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“Your son,” said Shen Jiu, lowering his messenger bag onto the coffee table and rubbing at his aching shoulder, “is a slut.”
“Well,” Tianlang-jun started, turning a page from his latest 'spicy' novel about a 'demonic' cultivator and his cultivation partner. He was just starting a fascinating segment about a sword handle, mind away considering logistics for use in the bedroom, when he continued, thoughtlessly, “he didn't get that from me. I only get it up for you—ah, darling! I was just getting to the best part!”
Shen Jiu threw the book behind his shoulder and glared down at Tianlang-jun, the smile lines beside his eyes crinkling with the movement. “Your pornography can wait. Your son is interested in my nephew, who already has another brute trailing behind him. I do not need anyone else intruding on whatever the hell a 'situation ship' Shen Yuan has with the Liu brat. I already hear enough about being a ‘sugar baby’ with whatever Shang Qinghua has with your son's coworker; I don’t need it from my family.”
Shen Jiu sat on the other side of the couch, forcefully planting his bare feet atop Tianlang-jun's. Without prompting, Tianlang-jun took his cold feet and started rubbing the feeling back into it with steady, slow fingers. Lying back on the cushion, Shen Jiu let out a quiet sigh.
“Oh? Do tell me more.”
“No.” Shen Jiu threw an arm over his face to cover his eyes. “Shen Yuan can do so much better than those two. Is Zhu-er still very much in love with Gongyi Xiao?”
“Yes,” said Tianlang-jun with a smile. “He wanted your help in picking out an engagement ring.”
Sighing to hide a small smile forming, he muttered, “… Then I’ll find some time during the weekend, if he so desperately needs assistance.”
Humming in answer, Tianlang-jun began caressing his ankles, eyes fond as he gazed at his covered face. “Let them make mistakes, A-Jiu. I've heard heartbreak can send you in the right direction sometimes.”
Shen Jiu lifted his arm and raised a brow, deadpanning, “Like it brought you to tears in the grocery store in front of the baby formula?”
“So you still recall out first meeting! How romantic!”
“Oh, shut up!” He moved a leg away from the gentle hands and kicked at his stomach, ears reddening.
“My dear savior! Always ready to scold any man, regardless of tears.” Tianlang-jun laughed heartily at the memory now, in contrast to the reality of then.
(Su Xiyan had been dead for over six months then. After trying to manage grueling legal battles with his company, trying to care and spend time with Su Binghe and Zhuzhi-lang, sorting Su Xiyan's affairs, and fighting against Lao Gongzhu’s claims, he’d reached his limit in the grocery store. Tears were silently streaming down his face, his mind a blank, heavy fog in front of so many options of baby food. How could he do any of this alone? With no family or friends? WIth just hyenas and vultures and masquerading smiles ready to strike for when he falls to the dirt?
Then, out of nowhere, a man with his own heavy eye bags and chilling stare had looked him dead in the eye and said, “Is it a baby or a toddler?”
Tianlang-jun just stared at him, blank. The man tapped his foot impatiently. “If it's a toddler,” said the man, slowly, as if he were speaking to a child, "the formula is located on the left of the shelf. The baby formula is to your right. So, which one do you have?”
“A… He's a little over six months now.”
“Not completely incompetent then. Now, is your baby intolerant of anything? Cow? Soy? Neither?”
Light was beginning to shine back into Tianlang-jun's eyes as the man continued to stare at him with disdained, tired eyes. Yet, he still waited, seemingly wanting to help him despite the obvious tiredness. When Tianlang-jun answered somewhat haltingly, the other man rolled his eyes.
The next few minutes were spent being berated on as he received a detailed explanation of intolerances, different formula types, and when solids could be introduced. All of it given with a pretty, green-steeled look of contempt.
Tianlang-jun felt his heart become just the slightest bit lighter, something only his son or nephew could do these days. When the man finished, he turned to leave without a word.
“Wait!” Tianlang-jun scrambled for something to say, anything to keep the conversation going. “Can I pay you?” Shit. Not that.
The man stopped and looked back over his shoulder. He sneered, “I'm not a nanny. Nor do I need your charity.”
