#peizhi x shulin

[randomingoftherandomness]

ALoN prompt: Peizhi x Shulin; what ends up to be their very last time together.

Not gonna lie, writing this prompt gave me mad Hozier vibes but that could just be me celebrating the return of the Bog Prince (all hail)

Stream 'Eat Your Young' (♡-_-♡)

[currently still accepting ALoN prompts]

tw: dub-con, (and in my mind at least, lan jue x mowen x zhang ping)

~*~*~*~

Hunger colours the shadows on Shulin's face. The dancing candlelight sweeps and dust over his brow, the bridge of his nose, and the parted pink of his lips. Like shivers of molten gold that keep him illuminated for slivers of seconds.

Peizhi prays that for all he is laid bare to this man, there are still facets of his soul that aren't so intertwined with Shulin's that there are secrets he can hold onto as his own.

"Peizhi." Fingers press their mark into the flesh of his hips. The pressure, the weight, the sense of belonging so achingly familiar that he can't cage the soft moan that rattles loose from his chest.

In a different life, in a different time, when he was far more ignorant about the ways of the world, this would be the moment he surrenders to Shulin. Body, soul, heart, they were his first before they were anyone else's.

Closing his eyes against the tidal wave of emotions in him, he sucks in a breath.

Here in the now, the hands on his skin aren't the ones he wants. In this moment, warm from their shared body heat, naked with Shulin on him, between his thighs, pressing down on him in distinct ways that he cannot deny who is sharing his bed tonight, he aches to be anywhere but here.

And if the shudder that lances through him gives Shulin the illusion that he is still his, Peizhi can swallow down his basic instincts to run and cast his mind to memories of different nights under different hands.

He'll pretend. Just for tonight. For the sake of saving lives.

[chaoticmiraclezombie]

total homiesexual behaviour from these two. an excellent performance, if you will

lan jue: "why are you looking at me like that, bro? gonna make me think we're really gay or smth"

wang yan: "we are."

lan jue: "oh no, shulin! i can explain!"

shulin: "can you really?"

lan jue: "oh, fuck"

*in spain but the s is silent and the rest is amplified*

[randomingoftherandomness]

Hi hi!

Lan Jue× Gu Qingzhang

Tenderhornysad feels after the rat poison reveal and discussion of how it affected Shulin's health, and whether he truly, truly drank it only because he also wanted to die. Can take place in either the Lake Isle cottage or in the Lan Manor (or both). Can have mentions of Lan Jue×Wang Yan if you want, or not. Enjoy writing and I hope it's not too hard!🤭

Hello Hello! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

Thank you for the lovely, lovely prompt Nonnie! I caught a flash of inspiration that I just wanted to share. Hope you like it!

~*~*~*~

Footfalls on wooden flooring, a stride languid and light with a whisper of the hem of a thin outer robe that drags behind like a train. Lan Jue has to smile.

"You should be asleep," He says out loud, voice gentle but clear in the night quiet. Not lifting his head from where he was putting the final characters onto paper, he bites down on the inside of a cheek when the footfalls pause, then resume until they're right next to him.

"You weren't in bed to hold me," Shulin replies coolly and reasonably as if they were discussing the state of the weather and not how their sleeping arrangements would be disastrous if ever leaked beyond the walls of Lan Manor. "I got tired of looking at shadows."

A cough cuts through the last syllable of that sentence, and that is enough to have Lan Jue abandoning whatever remains of his report and urging Shulin down into the seat next to his closest to the smouldering coals of the brazier.

Guilt bites in his throat when Shulin smiles wanly, the corner of his lips tinted a little red. An apology, a plea for forgiveness sits on the tip of his tongue but his mouth does not birth the shapes of the words.

Instead, he shrugs off his coat and drapes it over both their bodies, bringing Shulin close to his side. "Next time, wear something more than these ridiculously thin robes you insist on. It's cold out now, remember to bundle up. Wear a cloak at least."

"Who'd ever thought you'd ever be a mother hen?" Shulin laughs softly, shaping his body easily against Lan Jue's. Nuzzling against his shoulder with a sigh, he tucks himself close.

Lan Jue wraps his arms around him, feeling the warmth of his body, fingertips tracing the shape of his spine. Smiling a little, he tilts his head to brush a kiss on his hairline. "Well, someone has to be."

"You do this for Wang-daren as well?" Shulin asks, then pauses lifting his head up from where he has laid it on Lan Jue's shoulder. "No, I don't think you do. If anything, you let him do this to you. You let him coddle and cosset you because you like it too."

The tips of Lan Jue's ears turn a tickled pink, but he doesn't deny it. Much to Shulin's amusement, it seems, because his non-answer is enough to have him laughing hard enough to rattle his bones.

