Archive of Our Own ^beta

"So we have to be a couple to get an apartment?!" Wei Ying asked in dismay.

"Mn. I've looked everywhere else, but as you know, there is a housing shortage at the moment," Lan Zhan said calmly, like he was ordering a sandwich. "Unfortunately, this place is the only one that's renting out apartments in the area."

"Huh."

Wei Ying was sort of desperate. His lease was about to be up, and his landlord was kicking him out in order to renovate and hike up the rent, the asshole. Lan Zhan had offered to share some of the burden and room with Wei Ying. Wei Ying had agreed, obviously, because Lan Zhan was great, and having a roommate—even one as fastidious and routine-bound as Lan Zhan—might be a lot of fun, actually. He'd really gotten tired of knocking about his studio alone.

But of course, there was always a hitch. "That's weird, right? Isn't that weird?"

Lan Zhan seemed to hesitate. "It is…unorthodox, but apparently not illegal."

"So what's great about this place?" Wei Ying asked, taking a long sip of his coffee.

"It has availability," Lan Zhan said with a slight smile. "Also, it happens to have rather nice amenities, actually."

"Ohhh, like what?"

"A fitness center. A pool. A shared workspace."

"Huh." Wei Ying thought it over. He didn't have much choice—if he wanted to live close to the university without having a commute that was over an hour long, he needed this place. The idea formed easily, and honestly, he couldn't see any problem with it. "So wanna pretend to be a couple?"

Lan Zhan's eyebrow twitched, the only sign that Wei Ying had surprised him. Wei Ying watched him carefully as he took a sip of his tea, set the cup down, and leaned back in his seat. "Very well."

Wei Ying's mouth dropped open. "Wait. Really?"

Lan Zhan shrugged. Shrugged!

"Just like that, you're willing to lie in order to get an apartment?"

"It is a strange situation, certainly, but I don't see any drawbacks."

"What if we get caught?"

"How?" Lan Zhan asked mildly.

Good question. "I guess they wouldn't know, would they? It's not like the leasing office is gonna spy on us or anything."

"Exactly. That would be illegal."

"Huh." Wei Ying chewed on his lip, thinking. "So why, exactly, are they only renting to couples and not roommates or whatever?"

Lan Zhan shook his head. "I'm not sure. Something about stability."

"Rude. And it's a nice place? And we can afford it?"

"Yes."

Wei Ying leaned back in his seat. He thought it over, imagining what living with Lan Zhan might be like. As Lan Zhan was his favorite person in the whole entire world next to jiejie, all he could feel was excitement. And Lan Zhan cooked, unlike Wei Ying, who could cook, but rarely actually chose to do so.

"Fuck it. Let's do it."

Lan Zhan nodded, then extended his hand. Wei Ying took it.

"Boyfriends?"

A minute twitch of Lan Zhan's perfect eyebrow. "Boyfriends."

"Only one-bedrooms are available?" Wei Ying was staring at the leasing office lady—Paula—with some dismay.

"I'm afraid so. All the two-bedrooms are already taken."

Wei Ying looked at Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan looked back at Wei Ying. Wei Ying turned back to Paula. "What if one of us works from home? We'd need an office…"

"Oh, well, we actually have an excellent shared workspace I can show you—it would solve this problem! It's just that, the only other apartment available is a studio. I imagine that would make your situation more difficult."

"Would you excuse us for a moment, please?" Wei Ying asked, tugging on Lan Zhan's sleeve and rising out of his seat.

"Of course. Take your time." She smiled. She seemed very nice, if not overly helpful in the finding a two-bedroom place department.

Lan Zhan rose to his feet and Wei Ying towed him over by the office door, turning so Paula wouldn't be able to read his lips or whatever. "Lan Zhan! What do we do?!"

"I'm afraid we don't have much choice," Lan Zhan said quietly. "I promise that I've looked at all the options, and I know you've done your share of searching. There's nothing available in the area."

Wei Ying felt his shoulders sag down. "Fuck."

"Mn."

"I guess we'll just…figure it out…but where are we gonna put all of our stuff?!"

"We might have to downsize."

Wei Ying mulled this over, thinking about his second-hand furniture that had definitely seen better days. His mattress was probably about fifteen years old. If they only had room for one bed, he'd be on the couch, anyway, and maybe someday, he could afford a new bed… "All right. Screw it. I guess we're doing this."

Lan Zhan watched him for a beat, his eyes preternaturally serious. "Are you certain you don't mind living in such close quarters with me?"

"What, me? Of course not! I should be asking you this." Wei Ying squirmed a little. "I'm probably, like, not the world's best roommate or whatever."

"Wei Ying. You're fine."

Wei Ying lowered his gaze, feeling the back of his neck heating up. "All right. Cool. Cool cool cool. This will be completely fine." He turned around, put on his most charming smile, and called over, "All right, Paula. We'll take that apartment."

"Are you out of your minds?!" Jiang Cheng yelled, startling all the other restaurant-goers into turning around to look at him.

"Jiang Cheng, shut up!" Wei Ying hissed. "You'll wake the dead!"

"I don't care! What are you even thinking?! What is Lan Zhan thinking?!" Jiang Cheng ran a hand through his hair, eyes bugging out of his head.

"We're thinking we're desperate and need a place to live, what do you think, this is choice number one?!"

"Jiejie's gonna murder you," Jiang Cheng said, pointing an accusatory finger at Wei Ying.

"Jiejie will do nothing of the sort, jiejie loves me and wants me to have a roof over my head."

"Yeah, but lying about being a couple? You're gonna get caught."

"How?" Wei Ying took a sip of his beer. "How could we possibly get caught? It's not like they monitor you for, I dunno, sexual activity or whatever." Suddenly, an image of him and Lan Zhan naked and, like, writhing, flashed through his mind and Wei Ying felt his entire body flush all at once. Focus, Wei Ying. No, not on that. "And anyway, it's really not that big a deal. We're not breaking the law or anything."

Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes. "What if one of you meets someone you actually want to date?"

"Ha!" Wei Ying leaned back in his seat. "I'm too busy to date, and Lan Zhan hasn't dated in fucking ages. I think we're safe for now."

Jiang Cheng shook his head. "You're an idiot."

Wei Ying gave him a winning smile. "Yeah, but you love to see it."

Jiang Cheng curled his lip. "You fucking wish. Just have your chicken nuggets or whatever and shut up."

Wei Ying stuffed his mouth with a chicken finger and gave him another grin.

Moving was a trial, but Wei Ying had expected that. Moving always sucked, but he'd actually gotten pretty good at it over the past eight years, ever since Auntie Yu kicked him out at eighteen and he had to figure it all out on his own and move practically every year. He sold his old bed and creaky sofa on Facebook Marketplace, gave away his dresser and bookshelf for free, and donated a whole bunch of books he was never going to reread anyway to the local library. By the time the day of the move came up, he was down to bare bones: clothes, TV, books he was never getting rid of, some kitchen stuff, and toiletries. Oh, and his kitchen table and chairs were coming with them—those were pretty nice, because they were hand-me-downs from the Peacock, whose old furniture, unlike Wei Ying's, was antiques and not shit he'd bought at IKEA right after college.

Lan Zhan had the bed, the couch, a beautiful set of shelves, and a gorgeous wingback chair where he read books and had tea like a grandpa. Wei Ying loved that chair, if only because Lan Zhan clearly loved it more than life itself. He'd once extolled its lumbar support to Wei Ying so hard, Wei Ying was crying laughing by the end. Man, he loved Lan Zhan.

They didn't have enough stuff to justify hiring movers, and anyway, Wei Ying, with his adjunct professor salary, could hardly afford it, so they got help from friends and brothers and U-Haul.

"You know, Wei Ying, I'm giving up a yoga retreat for this," Nie Huaisang said as he carried a bag of clothes out of the U-Haul.

Wei Ying, who was currently propping up one side of the couch while Lan Huan had the other, blew hair out of his face and said, "And I appreciate every sacrifice you've ever made for me."

Lan Zhan was busy taking out the wingback chair with his own two hands, stating that he was just fine on his own.

"Obviously there's beer and pizza at the end of this for you," Wei Ying promised, his breath coming in labored because damn, Lan Zhan's couch was heavy. "Hey Lan Huan, are you gonna be okay without a couch?"

Lan Zhan was moving out of their shared space, but Wei Ying couldn't remember what Lan Huan was doing about it.

"Of course," Lan Huan said smoothly, as though he weren't currently busy carrying a thousand-ton couch into Wei Ying's new building. "Mingjue's will do just fine."

Oh, that's right—Lan Huan and his boyfriend were moving in together. "Sweet. Hope it's lighter than this."

They finally maneuvered the couch into the freight elevator, which Paula had graciously reserved for their move. The whole building was actually weirdly nice for how much they were paying for it.

He took a deep breath, then turned to Nie Huaisang, who was still only carrying one bag of clothes. "Thanks for giving up your Saturday for this."

Nie Huaisang waved his hand around. "Don't worry about it, just buy me food and alcohol and we'll call it even."

"You know it."

The last things to go into the apartment were Lan Zhan's bookshelves, which Jiang Cheng hauled in one by one, and then they were done.

Wei Ying collapsed onto the floor and Lan Zhan walked over to stand over him. "Would you like a hand?" he asked.

Wei Ying grinned. "Nah, I'm good. Let me just…rest for a bit."

While Wei Ying rested, Lan Zhan organized the boxes, putting the ones with the kitchen supplies in the kitchen, the books by the bookshelves, and the clothes in the bedroom. They were going to have to figure out how to split the closet, but luckily, it was a pretty roomy one.

While Lan Huan helped Lan Zhan organize, Nie Huaisang sat down gingerly next to Wei Ying and nudged him with a toe. "So, boyfriends, huh?"

Wei Ying snorted. "That's the idea, yes." He squinted at Nie Huaisang. "You're not gonna rat us out, are you?"

Nie Huaisang gasped, one hand flying to his chest. "Would I do this to a dear friend who's about to get me steak and a cocktail?"

"That's pizza and beer, buddy."

Nie Huaisang shrugged. "Oh, well, worth a shot."

"They're gonna get caught," Jiang Cheng said confidently as he plopped his ass down on the couch. It was a really nice couch, actually, and it was a sleeper, so Wei Ying was all set.

"We're not gonna get caught," Wei Ying said in exasperation. "How would they possibly know? Are they gonna make us kiss to prove it or something?"

Jiang Cheng shrugged. "I don't know, man, I just know this is a very bad idea."

"Shows how much you know," Wei Ying said, then finally sat up, propping himself up on his hands. "This is gonna be awesome, you'll see."

"Yeah, if the two of you don't kill each other from living in too close quarters together."

It was true that the apartment was pretty small. The living room fit all the furniture in it, including Lan Zhan's beloved wingback chair, but it was certainly cozy. Wei Ying's kitchen table and chairs just barely fit into the kitchen, and the bedroom only held the bed and two bedside tables (because Lan Zhan was an adult with two bedside tables), with the dresser going into the closet.

The best thing about the apartment was the bathroom. Lan Zhan was thrilled about the storage, while Wei Ying had his eye on that deep tub. He hadn't lived anywhere with a tub big enough to soak in for a while, not since leaving the Jiangs' place. He couldn't wait for a good soak with a glittery bath bomb that would make the whole apartment smell like lavender or whatever.

So, sure, they were gonna be on top of each other, and he wouldn't really have any privacy, but the university was a ten-minute walk away, and anyway, what did he need privacy for? It wasn't like he was dating anyone or anything. He would be just fine.

"Lan Zhan, obviously you get the bed. It's your bed!"

They were standing in the kitchen over half-unpacked boxes, and Wei Ying had to straighten up in order to argue.

"Wei Ying, just because it happens to be my bed doesn't mean I am owed it," Lan Zhan responded. "It wouldn't be fair of me to ask you to sleep on the sofa."

"But it's a sleeper! It pulls out!"

"The mattress isn't good enough."

"So, what, you wanna sleep on it? No. No way." Wei Ying shook his head decisively. "I'm taking the sofa and that's that."

Lan Zhan stood still in front of him, the only sign of exhaustion the line between his eyebrows. He hadn't even broken a sweat, while Wei Ying was fairly sure he looked like last week's laundry. "There is…another option," Lan Zhan said slowly.

Wei Ying frowned, thinking, then felt his eyebrows rising. "You mean—"

"We could share. It's a big enough bed." For the first time in a while, Lan Zhan looked uncomfortable, which was so odd to see on him, Wei Ying was sort of riveted.

"Like…what…sleep together?"

"It would…make sense. And solidify our status as a couple in case maintenance have to come in to fix something."

For some reason, Wei Ying broke into a sweat, squirming. The idea of just, like…sleeping next to Lan Zhan for the next, what, year? Until they could find a two-bedroom? Was…well. It was…something.

"I'm a calm sleeper, if that is a worry," Lan Zhan went on. "I have been informed, in fact, that I sleep like a corpse."

Wei Ying couldn't help the burst of laughter. "What?"

Lan Zhan looked even more uncomfortable for a moment, then said, "An ex-boyfriend of mine. He used to tell me I slept like a corpse. On my back," he clarified. "With my hands folded over my chest."

Wei Ying blinked. "Huh."

"I also don't snore."

"Neither do I! I don't think…" Wei Ying thought back to the partners he'd shared a bed with before. "I do move around, though? What if I start kicking you in my sleep or something?"

"We'll think of something," Lan Zhan said calmly. "I believe this is the only fair solution. Unless, of course, it makes you uncomfortable. In which case I will take the sofa."

"No! No, no, no, you're not gonna—no. I'm not uncomfortable," Wei Ying lied. "This is totally. Totally fine. We'll share. Like friends! Like a totally normal…friend…thing to do."

In truth, Wei Ying was uncomfortable, but not for, like, gay reasons or anything—not like he hadn't slept with guys before. It was just…intimate. The idea of sharing a bed with Lan Zhan for a full year. No privacy, either. He'd have to beat off in the shower, for one. So would Lan Zhan, come to think of it—no. No, he wasn't about to go there.

"I stay up later than you, will that be a problem?"

"Not at all," Lan Zhan said. "I sleep very soundly."

Wei Ying pursed his lips. "Listen…are you totally sure? You wouldn't be, like…I wouldn't be cramping your style?"

"No, Wei Ying. It will be fine."

And so, it was decided. They were going to…they were going to share a bed. Sure. Sure sure sure. This was going to be fine. This was going to be perfectly fine.

Wei Ying waited until he was absolutely sure Lan Zhan was asleep to sneak into bed. It was one am, and he'd dawdled—he'd unpacked all of his books and put them on one of Lan Zhan's bookshelves, then he sat online reading increasingly niche Wikipedia articles on cults until he couldn't take it anymore, and only then did he brush his teeth, shower, and finally come to bed.

Lan Zhan, as advertised, was sleeping like a corpse: on his back with his hands folded over his stomach. Wei Ying watched him for a bit—there was just enough light from the street that he could see easily, once his eyes adjusted—then finally made himself change into pajamas (no more naked sleeping) and get into bed.

Except he couldn't sleep. It was weird, knowing Lan Zhan was right there, and feeling the warmth of his body. Wei Ying was afraid to move for a while, so he lay on his back and stared at the ceiling, knowing he'd have to turn over in order to be able to fall asleep, and his thoughts began taking on increasingly weird turns. Like, what if either of them really did meet someone they liked—how would they explain their current arrangement? Wei Ying didn't think "I sleep with my roommate platonically just to be able to live in the area" would be taken in the spirit with which it was meant or whatever. He didn't worry about himself so much as he worried about Lan Zhan. Sure, Lan Zhan hadn't shown an interest in anyone in ages, but that just meant it was coming, didn't it? So that would be weird. And what if, like, Wei Ying accidentally cuddled him or something in the middle of the night? That might make things weird between them, which was the last thing he wanted.

He sighed and finally made himself turn gingerly over onto his stomach and ordered himself to stop thinking already. Whatever would be, would be, but now he had to sleep.

Right. Sleep.

He shut his eyes and listened to Lan Zhan's soft breathing until he was out.

By the time he woke up, Lan Zhan was obviously long gone. Wei Ying hadn't even heard him get up or anything—he must have, like, snuck out or something. Wei Ying looked over at the bedside clock (because obviously Lan Zhan had made them unpack all of their bedroom things on the very first day, the beast) and saw that it was almost eleven. Which was Wei Ying's usual weekend getting up time, but Lan Zhan must have been awake for, like, a whole day already.

Wei Ying stretched and blinked a bit, looking around himself. The bedroom was small, yeah, but sort of cozy because of it. Lan Zhan would probably want to hang up art, which would make it even nicer. Wei Ying allowed himself to dawdle in bed with his phone for a bit, then finally made himself get up and pad into the bathroom, which had two doors: one into the bedroom, making it an en suite—nice—and the other into the hallway, which made it accessible from the rest of the apartment. It was a well-laid out place, really. He couldn't believe he was living somewhere that was not a grubby studio.

He peed, washed his face, then finally padded out into the hallway, following the sounds coming from the kitchen.

Lan Zhan was unpacking the pots and pans, somehow managing to do it with barely any noise at all, which was a feat. He froze, cast iron pan in hand, when he saw Wei Ying in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" he asked. He was wearing his lounging clothes—t-shirt and sweatpants—and he looked so…domestic. Something turned over in Wei Ying's heart at the sight, but he dismissed it for what it was—barely-awake random thoughts.

"Nah," he said, walking fully into the kitchen. "Woke up on my own. I didn't even know you were in here." He blinked, looking around. "Did you unpack everything?"

Lan Zhan had the grace to look guilty. "I don't like to let things linger for too long," he said, finally setting the cast iron pan on the stove. "I can tell you where everything is and you can rearrange things as you like, of course, to make it easier."

Wei Ying laughed. "Nah, man, I'm good. You're the kitchen guru, just point me to the plates and bowls and stuff, and I'm good. Oh! Coffee?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course. It's already set up, you just have to hit brew."

Lan Zhan was the best. "If this is what it's like to date you, whoever ends up actually dating you in the future is a lucky, lucky dude," Wei Ying told him, walking over to the coffeemaker already plugged into the wall. When he looked over at Lan Zhan, the tips of his ears were pink. Cute. He was so cute.

"I simply like to be prepared," Lan Zhan said, turning away and picking up the cast iron pan again. He opened several cabinets, frowning, before finally finding a suitable place to stash it. Wei Ying listened to the coffee brewing, the small space of the kitchen filling with the delicious, delicious scent of coffee, and watched Lan Zhan putter.

"The cups and glasses are here," Lan Zhan said, opening a cabinet. "The bowls and plates are here." That was the next cabinet. "The spices and sauces are right here." The cabinet next to the stove. "Cutlery is in here." He went on like this, as though Wei Ying would remember it all right off the bat, but it was so domestic and sweet, Wei Ying didn't mind. It was Sunday, a whole day before they had to go back to work, and all Wei Ying had to do today was grade a few quizzes. That was nothing. He stood there, butt propped against the counter, and watched his best friend put order to chaos.

Honestly, Wei Ying had scored: if he'd moved on his own, without Lan Zhan, this stuff would still be in boxes two weeks later. Lan Zhan really was a force of nature. This was gonna be great, Wei Ying could feel it. And if he had to masturbate in the shower, he had to masturbate in the shower. Small price to pay for living with the best person he knew.

Once he was properly awake and fed delicious congee Lan Zhan had somehow already whipped up, Lan Zhan made Wei Ying get changed into real people clothes and check out the amenities. For verisimilitude, Wei Ying decided to play it up—after all, they were pretending to be a couple. He took Lan Zhan's hand, winking at him, and tugged him over into the fitness center.

"Oh, wow, babe, look, it's got everything!" he said, loud enough for the two people using the weight machines to hear. "Check it out, you could run on the treadmill when it's raining, you don't even have to go outside."

"Mn," Lan Zhan responded, the tips of his ears and nose red. He didn't pull away, though, so Wei Ying decided he was up for playing along. "There's a rowing machine, as well. You like those."

"I do like those," Wei Ying confirmed. "Maybe I'll work out tonight… You know, get all pumped up for the week, what do you think?" This was a lie. He was never going to work out tonight.

Lan Zhan nodded, still looking awkward. His big hand actually felt kind of nice in Wei Ying's, secure. Wei Ying winked at him again and pulled him out of the fitness center.

They checked out the shared workspace, which was big, and had all sorts of comfortable furniture, including anti-gravity chairs, the kind that hung from the ceiling and made you feel like a little kid going "Wheeee!" whenever you used them.

Wei Ying decided to give it a shot, got into one, and pushed off. "Wheeeee!" Lan Zhan watched him with amusement. "Come on, man, get in the other one!" Wei Ying told him. "Live a little."

Lan Zhan looked dubious for a moment, but then walked over and sank into the other chair. He did not push off the ground and exclaim, "Wheeeee!" but he did lean back and swayed a bit.

"Nice, right?"

"Mn."

Wei Ying cracked up.

On the way out of the amenities space, they ran into Paula the leasing lady, and Wei Ying gave her a beaming smile. "Hi Paula, nice to see you again!"

"Hey guys!" She smiled right back. "How are you settling in, everything all right?"

"Oh yeah, great so far!" Wei Ying gave Lan Zhan a quick look and grabbed his hand again. "This one has already made us unpack most of our stuff, believe it or not."

"What, already? Didn't you just move in, like, yesterday?"

Wei Ying put on a long-suffering face and rolled his eyes. "He's always like this. Me, I'd still be in bed if I could be." Next to him, Lan Zhan was still as a statue, but not pulling away, either. After all, they were in this together.

Paula laughed. "Well, the sooner you unpack, the sooner you feel at home."

"Exactly," Lan Zhan said in this driest voice, then turned to Wei Ying. "We better go and unpack the rest of the books…darling."

Wei Ying almost choked on his tongue. "Uh yeah! I guess so." He turned to Paula. "Duty awaits."

"Good luck with it!" she trilled and walked past them.

"Thank you!" Wei Ying called after her retreating back.

Once they were in the stairwell—because Lan Zhan refused to take the elevator for two flights—Wei Ying cackled, dropping Lan Zhan's hand. "Oh, that was so good. We're really working this, you know? You were amazing. Calling me darling!" He had to grab onto the railing so he wouldn't fall over from laughing too hard. "Genius."

"Mn," Lan Zhan said. "It's best to solidify our status as a couple right away."

"Obviously," Wei Ying agreed, attempting to stop laughing.

Upstairs, Lan Zhan really did make them unpack the rest of the books, as well as finish up organizing the kitchen. Then they moved onto the bathroom and the giant closet. In three hours, every box was broken down and stowed in the back of the closet, and Lan Zhan was looking around, apparently satisfied. "We should have lunch."

Wei Ying stretched out his back and winced—that had been way too much bending over. "Do we have any groceries?"

"I could go and get us some," Lan Zhan offered, which was very sweet of him, but Wei Ying wasn't about to let him go do all of their shopping by himself. Besides, who knew what sort of healthy abominations he would come back with. No, thank you. Wei Ying was going to tag along and get some things that were strictly Wei Ying appropriate.

The funny thing about the grocery store, though, was that Wei Ying still felt the need to pretend. For some reason, every public space now meant they had to be a couple in it. So when walking down the cereal aisle, Wei Ying put on a pout and pointed at the Fruit Loops. "Babe, can we get this? I know they're not healthy, but they're so good," and Lan Zhan looked at him with a mild expression and said, "Of course, darling."

The Fruit Loops went in the cart, as did chips and salsa, as well as a boatload of chocolate. Whatever Wei Ying pointed to went in the cart, to the point where he started to point at the most random shit: tic tacs, clam juice, even flour. All of it went in the cart.

"Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying said as he stopped dead in the middle of the aisle. "You can't just obey my every whim, I'm kidding about the flour, what are we gonna do, bake?!"

Lan Zhan silently nestled the flour in between the vegetables he'd picked out. "It could come in useful. We do have an oven."

Wei Ying threw up his hands and stopped pointing. The total came to an obscene amount, but that was all right, because they really had very little food in the house. They were stocking up. They split it fifty-fifty.

Back at the apartment—back home, Wei Ying supposed; this was going to take some getting used to—they companionably put away all the groceries, finding a spot for the flour and the tic tacs and the boatload of chocolate, and then Wei Ying looked at Lan Zhan and said, "Let's have a housewarming party."

Lan Zhan, who had been stretching up to put away Wei Ying's cereal, turned to Wei Ying. "That's a good idea."

"Right? And!" Here, Wei Ying began to really warm up to it. "What if, apart from our friends, we invited some people from the building?"

A quirk of an eyebrow. "Who would you like to invite?"

"I don't know! Neighbors? Is that weird?"

Lan Zhan watched him. "It is, a little."

"Yeah, I know." Wei Ying grinned and leaned against the counter. "But it would really help our cause."

"Hmm."

"It can be like an open house sort of party, you know? We'll get all our friends in on this, I mean, they know we're lying about being a couple, but I'm sure they'll play along, and it'll be great! We could meet new people, maybe make some friends in the building… Paula could come!"

"You want to invite the leasing agent to our housewarming?"

Wei Ying shrugged. "She did save our butts by giving us the apartment."

"We are paying for the privilege," Lan Zhan said with barely hidden amusement.

"Aiyoh, you know what I mean, though. We were desperate!"

After a moment, Lan Zhan nodded. "Very well. Let's have an open house housewarming party."

Wei Ying beamed.

"You're insane," Wen Qing said. Wei Ying chose to believe she said it with admiration. "Pretending to be a couple to get an apartment, I get. But why go to so much trouble? It's not like they're going to spy on you and expose you or anything. You've convinced them, no need for this clownery."

"Ah, but what about fun, Qingqing!" They were out getting boba in between classes—Wei Ying was about to teach engineering students biomechanics, while Wen Qing was struggling to keep her pre-med kids awake—and the weather was beautiful. They'd settled on a bench outside the student union and every now and then one of Wei Ying's students would walk by and give him a shy nod, which was adorable. "I'm just really getting into the role," he went on, sucking up some pearls and chewing on them.

"The role of an idiot," Wen Qing said, lifting one eyebrow. "I just can't believe Lan Zhan is going along with it. He should know better."

"Lan Zhan loves me," Wei Ying said with a grin. "We're boyfriends, didn't you know?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Still sleeping in the same bed?"

"Well, duh, what else are we gonna do?"

She cocked her head. "And how is that going?"

Wei Ying felt himself flushing despite there being nothing to blush about. He shrugged. "It's fine. He stays on his side, I stay on my side. He, like, doesn't move at all when he sleeps, it's weird. He just lays down on his back and falls asleep and stays like that all night."

She sniggered.

"It's weird, right? Anyway, we've worked out a shower system so we don't get in each other's way too much."

"Oh, yeah?" She sucked on her straw. "What's the system, showering together?"

"Wen Qing, please! I'm a good boy!" Wei Ying flushed harder, because his fiend of a friend had put quite an image in his head. Now he would have to scrub his brain to get rid of it. "I shower at night, he showers post-working out in the morning. It's great!"

"Hmm. All right."

"I'm telling you, there are no drawbacks to this plan. None."

She rolled her eyes and muttered something like "idiot" under her breath, but Wei Ying chose to ignore it.

"Hey, you came!" Wei Ying exclaimed as Jiang Cheng walked into the apartment.

"Of course I came, you dumbass, what was I gonna do, miss your stupid party? Here," he said, thrusting a gift bag at Wei Ying. "Now I don't have to be responsible for this anymore."

"Aww, you sweet talker." Wei Ying rummaged through the tissue paper, coming out with— "A rolling pin?"

Jiang Cheng flushed and scowled at the same time. "I dunno, you mentioned something about flour, and I figured you two doofuses probably don't have the proper supplies, so there you go. Enjoy."

Wei Ying felt all warm and fuzzy on the inside. "You shouldn't have! Hey, Lan Zhan!" He turned towards the living room where their friends had already begun to gather. "Look!" He held up the rolling pin. "We don't have one of these, do we?"

"We do not," Lan Zhan confirmed, can of seltzer in hand. "Thank you, Jiang Cheng."

Jiang Cheng nodded awkwardly, then muttered, "Whatever," and veered off to the kitchen. Those two sometimes seemed like sharks circling each other, something that Wei Ying just couldn't understand.

"There are two different kinds of IPAs in there for you!" he called after him.

"Thanks, dickhead!"

Wei Ying set the gift bag aside and returned to the rest of their friends. No one from the building had come in yet, despite Wei Ying throwing up the invitation on the building forum, but the night was young. He sidled up to Lan Zhan and crooned, "How are you doing, baby? Can I get you another drink?"

Lan Zhan looked at him with some exasperation. "I'm fine, thank you." But! He didn't push Wei Ying away, which meant he was into playing along. Lan Zhan was so great. Just…so great.

Wei Ying, under the influence of one (1) beer, was feeling mellow and happy. He had his brother, he had his friends, he had his Lan Zhan, he had a roof over his head. What else could he possibly need? "You're great," he told Lan Zhan, grinning. "Here…" He pushed a strand of hair off of Lan Zhan's forehead, really getting into his part. Lan Zhan's eyes widened a bit and Wei Ying realized they'd never really…touched like this before. He was actually touching Lan Zhan's forehead, his skin nice and warm, smooth, not even a little bit greasy, like Wei Ying's tended to get at the end of the day. He met Lan Zhan's eyes, then skittered his gaze away and cleared his throat. "There. Now you're perfect."

He pulled away, giving them some breathing room. Maybe that had been going a bit overboard. When he chanced a look at Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan looked…fairly normal, but the tips of his ears were bright pink. Wei Ying cleared his throat again and threw back the rest of his lager, ignoring Wen Qing's pointed stare.

"Oh, look, I'm out, I'll be—just gonna—yeah, okay." He legged it to the kitchen, where he was mercifully alone, Jiang Cheng having already gotten his gross IPA and skedaddled. Wei Ying pulled open the fridge and went into the crisper with the beer in it. They'd had a bit of an argument over that one: Lan Zhan had obviously wanted to use both crispers for fruits and veggies, but Wei Ying had been very persuasive about tucking his beer away where it wouldn't be in the way of the rest of the food, and so they'd compromised. One crisper for fruits and veggies, one for Wei Ying's beer. Now he stood in the middle of the kitchen with the cold beer pressed up against his weirdly hot forehead and tried not to think about the way Lan Zhan's eyes looked when Wei Ying had touched him.

There was a burst of laughter from the living room, so he took a deep breath, popped open his beer, and made himself go back. Mianmian was very clearly in the middle of telling a story that had Wen Qing and Nie Huaisang in stitches, so Wei Ying leaned against a bookshelf and tried to figure out what he'd missed.

