Chapter Text
They made their way over to a supply closet. Immediately Zhangjing’s scent filled it, but Yanjun forced himself to ignore it and focus on the task at hand as he stared Zhangjing down, trying to process what had just happened.
It was quiet for a while, before the werewolf awkwardly went with a hand through his hair. "I know you're angry-"
Yanjun let out a sharp laugh. "Really? I'm surprised you noticed, since you’ve been acting like a complete lunatic the past couple of minutes."
Zhangjing sighed. "Look-"
"No, Zhangjing! Don't fucking 'look' me. What you did was the dumbest thing I've ever seen anyone do in my entire life. What the hell were you thinking?", he snarled. "Did you literally forget everything I told you about him? Did you forget that he's capable of murder when you drive him far enough?"
"I didn't, but-", Zhangjing attempted, but Yanjun was so pissed he barely even heard him.
"Clearly you did, otherwise you wouldn’t have gone up to him and slapped him across the face. And then continued to actively taunt him. He was 'this' close to snapping, Zhangjing. 'This' close", he finally looked into Zhangjing’s eyes and accentuated the 'this' with his fingers. Zhangjing looked back with a poker face.
"Can I-?"
"No! If we hadn’t been there he would've snapped, Zhangjing. And now we're all fucked. We're all gonna be expelled. Do you realize that? Our families are gonna kill us, if Shuijiao doesn't hire any assassins first that is", he said, borderline hysterical. A small part of him knew it wasn’t fair to blame Zhangjing for all of that, but anger was still closing up his throat and Zhangjing's scent was making him feel lightheaded.
Zhangjing attempted to put a calming hand on his arm, but Yanjun quickly stepped out of range. He couldn’t be touched right now. Especially not by Zhangjing. "Don't."
A wounded look passed over his face, before he carefully covered it up.
"I never asked you to help me, Yanjun!", Zhangjing said sternly. Yanjun opened his mouth, but Zhangjing put up a hand. "No, I heard you out. Now you’re gonna hear me out."
"I know I was reckless, okay? But that kid was basically being tortured, Yanjun. Psychologically and physically. And I could not just keep watching. Not when I’m perfectly capable of stepping in to stop it from happening", Zhangjing said softly.
"And so yeah, I exploded and I did some things that I probably shouldn't have done. But I did all of that, because I figured, if someone had to do it… It should be me instead of you or Xukun or even Linkai. I still have a clean slate and if I get expelled, then honestly, who cares? There's tons of more schools here and my parents have been wanting to move ever since we got here anyway. Closer to my mom's job", Zhangjing said. "Besides, they would understand. If they heard what happened, they'd take my side."
Yanjun listened to him and felt himself practically deflating. "I never ever wanted to get you two in trouble as well, Yanjun. You have to believe me. If I could take it all back, I would."
Yanjun heard nothing but sincerity in his voice. He was quiet for a while as he let go off the last of his anger and was only left with shame for lashing out so harshly
"Please don't hate me", Zhangjing said quietly and Goddamnit, Zhangjing was gonna be the death of him. He abruptly closed the distance between them and pulled Zhangjing into a hug.
Zhangjing stiffened for a second or two before relaxing into the embrace. He always had been a cuddly person and Yanjun didn't often give in. "I'm sorry I ruined everything. I do stupid stuff when I get angry", The smaller boy said thickly and Yanjun felt his own throat start to constrict.
"Don’t apologize. It was like you said. You didn’t force me to drag that fucked up son of a bitch off you", he said quietly. "You didn’t force me to have so little faith in my parents either and neither did you force me to stand by and do nothing for years whilst that little asshole tormented people."
"Yanjun…”, Zhangjing said worriedly and Yanjun’s breathing hitched as tears began to roll over his face.
"I've been such a coward", he sobbed and Zhangjing quickly returned the hug, holding him tight. Yanjun leaned down a bit to bury his face in his neck. The one time he was able to do it and he couldn’t even enjoy it.
"No no, don’t think like that, Yanjun. You didn’t want to disappoint your parents or ruin your future. Like everyone in this school. You had no choice.", Zhangjing said, still sounding choked up as he rubbed soothing circled onto Yanjun's back.
"I always had a choice", Yanjun said miserably, recalling all the times he’d walked away.
"No, it was the system", Zhangjing said stubbornly. How he was still trying to defend Yanjun's actions was beyond him, sing how Yanjun had been yelling at him just five minutes ago.
"I'm sorry for yelling", he apologized. "You didn’t deserve that."