"Oh, hush, I won't take this slander!" Lan Jue tuts, smiling despite himself.

"I don't see you denying it!"

Lan Jue shakes his head, tightening his embrace until a giggling Shulin has all but collapsed into him. They luxuriate in the pleasure of their bodies pressed so tightly together.

"Have you ever told him about it? The rat poison?"

"He..." Lan Jue starts, then swallows. Considering the rest of the words, he brushes back the hair trapped under his wrist. "He knows enough."

Shulin nods. Lan Jue feels it more than he sees the action. "Do you think he mother hens because he worries?" The unspoken 'that you will actually succeed the next time you try' hangs tacky in the comfortable air between them, yet Lan Jue does not shy from it.

"I think he worries that I will do things that will ruin me beyond just my own life," He says. It doesn't feel strange or unnatural to tell Shulin this tremble of truth that he has yet to speak of even to himself.

Shulin hums, shifting in his arms until he has enough space to clamber into Lan Jue's lap. "Shulin--"

"Do you think he worries that I will ruin you?"

The words are not spoken fast, nor were they slow. Deep and sweet, Lan Jue lets them settle on his skin. Moving his hands in a familiar line up the sides of Shulin's thighs, he rolls their hips together, pulling Shulin closer by his ass.

"I know he knows it's too late for that when it comes to you," Lan Jue admits softly, drinking in the way Shulin smiles, eyes a dark promise. Arching up, he slots their mouths together, stealing the soft whine that slips between their shared breaths. "There was never any coming back from you."

A huff of laughter escapes, dancing on his chin as he feels Shulin's hands on his shoulders pressing down until he follows and lays back, letting Shulin cage him in between his arms.

The dark curtain of Shulin's hair curtains them from the light. And Lan Jue surrenders himself to it.

[still accepting ALoN prompts]

[randomingoftherandomness]

Mowen×Lan Jue×Shulin

In the calligraphy stall meet up era. You can choose to have all three meet at the same time (I hear that's what happened in the book, Shulin was with him when Mowen ran past the stall on horse), or meet separately with Lan Jue and hear of the other person through Lan Jue. Or not to have met Lan Jue at the same time at all, as in Lan Jue met Mowen after Shulin's disappearance. I simply just want *complicated feelings TM involving the three of them.

If you want you can add an epilogue with what went on with Mowen in the time Shulin reappeared and Mowen had yet to leave for war.🤭

Hi Nonny! Thank you for the prompt (っ˘ω˘ς ) I hope I do it justice.

Just a bit of disclaimer, I didn't read the novel nor am I planning to.

~*~*~

1.

Shulin feels a little hapless when he sees that his second favourite poem from Peizhi is tainted by the dust of the road. The haplessness grows into a budding spark of anger.

Especially when the rider of the horse that has just upended two days' worth of hard work, turns back to look at them, a corner of his lips lifted in a confident smirk that curls that spark into something that sits deeper, lower in his chest.

When he turns to Peizhi, he finds that his Zhiji has his eyes fixed on the rider. Even more so when said man dismounts in a graceful flourish that sees the sunshine catching on the richness of his robes.

Handsome doesn't even begin to describe the man. Tall, strong and proud, there's a sense that this man was born to be a hero. Just like those in all the stories he read as a child.

If he was so inclined, he thinks he could pick up a brush of his own to dedicate pages upon pages of written beauty to him.

Interesting, Shulin thinks distantly, feeling a prickle of warmth in his sternum that was most decidedly not anger, watching the man pick up the scroll of poetry, dusting it off with elegant fingers as he walks up to them.

2.

Wang Yan, Mowen, is for a lack of a better word, a tool.

He flirts, incessantly. Breaking hearts left and right, dragging both Shulin and Peizhi along with him on whatever latest escapade he had landed himself in from making eyes with some Minister's daughter or some pretty scholar who fell victim to his roguish charms.

Because a rogue, he is. Mowen with his easy, confident demeanour as he slinks up to their door to beg for dinner and a drink, or some company, or even just to sit and watch as he and Peizhi work on their letters or read the evening away.

Mowen is, in short, not part of the plan.

He can't be part of the plan. Shulin idly entertains the idea of shuffling forth a deviation or two just to send the man away for a few years. Away far enough from the intrigues of court and whatever machinations he has planned for himself and Peizhi. Away for long enough that he can be out of the way. Out of trouble.

Shulin kills that thought before it can take root. Caring for something is a burden. Caring for someone is a curse that he cannot afford. But when Mowen slides down on the floor next to Shulin, shoulder knocking against his knee as he passes over a bottle of Nv Er Hong he filched from his father's cellar, there's a twist in his heart.

