#wrote this in an airplane

[undeuxs]

wolfstar (remus x sirius), long au with suggestive themes

thinking about parisian!sirius, who moved out from london with his family when he was barely 12, and now being 21 his beloved childhood friends, james, peter and remus, are visiting him for the first time in paris.

sirius gets so excited about them coming over that he starts annotating which pubs are worth it and which aren't. he gets more and more nervous when their reunion is approaching that he finds himself trying to guess which places in the city will the boys like better.

"james would love to hang out anywhere, only because we will be together... but maybe he would like it even more with a pint or two."

"peter... that boy would follow us everywhere. even if we plot a murder, he'd choose to be there with us."

and then there is remus. remus.

most of the time sirius has to stop and truly think to himself, "what will remus like?"

truth be told, he has not seen them in such a long time, sirius sometimes has this thought that they may feel like foreigners to him now. he knows what they look like. he knows how their voices sound through the phone. he knows that james has a big crush on this red haired girl from university. he knows peter trains every morning with james against his own will.

but what does he knows about remus that remus dares to admit to him outloud? being realistic, not too much.

so sirius keeps repeating the same question, like a mantra in his head, "what will remus like?"

"the louvre, probably, he likes art. but no... that is too cliché for him..."

"headquarters of the communist party? it's nice and it has history. oh, but he will think i want to come off as some know-it-all..."

luckily when they arrive sirius doesn't have to worry about such questions anymore. between what james and remus planned beforehand, their excruciatingly long to-do list covered almost everything you could do for several weeks.

it is james who shows the biggest excitement among them, hugging sirius thrice when they finally meet, the way a true big brother would do. peter seems nervous, as if the city would swallow him. and remus, always sweet remus, who has grown taller than sirius and now sirius has to tilt his head backwards to get a full view on his face.

although they do not hug, their smiles are enough.

the boys are staying at sirius' place, who, since starting university, moved out and now gets to live in a beautiful, perfectly decorated flat just in the center of the city, away from his awful family.

they go out, explore the city, play records at sirius' apartment, smoke a lot and drink a lot. it's always sirius' treat, and even though they offer to pay him back, they forget about it when james and remus have to carry a pretty much wasted sirius to the taxi.

they all have their individual bedrooms (thank god sirius' place is huge), therefore one night, when remus slips under sirius' bedsheets, sirius doesn't know what to do. sure that night they drank heavily as they are used to do, but is remus that drunk to get his own bedroom wrong?

they fall into comfortable silence, until remus speaks, his words a low whisper, coated in sweetness and truthfulness which makes sirius doubt whether he is supposed to hear them or not.

"i missed you a lot."

sirius tries to conceal he's started to feel nervous by slowly rolling to one side. in a gentle motion, as if otherwise he would disrupt the quietness of the moment, he gets the pack of cigarettes that rested on the bedside table.

"want one?" he offers.

"enough for tonight i'd say."

in the end, they share the cigarette. the only sound in the room being them inhaling and exhaling the smoke, with open windows.

"you've grown handsome, you know?" sirius chooses to break the silence, admiting the truth that remained unspoken among the friend group. remus is now the tallest one, his chiseled jawline and soft stare makes him objectively handsome.

"are you hiding your girl from us, or?" sirius inquires, giving the fact that remus had not talked about any girls he was curious about with them.

remus shows the most delicate smile sirius has ever seen. even surrounded by darkness, sirius still manages to contemplate remus' eyes looking straight into his.

"no, not interested at all in girls."

sirius stops asking then.

after that night, they start looking for each other's eyes constantly. james and peter seem to not notice this, or rather choose to ignore it. under the table their knees brush, their bodies craving for some closure.

all of them keep going out. they go to every touristy place in the city, drink and smoke and joke around. they laugh a lot.

one night while on their new favourite place, a famous leftist bar next to sirius' place, remus sits next to sirius, then whispers in his ear, a grin plastered on his face: "viens me faire un bisou."

at first he did not understand his thick english accent while trying to speak in french, but, oh, when the realization hits him... sirius' mind goes blank.

"what?"

