Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Hey! Hey! Wait!” Jade Dragon protests as Xiao Zhan drags him into his apartment by the front of his shirt. “Don’t kill me!”

He’s got his hands held up in front of him, and a wild, panicked look on his face.

“At least let me talk first!” the guy begs as Xiao Zhan looks down at him, trying to look intimidating.

It’s not difficult, because he is ANGRY. Though he’s not sure if he’s more furious with Jade Dragon or himself, considering the man had followed him all the way to his home without Xiao Zhan even noticing. He definitely needed to be a lot more diligent in Beijing.

“Do I look like I’m going to murder you?” Xiao Zhan asks. He takes a step back, arms crossed over his chest.

“A little,” Jade Dragon admits, pursing his pink lips.

Good, Xiao Zhan thinks. There’s a look in his eyes Xiao Zhan can’t read. He doesn’t think the guy intends to harm him — he doesn’t have a reason to — but his actions are highly suspicious.

“You followed me home,” Xiao Zhan growls. “WHY.”

Jade Dragon pulls his hat from his pocket and fidgets with it like he’s nervous. He blurts out, “I think we should work together.”

That is… unexpected.

Xiao Zhan stares at him blankly. “What?”

“This is way too big of a deal for us to work on alone. Or to leave to the cops. I saw what was in the room… I’m guessing you heard some things before I got there?” the man asks. Xiao Zhan doesn’t answer, just looks at him and waits for him to continue. “I think we need to pool our resources and work together to take these people down.”

There’s a brief moment where they stare at each other, the Jade Dragon giving Xiao Zhan time to assess the situation. But it’s hard to think about the drug ring, because he’s too distracted by the Jade Dragon’s face.

It’s almost difficult to look at him, because he’s just too handsome. Xiao Zhan is suddenly glad he’s seeing the man without his disguise now, when they aren’t in any kind of danger. The man’s plush lips and chiseled jawline, on top of all the rest of his perfect proportions, could have been a very unfortunate distraction during their other run-ins.

Who even looks like that? Xiao Zhan wonders. He is inhumanly beautiful, and Xiao Zhan can’t help but speculate if maybe the man’s magical powers have something to do with it. It’s got to be a projection or something.

Aggravated at himself for being distracted by a pretty face (that probably wasn’t even real), Xiao Zhan instructs, “Take off your shoes.”

He doesn’t bother to wait for Jade Dragon to comply before walking into the living room. He can hear the guy shuffling around behind him. As he sits down on the couch, he watches the man walk in wearing Xiao Zhan’s guest slippers.

At least he’s got some manners, thinks Xiao Zhan.

The man sits down in the chair just to the left of the couch, and looks at Xiao Zhan expectantly.

“I guess we should start with names?” Jade Dragon says. His mouth quirks into a small smile. “I can’t exactly keep calling you Feathers.” 

“That’s not even my hero name!” Xiao Zhan scoffs, narrowing his eyes. Everything about this guy just pushes his buttons for some reason. “ You’re the one that followed me home. Who the hell are you?”

Jade Dragon’s smile gets bigger as he holds out his hand. “Wang Yibo.”

He manages to look even more attractive when he smiles, which only convinces Xiao Zhan he must be using some kind of magic. Beauty can be very good at influencing people. Even though this guy saved him, he could still be trying to manipulate him, so Xiao Zhan keeps his guard up.

He takes Wang Yibo’s hand, shaking it, his hand tingling a bit when he lets go of the much larger one. 

Weird. Definitely magic.

“I’m Xiao Zhan,” he says. There’s no point in lying about his identity now. Wang Yibo knows where he lives, and he knows people in the police department. At this point, he could easily track it down on his own if he wanted to.

Still, it’s like a bit of tension evaporates between them. As if knowing their real names makes them safe with each other. Xiao Zhan realizes that, like it or not, he’s going to have to trust this Wang Yibo. At least a little bit. To protect his identity, if nothing else.

“Xiao Zhan,” Wang Yibo says, as if testing it out. 

Xiao Zhan wants to smack himself for how much he likes the sound of his name said in the deep timbre of his voice. He shakes his head to push the thought away.

“So what do you know about the club?” Xiao Zhan asks, his voice rough. It had been a long night, and the exertion of the night is beginning to catch up with him.

“Well, what I saw in the office was a briefcase filled with vials of those little green glowing pills that were being passed around the club,” Wang Yibo says. “I’m assuming you saw those?”

Xiao Zhan nods his head. “They were hard to miss. One of those women from the office tried to give me one earlier, but I… distracted her.”

Wang Yibo raises an eyebrow and looks at him curiously but doesn’t ask for details. “There were a handful of guys in the office, all muscle if I’m not wrong, and a couple of women.”

“They were calling one of them ‘Dark Mistress’,” Xiao Zhan says. “It sounded like that’s the boss. I’m assuming it was the tall one, dressed all in black?”

“Probably,” Wang Yibo agrees. “She’s definitely got some wild powers. Have you ever met someone before who could see through your invisibility?”

“No,” Xiao Zhan admits. It would be a huge risk to try spying on the group again now. The Dark Mistress probably has set up a system to alert them of any hidden presence.

“So what did you hear?” Wang Yibo asks.

“Not much. I wasn’t there for a very long time before you showed up,” Xiao Zhan says with a frown. “But there’s a warehouse. It sounded like it was near Shenzhen, maybe? They said something about a ‘replicator’... I’m not sure if it’s a machine or a person.”

“Shit,” Wang Yibo murmurs. “They must have been making small batches out of the club or somewhere local. You saw what that stuff can do, the kind of power they have over people. If they make more and that stuff gets into the clubs in Shenzhen… or Hong Kong…”

He trails off without finishing the thought. They can both imagine what kind of havoc that could wreak.

“Wang Yibo, we have to talk to the police,” Xiao Zhan insists. It’s madness to think the two of them can handle it alone.

“Yeah, one of us should definitely fill them in,” Yibo agrees. “Probably you, since they sent you there for intel. But we definitely can’t rely on them to handle it. If this group is moving drugs and spreading out into other cities, we need to stop them as soon as possible.”

“I have no idea what their timeline is,” Xiao Zhan says. “I didn’t hear any dates. From the conversation, it seemed like it might be soon, but it’s not like I can go back to the club again now.”

“I’ve got a guy on the inside,” Yibo tells him. “He might be able to find out more about what’s going on. Or at least narrow down a timeline.”

“I guess we’ll need to stay in contact then, so I know what’s going on,” Xiao Zhan says, getting his phone out of his pocket. “You’ll need to give me your info, Wang Yibo.”

“Yibo,” the man says with a grin. “You can just call me Yibo. I am sitting in your apartment. Which is very nice, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Xiao Zhan says. He’s flustered by the man’s sincerity, and the warm look in his eye after he enters his WeChat info and hands back the phone. If they’d met at the bar under different circumstances – like normal people – he’d have been thrilled to be getting the contact info of someone as attractive as Yibo.

Which reminds him…

“I have one more question,” Xiao Zhan says. He needs to know – he can’t risk any surprises if they are going to work together. “Is that your real face?”

“What?”

“Your face. Are you using some kind of magic to make it look like that?”