A budding that blooms under the warmth and fondness of Mowen's smile directed at him. Shulin swallows down the venom that dances on his tongue and carves a smile in reply instead as he takes the bottle.

3.

"You like him."

Peizhi's voice is steady even if his gaze isn't. Shulin allows him to settle his hands on his hips, allows himself to be pulled closer in a tangle of limbs, hair, robes, skin to skin with no beginning and no end to where Peizhi's warmth is his and Shulin's chill is his own.

"You like him too," Shulin sighs, nuzzling his cheek to Peizhi's. "Don't lie. I saw how your brushstrokes falter when he bent over to pick up some boxes for me."

The non-answer wrapped in a slow hum is all Shulin needs to tilt his head and nip at a plush bottom lip, suckling it until Peizhi grunts in pain.

"What about you?" Peizhi asks, sliding his hand between the folds of his robes. His touch feels like a red hot brand. Shulin parts his lips on a shaky exhale as his eyes flutter shut.

"I like him enough," Shulin answers softly. Darting his gaze down to the pale slope of Peizhi's shoulder, he permits himself a heartbeat of honesty. "I like who you are when you are with him."

"Me too."

Shulin tilts his eyes to meet Peizhi's. Hand taking his own, Peizhi lifts his knuckles to his kiss-bitten lips, summer cherry red and half split by his efforts.

Dimly, he wonders if Mowen would permit his own lips to be painted in this same colour too.

4.

They're fine.

They'll be fine. They'll survive, they will thrive, and they will grow.

They will be without him.

They will be safe.

5.

Xu Dong sketches a quick bow in between hurried steps, barely a tip of his head to them as he carries Peizhi's orchid to his bedside. A good man, Xu Dong. Shulin is grateful that Peizhi has someone by his side like this.

"Why?"

Mowen's voice cuts through the quiet. Shulin turns to meet his eyes. There's no smile on his lips now. No confident amusement, none of the swagger he is known for throughout the capital.

Shulin regards him from over the rim of his cup of tea. The corners of Mowen's eyes are red, and anger colours the handsome lines of his face. Betrayal, the realisation settles in Shulin's bones like a run of lightning, because of me.

Mowen blinks, sitting back. Shulin quickly hides a cough in his sleeve. "I have no good answer," He rasps, clearing his throat.

It's at that that Mowen's body snaps forward, leaning halfway over the table to grab him by his shoulder. "Years, Shulin," He seethes. "We looked for you, searched every single time we caught wind that someone saw you. Why--"

"Why I never came back?" Shulin finishes in a whisper, lifting his eyes to meet Mowen's gaze. Swallowing down the copper tang on his tongue, he smiles, knowing precisely just how the red of his blood colours his lips.

To his surprise, Mowen shakes his head.

"Why are you back at all? Why now?" He stands, turning away from him as if he can't look at him for a moment longer. Shulin's hand itches to reach out but chooses to fold it in his sleeve instead.

"Would you believe it if I said it was because I missed you? Both of you?" He offers. A half-truth coloured with a patina of a life spent in a house in the middle of a lake when the truth hadn't yet unfurled her poisoned petals, and where Shulin had been the happiest since his childhood.

Mowen's fists clench and unclench. Shoulders tensed and unhappy. "Don't take me for a fool, Shulin. And please don't lie to me. I'm marching with the army tomorrow and I don't want to die with any regrets."

Shulin rushes forth, grabbing him by the arm. "You won't die."

"You're not a god, Shulin," Mowen chuckles softly, listing a little against him. Sliding his hand over Shulin's, he pats it gently, gripping it and pressing it to his chest. "You can't plan for everything."

I can, I have, I will, He aches to say. "Neither can you," Is what he offers instead, moving to press their bodies close. "So, none of this inauspicious talk."

When Mowen tilts their faces together, locking their lips in a familiar slide and push and pull, Shulin can only sigh.

+1

"Is this really necessary?"

The shackles around his ankles clank in a discordant rhythm when he kicks the chain out in time to the rocking of the carriage. The action hurts his toes, but the pain is a welcomed frisson that cuts through the fugue of whatever drug Kuruo has supplied Peizhi to keep him in a constant state of delirium and dreaming.

They've been travelling for days. Shulin has been asleep for about as many of them.

Consciousness is a slipper eel that stays out of reach for the most parts. Whenever he tries to recall how he even got here, all that comes to him are the flashes of red mist, the scent of night blooms, an ache that cuts through his bones, and then.

Here. In this rocking carriage that makes him faintly nauseous, with his two lovers - former? Shulin really cannot say - as they escort him to distant lands.

Mowen's throat bobs. Probably swallowing back whatever is on his mind. Shulin laughs at the thought that Mowen is restraining himself because of him.

