not sure if i shared this bit but i keep writing Bluocha parts for the prohibition au that don't really have much to do with the main plot because they're my special little princesses and i have a huge section of my brain cordoned off for the bluocha brainrot lol
» in this au, 'Blade' is an English code name he uses for illicit activities and working with Wildfire, and Ren is his chosen name. He left his birth name (Yingxing) behind him when he fled home and left for America with Luocha 👍 Luocha has also technically abandoned his birth and family names, and Ren was the one who gave him the nickname "Luocha" to refer to the way he could twist himself into whatever he needed to be to convince, cajole or threaten their targets. From this he derived a pseudonym with which to do business in America as an apothecarist: Louis Chandler 🤭
anyway that's all fluff, here's the meat <3
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Clearing Things Up (Luocha, Ren)
Ren sighed, letting go of some of the annoyance balled in his chest. "This was a waste of our time," he growled. He warmed his hands around his teacup, hoping the warmth would soothe some raw nerve of irritation.
Neither of them liked the self-styled but now deposed "Bourbon King" of Tennessee, but business was business and they had to get imports up to Penacony from somewhere. Bathtub hooch didn't bring in the big profits and distilleries with vaults of years-aged amber gold sitting useless on their shelves itched to sell.
"I'm sorry, my dear," Luocha said tiredly, sitting at their low table across from him. "I'd had no idea he'd be bringing anyone along, much less his… lovely, daughter." There were wrinkles of irritation in his own usually flawless countenance, and Ren noted with some relief that it wasn't just his own regular annoyance with visitors. The two visitors together had been a social nightmare.
They'd made it out alive without either tripping into a marriage arrangement or breaking their trade agreements, but it was a close thing. Luocha rubbed some tension out of his wrist absent-mindedly.
"I didn't come this far out from under my father's thumb just to cave to some drunken troll of a peddler," he murmured.
Ren choked on a gulp of tea, coughed, and began to laugh. Luocha smiled at him fondly. Ren held his gaze and then lowered his own, staring through the table. "There's only one person I'd consider marrying."
Luocha nodded, sobering. His long-ago betrothed, Dan Feng. They should, by now, have been married for some time, had Dan Feng not perished in battle before the wedding. The two living men both carried ghosts, and Luocha could hardly begrudge Ren a torch carried for someone who was no threat to him.
Ren reached across the table, taking Luocha's chilly hands in his own, rubbing some warmth into his palms gently. "What are you thinking of?" Ren murmured.
"I'm grateful to have met you… but if your Dan Feng had lived, I would never have gotten the chance. I suppose I feel guilty for thinking I prefer having met you."
Ren gave a little scoff under his breath. "Things can't be changed by wishing. If they could, I'd be a warlord's wife by now." He held Luocha's hands tighter, and looked at him pointedly. "I like things as they are now."
Luocha smiled again, but faintly. They'd had this conversation several times since Ren had told him of his past.
Ren peered at him carefully, then sighed. "You still don't understand. I wasn't speaking of Dan Feng. I want to marry you, you ridiculous man."
"Oh." Heat gathered in Luocha's cheeks, and his smile widened. "I'd…" He cleared his throat. "I'd like that very much."
"Good." Ren's smile was small, but there was a sparkle in his eye that belied some giddiness. "I will find an auspicious date to make the proposal properly, then."
"I look forward to it." Luocha couldn't pull the beaming grin from his face. Ren wasn't as far out of his reach as he'd feared, after all. Maybe he could have something he wanted, at long last.
I just saw a fantastic meme to redraw so in honor of the bluocha brainrot keeping me company today, here they are 💕 featuring Silver Wolf documenting the occasion for blackmail
(Prohibition AU) in which Ren uses a discussion of obtaining contraceptives to provoke Luocha into fucking him 💀
(word count 145, snippet)
"Do you think of me often with the fingers of other men inside me?" Ren grinned. "Do you fantasize about sharing me with so many others I lose count of the touches?"
He grunted as Luocha pushed him against the wall, glaring down at him. "I will share you with no one," Luocha growled, pulling him by the chin into a biting kiss. He could feel Ren still smirking through it. "If you are mine, you will be mine alone."
Luocha kept his thumb on Ren's chin, frowning down at the man who had clearly baited him into this reaction. Ren's grin was mischievous, eager, and so very pleased. He'd gotten exactly what he wanted.
"Well, then. Stake your claim, demon."
Without another word, Luocha picked him up by the back of the thighs and kicked the bedroom door closed behind them.
bimgo time and since my inbox is closed and needs to stay like that so i don't get overwhelmed, if u want to send message/reply/rb to ask about a ship u may <3
and u can ask me to give u a ship too 💜 sometimes i miss when ppl rb from me if tumble doesn't tell me what the post *is* in the notif
ANYWAY!!!!! ty @laseratingfist for asking about my most succulent and deeply rooted brainrot <333 their dynamics and potentials are so crunchy and chewy and delightfully layered to me, they are so fun to play with for aus and cannon compliant universes... i think the only way i don't ship them is strictly platonic but i could absolutely be convinced
and with a rarepair i can't honestly be too picky, but the good news is we are all in the same wonderful little boat. and now i have an idea for childhood friends au hehehe
