Work Text:
Yin Yu paused, shovel pointed upwards, and took a deep breath. It wasn’t like he had a choice. Best to get it over with quickly.
Shielding his eyes, he stabbed upwards and ducked the fall of dirt, scraping away until he felt the earth give way above him. Lowering the shovel, he hoisted himself up through the hole and crawled out onto the marble floor.
Quan Yizhen sat up on the bed, looking at him with that half-frown that meant he was assessing the situation before his eyes. That look hadn’t changed, even after so many years; nothing about Quan Yizhen ever changed, no matter how much Yin Yu might wish otherwise.
“Shixiong!” Quan Yizhen exclaimed, hopping off the bed. “You know, this is the second time this has happened. Last time I had to fight General Pei. I much prefer you.”
“You might still have to fight anyway,” Yin Yu cut him off.
Quan Yizhen tilted his head. “Why? Is General Pei with you?”
“No, not-” Yin Yu bit his tongue and silently prayed for patience. “More likely Jun Wu, or any number of the guards he has locking down the heavens.”
Quan Yizhen looked taken aback. “That’s a lot of people. Will you be able to fight? You don’t have any spiritual powers, right?”
Rub it in, why don't you, Yin Yu thought. “If we hurry up and get out of here, we won’t have to find out. Come on, I’ve got digging to do.”
Quan Yizhen looked doubtfully at the shovel in Yin Yu’s hands. “That’s a spiritual device.”
No shit it’s a spiritual device. “And?”
“You’d be able to dig a lot faster with spiritual powers.” Yin Yu felt the familiar buzzing start at the back of his head, but before he could even begin to explode Quan Yizhen continued, “Here, I can lend you some.”
“I- huh?” Yin Yu blinked at him, speechless, and in his second of baffled silence Quan Yizhen grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him.
What.
This was so far outside the realm of Yin Yu’s expectations that it took him a moment to be sure that he was really experiencing what he thought he was experiencing. Quan Yizhen was, somehow, for some fucking reason, kissing him, and Yin Yu had so many questions, not the least of which was-
“What the fuck?” He pushed Quan Yizhen away, the back of one hand going to his mouth. There was no moisture to wipe away, though - Quan Yizhen’s lips were as chapped as ever, bone-dry and bitten rough, and Yin Yu hated the flash of familiarity at that, at the memory of Quan Yizhen sitting in the forked branch of a tree and gnawing his bottom lip to bleeding as he lost himself in whatever had occupied his attention, until the sun went down and Yin Yu had to go drag him inside.
“I’m giving you spiritual energy,” Quan Yizhen said, looking confused, as if Yin Yu were the one who had just done something completely insane. “Did you not receive it just now?”
Yin Yu waved an impatient hand, ignoring the lick of cool energy now curling through his gut. “Why the fuck would you choose that method to give me spiritual power?”
Quan Yizhen cocked his head in the other direction. “That’s how his Highness and Crimson Rain Sought Flower were doing it earlier.”
The urge to smack himself in the face was eclipsed only by the urge to smack Quan Yizhen in his face. “Yizhen, you little dummy, his Highness and Crimson Rain Sought Flower weren’t doing that to exchange spiritual power.”
Confused, “Can you not borrow powers that way?”
“No, you can, but-”
“Oh, good.” Quan Yizhen’s expression cleared, and he reached for Yin Yu’s face again.
“No, hang on- hang on, Yizhen-” He caught Quan Yizhen by the wrists and held him in place. “First of all, don’t take any lessons from Crimson Rain Sought Flower, half the time he’s fucking with you and the other half he’s flirting with his Highness. Secondly, you can’t just go around randomly kissing people-”
“I’m not randomly kissing people,” Quan Yizhen interrupted, as though this were obvious, “I’m kissing you.” He made no move to break from Yin Yu’s grip, seeming content as a puppy to be held at arm’s length and wait for approval. Even the rejection of being shoved away and lectured couldn’t dampen his spirits; he was so fundamentally, resolutely certain that all he needed to do was wait and all his affection would eventually be returned.
Yin Yu closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. “Yizhen, you really do make it difficult sometimes.”
“Make what difficult?”
Yin Yu just shook his head, eyes screwed shut, swept up in the same internal battle he’d been waging for longer than he cared to remember.
“Shixiong?”
“Why-” Why would you assume I’d even want to kiss you, was the question in his mind, but when it came out it had turned into, “Why would you want to kiss me?”
He opened his eyes, and met the look of absolute shock on Quan Yizhen’s face.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Quan Yizhen countered. “Shixiong, why would I not want to kiss you?”
