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“Tan, tan tan tan, tan tan, tan taan…” The gray-haired girl's voice rang through the room, humming her favorite song and swaying her hips in rhythm as she washed the dishes they had just used.
Dan Heng focused on finishing assembling the snack basket, checking to see if he had prepared enough sandwiches for everyone. Her husband's portion was guaranteed, but probably Yanqing, Qingzu, and maybe even priestess Fu Xuan would be there, and maybe a few more coworkers. If by chance, they met Miss Bailu on the way, he would probably offer her a snack… Yeah, he hoped that would be enough.
"This way, you'd better take the whole refrigerator with you..." scoffed March, reading his thoughts as she saw him hesitating in front of the basket.
“Okay, okay, I think that should do it for everyone.” Dan Heng concluded, acting as if he wasn't already thinking about the amount of sandwiches.
“The tea water is ready…” announced Stelle who had already finished the dishes and now turned off the electric kettle, looking at the other two for a thermos, which March 7th promptly handed over to her. “Thank you,” she replied, pouring the boiling water into the bottle that already contained a good deal of tea leaves inside.
“I'm the one who thanks you for keeping me company this afternoon.” Dan Heng added to her thanks, fondly in his voice. He handed her another thermos, this one containing slices of ginger, zest of orange peel, and honey, specially prepared for Jing Yuan.
“Who says we would refuse enjoying afternoon tea with our friends at the Seat of Divine Foresight…” replied March with a little smile, excited about the afternoon event.
“If they praise the amount of butter in each slice of bread, you can give the credits to The Greatest Baseball Player of the Galaxy!” Stelle teased, pointing her thumb at her own chest, pretending to brag.
"And the technology of the thermos bottles that Asta gave us, which will keep the temperature of the tea intact until we get there..." they chattered, as their hands moved to store the bottles, cover the food jars and store everything inside the thermos bag.
“That's it... Let’s go.” Dan Heng announced, stepping forward to put the heavy bag on his back, as the pretty gentleman as he was.
We're coming he typed a message into his phone and sent it, as he followed them both off the express.
I'm waiting 😘 was the answer that appeared on his screen, along with a silly smile from his lips.
“See you later, Pom-Pom…” they said goodbye to the express driver and the trio headed for the Exalting Sanctum.
They chatted about various subjects as they walked, trying to guess the destination of some mail robot birds that rushed past them. After a few minutes of walking, they reached the Seat of Divine Foresight, where they were greeted by Qingzu, who warmly greeted them and guided them into the building.
Dan Heng felt a little uneasy, anticipating the meeting with his husband, not realizing that he already missed him so much, even though they had spent the night together.
“Oh, Qingzu, thank you so much for taking care of them!” Jing Yuan's deep, husky voice reached the group before they saw him, and the vidyadhara boy's eyes eagerly searched for the golden irises staring at them from behind the general's desk, which became more vibrant upon meeting him.
“You're welcome, Jing Yuan.” She replied, leaning respectfully forward for a brief moment, and then beckoning the party to follow her closer to the general's office, to the large table in the center, which was clean at the time.
"Good afternoon, general... I mean, Jing Yuan!” March was the first to greet him, looking a little nervous, although it was not the first or second time they had met on this kind of occasion.
“Good afternoon, Miss March, Miss Stelle, it is a great pleasure to see you again…” he replied, rising from his seat, slowly approaching the group.
"It's our pleasure..." Stelle replied, following Dan Heng as he approached the table, and let her help him take the snack pack off his back, resting it on the table and moving on.
“Dan Heng…” he just called out his name, one hand in his direction, which was held without hesitation, hurrying to take shelter in his embrace.
“Jing Yuan…” he called him back, looking into his golden eyes with a calm smile on his face, his arms already around his general's waist, feeling his two big arms wrap around his shoulders and pressing them against each other. He rested his face on his chest, deeply inhaling his scent, which inevitably calmed him. He felt the curtain of white hair covering him, and his nose on his scalp, and he knew his husband was doing and feeling the same as him.
The girls, and this included Qingzu, tried to look away from the two lovebirds, giving them some privacy, trying to prepare the table for them to eat.
Jing Yuan's left hand touched Dan Heng's short hair, stroking his head for a few seconds, placing a tender, lingering kiss on his forehead. With much effort, he loosened his embrace around his husband, trying to remember that there were more people in the room.
With a flushed face, trying not to get too carried away, Dan Heng also pulled back a little, lifting his face to look at Jing Yuan a little more, analyzing his gaze and expression. His fingers touched his face, in a delicate caress, over his chin and cheek, realizing that he looked tired, yet his gentle, welcoming smile hid it very well.
