Work Text:
Yue Qingyuan stayed up the whole night.
An alpha he had seen at the banquet timidly stepped into the room at one point. He raised his eyebrow in an intimidating gesture that was normally done by Shen Qingqiu. He hoped that he wouldn’t mind, as he was currently asleep and unable to properly scare the man.
He backed out almost immediately. Yue Qingyuan watched his new mate sleep the entire night. Shen Qingqiu’s face relaxed quite a lot more when he was asleep. Yue Qingyuan committed every minute expression and detail to his memory.
He didn’t think that there would be any more symptoms of heat. It had been induced unnaturally, after all, and those typically did not last long. The two kunze had mated as well.
It was a few hours later when Shen Qingqiu rubbed at his eyes, yawning. Yue Qingyuan greeted him with a smile as he sat up, tugging him closer and subtly rubbing his scent all over him.
Shen Qingqiu groaned, looking worse off after his heat had worn off than Yue Qingyuan.
“I’ll take responsibility,” Yue Qingyuan said immediately.
Shen Qingqiu squinted at him. “Shut up. I’m not pregnant.”
“You could be in the future,” Yue Qingyuan offered. There were probably plants that could allow that to happen. If Shen Qingqiu wanted it, he could scour the world for them.
“Wh-” Shen Qingqiu glared at him, cheeks flushing pink. “Stop being so dumb. We have to deal with this sect, right?”
Yue Qingyuan nodded. Remembering the kunze woman who had been waiting for Shen Qingqiu in the room the day before, his expression darkened. “What would Xiao Jiu want this one to do about it?”
Shen Qingqiu frowned. “Don’t call me that.”
“A’Jiu?”
“Acceptable,” Shen Qingqiu huffed. “As for the sect, just make a public statement regarding what they did. If Cang Qiong isn’t going to accept them, then it’ll be obvious to the rest of the world that they’ve done something wrong.”
Yue Qingyuan hummed. “Afterward, no one would bat an eye if it slowly began disappearing.”
Shen Qingqiu snorted. “Aren’t I usually the one dropping those lines?”
Yue Qingyuan smiled. “Would A’Jiu allow this one to do it a few times?”
Shen Qingqiu rolled his eyes. “You’re disgustingly pathetic.”
It didn’t take long for the pair to get dressed. Shen Qingqiu tugged a high-collared robe on to cover his new bite mark, and glared at Yue Qingyuan until he did the same. Internally, he was a little disappointed that he didn’t get to flaunt their new status, but it didn’t really matter. They did have revenge to get, after all.
__________
The Sect Leader of the minor sect was trembling when Yue Qingyuan walked into the meeting hall. His smile widened ever so slightly.
Yue Qingyuan calmly and gracefully took his seat, beckoning for Shen Qingqiu to sit just slightly closer to him than normal. The kunze huffed once in irritation, but did indeed sit down.
“So,” Shen Qingqiu said, pulling out his fan just to close it with a sharp snap. The other sect leader jolted up. Yue Qingyuan was strangely delighted watching what was happening. It was his turn to begin speaking, however, so he smiled.
“I’ll skip the pleasantries,” Yue Qingyuan said, letting his smile morph into a serious expression. It was good to see his victim sweat. “Last night, you poisoned me and Qingqiu-shidi with aphrodisiacs.” Enraged murmurs from the Cang Qiong delegation. Mu Qingfang and Shang Qinghua snapped to attention, though the An Ding Peak Lord had a small delay where he just stayed still for a few seconds before looking appalled.
“Then,” Yue Qingyuan continued, “You sent some sect members of yours to our room. If I’m guessing correctly, you were planning for them to forcefully mate us?”
The sect leader, while already white-faced, paled even further. “That- that isn’t true!”
Yue Qingyuan narrowed his eyes a little. “What reason would I have to lie?”
It was the word of the famed Cang Qiong Mountain Sect Leader, the righteous Xuan Su Sword, against a nameless sect from the countryside. It was a heavy accusation as well, one that was a good enough reason to completely end the minor sect.
Yue Qingyuan saw a few Cang Qiong members put their hands on their swords.
“I-I didn’t,” the man stammered. Yue Qingyuan watched in delight as Shen Qingqiu raised an eyebrow, and then opened his mouth.
“Oh? Then what could have happened? We took the wrong drink straight out of your hand and then walked into someone else’s room in the guest quarters? Do enlighten this one.”
The other man glared at him. It didn’t seem like he had anything to say.
The members of the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect left the countryside with several broken contracts and a plan to destroy the other sect. Yue Qingyuan flew close to Shen Qingqiu on the way back, leaning close to whisper.
“A’Jiu,” he began. Shen Qingqiu didn’t turn to look at him, but he was clearly listening. “Are you alright with our relationship being public? How about your secondary gender?”
Shen Qingqiu’s cheeks turned bright red, though he otherwise gave no indication of hearing Yue Qingyuan as he considered. It took a while, but finally he said, “Yes.”
Yue Qingyuan’s smile barely had time to blossom before Shen Qingqiu flew faster and fled from him. Yue Qingyuan chuckled and let him have some time alone.