However, the next moment, there was a shy knock on the door that he almost missed, and he yelled out, "Come in, it's open!" and an unfamiliar woman peeked in.

"Hi, uhm…is this the party?"

"Oh my God, yes! Come in, come in!" Wei Ying hustled for the door. The woman was roughly their age—Wei Ying had noticed that most people in the building appeared to be of a certain age, no older than forty—and sweet-looking. "Hi, I'm Wei Ying!" he said, extending his hand.

She took it and gave a tiny bow. "I'm Qin Su. Uhm…here." She extended a box that had clearly come from a bakery. "This is for you."

"Aww, you shouldn't have!" Wei Ying happily took the box. "Come, meet my boyfriend! Hey, Lan Zhan!"

Lan Zhan turned at the sound of Wei Ying's voice and Wei Ying could tell he was surprised. He probably hadn't expected anyone from the building to actually come. Wei Ying led Qin Su into the living room and presented her to Lan Zhan. "This is Qin Su! She's from—" he turned to her. "Which apartment are you in?"

"438."

"You're on our floor! That's awesome."

"Hello," Lan Zhan said with a nod of his head. "Welcome. Can we get you anything to drink?"

Wei Ying was beaming, looking between them. There was something akin to pride to be presenting Lan Zhan to this sweet-looking woman, as though he really were Wei Ying's boyfriend, which was ridiculous, of course. But he was Wei Ying's best friend, and he was great, so that part made sense.

"Oh, uhm, I would love something to drink."

"Let me show you to the kitchen," Lan Zhan said and took over the hosting duties, which was very nice of him, and only Wei Ying probably knew that Lan Zhan was looking for a chance to be in a quieter part of the apartment, because sometimes it all got to be too much for him.

As the party kept going, a few more of their neighbors showed up, and Wei Ying was on cloud nine. He hammed it up with Lan Zhan, he had beer, and he laughed with his friends. It was the best. Even Paula stopped by and gave them a box with two glasses with the building logo on them. "Welcome to the building."

"Aww, that's so nice! Thank you!"

At random times, Wei Ying would decide that it had been too long since they'd done something coupley, and take Lan Zhan's hand, or throw his arm around his waist, and Lan Zhan, bless him, would go along with all of it, leaning into Wei Ying as though he were really happy about it instead of putting up with his antics. Lan Zhan was so great.

He did start to droop by nine thirty, and Wei Ying looked at the rest of the party, which showed no sign of stopping, and leaned in to murmur in Lan Zhan's ear. "You tired? Want me to start to wrap it up?"

Lan Zhan turned his head and suddenly they were a breath apart. It was strange—it must have looked very convincingly like it was a couple conversation, but Wei Ying knew it was fake, which was why it was strange for his heart to pick up and start to pound in his chest.

Lan Zhan didn't look like his heart was picking up and starting to pound. He looked very much like he always did. "No, that's all right," he said, his warm breath fanning over Wei Ying's lips. Wei Ying cleared his throat. "I may go into the bedroom soon, but you don't have to end the party. Everybody is enjoying themselves. Please continue."

Wei Ying worried at his lip. "You sure? I don't want you to be, like, overwhelmed by the noise or anything."

"I will be fine." Lan Zhan gave him a small smile. "Don't worry, Wei Ying."

Wei Ying would just have to trust him, so he nodded. Then he withdrew from Lan Zhan's orbit, turning back towards everybody else, and caught Wen Qing watching them with narrowed eyes as she sipped her wine.

"What?" Wei Ying mouthed at her.

She shook her head. "Nothing," she mouthed back.

Hmm. Well, whatever. The party was a great success, and now they not only had flour, they had a rolling pin, as well. They were so domestic, it was gross. Wei Ying was loving every second.

Lan Zhan did turn in shortly after, making his excuses. Wei Ying trailed after him, saying, "You sure you'll be able to sleep like this?"

Lan Zhan was already unbuttoning his shirt with swift movements. He had really nice hands, Wei Ying thought absently. He'd always thought so. "Of course. I am merely peopled out. Just being alone will be sufficient."

Wei Ying nodded uncertainly. "All right, well, just text me or something if you change your mind and want everyone to leave, all right?"

"I will," Lan Zhan said, then went to take off his shirt. Wei Ying decided now would be a great time to leave him alone and fled back to the living room.

"He tends to turn into a pumpkin after nine, and it's already ten," he told the room at large. "No big."

Wen Qing was watching him with narrowed eyes again, which he ignored and plopped down on the floor next to Jiang Cheng.

"Are you sure we shouldn't be leaving?" Qin Su asked, looking nervous.

"Of course not! He specifically told me to carry on. It's fine, I promise."

She gave an uncertain nod.

The party quieted down a bit after that, but people didn't leave until well after eleven, which Wei Ying considered to be a great success. He'd made new friends in the building, his established friends hadn't ratted them out as faking being a couple, and all in all, it had been a great idea and a great time. Maybe they'd become known as the couple who threw the best parties in the building! That would be fucking awesome.

The last person to leave was Wen Qing, who stubbornly began helping him to clean up and wouldn't take no for an answer. "What are you gonna do, clean all of this up by yourself?"

"Uhm…yes?"

"Don't be stupid," she said, gathering up the empty plates where appetizers had been. "Do you have a dishwasher?"

"We have everything," Wei Ying told her proudly.

"Yeah, except a second bedroom," she muttered.

"Hmm?"

She sighed and set the plates on the kitchen counter. She turned to Wei Ying and said, "Still think this is a good idea?"

"What?"

She gestured, encompassing everything around them. "This, this, like…living as a couple. Still think that's a good idea?"

Wei Ying blinked. "Yes? What's wrong with it?"

She rolled her eyes. "I just think you've gotten a little…carried away."

Wei Ying frowned. "Carried away? How?"

She watched him, her lips pursed, then shook her head. "Never mind. Let's just clean up so I can go home and collapse on top of my grading."

Wei Ying nodded and fled back to the living room, gathering up empty glasses, plates, and cutlery. Carried away? What did she mean by that? He thought everything had gone great, and he hoped that Lan Zhan was already asleep and dreaming of nice Lan Zhan things like, like, like soothing music and books on moral philosophy.

Wen Qing gave him her customary kiss on the cheek before leaving. "Take care of yourself," she said, sounding uncharacteristically earnest. She watched him for another long moment, then sighed and left. Wei Ying just stood there after locking the door behind her and blinked at it.

Why was she being so weird about this? As far as Wei Ying knew, everything was actually going great. He and Lan Zhan were getting along, the apartment was great, and now they were making friends. Really, what was her problem?

He shook his head and went to brush his teeth and shower after sweeping his gaze over the living room and deciding that it was cleaned up enough. Everything was awesome.

But when he slid into bed next to Lan Zhan, feeling his warmth under the covers, he tossed and turned and felt bad about probably jarring Lan Zhan with it, but he just couldn't get to sleep, thinking about Wen Qing's narrowed gaze and those serious words, "Take care of yourself."

What did she mean? He'd have to ask her tomorrow. Chances were, she wouldn't tell him, because she worked in mysterious ways, but oh well. He'd give it a shot.

It took him a while to fall asleep.

As expected, Wen Qing refused to elaborate and, in fact, shooed him out of her office and refused to get boba with him at all. Rude. Wei Ying sighed and took himself to the other side of campus where Lan Zhan should have been finishing up a class by now. He was in such a good mood, he was practically whistling as he walked. The sun was shining, it wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold, and he had another hour before he had to teach a bunch of freshman intro to engineering.

"Lan Zhan! Oh, shit, sorry—"

He'd walked in on a weeping student blowing her nose while Lan Zhan looked on awkwardly, holding out a box of tissues.

"So sorry!" Wei Ying said again as he quickly retreated back into the hallway. Well, shit. He'd closed the door, but not all the way, and curiosity got the best of him. He stayed just outside the doorway, straining to hear.

"I'm sorry, so sorry, Mr. Lan," the poor girl was saying, sounding snotty. "This is so embarrassing, it's just…"

"I understand," Lan Zhan said woodenly. "Please, take your time."

The girl wouldn't know this, but this was Lan Zhan's most awkward tone, the one that did not in any way mean what he was saying. In this case, take your time directly translated to, I cannot wait until you leave my office so I can stop holding this facial expression and pretending to care. Poor Lan Zhan. This poor girl! Wei Ying wondered what she was crying about. Lan Zhan wasn't that mean of a TA, was he?

There was a sound of a blowing noise, then a clearing of a throat. "I had a whole plan," the girl said weepily. "You know? I always start papers a week in advance, right, and I was going to—and then he—and then I—" She broke down crying again.

"Breakups are difficult," Lan Zhan said, sounding like a robot, and it was all Wei Ying could do not to crack up right there and then. Oh God, this poor girl went to the wrong TA with her romantic troubles—there was no way Lan Zhan was going to be lenient for that. Wei Ying settled against the wall to listen some more (it wasn't like he had anything better to do) but then Lan Zhan said, "Excuse me for a moment," and two seconds later, the door shut decisively in Wei Ying's face.

Rude. How did he know?!

Wei Ying sighed, shot Lan Zhan a text asking if he'll free up at some point so they could go get coffee or whatever, and slunk off to his side of campus.

Lan Zhan didn't free up until it was time to go home—on Wednesdays, their days finished at the same time—and Wei Ying met him at the humanities building, which was a closer walk home.

"So, that was intense!" he said cheerfully once Lan Zhan exited the building and met him by the bench. "Bad breakup?"

"Mn," Lan Zhan responded, sounding exhausted. Poor guy.

"You were much nicer to her than I would have expected," Wei Ying noted, giving Lan Zhan a look. "I'm shocked you didn't just fail her and kick her out of your office."

"I did fail her," Lan Zhan said mildly.

Wei Ying gasped. "Lan Zhan! Heartless!"

"Initially," Lan Zhan went on. "Without context, of course I'd failed her, she hadn't turned in the very first paper of the class. But," he added, sounding reluctant, "she explained what happened. I suppose, at eighteen, romantic entanglements would be more important to her than her studies. I told her she can make it up within a week, otherwise the grade stays."

"Oooof," Wei Ying laughed. "Still harsh, but very fair."

"I think so," Lan Zhan said with the air of someone very very tired. "Regardless, I'm sorry I couldn't meet you for coffee."

"Eh." Wei Ying shrugged. "I can't always get my way. Wen Qing refused to come with me, too. Nobody loves me." He sighed dramatically. "Anyway, what are we having for dinner?"

"We've got ingredients for a cabbage and noodle stir-fry," Lan Zhan told him. "If you don't mind that."

"Sure!" There was also leftover pork in there somewhere—Wei Ying could supplement pretty easily. "Listen, I'm never gonna complain about you making dinner, am I?"

"Mn."

"Exactly." Wei Ying bumped Lan Zhan's shoulder, giving him a big grin.

"Hey, Mr. Wei!" someone called and Wei Ying waved his hand, not really knowing who the heck that was, but assuming it was a student of his. He never remembered their faces until well into December, anyway.

Two girls walking towards them gave them a fascinated look and leaned in to say something to one another, as though it was about the two of them. Wei Ying gave them a cheerful smile and wave, too, and they squealed and immediately skedaddled. Weird. What was that about? Oh, well.

At home, Lan Zhan went to wash his hands and change, then immediately began to work in the kitchen, while Wei Ying went to change into PJs and then popped open a beer, keeping Lan Zhan company. "So you don't get bored, obviously," he explained.

Lan Zhan was never bored—that was his secret. He was always thinking about something. But Wei Ying was bored, so he wanted to chat. Besides, he had barely seen Lan Zhan all day, which was weird for them.

"So, tell me about how your day went," he ordered, hopping up on the counter and taking a long sip of his sour beer. Mmmm, delicious.

Lan Zhan gave him a sideways look that probably implied you're in my way and I'm trying to think about Kant right now, but said, "My day was fine. Largely fruitful, apart from…the intermission."

"The crying student."

"Mn." Lan Zhan cut into a Napa cabbage and began to slice it. Wei Ying watched his sure movements, mesmerized. Lan Zhan had a way with knives, which was probably weird to notice, but he looked like those chefs on TV—sure and quick and precise. It was cool.

"Gotta say, I haven't had one of those this semester yet. You seem to have handled it well."

"Thank you. It was…annoying, but not untenable."

Wei Ying sniggered into his beer. "I bet she loves you now, since you didn't laugh her out of your office."

"That," Lan Zhan said, "would have been cruel."

"You wouldn't have been the first, though."

Lan Zhan nodded thoughtfully. He was quiet for a moment, then said, "Do you remember junior year of college?"

"Sure." Vaguely. Wei Ying had been drunk a lot of the time that year. Not in, like, a problematic way. Just partying a lot—but still acing his tests, which was the important part. It was amazing Lan Zhan had stayed friends with him through it all.

"That was when my brother was in a car accident."

Oh, that, Wei Ying remembered. It had been horrible, and Lan Huan had pulled through—thank God—but Lan Zhan had been on the opposite coast, absolutely distraught and terrified, and his brother had been in an actual-to-God coma for three days. Fucking scary as hell. "Of course."

"I went to a professor of mine to do something I'd never done before—beg for an extension."

Wei Ying curled his lip. "Ugh, I remember that."

"Mn." The professor had denied Lan Zhan, telling him that personal matters never trumped scholastic ones. You're in college now, young man. Figure it out. Lan Zhan had obviously pulled an A out somehow, but then collapsed, and Wei Ying and Mianmian had been left to pick up the pieces. Thank God Lan Huan had come out of it unscathed—but Lan Zhan hadn't. "I never want to be a source of cruelty to anyone," Lan Zhan said quietly, slicing the last of the cabbage. "I would rather…hmm."

"Be a sucker?"

"Exactly."

Yeah, Wei Ying got that. Lan Zhan was the kindest person he knew, and Wei Ying would probably never say this to him, but he modeled himself after Lan Zhan's fairness and kindness. Not that he would have been cruel without that, but Lan Zhan was, like…it was difficult to explain. He was everything Wei Ying loved about people. Fascinating and kind and weird as hell. He was the best, basically. Wei Ying had always wanted to be worthy of his friendship.

Dinner turned out delicious, and Wei Ying scarfed down two bowls in quick succession while Lan Zhan watched him with barely hidden amusement.

"What?" Wei Ying asked defensively. "You're a really good cook."

Lan Zhan shook his head, then reached out, and before Wei Ying knew what was happening, Lan Zhan's thumb wiped something away from the corner of his mouth.

"Oh." Wei Ying licked the spot where Lan Zhan's thumb had been. "Thanks."

Lan Zhan nodded, then got up with his empty bowl and set it down in the sink.

"I'll wash up!" Wei Ying said, knowing him well enough by now. "You go do your own thing, I'll clean up."

"If you're certain…"

"Obviously."

"Very well." But Lan Zhan stayed long enough to put the leftovers in tupperware, because he apparently was incapable of just doing nothing.

Wei Ying watched him, smiling, and shook his head. Lan Zhan was a great fucking roommate. This had been such a good idea.

Lan Zhan was tense, and Wei Ying couldn't figure out why. They were a month into living together, and, as far as Wei Ying was concerned, everything was going great. But Lan Zhan had had an annoying day, apparently, and he was walking around the apartment pissily putting things away and ignoring Wei Ying. Which was, obviously, the worst thing he could do.

"Lan Zhan! Hey, Lan Zhan!"

Lan Zhan's "mn" sounded irritated.

"Lan Zhan, what's wrong?" Wei Ying sidled up to him and nudged him with a shoulder. "Who pissed off you today?"

Lan Zhan gave him a cool look, then turned away and proceeded to walk away.

"Me? I pissed you off today?" It couldn't be. What had Wei Ying done?

Lan Zhan stopped, back to Wei Ying, then visibly sighed. He turned around and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It isn't…anything…in particular. Or, rather…" Another deep sigh. He dropped his hand and looked at Wei Ying. "I fear I've been dishonest with you. Or, rather, unforthcoming."

"Wh—huh?" Scalding fear slashed through Wei Ying's stomach. Oh God.

Lan Zhan sighed, then walked over and dropped onto his chair. "Please, sit, Wei Ying."

Confused and nervous, Wei Ying sat down on the couch, waiting.

"I have been…somewhat unhappy."

Wei Ying knew it. Fuck. Fuck. Lan Zhan wanted to move out. He wanted to move out and live on his own, because Wei Ying was annoying, and now their friendship was irreparably ruined and—

"I believe we should set some…expectations. Of the sort we didn't in the very beginning."

Wei Ying swallowed against his dry throat. "Yeah? What, uh…what kind of expectations?"

"I…" Lan Zhan closed his eyes, then leaned forward, his elbows resting on his parted knees. It was such a weird posture for him, Wei Ying felt a squirming in his belly. "We are…somewhat different, in how we approach things."

That was an understatement. "Yeah?"

"I understand that I am…unreasonable in my expectations. I am…rigid and often uncompromising." Wei Ying opened his mouth to protest, but Lan Zhan raised a hand. "Wait, let me finish." Wei Ying shut his mouth. "But it's what makes me…happy. Or, rather, calm. And I don't like…untidy spaces…"

Oh. Oh. Wei Ying was too much of a slob for Lan Zhan! Ooooooooh.

"Got it, got it—"

"Wait, hang on. I have tried…to be accommodating. I haven't been saying anything for fear of…sounding overbearing and unkind, but—"

"I've been a thoughtless slob," Wei Ying said, cringing on the inside. "I haven't been noticing you, have I?"

Lan Zhan took a visible breath, let it out, and looked down, which pretty much confirmed it. Wei Ying thought about how breezily he'd been living his life, as though he were still in his studio apartment, caring about no one but himself. Thought about how he'd been leaving his shoes in a pile by the door and then randomly noticing they've been neatly put away but not giving it much thought. Thought about throwing his clothes in a pile on the floor and then them magically winding up in the hamper, anyway. Thought about leaving the dishes in the dishwasher and then finding it empty a day later. It wasn't like he hadn’t been noticing, it was just that, somehow, he hadn’t been…paying attention.

"Fuck." He scratched the back of his head. "Fuck, Lan Zhan, I'm sorry."

"It's—"

"No, it's not okay. I've been a thoughtless idiot." Ugh. This, Wei Ying knew. It was his worst trait, the not noticing. It was never on purpose, it was just one of those things. One of those things he didn't notice. "I'm sorry." He sighed, unable to look at Lan Zhan's dejected posture. Will he want to move out now? Or… "I'll do better, Lan Zhan. I promise."

Lan Zhan finally lifted his gaze and nodded. "I appreciate that. Thank you."

"Oh." Could it possibly be that easy? "Really?"

Lan Zhan's eyebrows twitched. "Of course. Why?"

"I just—I just thought you might, like, want to move out and—" And then they'd have lost the apartment altogether because they wouldn't be a couple anymore, and Wei Ying would have had to move across town into some run-down studio, and—

"Wei Ying." Wei Ying reluctantly looked up at Lan Zhan. "Of course not. I simply wanted to make it…known. That's all."

Wei Ying nodded in quick succession, "Cool. Okay, cool cool cool. I'm…I'm really glad you did, Lan Zhan. I'll do better."

Lan Zhan nodded in response and said, "And I will do my best to…let things go more. It is also unfair of me to expect something out of you that I never voiced and that I, myself, am responsible for."

"What do you mean?"

Lan Zhan pursed his lips, then said, "My expectations of tidiness and the timeframe of when things should be put away can be called…unreasonable. At times."

"Oh." Wei Ying shrugged. "It's fair, though. I never remember to put anything away." Lan Zhan had clearly been trying to give him a chance, without much success. Wei Ying would just have to work harder. He felt his shoulders unwinding slightly. "So, we're…cool?"

"Of course." Lan Zhan nodded.

Wei Ying felt a smile stretching his lips. "Hey! Did we just have our first couple fight?"

Lan Zhan's lips twitched, eyebrow quirking. "I believe we might have."

Wei Ying laughed, throwing his head back. "Awesome. Now if only we had—" He shut up instantly. He had been about to say make up sex, but that would have been so wildly inappropriate and would have probably made Lan Zhan so uncomfortable… He wracked his brain for something else. "A toast! Or something. But you don't drink. So never mind."

Lan Zhan shrugged. "I can toast with you. Just this once."

Wei Ying sat up. "Fuck, really??"

Lan Zhan nodded. "Not a lot. But a toast."

Wei Ying shot to his feet. "I know exactly what will work for you! Hang on!" He legged it to the kitchen, grabbing his forgotten can of beer and going into the fridge for the leftover white wine that Mianmian had brought to their housewarming. He poured some wine into a glass—it was a miracle they even had wine glasses—and ran back out into the living room, handing Lan Zhan his drink. "Here! Stand up."

Lan Zhan obeyed, taking the glass. In his hand, it looked elegant and classy. Wei Ying bit his lip, then met Lan Zhan's curious gaze.

"A toast! To our first couple fight. Let it be, like, not one of many or whatever."

Lan Zhan raised his glass, his gaze smiling. "Cheers."

Fascinated, Wei Ying watched as Lan Zhan brought the glass to his lips and sipped. It was so fascinating, Wei Ying almost forgot to drink his beer (almost; he wasn't an animal). Lan Zhan shut his eyes, and Wei Ying watched his Adam's apple work as he swallowed.

"What do you think? Good?" Wei Ying asked, grinning hugely.

Lan Zhan opened his eyes. "Hmm." He looked at the glass in his hand, then unexpectedly threw back a big gulp, coming up coughing delicately. After a moment, he said, "Hmm. I actually quite enjoyed that."

"Oh my GOD." Wei Ying fumbled for his phone. "Oh my God, Lan Zhan, hold it up, hold it up and do it again, I have got to get visual evidence of this!"

Miraculously, Lan Zhan obeyed, taking another sip of the wine. The tips of his ears flushed, but the rest of him remained as flawless as he always was. Wei Ying snapped a picture and immediately uploaded it to Instagram. "For posterity," he explained.

And Lan Zhan—Lan Zhan emptied the glass the next moment.

Hoo boy. This was going to get interesting.

Wei Ying grinned and emptied the rest of his beer in one big gulp. "I'm having another one. Join me?"

Lan Zhan's eyebrows drew together in a very contemplative manner, and then he said, slowly, "I think…this should be enough for now."

Wei Ying deflated a little. "Yeah, you're right. You don't want to get a hangover or anything, you've got an early class tomorrow—ah, what are you doing!"

Lan Zhan had grabbed his hand and was now turning off the living room lights, then towing Wei Ying to the kitchen, where he put down his wine glass by the sink, looked around as though making sure everything was copacetic, then turned off the lights and yanked Wei Ying towards the bedroom. "It's bedtime, early class tomorrow."

"Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying protested. "It's seven thirty! It's not even your bedtime, and I don't have an early class tomorrow—Lan Zhan!" The last part was all but squeaked out, because Lan Zhan had dropped his hand and was now pawing at Wei Ying's shirt as though trying to pull it off of him. Wei Ying pulled away then hopped back, giving a fake-sounding laugh. "Lan Zhan, buddy, you—"

"Bedtime," Lan Zhan insisted, eyebrows drawn together. "I'm tired."

Wei Ying snuffled out a laugh, then took both of Lan Zhan's hands (they had been inching closer to him again) and said, "Okay, okay. I'll put you to bed. But you're gonna be so mad if you don't brush your teeth first, okay?"

"Oral hygiene is important," Lan Zhan said with a nod. He really was sounding tired. Wei Ying pulled him into the bathroom, then set him down on the closed lid of the toilet and reached for Lan Zhan's toothbrush and toothpaste. He put one to the other, then handed him the toothbrush. "Here. Brush."

Obediently, Lan Zhan brushed his teeth, drooping in a very uncharacteristic way. About halfway through, he looked up at Wei Ying and said, "Thish ish bowing."

"Wha—huh?"

"Boring," Lan Zhan repeated, more clearly now. "I'm bored."

Wei Ying threw back his head and laughed, his belly almost hurting. "Lan Zhan! You're fucking hilarious, you know that? Yeah, brushing your teeth properly is boring, you're absolutely right. Longest two minutes of the night."

"Ugh." Lan Zhan continued to brush mechanically even as he stared fixedly at the wall and sighed. Wei Ying thought he might actually pull something from laughing.

Afterwards, he made Lan Zhan go through his skincare routine, because he knew he'd be mad if he skipped it. Sighing again, Lan Zhan washed his face for a full minute, mumbling something into his hands, then dried it. Wei Ying opened his moisturizer for him and Lan Zhan obediently dipped two fingers in, coming up with it and smearing it all over his face in a hilariously haphazard way. Wei Ying leaned against the doorway and watched him with amusement, feeling a bursting sort of fondness for his best friend. Lan Zhan was so funny when drunk. Who knew?

Finally, all the product had been absorbed into his skin and Lan Zhan turned to Wei Ying. "Bed now?" he asked in a hopeful sort of tone.

"Bed now," Wei Ying agreed, taking his hand and leading him back to the bedroom. "Okay, shirt off." Lan Zhan immediately went for his shirt, which he folded and draped over his chair. Wei Ying had, of course, seen Lan Zhan shirtless before, but it really was quite the sight. Christ, he was gorgeous. Leanly muscled, wide-shouldered and narrow-waisted, he looked like he should have been an elite athlete and not a philosophy PhD student, but here they were. "Pants now." Lan Zhan went for his fly, unbuttoning and unzipping, then stepping out of his pants and draping them over the shirt. "Thighs—socks. Socks off." He cleared his throat. Lan Zhan pulled off his socks. He was now left in just his black boxer-briefs, and Wei Ying's voice sounded an octave higher when he said, "Pajamas?"

And Lan Zhan stubbornly shook his head. "No."

"What?"

"No pajamas. Too warm for pajamas."

"Oh." Wei Ying cleared his throat. "Okay, no pajamas. Get in the bed, then." He would be sleeping next to an almost naked Lan Zhan. Sure, that was normal. That was fine. It was a good thing, really, that Lan Zhan slept on his back like a weirdo and never once moved.

Lan Zhan gave him a satisfied sort of smile and pulled back the covers, sliding underneath. He wriggled—actually wriggled—and said, "Come here."

Frowning, Wei Ying obeyed. "Yeah? What do you—gah!" Lan Zhan grabbed his wrist once again and pulled until Wei Ying lost his footing and wound up falling on top of him. Jesus Christ, what was Lan Zhan doing?! "Lan Zhan! What the hell!"

"Cuddletime," Lan Zhan said, like it was absolutely normal.

"What?"

"Time to cuddle," he repeated, as though Wei Ying was just asking him to repeat instead of explain himself immediately. "Get under the covers."

"Uhm…okay?" Utterly bewildered, Wei Ying stood up—Lan Zhan still had a hold of his wrist—and pulled back the covers. Lan Zhan shuffled over towards the middle of the bed and Wei Ying had no choice but to get into the bed next to him. As soon as he was settled, Lan Zhan made a satisfied noise, pulled him in, and then Wei Ying was completely enveloped in a nearly-naked Lan Zhan, his strong limbs wrapping all around Wei Ying and making him break out in a sweat. "Uhm."

"Miss cuddles," Lan Zhan said, as though that explained it. His warm, minty breath fanned across Wei Ying's cheek, which made Wei Ying shiver in a way that he had not expected, and Wei Ying swallowed against his suddenly dry throat.

"Oh," he said, uncertain what else to say, as Lan Zhan made another satisfied sort of hum and rolled them over, so Wei Ying was pinned beneath him. Damn, but Lan Zhan was strong. And heavy, Wei Ying's breath constricted beneath his chest. "Lan Zhan," he wheezed. "Hey, Lan Zhan, can't—can't breathe—"

Lan Zhan pulled back immediately, frowning. "I'm sorry. Hold on." Then he began to manhandle Wei Ying onto his side until he was seemingly satisfied, and then Lan Zhan was sidling up behind him, wrapping his arm around Wei Ying's middle, and burying his face in Wei Ying's neck, which tickled, dammit. "How is this? Is this better?"

Well, Wei Ying could breathe this way, so he supposed it was. Except now he had a whole-ass Lan Zhan pressed up against him, hot at his back. A part of him wondered what this would be like if he was also practically naked, then he admonished himself for the thought. What sort of a thought was that about your drunk best friend? This was intimate enough, he was pretty sure. He'd just had no idea that Lan Zhan was a cuddler, much less that he'd apparently missed cuddling. Then Wei Ying tried to think of who had been the last person that Lan Zhan could have reasonably cuddled, and came to the conclusion that it had to have been Jason the Fuckboy, the one Lan Zhan dated briefly after college.

Well. Wei Ying was much better than Jason the Fuckboy, and he was going to prove it by being the best cuddle partner for Lan Zhan ever. Because who didn't like cuddling, anyway? Wei Ying certainly did. So why not enjoy this weird little interlude to its fullest, right?

He wriggled against Lan Zhan and said, "This is actually nice. We should do this again."

There was no answer behind him apart from Lan Zhan's even breathing.

"Lan Zhan?"

Nothing. Lan Zhan's warm breath fanned over Wei Ying's neck, making him shiver (sue him, he had a very sensitive neck). Oh God. Lan Zhan had passed out. He'd had half a glass of wine and got immediately drunk and passed out. Great. Now Wei Ying was stuck on Lan Zhan's side of the bed, Lan Zhan's strong arm wrapped around his waist, wide awake at—he looked at Lan Zhan's alarm clock—not even eight pm. Great. Just great.

He attempted to gently pry Lan Zhan off of himself, but Lan Zhan just tightened his hold and murmured something Wei Ying couldn't make out. Wei Ying gave up. Lan Zhan's bedside lamp was still on, but he couldn't quite reach the switch, so he lay there, blinking, trying to figure out when he'll be able to escape Lan Zhan's octopus-like clutches.

It took a while. Every time he shifted even a little bit away, Lan Zhan would follow and either grip him stronger around the middle or—even worse—slide his thigh in between Wei Ying's in a way that really was only appropriate if they had actually been dating, instead of pretending to in order to get into a lease. Oh boy. Wei Ying swallowed, trying not to feel all of Lan Zhan's…everything.

