#but he respects that yqy doesn't seem to be looking for a relationship (and that he has some shit going on that he hasn't seen fit to share

[princess-of-purple-prose]

Fish, 7 (For your prompts! ❤️)

Hi, anon!! Thank you for the prompt, you were the very first one to send one in! 7 was, again, the wildcard, so I randomly generated a different number to land on Yue Qingyuan (from Scum Villain)! I have no choice but to dedicate this to @bytedykes, because I told her about this prompt and she said “yqy pet fish mental health speedrun” and we went, uh, a little insane about it. Enjoy some yuefang, folks!!!!

“Mu-xiong,” Yue Qingyuan says. “I’m sorry to bother you. Are you available?”

“Yue-xiong is never a bother,” Mu Qingfang says warmly. “And I am, actually, yes. Is everything okay, Yue-xiong?”

“I think I need help.” A bit dramatic, perhaps, and Yue Qingyuan hates to trouble Mu Qingfang on a rare day off, but Yue Qingyuan and impulse have never been the best combination, and he would appreciate a second opinion.

Mu Qingfang’s voice turns hard. “Where are you? I'll come right away.”

“What—?” Yue Qingyuan stares at his phone like the blank call screen will tell him why Mu Qingfang suddenly sounds so serious. “I'm at home, but—”

“I'll be right there,” Mu Qingfang says, and hangs up.

Yue Qingyuan stares at his phone for another second, then lifts his gaze to his sparkling new aquarium. His new betta, white and black and resplendent of fin, stares back. Was his crisis of faith about his viability as a fish owner really so deserving of such urgency…?

—

“So,” Mu Qingfang says. “This was your emergency?” He looks about as unimpressed by the betta as it does by the two of them.

Yue Qingyuan feels obscurely like he’s being scolded. Mu Qingfang is one of the nicest men he knows, but that just means that his censure takes the form of a blunt instrument of mass disappointment.

“In my defense,” he points out meekly, “I didn’t say there was an emergency. Mu-xiong just assumed.”

“That’ll teach me,” Mu Qingfang huffs, but at least he looks amused. “Yue-xiong should get used to asking for help more so this gege doesn’t have to panic every time he does ask.”

Yue Qingyuan’s mouth almost drops open. He can only hope his cheeks aren’t as red as they feel. “Er—well, I asked this time, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Mu Qingfang allows, looking something horribly close to fond. Yue Qingyuan swallows and tries to hurry on.

“So—not an emergency, but I do want your opinion,” he coughs out. “I’m having… doubts. About the fish.” Mu Qingfang’s eyebrows contract. Yue Qingyuan rushes it out. “Do you think I should keep it?”

“Yue-xiong…” Mu Qingfang looks politely incredulous. “Why does my opinion matter? The fish is already yours, isn’t it? If you don’t think maintaining its upkeep will be feasible, that’s one thing, but… Surely Yue-xiong did the research before getting it?”

He doesn’t sound judgemental, but Yue Qingyuan feels his cheeks warm. “I did, but I wasn’t planning on getting a fish; I was only admiring the tanks. There was a salesperson who was… very insistent.”

Mu Qingfang regards him doubtfully, which is fair. Yue Qingyuan towers over most people he meets, and his bulk only further adds to the impression of immovability. It’s only when he opens his mouth that it becomes clear how spineless he actually is.

Yue Qingyuan falters. “I had thought… I thought it might be nice.” The bettas had seemed so majestic in their tanks, iridiscent monarchs of false grass and plastic coves, and Yue Qingyuan had thought, wildly, that one might be rewarding to keep, might breathe a touch of life into his immaculately sleek living room. The whole affair hadn’t even been expensive by his shiny new standards, forget difficult to physically arrange. It was only when installation and set-up for his new aquarium had finished and he was left to watch that jewel-bright being swim disaffectedly through its new home that doubt had seized him, all-consuming and black. He had, admittedly, panicked a little after that.

(Yue Qingyuan’s apartment is very large, and very clean, and very empty. It holds the barest amount of decoration and muss to qualify as lived-in rather than a snapshot from a magazine ad. The fish may, in fact, be the only thing in the entire place which really qualifies as his. No wonder Yue Qingyuan wanted to jettison it from his life as soon as he got it.)

Mu Qingfang’s expression hovers between concern and simple confusion. “I’m sure Yue-xiong will be a more than adequate caretaker,” he says, more gently than Yue Qingyuan and all his neuroses probably deserve. “What’s this really about, Yue-xiong?”

