Work Text:
Godsdammit. This was the last thing Mu Qing needed right now. He was just in his palace, reading a report on property damage to one of his temples, when he was wracked by a vicious coughing fit.
Please don’t let this be what I think it is, he thought. Please just let this be a cold or a flu or fucking asthma-
But as he plucked the flower from his mouth, there was no denying it.
He supposed he should have seen this coming, what with Jian Lan wandering around the heavens as of late. His heart was straining every time he saw him going after her, vying for her attention. He had managed for 800 years. Not letting the feelings get to him in a way that would hurt. And now that stupid flower was mocking him.
Mu Qing winced in disgust. The delicate petals were all crumpled and matted down with saliva. Wow, this disease was nowhere near as poetic as the folktales made it out to be. Mu Qing’s rage flared, and he summoned a small burst of spiritual energy to ignite the revolting thing. But setting something on fire didn’t help. He was still stewing with rage, frustration, embarrassment-
No, Mu Qing thought in his head. No. I am not dealing with this. It’s his fault. It’s that bastard’s fault-
And before he knew it, Mu Qing was kicking through the doors of the Nan Yang Palace.
“Mu Qing, what the hell!” Feng Xin yelled as Mu Qing stormed in. “I just got those doors reinstalled after our last fight-”
“This is YOUR fault, bitch!” Mu Qing shouted as he immediately lunged at Feng Xin.
“ My fault? What the fuck did I do now?” Feng Xin dodged, but his face pinched into that habitual annoyed expression he wore around Mu Qing.
Which only made Mu Qing angrier. He never made that expression at Jian Lan. Mu Qing felt another cough rising in him, but he choked it down in favor of attempting to choke Feng Xin. Feng Xin finally threw a punch back at him, and that seemed to help. Mu Qing was able to take his mind off of those pesky feelings and focus on what he knew. Which was feigning left and sweep kicking Feng Xin down to the floor. Worked every time.
Feng Xin grunted as he hit the ground. “Use your words, asshole!” Feng Xin tackled Mu Qing’s knees, bringing him down, too. “Is this about the Xuan Zhen temple I destroyed? It was just an accident!”
“YOU DESTROYED WHAT?”
Mu Qing was overcome by a new wave of rage, and he lunged at Feng Xin. They tussled for a while, exchanging blows and shouted insults. Mu Qing attacked viciously, letting out all the nervous energy he had built up from seeing that flower until he was completely exhausted. He let himself get worked up, replacing one anger with a more familiar anger, until his mind was wiped free.
Panting, they stumbled apart.
“Alright, I’ll pay for your fucking temple,” Feng Xin groaned, holding the side of his face where Mu Qing landed a punch.
“That’s not what this is about.” Mu Qing turned with a flip of his hair as he made his exit. “Jerk.”
He left Feng Xin standing in the hall, bruised and confused.
—
So Mu Qing went home and forgot about it. He replaced the image of the crumpled flower in his hand with the image of Feng Xin throwing a punch. Yeah. That seemed to help. And with the damaged temple, he could pretend his turmoil was towards that incident and not the fluttering of his heart, the churning of his stomach, and the squeezing of his chest until he was choking.
He descended to the mortal world to assess the damage. It was one of his larger temples since it was on the border of his territory, where his followers were constantly competing with the followers of Nan Yang just down the road. His statue was still intact and there was still space for mortals to pray but… did Feng Xin really have to go this far?
Mu Qing sighed, climbing over a collapsed wall, spotting marks in the stone from where Feng Xin’s arrows must have pierced it. According to Feng Xin, the beast he was fighting destroyed most of the building. Yeah right, you liar , Mu Qing thought, rolling his eyes at the marks in the ruins that were clearly from Feng Xin’s sword. Mu Qing knew Feng Xin’s fighting moves like the back of his hand by now. Did the bastard really think he wouldn’t recognize those slashes?
