Work Text:
Shang Qinghua has a theory and he decides to test it.
It’s a silly theory and he’s sure he’s wrong – after all, how likely is it that Mobei Jun feels anything at all when he compliments him? – but there’s no harm in testing it.
It started like this:
He really didn’t notice at first. When he and Mobei Jun met, back when Mobei Jun had just started interning at Cang Qiong Corp and Shang Qinghua had been the Junior Associate assigned to mentor him during his first month, he’d spent the entire time in a constant state of fearful arousal.
Mobei Jun was a man out of his wettest dreams – ridiculously tall, with deep blue eyes, long, silky black hair that he would usually find tacky and greasy on other guys but on Mobei Jun was simply sexy, the biggest chest he’d ever seen and, of course, a permanent scowl on his handsome face.
Shang Qinghua could wax poetic about Mobei Jun’s looks all day long if given the chance, but unfortunately he was too busy cowering with fear at the way Mobei Jun glared at him all day long.
He was scared, but he was also incredibly turned on.
After Mobei Jun’s first month was up, he assumed that would be it – goodbye, see you around, feel free to reach out if you ever have any questions, the whole gist.
To Shang Qinghua’s surprise, Mobei Jun did reach out. One time, two times, so many times in fact that he wasn’t even surprised when Mobei Jun started sitting next to him in the open space, wordlessly kicking whichever other Associate had been there in the first place.
Six months later, Shang Qinghua could confidently call himself Mobei Jun’s work bestie (as long as said bestie didn’t hear it).
Therefore, it took him quite some time until he realized Mobei Jun seemed to get a weird look on his face every time Shang Qinghua complimented him on something work related.
It took him even longer to realize what he was seeing on his face was smugness.
“Where’s your shadow?” Shen Jiu had asked him one day, when he’d gone to the break room on his own.
“My shadow?” he’d repeated, confused.
“You know,” Shen Jiu said, nodding his head vaguely in the direction of the open space, “that intern that always follows you around like a puppy except he just looks like a very mean rottweiler.”
“ Mobei Jun ?” he asked, incredulously. “He definitely doesn’t follow me around like a puppy. He just got used to working with me,” he explained, trying not to laugh at the image of Mobei Jun wagging his tail and letting his tongue hang from his mouth like an excited labrador.
“Sure,” Shen Jiu agreed, clearly being sarcastic. “That’s why every time you tell him one of his reports was good he looks like he won the lottery?”
Shang Qinghua didn’t have an answer to that. Instead, he started to pay more attention.
“My manager told me I’m moving from intern to junior associate next month,” Mobei Jun told him later that day, unable to keep a self satisfied smirk from his face.
“Well done!” he cheered, smiling widely at him. “You deserve it, you’ve made so much progress!”
And that was when he saw it; the smugness, the self satisfied look on his face intensifying with Shang Qinghua’s compliment.
Naturally, after that, he needed to put his theory to the test.
He started out small:
“That business case you wrote was really impressive!”
“The question you asked today during that meeting was really insightful!”
“Hey, that presentation today was great! You sounded super confident!”
Every time, without fail, Mobei Jun’s lips would slightly twist into a self satisfied smirk.
It wasn’t enough, though. Shang Qinghua hadn’t considered the very real possibility that doing such a test would lead him to become addicted to making Mobei Jun look that way because of him , and he found he couldn’t stop.
Even worse, he wanted to take it a step further. One day he’d noticed the side of Mobei Jun’s neck turning slightly pink, and he wanted to find out how to do it again.
So he upped the ante.
His usual compliments would now be paired with light, casual touches – a hand casually placed on Mobei Jun’s shoulder as he leaned over him on the way to his desk; a hand on his bicep as he balanced himself on his tiptoes in the break room to fetch a mug for his after lunch coffee; one time he was even as bold as to ‘accidentally’ graze his hand against his ass as he walked past him after a meeting where their legs had been flush against each other.
It was too much and yet it wasn’t enough. Mobei Jun’s reactions were completely addictive, and even as he sensed the other man was reaching his breaking point, he was desperate to see what would happen when he did.
Naturally, he found out.
It probably happened the worst way it could happen but, looking back, Shang Qinghua wouldn’t change a thing about it.
It was a Tuesday and he and Mobei Jun had both gone out to a bar for after work drinks. They’d been working on a project together and the deadline was coming up, and they’d needed a little pick me up after another late night.
One beer turned into two turned into three, and Shang Qinghua’s alcohol tolerance had never been the best. He wasn’t drunk, but he was feeling a bit warmer, and his words and actions were a bit looser as well.
At that point, he’d been teasing Mobei Jun at work for so long that it was already second nature to him.
When he got up from his seat and leaned down to whisper in Mobei Jun’s ear that he'd be right back, nearly touching his lips to his ear, he missed the way Mobei Jun shivered. He also missed the way Mobei Jun watched him go, hungrily, before getting up and following him to the bathroom.
As he opened the door to one of the stalls, Mobei Jun stalked into the bathroom and headed straight for him, pushing him inside the stall.
“M-Mobei?” he stammered out, more dazed than surprised. “What are you doing?”
“You’ve been teasing me for too long,” Mobei Jun said, and Shang Qinghua couldn’t help but notice how dark his eyes were. “It’s about time you have a taste of your own medicine.”
And before Shang Qinghua had a chance to process the meaning of those words, he was being kissed.
It wasn’t a very good kiss; it was messy and the angle was all wrong and at one point Mobei Jun bit him but not in the sexy way, but Shang Qinghua thought it was perfect
When they parted for air after what felt like an eternity but also no time at all, Shang Qinghua needed to blink a few times to regain his bearings.
“Uhm,” he said, completely unintelligently.
“This is what’s going to happen every time you tease me,” Mobei Jun informed him, once again wearing that insufferable smirk that Shang Qinghua had come to love so much.
“I can live with that,” he said, and he leaned in and kissed him again.
—
5 minutes later,
“I actually really need to pee, though,” Shang Qinghua admitted.