"a guy over there said it to me, what does it mean?"

remus is drunk, but so is sirius, and this situation couldn't be worse now that james and peter are looking at them pretty much confused and curious at the same time.

"nothing important, it's a joke about tourists."

sirius can tell that remus doesn't believe him.

and so that very same night remus goes to sirius' bedroom once again.

"what did it mean, sirius? the french phrase, i mean." remus mutters, getting under sirius's sheets with an upsetting casualness.

sirius could lie, of course. but something in the back of his mind tells him not to do it. like a man standing in front of a cliff ready to jump, he responds.

"give me a kiss."

and this time they lose all of their inhibitions.

neither james nor peter will know that sirius admitted what that phrase truly meant. they won't know as well how one of remus' hands caressed sirius' long hair, or how sirius pulled the tallest one closer against him.

it is a secret they keep to themselves. the cigarettes they smoke after daring to touch each other, the long conversations when no one could hear them. breaking a secret vow and creating a new one, with the prospect that they could embrace freely each other again and again.

night after night, remus keeps going to sirius' room. and, as if desire had taken over them, both become bolder.

it is in pub's restrooms where they kiss each other without shame. sometimes the sounds of belts undoing and zippers going down accompany the fervor of the kisses. although this only happens whenever their friends start a heated discussion with at least three other people in the pub because, of course, only james potter could manage to get three or four parisians to discuss in english with them.

if their friends notice the change, they don't say anything, and sirius is glad for that, because remus' hand sometimes rests on his leg, and sirius' door does a pretty loud sound when it's locked.

remus and sirius kiss each other whenever they can, rough and softly, with their hands tracing the other's body. their skin was craving that exact feeling for such a long time, now they cannot stop, asking one to separate from the other would be like trying to separate tissue from bone. it is in those casual moments when they are the same thing: two boys, with complex minds and complex hearts that secretly longed for their forbidden equal to embrace them.

[disgracefulthings]

Xie Lian: I married my soulmate, San Lang!

Wei Wuxian: My soulmate is Lan Zhan, and we got married too!

Shen Qingqiu: My soulmate is a pathetic rat man who is trashier than his own writing

Wei Wuxian: ...and you married him?

Shen Qingqiu: Gross no, I married his son

Xie Lian and Wei Wuxian: ????????

[happypeachsludgeflower]

So, in PIDW, there was obviously wife plots that could bring back the dead (mushroom body being one of them), and since we know Airplane is a hack that reuses concepts over and over, there’s probably multiple wife plots that could work, so like, where’s the PIDW fics where Liu Qingge somehow comes back to life, memories of Shen Jiu trying to save him intact, and goes to hunt the asshole down so he can repay his life debt, and along the way accidentally clears Shen Jiu’s name of all his crimes and now everyone is convinced Shen Qingqiu is a saint.

[nibbelraz]

Shen Yuan did in fact break into Airplanes apartment when he didn't update PIDW btw

Part 1 of Suprise! Your Protagonist Baby!

[benevolenterrancy]

Dumbass thought but shizun (sy) x Tony the tiger

The Tiger Demon Lord is here to negotiate with Junshang's empress (人❛▽^) ~ ☆✧˖° It's sure to go 𝔾ℝℝℝℝℝ𝔼𝔸𝕋 °˖✧`☆

[al3zthecat-blog]

I've read fics about SQH worrying about becoming second husband/wife, about MBJ proposing and SQH not realizing and thinking he is going to marry someone else, about MBJ promoting him without telling him until MBJ gives him the ultimate promotion and declares SQH his "queen" (also without telling SQH 😂) and I also saw one fic (although only read the first chapter) in which MBJ is looking for a spouse (not SQH) after they tried and failed at being together and many at Court are upset is not SQH(?). The point is I've seen many marriage fics, and while on them it takes a while for them to get married because of misunderstandings/miscommunication, usually SQH is on board once the misunderstanding/miscommunication is cleared. I don't think I've seen one where instead of SQH worrying about whether MBJ will propose and being envious of SQQ/LBH, SQH is instead dismissive of marriage and not wanting to ever get married himself if asked about.