Zhangjing let put a non-comitial sound and continued his comforting gesture. After a while Yanjun had calmed down enough to stop crying. He wondered what people would think if they accidentally walked in on them. A vampire being comforted by a werewolf. A miracle.
"I'm so stupid", he sighed. Zhangjing immediately shook his head.
"Stop bringing yourself down like that, Yanjun. Seriously. You are a good person. One of the best I've ever met", he said and Yanjun leaned away to look at him. Zhangjing was looking at him with nothing but sincerity in his eyes.
"Thanks", he said, before s small grin appeared on his face.
"Just good? Aren’t I also the most handsome person you've ever met?", he asked. Zhangjing didn’t roll his eyes like he usually would, instead his gaze softened and he nodded as he gently wiped some tears off his fac. "The handsomest", he smiled, looking at Yanjun of all people as if he was the most wonderful person he'd ever laid his eyes upon.
Yanjun didn't even think twice about leaning down and pressing a kiss against his lips. Zhangjing's heartbeat, that had been steady throughout the entire conversation suddenly shot through the roof and his hands fell away from Yanjun's face.
Yanjun leaned away again to find him looking up at him with big eyes.
"I'm not sure if your silent is a good one or a bad one", Yanjun admitted quietly. A brilliant grin appeared on Zhangjing's face and warmth washed over Yanjun when the werewolf’s hands returned to his face, this time to cup it.
"Oh. It's definitely a good one", he giggled and when they kissed again Yanjun felt happier than he had in a while.
Yanjun stared at Zhengting and Chengcheng, not daring to believe his ears. Besides him his friends all had similar expressions upon their faces.
"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?", Linkai asked.
"It's like I said, my sister’s a pretty big deal. She talked to the principal. Shuijiao is officially expelled and judging by his father's reaction he's not gonna be back anytime soon", Chengcheng grinned. "You three are off the hook!"
Yanjun felt like crying from relief. He wasn't gonna be expelled.
"Oh , thank god", Zhangjing moaned as he buried his face in Yanjun's shoulder. Yanjun grinned and pet his hair.
Despite the new step in their relationship things had been tense. Xukun had barely even looked at Zhangjing before the weekend began and even the ever so chill Xiao Gui had been tense around him.
"He's not gonna be bothering anyone anymore", Zhengting said happily. Yanjun turned to Chengcheng.
"Thank you so much. I owe you my life", he told the other vampire. Immediately his friends also showed their gratitude.
Chengcheng laughed. "Don't thank me, thank my sister. She's the one that did all the work."
After some more stammered thanks the two left to join their own friends. ("We just thought it was fair to let you guys know.")
Right after they left Xukun abruptly grabbed Zhangjing and pulled him into a hard embrace. The werewolf yelped in surprise. Yanjun looked on in amusement. At long last, the infamous (wanna be) bad boy Xukun trying to show affection. He and Xiao Gui exchanged an amused glance.
"I'm sorry for being such an asshole", Xukun said gruffly and Zhangjing smiled, returning the gesture.
"It's okay."
"It's really not. You were just doing the right thing and I-"
Yanjun decided to let them have their conversation and turned towards Xiao Gui, who was watching the exchange unfold with a soft smile on his face. As soon as he noticed Yanjun looking he opted for a more neutral expression. Fucking tsundere, honestly.
"You're probably happier about this than all of us combined, huh?", he asked.
"About that I'm not sure, but yeah, I'm really happy that piece of shit is gone", Xiao Gui said with a small smile.
"You think it'll help with-y'know", Yanjun said awkwardly.
The human sighed and looked at his hands. "I'm not sure. I don't think it'll ever completely go away, but I'm 100 percent certain it's a good step in the healing process. My therapist always told me seeing the source of it all could be good for some people, but that wasn't the case for me. I don't know. It always made me feel like a coward."
This was the first time they were talking about his feeling. Usually it was Xukun who did it, because he was simply better at it, which said a whole lot about Yanjun's emotional abilities. He'd practiced this in head multiple times, though. He wasn’t gonna screw this up.
He put a hand on his arm, feeling the warmth and blood flow under his finger. It was still regular.
"Hey, don’t even start with that, man. You're incredibly brave, really. I can't imagine what it must’ve been like to look at the face of the vampire who did that to you every day. A lesser person would've dropped out. Or worse. You didn't and I think that says a lot about you", Yanjun said quietly. Xiao Gui bit his lip and looked at him.