Yibo pokes at his face as if there’s something out of place, his finger sinking into the rounded curve of his bun-like cheek. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with it?”

“Nobody looks like that,” Xiao Zhan scoffs at him.

“Like what?”

“You’re too handsome!” Xiao Zhan exclaims, frustrated at Yibo’s supposed confusion. “You can’t wear your mask or go around looking like that when we’re trying to track someone. You’ll call way too much attention to yourself.”

Yibo’s grin is a mile wide, like a cat that ate an entire nest of canaries. 

“I’m sorry, Zhan-ge, but this is all natural,” he says smugly. “I can change it, though, with a temporary spell. But you might prefer to look at my handsome face instead?”

Xiao Zhan runs a hand over his own face, embarrassed at his presumption and the fact that he’s now made a complete fool of himself. He’s known Yibo all of a few minutes, and he can tell by the glint in the man’s eye that he won’t let Xiao Zhan live this down any time soon.

Xiao Zhan quickly claims exhaustion and an early start time for work, both of which are true – he’ll be lucky to grab a few hours of sleep at this point. Yibo is friendly and downright playful as Xiao Zhan ushers him toward the door, a complete change from the way he came into the apartment.

After he leaves, Xiao Zhan finds that he’s actually relaxed, the spring of tension in his gut from earlier in the night completely uncoiled by his late night visitor. When he wasn’t being a giant pain in the ass, the guy was actually… nice.

Maybe working with Wang Yibo wouldn’t be so bad after all.

* 🐉 * 🐲 * 🐉 * 🐲* 🐉 * 🐲 *

Over the course of the next week, Yibo gets bits and pieces of information from Kai-ge: The name of the club manager (a guy no one has ever seen), the schedule for when the “supervisors” come into the building (there’s a woman and two men who usually give the staff directions on what to do, who’s on the schedule, etc.), and an idea of how many people might be working on the “inside” business (maybe ten, based on who Kai-ge has seen allowed into the office on the second floor).

He passes information to Xiao Zhan, keeping him informed, along with a few memes  – and several selfies.

If the beautiful man thinks he’s handsome, who is Yibo to deny him the enjoyment of looking at his picture? He wishes Xiao Zhan would send one back, instead of the snarky comments or funny memes he usually replies with. Still, Yibo’s heart skips a beat every time he sees his phone light up with a message notification from the man.

He can’t wait to see him again.

It’s been almost a week, and the more he gets to know about Xiao Zhan’s personality from his texts, the more Yibo likes him. He’s funny – and smart. He won’t tell Yibo too much about himself yet, but it’s obvious that he has a good job, if his apartment is anything to go by. 

Yibo is dying to know what he does for a living. It’s like there’s an urge burning in the corner of his brain to know everything there is to know about Xiao Zhan, like he can’t get enough of him. It’s almost obsessive, the way he wants to know every little detail, like what he eats for breakfast or whether he drinks coffee or tea. Yibo mines the man for information, asking questions or sending pictures of things just to prompt a response so he can learn something new.

It’s strange, having such a deep interest in someone else so suddenly. He’s never felt this way before, and it feels a little like his life was darker before, but he just never realized it. Like Xiao Zhan is a sun that showed up one day without warning to shine a bright light on his world and make everything better.

Unfortunately, his roommates have picked up on his irrepressibly good mood, and they will not stop hounding him about it.

“We should prepare for the end times, Xuan-ge,” Sungjoo comments as his two older roommates make dinner one night.

Yixuan glances at him with a confused look. “Why?”

“I think it’s finally happened,” Sungjoo says, smirking at Yibo like he knows a secret.

“What? What’s wrong?” Yixuan asks, turning to look at Yibo as he stirs the pot on the stove.

“Yibo’s in loo-oooooo-ove,” Wenhan sings as he comes into the room behind Yibo and throws an arm over his shoulders. “He’s falling in - Looo-o-oooo-ove!”

He’s mimicking a song from a few years ago, by some boy band he was a ridiculously big fan of.

Yibo pulls Wenhan’s arm off roughly, then punches him in the side. His roommate doubles over as if he’s dying, being dramatic.

“Guys,” Yixuan says sternly.

“Sorry, mom,” Yibo says with a wide, teasing grin.

Yixuan frowns at him. “I’m not feeding you.”

Sungjoo ladles noodles into a bowl, then sits it in front of Yibo at the counter. “We can’t starve the baby just because he’s a lovesick brat.”

Yibo wants to argue and show them how much of a brat he is, but fear of losing his noodles stops his mouth. He sticks the food in it instead.

“So is it true?” Yixuan asks as he comes to sit at the table with his own bowl. “Has some girl finally caught your eye?”

Yibo manages not to choke on his mouthful of food, barely. His friends’ teasing is uncomfortable enough – he’s not really prepared for what they may think about him when they find out the details of his crush. He doesn't think they will be… judgy, but he’s not sure. And he barely knows Xiao Zhan. He doesn’t even know if he’s got a chance to… get to know him better.

He’s definitely not ready to unload all of his secrets to his friends yet. But they won’t let it go if he doesn’t give them something.

With a sense that he may be throwing raw meat into a lion’s den, Yibo mutters, “I did meet someone.”

Wenhan pounces, his eyes alight with interest. “Pretty?”

“Very,” Yibo answers honestly. Xiao Zhan is fuck-all gorgeous. Even his very straight roommates can’t argue that fact.

“Younger than you?” Sungjoo asks. “Or older?”

“I think older,” Yibo says. “But we don’t know each other very well. We just met, really.”

“Are they working? Or a student?” Yixuan questions between bites of his food.

“Working, I think. Their apartment is pretty nice –”

“Oooooohh!” Wenhan exclaims loudly. “You’ve been to the apartment! Yibo, are you working your ‘magic’ already?”

He’s wiggling his eyebrows like a fool, and Yibo gives him a glare that could cut glass if he used the right spell. But Xuan-ge would be very unamused if they got blood all over the floor.

Before he can argue Wenhan’s innuendo, Sungjoo gives him a serious, pointed look.

“Use a condom.”

“OH MY GOD, you guys!” Yibo nearly squeals. He resists the urge to cover his face with his hands like a child, but he can feel his ears burning with embarrassment. “It’s not – we’re not –”

“I’m not kidding, didi,” Sungjoo tells him. “If you need protection, let me know. You don’t want to have to worry about a pregnancy at your age.”

Yibo’s throat closes up in mortification, leading to a pronounced choking fit.

He’s pretty damn sure that even if by some miracle Xiao Zhan lets Yibo touch him, there’s no way anybody is getting pregnant. But now his brain is thinking about how the man had looked at the club last weekend… his long legs… that narrow waist… his round, juicy –

Yixuan clears his throat, staring straight at Yibo, who feels like he missed something when he got distracted.

“I promise, I’ll… I’ll be careful,” Yibo assures him.

It feels like a lie, because – truthfully – he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to Xiao Zhan.

He’s never felt this way before. He thinks it must be just a crush, but he isn’t sure. Yibo only knows that there’s something about Xiao Zhan that draws him in, and he can’t seem to get enough. He’s already wondering what excuses he can use to stay in touch after they’ve wrapped up the case they're working on.

Which gets closer and closer every day.