Yin Yu barked a laugh, and it tasted stale between his teeth. “I tried to kill you, Yizhen.”
Quan Yizhen shrugged. “So? It was a misunderstanding.”
“It wasn’t!” Yin Yu shouted. “Why do you keep insisting on that? Do you really think I said ‘go die’ and meant something other than ‘go die’?”
But Quan Yizhen shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. I mean that people think you tried to kill me because you’re evil, or because you were jealous of me. But you did it because I was annoying.”
Yin Yu gaped at him.
“I know I annoy you,” Quan Yizhen continued. “I can’t always work out why, but I know that sometimes I say things and you want to strangle me. And I really annoyed you that day. So of course you tried to kill me.”
It took a second before Yin Yu could find anything to say to that, but Quan Yizhen had always hated leaving a silence where he expected a response, so he kept talking.
“You were banished because of me. I messed everything up for you. And I don’t know how to not mess things up, so I’ll just have to try and do things that help you as well, and then hopefully it will balance out.”
“Yizhen,” Yin Yu cut him off, “You know you have a fucked up sense of what’s normal in the world, right?”
Quan Yizhen raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“I-” Yin Yu wanted to pinch himself between his brows, but he didn’t quite trust Quan Yizhen not to try to give him spiritual energy again the moment he found himself with a free hand. “Most people would not think that being irritating, even for that many years, justifies almost being murdered. And most people wouldn’t still want to be friendly with the person that tried to murder them.”
There was a moment of silence while Quan Yizhen considered this.
“I think most other people have fucked up priorities, then,” he said finally. “Of course I want to be friendly with you. You’re my shixiong. I’ll always like you.”
“Fuck’s sake, Yizhen,” Yin Yu groaned, and this time he did let go of Quan Yizhen’s wrists, pressing both palms to his own face and shaking his head in despair. “You absolute dummy. You’re too simple, too pure. It must be so nice, to live in your head.”
Quan Yizhen was quiet for a minute, and when Yin Yu lifted his head he was staring at him with an odd expression.
“Sometimes it is,” he said, “and sometimes it feels like everybody else is playing a game and nobody will tell me the rules. Except you.” He shrugged, his gaze trailing off somewhere beside Yin Yu’s left ear. “You always tell me the rules when I ask, shixiong. That’s why I like you.”
Something painful twisted in Yin Yu’s chest, and he thought of the days before his ascension, when every disciple in the sect would march into his room to complain but none of them would tell Quan Yizhen to his face what he was doing wrong. He thought of Quan Yizhen sitting outside his window, waiting until everyone had left and then slipping in to talk to Yin Yu alone. The only person he had ever been able to trust, Yin Yu realised. The only one who hadn’t lied to him, or made underhanded comments they knew he wouldn’t understand and then laughed at him the moment he turned away.
The only one who had ever told him what the rules were.
“If you like me telling you the rules so much, then how come you don’t listen to me half the time?”
Quan Yizhen shrugged, chewing on his lip. “Sometimes the rules turn out to be stupid.”
Yin Yu couldn't help it. He laughed. Head bowed, shoulders hunched, he held himself together with a hand across his own chest and laughed breathlessly until his eyes hurt.
“You fool,” he chuckled, “you sweet, idiotic child.” And then, before he could question the impulse, he reached out and pulled Quan Yizhen into his arms, hugging him tightly to his chest and hiding an exasperated sigh in his curly, messy hair. “Yizhen, you really-”
“Well, this is cute.”
Heart freezing, arms stiffening, Yin Yu snapped upright to see Jun Wu standing on the threshold, surveying them with a patronising expression.
“No, no, don’t stop on my account,” he said, waving a lazy hand in their direction. “Such a beautiful moment of reconciliation, don’t let me interrupt you.”
Yin Yu looked back at Quan Yizhen, who had lifted his head and was glaring at Jun Wu with a fire to rival a thousand blessings lanterns, his arms still around Yin Yu’s waist.
“Yizhen,” Yin Yu murmured. “What you said earlier… I think you were right.”
Quan Yizhen glanced up at him, eyes wide and questioning.
Yin Yu smiled, even as his heart ratcheted up into his throat with the pounding adrenaline of imminent danger.
“Would you lend me some spiritual energy?”
The sun broke across Quan Yizhen’s face, and he nodded. Cupping a hand around his cheek, Yin Yu leant forward and met his lips - dry, chapped, warm and soft and sharp - and felt the cool flood of power swirling into his core.
“Thank you,” Yin Yu whispered as they parted. He gave Quan Yizhen one more kiss, just for luck, and together they turned to face Jun Wu.