"You think so?", he asked in a rare moment of vulnerability.
"I know so", Yanjun nodded, affection coursing through him when the other boy smiled thankfully at him.
"I know I never said it, but thank you for back then. If you hadn’t shown up when you did, I might not have been here today", he mumbled. Yanjun squeezed his arm. He understood. The first couple of weeks after the attack the human had barely spoken a word, instead he'd sat in his hospital bed, looking incredibly small and vulnerable with marks marring his face and neck.
It had killed Yanjun and Xukun, who'd done their damned hardest to make him crawl out of his shell again. It hadn’t been easy, especially since Yanjun had at first flinched away each time one of them all but reached out to him. His parents told them he'd requested for only humans doctors and nurses. After hearing that Xukun had cried, it was the first time Yanjun had seen him cry and he'd awkwardly stood there, unsure of what to do, before finally giving in and hugging his friend. Their first and last hug.
Then one day it'd seemed like Xiao Gui was back to normal, just bounced back as if nothing had happened at all, talking animatedly and even going as far as to good-naturedly slap their backs. A part of Yanjun had found it weird, but he'd gone with it. Not even caring if it had just been a strange coping mechanism.
"God, I'm really not that god at this mushy shit, let's stop talking about this", the shorter boy said, abruptly pulling Yanjun out of his thoughts. Yanjun grinned.
"What are you talking about? Mushy shit? This is the manliest conversation I've ever had."
Xiao Gui rolled his eyes with a small smile, before putting an arm around Xukun, effectively interrupting his conversation with Zhangjing.
"Now you can finally stop angsting as well", he said good-naturedly.
"Can't a man be worried when his boyfriend is in constant mortal danger", Xukun said and Xiao Gui laughed before pressing a kiss onto his cheek. Yanjun's eyes practically bulged out of his head. He looked at Zhangjing, but he was watching it all go down with a fond expression on his face, as though he'd known all along that his best friends, Yanjun's best friend of the past three years, were boyfriends.
"Did you all meet up this weekend without me or something?", he blurted out. They all turned to him with a confused expression on their faces.
"What?", Xukun asked finally. "No, why?"
"I don’t know, maybe because you two are suddenly boyfriends?", Yanjun all but yelled.
They all laughed. As if this was all some sort of big joke. "Yeah haha, Yanjun."
Yanjun simply stared at them. Slowly the smiles dropped off their faces. "You're not kidding are you?", Xiao Gui stated finally.
"What? No! When the hell did this happen?", Yanjun said.
"Xukun and I have been dating for three years, Yanjun", the human said seriously. Yanjun waited for the punchline, for it al to be some elaborate (very bad) joke. But it didn't come, instead he saw their expression all morph into a horrified one, when it finally occurred to them that Yanjun really hadn’t known.
"And it never occurred to you that I might want to know?”, Yanjun said, almost hysterical.
"Oh my god, babe", Zhangjing moaned, burying his face in Yanjun's shoulder and bursting into loud laughter.
“It never occurred to me that you were so dumb you didn’t even realize we were dating?”, Xukun said.
“How the hell was I supposed to know? You guys never made out in front of me? Nor did you ever call each other that until like right now.”, he all but yelled, genuinely feeling as though a part of his life was a lie.
“How did you know? Did they tell you?”, he asked the still giggling werewolf hiding his face in his neck.
“No, I just thought it was pretty obvious. Seeing how Linkai usually goes with Xukun after school and they like…never invite us. Also, when Linkai’s upset he immediately goes to Xukun, who always welcomes him with open arms. Oh…and the way they look at each other was also pretty self-explanatory”, Zhangjing said, as if it was, all in fact, pretty self-explanatory.
“I thought that was how all best friends looked at each other”, Yanjun muttered.
“Yanjun, you can’t seriously mean this.”, Xukun moaned, burying his face in his hands. Xia Guilooked more done than he ever had. “How the hell someone like you even managed to get a boyfriend is still beyond me.”
Yanjun was about to defend himself when Zhangjing spoke. “Hey, the only one who gets to offend my boyfriend is me.”
“Wow”, Xiao Gui said and despite his world and all he knew just having come crumbling down Yanjun couldn’t help but feel giddiness course through him.
“That’s right. From now on the only one who gets to call me stupid is the werewolf over here. Boyfriend privilege.”, he said before putting an arm over his shoulder.
And when the werewolf gave him a big smile Yanjun couldn’t help but think that he was the privileged one for having Zhangjing like him, despite their differences.