I've seen post making fun of MBJ being courting SQH by beating him three times a day and how actually in the demon realm his romance is THE Romance ™ and not LBH's, because from an outsider demonic perspective it seemed that SQH kept playing hard to get and MBJ was willing to keep in trying. But, what if the misunderstandings/miscommunication were cleared and SQH is NOT on board. Like, even if you write him as already aware that he is in love with MBJ (and I like it more if he either doesn't see MBJ in that light yet or he isn't aware his feelings have turned romantic) and being on board on becoming lovers, I would love for him to just for him to hem and haw and distracting MBJ or avoiding the subject, because he doesn't want to get married. Because marriage kills romance. Marriage is the death of love, AND THEY JUST FOUND OUT THEY ARE IN REQUITED LOVE, WHY RUINED BY GETTING MARRIED!? And him trying to convince MBJ that it is better that way, he already promised to follow MBJ for all his life, why do they need to get married?

And now MBJ actually has to try and convince SQH that marriage is good. Until either one of the is convinced they are fine with or without being married.

Or you know, maybe there is no marriage proposal and MBJ's council or CQM are the ones telling Moshang they should get married, because of politics, and both MBJ amd SQH don't have a good opinion of marriage.

[feidude]

the system gives SQQ a new plotline to complete by the name of “shen qingqiu’s shidi seduction storyline” and SQQ is frazzled, as he sees the title and is like ??? excuse me?! how can i do this to my loyal, respectable and ever so straight shidi!!! but system shows the first task and he’s like ah? it’s just tying my hair up?? what kind of seduction is this..? …and it’s worth 25 B-points u say?? hmm not bad, not bad at all!! ….well…ok! sure 👀👀

and so it begins. before the next scheduled meridian cleansing, SQQ ties his hair in a high ponytail and it’s honestly kinda nice bc the weather was becoming awfully warm and all. anyway there’s a resounding knock on the door and SQQ composes himself before opening the door and saying w/ a smile gracing his lips, “Liu-shidi!! this shixiong has been waiting for you!!” and……silence. Liu-shidi looks stunned, eyes quickly glancing at his neck (hm?) before he turns his head, pointedly not looking at SQQ. There’s an uncharacteristic flush on his cheeks but he’s frowning, and with gritted teeth, says: “You--!…I’ll come back later!”

And in the matter of seconds, he’s gone, and SQQ is just like…..🧍eh. SQQ touches his hair and feels a bit sad,,cuz surely this new look of his isn’t too bad, no? but the system screen shines: +25 B-points!! Host successfully completed first task! Keep it up kya~~!

(ヾ;￣▽￣)ヾ!! ~~

SQQ:…...

he’s confused now bc didn’t his shidi just run away from him?? how did he get the points?? system ah, pls explain the reasoning behind these seduction points! but system is a little shit and doesn’t answer so SQQ curses it until he’s tired and decides whatever, he’s got the points so 🤷

anyways the next task is: caress the arm,,,,which !! hello?? SQQ does not want to end up with a broken hand, thank you very much !! but this one is worth 30 B-Points after all… so maybe if he does it fast enough???

he takes his chance after leaving the weekly Sect meeting, catching up to walk alongside LQG, calling out to him softly: “Shidi~.”

LQG grunts and turns to look at him, eyebrows raised in question. SQQ smiles: “Will shidi indulge this shixiong and recount his encounter with the Blue-Tailed Dragonsprout?”

LQG hums and is quiet for a few seconds, before slowly retelling his fight with the dangerous beast. It’s nice, listening to the low cadence of LQG’s voice as they’re walking along the path. SQQ even almost forgets his intended task (almost!)

LQG is telling the bit where he hand chopped the head of the beast open (as expected of his strong shidi!!) when SQQ takes his chance and brushes his hand slightly against LQG’s. and really, it’s almost comical how quickly LQG stops speaking and stiffens up. SQQ sighs in his heart. ofc. really, he’s not terribly surprised. ofc his most loyal, masculine, and straight shidi would be uncomfortable!!

SQQ looks to LQG to..uh laugh it off?? calmly apologize for intruding onto personal space?? and then. he sees it. a flush on LQG’s cheeks similar to last time and,, his ears are a bit red too now that’s he looking closely.

hmm?

HMM??

