Work Text:
It started, as everything involving Shen Jiu did these days, with Yue Qingyuan meddling uninvited. Once, before... everything else, there was nothing Yue Qingyuan didn't know about him, no trouble they didn't share. Now if he was worried he had to follow and spy and bribe their fellow disciples to learn if something was wrong. And there was. He was sure.
Harsh experience had taught Yue Qingyuan that asking directly was pointless. Any offer of help was a dire insult. An accusation of weakness. Shen Jiu was determined to struggle alone. Sometimes Yue Qingyuan wondered if this was his punishment, being together in the same place again and not allowed to reach out his hand and help.
Xiao-Jiu had never had the talent for making friends or making nice and that, unlike so much else, hadn't changed. He practiced alone. He studied alone. He tried and tried to follow his teacher's endless corrections of his form, to relax, to flow naturally through the stances. Yue Qingyuan watched from a distance as Shen Jiu listened to another admonition that once could not simply barrel one's way through cultivation through stubbornness alone.
Saw him nod and try again with his body clenched like a fist and his teeth bared when no one else watched.
While the other disciples talked or ate or studied in groups, Shen Jiu practiced. Yue Qingyuan had slipped in at night before to check on him, only to find his bed in the dormitory empty. While others slept he practice his calligraphy and guqin and even walking and sitting with the grace befitting an immortal.
Yue Qingyuan made the mistake of asking about that, why Shen Jiu had to even practice how to gesture and speak when he should be resting.
"Not all of us are able to wipe the stink of the gutter off so easily" Shen Jiu answered, and then ignored Yue Qingyuan's existence with even more vehemence than before.
The only time Shen Jiu wasn't training or trading words and blows in an explosion of tension with whoever had most recently slighted him (usually Bai Zhan Peak's successor) was when he traveled down to the nearby village. The rumor mill had him sighted frequenting a brothel of all things, and as ludicrous as that was. Yue Qingyuan found himself consumed by nightmare visions of Xiao-Jiu mislead or blackmailed or coerced into something horrible. Locked in another room, being hurt. So used to Yue Qingyuan's unrelenting disappointments that he no longer asked to be saved. With Shen Jiu alienated from his fellow disciples and unwilling to turn to the Qi-ge who'd failed him anything could be happening.
It wasn't difficult, with his superior cultivation, to listen from a distance and follow unseen. Shen Jiu walked to the red light district with confidence, he clearly knew the way by heart. He knew the man at the gate too, who let him pass with just a nod, and the woman who bowed and led him by the arm to a room. Why would his Xiao-Jiu hire a prostitute when she was clearly less beautiful than he was? Clearly something sinister was going on. Yue Qingyuan wasn't about to let him be taken advantage of.
It wouldn't matter how good his intentions were if Shen Jiu caught Yue Qingyuan following him.
Yue Qingyuan followed in after Shen Jiu was out of sight and paid enough extra that they escorted him to the next room over and left him without accompaniment without much question or any complaint. Another reason his worry was justified. This was clearly a disreputable place without any integrity or concern for their customers. Some lunatic stalker could pay them for a place near Xiao-Jiu and the opportunity to spy and they would just take his money and let him. It was lucky Yue Qingyuan was here.
Yue Qingyuan took a calming breath and expanded his senses. The walls weren't warded or even thick. He took a moment to remind himself that he was only there to ensure Xiao-Jiu's safety. If he was there for... entertainment, it wasn't his place anymore to interupt.
"It is an honor to attend to you again, noble cultivator. Would you like music while you rest?" Yue Qingyuan heard a woman's voice say.
"No." Shen Jiu replied, his voice softer than Yue Qingyuan had heard in years "I practice enough without hearing the guqin in my sleep. Not sharing a room with a dozen of my enemies is already enough to help my rest. Don't worry, you've already earned your pay."
