two characters: *are in love with each other and know the other loves them but they canât be together because of circumstance*
me every good damn time: oh my god theyâre in love with each other and know the other loves them but they canât be together because of circumstance
cant sleep too busy thinking about âlove is awful. itâs awful. itâs painful. itâs frightening. it makes you doubt yourself, judge yourself, distance yourself from the other people in your life. it makes you selfish. it makes you creepy, makes you obsessed with your hair, makes you cruel, makes you say and do things you never thought you would do. itâs all any of us want, and itâs hell when we get there. so no wonder itâs something we donât want to do on our own. i was taught if weâre born with love then life is about choosing the right place to put it. people talk about that a lot, feeling right, when it feels right itâs easy. but iâm not sure thatâs true. it takes strength to know whatâs right. and love isnât something that weak people do. being a romantic takes a hell of a lot of hope. i think what they mean is, when you find somebody that you love, it feels like hope.â
The Bingge v Bingmei aftermath fic I accidentally MoShangâd. Now complete! (Rated T)
.*.*.*.*.*.
Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky penned one more masterpiece in the days leading up to his wedding to Mobei-Jun. It was their honeymoon itinerary. He had written so many picturesque locations intended for the deflowering of maidens! So many grottos and meadows and cliff-sides and lakeside cottages! So much knowledge of when and where the moonlight or sunset would make a lover's skin irresistible! Shang Qinghua and Mobei-Jun portal-hopped between locations, living in lazy bliss.
Until Shang Qinghua started having nightmares about the backlog of work that awaited them upon their return.
"My King, I think we need to run away for good at this point," Shang Qinghua said one morning.
Mobei-Jun opened one eye. Shang Qinghua's face matched his serious tone.
"Okay," he agreed.
He then closed his eye again and pulled Shang Qinghua into his arms to go back to sleep. Shang Qinghua's shriveled little heart swelled with happiness like a dusty old sponge dunked in water. He grabbed Mobei-Jun's face and pinched both cheeks.
"I love you so much," Shang Qinghua growled.
Mobei-Jun scowled to have his cheeks pinched. He opened both eyes this time, to glare at him, and Shang Qinghua delivered a peck of a kiss before releasing his face. He had a moment to grin before Mobei-Jun thoroughly expressed his dissatisfaction with that conciliatory gesture.
.*.*.*.*.*.
Alas, their evasive maneuvers eventually failed: One of Mobei-Jun's incompetent subordinates accidentally led Sha Hualing to them. Mobei-Jun had a violent negotiation with her regarding the end-date of their honeymoon. Mobei-Jun defeated her, but the two of them knew their honeymoon had come to an end. Mobei-Jun went back to Junshang, and Shang Qinghua trudged obediently back to An Ding Peak.
It was every bit as tedious Shang Qinghua feared. And also, surprisingly, not that awful. His fellow Peak Lords expressed their relief that he had not managed to permanently escape. His An Ding disciples greeted him with the manic joy of the sleepless getting a reprieve. Shang Qinghua congratulated them for their work and thanked them for restocking his store of melon seeds.
Even Shen Qingqiu seemed glad to see him: He came by a few times to gloat about having attended a secret meeting about a Peak Lord that wasnât himself, complain about the chaos Shang Qinghua had left behind, and show off the blood-red ring on his finger.
"What's that?" Shang Qinghua asked irritably the fifth time Shen Qingqiu glanced at it and smiled.
Shen Qingqiu curled his hand and tucked it against his chest, shielding the ring from Shang Qinghua's eyes.
âNothing."
Shen Qingqiu was the worst liar in the Jianghu. A complete waste of OG-Shen Qingqiuâs natural talents.
"Did Bing-mei give it to you? Does he have a matching-"
Shen Qingqiu hit him with his fan. Shang Qinghua tried to take the opportunity to grab his other hand so he could take a closer look at the ring, but Shen Qingqiu easily evaded him.
"I am leaving," Shen Qingqiu said, chin in the air and fan at full spread.
"Is it a Heavenly Demon blood Jianghu cell phone ring?" Shang Qinghua hollered at his back.
Shen Qingqiu ignored him as he swept out of the room.
Well, good riddance. Shang Qinghua didn't need his confirmation anyway: He was the author! He knew everything! And it only made sense that Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe would take extra precautions after the last kidnapping attempt.
Which made Shang Qinghua remember his remaining, more perilous task.
Mobei-Jun took him home to sleep in their ice palace most nights after he was done with work. Even on the rare nights that he was too busy serving Luo Binghe to stop by, Shang Qinghua could have summoned one of his underlings to take him home. But if Mobei-Jun wasn't going to join him by the morning, then there was little difference between his bed in An Ding Peak and their bed in the Northern Ice Demon Palace.
And so, Shang Qinghua flopped onto his bed in An Ding Peak after a round of paperwork. He was just drifting off to sleep when he woke up suddenly. Someone was picking him up by the collar. Shang Qinghua never stopped thinking it was incredibly rude, no matter how often it happened to him.
âWhy did you wake me up in the middle of the night?" Shang Qinghua complained. "You could have talked to me any time during the day!â
Luo Binghe, of course, did not bother to apologize.
Demons, Shang Qinghua cursed internally. No manners, and impossible to get rid of.