Unfortunately, all of Lan Zhan's everything was pressed up so tightly against Wei Ying that it was basically impossible not to feel all of it. And boy. Wei Ying felt it. Apparently—and this had somehow escaped his notice before—Lan Zhan was…well-endowed. Perhaps it was the angle, but something told Wei Ying that wasn't quite it. He could feel Lan Zhan's (thankfully) soft dick pressed up against him and it was. A lot of dick. It was a lot of dick to be feeling from someone you weren't actually dating, for one. But also, it was just a lot of dick? Damn. Whoever dated Lan Zhan was going to be a lucky, lucky boy. Wei Ying knew for a fact that Lan Zhan preferred to top, which made him think about how much of Lan Zhan that was to take, which made him want to scrub his stupid brain out, because what kind of a thought was that to think about your best friend? Inappropriate, is what. But Wei Ying happened to be a bit of a size queen, and if they hadn't been best friends, and going there wouldn't be completely ruining their friendship, Wei Ying might be begging for it already. God. This made him wonder if Lan Zhan was actually any good in bed—just having a big dick didn't guarantee a good time, after all. Some guys just went at you like a jackhammer, not caring about your pleasure at all, and only going after their own. But Wei Ying couldn't picture that with Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan was so thoughtful in every way, surely he was also a thoughtful lover, right? Besides, the way he moved, the economy of movement—that had to translate to sex, too, somehow, and make it good. Right?

Oh God, he was still thinking about this. He was thinking about this much, much too deeply, and he had to stop now, because it was getting out of hand. It wasn't like he'd never thought about what it would be like to fuck Lan Zhan—he was human, after all, and Lan Zhan was, well, Lan Zhan—but this was getting to be too specific, especially with Lan Zhan pressed up all against him with his skin all…right there. Wei Ying's shirt had ridden up at some point in this whole process, and Lan Zhan's warm skin was touching the skin of Wei Ying's back, making it break out in sweat. God. God.

This was too much, just way too much. Wei Ying held his breath and took a gentle hold of Lan Zhan's forearm. This time, Lan Zhan must have been asleep very very deeply, because there was no reaction. Encouraged, Wei Ying took Lan Zhan's forearm and pulled it slowly away from himself. Lan Zhan didn't tighten his hold. Score. Wei Ying lifted his arm high enough that he was able to wriggle away from Lan Zhan, finally, and sat up. Gently, carefully, he laid Lan Zhan's arm back down and stood up. As he pulled his shirt down, Wei Ying watched Lan Zhan's face.

It was so peaceful in sleep. Lan Zhan always looked sort of peaceful, but right now, he looked…unburdened. Wei Ying wouldn't have said that Lan Zhan looked preoccupied most of the time, but now that he was looking at his slack, innocent-looking face, he realized that he probably was. Lan Zhan always looked so serene, but Wei Ying knew for certain that he didn't always feel like that, and his countenance belied a lot of feeling simmering underneath.

Lan Zhan really was so very, very beautiful.

Wei Ying took a shuddering breath, breathed out, reached for the lamp, and turned it off, plunging them into darkness. Then he slowly and quietly tip-toed out of the bedroom, went into the living room, and proceeded to sit on the couch in the dark, staring at the dark blob of the television, and trying not to think about anything at all.

He didn't get back in bed until well after midnight.

In the morning, Lan Zhan remembered exactly none of this. "I had a glass of wine?" he said as he was gathering up the student's blue books that he had, apparently, meant to grade last night. "And then…"

"Went to sleep!" Wei Ying said cheerfully. "I mean, I made you, like, brush your teeth and wash your face, go through the whole shebang, but yeah! You just…passed out."

He decided it was the better part of valor not to mention the whole "only wearing underwear while demanding cuddles from Wei Ying" thing, in case it embarrassed Lan Zhan. Besides, it's not like it had been a big deal. Well, it sort of had been. But only for Wei Ying. So who cared, right? Right. Exactly.

"Hmm."

"Yep! It was pretty funny. I mean, you were out before eight. That's early even for you, grandma."

"Hmm."

Wei Ying was having his first cup of coffee while Lan Zhan was almost out the door. He looked so different in the cold light of morning, all put together in his "Future Professor Lan" get-up of grey trousers, blue shirt, and grey vest. He looked, if Wei Ying was honest, like a whole three-course meal, and Wei Ying would bet his life on the fact that at least half of Lan Zhan's classes had to be absolutely in love with him, kind of like in Indiana Jones. This led him to thinking about Lan Zhan being, inexplicably, an archeologist who'd run around and probably do the opposite of Indiana Jones and return all the artifacts where they actually belonged, fuck those thieving museums.

He shook his head. What the hell was happening?

"Okay. Have a good day, Wei Ying."

"Knock 'em dead, babe!" Wei Ying lifted his coffee mug in a weird sort of salute and only really breathed out after the front door shut after Lan Zhan.

Babe?! Knock 'em dead?!

He slapped his own forehead, then, feeling like that was not enough to express everything he was feeling, he set down his mug, then slowly lowered his forehead to the kitchen counter and started to knock his head against it while groaning.

That seemed to help, actually.

What. The. Fuck. Was happening to him. Just because he'd discovered his friend's penchant for semi-naked cuddles didn't mean he was allowed to have feelings about it, and it certainly didn't mean that Wei Ying could act like the stupidest idiot of all time about it.

"Get. Your shit. Together," he said out loud while still knocking his head against the counter. Then he straightened up, took a deep breath, let it out, and went to change. He had a dissertation to work on and a bunch of quizzes to grade.

Wei Ying dragged himself through his day, uncertain as to why he was feeling this tired. He'd gotten as much sleep as he usually did, that is to say, not enough, but he'd had three cups of coffee about it, and still, he felt like somebody was pressing down on him and slowing him down. By the time he got home at eight pm after holding extra office hours for those who actually cared about their upcoming midterm projects, he was ready to go to bed at Lan Zhan's bedtime.

"Hey," he said, slumping against the wall and chucking off his shoes. He still made sure to set them aside properly instead of in a heap on the floor, for Lan Zhan's sake.

"Hello, Wei Ying. How was your day?" Lan Zhan was in his chair on his laptop, legs pulled up and crossed, wearing his favorite grey sweatpants and a simple white t-shirt. He looked so comfortable and so very much like home that Wei Ying just stared at him for a moment, forgetting that Lan Zhan had asked him a question. "Wei Ying?"

"Yeah! Yeah, sorry, long day," Wei Ying managed, unsticking himself from the wall and dropping his bag at his feet. He shuffled into his slippers and padded over to the couch, collapsing with a groan.

Lan Zhan was watching him with some concern, having stopped typing. "Are you hungry? I've made hot dry noodles. There are plenty of leftovers."

"That sounds amazing," Wei Ying said, unmoving. "And as soon as I get the strength to get up, put some in a bowl, and nuke it, I will be a very happy boy." His brain was buzzing—it really had been a busy day for him—and when he closed his eyes, the world became a little less difficult. "Any minute now."

"I will get it for you," Lan Zhan said, and Wei Ying's eyes flew open.

"Lan Zhan, no, no, no, I'll get up, I'm getting up—" He began to push himself up off the couch, but Lan Zhan had already gotten up and was laying his hand on Wei Ying's shoulder, gently pushing him back down.

"It's no trouble. You're tired, and I'm fine. I was looking for a break, anyway."

That was a bald-faced lie, but Wei Ying let it be, because Lan Zhan was being so nice to him. He scrubbed his hands over his face, then dropped them. "Are you sure?"

Lan Zhan's face was soft in the dim light of the living room. He'd only turned on one of the lamps. "Of course. Please, sit. I'll bring you dinner."

"God bless you and all your progeny," Wei Ying sighed and then listed to the side, laying his head on a decorative pillow. That felt nice, so he settled a bit more deeply against it, and the next thing he knew, Lan Zhan was calling his name and the scent of dinner was wafting towards him. "Wha—I'm awake," he mumbled, then winced as a bit of drool escaped his mouth. He wiped it as surreptitiously as he could, but when he looked up at Lan Zhan's amused face, he knew that he'd been caught at it, anyway. "Eurgh. Thank you. You're the best."

Lan Zhan set the bowl and chopsticks down onto the coffee table. "Eat, please. Would you like a beer?"

"You do love me!" Wei Ying blurted out, then felt himself flushing. Inexplicably. Why would he blush about that? Of course Lan Zhan loved him, they were best friends.

The tips of Lan Zhan's ears, visible because his hair was pulled back into a bun, grew pink, and wordlessly, he walked back out.

Wei Ying groaned, then fell on the bowl of noodles like the starving man that he was. Lan Zhan returned pretty quickly with a can of beer and a glass for Wei Ying, and Wei Ying did a double-take. "Hey, was this leftover from our party? I don't remember buying this one…"

Lan Zhan sat back down onto his chair and picked up his laptop, settling it on top of his crossed legs. "I bought it on my way home."

Wei Ying blinked. "For me?"

Lan Zhan gave him a look.

"You're the best one, you know that?" Wei Ying said, dropping the chopsticks and opening the can of beer, then carefully pouring it sideways so as to avoid getting too much head. Heh. Head.

"Mn," Lan Zhan responded, then visibly switched his attention to whatever was on the screen.

Wei Ying took a sip of his beer, moaning a bit in delight at how cold and delicious it was, and just sat there, enjoying his meal and his beer.

After a while, Lan Zhan looked up, eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Are you all right?"

"Hmm? Me? Of course. Why?"

"You aren't on your phone and you haven't turned on the television."

Wei Ying looked down at his beer and dinner. "Oh. Yeah, I'm just sitting here, enjoying my dinner without distraction like a psychopath."

"Mn. It's…unusual for you."

This was true. Wei Ying was constantly stimulating his brain with one thing or another. He blinked. "I guess I'm too fucking tired."

Lan Zhan shut his laptop. "Would you like to tell me about your day? You're not usually tired at this time of the evening."

God, he was so nice. Wei Ying sighed and fell back against the couch. "I dunno, just, like…a lot happened to me. Which it usually does! But for some reason, I was just dragging today." The reason of Lan Zhan's dick against his ass, a small voice in the back of his head pointed out. Ugh. "I had a whole bunch of quizzes to grade, then meeting with the course professor who had some things to say about my quiz, then I was in the library working on my current chapter, then teaching two labs in a row, then office hours for nerds…"

"That sounds like a very long day," Lan Zhan said, the low timbre of his voice soothing Wei Ying down to his very toes. "If you would like to go to bed early, you're absolutely free to do so. I will do my best not to trouble you as I get ready for bed."

Wei Ying strongly considered it, sad as that would be. But getting ready for bed would mean getting up off the couch, and he wasn't ready for that yet. He'd have to work up to it.

"Maybe? Let me just, like…sit here. For a bit."

"Of course." Lan Zhan opened his laptop back up and went back to whatever it was he was doing on it, fingers flying over the keys like he was that one cat in that one meme.

Wei Ying managed to finally make himself get up twenty minutes later, padding into the kitchen and dumping his empty bowl and glass in the sink. "I'll wash up tomorrow, I promise!" he shouted.

Lan Zhan's response came from right behind him. "That's fine."

"Gah!" Wei Ying jumped, hand over his heart. "Jesus, I didn't realize you'd followed me."

"Apologies." Lan Zhan's tone suggested otherwise, and Wei Ying cracked up.

"Why'd you follow me, anyway? Miss me?"

"Mn," Lan Zhan said agreeably, hands crossed over his chest. "You should get ready for bed. You're dead on your feet."

Wei Ying sighed and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. All right. Cool. Here I go. Showering."

"Before I forget, we've been invited to a wine tasting hosted by the building. It's tomorrow night. Would you like to attend?"

Wei Ying considered it. "Huh. That might be fun. Would…you be interested?"

Lan Zhan nodded. "It might be a nice way to meet some more residents, I suppose."

"Will you, uh…be drinking?" Will I get more semi-naked cuddles?

Lan Zhan looked like he was considering it. "Most likely not," he said finally. Oh, well. "But I would like to attend."

"Sweet. Let's do it."

Wei Ying dragged himself through his shower routine, nearly washing his hair with Lan Zhan's body wash, then brushed his teeth. By the time he was done in the bathroom, Lan Zhan was ready to start his own bedtime routine. Wei Ying let him have the bathroom, walking out while drying his hair with his towel, and Lan Zhan gave his shoulder an acknowledging sort of touch, like, thanks. Wei Ying dried his hair, then draped the towel over the door knob so it would dry. He pulled on his sleeping t-shirt and shorts and got into bed, wriggling a bit from how nice it actually felt. He grabbed his phone and began scrolling through his social media, knowing it was a bad idea to go on Twitter and get his blood pressure up before sleeping, but not being able to stop.

Lan Zhan didn't take long in the bathroom. Wei Ying watched as he went into the closet and pulled out his running clothes, laying them out on the chair, then plugged in his phone. Lan Zhan, unlike Wei Ying, read books before bed, so he got in and cracked one open. And that was when it hit Wei Ying—they'd never gone to bed at the same time before. By the time Wei Ying would come to bed, Lan Zhan would always already be asleep. Now, it felt sort of…intimate…sharing this time together. Wei Ying tried to focus back on his phone, but all of his awareness was pulled by Lan Zhan's presence: the warmth of him, the quiet rustling whenever he turned a page, his serious expression as he read.

"Lan Zhan. Hey, Lan Zhan," Wei Ying said quietly.

"Mn?" Lan Zhan didn't look over, turning another page.

"Is the romance dead?"

Lan Zhan lifted his head and looked over at Wei Ying. "What?"

"Well, look at us," Wei Ying said, indicating the two of them. "Here we are, a couple, right, and we're just lying here like two old people, no romance left at all." Why was he doing this? He had no idea.

Lan Zhan's mouth twitched and he set down his book, marking his spot with a finger. "Would you like to have wild sex, Wei Ying?"

Wei Ying's ears sort of began to ring as his entire body flushed, and he had to admit, Lan Zhan had won this round. He made a "pfffft" sound, then managed to say, "Okay, okay, you're hilarious, I give up, I'm kidding!"

"Mn." Lan Zhan picked his book back up. "Good night, Wei Ying."

"Night, Lan Zhan." It was definitely time for him to be unconscious. Wei Ying plugged in his phone, making sure to set his alarm for the morning, then clicked off his bedside lamp and wriggled fully underneath the covers.

"Would you like me to turn off the light?" Lan Zhan asked.

"What? Oh, no, no, you're totally fine. Trust me, I'll be dead to the world in a minute," Wei Ying assured him.

"If you're certain."

"All good, totally good," Wei Ying said from under the blanket.

It was just that Lan Zhan's mattress was so comfortable, he just lay there, reveling for a bit, enjoying its firmness. Unfortunately, the thing running through his mind, was Lan Zhan's voice saying "wild sex," over and over and over again, which made for an uncomfortable situation in his underwear, which made for a very uncomfortable situation in his brain, because fucking hell.

The thing was, it had been a while for Wei Ying, that's all. His right hand was his best friend, obviously, and he wasn't, like, lacking orgasms or anything. But he missed sex. Missed a connection with someone, missed someone else giving him pleasure, missed holding a person and feeling both vulnerable and held at the same time. And the last time he'd had sex, it hadn't even been that great, which was a shame.

Now he lay there, Lan Zhan sitting up and reading his incomprehensible book, and couldn't stop wondering what Lan Zhan would be like in bed for the second night in a row. This was becoming a terrible habit. If this went on, he might need to see a shrink about it, or at least jiejie. Surely jiejie wouldn't judge him for it. She might even have some good advice that would fix his brain and make this madness end.

Yeah. Okay. He'd talk to jiejie. She always had this way of making him feel better, he was certain this would be no exception.

With that comfort in mind, Wei Ying finally gave into the inevitable and went the fuck to sleep.

The wine tasting was being held in the fancy gathering room that was part of the amenities that Lan Zhan had talked up before they'd signed their lease. For the sake of selling their relationship, Wei Ying had taken hold of Lan Zhan's hand and that was how they walked in: holding hands like a couple. Lan Zhan didn't resist, following Wei Ying obediently in comfortable silence. Wei Ying, for his part, was sweating a little bit. Not about the hand-holding, but about the whole thing in general. When he'd woken up, Lan Zhan had already been gone—not only had he had his morning run and shower, he'd already left for the day altogether. Wei Ying, unaccustomed to having the place all to himself, beat off in bed for a change, which felt very decadent and old-school, and did his best to think of nothing at all as he did it.

He didn't see Lan Zhan again until right before the tasting, when Wei Ying had walked in the door and Lan Zhan was just putting on a fresh shirt. It was one of his collarless casual linen shirts that looked effortlessly cool on him. Wei Ying could never pull that shit off. Lan Zhan, on the other hand, looked like a model. His hair was in a braid, and the overall effect was that of a god come down to earth, if Wei Ying was honest. All things being equal, it did rather look like an uneven relationship. Lan Zhan was definitely way out of Wei Ying's league.

Regardless, here they were at the tasting, where people had already started milling about, including their best friend Paula the Leasing Lady and Qin Su, who waved at them shyly while already having a drink.

"Qin Su!" Wei Ying pulled Lan Zhan along towards her. "How are you?"

"I'm very well, thank you," she said. "And you guys?"

"Can't complain!" Wei Ying beamed. "So, how's the wine?"

"It's pretty good—I'm having the pinot grigio. They've got all sorts over there, if you want to take a look."

Wei Ying very much did. Still holding onto Lan Zhan, he walked them over to the table set up in the corner with ten different kinds of wine lined up with empty plastic cups in front of them. Wei Ying made a show of trying to decide, then turned to Lan Zhan. "What do you think, babe? Where should I start?"

Lan Zhan, without missing a beat, said, "The rosé. Is that from Provence?" he asked the guy behind the table. Wei Ying held in his laugh.

The guy began to enthuse about the rosé, going on and on about how Provence was the best place for rosés, and Wei Ying just stood there, flapping his ears, because he really didn't care where the wine came from, and he knew for a fact that neither did Lan Zhan. But apparently they were just lying all over the place tonight.

Finally, the guy poured Wei Ying some rosé and Wei Ying had to make a show of being impressed by it, when really, it just tasted like wine. He had no idea if he could taste the subtle floral notes or whatever, but it was pretty good wine.

The place began to fill up even more—surprising, really, considering it was just a building get-together. Wei Ying finally let go of Lan Zhan's hand and began to hop around between groups, introducing himself, then pointing to Lan Zhan whenever asked where his partner was.

And then he looked over, and some weaselly-looking guy had sidled up to Lan Zhan and began to engage him in conversation. Wei Ying watched them for a moment, trying to decipher whether or not Lan Zhan needed rescuing, then turned to the two girls he'd been chatting to, deciding that if Lan Zhan needed his help, he'd probably ask for it.

"So, what do you guys do?" he asked.

Just as the first girl opened her mouth, Wei Ying felt a presence behind him and the next moment, Lan Zhan's low voice said, "Wei Ying," in his ear and Wei Ying turned towards him. Before he knew what was happening, Lan Zhan was leaning in and pressing a kiss right to Wei Ying's mouth, in front of the girls, god, and everybody. Wei Ying made an involuntary noise and his eyes slid shut of their own accord. What. In the world?

Lan Zhan pulled away and Wei Ying's eyes fluttered open. He licked his lips, then swallowed, not knowing what to say.

"There you are," Lan Zhan said mildly. "I'd like you to meet Su She."

The weaselly-looking guy. Wei Ying blinked and focused on him, standing there, gaping at them. "Oh, uh, hi. Su She? What's up?"

Su She looked like he'd swallowed a lemon. "I was just introducing myself," he said in a weirdly defensive tone.

"Su She was wondering if I was single," Lan Zhan said mildly. "I was just letting him know that I was taken."

Oh. Ooooooohhhh. Duh. Of course. That was—that was why Lan Zhan had kissed him, to show that he wasn't interested. And no wonder—that guy looked punchable, to say the least. Of course Lan Zhan wouldn't be interested in him.

And here Wei Ying had thought—well, didn't matter what he'd thought.

Wei Ying decided to play it up. "Oh! Yeah, sorry, man, this one's mine," he said cheerfully, leaning into Lan Zhan, who put a hand to Wei Ying's lower back. "Isn't that right, honey?" he asked Lan Zhan.

"Mn." And then Lan Zhan just leaned in and gave him another kiss. This time, at least, Wei Ying had seen it coming, and kissed back. Expecting the kiss to end soon, Wei Ying pulled away slightly after a moment, but Lan Zhan chased him and prolonged the kiss, really getting into the role, apparently. Wei Ying heard the girls he'd been talking to giggle, and somebody huffing indignantly, but he heard this all in his periphery, not really paying it much attention. All of his attention was focused on Lan Zhan and Lan Zhan's unexpectedly soft and insistent mouth, forcing Wei Ying's lips open into a real, honest-to-God kiss, the sort that nobody had planted on Wei Ying in quite some time. He moaned, then pressed up closer—Lan Zhan was so warm—and kissed back, not being one to be outdone. If Lan Zhan wanted it this way, Wei Ying wouldn't let him down. And it was…really nice. Lan Zhan smelled good, up close, familiar and a bit heady, masculine, and Wei Ying felt his body responding to his scent in what could quickly turn out to be an embarrassing way.

Finally, finding the strength somewhere very, very deep within, he pulled away, panting. "Ha…haha…"

Lan Zhan just looked satisfied. Wei Ying licked his lips and looked around. The girls were still staring at them, but Su She was already on the other side of the room, attempting to chat up someone else. Wei Ying turned back to Lan Zhan, whose cheeks were lightly flushed, and grinned. "Think he knows you're not single now," he said, pulling further away from Lan Zhan in an attempt to find some equilibrium.

"Mn." Lan Zhan nodded. Then he turned to the girls and said, "Please forgive us for the rudeness. We were just leaving," and grabbed Wei Ying's hand, pulling him away.

"We were?" Wei Ying asked, confused, as Lan Zhan quickly led them towards the exit. Wei Ying looked around, waving goodbye at Paula, and laughed as Lan Zhan kept towing him along. They walked through the heavy glass doors and the next moment, Lan Zhan had him pinned against the wall next to the elevators. He murmured, "To make it look realistic," and kissed Wei Ying again.

Wei Ying moaned, surprised into it. Lan Zhan was really getting into the role, wow. Wei Ying kissed him back, wrapping his arms around his neck and pressing hard up against him to make it look like they couldn't get enough of each other. Lan Zhan's warm hands were wrapped around Wei Ying's waist, and then slipped lower until they were cupping his ass—wow, okay—and gripping hard.

"Lan—Lan Zhan—ah—we uh…we should probably, like—go home or some—mmph…"

Lan Zhan just kept kissing him, and through the static in his brain, Wei Ying wondered just what it was they were trying to prove at this point. Wasn't Lan Zhan satisfied? He'd be horrified in a minute if he didn't stop, because Wei Ying was well on his way to getting pretty fucking hard from this. And who could blame him—it had been so long he'd been kissed, and kissed this well.

Lan Zhan was a really good kisser. Damn, Lan Zhan not kissing anyone recently was honestly a sin. Keeping all that talent from the world? It was a shame.

Finally, Lan Zhan pulled away with a soft sound of their lips parting, and panted against Wei Ying. Wei Ying swallowed hard and licked his lips. "Wow, you sure know how to show a boy a good time…"

"Mn. Had to…had to make it—"

"Realistic, yeah. You said." Wei Ying's head thudded against the wall. Lan Zhan still had him pinned there. "Should we, uh…"

"Mn." Lan Zhan pulled back and everywhere he wasn't, felt suddenly cold. "The elevator is here."

"Oh." Wei Ying managed to push himself off the wall. A part of him wanted to finish up their little show and take Lan Zhan's hand, but another part, a terrified part, was aware that it might not be a very good idea.

He didn't even know why. All he knew was that he couldn't touch Lan Zhan again or he'd…or he'd…he didn't know what. The atmosphere between them turned weird in the elevator. Lan Zhan looked as calm and serene as ever, but he wasn't looking at Wei Ying at all, hands behind his back. His cheeks were very slightly pink, but other than that, he didn't look like he'd just made out with his best friend in front of half their building. Wei Ying, on the other hand, was still keyed up, desire swirling in his belly, a desire he couldn't do anything about, a desire without a target.

Lan Zhan led them out of the elevator and towards the apartment, Lan Zhan let them in. Wei Ying watched him enter and walk through to the living room and before he could think better of it, he said, "I have to—I promised—I told my jiejie I'd see her tonight, after the thing, so I'm gonna—is that all right? I'm just gonna—yeah, go."

Lan Zhan turned around and Wei Ying noticed a slight crease between his brows. "Oh? You're…leaving?"

"Mmhmm! Yep. Sorry I forgot to mention this to you, I just talked to her today and she's having a bit of a—it's a pregnancy thing, I don't know, I mean, she's fine! But she wanted to see me, so I'm gonna—"

"Ah. Of course. Please tell her I said hello," Lan Zhan said evenly, then turned around and reached for his laptop. Wei Ying watched his back for a moment, then grabbed his own keys and said, "Okay, bye!" as he escaped the apartment.

On the way down, he ran into none other than that guy Su She, who gave him a onceover and said, "Thought you'd be home with your boyfriend after that unnecessary little show."

Wei Ying sneered and threw caution to the wind along with his shame. "Gotta get supplies, you know how it is. We go through so many. He's just waiting for me, so see you later!" and then ran into the staircase to get away from him.

It wasn't until he was out of the building and out in the fresh air that Wei Ying slowed down and realized he had absolutely no plan. Jiejie was probably absolutely fine and most likely getting ready to have dinner with her stupid husband, while all of his friends were…he wasn't sure. Nobody had made any plans. Maybe he could get some people together and have a night out, but it felt strange, not to invite Lan Zhan along. And he'd already told him he'd be with his sister.

Wei Ying rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. Okay. All right. Okay.

He grabbed his phone and swiped it open. Then he called up jiejie's information. She picked up on the second ring.

"A-Ying? Hi! How are you?"

"Hey, jiejie! Just wanted to, like, check in on you, see how you are…are you busy by chance?"

"I was just making dinner, but I can talk. Are you all right?"

"Oh, yeah?" Wei Ying asked, now walking firmly in the direction of the bus stop. "What are your dinner plans? Got room for one more?"

"Always," she said immediately, then added, "Is everything all right? You don't usually ask at the last minute…"

"Me? Oh yeah, I'm totally fine! I realized I'd missed you and wanted to see you, that's all! But if it's any trouble, I'll just—"

"Don't be silly, of course not. I'd love to see you, as would Zixuan. Please, come over."

At the reminder of her no-good, useless husband, Wei Ying almost declined, but the siren call of his sister and her cooking was too strong. Besides, it wasn't like he could go home now, anyway. "Okay, on my way!"

It was a half an hour bus ride to get to her part of town. The two of them lived in a nice suburban house, of the sort Wei Ying always wanted to sneer at but secretly loved. Someday. Someday, he might have a nice suburban house with a nice someone, and plant vegetables in the garden. For now, jiejie's house and his and Lan Zhan's apartment would have to do.

She greeted him with a smile and a hand over her growing belly. "A-Ying! Come in, come in."

He shucked off his shoes and accepted the proferred slippers. "Mmm, smells amazing. Don't tell me…sour cabbage and pork belly stew?"

"Well done," she said, laughing. "I had a hankering. I know it's more of a winter thing, but I couldn't help myself. I also made some scallion pancakes to go with it, they're just cooling."

Wei Ying was practically drooling by the time they made it to her kitchen. "Where's Zixuan?" he asked, going into the fridge and grabbing a beer he knew for certain the peacock was probably saving for himself.

"He's in the basement, fiddling with something or other. He'll be up in a minute, I'm sure."

Wei Ying, feeling a twinge of guilt, raised his beer. "Is it okay if I have this?"

"Of course, silly. We have plenty. Now, sit, sit, tell me about you."

And, just like that, Wei Ying's strange, strange night caught up with him, flooding him with sense memories of Lan Zhan's feel and taste and smell. He popped open the beer, took a long sip, and slumped against the counter. "So, I think something is…a bit weird."

She set down her ladle and frowned. "Weird? In what way?"

Wei Ying groaned and set down his beer. "Okay. So. You know how Lan Zhan and I are…you know…"

A twinkle in her eye. "Pretending to date in order to live in that apartment?"

"Right, right, exactly. So, well…"

"Is it not going well? Are you not getting along?"

"What? Of course not! No, we're getting along great, it's…it's working super well. I mean, I have to, like, take him into account and make sure my shit isn't everywhere and I'm not forgetting to do the dishes and whatnot, you know…"

"Basic relationship stuff," she said casually, going back to stirring the soup.

"Right—what? No, no, just, you know, roommate stuff…"

"Mmhmm."

He grabbed the beer back up and downed half of it in one go. "Right, well, anyway, the kissing tonight was sort of—"

Her head whipped around, eyes growing huge. "Kissing?!"

He laughed nervously. "Uh, you know, in order to fool people, right? We were at a building event and we were, like, pretending, and—"

"Pretending…to kiss?"

"Well, no, actually kissing—"

"Kissing who? Is that my beer?" Jin Zixuan's voice sounded just as he walked into the kitchen.

Wei Ying groaned and slapped his hand over his eyes. "Please tell me this is a nightmare. This is a nightmare, and I'm about to wake up and find that this isn't actually happening."

"Zixuan, A-Ying, please," jiejie said in a total mom voice. "Zixuan, we have plenty of beer. Can you give us a few minutes to talk this out?"

Dickhead sounded like he was pouting when he said, "Obviously, but I just wanted a beer…"

"Get your beer and give us a few minutes," jiejie said gently. "Dinner in less than ten, okay?"

Wei Ying was forced to watch as Jin fucking Zixuan kissed her, gave him a glare, pointedly got himself a beer from the fridge, and finally fucking fucked off.

As soon as he was gone, jiejie whirled on Wei Ying. "You two kissed? Tell me everything."

"Well, I mean, there's not much—you know, it was kissing! To, like, make people think—"

"Hmm."

"No, I'm serious! This one dude had, like, come up to Lan Zhan and asked him if he was single, so naturally—"

"He had to kiss you?"

"Right, exactly! You get it! Anyway, I guess it's fine? As is the cuddling, like, best friends definitely cuddle…"

"You've…been…cuddling?"

"Yeah, you know, Lan Zhan got sort of drunk and demanded cuddles?" And refused to wear pajamas while doing so. "But that's normal, right? That's totally normal."

She hummed, sounding doubtful, and Wei Ying flushed. It was true, though, it wasn't like…anything. "I just feel sort of funny, that's all. But this is standard stuff, right? People do this?"

She sighed, turned off the stove, and turned back to him. "I mean, I'm certain some people do this. The question is, what does it mean to you?"

"Nothing! It means absolutely nothing, except, like, Lan Zhan's apparently a really good kisser! But that's, like, that doesn't mean anything, it's just, like, a fact! He's a good kisser, the sky is blue, he likes to cuddle…"

"A-Ying—"

That was when the peacock popped his head into the kitchen. "Should I, uh…set the table?"

