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1.
The first time it happens is after a prisoner handoff with the SID.
“Hey, Hei lao-ge, once you’re done dropping him off to Dixing,” Yunlan asks when Chu Shuzhi heads to the cells to retrieve the prisoner, “can you pop back up? Just for a second, just very quickly?”
“Is there a new person of interest I need to take note of?” Shen Wei asks.
Yunlan rubs at the back of his neck. “It’s actually...a personal favour that I need,” Yunlan says quietly. “It’s actually best if you don’t meet me back at the SID.”
Yunlan sounds...hesitant, almost nervous, and for a second, Shen Wei is immediately concerned that maybe Yunlan’s figured his second identity out, that Yunlan has noticed that Professor Shen and the Black Cloak Envoy are one and the same, and means to confront him about it.
“Where should I meet you?” he asks, instead of turning Yunlan down. If Yunlan already has his suspicions, then Shen Wei doesn’t want to keep lying to him.
Yunlan rattles off his home address, and Shen Wei nods at that.
“I might be awhile,” he tells Yunlan. He has to think through his words, has to figure out the best way to tell Yunlan the parts of the story that he can tell. He has to prepare for all eventualities, including the one where Yunlan is upset at Shen Wei for lying to him, and wants nothing to do with him ever again. “But I will be there.”
“Of course,” Yunlan says, letting out a sigh of relief. “Don’t worry about hurrying back — take care of your business at Dixing first.”
—
It’s two hours later when Shen Wei shows up at Yunlan’s apartment, his Black Cloak Envoy garb in place, rapping his knuckles firmly against the door.
He’d spent the entire trip back to Dixing fretting about this meeting with Yunlan. He wishes he’d asked Yunlan for more information, for some clarity before he’d agreed to it.
Yunlan smiles when he sees him, but he also looks visibly more tired than usual. “Just in time!” he says, but doesn’t make a move to step aside to let Shen Wei in. “I’ll just cut to the chase because I don’t think I’ve got much time. I need your help with a sealing spell.”
Oh.
“What do you need to seal?”
“My apartment,” Yunlan says, and flicks him a rueful grin. “It’s… Look, you probably can’t tell because I’m covering my scent up with about a billion different herbs from the snake tribe, but I’m going into heat.”
Shen Wei freezes.
“I’m what Da Qing likes to describe as ‘especially tenacious’ when I’m in heat, even more so when I have a specific Alpha in mind,” Yunlan continues casually. “I’m worried that the usual sealing spell I use might not hold up well this time round, and I figured… I figured if anyone could cast a spell that could keep me in without any chance of me breaking it, it’d be you.”
“I wanted to ask one of the kids from the SID for help with this, but they would ask questions.”
Questions about the Alpha that Yunlan wants, Shen Wei thinks, and his chest clenches tightly.
“You don’t think that I would have questions for you too?” Shen Wei asks.
Yunlan shrugs. “You can ask. I don’t mind telling you, because I don’t think you’ll use this information to give me shit,” he tells him honestly. “Besides, I sort of had my bet on you not caring about what goes on in my personal life.”
“This really isn’t the sort of favour you would ask a stranger,” Shen Wei says.
“You’re not a stranger, Hei lao-ge!” Yunlan tells him with a cheeky grin. “We’re at the very least familiar acquaintances! Almost friends, even, I would say!”
Friends.
The Black Cloak Envoy is Zhao Yunlan’s friend.
Professor Shen Wei of Dragon City University is also Zhao Yunlan’s friend.
But Ghost King Shen Wei has loved Zhao Yunlan —Kunlun— for ten thousand years, and he doesn’t know how to react to the fact that Zhao Yunlan might want someone else, might want to be claimed by an Alpha who isn’t Shen Wei.
So it’s almost out of the most selfish concerns that he agrees to Zhao Yunlan’s requests.
Let this unnamed Alpha wait.
Let Yunlan spend this heat alone.
Give Shen Wei time to win Yunlan’s heart again — he’s done it once before, he’ll be able to do it again, he’s sure of it.
2.
Shen Wei doesn’t expect Yunlan to come to him with the same request after the revelation that he’s the Black Cloak Envoy, but he prepares for it all the same.
