Chapter Text
Damn that Sheng Shaoyou! It's all because of him that Gao Tu's in this state. Again. Is his asthma bad enough this time that Gao Tu would be fumbling his inhaler? Dropping it? He can help. Shen Wenlang can definitely help with that. With that thought, he sets down his wineglass and heads for the restroom.
The hotel is sprawling. After all, it's Hua Yong's. But it's also familiar enough that Shen Wenlang finds the restroom right off.
No Gao Tu. Weird.
Also weird is how it got hot all of the sudden. He's going to have to rib Hua Yong about it, the broken A/C, but later. Right now he's hit with waves of sage. It's sage everywhere. And with Gao Tu's light spike of sage from time to time, Shen Wenlang's used to, no, sensitive to that smell now. Out of all the kitchen spices, it's sage he recognizes first. Ginger, what? Star anise, who?
He rounds a corner and spots Gao Tu tripping into a room. Is his asthma that bad already? Shen Wenlang hurries towards him. And the sage—the sage explodes like firework, hot and dizzying.
Shen Wenlang loosens his tie and a thought hits him—Omega? But it makes no sense. Gao Tu is a Beta. Gao Tu's always been a Beta.
He opens the door and the scene before him makes him blink twice and then again. Because that's his secretary, his friend, his Gao Tu. But that's also an Omega, sage unfurling delicious and heavy, wrapping around him so thick he could choke on it.
He does choke on it. "What—?"
Gao Tu drops eye contact, shoulders slumping, and tries to bolt. "I'm sorry."
And what? Shen Wenlang grabs him, pushes him back to bounce on the bed, because they're not done here. He doesn't understand.
"Shen Wenlang, let me go." Gao Tu tries to stand again. He's not even a little steady.
Shen Wenlang cages him down to bed easily enough. "Go where? Like this?"
"Shen Wenlang!"
Gao Tu is so close. He smells so good. And he looks so distressed. Wenlang doesn't know which of these things have him bending even closer to sniff his neck, but he's doing it before he's aware he moved.
"I don't want it." Gao Tu sounds off and it makes Wenlang raise his head to look.
Gao Tu's crying, a tear rolling down his cheek. "I never wanted to be an Omega," he says, voice hitching as he closes his eyes. "I tried- I tried to block it."
Shen Wenlang knows another person blocking their natural self right now, but Hua Yong's certifiably insane and this is Gao Tu, the most down to earth person he knows.
"You lied to me."
Gao Tu looks so miserable that Wenlang almost wants to take back his words. But he meant them. Gao Tu's lied to him for over a decade. Was anything between them even real? What did Gao Tu want from him all this time?
"What was your goal? Was it to trap me?"
Gao Tu looks like he's been punched, which is just unfair. Because who's deceiving whom here? Gao Tu doesn't answer in words, just shakes and shakes his head.
"What does that mean?"
"Get off me, Wenlang!" Gao Tu pushes at him, but he's no match for an S-class Alpha. He's no match for anyone right now.
Shen Wenlang doesn't budge. Instead, he cups Gao Tu's face and runs a thumb over his lower lip.
When Gao Tu gasps, opening his mouth wider, Wenlang takes the opportunity to push his thumb into Gao Tu's mouth, to touch the soft wet of his tongue.
Gao Tu stares at him, wide-eyed.
"You don't want this?"
Gao Tu whimpers and closes his eyes. But he's too late. Wenlang's already seen the desire there, the way his body's been tilting towards Wenlang's all this time, even as his words say otherwise.
"Tell me you don't want me, that you've never wanted me."
Gao Tu frowns and shakes his head again. And it's driving Wenlang crazy that he still doesn't know where he stands with Gao Tu.
"Have you ever liked me?" Was any of our friendship real?
Gao Tu slow blinks at him, cat like, and gulps, accidentally sucking on Wenlang's thumb a little. And Wenlang hisses, really at his limit here with all the provocation.
"Gao Tu." He takes his thumb out of Gao Tu's mouth and licks it, and Gao Tu's taste explodes in his mouth, short circuiting all his systems. "You taste even better than you smell."
Gao Tu blinks at him. "But you hate-"
"Don't tell me what I hate!" Shen Wenlang presses him down to the bed, hands around Gao Tu's wrists, and fuck, he wants to ruin him.
Nevermind that he doesn't know the first thing about having sex, but with Gao Tu? He wants it. He wants it all.
"Wenlang." Gao Tu wriggles under him, and they both hiss as their hardness brush together. Gao Tu goes even redder in the face and he's so pretty that Shen Wenlang can't help the praise.
"Beautiful."
Go Tu shuts his eyes and groans. "Shen Wenlang, it's the pheromones! You're not in your right mind right now."
And Shen Wenlang does feel an overwhelming need to strip them both and bury himself in Gao Tu as deep as he can. But besides that, it's no different from usual, how much he seeks out Gao Tu just to be near him.
Oh.
"Or maybe this is the most right I've ever been." Shen Wenlang closes in, nearer and nearer, and kisses Gao Tu, the tremble of his lips still salty with tears. "Do you like me too, Gao Tu?"
"I—I lied to you," Gao Tu winces.
"Yes, yes, you did. So, make it up to me."