Jiejie gave him a big smile. "Yes, please, that would be wonderful. We'll eat in the dining room," she told Wei Ying, turning back to him. "In your honor."

Wei Ying grinned. "Well, my honor is honored."

"But we're not done talking about this."

Wei Ying groaned.

The stew and the pancakes were absolutely delicious, as was only expected. Wei Ying fell on them like he'd never been fed before, realizing he wasn't sure what Lan Zhan was going to have for dinner. They hadn't discussed it yet. He hoped that Lan Zhan would know not to wait for him and eat. It wouldn't do for him to starve.

"So," Dickhead said after they all came up for air from stuffing their faces. "Lan Zhan, huh? You could do much, much worse."

"I'm not doing anything!" he burst out. "There's no doing of anyone, there's just, like, pretending, a lot of pretending."

The peacock narrowed his eyes at Wei Ying. "Hmm, well. Lan Zhan's a good dude, why he's agreed to do this is beyond me—"

"Zixuan," jiejie said with a hint of a warning in her voice.

"I'm just saying, don't, like, fuck with him or anything."

"There's no fucking! I mean—I'm not doing anything!"

"Well, it doesn't sound like it—"

"Shows how much you know—"

"Boys! Boys, please," jiejie interrupted, putting a hand over each of theirs. "There's no need to get loud about it."

Dickhead huffed and looked back down at his bowl. "Fine."

Wei Ying groaned and looked up at the ceiling. "Okay. Sorry, jiejie."

"Sorry, honey."

"No need for sorries," she said peaceably. "Now, A-Ying, how's your work going?"

Wei Ying breathed out. Oh thank God, they were done talking about this. He launched into a story he'd been saving until he saw her in person and her attention was successfully diverted.

"Get home safe," she told him as they hugged. "Let me know when you do, okay?"

It wasn't late, but jiejie always worried. Wei Ying promised to text and let her know that he made it home all right, then texted Jiang Cheng.

Wei Ying: r u busy, wanna hit up a bar

Jiang Cheng had no life, so his response came gratifyingly quickly.

Jiang Cheng: Obviously. Where, when?

Wei Ying: 1021, 20 min?

Jiang Cheng: done

Sweet. Relief flowed through him: he wouldn't have to go home just yet. If he went home, he'd have to face Lan Zhan, and right now, he wasn't sure that he could. Thus: getting drunk with Jiang Cheng. Which was a perfectly normal way to cope with having found out your best friend is an amazing kisser from first-hand experience.

Lan Zhan was asleep by the time Wei Ying made his way home. He did his best to be as quiet as possible as he got ready for bed, stumbling a tiny bit between the bedroom and the bathroom as he pulled on his pajamas pants. He brushed his teeth while pointedly not looking in the mirror, then washed his face. He slapped on some moisturizer, then took a deep breath and turned off the light, making his way back into the bedroom. Lan Zhan's quiet breathing filled the room. Wei Ying felt just a bit off getting into bed next to him, full of knowledge he hadn't had even a week ago. It was too much knowledge for him, he hadn't been ready for it.

But it was perfectly normal, wasn't it? Some people made out with their best friends for show and now Wei Ying had joined their ranks. All perfectly fine and dandy and he was going to go to sleep, then wake up, and be completely normal towards Lan Zhan, because that was what Lan Zhan expected.

And Wei Ying wouldn't let him down.

It had just been a kiss. A couple kisses. Just a few kisses that meant absolutely nothing, and if he had some weird feelings about that, that was on him. It was definitely not on Lan Zhan.

Yes. Wei Ying would be completely normal come morning, and forget this whole thing ever happening.

Cool. Awesome. It was a foolproof plan.

It was actually working. Wei Ying wasn't thinking about kissing Lan Zhan every minute of every day. He only thought about it, like, once or twice a day, and really, mostly in passing. He would walk by Lan Zhan, or look at Lan Zhan cooking, or sitting in his chair, typing away, and he'd think, that was a nice kiss. Or something else that was completely innocent, such as his lips look really soft right now. It was a completely normal thing to think about your best friend with his very nice lips. Lan Zhan never had cracked lips, they always looked perfectly soft and—

"Wei Ying?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you all right?" Lan Zhan asked, holding a cucumber.

"What? Yeah! Yeah, of course I'm all right, I was just—that's a good cucumber."

Lan Zhan frowned, putting the cucumber in the cart, but didn't say anything. Wei Ying tried not to wince. What was he doing? He really, really had to get a hold of himself.

He walked beside Lan Zhan as Lan Zhan picked out fruits and veggies for the week and kept up an inane sort of chatter, just to prove to himself—and to Lan Zhan—that everything was absolutely normal. He complained about the stupid emails he was receiving from his students, about the weird-ass dream he had about a sixth grade math teacher, about anything and everything, until they were in the cereal aisle, and suddenly, Lan Zhan turned to him, grabbed Wei Ying by the back of his neck, and pulled him into a kiss.

Wei Ying actually squeaked in surprise, before breathing out in relief and kissing Lan Zhan back with everything he had. Oh fuck, that's what he'd wanted this whole time—another kiss, another chance to feel Lan Zhan so close to him, smell his scent, feel the rush of it all. Fuck, that was—that was so good, and he had no idea why it was happening, but he didn't really care as long as it was. He moaned and pressed up closer as Lan Zhan held him and kissed the shit out of him.

And then, with a soft sound, they parted, and Wei Ying was left staring at Lan Zhan's beautiful face in confusion, because: why?

"I thought I'd seen someone from the building," Lan Zhan said mildly, his gaze looking just a bit unfocused. "Apologies."

"Oh!" Wei Ying looked around them, licking his lips. "Hey, no apology necessary, that was, uhhh yeah, you did exactly what you should have. Yep! Yeah, no worries. It was good. I mean, you know. To keep up appearances."

"Mn." Lan Zhan looked away, then reached for Wei Ying's favorite cereal and dropped it in the cart.

Next time it happened, they were in the elevator, coming home. Someone else entered the elevator with them, and before Wei Ying knew what was happening—he'd had a bit of a long day, and his reaction time was slow—Lan Zhan was grabbing his shoulder and kissing him, hard and, and, and sort of dirty? Like, slow and with tongue and Wei Ying moaned involuntarily and got so into it that, even after the person got out of the elevator, he had a hard time pulling away.

"Good call," he panted, watching Lan Zhan's gorgeous fucking mouth. "Verisimilitude?"

"Verisimilitude," Lan Zhan confirmed in a low voice.

Wei Ying was so flustered, he barely made it to the apartment.

"You're—what?" Wen Qing asked next time they went out for boba.

"Kissing," Wei Ying said around his straw, then chewed on a pearl. "Like, for appearance's sake."

"Appearances," she repeated in a deadened sort of voice.

"Yeah." He felt himself flushing, uncertain as to why he was even telling her, frankly, because it wasn't that big a deal, right? It meant absolutely nothing, it was just a thing they were doing.

"Wei Ying. I say this with all the love in my heart: you're both incredible idiots."

"Why! It's just for laughs, right?" He sucked down the last of the liquid of his boba. Why did boba always disappear so quickly? Truly, a mystery.

"Yeah, okay." She rolled her eyes. "Are you gonna fuck just for laughs too? Because it's convenient?"

"Don't be crude!" Wei Ying flushed all the way down to his toes.

"Since when do you have a problem with being crude?" she asked, a laugh tucked in the corner of her mouth.

That was a good question. Wei Ying sighed. "Qingqing, we're not gonna fuck." Even saying it out loud was giving him a conniption. "And anyway, he's way out of my league."

She raised an eyebrow. "You know, if you really were into Lan Zhan I'd be giving you a pep talk about underestimating yourself, but since this all just for laughs, I'm gonna do this, instead." Then she reached across the table and smacked the back of his head.

"We should have another party," Wei Ying declared. "Like, another open house type of party. What do you think? Would that be all right? Obviously, it would be our friends and maybe some people from the building again."

"Mn," Lan Zhan commented as he stirred sauce into the fried rice. "We could do it for your birthday."

"Ohh, genius! Lan Zhan, you're a genius," Wei Ying declared, hopping up on the counter. "Like, I know most building people will probably have Halloween plans of their own, but some might not? And our friends would definitely come!"

In truth, Wei Ying had barely thought about his birthday this year, but this would be so much fun. They got to planning. Wei Ying was in charge of drinks and decorations; Lan Zhan, food. Wei Ying also posted to the building forum announcing it—no going back now. They were doing this.

Wei Ying decided to go all out and make himself a costume. "I'm Dracula!" he declared as he tested it out for Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan raised an eyebrow.

"I know, I know, not very imaginative, I just wasn't sure what else to do, and I still had the cape from that time in college." Wei Ying pulled out the fake teeth. "I might need to adjust this, I can't drink with the fangs in."

"Ironic," Lan Zhan commented. Wei Ying sniggered.

Lan Zhan was attending as a hot dude going to a party: that is to say, as himself. Wei Ying squinted at him, then rummaged around in his costume bin left over from college and popped a pair of bunny ears on his head. "There. Now you're ready."

Lan Zhan watched him with a dead-eyed stare but didn't take them off. Score! Wei Ying had won again.

Jiang Cheng was the first one there, bringing with him a six-pack of IPAs, a top hat, and a white scarf.

"Who the fuck are you supposed to be?" Wei Ying asked him.

"A magician obviously, who do you think?" Jiang Cheng thrust the six-pack at him. "Go put those in the fridge, they'll get skunked. Happy birthday."

Wei Ying rolled his eyes and went.

Soon enough, they had a full house comprised of both their friends and some building residents who probably didn't have anything better to do and were lured in by the promise of food and drink. Wei Ying was in heaven—he loved nothing more than bringing people together, and he saw Wen Qing chatting with Qin Su, and Mianmian chatting with the girl from across the hall, and grinned happily.

"It's going well, right?" he asked Lan Zhan when the two of them happened to be in the kitchen at the same time.

"It's going very well," Lan Zhan agreed dutifully as he loaded a plate up with more spring rolls. "Are you having a nice time?"

"I'm having an amazing time," Wei Ying declared, flipping his cape back dramatically.

"Good." Lan Zhan gave him a smile, then stepped into his space and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

Wei Ying kissed back automatically, and then, when Lan Zhan started to pull back, turning away, Wei Ying reeled him in by his shirt and gave him another kiss. This one was less of a peck, and his heart was beating quick-quick-quick as Lan Zhan didn't pull away but instead set the plate down on the counter and pressed up close, tongue meeting Wei Ying's, leg going in between Wei Ying's. Wei Ying's body flooded with heat, and he found himself groaning with how good it all was, how good Lan Zhan smelled, how beautifully he kissed, and—

"Oh! Haha, sorry, I was just…getting another drink…"

This was the girl from across the hall. Ashley? Her name might have been Ashley. Or Tiffany. Lan Zhan pulled back from the kiss and, without looking at Wei Ying, said smoothly, "No need to apologize. Please, get whatever you'd like."

Then he picked up the plate of egg rolls and made his exit, leaving Wei Ying semi-hard in his costume, panting for breath. He recovered quickly, grinning at Ashley. "Sorry about the PDAs, you know how it is."

She twinkled at him over her solo cup. "Hey, it's your place, you do whatever you wanna do."

Indeed. And Wei Ying—Wei Ying wanted to be kissing Lan Zhan.

The trouble was, he became increasingly aware of the fact that he sort of wanted to be kissing Lan Zhan all the time, and not just when they were in public in order to prove they were a couple. As time went on, he'd come up with the thinnest of excuses to go for it again, and every time, Lan Zhan would go along with it, really getting into the part. In the elevator, in the lobby, until one day, Lan Zhan kissed him hello as they met up outside the humanities building in order to go home.

Wei Ying looked around and saw a girl with her eyes bugging out of her head, who immediately went for her phone and scurried off, but after that, Wei Ying would get Meaningful Looks from students who clearly had some weird skin in the game.

"Hey, Lan Zhan," he said another time on their way home. "I think people here think we're dating, too."

"Mn," Lan Zhan agreed easily.

"That doesn't bother you?"

Lan Zhan slowed his step, then looked over at Wei Ying. "Does it bother you?"

"No, no, God, of course not, but I mean, you're a pretty private person, you sure you're okay with this? Although," he added, "It's not like we're actually dating, so when you think about it, this is about as private as it gets, right? Because it's not true? It's like a disguise!"

"Mn."

Wei Ying bumped his shoulder and then saw a couple of students openly staring at them with avid eyes. He winked at them.

"So, we're dating both in the building and at work now," Wei Ying pointed out that night, sipping his beer. "But we've never even gone on a date." He pouted, uncertain as to why, exactly, he was doing this, except that he absolutely was. "Don't you think that's not very nice of you? What sort of a boyfriend are you, who only stays in and doesn't take his boyfriend out for a nice meal?"

Lan Zhan set down his bowl, paused The Great British Bake-Off (Wei Ying was such a bad influence on Lan Zhan—they were even eating dinner in front of the television!), and said, "Would you like to go out for dinner sometime this week, darling?"

Wei Ying beamed at him. "I would love to, sweetheart!"

And so they went out for dinner. Wei Ying knew this wasn't a real date. He did. He also knew that there wasn't much point in playing it up—it wasn't as though anyone from the building was at the restaurant or anything. But he did, anyway.

"Can I get you gentlemen anything to drink?" the server asked, and Wei Ying turned to Lan Zhan and said, "What would you like, sweetheart?"

"Just water is fine," Lan Zhan replied, deadpan. "But you should get yourself a glass of wine, darling."

Sniggering, Wei Ying did. And when he spotted the server coming back with his glass, he reached out and laid a hand over Lan Zhan's, giving him moony eyes. He tried very, very hard to ignore the way his heart picked up at the slightest contact with Lan Zhan's skin, but Lan Zhan just happened to have very nice hands, and Wei Ying realized that he enjoyed touching them. And Lan Zhan wasn't pulling away. In fact, he played along and turned his hand over so that they were basically holding hands across the table by the time the server set down Wei Ying's wine and asked if they were ready to order.

"You know," Wei Ying said after reluctantly pulling away, "This is going really well."

"Which part?" Lan Zhan asked, taking a sip of his water.

"Us, like, living together. It's been what, two months?"

"Nearly three."

"And we've had, like, what, one fight? If you could even call it that? I'm declaring us living together a rousing success," Wei Ying said, lifting his glass of wine in a bit of a salute.

"To our success, then," Lan Zhan nodded, his mouth lifting in a small smile.

"And," Wei Ying went on without any input from his brain whatsoever, "Sharing a bed is pretty good, right?"

Lan Zhan cleared his throat. "It's certainly not an impediment to living together peaceably."

"Exactly." Wei Ying grinned. "And the apartment is great."

"The apartment is working out very well," Lan Zhan agreed.

As they were walking back from the restaurant, Wei Ying, feeling full of good will and good wine, leaned against Lan Zhan. "You're great, you know that?"

Lan Zhan quietly put his arm around Wei Ying's waist to support him, letting Wei Ying hang off of him shamelessly, and hummed in response. A moment later, he said quietly, "You are, as well."

Wei Ying grinned and sighed happily. Lan Zhan was the very best one.

They were on the couch watching some stupid Netflix movie that Wei Ying had a morbid fascination with because it was just so bad, and Lan Zhan, bless him, was indulging him.

"This is technically sexual harassment, isn't it?" Wei Ying asked, indicating the screen. "Isn't she technically his employee? Why is he asking her out? How inappropriate is that?!"

"Mn. She doesn't appear to be finding it a problem."

"Which is a problem in itself! Girl, run, he's clearly a dickhead."

"Mn," Lan Zhan agreed. Lan Zhan was so good—he wasn't even on his phone, his full attention on the screen. Wei Ying, for his part, began paying attention to Lan Zhan more than the movie, because had he mentioned, the movie was terrible? Her outfits were on point, though.

And then, as though somebody else was taking control of his body, Wei Ying paused the movie, nudged Lan Zhan's thigh with his foot and said, "Hey, Lan Zhan, wanna make out?"

And Lan Zhan turned bodily towards him, shot him a look, leaned in, and then Wei Ying was sitting up and meeting him in the middle. The sheer relief of it actually working flooded through his body—they hadn't kissed in something like a week, and Wei Ying had been dying for it. Now he pushed every rational thought, every question he had about why it had worked, he had to the back of his mind as he kissed Lan Zhan, leaning over him, tasting his breath. God, he tasted good. He tasted good and he felt incredible when Wei Ying ran his hands over Lan Zhan's warm chest. And the next moment, Lan Zhan grabbed Wei Ying's hips, tugged, and Wei Ying wound up in his lap, still kissing but now also grinding against him, unable to stop.

"Fuck," he breathed as Lan Zhan moaned—moaned!—and grabbed Wei Ying's ass. "Oh, fuck."

Lan Zhan pulled back for a moment, his gaze flickering between Wei Ying's eyes and mouth, eyes half-lidded, looking stunning and stunningly turned on, with his mouth open slightly, and Wei Ying couldn't wait anymore, he had to kiss him again before Lan Zhan changed his mind. Lan Zhan made another sound that went straight to Wei Ying's socked toes, and the next moment, Lan Zhan was flipping them over, Wei Ying's back hitting the couch, Lan Zhan bearing down on him, pinning him to the couch. Wei Ying gasped and raised his hips without thinking, half-hard already and so turned on, he was seeing stars.

And Lan Zhan—Lan Zhan pressed his own hips down and Wei Ying felt it. Lan Zhan was hard, too, hard and panting as they kissed. Wei Ying's heart slammed against his rib cage—this wasn't just a kiss anymore, this was… Wei Ying didn't think anymore, instead running his hands all over Lan Zhan's muscled back, then down to his ass. He wrapped a thigh around Lan Zhan's hip and pressed up even closer, as though they could get so close, there wouldn't be any air between them.

"Wei Ying," Lan Zhan whispered, pulling back.

"Mmm—don't, don't stop—"

"Wei Ying, can I—can I—"

"Anything, please, fuck—"

Lan Zhan was already rucking up Wei Ying's shirt, his hand touching skin, making Wei Ying shiver despite the warmth of it all, and trailing kisses down Wei Ying's jaw, all over his neck, down to his collarbone. Wei Ying trembled under his touch—fuck, how was Lan Zhan so good at everything?—and couldn't stop himself from moving his hips against Lan Zhan's. It felt so good, too good, it felt like everything he had ever wanted, and so what if this didn't mean anything but a physical release, it felt incredible.

"Lan Zhan…Lan Zhan, can I—"

"Yes."

Wei Ying laughed breathlessly. "You don't even know what I was gonna—"

"Anything," Lan Zhan panted, then pulled away enough that they could look at one another. His cheeks were slightly flushed now, and he was radiating warmth, both physical and not, his eyes liquid, half-lidded, his mouth pink and soft.

"Anything?" Wei Ying asked. He tried to hide his grin by biting on his lower lip, but it escaped, anyway. "That's a dangerous proposition." He was still fixated on Lan Zhan's mouth. God, he wanted it back on him.

"Within reason," Lan Zhan said with a slight smirk, and right, of course, it wasn't like Lan Zhan was actually going to let Wei Ying do just anything, that would be preposterous, since they weren't actually dating, they were just friends, good friends, great friends, but—oh God, what were they doing, this was insane, wasn't it? Wei Ying felt like he'd been slammed against cement, winded and paralyzed, because what were they doing? But he was still hard, still so fucking turned on, that he forcibly shut off every other thought he had and bucked up against Lan Zhan, whose nostrils flared slightly at the movement.

"Can I take your shirt off?" Wei Ying finally asked, sweeping everything but horniness to the side.

Lan Zhan sat back and tugged on his shirt himself, pulling it up and over his head, revealing his, frankly, ridiculous physique. No PhD student should ever look like this, it wasn't fair. Maybe Wei Ying should actually start using the building gym the way Lan Zhan clearly was. As soon as Lan Zhan's shirt hit the floor, Wei Ying was on him, pulling him back down and devouring him in a kiss. Oh, touching skin was so much better than cotton or linen or whatever material it was that Lan Zhan had been wearing up until a moment ago. He was warm to the touch and his lower back was already covered in a light sheen of sweat, which was so, like, human and real that Wei Ying moaned.

Fuck, Lan Zhan was an amazing kisser. He was also quite the multitasker, too, because even as they kissed, Wei Ying felt his hand in between them, undoing Wei Ying's button, then tugging on his zipper, and okay, things were certainly escalating, but he wasn't about to stop it. That train, as it were, had already left the station. The ship had sailed. The horse had left the barn. They were doing this.

"Wait, wait," Wei Ying panted, breaking off the kiss. "Lemme…I got it…" He fumbled in between them and gingerly undid his own zip, careful not to get his dick caught, then reached for Lan Zhan's pants, which were, thank God, sweatpants, and went easily, only getting caught on his massive dick a little bit.

"Fucking hell," Wei Ying breathed. "Can I—the rest of it?"

Lan Zhan was already reaching for his black boxer-briefs and tugging them down, and there was his dick. Holy hell, was it ever. Wei Ying's mouth flooded with want, even though he was fairly certain he'd have to work up to that particular act with that particular dick. Whatever, he could touch it, and he reached for it, flicking his gaze up at Lan Zhan's to make sure it was all right. He shivered under Lan Zhan's gaze—God, was that his sex gaze? Was this what sleeping with Lan Zhan was like, feeling like you were being burned alive but in a really, really good way? Because that was what Wei Ying was feeling, lying beneath him, practically trembling from how turned on he was and the intensity of Lan Zhan's gaze on him.

The next moment, just as Wei Ying wrapped his hand around Lan Zhan's (velvety; warm; hard and already leaking) dick, Lan Zhan reached for Wei Ying's underwear dragged it down, Wei Ying lifting his hips automatically to help him. And then, Lan Zhan was sinking against him and they were moving, hips aligned, dicks pressed up against each other, kissing, kissing, kissing. Wei Ying felt like his spine was melting, he was all lava, meeting Lan Zhan thrust for thrust, stroke of tongue for stroke of tongue. He was full of Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan was an overwhelming presence all around him, and Wei Ying didn't want to be anywhere else.

Thoughts began to intrude: was this smart? Was this actually monumentally idiotic? Why was Lan Zhan going along with it? But he pushed them all away in favor of listening to Lan Zhan's gasps, feeling his hot body pressed up against Wei Ying. He ran his hands all over Lan Zhan's skin, ending with his ass, which was smooth and taut and fuck, it was a good ass, Wei Ying had a sudden flash of himself kissing it, running his mouth all over the skin there, but that was too intimate, that wasn't something a friend could do, that was too much. He'd settle for this, for feeling Lan Zhan beneath his hands and tasting his mouth and losing his mind from how close he suddenly was, so close to the edge.

He tore his mouth away from Lan Zhan and panted up at the ceiling. "Oh fuck, oh fuck—harder, can you—faster—"

Lan Zhan obeyed, propped up on both arms, looking down at Wei Ying with his half-lidded gaze, eyebrows drawn, looking like a god or something, fuck, Wei Ying was fucked. How could he possibly go on with his life, knowing this was what it was like to have sex with Lan Zhan? And all they were doing was rutting against each other like fucking teenagers. That was all, and Wei Ying was half-dead of lust. He shut his eyes, moaned, and then he felt it: he was close.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck—"

He groaned as he came, trembling, shooting across his belly and Lan Zhan's dick, hands clutching Lan Zhan's sweaty back.

"Wei Ying—"

Wei Ying could only moan in response, eyes squeezed shut, shaking with it.

Lan Zhan dropped down, smearing Wei Ying's come between them, and thrust against him harder, faster, clearly chasing his own orgasm. When it came, it swallowed them both up. Wei Ying was never, ever going to forget the broken sound that escaped Lan Zhan's mouth as he trembled above him.

Wei Ying swallowed and attempted to take in a deep breath with Lan Zhan still sprawled against his chest, bearing him down. He shut his eyes and half-groaned, half-laughed. "Fuck me."

Lan Zhan, still panting a bit, didn't respond, but he finally lifted himself up and looked at Wei Ying. His eyes were searching, as though he was looking for a snag, looking for something that would give him reason to doubt. Well, Wei Ying wouldn't let him down. They were friends, and Wei Ying would remain his friend and not insist on anything more. After all, he'd been the one to initiate this, and clearly, Lan Zhan had been horny enough to go along with it. Now that the madness was over, Wei Ying was determined to be as normal as possible.

"Well," he said, putting on his most cheerful voice. "That sure was something."

"Mn." Lan Zhan was still studying him.

Wei Ying bit his lip and looked between them. "Quite a mess, huh?"

Lan Zhan sat back, hands gentle on Wei Ying's raised knees. "Are you…all right?"

"Me? Of course!" That might have been a bit too loud to be convincing, but he was. He was so all right. "This was awesome. What's a little fooling around between friends, right?"

Lan Zhan stilled, something flickering in his gaze that Wei Ying couldn't really interpret. "Yes," he said slowly, pulling back. "Let's hope the neighbors heard that." He raised an eyebrow.

Wei Ying burst out laughing. "Oh my God, that's such a good point! We should have been in the bedroom, that's the room adjacent to the neighbors, isn't it?"

"You're right," Lan Zhan said smoothly, pushing off and reaching for the box of tissues on the coffee table. He grabbed a couple and then began to clean up the mess on Wei Ying's stomach, which was very thoughtful of him. He swiped at his own stomach as an afterthought, then did a very uncharacteristic thing by throwing the whole thing on the floor. Ha! Apparently, afterglow Lan Zhan was less of a fastidious neatfreak than regular Lan Zhan. Wei Ying filed this knowledge away.

He blew out a breath and closed his eyes, sinking further into the couch. "That was…that was nice. I'm just gonna be a pile of mush now."

"Excuse me," Lan Zhan said softly. "I'll be right back."

Wei Ying opened his eyes. Was Lan Zhan being weird? It was hard to tell, if he were honest. Were things weird now? He watched as Lan Zhan fluidly got off the couch, pulled up his underwear and sweatpants, and went in the direction of the bathroom. His belly churned, and slowly, he made himself pull up his own underwear and tug up his jeans, zipping them up. By the time Lan Zhan returned, looking like nothing untoward ever happened, Wei Ying was sitting cross-legged on the couch, scrolling mindlessly through his phone. He looked up and gave Lan Zhan a smile. "Everything okay?"

"Of course," Lan Zhan said, then gave him a small, soft smile. "Everything is absolutely fine. Are…you okay?"

"Of course!" Again, that might have been a bit overly loud. "I'm very good. Very, uh, relaxed." He smirked, just to prove his point.

Lan Zhan nodded and reached for the remote. "Shall we finish the film?"

"That's a very generous word for that mess, but yeah, I wanna know what his big secret is. I hope it's something juicier than webbed toes."

"I'm certain it will be something mundane and not worth our time," Lan Zhan responded, making Wei Ying crack up.

And Lan Zhan was right. The movie truly sucked.

The following morning, as much as Wei Ying looked for weirdness between them, he found none. It was as though nothing had happened. The night before, Lan Zhan had, as always, gone to bed early, while Wei Ying had stayed up fretting, wondering how having sex—they'd had sex—was going to affect their relationship. For Wei Ying, even crawling into bed with Lan Zhan asleep felt strange, too intimate—perhaps more intimate than anything else they've done so far. Lan Zhan was so vulnerable like this, and Wei Ying wondered what it would be like if…if the sex meant anything more than what it was.

But as much as he looked for signs in Lan Zhan, in particular, that everything wasn't okay, he found none.

Lan Zhan had already made coffee, as he always did, before Wei Ying woke up, which meant that Wei Ying had woken up with the aroma of it floating around him. Following his nose, he'd made his way to the kitchen where Lan Zhan was already smearing cream cheese on a bagel for himself, his tea steeping.

He'd said good morning, Wei Ying had responded, and that had been that.

Now they were on their way to work, and Wei Ying was babbling some nonsense about his students just to further solidify their status of being absolutely fine. Because they were, everything was completely normal, apart from the flashes Wei Ying would get in his mind anytime he looked at Lan Zhan, of Lan Zhan's face when he'd been moving above him, of his massive dick, of how he'd felt beneath Wei Ying's hands, the scent of his arousal. He could feel himself flushing with it every time, hoping Lan Zhan wouldn't notice.

"And what did the email say?" Lan Zhan asked.

Wei Ying tracked back to the last thing he'd said. Oh, right. His student Natalie, who'd begged for an extension on her project. "Oh, you know, difficulties at home, has a job, etc, etc, and like, I get it, but others have the same circumstances and still manage to do their work on time."

"So you gave her an extension," Lan Zhan said mildly.

"Obviously," Wei Ying sighed. "What am I, a monster? Anyway, she's a good kid, conscientious, always sits at the front, so I know she's good for it."

"Mn."

Yeah. Lan Zhan always got it.

Anyway, Wei Ying found himself distracted by the previous night all day. It was, actually, pretty inconvenient, especially when explaining energy efficiency to a class full of yawning freshmen. And, worst of all, he was bursting with the secrecy of it all. He knew, he absolutely knew, that he could not tell anyone what they had done. It was private, but more than that, it had been stupid, and he already knew what most of his friends or Jiang Cheng or jiejie would say. Besides, this was Lan Zhan's privacy, as well. He wasn't about to expose it to someone else's scrutiny without his explicit permission.

Thus, it had been a secret sex having experience, and all Wei Ying could think about was doing it again. It was as though the floodgates had opened, and he began to mull over what it would be like to suck Lan Zhan's dick, or hell, even ride it, what it would be like to have Lan Zhan suck him off, and it got bad enough that he'd had to find a secluded corner of the library just to hide his flaming face and hardening dick. He couldn't focus on his work at all.

All day he spent like this, until finally, it was time to go home. Lan Zhan was working late for once, so Wei Ying got home without him. A blessing: he could beat off with impunity—and he did, fast and hard, right there on the couch, catching it in a wad of tissues and breathing like a freight train afterwards. Oh boy, he'd needed that.

Then he decided to try and make them dinner from whatever they had in the fridge, which was a whole bunch of vegetables, because: Lan Zhan. Briefly he wondered if Lan Zhan had had a specific recipe in mind when buying them, but well, Wei Ying could always go to the market and get more stuff if that was the case.

He got to work frying the veggies with some leftover rice and egg, throwing in every sauce he could find. In deference to Lan Zhan's palate, he kept the chili sauce to a minimum. He ate in front of the television, watching some Netflix documentary on the history of beef or something, he didn't know, and then he sat on the couch and waited for Lan Zhan to get home as he graded.

