrifyingly, he feels his heat spring behind his eyes.

"Oh," Shen Qingqiu says and he drops his fan.

The leimotif here is Heartache, and oh. Shen Qingqiu's heart aches.

"Then we won't fight. You don't have to prove anything to me. Luo Binghe is free to leave the Ruins he does not have to worry that this master will stop him."

"What?"

Shen Qingqiu reaches out to pat Luo Binghe's head, smoothes down his hair, and then hugs him. Luo Binghe stands, shocked.

"We don't have to fight?" He asks, again, just to be sure.

"Of course not. Does Binghe not listen when this Master speaks? Does Binghe only know how to fight with weapons instead of his words? Now, be good, when you leave."

Luo Binghe leaves the Ruins and Shen Qingqiu.

Luo Binghe didn't have to fight to leave. Did he ever have to fight at all? Or, he supposes fighting may be inevitable. But the killing wasn't, surely. If the Shen Qingqiu that Luo Binghe had first met, cold and spiteful, could turn around and hold Binghe's face so gently, so too could Luo Binghe find his way through the underground with a little more mercy?

Luo Binghe actually tries talking, this go around. He had tried it the first couple of times he had been made to traverse the Underground as young and naive as he'd been. But there was only so many times one could bash their heads against the likes of Liu Qingge before one had to give in to the inevitable. But was it inevitable?

Shang Qinghua smiles at him when they meet the first time (this time). He still looks nervous, apprehensive, but not terrified as he always had been before.

Shang Qinghua loops him into conversation, gossips with him about some of the locals, tells him about a collectable he'd never found before. Shang Qinghua, the same rat who hisses at him in the hall before Yue Qingyuan's garden, that judges him like the cowardly hippocrit he is—Shang Qinghua invites him to dinner, and makes nervous jokes with him.

Shang Qinghua sits across from him and says, "there's this door, by the ruins, it's always shut. But sometimes, if I knock on it, someone answers. I read him some of my novel—no you can't see it—and he tears it to shreds. Says it's something to occupy his time but... it's the most time anyone spends on me, you know? Then he asks me—well, tells me, really—that if anyone comes through the door I should maybe watch out for them? But, I'm, haha, a coward, so I tell him to shove it. Whoever could make it through him certainly doesn't need my help out here. But I thought... anyone who's lonely enough to put up with me and my shitty writing well. They have a certain integrity. I don't really know what I'm saying but—I'm glad it's you, who came out."

Luo Binghe tries talking to Mu Qingfang who is curious and suspicious into turns, but ultimately subsides when Luo Binghe recalls one of Shen Qingqiu's rarer books so he can properly quizz Luo Binghe on his recollections of its contents.

Liu Qingge is the first person to really drive Luo Binghe's new conviction to the edge. The man doesn't let Luo Binghe get a word in before he's being engaged in battle.

Surprisingly, Mu Qingfang and Shang Qinghua seem keen on helping him navigate around their mercurial martial brother. Mu Qingfang offers Luo Binghe various healing items to recover from encounters and advice on how to avoid him. Shang Qinghua tries his hand at bumbling deception ("I told him what you were wearing the last time we met! You've changed by now, right? You're very smart of course you've disguised yourself!") and mediocre distraction.

Luo Binghe still thinks won't be able to get through without falling into the inevitable cycle of violence again. He tells Shang Qinghua "Shizun said I should just stall and he'd be there to help but! That's not how it works at all. Even if we didn't fight he's not here with me! I'm still alone. And Liu Qingge wont! Listen! To anything I have to say!"

Luo Binghe doesn't say that he's afraid he'll have to kill Liu Qingge, and he'll be able to justify everything else all at once again. That he'll go back and see Shen Qingqiu and he'll have to kill him, too. To complete it all. Luo Binghe is so busy brooding he doesn't see Shang Qinghua's considering eye.

"You didn't fight at all?"

And then, the next time Liu Qingge corners Luo Binghe and Luo Binghe just cannot figure out how to disengage without murdering the man, someone throws a fan into Liu Qingge's face.

"Hah?" Liu Qingge sputters and whirls around.

"What are you doing, harassing some kid?"

And Luo Binghe knows that voice it's—

"Shizun?"

"Shen Qingqiu?"

That's him... standing for the first time out of the Ruins, looking shockingly disgruntled. He makes his way to Binghe and reaches put to pet Binghe's head.

"What am I? What are you doing? Shen Qingqiu! You disappeared for years, Yue Qingyuan—"

Shen Qingqiu levels the bitchiest glare at Liu Qingge that the man actually shuts up mid sentence. Then he sniffs and turns back to Luo Binghe.

"Binghe did very good, distracting that man until this Master could arrive."

"You're—shizun is here?" Never once before had Shen Qingqiu left the Ruins.

Shen Qingqiu's gaze softens.

"This master told you that he would guide Binghe through the catacombs and help you navigate the puzzles and traps here in the underground, did he not?" At binghe's nod he continues, "Well, what kind of master would this one be if he left Binghe to figure this out on his own."

(Shang Qinghua had hammered on the Ruins' door hard enough to bloody his fist. "BRO! Bro? You didn't even fight? Bro, this Luo Binghe has no idea what to do with Liu Qingge. He's getting his ass kicked!" "What do you want me to do about it?" "Anything! Before he decides to go back to murdering his way through the underground!" "He what?" "I mean—hypothetically. He could start—whatever! You're the one who told him his shizun would come kiss everything better—take responsibility for my son!")

Liu Qingge backs off begrudgingly, as Shen Qingqiu shepherds Luo Binghe away from the fight to gather reconnaissance and allies. That is, to have a gossip session with Shang Qinghua and Mu Qingfang.

Shen Qingqiu sweet talks Mu Qingfang into giving Luo Binghe a special item and then briefly refreshes his memory by yelling at Shang Qinghua and then starts helping Luo Binghe speed run the rest of his journey underground.

It's a little anti climatic, actually.

Shen Qingqiu distracts Liu Qingge everytime the man pops in to harrass Binghe's forward movement, entangling the him in confusing conversation and beguiling gestures until Binghe has enough time to sneak away. Shen Qingqiu waits for the right moment before accusing Liu Qingge of not being able to befriend Luo Binghe, egging on his competitive spirit until Liu Qingge accidentally becomes fond of Luo Binghe for his own merits.

That accomplished, Shen Qingqiu takes Luo Binghe through the rest of the underground. He guides Binghe to hidden items and fun places Luo Binghe had never bothered with before. He cuts Qi Qingqi's encounter in half with Mu Qingfang's special item, and turns Wei Qingwei's usually disappointing battle into a fun game that rewards Luo Binghe with his own spirit sword.

Shen Qingqiu drags Luo Binghe across the underground, sometimes back tracking, making sure Binghe is exposed to every part while still plowing through encounters. Luo Binghe, for his part, grips onto his new sword and follows his Shizun with starry eyes.

He's never felt so refreshed, he's never seen this horrid place in this light before. The horrendous slog of fighting and dying has morphed into a dream like sequence of moments he's building in his heart. He never knew how funny Shang Qinghua is, how knowledgeable Mu Qingfang is. That Qi Qingqi was pretty amiable when one approached with the perfect balance of respect. That Zheng Yang fit so perfectly in Luo Binghe's hand.

He could probably leave the amount of times Liu Qingge drops in on them to get into an argument with Shen Qingqiu, but even then... Luo Binghe hadn't known Liu Qingge could talk that much.

Or that, on Liu Qingge, a sternly frowning face could mean care.

"Yue Qingyuan is strong so. Here." Liu Qingge drops a set of light armor at Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe's feet in a clatter.

"Oh, Temmie Armor?" Shen Qingqiu says, and helps Luo Binghe into it.

"Don't..." Liu Qingge crosses his arm and scowls at everything in his radius. "Don't die. And don't kill anyone."

He leaves before Shen Qingqiu or Luo Binghe can say anything in reply. Shizun looks at Luo Binghe wryly, his fan already spread out to hid me his face.

"Well. Are you ready, Binghe?" He asks.

Luo Binghe takes a moment to think about it. Everytime before his battles with Yue Qingyuan have ended in stalemates, or an abyss so never ending Luo Binghe had chosen to start over just the same.

But this time he isn't going with the intention of winning by force, and this time he isn't going alone.

Shen Qingqiu is standing by his side, waiting for his answer, and Luo Binghe knows if he says that he isn't ready yet Shen Qingqiu will find another little diversion to help distract them both until Luo Binghe is ready. Maybe it will be another dinner date with Shang Qinghua, bullying the man's latest manuscript. Or maybe it will be getting Liu Qingge to chase them through the glowing crystal-lit caverns once more.

Luo Binghe still must face Yue Qingyuan and find his way free of the Underground, but somewhere along the way his priorities have shifted. He isn't the only one trapped down here, and, even if he'd known this before it hadn't mattered. Now, he realises he could potentially help free more than just himself.

Now, when Luo Binghe frees himself from the underground, he doesn't want to be alone when he steps into the sunlight.

(Shen Qingqiu is definitely the kind of undertale fan who never played the games himself but did watch all the playthroughs he could. He only has a general concept of the no mercy route (mostly bc Shang qinghua is not Toby "Radiation" Fox so his version of undertale is not nearly as impactful so a lot of the content is hidden or was dropped before released but also a little because he couldn't stand the emotional ringer of watching a heartless lets player kill his favorite characters!) so he thinks Luo Binghe is a generally sweet if misguided kid and does NOT realize binghe has been on an infinite no mercy loop through the underground. He wouldn't care if he did know, though, because he's crazy for Luo Binghe. That's just the kind of thing one does in a time loop!

Liu Qingge is so startled by Shen Qingqiu because he is so different from the stories he's heard about him. He keeps hearing people talk about how Shen Qingqiu abandoned Yue Qingyuan, how cold and merciless he was after Yue Qingyuan lost the war against Tianlang-Jun. Liu Qingge, ever Yue Qingyuan's right hand man, had personally vowed to avenge Yue Qingyuan should the chance arise. It's definitely why Liu Qingge is so determined to kill Luo Binghe himself. Yue Qingyuan has had to reap all the demonic cultivation to free themselves from the underground all on his own. To shoulder that kind of task by himself and then be faced with a child—with a demon with the face of a child, at least... well, the least Liu Qingge can do is share in that miserable task. And then Luo Binghe is trying to talk instead of fight like a demon should, and then Shen Qingqiu shows up not at all like the rumors painted him to be. Liu Qingge is so confused.

Shang Qinghua is having the roughest time. He isn't immune to the reset mind-wipe, but as the game dev he absolutely knows what's going on just with context clues. So he's just trapped in this nightmare world watching as everyone he knows is murdered over and over until one reset his door buddy is nice to him and Luo Binghe isn't trying to kill him on sight! Shen Qingqiu, why does your system let you dodge multiple plot lines???

Luo Binghe does end up freeing the Underground, that's just not the focus of this story haha. Something something zuzhi-lang, something something Huan Hua Palace, something something Yue Qingyuan falling over himself at the sight of Shen Qingqiu who is definitely NOT privy to the original goods' backstory haha)

[thegoldenavenger]

Need a pair the spares fic premise that is like… sy, lqg, and sj all knew each other growing up. Sy is like a distant relative to the qius who ended up in their (mis)care, who befriended sj. The qius and liu, both being prominent noble families, at least rub elbows together and lqg befriends sy. Lqg and sj butt heads all the time, lqg isn’t aware of the extent of sy or sj’s problems w the qius but knows enough to be concerned and low key try and pressure his father to do something which never pans out. Finally, something happens and sy meets binghe and ends up marrying him, lqg and sj left in the wake.

Lqg ends up vowing to sy that he’ll take care of sj and can’t figure out how to do that except through marriage, which the qiu family accepts outside of qht or her brother’s wishes? Idk I’m not great at coming up w contrived marriage reasons. But they get engaged and sj now lives with lqg and they hate each other but lqg keeps trying bc he promised sy and they’re both miserable at first bc of the whole. Pair the spare energies you know?

Anyways. I just want lqg caring for sj out of duty and sj pushing the limits of what lqg will tolerate and the. Actually properly getting along enough so that sj actually starts relying on lqg and they develop proper rapport born out of wanting sy not to worry or something,

[thegoldenavenger]

More svsss fic bits, smaller edition time.

Just a collection of wips and snippets

[FLOWER AU]

Luo Binghe has him pinned. Again. His robes have been discarded, the excess fabric getting in his way as he fought against the half demon. Luo Binghe had smugly shrugged out of his robes in turn, and Liu Qingge had to close his eyes against the flowered expanse of his skin.

The wilted petals of Shen Qingqiu's peony seemed so... Dry. Impersonal. When compared to the field of thorny roses that wrap around Luo Binghe's throat and chest. That is what Shen Qingqiu's desire and love look like when pressed to someone's skin. The Lotus flowers reaching up the long lines of Luo Binghe's body: the fond image Shen Qingqiu holds for his betrothed. There are smaller blooms Liu Qingge avoids looking directly at; he doesn't want to know what they mean.

His distraction and self pity earned Luo Binghe the advantage, not that he needs it. At least from this angle, Liu Qingge can't see the healthy blooms that rest along Luo Binghe's collarbone like careful hands.  He's left to stare at his own hand, the dried remains of forget-me-nots intertwined among his scars.

-------

[TOXIC LESBINGLIU thanks sinn-bees]

Luo Binghe cups Shen Yuan's face and kisses her. The angle is off, the sweep of Shen Yuan's hair blocking the way Luo Binghe presses her lips to Shen Yuan's, and her whole body leans towards Luo Binghe like a flower. Luo Binghe's other hand is unclasping Shen Yuan's bra, making deft, practiced work of the hooks.

Liu Qingge sits in Shen Yuan's weird computer chair and stares.

Luo Binghe isn't even looking at her anymore. Pushing her into the chair and giving her a smile that showed her teeth was the last attention either Luo Binghe or Shen Yuan showed her.

Does she stay here? Told to sit like a dog? Does she leave—can she leave?

Shen Yuan moans softly because Luo Binghe's hands have crept down her body. The angle is still wrong for Liu Qingge to see anything, Luo Binghe shifts her shoulder so that her tanned broad back covers everything but one of Shen Yuan's slim knees. As she watches, that knee falls to the side, pressed flat by Luo Binghe's hand.

It slowly creeps on her, as she curls in on herself, that she is going to stay exactly where Luo Binghe put her. Some greedy thing clamours inside of her, it opens deep in the pit of her stomach, heating her from the inside out. Each quietly muffled noise Shen Yuan makes the heat rise higher—is she muffling herself with her hands? Is she just naturally quiet? Luo Binghe slides down her body and Liu Qingge sits and stays.