From the damaged wall, Mu Qing could peek through the foliage and make out another temple in the distance. A Nan Yang temple. He sighed, rubbing his face. Yep. That asshole definitely led the beast here to avoid destroying his own temple. He could be such a jerk sometimes. Absolutely no respect for Mu Qing’s property. He wouldn’t care if Mu Qing had to do more work to fix it or if he would lose followers…
Mu Qing felt that uncomfortable tightening in his chest again, and before he could stop it, he let out a loud cough. Not again , he thought as his throat clogged with a disgusting feeling he couldn’t swallow down. He fled from the temple and into the woods as he coughed out puffs of petals. He was invisible to mortals right now, but he still didn’t want to risk having any possible followers showing up to the temple and seeing petals appearing from nowhere.
This is bad , he thought as he stumbled. The coughing wouldn’t stop. He was running out of air, and every time he tried to gasp in a breath a flower would bloom and clot his throat. He wouldn’t die from this like a mortal would, right? He could feel himself suffocating, his vision clouding from the lack of air. He would pass out soon. Would that somehow stop the flowers from blooming, or would they fill his lungs and cut off any chance of survival without someone rescuing him?
Think, think … Mu Qing calmed his mind, reciting his sutras, but it didn’t help. He didn’t know who to call. Maybe Xie Lian, but that asshole ghost king was with him… and he just knew they would demand to know who had caused this… Well, he could just call the bastard responsible for this mess himself. Absolutely not . Mu Qing could imagine the exact expression on Feng Xin’s face if he were to find Mu Qing in this state. Annoyance. Condescension. Pity...
Mu Qing huffed in rage thinking of that expression. Man, does he want to punch that expression off of Feng Xin’s face right now. Mu Qing’s shoulders straightened recalling their last fight. It gave him something to focus on. He replayed the fight in his head, the petals gradually ceasing and his breath coming back to him.
Once he was recovered, Mu Qing took a moment to himself. For some reason, thinking of fighting Feng Xin was the only thing that seemed to calm him. It worked last time, too. Why is that? Maybe because it was a good enough distraction… But Mu Qing thought about Feng Xin’s face when he attacked first, when he dodged Mu Qing’s blows, when he was forced to use a complex move to counter Mu Qing. There was a different light in his eyes, then. He didn’t look at Mu Qing like some sort of stain in his high-class world. He looked at him like he was his equal. Like he was someone worth paying attention to.
Mu Qing groaned, throwing his face into his hands. What the hell kind of predicament was he in now? His feelings towards Feng Xin finally gave him some weird disease, and now only fighting him seemed to help?
He walked back to his collapsed temple, glaring. Well, first things first, he had to make sure Feng Xin paid for the damage. He went back up to the heavenly realm, immediately kicking down the second set of doors that Feng Xin had installed that week, and launched into another fight.
—
“Who the hell is causing such a ruckus at this time in the morning?”
“Xuan Zhen and Nan Yang. Who else would it be?”
“They’re at it again? I could have sworn they just fought last night! How could something else have happened already?”
A week had passed since the collapse of the Xuan Zhen temple, and the peace of the heavens had been disturbed again and again. General Xuan Zhen and General Nan Yang’s fights were nothing new, but it was happening so frequently these days, the other gods couldn’t help but be annoyed. It seemed like they would just attack each other on sight. There wasn’t even any talk or drama to gossip about.
“What the hell was he thinking?” Feng Xin paced in his courtyard, rolling his shoulders. Mu Qing had just left, shouting incoherent gibberish about how this was ‘all Feng Xin’s fault’ even though he was the one who just interrupted Feng Xin’s archery practice!
“That bastard!” Feng Xin pounded the wall with his fist, but his heart wasn’t really in it. He thought things were getting better between them after their battle with Jun Wu. They had gone on more missions together, and their teamwork was improving. When they conversed, Mu Qing rolled his eyes less, and Feng Xin could have sworn he even smiled at times. And best yet, when Feng Xin would tease him, an embarrassed blush would seep into his cheeks. It was lovely. Feng Xin wanted to find other ways to make him blush like that.
But all that progress seemed to collapse a week ago. When Mu Qing burst into his palace, he had that angry look in his eyes from those 800 years of being rivals. And it had continued all through that week, with Mu Qing seeming to pick a fight every day, maybe even twice a day. Was it really that temple he accidentally destroyed? Had that been the final straw? He had said he was sorry!
