Chapter Text
Shen Jiu lay on his side as Zhuzhi-lang carved out a deep hollow in the earth. With care that Shen Jiu had hardly ever seen another person take with anything, he lined the hollow with a blanket and gently placed the eggs inside, one after the other.
He had waited to do so until Shen Jiu woke again, each move made with an eager glance back that Shen Jiu met with a raised eyebrow.
Shen Jiu watched how he cupped each egg in his hand before lowering it down, briefly pressing their energies together. “So they can find me,” explained Zhuzhi-lang. “When it comes time for them to do so.”
Pulling a blanket tighter around himself, Shen Jiu nodded drowsily. The mania of wanting to keep the eggs inside himself had subsided. Now his attention was split between watching Zhuzhi-lang like a hawk, and wondering at his golden core, which flamed inside him like a small sun.
The core didn’t even feel alien. It felt like it had been there all along. Only his logical knowledge of its novelty kept him circulating his qi in swirling loops through his smooth, clear meridians, down into his starlike core, and out again.
His body had mostly healed from the exertions as he slept, but he still ached all over and felt swollen in his stomach and between his legs. Zhuzhi-lang had wrapped him up in a dozen blankets and assured him that he would be back to normal soon, whispering “A-Jiu” this and “baobei” that as he went.
Shen Jiu hadn’t been able to find it in him to protest. Who else was the demon going to call baobei, really? Someone else who had just incubated his eggs for three days?
“There, there,” hummed Zhuzhi-lang, gently lowering the last egg into the hole. “Xiao-Jiu.”
Shen Jiu froze, his blood running cold. But in the next moment, it became apparent that Zhuzhi-lang was referring to the ninth egg, looking fondly down as he tucked the blanket over top of them and began filling the space again with dirt.
“Call it something else,” Shen Jiu snapped.
Zhuzhi-lang looked up in surprise. “Like what, A-Jiu?”
Shen Jiu scowled. “I don’t care.”
“I’ll call it beloved,” murmured Zhuzhi-lang. “I would call you the same.”
“You will me A-Jiu and be grateful for the privilege,” snapped Shen Jiu.
Zhuzhi-lang crawled over to lie down beside him and push his face into Shen Jiu’s neck, scales rasping against his skin. “What about baobei?”
Shen Jiu blushed furiously, scowling. “I don’t give a shit.”
Zhuzhi-lang hummed. “Does baobei want me to make him feel good again?”
“Touch me below the waist and I’ll cut your head off,” Shen Jiu said casually.
“Yes, baobei,” murmured Zhuzhi-lang, wrapping his arms around Shen Jiu’s chest and nuzzling in closer. If he were a cat, he’d be purring. “Baobei, I want to take you back to my lord uncle.” He glanced up at Shen Jiu, eyes wide and pitiful.
“Your …” Shen Jiu frowned. “You mean Tianglang-jun?”
Zhuzhi-lang nodded. “He’ll be so pleased that I found a cultivator too!”
Shen Jiu blinked, then fixed Zhuzhi-lang with a glare so cutting the demon flinched. “What’s this ‘too’?” he demanded. “Zhuzhi-lang is saying he acquired me like a collectible, now?”
“No, no!” Zhuzhi-lang said, squeezing him tighter in his arms. “Shen Jiu is a precious blessing sent by the heavens!” That gave Shen Jiu pause, looking at him incredulously. “It’s just that my lord uncle will be pleased. He wants to have peace between the demons and cultivators because of his beloved.”
“Su Xiyan,” Shen Jiu recalled. “Wait—Huan Hua Palace’s head disciple?”
Zuzhi-lang nodded eagerly.
That was strange. Shen Jiu had never heard of the Old Palace Master’s beloved disciple doing anything out of the ordinary, much less courting a demon.
Whatever, it didn’t matter. She could do as she liked, clearly.
“I should go back,” Shen Jiu said, the words bitter on his lips. “I was sent out on a night hunt.”