By the time the lock finally snicked in the door, it was such a profound relief, Wei Ying threw the papers onto the coffee table and just waited for the door to open like a puppy.

"You're home!" he said as soon as Lan Zhan was in.

"Hello," Lan Zhan greeted in his usual low-key way. He went through his whole little ritual—putting the keys in the key bowl, setting his bag down on the shoe rack, taking off his shoes, putting on his slippers, setting his shoes in the rack.

Wei Ying watched him the whole time, waiting, and when Lan Zhan was done, Wei Ying bounced up off the couch, took two steps towards him, and grabbed his hand. "I made dinner!"

Lan Zhan's eyes widened a bit, which Wei Ying generously took to be in surprise and not alarm, and Wei Ying towed him into the kitchen. "Sit, I'll heat it up. It came out pretty good, I think!"

"Very well," Lan Zhan said peaceably. "I'm just going to wash my hands."

"Oh, right, haha, sorry!" Wei Ying said, wielding a spatula. He remembered that Lan Zhan liked to change out of his street clothes right away, so he called after Lan Zhan's retreating back. "You can change, too! Make yourself comfortable!"

Why was he being so weird? He had to stop being so weird. He was just…keyed up, that was all. And excited to feed Lan Zhan for once. He just wanted to be a good roommate. Thoughtful. Accommodating. He'd calm down eventually.

Lan Zhan did change into his lounging clothes of t-shirt and sweatpants, which was unfortunate, because it sent Wei Ying right back to the previous night when he'd shoved those sweatpants off of Lan Zhan's hips and, well, anyway.

"Dinner!" he declared, setting the fried rice in front of him. "Eat."

He suddenly understood why jiejie always gazed at him and Jiang Cheng whenever they come over for dinner—he was desperate for Lan Zhan to like what he'd made, simple as it was. He sat down across from Lan Zhan and propped his chin up on his hand, watching him take his first bite.

He waited to get a reaction, but Lan Zhan was Lan Zhan—his reactions rarely showed on his face. Finally, Wei Ying couldn't take it anymore and asked, "How is it? Is it all right?"

Lan Zhan swallowed and lifted his gaze to Wei Ying's for a second. "It's very nice, thank you." He took another bite, swallowed, and added quietly, "It's nice to have this done tonight. I'm very tired. Thank you."

Wei Ying felt like he was glowing with the praise and the satisfaction of having made Lan Zhan happy. "Any time! Seriously. I know I'm not as good as you at the whole cooking business, but I don't want you to feel like you have to do it all the time, either. We can split it, you know?"

"I enjoy cooking," Lan Zhan noted. "But yes, I would like that."

Wei Ying beamed.

The following day, and the day after, Wei Ying was still consumed by thoughts of Lan Zhan and sex. He had to admit: he wanted to do it again. He wanted to do it again, but he had no idea how to make it happen. After all, they hadn't, like, talked about it at all, they hadn't made any sort of agreement. Most likely, it had been an aberration, a one-off. They had simply slaked their horniness with one another. Wei Ying had to come to terms with the fact that it probably wouldn't happen again, and it would just be him and his right hand again for the next foreseeable future.

(He could make an effort to meet someone, of course, and go on a date, and possibly even fuck them, but that required more effort than he was willing to put in. Besides, fucking a complete stranger? This wasn't college, he was sort of past it.)

Friday night, everybody got together at a bar to celebrate the weekend, despite them all having enough work to do that the weekend wouldn't really be all that relaxing, and Lan Zhan tagged along, which made Wei Ying happy.

Huaisang was regaling the group with work stories, which were always entertaining, as he was an art director for fashion photoshoots. Apparently, this involved a lot more men in underwear than Wei Ying would have expected.

"Flesh-colored?"

"Flesh-colored. I swear, I thought I'd walked in on him naked, and my first thought was, where are his pubes?"

Wen Qing wrinkled her nose. "Charming first impression."

"Hey, listen, comes with the territory. Anyway, turned out he was wearing underwear and wasn't just anatomically incorrect."

"Cheers to him," Wei Ying said, raising his beer. "Although he's a model. Think he even has pubes?"

"He's a model, not a porn star," Huaisang countered with a roll of his eyes.

"So! I don't know how these things work, do I?"

Huaisang reached across the table and patted him on the cheek. "Just stick to engineering, baby, you'll be fine."

Wei Ying scowled and shook him off while Jiang Cheng sniggered into his own beer.

"Oh, what, like you understand the world of male modeling," Wei Ying grumbled.

"Well, I'm not going around thinking about men's pubes or anything," Jiang Cheng said, then flushed lightly with a quick look at Wen Qing.

"Yes, yes, you're as straight as an arrow," Wei Ying sighed. "It's okay, we need some token straights around here, you can stay."

"Fuck off."

Wei Ying gave him a shit-eating grin and slurped his beer.

Lan Zhan, who'd been quiet this whole time, suddenly said, "I believe they have to trim, but not get rid of it altogether, unlike female models."

Wei Ying nearly spat out his beer, then gulped it down. "What? How the fuck would you know that?"

Lan Zhan raised an eyebrow enigmatically.

"No, no, don't do that, tell me how you know this!"

Wei Ying wasn't the only one who wanted to know: everybody was staring at Lan Zhan, including Wen Ning, whose eyes were as round as saucers.

Lan Zhan sighed and took a sip of his seltzer. "Do you remember Kenneth?"

"Your, uh, dude from senior year of college?"

"Mn. He modeled on the side to make money."

"Wait!" Wei Ying straightened up, leaning away from Lan Zhan so he could see him better. "How come I didn't know this?!"

Lan Zhan shrugged lightly. "It didn't come up." He took another slow sip of his drink.

Wei Ying blinked, then looked around. Wen Qing looked impressed, Nie Huaisang intrigued, Jiang Cheng exasperated as always, and Wen Ning was blushing. Probably thinking about Lan Zhan's ex's pubes. That was, after all, what Wei Ying was thinking about. Which led him to thinking about Lan Zhan knowing this, which obviously meant they'd fucked, which—of course they'd fucked, why wouldn't they have? But this shot him straight back to a few nights ago, which made him sweat on the spot.

He wondered if he should be trimmed.

Then he shook his head and listened to Wen Qing mercifully change the subject to some dickhead in her lab.

On the way home, Wei Ying was tipsy, though not drunk, and feeling mellow. He bumped Lan Zhan's shoulder and said, "Hey, Lan Zhan. Hey."

"Mn?"

"Are you lonely?" Wait. He hadn't meant to say that.

Lan Zhan was quiet for a moment. Then he said, quietly, "Why would I be lonely?"

Wei Ying shrugged, looking down at his feet, moving one in front of the other. "I dunno, you haven't dated anyone in so long."

"Neither have you," Lan Zhan pointed out. "Are you lonely?"

Wei Ying blew out a breath. Was he? He didn't think so. He was horny, but not lonely. "Why would I be lonely?" he parroted, then added, "I've got you, I've got all our people, jiejie…nah. I'm good."

"I have you, as well," Lan Zhan said in his low voice, which for some reason, made Wei Ying shiver. "I have my brother, our friends. I don't need to be dating anyone just to feel complete."

"Huh." That made sense. For some reason, it made Wei Ying feel dejected for a moment, and he did his best to shake it off. "Yeah, that's a good point. You do have me." A moment later, he said, "Hey, Lan Zhan. Hey."

"Mn?"

"Am I a good roommate?"

"Of course," Lan Zhan responded immediately with all the patience of a saint. "Are you concerned that you aren't?"

Wei Ying shrugged. "I dunno, just, like…I don't want you to be unhappy."

"I'm not unhappy, Wei Ying," Lan Zhan said, his voice sounding warm. "I'm very content."

Which meant that Lan Zhan didn't need anybody else, not really. Which meant that what they had was enough. Which meant…what? What did it mean?

Wei Ying didn't know. His thoughts escaped him like loose change, he couldn't grab hold of them.

They were at their building when a familiar figure walked out. "Qin Su!" Wei Ying greeted. "How are you?"

"Hey guys!" She smiled and waved. "I'm good, you?"

"Excellent, we are excellent. Aren't we, babe?" Wei Ying took Lan Zhan's hand, just to keep up appearances.

"Oh yes," Lan Zhan agreed easily, not missing a beat. Then he turned to Wei Ying and before Wei Ying could react, kissed him.

Wei Ying made a noise at the back of his throat, then pulled away, watching Lan Zhan in the light of the street lamps. He was aware of Qin Su still standing there watching them, but all he could see was Lan Zhan's eyes, liquid and beautiful and watching him with some intent.

Wei Ying swallowed and managed to turn back to Qin Su. "So! Going out? It's late! What are you, twenty?" He'd said it kindly, and she laughed.

"Hey, not all of us are happily married or whatever. I'm a single girl, have to go out on the prowl every now and then."

"Go get 'em," Wei Ying said with a grin, his heart having skipped a beat at married. "We'll be turning into pumpkins."

"Well, have fun!" She waved again and passed them.

Wei Ying turned to Lan Zhan, who was still watching him. A moment passed, then another. And then Wei Ying leaned in and captured Lan Zhan's mouth in a kiss. And Lan Zhan—Lan Zhan responded. He opened his lips, deepened the kiss, and Wei Ying realized they were still holding hands. He squeezed Lan Zhan's fingers in between his own. Lan Zhan squeezed back.

"Mmph." Wei Ying pulled away, looking at Lan Zhan through his lashes. "Hey, uh, we should probably—"

"Mn." Lan Zhan was already opening the door and pulling Wei Ying through the doorway. They made it around the set of mailboxes and to the bank of elevators before Lan Zhan reeled him in again and kissed him, harder this time, with more intent. Wei Ying thought his knees would give out. He kissed back with everything he had, pressing up close, close enough to feel Lan Zhan's incredible warmth.

The elevator door opened and Lan Zhan managed to maneuver them inside and press the button for their floor, and then Wei Ying was pushed up against the wall and kissed to within an inch of his life.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, he was—he was getting hard, and arousal swirled deep in his belly, lighting him up from the inside. They were…doing this, it was happening. Wei Ying slipped his hand from Lan Zhan's and immediately wrapped his arms around his neck, pulling him in even closer. "Lan Zhan—"

The elevator dipped and stopped, the door opening slowly. Instead of answering, Lan Zhan lowered Wei Ying's arms, took hold of his hand, and pulled them out of the elevator and down the hall. His keys jangled as he maneuvered the correct one inside the lock, and then the door was opened and he was leading Wei Ying into the apartment. He flipped on the light. The next moment, Wei Ying was pushed up against the door.

"Lan Zhan?"

Lan Zhan didn't respond with words, but the kiss was searing, mind-meltingly hot. His tongue felt slick and heavy against Wei Ying's, and he tasted so fucking good, and smelled even better. Wei Ying didn't know what that scent was, only knew that it always clung to Lan Zhan, surrounding him like comfort, and Wei Ying moaned and pressed their hips together.

Oh, thank God, Lan Zhan was hard, as hard as Wei Ying. It was happening, they were doing this. Once again, a sense of profound relief washed over Wei Ying, mingled with anticipation and excitement.

Wei Ying wrapped his arms around Lan Zhan's waist and pressed up even closer, rutting against him, letting his own intentions be very clear. Lan Zhan groaned, the sound reverberating between them, and grabbed Wei Ying's hands from where they were clinging onto him. For a moment, Wei Ying thought that this was it, Lan Zhan had changed his mind and Wei Ying would be left alone and bereft and hard as fuck, but then Lan Zhan pressed Wei Ying's hands up against the door and made a sound that was almost a growl before attacking Wei Ying's neck with nipping bites.

"Oh, fuck me," Wei Ying breathed. "Fuck, yeah, okay, you should—" He gasped as Lan Zhan licked a spot he'd just bitten. "You should definitely do that."

Lan Zhan hummed in response and continued his assault as he moved to just underneath Wei Ying's jawline. Why did that feel more intimate than kissing? Wei Ying whined, his knees nearly giving out from underneath him. Lan Zhan's hips were no longer pressed up against his own and he felt needy as hell, had to have something to rut against. If one of his hands had been free, he could be touching himself, but Lan Zhan had him in a vice grip, Wei Ying couldn't move.

"Lan Zhan…"

"Mn." Lan Zhan wasn't moving away but continuing to bite and kiss his way across Wei Ying's throat.

"Lan Zhan, touch me, I'm—I need it, please, you have to touch me—"

Lan Zhan pulled back and, looking Wei Ying in the eye, thrust up against him. Oh holy shit, maybe Wei Ying wasn't ready for this. Maybe sex with Lan Zhan was too much and he was going to die. Death by best friend sex did have a certain appeal, but he was too young to die, and definitely too young to die of sex, so he manfully pulled himself together and thrust back, not looking away from Lan Zhan. They moved just like that for a little while, his hands still caught in Lan Zhan's and pressed up against the door. It occurred to Wei Ying that anyone who walked by could hear his moans—sounds traveled pretty well through doorways. When the thought occurred, he laughed, breathless, and Lan Zhan made an inquiring sort of noise, pausing in his movements.

"Nothing, nothing, just—neighbors—"

Lan Zhan's gaze sort of darkened at that. "Good. Let them hear."

Wei Ying laughed again, shutting his eyes. "You're shameless."

"Mn."

"Ugh, Lan Zhan, move, why'd you stop, move—"

But instead of moving, Lan Zhan released him—what? Why?—and Wei Ying whined at the loss before his breath stuttered in his chest, because Lan Zhan was suddenly moving in a downward trajectory, dropping to his knees right in front of him.

Oh holy shit. No. Was he—was he doing this?

"Fuck."

Lan Zhan hummed in an affirmative sort of way and reached for Wei Ying's jeans. Oh fuck, he was. He was—he was planning on sucking Wei Ying off. Wei Ying swallowed and watched as Lan Zhan's hands made quick work of his button and zip and pushed his hips forward so Lan Zhan could tug his jeans down. Then he went for Wei Ying's underwear and then, Wei Ying was exposed to Lan Zhan's view in a way that made him flush. It hadn't quite been the same that night on the couch, where they had been pressed together and wild with it. This was more calculated, and Lan Zhan was staring at his dick with a heavy gaze that made Wei Ying want to squirm.

"Lan Zhan…babe, come on—"

Lan Zhan took a visible breath and leaned in, taking hold of Wei Ying. Oh, even his hand felt so good, and then his mouth over the head felt even better. Wei Ying slid down a little against the wall without his say-so because his knees were giving out again, but he couldn't help it. Lan Zhan was sucking his dick, and frankly, he was doing an amazing job. A+ for fellatio skills to future Dr. Lan, holy shit—it was hot and tight and wet and he was maintaining the rhythm like a pro. Wei Ying might have gone his entire life without knowing that Lan Zhan was a tremendous cocksucker, and that would have been a life lived in vain.

Now he knew, and it could very easily destroy him. What if this was the only Lan Zhan blowjob he was going to get? No, fuck, don't think about that, don't—

He forced himself to focus on sensation, sweeping all thought away, and in the end, it wasn't all that difficult. Lan Zhan's mouth demanded his attention in every way and Wei Ying watched as Lan Zhan sucked him off, eyelashes fluttering, eyebrows drawn, and he looked beautiful even with a dick in his mouth, how was that possible?

"Ah, Lan Zhan—Lan Zhan—" He didn't have a point, he just couldn't not say his name, couldn't not wrap his hand around Lan Zhan's head, squeezing his hair on a particularly hard suck. Lan Zhan hummed, which did incredible things for Wei Ying, and seemed to double his efforts.

Okay, Wei Ying really might die of sex with Lan Zhan. What a fucking way to go.

Wei Ying couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, his head thudding against the door. He was getting close, Lan Zhan was going to get him there in record time, because he was just that good at sucking dick. Wei Ying gasped and tensed, every bit of arousal centering in his balls and belly and his spine, until he was whispering Lan Zhan's name urgently, tugging at his head.

"Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan—I'm gonna—fuck—pull away, I'm gonna—"

Lan Zhan did not pull away, giving a moan instead that might have been a little grumpy, and Wei Ying gave up and let himself go. He came down Lan Zhan's throat, gasping, his spine melting, trembling all over. He saw white behind his eyelids. The orgasm shook him so much, he slid further down the door and might have fallen on his ass had Lan Zhan not held him up with a hand on his hip.

Oh, fucking fuck. Holy shit.

Wei Ying was still panting when Lan Zhan rose to his feet and leaned in for a kiss. Wei Ying moaned into his mouth, tasting his own spunk. Lan Zhan kissed him with heavy intent, like he was just getting going.

Well, Wei Ying could understand that: Lan Zhan was still hard, he was probably desperate for touch. Wei Ying reached for his fly, fumbling with his shaky hands, until he had Lan Zhan's zip undone, shoving his pants down. He was about to go to his knees—one good turn deserved another—when Lan Zhan made a noise, then pulled away, and said, "No. Like this, just—just touch me."

"Oh," Wei Ying breathed. He was a bit disappointed—he really wanted to taste Lan Zhan—but if Lan Zhan didn't want him to, he wasn't going to insist. Instead, they worked together to shove Lan Zhan's underwear down and then Lan Zhan was in his grip. He was leaking already, and fuck, he was so hard. Wei Ying could feel every vein of him as he stroked him off. Lan Zhan gasped against his mouth and then he murmured, "Kiss me," and Wei Ying did. He wondered if the kissing was part of it, part of why Lan Zhan hadn't wanted Wei Ying to go down on him, and that was how he touched him—eyes closed, kissing him for all he was worth, doing his best not to break rhythm, to give Lan Zhan his all.

Fuck, but Lan Zhan was big. He felt so big in his grip, so warm and wet and Wei Ying could have gotten hard again, if it was in any way physically possible or he was still fourteen with raging hard-ons every ten minutes.

Lan Zhan pulled back. "Wei Ying—"

"I'm here," he whispered. "What is it, what can I do? Is it okay?"

"Keep going," Lan Zhan said in a tight voice.

"I can do that," Wei Ying confirmed just as softly, then leaned in.

It was barely even a kiss, their mouths open, gasping against one another, tongues touching occasionally, but it was so good, Wei Ying was going to lose his mind. He went faster, his hand flying over Lan Zhan's dick, and Lan Zhan was making these tight little whining noises that were going to be the death of Wei Ying. He was never going to be the same after hearing them.

Lan Zhan came with a nearly silent gasp, shooting all over Wei Ying's hand and belly. Wei Ying was trapped between his arms and he could feel it as Lan Zhan trembled with the aftershocks. God, he would never get tired of seeing Lan Zhan undone like this. Wei Ying managed to hold himself up as he released Lan Zhan and wiped his hand on his own jeans. They needed a wash, anyway.

"Well," he panted. "Fuck me."

"Mn." Lan Zhan dropped his head down and breathed against Wei Ying's neck, making him shiver and squirm. Why did that feel so nice? It just did, and for a little while longer, they stood there just like that, dicks out, Lan Zhan breathing heavily against his skin.

Finally, Wei Ying couldn't stand anymore and lightly pushed Lan Zhan away. "Let's clean up, huh?"

Lan Zhan made a grumpy noise but acquiesced, pulling away and dropping his hands. He wouldn't look at Wei Ying when Wei Ying tried to catch his eye, so Wei Ying did the next best thing and took his hand. He led them towards the dark bedroom, Lan Zhan following obediently, and ordered Lan Zhan to strip. "So you can get in your lounging clothes," he explained after a silent moment.

"Right." It was the first word Lan Zhan said in a while, his voice low.

Wei Ying scrutinized him as he changed out of his clothes, attempting to read Lan Zhan's expression. Was he regretting it already? Was he upset? Was he all right and maybe just fucked out? It was after his usual bedtime, it was possible he was just tired and fighting it. Lan Zhan wouldn't look at him or give any sign that he knew Wei Ying was watching him. Wei Ying swallowed and turned his back on Lan Zhan. He, too, undressed to change into lounging clothes. The silence between them was oppressive.

Finally, Wei Ying couldn't take it anymore, and turned back around before saying, "Everything okay?"

Lan Zhan finally looked at him. He looked—absolutely normal. Like nothing at all was the matter. Wei Ying knew that look could hide a myriad of things, so he waited for an actual response. "Of course," Lan Zhan said, then gave him a small smile. "Everything is fine."

Wei Ying breathed out. Maybe he'd overreacted. He did have that tendency. "Good. Cool. Yeah." He ran a hand over his hair, then scrunched up his face. He could seriously use a shower. "What, uh…what do you want to do?"

It was past nine. Lan Zhan said, "I'm not sure. What would…you like to do?"

Wei Ying shook his head. "I don't know, to be honest."

Lan Zhan nodded. "I may, if you don't mind, go to bed."

"Oh yeah, sure!" Wei Ying didn't mind. In fact, he could use the alone time. "Yeah, of course. Let me just…grab my phone, and I'll be out of your hair." He fished his phone out of his jeans pocket and gave Lan Zhan an uncertain smile as he passed him.

Lan Zhan reached out and laid a gentle hand over Wei Ying's. "Good night, Wei Ying." And then he gave him a soft kiss.

Wei Ying felt his shoulders unwind as he kissed him back, then pulled back, feeling a smile growing on his face. "Night, Lan Zhan." He left the bedroom, closing the door behind himself.

He sat on the couch and watched something incomprehensible on Netflix while attempting to put together any sort of coherent thought out of the jumble in his head. It was just that—what had that last kiss meant? That Lan Zhan didn't regret what they'd done? Would they do it again? And what did it mean if they did? He was fairly certain that if Lan Zhan had…like…feelings for him, Wei Ying would know somehow. Would be able to tell. But he couldn't, he had no idea what was going on in Lan Zhan's head. Lan Zhan was a big dark mystery for him to unravel, but he wasn't certain that he was the man for the job.

And then he sat there and had his very own Cher Horowitz moment as it hit him: oh my God. He liked Lan Zhan.

Not just as a friend, he wanted Lan Zhan, not just to slake off his own need, but he wanted nobody but Lan Zhan. He wanted…he wanted…he wanted.

"Fuck." He paused the documentary. He was screwed.

"I think I've fucked up."

Jiejie's eyebrows crinkled in the middle. "What happened, A-Ying?"

They were out getting boba, as they did practically every Saturday afternoon (Jiang Cheng wasn't invited, because he'd gotten them kicked out of enough boba places for shouting that they could no longer face most boba places in town). Wei Ying had waited until jiejie had downed half of her drink before coming out with it, because he couldn't hold it in any longer. It was one thing when all they had done was have sex one (1) time, but now, not only had it been more than once, now he also realized he had gotten feelings involved. And thus: bursting out with it to his very pregnant sister.

"Lan Zhan and I had sex."

She was in the middle of taking a sip and nearly sprayed him with passion fruit tea the next moment. "You what?!"

"Shhhh," he hissed, looking around, then turned back to her. "Had sex. With Lan Zhan."

"A-Ying."

"Twice."

"A-Ying!"

Wei Ying buried his face in his hands and groaned. "I knoooooow, I know, I know."

He felt gentle hands tugging his own away from his face. "A-Ying. What happened? Tell me everything."

He eyed her.

"Well, not everything," she hastened to add. "I don't need to know about, you know…" He watched her blush.

"Jie, you're pregnant, you can say sex to me, I'm not ten anymore."

She blushed harder. "Hush. Anyway, you're not telling me anything—how did it happen?!"

Wei Ying took a deep breath. "Okay, so like…you know how we…kissed? For, like, other people to see?"

Her face was very carefully neutral. "Mmhmm."

"Right, so…then we did it again…and then, like…I sort of…started it. On the couch. It was all me."

"Well. I'm assuming Lan Zhan was amenable?"

Wei Ying flushed, remembering Lan Zhan's face above his, nostrils flaring, getting his cock out. "Mmhmm!" he squeaked. "Yeah, he was uh…amenable."

"And then you…did it again? How soon after the first time?" She propped her chin up on her hand and stared at him with expectant eyes.

"Like…a week? Or so? I was sort of…tipsy, but not drunk! Just tipsy. And he, like, kissed me? Because we'd run into Qin Su from the building—"

"You two do realize that not every couple kisses in front of other people, right? Nobody's expecting you to pass the relationship test?"

He waved her off. "Listen, it's for verisimilitude." The sound she made was close to a snort. Wei Ying barreled on. "Anyway, that was yesterday. And I think. I might actually really like him. Like…like that. You know."

"You like him-like him?" she said with understanding.

Wei Ying sighed, feeling like a fourteen-year old girl. "Yeah. Yeah, I like him-like him."

"Oh, A-Ying." She reached out and patted his hand. "That's not a terrible thing. If I were a betting woman—"

"Which you are not," Wei Ying pointed out. "You're far too sensible for that."

She smiled. "If I were a betting woman, I'd say that Lan Zhan might feel the same way about you."

"What? No, no, that's not really—that can't be right."

She frowned. "And why is that? Don't you think you're lovable?"

He flushed. "No, it's not that, it's—look, I'd know. Okay? If Lan Zhan was carrying some sort of secret torch for me, there's no way I wouldn't know. I'm his best friend!"

"Hmm."

"What hmm?" The idea of Lan Zhan liking Wei Ying back was like…like…like somebody telling him they could get him the moon. Lovely, but impossible.

"Why are you so certain you would know? Lan Zhan is not exactly an open book."

Well. That was true. Wei Ying had no idea what he was thinking about the whole sex thing. "Well, okay, say that's true and I wouldn't know—he's a straight-forward guy. Whenever he has a problem with someone, you know, right? He says it outright." Or he was a total snarky bitch about it, which was Wei Ying's favorite way for Lan Zhan to show his displeasure.

She hummed for him to continue.

"Right, so if he liked someone…me…he'd say something. But he hasn't! All we've done is—"

"Kiss and have sex. Twice."

"Well, yeah." Okay, it was weird for jiejie to be the one saying "have sex," Wei Ying could see her point. He blushed. "But lots of people have sex without getting feelings involved, right? What if we're just…friends with benefits?"

"Are you? Have you talked about it?"

"Talked about it? No, no way."

"You haven't talked about the fact that you two have now had sex twice? How do you…just not talk about it?"

Wei Ying wrinkled his nose. "Easy. We wake up the next day—"

"In the same bed."

He flushed, but persevered. "In the same bed. And it's like nothing happened, and things aren't weird. At all. Like, everything is exactly the same."

She was frowning. "I think it might not be…the worst idea…to talk about this with each other. To clear the air."

Wei Ying's immediate response was, "Oh, hell no."

"Why not?"

"Because then we might not do it again!" he burst out, then lowered his voice. "Okay? If we talk about it, instead of just doing it and moving on, Lan Zhan might come to his senses and stop. And…" He bit his lip.

"You don't want to stop," she said softly. "Because you like him."

He nodded miserably. "Yeah."

"Oh, A-Ying." She reached out again and patted the hand that was clutching his drink. "I'm sorry things are so complicated."

He let out his breath in a whoosh. "Yeah. Yeah, me too. Thanks for, like…listening."

"Of course. What are big sisters for?" She gave him a smile. "Buck up. I have a feeling things will resolve themselves to everyone's benefit."

"What makes you say that?" he asked, his belly giving a weird flop.

She made a face. "I just know that things always end up…the way they should."

"Oh, that's not true. Not even a little." Life was hard, everybody knew that.

"Some things," she said insistently, "turn out exactly as they should. I have a feeling this might be one of them."

Wei Ying slurped the rest of his drink and shrugged. He doubted it. He hadn't been lucky in love yet.

When Wei Ying got home, Lan Zhan was deep in his grading, sitting in his chair, making comments in somebody's gdoc.

"Think they're watching you do this right now?" Wei Ying asked, shucking off his shoes.

"They know better than that," Lan Zhan responded, not looking away from the screen. "Besides, it would be akin to watching your own execution."

"That bad, huh?"

Lan Zhan gave a long-suffering sigh. "This one, at least. Will need a rewrite."

"Ooof." Wei Ying laughed and dropped down on the couch. His heart gave a little kick at how good Lan Zhan looked. He was so beautiful, sometimes it was hard to look at him. His hair was pulled back in a low bun, and he had on a light blue t-shirt and grey sweatpants, sitting cross-legged in his beloved chair. Wei Ying zoned out on watching Lan Zhan for a bit, then realized what he was doing and remembered he had his own grading to do. With a groan, he pushed himself up off the couch and went to retrieve his bag with all the papers. One of these days, he was going to get, like, mono, from all the disgusting student papers he was handling. If only his quizzes could be online, but the course professor was surprisingly old school about the whole thing.

Wei Ying settled on the couch with the papers, the answer key, and a green pen, and got to work.

"If you're hungry," Lan Zhan said without looking up, "I made some noodles for lunch. There are leftovers."

"Ooooh." Wei Ying was still full from the lunch he and jiejie decided to get because she was now eating for two. "I'm good, but maybe later. Thanks, Lan Zhan."

"Mn."

Another silence descended, and as the sun continued to shift across the room, painting the floor a golden hue, they worked on their grading quietly, Lan Zhan making a derisive noise every now and then. Before Wei Ying knew it, it became dusk, and his stomach grumbled.

"Hey," he said, his voice feeling disused. "Are you at a stopping point?"

Lan Zhan sighed and finally looked up at Wei Ying, blinking slowly. "As you know, this work is never finished."

Wei Ying pursed his lips in amusement. "Buuuut you also need to eat, I bet."

"I could use a snack, yes." Then Lan Zhan set his laptop down on the side table decisively and got up. He stretched towards the sky as Wei Ying watched, throat drying out. He was so…long. And lean. And gorgeous. Wei Ying wanted his mouth all over him. Without his say-so, his eyes landed on Lan Zhan's dickprint, only slightly visible in his sweatpants. Oh, fuck, Wei Ying was in so much trouble.

Lan Zhan finally relaxed and blinked a few times. "I suppose we should turn on a light or two."

"Wanna go out for a drink?" He hadn't meant to say that. Wei Ying's mouth was doing all sorts of things without checking in with him first.

"What?"

He flushed. "A drink. You know…like friends do. Or we could eat first, then go out for a drink? I could invite a few other people, or it could be just you and me, but maybe—"

"Yes. Yes, I would like that."

"Really?" Wei Ying grinned, hopping to his feet. "Cool! Should we…dinner? First?"

"We could," Lan Zhan said in the tone of someone getting away with something, "Have dinner out as well."

"Oho!" Wei Ying cracked up. "What's gotten into you? What happened to going out is a waste of money if you're capable of cooking yourself a meal?"

"You forgot the word frequently. And I do not go out frequently." This was true. Lan Zhan was a real homebody. "Tonight can be one of my exceptions."