“That stupid, unforgiving jerk…” Feng Xin muttered. Mu Qing was being impractical. It was just a temple. But as much as Feng Xin tried to blame it on Mu Qing’s irrationality, he couldn’t help but regret it. The destruction wasn’t even really his fault, it was the beast he was fighting, but still. Maybe Feng Xin could have tried harder to drive the beast away from the Xuan Zhen temple, or he could have tried to repair the damage before Mu Qing had to get involved. He could have done something. Anything. Anything to prevent all that progress in their relationship from collapsing. Anything to keep being able to see Mu Qing’s secretive smiles and make him blush.
All this fighting was taking a toll on Feng Xin. His chest was tightening, and he felt an uncomfortable clogging in his throat every time Mu Qing left. And he was feeling it again now. He stood still for a moment, trying to calm himself down, but the feeling had been getting worse all week, seeming to be harder to push away with every angry glare from Mu Qing. He coughed a bit to clear his throat and felt a weird texture at the back of his mouth. He coughed harder, trying to get whatever it was out, his shoulders shaking and his core clenching with the effort. Finally, Feng Xin felt something dislodge, and he plucked it out of his mouth. A petal.
Feng Xin tensed up before he sank to the floor. He knew of this disease, read about it in the books from the mortal realm that he turned to when he had been feeling particularly lonely in the past 800 years. It was bound to happen, he figured. Mu Qing had been his rival for so many years, he had just gotten used to the scorn and anger between them. When their relationship started to finally improve, Feng Xin couldn’t help but let down some of the walls he had placed around his hardened heart. He let himself wonder what it might be like being something more with Mu Qing. Which is why it hurt that much more when this careful relationship he had built with Mu Qing started to fracture. They were fighting again, and Feng Xin couldn’t take it this time. Couldn’t take it once he’s had a glimpse of what it would be like to be close to Mu Qing.
He picked himself up off the ground and disposed of the petal. No need for anyone to find out about that. He had gotten sick because of all the fighting with Mu Qing. Which just meant that he would have to try harder to fight less. Which was difficult when that bastard always just burst into his home shouting snarky comments and insults…. But Feng Xin could do it. He could hold back his punches when he needed to. And if it was necessary to get along with Mu Qing again, he would do anything.
—
“AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” Mu Qing screamed in rage. His room was covered in sticky, crumpled flowers. He had just had another coughing fit, the biggest one yet, and now he had a whole mess to clean up before any of his officials saw it. As usual, it was entirely Feng Xin’s fault. That idiot was out on another mission deep in the Southeast, too deep for Mu Qing to go without it being considered trespassing.
Why the hell had Feng Xin been taking on so many missions lately? And why were they all so far east that Mu Qing had no excuse to join him? It was really interfering with Mu Qing’s plan to keep fighting with him!
He looked around his room, surveying the damage. There were blossoms everywhere, with petals creeping into every crevice and hidden spot. It would be too hard to clean up thoroughly and quickly. The scene was so disgusting, Mu Qing wanted to hurl. So, before he could start coughing again, he hurled a burst of spiritual energy across the room, burning all the petals in one go.
A boom resounded down the halls of the Xuan Zhen palace. Hm, I may have gone a bit too far … Mu Qing thought as he stood in the smoldering remains of his room. Great. Now his own palace was damaged. Because of some stupid disease. Some stupid disease caused by…
“Feng Xin,” Mu Qing growled just as his junior officials arrived.
“Sir, we heard an explosion, what hap-”
“It’s all that jerk’s fault!”
His junior officials looked around the wrecked room in confusion and Mu Qing continued to stew. He was kind of mad at himself for letting his emotions get out of control, but Feng Xin was pushing him to the limit. It was already hard being on bad terms with him for years, but then the flower disease pushed Mu Qing over the edge. And Feng Xin wasn’t even around to fight when it got bad! He really was good for nothing. Who the heck was he to deny Mu Qing a fight?
“It’s all Feng Xin’s fault,” Mu Qing muttered as he walked past his junior officials. “All his godsdamned doing…”
“Um, sir, General Nan Yang isn’t even in the heavens right now, how could he have caused this?”
Mu Qing turned to the one that spoke. “Clean this up! I’m going to go deal with this!” Trespassing be damned, Mu Qing was going to fight Feng Xin.
