Work Text:
Qing Jing Peak receives a lot of visitors in the months after the Immortal Alliance Conference. Which, really, is quite a waste of resources, if you ask Shen Qingqiu! Qing Jing was the Peak with the fewest number of casualties, and it was quite unnecessary for so many busy Peak Lords to take the time to visit Qing Jing when they could be better spending their time doing their actual jobs.
(Mu Qingfang, when given this argument, claims he is doing his job, but Shen Qingqiu refuses to believe he needs any amount of medical attention, thank you very much. He’s not in shock or traumatized or whatever else Mu Qingfang might claim - Luo Binghe’s sword mound is just located in a very nice part of the bamboo grove, and Shen Qingqiu spent a bit of time there recently for the pleasant scenery and not at all for reasons related to his mental health, really!)
This unneeded attention gets both better and worse as time passes. At the end of a year, the majority of the unnecessary visitors seem to have given up on whatever it was they were trying to accomplish. Even Mu Qingfang limits himself to a visit a month, though he does double down on the quantity of calming teas and herbal remedies he sends Shen Qingqiu’s way.
The two most stubborn visitors, though, only get more sticky as time passes.
Yue Qingyuan is the worst, in Shen Qingqiu’s opinion. His visits had always been tense and awkward before the Conference, back when the only concern Yue Qingyuan had was the apparent loss of shared childhood memories Shen Qingqiu had. Every conversation with him had made Shen Qingqiu feel as if he were walking on eggshells, where a single misstep would either out him as a transmigrator, break the Sect Leader’s heart, or somehow deliver a promise that a Shen Qingqiu that had not been Shen Jiu had no way of fulfilling. Shen Qingqiu wasn’t sure if he wanted that backstory or if he wanted to stay 10 li away from it at all times.
Now, though, visits from the Yue Qingyuan couldn’t be easily ended with a well placed barb or a pointed comment about Shen Qingqiu having a busy day ahead of him, and there’s the door, please. Instead, Yue Qingyuan seemed to have convinced himself that the second he left, Shen Qingqiu would be out by Luo Binghe’s sword mound again, and - and so what! It was a peaceful little clearing, you know! Perfect for practicing music or grading student papers!
And, okay, sure, Shen Qingqiu had never done those things in the clearing of Luo Binghe’s sword mound, but he’d certainly thought about it! Gotten as far as taking the necessary supplies out there with him, even, before he’d - he’d - well. He’d gotten lost in thought, he supposed.
The point stood, though: Yue Qingyuan was unbearably worried for no good reason and therefore now much more difficult to get rid of, and Shen Qingqiu would honestly like to lock the man out some days so they could both concentrate on more pressing matters. Honestly, where did the Sect Leader get this much free time, ah?!
Liu Qingge, Shen Qingqiu’s other frequent visitor, was - better, he supposed. Shen Qingqiu never really minded his visits, in the end, not the way he did Yue Qingyuan’s or Mu Qingfang’s or - or anyone’s really. Liu Qingge was quiet, and always thorough about cleaning Shen Qingqiu’s meridians, and he always had cool monster stories to tell, even if he had a bad habit of dropping said monsters’ carcasses at Shen Qingqiu’s front door.
(In all honesty, Liu Qingge was fairly abysmal at actually telling the stories - he was fairly abysmal at anything that involved lengthy periods of speaking. He tried, though, and hey! Shen Qingqiu could appreciate that! The details this week were better than the details last week, Shidi, keep up the hard work!)
Liu Qingge also never actually bothered Shen Qingqiu about his (perfectly normal and unconcerning) visits to Luo Binghe’s sword mound. He’d frown, but Liu Qingge was often frowning, so as long as he never said anything Shen Qingqiu was happy to pretend he was frowning about something else far more reasonable.
No, overall Shen Qingqiu didn’t mind Liu Qingge’s visits, even when they pulled him away from - from his thoughts, wherever that might be.
What Shen Qingqiu did mind were Liu Qingge’s increasingly thinly veiled attempts to get Shen Qingqiu off his peak. He liked it here! The paperwork wasn’t that bad, even though Luo Binghe wasn’t there to assist him anymore, and sometimes his students would bring him snacks that were almost good, if he hadn’t eaten the same thing prepared by Luo Binghe in the past, and -
“It would help,” Liu Qingge said, interrupting Shen Qingqiu’s thoughts.
Shen Qingqiu looked back down at the incident report Liu Qingge had brought to him. “Liu-Shidi can’t possibly think he needs help on this sort of case.”