--------

[SYNTH BINGHE AU]

"Liu Qingge, you could try to leave some of the chassis intact." Shen Qingqiu gently scolds as he nudges a fragment of Synth with his foot.

Liu Qingge clicks his tongue and he flicks oil and other viscous fluid off his blade. Shen Qingqiu shakes his head.

"As a favor to your favorite shixiong, shidi."

"Maybe my favorite shixiong would like to fight the synths however he wants and I can play inside with wires and microchips and air conditioning."

"Maybe your favorite shixiong will do just that! You don't have to follow me, shidi, Binghe and I are perfectly capable of bagging a few synths ourselves."

Liu Qingge looks pointedly at the slagged tent at the edge of the clearing. What had once been a nice campsite is now a half wrecked battleground of churned soil and sparking robotic parts. Luo Binghe sees his Shizun's face turn red and his fan snap out with a forbidding crack.

"Shizun, this one is whole enough, I think!" Luo Binghe says quickly, heading off another verbal spar. His shishu, despite not being inclined towards words, seems to delight in baiting Luo Binghe's incomparable Shizun into vicious tirades. It's like he likes being yelled at.

-------

[WINGFIC]

He throws himself off the cliff.

Again and again and again.

At the last moment his wings snap out to level him from his dive, heart swooping with the rush of it.

His favorite move is spearing down from the heavens, body slamming into his prey. When he was younger he would hurl himself at his opponents, lock his hands in their robes, and heave. It wouldn't matter if they grabbed him back, if they were both sent flying.

He's better trained with the sword now, but he is still often found making his entranced by flying straight through the threshold. It's more efficient, he says, hurtling himself through the air.

------

[Day 2 snippet OTL]

Luo Qingleng had sat him down when he'd recovered. His shifu had been silent, stern, as he circled where Liu Mingyu knelt in tense anxiety. It had seemed all too likely that Luo Qingleng had come to his senses and would leave him there without dismissal just as he had upon their first meeting.

Liu Mingyu had himself half way to another deviation with how tense he'd been under Luo Qingleng's inscrutable gaze. The panic clawing at his throat and his own blood pounding in his ears nearly deafened him.  What would Liu Mingyu do, if he'd failed again? If Luo Qingleng decided it was all a mistake. Could Luo Qingleng throw him off Qing Jing? Out of Cang Qiong entirely? This was Liu Mingyu's only chance to make anything of himself at all.  If he failed there he may as well lie down and dissipate into the ground to feed worms and other more worthy living things.

"If Mingyu cannot practice on his own without qi deviating," Luo Qingleng had finally said, "Liu Mingyu will be barred from independent study."

Cold had numbed Liu Mingyu from scalp to finger tips. Luo Qingleng was going to throw him off the mountain, if not in practice than in spirit all the same.

"Mingyu will have to endure this Master's supervision until this master is sure Liu Mingyu won't ruin his cultivation base on his own."

-------

[WHUMP FIC]

Liu Qingge may not have slept at all, as Luo Binghe wakes to his Shishu studying him.  He reflexively bristles under his Shishu’s assessing gaze. 

“Forgive this one for sleeping in, Shishu, the jerky must have taken longer to sleep off.” The bitter tone sticks to the back of his teeth.

Liu Qingge’s face closes off at the remark and he tilts his jaw up at an angle, eyes narrowing. “If you’re well enough to complain,” he starts, folding his arms, “then you’re well enough to move. Sit up.” Instead of watching Luo Binghe struggle he kicks at the deadened fire pit, smothering whatever may have still struggled to light back up. He shakes out his tin, stuffs it back into whatever pocket it came from and hesitates over the second one. 

“Here,” he says like it kills him to do so and shoves Luo Binghe’s cup at him, newly filled. It’s warm under Luo Binghe’s fingers, though not from fire. Liu Qingge must have heated it with qi, risking the energy flare over any smoke from a fire.

As Luo Binghe drinks the tea broth he watches Liu Qingge strap Xin Mo to his hip, securing it next to Cheng Luan and tying an extra leather strap around the sword belt. He shakes out his hand and drags it roughly through his long, swinging ponytail already disheveled from the night. The remains of the weird soup fill Luo Binghe’s stomach bringing a warmth to his core and with it, a prick of guilt. 

He wonders what Shizun ate for dinner, if he had eaten anything at all. Faced with a choice between nothing and the meals from Qing Jing’s kitchens, Shizun often chooses nothing. His eyes linger on Xin Mo at Liu Qingge’s side for a long second. He missed dinner and breaking fast with Shizun. His marinade might survive sitting out on the counter for another day, if Shizun doesn’t think to put it away, but the more delicate sides Luo Binghe had planned are surely beyond saving. 

The next swallow of soup goes down hard.  Liu Qingge hadn’t said as much but Luo Binghe had been ungrateful. Leading Liu Qingge to believe the dried rations had disagreed with him, and now throwing it back in his face this morning while gladly taking the meal Liu Qingge had prepared even though it was unnecessary and perhaps dangerous… 

He sets aside the empty tin carefully cushioning it with his finger. Liu Qingge’s attention comes to him regardless of his care.

[thegoldenavenger]

Hello! Here's day one for the BingLiu ship week. I don't know why I decided to set these in a roleswap AU, but that's where we are. It should become obvious in text but Luo Binghe, Liu Qingge, and Shen Qingqiu have all swapped roles in this AU. As such, Luo Binghe needed a Qing- generation name and Liu Qingge needed a personal name, I went with Luo Qingleng and Liu Mingyu respectively. More notes at the end!

As always, this isn't beta'd.

Day 1. wifeplots | on the Bai Zhan training grounds

"Shen-Shidi," Luo Qingleng says, as honeyed as he can, "If Bai Zhan keeps insisting on its raids, then at least we should cooperate to create a training opportunity for both of our peaks."

Shen Qingqiu scoffs. "The raids were fine when we were disciples, they're fine now. More importantly, we should be cooperating in regards to your intelligence on—"

"I don't have any intelligence—"

"It's good of you to admit as such, Shixiong."

"—regarding the demonic realm." Luo Qingleng finishes, hiding the clench of his fist in his sleeves. Oh, but Shen Qingqiu can be so annoying. "Zhangman-Shixiong has already ruled in this matter."

Shen Qingqiu rolls his eyes. His hands are exceedingly graceful as he pours tea into Luo Qingleng's cup; the tea is perfectly made.

"You let that brat pull the wool over your eyes too many times to count. There are demons gathering in the south, increased raids are being reported past the border towns. Your little demon lord should know what is happening in his own territory, should he not? Why should we not know the reason so many demons are pushing their way further into the human realm?"

"Shen-Shidi," he reproaches. "If there's anything to be concerned about, it will come up at the next meeting, as agreed upon."

"Meeting." Shen Qingqiu says the word like a curse, before breathing in the steam of his tea. The pavilion shades both of them, the light wood a compliment to the twisted pine and rough rockfaces that make up Bai Zhan. His sharp black eyes glance up at Luo Qingleng from beneath his lashes, cold gaze calculating. "Fine. It seems Shixiong does not wish to speak to this Shidi at all. It seems Shixiong would prefer all talk to be done through ten layers of proxy and circumstance."

Now it was Luo Qingleng's turn to roll his eyes. As if Luo Qingleng hadn't been the one to reach out for this meeting. "This Shixiong would be gratified to talk about the Bai Zhan raids he came here to discuss initially."

"What about a game, Shixiong?"

"Oh no."

"We'll duel, and if you win we can talk about team effort and interpeak cohesion or whatever you want."

"No deal."

"Okay. Fine, if you win I'll agree to your silly little rules. We'll make the Bai Zhan raids a formal training tool."

"For both peaks?"

"Yes, for both peaks. A set of engagement rules can be agreed upon, and even safe zones for those delicate young masters to hide in if they must." With the amount of bitterness in his tone, Luo Qingleng wonders if Shen Qingqiu has forgotten that he was once one of those young masters from Qing Jing Peak.

"And if you win?" He asks, reluctantly.

"Then you take me to Liu Mingyu's palace."

"What?"

Shen Qingqiu smirks, leaning back in his seat. "I'd like to enjoy Liu Mingyu's hospitality, Shixiong."

Luo Qingleng takes a moment to think this over. On one hand, it's obvious Shen Qingqiu just wants to snoop around the demon realm himself. For as obvious a ploy it is, and the possibility of the damage Shen Qingqiu can wreck when he wants to, it is... fairly benign. Liu Mingyu is no slavering demon lord planning on conquering the human realm, he has no secret armies or evil intentions.

As smart as Shen Qingqiu is, perhaps seeing this first hand is what it will take for the man to accept that peace is possible between the demon and human realms and reconcile his hostility.

"Okay," he agrees, and Shen Qingqiu actually blinks at him in shock.

"Agreed, then." He says quickly, recovering. "Blades and qi, first to yield?"

"Pin or knock out." Luo Qingleng counters.

Shen Qingqiu rolls his eyes. "Very well." He places his tea cup down and stands abruptly, glaring down at the various disciples half-heartedly training. "Move it." He calls out, "Scram. Get gone."

The Bai Zhan kids back away from the training grounds but don't leave. They hover, eager to see the fight between two Peak Lords. Better that it is the Qing Jing Peak Lord, that many of the Bai Zhan disciples disdain on principal no matter how hard Luo Qingleng has tried to win their good favor. At least they are equally as eager to see Shen Qingqiu lose as they are for Luo Qingleng.

Shen Qingqiu wants to win at all costs. Even in a spar he targets soft points like eyes and belly and rarely does he pull his punches. He doesn't yield gracefully, and as a disciple he broke his own arm before he conceded a fight. Now, Luo Qingleng always makes a point to establish hard physical rules to winning, even if Shen Qingqiu manages to trick him into stepping out of the ring more often than Luo Qingleng can manage to pin the slippery man down.

Despite this, Luo Qingleng does enjoy sparring with Shen Qingqiu. Shen Qingqiu demands that all your attention lie upon him or else risk the loss of something vital. He is straightforward in a way he so often isn't with his words, in that his goal is to win as quickly and decisively as possible. Luo Qingleng often thinks that he understands Shen Qingqiu better when they fight.

It helps that Shen Qingqiu's foundation is half rooted in the Qing Jing Peak style, and the familiar moves are nostalgic. After a decent amount of time spent sparring against his particular brand of Bai Zhan cultivation techniques, Luo Qingleng can almost find sparring meditative.

Just almost, though. Shen Qingqiu likes throwing fistfuls of sand too often to completely relax.

The Bai Zhan disciples jeer at the sidelines, alternatively cheering when Luo Qingleng takes an unfortunate hit and heckling when Shen Qingqiu loses his advantage. It always makes Shen Qingqiu's pale face flush with anger. Well, it's not as if there isn't a decently sized population of Qing Jing that still thinks Luo Qingleng doesn't deserve his name. He's learned to act like it doesn't affect him.

Shen Qingqiu lets it get to him everytime.

Harried by precision qi darts, Luo Qingleng focuses on keeping his footing in the arena so much so that when Shen Qingqiu steps in close and grips the collar of his robes Luo Qingleng is completely unprepared to counter a grapple. Shen Qingqiu really prefers mid or long range combat to close quarters.

Still, Luo Qingleng is taller and heavier and digs in so that Shen Qingqiu has to commit fully to leverage him into a throw for a pin, opening holes in his own stance. Luo Qingleng takes advantage of the openings and sweeps Shen Qingqiu's leg, twisting his body to topple Shen Qingqiu.

Like he was waiting for that, Shen Qingqiu pivots, tucking his other leg close to him completely shifting his weight. Luo Qingleng overbalances and Shen Qingqiu neatly rolls them over into a pin with a smug look on his face.

"Too busy caught up with your novels to train, Shixiong?" The smug grin on his face is a stark departure from his normally placid expression. Still, the remark makes Luo Qingleng bristle.

Before he can retort however, a commotion interrupts them and their onlookers.

"Where's your shifu?" A clear voice demands through Bai Zhan's thin air.

"Mingyu?"

"What are you doing on my peak, you beast?" Shen Qingqiu sits back on Luo Qingleng's waist, the grin wiped away in favor of a truly nasty glare. Liu Mingyu parts through the crowd of disciples as easily as shears through rice paper, dragging behind him the crying body of a young man.

Luo Qingleng watches as Liu Mingyu glares at Shen Qingqiu, registers Luo Qingleng's presence, softens at the sight, then bristle again as he realises the pin Shen Qingqiu is still holding. He jerks the young man forward and throws him at Shen Qingqiu's feet.

"Haven't you taught your disciples not to bring suspicious things home?" Liu Mingyu says harshly.

"I didn't know what they were!" The young man wails. Liu Mingyu kicks half-heartedly at the Bai Zhan junior, sending him into an even more pathetic ball of tears.

"Hey!" The crowd of disciples finally catch their wits and start yelling. "You can't treat our shidi like that, you demon!"

Shen Qingqiu, cornered by his own pride and the expectations of his students, flashes to his feet. "What has possessed you into thinking you have the right to treat my disciples this way?" He flips open his fan, the thwack of the heavy silk opening inflicting an almost instinctual shudder upon those gathered.

"Your disciple brought a bagful of Sticking Spring Seeds to Cang Qiong and spilt half of them over Qing Jing Peak!"

"Sticking Spring Seeds?" Luo Qingleng and Shen Qingqiu ask together, Luo Qingleng rising to his feet at the news.

"How many are affected on Qing Jing?" Luo Qingleng asks.

Liu Mingyu shrugs, half apologetically in answer. "Qian Cao and Qiong Ding are already dealing with that." He says, evidently having washed his hands of that response task in favor of rushing to confront Shen Qingqiu.

Shen Qingqiu had shifted his attention towards the hapless disciple, storm clouds brewing on his face. His disposition has turned so dark, the other Bai Zhan disciples step away. He opens his mouth once, then closes it, at a loss for words. After a moment he closes his fan with a whack against the palm of his hand, the disciple flinching at the noise.

Even Liu Mingyu twitches, disguised at it is by striding forward to greet Luo Qingleng properly.

"I will save my words as you no doubt are clearly and intimately aware of your wrongdoing." Shen Qingqiu finally hisses, words forced throught his gritted teeth.

"Shifu, I didn't know that they were dangerous—"

"Ah..." Luo Qingleng sighs, wincing at the boy's instinctual desire to defend himself. Luo Qingleng knows clearly and intimately himself how little Shen Qingqiu tolerates excuses, especially when the boy really should know better.