Lolling his head to the side, he squints up at the sudden sunlight in his eyes. Blinking sluggishly, he waits until his vision adjusts. Waits until the silhouette of Peizhi's form against the window materialises in his sight.

"I've lost," Shulin croaks. "If you, either of you, ever loved me, then kill me. I'm--"

"Shut up!"

Mowen pulls him back, chains and all and for a brief moment, Shulin thinks he will slide a blade between his ribs. Letting it find a home close to his heart. It would be fitting and it would be the least that he could do.

"No one is killing you," Mowen says, pulling him close to his chest with a gentleness Shulin isn't sure he deserves in the slightest. "We won't let them. We won't let you either."

Obediently following when Mowen tips his head back, lovingly coaxing his lips to part so that he can feed him Kuruo's concoction, Shulin knows, knows without a shadow of a doubt in his heart that Mowen won't force him if he chooses to close his mouth right now.

If he refuses to drink this, refuses to play along as they take him to whatever distant cage they have constructed to contain him, Shulin wonders with no small amount of interest about what they would do.

He parts his lips on a pant, blinking slowly as he swallows.

Whatever they have planned, Shulin wants to be part of it.

[randomingoftherandomness]

27 for the romantic confession dialogue prompts, pairing if your choice :3

Mon Veraaaa ﾟヽ(o♡o)/ Thank you for the prompt! I think I will go for Mowen x Lan Jue (with a h i n t of mowen x lan jue x zhang ping) :) It's been a hot minute since I wrote a fic,s o o...

No. 27: “i feel your absence in everything that i do alone, in every place i go without you.”

~*~*~

There's a certain beauty that dances on Peizhi's brow when the moon is bright enough to skim the rims of their drinking cups. As if some deity from above would like to linger on him for a just moment more, sighing for a heart's beat longer.

Mowen can empathise.

It's now deep enough into the night hours that he should probably call it quits and make his way home. In a carriage, of course, he knows better than to drag his feet, stumbling halfway across the city to his own manor.

"When do you leave for Yiping?" Mowen asks, darting his eyes over to Peizhi, feeling his traitorous heart kick a half-beat at the smile that curls on his lips.

"In a fortnight."

"He'll be happy to see you," Mowen tries around the clicking of his throat. I know I would be, he doesn't say.

Peizhi's laugh is deep and melodious in the night air between them. Tinged with the sweetness of the wine, Mowen indulges in the sound. Allows himself to be warmed by the timbre even as he has to look away.

"Will you miss me?" He teases gently, rolling the wine cup between his fingers. "Because I will."

When he doesn't receive an immediate answer, he swallows tightly. Is this the moment Peizhi feels like he has toed a line? Before, Mowen had accepted that between them, there was never a need to quantify this ephemeral thing between them, never had a cause or reason to feel as if he needed an assurance.

But since he'd come back from the South, since the incident...

In his quiet moments, Mowen sometimes wonders what would have happened if Peizhi had loved Gu Qingzhang just that bit more. Just that bit more that it was enough to close his eyes to what he had planned.

(In those same moments, Mowen imagines a reality where Peizhi would love him with even a fraction of how much he loves his Shulin)

Just when Mowen begins to thread through those first syllables to deflect, to play his question off as a joke, Peizhi speaks.

“I feel your absence in everything that I do alone, in every place I go without you.” And that, in all its midnight sincerities, has Mowen breathless, eyes wide and on Peizhi as he climbs to his feet, coming to crouch in front of him.

Warm eyes search his own and Mowen is speechless. The air rushes out of his lungs in an exhale as he lifts a hand to touch the corner of Peizhi's smile.

"You..."

"Me?"

Mowen shakes his head, pursing his lips tightly in a failing effort to hide a smile of his own. "Incorrigible."

"But I'm not a liar," Peizhi says, his hand cupping Mowen's jaw. "Not to you. Never to you."

Mowen levels him with a look. "Only for good reasons!" Peizhi sputters, embarrassment colouring his cheeks a faint pink that dances delightfully all the way to the tips of his ears.

Pulling him closer, Mowen buries his face to a shoulder, sighing deeply. "I'll miss you when you're not here."

"I know you will," Peizhi's voice is a soothing rumble to his cheek. Clever fingers move to settle at his nape. "Which is why I've asked for special dispensation for you to come with me."

That has Mowen pulling back, lips parted in shock. "Peizhi!"

"Giving credit where credit is due, Zhang Ping helped!" He answers, laughter sneaking in between each word when Mowen begins to shake him by the shoulders. "He helped a lot!"

Groaning, he folds himself back against Peizhi's body, shaking with the laughter of his own. "What am I going to do with the two of you?"

"Well," Peizhi hums, pressing their cheeks together. "Just know that we will always feel your absence when you're away from us."

[Send me a number!]