"Yessss!" Wei Ying pumped the air. "Okay, cool, let me change into something…different."

"Mn. I will also change."

Right. Even now, months into living together, it was still a bit strange to be changing in the bedroom at the same time. Wei Ying decided to change in the closet—it was big enough—then came out and said, "I'm out of the closet!" Then flushed, because he was an idiot, and for some reason, coming out jokes felt weird at the moment.

"Mn. The closet is a terrible place to be," Lan Zhan responded dutifully, fixing his collar. "Are you ready?"

"I am. How do I look?" Then he flushed again. He had to stop doing this.

Lan Zhan's gaze sort of…intensified. "You look very good, Wei Ying. As you probably already know."

"Hey…" Wei Ying cleared his throat. "Well, anyway, you look great…too…"

And he did. Lan Zhan looked so good. He was wearing a white, collarless linen shirt with the cuffs rolled up, over grey slacks, and he'd re-done his hair into a braid, which snaked down his back. He looked good enough to eat, and Wei Ying, having complimented him, looked away immediately on the pretense of looking for his socks.

"Where should we go?" Lan Zhan asked, like nothing weird had happened.

"Hmm." Wei Ying, still genuinely hunting around for his socks, gave it some thought. "What if we went to Giovanni's?" It was kind of pricey, but super nice, and Wei Ying hadn't had Italian in a hot minute.

"That might be nice. Should we stay there for drinks or go someplace else?"

Wei Ying finally located his errant socks and began pulling them on, not looking at Lan Zhan. "Whatever you prefer! We could just stick to one place, make a whole date of it." Shit. He hadn't meant to say that in quite that tone of voice.

"Let's do that," Lan Zhan said easily.

With jiejie's words in mind, Wei Ying looked for clues that Lan Zhan's feelings for him had somehow changed, the way Wei Ying realized his own had, but Lan Zhan was the same as always. Serene, quiet, as though nothing at all could touch him. "Cool, okay," Wei Ying said, blowing out a breath, and they walked out of the bedroom.

Giovanni's was a ten-minute walk from their building, and the weather was mild, breezy but not biting. Wei Ying chattered on as they walked, Lan Zhan as always humming to encourage him.

"By the way, jiejie says hi," he said as they approached the block with the restaurant.

"Thank you, please send my regards as well. How is she feeling?"

Wei Ying shrugged. "She's six months pregnant, so she's, like…fine? But tired? She says it's better than the first trimester was."

"Mn. I've heard that the first trimester in particular can be quite difficult."

"Yeah," Wei Ying agreed just as they walked up to Giovanni's. "Ready?" He pulled the door open and allowed Lan Zhan to walk in first, enjoying the view as he did. Then he ordered himself to look up (and away from Lan Zhan's ass) and be. Normal.

Incredibly, even though they hadn't thought to make a reservation and it was a Saturday night, they got a table in a corner by the window. The restaurant was the sort that had, like, white tablecloths covering the tables and real candles in the middle. The menu was short but impressive, and the wine list long and extensive.

Inspiration struck. "Hey, Lan Zhan," Wei Ying said as they were seated and given a menu each. "Tonight's on me, all right?"

Lan Zhan looked at him in surprise. "You don't wish to split it?"

"No." Even though he'd have to tighten his belt a bit this week to make up for this. "It was my idea, right?"

"Actually—"

"Shut up, it was," Wei Ying said easily. "So, it's on me. You can get us next time."

Lan Zhan studied him over the flickering light of the candle for a long moment, before lowering his eyelashes as he looked down at the menu. "Mn. Very well. Next time."

Wei Ying grinned and began to study his menu, as well. They were given waters and then left alone to peruse. "And you shouldn't hold back, either," Wei Ying suggested. "Get whatever your heart desires."

"Very generous of you," Lan Zhan said with amusement. Maybe he didn't trust that Wei Ying would actually end up paying for it, because there had been so many times in college when Wei Ying had promised to treat him to a meal and had wound up without money each time, but that had been college, and this was different. Even though he was a poor doctoral student, he wasn't as poor as he'd been as an undergraduate. Besides, he did have a credit card. It would just take him a little bit to pay it off, that was all.

"And a drink! Don't forget to get a drink."

Lan Zhan looked up at him. "What would you suggest?"

Wordlessly, Wei Ying took up the drinks menu and studied it for a moment. "Wine, I think. You should go for wine. It's less intense than liquor, and beer isn't really to your taste."

Lan Zhan nodded agreeably. "You're right. What do you suggest for wine, then?"

Wei Ying, who was more of a beer and liquor sort of guy, suggested a sauvignon blanc that wasn't the most expensive, but also not the cheapest. He was treating Lan Zhan, after all.

For himself, he ordered a whiskey. Might as well enjoy himself.

Once their server collected their orders and left with a promise to get them their drinks, Wei Ying leaned his chin on his hand and, gazing at Lan Zhan, said, "This is so nice."

Lan Zhan spread his napkin on his lap and looked up. "Which part?"

"This, us," Wei Ying said, waving a hand between them. "It's nice because there's no pressure, you know?"

"Mn."

"Like, if I were to take a date here, I'd have to figure out what to talk about, try to impress them…ugh. Dating's the worst, isn't it?"

Lan Zhan studied him, not saying anything for a moment. Then he hummed in agreement.

"I like that…" Wei Ying was probably being too honest here, but what the hell. "I like that with us, you know, being friends, we don't have to try. I already like you, you know?" And how, a little voice piped up. "And you like me." Though in a different way, he reminded himself. "Friends is good, isn't it?" He was getting all tangled up, talking too much, too heartfelt and weird, and he didn't know how to stop. "Right?" Shut up, Wei Ying.

Lan Zhan was quiet for a moment, looking down at the candle between them. "Mn," he finally said. "I am very glad we're friends, Wei Ying."

Wei Ying grinned. "Hell yeah." Before he could say something even more embarrassing, their server appeared with their drinks, as though called by magic. Wei Ying breathed out in relief. "Thank you!" He gave her a big smile.

She smiled back as she set the drinks down. "Can I get your orders? Or would you like a few more minutes?"

They asked for more time, and after she left, Wei Ying said, "We should toast!"

"To what?" Lan Zhan asked mildly.

"To…us!" He was digging his own grave here, but let it never be said that Wei Ying had ever had a sense of self-preservation.

"Very well," Lan Zhan responded, lifting his wine glass. "To friendship."

They clinked glasses, Wei Ying's crystal tumbler resonating against Lan Zhan's wine glass. The whiskey was good—smokey, dark, complex. He savored the first sip and set down the tumbler. "How's the wine?"

Lan Zhan pursed his lips around his own sip and Wei Ying watched his throat working. " Quite good. Thank you for the recommendation."

"Now, don't go falling asleep on me, all right?"

"I wouldn't dare," Lan Zhan said gravely. "It would be very burdensome, to make you carry me back before having a single bite to eat."

Wei Ying cracked up. "That's right. Anyway, what are you getting?"

Lan Zhan did not fall asleep in the next minute, but he did loosen up. He took a long time to decide what to get, sending the server back once more, until he was satisfied with his selection of butternut squash ravioli, while Wei Ying watched him with amusement and picked his own meal. Once their orders were in, Lan Zhan leaned his chin on his hand and said, "Why don't you date, Wei Ying?"

"What?"

"Dating. You mentioned that it's the worst, but you used to. Date, that is. In college."

Wei Ying blew out a breath. "I mean, I guess? That was more like…sleeping around, wasn't it? I wasn't exactly taking people out to eat or anything. I just hung out with them and we'd, you know. Fuck sometimes."

"Hmm."

"You didn't, either!" he said defensively.

"I did," Lan Zhan said stubbornly. "I definitely dated in college."

"You were with people, but I don't recall you, like, going out on the town or anything."

"I don't like to go out," Lan Zhan said, eyebrows drawn. "But I had a few dates here and there."

"I don't remember this," Wei Ying insisted. "Name one."

"Kenneth."

"Kenneth. Pah!" Wei Ying lowered his voice, looking around. "Did that guy ever take you out? You guys just spent all your time in either his dorm room or yours."

"I made him dinner," Lan Zhan said in a defensive tone. "That's like dating."

Wei Ying narrowed his eyes, then cracked up. "Okay, okay, you totally dated."

"And you changed the subject." Damn Lan Zhan. Even tipsy, he was on top of his shit. "Tell me why you haven't dated lately."

Wei Ying squirmed. This was hitting a little too close to home. "I don't know, Lan Zhan…there's no time, I guess? I'm so busy."

"Mn."

"You are too! Why don't you date?"

Lan Zhan stared at him. "Don't change the subject."

Wei Ying cracked up. Lan Zhan was like a dog with a bone sometimes. "Fine, fine, fine. Dating is hell. It's like…I like people, I do, but when I have to make a concerted effort and present myself a certain way, I just can't do it. It's too much. I have to, like, watch what I say in case I say something stupid and they take it the wrong way, I have to, I don't know, remember to be polite and ask them questions even if I'm not remotely interested, I have to spend time with people who turn out to be duds… It's boring. I'd much rather not."

"But you are looking for…something."

Wei Ying stilled, watching him. Did Lan Zhan…did he know, somehow? No, no, of course not. Why would he? Wei Ying cleared his throat. "I mean, eventually, yeah. I'd love to…" He gathered his thoughts. "I'd love to have a partner someday. Someone I felt comfortable with, someone I was attracted to, someone who challenged me and was interesting and…" He petered out. He was describing Lan Zhan.

"Yes?" Lan Zhan's intense gaze was boring into Wei Ying's.

Wei Ying shrugged, forcing a smile. "And that's pretty much it." He raised his whiskey to his lips and took a sip.

"Hmm. Do you want children?"

Wei Ying nearly spit out his drink. "What?"

"Children. That's a reasonable question to ask, isn't it?"

It was, but Wei Ying just hadn't been expecting it. He was too young to think about having kids, he barely had his shit together. "I mean…someday?" He scratched the back of his head. "Sure, of course. I love kids." He fortified himself with another sip of his whiskey. "What about you?"

"I would like to be a father, yes," Lan Zhan said, completely blunt. "Someday."

Wei Ying's heart picked up, thudding in his chest. He pictured it: Lan Zhan, partnered up, with a kid in his arms. Some guy would be lucky as all hell to have Lan Zhan be the father of his kid. Kids, maybe. Multiple. Imagining Lan Zhan with more than one kid was akin to stabbing Wei Ying through the gut, he could barely breathe, picturing it. He had to change the subject. "Well, cool. You'd be good at it. Anyway, that's all in the future, right?"

Lan Zhan's eyelashes fluttered as he lowered his gaze. "Of course."

"Right. For now, we're just two single dudes dragging our feet on dating." He raised his glass. "To being single, I guess! I mean…you know…don't tell the building."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Lan Zhan said, raising his own glass. He didn't look at Wei Ying as he took a sip.

Wei Ying changed the subject to school, getting Lan Zhan going on all the idiots in his department. That was one of Wei Ying's favorite forms of entertainment, especially since Lan Zhan was so buttoned up most of the time and rarely said a bad word about anyone unless he was really ticked off. Getting him tipsy, however, unlocked all sorts of secret bitchiness and Wei Ying reveled in it, giggling so hard he was nearly tipping over in his chair.

"Lan Zhan! I thought you liked your department chair!"

"Who, Sobolski? Why would I like that old blowhard?"

"Lan Zhan!"

Lan Zhan frowned, looking confused. "He's told me before that he believes that my area of study is too niche and he is, frankly, surprised that my advisor has—and I quote—gone along with it. He's a narrow-minded old white man who belongs in a museum, not a university chairship."

"But tell me how you really feel." Wei Ying sniggered. "Why have you never said this before?"

"It did not come up," Lan Zhan responded primly. "Oh, good, there's our food. Quiet now."

It was, indeed, their dinner. Wei Ying watched with amusement as Lan Zhan's attention clearly switched from trash-talking his chair to tucking into his food, one small bite at a time. Wei Ying was starving, so he all but shoveled his shrimp scampi in his mouth. It really was delicious—well worth the price. Lan Zhan seemed to be enjoying his tortellini, too, even though nobody would ever actually be able to tell. Wei Ying could always tell.

It wasn't until they were all done with their plates that Lan Zhan spoke again. "I am…glad…that we both ended up here for graduate school," he said quietly, completely out of nowhere.

"Yeah?" Wei Ying drummed his fingers on the surface of the table. It hadn't exactly been an accident, or anything: Wei Ying found out where Lan Zhan had been applying and applied there, as well. He could have gone to a school across the country—he would have gotten more money, for one—but being away from Lan Zhan didn't fit into his life plans, so he'd made his choice. He wondered why Lan Zhan was suddenly bringing it up.

"Mn." Lan Zhan laid his hands down in his lap and looked up at Wei Ying. "Your…friendship…is very important to me."

Wei Ying felt himself flushing all the way down to his toes. "Lan Zhan…" He squirmed. Lan Zhan never talked about things this openly. It must have been the alcohol. It made Wei Ying wildly uncomfortable. "What's all this?"

Lan Zhan shrugged, then looked away. "It came to mind, that's all." He picked up his drink and took another sip, a long one this time. "Forgive me."

"Nothing to forgive!" For whatever reason, Wei Ying felt melancholy, and wanting to dispel the feeling, said, "Want dessert?"

"No, thank you."

"Oh, come on, not even a little bit of cake? A brownie? Ice cream?" Wei Ying knew that Lan Zhan had a secret sweet tooth that he refused to indulge most of the time. "They have carrot cake…"

Lan Zhan's eyes lit up. "They do?"

"Mmhmm!" Wei Ying felt triumphant. Lan Zhan was such a weirdo. "They sure do. Come on, what do you say? It's on me."

Lan Zhan looked like he was really struggling there for a moment, which was adorable, and finally said, "Very well. Let's have dessert."

"Yessssss!"

Wei Ying wasn't drunk, but Lan Zhan sure was. Wei Ying giggled as he held Lan Zhan against him, arm around his waist, as they walked. "You're such a cheap date," Wei Ying said as Lan Zhan weaved a bit next to him.

"That was not a very cheap bill," Lan Zhan said in all seriousness. "Are you sure you don't want some money for it?"

"Lan Zhan! Shut up, I told you—my treat." He pressed him a bit closer. "All I'm saying is, you're an easy drunk."

"Hmm." Lan Zhan sounded almost pissy. "I have no tolerance nor much of a taste for it. Of course I get drunk easily."

"It's not an insult," Wei Ying laughed, making sure that Lan Zhan didn't, like, fall over by accident. "It's cute. You're a very adorable lightweight."

Another pissy sort of hum from Lan Zhan. Wei Ying cracked up.

When they finally made it to their building, Wei Ying had to hold onto Lan Zhan with one hand while scanning his fob with another so they could get through the door.

"This lobby is very well appointed," Lan Zhan said as they made their way to the elevators.

"It's what?" Wei Ying laughed.

"Well appointed. And constructed. Don't you agree?"

"It's a lobby, Lan Zhan, I don't fucking know whether it's well appointed. I mean, if you're looking for an engineering perspective—mmph!"

Lan Zhan had shut him up with a kiss. Wei Ying's eyes grew huge with shock before sliding closed without his input and then they were making out right there in the lobby, between two sets of elevators. Lan Zhan was even, like, moaning softly as he kissed, which went directly to Wei Ying's unfortunately interested dick. Lan Zhan tasted sweet like his dessert and slightly tart from the wine. Wei Ying wanted to pull away, get them onto an elevator, and take Lan Zhan home, but he couldn't move with how hard Lan Zhan was holding onto his waist, how deeply he was kissing him.

Oh, fuck, that felt good. Wei Ying pressed up closer, allowed Lan Zhan to bend him backwards a little, even, knowing the whole time they had to stop, any moment now somebody was going to show up and interrupt them, or worse, not interrupt them, and Wei Ying gathered all of his will power, every last shred of it, as he finally managed to put his hands on Lan Zhan's chest and push him gently away.

"Fuck…Lan Zhan…"

Lan Zhan's eyes were half-lidded and he was still straining towards Wei Ying, which was a very compelling reason to allow the madness to continue, but Wei Ying quickly turned around and pressed the "up" button. Lan Zhan grabbed him around the middle and twisted him back around the next moment. "Wei Ying—"

Wei Ying allowed himself to be kissed again, he was powerless to stop it. Lan Zhan's velvet tongue slid against his, eliciting a pretty embarrassing moan from Wei Ying, and he could have kept going, fuck everything else, if not for the ding of the elevator behind him.

"Lan Zhan—Lan Zhan, let's get—let's get home," he murmured, hands toying with the buttons on Lan Zhan's lightweight jacket.

"Mmm…yes. Let's do that," Lan Zhan said, the first words he'd said in a while.

Relieved, Wei Ying pulled him into the elevator and punched the button for their floor. The door slid slowly shut and, predictably, Lan Zhan was on him. Pressed up against the wall, all Wei Ying could do was kiss him back, deep and hard and wanting. He wanted, he wanted so much. He wanted to tear Lan Zhan's clothes off, wanted to sink to his knees and finally taste him; wanted to roll over and have Lan Zhan fuck him until Wei Ying coudn't see straight; wanted to spend all night kissing him, pressed up skin to skin.

He couldn't have any of that, at least not with Lan Zhan drunk like this. Wei Ying was already pushing it by allowing this to happen, telling himself Lan Zhan knew what he was doing, but Wei Ying knew better. Lan Zhan had no idea what he was doing, and Wei Ying wasn't about to let anything happen that Lan Zhan might regret.

He tore his mouth away and panted against Lan Zhan's smooth cheek as Lan Zhan took advantage of their closeness and began to kiss Wei Ying's jaw, nudged beneath it and placed a series of soft kisses just below. Wei Ying swallowed, nearly whimpering with how good it felt, how badly he wanted to never stop.

The elevator dipped and stopped. Gathering all of his strength, Wei Ying pulled Lan Zhan away from himself and managed to twist him around even as Lan Zhan protested, and march him out into the hallway. Lan Zhan did, at least, allow himself to be towed along while Wei Ying fumbled for his keys and got the door open.

Between them, they somehow slid off their shoes, leaving them in a pile by the door, and took off their jackets, throwing them over the arm of the couch. Wei Ying didn't waste any time in grabbing Lan Zhan's hand and leading him to the bedroom.

"Sit," he ordered, and pushed Lan Zhan down onto the bed. Lan Zhan sank down and blinked at him, eyes widening as Wei Ying dropped down to his knees. Wei Ying didn't look at him as he busied himself with slipping off Lan Zhan's socks, something that felt almost unbearably intimate, taking hold of his bony ankles and revealing his feet, one by one. He had really nice feet—elegant, with a high arch. Wei Ying bit his lip, then made himself sit up and reached for Lan Zhan's shirt, starting to undo his buttons. He could feel Lan Zhan's heavy gaze on him but deliberately only looked at what his hands were doing, undoing each delicate button one by one. As he undid them, more and more of Lan Zhan's pale skin showed as his shirt slumped open, and it took all of Wei Ying's strength not to bury his face against his chest and kiss his way downward. Lan Zhan's shirt gave way and there were his ridiculous abs, his neat belly button, the space below it. Wei Ying's mouth watered for him, and he cursed himself inwardly for his absolutely inappropriate thoughts.

"Off," he murmured, having undone Lan Zhan's sleeve buttons, and Lan Zhan sat obediently as Wei Ying slid his shirt off of his (beautiful, wide) shoulders. "Okay, stand up."

Lan Zhan did, putting Wei Ying right on level with his crotch. Quickly, Wei Ying stood up, as well, and couldn't make himself do the deed. "Take off your pants," he commanded.

Lan Zhan silently reached for his own fly and undid it, letting his pants drop to the ground. He was left in only his underwear.

Wei Ying cleared his throat. "Bathroom. Go brush your teeth."

Lan Zhan sighed but obeyed, walking into the bathroom, turning on the light, and going through the motions. Wei Ying, in the meantime, busied himself with turning down the bed, lighting their bedside lamps, turning off the overhead. He grabbed Lan Zhan's phone, which had fallen alongside his pants to the floor, and plugged it in. Then he took out his own and plugged that in, as well. Then he walked into the bathroom in time to see Lan Zhan washing his face like a good boy, and reached for his nighttime moisturizer, twisting it open. He watched as Lan Zhan went through his routine automatically, his heart beating hard inside his chest, then marched him back into the bedroom. "Time to sleep," he commanded, telling himself that as well as Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan looked like he was going to argue, his mouth pinched and eyebrows drawn together, but Wei Ying repeated, "Sleep," and Lan Zhan dropped his gaze and finally allowed himself to be dropped down onto the bed. As an indulgence, Wei Ying fluffed up his pillow, then whispered, "Lay back, sweetheart," and Lan Zhan lay down. Wei Ying covered him up with their comforter. "Good night, Lan Zhan."

"What about you?" Lan Zhan asked, sounding a bit more sober.

"I'm gonna take a shower, and then come to bed. All right?"

"Mn. I'll wait for you."

Wei Ying smiled. He wanted to lean down and kiss him, but stopped himself. "You'll be dead-ass asleep."

"I'll wait for you," Lan Zhan repeated stubbornly.

Wei Ying gave a huff of laughter, grabbed his pajamas, and went to shower, trying not to think about anything in particular as he went through the motions. By the time he was done and walking back out into the bedroom, he fully expected Lan Zhan to be out like a light, but he stopped short as his gaze met Lan Zhan's.

"I told you I'd wait for you," Lan Zhan said quietly.

"You did," Wei Ying responded, helpless. He dried his hair and hung his towel over the bathroom door, then walked over to Lan Zhan's side of the bed and turned off his bedside lamp. Lan Zhan's eyes followed his every move. Wei Ying swallowed and walked slowly over to his own side. He got into bed, which was, as always, warm from Lan Zhan's body heat, and reached over to turn off his own light. They were plunged into darkness.

Just as he was about to turn over and try to go to sleep, warm hands reached for him and Lan Zhan gently turned Wei Ying around to face him.

"Lan Zhan?"

Lan Zhan leaned in and kissed him. This time, there was none of the urgency of their earlier kisses. It was quiet, slow, sweet. Wei Ying slipped his eyes shut and kissed him back, unable to resist. Lan Zhan rolled over him and they kissed, and kissed, and kissed. Wei Ying felt so warm, and not only because he'd just gotten out of the shower. Lan Zhan was pressing him down into the bed, stealing his breath. They weren't hard, and Wei Ying knew that Lan Zhan didn't want anything more from him. But he had waited for Wei Ying and was now kissing him with such sweet intent, it was almost enough to believe it meant more than it did.

But Lan Zhan was drunk, and Wei Ying unfortunately sober, and he knew better.

Finally, their kisses slowed, and Wei Ying gently pushed him back. "Time to sleep," he whispered.

Lan Zhan made a sleepy noise and allowed himself to be pressed down onto his own pillow. "Time to sleep," he agreed.

"Good night, Lan Zhan."

"Good night, Wei Ying." And the next moment, Wei Ying heard Lan Zhan's quiet, even breathing. He'd fallen asleep.

It took Wei Ying a lot longer to do the same.

The next morning, Wei Ying woke up alone. He lay in bed, blinking at the wall, and strained to hear any noises from the rest of the apartment, but all was quiet. What finally got him up, though, was the smell of coffee permeating through the closed bedroom door. It was ten am.

Wei Ying padded into the bathroom and peed, then washed his hands and splashed his face with cold water to wake up more. Still wearing his t-shirt and sleeping shorts, he finally went into the kitchen, which was empty. The coffee was brewing, though, so he poured himself a cup and only after taking the first sip did he see the note on the counter. It was written in Lan Zhan's neat, perfectly legible handwriting.

Wei Ying, I went to take advantage of the university library. I'll be back this afternoon. Enjoy the coffee.

Lan Zhan

Wei Ying's stomach dropped to his toes and he stood there, attempting to figure out why, exactly. It wasn't that unusual for Lan Zhan to be gone by the time Wei Ying woke up, but Wei Ying had usually known ahead of time that would be the case, because Lan Zhan would have told him. And Wei Ying must have missed him by ten minutes, at the most, considering how recently the coffee was put on. Unless Lan Zhan figured out how to program it, of course. Coffeemakers were as smart as computers nowadays.

Wei Ying took another sip of coffee, then went into the bedroom to retrieve his phone and wound up sitting cross-legged on the couch, scrolling through emails (most of which were from students sent at two in the morning) and feeling an empty sort of ache inside his chest.

Why was he this level of upset at having woken up alone in the apartment? He should really be happy—he rarely got a chance to be alone these days. He should have been celebrating. Walking around naked, masturbating in bed, possibly even watching something mind-numbingly stupid on TV, or even taking a bath—he'd only taken one so far, a real waste of that tub. Instead, he was moping while drinking the coffee Lan Zhan had brewed for him.

He hesitated for a moment, then called up Jiang Cheng's text chain on his phone. The last message had just been the fuming emoji from him, which Wei Ying had ignored, because he knew it would have made Jiang Cheng even more furious.

Wanna hang out?

If he hung out with Jiang Cheng, he wouldn't have to be all alone in the apartment, and maybe by the time he got back, Lan Zhan would already be home. But Jiang Cheng's response came swiftly.

Can't. Work. Don't you have a dissertation to write or something?

Wei Ying groaned. Jiang Cheng was right—he'd been neglecting his own work in favor of assisting with the courses he was TAing, but it was more than time to get back to it. His advisor was waiting on his latest chapter, and Wei Ying had to deliver sooner rather than later.

He allowed himself the luxury of finishing his first cup of coffee in peace, then made himself get up and get dressed. There was something about working on his dissertation in pajamas that didn't lend itself to thinking. Then he looked at Lan Zhan's chair, brought over his laptop, and took up residence in it. It really was a very comfortable chair, and his lower back was inexplicably aching.

And then, after dawdling for another twenty minutes, answering students' increasingly unhinged emails, he finally got to work.

By the time Lan Zhan returned, Wei Ying had only managed about 400 words or so, but had amassed enough research to help with the rest of the chapter. He blinked and looked up as he heard Lan Zhan's key in the lock, his stomach swooping in anticipation. When had his stomach begun to swoop at the mere sound of Lan Zhan's key in the door? Wei Ying shut his laptop and waited.

Lan Zhan walked through the door the next moment, clocking Wei Ying sitting in his chair immediately. "Hello," he said.

"Hey, sorry I'm in your seat," Wei Ying rasped. He cleared his throat. "How was the library?"

"No need to apologize." A miniscule smile touched his lips. "The library was quiet," Lan Zhan went on as he bent down to unlace his shoes. "How was your day?"

"Mine? Oh, you know." Wei Ying blew out a breath. "Dissertation hell. Thanks for the coffee, by the way."

Lan Zhan straightened up and pushed his shoes into place with his socked toes. "Of course." He sounded almost surprised, like it was his job to make Wei Ying coffee. "Have you had lunch?"

"Uh…" In truth, Wei Ying hadn't had breakfast, either. He'd been too engrossed in his work, and of course, right on cue, his stomach growled, letting its emptiness be known.

"Wei Ying," Lan Zhan admonished. "You haven't eaten anything? It's almost four."

"Sorry! I just, you know how it is. I get all…busy."

"Mn." Lan Zhan eyed him critically, then said, "I'll make you something to eat."

"What? No, Lan Zhan—" Wei Ying set down his laptop and hopped up off the chair. "I can figure something out, it just hadn't occurred to me, that's all, you know?" He followed Lan Zhan into the kitchen, standing in the doorway and watching, helplessly, as Lan Zhan began rooting around in the fridge. "Seriously, you don't have to…"

Lan Zhan was already coming out with ingredients. "It's not a problem," he said mildly, "Or a hardship to feed you, Wei Ying."

Wei Ying sighed. "That makes me sound like a puppy who can't get his own food because he doesn't have any thumbs."

Lan Zhan raised an eyebrow, making Wei Ying crack up. "I have thumbs, look!" He demonstrated this remarkable fact. "I just forget, that's all."

"And I am here to remind you," Lan Zhan said quietly as he began washing the vegetables he'd found.

Wei Ying stood in the doorway and watched him in silence, contemplating the long lines of him, the easy grace with which he moved. How was Lan Zhan even real? How could one person embody so much elegance? Wei Ying felt his jaw working and attempted to loosen it. He was in big, big trouble here. And he had to figure out how to get out of it sooner rather than later, because falling for your best friend was about as hopeless of a situation as he could imagine. Lan Zhan was, as previously noted, acting no differently towards him now than before they'd started doing…whatever it was they were doing…which meant that he wasn't going through the same turmoil as Wei Ying. Thus, Wei Ying had to get a hold of himself. He had to stop taking advantage of Lan Zhan's proximity or tipsiness or whatever other kind of madness was forcing them together on occasion, and move on. They'd probably convinced everybody they were a couple by now, and jiejie was right—it wasn't like every couple had to prove their coupledom by the judicious application of PDAs. They were done. Wei Ying was done.

As he watched Lan Zhan's back, Wei Ying told himself firmly that next time—if there even was a next time—Lan Zhan wanted to start something, Wei Ying would stop him. Nicely.

At that moment, Lan Zhan turned around, looking at Wei Ying in silence, as though wondering what Wei Ying's problem was. Flustered, Wei Ying said, "I'm gonna—bathroom. Be right back." And left the kitchen as quickly as possible.

Next time, he told himself, there would be no next time, because next time, Wei Ying would say no.

Of course, that was easier said than done, because the next time the opportunity arose, Wei Ying couldn't say no at all.

They were coming back from grocery shopping and who would happen to be standing by the elevators, waiting, but Su She, the dude who'd come onto Lan Zhan back at the wine tasting event. He gave them both a sour look, then turned his gaze away pointedly.

Wei Ying was feeling punchy, so he said, "Hi Su She, how are you doing?"

Su She, forced by politeness to acknowledge him after all, gritted out, "I'm fine. Yourself?"

"Oh, can't complain, can't complain. Just doing a bit of grocery shopping." He hefted one of the bags in his hands that had a baguette sticking out of it (Wei Ying had insisted on that one).

Su She made some sort of an acknowledging noise, then turned away from them again, not even looking at Lan Zhan, who was standing just a bit too close to Wei Ying, exuding warmth. Wei Ying turned to Lan Zhan with amusement—can you believe this asshole?—and found him already staring at Wei Ying with an intent that had become familiar. Wei Ying had a moment of preparing himself before Lan Zhan leaned in and kissed him.