Zuzhi-lang nuzzled his face into his neck. “Yes, baobei.”
Shen Jiu frowned. “What, you’re not going to try to get me to come with you?”
Zuzhi-lang blinked up at him with huge, watery eyes. “A-Jiu should do as he wishes. … This Zhuzhi will come with him instead!”
Shen Jiu scoffed, horrified amusement filling him at the thought of returning to Cang Qiong peak with a demon prince on his arm.
It lasted for only a moment, flattened by the sour thought of going back at all.
“Why must A-Jiu go back if he does not wish to?” Zuzhi-lang asked, tangling their legs together and stroking his back through the layers and layers of blankets. “Does the master of Cang Qiong hold something over your head? This one will take care of it.” His eyes flashed dangerously for a moment.
“I …” Shen Jiu opened and closed his mouth. “I’ve worked hard.”
Zhuzhi-lang nodded and squeezed him closer. “Shen Jiu works hard. A-Jiu worked so hard for me, baobei, and my eggs.”
“Our eggs,” Shen Jiu snapped, wrath in his voice, before freezing in disbelief, his own words ringing in his ears. He opened and closed his mouth, aghast at himself.
Zhuzhi-lang brushed right by it. “Our eggs, yes, baobei, our eggs,” he crooned, kissing under Shen Jiu’s chin. “This one only put them in Shen Jiu, A-Jiu is the one who kept them inside, they’re his, yes—”
“Okay, okay!” Shen Jiu shouted, heat flushing up over his ears. He hadn’t meant to set the demon off, but now it was done and his body was reacting to Zhuzhi-lang's frantic, hissing words, hot and intoxicating.
“A-Jiu,” pled Zhuzhi-lang, “A-Jiu, what does beloved want—”
“Go—do what you did before,” Shen Jiu snapped, blushing to the roots of his hair. “The first time.”
Zhuzhi-lang’s eyes flickered as he apparently cataloged the last four days of various salacious acts. And then his face lit up, and he hurriedly unwrapped the blankets from Shen Jiu’s cocoon, squirming down his body, tongue already out and lapping at his aching thighs.
“Ah,” Shen Jiu groaned, kicking his heels up to rest on Zhuzhi-lang’s back. “Gentle, demon.”
“This one will only be gentle to Shen Jiu until the world ends,” swore Zhuzhi-lang, words tucked into the crease of his thigh, nose nuzzling against his tender skin. Then his tongue was lapping easily into Shen Jiu’s body, still loose from the passing of the eggs. Shen Jiu reached his hands out and tangled them in Zhuzhi-lang’s hair, pressing his head closer between his legs, and Zhuzhi-lang moaned like Shen Jiu was the best thing he’d ever tasted.
Good, some new and wild part of Shen Jiu thought viciously. I am.
“A-Jiu,” panted Zhuzhi-lang, tugging an inch away to take in a heaving gulp of air. “Why else must you go back?”
“Go—” Shen Jiu blinked at him, mouth parting around heavy breaths. “What?”
Zhuzhi-lang’s hands clutched Shen Jiu’s thighs, careful for all that his grip was iron. “Why else must you go back to the mountain?
“There’s—there’s—” Zhuzhi-lang buried his face against Shen Jiu’s hole, and Shen Jiu threw his head back with a shriek. “There’s someone there!”
Zhuzhi-lang stilled, and pulled away from Shen Jiu’s clutching fingers, leaning up and bringing Shen Jiu’s legs with him so that he folded in on himself. “Shen Jiu has a beloved?”
“No,” Shen Jiu panted. “There’s—he’s— he was my brother.”
Zhuzhi-lang frowned. “Was?”
Shen Jiu twisted his head to the side. “He got me my place out of guilt. He’s—he’s ashamed of me. Of who I am. Of how I—I keep failing.”
