Heated blood | Zayne Li (Eng version)
Pairing: Zayne Li x Non!Mc ♥ Summary: “Jealousy is one-sided; it stems from one’s own insecurities. The other person did nothing to cause it—it’s entirely a product and consequence of oneself,” Zayne tells himself as he watches his wife board the plane for a week-long business trip with that person... In other words, a situation inspired by Zayne’s “Business Trip” card, but it’s Non!Mc who’s going on the business trip, leaving a jealous Zayne behind, because that person will be there. Tags: Fluff, Domestic fluff, Jealous Zayne, Non!Mc, Business trip, HAPPY ENDING! W.C: 2K Open on Ao3
If there was one thing Zayne loved and respected about his wife, it was the kindness and empathy in her heart.
She had a way of making anyone feel comfortable spending time with her or even confiding their vulnerabilities to her. Therefore, there wasn’t a single coworker she had issues with; there wasn’t a single person in her department she didn’t speak to. Which was good—of course it was. It meant he was married to a kind and generous person, and that she was surrounded by friends—and thus, surrounded by people who wanted her to be happy. And all of that is fine… until it comes to that person.
“My superior said we should go to the clock tower once we get there.” you said as you folded your clothes into almost magically small squares so they would fit in your suitcase. Zayne, sitting on the bed, holding a book whose cover revealed the title «Protocore Syndrome: Empirical Biological Connections Between Humans and Cosmic Energy Originating from Deepspace» with his legs crossed under the blanket, accidentally bumping into your suitcase every time it slid across the furry blanket, every time you squeezed the clothes tightly to make everything fit—a fabric Tetris game where the winter jackets battled your cardigans to see who would claim the lion’s share of your suitcase’s limited space.
“Is your superior coming too?” Zayne asked, pretending to keep reading and turning the page to make his act seem more natural, glancing up at you over the rims of his glasses, which had been sliding down the bridge of his nose for the past few minutes because of a minor accident the day before—when, in a moment of passion, perhaps a little too enthusiastic, he’d left them on his desk, or so he’d intended, but they’d ended up on the floor, landing right on the temple and breaking it instantly.
“Yes, it’ll be my superior, my supervisor, and me. Although my supervisor’s sister lives in the city, so at the hotel it’ll just be the two of us.” you said as you put your hands on your hips, eyes fixed on the suitcase, analyzing your Tetris-like stack—more piled up than your inventory in Resident Evil 5 would be—before heading back to your closet to grab more underwear, just in case; it never hurt to have extra. Zayne couldn’t help the twitch in his forehead muscles, frowning for a few seconds before relaxing his expression again when you reappeared in the room.
“Why don’t you two stay at your supervisor’s sister’s house too?” he asked in his usual calm tone, bringing his thumb to his lips to moisten it so he could turn the page of his book. He hadn’t the faintest idea what was written in that chapter, but he’d have plenty of time to get back to reading once his wife had explained the details of her business trip.
“Because we can’t just invite ourselves to a stranger’s house” you said with a mocking tone and a questioning inflection, while watching him with a raised eyebrow. “What am I supposed to say to her?” you asked as you packed three sets of underwear into the suitcase. “Hello, good afternoon, excuse me… Hey, you know what? Why don’t you let me stay tonight? And tomorrow? How about the next two days too? Thanks, that’s very kind of you.” you joked as you acted out the whole scene, as if Zayne were your supervisor’s sister; he didn’t say a word—that part was completely rational. What wasn’t rational, in his eyes, was that his wife would be just one hotel room away from that person who he knew would be after her to spend as much time as possible by her side.
Zayne trusted his wife. With his life.
But it was that person—that was the one who gave him a bad feeling.
Zayne still remembered the look on their face as they watched his wife open the birthday gift they’d given her, smiling smugly as they saw the excited and grateful expression on Non!Mc’s face as she held the gift to her chest and clutched it tightly as if it were her new most precious possession. «Ridiculous» he had thought as he watched they laugh and say they were glad she liked it.
“When I saw it in the storefront, I thought of you. I’m so glad you liked it.” they had said, and Zayne couldn’t stop one of his eyelids from twitching nervously. «I thought of you» he repeated in his mind for a few more seconds. «Ridiculous, no doubt.»
And he couldn’t forget either how their fingers had apparently, unintentionally, slipped down Non!Mc’s back because of her backless dress when she gave them a goodbye hug and thanked them for attending her birthday party—a back that Zayne took it upon himself to explore with his own hands and lips that very night, just in case.
“You won’t miss me, I know—you’ll be too busy to even think of me…” you said with a feigned air of resignation, letting out a deep sigh later that night, when you were both ready for bed; Zayne, lying in front of you, smiled softly and reached out his arm, wrapping his hand around your waist and pulling you toward him, so you’d be closer.
“I see you’ve figured me out.” he remarked with a teasing tone as he rested his chin on the top of your head, closing his eyes while still wearing that silly little smile at the corners of his mouth.