“No. But it would help you.”
Shen Qingqiu flicked open his fan in case his poker face fell. Liu Qingge was blunt, but he’d never explicitly spelled out his reasons for asking Shen Qingqiu along on the various off-peak missions he was assigned before, even if Shen Qingqiu had more or less known from the start.
Liu Qingge’s visits didn’t bother him, but Shen Qingqiu had gotten very tired of everyone assuming he was ‘overcome with grief’ or ‘delicate as a mourner’ or whatever other bullshit. He’d just - it was just -!
Sometimes he was a bit disappointed he wasn’t able to preserve Luo Binghe’s white lotus heart, was all. Sometimes he felt a bit out of sorts when he remembered he only had a few years left to live, and that was - it was perfectly reasonable, and it wasn’t affecting his teaching, so -!
“Liu-Shidi’s concern is misplaced. If he wishes for assistance on his mission, this Shen Qingqiu recommends he take along one of the many little terrors on Bai Zhan. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.”
Liu Qingge watched him a moment longer, brows drawn together, before he nodded once. “This mission could be resolved by a few disciples.”
“That’s what this shixiong just said, yes,” Shen Qingqiu replied dryly, feeling one eye twitch.
“You’ll come if it’s a mission that needs you, then,” Liu Qingge continues, and Shen Qingqiu startles. That - that was not really what this Shixiong had said at all, Liu-Shidi!
Shen Qingqiu drew in a measured breath. “This Shixiong will not neglect his duties to the sect. no.”
Liu Qingge nodded again, satisfied, before he got up to leave. Shen Qingqiu watched, one part irritated and two parts confused, and hoped whatever that had been had marked an end to Liu Qingge’s efforts to drag him off the peak. Perhaps Liu Qingge had finally realized Shen Qingqiu was just fine, thank you very much, and there was no need to bother him with his efforts to get him out and about.
Shen Qingqiu hoped Liu Qingge would still come to visit, if that was the case.
---
As it turned out, Shen Qingqiu had nothing to worry about - or everything to worry about, depending on how you looked at it. Liu Qingge certainly did not stop his visits, but neither did he stop trying to convince Shen Qingqiu to go gallivanting off his peak to go monster hunting. Instead, the missions Liu Qingge brought to him just got more… specific.
“I won’t recognize the plant needed,” Liu Qingge said, as he handed Shen Qingqiu a request to go find Miracle Flower A when it was supposed to bloom next week in Mystical Mountain Range B.
Shen Qingqiu looked down at the request skeptically. “This sort of request is usually handled by Qian Cao Peak themselves,” he said after a beat of silence, and Liu Qingge’s ears went a bit pink.
“They gave it to me willingly,” Liu Qingge grunted, and Shen Qingqiu took a moment to think what ‘willingly’ might mean to a man who intimidates most people just by looking in their general direction.
“You took a mission from a peak that specializes in its goal, despite knowing you wouldn’t recognize the flower that needs to be collected?”
“You will, though.” Liu Qingge was looking at Shen Qingqiu with… intention, Shen Qingqiu noted with a repressed shiver. “You’re needed for this one. Come with me.”
“Liu-Shidi -”
“It will help,” Liu Qingge interrupts, an echo of last week’s visit, and Shen Qingqiu looks down at the request again and frowns.
Shen Qingqiu doesn’t need help. He knows this. He’s known everything about how this second life of his was meant to go since he first woke up as Shen Qingqiu, since he first met Luo Binghe, since he pushed - since the events of the Conference. He’ll meet his gruesome end in a few years, sure, but there’s nothing anyone can do about that!
Shen Qingqiu slides the mission request back across the table to Liu Qingge. “Liu-Shidi will find the assistance he needs for this mission at Qian Cao, where he found the request to begin with.”
Liu Qingge kept his gaze on Shen Qingqiu several moments longer, clearly frustrated. Shen Qingqiu sipped pointedly at his tea and said nothing else on the matter. After an uncomfortable stretch of silence, Liu Qingge nodded shortly, took back the mission request, and picked up his own drink.
“The beast last time was weak,” he said, and Shen Qingqiu relaxed, relieved to have fallen into more comfortable territory.
“Of course it was - hadn’t I said it could be handled by a few disciples?”
Liu Qingge grunted an affirmation, and Shen Qingqiu hid his amused smile in his cup. Liu Qingge hadn’t brought him back one of his bloody souvenirs, this time, but it looked like Shen Qingqiu might be able to worm a story out of him, anyway. He held out his arm across the table, and Liu Qingge took it naturally, fingers resting firmly against his pulse point as he began cleaning Shen Qingqiu’s meridians.
