Archive of Our Own

1.

The first time it happens, Sungtae is laying on his front, blinking dazedly as the alcohol hits his system and makes him drowsy. Most of the clan members were already passed out by now, clearly evidenced by the ungainly manner they were sprawled on the ground.

For a while, he's convinced he's the only person still awake, until a calloused hand lands on the back of his head. He jolts, shoulders tensing up under the touch. Chae Hyang was the only person that came to mind when wondering who it was, but the hand didn’t feel like hers. Sungtae thinks of leaving it be, too exhausted to react, but the hand slides his hair to the side, and he shivers at the rush of cold wind against his nape.

Sluggishly, he reaches behind him and bats at the hand with his own. It stills for a moment, before a finger draws random shapes across his skin. Sungtae whips his head around, scowling, ready to give whoever it was a piece of his mind, and–

Pales immediately when he sees Jaha, of all people, being the culprit. He's staring down at Sungtae as his thumb runs circles over his nape, looking almost enthralled.

Sungtae swears his soul flies straight out of his body at the sheer absurdity of the notion. What kind of psychological torture was this? What reaction was he trying to achieve by doing this? How drunk was the clan leader?

No matter how hard he wracks his brain for an answer, nothing comes to mind. The bastard was probably trying to fuck with him, but he can't make heads or tails of it either. He holds himself as still as he possibly can, praying that Jaha would forget about this strange whim when the man, of course, has to make it worse by murmuring to himself, inexplicably, “So red…”

Sungtae flaps his mouth uselessly.

“What–”

Jaha squeezes the back of neck lightly, possibly – most likely, his mind corrects – a threat. “Shut up. You’re drunk,” he says, as though he was not the one doing something so absurd Sungtae ought to ask if he'd drank their whole store of wine alone or if he’d gotten one too many concussions from the however many fights he’s been in.

Nonetheless, Sungtae shuts his mouth because he values his life. Without pause, Jaha goes right back to running the tips of his fingers across Sungtae’s nape, the sensation odd but not unpleasant. Sungtae shivers.

Jaha’s hands slide down to the base of his neck, slowly starting to work out the knots in his shoulder. He truly can’t tell if Jaha expects him to do the same later, fighting to hold in the sigh that’s threatening to escape. It's really hard to make a living in the Jianghu.

Ah, forget it, it's easier to just let this maniac do whatever he wants. It's not as though it felt bad and Jaha would probably forget about it tomorrow – who knew how that bastard's brain works anyway?

2.

Jaha does not end up forgetting about it.

In fact; it happens again, and again, and again. Sungtae is starting to fear for the Clan Leader's mental state at this point, because something has to be wrong with him if he’s still keeping up with this. Even now, in his office which should be his safe haven, Jaha stands directly beside his chair, hand lazily toying with his hair, occasionally sliding down to brush his thumb against the side of Sungtae’s neck.

Sungtae cannot, for the life of him, understand for what reason he was still doing this. Entertainment, possibly? That answer didn't make a lot of sense, though, not when Jaha was more prone to finding a group of people he decides he needs to beat up – always for some obscure reason that he made sound righteous.

The bastard probably had enough enemies to last him years without having to bother with whatever this was. Sungtae stares down at the paper he was writing on, fighting to keep himself from trembling in fear.

“What's wrong?” Jaha abruptly asks, as though this was completely normal.

Sungtae opens his mouth. Closes it a moment later when his mind provides him with all the things that could go wrong if he said anything. Jaha frowns at him.

"Speak," he says magnanimously, the serene expression on his face striking nothing but unadulterated terror in Sungtae's heart. "Your Clan Leader will hear you out."

…Fuck. That was a threat, wasn't it? If he speaks out about keeping some semblance of distance, then Jaha will probably cut off his tongue. And then he thinks for a moment longer about it, and comes to this conclusion; whether he cuts Sungtae's tongue out or not, the damn lunatic would probably find someone else to harass, and then Sungtae would be in charge of having to pay them compensation.