SQQ pauses, and lifts his hand again, this time caressing LQG’s arm (hopefully very sensually but it’s not like he’s an expert ok!!) before hooking his arm with LQG’s.

“Shidi, won’t you continue the story?” SQQ purrs, and ok yk what. admittedly he’s a bit embarrassed to be purposefully acting like this, but LQG’s eyes widen and his face turns even more red, and oh.

Oh.

*(gru voice: lighht buulb)*

…well, isn’t this surprising?

And so it begins (again). But this time, there’s purpose. It’s not just abt the points after all,, esp when his shidi is giving these adorable and frankly tsundere reactions. it’s amusing to SQQ and like,, can u blame him for wanting to see more??

system: ………. (ヾ;￣▽￣)ヾ!! ~~ Encouraging host!!

SQQ ties his inner robes loosely, so during meridian cleansing, his robes slip off just so, exposing his shoulder and part of his chest. there’s a choking sound behind him which causes SQQ to smile slyly, before calling out: “Ah, is shidi alright?” and ofc he gets no response, so he peeks back and ah, there it is!! LQG is not meeting his eyes and is instead focusing on circulating his qi but!, his face is bright red and SQQ….well he finds it absolutely delightful ;).

and so SQQ continues. on a mission together, he makes an excuse that he is “oh so dreadfully tired, won’t shidi let this one rest?” so he can take off his boots and free his aching feet, lifting his robes above his ankle while doing so. (there’s a loud bang behind him and he looks back to see LQG standing with his hands clenched next to a fallen tree w/ a very suspicious fist-shaped indent).

when they both attend a local festival, SQQ buys himself some tanghulu and he sucks it lightly before biting into it, savoring the sweet taste of the hardened sugar. he licks his lips before putting his mouth on the entirety of the snack again, and makes eye contact with LQG. LQG’s watching him intently, and oh? he’s not looking away? his shidi is getting rather bold hehe. so SQQ cheekily smiles , eyes curving up as he sucks the tanghulu once, then twice, before letting it bulge in his cheek. (gosh system wait tf am I doing?! he should feel embarrassed really!! ) but seeing LQG’s slack jaw and eyes glazed with…something, SQQ finds that he doesn’t rly mind.

and it goes on. SQQ accidentally trips and falls onto his shidi, pushing him down so he’s straddling him….

LQG cuts SQQ some fruit and SQQ uses his mouth to eat it directly from LQG’s fingers…

SQQ leans against LQG’s firm..and strong…and very wide chest after the meridian cleansing….

and now SQQ is watching LQG sleep (NOT creepily ok) , after insisting that they can share the bed in the hotel, cuz “no shidi i will not allow you to sleep on the floor!”

and SQQ isn’t entirely dumb ok, it’s not like he wasnt aware of what he was doing!! at first it rlly was to see LQG’s reactions!!

but SQQ’s come to realize that he…maybe kinda sorta likes it?? He likes LQG’s attention on him, he likes it when LQG looks at him with those eyes. Moreover, he likes LQG.

and he can kinda sorta bet that LQG likes him too?? //SQQ recalls the moment when he burst out laughing after seeing SQH trip and fall on his face (serves that hack author right!!) and then a screen pops up to the side: +35 B-Points!! Good job host kya~~!! ^^ and SQQ is like ?????

he looks next to him only to see LQG watching him w/ a gentle smile, his eyes almost,, fond?? (SQQ quite literally feels his heart beating faster and ah it’s almost winter, why is it so warm ??)//

SQQ blushes just thinking abt it, his Liu-shidi really is too OP!! he’s distracted so SQQ doesn’t see the once sleeping LQG open his eyes to blearily look at him.

“Shen Qingqiu.” the voice is still sleepy and the words are followed up with a small yawn.

“Sleep.” An arm comes to wrap around SQQ’s waist, to pull him closer and SQQ doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so he nestles his head on LQG’s chest instead and thinks with resolution, “ah tmrw then” before falling asleep.