“Then tea or lunch,” Tianlang-jun suggested, thinking of other ways to keep his attention even in his tired, fried state. That's when he noticed the contents of the shopping basket the other man had, one filled with a few cute and sweet looking pastries. His mind came with a plan. “There's this bakery shop four blocks down–Puqi Bakery. Let me buy something for you there, as thanks for your wonderfully thorough lesson.”
He turned back to look at Tianlang-jun, giving him a slow, obvious once over. “Make it two foods and a drink. We'll meet there in an hour.” Then he spun around and left the aisle.
Tianlang-jun stayed still for a moment, savoring the feelings brought about this interaction. He had on a small, but content, smile. Maybe, slowly, he’ll find more and more things that'll bring him joy again.
“…We'll be alright, Xiyan.”)
“You’re a sap.” Shen Jiu rolled his eyes then yelped when he was dragged into the other's lap by his ankles. "So shameless. You're not thirty anymore, old man.’
“Neither are you, A-Jiu. Though you get more handsome everyday.”
He scoffed, but the red in his ears slowly began to crawl and darken his cheeks. “And you get even more grays in your hair for every breath.” He pulled on one silver strand on his husband’s temple in emphasis.
In response, Tianlang-jun moved and ducked his head closer to him, arm braced on the cushions above them. With a cheeky smile, he murmured, “You like it.” He leaned even lower, lips grazing faintly past Shen Jiu's cheekbone, up his temple, kissing the gray strands of hair. “Growing old together is the sweetest nectar, though you are the most decadent being of them all.”
Shen Jiu gripped the other man's shoulders in response, nails dragging on the soft cotton. His breath had hitched at those daring, romantic words, both embarrassed and pleased and yet wanting the man to cease with such flattery. Arching his back the slightest bit and tilting his head up, he scoffed and looked away. “A man of so many words. Don't think this will distract me from your beast of a son. You haven't even kissed me yet.”
A chuckle rumbled near Shen Jiu's ear, making him shiver and tighten his hold. “I must rectify that immediately, then.”
Shen Jiu closed his eyes instinctively in anticipation. Instead of lips on lips, however, fingers curled on his chin and lifted his face higher. A soft kiss was placed on his forehead, then his right eye. Another dropped on his left cheek. There was a soft pause, the moment prickling at Shen Jiu, before he was finally kissed.
With a hitched breath, he was swept under a familiar embrace, an arm on his waist, another on the back of his neck as he was kissed and kissed and kissed until nearly dazed, breathless. Shen Jiu grabbed at Tianlang-jun’s hair, entangling his fingers in the strands as a tongue prodded at his mouth and swept past his lips, eager. The hand on his waist began to roam, lifting his pristine shirt from his waistband and caressing uncovered skin. Up it went until it reached a nipple and tweaked it. Shen Jiu stifled a gasp and bit at the others lip, forcefully yanking at his hair. The man had the nerve to moan in response, pulling back to gaze at him with heat in his eyes.
“A-Jiu.” Tianlang-jun moved his other hand to Shen Jiu's collar, stroking the buttons concealing his collarbone in a silent question.
Shen Jiu had to take a moment to center himself, his body warming and shivering as Tianlang-jun continued to caress his skin. The slight twinge in his back, though, helped him in this instance. “Not–Not here,” he stuttered, knowing his neck was starting to redden as his shirt buttons were slowly undone. “We are not going to fuck in this couch. I told Shen Yuan to meet us here tomorrow and–gege!”
Without warning, Tianlang-jun lifted him up in his arms, Shen Jiu grappling to anchor himself, wrapping around him with arms and legs. With a hearty laugh, Tianlang-jun enjoyed the series of shrieks and harsh slaps landing on his back. It only made the heat on his lower abdomen more intense.
“We have all night to enjoy ourselves then,” he told Shen Jiu, walking steadily towards their bedroom as he groped and kneaded Shen Jiu's ass and waist.
“Don't you dare go overboard, Tianlang, I still have class tomorrow. I can’t–ngh–gege–!”
(In the end, Tianlang-jun did as his beloved requested. He made sure to go on with their lovemaking just before reaching Shen Jiu's threshold of 'overboard'.)