A friend of Kai-ge’s from the club lets slip about an important trip that the main supervisors at the club are being sent on, and Yibo meets Xiao Zhan at a coffee shop near his office so that they can discuss it.

“You’re really not going to tell me where you work?” Yibo asks as they sit down at a table by the window. He gazes out, wondering which building Xiao Zhan works in and what he does there.

The man has continued to be extremely secretive about any personal information that Yibo doesn’t absolutely need to know.

“No,” Xiao Zhan says firmly, but there’s a hint of a smile on his face. “Now tell me what’s so important that we had to meet during my lunch hour.”

“Kai-ge found out that two of the supervisors at the club are going on some ‘special assignment’ tomorrow,” Yibo says as Xiao Zhan sips his green tea. “Assuming it’s the woman who’s in charge, we’re thinking these two are probably her most trusted employees. It makes sense to send them instead of someone else if it’s an important task.”

“Ok, but how do you know it has anything to do with the drugs?” Xiao Zhan asks. He’s munching on one of the pastries from the little plate of snacks Yibo ordered.

There’s a little ball of warmth swirling in Yibo’s stomach, like feeding Xiao Zhan is now the most fulfilling thing in the world.

God, he’s suddenly become such a sap.

“Well, Kai-ge overheard one of the guys say something about an ‘important shipment’,” Yibo explains. “And supposedly they’re going to be gone for a few days. The timeline works out if they’re going to Shenzhen.”

“Yeah… They can’t take the train or a plane if they’re transporting drugs. They’d have to go by car.” Xiao Zhan stares at him for a moment, and Yibo has to focus on the bridge of his nose so he doesn’t get distracted by the rest of the man’s face. “What are you thinking?”

“Huh?” There’s absolutely nothing g-rated in his thoughts – even when he’s trying not to look at Xiao Zhan too closely, their proximity at the small table means he can smell his cologne, and it’s making him feel a little unbalanced. The man smells good enough to eat.

“What’s your plan?” Xiao Zhan clarifies, his eyebrows bunched in a questioning look. “I’m assuming you’ve got some ideas, since you wanted to meet.”

“Oh,” Yibo says blankly. “We follow them.”

“From here to Shenzhen??” Xiao Zhan asks loudly. 

The couple at a nearby table turn to look at them, and Yibo cringes, leaning in and saying quietly, “It’s a long way, but there’s two of us. There’s no way to know where the warehouse is if we don’t tail them.”

“But what if what they’re doing has nothing to do with the drugs?” Xiao Zhan asks. “Don’t you think we should make sure –”

“How are we going to do that, Zhan-ge?” Yibo asks, his voice rough. “We don’t have any direct intel. All we can do is observe them before they leave. Maybe we’ll get lucky and see the briefcase again.”

Xiao Zhan quietly tears at a biscuit for a minute. He’s clearly thinking, and Yibo lets him process. Maybe he’ll come up with a better option.

“There’s nothing you can do with your magic?” Xiao Zhan’s eyes are hopeful.

“Nothing that doesn’t risk completely blowing our cover and potentially our lives,” Yibo answers. The woman in black at the club was obviously very powerful. There’s no way to know what she is capable of. At least, not without going up against her directly.

“Why don’t we just let the police handle it?” Xiao Zhan suggests. “It seems simple. If the drugs are here, and being taken to a warehouse in the south to be ‘replicated’, they should be able to intercept them at some point. Right?”

“By the time the police get their act together, these guys will have skipped town!” Yibo argues. “We can’t let them get away. This thing is already a lot bigger than we thought. We can’t wait for Beijing to coordinate with the team wherever they’re going.”

Eventually, Xiao Zhan agrees that Yibo is right. They have to move on this – there’s really no other choice. He reluctantly agrees to call into work the next day with a family emergency, claiming he needs to go home to Chongqing for a few days.

Luckily, Yibo’s boss at the dance studio where he works has powers also, so he’s understanding about what’s going on, and a lot more flexible about him taking the time off work. He doesn’t give Yixing-ge all of the details, but he knows Yibo well enough that he trusts him when he says it’s critically important that these criminals are stopped.

He gives Yibo some money for the trip, which he tries to refuse to no avail, and lets him know to check in or call if he runs into trouble.

Yibo is hoping the two of them can handle the task of stopping the drug production. He hasn’t said anything to his roommates, because they’ve all got jobs that are difficult to get away from without prior planning, and Yibo doesn’t want to worry them or disrupt their lives when he’s already got a partner with him on the case. He doesn’t mind winging it when it comes to fighting crime, but he wishes they had a better idea of what they were getting into.

They’ll just have to be very careful and hope they get lucky.

🐦 * 🥷🏼 * 🐦 * 🥷🏼 * 🐦 * 🥷🏼  * 🐦

Their task is off to a good start when they take turns keeping watch at the club the next morning from the safety of his car. Yibo catches a glimpse of two familiar-looking briefcases being stowed in a white van by what looks like two of the men from their run-in the previous week.

They follow the van carrying the cases of drugs for what feels like forever, with Yibo creating glamours to change the color of the car and disguise them long enough to grab gas and some food along the way. They get lucky when the van changes drivers near Wuhan, making it less likely their following will be noticeable.

Along the way they chat, the monotony of the road giving them few other options for entertainment. Xiao Zhan learns about Yibo’s powers, his skills and the limits of what he can do. 

“Did you ever read those books about that boy wizard that were really popular?” Yibo asks. Xiao Zhan nods. “It’s a little bit like that – I think that author must have known somebody that went to my school, actually. Except those losers use a wand, and I don’t need that. I just use my spiritual force along with the incantations. There are elements of things like Tai Chi and Tantra, too. I had to learn all about universal energy and how to manipulate dimensional space. That’s how I got so good at portals.”

Yibo’s school in Korea fascinates Xiao Zhan. He never realized how many people with gifts there were in the world, or the training that some of them might need. His own powers are very organic, as natural to him as breathing. When he was younger, he’d had to learn to control and then perfect his use of it. But nothing like the rigor of what Yibo had gone through in learning his magic.

They argue over the music that they play on the radio, because Yibo does not give Stephanie Sun the level of respect she’s clearly due. And they talk about their favorite anime and shows, discovering they have a lot more in common in that area.

“Wait, you never watched Calabash Brothers?”  Xiao Zhan asks in shock. “How is that possible? It was such a big thing when I was little!”

“Really? But that show is so old!” Yibo says. “Pokémon was way more popular.”

“Pokémon? That was more middle school… Wait. How old are you?” Xiao Zhan suddenly asks, glancing at Yibo from the corner of his eye as he drives.

“How old are you?”  Yibo counters.

“Twenty-six,” Xiao Zhan answers matter-of-factly.

Cackles erupt from the passenger seat. “Oh my god, Ge! I thought you were my age! You’re old!”

He’s laughing like he’d be rolling on the floor if there was any room, and Xiao Zhan smacks him on the arm in retaliation. “Respect your elders, then.”

“I was wrong, I was wrong!” Yibo laughs, and Xiao Zhan puts his smacking hand back on the steering wheel. “Gege is so young-looking, of course I wouldn’t think you were old.”