Ah. There it is. Being the mildest person of Yue Qingyuan’s admittedly sharp-tongued social circle doesn’t preclude Mu Qingfang’s wit from being as keen as the scalpels he works with.

“I don’t…” Yue Qingyuan falters. How to express to Mu Qingfang how manifestly unfit Yue Qingyuan is to care for any living creature at all? He changes tack. “I think he hates me,” he admits dolefully.

Mu Qingfang stares at him for a long time, long enough to imply that he’s reevaluating certain opinions about Yue Qingyuan’s intelligence. “Yue-xiong, with all due respect to your new pet—it’s a fish.”

“Fish have emotions!” Yue Qingyuan argues. He flushes at the volume at which it comes out, and at the way Mu Qingfang’s eyes go wide-eyed in startlement. But the salesperson had been very insistent about that, as well. “Bettas are intelligent animals. They dislike certain colors, apparently, and they’re very sensitive—ah, to environmental disruptions, that is. And—”

Mu Qingfang’s eyebrows are still high, but his face has relaxed into a smile. “It sounds to me like you like it quite a bit already. Isn’t that reason enough to keep it?” His tone curls with sudden mischief. “Have heart, Yue-xiong—you’ve hardly known each other for a day! Give it time to adjust to you, and I’m sure you’ll win it over as surely as you do everyone else.” And he grins, sure and easy in his trust that Yue Qingyuan won’t fumble and shatter something so small and monumental as a life that he could cup in his palms.

While Yue Qingyuan is still dazed by that, Mu Qingfang’s eyes alight with interest. “Ah, Yue-xiong—what have you named it?”

“...”

Mu Qingfang’s face falls as devastatingly as it had lit up. “Yue-xiong…”

“Mu-xiong is aware that I was unsure of whether or not I’d keep him!” Yue Qingyuan is terribly aware that his ears are now heating up to match his cheeks. Mu Qingfang’s ensuing laughter does not help with that matter.

Yue Qingyuan is not very good at holding onto things. More often than not, he makes a mess of whatever he’s set his clumsy hands to, lets it fall right through his scarred fingers. But Mu Qingfang’s words ring through his head: Isn’t that reason enough to keep it? And, well, isn’t it? Surely Yue Qingyuan is adult enough to follow through on this. Maybe happiness can be look like his new betta swimming up to the tank to observe the new colorful form moving in front of it, can come as easy as Mu Qingfang quipping that his knowledge about fish is clearly lacking and vowing casually to read up on bettas to be a better fish uncle.

Yue Qingyuan buries a smile and walks over to let Mu Qingfang know that bettas can be trained to follow fingers around. The betta’s clear preference for Mu Qingfang over Yue Qingyuan is as good a marker of intelligence as any fun fact the pet shop worker could have given him. Yes, Yue Qingyuan thinks with a smile—he thinks he’ll be keeping this after all.

[tcfactory]

Do you wanna talk more about og! Moshang? You seem to wanna talk about og! Moshang (not blaming you, they are a very good flavor of interesting) (about your stick-mobei au or in general. Pretty please both)

Okay, so. First of all og!SQH is a very competent sneaky snake of a man and by the time he meets young MBJ he's already an inner disciple - one getting walled by people with more family contacts with him, but hey, still doing fine in this scheming business. He's not in the doomed party of outer disciples, he's the one who is sent to check what the fuck is taking them so long. He finds the injured MBJ a day or two later, after discovering that the outer disciples are all dead, and startles the injured demon into teleporting them both somewhere. He recognizes the merit of making an alliance with MBJ (partially motivated by not knowing for sure if he can take MBJ in a fight or not) so in exchange for treating the demon's injury he will help him become peak lord.

They don't really interact all that closely while SQH is still with the Sect, because he has the good sense to establish proper boundaries so they are not discovered, but they begrudgingly respect each other. SQH gives good information, MBJ pulls off the attack on the Immortal Alliance Conference without a hitch (doesn't feel the need to oversee it personally because he's doesn't feel terribly worried about SQH's safety) and things go on in more or less a normal vein. SQH has already internalized that on An Ding, disciples will just assassinate each other and die in random horrible ways because that's just life, so he's not outwardly broken up about losing disciples. HHP are desperately pointing fingers all over the place to save face, so his 'aberrant' reaction gets scrutinized until he has to flee and join MBJ full time.

og!MBJ isn't as secure in his position because og!SQH is not Airplane to hand him all the plot devices laying around, but he has an appreciation for SQH so he keeps him around in a right hand man/personal retainer/personal servant capacity because that's how he can keep him safe the best and SQH absolutely resents him for this, actually. He fought really hard to be a peak lord and now he's a demon prince's glorified butler!