All things considered, it should have been a peck. Just a quick acknowledging sort of kiss, because who needed to make out in front of Su She? (Again.) Well, apparently, Lan Zhan hadn't gotten the memo about that, because there they suddenly were, making out in front of Su She. Wei Ying wanted with his whole entire soul to stop, to push Lan Zhan gently back, to take a breath, but was utterly unable to. Distantly, he heard the ding of the elevator, but most of him was preoccupied, and it was all he could do to hold onto the bags of groceries in his hands as Lan Zhan kissed the ever-loving shit out of him.

The thing was, Lan Zhan was a really good kisser, and Wei Ying—Wei Ying was in love with him. It would have taken a man much stronger than him to push Lan Zhan away in that moment, and when they finally came up for air, Su She was long gone and they were alone by the elevators, breathing against one another, Lan Zhan's warm breath tickling Wei Ying's lips.

"Hi," Wei Ying whispered. "What was that for?"

"Su She, of course," Lan Zhan responded in that mild tone of his. He didn't move away.

"Oh." Wei Ying stepped back—or tried to, but Lan Zhan followed him, his gaze trained on Wei Ying's mouth. Wei Ying licked his lips and watched in fascination as Lan Zhan's nostrils flared. "You, uh…should we push the button?"

"Mn."

Before Wei Ying knew what was happening, Lan Zhan was backing him up and Wei Ying had a wild moment of thinking that Lan Zhan meant to back him all the way up to the closed elevator door when Lan Zhan reached past him and pressed the button. Wei Ying carefully breathed out. They were still about an inch away. "Uh, thanks for doing that," he said quietly.

"Mn." And then Lan Zhan leaned back in and everything in Wei Ying melted.

They were still making out as they made their way down the hall, as Lan Zhan let them in, as they stumbled, taking off their shoes and setting down their bags. As soon as Lan Zhan's hands were empty, he grabbed Wei Ying around the middle and pulled him in. Wei Ying felt the bags in his hands slip from his grasp and just barely managed to set them down before mumbling, "The fish, we should…refrigerate…the fish…"

"Mn. Yes." Lan Zhan mercifully pulled away, then stooped down to grab the bag with the fish in it—how did he even remember which one it was?—and hustled into the kitchen. Wei Ying was left with the other three bags, standing in the entryway, blinking. He managed to come to his senses long enough to grab them and bring them into the kitchen, and then Lan Zhan, having apparently put the fish away, was on him.

"Lan Zhan—Lan Zhan, there's, like, yogurts and—mmm—and probably other shit that needs to be—Lan Zhan—"

"Later, they will keep—"

"Lan Zhan!"

"Very well," Lan Zhan said, sounding almost pissy—hilarious—then stooped down and rooted around in the bags before coming out with the yogurt drinks they'd picked up and shoving them into the fridge. "Anything else?"

"Uh, no, I mean—mmmph."

Wei Ying melted against him. He knew, he knew he should have been stopping this, stopping them, but he was weak, as was his flesh. Lan Zhan felt too good against him, tasted too much like himself, for Wei Ying to be able to say no to him. And an insistent Lan Zhan was a force to be reckoned with—Wei Ying definitely wasn't strong enough to do that. If he could get this, get a little piece of Lan Zhan, even if it wasn't the piece he wanted, wasn't the only piece he wanted, he would do it. He had no other choice. If this was all that was on offer, he would jump at the chance. Forget self-preservation—Wei Ying had absolutely none.

He allowed himself to be walked backwards out of the kitchen and into the bedroom, being kissed all the while, Lan Zhan's tongue hot and insistent in his mouth, his hands wrapped around Wei Ying's jaw. Wei Ying moaned and had a moment of lucidity—if they were in the bedroom, that might lead to more than kissing, and they hadn't actually done that in a bed yet—before giving up all thought.

Lan Zhan pushed him backwards until Wei Ying hit the bed and dropped down, and then Lan Zhan was on his knees, reaching for the hem of Wei Ying's shirt, silent and intent. Wei Ying wanted to ask what they were doing, wanted to ask what it was Lan Zhan wanted, but he knew that if he were to speak, he would break the spell, and he didn't want to know, anyway. So he allowed himself to be stripped of his t-shirt, allowed himself to be kissed as Lan Zhan's hands fumbled with his fly. Wei Ying moaned and reached for Lan Zhan's clothes, untucking his shirt from his trousers, then reaching for the row of tiny buttons, undoing them one by one. The two of them turned frantic, their movements clumsy, Wei Ying's hands shaking. This wasn't just kissing, and this wasn't a fumble on the couch or even a fuck up against the door, this was something else entirely.

Wei Ying finally succeeded in undoing Lan Zhan's shirt and he slipped it off his shoulders, Lan Zhan shrugging out of it frantically, wrists getting stuck in his cuffs. Wei Ying took the chance to lift up his hips and rid himself of his jeans, his dick tenting his underwear obscenely. He wanted, he wanted, he wanted. Lan Zhan finally succeeded in ridding himself of his shirt and then he undid his own fly and took care of his trousers. Wei Ying could barely take a breath when Lan Zhan surged forward and captured his mouth in another kiss while moving them up the bed, his body over Wei Ying's feeling huge and warm and alive. They moved until Wei Ying's head hit a pillow, at which point Lan Zhan dropped down until he was covering Wei Ying completely. Wei Ying moaned and clutched at him, while Lan Zhan's hands hovered around his face, as though he was scared to touch him, despite most of him touching Wei Ying elsewhere.

And Lan Zhan was hard. Wei Ying felt it like a brand against his hip, felt it as he moved, thrusting up against Lan Zhan, seeking friction. Legs entwined, Lan Zhan responded by mirroring his movements and then they were humping right there on the bed, kissing the whole time. Wei Ying's heart was pounding in his chest, arousal overtaking everything. He wanted so much, but there was one desire that was coming to the fore, one thing he was absolutely terrified to ask for but wanted so much, his fingertips tingled from it.

"Lan Zhan…Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan," he panted as Lan Zhan continued kissing him—his lips, his cheek, his jaw, below it. "Lan Zhan—"

"What is it?" Lan Zhan mumbled, hands running all down Wei Ying's sides, awakening his skin everywhere they touched.

"Will you—fuck—will you—" He swallowed, unable to say it. It felt too big, too much of an imposition, almost, which was stupid, really, but—

Lan Zhan pulled back and looked at Wei Ying. His eyes were so dark, they were nearly black. He was stupidly beautiful as he hovered over him, a question on his lips. "What do you want, Wei Ying?" he whispered even as he pushed a stray hair off of Wei Ying's forehead.

"Will you fuck me?" Wei Ying managed to ask through his tight throat. There—he'd asked, and now he waited for Lan Zhan's reaction, which came on a delay.

Lan Zhan's lips moved soundlessly, eyebrows drawn, and then his eyes widened almost imperceptibly and he swallowed. "Do you want me to?" he asked, voice hoarse.

"Yes," Wei Ying whispered, so quietly it was a breath between them. "I do," he added, louder this time. "Will you?"

Lan Zhan made a noise and kissed him the next moment, deep and dirty and so fucking good, Wei Ying's cock gave a kick. "Yes," Lan Zhan mumbled against him. "Yes, yes, you really—you want it?"

"Fuck yes, come on," Wei Ying wheedled, "Want it so bad."

Lan Zhan kissed him again. It was slow, heavy, the sort of kiss that preceded a very good time. Wei Ying practically melted into the bed, for all that he felt like a string pulled too taut, like if Lan Zhan didn't do something the next moment, he might snap. He was all sensation, too hot from Lan Zhan's body, and yet shivering from the anticipation. He knew it was a bad idea. It was such a bad idea, but he also knew he couldn't stop this, not anymore. He'd asked, Lan Zhan had answered. And Wei Ying didn't want to stop.

He wrapped his arms around Lan Zhan's neck, pulled away slightly, and murmured, "Come on, get naked."

Lan Zhan made an unintelligible noise, which was delightful. It was so unlike him. This is what Lan Zhan was like in bed, a little voice piped up in Wei Ying's head. Then Lan Zhan pulled away, dislodging Wei Ying's hold, and dropped down next to him, still watching Wei Ying with that heavy sex gaze he had going on, the one that sent zings down Wei Ying's body right down to his toes. Before he took off his own underwear, however, Lan Zhan reached for Wei Ying's. Wei Ying lifted his hips up automatically and Lan Zhan slid his boxer-briefs down one-handed, all but tearing them off of Wei Ying.

Wei Ying giggled as he kicked them off—he couldn't help himself. "Eager?"

Lan Zhan leaned in and kissed him instead of responding, running his warm hand all down Wei Ying's front, waking up all of his nerve endings. He finished his journey with a slide over Wei Ying's dick, not yet taking hold of it, but sort of acknowledging it—hey, there's your dick, and I am interested in it. Wei Ying whined.

"We should get supplies," Lan Zhan murmured, his hand now running past Wei Ying's dick, caressing the inside of his thigh. Wei Ying swallowed and let his legs fall open in a clear invitation. His heart was beating swift and hard.

"Yeah, uh…" Wei Ying racked his brain for the last time he'd had any need for condoms, wondering if the ones he had were even any good anymore. "I've got uh…lube…in my bedside drawer." He felt himself blushing.

"So do I," Lan Zhan said, not without amusement. "Condoms?"

Wei Ying wrinkled his nose and looked away. "Don't think mine are any good anymore."

Lan Zhan paused, his hand lying heavily over Wei Ying's thigh. "I also don't have any," he said quietly.

Wei Ying looked at him. Lan Zhan looked back. "We live like monks, Lan Zhan," Wei Ying pointed out. "Are you clean? I'm clean. It's been literally years."

"For me as well."

"Fuck the condoms, then."

Lan Zhan's gaze, if anything, got even darker. "Are you sure?"

Oh, Wei Ying was. The idea of feeling Lan Zhan—all of Lan Zhan—against his skin and inside him, with nothing in between: it was a fantasy, unreal. "Yeah," he breathed. "Hang on."

He had to tear himself away from Lan Zhan in order to move to the edge of the bed and open up Lan Zhan's bedside drawer. He didn't look too closely at its contents, noticing the bottle of lube right away. He snatched it up and moved away, guided by Lan Zhan's hands around his waist. Mmm, that felt nice; protective, somehow. Safe.

He held up the bottle triumphantly. "Ta-da!"

"Yes, very good." Lan Zhan's lips twitched, then he grew serious again. "How do you want it? What do you like?"

Wei Ying's throat was dry; this was really happening. He hadn't been kidding—it had been years. He remembered what he liked, but this was Lan Zhan. This wasn't some random fuck. "I, uh. Not a lot of prep, to be honest." He liked to be filled, liked to be opened up by a dick seeking entry, taking it in and adjusting. Call him weird, he loved that part.

"Very well." That was when Lan Zhan finally pulled off his own underwear, and there it was, his glorious dick. Wei Ying eyed it. Maybe he needed a bit more prep than anticipated.

Lan Zhan grabbed the lube and popped it open. "Lie back," he said, somewhat unnecessarily, as Wei Ying was already on his back, legs spread, anticipating. "Relax."

That one was tougher. Wei Ying was tense from want, even nervous—what if Lan Zhan got inside him and it sucked? But he shook all thought away, as he was so very good at, and focused on what Lan Zhan was doing. He was already coating two fingers with the stuff, for once not looking Wei Ying in the eye. He had a crinkle between his brows. He was beautiful in the low lamp light.

Wei Ying took a deep breath and let it out. Lan Zhan reached for him.

He was slow at first as he circled Wei Ying's rim. Wei Ying's body instinctively wanted to pull away from a long-forgotten sensation, but his mind wanted to be closer. He shifted, a clear indication, and Lan Zhan's gaze flew up to his. "You can go a bit faster," Wei Ying suggested.

Lan Zhan gave a somewhat shaky nod, then breached Wei Ying. Wei Ying made an involuntary noise and shut his eyes. It felt—well, strange. It had, after all, been a while. But it was Lan Zhan, therefore it also felt good. Lan Zhan had beautiful hands, slim, elegant fingers, and now he was sliding one inside Wei Ying, slippery with lube. Wei Ying realized he was bunching the covers in his hands. Then he realized they should have pulled them back for this. Then he gave up caring.

"How is it?" Lan Zhan asked quietly. "More?"

Wei Ying assessed his body. Now that he was open, he did want more, and it wasn't fingers his body was seeking. He opened his eyes. "You can—I'm good. I'm ready."

Lan Zhan stilled. "Are you sure?"

Wei Ying nodded. "Told you I don't need a lot of prep."

Lan Zhan visibly swallowed and nodded, almost imperceptibly. "Very well." Then he slipped his finger out. He reached for the lube and poured a whole bunch on his hand, rose up to his knees, and began to slick himself up. Wei Ying felt like somebody had taken a two-by-four and gave him a good whack on the head. Why was Lan Zhan touching himself so fucking hot? Maybe it was the visual of his beautiful hand on his beautiful cock, a dichotomy of elegant and blunt, or maybe it was that now the image was seared into Wei Ying's brain and he'd know, from now on, what Lan Zhan looked like jerking off. Whatever it was, he shuddered and licked his lips, anticipation flooding his mouth.

"How do you want it?" Lan Zhan asked quietly.

"Like this." He wanted to be able to see Lan Zhan's face, wanted to wrap every one of his limbs around him, pull him close.

Lan Zhan seemed to pause for a moment, and then he was grabbing Wei Ying's thigh, spreading him open, and getting in between. "Pillow?"

"Nah, fuck it." Wei Ying bit his lip. "You can hold me up, right?" It was a strangely flirty thing to say in the middle of things, but it was true: Lan Zhan was strong. Wei Ying was pretty sure this wouldn't be a difficulty for him.

Lan Zhan's eyebrow quirked in response. "I can." And then he was grabbing Wei Ying's hips, lifting him up, and sliding his own knees underneath him. Wei Ying made another slightly embarrassing noise. He was on display like this, and Lan Zhan's hands felt like brands on his skin.

Wei Ying squirmed, waiting, watching Lan Zhan's chest rising and falling rapidly. He was fucking gorgeous. It kept hitting Wei Ying, over and over and over again, as though his brain was constantly being reminded. As though he could forget. He stared at Lan Zhan and finally bumped his hips, wanton. "C'mon, c'mon, been waiting long enough."

Lan Zhan looked as though he'd woken up from a dream or something. "Yes." With one hand, he continued to hold Wei Ying's hips, with the other, he reached for his dick, lining himself up. Wei Ying helped by raising his hips even more, and then Lan Zhan was sliding slowly in.

Even just the head felt like too much. Wei Ying gasped, head tilting back, and squeezed his eyes shut. "More."

"Are you—"

"More, Lan Zhan, come on."

It was a bruising sort of ache, and it all came flooding back to him, why he liked this. It felt intrusive, but full, and he liked the intrusion. Liked having someone else inside him, intimate and strange. And this wasn't just anybody. This was Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan slid in more, causing Wei Ying to whine with it, then a little bit more. He was silent but Wei Ying could feel the tension in his thighs beneath Wei Ying's, in the hand that was gripping his hip. He hoped it bruised. And then, as though he couldn't hold back anymore, Lan Zhan slid quickly all the way in. Wei Ying cried out. Fuck, that was a lot. That was a lot. Lan Zhan was so much, and he was everywhere, it felt like. Beneath and above Wei Ying, over and inside him. Wei Ying swallowed and forced himself to open his eyes, just to see what sort of a picture Lan Zhan made. It was…very compelling. Eyes half-lidded with pleasure, eyebrows drawn, mouth slightly open.

"Move," Wei Ying commanded. "You gotta move."

And slowly, Lan Zhan did. The first thrust was an aching sort of drag, deliberate and languid all at once. Wei Ying watched his abs working as he moved, the shallow shadows of them shifting in the light. Wei Ying himself was tense as hell and he forced his shoulders to relax, his stomach to unclench, for his whole body to stop fighting the intrusion and allow it.

Lan Zhan shifted until he was propped up over Wei Ying by one arm, their breath so close to one another. Without thinking, Wei Ying wrapped his hand around Lan Zhan's arm, feeling the muscle working beneath the skin there. Lan Zhan moved again: slow, deliberate. Wei Ying whined with it. It wasn't enough.

"Come on, fuck me already," he whispered, feeling utterly shameless. "Faster, I like it fast. Hard."

Lan Zhan didn't respond, but the next time he moved, it was a snap of his hips, tightly-controlled. Wei Ying cried out and tightened his hold on Lan Zhan's arms.

His voice was a rasp. "Yeah, just like—like that, c'mon."

And Lan Zhan did. He started to fuck Wei Ying quickly but steadily, thrust after thrust, sending zings of pleasure all through him. Wei Ying didn't even bother to be quiet, he couldn't. Every thrust elicited a moan, open-mouthed and breathy, sounding obscene to his ears.

It was true it had been years and he was a little rusty, but he couldn't remember the last time he felt like this. His body was responding to Lan Zhan the way a plant did to water, it felt like all of him was blooming from pleasure, leaves unfurling. He simply wanted more, more, more—and Lan Zhan kept giving it to him. He kept fucking Wei Ying steadily, hard, shifting them up the bed a little more with each thrust. Wei Ying threw back his head, his eyes having slipped shut of their own accord, and raised his arms above his head, pushing back on the wall, meeting Lan Zhan on every thrust.

His eyes flew open when he felt Lan Zhan's mouth on his, wet and insistent. Wei Ying moaned and kissed him back, deepening the kiss. He wrapped his arms back around Lan Zhan, wondering how he could have ever let him go, and they fucked like that, wrapped around and in one another. Lan Zhan's back was covered in sweat, sweat gathered between them. Wei Ying never wanted them to stop. He wanted to keep fucking Lan Zhan forever, wanted to be this close always, wanted all of him.

Of course, even as they were this close, he didn't have all of Lan Zhan, this wasn't more than two friends taking advantage of a situation. But he pushed that to the side, as it threatened to invade his pleasure, and lost himself in Lan Zhan.

"Wei Ying…"

Wei Ying hummed against his mouth, body lighting up. Nobody was even touching his dick, and he was close to coming. "Yeah—"

"Wei Ying, I'm close, I'm—"

A stab of disappointment—it would be over soon. But Wei Ying couldn't deny that he was close, too, and they probably couldn't keep fucking all night, nobody had that sort of stamina, not even Lan Zhan. "Yeah, yeah—I'm close, too—"

Lan Zhan moved then, shifting his weight to one arm only, and reached for Wei Ying's dick between them. Wei Ying cried out and buried his face against Lan Zhan's shoulder, biting down on the meat of it. He shuddered with pleasure as Lan Zhan began to stroke him, fast and wet, he was so wet. Lan Zhan made a noise of his own and Wei Ying noticed him trembling—he was getting closer.

Wei Ying tightened his hold on him, as though Lan Zhan would disappear the second he came, and then everything coalesced in a peak of pleasure. Wei Ying gave a cry as his orgasm hit him, as he shot across Lan Zhan's hand and between their stomachs, as his entire body trembled with it for one glorious moment and then the aftershocks.

"Wei Ying." Lan Zhan's voice sounded tortured, he must have been desperate himself to come.

"Yeah, Lan Zhan," he breathed. "C'mon, do it, want to—want to feel you—"

Lan Zhan groaned and then fucked Wei Ying faster, so fast it was nearly unbearable, except for how Wei Ying never wanted him to stop, and then Lan Zhan stilled as he came. Wei Ying felt the kick of it inside him, felt warmth spread through him. Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan looked pained in the pleasure of it, with his eyebrows drawn and his eyes squeezed shut.

Wei Ying wondered if this would be the last time he felt his pleasure like this.

Lan Zhan shuddered to stillness and panted above him. Wei Ying tugged and that was all it took for Lan Zhan to drop down on top of him, like the toppling of a great statue. Wei Ying hummed, clinging to him like a monkey with all four limbs.

Lan Zhan mumbled something.

"What was that?" Wei Ying's voice came out slightly strangled from Lan Zhan's weight.

Lan Zhan took in a breath. "Are you sure I'm not too heavy?" he asked more clearly.

Wei Ying hummed in response. "No, I like it. Stay."

Lan Zhan stayed.

Wei Ying took a shower afterwards. After they had finally disentangled, after Lan Zhan had slipped out along with his spunk. After Lan Zhan rolled over onto his back with his eyes closed, covered in Wei Ying's come, and Wei Ying watched the rise and fall of his chest, the peaceful expression on his face. After.

It had been a stupid thing to do. In the madness of the moment, it had seemed like a great idea to get what he wanted, to take all he could get. Now it weighed on him, the knowledge of it. Lan Zhan hadn't said a word, only hummed when Wei Ying had announced he was going to shower. What would it be like when Wei Ying left the bathroom? Not wanting to find out, he delayed the inevitable, dawdling under the spray. Finally, he'd been there for so long that he heard a knock on the door and Lan Zhan's voice asking him if everything was all right.

"Yep! Just enjoying the hot water!" Wei Ying said as perkily as possible. "I'll be out in a minute, sorry!" Lan Zhan probably wanted a shower of his own. Wei Ying was a selfish ass.

He realized too late that he hadn't brought any clothes in with him, so he wrapped his towel around his waist and finally exited the bathroom in a cloud of steam. "All yours!" he announced, and met Lan Zhan's gaze. Lan Zhan was curled up on his side on the bed, watching him with dark, glittering eyes. Wei Ying couldn't read his expression. "Hey," he said quietly, then swallowed. "You okay?"

Lan Zhan looked like he'd woken up from a dream, shifting his long limbs. "Yes. Yes, of course." He gave a tiny smile. "I'm okay."

Wei Ying nodded. He was shivering now that he was out of the heat of the shower. He needed clothes. He wrapped his arms around himself.

"Would you like dinner?" Lan Zhan asked, seemingly out of the blue.

Wei Ying stilled. He'd forgotten what time it was. Forgotten that they'd left groceries in the kitchen. Forgotten all of it. "Yeah, I guess we should, huh? You should shower first. If you want."

"Mn." Lan Zhan finally sat up, looking like a god in the low light of the single lamp they'd lit. Wei Ying loved him. "If you don't mind."

"All yours," Wei Ying made himself say.

Lan Zhan nodded. He got out of bed and walked towards him, Wei Ying tracking each step with his eyes. Finally, Lan Zhan stopped right in front of him, completely naked and unashamed of it. "All right?"

"Of course!" Wei Ying made himself smile. "That was great. Super fun."

Lan Zhan watched him with that intense expression of his, face unmoving, then gave a quick nod. "Mn. It was." And then he walked past Wei Ying into the bathroom, leaving him standing alone in the middle of the bedroom.

Since that night, Wei Ying had been…fine. If you considered being distracted, fine. Zoning out in the middle of class, or in the middle of grading, or in the middle of reading, or… He was fine. He really was. He had, for instance, gotten used to the aching sort of emptiness in his chest whenever he looked at or talked to or even just thought about Lan Zhan. He would watch Lan Zhan go about his daily tasks: cooking, grading, taking off his shoes, and he would feel this pull, this desire to go to him and wrap his arms around him; leave a kiss on his cheek or at the nape of his neck. A desire to have Lan Zhan turn in his arms and give him a kiss back—it wouldn't have to be deep or anything. It could just be a peck, just an acknowledgement of something.

But it didn't happen. As though by tacit agreement, the didn't talk about the night they'd fucked, and they didn't do it again. They stopped kissing. They even stopped casually touching, the way they had, before. Before Lan Zhan had leaned in and kissed him in front of Su She, before Wei Ying had begun to crave those kisses with his whole entire soul, before the sex, before…any of it. They used to touch. Now, Lan Zhan would carefully skirt Wei Ying, as though he'd get scalded if he even so much as brushed his arm.

Lan Zhan clearly regretted it. The sex. The sex, the…everything, probably, and he was avoiding talking about it so as to not hurt Wei Ying's feelings. Which Wei Ying was, he supposed, grateful for. He didn't really want to know what Lan Zhan thought about what they'd done, because if Lan Zhan made it text, Wei Ying knew that he wouldn't be able to take it. This sort of…arrangement…was better. There was a strain—of course there was. But as long as they pretended like everything was fine, as long as they didn't talk about it, they could, at least, coexist. Have a friendship.

But sleeping together had become excruciating. Wei Ying had begun staying up later and later, just to be completely sure that Lan Zhan would be totally asleep when he'd finally slink into bed like an unfaithful lover. Oh, the irony. But he was too aware of Lan Zhan's warmth, too aware of the body he craved being just a few inches away. It was too much. The fewer hours they spent sharing the bed, the better. Wei Ying would come to bed at one, Lan Zhan would get up at five. Four hours. He could handle four hours, most of them unconscious.

But, all in all, living together was becoming untenable, the longer it went on. Lan Zhan was, seemingly, absolutely no different from before. He still asked Wei Ying about his day, inquired about his classes, his dissertation. Cooked for them both, helped Wei Ying clean up afterwards, even though it was Wei Ying's chore. But he'd grown distant, and no matter how much Wei Ying tried to pull him back in, he couldn't. Lan Zhan was drifting away from him.

"I don't know if I can do this," he said to jiejie one night after dinner at her place, after Zixuan had left them alone. "I think I have to move out."

She gave him a sad look. "Where would you go? Isn't having no place to go how you wound up living together in the first place?"

"I'll bunk in with Jiang Cheng or something, until I find a place."

"You would kill each other before that happened," she said gently.

Wei Ying slumped down, then took a sip of the peacock's beer. "I just…don't think I can do it. I love him so much, it physically hurts, you know? And…"

"And?" she prompted quietly, her hand resting on her belly.

"And he doesn't." Wei Ying shrugged. "He's being so…distant. So weird. We shouldn't have…" He sighed, petering out. He didn't have to say anything. She knew.

She looked at him sadly. "Perhaps…it is possible…that Lan Zhan is feeling the exact same way as you are."

"No, there's—no. He's avoiding me. Would he be avoiding me if he wanted me?" Wei Ying shook his head. "No, he's just…regretting it. And, I mean. I am, too, right? If not for—we would still be all right."

"But you…did. Right? So, what will you do now?"

Wei Ying shrugged again and looked away. "Find another place eventually. Pretend like everything is fine in the meantime. Have another party, I don't know."

"You really do love to host, don't you?" she asked with a smile.

Wei Ying shored up a grin. "You know me, I love getting people together."

"It makes you happy?"

"It does."

"Well, then," she said. "Have another party. And invite me." He opened his mouth to say of course. "And Zixuan." She looked at him severely.

Wei Ying sighed and laughed at the same time. "Of course. How could I not?"

They threw the party two weeks later, when all their friends were available. Lan Zhan had agreed and Wei Ying felt like throwing down. So Lan Zhan made a boatload of appetizers, Wei Ying bought all the booze, and by eight, their apartment was filled to the brim with their friends and even some family. Jiejie had, in fact, shown up, with the peacock in tow, and even Lan Zhan's brother, who tended to avoid large gatherings, had come with Nie Huaisang's brother. Wei Ying had had a bit of a thing for Nie Mingjue since the first time he'd met him back in college, but how could he not? The dude was gorgeous, even with the ever-present questionable mustache. Lan Zhan's brother was one lucky dude.

"You came!" he greeted them happily, getting a tight-lipped smile from Lan Huan and a pat on the shoulder from Nie Mingjue that nearly buckled his knees. "Please, come in!"

The two walked in and were swallowed up by the crowd—they really did get a tremendous turn-out for this. Wei Ying flitted from group to group, offering drinks and appetizers, constantly aware of Lan Zhan in his periphery—standing with his brother, chatting amiably with Wen Qing, listening to Qin Su, avoiding Jiang Cheng as though he was allergic to him. And it was great—it really was! Wei Ying was having beer and he felt his shoulders loosening for the first time in weeks; since he and Lan Zhan fucked. He allowed Lan Zhan space, not going to him too often, and mostly only to ask if there were more egg rolls or dumplings. Lan Zhan wasn't any different than normal, either: he was polite, attentive, cool, but in that Lan Zhan way that Wei Ying had had to learn didn't mean he was upset or anything. He was just Lan Zhan.

"So!" Nie Huaisang said, sidling up to him with his glass of rosé. "Success?"

"Total success!" They clinked their drinks. "Having a good time, Sangsang?"

"Oh, you know it. Even my brother's enjoying himself, and you know he's not usually a party sort of guy."

Wei Ying craned his neck to see Nie Mingjue deep in conversation with Jiang Cheng, of all people. "Would you look at that."

"And Lan Huan seems to be…okay?"

Wei Ying watched as Lan Huan leaned in to say something to Lan Zhan, frowning, and Lan Zhan shook his head once, gave him a bit of a penetrating look, and walked away. Huh. "Wonder what that was all about," Wei Ying mused, taking a sip of his beer. When he looked back at Nie Huaisang, he was studying Wei Ying like he was a particularly interesting specimen. "What?" he asked defensively.

Nie Huaisang shook his head. "Nothing, I don't know." He paused. "Just…is everything, like…okay between you guys?"

"Who?" Wei Ying asked, his stomach dropping out.

Huaisang rolled his eyes. "You and Lan Zhan, who else would I be talking about?"

"Of course!" Wei Ying rushed to respond. "Why wouldn't it be? Why do you ask?"

Another eye roll. "No reason, just curious. You guys have barely said two words to one another tonight."

"We're hostessing! We're spreading ourselves around among our guests. What, haven't you ever thrown a party before?" Wei Ying took another sip of his beer out of self-preservation.

Huaisang raised a hand. "Okay, okay. Everything is fine, you've convinced me!" Then he mumbled something into his glass of wine that sounded suspiciously like clearly, but Wei Ying chose to ignore him. And then Huaisang's gaze narrowed, looking beyond Wei Ying, and he said, "Heads up!" before smiling and greeting, "Lan Huan! Good to see you, ge."

"Huaisang," said Lan Huan's voice warmly, and then a hand landed on Wei Ying's shoulder. "Wei Ying, how are you doing?"

Wei Ying turned awkwardly to Lan Huan. "I'm very good! You?"

"Great, great." Lan Huan's smile looked slightly forced. "I was wondering if I could have a moment with you. Alone."

Wei Ying glanced at Huaisang, who was already beating a retreat. He turned back to Lan Huan. "Of course. Uh…what's up?"

"Why don't we go over here?" Lan Huan asked, indicating a miraculously empty corner of the room. "Would that be all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure." Wei Ying's mind was spinning. What was happening? Was Lan Huan here to talk about Lan Zhan's upcoming birthday, maybe? It was still a month away, but maybe he wanted to throw him a party. Which was not a good idea, as far as Wei Ying was concerned, but you never knew with brothers. "What's going on?" he asked, once they'd retreated away from others.