The compliment and the way Yibo says “gege” sounds almost flirty and makes Xiao Zhan’s ears heat up. He wonders if it’s just innocent teasing or something else, but pushes the thought away quickly. “So you’re, what… Twenty-three? Twenty-four?”

“Almost twenty-one,” Yibo answers with a smile.

Surprise, with a hint of disappointment, floods through Xiao Zhan like he’s been doused with a bucket of cold water.

“You’re just a kid!” He exclaims without thinking.

Yibo’s lips quickly form a pout that Xiao Zhan refuses to think of as adorable. “I’m not a kid! I’ve got a job. I stop criminals for god’s sakes –”

“Ok, ok, you’re not a child,” Xiao Zhan relents. Though he wishes it were true. It would make it a lot easier to stop the thoughts he’s been having lately about Wang Yibo.

It’s hardly his fault. The man is wildly attractive, to the point that even people who don’t have any interest in men would stare at him. And he’s clever – and fun. He’s also playful and ridiculously mouthy, which Xiao Zhan only finds even more attractive for some reason. They’ve spent the last nearly 20 hours together, in close proximity with the only breaks from each other being when they took turns driving and one of them would catch a brief nap.

But it hasn’t been boring, and Xiao Zhan hasn’t gotten tired of Yibo at all. It’s strange – it feels like he’s known the man for much longer than just a few days. And even though they are headed into an unknown, probably dangerous situation, he’s not nervous at all. For some reason, Yibo’s presence is comforting, settling his nerves like a calming cup of tea. It’s as if, as long as Yibo is with him, nothing can go wrong.

Xiao Zhan really hopes the sentiment is more than just wishful thinking, as they watch the van they’ve been following pull into a gated storage facility. They’re just outside of Shenzhen, in an industrial area full of warehouses and commercial buildings.

“What do we do now?” Xiao Zhan asks. They’re parked in the shadow of a building, just close enough that they can see a man in the van handing paperwork to the security guard. There’s no way they’ll be able to follow them in the car from this point.

“Quick!” Yibo says, pushing Xiao Zhan toward his door. “Go into stealth mode and follow them!”

“What?”

Yibo grabs Xiao Zhan’s earpods from the charger, shoving one in his ear. “Take these. Call me if you get into trouble!”

The security guard is handing back the papers and moving back into the guard station — probably to open the gate.

There’s no time to argue.

Xiao Zhan vanishes, opening the car door and then bolting down the road to the van. As the gate opens, the van starts to roll forward, and Xiao Zhan steps onto the bumper and holds on. He’s not sure how large the warehouse compound is, and he’s too tired to run to keep up with the vehicle.

He’s got to save his energy. He’s already running on fumes from junk food and not enough sleep over the last few days, and using his power saps him even more. 

Luckily, the van doesn’t go far before stopping at a building that looks just like all the others around it. Xiao Zhan notes the number on the warehouse as he hurries away from the van. The men open the rear doors, taking out two silver briefcases, and head toward the warehouse door.

Xiao Zhan slips in behind them, undetected.

The men's footsteps on the concrete floor echo in the cavernous space, helping to muffle Xiao Zhan’s careful steps from a safe distance away. He stays near the door and startles when it creaks open.

A small girl marches in, chewing gum and looking bored. She’s young — or at least, she looks young based on the bright yellow hoodie and leggings she’s wearing. Xiao Zhan can’t help thinking she’d look more appropriate on a college campus than in the middle of the warehouse district.

“You’re early,” she tells the men. She doesn’t seem to be intimidated by them at all. It’s either false bravado or she’s powerful enough the men are no danger to her. Either way, Xiao Zhan’s guard is up.

“We made good time,” the taller man says. “How did you know we’re here?”

“We set an alert on the door so I know when it opens,” the girl explains. “We got a call. Your boss’s flight got delayed, and she won’t be here until tomorrow. I’m supposed to tell you to leave the package and come back then.”

“Yeah, we got her message,” the second man says. Nervously, he asks, “You can secure this?”

“Yep,” the girl says, blowing a bubble and letting it snap. She takes the two cases from the men and sits them on the floor.

“You’ll want to stand back,” she suggests. They follow her direction as she pulls some sort of device from her pocket. The girl tosses it in the air above the cases, then claps, and a bright blue dome expands out of the disk, forming a force field over the briefcases.

The man’s eyes are wide, but they don’t appear too shocked. Xiao Zhan expects they’ve seen their boss’s magic often enough that the novelty has worn off.

“Nobody can open that except my dad,” she tells them. “He’ll be here tomorrow at 10.”

The men nod, and the girl dismisses them, walking toward the door.

Xiao Zhan has a split second to examine his options. He can’t grab the cases, because they’re protected by what’s obviously some type of magical device. Which Yibo could possibly defuse, if Xiao Zhan called him in after they leave.

But there’s an alert on the door — and if he doesn’t leave now, and Yibo can’t turn it off, he’ll be trapped. By morning, his powers will be depleted, leaving him a sitting duck.

He follows them, slipping out the door as it closes behind them. He doesn’t move far enough away, letting the girl and the men create distance, and the door gets stopped by his butt. He quickly moves another inch and the door clicks closed, but it catches the girl’s attention and she glances back.

Xiao Zhan strides to the side as she comes back to the door, testing it to ensure it’s locked.

When the men get back into the van and the woman onto a motorbike and head off, Xiao Zhan finally feels like he can breathe. But he can’t relax yet — there are likely security cameras everywhere in the area. He makes his way to the gate where he came in, and hides in a nearby bush until another vehicle comes through. When the gate is opened, he makes a run for it.

The car is still where he left it. When he gets in, he lets his power go dormant and slumps into the seat.

“Oh my god, Zhan-ge! I was so worried!” Yibo says, looking him over and reaching out as if he wants to check Xiao Zhan for injuries. “You were gone for a long time. Are you ok? Do you need something? Did you find out anything? What’s going on?”

Xiao Zhan is drained, his power and physical energy are dangerously low — and Yibo’s chattering is like an over-excited yipping papillon to his frazzled brain. He looks at Yibo and puts a finger to his lips.

“Shhhh,” Xiao Zhan says. 

Wide eyes stare back, and Yibo whispers, “Ok.”

Xiao Zhan closes his eyes for a second, and then feels a plastic bottle being put into his hands. He looks down at the water, then at Yibo, who's eyeing him with concern.

“Drink, Zhan-ge,” Yibo says quietly. “You look a little pale.”

He sips the water and takes a few minutes to get his equilibrium back, then fills Yibo in on everything he’d seen and heard in the warehouse.

“I’ve got to sleep, Yibo,” Xiao Zhan grumbles. “Not only am I exhausted, but if I’ve got no energy, my powers aren’t stable.”

“I called my police contact in Beijing. He’s going to work on coordinating with the officials here, now that we know where we are. We can get in touch now that we have a little more information, but unfortunately, there’s not a lot to go on. The police won’t make a move until it’s worthwhile.”

“So what should we do?” Xiao Zhan asks. “Are we just supposed to let these people fill an entire warehouse with drugs?”

“No, we’ve got to stop them,” Yibo says. “We know the time and place now. Let’s grab some food and a few hours of sleep and we’ll nail them tomorrow.”