"You—" unfortunately, Shen Qingqiu doesn't get to finish his outraged admonishing. The moment he pulls the disciple by his robes, unfurling him from his shrimp-curl, several loud pops burst from him alongside several puffs of downy fluff.

"Shizun!" Liu Mingyu yells, frustratingly stepping in front of Luo Qingleng.

Sticking Spring Seeds come from the Iridescent Ever Blooming Lotus, a plant with large qi cleansing properties that can be refined into very helpful medicine. The seeds are half palm sized and have a tough shell. When they encounter a trauma, such as falling from a height, or being jostled violently, they explode bursting with fine fluff that carry small seeds on the wind for dispersion.

The seeds all have an abundance of chaotic spiritual energy imbued in them, which is interesting from an ecological point of view. Luo Qingleng is not currently interested in the plant's ecological niche, and is instead concerned with the disturbance the seed's energy causes in cultivators.

All of that concentrated energy, introduced into a cultivator's meridians, overwhelmingly causes qi deviation. Shen Qingqiu—already with a weak cultivation base and prone to deviation, just recieved a faceful of the seed's explosion. Further more, despite Liu Mingyu trying to block Luo Qingleng, fine seed-fluff clings to his own face. Not to mention the rest of the Bai Zhan disciples.

"You had more?!" Liu Mingyu shouts, whirling around. He stops short and Luo Qingleng leans around him to see Shen Qingqiu's white robes in a pile on the ground before the Bai Zhan disciple. Liu Mingyu goes an interesting shade of pale and green. "Did he explode?"

"Mingyu," Luo Qingleng says, "The emergency fireworks..." he moves his hand but misjudges the distance and gracelessly paws at the air. "Oh," he breathes as vertigo rises in him.

He cradles his head as his vision swims, suddenly feeling light headed and nauseous. His spiritual veins buzz in discontent, the onset of a qi deviation he's sure. He stumbles into Liu Mingyu, who tries to steady him.

"Shi— shizun?" His voice sounds both loud and muffled. Luo Qingleng presses his face into Liu Mingyu's shoulder blocking out the stinging light even as his head swims.

Liu Mingyu shouts something at someone and distantly the explosion of fireworks sound. Liu Mingyu's hands don't leave Luo Qingleng, holding him firm and solid. Though he feels like he's falling, Mingyu has him safe. Of course Mingyu would know how to deal with falling... Luo Qingleng makes a discontented noise. His body feels stretched thin and weak and he lurches, like a foal, and Mingyu's arms slip under him entirely, cradling him.

His spiritual network twists in knots, painfully, and he knows that he can't stay conscious for much longer. Luo Qingleng pries open his eyes to look at Mingyu. As black edges in, he watches Liu Mingyu's sharp brows carve a furrow in the perfect angle of his forhead. His dark eyes are uncharacteristically wide and worried. Luo Qingleng tries to raise his hand to soothe the little enchanting mole under Mingyu's eye, but lacks the coordination to do so.

He blacks out when his hand borders his vision and his last thought is that his hand looks smaller.

Luo Binghe wakes up in a bed too large for him. The light is bright, filtering through a paper window next to him. He blinks sleepily, his head hurting in the way that means he hasn't had anything to drink in a long time. Cautiously, he puts his hand on his chest but his heart beat is calm under his palm and there is nothing taped to his wrist.

Satisfied, he squirms until he's sitting up, with his back against the pillows. He wants to look around at the room, but his focus is immediately drawn to a man shifting at the edge of his bed.

It looks like he was sleeping, head pillowed on his elbows, one hand reaching lightly out. His hair is long and pulled back in a high ponytail, and it spills in inky strings over his shoulders and the bed covers. Luo Binghe must have woken him with his shifting.

The man abruptly sits up, fast enough Luo Binghe flinches a little.

"Shizun!" The man exclaims.

He's idol handsome, with pretty eyes and soft looking skin. He has a red smear on his forehead, and a little dot under his eye. He stares at Luo Binghe like he should recognize him.

"Luo Qingleng?" He tries instead, voice soft.

Luo Binghe scrunches his nose, suddenly wary. The man isn't a nurse or aid, obviously, so Luo Binghe was thinking perhaps he was a friend of his mom? She works a lot so sometimes she would have a neighbor sit with him. But if the man was a family friend, he'd at least know Binghe's name.

The man looks briefly disappointed, before his face firms. He looks kind of angry. It's a little scary.

"My name is Liu Mingyu." He introduces himself. "You—I'll get Mu Qingfang." He stands and leaves the little room.

Luo Binghe blinks. Mu Qingfang is another name Luo Binghe doesn't recognize, but he supposes it's probably a doctor? That is usually who people rush out of rooms to get in a...

Luo Binghe looks around the room. It doesn't really look like any doctor's office he's seen before. The paper window, for one. And there's no row of utilitarian cabinets or sink. There's a pretty table and shelves, some pouches and incense. The floor isn't tile but wood. It kind of looks way too fancy for a doctor's office.

He pulls back the covers—he's wearing some kind of white gown—and hops off the bed. It takes a moment for him to get his balance, he's a little dizzy, but he goes to investigate the table. There's a cup and a jar of water so he pours himself some and takes a drink.

Holding the cup he wonders if he could look a little more. He'd like to see some of the glass bottles on the shelves, they're very pretty. But his mother had taught him to be respectful and he feels like he's already doing something a little wrong. The man obviously expected him to stay put, and patients aren't supposed to get up and walk around unsupervised, right?

Pouting, he goes back to the bed and sits on it, holding the cup.

It gets a little boring before he hears footsteps and the door to the room opens. A tall man with glasses enters the room, but Luo Binghe barely notices the glasses. Or the little mustache. The man is wearing floor length fancy robes, the kind you'd see on the TV.

He sweeps into the room and pulls a stool close to Luo Binghe's bed, sitting on it. He feels professional, even without wearing the scrubs Luo Binghe is used to doctors wearing, and he's smiling gently.

The man from before lurks at the doorway.

"My name is Mu Qingfang." The doctor says. "You were sick, so I've been taking care of you. You're looking better now. Can I take your pulse?" He holds a hand out gently.

Luo Binghe nods and puts his hand in Mu Qingfang's. Mu Qingfang presses to fingers to the pulse point in Luo Binghe's wrist. As he does so he smiles at Luo Binghe again.

"Thank you. You do seem to have stabilized and it's likely you'll recover completely on your own."

Luo Binghe doesn't remember being sick, but with how thirsty he had been it makes sense. He nods. "Thank you, Mu-Xiangsheng."

"And how should I give my welcome?" Mu-Xiangsheng asks.

"Oh!" Binghe flushes, embarrassed. He should've introduced himself right away, probably. He glances warily at Liu Mingyu at the doorway, but the man doesn't seem to be paying much attention. "I'm called Luo Binghe." He says.

"Xiao Binghe then," Mu-Xiansheng smiles gently. "Do you have any questions, Xiao Binghe?"

"Where's my mom?" He asks first. Then, after a pause, "And what was I sick with? And where am I?" And why are you wearing those clothes! Upon closer inspection, Liu Mingyu is also wearing fancy robes, though in shades of black and white. Luo Binghe thinks asking might be rude, or possibly stupid since it everyone is wearing them. He doesn't want to be rude or stupid.

"Well," Mu-Xiansheng starts, "I'm not sure where your mom is right now. Liu Mingyu found you and brought you here. You're on Qian Cao, of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. Do you know where that is?"

Luo Binghe frowns. "No." He says, but he's more concerned about his mom.

"That's okay. You had a qi deviation, so it was best to bring you to a cultivation sect instead of a mortal doctor."

Luo Binghe blinks.

"Cultivation?" Like the TV dramas? Was he in a TV drama? Did he get so sick he ended up in the tv? Is that even possible? His mom must be so worried!

He pauses. Usually in stories no one really notices that you're missing when you go on an adventure. Like time pauses or something. So his mom probably hasn't noticed that he's gone. That's good. And Mu-Xiangsheng says that he'll get better on his own, that probably means he'll go back to the real world sooner or later. So it's probably fine.

If he doesn't have to worry about his mom (and he doesn't, because time is paused so she won't be worrying about him) then that means he's free to be excited about the rest of it.

"I had a qi... deviation?" He asks and gets a nod back. "So I have qi?" Superpowers, basically? He doesn't really feel any different, but maybe that's because he's new to all this?

"Well, you have young spirit veins. They're undeveloped, so you don't have access to the reserves or refinement you normally would. It seems, along with your memories, you core has regressed as well as your physicial age. It's quite interesting, really, most reports of this kind of qi deviation don't include memory regression as a symptom—"

The doctor rambles on, and Luo Binghe doesn't really think he's being talked to anymore so he takes to looking at his hands. He doesn't feel different from normal, just tired. He finishes his water and holds the cup awkwardly while Mu-Xiangsheng talks, eyes drifting towards Liu Mingyu again.

The man has his arms crossed, and he's leaning against the doorway like he's holding it up. Liu Mingyu found him, Mu-Xiangsheng said. So, however Luo Binghe got here, Liu Mingyu picked him up and took him to a doctor to get help! Maybe he even flew? That's really cool.

At that moment Liu Mingyu stops glaring at nothing and catches Luo Binghe staring. Luo Binghe startles, and looks back at Mu-Xiangsheng. Does Liu Mingyu always look angry?

"So he's fine." Liu Mingyu interrupts Mu-Xiangsheng's rambling sharply.

"Yes, yes, like I said, Xiao Binghe is recovering well and his body will heal naturally."

"Good." Liu Mingyu crosses his arms. "Does—should he stay here?"

"I suppose it doesn't matter." Mu-Xiangsheng has turned, so Luo Binghe can't see his face, but he sounds considering. "He'll recover just as well here as anywhere else. Or anywhere else as here."

Luo Binghe grips the glass cup. He likes Mu-Xiangsheng, so he wouldn't mind staying here. But, it was boring when he was waiting. Probably, Mu-Xiangsheng doesn't have a lot of time to spend with Binghe, being a doctor and all.

"Should he go back to Qing Jing?" Liu Mingyu asks.

Mu-Xiangsheng sighs, before turning back to Luo Binghe. "Xiao Binghe, would you like a tour of Cang Qiong? Getting out would be healthy for you and you can decide whether you'd like to stay here on Qian Cao, or somewhere else while you recover. Of course, you'll still have check ups with me, either way."

"Yes, please!" Luo Binghe exclaims. "Uhm, will Mu-Xiangsheng take me?"

"Unfortunately, I don't really have the time." Luo Binghe can't help his pout, even though he already knows Mu-Xiangsheng is busy.

"Oh." Luo Binghe glances quickly at Liu Mingyu before looking away. He still looks a little angry but since Mu-Xiangsheng said he was the one who helped Binghe he can't really be scary. "Can... would it trouble Liu-Gongzi to take me instead?" He asks.

Over Mu-Xiangsheng's shoulder, Liu Mingyu looks startled. Mu-Xiangsheng smiles. "Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't mind at all. Shizi?"

Liu Mingyu straightens from the wall and edges closer to Luo Binghe's bed. The way he moves reminds Binghe of one of the alley cats he tries to pet sometimes.

"You want me to take you?" Liu Mingyu clarifies when he comes closer.

Luo Binghe eyes the sword hilt he can see at Liu Mingyu's hip and nods. "Can you fly?" He asks, eagerly, just the slightest bit embarrassed in case he has misunderstood.

"Of course I can." He answers quickly, sounding one part confused, one part pricked pride.

"Can I fly with you?"

Liu Mingyu tilts his head studying Luo Binghe, which makes his face burn a little. Maybe he was wrong and Liu Mingyu is actually as mean and scary as he looks. And then Liu Mingyu grins, startlingly wide and easy. His whole face transforms with it and Luo Binghe reflexively smiles back.

"Of course you can."

----

Okay, quick note on the names!

I discussed it with a friend who suggested Luo Qingleng (Qīnglěng | chilly / deserted / desolate) which I thought was thematically a good fit for Binghe!

He gave a very convincing argument for lqg's name:

"ok for Liu Qingge, calling him Liu Mingyu would be extremely funny- the correct characters would be 溟譽 (ming2yu4), which isn't an existing word but is pronounced exactly like 名譽

which relates to fame and honor

HOWEVER, it also sounds very very close to ming2yu2 (Stupid and obstinate)"

Which I indeed thought was very funny so I kept that. Rest assured, he suffered so much bullying. That being said, I'm not an expert with Chinese names or cultures, and though this is meant to be light hearted and fun, please let me know if these are outside the realm of even Airplane's naming conventions, as well as the terms of address binghe uses! I did some research, but I really don't know what a kid would call a fantasy doctor and a fantasy hero who saved him =n=

[thegoldenavenger]

I wish you would write time travel! Do you prefer time loop? to the future? to the past? reverse transmigration? Any flavor pairing in svsss~

Ahha you're lucky you qualified with svsss bc I have written time travel for a different fandom :3c

i think possibly an interesting take on this would be bingge deciding the point of difference between his universe and the nice shizun universe is that liu qingge is still alive... so like hm. i'll try and keep this shortish.

luo binghe has always gotten exactly what he wanted. perhaps after a trial, a tribulation, pain or minor tragedy, but eventually he always came out on top. so didn't it follow that he would win in his search for that nicer shizun? what, after all, did that other pathetic version of himself have that he did not? did luo binghe, demon emperor of the three realms, not deserve that softer shen qinqiu?

after returning home, to a palace stirred by that inferior him, his harem in a titter, it took too long to find space to go over his memories and the filtered memories he lifted from shen qingqiu. where did the difference lie? was it something he had done, as a child, that softened shen qingqiu from a cold master into a kind man?

he goes through softened memories of warm breakfast, embarrassingly transparent sparring practice, a satisfyingly cruel goodbye into the abyss, and then finally: that attack on cang qiong mountain by sha hauling's forces. instead of backing down after the three matches, instead they are chased off.

even though he had only seen him from a distance, luo binghe cannot mistake him. indeed, he sees almost a reflection every time he looks at his wife, liu mingyan.

this then, must be the difference. liu qingge was not murdered in the caves, and instead lived. perhaps the tumultous rivalry between shen qingqiu and liu qingge allowed the man to excise his crueler tendencies away from his poor students. or shen qingqiu had intended to murder the man and failed, and thusly locked himself into a portrayal of kindness as to divert suspicion that grew into a reality. whatever the case, it seemed to luo binghe that liu qingge's survival was the pin on which shen qingqiu's destiny lay to unfold. just as the man's death was how luo binghe could pry shen qingqiu from his bamboo peak, the man's life seemed to be how luo binghe could set his hands on a kinder shen qingqiu. one he could call shizun without qualm.

then all there was to it was to uncover a way to go back. he did not necessarily seek out a way, as such things had a way of just happening to him, but he kept his long reach open and searching. similarly, he did not equivocate with himself over perhaps leaving his harem and life to go back in time. either he would be rebuilding his empire in the past, or he would manage to bring that shizun back with him. things always worked out for him, when he put his mind to it, so he didn't over worry.

when it happened, it happened almost without fanfare. luo binghe stepped through a portal and walked into the abrasive air of the demon realm, separate and unconquered.

