Work Text:
Shen Jiu is a tired office worker who desperately needs some time off but rarely gets it anyway and Luo Binghe is a newly hired chef at a small restaurant who only gets one day off per week and works late shifts.
It’s not ideal for a relationship; during the week Shen Jiu spends most of his evenings after work by himself and only gets to spend time with Luo Binghe before work if he wakes up ridiculously early, while on the weekends he only really sees Luo Binghe in the mornings and often falls asleep on the couch waiting up for Luo Binghe to get home from work.
It’s not ideal, but they make it work.
Every day, when he finally drags himself out of bed and sets about getting ready for work, he’s sent off by a half asleep Luo Binghe who cooked lunch for him the night before at the restaurant and packed it for him to take to work.
Every night, he waits for Luo Binghe to get home from work and refuses to go to bed by himself so he can still see him and spend some time with him, and when he gets home he makes an effort to stay awake long enough to keep him company while he eats and winds down so they can fall asleep together in bed.
It’s not easy but, really, it’s worth it.
He especially thinks it’s worth it on the weekends, when they can both sleep in and spend their mornings wrapped around each other;
It’s worth it when Shen Jiu leaves work late and decides to go have dinner at the restaurant where Luo Binghe works, where he watches him do what he likes while he’s perched on a stool at the bar and blushes when Luo Binghe shamelessly flirts with him;
And it’s worth it, he thinks, when it’s a Monday evening — Luo Binghe’s day off — and he arrives home as soon as he can to find Luo Binghe waiting for him.
For everyone else, Mondays are terrible; for Shen Jiu, they couldn’t be better.
When he gets home, it’s to the smell of freshly cooked food and the sound of humming coming from the kitchen.
Luo Binghe always does this; every Monday he will tidy the house, rest up, and head to his favorite grocery store, the one that always has the freshest vegetables, and buy food so he can spoil Shen Jiu at dinner.
When Shen Jiu gets home, it’s almost always to the sound and the smell of Luo Binghe cooking; he knows Luo Binghe likes it when he comes home while he’s still cooking so he can walk into the kitchen and hug him tightly from behind.
He knows this and so that’s what he does, resting his head on Luo Binghe’s strong back and breathing in the smell of the food and what could only be described as unmistakably Luo Binghe’s scent.
Luo Binghe puts down his wooden spoon and tries to turn around but Shen Jiu tightens his arms around him; he wants to keep him there for just a little bit longer.
He may rarely get to spend his evenings with Luo Binghe but it’s so worth it, especially when he can still remember a time, before he and Luo Binghe met and the younger man pursued him relentlessly, when his evenings were all spent alone, eating takeout or a sad excuse for an instant dinner in front of the TV, with nothing to look forward to but the soft pillows under his head at night and his paycheck at the end of the month.
He’d been happy and independent, but he’d also been so lonely.
Luo Binghe had changed that, had wormed his way into his life without any notice, and suddenly he had so much more to look forward to.
“Long day?” Luo Binghe murmurs, having finally freed himself from Shen Jiu’s tight embrace and facing him now, cupping his cheek with a large hand.
Shen Jiu leans in and kisses him, soft and sweet, and then he buries his head in the crook of Luo Binghe’s shoulder so he can’t see his face when he admits, “I missed you.”
“Aww A-Jiu, you must have really missed me if you’re willingly admitting to that,” he teases, trying to get Shen Jiu to look at him and laughing when he resolutely remains with his face nestled in his neck.
Luo Binghe has known him for long enough to know that Shen Jiu, despite his biting words and sarcastic comments, is actually quite shy. Adorable, he usually says, even if it usually earns him a half hearted glare and a swat on the arm.
So, even though he usually has a lot of fun riling up Shen Jiu and making him blush before inevitably riling himself up as well and bending him over the nearest surface, he lets up his teasing and bends down to kiss him instead, taking his time to lick into his mouth, smirking at the way Shen Jiu is clearly breathless and his eyes are glazed over when he breaks their kiss.
“I missed you too,” he says, snickering as Shen Jiu gets his bearings back and his blush extends all the way down to his neck.
They somehow manage to part after that; Luo Binghe has to finish cooking and Shen Jiu tries to help by setting the table even though he knows Luo Binghe is going to fret and tell him to stop because he was working all day and really, A-Jiu, you should just go rest on the couch until dinner is ready.
Shen Jiu refuses, of course; he and Luo Binghe already spend so much time apart, so he settles instead to watch as Luo Binghe finishes cooking, furrowing his brow in the cute way he always does when he’s focused on something. (The first time he’d noticed it had been in bed, actually, when Luo Binghe had opened him up with gentle fingers for the first time; it shouldn’t have been as sexy as it was.)
They eat dinner together, and at the end Shen Jiu asks, clearly hopeful, if there’s dessert to which Luo Binghe smirks and says “of course”, and he’s not even talking about the other kind of dessert; instead, he’s made mango pudding, and they settle on the couch to watch whatever’s on the TV while they eat, snuggled beside each other.
Shen Jiu is tired, but being able to spend the evening with Luo Binghe energizes him; neither of them want to waste any of the time they have together.
They bathe together afterwards, and Shen Jiu tells him, actually, “I’ve booked next Monday off from work so we can spend the day together,” and Luo Binghe holds him tighter, ignoring the startled laugh from Shen Jiu who insists he can’t breathe even though he can, and—
Well, and it’s very worth it to have such conflicting schedules, isn’t it? After all, it just makes every moment together that much sweeter.