"I wanted to talk to you," Lan Huan said, his smile dropping off. Instinctively, Wei Ying looked around for Lan Zhan, spotting him across the room. Lan Zhan was glancing in their direction with a barely perceptible frown. Uh oh. What was happening? "About you and my brother."

Wei Ying's gaze whirled on Lan Huan. "Huh? What do you—"

"I do not like to use crass language, as you know," Lan Huan said, interrupting—something that was unheard of with the Lan brothers, "But, as the saying goes, shit or get off the pot."

Wei Ying's thoughts ground to a halt. "What?"

Lan Huan didn't look like he was joking. He was looking as serious as Wei Ying had ever seen him, maybe even—angry? Was that possible? "Please don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about."

"I—Lan Huan, I really—"

"You have been toying with him for too long, Wei Ying."

Wei Ying felt his eyes bugging out. "Toying—with—with Lan Zhan?" His voice rose, and he became aware of some conversations ceasing, but he couldn't care at the moment. "What do you—"

"I mean, it is obvious how he feels about you," Lan Huan went on in a hard voice, "And if you don't stop—"

"How—how he feels about me?" Wei Ying whispered. "How do you—"

"Wei Ying, being stupid doesn't suit you," Lan Huan interrupted, causing Wei Ying's jaw to drop open. "You have to know that he's in love with you, and yet still, you insisted on having sex with him, toying with his feelings!"

That was when Wei Ying became aware of all conversation around them ceasing so abruptly, it felt like whiplash. In the quiet, you could only hear the music playing on Wei Ying's bluetooth speaker. Wei Ying thought that his head might explode. And, out of the quiet, Qin Su's theatrical whisper. "Aren't they a couple? Why shouldn't they be having sex?"

Ignoring absolutely everything around him, Wei Ying whirled around until he spotted Lan Zhan across the room, his face completely impenetrable, which meant that he was hiding some seriously dangerous emotions. Wei Ying didn't care. He didn't care about Lan Huan, he didn't care about Qin Su, he didn't care about anybody who wasn't Lan Zhan, and so, without so much as moving a single step towards him, Wei Ying called out, "Lan Zhan! Are you in love with me?"

The music stopped right at that moment—his speaker would sometimes act up like that and stop connecting to his phone. You could hear a pin drop. Wei Ying continued looking at Lan Zhan, his hands and pits and the back of his neck sweating like crazy. "Lan Zhan—"

"Perhaps," Lan Zhan said quietly, "we could discuss this elsewhere?"

"But are you?" Wei Ying asked, feeling absolutely crazed. "Lan Zhan, please, tell me, are you—"

"Yes," Lan Zhan said, the direction of his gaze unambiguous. The tips of his ear were a blazing pink, the only indication that he was feeling the strain of two dozen eyes trained right on him. "I am. I'm…sorry. For this complication."

Wei Ying let out a laugh—he couldn't help himself. He felt Lan Huan stiffening next to him, could tell he was about to lay into Wei Ying for that one laugh alone, but Lan Huan didn't know. He didn't know. "Lan Zhan," Wei Ying breathed. "Lan Zhan, you're so stupid."

Lan Zhan frowned. Lan Huan really was about to murder Wei Ying, so Wei Ying moved out of the line of fire and, incidentally, closer to Lan Zhan.

"You're so stupid," he repeated, more quietly. "Why are you sorry?"

Lan Zhan was quiet for a long moment. Nobody was speaking, still, all eyes trained on them both, Wei Ying could feel the weight of them. He didn't care. "Because I am afraid that our friendship will suffer as a result of this…revelation."

"Our friendship has already suffered," Wei Ying said, moving closer still, brushing past—someone, he didn't know who; he didn't care.

"I know," Lan Zhan answered, still watching Wei Ying intently. "And I am sorry for that as well."

"Hey, we were both there," Wei Ying said with a shrug. "We're both responsible."

He heard a strangled sort of noise coming from his left, followed by Jiang Cheng's furious whisper. "They had sex?!" Jiejie shushed him. "You knew?!"

Wei Ying ignored them both, because Lan Zhan said, "We are."

Oh fuck it, this was taking too long. Wei Ying finally reached him, just a step away. He was smiling too much, he knew he was. Lan Zhan was still watching him warily, without understanding. God. How could he not know? Then the irony of the question hit Wei Ying and he laughed. "Lan Zhan! God, how can you not know that I love you? That I'm in love with you? That I want you, all the time? I love you so much, it makes me stupid."

"Clearly," came a mutter to his right.

"Shut the fuck up, Huaisang," he said cheerfully without looking away from Lan Zhan. The whole situation was absolutely absurd, but the only thing he cared about was Lan Zhan and the way his eyes widened, the way he reached towards Wei Ying in an uncharacteristically jerky move, as though he wasn't sure if he was allowed to.

"Wei Ying?" he asked, his deep voice quiet.

"Yeah, Lan Zhan. I'm here," he said.

"Wei Ying, I—"

"Oh my God, just fucking kiss already!" somebody called out, then was categorically shushed by somebody else.

Wei Ying laughed and finally closed the distance between them, grabbing Lan Zhan's hands in his own. "You love me?"

"I do," Lan Zhan said quietly, his heavy gaze on Wei Ying's mouth.

"Kiss me?" Wei Ying whispered.

And Lan Zhan did.

"Bye! Thanks for coming! Byeee!" Wei Ying called out, waving the hand that wasn't clutched in Lan Zhan's to their slowly departing guests.

"Great party, very enlightening," Nie Mingjue said with an uncharacteristic twinkle in his eye. Lan Huan was standing next to him, looking—also uncharacteristically—uncomfortable, barely able to look Lan Zhan in the eye, much less Wei Ying. But Wei Ying wasn't holding a grudge or anything. He got it. Lan Huan had always been very protective of Lan Zhan. If Wei Ying had known any of what he knew now, he also would have wanted to kick himself in the balls.

He beamed at Lan Zhan's brother. "Thank you for coming."

A tight-lipped smile, different from the ones he'd given Wei Ying before. "My pleasure. I…apologize. For the trouble." A quick glance at Lan Zhan, who was standing utterly calm next to Wei Ying, exuding serenity.

"You're not really sorry, though," Wei Ying said cheerfully. "And neither am I. Are you, Lan Zhan?" He turned to him.

"Mn. I am not," Lan Zhan said after a moment. "We will speak tomorrow," he said to Lan Huan as an aside, and it didn't even sound all that ominous.

"Yes, we will. Thank you both." Lan Huan nodded, then looked at Nie Mingjue, who wrapped an arm around his waist and finally led them both out the door with a wave and a twitch of his mustache.

"A-Ying." Jiejie had, heroically, managed to stay till the end of the night. Now, one hand was on her lower back, the other cupping her belly. "I'm so glad you invited us. I know Zixuan is, as well. Aren't you?"

Dickhead didn't even look like he was lying when he said, "Oh yeah. Awesome party." He had a bit of an unholy glee about him. Wei Ying narrowed his eyes at him, and the man had the gall to not even try to hide his shit-eating grin.

"Lan Zhan," jiejie said, her voice warm. "The food was wonderful. I'll have to get your recipe for those wonderful lettuce wraps."

"Of course," Lan Zhan said. "They're very simple."

"And effective." She glinted at them both, then reached for Wei Ying's cheek with a hand. "All right, I'm barely able to stand anymore." He leaned in so she could peck him on the cheek. "Take care. A-Cheng? Are you coming? Walk us out."

Jiang Cheng, who had been standing back, scowled and walked over. "Yeah, I'm definitely leaving now." Before Wei Ying knew what was happening, Jiang Cheng's fist connected with his shoulder. Hard. "You're an idiot. Have a good night or whatever."

"Aww, Chengcheng." Wei Ying gave him a shit-eating grin even as he rubbed his shoulder. "You really care."

"Who cares about you? I just needed some entertainment in my life. Anyway." Here, his gaze flickered towards Lan Zhan and away again. "Great party, thanks for the invite. We're going now." And then he was shooing jiejie and the peacock out the door.

And then Wei Ying turned around and he and Lan Zhan were alone in their apartment. His stomach flip-flopped. Lan Zhan had also turned to him and for a moment, all they did was look at one another. And then Lan Zhan's lips twitched and Wei Ying let out a guffaw, so loud it was nearly embarrassing. "What a party!"

"Indeed." Lan Zhan pulled on his hand and brought Wei Ying closer, almost a breath apart. "I have no regrets," he said quietly.

"No," Wei Ying agreed, just as quietly. "No, no regrets at all."

Lan Zhan kissed him. This kiss was different from the one they'd shared at the party, after their impromptu confession. In fact, it was different from all the other kisses they had shared. This kiss felt like the true beginning of something, a blossoming of joy that started somewhere in the depths of Wei Ying's belly and threatened to explode out of every single pore. He was nearly trembling with it, pressing up close against Lan Zhan, kissing him with all he had. Lan Zhan was warm, and his arm around Wei Ying's waist—when had that happened?—felt like a haven, safe and comfortable. Wei Ying melted against him, and they stood there, among the detritus of the party and kissed as though there was nothing else they'd rather be doing. Which, to be fair, there wasn't.

They finally broke off after a yawn threatened to erupt from Wei Ying. "Oh God. I'm so fucking wiped."

"It was quite an exciting evening," Lan Zhan agreed.

With great reluctance, Wei Ying asked, "Should we start the clean-up?"

Lan Zhan was quiet for a moment, and then said, "No. Let's leave it till the morning."

Wei Ying felt his jaw drop open. "What?"

"Mn. Leave the clean-up till morning. It's late. Let's get ready for bed."

"Lan Zhan…you hate leaving a mess till morning."

Lan Zhan watched him, eyes slightly crinkled in the corners, a tiny to his lips. "Today, I'm making an exception."

Wei Ying laughed.

Lan Zhan led them to the bedroom, where he leisurely rid Wei Ying of his clothes, one by one. They probably weren't about to start anything—Lan Zhan had to have been exhausted, if Wei Ying was tired. So Wei Ying stood there and allowed himself to be stripped to his underwear, and then watched, hands twitching, as Lan Zhan did the same to himself, baring himself to Wei Ying's view little by little. Wei Ying swallowed, watching him, thinking, I get to have him now. He loves me. It still felt unreal, like it could be snatched away at any moment.

He then allowed himself to be led to the bathroom, where Lan Zhan put toothpaste on Wei Ying's toothbrush, then handed it to him, then did the same to his own. They brushed their teeth, Lan Zhan watching Wei Ying steadily, and it should have been funny, or stupid, but instead, it sent warmth spreading all through Wei Ying's body. Lan Zhan's attention had a tendency to do that to him; always had. They finished up, washed their faces, taking their turn at the sink. Then Lan Zhan unscrewed the moisturizer lid and murmured, "Come here."

Wei Ying went.

Lan Zhan patted the product into Wei Ying's skin, being gentle yet thorough. Again, it should have felt funny, but felt safe, instead. Wei Ying couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this cared for; this tended to. It had probably been Lan Zhan. In retrospect, he really was the stupidest man alive. But no matter—they'd gotten there, in the end.

Lan Zhan, once more, led them—to the bedroom this time, extinguishing the bathroom light. Still holding onto Wei Ying's hand, he turned on his own bedside lamp, then turned down the covers. Then he led them around to Wei Ying's side and said, "Get in, Wei Ying."

Wei Ying obeyed, getting into the bed, starkly aware of wearing only his underwear. He watched in silence as Lan Zhan walked around the bed to his own side and got in, as well. Wei Ying rolled onto his side, facing Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan watched him with avid eyes, then shifted, and touched his own knee to Wei Ying's.

"Are you tired?"

"I mean…yeah," Wei Ying confessed. He got closer, nevertheless.

"How tired?" Lan Zhan asked, shifting closer still.

"Pretty tired," Wei Ying breathed, then closed the distance between them. The kiss was unhurried, but deep. Wei Ying heard Lan Zhan's intake of breath, then felt a touch to his stomach, below his belly button. Lan Zhan's hand was warm, and felt huge on him. Wei Ying made a noise and rolled over onto his back. Lan Zhan followed. He hovered over Wei Ying, not breaking their kiss, and journeyed all over his body with that warm hand of his. He touched Wei Ying everywhere: his chest, his sides, his hips, his ass, then back to his hips. Wei Ying grew hard—of course he did; Lan Zhan was touching him. Wei Ying had long become responsive to every touch from Lan Zhan, getting turned on from any scrap of attention, and this was no scrap.

The kiss intensified, changed nature, grew frantic. Wei Ying moaned and moved his hips, seeking touch. Lan Zhan indulged him, running a firm hand over his hardening dick, pressing down. Wei Ying broke off the kiss involuntarily and gasped.

"How tired are you?" Lan Zhan repeated, something like amusement coloring his voice.

"Not that tired," Wei Ying told him, then reached for his waistband and tugged his underwear down while Lan Zhan's hand hovered over him. He kicked it off, and the next moment, Lan Zhan was stroking him off, slow and sensuous, like he wasn't in any hurry. But when Wei Ying looked at him, feeling as though his own eyes were crossing from pleasure, Lan Zhan's gaze told a different story. "You should get naked, too," Wei Ying advised. "And then I'm gonna finally suck you off, and then—ah—you should fuck me."

Lan Zhan stilled, watching him. "Should I?"

"Yes," Wei Ying responded without a second's thought. "Want you to fuck me knowing it isn't a pity fuck."

Lan Zhan's gaze sharpened. "It was never a pity fuck."

"For me, either. But I…" Wei Ying took in a shaky breath. "I was trying to get anything I could from you. I thought, maybe…" He petered out. Was this a mood killer conversation?

Lan Zhan breathed out, then dropped his head to Wei Ying's chest, his hand over Wei Ying's dick stilling, though not moving away. "Wei Ying…"

Wei Ying buried one hand in Lan Zhan's unbound hair, which tickled his skin. "Yeah?" he whispered.

Lan Zhan lifted his head, and his gaze was searching. "Wei Ying, I can't believe you didn't know."

"Well," Wei Ying said as reasonably as he could manage with Lan Zhan's hot hand over his dick. "You never said anything after we…you know. And you weren't acting differently, not until after we…fucked. So I assumed it didn't mean anything to you. That you…" He took a deep breath, then plowed on. "That you didn't love me the way I…the way I loved you."

"Wei Ying," Lan Zhan repeated, and this time it was a soft admonishment. "I didn't act any differently because I was already in love with you." Wei Ying's breath hitched. "Had been, since college," he added quietly.

"College?" How in the—Lan Zhan. "Why didn't you say anything?!"

Lan Zhan's hand finally released him, but didn't move far, cupping his hip. That felt nice. "I couldn't risk our friendship," he said after a thoughtful moment. "Your friendship was…is…so important to me."

Wei Ying whined with his whole chest. "College…to think we could have been…" But no, not really. Wei Ying himself hadn't realized he was in love with Lan Zhan until recently; not until the kissing had started. Even though, looking back, the seeds of it had already been planted long ago. There was a reason, after all, why Wei Ying didn't feel the need to date anybody: he had almost everything he needed here, with Lan Zhan. And now—now it was everything.

Lan Zhan looked like he knew what Wei Ying was thinking. He leaned in and kissed him again. Then he pulled back and whispered, "Did you say something about sucking me off?"

Wei Ying's grin was irrepressible. "Oh, interested, are you?"

Lan Zhan pressed his very obvious hard-on against Wei Ying's hip. "Very."

"Then get naked already!" Wei Ying pushed at him playfully and finally, Lan Zhan reached for his boxer briefs, shifting up so he could slide them off. He threw them behind himself without looking. And Wei Ying zeroed in on his goal.

It was a lofty goal, indeed. He didn't think he'd ever had anyone as big as Lan Zhan, so he'd have to work up to it a bit. Mouth watering, he grabbed Lan Zhan's hips and unceremoniously pushed him onto his back. "Don't move," he ordered.

Lan Zhan stayed very still, and very quiet.

Wei Ying leaned in and licked a stripe up his warm, silky cock. A minute twitch from Lan Zhan, nothing more, but it went through Wei Ying like a wave crashing. He wanted another reaction, maybe a bigger one. He licked again, reveling in Lan Zhan's taste blooming on his tongue. He tongued the slit, tasting the fluid beaded there, licking him clean. He shut his eyes, wrapped his lips around the head, and went down.

It was a lot for his mouth to take. Wei Ying would be the first one to tell you he had a big mouth, but that was more of a metaphorical big mouth, really. Lan Zhan's dick was a lot for him to take, so he started shallow, encompassing what he couldn't get to with his hand. Lan Zhan was preternaturally still, but occasionally, a twitch or a hitch in his breath would give him away. Wei Ying opened his eyes and met Lan Zhan's dark, dark eyes. He pulled off, a line of spit still connecting them together. "I didn't mean don't move at all," Wei Ying rasped. "You can. I want you to."

Lan Zhan's nod was a shaky thing.

Wei Ying went back down. He wasn't here to make Lan Zhan come—he was holding out for a fuck—but he wanted to make him feel good, wanted to make him desperate. So he used every trick he had to make it happen. He sucked hard, then licked all around. He exposed the head and tongued the slit again and again, slowly, tortuously. And Lan Zhan responded—with soft gasps, and minute thrusts of his hips; with a twitch of his hand around Wei Ying's head, once he finally dared to touch him. Wei Ying lost himself in Lan Zhan's taste. He decided to stop teasing, but he didn't go any faster. He simply sucked as much of his dick as he could fit in his mouth, finding himself drooling a bit, because it was still so much, and drank in Lan Zhan's reactions like he would water on a hot day.

Finally, after what felt like a long time, Lan Zhan's hand scraped through his hair and Wei Ying was pulled off his dick. With unfocused eyes, he looked at Lan Zhan. "Yeah?"

Lan Zhan nodded, then cleared his throat. "If you don't want me to come just yet, you have to stop." He was panting lightly, but otherwise not showing much of a reaction. Yet. Wei Ying was pretty sure he could get him there. "Should I get the lube?"

"You should," Wei Ying agreed, excitement pooling in his belly.

Lan Zhan let him go, then, and Wei Ying moved away so Lan Zhan could roll over and go for his bedside table. He shivered, waiting. It didn't take Lan Zhan long, and he was back the next moment, lube held triumphantly in hand. "How do you want it?" he asked softly.

"I…" In every single way. He wanted Lan Zhan to roll him over, cover him with his body, and fuck him into the next millenium. He wanted to be able to wrap his limbs around Lan Zhan while he was inside Wei Ying. He wanted… "I want to ride you," he said, coming to a decision.

It was evidently a good response—Lan Zhan's nostrils flared. "Very well." His voice had grown hoarse and husky. "Prep?"

"Minimal," Wei Ying instructed.

But Lan Zhan took his time. Before he opened the lube, even, he spread Wei Ying's legs and began to caress his inner thighs, a touch so light, it almost tickled, then more firmly. Wei Ying watched the progress of his hand, wondering what Lan Zhan was getting out of this. And then Lan Zhan lowered his head and surprised Wei Ying by sucking a hard bruise at the most tender part of his inner thigh. Wei Ying cried out, bucking up: it was painful. Painful, but he wanted it back. Luckily, he didn't even have to ask: Lan Zhan moved to the other side, spreading Wei Ying open even more, and sucked another bruise into his skin. It took a while—bruises always did. And it hurt, all sensation centered on that one spot as Wei Ying saw stars. He grew harder. He tunneled his shaky hand through Lan Zhan's hair and held on as Lan Zhan bestowed bruise after bruise on him, forcing his balls to draw up, his heart to pound. Wei Ying couldn't remember ever being this turned on, or this desperate.

"Lan Zhan," he whispered. "Lan Zhan, just touch me already."

"I am touching you," Lan Zhan said lightly.

"You know what I mean, come on—" He broke off as Lan Zhan's finger unerringly found his hole and rubbed. "Yeah. Like that."

Lan Zhan's hand retreated, and Wei Ying watched as he finally uncapped the lube and squirted some onto his fingers. Then he threw it aside and, meeting Wei Ying's gaze, returned his finger to between Wei Ying's legs. This time, it felt better—slick and smooth, it went to Wei Ying's dick, like everything else they had done tonight. All exhaustion was forgotten, Wei Ying had gotten his second wind. As Lan Zhan breached him, he leaned up and kissed Wei Ying's neck. Wei Ying moaned—he loved having his neck kissed. And then teeth closed around a tendon and he cried out as Lan Zhan began to suck like a vampire, hard and unrelenting. He broke off when he was seemingly satisfied, but the reprieve didn't last long—he picked a spot higher up, right below Wei Ying's ear, and bit down, sucking. Wei Ying clutched him even as Lan Zhan's finger went deeper and deeper in, and his body didn't know which sensation to focus on, it was all of it so good, and nearly too much. "Lan Zhan, fuck—"

Lan Zhan didn't respond, only moved to a different spot and sucked on that, even as he dipped his finger in and out of Wei Ying's hole, brushing his prostate and creating sparks behind Wei Ying's eyelids. Wei Ying realized he'd been pumping his hips for a while, meeting Lan Zhan movement for movement. "I'm ready, want you—wanna do it, come on—"

Lan Zhan slipped out. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fucking sure, come on." He pushed Lan Zhan away and rolled him onto his back.

"Like this," Lan Zhan said, shifting until he was sitting up against the headboard. He grabbed the lube, poured some onto his hand, and ran the hand over his own cock, slicking it up. "Come here, Wei Ying."

Oh. Wei Ying scrambled up until he could hike one leg over Lan Zhan's lap and grabbed Lan Zhan's dick. "Help me out here," he murmured, and Lan Zhan obliged by shifting his hips until his dick was where Wei Ying needed it. Biting his lip, slowly, Wei Ying began to sink down.

It burned, a little. Not a lot of prep would do that, but Wei Ying enjoyed the ache. He took in a deep breath and wiggled his hips, taking in a little bit more. His thighs were tense, holding him up as he worked at taking Lan Zhan's dick a little bit at a time. It was a lot of dick to take in. But, bit by bit, he continued to lower himself, unable to look away from Lan Zhan's beautiful face, watching him with that intense gaze. He kept making tight, involuntary sounds in the back of his throat with every inch he took, and only noticed belatedly how hard Lan Zhan was gripping his hips. It felt hard enough to leave marks.

"Lan Zhan—"

"Wei Ying," Lan Zhan breathed and then surged forward and kissed him. Wei Ying moaned—he couldn't help it—and seated himself fully onto Lan Zhan's dick, feeling split in half, full and overwhelmed. As they kissed—frantic, hot kisses—he began to move.

It was slow at first as he got used to the girth from this angle and acclimated to the stretch. Lan Zhan was holding him so tight, it was nearly painful, but he stayed still for Wei Ying. And Wei Ying used every bit of strength he had not to just melt against him but to move, to make it good for both of them. Slowly, he got used to the burn of it until it shifted, like a switch being flipped, and became all pleasure, no ache. He threw back his head, and wrapped his arms around Lan Zhan's neck, and lost himself in the rhythm of it. He barely felt the strain in his thighs and in his abs, barely felt anything outside of the all-encompassing pleasure of it. One of Lan Zhan's hands was still sticky with lube, and Wei Ying didn't care one little bit, only wanted Lan Zhan's hands all over him.

And they were, Lan Zhan touched him all over. Moving from hips to ass to back to thigh, he mapped Wei Ying's body with restless fingers, as though he didn't know where he most wanted to land. As Wei Ying sped up, Lan Zhan found a sore spot on his neck and began to suck, forcing a cry from Wei Ying. "Oh, fuck—"

Lan Zhan just moaned and continued his assault on Wei Ying's neck, moving onto a different spot and sucking just as hard, just as unrelenting. Wei Ying saw stars behind his eyelids—when had he closed his eyes?—and moved faster and faster, taking more and more pleasure from Lan Zhan. And Lan Zhan was so good for him, so still—Wei Ying could feel what it was costing him. Lan Zhan's body beneath his own was tense, tight as a strung bow.

Wei Ying pulled back and found Lan Zhan's mouth with his own and they fucked like that, sharing breath and moans, reverberating back and forth between them.

Overwhelming pleasure unspooled in Wei Ying's belly, and he pulled back and said, "Touch me, touch me, I'm—I'm gonna come, want you to touch me—"

Lan Zhan obeyed before the sentence was fully out of Wei Ying's mouth, wrapping a warm hand around Wei Ying's cock and stroking him, using Wei Ying's precome to ease the way. Wei Ying shuddered and jerked, his body no longer under his control. He moaned, holding onto Lan Zhan tighter, feeling the muscles of his back shifting as he jerked Wei Ying off to the rhythm Wei Ying had set for them.

He wasn't going to last, he was too close. Wei Ying gasped on every upstroke, his breathing so loud in the quiet room, and hung on, bouncing up and down in Lan Zhan's lap, going faster and faster. Finally, pleasure spiked and he cried out the moment before coming, vision going white. Lan Zhan stroked him through it as Wei Ying trembled—first from the orgasm, then its aftershocks. He felt the sheen of sweat covering his body like a shroud, felt Lan Zhan's desperation beneath him.

"Wei Ying—"

"Do it, Lan Zhan, come on, I want you to—"

The world tilted as Lan Zhan pulled him off of his dick and threw Wei Ying down onto the bed on his back, covering his body with his own the next moment. Lan Zhan slipped back in, easy as can be, and then he lost control. All Wei Ying could do was cling to him and take it as Lan Zhan pounded into him, hard and unrelenting and breathless. Wei Ying could no longer control his voice at all, didn't care about the neighbors—let them hear—and lost himself to sensation.

When Lan Zhan finally came, Wei Ying felt it, deep inside, the warmth of it flooding him, Lan Zhan's body shaking above him. At the last moment, Lan Zhan had latched onto Wei Ying's collarbone with his teeth. The pain of it was the only thing grounding Wei Ying in the room.

For a long moment after, they simply breathed, Lan Zhan still clutched in Wei Ying's arms. Then, slowly, Wei Ying began to take stock of his body. He lowered his legs, dropping them onto the bed. Lan Zhan shifted and slipped out, but didn't drop down onto Wei Ying, still holding himself up by his arms. He looked down at Wei Ying for a long quiet moment. He asked, "All right?"

Wei Ying grinned and surged up to kiss him. "Yeah. Yeah, Lan Zhan. I'm fucking all right. You just fucked my brains out. I'm the best I've ever been, probably. In fact, I'm—mmph!"

Lan Zhan shut him up with a kiss. It was probably for the best.

"So, college, huh?"

They were lying in bed after cleaning up, Lan Zhan the best pillow a boy could ask for. Wei Ying was exhausted, but too wired to sleep yet.

"Mn."

"That's a long fucking time, Lan Zhan. Why didn't you say anything?"

Lan Zhan squeezed the arm he had wrapped around Wei Ying. "I told you—your friendship was much too important to me to add any…complications."

Wei Ying thought about it. "It's probably for the best. I was a fucking nightmare at college."

"Mn."

"Hey, you're not supposed to agree!" Wei Ying slapped his side.

He felt, more than anything, Lan Zhan's amusement. "I simply think…we were too young then. We weren't ready."

That sobered Wei Ying. "No," he agreed slowly. "No, we weren't." He took the thought to its natural conclusion. "Think we're ready now?"

"Yes." It was said without any doubt, or pause. "I know we are."

Wei Ying smiled and rolled his face against Lan Zhan's chest, warm and smooth and smelling like him. Wei Ying loved that scent. "Yeah," he agreed, giving Lan Zhan's skin a soft kiss. "Yeah, I think we are, too."

Lan Zhan moved beneath him, and Wei Ying looked up, and then, words were no longer necessary at all.

Eight Months Later

"So," Paula said once they got through all the niceties. "You guys have decided to extend the lease?"

"Mn," Lan Zhan said easily. They were sitting across from Paula at her desk, and Wei Ying's leg was jiggling as his hands itched to sign the paperwork already. "We would like to stay here for another year, if possible."

"Of course!" She grinned. "We're happy to have you. And happy that you're clearly happy, if you would like to stay longer."

"Oh, yeah," Wei Ying piped up. "We really love the place, and the commute can't be beat."

"Excellent." She rifled through the papers on her desk, finally coming out with a stack. "Well, then, gentlemen. Let's get started."

Afterwards, Wei Ying felt like skipping out of her office, but desisted. "Hey, Lan Zhan, did you mean it?"

"Which part?" Lan Zhan asked, putting a possessive hand on the small of Wei Ying's back. Wei Ying loved it when he did that.

"The pet fee? Do you really want to get a cat?"

"I have been thinking about it, yes."

Wei Ying beamed. "When should we do it? Should we go to the shelter this weekend? Tomorrow even, maybe? What do you think?"

"Well," Lan Zhan said in his best reasonable tone of voice. "We should consider all the pros and cons. Owning a pet is a big responsibility."

Wei Ying rolled his eyes. "Yeah, duh, of course. But it's you and me—we'll take care of her."

"Her? You would like a female cat?"

Wei Ying shrugged. "I dunno, just thinking out loud. I'd want the cutest one. Or the funniest one. Or the stupidest one. Doesn't really matter if it's a boy or a girl, I guess."

"Mn." Lan Zhan sounded amused. "I would prefer a smarter animal."

"Nah, dumb cats are the best, you know," Wei Ying said with all the knowledge of someone who's never owned a pet before of any kind. "They're hilarious. You must have seen the TikToks." Then he remembered who he was talking to. "I'll show you," he promised.

"Mn. Very well," Lan Zhan said agreeably, ushering them into the elevator. He pressed the button for their floor, then turned to Wei Ying, suddenly looking intense. "You would like to share this responsibility with me?"

"Of what, TikToks?" Wei Ying asked, feigning confusion.

"No," Lan Zhan responded. "Owning a cat."

"Oh!" Wei Ying felt a grin spreading across his face. "Of course." He thought about it. "There's nobody else I would rather do it with."

Lan Zhan pulled him closer, then abruptly pushed him up against the wall. "Nobody?" he asked, his voice low, and dangerous.

Wei Ying went from normal to hard in a nanosecond. "Nobody," he repeated, his voice hoarse.

"Good." Lan Zhan leaned in and captured his mouth in a kiss. Wei Ying moaned and kissed him back, getting into it, opening himself up to Lan Zhan for the taking. Eight months in, and this never, ever got old.

The elevator door dinged open, and after a silent moment, a pissy voice said, "Oh, come on!"

"Oh hey, Su She!" Wei Ying piped up cheerfully, looking past Lan Zhan, who sniggered and hid his face in Wei Ying's neck. "What's up, man? Anything new?"