Finding his bearings is easy, though the realms had been merged for decades, his sharp memory recalled exactly where he stood now. Just as easy is journeying the distance north to reclaim his vassal (it does not occur to him that Mobei-jun is decades younger now, that Mobei-jun does not remember his oaths and fealty. It's fine. Luo Binghe reminds him)

From there, it barely needs recounting how he finds himself deep in the Ling Xi caves, except to mention how briefly he indulged the desire to pause by the woodshed. Tempting as it is to set fire to Qing Jing again, he moves on, Xin Mo a heavy weight at his side.

He had never been in the Ling Xi caves, but navigating them is intuitive. The pure natural qi laps against him like the ocean tide. He follows it to a cavern perfect for cultivation. It's the wrong cavern, as sitting calmly, meditating, is Shen Qingqiu. Luo Binghe cannot tell if it is the softer Shizun or not.

It doesn't matter, yet. Luo Binghe turns and treks deeper into the cave system, confident. Soon enough, his ears pick up the sounds of breathing. He quickens his pace; he wants to find Liu Qingge before Shen Qingqiu. He doesn't have a plan yet for how he means to save the man; warning the Bai Zhan War God of his martial brother's duplicitous intent? Just picking him up and manhandling him out of danger as he would one of his wives?

As he draws closer in on his prey, the light breathing he hears turns labored. Perhaps Liu Qingge is on the edge of a breakthrough, perhaps he is working through a heart demon.

He doesnt know why he is not surprised when he enters the next cavern and sees the sculpted brows of Liu Qingge's face twitch into a furrow, when a bead of blood wells like tears in his closed eyes. That the Peerless War God of Bai Zhan is experiencing a qi deviation? Yes, that could be surprising. Luo Binghe briefly decides it must be the lingering influence of one of Shen Qingqiu's plots. What isn't surprising is feeling the white hot flare of Yang energy starting to consume Liu Qingge's spiritual pathways.

The cool Yin of Luo Binghe's demonic qi stirs.

It always comes back to this, he thinks, a distant mix of frustration and interest sparking low in his gut.

Standing at the shadowed alcove watching Liu Mingyan's beloved brother fall into qi deviation, he finds that not even traveling years into his past can allow reprieve from the cycle his life has fallen into. He supposes this is a fair enough trade for saving the man's life, and even a gift for the most aloof of his wives. It is almost funny that the Liu he'll have intimate knowledge of won't be the one he married.

"Quiet now," Luo Binghe calls when the qi deviation rolls over Liu Qingge, paling the man's face and making him snarl. "This Lord will help you."

At his voice, Liu Mingyan's brother opens his eyes, and they seem to flash red. With killing intent or the deviation, it doesn't matter to Luo Binghe. What matters much, much more is Liu Qingge's hand flexing, summoning the shining blade of Cheng Luan.

Luo Binghe feels a smile slip onto his lips. "Well, if you insist, this lord does not mind indulging first."

[thegoldenavenger]

About... 7k of reverse tropes "nursing home" au inspired by the bingliu server as always. Minor warnings for themes of mortality, elder abuse, controlling behavior, cults (???), and uh less than canon typical violence. Mostly it's funny I hope. Not betad and an outline fic.

LBH volunteers at the nursing home in homage to his adoptive mother who was a nurse there. He's seen as a sweet boy, dedicated and hard working. He is 100% the "statistic that caregivers exert undue influence unto their charge in order to be included as a beneficiary in their will is an error. Luo Binghe who gets included in over three digits of wills and inheritance clauses is an outlier adn should not have been counted."

Mostly bc the folks he volunteers for genuinely like him, but also bc after his mom died, only being in some random grandmother's will helped him survive and start going to college so now he games the system by being sweet and maybe a little manipulative.

Shen Qingqiu is an older gentleman who has been in and out of hospitals and is now recovering in the assisted living center (or something idk). Shen Qingqiu is rich and aloof looking, can be extremely acerbic so a lot of the nurses avoid him when they can. His family, if he has any, do not visit.

Luo Binghe has time and holes in his schedule so he starts feeling out how receptive sqq is. His other target is the old palace master, who is also very rich and old, but less acerbic. Lbh has already started on OPM and he's very friendly but he also has like a billion grandkids who lbh low key has to compete with. OPM seems to favor lbh anyway, but lbh doesn't see any harm in befriending someone a little lonelier just in case.

LQG only meets sqq by mistake. Maybe he's looking for somewhere to house one of his relatives, or maybe he's tagging along to visit a friend's relative. Maybe he has to do volunteer hours for a course he's taking. Whatever it is, he and sqq come into contact. Sqq finds out lqg is [doing something badly that sqq has experience in. Like, idk getting a relatively low grade in literature] sqq immediately picks on this bc he is a terrible gremlin who likes being mean. Lqg, not really beholden to etiquette or respect for old people, fires back.

They get in a very, retroactively, embarrassing verbal spar. Sqq is very haughty and clever, teases out what parts lqg is struggling most with, gives backhanded advice, and mostly enjoys winding lqg up.

Lqg, for his part, is never really challenged in this specific way ever. A) He respects the older people actually in his life bc they deserve it (hmm do they haha) so he just like. Nods when they scold him. B) He usually excels at what he does so he doesn't get chastised often. C) when he doesn't excel he's eager for pointers which are given to him bc he is a martial prodigy everyone wants to nurture except for D) when he's underperforming in the soft arts. He isn't stupid, but no one expects him to be good at poetry or reading, so when he struggles with dyslexia or too literal thinking no one really bothers to help him. So this is like amazing for him.

LBH walks in on the tail-end of the fight, is APALLED, and physically escorts lqg off the premises. Literally picks him up and yeets him out the door. (It's a double KO for lqg who wanders off dazedly) LBH has been trying to get sqq to open up for like weeks now, and he didn't know sqq cared so much for that particular topic, which LBH knows a lot about. So LBH tries to engage with sqq that way. Sqq is perhaps a little more receptive but still taciturn and kind of mean about it.

LBH's endless well of patience finally runs dry, he calls sqq a mean old man, and sqq finally laughs at him. Lbh storms off, upset he got upset and ruined his image and chances of getting into sqq's inheritance probably. The staff and other residents are furious at sqq bc NOONE has ever made lbh upset before, how dare he singe their precious cinnamon roll of a white lotus binghe.

Turns out, the meaner lbh gets, the more crotchety old sqq actaully likes him.  He sees right through lbh's sheep act, is pretty wary that lbh is cozy-ing up to him bc he's about to die and his money and estate might as well go somewhere, and also hates that lbh just lies down and lets anyone walk all over him to seem mild and tender. He's a human person, not a chicken nugget, sqq thinks he should grow a spine and take what he wants and also stop hanging out with literal Cult Leader OPM.

Lqg mulls over sqq's advice, such as it is, applies it, and does a little better then expected. Everyone is shocked and congratulates him (as if the miniscule amount he's improved deserves that) and then tells him to relax and not over exert himself in areas he's not suited towards / doesn't need in life. He is increasingly upset with the people he has around him and goes back to the assisted living center, figures out that they really dont let just anyone walk in and starts a commotion at the front desk.

He can't even say he's there to visit sqq bc he doesn't know his name and saying he wants to visit "the shameless, underhanded, mean old man in green" was probably not the best way to get a visitor's badge...

Lbh is helping sqq take a walk around the center for exercise, sqq bitching the whole time, so they come across lqg making a fuss. Lbh squares up to Remove The Problem, but sqq elbows him out of the way and power walks over to lqg like he wasn't just complaining of a bum hip three seconds ago. He stops half way and switches smoothly into Refined Older Gentleman Strolling mode, with his hands primly behind his back.

LBH is so mad, and also curious so he just watches.

When LQG finally clocks that sqq is approaching he points a very rude finger at him and says "that guy! I'm visiting him!" To the receptionist.

Everyone shuts up, even sqq pauses. He wanted to get in a fight again (lbh has loosened up a tad and will verbally spar with him but he doesn't lose his temper and the sparring is more complicated and maybe a bit more bitter than the uncomplicated win sqq is assured he'd get over lqg) (yes. This man is mad he can't bully lbh more effectively, he's an awful dude ajakskdkdldl) but he wasn't expecting lqg to come back for him. He thought lqg might be here for whatever reason he was here last time.

The receptionist glances at sqq, like... "him? Really?" And sqq sniffs and imperiously waves his hand. "It took you long enough" he says "hurry up and check him in" he orders the receptionist who thinks very hard about calling security before deciding sqq deserves whatever mess he's getting into and hands lqg a visitor badge.

Lbh awkwardly follows them, unwilling to leave them alone when he JUST got sqq to regularly (yell) talk to him. For some reason, sqq's verbal acidity and berating is... well, lbh likes it more than OPM's friendly smiles and incessant little gifts. Like hell he's gonna let some random guy piggy back off his hard work.

Lqg doesn't waste time. He slams his [idk. Test. Essay? Reading report????] Down in front if sqq and crosses his arms.

Sqq stares at it and then at lqg. Lbh sneaks a glance too and makes a face. Sqq says "It was clear at first glance that you were an idiot but I did not know it ran this deep." He reluctantly picks up the paper and flips through, with a face like he's watching a train wreck.

Lqg growls, tense. He hasn't sat down and his hands are white knuckled against the table between them. He leans over sqq almost threatengly, steely gaze watching sqq's every minute change. "Is it hopeless, then?" 

Sqq's expression twitches as he keeps going through, line by line. He recognizes a lot of the mistakes LQG has made, diagnosis him with dyslexia almost immediately, frowns bc he can see the underlying structure lqg is going for but can't execute.

Lbh comes around sqq's side and reads over his shoulder. He's sure sqq is going to throw the papers back in lqg's face, which will serve him right. The paper header catches his attention. Maybe it's the teacher's name, or even lqg's name that he recognizes, but he puts two and two together, realizes lqg would be a Very Beneficial Friend to make, and decides when SQQ throws him out lbh will pick up the pieces. LQG is sure to have richer more influential friends that lbh can use... this will be perfect. He can't stay loitering around this place forever, at some point he has to grow up and be successful and honor his mother's efforts to raise him up...

"It's terrible." Sqq finally says, his voice heavy.

Lqg, who has been told to give up trying by everyone around him and has stubbornly insisted on trying to push through, actually slumps down in his seat. If this random old man thinks it's not worth it, if even he, who doesn't know lqg at all, thinks he's too stupid to improve, maybe he really should stop trying.

LBH cannot help his smug smile. Trust in sqq to tear down anyone's walls, now lbh can just follow after lqg, discarded papers in hand, and offer to go over them with him. It's bad but not hopeless, and anyways, lbh is a great ghostwriter. Lqg looks like a dumb athlete, so even if lbh can't improve his brain he can still improve his grades—

"Whoever tutors you needs to be fired," sqq interrupts lbh's fantasy, and takes a red pen out of his pocket. (He carries it around to correct typos in the books people leave lying around. He also writes scathing reviews on newspapers, magazines, charts that nurses accidentally leave unattended. He's a terror. It is policy to confiscated pens from him.) He starts marking the paper up, saturating it in red.

He actually pinches lqg's ear to pull him closer, pointing at a section to ask for clarification. Lqg halting gives it, sqq expands on it, lqg looks confused and extremely out of his depth.

"Make yourself useful and get my notebook!" Sqq orders lbh, waving his hand in lbh's face.

Lbh grimaces but runs to sqq's bedroom and gets the notebook (he hasn't completely fallen out of his white lotus persona just yet). When he hands it to sqq, sqq pulls lqg in for the Lecture of All Time. Lqg goes from looking wary and confused to determined, all furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips.

Lbh stands around and then wanders off to make snacks, determined to insert himself into this (he wants to be useful so badly! He wants someone to expend that much effort on him!! Isn't sqq supposed to be mean? And yeah, he's yelling at lqg and hitting him with his pen or his notebook to make sure he's paying attention, but sqq is supposed to be making him cry! Not helping him!!!) when he comes back he sets a plate of light finger foods down by sqq's elbow.

Sqq's hand automatically reaches for one and eats it. He pauses his whole lecture to chew. Lbh is unaccountably nervous for sqq's reaction. Sqq's reaction is rather a non reaction. He doesn't comment on lbh's food. But he eats more of it when he continues lecturing lqg and when lqg fails to come up with an answer he points his pen at lbh instead.

Lbh immediately replies, answering perfectly (of course) and sqq nods decisively, awarding him a point. Lbh grins, and lqg hisses "show off" decidedly not under his breath. Lbh responds in kind and the two start in on each other, lqg itching to do something he's confident in and lbh riding high on the one (two!! In sqq's book not taking the moment to spit vitriol is practically praise!) Bit of affirmation sqq had bestowed

Sqq gets tired of them yammering and kicks them both out, telling lqg to stop by again if he's up for getting his brain wrung out like sponge.

Lbh has never been kicked out before so he doesn't really know what to do and ends up wandering after lqg. So what, his plan to comfort lqg kind of... never got off the water, and also the guy keeps shooting wary glances at him, lbh will just annoy him into letting him around lqg's friends and connections. Also, seeing lqg riled up is really making lbh's chest glow. There's no reason to split ways now.

Lqg finds suggestions written in bold all throughout his papers. "Request materials reprinted / displayed in different font" "get a line reader" one note is just a web address. His watch buzzes, and it's time to go to the gym.

Lbh is STILL following him, so lqg tells him to buzz off. Lbh, who isn't blind and can see the gym bag lqg is holding says he is also going to the gym. Lqg points out lbh's lack of gym bag and gym clothes. Lbh says it's lqg's fault for getting him kicked out of his volunteer job early.