(SQQ confesses, and the bed is put to a much better use wink wink)

the end mwah

[shittysawtraps]

Can you help me to animate again? I've been feeling unmotivated and I don't honestly like myself so it's probs fair that I get a push from someone

hey, speaking as a former animation major, animation is hard as hell. for me, it was always a struggle to work on a project that slowly, to put consideration into every frame, rather than blowing through it as fast as i could in order to finish it before i lost motivation. it can be very frustrating to commit yourself long-term to something that will only be a couple of minutes long.

that being said, you're not animating for current you, you're animating for future you. for the you who looks at the finished project and says, "wow, i made THAT?" it's like with any art form– you write or draw or animate or sew for the version of yourself who has forgotten how hard it was and only sees art that's cool as hell. just make something that excites you a lot, even if it's not as polished as you would want it to be, because rewatching/rereading/re-looking/re-wearing the final product will continue to excite you a lot. it's free serotonin. i still look at the archvillain animatics i made when i was 14-17, for an audience of maybe five people, and get HYPE.

idk if this helps, but you should make something that makes you feel like you just snorted coke, because even if you get frustrated making it, at the end of the process (and every time you revisit it) you will get that !!! feeling again.

[chocochococoffee]

svsss cumplane au where, in a world of hotties, qinghua is the only one that roughly looks like a "normal person". the system wasn't as nice to airplane as he had been to sy, giving him a fresh hot bod and all sorry sj ww and as he had been reborn in his own story his body had not changed much from his original one. body hair, a bit less stature, definitely more meat compared to the other clan members who could rival with a boyband

thing is, shen yuan, after seeing airplane bathing after the mushroom seeking event and rolling in moist dirt for hours, just... cant get enough of it. how you can even have leg hair, he asks airplane, to what he answers something among the lines of "shitty core didn't help and i stopped trying afterwards" and he would surely would have kept ranting until cucumber plans his enormous hands into his belly. they were warm against the cold of the water, and while shen yuans face was of blank interest while touching his soft skin and playing with his body hair, wandering upside, directly to his brown nipples, his eyes were on fire"ah", airplane thought, "i know where this is going". with a smirk, he sticked his hand directly into the others mans wet pants.

yeah gongyi xiao was around there and he had to hide telling himself he saw nothing

bringing this again because tumblr didnt like some tag. anyways i am hungry and i need more of this in svsss

[disgracefulthings]

Since Luo Binghe is a self insert and Mobei-Jun is Shang Qinghua's ideal man, I have no doubt that Airplane wrote LBHxMBJ fanfiction

(And if the greatest hater of PIDW scoured the internet for any content about his favorite character and came across it, well, it wouldn't be hard feat reading it as long as he skips the papapa scenes...)

[dyed-indigo]

i may or may not have written a fanfiction

[ID: Shang Qinghua and a human Mobei-Jun wearing a doctor's coat sit at a table together eating a bowl of bugs. Mobei-Jun looks satisfied with a pair of wings sticking out of his mouth, while Shang Qinghua has a cricket leg stuck to his face and is crying. Shang Qinghua is also thinking about himself at an earlier point in time, gaming on a livestream and saying "Chat, I'm not gonna eat bugs!" /End ID]

[happypeachsludgeflower]

Who wants to bet Peerless Cucumber has an entire fan base within the pidw’s fandom? Potentially even bringing in a portion of pidw’s readers who just want to enjoy shen yuan just loosing it in the comments.

Like sure, some of the fandom’s definitely there for the toxic masculinity and papapa, but I guarantee you there’s an entire section dedicated to gleefully watching the fandom sewer rat being feral.

[sereneabyyss]

While I'm glad my classes are giving me more fun ideas for fucked up science in a world created by a man who doesn't know fuck all about science. Can my classes please give me the time to write said ideas please begging on my hands and knees I want to write Shen Yuan yelling at Airplane about his bad science.

Like please I just want

Sy: why the fuck did the nectar turn pink

Airplane: oh the dirt's acidic.

Sy: what

Airplane: yeah, that flower is used as an indicator of poisons, it turns pink when in the presence of acids... Word of warning, most poisons in this world are acidic.

Sy: WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU NEED ACIDIC POISONS DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT POISON IS

Airplane: BRO BRO I NEEDED A WAY TO INDICATE THERE WAS POISON! THE NECTAR HAS PHENOLPHTHALEIN

Sy: ... YOU HACK THAT'S NOT EVEN HOW PHENOLPHTHALEIN WORKS?!