He wonders if it's too late to leave the Jianghu and start a new life in another county.

…Until he remembers that there really wasn't an escape from this madman so long as he still had unfinished business with him. Sungtae almost sighs wistfully as his hopes and dreams get shattered.

"Don't do it to anyone else," he mutters instead, glaring at the other man from the corner of his eyes. While he internally laments the amount of work that he would have to go through if Jaha started harassing someone else, the hand running itself through his hair stills.

"I can't do it to someone else?" Jaha repeats, more as if he was musing to himself than clarifying with him. Sungtae doesn’t care either way; he merely huffs and says, more insistently, "You can't."

The silence is palpable as Jaha continues playing with Sungtae’s hair again, and Sungtae really does consider pursuing other careers in the time that it takes for the other man to answer. There were other people who would likely hire him; what better experience can one have compared to an easily displeased clan leader who kills a man or a couple dozen every other day?

A mere deadline was nothing compared to the threat of death from an unreasonably short-fused boss.

“Okay,” Jaha says, breaking Sungtae from his thoughts almost cheerfully, terrifying in his easy acquiescence. Sungtae's hackles raise at the small smile on the other’s lips, almost instinctively. “I understand, I won't.”

…Truly, he has to wonder a little about how easily Jaha had agreed, or perhaps maybe even why he was radiating satisfaction like the cat who got the cream, but he doesn’t ask. By this point, he’s learned that questioning that bastard whenever he was happy was akin to asking him who he was going to kill next.

He hadn’t even eaten lunch yet; he was not going to spoil his appetite like this. Instead, he just quietly turns a blind eye and simply does not look this gift horse in the mouth, lest Jaha goes back on his word.

3.

For some reason, Jaha seems to take their last conversation as an unsaid agreement for him to start pushing his luck, getting even touchier in the coming days and every successful attempt has him growing only more emboldened.

Knuckles brush across his side when they pass each other in the hallways, a calloused hand almost always lingering on the back of his neck anytime he gets the chance, toying with the ends of his hair.

It's almost embarrassing to admit that Sungtae's starting to get used to the casual touches, to the point where he no longer startles when Jaha pops up out of nowhere to comb his fingers through his hair before leaving.

(He wonders, sometimes, if he's being treated like some human stress toy. At least it's better than being beaten, he supposes.)

There’s one thing that strikes him as odd, though. Jaha has never once done it in front of anyone else. It's not that Sungtae wants him to, of course not, but Jaha was never someone who cared about what other people thought of him, so why was he so cautious over this?

He never brings it up, but it turns out that he doesn’t have to. It just… happens one day.

They’re in his office when Jaha suddenly hooks his chin over Sungtae’s shoulder, peering down at the stack of papers in his hand, nearly making him shriek. And then Jaha’s hands slide across his waist to curl around him, and he does end up shrieking, jolting at the ease of which the other man does so.

“What?” Jaha asks, looking slightly bewildered as he begins to rub soothing circles into Sungtae’s waist with his thumb. Sungtae's heart hammers in his chest, cheeks bursting into flames.

“Nothing,” he manages, voice strangled. “You… Say something next time.”

For reasons unbeknownst to him, Jaha smiles, tucking his face into the crook of Sungtae’s neck to murmur what Sungtae can only hope-slash-pray to be assent. Jaha doesn’t say anything after that, seemingly having fallen asleep based on the soft puffs of breath Sungtae can feel, so he bites his tongue and slowly starts to continue finishing up the papers.

He doesn’t even know how long it’s been until he hears Chae Hyang calling him from just outside the door.

“Brother!” She calls, and Sungtae jolts near violently, opening his mouth to tell her to wait a moment before she enters. Too late. He watches in horror as the doors slide open, Chae Hyang bowing lightly as she steps over the threshold. “Have you seen the Clan Leader–?”

