@onemuseleft HAPPY BIRTHDAY
After the first time Shen Wei cooked dinner at Zhao Yunlan’s apartment, it had only taken two weeks for them to settle into a routine.
Zhao Yunlan’s schedule was the more unpredictable of the two, which they had discovered on the fourth night when he’d gotten home at eight and they hadn’t eaten until nearly nine because Shen Wei had waited for him.
“You don’t have to do that,” Zhao Yunlan said, lounging at the bartop and watching covetously while Shen Wei was cooking. “You must be starving. Why should you wait for me?”
Shen Wei looked back over his shoulder and smiled. “I don’t mind. Would you have even eaten if I hadn’t?”
Zhao Yunlan tried to remember what was in his fridge. “Sure. I could have found something.”
Shen Wei huffed at him. “You have nothing. I’m cooking anyway, as I said. It’s no hardship.”
Zhao Yunlan sighed. “You are far too good to me.”
“How about this,” Zhao Yunlan said later in between bites, when he could make himself stop shoveling Shen Wei’s amazing cooking into his mouth, “I have a spare key. I’ll give it to you and I’ll call when I’m heading home. Then you don’t have to wait. If it’s going to be really late, I’ll pick something up. You shouldn’t wait so late to eat, it’s not good for you.”
“It’s not good for you either,” Shen Wei pointed out.
Zhao Yunlan held up his chopsticks in surrender. “As soon as I know I’ll have to work late I’ll order out.”
Shen Wei smiled beatifically. “Agreed.”
Zhao Yunlan got up immediately and dug around in various drawers until he located the spare key, then he set it down beside Shen Wei’s dishes in triumph.
Two weeks after that they had kissed and fallen into bed for the first time. So they hadn’t really followed the usual path.
Zhao Yunlan had expected Shen Wei to be a little more on the reserved side, but instead, it had been like Shen Wei could read his mind and knew exactly what to do to melt it right out of his skull. They fucked and he saw another plane of existence. He’d stayed wrapped around Shen Wei afterward, panting and trying to get his brain back online to no avail. Fortunately, Shen Wei had seemed to enjoy having Zhao Yunlan clinging to him like a sweaty koala.
That had gone into the routine, too. The sex, not the koala impression. And Zhao Yunlan wasn’t about to let Shen Wei go back to his own apartment after they’d had sex, so, Shen Wei had pretty much stopped sleeping over there then.
It was fast, maybe, and if it had been anyone other than Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan would have violently flung himself in the opposite direction. But it was Shen Wei, and he welcomed it, wished it had all happened faster.
It didn’t take long before Shen Wei cooking and cleaning up after him started to chafe. Zhao Yunlan hated sitting on the couch while Shen Wei cooked and then cleaned up afterward. Worse, he caught Shen Wei picking up his clothes after Zhao Yunlan had flung them off the night before.
Shen Wei was too good to him and he wanted to be just as good in return. If Shen Wei liked tidy, he could do tidy.
So, one night after they’d finished eating, he scooped up both their plates before Shen Wei could get to them and headed for the sink.
“You cooked, I’ll clean,” Zhao Yunlan said as casually as he could manage. He caught sight of the kettle and suggested, “Tea?”
Zhao Yunlan flicked it on after checking the water level and then started working on the dishes. It wasn’t so bad, doing them like this. He liked giving Shen Wei a chance to relax.
When the kettle clicked off, he dried his hands and poured them both a cup. Before he could bring Shen Wei his, he’d stepped up to the counter, one hand skimming Zhao Yunlan’s lower back. “Thank you,” he said and Zhao Yunlan ducked in to kiss him.
He’d only meant to grab a quick peck, but Shen Wei seemed to have something else in mind, his mug-warmed hands coming up to cup Zhao Yunlan’s jaw as he slowly and methodically worked Zhao Yunlan into that soft, urgent place.
With a gargantuan effort, Zhao Yunlan broke away, pressing back lightly on Shen Wei’s chest. “You’re distracting me. Don’t, or I’ll never get these finished.”
Shen Wei retrieved his mug from the counter and lifted it to his lips before looking at Zhao Yunlan over it, his eyes dark and absolutely bewitching. Zhao Yunlan swallowed around a dry tongue.
“Let me finish!” he protested. He finished washing the rest of the dishes in record time.
“Zhao Yunlan, would you mind if I put a few things in your desk here?”
The hands that had worked Shen Wei’s shirt free of his trousers and that had slipped up underneath to skim over cool, soft skin while Shen Wei worked on dinner paused.
Shen Wei glanced back at him. “Just a few.”
Zhao Yunlan lifted his lips from Shen Wei’s neck. “What?” he said blankly.
“It would be more convenient,” Shen Wei said, eyes focused determinedly on the pan in front of him. “When I work here.”
Zhao Yunlan gaped at him. “What do you mean ‘would I mind’?”
“I wouldn’t want to impose--”
“Impose?" Zhao Yunlan echoed. “You live here.”
Shen Wei turned in his arms, backing up slightly so that he could look Zhao Yunlan in the eye. “I do?”
Zhao Yunlan blinked at him, floored. “Baby, you sleep here every night. All your cookware is in the cabinets. Your clothes take up half the closet! Of course you do!”
“Oh,” Shen Wei said in a small voice. “I-- I didn’t realize.”
It felt suddenly like the blood had stopped moving around Zhao Yunlan’s body. “Did you...did you not want to move in?”
Shen Wei jolted, eyes going wide. “No! Of course I wanted to move in with you! Zhao Yunlan, you can’t know how long I’ve waited. I just--I hadn’t realized--”
Zhao Yunlan’s blood started moving again, carrying a wash of relief through his body and he started to grin. “You didn’t realize you lived here?” He nuzzled Shen Wei’s throat, pressing a kiss to his collarbones. “Baby. What did you think was happening?”
Shen Wei’s hand curled around his hip. “I-- I guess I hadn’t thought about it. Being at your side is like breathing. Natural. I didn’t question it.”
Zhao Yunlan’s blood stopped for an entirely different reason this time and he lifted his head and began pressing kisses into Shen Wei’s mouth, coaxing his way in to devour him, to make him feel everything he made him feel. Shen Wei moaned, soft and low in his throat, and clutched at Zhao Yunlan’s shoulders. “Baby,” he said between kisses, “I’d have asked--you to move in--but I want--a place we can share--and my lease isn’t up for eight months.”
Shen Wei stared at him with bright eyes, his lips pink and wet from Zhao Yunlan’s attention. “I would like that very much.”
Zhao Yunlan grinned and reached behind him to flip off the burner. Dinner could wait. Shen Wei let out a startled, delighted laugh when Zhao Yunlan hooked his arms under his thighs and hoisted him up, heading for the bed.
Like breathing--yeah, he could understand that.