They’d already done this recently enough that it wasn't really needed, to be honest. But with Liu Qingge’s habit of going off peak for long stretches of time - shorter stretches of time more recently, now that Shen Qingqiu was thinking about it - it only made sense to get this taken care of whenever Liu Qingge was visiting, whether it was time for it or not.
(And, Shen Qingqiu thought to himself, he’s far more likely to tell me a better story when he’s trapped here long enough to clean my meridians.)
---
Liu Qingge kept trying, after that. Missions that are clearly within Shen Qingqiu’s specialty, rather than Liu Qingge’s, and of increasing difficulty, so Shen Qingqiu had a more difficult time claiming a disciple could take care of it. He didn’t try to convince Shen Qingqiu on every visit - after all, there were a limited number of mission requests for as specific as Liu Qingge seemed to be looking for - but it happened often enough Shen Qingqiu stopped showing quite as much surprise as he had that first time. Liu Qingge himself seemed to get used to this new habit of his, taking each firm rejection without batting an eye, so Shen Qingqiu was… suspicious, to say the least, when Liu Qingge let himself in one day looking positively smug.
“This time, it can’t be anyone but you,” he said, shoving a mission request at Shen Qingqiu. “You can’t tell me to take someone else.”
Shen Qingqiu raised an eyebrow, but did not reach out to take the request. “Liu-Shidi has said that in the past, too.”
“It’s different, this time.” Liu Qingge held out the request more insistently. “You’ll come with me.”
And then, to Shen Qingqiu’s amusement, Liu Qingge seemed to backtrack, and his ears went pink.
“I want you to come with me,” he amended, and Shen Qingqiu hummed and reached out to take the request, if only to reward his shidi’s attempt at manners.
And then Shen Qingqiu paused, because this mission request… doesn’t seem to be a proper request at all, actually.
“Where is this from?” Shen Qingqiu asked as he flipped it over, blinking down at the - the Liu family crest?! Shen Qingqiu flipped it back around quickly, skimming over the request’s details.
It - admittedly looked like a difficult enough quest that two people would be better than one, even when one of them was the Bai Zhan War God. And Liu Qingge certainly couldn’t bother a different peak with this, or his disciples, if it would pull them away from sect business just to attend to a Liu Family personal matter. But, still -
“Liu-Shidi, why aren’t you asking your sister about this? Surely I can’t be -”
“Mingyan is away,” Liu Qingge interrupted, “It has to be you.”
Shen Qingqiu looked back down at the request. Judging by the location, it would take at least a week, and that was assuming everything went well. He didn’t have lesson plans prepared that would let him be gone for that long, and without Luo Binghe - without -
Shen Qingqiu forced himself to relax his grip on the request. The paper had started to crinkle, just slightly, where he was holding it.
Liu Qingge, it seemed, was for once not comfortable waiting in silence for Shen Qingqiu to say something.
“It would help,” he said, quiet and so full of that quiet concern Liu Qingge had been showing for Shen Qingqiu for the past year, since even before he got it in his head that Shen Qingqiu needed to be pulled off his peak. “This one - it isn’t sect business, and you don’t have a duty to complete it. But it would help.”
Shen Qingqiu sighed, slightly. He didn’t need help, he’d already made that very clear to Liu Qingge. But if he really was the only one who could help Liu Qingge with this - as a friend, he supposed, rather than as a fellow peak lord - well, he could survive leaving Qing Jing for a bit, he supposed. Only if it was really necessary, though!
Shen Qingqiu wet his lips. “If I refused, who would Liu-Shidi go with instead?”
“No one.” Liu Qingge hesitated, then added, “We’d have to report back to my family home when the mission was over. For that, it can only be you.”
“Liu-Shidi doesn’t trust his other martial siblings not to tease him about whatever dark secrets they find at the Liu Estate?” Shen Qingqiu teased, and Liu Qingge’s ears - which had lost most of their flush, by now - returned to a shade of pink even darker than the last time.
“It’s not a matter of trust,” he grumbled, “Taking someone home is significant. It could only be you.”
It was Shen Qingqiu’s turn to flush, now. He flicked his fan open in front of his face. “When Liu-Shidi says ‘significant,’ he means, ah -” Shen Qingqiu cuts off, making an aborted gesture with his free hand.
Liu Qingge, ears now a shade of red so bright it looked hot to the touch, nodded sharply.
