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Ye Xiu has always considered himself to be a level-headed, logical and practical person. He has always approached his problems with a clear mind; and while there may be times when initially his emotions get the better of him, he is quick to take a moment, reassess, and tackle the problem from a different perspective.
His ability to think calmly and strategically was what made him one of the four master tacticians of Glory.
Which was why it came as a surprise to him that he would be so affected at the image another Omega flirting with an Alpha that he never considered as a potential mate.
(Granted that other Omega was his brother, and that Alpha was Han Wenqing, but that was beside the point.)
The All-Stars Weekend had just finished, and with a nearby bar lounge reserved just for them, the players were all celebrating with a well-earned party. Ye Xiu had been busy trying to fend off drinks from a very insistent Huang Shaotian, who could surprisingly hold a lot of liquor in his tiny frame (Su Mucheng jokingly said it was because Shaotian burned it all with his talking, before she went off to find the rest of Team Happy), when he spotted the last face he expected to see in the crowd – his own.
Ye Qiu had managed to slip through the bouncers (which admittedly wouldn’t be that hard since they both share the same face), and now stood between Han Wenqing and the bar counter, smiling coyly up at the Alpha and trailing a delicate finger over the countertop. From where Ye Xiu was, he couldn’t see Old Han’s reaction, but saw the older man nod and raise a hand to call the bartender’s attention. Two fresh drinks were placed in front of them, which Ye Qiu happily took one and hooked his other arm around Han Wenqing’s to lead him to the other side of the lounge.
Ye Xiu didn’t even realize he growled until Shaotian had cut off mid-rant about how it was good to build alcohol tolerance in the presence of friends you can trust and both Yu Wenzhou and Wang Jiexi were looking at him like he had grown an extra head.
“Geez, if you really don’t want a drink, you can just say so.” Shaotian said, as if Ye Xiu hadn’t spent a good fifteen minutes telling him just that, and was about to take the sweet mixed-drink away, when Ye Xiu reached over and downed half of it in one gulp. He slammed the highball glass back on the table between them, sloshing some of the sticky drink in the process, before pushing his chair back and getting up.
On wobbly feet, he almost tripped trying to get around the table before Wang Jiexi also got up to steady him.
“Maybe you should take it a bit easy.” Big-Eyed Wang said gently, and while normally Ye Xiu wouldn’t have minded the Alpha being so close to him since they had been friends for a very long time and Wang Jiexi had a very calming presence, his entire being was telling him to push away from this Alpha and head towards the one across the lounge to properly assert his right.
“I think,” Yu Wenzhou started, calculating eyes following where Ye Xiu’s glowing amber were focused, “you should let him go.”
Wang Jiexi raised an eyebrow, but deferred to the Beta’s judgement and stepped back, watching Ye Xiu stalk off an unsteady path to the other side of the room.
“Heeeh?” Shaotian interjected, leaning over the table and squinting as he tried to focus his vision, “How did Ye Xiu get all the way across the room so fast? And … and is he flirting with Scary Han Wenqing?! What the heck is in this drink?” Shaotian pushed the half-empty glass away and downed his own glass of water (plus Yu Wenzhou’s) in record speed, coughing a bit in the process.
As Wenzhou patted his Vice-Captain’s back, both he and Wang Jiexi watched on as Ye Xiu approached Tyranny’s captain and the other man that looked exactly like their friend.
--
Ye Xiu considered giving himself a pat on the shoulder for making it all the way to the other side of the room without tripping, but he was worried if he even attempted to do so, he’d end up falling face first in front of his younger brother’s feet (which wouldn’t really help the case he was trying to prove, and seemingly at that moment he couldn’t remember what that was specifically).
Ye Qiu noticed him first and smirked up at him. “Han Ge and I were just talking about something interesting.”
As his brother went on about why he was in the area, Ye Xiu glanced at Han Wenqing who was seated a respectable distance away from Ye Qiu on the booth seating. Old Han was looking at him with a curious expression, and Ye Xiu struggled to remember if he had actually told Han Wenqing that he had a twin.
Distantly, Ye Xiu heard his brother say something about their parents wanting him to visit the coming long weekend, but as he was about to reply, he felt another wave of dizzying sensation and clumsily plopped himself on the space right beside Han Wenqing. Belatedly, he realized he should have placed his hand on the table to keep himself from tilting sideways, but by the time his brain caught up with him, he was already slumped against a comforting warmth and didn’t see any reason to pull away.
He noticed that his brother was gawking at him and sputtering about proper Omega behaviour, but Ye Xiu was suddenly more focused on the arm that was gently wrapped around his shoulder and keeping him from slipping further under the table. Ye Xiu was saved from getting into an argument with his brother while tipsy when Chen Guo slipped into the booth from the other side, engaging Ye Qiu in a conversation about Team Happy’s success and how President Ye’s investment went a long way in getting the team so far in the Glory Pro Alliance.
“Do you want to go back to your hotel room?” The owner of the voice above him asked. Ye Xiu, upon lifting his head from where it was pressed against the firm chest, blinked up at Han Wenqing and reluctantly pushed himself away and upright.