Shang Qinghua was staring at them openly, his mouth slightly open. Yue Qingyuan absentmindedly thought that it was lucky for him that there were no bugs nearby, as he might’ve caught some in his mouth. Mu Qingfang, on the other hand, was very carefully not looking at them, in fact his gaze switched to other things often, just not them.
Yue Qingyuan supposed that he and his shidi were basically force-feeding them dog food, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care. Since he finally had Shen Qingqiu’s attention, why shouldn’t he flaunt it?
__________
Yue Qingyuan decided to wait until the next Peak Lord meeting to break the news. He wanted everyone to know, after all. Looking at his calendar, he moved the day his next heat would come to a month later. It would be much better than all the times before, since he finally got to actually be with Shen Qingqiu instead of his imagination.
The few weeks before the meeting passed by in a flash, of course, except the parts where he got to visit Shen Qingqiu’s house. Unfortunately, he was no longer allowed to visit daily after coming by eight times a day. It was a shame, but every other day he counted down until the moment it was deemed acceptable to go and then immediately ran for Qing Jing Peak.
When the day of the next Peak Lord meeting arrived, Yue Qingyuan breezed in and took his seat about ten minutes earlier than normal. Shen Qingqiu arrived a little later, giving Yue Qingyuan a nod. The Sect Leader was pleased to see a little bit of his mating mark showing above his collar. He had chosen robes that would show off most of his, after all. While Shen Qingqiu’s wasn’t as visible, it certainly was easily seen if you simply looked closely at him.
The next to arrive was Shang Qinghua, who looked at both their necks, said “ah”, congratulated them, and then sat down and piled up his stack of papers in front of him as if protecting himself. Sometimes the An Ding Peak Lord was quite odd. Yue Qingyuan didn’t care as long as he did his job.
The rest of the Peak Lords arrived soon after, a few stopping to stare at their new mating bites before sitting. Once the last to arrive, Liu Qingge this time, came, Qi Qingqi could not hold back her questions.
“Zhangmen-shixiong, did you mate someone? Who is it?”
Yue Qingyuan smiled brightly. “Indeed, shimei. Qingqiu-shidi and I are now mated.”
Dead silence. Yue Qingyuan was unbothered by that, but not the furious glares sent toward Shen Qingqiu.
“What?” Liu Qingge blurted, looking shocked. “But, he’s a lecherous qianyun who-”
Yue Qingyuan gave him a glacial stare. “I must apologize, shidi, but it would be much appreciated if you could check your facts before jumping to action. Qingqiu-shidi is a kunze as well, and as for the accusations...” Honestly, Yue Qingyuan had forgotten about all the rumors hovering around Shen Qingqiu, but at the very least the worst ones were disproved because he was a kunze.
Liu Qingge opened his mouth, and then closed it. He looked appropriately confused, which made sense since he was also a kunze. He would know better than anyone what it was like to live that kind of life and how their anatomy worked.
More whispers emerged. Yue Qingyuan heard a few shocked voices speculating what Shen Qingqiu really did at the Warm Red Pavilion. He also heard a few talking about the aphrodisiac incident. He doubted that the meeting would go back to normal, so he cleared his throat.
“Shidis and shimeis, while it was under the influence of an aphrodisiac heat-starter, it was fully consensual and would not have happened otherwise. If it wasn’t, we could’ve had the bond nullified anyways.”
The room quieted down. It was silent except for the rapid sound of Qi Qingqi’s brush filling a paper in her hands. She had previously stayed still, as bewildered as the other Peak Lords, before suddenly beginning to write. Yue Qingyuan had heard of the Xian Shu disciples’ hobbies, so he supposed that it was no surprise that the Peak Lord was similar.
In the end, the meeting was dismissed early. Shang Qinghua muttered another congratulations to them before he staggered out the door. Yue Qingyuan was beginning to wonder if he needed to give that man a vacation.
Before Shen Qingqiu could head back to Qing Jing Peak, Yue Qingyuan snaked his arms around his waist. Shen Qingqiu scowled and hit him with his fan, yet made no move to escape.
“A’Jiu,” he said. “When is your next heat?”
Shen Qingqiu frowned. “In a few weeks, why?”
Yue Qingyuan smiled. “Don’t worry about it.”
__________
Bonus
Shang Qinghua’s villain son and his longtime crush (though he didn’t know it, repressed as he was) had gotten together. Through the power of A/B/O, the author supposed.
Still, what the hell?
Sure, it was great that they would probably get a happy ending now! It was, however, completely out of the blue. Honestly, Shang Qinghua was about one bad day away from throwing himself into the Endless Abyss.
Ugh, Shang Qinghua absolutely could not deal with all the complications that would happen later on. At least Luo Binghe wouldn’t get his nasty qianyun paws on Shen Qingqiu in the future.
As he stared at the pile of paperwork still in his hands, he came to an abrupt realization.
Shit! I was supposed to ask everyone to fill these out!
...Yeah, the Endless Abyss looked pretty good right now.