#so he can snap at binghe and shove him around and SIT ON HIM but it's fine because it's not like it's a sex thing for HIM

[waitineedaname]

One thing I love about that scene is how casually SQQ pushes Binghe around and manhandles him. Book 2 was heavily defined by his complete terror of Luo Binghe, and now all that fear is just gone. Binghe is even enraged with jealousy, but it doesn’t even threaten him anymore. Nothing has changed but his perception of the situation and it makes all the difference. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

that's so true!! I think that really says something about how far they've come, especially taking into account the two previous scenes. like you said, Shen Qingqiu spends so much of book two terrified that Luo Binghe wants to kill him, but by now he's figured out Binghe's feelings for him and is realizing that Binghe doesn't actually want to hurt him. before the Tent Shenanigans, there's the scene where they're fighting before SQQ's soul gets yoinked out of the plant body, and then there's Holy Mausoleum arc. there's a lot to unpack in their fight in the plant body but I think most relevant is that SQQ is less Scared and more Pissed Off, and as many people have pointed out, Binghe did not intend to actually hurt him in that scene, he was just trying to scare him because he thought he was fulfilling a role SQQ wanted him to play. and he was Also Pissed Off.

and then there's the Holy Mausoleum, which is just. so much. Holy Mausoleum I love you, best arc in the whole damn series. but SQQ spends most of that arc carrying Binghe's unconscious body around and protecting him, and they have their Moment when they're both sobbing at each other. at this point, SQQ is really coming to understand Binghe's feelings for him and that Binghe doesn't truly want to hurt him. plus this scene in the tent starts with Binghe kissing him and SQQ snapping at him to kneel and Binghe fucking DROPPING to his knees! this might be the first point in the story where they are truly Equals, especially in SQQ's understanding of things. Binghe might be the terrifyingly powerful demon emperor protagonist, but SQQ has the authority to shove Binghe around and the security in knowing he's not going to be dismembered for it

so yeah, he can manhandle Binghe as much as he likes! Binghe even enjoys it, even if he's also angry that someone else is daring to look at Shizun

[allpiesforourown]

CORNY ALERT for the bingyuan roommate au. Slight cringe ahead

Shen yuan going out with a "friend" to a bar or a club or some place similar, and binghe insists on accompanying him. Shen Yuan is a little ticked off that binghe is trying to chaperone a grown ass man, but tells himself maybe binghe meant to go out tonight too and thought they'd just share a ride?

About an hour later shen yuan is laughing with some guy while binghe is sitting at a distance watching them like a hawk, ignoring everyone trying to talk to him. He can see this dude touching shen yuan (jokingly putting his arm around yuan ge's shoulder or claiming there was something on his face he was wiping off) but when he tries to slip his arm around shen yuans waist binghe snaps, stomps over, grabs shen yuan and drags him out of the building

Of course the two of them have a fight about the whole thing (things have been tense between them lately) and they're arguing outside

Binghe says that guy was clearly trying something and shen yuan replies "why do you suspect everyone thinks that about me!"

And binghe just snaps and starts yelling "because they do!!! Because you're too naive to notice that they want to take advantage of you! What will it take for you to understand some people don't want to be your friend!?"

Shen yuan is really shocked because in all the years they've known each other binghe has never yelled at him in genuine anger or said anything that mean. He doesn't know how to reply but he doesn't have to because binghe just shoves him against a wall and starts kissing him so roughly shen yuan can barely breathe

Man. Can you imagine. His tongue would have shen yuan going lightheaded. Binghe would be holding shen yuan's wrists over his head with one hand and squeezing his ass with the other. Rubbing his erection into Shen Yuan to really drive home how horny he is for this man.

Binghe finally pulling away and shen yuan is so weak in the knees he falls to the ground. Instead of helping him up binghe just leans down to grab shen yuans chin and lifts his head enough for their eyes to meet and says "now do you get it?" And shen yuan is so shocked he can't do anything but nod .

[a-sleepyblackcatyawning]

You ever have that disconnect when someone says, “Oh, I love the smell of bamboo!” And all you can think of is how bamboo doesn’t really have a smell? I particularly love when people write that SSQ smells like bamboo. All I can imagine is SSQ having spilled one of those “bamboo” scented candles all over him. This snippet is dedicated to that.

——

For some unknown but miraculous reason, Shizun was sitting on him.

“Mmm, Binghe smells nice.”

Luo Binghe, who had been sitting like a statue, lest any movement startle his thin-faced husband, preened. “I think Shizun smells better!” Because Shizun always smelled the best. Shizun could’ve been covered in sweat and blood, and Binghe would’ve still thought he’d smell the best.

