servant and master (part two)
By the time Wang Hao had finished his bedtime preparations, he was seemingly in his normal good mood. He grinned playfully at Jianci while Jianci towel-dried his hair and fell into writing in his journal immediately afterward. As he scribbled, he hummed, and Jianci found himself nodding along to the rhythm while he folded Wang Hao's clothes and straightened up his chambers.
All of Jianci's limbs ached and he was moving stiffly around the room. If Wang Hao noticed, and he probably did, he didn't show it beyond squinting at Jianci a little when he looked up from his writing now and then. When the nightly chores were finished, Jianci mumbled his goodbyes and moved to leave, already dreaming of his bed. It was more instinct than conscious thought that he stopped abruptly when Wang Hao called out for him to wait.
"Stay a bit," he said with a yawn, setting his notebook gently to the side. A hint of a smile pulled at his lips, but Wang Hao forced it under control. The mock serious look on Wang Hao's face made Jianci want to hit him, but Jianci was too tired for even that. "Come here."
Jianci narrowed his eyes in a glare but didn't say a word as he stepped over to the bedside. Wang Hao reached out to hold Jianci's wrist gently, a familiar gesture that might have been sweet except that it usually served to make sure Jianci couldn't get away more than anything else. "It's late," Jianci said. He didn't bother to hide the sleepy mumble to his voice. "You should rest."
The smile Wang Hao had been restraining broke free, and he cocked his head a little. "I don't want to rest yet. I want to talk." He patted the place next to him on the bed but Jianci remained standing.
"About what?" His voice was quiet with apprehension. Nothing good seemed to come from talking, at least not today.
Frowning just a little at the ignored invitation, Wang Hao tightened his grip on Jianci's wrist. "Nothing serious." He grinned. "I'm just curious about what exactly you know about, what did you call it again? Girl things?"
"I know enough," he replied curtly. He felt the tips of his ears go red.
"Like what?" Wang Hao demanded. His obvious amusement was bordering on humiliating.
Jianci resisted the urge to say something terribly sarcastic only because he knew it wouldn't help when Wang Hao was in this kind of mood. It was probably more than a little strange that a servant felt so comfortable being sarcastic and disobeying their master, but the two of them had accepted long ago that their relationship was never going to be traditional, and both of them preferred it that way.
Heaving an exaggerated sigh, Jianci sat down on the edge of the bed. "I know what they have under their clothes, and I know what to do to make a baby with them."
Wang Hao raised an eyebrow. "You're quite knowledgeable." Jianci shook his head in disgust. "Oh, come on, you don't even sound interested by it."
"Because I'm not."
"You're not?" Wang Hao's curiosity shone in his eyes. "Not even a little?"
Again, he shook his head.
"But you've kissed."
"Against my will," he insisted stubbornly.
Wang Hao laughed and nodded. "Fine, fine. You're quite unique, you know? You've summed up everything my lordling friends can talk about for hours in a single sentence. They can go on and on even about just kissing. You mean to tell me you don't even think about kissing?"
Jianci contemplated that as he stared up at the high ceiling. It would be a lie to say he hadn't been thinking about it, especially lately. It had crossed his mind more that once since their encounter earlier that evening that it all was extremely funny timing, the topic of their conversation and his dreams. Then again, it likely wasn't coincidence at all. He was no doubt having those dreams precisely because Wang Hao wanted to ask that question, because he'd been thinking about it as much as Jianci, as a result, was as well.
"Not until recently." His eyes slid over to grin at Wang Hao. "Is that not normal? Then tell me, how often do you think about kissing? Since I assume you're normal."
Wang Hao raised an eyebrow again, but his eyes with unreadable. "I think about it a lot, almost constantly, which is definitely normal," he teased. His fingers around Jianci's wrist were warm. "But I wouldn't say I'm normal."
Staring at those fingers, Jianci chewed on his lip. "Why?" he asked suddenly, as if driven by some invisible force to do so. His face felt flush but he grinned impulsively. "Because you think about kissing me?"
There was a pause, and then Wang Hao said, very slowly, "Please tell me you don't suddenly know how to read minds."
Jianci laughed out loud and shook his head. "No, may the gods be kind and never grant me that." He shuddered at the thought. It might be a useful power, but Jianci had no desire to understand those around him to that extent. He tended to know too much as it was based on what he absorbed instinctively thanks to his observational skills. "I just saw something, as usual."
"And what did you see?"
A pang of anxiety made Jianci hesitate. The way Wang Hao was watching him so intently was disconcerting. "I saw you kissing me. Simple enough." He cleared his throat awkwardly.
Wang Hao nodded absentmindedly. His grip loosened on Jianci's hand. He almost let go of it entirely, but stopped with his fingers still resting on the back of Jianci's hand, unable or unwilling to break the contact just yet.
"You didn't happen to see anything after that, did you?" He laughed dryly. "Like the world exploding, or you hating me."
Jianci was smiling so hard his face hurt, but Wang Hao wouldn't look at him. "I see you're in no position to question anyone's manhood." Wang Hao looked up and started to shout something, but Jianci's smile cut him off.
Instead Wang Hao growled in annoyance and grabbed Jianci around the waist, pulling him down onto the bed. Even if it was completely unfamiliar territory, Jianci just laughed when he found himself looking up at Wang Hao. It was new, but it didn't feel new. It felt like a new extension of their already rather unorthodox lives. "I can't guarantee the world won't explode," he said breathlessly.
Wang Hao shook his head and closed his eyes. Pressed together like this, Jianci could feel Wang Hao's heartbeat through his clothes. He swore he felt the rhythm quicken when Wang Hao opened his eyes again, peering down at Jianci in a way Jianci couldn't recognize but made his pulse race just as badly. Jianci could see Wang Hao battling himself, so many emotions surfacing and disappearing in his eyes that Jianci couldn't keep up. Taking a deep breath, Wang Hao rested his forehead against Jianci's. Jianci moved his hands up Wang Hao's arms to stroke Wang Hao's hair experimentally. The touches were familiar but felt different now. Wang Hao leaned into the touch, looking up just enough so that Jianci could pull him closer and kiss him.
The kiss was light and gentle, and Jianci wasn't sure if he was doing it correctly since he'd never initiated a kiss before. Wang Hao froze, his lips not even moving against Jianci's and his heart pounding worse than ever against Jianci's chest. The lack of response made Jianci panic and pull away, an apology forming in his mind but his lips tingling too much from the kiss to say it.
Wang Hao stared down at Jianci in a mix of disbelief and confusion. Jianci felt like slipping away and hiding for a month or two, but Wang Hao was holding him firmly in place. Finally, Wang Hao asked, "You couldn't even let me kiss you first?"
A snort destroyed the tension in the room, and Wang Hao dissolved into a fit of frustrated laughter. "First you see the kiss coming," he grumbled and rested his head against Jianci's shoulder. "And then you take the damn kiss away from me."
Jianci laughed quietly, his voice returning to him as his panic subsided. "You were taking to long," he muttered back, slapping Wang Hao's shoulder lightly. "If you hurry the hell up we can pretend that one never happened."
Wang Hao looked ready to hit Jianci, but he raised his eyebrows and returned the glare in haughty challenge. Wang Hao's eyes flickered down to Jianci's lips, and after a brief hesitation that was just enough to make Jianci panic all over again, before he kissed Jianci again and this time, Jianci felt it all the way to his toes.
15 and 18.