Ah.
That - well! That was certainly - certainly something! Who knew that sort of modesty existed in a world created by Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky!
Shen Qingqiu raised his fan a bit higher, mind racing. So Liu Qingge needed assistance on a hunt, but anyone he took with him would be assumed to be his, ahem, romantic partner, if they were taken back to the Liu Estate, where the mission debrief would occur. A fairly serious romantic partner, if Shen Qingqiu was reading this right. And Liu Qingge really didn’t mind Shen Qingqiu stepping into that role?! No, it was more like - like he wanted it, thought Shen Qingqiu was the only real candidate, unbelievably -
Shen Qingqiu blinked. Hm. It certainly would be unbelievable, for Liu Qingge to claim the Shen Qingqiu he used to despise (and who used to despise him in turn) was his ah, cultivation partner, or fiance, or whatever the correct term was here. Unbelievable to the point where it might actually override any pre-existing assumptions about what it meant when a Liu brought someone home.
Oh. Shen Qingqiu hadn’t had any pre-existing assumptions about what his romantic life might be, in this life, but he certainly hadn’t thought he’d be used for his un-romancibility.
Shen Qingqiu snapped his fan shut. He could handle this. Just helping his bro out a bit! In a scenario that was meant to be romantic, though it wouldn’t be, for them, since it had to be him, the un-romanceable Shen Qingqiu, after all. A completely normal mission to take! In fact, Shen Qingqiu should be happy, since it meant his Shidi trusted him not to be weird about this!
Yes, this was - this was very good, all things considered! Shen Qingqiu felt nothing but good things about this! Any odd twists in his gut were simply the result of not eating anything that day yet!
“Fine,” Shen Qingqiu said at last, and the tension in Liu Qingge’s body seemed to leave him all at once.
“Good,” Liu Qingge replied, sounding almost relieved. Shen Qingqiu hadn’t even known Liu Qingge was capable of relief, when such a thing required some amount of apprehension to begin with. “When will you be ready to leave?”
“No sooner than two weeks. Not all of us are in the habit of leaving our peaks to function without guidance, after all.”
Liu Qingge snorted. “Two weeks, then.”
---
In those two weeks, Liu Qingge… goes a bit feral, is Shen Qingqiu’s best guess. Perhaps he’s nervous about taking Shen Qingqiu home, even if he knows no one will see him as Liu Qingge’s romantic partner, or perhaps he’s just overly energized now that he’s finally won his battle to get Shen Qingqiu to agree to go on an off-peak mission.
There weren’t many other reasons why Liu Qingge would decide to drop monsters on Shen Qingqiu’s doorstep nearly every other day, after all.
“Liu-shidi,” Shen Qingqiu asked wearily one day, gingerly poking at an honestly pretty spectacular specimen of a Great Blue Horned Tiger. “Are you trying to wipe out all the beasts within 20 li?”
“Do you dislike them?” Liu Qingge asked instead of answering, and Shen Qingqiu sighed.
“I’m just not sure why they’re necessary.”
They were clearly some sort of well-meaning gift, after all - Shen Qingqiu had managed to put that one together some months ago - but Shidi! Most of these creatures were still bleeding when you dumped them on this poor Shixiong’s doorstep! Sure, most of them were wildly interesting to study up close, but it still wasn’t fun smelling blood right outside his bamboo house each morning!
“They’re necessary,” Liu Qingge said firmly. “Even if you’ve already accepted, I want to do it right.”
Shen Qingqiu looked at Liu Qingge for one long, tired moment, before deciding he wanted nothing to do with unravelling whatever that meant. Instead, he just sighed.
“Alright, then. Perhaps consider bringing less bloody ones, next time?”
“They’re dead. They’ll bleed from their wounds,” Liu Qingge shot back, but the next time he visited he brought a new bestiary, instead of anything dead and bleeding, so Shen Qingqiu counted it as a win.
The actual mission itself, when it arrived, wasn’t all that bad, honestly. Liu Qingge had shuffled him off Qing Jing Peak when dawn had only barely begun to break and Shen Qingqiu was yawning between every other sentence, but Liu Qingge had long since become a reliable taxi service, so Shen Qingqiu didn’t need to be completely awake while they were traveling, anyway. So long as he was awake enough not to let go of Liu Qingge, or to completely lose balance and fall off Liu Qingge’s sword, no one could blame him for drifting off a bit for parts of their journey!