Shizun seemed to ignore the compliment. “Binghe smells like bamboo.”

Luo Binghe was puzzled. What? Bamboo had a scent? He tried to recall the smell of bamboo and could only come up with a vague recollection of stalks that smelled like a cross between a generic shrub and, maybe, grass.

The next day, he headed to his private courtyard in his palace. He’d planted bamboo here for Shizun, so Shizun would always have some of his Qing Jing Peak even here in the Demon Realm. It had been difficult getting the human species to grow in the miasma-filled environs of his palace, but he had managed.

Luo Binghe briefly cast around to make sure no one was watching. Unlikely though it was in his inner sanctum, such things had happened in the past in what Shizun had, under his breath, referred to as “wife plots”, whatever those were.

Satisfied that there was no one watching what would probably be on odd sight, Luo Binghe walked over to the bamboo grove. With his demonically-enhanced senses, he could smell fertile soil, water, petrichor and the green scent of plants growing.

It was a nice smell, admittedly. It just was one that screamed “it just rained!” more than it did a specific plant.

He got closer. There was no change.

He got even closer. There was still no change.

He got closer still. If this had been in public and the bamboo had been Shizun, Shizun would have scolded him about personal space, by now.

He shoved his face against one of the plants. Now he could smell…wax? How odd. He scraped a fingernail gently against the stem and a greenish-white residue was left under his nail. Where he’d scraped looked even greener. Huh. From the scrape came the scent of grass.

That couldn’t be all. Shizun had said that he’d smelled like bamboo. If he’d smelled like grass, Shizun, ever the scholar, would have told him he’d smelled like grass. And probably wouldn’t have been sniffing him like that.

A flush of heat ran through Binghe’s body at the memory. With a shake of his head, he forced the recollection aside, took a firm grip on one of the bamboo plants, and sent mentally sent an apology to Shizun. Then he vigorously rubbed at the culm.

More generic green-grassy scent wafted from the abused plant before it cracked in his grip. A rotten smell assaulted his nose. Binghe stared in horror at the green and black now covering his hands. Then, he began to cry.

“Shizun thinks I smell bad!” The Demon Emperor sobbed to himself.

—

“Bro.” Airplane looked incredulously at Cucumber-bro. “Bro,” he said again.

Cucumber-bro sniffed haughtily, but he was hiding behind his fan as though that would prevent Airplane from seeing his embarrassment.

“Bamboo is a grass. It’s not like a flower. It’s not aromatic,” Airplane explained once his mind came back to him.

Airplane watched as Cucumber-bro fanned himself more and more vigorously until his thin face could no longer stand it and he slammed his fist on the table. “Well how was I supposed to know?” He snapped. “There were bamboo scented candles and perfumes!”

Airplane nodded. Bamboo scented anything had gotten popular when he’d been in University. He remembered feverish days on Etsy trying to make ends meet, when he wasn’t churning out chapters, selling: “Handmade! Paraben-free! Soy Candles” to yuppies in the USA. His best-selling bamboo scent had no bamboo in it, but did contain jasmine, grapefruit, eucalyptus and rosemary. He remembered pasting labels depicting a specimen of Dracaena sanderiana curving gently behind Papyrus font which read “Scholarly Bamboo Gold Candle”. It’d been hilarious at the time.

Looking at Cucumber-bro’s mortified face, it was still pretty hilarious now.

[vodkassassin]

Hello supreme overlord, ruler of all, writer of the most amazing of sentances and of the nicest of words, could you please write SQQ and SQH interacting in public and forgetting where they are so they just share friendly touches (like touch-starved millenials do) which ppl see and loose their minds over? Like SQH casually throws his hand over SQQ's shoulder and the other just looks pleased youdon'thavetoifyoudon'twantto Ty <3

Moth babe I swear to god

Here’s some platonic cucumberplane for you guys! @overlordmoth

-

Shen Yuan has been in the body of Shen Qingqiu for seven months. Seven warm months of early spring, a beautiful, gorgeous summer befitting of a xianxia world, and a colorful yet mild fall.

He’s been so busy with worrying about the plot, about dismantling the OOC function, about what this exasperating, crazy world (or the System) would throw at him next, that he hasn’t really had the chance to concern himself with the smaller things, like the weather. Especially since those smaller things have been content to be rather wonderful and non-problematic.

Until now, that is. It’s the beginning of his eighth month in this ridiculous place, and it seems winter is finally here.