“I’m not sleeping in this car,” Xiao Zhan argues. “My legs are too long, they’ll cramp so bad I won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”

Yibo pulls up the area on his phone and finds a place for them to grab an early dinner, and then they head to an inexpensive hotel nearby. Xiao Zhan checks in at the front desk, then picks up his bag. 

“Room Thirteen,” Xiao Zhan says as he waves the room card, so that Yibo will know where to find him.

As he heads toward his room, there’s a family with a few boisterous children talking loudly as they walk behind him. He desperately hopes they aren’t staying in an adjacent room, so he can get some much needed rest.

The family walks by and continues down the hallway as Xiao Zhan unlocks the door with his keycard and heads inside.

Yibo follows him through the door.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Staying with you?” Yibo says it like a question, but his face implies he thought the answer was obvious.

“Get your own room!” Xiao Xhan says.

He’s tired, and irritable, and if he doesn’t get away from Wang Yibo for a while, he’s going to either kiss him or strangle him.

Maybe both.

“I work at a dance studio and fight crime in my spare time,” Yibo snarks. “Do I look like I have any money?”

“I don’t care. You can’t stay with me,” Xiao Zhan argues. “Besides, there’s only one bed.”

“What, are you too good to share a bed, Ge?” Yibo smirked. 

He plops down on the mattress, twisting his butt into the comforter like he’s making a nest for it.

“Don’t worry, I promise I won’t feel you up in your sleep or anything,” Yibo tells him with a smarmy smile.

Xiao Zhan glances at Yibo’s large hands and has to fight the thought that conjures.

Yibo tilts his head, looking at him with interest. “Or maybe I should worry about my own virtue. Are you into guys, Zhan-ge?”

“Not obnoxious ones.”

“That’s not a no.” Yibo’s eyes narrow and his mouth twists in a wicked smirk.

Xiao Zhan wants to push him back on the bed and kiss it off his face.

“We’re not having this conversation,” he says instead with a shake of his head. “It’s none of your business.”

But the knowledge that Yibo might be into men has caused some kind of glitch in his brain, and any further argument about the younger man staying with him flies straight out of the window.

Yibo lets the subject drop and makes himself at home, dropping his bag.

“I’m too tired to shower,” Xiao Zhan says, somewhat apologetically since they’re sharing the bed. He feels stale and gross from two days in the car, but he just wants to sleep.

Xiao Zhan waits until Yibo steps into the bathroom, then slips off his pants and gets under the covers, sighing as his back hits the cool sheets. He didn’t bring clothes to sleep in, so Yibo will just have to deal with Xiao Zhan sleeping in his boxers.

He wonders what Yibo will think about that.

The water runs very briefly, probably just washing his face, then Yibo comes back into the main area of the room. Before Xiao Zhan can close his eyes, he sees Yibo start taking off his clothes.

“What are you doing?” Xiao Zhan squawks, suddenly much more awake than he was two seconds ago.

“I usually sleep naked,” Yibo explains, his expression the picture of wide-eyed innocence. He’s standing near the bed in just his tight, red boxer briefs, all toned muscle and looking like a model.

“The fuck you will,” Xiao Zhan growls. There is already a ridiculous amount of skin on display, and along with the obvious bulge in Yibo’s underwear, it’s creating some very problematic twitches of interest in his own.

Fuck. Fuuuuck, he thinks. He wants to kill him. He wants to kill him because he kind of wants to fuck him. Fuck.

“I’m too — I can’t with… all this,” Xiao Zhan grumbles, vaguely gesturing at Yibo then squeezing his eyes closed and turning over in the bed for good measure.

He has to sleep. They have what will most likely be dangerous business to handle tomorrow, and he can not get distracted by a cute, mostly naked boy in his bed.

Get yourself together, Xiao Zhan, he tells himself. 

Luckily, his body is so drained, he literally doesn’t have the energy to stress about it. He drops off to sleep, dreamless and restful.

* 🐉 * 🐲 * 🐉 * 🐲* 🐉 * 🐲 *

There were two positives to sharing a hotel room with Xiao Zhan: waking up with the man in his arms, and finding out that he almost definitely had a shot with him.

Of course, it was a little embarrassing finding himself wrapped around Xiao Zhan’s back like a clinging monkey, especially since he was hard and there was really no hiding it. He caught Xiao Zhan looking as he headed to the shower, and tossed out a flirty “It’s your fault” before closing the door with a grin Xiao Zhan couldn’t see.

He probably should have been a little quieter when he was dealing with his morning… problem. When he comes out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, Xiao Zhan is scrolling on his phone, but his face is very red. And he’s refusing to look anywhere near Yibo.

“We have to get going soon,” Xiao Zhan says, quickly throwing back the covers and all but running to the bathroom.

Yibo wonders if he’s ok as he gets dressed, but soon he hears a noise like a whine over the dull sound of the shower, and then a telltale groan soon after. It almost makes him hard all over again.

Sure, Xiao Zhan could have been thinking about anyone. But Yibo’s feeling confident that it was him who got the man worked up. When he’d decided to test the waters last night, Xiao Zhan had gotten unreasonably agitated when Yibo had taken his clothes off.

He’d also looked a little like he wanted to eat him.

If he’d been a little less grumpy, Yibo would have pushed a little more, but he didn’t want to press his luck. There is plenty of time for that later.

When they finish this job, Yibo is definitely making his move. Spending the week getting to know Xiao Zhan, and the last few days in close proximity has only made him more sure of his feelings. It’s more than just attraction. He really likes Xiao Zhan. He’s interesting and smart, and a bit like a puzzle Yibo’s not sure he’ll ever figure out. For the first time in his life, he wants somebody — and he’s not going to let him get away easily.

Once they’re ready and have grabbed a quick breakfast to prepare for whatever the day will bring, Yibo and Xiao Zhan put on their disguises and head back to the warehouse. They get there very early, and after sneaking past the guard through a temporary hole Yibo makes in the fence, they check around the perimeter of the building. They’d already discussed a game plan – they need to get in the building so they can stay hidden, and then once the force field is deactivated on the drugs, Xiao Zhan will create a distraction while Yibo destroys the briefcases before they can be duplicated.

Getting into the building ends up being easier than they expected. After doing some testing for wards with his magic and scanning the area to be sure they are clear of security cameras, Yibo simply creates a portal hole in the side of the warehouse and they walk right in. They’ve still got a little time before they’re expecting anyone to show up, so they examine the force-field around the drugs from a safe distance.

“I can’t really do anything to it without possibly triggering whatever safeguards are tied to it,” Yibo explains. “It’s definitely magical, but it seems to have a different… feel? It’s a different energy from mine, like a different wavelength, I guess.”

Soon after, there’s a noise at the entrance. Xiao Zhan grabs Yibo and tugs him close, wrapping one arm around his waist and slipping his invisibility over both of them. It’s a weird sensation, like silk running over his skin for a moment and then everything feels normal — except that when Yibo looks down, he can’t see his body.

“You have to stay close,” Xiao Zhan whispers in his ear, and Yibo has to suppress the shiver that runs down his spine.