Significantly later

Sy: why does my soup smell like mac n cheese cooking

Airplane: you remember what I said about poisons being mostly acidic?

Sy: .......... I'm going to go kill a coward, and then you're next

[dearmyloveleys]

@braincell-45pm uk what… I love your brain

[tcfactory]

Please consider: Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu role-swap

[LiuJiu, 2300 words]

After the fire, Shen Jiu doesn't sit around, he's aiming straight for Cang Qiong. Wu Yanzi tempts him, but if he is to ever find out what happened to Qi-ge then he can't play around with rogue cultivators, so he ditches the man before Wu Yanzi could take him as a disciple.

He arrives to the sect at a year when they are not doing the disciple selection - the women at the Warm Red Pavilion say it's because the Sect Leader is busy monitoring his cursed head disciple and if the Sect Leader doesn't take part then the rest of the sect has to wait too - but he's tipped off that Bai Zhan is always open to those who are determined enough to climb the mountain and demand admittance.

So that's exactly what he does. The Peak Lord sets him against one of his junior disciples and tells him there are no rules, if he can beat them he's in. It's a test he's not supposed to win, to see his determination and his reaction to failure, as a malnourished slave boy should be no match to someone in good health who has two years of training under his belt. But Shen Jiu doesn't know this, he has come too far to give up now and unlike the scrappy, but well-fed farmer's son he's set up against, he fights dirty.

He sets the basis of his future nickname - The Rabid Wolf of Bai Zhan - that day when he claws the boy's eye out and forces him to yield. His rise among the disciples is almost as meteoric as Yue Qi's and people are on the lookout for when the upstart slave boy will plummet back to the earth, but he never does. When the year is up and the sect is abuzz that Lingxi caves are finally opening again because they are letting the cursed disciple out, he's there in the front row among the curious onlookers and throws himself in his Qi-ge's arms as soon as the other boy steps foot into the light again.

Shen Qingqiu grows up tall and willowy and unpredictable, an unconventional physical cultivator that bends with the wind, but never breaks. With Yue Qingyuan's support as an unshakeable mountain behind his back, he is untouchable. He never bothers to hide what he is, not his scars or his sharp edges or the slave brand burned into the meat of his shoulder, often bared to the world by his choice of outfit; he stands as testament that even the lowest wretches can claw their way up to stand among giants.

Liu Mingqu yields to his rich family and allows himself to be enrolled into Qing Jing. He is not as suited for spiritual cultivation and he has no head for arts, but he is still a prodigy and a really hard working one at that. He learns all there is to learn for a scholar and doesn't rest until he perfects them all - music, calligraphy, painting, poetry - and even if he's ever uninspired about pursuing them, the Peerless Beauty of Qing Jing is a competent teacher who stands head and shoulders over his peers. He masters his temper and his manners and takes to hiding his face behind a fan or sometimes a veil like his sister to discourage people from staring at him.

Their roles may be different, but their nature remains the same. Shen Jiu has always been more clever than he was strong and nothing changed about that now that he's essentially a spiritual cultivator playing at star athlete. He plants a bamboo forest on his mountain - for meditation and ambush practice, he says, but everyone knows he just needed a bubble of calm for himself in the endless war zone of Bai Zhan - and mercilessly beats any disciple who dares to damage the forest. In the serene calm of his little house he hoards books and maps and all the culture he can get his calloused hands on, always thirsty to know more, an endless pit his Qi-ge happily pours obscure knowledge into. He uses the standing feud between Bai Zhan and Qing Jing to spy on them, learn their cultivation methods by sight and listen to the senior disciples do ad hoc concerts, so he can practice music in the brothel or under a silencing array just behind his house.

It's during one of these trips when he discovers Liu Qingge behind the Qing Jing Peak Lord's manor, restlessly shuffling through the steps of a formal dance. Liu Qingge yearns to move, he yearns for the exertion of his wild youth, but there are only so many acceptable options for a scholar and as a cultivator he can't channel his restlessness into hunting or horse riding. That leaves dancing, but Liu Qingge is not a creative person. He sticks to the dances he half-remembers learning as a rich young master and maybe asks his sister for some more, but that's where his resourcefulness runs out on this venture.