There are better ways of controlling one’s heat rather than to seal them in a room, and let them suffer through the trials of the heat alone. It’s one of the more unpleasant ways to get through a heat.
Shen Wei’s heart aches at the thought of leaving Yunlan to get through his heat alone, but at the same time… At the same time, he also hates the thought of Yunlan spending his heat with someone else.
Yunlan shows up outside Shen Wei’s apartment one night, smile on his face, hands stuffed into the back pockets of his jeans, and says, “Hei lao-ge, it’s almost that time again for me. Would you care to do the honours?”
This time, Shen Wei steps aside, inviting Yunlan into his apartment.
Yunlan pauses for a second, and then seems to decide that Shen Wei is no threat to him, and steps inside.
“There are other ways. Less tiring and less painful ways,” Shen Wei tells Yunlan, once Yunlan’s made himself comfortable on Shen Wei’s couch, and Shen Wei has brought him some tea. “The flower tribe has a concoction that puts you to sleep for the duration of your heat. I have been advised that the potion will work on the normal Haixing population as well, if you want to try it.”
“Oh?” Yunlan asks. “Is this how you control your rut as well?”
Shen Wei flushes at the question, and Yunlan has the decency to look chagrined.
“Sorry,” he murmurs. “That was an incredibly private question. You don’t have to answer it.”
Shen Wei shakes his head. “It’s fine,” he tells Yunlan. And then, “No, that’s not how I do it.”
Shen Wei gets through his rut by sheer force of will, by focusing his thoughts on Kunlun, on Kunlun’s promise that they will meet again. He suppresses his urges and keeps himself still — if he has to, a little bit of pain keeps him mostly alert enough to get through it.
“I meditate,” he tells Yunlan, which is close enough to the truth.
“Meditate,” Yunlan echoes. “Is there no-one in your life that you want to spend your rut with in the normal, traditional sort of way, Professor Shen?”
“I… I…”
Yunlan waits patiently for an answer, but when it becomes evident that Shen Wei doesn’t have an answer ready for him, he laughs his question off, and says, “I’ll try the potion.”
“Good,” Shen Wei says. “My contact in the flower tribe doesn’t have any experience with the dosage of the potion on normal humans. I’ve asked her to err on the side of caution and go low with her estimation.”
Yunlan’s brows furrow. “What if it’s not enough and I wake up in the middle of it?”
“I was going to suggest that it be best if you designated someone you trust to check in on you every six hours or so just to make sure you’re doing okay.”
“You can do it,” Yunlan says simply. “It’ll be more convenient for you than for anyone else since I’m just right across the hall.” He grins at Shen Wei. “I won’t even have to give you a key — you can just open a portal right into my apartment!”
“Maybe it’s best if you get Da Qing to do it,” Shen Wei demurs. “If you’re awake when I go...”
Yunlan’s grin turns playful. “What?” he asks. “You’re afraid that you won’t be able to resist my nubile body? Ah, Lord Black Cloak Envoy, I had no idea you were like this!”
“Yunlan.”
Yunlan laughs at that. “Don’t worry,” he murmurs. “I trust you. I know you won’t hurt me no matter what.”
—
The estimated dosage turns out to be just right — Yunlan doesn’t wake up mid-heat, but Shen Wei stays all the same through the nights just to watch over Yunlan, to take care of him, and to make sure he stays hydrated.
Shen Wei already thinks of Yunlan as his Omega, whether or not it’s true, whether or not it will become true in the future, and in this moment, Zhao Yunlan is his to protect and his to take care of.
3.
It’s only because Yunlan has been less careful about masking his scent around Shen Wei, especially when they’re in either one of their homes, that Shen Wei catches the subtle but precise switch in Yunlan’s scent. It’s bolder today, sweeter, and Shen Wei wants to ignore it, wants to ignore his urge to press his nose to Yunlan’s neck and just breathe him in, but it’s hard to when he’s in Yunlan’s apartment, surrounded by the items that Yunlan’s apparently started unconsciously scent-marking.