—
A cozy cabin. Snow falling outside. A roaring fire. Truly a good place to wallow in loneliness. Feng Xin was just curling up with a book from the mortal realm ( The Resentment of Chunshan had been getting great reviews) when he heard aggressive knocking coming from his door. He tried to ignore it, getting back into his book, but the knocking wouldn’t stop. Who the heck was bothering him? He was very busy on a solo mission!
He was about to tell the person to fuck off when he heard some muffled curses through the door. Wait a minute. Was that-
“Mu Qing?” he screamed, throwing open the door.
“Gods, finally! It’s absolutely freezing out here! Why would you pick such a miserable place to stay?” Mu Qing walked in, trudging his wet boots all over the floor as if he owned the place.
Great. The exact person Feng Xin had been trying to avoid. He should have just left the door locked. Then again, he didn’t like the thought of Mu Qing standing out in the cold…
Mu Qing surveyed the room before his eyes landed on Feng Xin’s book, and he sneered in disgust. “Well. Aren’t you going to offer me tea? You’re a terrible host.”
What the hell are you doing here? Feng Xin wanted to shout in his face, but he kept his mouth shut. The last thing he needed was to start a fight right now. So, he busied himself running to the kitchen to get Mu Qing a cup of tea. The former bodyguard serving the former servant.
When he did as Mu Qing said, Mu Qing gave him an odd look. He seemed to be holding his words back, his face turning a bit red before he took the tea and chugged it.
“Careful!” Feng Xin shouted angrily. He checked his tone before saying, “don’t drink so fast, it’s hot.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Mu Qing sputtered out. He clearly seemed to be choking, the idiot. Feng Xin brought him a napkin, worried that he really did burn his throat.
Mu Qing just looked at him in shock, staring at the napkin, then at Feng Xin. Feng Xin sighed. “Well, if you’re not going to take it…”
He reached for Mu Qing’s face, barely brushing the napkin against his cheek before Mu Qing snatched it out of his hand.
“I can do that myself, idiot!” he stammered angrily, although the effect was diminished by how Mu Qing was coughing into the napkin, now covering his entire mouth.
“I was just trying to help-” Feng Xin felt himself get riled up, and he stopped. He didn’t want to fight. Especially now that he seemed to be coughing up flowers every day. He just sent Mu Qing an angry glare before going across the room and minding his own business. He could be mature about this. He was always mature about this. It was Mu Qing who would always go overboard-
“Why are you avoiding me?” Mu Qing burst out.
Feng Xin immediately felt a cough rising in him at the betrayed tone. “I-I am not avoiding you!” He kept his face turned away as he lied, hiding his embarrassed flush from being called out.
“Yes you are! And you better not accuse me of jumping to conclusions again!” Mu Qing continued. “We haven’t seen each other for weeks! You’ve just been running off alone, probably on dangerous missions where I could help out! We’ve been teaming up more, and you chose now to take it all back?”
“Wait a minute, I haven’t taken anything back!” Feng Xin raged. He knew Mu Qing was asking for a fight, riling him up on purpose. But Feng Xin couldn’t give in. Not if he wanted to avoid the awkwardness of potentially revealing his illness. Trying to calm his voice, he said, “I just haven’t needed help lately. And I’ve been busy, okay? Things have gotten a lot more complicated with Cuocuo and Jian Lan suddenly showing up-”
Mu Qing coughed violently and then went silent. “Gods, does everything revolve around her now?” His voice had taken on that cold, distant tone. The tone that cut Feng Xin to the core.
His lungs were clogging, blocking his air passageways worse than ever before. Not able to hold back anymore, Feng Xin coughed, gasping for air as the sticky petals filled his mouth and spilled out into the room. Right before Mu Qing’s very eyes. Feng Xin blushed, standing in shock as Mu Qing’s face flashed with surprise. And then contorted until he, too, was coughing up petals.
“You-” cough “you really-for her?” cough “You’re such an oaf that you can’t even tell her how you feel? The mother of your creepy demon baby?”
“Shut it! This is not-” cough “This has nothing to do with Jian Lan, idiot!”
Two heavenly officials stood in a secluded cabin in the mortal realm, coughing their guts out.
“Oh really?” cough “You’ve been following her around so often-” cough “who else could it be, liar!”