Lgq maybe feels a little bad about that so he lets lbh tag along after him. He has to make a stop at his apartment instead of going straight to the gym like he wanted to, in order to throw some spare clothes at lbh, and then they both go to the gym where lqg gets to vent [gestures to all of it]. He's actually feeling pretty damn good! He's got things kind of worked out! Sqq is mean, but he's forcing things into lqg's head that no one has bothered to do before. Lqg isn't like... going to pursue the arts or anything, his family has his future lined up for him already and he isn't particularly interested in the arts. It's just that he wants to prove, if only to himself, that he isn't Just a dumb strong guy.

Meanwhile, lbh's jaw is on the ground. How high can lqg kick? How flexible is he????? How much can he dead lift????????? That's more than lbh weighs!

Lbh is strong but not especially trained. So like, yeah he can throw lqg over his shoulder when the guy is distracted but he's suddenly hyper aware that he might not be able to if lqg was actually fighting him.

He asks for a spar and he learns Very Quickly that, yes, that was indeed an exception... lbh holds his own surprisingly well for someone who isn't trained, lqg is very reluctantly impressed. Lbh ends up flat on his back gripping a Sports Drink(tm) for dear life reconsidering all his plans

So this is how it goes: lqg visits sqq three times a week for the most violent cram school imaginable. Lbh volunteers daily still, spends less time with OPM and more time nagging sqq and following after lqg's gym visits. Sqq is surprisingly content beating knowledge into such a meat head kid, and smug that lbh is dropping more and more of his goody two-shoe act in favor of getting into fights with lqg and debates with sqq.

Lbh enjoys figuring out what snack foods both sqq and lqg will eat; They are both surprisingly picky over food. Sqq likes things that are clean, light, delicate. Lqg eats things that are protein heavy,  clean, and healthy. It's more of a challenge than lbh thought it would be, and a little frustrating when he finds something that one of them likes but the other won't eat.

(Lbh spends an inordinate amount of time on some tanghulu and tea cakes to go along with a high quality tea... sqq practically inhales his portion, praising lbh's tea with more genuine words than he usually does. Lqg makes a face and tells lbh he doesn't eat that much sugar, but they look very nice. The face he makes is sort of resigned)

Lqg keeps improving in his classes. Enough so that one classmates (Mu Qingfang) asks him if he wants to go on a field research trip with him. It's mostly a camping trip, Mqf would deal with all the fiddly bits, but it seems like something lqg would like, mqf says offhandedly.

Lqg mulls it over, brings it up to sqq and lbh the next time he sees them. Sqq is interested in mqf's topic of research and sort of encourages him to go just so sqq can also get in on it. (Lbh watches like 80 year old sqq try and teach lqg how to use the video call function on lqg's drastically unsexy phone)

Lqg goes on the trip.

Sqq and lbh both adjust fairly badly to not seeing lqg like they're used to.  Sqq is surprisingly lonely and takes it out lbh.  Lbh relishes sqq interacting with him more but misses lqg anyways. Without lqg's tutoring lbh goes back to his regular volunteering routine, which means he's back to spoon-feeding OPM

Opm has Not been Happy about lbh spending less time with him. Opm is like, a literal Cult Leader and has been trying to snare lbh for himself this whole time. At first, sqq's abrasiveness seemed perfect, like he'd drive lbh deeper into opm's clutches, but somehow that did not work out. With the addition of lqg helping bridge that gap, lbh seems to be getting further away

Opm pulls some strings, has his dear grand daughter (LPM) start flirting with lbh, and GYX try and take up sqq's time. He also makes a few calls bc he recognizes lqg's family name at least.

It all comes to a head very suddenly.

LQG's family find out he's spending a lot of time is SQQ's care, ducking out on his other responsibilities (he has just rescheduled his time... lqg would never disrespect his family by ditching his other classes and what have yous, but it's all the same to them) that he went on mqf's  camping trip without consulting them, potentially putting himself at risk for injury or sickness or whatever. They're pissed.

Lqg tries arguing that he's literally just getting tutored for his grades and he should be supported for that. He's trying to balance his mind and body, and they should respect that. Instead he gets told that he's undermining their plans for him, being disobedient and willful when he should be grateful he has the chance and privilege to be training for his martial dreams (blah blah blah)

He's thoroughly dressed down and forbidden from visiting the home

Lqg gets increasingly angry and has no idea why he's being punished, because he hasn't dropped any skill he has, and is only trying to improve himself. Honestly, it's starting to feel more and more like committing to the nebulous martial arts / professional athlete career his family is grooming him for is increasingly like stepping into a gilded cage. He enjoys honing his body and competing and it is absolutely killing him that he's getting so torn up about it now.

Literally his only respite is hiding in his baby sister's room and reading stories to her. She loves when he reads to her and she thinks her brother is the smartest person in the whole world.

Unfortunately for sqq and lbh, lqg seems like he drops off the face of the planet. He just stops making video calls with sqq (phone is confiscated) he doesn't show up to his next scheduled cram session (grounded) he just disappears. Sqq idly thinks that he broke him and ran him off.

Lbh is a little suspicious. The man he spars with wouldn't run from anything! He'd definitely tell them to their face when he was done. Probably. Unless lbh scared him off some how? Maybe lqg got tired of lbh stalking him (dropping in on him at the gym, figuring out where his classes were so he can stop by and walk to the assisted living place together, etc) all the time? Maybe... lqg found out lbh was trying to use him to social climb? (Lbh mostly stopped planning to do that the moment lqg laid him flat at the gym but!!! Maybe lqg picked up on something anyway)

Meanwhile, lbh keeps having to fend off LPM, sqq is getting a little annoyed with GYX, and lqg is not sure how he's grounded when he is a whole ass adult... sure he doesn't actually have a job bc he has literally never needed one in his life, but he shouldn't Have to sit quietly and listen to a lecture that boils down to "You're whole life is planned out for you, don't even worry your pretty little head about it."

The OPM is getting anxious bc even without lqg, sqq and lbh seem to be commiserating together. He's in the middle of another Grande Plan to separate the two when they get in a shouting match in the middle of the rec room.  It blew up so quickly no one really got an earful except gyx who was nearby and respectful declines to share, but LBH storms out determined and angry.

OPM is very pleased bc surely that young man will be running to opm now, for comfort and guidance! And opm can guide him straight into his cult's clutches!

Lbh does Not run into OPM's open arms.

He cools off and the next day is back to following behind sqq like a lamb, reflexively making enough finger sandwiches for three and then making sad eyes until sqq eats one more. So OPM plays his cards.

A dapper young man in a suit and a young woman dressed just as nicely show up one day and just, check sqq out of the home.

LBH shows up as the young man is pressing sqq into a wheel chair to cart him off. The woman is holding sqq's coat and is smiling at him, obviously happy to see sqq. Sqq is very Not Happy.

He keeps trying to get out of the chair, keeps telling them to go away and leave him alone, etc etc.

Lbh interrupts them inserting himself in between them and sqq in the chair, creating space. He demands to know who they are and what they're doing, but approaches it cautiously and from the angle that he is oh so concerned with sqq. 

They introduce themselves and Qiu Haitang and Qiu Jianluo (obviously ahsjdk) who are sqq's only living relatives and they've been looking for their grand uncle for months now after he disappeared from his estate. They are oh so glad he's been well taken care of but it's time for him to come home and have the best care money can buy!

Sqq shakes his fist and accuses them of just wanting his inheritance. QHT is offended by the idea, obviously just misses sqq and worried about him, but lbh sees QJL's calculating gaze before qjl waves off sqq's accusation and says sqq must be going stir crazy cooped up in this little home

Lbh can't really do anything to stop sqq from leaving, but he gives his business card to qjl and has to just stand there and watch sqq get dragged away.

OPM edges up to lbh like "look! I am old and in need of attention!" And lbh reluctantly and kind of mechanically goes through his volunteer checklist now that sqq is gone.  Opm takes his chances and tries edging closer to lbh, taking advantage of his obvious poor state.

Meanwhile lqg is starting to chafe under his new restrictions.  He usually likes his routine but it turns out not having any choices really saps the enjoyment out of everything. He takes to bothering his little sister more and more often, growing much closer to her as he isolates himself from the rest of his family. He is just so tired of everyone telling him how great at this one thing in his life he is. Like there's no other choices for him.

It's not like he wants to abandon the life plan his family has laid out for him; he doesn't want to be a scholar, or a scientist, or a poet. He just doesn't like the one dimension everyone has cast on him. He is so, so close to believing he's only good for the one thing and nothing else matters and he really doesn't want to fall into that mindset.

He misses how hard sqq pushed him, and how teasing lbh is. They're both good for him, he thinks. He's known no one else like them in his entire life. Elders are meant to be respected and listened to, and peers, if he had any, were for him to defeat.. he was never encouraged to talk back or think quickly enough to parry one of sqq's spearing little snipes, and has never been allowed to take pride in something as simple as a clever turn of phrase. And no one can keep up with him, so having LBH repeatedly dog his footsteps, improving leaps and bounds just to match him is exhilarating and he misses it.

He thinks about skipping out on leg day to make a visit.

OPM is definitely taking advantage of lbh's sudden unstable headspace. Unfortunately for lbh, he never really processed the grief of his mother passing. He kind of has been low key retraumatising himself by getting old people to love him enough to include him in their wills and then Die on him, but it's totally fine because he has SUCH a tight hold on his emotions that these deaths don't really affect him. Really! There's nothing triggering about being repeatedly left behind. :)

And now he's formed genuine bonds with lqg and sqq against all expectations and they've both left him! And he can't do anything about sqq bc sqq isn't his family or legally bound to him in anyway that he could stake a claim against blood ties, even if he suspects qjl at least of ill intent. And lqg just abandoned both lbh and sqq, so. So.

Opm kind of takes the opportunity to feed into these paranoias and pent up emotions, definitely trying to get lbh to associate opm with some kind of stability. Lbh even goes with opm on a home visit to [Huan Hua Palace analogue] where he's very briefly tempted to join an actual Cult so his problems go away

Luckily someone says something—maybe omp says something a little too reveling, or lpm let's something go that she's not supposed to, or gyx (who genuinely grew to like sqq for some inexplicable reason) gives lbh a stealth hint—and lbh realises that maybe he can't do anything about sqq (yet) but he can definitely track down and wring answers from lqg.

Lbh runs to the gym lqg frequents. Lqg is not there, so lbh tracks him down. (Boy has Stalker in his blood unfortunately)

He finally runs into lqg at a different fancy training gym lbh has to sneak inside of.  He confronts lqg, who seems surprised but not upset to see him. Mostly confused bc lbh is so upset. (His family didn't know? About lbh? So he's not grounded from lbh or even sqq specifically, just the assisted living place.)

Lbh comes off hot, demanding a lot of answers from lqg, who honestly tries to give them, but lbh really isn't in a great headspace and lqg isn't either so it turns into a graceless fight pretty quickly. Lbh is not dressed for a spar, but they tumble across the mats anyways. Lqg doesn't hold back and neither does lbh, who has been learning startlingly fast from lqg so they both end up in terrible condition.

Lqg is finding it kind of cathartic, bc lbh isn't caring about pulling punches or making sure lqg is in top form, and he sure as hell isnt above baiting him with words either.

Lbh is just finding it very nice to actually let lose and not act like a starry eyed little lamb to keep everyone on his good side. Obviously, lqg doesn't like him as much as he thought or he wouldn't have left so it's fine to let everything go

They kind of beat each other into the ground and they're both lying down staring at the ceiling, catching their breath, when lqg finally manages to explain his phone got confiscated and he hasn't been allowed to visit and he bombed that test he was supposed to take, but he did grab a copy of mqf's essay for sqq

And then lbh just bursts into tears

Lqg is frozen, completely unsure of what he said that caused that reaction.

Haltingly, lbh explains that after lqg stopped showing up, sqq's grand niece and nephew took him away probably to get their grubby little hands on his estate or whatever (as if they even care about his extensive historical scroll collections!) and that he's pretty sure he's halfway to joining a Cult even and everything sucks now!!!

Lqg sits up and like. Pats. Awkwardly at lbh's shoulder.

Apparently, since lbh visited Huan Hua Palace he recognized some faces that have been low key following him around and bumping into him all coincidental like. Like. The cult-recrution is very serious and lbh is kind of just realizing it now and freaking out more.

Lqg grabs a first aid kit, tenderly helps clean lbh up, drags him to a store to buy some decent clothes that aren't covered in sweat and blood, and then beings him home.

Can't let him go back to an apartment that's being stalked probably.

He introduces lbh to his family as a novice with potential, and lbh's manners are impeccable so they take a liking to him pretty quickly, even if they are a bit stoic about it. Lqg makes up some acceptable excuse to have lbh have dinner and stay over so they can talk more seriously about everything going on. (Lbh noticed that lqg's dinner is different than the rest of the family's)

Liu mingyan is also there, and adorable, and she likes lbh because he makes her brother frown less.

Anyways, lqg leads lbh to a guest room and then sneaks in from like a side window idk, and starts dissecting lbh's rambling again, this time with focus. He comes to the conclusion that there's two major problems here. One, opm's weird obsession with lbh and that Cult. Lbh can just stop volunteering at the center, but since people already know where he lives and have been low key stalking him that is not the only step they'd have to take.

Second, sqq's nefarious relatives trying to take advantage of him probably. They'd have to ascertain that they really are taking advantage and it's not just sqq protesting too much.

Out of the two, lqg decides the whole. Cult thing. Is more important right now. Sqq's relatives probably aren't planning on, like. Killing him early.

(He spares a moment to lament how weird his life has gotten)

Anyways defeating opm just amounts to getting evidence of tax fraud from the cult, which lqg recruits his acquaintance from school for (that's sqh. Sqh is having his own whole side adventure involving mbj, lgj, madam meiyin, wqw dealing with inheritance rights and accounting. He is not having fun.) which at least results in mbj princess carrying sqh away from lqg and lbh when sqh throws them all the paperwork for proof of money mishandling.

Opm goes to jail, the Cult is dismantled, lbh and lqg aren't even involved so risk of retaliation is very low.

During this lbh gets to come to terms a little more with his unresolved grief and the mortality of those he loves. He has several conversations with lqg about it, in oblique and acute ways. Lqg is straightforward, and hasn't encountered death as much as lbh, so his opinion is mostly that things happen when they happen. You can't avoid it, you just have to avoid having regrets. Which in turn makes him seriously reconsider just going along with his family's plans for him.  Yeah he was fine with it, but he'd been incredibly lonely and unfulfilled. He thought all he needed was improving himself, but with how close he is now with lbh, he realises  that he was seriously close to never having a friend other than his little sister.

He decides to take his own advice and not let others dictate his life.

