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Entry tags:
i will not ask you where you came from
WHO: Wen Kexing & Zhou Zishu
WHEN: Shortly after the TDM
WHERE: Ephes ( a tavern )
WHAT: Just two awful men reuniting for the love affair of the century.
WARNINGS: No, unless a mass murderer being absolutely pathetic is something to warn for. We're retconning their tdm meeting with permission, however!
The tavern is already full and noisy by the time Wen Kexing arrives, brow furrowed and a bundle of papers in his arms. He slips in easy enough, ducking around patrons to make his way to the bar, gaining the servers attention just by rapping his knuckles against the wood of the counter. A smile, and his bundle is taken away, promises that they will be signed and returned given. A cup of wine placed in front of him that he knocks back with a grimace, his constant headache looming behind his eyes. The server, a broad shouldered man who knows Wen Kexing, tells him he's just missed someone buying a round, and he gives a wry smile, tossing down his coin just as easily. Another cup, and he tilts his head to listen to a group of girls gossiping about the handsome man in the corner, pulling his fan from his sleeve so he can wave it lazily in front of his face.
He's tired, too irritable to make conversation, too busy to leave. He just needs the papers signed by the man in charge and then he can go back to his rooms and drink himself into oblivion, that's all. It shouldn't take long. But still he leans on one elbow to scan the room, idle and bored. It takes him a full sweep before his mind catches up with him and that attention snaps to that very same corner, the handsome brooding man he'd just heard about. They don't do him justice, he thinks, sudden and hysterical. He almost opens his mouth to correct the group of girls when they chitter about the prospect of walking over, but instead he's snapping his fan shut and moving, feet clumsy and his tongue suddenly dry.
The robes are new, the robes are new but he'd recognise him anywhere.
"Ah-Xu."
That lovely face snaps up to look at him, Wen Kexing having to steady himself by placing a hand on the table in front of him. He's shaking a little, he can feel it all the way up to his shoulder. There is a pin in his hair that matches the one in Wen Kexing's own and he thinks wildly that it suits him, that it's unfair that it suits him, when he can't remember placing it there.
"Ah-Xu, we can't keep meeting like this."
WHEN: Shortly after the TDM
WHERE: Ephes ( a tavern )
WHAT: Just two awful men reuniting for the love affair of the century.
WARNINGS: No, unless a mass murderer being absolutely pathetic is something to warn for. We're retconning their tdm meeting with permission, however!
The tavern is already full and noisy by the time Wen Kexing arrives, brow furrowed and a bundle of papers in his arms. He slips in easy enough, ducking around patrons to make his way to the bar, gaining the servers attention just by rapping his knuckles against the wood of the counter. A smile, and his bundle is taken away, promises that they will be signed and returned given. A cup of wine placed in front of him that he knocks back with a grimace, his constant headache looming behind his eyes. The server, a broad shouldered man who knows Wen Kexing, tells him he's just missed someone buying a round, and he gives a wry smile, tossing down his coin just as easily. Another cup, and he tilts his head to listen to a group of girls gossiping about the handsome man in the corner, pulling his fan from his sleeve so he can wave it lazily in front of his face.
He's tired, too irritable to make conversation, too busy to leave. He just needs the papers signed by the man in charge and then he can go back to his rooms and drink himself into oblivion, that's all. It shouldn't take long. But still he leans on one elbow to scan the room, idle and bored. It takes him a full sweep before his mind catches up with him and that attention snaps to that very same corner, the handsome brooding man he'd just heard about. They don't do him justice, he thinks, sudden and hysterical. He almost opens his mouth to correct the group of girls when they chitter about the prospect of walking over, but instead he's snapping his fan shut and moving, feet clumsy and his tongue suddenly dry.
The robes are new, the robes are new but he'd recognise him anywhere.
"Ah-Xu."
That lovely face snaps up to look at him, Wen Kexing having to steady himself by placing a hand on the table in front of him. He's shaking a little, he can feel it all the way up to his shoulder. There is a pin in his hair that matches the one in Wen Kexing's own and he thinks wildly that it suits him, that it's unfair that it suits him, when he can't remember placing it there.
"Ah-Xu, we can't keep meeting like this."
no subject
"Mm. Lao Wen," he says, cupping Wen Kexing's cheek. "Everything will be alright."
He rather suspects that the moment he leaves Wen Kexing alone, the other man is going to run off to panic in some dim corner.
no subject
"I know."
He has to hope anyway.
"I'm just changing, I'm not going anywhere, I promise. Just - give me a minute, okay? Just a minute."
no subject
"Bring the wine to bed with you."
Because no problems can't be solved by liberal application of wine. He does take a moment to gather himself, to take a few deep breaths and to center himself before he climbs into the bed to wait.
There's an air of odd anticipation. For all his casualness, they haven't actually really shared a bed before, not exactly, not like this.
no subject
He still takes a minute to do a practised lap of the room, making sure the window and doors are locked, that the one with the hand in it is secure. When he takes the key from that one he doesn't hide where he's placing it, tucking the bronze item underneath a book. Another lap, another round of checks, and Wen Kexing puts out the light, plucking the wine bottle up and making his way across to the bed. He hands the bottle over, then sits on the edge, taking a small breath before he's swinging himself onto the mattress. It takes a moment or two of fussing and then he's cursing himself under his breath and rolling to his side, facing Zhou Zishu so he can prop his head on his curved arm.
"Maybe this is a dream."
Here is the man he's in love with, safe, and in his bed. It's possible.
no subject
He watches Wen Kexing check the room; none of the locks would deter a determined assassin, but anyone who ended up in this room with the two of them is going to be in for a very nasty surprise anyway.
The wine is a pretense, really, at least for now. Zhou Zishu sets it safely to the side, curling onto his side so he faces Wen Kexing, the two of them forming the two halves of a circle. Wen Kexing's hair is a little lighter than Zhou Zishu's own, the long strands laying over one another between them.
"I can't tell if that means you wish that I'm not actually here or not."
no subject
He reaches out, flicks a finger hard against Zhou Zishu's shoulder in reprimand. "No, Ah-Xu. I'm glad, I'm really glad. I wish that you didn't have to be involved in whatever game's the powers that be here are playing, but that I can see you? Touch you? I'm ashamed to say that I'm greedy enough that I'd take that regardless."
And then, softer, his eyes closing briefly so he cannot see the other man's face in the dim light.
"It's been like I'm absent a lung, not having you. And now I can finally breathe again. It just might take a while to sink in."
no subject
With Wen Kexing's eyes closed, he doesn't see the expression that flickers across Zhou Zishu's face. Don't you see, he doesn't say, the words clawing at the inside of his ribs. Don't you see what you did to me, then? When you let me think you'd died? This Wen Kexing hasn't done such foolish things yet, hasn't made Zhou Zishu be far too aware of what Wen Kexing might look like lying cold and still in a woodshed.
Instead, he lets out an unsteady breath, closing his own eyes. "I'm here," he says then, and he'll say it again and again, as many times as he needs to. "I'm right here."