âWere you lying about Shen Yuan?â
âNo, of course not! Why do you think Shen-shixiong reacted the way he did?â
Luo Binghe opened a rift in space without further ado. Shang Qinghua unintentionally clutched at the pendant hidden beneath his robes and let his voice grow panicked.
âWait! Wait, I was lying about being able to help you search for him. But not the rest.â
âYou dare to trifle with me?â
âNo! Close the rift. Let me explain.â
Luo Binghe put him down. It was relatively civil of him. He did not close the rift, however.
âShen Yuan and I travelled between worlds before swapping souls,â Shang Qinghua said. âI donât think we travelled to your world, but there have to be worlds out there where we did.â
Luo Binghe scowled. âYou are not sure. It is merely a possibility.â
âIf Iâm wrong, you can always come back for this Shen Yuan.â
âWhy bother searching, then?â
âBecause this Shen Yuan is already in love with Bing-mei,â Shang Qinghua said. âHe may eventually grow to love you out of pity-â
Luo Bingheâs eyes took on a red glow.
âBUT, but, you can get another Shen Yuan to love you for real! All you have to do is find him before he falls in love with his worldâs Bing-mei!â
Luo Binghe calmed down. His face was thoughtful.
âHow will I know that it is Shen Yuan and not Shen Jiu? You will have to come with me.â
âNo! No, I can tell you exactly how to find him yourself. Iâll ruin it if Iâm here because heâll act differently than he did when it was just the two of you. Uh, I mean, just him and Bing-mei.â
âHow do you know how he acted when it was just the two of them?â
âBing-mei told me. Not just me. The entire demon court.â
Luo Binghe narrowed his eyes and inquired flatly, âHe boasts publicly about his relations with Shen Yuan?â
âYeah, itâs really embarrassing. He gets all teary-eyed talking about how good Shizun is toward him. How the first thing Shizun did after waking from his own qi deviation was to give Luo Binghe medicine.â
Luo Binghe blinked.
Shang Qinghua reeled off everything he knew from Luo Binghe, Shen Qingqiu, Liu Qingge, and various other unwitting spies. Luo Binghe listened with perfect patience. He did not need to write it down to ensure he would remember it, but Shang Qinghua had put together a notebook filled with notes, a few drawings, and key maps. Just to be sure that Bing-ge would not come back.
"So, after he gives you the medicine is the best time to jump in and trade places with that world's Luo Binghe.â
He pushed the notebook into Luo Binghe's unresisting hand.
âWhy would I trade places with him?â
âDonât kill him! Shen Qingqiu wonât like that. Just...I donât know, send him to your world. Let your wives think you de-aged and lost your memories. Liu Mingyan can rule for you. Or, rather, him.â
âHm,â Luo Binghe said.
Shang Qinghua smiled widely.
âGood luck!â
Shang Qinghua then rolled back into bed and covered himself with his blanket. He prayed. Against all odds, in defiance of his usual luck, Shang Qinghua heard the swish of the dimensional rift closing. He waited a moment before turning to look. Luo Binghe was gone. In his place stood Mobei-Jun.
He looked displeased. Shang Qinghua subtly tested the pendantâs messaging capabilities.
'Is this you?' he asked silently.
'Yes. Did he hurt you?â
Shang Qinghua relaxed. Really, as thick-headed as Shen Qingqiu could be sometimes, he had his moments of brilliance.
'No, not at all.'
Out loud, he asked, "Did something happen, My King?"
"The other-me also came through," he explained.
"Oh," Shang Qinghua said, still trying to gauge Mobei-Jun's mood.
The dark expression offered no clues, however.
"We knew that might happen," Shang Qinghua offered.
"He does not understand," Mobei-Jun said.
"It's different for him," Shang Qinghua reasoned. "He's not as sticky as Junshang."
Mobei-Jun nodded and held out his hand. Shang Qinghua took it, and between one breath and the next, they were home in the ice palace. Mobei-Jun closed the portal before he made his confession.
"He asked me how I met you," Mobei-Jun said indifferently.
Shang Qinghua paused.
"Did you tell him?"
"Yes."
Shang Qinghua stared at him. Mobei-Jun did not meet his eyes.
How sly! How unscrupulous!
Shang Qinghua was so delighted, he couldn't help but laugh. Mobei-Jun relaxed and glanced at his face in response.
"Then he definitely won't come back! My King, how clever of you!"
He jumped up and clung to Mobei-Jun's robes long enough to plant a loud kiss on his face. Mobei-ge was going to be other world's Shang Qinghua's problem from now on. He wondered how Mobei-ge would deal with that world's original Mobei-Jun. Perhaps Shang Qinghua would finally get to be the one with two gorgeous men fighting over him.
Shang Qinghua had the most exquisite dreams that night.
.*.*.*.*.*.
In another world, some unmeasurable time later, a young Luo Binghe stepped out of Bamboo Cottage and into the forest path. He stopped then, so that he was in shadow but not so far that he could not watch the door to Bamboo Cottage. Then he lifted the medicine bottle he'd been holding and turned it over in his hand, as if he could not quite believe it.
Luo Binghe's eyes gleamed red as a smile widened on his face.
âCaught you, Shizun.â
.*.*.*.*.*.
Author's Note: Special thanks to @bingheisbaby and @2bunlords and @fanfictionroxs for your encouragement, comments, reblogs, and overall support. I wouldn't have written it if not for you!
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