This causes a fight with his family, of course, a huge blow out. Lqg insists that he's capable of doing the things he wants to do and handle his own schedule. His family cuts him off as like, a lesson in self sufficiency. If he doesn't appreciate them and their guidance then he can go it alone. They obviously think he'll come crawling back when he realises he has to work or something.

He can't afford his apartment (his family owns it but they tell him to fork up rent or figure it out)

Lbh graciously offers his apartment.

There's a mini arc where lqg adjusts to peasanthood. Lbh helps him get a job, lqg struggles to balance that AND training AND school, but he's always been a hard worker so he figures it out. Lbh insists on doing all the cooking when lqg reveals he knows how to make like three meals, and they don't even taste good. (They're calorie efficient and high protein)

Lbh goes back to volunteering bc that's... kind of a huge chunk of his time. It's his hobby. But he spends a lot more time with lqg which helps him regulate his emotions and stuff surrounding. You know. Dying.

Anyways, it's thanks to this that they get a lead on sqq! An older gentleman tries checking in at the visitor center and lbh would ignore him but he overhears sqq's name and comes wandering over.

"I just wanted to visit shen qingqiu. If possible."

"Oh, he's been checked out by his family for a few weeks now."

The man turns away, dejected, and lbh pounces on him, offering to escort him out of the building. Lbh asks him how the man knows sqq, why he wanted to visit, etc etc.

The man's name is Yue qingyuan. He was a childhood friend of sqq's. They were separated and he's been trying to get back in contact. He doesn't want any regrets. Lbh has a very nice and long conversation with the man, and they exchange numbers.

Lbh is excited to tell lqg the news and they both end up calling yqy to set up a coffee date later on.

They tell yqy about the qius and he corroborates their ill feelings and that sqq was never really close with the qiu branch of the family. Yqy knows where sqq's estate is and the qiu's family home, so he and lqg and lbh decide to make a visit.

Sqq, predictably, is pissed at yqy. (Do we get sqq and yqy's backstory here? No. Sqq herds yqq to a private room to yell and cry at him. That's for them. Idk if it's very obvious but sqq here is a mix of shen yuan and shen jiu so hes terrible but like in different ways)

Lqg and lbh awkwardly kind of stand around while that reunion is happening when they over hear qjl's conversation over phone with someone. They decide, you know, fuck it, might as well eaves drop. QJL definitely says something super suspicious and incriminating.

They go back to interrupt sqq and yqy when it becomes clear qjl is headed in sqq's direction. They give sqq the heads up, sqq admonishes them both but is CLEARLY touched  that they both were concerned about him and came after him. 

Qjl's plan is to get sqq ruled unfit and appoint qjl or qht as the trustee or whatever which means the qius will basically have all the access to sqq's money and estate before he even dies.

Sqq tries to outmaneuver him by preemptively disowning the qius from his heritance, but things do get tied up legally speaking. QJL and QHT say that sqq is unfit and old and obviously being taken advantage of by one of his caregivers from when he was recovering from a hospital visit. (They still have lbh's card and try to slander him Liberally)

Lbh does have to face and acknowledge his manipulative ways, at least in private to lqg and sqq and yqy. Sqq laughs, saying he KNEW lbh wasn't the sheep he pretended to be. That's fine, sqq likes wolves better anyways.

Lqg, after all their conversations about lbh coming to terms with his grief and trauma kind of assumes it's a little more nuanced than trying to just dig gold out of old people. Like, it was more of a coping mechanism where lbh was receiving tangible rewards for being in someone's life, assuring that even if he kept being left behind he was being rewarded as well?

Yqy decides that at the very least lbh cares genuinely for sqq so the rest doesn't matter, but his track record is maybe not the best to be involved with advocating for sqq Not Being manipulated and also probably shouldn't be in the lime light anyhow as he might get in trouble if any of his uh inheritances are questioned

Lqg on the other hand, is like. Best boy. Tutored by sqq, obviously hanging a genuine mentor/student relationship that can be backed with his grades improving (if sqq can still tutor someone he probably still mentally competant) with a wealthy family of his own, there's very little reason for anyone to suspect lqg of manipulating anyone in any capacity. (Him being cut off isn't like, a formal thing at all. And it's doubtful his family would make a fuss about it if it would harm their reputation as well, but it never comes up)

So LQG goes head to head with QJL about sqq's capacity for self governance. qjl is charming and clever, but lqg is earnest and captivating. Lqg definitely puts to use some of the rhetoric sqq tried beating into his head and is fairly pleased when he comes off as articulate and well spoken instead of awkward.

lqg and lbh eventually convince qht that qjl is not seeing sqq's best interests and she takes their side and qjl's quest to get his hands on sqq's money is squashed.

Sqq decides he wants to travel, hires lbh as an attendant, mostly so he has someone else to yell at besides yqy who insists on following sqq around like a duckling. Sqq hates ducklings more than lambs.  (The trip is for yqy to make various contact with his connections and businesses now that he's found sqq.)

It's lqg's family that begs lqg to stop being so self sufficient and independent. They say they'll give him a bigger allowance, a bigger apartment. He can have cheat days for his diet as long as it's within certain limits! Lmy misses him!

Lqg figures he's made his point and sort of goes back to the family. He still keeps living in lbh's apartment bc someone needs to feed lbh's stupid birds and pay the rent and what not, but he mostly eases back into his previous routine.

Lbh and sqq give him shit about it, like he's backsliding, but what is he supposed to do? There's only so much time he can spend listening to sqq lecture with the time difference, and with lbh gone there's not really anything to do but train like normal.

It's only when lmy comes crying to him bc she's feeling so pressured that lqg realises that probably things aren't ever going to change. His family won't stop pressuring him or trying to control his life and it won't stop with him. He doesn't want lmy to grow up feeling like she can only be good at what their family wants from her.

So he tells his family in no uncertain terms that he is going on a vacation. And he's taking lmy. When he comes back, he won't stand for them pigeon holing mingyan like they did him, and if they want him to keep being such a successful Liu child, and not disown them all outright, then they better get comfortable with lmy chosing her own path.

He ends up calling yqy, who arranges for lqg and lmy to join them in a layover surprising lbh and sqq.

(Sqh and mbj are babysitting lbh's birds and apartment)

Lmy delights sqq, who starts early in teaching her the joys of literature and teasing her big brother.

Lbh is also ecstatic, he really missed lqg. Lqg explains to them the ultimatum he gave regarding lmy, and lbh is displeased lqg is basically bargaining his own future for lmy's.  Lqg shrugs it off, he does enjoy his projected career and he's good at it. It's really enough for him if he family stops meddling in the rest of his life. He's pleased to choose who and what he gets to spend his free time on, and it's doubly worth it if that means lmy gets to be who she wants to be right out of the gate.

Lbh reluctantly agrees with him.

Anyways, they spend like two months traveling around having a great time on sqq and yqy's dime.

Yqy introduces lqg and lbh to a BUNCH of acquaintances, a large amount of which are established coaches and martial artists who take a liking to lqg and lbh.

Sqq spends so much time writing, probably memoirs or something.

Lmy is adorable and starts her own journals AND insists lqg start teach her some moves.

Lbh picks up so many recipes. Since lqg is on vacation that means lbh gets to feed him whatever he wants!!! It turns out, lqg just hasn't tried a lot of things and actually enjoys most of lbh makes. (Lbh is going to riot if lqg goes back on a diet.)

They make a cute family.

So, sqq is free, lbh is a little more grown, and lqg isn't just putting one foot in front of the other any more.

There's still some conflict in their lives... lqg's family is hard to work with but he sticks to his guns. It's a little embarrassing when lmy decides she wants to follow in lqg's footsteps and he wants to give her the freedom to do that but also wouldn't she rather do literally anything else. (She would. She would also like to write). Lbh gets very over protective of sqq and yqy bc they are getting older and more delicate, which ruffles sqq's feathers so much he threatens to write lbh out of the will!

Lbh is like "I'm in the will?"

And sqq is like, "don't be stupid, I paid you on our vacation as a caregiver, that disqualifies you from being a beneficiary."

Lqg is in sqq's will. Sqq figures lbh will marry him anyways at some point (lbh is a hopeless romantic) so it's basically the same thing.

(Yqy did NOT know sqq didn't put lbh in his will. He put lqg in his too! So he wouldn't feel left out!!! And he wouldnt feel pressured to rely on his family forever! Now he's got to get it rewritten for binghe!!!! )

I'm not going to write about sqq and yqy dying I'll cry. So it ends there. Happily.

[thegoldenavenger]

Little Fic Bits, WIPs, and Starts for SVSSS. Just a collection of ideas that I've started writing and am still kicking around, got stuck on, need reworking, or whatever. Unedited (as always) ♡ / mostly various iterations of binghe, sqq, and lqg / there's nothing too bad here content wise I think?

Pacific Rim AU

Shen Yuan wakes up to an aching head and an unfamiliar ceiling. He feels slightly off, his body an ache but an ache he isn't used to. The walls are concrete and the bed underneath him is hard. A hospital?

"Shen Qingqiu?" A voice swims up, breaking through his dazed scrutiny of the thin sheet covering him. His hands are elegant and callused.

"Are you okay? Qingqiu—"

Shen Yuan's hand is being held. He follows the line of hand to arm, to shoulder, to the man sitting next to him. He is handsome, tall, and looking at him with a concern that is as foreign to Shen Yuan as the room he's in, as the body he is increasingly aware of.

It's entirely reflex that has him pulling his hand back. The man lets it slip through his fingers.

"What... happened?" Shen Yuan asks.

"Do you not remember?" At this, Shen Yuan glares and the expression molds to his face like a glove. The man next to him, paradoxically, smiles. "It's good to see that you're feeling better."

The door opens and another man walks into the room holding a tablet. He has glasses and a lab coat and Shen Yuan instinctively pegs him as a doctor.

"You're up." The doctor says with mild surprise before nodding his head in greeting. "Shen Qingqiu, Yue Qingyuan."

"Mu Qingfang." The man—Yue Qingyuan—returns the greeting.

Mu Qingfang subjects Shen Yuan to an examination: looking at his pupil dilation, asking him to track his fingers, simple memory recall. He has Shen Yuan sit up so he can look at the burns on his neck and down his spine.

Shen Yuan, in the flight of fancy all young book-inclined children go through at one point or another, had resolved to act with dignity if he ever woke up in a fantastical situation. He hadn't ever really thought he'd become a—what? Chosen one? But stranger things happened in the books he liked reading, so he decided that if he ever walked through a wardrobe, or got hit by a truck, or passed some nameless threshold and became a xianxia transmigrator his first actions would be to not gape in stupefied amazement and ask suspicious, leading questions.

This is decidedly not xianxia ancient China, no matter how handsome the two men with him are, but he would still like to keep that childish promise to himself. If only Yue Qingyuan or Mu Qingfang would explain anything to him, that would make his position a bit easier.

Shen Qingqiu was, Shen Yuan was learning, a bit of a bitch. When Shen Yuan walks into the cafeteria, the idle chatter quiets down. In more than one case, several small groups of two or three all stand up and rush to sit at a table together as if terrified he will pick them to sit next to. The feeling is so unsettling when he first encounters it, Shen Yuan grabs the first thing he can get his hands on and leaves the mess hall entirely.

The staff avoid him, the trainees flinch away from him. The other senior members often act as though interacting with him will be a chore. Yue Qingyuan, who has rarely seen fit to let Shen Yuan walk alone, carries himself with such subdued guilt Shen Yuan feels a little like squishing him just to see if Yue Qingyuan will make a different face. Mu Qingfang offers all of his medical advice with the air of someone bracing himself.

Even after Shen Yuan has reluctantly allowed Mu Qingfang to speculate that he has suffered some memory loss from the incident that had landed him in the medical facilities, his reception is a stilted one. It helps, Shen Yuan thinks, that this body remembers its mannerisms well enough. He finds himself instictually reacting to certain stimuli in specific ways: Yue Qingyuan's apologetic voice makes Shen Yuan's—Shen Qingqiu's—face sneer; not hearing someone enter a room behind him and getting caught unaware makes him freeze first and then glare, blood itching to hiss a vitriolic remark.

He finds that some impulses are quite easy to lean into. The venomous tongue he'd used to weild devastating criticism lends itself well to the acerbic remarks Shen Qingqiu is apparently known for. His face, never that expressive before, has reached a new level of stoic apathy.

The face thing, specifically, helps him in the days it takes for him acclimate. Not only does he have an entirely new body, and an entirely new life, but he's in an entirely new world. The casual reliance on technology he's never seen before, the vaguely unrealistic military structure of the personnel around him, it all makes him suspect he has definitely transmigrated instead of just bodyswapping, or reincarnating.

He has his freak outs behind his closed doors, presents an aloof face to his peers when Mu Qingfang or Yue Qingyuan visit him to make sure he is recovering well, and nearly brains himself when Yue Qingyuan walks with him into the Central Headquarters for a meeting debriefing the incident he was involved in.

Because the meeting room has a wall entirely made of glass facing the bay of what is, now, unmistakably the Shatterdome. It is unmistakable because they are currently in the middle of repairing a huge, hulking, mecha which Shen Yuan recognizes from the gold-tier extras of his favorite hate-read Pacific Infinite Drift War.

Yue Qingyuan? Mu Qingfang? Shen Qingqiu??? Now he recognizes those names! Three of the twelve founding members of the Shatterdome, then called Cang Qiong, who invented the Pons technology that enabled the fantastically wild mecha battlesuits used to fight monsters in PIDW. It took so long because PIDW was set decades past this point. Long after Cang Qiong was flattened by the increasing threat of Monsters and the survivors rebuilt under the Shatterdome.

Only a handful of the original founders had survived to have any present role in the novel very early on in the prologue chapters. Luo Binghe, an orphan after a monster attack flattened his home town, was picked up by one of the founders Liu Qingge. Brought back to the newly built Shatterdome, six year old Luo Binghe resolved to become one of the mecha pilots trying to save humanity. He only had fleeting interaction with the old guard, Shen Qingqiu was briefly mentioned as an unpleasant and exacting master who berated Luo Binghe during synchronization tests.

At some point, Luo Binghe had been trapped near the rift allowing monsters through and sacrificed himself to carry a missile into it, hopefully closing it for good. He succeeded, discovered the rift was an opening to space, used his mecha to pilot away from the monster world and stumbled into a wide, wide galaxy of very fuckable alien women.

There the story devolved into a very flat, new woman of the week, space opera following Luo Binghe's journey through the galaxy ostensibly trying to find his way home but mostly finding himself in the bed of a new woman.