"How was your day? You look tired…” he asked in a low voice, his face flushed, a little embarrassed that he was acting so intimately with the general in front of other people, but he couldn't help but ask.
“Um, training with recruits in the morning, then a very long strategic meeting with the generals of the other ships of the Xianzhou, and then I talked to Priestess Fu Xuan to align some points…” he replied slowly, resting his face on Dan Heng's hand, accepting the affection he received. Dan Heng did not fail to notice the hoarseness in his voice, which seemed far more present than it was in the morning.
"I didn't imagine it would get so much worse until this time..." Dan Heng interrupted him, clutching his chin and turning Jing Yuan's mouth toward him, touching his upper lip with his index finger, making a half-invasive suggestion that he open his mouth, wanting to take a look at his throat. Jing Yuan agreed to open his mouth, just because it was his lovely and thoughtful husband asking, feeling his face blush from receiving this kind of care in public.
"It's still very red..." he commented, a little displeased, apologizing with his eyes.
Jing Yuan closed his mouth slowly, pinning the tip of his finger to his lips seemingly unintentionally, running his tongue lightly over him. There was a silly smile and a hint of sarcasm in his eyes, eager to talk the nonsense that only the two of them knew what it was, but he preferred to preserve their image in front of his friends, remaining silent.
"Aaahh... So that is why you made this ginger tea…” Stelle remarked, finding the appropriate hook to bring them back into the group, perhaps to make them radiate a little less love.
“Oooh…” the sound of surprise escaped Jing Yuan's lips, who loosened his arms more around Dan Heng, and looked again at the girls who had already spread a towel, plates, and cups for everyone present. “Did you make tea for me?!” He questioned, surprise and joy mingling in his voice and lighting up his face as he looked back at Dan Heng.
"Uhuum! Not only did he prepare it, he also made a whole bottle just for you, ” Stelle confirmed, indicating the blue bottle with her finger.
“He made a point of saying that the ginger tea is only for Jing Yuan, don't drink it too much, please. ” Stelle told, doing a purposefully bad imitation of Dan Heng's way of speaking.
“Aaawn, I have the most considerate husband in the world!” Jing Yuan exclaimed, in an almost childlike tone, feeling so loved by such a small act that he couldn't help himself. He hugged Dan Heng again and kissed his cheek affectionately, watching him blush intensely.
Dan Heng didn't pull away, he accepted the compliment, but he also didn't let he grab him for long. He was embarrassed to expose himself so much in front of his friends, and some of his co-workers who were at a distance from the group.
“Your throat was already bad in the morning, of course I would bring you tea…” Dan Heng tried to sound like it was no big deal for a husband to take care of his husband, but no one who watched this could help but think the two were extremely cute.
He disengaged himself from the embrace against his own will, and approached the table to pour a cup of the ginger-infused honey. “March, pass me the… Are you recording this?” He was going to ask her for a spoon, when he caught her trying to hide the camera clumsily, but to no avail.
"Oh, don't look at me like that! It's not like I won't send you all the images and videos later…” she defended herself, as she handed the spoon to him.
“Please send me a copy of these images too, Miss March, pretty please!” Jing Yuan asked, totally supporting her, clasping his hands together in front of his body as in a prayer, while tilting his head to the side, with a pidid look.
The March 7th did not miss the opportunity to photograph this scene, and as soon as the shutter of the camera captured the image, she looked at it and replied: “You got it, general.” Waving two fingers on his forehead, like a soldier receiving an order.
“You complain about her taking the pictures, but when we're on our next trailblaze mission, …” Stelle began to speak, pulling up a chair to sit at the table, and pouring some of the tea from the green bottle - the blue one was just from Jing Yuan. “...You'll be all sad that you can't be with your sweetheart every day.” She finished, after putting two tablespoons of sugar in her cup, stirring the liquid for a few seconds and then taking a good sip of her tea.
"Then, you'll be like crazy... Thank you!" March 7 th thanked her when Qingzu offered her a sandwich, which she left propped up on her plate as she continued with her argument. “Oh, guys, it went bad! I'll have to use the jade abacus!” She did a very bad imitation of Dan Heng's voice, gesturing exaggeratedly, drawing a laugh from almost everyone at the table except Dan Heng himself who felt his cheeks burning with shame.
