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“Don’t eat things willy-nilly,” Lu Feng had warned him.
They came across it in the Abyss. A rare flatland surrounded by cliffs–it was a rare oasis. A trickle waterfall from the melting of winter; flowering white trees around the periphery. In the center was a grouping of innocent mushroom caps. And around them, slumbering monsters laid around happily with what could constitute as a smile on their faces (if you considered four sets of compound eyes and a row of sharp teeth a face).
Then there was another creature. With large wings and a scorpion’s tail, it had looked nothing akin to the other monster. In any other part of the abyss, there would have been large battles as the monsters fought to rule this territory. And yet, there they were, lazing around by the mushrooms, happily thriving in each others’ presence, a fight for survival seemingly faded away.
A light breeze brushed his hair, making the atmosphere and the mushrooms all the more peaceful.
I want to try one, An Zhe thought.
“No,” Lu Feng said. His voice was loud behind his ear.
“I didn’t even do anything yet,” An Zhe pouted, and withdrew his hyphae. He was so close!
“Look at these beasts! We’re standing so close to their presence, and they don’t see us as a threat. We can bring these samples back, and the Institute can analyze the rhythm.” An Zhe nodded. This was a perfectly reasonable explanation, and then he could take a bite in the truck when Lu Feng went to scout for their camp at night.
Lu Feng looked at him and said in a low voice, “You would eat your own brethren?” His green eyes didn’t seem cold in the warm sunlit field, and instead twinkled with amusement.
An Zhe did not like this man one bit. “I’m trying to save them from these–these predators!” He said in outrage, when the lion-maned serpent rolled over closer to another mushroom bushel and took a pleasant chomp from one of the purple mushroom caps.
An Zhe had learned that despite Lu Feng’s stringent lack of adventure (ignoring that they were currently exploring the Abyss), there was very little that Lu Feng would actually refuse him ever since he woke up at the Institute.
And so, they rescued a bushel of his fellow mushroom friends and brought them to the truck, and when Lu Feng went to collect some firewood, An Zhe immediately devoured it.
Lu Feng furrowed his brows when he returned but did not look the slightest surprised. “Do not cry when you develop another bellyache.”
An Zhe looked up at him with glassy eyes, and whispered, “Lu Feng, I’m happy .” The world was spinning in beautiful colors, and Lu Feng was back. An Zhe reached out his arms because there was nothing he wanted now more than to be held in Lu Feng’s embrace.
Lu Feng climbed into the open bed of the truck that now served as their sleeping quarters bemused. He arranged them so he was sitting with his back against some blankets, and An Zhe reclined on top of him, back to his chest. “Why are you so affectionate, hmm?” Lu Feng wrapped his arms around him, and he could feel that An Zhe’s heart was racing, his pupils dilated. But he was not distressed. And his smile was beautiful.
An Zhen shifted until his head was comfortable under Lu Feng’s chin, and nuzzled against his neck. “I don’t know why. I feel light. Like I can fly, but you will always catch me.”
“Yes, I will,” Lu Feng agreed. He played with An Zhe’s fingers, tracing each slender digit, and feeling the steady bounding of his pulse at the wrist.
“I can see the stars in the distance.”
“There are no stars.” Only the eternal green aurora rolling across the skies, affirming their survival night after night.
“There are!! See those lights?” An Zhe pulled his hands from Lu Feng’s grasp and pointed at the fireflies fluttering near them. “Dancing stars.” An Zhe tilted his head back and let out a loud giggle. “Why do you have two heads?”
Lu Feng realized the mushrooms must be hallucinogenic. “Do I look doubly handsome?”
An Zhe giggled. “I’m the luckiest mushroom.” He looked down at this hands, and whispered loudly, “I’m delicious.”
And before Lu Feng could stop him, An Zhe had transformed the tips of his fingers into hyphae and taken a bite of his own hand.
An Zhe chewed and swallowed, and the hallucinogen must’ve been amplified because he smiled even wider and his eyes seem to glisten. An Zhe giggled, and narrowed his eyes and squinted. “Your eyes are so beautiful. More beautiful than the sky.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” An Zhe said with the seriousness of a mushroom who had completed an etiquette course. And then he shoved his fingers into Lu Feng's mouth. “Try it.”