Her words trail off the moment she sees them, her jaw hanging limply. Sungtae’s mouth opens and closes repeatedly as he gapes at her uselessly while Jaha, oh-so-leisurely, lifts his head up to assess her. “I’m here.”

“You–” Chae Hyang sputters at his nonchalance.

“Is it a problem?” He asks, the question being – god forbid – directed at him. Sungtae has no idea what that question is meant to symbolise, so he merely shakes his head slowly, rendered mute. Jaha nods sharply, contentment radiating off of him as he turns back to Chae Hyang. “What were you looking for me for?”

“Someone… was looking for you…?” She says softly, looking as though her soul had simply left her body. Jaha tsks irritably, a stark contrast to the way he gently caresses the back of Sungtae’s neck before promptly striding out of the room. Chae Hyang casts a stupefied glance at them as she hurries after the fucker – who was the cause of this, mind you – and Sungtae already knows there must be some sort of misunderstanding brewing in her mind.

He buries his head in his arms and tries not to scream.

***

Later, once Jaha has disappeared off the face of the earth for the nth time in a single month to start fights, Chae Hyang corners him in his office to interrogate him. It’s not so much of an interrogation as it is her complaining about how he “hasn't told her anything! How can you be dating someone and not tell me, let alone that lunatic?!”

To which, Sungtae denies any and all such accusations, proclaiming his innocence in the face of her slander. All she does is shake her head and click her tongue, “I guess love really makes people stupid.”

Sungtae chokes, sputtering loudly as he attempts to process exactly what she said before he vehemently denies it. Him? In love with Jaha?

He couldn't be. Sungtae can’t have fallen for a bastard whose only life's pleasure was to piss him off and beat the shit out of people, it’s completely impossible. Utterly ridiculous. It would be the most humiliating thing Sungtae could have ever done to date if it was true.

But the thought stays, and it lingers.

4.

With Jaha gone to fight other clans or something of the like, he finally has the chance to ponder his feelings, because as it turns out, having someone else have to ask if he was dating Jaha makes him reevaluate every single thing that's ever happened between them.

It becomes a problem when his brain suddenly hits him with the realisation that yes, he was actually (unfortunately) attracted to the lunatic that was his clan leader. His only saving grace was the fact that he has a while before Jaha comes back. Hopefully enough to bury his feelings six-feet deep and permanently.

A month and a half later, he stands at the entrance to greet Jaha as he returns, his feelings still completely intact. Damn, he curses internally. In his defence, he'd like to state that he was busy with trying to upkeep a brothel and an inn to pay much attention to that specific goal.

It's fine. It's all fine. Hopefully some time away and a chance to beat the everliving shit out of people has given Jaha a clearer mind, one that doesn't see fit to lay his hands on Sungtae as he wishes. He watches Jaha stride in through the gate and sincerely hopes his wishes come true.

“Welcome back,” he says, bowing low. He's unsurprised when Jaha ignores his greeting the way he usually does – merely rolls his eyes and taps his closed fan to his lips as he neatly slides out of Jaha’s warpath back into the building.

…Only to then reevaluate everything when Jaha changes course to continue straight towards him. Baffled, Sungtae wracks his brain for any reason why. He hasn't committed any wrongdoings, as far as he knows!

And yet, here Jaha was. Still stomping towards him with all the grace of a bull. He holds himself taut as Jaha approaches, already opening his mouth to defend himself. “I haven't done anything,” he says, the words spilling from his lips like a waterfall. “I really haven't done anything!”

Jaha keeps walking towards him, so Sungtae takes that as a sign to start walking backwards away from him. When he chances a glance over Jaha's shoulder, he sees the rest of the clan either watching them bemusedly, or shaking their head as if they, too, thought he'd done something wrong.

He's being framed, Sungtae is absolutely sure of it.