“Or else, some stranger arrives on the Express, asking for his identity, and he quickly pulls his jade abacus out of his pocket and…” Stelle played along March, grabbing a napkin from the table in a quick motion, holding it between her index and middle fingers, lifting it between Qingzu and Jing Yuan's faces. "...and rubs it in their faces, saying it like this: Do you see this thing?" She used her other hand to point at the paper, tapping her finger on the paper's surface as if to indicate something. “It's original, okay? It was the Ge-Ne-RaL-JiNg-YuAn himself who gave it to me, okay?” Her tone of voice was arrogant, mimicking a fictional Dan Heng who would never exist, but who functioned to mess with the original one at the moment.
“No, when he quotes Jing Yuan calling him by his title, he makes a point of using a more velvety voice…” March 7th corrected her, swallowing the piece of sandwich, and taking a sip of tea to wipe her mouth, before saying, “General Jing Yuan~~” pronouncing each syllable very well, feeling her face blush as she realized she was talking nonsense in front of the general, but loving seeing the angry and embarrassed expression of Dan Heng, who seemed to want to strangle them both right there.
He stretched out his arm to take the paper of Stelle's hand in an instant, while shouting, “Stop being ridiculous!” And he crumpled the paper into a little ball, looking at the girl with gray hair. “This is more like something that you …” And threw the ball in her direction. ...Would do."
She picked up the ball in the air before it hit her face and replied, “Of course I would!” And she let out a laugh that was shared by the other members of the table. "If you left this thing with me for just one day..." she began to speak, preparing to let go of some more nonsense.
“Ma'am, please calm down. That is not gonna happen." He interrupted her, rising from his chair to pat her head, making her sit back in her seat. “Somebody pour this girl some more tea, please,” he asked, trying to deflect the subject so as not to really assault her.
Jing Yuan stepped forward, still laughing, holding the green thermos and refilling Stelle's cup.
“Rest assured, honey, I'll get you a jade abacus too, okay?” He comforted her, and looked at Qingzu, seriously considering the hypothesis, while offering her more tea.
She sighed, accepting to be served by the general, letting out a giggle.
"You say that about Mr. Dan Heng, but you don't know how desperate someone gets when you go more than two months without showing up..." she commented with her eyes fixed on her superior, loving this loophole to make fun of his face. She took a long sip of tea, and turned to the girls to continue, "He makes up any excuse to send an invitation to the Astral Express for you to join. Is it an intergalactic sporting event? Qingzu, invite the Express. Is it an event to showcase new species of domestic animals? Qingzu, set aside six invitations for the Astral Express, please. ” it was visible that she was taking the opportunity to vent all the gossip she kept to herself, even doing bad imitations of Jing Yuan as well, following the example of the two girls, regardless of what she heard later.
“Seven invitations, Qingzu.” Jing Yuan corrected her, not seeming at all bothered by the rest of her words. "They have a new member in the Express family, so from now on, there will be seven invitations," he added, looking at the three trailblazers in front of him, and staring at Dan Heng for confirmation. "Right?"
“Did you notice too, Qingzu?” a high-pitched voice from a young man reached the group, before he approached the five. "I thought it was just in my head..."
“Yanqing shifu, what a surprise!” March greeted him, waving to him from her seat at the table.
“Good afternoon, Miss March, Miss Stelle, Master Dan Heng.” He greeted them one by one, leaning forward respectfully. “Good afternoon, Lady Qingzu, General Jing Yuan.”
“Good afternoon, Yanqing. Come, sit with us and have a cup of tea.” Dan Heng invited him, waving for him to sit next to him.
Yanqing looked at the table, then at his wristwatch, and then at Jing Yuan hesitantly. “Well...”
“Sit down, we won't be long. The sandwich they made is delicious.” Jing Yuan encouraged him to accept the tea invitation, nodding his head, indicating that everything would be fine.
“Well, in that case…” the boy reached for the seat next to Dan Heng, nodding his head to thank the cup of hot tea March 7th had just filled for him.
“Do you have any appointments now?” Dan Heng asked, looking at Jing Yuan and Qingzu, worried that he was taking up too much of their time.
“Jing Yuan has agreed to follow Yanqing's training this afternoon, and as soon as they are finished, he will return to the Seat of Divine Foresight to review some important documents that need to be reviewed and signed by him.” Qingzu loudly announced the general's afternoon schedule. She brought the cup of tea to her lips, drinking the entire contents at once. Then she rested the cup on the table, along with an elbow, resting her chin on the hand that had been raised in the air. “But I know he's going to get carried away with Mr. Yanqing's progress, and he's going to end up increasing an hour or two of his training, and in the end, when he gets back here, he's going to be too tired to fiddle with the documents and he's going to leave it all for tomorrow… Again." Her outburst was so sincere that Jing Yuan's face turned red as he realized his own fault.