Shen Qingqiu watches him go through the steps of the same dozen dances, swap to a few rounds of sword forms - perfectly executed and ethereal, an immortal beauty that earthbound Shen Qingqiu will never be able to replicate - and then swap back to the dances, increasingly frustrated and restless.

"If Peak Lord Qingge wants to learn some better dances, this shidi can introduce you to someone." Liu Qingge startles and almost turns him into a pincushion with a barrage of bamboo leaves.

"What do you want?!" They are secure in their respective positions, but they still don't like each other.

"Peace, shixiong. I'm just looking out for the sect. How would it reflect on me if I let my fellow Peak Lord work himself into a qi deviation and didn't step in?" Shen Qingqiu shrugs and smiles with an easy, predatory grace that makes Liu Qingge wish he had fangs to match the Wolf of Bai Zhan, but there's no malice in the offer. "Come now, shixiong. There's nobody else here. We don't need to do this stupid game of social posturing. Tell you what, as a sign of my goodwill I'm going to teach you a meditation technique to calm your qi after exercise, free of charge."

Almost everything with Shen Qingqiu is a transaction, so Liu Qingge knows better than to pass up the chance to get something from his shidi for free - and the meditation does help settle his roiling qi.

"What do you want in return, then?" It's almost terrifying how intensely Shen Qingqiu's eyes light up.

"That trick with the leaves - teach me how to do it."

Liu Qingge doesn't bother to point out that it's a spiritual technique. It's an unspoken secret that they would be better suited to each other's cultivation styles than that of their own peaks. Shen Qingqiu has a storm of razor sharp leaves dancing in the air before Liu Qingge is even done explaining.

He almost regrets agreeing when Shen Qingqiu takes him down to the brothel, but the women his shidi introduces him to are truly masters of dance - they were stars of an imperial dance troupe before their owner was executed for offending the Emperor and they were sold to the brothel. They take him to the back and teach him dances he could never have imagined, dances that make his heart soar and his blood rush hot in his veins, while Shen Qingqiu lightly dozes among the women in the main reception area, his very presence frightening all but the most unruly patrons into behaving.

Liu Qingge is an honest man and he knows, deep down, that he got much more out of this exchange than his shidi. He’s on the lookout to see how he could repay him, but Shen Qingqiu seems to want for nothing. What he can’t get on his own Yue Qingyuan gifts to him, doting relentlessly on his sharp-edged little brother. So when he hears that Shen Qingqiu is to set out to assist in a night hunt against a particularly dangerous demonic beast that made its way over the to the far shore of the sea, he hops to the opportunity to compile a scroll of all the unspoken rules and etiquette of the island, as well as a short history on the ninja clan that asked for their aid. It’s all information that Shen Qingqiu has no way of learning otherwise, but should ease his time on the hunt.

When he can’t find Shen Qingqiu at the bamboo house he goes looking for him and that’s when he finds the silencing array, that’s when he sees his shidi sitting with his guqin in a clearing, composing music. Liu Qingge’s mouth goes dry, his heart skips a beat - his shidi is like a vision from the heavens and for the first time since he started this scholarly lifestyle, Liu Qingge wants to paint. He wants to etch this scene in his heart and condense it into a poem.

He slinks away before his shidi can notice him and leaves the scroll in the bamboo house. In the three years Shen Qingqiu is gone, hunting that elusive monster that decimates one village after another, he becomes a man possessed - or more accurately, a tender hearted young maiden yearning for her first love. He paints picture after picture, sometimes of a wolf stalking among the bamboo, sometimes of Qingqiu with his guqin as the scene lives in his memory. Rarely he paints his shidi stretched out on a couch in the brothel, languid with feigned sleep and one eye opened a crack as he vigilantly watches over his sisters - he gifts one of those to the brothel, much to the ladies’ delight. He starts writing poetry, yearning, horrible poetry his sister mocks relentlessly, but slowly he finds his words and his latest attempts are almost good. He is the first to hound Zhangmen-shixiong for news on Shen shidi and learns every word of every letter by heart, no matter how short or impersonal the progress reports are.