Still, over time they are slowly getting to know and trust each other and grow to have an appreciation for the other (they fall into bed every now and then, no strings attached except for all the strings they have wrapped around each other already because for MBJ SQH is the safest option and SQH doesn't have anyone else willing and he's pent up, all right?) - might even develop into a proper relationship given a few more decades if not for LBH. LBH who comes out the Abyss waving around Xin Mo, who's too powerful for MBJ to fight without his ancestral power, LBH who looks at SQH and sees red at the reminder of CQMS. He tolerates SQH while it suits him, while he can use his information to get his hands on SQQ, but when SQQ is safely strung up in the dungeons and he has a solid political backing by having HHP wrapped around his fingers? SQH has to go.

What better test for MBJ's loyalty than ask him to break his favorite toy? SQH dies or they both die, it matters little to LBH. And this is just my personal hc, but I like the thought that LBH loses MBJ even if SQH dies. MBJ rationalizes it to himself, but he was more attached than he realized and only his oaths hold him there, loyal shadow at LBH's side.

NOW for that Mobei-stick AU.

In a way, MBJ is rescued into an already existing support network, a framework that has already helped someone who (although to a lesser degree) has suffered through much of what he has. They need to make adjustments, definitely, but they already went through much of this with SQQ and the end result is traumatized but mostly stable SQQ in a situationship with YQY and LQG (though for this I think I prefer YQY and SQQ as brothers and LQG as the suitor slowly realizing that he was mistaken about SQQ and falling in love despite his injuries). 

…And guess who forgot that LQG is supposed to be dead for PIDW, so let’s call that an early divergence - LQG clashes with MBJ a few times bc LQG is trying to get SQH and SQQ back from the demons and it’s through him that MBJ learns that YQY will fight the very world for SQQ’s safety if he has to. Must be nice having family who look out for you like that, he thinks. I can use this to keep SQH safe.

But all the support networks are for nothing if MBJ doesn’t have the motivation to get better. He already reached a level of detachment from the world while in captivity, he could pass on without regrets - and I have Thoughts about Airplane’s god!MBJ (essentially an ascended heavenly demon) visiting him a few times to make certain he endured, even if he never recognized himself in this primordial god of the night skies, so he might even be eligible for ascension too if they meddled enough. SQH becomes his guiding star, his anchor to the world - in his mind he already repaid every debt and wiped every slate clean, he had no expectations for any rescue or aid, so he has complicated feelings about SQH coming for him after all. If anything, he thought they would put him out of his misery if they ever overcome LBH. So at least at first he has no other motivation for working on his recovery than to cause SQH less stress, because SQH took it upon himself to see him back to his position as northern heir because he thinks he owes MBJ a life debt.

On the other side, SQH always chafed against how much power MBJ had over him, but now that the tables have turned he Does Not Like this. Not at all. Get back on your feet and start bossing him around again, you shithead, he doesn’t like being in your debt. MBJ insists there is no debt, but of course there is, otherwise why would SQH bother with such a stupid demon!!! Don’t you dare imply that he cares because he does not!!! (He’s in so much denial.)

It’s a weird situation where MBJ cares about SQH’s emotions first and only finds his own eventually along the way (and it’s a glacially slow slide from ‘this is my safe person I cherish them a lot’ to a point where he rediscovers his infatuation and falls in love and he’s independent enough that SQH accepts that it’s a feeling MBJ had before and it isn’t just a side effect of their current situation.)

SQH first really does think he’s here for that life debt, but he stays after MBJ starts becoming independent again - which is, physically speaking, far earlier than anyone expects because LGJ gets him a scroll with an ancient technique to form limbs from black ice. MBJ kinda withholds the information that he can do this for a while because 1. he doesn’t want to invalidate the work the humans are putting into his prosthetics and 2. said prosthetics (armored shells forged to go around the bones of his limbs that LBH kept as a trophy) are less energy-intensive to use so he prefers them to the ice - and makes up excuse after excuse so he doesn’t have to face his emotions about MBJ as long as possible.

Like. The whole thing is much too slow and drawn out for me to ever write in full - maybe I could do some oneshots from various points in the timeline though… - but the end state is very much Peak Lord SQH (who has somehow reformed his reputation along the way) and his husband MBJ ( he turns down the throne in favor of one of LGJ’s sons who doesn’t turn out to be a good-for-nothing after all, because the Peak Lords are ascending sometime in the next century and after all he went through, MBJ is allowed to be a little sticky and join SQH, as a treat).