“Yes. I think that would be best.” Pushing aside his surprise that he could still form coherent words, (and really, Ye Xiu was making a mental note that he hoped he remembered when he was sober to avoid any drinks Huang Shaotian put in front of him), he got out of the booth and back onto unsteady feet.
He was thankful for the tender grip on his elbow, which kept him grounded, and realized Old Han had also gotten up to keep him from falling over. “I’ll walk you back.” The Alpha said softly, and Ye Xiu didn’t refuse the kind offer.
At the corner of his slightly blurry vision, he could barely make out that Tang Rou had slipped into their vacated spot and effectively locked Ye Qiu into the booth. Ignoring his brother’s protests, Ye Xiu allowed Old Han to guide him through the maze of people and back to the nearby hotel where all the out-of-town players were staying.
--
The next morning, Ye Xiu was in the hotel restaurant, nursing a cup of hot black coffee and an annoying mini-hangover migraine, when Huang Shaotian and Yu Wenzhou joined him at the table.
“You look like shit.” Shaotian said cheerfully across from Ye Xiu as he enthusiastically dug into his hearty breakfast. Yu Wenzhou asked the service staff to bring them two more cups of coffee before digging into his own dish.
“And whose fault was that?” Ye Xiu said a bit testily because the coffee wasn’t working its magic fast enough.
“I suppose you deserve it,” Shaotian continued, completely ignoring Ye Xiu’s comment, “Putting us through having to watch you and Old Han be all touchy-feely last night and then heading out of the bar together back to your hotel room. I hope you used proper protection. You are both old enough to know that. Though I suppose you weren’t in Heat and Han Wenqing wasn’t in a Rut so the chances of a baby HanYe nine months from now is low, but still! You need to be responsible adults and sexually-transmitted diseases are no laughing matter. Though no offense, I don’t think you’ve been getting a good knotting these past few years and I don’t think Captain Han has been getting any tail either but hey some Omegas, Betas, or even Alphas get turned on by that scary-vibe. And what would your teams think if you suddenly got knocked up, and with scary Old Han as the other father too!”
Ye Xiu sat back as Huang Shaotian continued to rant in between spoonfuls (about turning Tyrannical Ambition into a daycare center and making sure that Shaotian was first pick for godfather), dazed and at a loss of what to make of that information. When he had woken up that morning, he was alone in his hotel room, dressed in last night’s clothes, shoes at the foot of the bed, but pretty much in one piece. His memory wasn’t as good as he would like it, but he did remember feeling a gentle hand tucking him into bed. He chalked it up as a fevered alcoholic dream.
“Speaking of which,” The younger Omega said once he’d swallowed it all down with a big gulp of orange juice that somehow materialized by his hand, “Where is the old Alpha anyway? Did he sneak off somewhere after having his wicked ways with you?”
“You must not think very highly of me then.” The deep voice of the Alpha in question surprised Shaotian that the talkative Omega dropped the toast onto his lap.
Yu Wenzhou tried to hide his amused smile behind taking a sip of his coffee as his Vice-Captain try to backpedal out of that landmine, eyes trailing after Han Wenqing as the older man took a seat across from him, and beside Ye Xiu.
“Nothing happened.” Wenqing clarified once Shaotian ran out of things to say to appease the Alpha; the younger member of Blue Rain choosing instead to take bigger bites of his food to avoid putting his foot further in his mouth.
“I just dropped Ye Xiu in his own room and left. You’re going to have to wait a bit longer to be named godfather, Shaotian.” Han Wenqing said, pushing a small plate of fresh fruits in front of Ye Xiu and raising an eyebrow to encourage the other man to eat. With a small smile, Ye Xiu took the offered plate.
“But does that mean that HanYe babies are going to be in the future, Captain Han?” Zhang Xinjie said with a straight face as he took the empty seat on the other side of Ye Xiu. “I need to know if we need to convert one of the training rooms into a nursery. As future godfather, I will personally see to it that the area is baby-proof.”
“This is a silly conversation.” Wang Jiexi said as he took the seat across from Tyranny’s Vice Captain and beside Shaotian, cup of tea in hand. “If anyone would be the child’s godfather, it would be me.”
The conversation devolved from there, with Shaotian trying to convince Xinjie and Jiexi why he was a better choice for godfather than either of them.
Ye Xiu felt his headache coming back and turned his attention on the plate of fruit in front of him instead, taking a bite of a melon slice and focusing on the sweetness to keep the nausea down. In between bites, Ye Xiu noticed that Han Wenqing was eating with his non-dominant hand, with the hand closest to Ye Xiu resting on the Alpha’s lap under the table. Feeling a bit bolder than he normally would, Ye Xiu discreetly moved his free hand towards Old Han’s, brushing his pinky finger lightly against the back of the Alpha’s hand to test his luck. When Han Wenqing interlocked their fingers, Ye Xiu turned away to hide his pleased smile.
As both Ye Xiu and Han Wenqing continued to eat, they were oblivious to the fact that Yu Wenzhou was across the table from them and could see very clearly the budding relationship between the two, especially since the Beta ‘accidentally’ dropped his table napkin and noticed the tender moment.
With a smug smile, he fished out his phone to send Xiao Shiqin a message.
He had a bet to collect.
-end-