Liu Qingge knows that his martial siblings are not blind to his obsession - he has caught Shang shidi muttering “bro, really?!” under his breath more than once. He’s not familiar with the expression, but he can understand the sentiment. Yue Qingyuan watches him with patient exasperation, but he knows that the man doesn’t disapprove from the mild comment about how Shen Jiu will need a new ceremonial robe for his return celebration because his old one is ten years out of fashion.

Embroidery is, technically, within the skill set of the Qing Jing Peak Lord. He hounds An Ding until someone supplies him with Shen Qingqiu’s measurements and the finest materials he can bully Shang shidi into acquiring - “That’s the same stuff demon royalty wears, try not to waste it, my contact had to go through the royal seamstress of the northern kingdom to get it in that color.” - and sets to work. Bai Zhan’s color is steel blue, but that never fit his shidi, so he picks greens instead to match his striking green eyes. He creates a design that accentuates the deceptive slimness of Qingqiu, then embroiders the robes with bamboo patterns and a wolf on the hunt and when they are done he crafts a matching fan - Shen shidi hides from nothing and nobody, but Liu Qingge thinks he might enjoy being a little mysterious.

He is daydreaming about his shidi during the next Peak Lord meeting when the Sect Leader breaks the news: the beast has finally been slain and Shen Qingqiu will be on the next ship back home. Liu Qingge stays barely long enough to not be impolite at the end of the meeting before he rushes off to finish the last touches on the robes. He wants to leave it all set out for his shidi in the bamboo house.

In his haste he misses the look Shang Qinghua and Yue Qingyuan exchange behind his back.

“So, about those arrangements we made…”

“Yes, please. Let’s get Xiao Jiu home before Liu-shidi pines himself into a qi deviation.”

“Yeah, he’s down bad isn’t he?”

“Are you certain your prince doesn’t mind? If you are in any danger, shidi…”

“No! It’s fine, I’m fine, he already agreed to it! In fact, my Xuebao likes your brother so much I’m almost a little jealous.”

“Really now?”

“Zhangmen-shixiong, please stop looking like you are plotting murder. It’s not like that. As the Mobei prince, he really doesn’t have a lot of friends. Of course he misses A-Jiu.”

“If you say so, shidi.”

Liu Qingge is all jitters when he walks down the path to the bamboo house. He can’t understand why because Shen Qingiu won’t be back for months, but he still feels like a maiden on her way to ask out her love on the first date.

He almost drops the package with the robes when he opens the door and finds Shen Qingqiu standing there in the sunlit room. His shidi is too solid, too real to be an apparition, his clothes worn from travel, his heavy pack still unpacked by the table. He stands with a letter in one hand - Qingge recognizes his sister’s wobbly, childish handwriting - and with Qingge’s notebook in which he wrote all his stumbling, horrible poetry in the other and Liu Qingge wishes nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

“Are those my new robes?” Shen Qingqiu asks, as if they have only met this morning, as if that was a reasonable thing to ask when Qingge’s heart is about to explode from nerves. He can only mutely nod at his shidi. “You know shixiong, I can see that you have put enormous effort into courting me. I would have loved it if it happened when I was here to experience it.”

Shen Qingqiu sets the notebook and the letter down and stalks up to Liu Qingge, his eyes sharp with an emotion he can’t interpret, but it makes Liu Qingge want to bare his throat to his teeth and be devoured.

“So, Liu-shixiong. Are you going to help me try on my new robes?”

[wisteriagoesvroom]

for the word game, you got a deranged or perhaps a crazed somewhere in there?

i do have “crazy”! from a carcar oneshot that is (fingers crossed) almost ready:

Oscar's phone lights up from where he left it on the other corner of the sink. He slides the iMessage app open. C SAINZ It’s crazy out there today. Record temperatures C SAINZ You would think it is so not normal, right. Singapore was already like this. Lol C SAINZ Anyway I am sure you are psyching yourself up right now. Maybe you will learn not to be so solemn all the time eh Oscar puts his phone on airplane mode, and doesn’t reply.

coming soon to an ao3 near u...

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