Zhuzhi-lang reached down and clutched his hands, apparently disregarding the fact that his face was covered with his own saliva and Shen Jiu’s sweat. “No one should ever be ashamed of A-Jiu. A-Jiu is a blessing from the heavens. If A-Jiu thinks he failed in his cultivation, then he should know that A-Jiu has not failed, he was sabotaged from the beginning.”
To his absolute horror, Shen Jiu felt hot tears running down his cheeks. “Zhuzhi—you shouldn’t want this Shen Jiu. I’ll only pull you down with me.”
“This Zhuzhi-lang is strong enough to pull us both up.” He pressed kisses to Shen Jiu’s knuckles.
“You don’t even know me,” whispered Shen Jiu.
The demon’s tongue licked over his fingers, over the seams where their hands were joined. “And yet I adore you. Come with me, baobei.”
Shen Jiu yanked a hand away to swipe at his face. “I—I—” He took a huge breath, abruptly sick of trying to convince a sycophantic demon to hate him. There didn’t seem to be a point; Zhuzhi-lang wasn’t built like humans. “See if you can make me feel good enough to convince me, and we’ll see.”
It took a second for the words to trickle into Zhuzhi-lang’s brain, and then he was scrambling back down to push his face between Shen Jiu’s thighs, pressing his open mouth back against his hole. Shen Jiu dropped back against the blankets, groaning, the tears on his face drying as his hips worked themselves, completely of their own volition, against the Zhuzhi-lang’s face.
How had this become his life? Not a week ago he was stumbling into a forest with broken cultivation, exhausted to his marrow. And now he was being pleasured within an inch of his life, spirit veins brimming to rival the eldest disciples, having slept so much he was hardly even drowsy.
Zhuzhi-lang slipped two fingers into him along side his tongue, sliding down to that good spot and making Shen Jiu wail. He rolled himself back onto them, closing his thighs around Zhuzhi-lang’s head, the demon moaning rhythmically as he ground his own hips into the blankets.
It took only a moment of targeted stimulation before Shen Jiu was coming, still dry, but seismically. He blinked back to consciousness with stars flitting in front of his vision, Zhuzhi-lang laying complacent with his head on Shen Jiu’s thigh, tongue lolling out.
“I don’t want to marry you,” Shen Jiu said to the ceiling.
Zhuzhi-lang squirmed up so his head rested on Shen Jiu’s stomach. “Then A-Jiu won’t marry this Zhuzhi.”
“But,” snapped Shen Jiu, flushing, “don’t think that means you can marry anyone else!”
He felt the smile Zhuzhi-lang pressed into his stomach. “Never, baobei.”
“Good,” Shen Jiu said stiffly. He reached a hand down to twist into Zhuzhi-lang’s hair. “Then I suppose … I needn’t go back right away. I’ll tell my shizun I was following rumors of another beast. In any case, you have to give me the land you promised me.” His hand went tight in Zhuzhi-lang’s hair.
The demon shivered and beamed up at him. “Yes, baobei. This one will have my lord uncle give you as much land and riches as you want.”
“How do I know Tianlang-jun will do as you say?” Shen Jiu asked.
Zhuzhi-lang nuzzled into his stomach. “My lord uncle owes me for helping him court Empress Su. This one has gone to … much effort on his behalf. I almost missed my season, after all.”
“Empress Su?” Shen Jiu raised an eyebrow. “I thought they were still courting, not married.”
“My lord uncle believes in the power of speaking with intention,” said Zuzhi-lang. “Husband.”
Blanching, Shen Jiu shoved Zhuzhi-lang off him, but not so far that the demon couldn’t tangle him up in his arms and press kisses to Shen Jiu’s neck.
“Watch your mouth,” Shen Jiu snapped, tilting his head for Zhuzhi-lang to suck at the spot behind his ear. “Before I kill you.”
“Mmm,” hummed Zhuzhi-lang, twisting their fingers together. “This one begs baobei for the honor.”
Shen Jiu didn’t kill him. But there was always tomorrow.