“I'm innocent!” He shrieks, voice embarrassingly shrill as he continues stumbling back blindly. “I swear–”

His back hits a wall. There is a brief moment of debate in his mind on whether he should even try to run from him, but Jaha is already closing in on him. Sungtae squeezes his eyes shut and presses himself against the wall, as though he was trying to become one with it.

Fuck, he thinks mournfully.

Now, Jaha is so close he can feel the warmth radiating off of him, and Sungtae stops breathing altogether. How can it be so difficult to simply live a long life? Was he just cursed? Or perhaps it was because he had the misfortune of meeting Jaha. It was definitely that.

It feels like an eternity passes before anything happens, when it must have only been a couple more seconds. Sungtae's heart hammers in his chest when something thuds lightly against his shoulder, almost afraid to open his eyes when the courtyard has fallen completely silent.

One, then two, then three beats pass before Sungtae cautiously peels his eyes open.

And promptly chokes on his next breath when he sees that it's Jaha's forehead that's pressed against his shoulder. His cheeks burn, mouth dropping – was the bastard dying? Sungtae swears he didn't see any injuries, but maybe it was covered by the blood soaking in his robes.

He doesn't really think before he starts slapping Jaha on the shoulder frantically, sputtering. “Oi, what's wrong with you?! Are you dying?!”

Jaha simply lets out a deep breath as if releasing all the tension in his body, and in turn, Sungtae turns frantic eyes to the rest of the clan, who have been simply staring at them. Utterly shellshocked. A few even had their mouths wide open, eyes darting between them rapidly, and he has never felt more camaraderie with these godforsaken martial artists in his entire life.

“What's wrong with him?” He shrieks. “Is he injured?”

They look at each other uneasily. “…No?”

Sungtae squints at them, now cautiously patting Jaha on the shoulder. The man grumbles something, too soft for him to make out, but doesn't move. He opens his mouth, then closes it once more. “Then what’s wrong with him?”

Again, they look at each other, as though an answer would appear out of nowhere. “Maybe the clan leader is tired?” One brave soul offers.

“Can he even feel tired?” One of the men mutters from within the crowd of people, and Jaha merely turns his head to face them. The expression on his face is hidden behind his hair from Sungtae's point of view, but it must not be anything good, because it makes another whack him in the back of his head.

Said man immediately amends his previous statement.

“Yes, I’m sure he’s exhausted.” he says stiffly, carefully avoiding eye contact with anyone.

Sungtae has not believed anything less. Just two minutes ago, the fucker was flouncing into the courtyard. There was no way in hell he actually was tired.

Unless he was faking how much energy he had. Perhaps, he simply didn't want to show weakness, and the fact that he waited until he saw Sungtae makes a surge of pride well up in him. Or perhaps he was just trying to irritate Sungtae by causing more work.

…Forget it, he'll just choose to imagine the first scenario for his own peace of mind.

“Chae Hyang,” Sungtae calls out, resigned to his fate. “Help set up a room and a bath for him.”

She bows lightly, and scurries off, a couple of the other girls following after her. Sungtae sighs, lightly shoving Jaha's shoulder, a little rougher now that he knows that the fucker wasn't injured, just dramatic.

“Move,” he says. “I'll help you back to your room.”

Jaha groans, the sound absolutely fucking unfair, and Sungtae blinks, cheeks burning a little hotter. “Move!” He snaps out, shoving him a little harder. This time, Jaha does in fact move, peeling his head off of Sungtae's shoulder to stare at him miserably, as if he was being wronged when Sungtae was the one being harassed.

Sungtae swears the fucker's growing more shameless by the day. He shuts his eyes and prays to whatever deity there is for the strength and patience to not lose his shit.

“Let's go,” he mutters, and Jaha drapes himself over him with all the audacity in the world. Fuck, maybe he should have said something all those months ago. His heart wasn't strong enough to take this kind of insanity.

5.

With Jaha around again, it becomes increasingly difficult to even attempt to shove his feelings so far down it’s as if they never existed. Especially considering that the asshole has taken to spending any time he’s not training or starting fights with some other sect to trot around after Sungtae like some lost duckling.