“Tsk, I knew it.” you teased in an annoyed tone as you wrapped your arms around Zayne’s torso and buried your face against his chest; Zayne laughed softly, and after planting a long kiss on your perfumed hair and whispering that he loved you, he let himself be overcome by the weariness in his eyes, forgetting his own insecurities and worries under the warmth of your embrace and your breath against the skin of his neck.
«Jealousy is one-sided; it stems from one’s own insecurities. The other person did nothing to cause it; it’s entirely a product and consequence of oneself.» Zayne repeated to himself as he watched you walk away down the airplane boarding aisle, a big smile on your face as you waved goodbye with one hand and then blew him a kiss just before your figure disappeared into the distance, with your superior by your side, quite close for, it seemed, necessary reasons.
A few hours later, upon returning to his office after a long ten-hour day, Zayne found a missed call and a few messages from his wife, letting him know that she had landed safely, that she was already at the hotel, and that the company had secured them a much better hotel than the one on her last business trip…
My love: It looks like they actually listened to our complaints from last year. This time it’s a five-star hotel, FIVE! Can you believe it? I’m jumping for joy!
My love: Oh, one more thing, I almost forgot. Now it’s your turn to jump for joy; they gave us single rooms this time.
Even a year later, Zayne still felt embarrassed by his irrational behavior during his wife’s last business trip. He remembered how his blood had boiled when, right after landing and arriving at the hotel, Non!Mc had sent him the following message…
My love: Honey, I’m here! We’re at the hotel. I want to tell you this so you know, but I don’t want you to get upset, I already did it for both of us, in fact for all my colleagues too, and I already called my supervisor to complain. That said (read it again just in case), I have to tell you that they gave us a shared room, yes, they put five of us in the same room. I can’t believe it...
Message that followed…
My love: Zayne, why is the receptionist telling me I have to move to the mini-suite? Did you ask for that, or was it a mistake?
Yes
That had been Zayne’s only reply as he slipped the phone into the pocket of his robe, pleased but still slightly annoyed, as he resumed his night shifts.
Among other things, his wife’s messages told him she had already had dinner with her boss and her supervisor. «So the supervisor hasn’t left them alone yet» Zayne thought, unable to shake the feeling of relief welling up inside him. She also told him she’d been wise to bring extra coats, because it was already snowing where she was, and she reminded him not to forget to eat well and begged him not to make her ask poor Yvonne to babysit him again.
That night, after returning to his now-empty home, Zayne set out to make a video call with his wife—already missing the sight of her face—to catch up and so she could see for herself that he wasn’t skipping dinner but was heating up a portion of leftovers from the previous night’s meal, the night before she left.
By the third day of Non!Mc’s trip, communication had already become one-sided; Zayne looked resignedly at the chat with his wife, which showed that he had been the only one sending messages.
His wife was the kind of person who could completely disconnect from any kind of social interaction when she was focused on an important task, whether by forgetting to reply to messages she’d quickly scanned in the notification panel or simply not even noticing she had unread messages—including Zayne’s. So it might not be a bad sign that Zayne’s last message had gone unanswered for 16 hours; perhaps it meant his wife was working hard to get home as soon as possible… though it could also mean that someone else had monopolized his wife’s free time.
Recalling his opinions on jealousy, Zayne could do nothing but sigh away his anxiety and regain control of his day, returning to his routine and distracting his mind with diagnoses, medication dosages, and surgeries, as well as picking up his latest book on protocore syndrome once he was alone at home again.
After a week-long wait, Non!Mc was home again, back in his arms. He could once again hold her warm body against his own, cold and previously abandoned; he could once again kiss her lips and hands with tenderness and affection; she was by his side again so he could make sure she was happy, healthy, and safe.
“I’m surprised you didn’t send me any photos.” he remarked casually, Non!Mc curled up beside him on the bedroom sofa, one arm over her shoulders, holding her close to his body, her head resting on Zayne’s shoulder, while he gently stroked her legs through the fabric of her purple pajama pants, which rested on top of his, and caressed her hair with his other hand.
“Because I was waiting to get back so I could give you some context for each one.” you said as you opened a specific folder in your phone’s gallery, where you’d saved the photos from the trip you’d taken to show Zayne.
“Then it occurred to me that maybe it wasn’t there by mere chance, but that maybe someone had placed it there very meticulously, you see? Because of the specific way in which…” Zayne, who had spent the last eight minutes watching his wife’s lips move rather than paying attention to her theory about how such thing—Zayne hadn’t paid attention to what—had been strategically placed on such place— nor had he paid attention to that part of the explanation, to convey some message, could hold back any longer, bringing his free hand to her chin to gently turn her face and finally take her lips between his, in a tender, slow, and passionate kiss that left her dazed and disoriented as soon as he pulled away from her.
“Forgive me, I'll paid attention now.” he said while bringing his gaze to the phone, you swallowed hard and cleared your throat as you snapped out of your own trance, looking down at your phone and the photo you hadn’t finished explaining.
“Yeah, um... Where was I? I’ll start over. But pay attention—why did you ask me to show you the photos if you’re not going to listen to what I’m saying?”