There are a few tall crates scattered around the edges of the large empty space, and they scurry behind one as an extra precaution. It’s a good thing they have a physical barrier, because the group that walks in includes the Dark Mistress they’d run into previously. They duck out of sight as she waves her hand to scan the area with her power, and Yibo murmurs an incantation for a temporary spell that he hopes will make her light bend around them, ensuring she can’t “see” them.

The men who’d come to the warehouse the day before aren’t inside, and Yibo wonders if they’re standing outside keeping watch. There are only four people in the warehouse with them.

Not bad odds, Yibo thinks.

There's the girl from yesterday who’s still an unknown when it comes to her power situation. The tall woman dressed in black, and a shorter woman in a yellow jumpsuit next to her. She looks vaguely familiar, and Yibo thinks she may have been at the club that night, too. The one man in the group looks a little older than the rest, and Yibo assumes he’s the one who will be replicating the drugs for them.

The short one in yellow and the one in black walk over to the force field over the briefcases, and the one in yellow tilts her head and then looks at the young girl.

“Your creation, sis?” She asks. The girl jerks her head. “Impressive.”

Then the two women standing together turn their backs, and Yibo can’t tell who, but he assumes it’s the tall one in black who sends a bolt of something like lightning straight to the disk above the cases. It’s disabled immediately, and the disk drops onto the floor with a clanging sound.

“It’s obviously no match for you,” the young girl says flatly. She doesn’t seem to be a fan of her sister, and Yibo wonders if that might come in handy.

“Well, not everyone can be the Tortoise Queen!” The man says proudly, smiling at the two women.

“All right, Daddy,” the one in yellow says. “Time to do your thing.”

“Is this a family business?” Xiao Zhan asks, breathing in his ear barely above a whisper.

Yibo squeezes his arm in reply, and whispers, “Time to do this.”

Xiao Zhan releases him, the warmth of him disappearing from Yibo’s back as he moves invisibly away. Yibo’s not sure exactly what he’s going to do, and he waits anxiously while watching the woman in black carefully arrange one of the cases. 

The man stands by the case and asks, “How many do you need?”

“Fill the whole warehouse if you can,” she tells him.

His eyes widen in surprise, but he doesn’t argue, just reaches for the briefcase. Before he can make contact, a loud noise echoes through the room, and a forklift comes careening out of a dark corner. It’s moving fast, and the girl screams, moving out of its path and toward the door. The man bolts away from the briefcases to follow her as Yibo makes a run for the cases and grabs them.

It’s at this moment that he realizes they’ve made a very grave error.

The woman in yellow throws up a bright wall of neon green with a wave of her hand. It looks transparent – but the forklift crashes into it at full speed, the prongs at the front bending and curling as if it hit a concrete wall. There’s a yell and a thud that accompanies the crash, and Yibo’s heart drops down to his feet as he realizes Zhan-ge was actually driving it.

Instinctively, Yibo’s feet want to run to him, but he’s still invisible, and Yibo takes the fact that he’s maintaining his power as a good sign. Yibo has the cases, but he doesn’t even have time to attempt an incineration spell before the wall disappears and there’s a curved wall headed his way, definitely intending to trap him.

Holding both of the case handles in one hand, he uses his other to send a blast of power toward the green force-field, slowing it enough that he can lurch to the side to avoid it.

The woman in yellow laughs as if she’s toying with him, as she throws her green wall toward him wherever he moves and watches him dance and twist to avoid the trap. Meanwhile, from the corner of his eye he sees the other woman in black use her light to find Xiao Zhan. From what he can see, there’s a scuffle, but when the woman makes contact with him, he suddenly goes limp and docile. The woman easily overpowers him when he stops fighting back, and tugs his hands behind him.

“What should we do with him, my Queen?” she asks the woman in yellow. She’s petting Xiao Zhan’s feathered outfit as if he’s a pet, and Yibo grits his teeth in anger and disgust.

The yellow one – the Tortoise Queen? – stops attacking Yibo for a moment to answer, “Let’s see the little bird fly.”

Yibo has no idea what the hell that means, but there’s no way it’s anything good.

Suddenly, a giant hook connected to the ceiling begins to lower toward the middle of the room.

Oh, FUCK, Yibo thinks. He puts the cases down next to him, and starts desperately throwing power blasts at the Queen, but she’s now using the wall as a shield to protect herself and the Dark Mistress. He’s not even making a dent.

Yibo looks around to see who’s moving the hook. He’d lost track of the man and the girl, who are standing by a side wall next to a large control panel. It has two large orange buttons, one on top and one on bottom. Yibo sends a blast toward them and they scurry out of the way just in time.

“Oh no you don’t!” The Queen says, going back on the offensive and sending her shield straight at him. He dives out of the way, leaving the cases behind. He’s inadvertently run into a corner, and the Queen wastes no time in blocking him in with her force-field. “Jade Dragon, I presume?”

Yibo is spitting mad – at getting trapped, at getting outsmarted, at the fact that the Dark Mistress just pulled off Xiao Zhan’s mask. “Fuck you! Who the hell are you?” he growls.

“You haven’t heard of me?” The woman says, putting a hand to her chest mockingly.

“Don’t worry, you’ll bow before our Tortoise Queen soon,” the Dark Mistress tells him. She turns to the Queen. “Should we tie him to it? Or do you want to make him stay?”

Trapped behind the transparent green barrier, Yibo keeps trying various spells and attacks, but he’s getting nowhere. He watches helplessly as the Queen walks over to Xiao Zhan, grabbing his shirt and pulling him down to eye level.

“Oh! We’ve met before!” She says with a smile. “You don’t forget a face like this. He’s a decent kisser.”

Yibo’s brain blue screens. He’s…WHAT??

The Dark Mistress has a similar reaction, her expression twisting into confusion. “Excuse me?”

The Queen takes a moment to stare silently into Xiao Zhan’s eyes, and then he stands. There’s a brief, bright green shimmer in his eyes that makes Yibo’s blood run cold.

The Queen turns to the Dark Mistress, taking her hand. “Don’t be mad, my pet. It was necessary at the time. You know I’d never betray you. Do you want a taste to make things even?”

Yibo bangs on the force-field with his fists like a caged animal. It’s one thing to try to kill him, but he will tear this whole warehouse down with the sheer force of his will alone if he has to watch this woman kiss Xiao Zhan.

“Aww, are you jealous?” The Queen asks him snidely as the Dark Mistress sneers in disgust.

“I will fucking KILL you!” Yibo screams.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Dragon-Boy,” Dark Mistress says. “He’s not my type.”

Yibo watches in horror as Xiao Zhan steps calmly onto the hook, grabbing hold of the rope as if he’s a trapeze artist. His eyes are glazed and unseeing as he’s lifted into the air, all the way to the ceiling. It’s a tall building, a three or four story drop according to Yibo’s estimate.

And the man he loves is just standing precariously on the hook, with nothing to keep him there except the Queen’s power over him.

Every cell in Yibo’s body is screaming to get to Xiao Zhan – to save him – and he’s trapped like a moth against glass.

Tortoise Queen claps her hands. “Ok, where were we?”

Dark Mistress walks over to retrieve the cases, and the girl and the man come out from wherever they’d been staying out of the fray.

“What is that crap? What are you planning to do?” Yibo yells. “If you’re going to kill me, you might as well tell me what I wasn’t able to stop.”