He truly does not know what he’s meant to do with this newfound knowledge of being in love with the Clan Leader. In light of this, he does what he does best.

He takes to avoiding Jaha as much as he can. Chae Hyang is, apparently, convinced that they are having a lovers’ spat, and Sungtae does not have the heart to tell her that he’s avoiding Jaha because they’re not lovers.

He regrets that decision, though, when she deems it up to herself to get them to make up by letting Jaha know he’s been hiding in one of the offices that has been left unused for months.

“Are you avoiding me?” Jaha asks now, standing beside him a little ways away.

"I've been working," he says dismissively, carefully keeping his attention on the stack of papers he’s meant to complete.

"You're always working."

"Yes," Sungtae says slowly, in the sort of tone one might use to explain to a child how playing with a sword twice the height of them could possibly be dangerous, "That's how a job works."

Jaha waves him off irritably, one hand gently grasping Sungtae’s chin to make the face each other as he ducks his head down to scrutinise Sungtae's face for whatever reason. At the distance – or rather, the lack thereof of said distance – his heart thunders in his ears, blood rushing to his ears.

Oh. He ought to stop this and draw a line somewhere between them but–

He just can’t bring himself to do so. Well, it’s not as if it’s a bad thing, right? To want to stay as close as he’s allowed? Jaha was the one who started this anyway, and if anyone was to blame it was him. Sungtae was just… letting whatever this is remain status quo for as long as possible.

There was no way Jaha was going to start dating anyone soon, in any case. The bastard probably didn’t feel any other emotions apart from bloodlust, rage, and maybe glee. Occasionally. After committing a massacre, most likely.

He swallows hard and leans back in his chair to put some distance between them. The hand that was holding his chin lingers in the air, almost uncertainly.

"What is it?" He asks.

"You look exhausted," Jaha states, matter-of-factly, as though he needed to be mere inches away from Sungtae's face to realise this. He leans towards Sungtae a little more, then adds, "Do you have a fever? Your face is red."

Fuck him. Fuck this stupid, oblivious fucking bastard. Sungtae is going to spit on his grave when he dies thanks to his own stupidity.

"I don't have a fever,” he answers nonetheless.

Jaha hums noncommittally, pulling the chair out as Sungtae stares at him in bewilderment. In one smooth motion, he then hauls Sungtae out of said chair and slings over his shoulder like some miserable sack of rice, a hand settling tentatively on the small of his back like an afterthought.

Sungtae's cheeks burn even brighter, but he can't even muster up the energy to struggle or go through his usual biting insults. All he does is quietly contemplate the prospect of handing in the resignation letter that has been sitting at the very bottom of his drawer for months and living a quiet life somewhere in the countryside, far away from all the maniacs in the Jianghu.

A life as a humble farmer is starting to sound better by the minute. Better than having to deal with a bastard who doesn't understand the meaning of personal space.

Speaking of said bastard, Jaha pays no attention to the number of eyes that are trained on them as he shamelessly prances through the hall towards… wherever it is that he's bringing Sungtae. He briefly wonders if it’s possible to save Jaha’s reputation at this point, but even that single fleeting thought was enough to make him laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Just keep quiet, bastard," Sungtae grumbles, much too exhausted to care much about keeping his polite facade up. Jaha sighs and mutters something about disrespect and ungrateful bastards, but he sounds… almost fond as he does so.

It should be a terrifying thought; Jaha, of all people, feeling something akin to fondness towards him. That was practically a death sentence – and Sungtae hasn't even figured out if the threat was coming from Jaha or the multitude (read: hundreds) of people Jaha managed to piss off in the scant few months he started learning martial arts. And yet, a sleep-deprived Sungtae takes it as a sign to melt a little more into his shoulder.