He does the math quickly in his head, but the numbers don’t add up — Yunlan’s heat is early this time.
“Yunlan,” he says weakly, when he turns away from the food he’s making to see that Yunlan’s appropriated Shen Wei’s jacket, and has draped it around himself.
“Hmm?” Yunlan hums distractedly. “Shen Wei ah, what sort of detergent do you use?” he asks. “It smells nice.”
Shen Wei swallows. “Yunlan,” he starts again, “I think-”
“I think you smell nice,” Yunlan interrupts, and crosses the room. His eyes are slightly glazed when he looks at Shen Wei. “Shen Wei, you smell so good.”
Shen Wei hurries to cover his bonding gland with his hand, and tries his best to control his reaction to Yunlan’s scent. “Wait here for me,” he tells Yunlan. “I’ll go back to my apartment to get you the potion from the flower tribe.”
He almost thinks about using the door, but getting to the door also means getting pass Yunlan, and Shen Wei-
He portals the fuck out of Yunlan’s apartment.
—
Back in his own apartment, he rummages for the spare bottle of the flower tribe’s potion he knows he has. Where was it that he’d kept it? His study? His bedroom? He tries to recall the last time he held it — in his room, he thinks, after Yunlan’d gotten over his heat. Shen Wei had held the bottle in his hands and thought about how it would’ve been if Yunlan had chosen to spend his heat with someone else, with that Alpha of his instead.
Yes, his bedroom. That’s where he must’ve kept it.
He’s drawn out of his thoughts when he hears the click of his front door unlocking.
“Yunlan,” he calls out. “I thought I told you to wait for me.”
“I already told you once before,” Yunlan murmurs, coming closer. “I’m especially tenacious when I’m in heat,” he purrs.
Shen Wei is rooted in his place.
“Especially when I have a specific Alpha in mind,” Yunlan finishes, and then presses himself close to Shen Wei. “That first time I asked the Black Cloak Envoy for help,” he reminds Shen Wei. “That was because you were so close, just right across the hall. I was afraid that I would seek you out mid-heat. That I would break my own sealing spell in my eagerness to get to you. That you would be compelled by me to do something you didn’t want.”
Shen Wei swallows. “The Alpha that you wanted-”
“Was you,” Yunlan finishes for him. “Of course it was you. How could it be anyone but you?”
“Yunlan,” Shen Wei whispers.
“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to,” Yunlan rasps out. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to, but I think… I hope-”
Shen Wei kisses him.
It’s suddenly the easiest thing to do, following Zhao Yunlan’s confession, to wrap his arms around Yunlan, to let himself lick into Yunlan’s mouth, backing him slowly to the bed, pressing him down gently onto the bed.
Yunlan goes willingly, pliant in Shen Wei’s arms, so sweet and good for Shen Wei. He stretches out on Shen Wei’s bed, silently offering up his neck to Shen Wei, and-
Shen Wei wants.
Shen Wei wants to claim Zhao Yunlan, to have him again, to make him Shen Wei’s again.
This time, Shen Wei won’t let Yunlan slip through his fingers again, won’t let him leave Shen Wei the way Kunlun did.
Shen Wei is going to keep Yunlan right here with him, by his side always.
Mine, Shen Wei thinks, and presses his lips down to Yunlan’s bonding gland, on display for him, calling out to him.
Yunlan trashes against Shen Wei the moment his lips touch Yunlan’s bonding gland, and the familiarity of it makes Shen Wei smirks against his skin.
“Oh, won’t you please-” Yunlan twists his fingers through Shen Wei’s hair and tugs lightly. “It feels good. You make me feel so good. I knew you would, baby.”
“Sweetheart,” Shen Wei purrs, “I haven’t even started yet.”
—
After, Yunlan lets out a soft laugh, and says, “I guess third time’s the charm, huh?”
Shen Wei cards his fingers through Yunlan’s hair gently, humming, “Hmm?”
“This is the third time you’ve helped me out with my heat,” Yunlan tells him. And then, uncharacteristically shy, “Third, and hopefully not last?”
Shen Wei draws him in close. “No, sweetheart, definitely not the last,” he promises.
He seals that promise with a kiss.