Dan Heng blushed along, also feeling embarrassed to find out, and brought his right hand to Jing Yuan's ear, pulling it lightly, as he said, “General Jing Yuan, shame on you!” He really was scolding Jing Yuan, but his intonation wasn't serious enough. “So you mean you go out to have fun, and drop all the hard work on Qingzu? What an ugly thing, mister general…” he remained serious as he lectured him on his behavior.
“Dan Heng, please take it easy on me…” Jing Yuan tried to play poor thing, but he was actually embarrassed that they discovered his bad habits.
“Alright…” he stroked the scalp of Jing Yuan's head for a moment, until he had an idea. He looked at Qingzu, and said, “Let's do this: I follow Yanqing's training,” he signaled with his finger to himself and then to Yanqing, next to him. "...and you..." patted his chest and then pointed to Qingzu, adding: "...will be analyzing the documents with Qingzu, in the meantime."
Jing Yuan widened his eyes, incredulous that he was taking such a crawl from his own husband, but before he could complain, Qingzu spoke first:
“Perfect! Deal." And she poured herself more tea just to toast Dan Heng, happy with the decision he'd made.
The two girls watching this had to laugh at the situation, enjoying the show.
Jing Yuan stood staring at Dan Heng in disbelief, waiting for some explanation for such a con. Dan Heng understood very well what that look meant, and even though he thought it was funny, he decided to explain.
"Don’t look at me like that... Stelle and March also need training. They have some new maneuvers planned, and it's not often that we find a worthy opponent to train for real.” He paused, looking at his friends and then at Yanqing. “And certainly, it is not often that this young man encounters opponents difficult enough to challenge him to his utmost…” he smiled at the boy beside him, encouraging him to accept the challenge.
“That will be interesting..." Stelle commented thoughtfully.
Jing Yuan looked at his disciple and asked, “Are you okay with this?”
“Me? Against you guys..." His blue eyes widened for a moment, shy, until his competitive spirit overwhelmed him. “It will be an honor to face you on the battlefield!”
"That's the spirit!" March 7th praised him, raising her hand to a hi five, which he responded excitedly.
“And in the meantime... You take care of the documents, finish work early, release Qingzu early, and take the rest of the day off,” Dan Heng concluded, resting a hand on the general's shoulder, pressing the spot slightly, as if trying to cheer him up about his new plans.
"Well… If it is decided, then I can only accept it.” He replied, resigned, with a sigh at the end and a not-so-happy smile. “Who knows, maybe I'll finish up soon and get there as a reinforcement…” He looked at his pupil and winked at him, showing his support.
“Now you've made this challenge even more interesting…” Stelle remarked, holding her chin with her fingers as she spoke, her little eyes twinkling in anticipation. “We have to defeat Yanqing before you arrive, or else, we will have trouble dealing with the phase 2 of this boss…”
“You talk like this is a video game…” March 7 commented. "I love it! We need to record this…” and her fingers picked up her cell phone, while typing a message for someone.
They finished their snack, and went about putting the dishes back in their purse, busying themselves with cleaning the table. Qingzu asked permission to leave and go get the paperwork.
Jing Yuan pulled Dan Heng close to the window on the back wall of the cabinet, one hand on his waist, enjoying their brief moment alone. As soon as he thought they were far enough away from the rest of the group, he pulled him closer, to kiss his lips finally.
Dan Heng hugged his neck, standing on tiptoes to keep the kiss going. The height gap between the two of them was perfect, giving Dan Heng no choice but to throw himself into his beloved's arms to kiss him.
Their tongues found themselves yearning, longing, almost eager for the touch of the other. Neither of them thought about anything else at that moment, just the pleasure of kissing his favorite mouth.
They kept the kiss uninterrupted for at least five whole minutes, or something, until they heard someone clear their throat in the background.
"Dan Heng... Let's go?" Stelle called to him, still far enough not to invade their privacy.
Dan Heng barely had breath to speak after that kiss, and panting, he replied a weak “I'm coming”.
The two stared at each other in silence for a few more seconds, until Jing Yuan decided to break the silence.
“See you on the battlefield?” He teased in his hoarse voice.
“Do you think Yanqing will hold on long enough for you to arrive?” Dan Heng inquired, returning the teasing as he walked back to the group, still with Jing Yuan's hand on his waist.
“Well, it's ~my~ disciple you're talking about… Of course he'll resist.” Jing Yuan replied confidently, his voice a little louder, hoping his statement would be heard by the others.
“Oh yeah? So if I face you in battle, know that I won't take it easy on you at all…” Dan Heng announced, in an almost arrogant tone.
“I can't wait to see it!”