“...” This little mushroom was very trying. Lu Feng closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose, before he slowly pressed his tongue and dragged it along An Zhe’s fingers.
An Zhe shuddered. “No! You’re supposed to bite.” And then he seemed to change his mind because he tried to withdraw his hand when the sensation of Lu Feng’s tongue started to send shivers down his back.
But Lu Feng held him by the wrist, keeping his hand in place, while the other hand drifted down to hold An Zhe’s soft waist, holding him in place when he tried to twist away. You don’t place your hand in the mouth of a wolf and then make demands.
An Zhe pouted. “I just wanted you to try the mushroom. I might have become a happy mushroom. So you can feel happy. Like me right now.”
Lu Feng was pressing little kisses to the tips of An Zhe’s fingers, and then moving up to his wrist. “I am happy.” His fingers crept from An Zhe’s waist, to under his shirt, to the soft planes of his abdomen, brushing against his soft skin.
An Zhe gazed at him with lidded eyes, his voice suddenly dropping in volume. "You are a bad man."
"Who started it?"
Lu Feng's voice was so close, yet far away. His eyes seemed to blend with the Aurora in the distance, and colors blending together. The world was spinning, melding together. An Zhe felt his worries fade away, melting away like the background. It didn't feel like they were on the back of that metal truck anymore. He could be anywhere. It felt like the time Tang Lan took him flying, soaring above the trees, but also he was back in his cave with the bioluminescent algae, and An Ze lay before him.
His reality was melting away, and he was amongst the cosmos. And all around him was Lu Feng.
An Zhe suddenly turned bodily and moved to sit in Lu Feng’s lap. Lu Feng relented, allowing them to face each other.
He stared at Lu Feng with serious eyes. Lu Feng’s eyes were dark, the black of his pupils eating away at the green. He traced those stern eyebrows, framing those cold green eyes. When it looked like he was about to say something, An Zhe stopped him by putting his thumb over his lips. "I am one with you."
"Is that what you wish?" Lu Feng murmured, his soft breath brushing against An Zhe’s finger. He had rested both of his palms on his waist now. His thumbs stroked at the soft skin above the waistband of his trousers.
“Yes.” An Zhe surged forward and pressed their lips together, his hand moved away to hold onto Lu Feng’s hair, pulling him close. Closer. He wanted Lu Feng to devour him.
The kiss seemed to last an eternity, and the stars spun around them, a waltz to their love. He felt the warmth of Lu Feng wrapped around him, and they were no longer under the open sky of the Abyss.
He finally felt a huff of laughter and An Zhe pulled away, slightly affronted to be interrupted. He was conducting a symphony of love, and Lu Feng was laughing at him. “What?” he sulked.
“Perhaps I do like this mushroom,” Lu Feng said, amused.
An Zhe felt a rage. How dare he? He pinched him in the chest. “I'm your favorite.” What a bad human, noncommittal with a fleeting heart. How dare he like another mushroom? He picked the wrong person to love.
“No, you didn’t.” Lu Feng whispered fervently, because apparently he said that last part out loud. Lu Feng slid his hand to his nape and pulled him forward again until they had their foreheads pressed together. “I only need you.”
This pleased An Zhe. He forgot why he was angry before.
He yawned. He also didn’t want to move anymore. He wriggled himself lower on Lu Feng, feeling something that told him Lu Feng really was happy. He wrapped both arms around Lu Feng’s waist, smashed his face against his stomach, and closed his eyes.
The dancing lights and green waves were tiring, and An Zhe wanted to sleep now. “Good night, Lu Feng.” And then he was out.
Lu Feng stared at the young man fast asleep in his lap, and then looked towards the sky with a deep sigh. He had to mentally will his desire away, albeit with difficulty as the manifestation of his fantasy was currently pressed right on top of him.
Unlike his little mushroom, sleep would not come easy.
Lu Feng wrapped a protective arm around An Zhe, and settled in for the night. It’s alright. He would make him pay for this in the morning.