He’s stalling, trying to buy time and hoping that he’ll get some kind of an opening. It’s not looking good, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

“Oh, sweetheart, maybe I won’t kill you,” the Queen suggests. She opens a case, pulling out a vial and dropping a glowing green pill into her hand. “Maybe I’ll feed you this and start building my army.”

She walks toward Yibo, and there’s a glint in her eyes he doesn’t like. She’s ambitious, greedy and power-hungry, and she knows she’s got the means to roll out her plans.

“What does that stuff even do? Where did it come from?” he asks, slowly backing up as she comes closer.

“You know what it does. You’ve seen it,” she tells him. She holds up the glowing green ball between her thumb and forefinger. “And I’m surprised you haven’t figured out yet where it came from. My love and I created it, a perfect mix of our powers of persuasion.”

Yibo is focusing his gaze on the top of the woman’s head, refusing to meet her eye or get enchanted by the glowing drug. I’m fucked, he thinks. So fucked. I’m going to die in this warehouse or drugged out doing god knows what as this whore’s tool, and I’ll never get to be with Zhan-ge and I’ll die a virgin.

Funny, how that never mattered to him in the past. But everything changed when he met Xiao Zhan.

The sound of the warehouse door banging open startles him, and Yibo looks over along with the Tortoise Queen to see a band of what look like multicolor misfits storming into the space.

“You!” the Queen shouts accusingly.

A man with red-orange hair begins running straight for her and morphs while in motion, his form getting slightly larger and changing into some sort of monster with a hooved body like a horse and a monsterous snarling face. It’s a frightening sight, and Yibo backs up toward the wall, afraid the thing will be coming at him.

The Queen huffs as if she’s agitated that another wrench has been thrown into her plans for the day. She throws up another barrier in front of the charging creature, who doesn’t slow down at all in the face of it. Yibo holds his breath, expecting the guy to hit the wall, but instead he goes straight through it.

The Queen screams in shock as the man-monster barrels toward her, and she runs away from Yibo and toward the Dark Mistress, who is surrounded by the other three people who’ve busted in.

“TingTing!” she yells. “Get Father out of here!”

Yibo sees movement across the warehouse and assumes it’s the girl and her father who are fleeing.

“I’ll get them!” a guy with blue hair says loudly and runs off after them.

The monster stops near Yibo and looks at him.

“Wang. Jackson Wang,” he says, and it’s the most disconcerting thing to hear a friendly human voice come from the mouth of such a creature.  “This is my pack. Yixing called and said you might need a little help, so we came up from Hong Kong!”

He doesn’t waste another moment, morphing back into person form as he runs toward the Queen and the Dark Mistress, who are standing under a dome of protection cast by the Queen. It’s green, but tinged with red and yellow, and Yibo wonders if she’s using some kind of extra protection on it, given how the monster – Jackson – destroyed her shield.

There’s a girl with bright pink hair and another man with a wild mop of white on his head gesturing to Jackson. They seem to be communicating without words.

Yibo’s eyes shoot toward Xiao Zhan, still dazed near the ceiling.

“Be careful!” he shouts to the new heroes. “She’s got a hostage!”

“You’ve learned some new tricks, old friend,” the Queen snarls at the man with red-orange hair.

“Yeah, pretty cool, right?” Jackson says with a bright grin.

While everyone is distracted, Yibo quickly and quietly slips over to where the briefcases of drugs had been left. He opens one, taking out a vial and chanting an anti-breakage spell before slipping it into his pocket. The police will need to have some proof when they finally show up.

“Whatcha doin’ over there, my man?” White-haired guy asks from across the room. The three of them are in a standoff, surrounding the force-field dome, but not making a move yet to attack the two women inside it.

“Destroying some shit!” Yibo yells back.

“Excellent plan!” says his new pink-haired friend.

Yibo takes a step back from the cases and begins building a magical fireball in his hands. It’s an intricate process, involving spells and precise movements, and he needs to build it big enough to make sure the drugs are incinerated on contact. His fire is only about half the size of a soccer ball when all hell breaks loose.

A blinding flash of light bursts from the Dark Mistress right before the force-field explodes out away from the two women and toward the three people around them. They are blown back, the pink-haired woman stumbling to the ground, and the Queen charges toward Yibo. She’s cut off by the monster-man, who has changed back to his stronger form.

Yibo keeps building his fire as he watches them fight. The guy in white seems to have some kind of wind power, swirling it around him like a tornado. Pink-hair girl has – are those plants? – shooting from her palms and snaking out to attack and try to catch Dark Mistress and the Queen, who are fighting back with every trick they have.

When the fireball is large enough, Yibo opens the cases and throws it onto the drugs. There’s a very small explosion, and the fire grows bigger for a second and engulfs the cases before it begins to fade. Yibo can already see the blackened interior and melted plastic of the inside of the case.

“Time to go, my Queen,” Dark Mistress says. She throws something at the far wall and a portal opens up, much like the ones that Yibo makes and uses with his own magic. She grabs the smaller woman and they run through it, Jackson and his friends chasing after them. The portal snaps closed as soon as they are through and they’re gone, escaping in the blink of an eye.

Yibo has a brief second to wonder who else is working with them and just how many people with powers are involved in their organization.

Then there’s a movement of red in the air.

“Zhan-ge!!” Yibo screams, already in motion but he knows he won’t reach him in time. He watches, panic and terror slicing through his brain like knives, as Xiao Zhan falls through the air and hits the floor with a sickening thud.

Yibo is nearly within reach of him, praying to whatever god might be listening that he has somehow survived the fall. But suddenly, like something out of a horror film, Xiao Zhan bursts into flames.

It’s an inferno, blazing as tall as the man usually is while standing, a red-yellow-orange nightmare of heat that makes Yibo skid to a halt and backpedal to keep from getting burned.

His brain has gone completely blank. He might be crying, and somebody is calling Zhan-ge’s name. There’s nothing but pain. Anguish runs through his veins, making his body shake uncontrollably. Suddenly, there are hands on Yibo’s arms, holding him – or holding him back. He’s not sure. He’s watching everything that is Xiao Zhan disintegrate in the flames before his eyes.

The fire finally burns out, nothing left but ashes that swirl and dance in the air, though Yibo can hardly see it through the blur of tears. There’s a small hand, probably the woman’s, stroking his back in what he’s sure is a soothing manner. Yibo wants to tell them all to stop touching him, but he can’t move. His throat has closed up around his gasps for air. It feels like his heart has burned to dust along with the man of his dreams.

“What the hell…?” The white-haired man murmurs beside him.

Yibo rubs at his eyes, trying to clear his vision. It almost looks like the ashes are shaping themselves into… a person?

They all watch, stunned and breathless, as the ashes coalesce, a sparkly red and yellow glow building and filling in. Within a matter of seconds, Xiao Zhan is.. 

Back. He’s back and sitting on the concrete floor looking disoriented and exhausted.

“Holy FUCK!” Yibo says breathlessly. His knees go weak, but that’s ok, because he’s scrambling toward Xiao Zhan, crawling to him as fast as he can.

“Oh… I guess I never told you… I’m also indestructible,” Xiao Zhan tells him, like he’s discussing the weather and not bursting into fucking flames. “Phoenix, remember?”