Yesterday, now that Shen Qingqiu has the belated gift of hindsight, he realizes that all the trees — usually so full of brightly colored leaves in warm tones of oranges and reds and yellows and even some pinks — they’d all gone completely skeletal, very abruptly losing all those final leaves at once. And, seemingly overnight, three feet of snow apparently fell to blanket the mountain sect — because it’s a mountain! Lots of snow! Who’s grand idea was it to build the sect high up on a mountain range? Fuck you, Airplane! — while Shen Qingqiu was asleep, and now….

Shen Qingqiu kicks the door that obstructs his way open with his foot, and Shang Qinghua flinches back in his seat across the room.

“I’m sorry! What? Oh! U—Um, hey bro, what’s —?”

Crossing the office, Shen Qingqiu takes a brief, self-indulgent moment to loom over his fellow transmigrator and watch him sweat, before he whips open his fan and presses the tip of one of its spokes to his mouth in contemplation.

“Scoot over.”

“What?” Shang Qinghua asks, and squeaks when Shen Qingqiu doesn’t wait any longer before plopping down directly beside him and leaning over to burrow into his side. “Sh-Shen bro—?!”

“It’s fucking cold,” Shen Qinqiu hisses, “and I am wearing silk. And I own nothing but silk! Who’s idea was that, huh, Qinghua?”

Shang Qinghua doesn’t make a sound for a few long seconds, but Shen Qingqiu can feel the man trembling. He can’t tell, however, whether it is because the man is nervous or laughing at him.

“I-I would have assumed it was Shen-shixiong’s idea, seeing as how it’s his wardrobe,” Shang Qinghua finally says, voice shaking, and clearly talking about the original goods, whose character and wardrobe he had written himself!

It sounds enough like mocking that Shen Qingqiu gives into his urge and snaps his fan closed, using it to jab his friend — yes, his friend — in the ribs. The shorter man yelps.

“Ow! Bro, c’mon—!”

“I’ll kill you.” Shen Qingqiu tells him in a stage whisper, lifting his eyebrows up to show how serious he is about it.

“You would never.” Shang Qinghua sounds so sure of himself. “You love me too much, bro!”

“Would you stop squirming?” Shen Qingqiu huffs in irritation as the other peak lord’s movements makes him slip off his shoulder and slide down to land in his lap instead. “Shang Qinghua!”

“I didn’t do it!” Shang Qinghua wails, nonetheless teaching out to wrap an arm around Shen Qingqiu’s shoulder and tugging him up a bit to rest against his chest instead. “There, is that better? You know, you interrupted me. I’m trying to work!”

“You can still write with me here, stop whining,” Shen Qingqiu gripes, and leans forward to shove his frozen nose directly against Shang Qinghua’s neck. The man jerks back and whines.

“Stop! You’re cold!”

“I know, that’s why I’m here! Order me a winter wardrobe right now!”

“I don’t have the right forms for that at my desk!” His friend says, a brush dripping ink still held aloft in one hand. “I’ll have a disciple hunt them down for me and do it later!”

“I’ll turn into a popsicle before then! Bitch, do I look like Captain America to you?” Shen Qingqiu demands.

“You ain’t nearly blonde enough,” Shang Qinghua huffs, setting down his brush and rubbing some warmth into his bro’s upper arm. The other sighs slightly and leans even more of his weight into him. Neither of them are very heavy, though, so it doesn’t make much of a difference. “You wanna borrow one of my fur-lined robes until I get you your own?”

“I could kiss you for that,” Shen Qingqiu admits. “Please.”

There’s a loud, strangled sound from the doorway.

Both of them whip their heads around to stare in surprise at the utterly befuddled Yue Qingyuan that stands in the doorway. Slightly behind the sect leader, a red-faced Luo Binghe stares at the two cuddling peak lords with wide eyes. A few seconds tick by in complete silence, before the boy turns away and flees.

“Uh,” Shang Qinghua says smartly.

Shen Qingqiu withholds a groan and smacks his friend on the shoulder with an open palm, burying his face into Shang Qinghua’s neck so that he doesn’t have to look at the still-staring sect leader. “Well, shit.”

“I—” Yue Qingyuan attempts to speak, but his voice fails him immediately, and the three peak lords are left in a stifling, awkward silence.

Shang Qinghua clears his throat. “M-Maybe sect leader should come back later?” He asks.

Shen Qingqiu is suddenly hyper-aware of the arm that his friend has wrapped around him, and the way he’s sitting across Shang Qinghua’s thighs, and mentally swears again. This is a little bit too much for ancient China xianxia sensibilities, isn't it? Fuck.

Yue Qingyuan tries to speak again, but no words come out. After a second, the man settles for giving them a sharp nod. He then turns on his heel and leaves without a word.

Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua stare at one another in silence.

“Awkward.” Shen Qingqiu eventually manages, burrowing even closer against his friend. Honestly, he’s just too fucking cold to be overly concerned about the consequences of this blunder just yet.

“I hate you.” Shang Qinghua says, reaching a hand up to hit him. There’s absolutely no power behind it at all. “This is your fault.”

“It absolutely is not,” Shen Qingqiu denies. “You’re the one who gave me an entirely silk wardrobe. Fuck you.”

“Fuck me yourself, you coward.”

“Please,” someone whimpers, and they turn to see Shang Qinghua’s head disciple cowering in the corner of the room, beet-red face buried into both his hands. “Please, stop.”

“Haha, whoops,” Shang Qinghua laughs nervously. “Sorry, A-Kao! Why don’t you take a break?”

“I’m never coming back,” the disciple says, emotionally. He pushes away from the wall and high tails it out of the offices faster than even Luo Binghe had fled.

The two of them are silent as they watch him leave.

“God dammit,” Shen Qingqiu sighs tiredly. He slumps even further against Shang Qinghua, and the other man adjusts his grip on him. “The System is going to kill me for this later.”

“Not if we kill it first,” Shang Qinghua says, a malicious light appearing in his eyes.

Shen Qingqiu looks up at him. “... I’m listening.”

They both ignore the neon red, flashing warning screens that only they can see.

[skeren]

@waitineedaname Your TAGS!

#they're still very dysfunctional at this point <3 #but they're getting CLOSE to being functional #or at least as functional as these two can get #i saw someone say this was the point when they're at their most equal #because it's after sqq acknowledges that binghe is in love with him (and therefore isn't going to kill him) #but BEFORE he acknowledges his own feelings #so he hasn't yet assigned all his weird baggage about being in a gay relationship with the protagonist to their relationship #like later on once he's confessed we see his issues about like. ''i can't top the protagonist!'' and all his other internalized homophobia #but he hasn't acknowledged his own feelings at this point #so he's more comfortable bossing binghe around #like ordering him to kneel and seriously scolding him for being disobedient #which like. binghe clearly enjoys. a LOT. he likes being scolded and bossed around by sqq #and i think sqq is aware that it's a Sex Thing for binghe #but he hasn't acknowledged that it might also be a sex thing for him too lol #because he hasn't acknowledged that the attraction goes both ways yet #so he can snap at binghe and shove him around and SIT ON HIM but it's fine because it's not like it's a sex thing for HIM #<- he is a buffoon #anyway this is my dom sqq agenda #i think i've gotten off track. um. where was i. #anyway yeah it's really nice seeing that he's not scared of binghe anymore :')

One thing I love about that scene is how casually SQQ pushes Binghe around and manhandles him. Book 2 was heavily defined by his complete terror of Luo Binghe, and now all that fear is just gone. Binghe is even enraged with jealousy, but it doesn’t even threaten him anymore. Nothing has changed but his perception of the situation and it makes all the difference. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

that's so true!! I think that really says something about how far they've come, especially taking into account the two previous scenes. like you said, Shen Qingqiu spends so much of book two terrified that Luo Binghe wants to kill him, but by now he's figured out Binghe's feelings for him and is realizing that Binghe doesn't actually want to hurt him. before the Tent Shenanigans, there's the scene where they're fighting before SQQ's soul gets yoinked out of the plant body, and then there's Holy Mausoleum arc. there's a lot to unpack in their fight in the plant body but I think most relevant is that SQQ is less Scared and more Pissed Off, and as many people have pointed out, Binghe did not intend to actually hurt him in that scene, he was just trying to scare him because he thought he was fulfilling a role SQQ wanted him to play. and he was Also Pissed Off.

and then there's the Holy Mausoleum, which is just. so much. Holy Mausoleum I love you, best arc in the whole damn series. but SQQ spends most of that arc carrying Binghe's unconscious body around and protecting him, and they have their Moment when they're both sobbing at each other. at this point, SQQ is really coming to understand Binghe's feelings for him and that Binghe doesn't truly want to hurt him. plus this scene in the tent starts with Binghe kissing him and SQQ snapping at him to kneel and Binghe fucking DROPPING to his knees! this might be the first point in the story where they are truly Equals, especially in SQQ's understanding of things. Binghe might be the terrifyingly powerful demon emperor protagonist, but SQQ has the authority to shove Binghe around and the security in knowing he's not going to be dismembered for it

so yeah, he can manhandle Binghe as much as he likes! Binghe even enjoys it, even if he's also angry that someone else is daring to look at Shizun