The woman murmured some polite nothing that Yue Qingyuan was too distracted to make out. He thought of Xiao-Jiu when they were children, sleeping pressed between him and the wall, of how he hated having any of the others near, despite the safety in numbers. How could he have forgotten? Yue Qingyuan really was a fool.
Yue Qingyuan would have preferred to stay the night, even a room away, and guard Xiao-Jiu's sleep. His reputation as disciple of the sect head was already endangered by coming here though. If he lost that, how could he protect Xiao-Jiu?
Now that he knew the problem Yue Qingyuan would find a way to help. There had to be a better for Xiao-Jiu than depriving himself of sleep until he was desperate to sneak down to a brothel. His reputation was already damaged and his body would follow soon if he didn't start getting more regular rest.
He would have to wait, Yue Qingyuan realized with regret, until Xiao-Jiu had exhausted himself again. Unfortunately Shen Jiu wouldn't accept his help unless he was desperate, and his being a little out of his mind with sleep deprivation would help too.
So, although he didn't like it, Yue Qingyuan watched and waited until it seemed Xiao-Jiu would break down, and then stood in his way on the path down the mountian.
Caught breaking the rules, Xiao-Jiu glared defiantly where someone else might have tried excuses or evasions.
"You're needed on Qiong Ding peak." Yue Qingyuan said, and the fact that Xiao-Jiu didn't question that, or come up with an objection to Yue Qingyuan's guiding hand on his arm was all the proof he needed that he was doing the right thing.
In fact it was only when he was brought to Yue Qingyuan's private room that it occured to Xiao-Jiu to demand an explanation.
"You don't need to go to a brothel, you have me." Yue Qingyuan said.
"What."
Ah, that might not have been phrased as clearly as he'd meant it to be.
He tried again. "You need a place to sleep, my room is closer, safer, free. You can avoid any more damage to your reputation."
"Damage to my reputation?" Xiao-Jiu gave a bitter snort, "so instead when everyone asks what favors I'm getting in exchanged for fucking my Shixiong, creeping in and out of his room every night, that's not damage?"
Xiao-Jiu always lashed out like this, and Yue Qingyuan ignored the attempt to offend him. "It's easier to come and go unseen from one peak to another than all the way down to town and back. I can show you a hidden route, you don't need to worry about what anyone thinks."
"What about what I think? What if I just can't stand to be near you, after you abandoned me like garbage?"
It was possible, and if true then it was no less than he deserved, but Yue Qingyuan had been watching him closely. Even in the middle of this argument Xiao-Jiu still looked less tense than he did sitting in class with his fellow disciples, spitting defensive venom at anyone who came near, resolutely letting no one see him flinch.
"Xiao-Jiu," Yue Qingyuan said-
"Don't." Xiao-Jiu interrupted, nerves raw from exhaustion.
"Shidi," Yue Qingyuan tried again, "the least this senior owes you is a place to rest."
Yue Qingyuan waited, and watched Shen Jiu ponder the proffered excuse. This wasn't comfort being offered, implying a weakness on his part that Xiao-Jiu would die long before admitting. This was just a small installment on Yue Qingyuan's debt. A debt so vast and unpayable that that Shen Jiu could take this as his due without any worry that either of them would mistake it for forgiveness.
And Yue Qingyuan had picked his timing well. Maybe Xiao-Jiu was willing to admit Yue Qingyuan was preferable to at least some of life's evils. More likely he was too tired to keep arguing.
"Fine." Xiao-Jiu said, and threw his outer robe defiantly at Yue Qingyuan's face. "I get the side by the wall."
Yue Qingyuan was touched. He hadn't expected to be allowed on the bed, and was planning to sit and meditate instead.
For all his previous resistance, Xiao-Jiu fell asleep quickly. Yue Qingyuan watched him drift off, and then kept watching through the night, wanting to be sure he was finally getting some much needed rest.
Xiao-Jiu, with his dark hair uncombed. Xiao-Jiu with his pale wan face, his eyes bruised with exhaustion.
In his bed. Impossibly lovely. Close enough to protect for once.