He doesn’t know where Jaha was bringing him, up until the moment he drops him on a bed. His own bed, he realises belatedly, once he blinks up at the ceiling. He didn’t even know Jaha knew where his room was. Sungtae groans and presses his face into his pillow, half in bliss and the other in annoyance, wishing Jaha had just deposited him on the ground slightly. Now he didn't even feel like getting up again to change his robes, but it was probably fine for a night.

Beside him, the mattress dips, and Sungtae pulls his face from the pillow to squint at Jaha, who has so-very-naturally taken a seat on his bed, as though this were his god given right. A rough hand gently brushes against his nape on its way to comb through his hair.

He really ought to throw a fit at Jaha invading his sanctuary like this, but the hand in his hair feels too soothing to give up for the sake of some petty pride. Fine, he decides sluggishly, the fucker can stay.

Pressing his face into the pillow once more, Sungtae firmly doesn't look or think about the crazy bastard who has seen fit to perch himself upon his bed while he's trying to sleep in it.

Right before he falls asleep, he swears he hears a soft puff of laughter, followed by an even softer brush of lips against the side of his head. But, no, that couldn't be right. Surely it was the machinations of his exhausted mind – Jaha couldn't be so insane to have done such a thing.

***

“…still sleeping,” a voice murmurs from above him. Sungtae groans and buries his head into the warmth he’s leaning against. Only to shriek and launch himself so far back that he almost falls off the bed if it weren’t for Jaha lunging over to grab him.

“What’s wrong with you?” Jaha asks, raising an eyebrow at him, and Sungtae cannot find the words to express that the problem is him. What was he still doing on Sungtae’s bed? He glances out the window, sees the light just outside. Was he here all night?

He turns back to Jaha, and only then notices the other person in the room. Chae Hyang, who looks amazed by the sight, yet not shocked by it, and Sungtae has this abrupt realisation.

He is so incredibly, deeply, pathetically fucked.

+1

It all comes to a head the very next day.

Jaha is meant to be supervising his clan’s training, but instead has his head on Sungtae’s thighs as he naps. One day, someone is going to start a union against him and Sungtae will not join because he wants to live a long life, but he will laugh at Jaha for the few hours or days it will take for the clan leader to beat them into submission.

By this point, Sungtae has looked through the accounts eight different times as he tries to formulate some sort of way to tell Jaha, politely, that they ought to keep some space without giving away the fact that he's deeply infatuated with the other man.

And then the question comes, entirely out of left field.

"So,” Dokgo says conversationally, casting him and Jaha a meaningful glance, “When are you getting married?”

Sungtae almost chokes, crumpling the accounts book in his hand from the sheer shock of that one statement. "What?" He asks between coughs, dismay curling in his gut. Surely he wasn’t talking about… "Whose marriage?"

Dokgo, that asshole, frowns at him while he swings his sword, as though he thinks Sungtae is particularly stupid.

"Of course, the Master's and–"

Administrator Byeok doesn't even deign to give Dokgo enough time to finish. Instead, he scrambles towards him and Jaha, handing a bound book to him with an unnecessary amount of flourished hand gestures. "I hope you don't mind, but I've taken the liberty to consult with some matchmakers on auspicious dates a few months from now, so you can feel free to look through and decide on one."

For the first time since the conversation has taken a turn towards this topic, Jaha speaks. "I'll make sure to bestow a golden letter upon you later."

And the old bastard has the audacity to rub his nose bashfully as Sungtae stares blankly at the book handed to him. "Ah, no, it's unnecessary. Of course, it's for the master's wedding, after all. But in light of your benevolence, I won't refuse!"

"Wedding… No, hold on." He turns his attention to Jaha, gazing down at his infuriatingly serene face. His heart squeezes, an embarrassing ache in his chest. "You're getting married? And I didn't know?"

He was probably going to be the one running around trying to plan the asshole's wedding, how could he not have been told?! Swallowing hard, he does not think any further on why he was so upset lest he have to deal with heartache in front of half of the sect. Instead, Sungtae forces a scowl on his face and stares down at Jaha, daring him to come up with an answer.