“Dammit, you’re jumping to conclusions again!” cough “I said it’s not for Jian Lan! That’s in the past!” cough “I’m following her cuz I have to make sure Cuocuo doesn’t end up eating all the other heavenly officials!” cough “Who the heck are you sick about?”
“That’s not your business!” cough “don’t change the subject, who are you coughing over?”
Cough “ I’ve been coughing over someone so fucking dumb-” cough “they won’t stop fighting with me!”
“WHAT?” cough “YOU’VE BEEN FIGHTING OTHER PEOPLE? WHO ELSE HAVE YOU BEEN FIGHTING WITH, JERK?”
“IT’S ONLY YOU, YOU DUMMY!”
“WHY YOU-”
Mu Qing’s voice caught in his throat. The words sunk in. Feng Xin… fighting… him. Across the room he watched as Feng Xin caved in on himself, cowering slightly as an embarrassed furrow appeared in his brows. The cabin was finally quiet as their breathing evened out.
“You… but… Jian Lan,” Mu Qing stuttered, trying to keep himself from flushing, too.
“I already told you,” Feng Xin said, sighing. “I’m not in love with Jian Lan. Not anymore. It… it’s you. It’s you that gave me this godsdamned disease.”
Now, Mu Qing couldn’t hold back from turning completely red. Was… was Feng Xin confessing? To liking him ? Even after all this yelling and fighting? His world spun as everything that had built up Mu Qing’s frustration crumbled apart.
“I don’t know when it started, sometime after we started working together more,” Feng Xin continued. “But I get it, you have someone already. Someone you love enough to get this fucking sick over.” cough . “ I… I know you hate me. But maybe I can help?” Feng Xin kept his distance, doing his best to stifle his coughs as he said those sentences.
Mu Qing rolled his eyes, approaching slowly. “It’s your fault,” he said for the 1000th time, softly patting Feng Xin’s back to help him through the coughing. “It’s your fault that I have this ridiculous sickness. So if you really want to help, then take responsibility.”
Now it was Feng Xin’s turn to look surprised. “You… you mean… you love me?”
Mu Qing made a disgusted face. “Gods, that sounds so cheesy. Don’t make me say it again.”
“You love me!’ Feng Xin's face broke into a grin as he threw his arms around a flustered Mu Qing. The relief overwhelmed him and he laughed. It felt good to finally laugh without feeling flowers clogging his throat. “I can’t believe we were sick for each other! You’re such a dummy, you should have just told me you had feelings!”
“Hey, you were sick, too, idiot. Maybe you should have told me .” Mu Qing’s words had a biting tone. But there was fondness to it. And when Feng Xin pulled away enough to look, Mu Qing’s face held one of those secretive smiles that he had missed so much.
“Well, how was I supposed to know you liked me? You were picking fights every chance you got,” Feng Xin said playfully.
“It was the only thing that helped!” Mu Qing snapped. “It stopped the coughing. I don’t know, something about your face when we fight, it just calmed me…”
Feng Xin squinted in confusion. “You mean my angry face?”
“Well, not the anger,” Mu Qing muttered, flushing further. “I guess I liked the focus you had on me… well, it doesn’t matter. I like this expression better.” Without thinking, his hand rose to trace over Feng Xin’s smile.
Feng Xin’s heart fluttered over the feeling of cold fingers against his lips. When Mu Qing realized what he’d done, his eyes nervously flashed up to meet Feng Xin’s, but he left his hand where it was, slightly cradling Feng Xin’s face. He couldn’t tell who moved first, but the next thing he knew, Feng Xin’s mouth was on his, soft lips brushing together before pressing more firmly. Mu Qing responded in kind, deepening the kiss before drawing back shyly. When Feng Xin let out a laugh, he could feel the puffs of breath against his cheek.
“Why don’t you stay here and help me finish this mission?” Feng Xin asked before pecking a kiss onto his cheek. “Now that you’re not trying to fight me every second.”
“Who says I won’t fight you?” Mu Qing punched Feng Xin’s shoulder, averting his eyes as he let out a soft laugh. “I’m sure you’ll do something that will piss me off eventually.”
“Well,” Feng Xin said, smiling at him. “Until that moment comes, I’m going to make the most of it.”