Work Text:
Rarely was Zhao Yunlan the first to wake up in the morning. And when he did, he used to snuggle as tightly as possible against Shen Wei to go back to sleep. He would intertwine their legs and stick his arms inside Shen Wei's pajamas as far as he could.
Sometimes Zhao Yunlan thought that the story of being devoured in a very literal way and then they would be eternally part of each other, inseparable, was an interesting idea.
In practice, this would actually cause one to be alone, but anyway, the theory of that was more or less what he was trying to achieve when he almost slipped into the pajamas that Shen Wei was wearing just to sleep an extra hour in the morning. The more contact with his husband's soft skin, the better.
He always did that. And sometimes he thought he should ban pajamas in that house. It would be a blessing if Shen Wei never wore any clothes to sleep ever again.
That morning, however, as much as he still wanted to banish pajamas, Zhao Yunlan didn't try to invade his husband's clothes or go back to sleep.
A pale sunbeam streamed in through a gap in the curtains, casting subtle light on Shen Wei's sleeping face. Long eyelashes traced the curves of closed eyelids, ending in lines at the corners of the eyes that seemed to have been painted with a thin brush. The slightly parted rosy lips let out a low sound of steady, calm breathing. The long inky hair was braided loosely, thin strands that escaped the braid overnight fell around the serene face.
And there Zhao Yunlan lost his thoughts.
He reached up to tuck a strand behind his husband's ear, careful not to wake him up.
Eleven years ago, he would never have believed it if someone had told him that he would marry someone who would love him more than this person loved their own life and who would always care for him as if he were the most precious and fragile thing in the world - even though he was a god and wasn't even capable of feeling pain anymore. Ten years ago, he still couldn't believe he was moving into the house he had bought looking forward to building a life with Shen Wei.
A day ago, he had gone to sleep still trying to believe that he had already lived ten wonderful years with a being who was entirely beautiful, even in his glittering colorful soul.
There was no such thing as 'loving too much'. He was sure that he could always love Shen Wei a little more every day. For all the love Shen Wei had been deprived of for millennia. Kunlun would have lived just to love him, if that had been possible. It was the pain he still felt, from leaving Shen Wei alone for so long. He had never feared death, he just suffered from knowing that he would have to leave his precious little Ghost King behind.
Between the fingers that were still behind Shen Wei's ear, a delicate, thin green branch sprouted with a small bud at the tip. And it blossomed as if it wanted to give itself entirely to that sunbeam, revealing a blue poppy with silky petals.
Zhao Yunlan smiled at the sight, as he tucked the flower behind his husband's ear.
Shen Wei's eyelashes fluttered subtly and the curve of a smile appeared on his lips. Then, his beautiful round eyes were open lazily, staring at Zhao Yunlan fondly. Light reflected off the dark iris that once consumed everything, making it shine like tiny stars in a night sky. Shen Wei's entire being seemed otherworldly, even when he had just woken up in his ordinary bed, in his ordinary house, in his ordinary pajamas, in his so-ordinarily human life... to someone whose mere opening of his eyes was divine.
"It smells like a flower field, Yunlan," Shen Wei smiled, "but we are in the city..."
"I tried to give you a little blue flower, but when you opened your eyes, I think some grew by the window by accident, following the sunbeam.” Zhao Yunlan shrugged. It wasn't as if the house didn't already have several flowers and plants that had sprouted by accident and were now part of the decoration.
“Yunlan,” Shen Wei giggled, when his husband thought he was going to be scolded, and reached out to carefully touch the flower behind his ear. “You were serious about bringing me flowers."
"I was thinking about a bouquet when I said that, but it ended up being a little more impulsive," he chuckled.
"I prefer these to a bouquet. Unless you made all the flowers in the bouquet too..."
"I was going to buy it at a flower shop."
"Isn't it a lot less complicated to just make them bloom?" Shen Wei asked, fingers gently playing with the collar of Zhao Yunlan's sweatshirt.
Zhao Yunlan wrapped the arms around his husband's waist under the blanket, bringing him closer into his embrace. "Ah, Xiao Wei, there's nothing complicated if it's for you."
"Unnecessary pampering will get you nowhere.” Shen Wei held back his amusement, a pretense. Flirting and shamelessness were still Zhao Yunlan's most spoken language.
"I've been married to you for ten years. Pampering you has brought me here," he said, lighthearted.
"That's not the reason-" Before Shen Wei could protest, Zhao Yunlan's index finger had landed on his lips.
“Just let me love you enough, okay? Let me do all the unnecessary things that you didn't have before. All the pampering, all the dates, and all the stupid romantic stuff. Doing them just for this lifetime is not enough. Let me do them for all the millennia we were apart. There are five thousand years of your smiles that I need to bring to your face. Ten years is still a very short time to recover everything you should have, so just let me do this, will you?” But that wasn't really a question. Zhao Yunlan didn't need to ask, he just needed Shen Wei to know that the time that the ravages of existence had stolen from them now belonged to them again, and forever.
He watched such serenity that had come to exist in Shen Wei's heart once it was certain that they would no longer be taken from each other, coming in the sweetness of his smile, in the wet eyelashes that fluttered closed.
More of the gentle blue flowers bloomed, but it was no accident of Zhao Yunlan this time. When he bowed his head and tenderly repeated the first touch of love he had given to Shen Wei a long time ago, touching his forehead with a kiss, something around had changed - something within - and it was rejoicing to blossom.
…