In turn, the other man only shifts and presses his head into Sungtae's hand a little, slow and catlike as he cracks an eye open to peer up at him. "You know now," he says, like this might be an answer that appeases him, "So you can just pick a date you like."

Sungtae really wonders why he tries. Or why he’s even fallen for someone like this. Except, he shouldn't have, because now the fucker he thought was going to remain single for the rest of his life was going to get married to someone that wasn't even him.

Who the fuck was the moron who was willing to marry such a crazy bastard!

(Sungtae makes the executive decision to ignore the fact that he is-slash-was one of them.)

"That's not the problem!" he snaps. "Does anyone even know who you're marrying?"

"Of course." Jaha frowns. "I haven't been subtle, if they don't know then it's their fault."

Sungtae whips his head towards the rest of the Hao Clan, hoping to find some solidarity in, at the bare minimum, a handful of other people who were just as in the dark as him. Disappointingly, however, every other person is nodding, a few murmurs that Sungtae can make out to be agreement making its way around.

"Isn’t it very clear?" Red Monkey says emphatically, but Sungtae is too caught up in the fact that everyone else but him knows who Jaha's bride is to pay her words any mind. “Just by standing together, anyone can see how well-matched you are.”

Jaha opens his other eye to pin her with an approving stare. "For my only sister, who's pretty with her words, I'll also make sure to send a golden letter."

"Thank you, Great Brother! The two of you are truly a match made in heaven–"

"So I'm the only one who doesn't know who you're marrying?" He finally demands loudly, only a little hurt by this realisation. And here he'd thought they were starting to get along, he internally scoffs. A dozen different eyes snap to him, all with varying levels of disbelief. Fuckers – all of them, traitorous fuckers, and Sungtae wishes nothing but the worst for them.

He gnashes his teeth and scowls back at them.

“You…” Jaha says, slowly pushing himself upright.

“What?”

“Really? You don’t know?”

Sungtae’s eye twitches as he fights with himself to not throw his hands up in frustration. “How am I supposed to know?! It’s not like you ever said anything!”

Jaha turns his gaze from Sungtae to somewhere in the distance, muttering something about wondering if he’s done something wrong. Sungtae is with the firm belief that yes, he has done something wrong. When has he ever not caused trouble in his life?

Red eyes snap back him, filled with an unsettling amount of understanding. He’s afraid to learn what Jaha thinks he understands. "Are you jealous?"

"Who's jealous!" Sungtae spits out furiously, almost certainly jealous. How could he not be? Someone out there had managed to steal this fucker's affections from right under his nose!

The other man frowns at him, opening his mouth to say something before he gets cut off by a snort. Simultaneously, their heads turn to face the source of the noise, finding Dokgo folded over in half as he cackles. Sungtae is going to kill him. Hopefully. One of these days. Probably in the near future.

Jaha shoots them a vicious glare, prompting them to immediately vacate the training courtyard, some of them even using qinggong to get out quicker. For his part, Sungtae attempts to follow after them, intent on wallowing in his misery, until a cloud of black smoke that semi-resembles a clawed hand curls around his waist and drags him back to Jaha, depositing him on his lap.

Sungtae flails, cursing Jaha’s entire bloodline, because hasn’t he had enough of fucking with him? This was going too far – he had a bride and he was still doing things like this.

“Have some compassion for your bride-to-be. Isn’t being this close with a man too much?” Sungtae snaps, trying to slide off of his lap to no avail as Jaha’s actual hands curl around his waist, the black smoke dissipating away. Jaha only scowls up at him, as though Sungtae was being purposefully difficult. “What bride? Who are you talking about?”

Sungtae rolls his eyes and shoves at Jaha's shoulder. His next words come out far more spitefully than he expects them to. “Aren’t you the one getting married to someone I don’t know?”

In response, Jaha scoffs loudly.