A flood of relief pours over Yibo like a waterfall, so sudden that he’s nearly lightheaded with it.

“I thought it was just a name, I didn’t think it was LITERAL!” Yibo shouts, smacking him in punishment — but also because he desperately needs the reassurance that Xiao Zhan is real and he’s not having some kind of grief-induced psychotic break.

“Surprise?”

Yibo grabs him and hugs him, his voice rough. “Zhan-ge, I thought… I thought I lost you...”

🐦 * 🥷🏼 * 🐦 * 🥷🏼 * 🐦 * 🥷🏼  * 🐦

Yibo is staring at him — with so much fire and care and concern in his eyes that Xiao Zhan doesn’t even think. He’s so relieved that they’ve both somehow survived the ordeal that his brain completely shuts down, and he zones in on the plump lips that have taunted him from the first moment he saw them.

He swoops in and kisses him.

It’s sweet, and wet, and glorious, and then Yibo pulls away, staring at Xiao Zhan with wide eyes.

Panic quickly sets in at what he’s done.

“Oh, shit,” Xiao Zhan sputters. “Did you not — I thought —”

Before he can even get out a proper apology, Yibo is on him, kissing him with a heat that makes his skin tingle. When Yibo’s tongue finds his own, the fire spreads. It feels almost the same as right before combusting, a burning that starts from the inside out. Except this time, there’s a hunger along with it.

For Yibo.

He wants to taste every inch of him.

“Hey, uh, guys? You may want to not… you know, HERE,” a voice says near them. “The police are gonna be here soon.”

Xiao Zhan breaks away from Yibo at the interruption, both of them a little breathless. Yibo’s lips are red, his skin flushed, and Xiao Zhan wants to kiss him again, damn the audience, except… “Are those scales on your hand?”

Yibo looks down, moving his hand where there are definitely large scales that are shimmering across the back of his hand. They range in color from pale green to a mystical blue, changing as they catch the light.

“What the fuck?” Yibo says, staring at his hand as if it has betrayed him.

Because yeah - SCALES.

Xiao Zhan runs a finger lightly over the… skin? It’s still smooth and warm, but slightly firmer, and Xiao Zhan thinks about Yibo’s dragon story and wonders if there’s a connection.

Yibo lifts the edge of the sleeve of his leotard, revealing that it goes up his arm at least to his elbow.

“Dude, did you like level up or something?” a man with reddish hair asks, voice awed. “Can people even do that? That’s cool as HELL!”

Yibo is still staring at his hands, twisting them and watching as the colors kaleidoscope in the dim light. He looks up at Xiao Zhan, his eyes filled with fear. His voice is small, like a frightened child. “Zhan-ge…”

“It’s ok,” Xiao Zhan quickly reassures, keeping his voice soft and calm. He wants to pull the boy into his lap and hold him, but they’ve already made the others uncomfortable, and he doesn’t want to add to it with another display of affection. “It’s beautiful, Yibo.”

And it is. The colors and the way they shimmer make Xiao Zhan want to see it in the sunlight. He’s sure it would only make Yibo shine even brighter than he already does.

“How do I… Will it go away?” Yibo asks. He’s clearly still anxious, but looks slightly less like he wants to bolt for the door — or throw up.

Xiao Zhan tilts his head, wondering. “Do you think it’s like my invisibility? Can you… pull it back?”

Yibo’s expression morphs to confusion. “What do you mean? My magic is more like a faucet. Like, I can turn it off and on… And I can push it out… I’m not sure…”

“Try, Yibo,” Xiao Zhan encourages.

Yibo stands up and takes a few steps away from them, then closes his eyes. For a moment it looks like he’s meditating, and then he starts wiggling his body, shaking out his arms like a dog trying to shake water off its coat.

Xiao Zhan can’t help but giggle at him.

Yibo looks down at his hands, then runs back to him with a bright smile on his face. “It worked!”

Xiao Zhan takes his hand, letting Yibo pull him to his feet. “Why…?”

He doesn’t need to explain. As if he can read his mind, he answers, “I don’t know. It just felt right!”

Xiao Zhan laughs, ruffling Yibo’s sweaty mop of hair. “You looked like a puppy.”

Yibo preens, a content smile settling on his face as Xiao Zhan pets him.

“Oh, you guys are gross,” the red-haired man complains. They look at him, unamused, and he clarifies, “Not like I’m homophobic gross!! It’s you’re too sweet, I want to puke – gross.”

“Thank you,” Xiao Zhan says, ignoring the man’s grumbling. “All of you. We got in way over our heads with this. You guys really saved us.”

“Yeah,” Yibo agrees, his large hand slipping into Xiao Zhan’s and squeezing tightly. “I’m Wang Yibo, by the way. Also known as Jade Dragon. This is Xiao Zhan.”

Xiao Zhan holds out a hand in greeting to the red-haired man. “The Phoenix.”

“From Chongqing? I’ve heard of you!” the man says with a smile. “I’m Jackson Wang. People call me Big Mo.”

Xiao Zhan gives him a confused look, and Yibo explains. “You must have been out of it when you were under the Tortoise Queen’s control. His power is turning into a big, scary-ass monster.”

Jackson grins. He’s got a confident, cocky air, but it’s softened by his friendliness and warmth.

“This is K,” Jackson says, introducing the woman with pink-hair next to him. “And this is J-Sheon. They’re both kind of new to the hero stuff. They’re working on their persona.”  

The group all shake hands as a man with blue hair comes into the warehouse, followed by a crowd of police officers.

“That’s Ice. You can probably guess what his powers involve,” Jackson says with a laugh.

Soon after, the group of heroes gets split up to debrief with law enforcement, so they can gather information and compare their stories. He sees Yibo handing over a glowing green vial, and he’s happy that with everything going on, the man was clever enough to maintain some evidence.

Once the officials are content that they’ve gotten all the information they need, they’re given clearance to leave. As he exits the building into bright sunlight, Xiao Zhan sees the “specialists” heading in to evaluate the scene. It’s standard procedure now for local stations to have their own people with powers on staff, who can use their skills to trace magic or secure evidence that other people can’t see.

As he waits for Yibo to finish up and find him, he wonders if the police will have any luck tracking down the Tortoise Queen and her Dark Mistress. Ice had caught the girl and her father, who were now in police custody. The Queen was probably not going to be happy about that.

Yibo was obviously having similar thoughts.

“You and I will need to be extra cautious for a while,” he tells Xiao Zhan as he walks up to him outside the warehouse. “There’s a good chance those two women are going to be on the warpath.”

“We’ll just have to stick together then,” Xiao Zhan suggests with a smile. “Watch each other’s back and all that.”

“We do make a pretty good team,” Yibo says, and even with his mask up, Xiao Zhan can tell that he’s grinning.

They’ve both put their disguises back on to get to the car, just in case there are any gawkers with cameras who have stumbled across the drama that has unfolded and want to get something to post on social media.

“We do,” Xiao Zhan agrees, taking his hand.

They’ve got a lot to talk about, and they’re still not sure what dangers lie ahead. But it’s nice to know he’s not alone for whatever they could face in the future.

Jade Dragon and The Phoenix, Xiao Zhan thinks. It’s got a nice ring to it.