There were so many interesting things set up in those first chapters though! The mechas themselves were designed to be piloted by at least two people, sharing a neural link to help spread the load of operating such a behemoth. That neural link facilitated mind-to-mind communication between the pilots! The monsters were fascinating pieces of xenospec creature design, Shen Yuan had a great time speculating how their world worked in those beginning chapters.

The character plots set up in the beginning had been intriguing as well. Now that Shen Yuan had a reason to, he dug up his vague recollection of the intro characters. Shen Qingqiu, foreboding and always too hard on Luo Binghe's inability to synchronize with the mechs and establish a neural link despite himself being a technician and not a pilot. Yue Qingyuan's world-weary countenance having lived through almost half of his peers dying under his watch, latching on to those surviving with a guilt complex you could see from space. Mu Qingfang, a sharply brilliant multi-purpose doctor who was, of course, specialized in an unrealistic amount of disciplines and who seemed just as curious about the monster's as Shen Yuan was.

The others, Qi Qingqi, Wei Qingwei, Shang Qinghua, and Liu Qingge, were all unfortunately abandoned with very little character development which should have been Shen Yuan's first clue towards how this novel was going to go. Qi Qingqi was the token girl, and though Shen Yuan had hoped her position as one of the transitional trainers overseeing the mental preparations for synchronization trials she had been outshown by even Shen Qingqiu's meager appearances in the beginning chapters. Wei Qingwei was the head mechanical engineer and that is where his personality ended. Shang Qinghua had an interesting habit of conversing with Mu Qingfang about the monsters threatening humanity, but he disappeared (literally! He stopped being mention at all. Shen Yuan was fairly certain the author forgot about him) right before Luo Binghe went through the rift. Liu Qingge had a devastating neural accident sometime after picking up Luo Binghe but before the protagonist ever even got in a mecha!

Luo Binghe's relationships with his fellow trainees, were, of course, cut short when he went through the rift. The sweet spring romance between Luo Binghe and Ning Yingying was forever stalled! The antagonistic bullying from senior Ming Fan and Luo Binghe's determination to prove himself was never resolved!

And it would be too much to ask for any fleshing out of the many alien women Luo Binghe met post rift! No! All the substance they provided was in the interest of sex scenes that were, frankly, mediocre and under utilizing of the rich setting they were placed in.

Even the original conceit of the novel, the brain-linked mechas, got nerfed when Luo Binghe discovered he could pilot one by himself early on in the first arc.

So, Shen Yuan thought it was very understandable that it had taken him this long to recognize the world he was now in. What a treat! He was here for the actual development of the mechas! He would be seeing the prequel! Though, if his timeline estimate was correct he was nowhere close to seeing the surely adorable protagonist Luo Binghe, the alure of uncovering in all those plot holes and missing character scenes he'd been craving was really making up for it.

"Shen Qingqiu?" That was Yue Qingyuan.

"Maybe we were too hasty holding this meeting now is Shen Qingqiu is still having difficulties." That was a woman's voice—Qi Qingqi?

"Xuan Su is expected to be repaired with no difficulty," Another man's voice, deeper than Yue Qingyuan's. "Your quick thinking saved many of the delicate electronics."

"I'm quite fine." Shen Yuan—Shen Qingqiu—responds. "I just wasn't expecting..." He doesn't mean to let himself trail off but he's starting to remember, vaguely, as if remembering watching a scene from a movie, the screens of the mechas cockpit going staticky with overload and

---

Undertale AU

Shen Yuan wakes up on a bed of greenery after a particularly hard fall.

The cavern he's in is dark, except for the path of light hes lying in. He can't see the cave walls but he can feel how large it is in the way the fine hairs on the back of his neck raise. Looking up he can distantly see the hole he must have fallen down.

The quiet is so complete he can hear his blood rushing in his ears.

And then a flower blooms right in front of him: a lotus on land. It's petals are thick and a rich black as they spread open in front of his eyes. Nestled between the green shoots of bamboo Shen Yuan is lying in the lotus rises and tilts to face him. There's a face in the center of the flower.

----

Shen Qingqiu decides that if LBH and LQG are going to be stupid about him, he's going to not!date-date them both

He realised, abruptly, that they were waiting for him to choose. Between them. What was this? A game with him as a prize to win? They never ask him outright, though, and really that makes this their problem. The competitions, the peacocking, that's all on them.

He decides that he will not choose. Maybe that's selfish of him, but aren't they also being selfish? They keep acting as though his every decision carries the weight of the mountain to them. Well, he simply will not decide between them. If they're fine pushing each other back and forth with him as their referee then so be it. He's keeping them both.

----

[Liu Qingge Moshang Situationship because the BingLiuShen ship has Not Yet Sailed]

It doesn't escape his notice that he's being loaned out like livestock. On Junshang's whim no less. Shen Qingqiu smiles and then covers that smile with the fan Liu Qingge returned to him. "It would really be appreciated, shidi. This master would want to be there myself with Binghe if we weren't caught up here."

"You should be where your sect needs you regardless." He says, crossing his arms.

Luo Binghe hisses at him from where he's hovering like a gargoyle. Shen Qingqiu shushes him and delivers his final, devastating conversational blow: "Liu-shidi is the only one I can trust in the absence of me and my husband."

As always, Shen Qingqiu manages to hit his target two-fold. As always, Liu Qingge does what he's asked.

He thinks Shen Qingqiu won't ever forgive him for saying Luo Binghe had died at Maigu Ridge.

---

[They're all gods prologue]

He is the breakthrough. The final push. The turning of tides. The culmination. He has never failed to turn a lost cause into victory, there has never been a battle lost to him if he means to win it.

He is Liu Qingge.

Gods are not mortals, they do not change. He expected to be this way forever. Until the very fabric of the world crumbled and decayed. He never expected to change.

There is a story that exists, of a mortal who built a shrine because he was without hope. Cursed with tragedy for a bloodline he did not even know of, his every move was rife with misfortune. The shrine was built and caught the eye of Shen Qingqiu, Liu Qingge's god-brother of Bitter Autumn and Uneven Ground.

Liu Qingge wasn't aware of it at the time, but Shen Qingqiu caused some sort of mischief with the mortal and his shrine. It only becomes relevant later, when the shrine becomes a God itself under the mortal's own care.

Because Liu Qingge finds that new God, reeking of Shen Qingqiu's spiritual power but being so clearly new and naive. It takes the mortal under its wing and raises it up, like a pet.

And like a scorpion placed amongst frogs that little pet tears the heavens apart. Demonic blood festers the spiritual purity of heaven.

Liu Qingge, War God of Breakthroughs, goes through a Crucible and changes into the God of (pine trees) Endless Reliability. Of cyclical mundaniety. [This became that Everyone Is a God ficket outline thing]

---

[Lion, Tiger, Fair]

Liu Qingge is used to have Shen Qingqiu's undivided attention. The man enters the forest on soft feet, the layers of green robes swaying around him. He takes his time observing the new growth, the small animals, the spiritual pathways that Liu Qingge cultivates. Then Shen Qingqiu will find a nice spot and sit, sometimes he will meditate or cultivate, but often he will write notes in one of his field journals.

Liu Qingge will interrupt him then; striding out of the forest with mist on his paws.

Shen Qingqiu will lift his face up at him, a delighted smile breaking across it.

Like sunlight.

Liu Qingge will gracefully entertain his forests guest, sometimes he will lead Shen Qingqiu to a new surprise, or herd rare animals towards him. Q [drew a comic instead of writing OTL]

----

[LQG accidentally-on-purpose seduces Bingqiu]

Liu Qingge accepts Shen Qingqiu's marriage announcement with about as much dignity as can be expected of a war God brought to his limits every day for five years.

"You!" He shouts, alighting upon the verdant knoll of Qing Jing Peak. Cheng Luang sheathes itself as he lands in front of Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe. Shen Qingqiu stiffens and Luo Binghe pulls his master back from Liu Qingge's approach, as if preparing to perform some evasive maneuvers.

"... Me." Shen Qingqiu replies, evenly.

"When?" Liu Qingge demands, crossing his arms.

There's a moment where it looks as if Shen Qingqiu will prevaricate and Liu Qingge will have to figure out his words in a more orderly manner, but halfway through Qing Jing Peak's Lord just sighs.

"A few months," he says.

"Three months and eight days," Luo Binghe clarifies.

Liu Qingge looks at Luo Binghe, half a snarl on his face before turning back to Shen Qingqiu. "You didn't say anything." He accuses.

"This one was trying to avoid an argument." Shen Qingqiu says, his eyebrow an elegant arch.

Liu Qingge's hands were already fisted. There wasn't much more tightly that he could clench them before something gave so he forced them to relax.  The tension gathering in his shoulders and spine reflexively loosens as well when he makes himself breathe deeply. Shen Qingqiu's face is a mask of impassivity, as always, but his hand is hooked into Luo Binghe's sleeve.

For as much as Luo Binghe looks ready to physically push Liu Qingge back if his Shizun—his husband, Liu Qingge reminds himself—wishes him to, Shen Qingqiu looks as equally ready to stand his ground. It takes Liu Qingge a moment longer than it probably should to realise that both of them are expecting a fight.

Of course Luo Binghe does; Liu Qingge has done precious little but fight the demon lord. But that Shen Qingqiu also expects it of him is... Liu Qingge blinks and shakes his head.

"There was gossip. I just came to hear it from you."

"Well then, you've heard it now.  We're married." Shen Qingqiu takes the moment to find and thread his fingers through Luo Binghe's. The demon lord's expression turns into one of puppyish devotion.

Liu Qingge nods decisively and uncrosses his arms to grab Cheng Luan in its sheath. Shen Qingqiu and his husband tense again, Shen Qingqiu even opens his mouth halfway ready to say something—stop? Liu Qingge's jaw clenches. Surely Shen Qingqiu doesn't think so badly of this Bai Zhan Peak Lord as to expect him to attack a martial brother's husband unprovoked?

Liu Qingge removes his hand from his sheath, hoping his face doesn't look as surprised or as stung as he feels. He blows all the air in his lungs out in a displeased grunt. Later he will do some reflection on his own actions, for Shen Qingqiu to suddenly mistrust him.

"Congratulations." He says instead and turns on his heel to walk an appropriate distance before drawing Cheng Luan to fly him back to his Peak.  He doesn't look back; he knows already that he'd only see Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe staring at each other.

The problem is that Liu Qingge, in those years he'd grown closer to Shen Qingqiu, had developed the habit of finding things. Yes, Shen Qingqiu's fans and various beasts Shen Qingqiu had mentioned. But also other things, here and there.  When driving off some manner of demonic dread from a village, he'd spied one of the villagers wearing their hair up with an elegantly died ribbon, who, after seeing Liu Qingge's interest, had insisted on him taking it in thanks for his service.

The ribbon was promptly given to Shen Qingqiu.

"Afterall, I have no use for it." Liu Qingge had said to the man.

"Yes, and this master supposes rejecting it all together would have been too rude of my shidi to consider."  Liu Qingge had let that accusation sit.

Not only the ribbon but books and scrolls, old and well preserved parchment, jewelry, wall hangings, fan ornaments, some hair crowns, a stray length of spider moth silk... anything he'd come across that reminded him of Shen Qingqiu and his strange inclinations.

With Shen Qingqiu's dead body out of reach and losing his battles daily, Liu Qingge had still somehow found time to keep this collection of would-be gifts growing. What did Liu Qingge have of his dearly departed shixiong except the little pieces of him Liu Qingge found himself seeing in the world around him.

With Shen Qingqiu back, alive, Liu Qingge could give those trinkets and treasures properly. He had been, though even Liu Qingge knew he couldn't dump five or more year's worth of grief filled collecting on Shen Qingqiu. However, there was a difference between giving your shixiong a book he might like and giving a married man an expensive jeweled guan—even if the jewels could be tracked to originate from a blue-kingfisher-wolf spider, which Shen Qingqiu had once filled an evening waxing poetic upon.

So. The problem: Liu Qingge has been giving gifts to a man in a committed relationship. Moreover, Liu Qingge has done something to make Shen Qingqiu wary of him. Mistrustful in ways not shown for a decade or more. He doesn't believe the two are inherently related, but he supposed the solution should be the same.

He needs to find a wedding gift for Shen Qingqiu and his husband.

That should prove to Shen Qingqiu that Liu Qingge, if not approving of the marriage, refuses to impede it. He doesn't want Shen Qingqiu to look at him like a threat. He isn't one, anyways. He can and would fight Luo Binghe again, could likely put up enough resistance to annoy the man even, but Liu Qingge couldn't defeat him once in five years. Whether for Shen Qingqiu's attentions or any other matter Luo Binghe bothers himself with, Liu Qingge doubts he factors as a concern at all.

The unfortunate part is that Liu Qingge has to find a gift that will please not only Shen Qingqiu but Luo Binghe as well. It cannot be a token gift. Liu Qingge is, also unfortunately, not well suited towards thinking of things others will like, to say nothing about Luo Binghe in specific. Half the reason he has collected so many things for Shen Qingqiu are because of how little he needs to think about it.

Shen Qingqiu is obvious in his affections and disparagements. He loves books and bestiaries and historical nonsense. He likes fine and well crafted adornments. He's fond of specific snacks and teas and serving sets. His fan collection is varied and large. It is very easy to walk into a city market and see green silks or a lauded tome and think: Shen Qingqiu would like this.

It's even easier to size up the monster of the day and decide whether to dismember it, kill it cleanly, or shove it in a bag for Shen Qingqiu's pinched and slightly disapproving face.

Somehow, Liu Qingge doubts that Luo Binghe would appreciate the same.

Still, he must try.

He supposes the traditional gift would be to celebrate their joint household.  Luo Binghe did not spend almost eight years consolidating power just to shove Shen Qingqiu into some favored courtyard somewhere. No, the man had been determined to approach as an equal and to create a partnership based in equal powers. That he had gone so far as to stake claim in two realms and crown himself an Emperor was surely a sign of how much he idolized the Qing Jing Peak Lord. That he has all but abandoned his Demon Palace for a relatively humble bamboo house continues to reflect that his devotion, at least, has not diminished.

Liu Qingge is perhaps disadvantaged at knowing what one would welcome as a home gift. His own house on Bai Zhan is spare and he had left his home among mortals far younger than it would take to make him pay attention to and remember the furniture surrounding him. 

Shen Qingqiu liked tea... perhaps a new tea table?