“My ‘bride-to-be’,” he says, his voice dripping with some mixture of vexation, sarcasm, and the slightest hint of amusement, “is you. Who else would I marry?”

It takes a couple moments for the words to settle in his mind and his eyes to dart back to Jaha, wide and baffled. “What?”

Jaha stares back, his own eyes filled with matching bafflement before they sharpen and he, inexplicably, demands, “Were you not planning on taking responsibility and marrying me? After asking me to be your lover?”

"What?! When did I say that?!" Sungtae shrieks, and he will never admit to the shrill pitch his voice takes on, his hysteria clear. Jaha frowns at him, all self-righteously, as though he was being wrongfully accused. “You told me I couldn’t do that to anyone else. Were you not telling me we were lovers from that point on?”

Sungtae can only muster up a half-bewildered, half-incredulous stare to gaze at the Clan Leader with. How on earth he came to that conclusion, he has no idea. Maybe the minds of great martial artists really worked differently – or was it just Jaha? It’s probably just him.

“So you… didn’t want to be lovers?” Jaha murmurs in the absence of any response, and Sungtae seriously needs to learn how his brain works if he's going to be the man's lover. “I didn’t say that!” He hisses, grabbing fistfuls of Jaha's robes and dragging him close enough for him to count every one of his unfairly long eyelashes. “Stop coming to your own conclusions and just talk to me like a normal person, you bastard!”

“Then there’s no problem.” Jaha nods resolutely, ignoring everything else Sungtae had said like everything was solved. Sungtae snaps his teeth at him, a noise of pure frustration escaping him.

He can't believe himself; to think the great Cha Sungtae would fall for an absolute bastard like this. He's humiliated, utterly disappointed in himself, but more than that, relieved. It's almost overwhelming.

Sungtae watches as Jaha opens his mouth again, probably to say something else he's sure will infuriate him, and he doesn't really think before he slams their lips together. It's less a kiss and more lips that happened to be pressed against each other, but it works well enough to stun Jaha into stillness anyway. He pulls away first, scowling as Jaha blinks dumbly at him.

“Bastard,” he snaps, cheeks aflame as he takes the opportunity to clamber out of Jaha’s lap now that the other's hands have loosened. “Fuck you. We're never getting married if your idea of a proposal is just telling me to pick a date–”

Jaha surges up to drag him into another kiss – a proper kiss – and Sungtae makes a muffled noise of surprise. Terrible idea; Jaha's tongue slips into his mouth, searing hot and soft and leaving Sungtae breathless and where did he even learn to kiss like this?

Sungtae rips himself away, panting as he covers his mouth with the back of one hand. Makes damn sure to mentally curse his pale skin, already knowing he must be so red he resembles wedding robes. “There are people watching,” he hisses, only a little distracted by how red and spit-slick Jaha's lips are.

The other man is still watching him, eyes darkened as he takes in the sight of him. Jaha swallows, and seemingly takes Sungtae's words to mean it's fine if no one else is around since he tosses Sungtae over his shoulder as he stands.

Sungtae yelps, hands scrabbling for any purchase in the other man's robes. Fuck him. There are no worse options for a spouse in any corner of the world, Sungtae is sure. What other person would continue treating their other half like a sack of rice to be tossed around? What an unromantic bastard. He means to knee Jaha in the ribs for the slight, but Jaha's arm curls around the back of his thighs before he can even try.

“Alright,” Jaha says offhandedly, striding off towards the inn. “Let's go.”

Left only more humiliated at the bastard's complete and utter lack of shame. Sungtae hides his face in Jaha's robes the whole way back to his chambers, even as what feels like half the sect jeers and makes obscene gestures as they pass. He's going to set this place on fire one day, he decides hazily, before instantly shoving down the list of priorities when Jaha tosses him onto the bed and crawls over him.

Forget it, he mentally sighs, reaching up to loop his arms around Jaha's neck and drag him into another kiss, it can wait.