Liu Qingge isn't nervous. His plan is simple and straightforward: give the wedding gift and show Shen Qingqiu that he will not... do whatever Shen Qingqiu is worried that he's capable of. The stakes are obvious as well. Either Shen Qingqiu and his husband accept the wedding gift and understand that Liu Qingge means to be friendly and not hostile to both of them; They accept the gift but either do not accept or do not understand his intentions behind it; Or they do not accept the gift and therefore reject him completely.

Only the latter is insurmountable, and even then it just means distancing himself from the couple. Shen Qingqiu has not stepped down from Peak Lord, so Liu Qingge will still be in his life. This little social number is nothing like watching Shen Qingqiu's lifeless body fall too far for him to do anything about it. It's only Shen Qingqiu's regard for Liu Qingge that is in question today, and therefore, Liu Qingge has nothing to worry about. Any outcome is better than Shen Qingqiu dead.

Kicking the doorframe to announce himself is a habit so deeply ingrained that he automatically does it as he steps up onto the bamboo porch.  He shakes his head in mild dismay. That will put neither Shen Qingqiu nor Luo Binghe in an especially receptive mood. Oh well.

As he waits for a reception he shifts his grip on the thin qiankun box he had packed the gift into. Though plain it is cleverly made, and he hopes its utilitarian design can be useful outside of its original purpose.

A gift of this much importance should be fitted inside a more comely presentation, but Liu Qingge found he didn't have the face for picking out a more suitable container. Imagining giving Shen Qingqiu and his husband one of those elaborately carved or lacquered gift boxes made him want to fight a waterfall.

He debates kicking the door again, as the wait draws on. Instead he puts the box on the porch by the door. He had used one of his polishing oils to help condition the wood of the box and the grain doesn't look terrible with the bamboo of the house. 

With a sigh he retreats from the peak and waits to see the result of his overture.

He is rewarded when Shen Qingqiu invites him for tea several days later.

"Liu-Shidi," the man greets when Liu Qingge steps into Shen Qingqiu's home. "I'm sorry I wasn't here to recieve you the other day."

Liu Qingge makes a noise of acknowledgement. Shen Qingqiu ushers him inside and gestures him towards the area he usually hosts in. There, sitting on one of Shen Qingqiu's existing tea tables, is a new wet tea tray.

After meditating for many fruitless days, it was a fight that had sparked an idea in Liu Qingge. A quiet road to an isolated village was being stalked by a demonic wandering tree. The tree hadn't been much of an issue for Liu Qingge, but as he'd finished delimbing the trunk, he'd been struck by the way it's sap had stained the pale wood like blood. It had nearly been the same hue as Luo Binghe's demonic crest.

After searching markets and craftsmen, Liu Qingge had finally found a piece of seasoned wood of an appropriate size while night hunting closer to the borderlands. He'd taken it to an expert, to be sure, and it was determined to be from one of the milder variants of man eating tree: the Oxblood Heart Eating Tree.

It was characterized by it's deep and rich blood red wood tone, it's equally bloody diet, and, more importantly, its lack of innate toxic qualities. In fact the wood purified liquids fed through it, and it was a popular and expensive building material.

The piece he had found had been carved into a spectacular show piece: the dips and valleys at once resembling the top down view of mountains and clouds and the stepped banks of a tranquil pond. Accents stood stark against the deep red wood made from bamboo: an elegant crane in flight, the delicate wispy clouds flowing into a wreath of lotus blossoms.

It combines Shen Qingqiu's aesthetic senses and Luo Binghe's bold color palette quite well, Liu Qingge had thought.  Now, settled in Shen Qingqiu's home, Liu Qingge thinks it again. It doesn't look out of place, but the deep red isn't a very common color theme and it draws the eye almost forcefully.

Liu Qingge seats himself as Shen Qingqiu bids him to and they are joined quite readily by Luo Binghe with such timing Liu Qingge can't help thinking the demon lord must have been waiting for his cue at the kitchen threshold.

Liu Qingge is served quite good tea by Shen Qingqiu and, to Liu Qingge's quiet surprise, a small selection of tea snacks Luo Binghe usually reserves for Shen Qingqiu only. At first, Liu Qingge almost suspects a trick, that the moment his hand moves to try one of the delicately steamed cakes Luo Binghe will have snatched it away for his Shizun's pleasure instead. However, the tea cake makes it all the way to Liu Qingge's mouth and he can't mask the noise of surprise he makes at its taste. It's very good.

Even Luo Binghe's look of smug satisfaction doesn't dampen the pleasant flavor.  With Shen Qingqiu's selection of tea, the combination is very good.

Shen Qingqiu keeps up an idle conversation as they drink the tea finish the snacks. He blithely comments on his recent mission, the annoying debrief, a new recipe Luo Binghe had tried, some reports of a beast Liu Qingge may be interested in, and some light gossip. Liu Qingge contributes as much as he ever does: nodding or humming in appropriate places and asking one word questions when something catches his attention. Luo Binghe is much more solicitous, for all that he must have heard these same words before.

Liu Qingge thanks Shen Qingqiu for the invitation when the tea runs out. He also, perhaps unsubtly, makes it a point to thank Luo Binghe as well. The gratitude wants to stick in his throat but the way Shen Qingqiu smiles, before hiding it with his fan, reassures Liu Qingge that he had approached this correctly.

"Thank you for the gift," Shen Qingqiu finally says, once they've all stood and Liu Qingge is getting ready to leave.

"One could almost think it too much," Luo Binghe snipes. Shen Qinqiu sighs at him but doesn't censure him.

"Wedding gifts are supposed to be ostentatious," Liu Qingge answers, cautious.

"Ah!" Shen Qingqiu's exclamation is barely an exhalation of breath, hidden behind the snap of his fan except for Liu Qingge's cultivation supported hearing. "On our anniversary, too... shidi you are surprisingly thoughtful."

"I don't know about that," Luo Binghe says, as Liu Qingge steps away from Shen Qingqiu's gesticulating fan.

Liu Qingge shoots him a glare, but doesn't argue with him. Liu Qingge had not been thinking about the timing of his gift at all, afterall. Still, he will take the good favor from Shen Qingqiu all the same.

"Hush, Binghe." Shen Qingqiu scolds his husband. "It's a lovely gift. Thank you."

Liu Qingge nods and makes a tactical escape. As is becoming a new habit, he waits until he is out of easy combat range to mount Cheng Luan and fly away. For an immortal master and demon lord this means he stomps through a fair bit of Qing Jing Peak's bamboo forest before he can leave properly.

Shen Qingqiu, at least, seems to relax. Whatever Liu Qingge had done to make him wary seems to have rested after Liu Qingge's wedding gift.  Luo Binghe is the same, and not any worse, so Liu Qingge decides that his plan worked.

Phase two is put into motion.

This, once again unfortunately, means thinking too much about things Luo Binghe may like.  At least this is simpler as he just has to match the items he already wants to give to Shen Qingqiu. A length of jade colored diaphanous wooly reindeer silk is paired with a bolt of northern desert wolf wool. A bestiary local to one of the rare wandering realms is accompanied by a book detailing the surprisingly nuanced demon cuisine in one of the regions on the borders of the demon realm. 

By the time he finds himself hacking at the poison backed ruby pangolin because the ruby-like crystals decorating its bony plates of armor would look quite well in a hair crown next to the one he already has for Shen Qingqiu, Luo Qingge is already past the point of despair. It's fun, finding things things for Luo Binghe.

So far, neither Luo Binghe nor Shen Qingqiu protest Liu Qingge's continued spate of his perhaps maladaptive coping mechanism through gift giving. Shen Qingqiu is pleased in fact, if the quick flash of smile Liu Qingge catches before the snap of a fan opens is any indication.  The degree the man's cheek lifts, the squint of his curved eyes, increases with each new matched gift shoved towards Luo Binghe. 

For his part, Luo Binghe is starting to look less apprehensive. Instead he looks confused when Liu Qingge presses something new into his hands and it turns out to be something pleasant instead of a trick. As if Liu Qingge had ever stooped to tricks in the first place. Infuriating man.

The challenge of finding things that not only match or compliment gifts he has already chosen for Shen Qingqiu, but also manage to suit Luo Binghe's tastes settles well on Liu Qingge's shoulders. He may mostly be known for fighting, but he's also a hunter. He can be patient and observant, when he wants to be.

The knowledge of what Shen Qingqiu likes had eased into him almost against his will. Taking tea with him, cleansing his meridians, still suspicious of his motives and plans for his sudden change of personality, Liu Qingge hadn't meant to find out what Shen Qingqiu liked. At the time he had been so hyper aware of Shen Qingqiu's every move that he had cataloged everything for fear that he would miss the tell-tale sign of duplicitous intent.

So when his hand twitched towards the tanghulu stand on one of their missions together because he knew Shen Qingqiu liked sweets, well. He was surprised at himself for knowing.

Luo Binghe though, did not give his preferences up so easily.  Liu Qingge would watch him slide the embroidered silk of a new sash between his fingers and compare the tilt of his eyebrows to the face he makes when serving his husband tea. When Luo Binghe made a half-aborted noise at a well shaped wooden serving board to accompany Shen Qingqiu's new set of dipping bowls, Liu Qingge had to cross reference it with the pleased noise the demon makes when Shen Qingqiu makes a benign request.

Shen Qingqiu slides choice cuts of meat into Luo Binghe's bowl and Liu Qingge has to decide whether the resulting countenance is because Luo Binghe favors the meal or his Shizun's attention more. Liu Qingge chases after Luo Binghe's reactions like a hunter picking its way through a deer trail.

Luo Binghe does not like gifts of jade jewelry—that's the biggest loss Liu Qingge has encountered so far in this endeavor. Even Shen Qingqiu had winced when Luo Binghe pulled out the token. Liu Qingge had seen it and thought that it reminded him of Shen Qingqiu and subsequently that Luo Binghe might think so as well. It was a poor gift.

In his defense, other jewelry and decoration have been fine. Blood colored earrings, silver cuffs, hammered metal vambraces. Even, on one nostalgic occasion, a bamboo embroidered belt coupled with golden weights. The belt was black silk, the bamboo picked out in shades of red, so perhaps that is why it passed muster. (Liu Qingge had given Shen Qingqiu a matching belt this time made to compliment Luo Binghe's: all white with silver and pale green embroidery but the design was very obviously patterned in Luo Binghe's sigils.)

Of all his gifts, ones that allow Luo Binghe to play house wife are recieved the best

---

[Modern AU but demons are an oppressed class and LBH was part of an underground fighting ring]

"You're going to help him acclimate!" Shen Yuan beamed at him, his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose and his eyes sparkling.

"What."

"Acclimate! He's had a rough time and he's so sweet... they were gonna dump him into the recovery system but I had a moment to talk to him and he would really benefit from a more personalized approach."

"The Recovery System is designed to help kids like him." Unspoken: Liu Qingge was definitely not designed to help kids unpack their trauma and become healthier, happier versions of themselves.

"Qingge," Shen Yuan pouted at him before turning his face away. He crossed his arms defensively, recovered his expression, and turned back to Liu Qingge. "His entire impression of the team is Da-ge... he's a little, well, mistrustful of it all."

Liu Qingge snorted. Shen Qingqiu was very, very skilled at infiltrating the illegal demon trade and blowing them up from the inside. He was also mean, underhanded, and not the kind of person who would coddle a traumatized kid caught in the middle of it all.

"And the kid is half demon, so, you can imagine... Da-ge wasn't exactly..."

"Just because you're brother is a jackass—"

"Hey!"

"Doesn't mean I have the—" knowledge? Skill? Patience? "—time to babysit for you."

"You'll like him though, he's so sweet! He really doesn't deserve to get lost in the system."

Liu Qingge nearly called him out. Does anyone deserve to get caught up in the bureaucratic red tape, passed through the seive of reports and check ups and therapy, modulated social rehabilitation? It was necessary but the system was so flooded it was mechanical, impersonal.

Liu Qingge knew very well what it felt like to be snatched from the middle of one hell hole, be promised it'd get better, and then abandoned to the monotony of "tell us about your feelings" and "why don't you try thinking about whether your actions are going to help or harm before you act" and "you can try a little harder to be empathetic to those around you".  As if he had been the problem and not everyone else pressing so hard at his boundaries when the only thing he'd been taught to do was lash out. Eventually he'd just shut up, did his exercises without absorbing anything, swallowed the pills he'd been prescribed, until he got the grudging stamp of approval and was set adrift into society barely any more self sufficient than before.

If he hadn't run into Shen Yuan when he had, he'd probably still be doing the same exact routine: wake up, drink a meal replacement, walk to his boring little job at the corner store, refrain from punching (his boss, the customers, the vendors, the teenagers making a mess in the snack aisle, the auntie who always smiled at him as if she could see the struggle on his face, the rats that his boss complained about but was too lazy to do anything about, the—), clock out after 7.5 hours, run his habitual circuit, go home, shower, then stare blankly at the ceiling until he fell asleep.

If someone like Shen Yuan had scooped him up at the start of it all, where could Liu Qingge be now?

Well, he probably wouldn't be living in Shen Yuan's house, happily spending his days dogging the steps of the world's most oblivious, self-sacrificial man. Shen Yuan would tell him that someone should have been there for him. That it was sad he had been left alone for so long but that was no excuse for not helping others avoid that pain if he could help it.

If Liu Qingge was particularly unlucky Shen Yuan would get that disbelieving, disapproving crease on his forehead that meant Liu Qingge was acting entirely out of Shen Yuan's perception of his character. It didn't matter how many times someone else told Shen Yuan that Liu Qingge was a loose canon, a liability, selfish, inconsiderate, or self-absorbed. The only thing that could take the shine off Liu Qingge in Shen Yuan's eyes was Liu Qingge himself.

The thing was, Shen Yuan made Liu Qingge want to be reliable, responsible, competent, safe. He really, really wanted to live up to Shen Yuan's expectations. Thinking that eventually Shen Yuan would learn how difficult Liu Qingge was to handle slowly turned into Liu Qingge wanting to be easy for Shen Yuan.

Somewhere, somewhen, Liu Qingge stopped wanting to chase Shen Yuan away and started trying to keep him close with both hands gripped tight.

He blew out a sigh, and even to his own ears it sounded defeated. Shen Yuan perked up, smile playing around the corner of his lips. He pulled out his cellphone and tapped something quickly.

"Good! Perfect! Haha, I already said we could host him so it would have been embarrassing if you'd said no."

"Ugh," Liu Qingge rolled his eyes. "You're lucky I don't have hobbies. How else would you commit all my free time."

"I know, I know, Qingge is too sweet for me! So reliable!"

The familiar warmth of pleased embarrassment washed through him. His ears flushed with it.

"Well. As long as you know." He said, finally.