Liu Qingge was even gracious enough to stop at inns each night instead of camping in the middle of nowhere, with only minimal wheedling from Shen Qingqiu to convince him! Very good, Liu-Shidi, this Shixiong apologizes for underestimating your travel partner capabilities!
And when they arrived, and had tracked down the beast the Liu Family had wanted slain, fighting together was - well, it was surprisingly fun. The Yellow Tailed Bear-Cat was tough, large enough that its jaws were intimidating but still quick and nimble in the way usually only smaller beasts were. It was intelligent, too, and rarely hunted in a straightforward manner - Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge had to work together to root it out of its hiding spot and keep it from escaping before Liu Qingge could finish it off.
It couldn’t have taken more than a couple of hours, all together, but in that time - adrenaline, and sweat-slick palms forming sword signs, and having to fight smart and dirty to corner it, and Liu Qingge burning bright at the center of the fight, brilliant and strong and confident - Shen Qingqiu’s mind was firmly in the present, in the way it hadn’t been for a long time, now.
After, Liu Qingge cleaning his sword and watching as Shen Qingqiu worked out the best way to harvest the claws of the beast without directly touching them - their poison being the reason for the mission request in the first place, too strong to coexist in this part of the human realm without fucking up the water sources the Bear-Cat drank from - Liu Qingge spoke up for the first time since they’d tracked down their target.
“When we return, I’ll look for another fight that suits you.” Liu Qingge gave Cheng Luan a final once-over before sheathing it, turning to face Shen Qingqiu fully.
Shen Qingqiu, straightening from where he was poking at the Bear-Cat, frowned slightly. “Liu-Shidi, you don’t -”
You don’t need to, was what Shen Qingqiu was going to say, but before he could get the words fully out, he found himself biting down harshly on his tongue to silence himself. He’d agreed to finally be dragged out of Cang Qiong because it was a favor for Liu Qingge, but it had been fun, hadn’t it? Grounding and enjoyable the same way sparring with Liu Qingge used to be when Luo Binghe was still -
“Fighting helps me, too,” Liu Qingge added, softer this time, though the look in his eyes was no less intense.
“Oh,” Shen Qingqiu said, with all the eloquence of a Qing Jing scholar.
That was… far more personal of an admission than Shen Qingqiu had been expecting from Liu Qingge. Sure, it was easy enough to suspect Liu Qingge used his martial training and whatever fights he could get into as some sort of outlet, given how restless he got whenever he couldn’t fight his way out of a problem, but - still. To be explicitly told as much by Liu Qingge himself…
It made Shen Qingqiu feel warm, being let into his Shidi’s life a bit like that.
Shen Qingqiu reached out to pat gently at Liu Qingge’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he said, and Liu Qingge gave a sort of half-smile back that had Shen Qingqiu looking away quickly, face hot.
Liu Qingge huffed in the way Shen Qingqiu had come to recognize as amusement before pulling away from Shen Qingqiu and stepping up to the body of the Yellow Tailed Bear-Cat they’d slain. He stood there a moment, looking down at with a slight frown, before he stooped down to start hoisting the thing up onto his shoulder, careful to avoid touching the claws.
Shen Qingqiu startled, jolting towards Liu Qingge. “What - Liu Shidi! Put that down! We only need the claws, you don’t have to go so far!”
“Removing the claws could be a mistake if we do it wrong,” Liu Qingge grunted out from under several hundred pounds of dead monster. Shen Qingqiu would be impressed, if he wasn’t so alarmed.
“Flying with that thing would be a mistake! Where will I fit!”
Liu Qingge shifted the weight of the Bear-Cat over his shoulders and cast a pointed look at Xiu Ya strapped to Shen Qingqiu’s waist. Shen Qingqiu, who had grown very used to not having to fly himself anywhere, felt completely, 100%, totally betrayed.
“Liu-Shidi,” Shen Qingqiu all but whined, and Liu Qingge huffed again, that same fond, amused half-laugh of his. “Liu-Shidi, this Shixiong of yours is poisoned, remember? The Liu Estate isn’t that close, what if Without-A-Cure acts up? I’ll fall, and die, and then you won’t have anyone to talk to about your latest hunts, and -”
“Mu Qingfang would listen,” Liu Qingge shoots back, and Shen Qingqiu spends a moment gaping a bit before he realizes that Liu Qingge was teasing him, that - that -!
“Liu-Shidi!”
Liu Qingge shot Shen Qingqiu a fond look. “I’ll catch you,” he said, sincere, “If you fall, I’ll catch you.”
“Not with that giant carcass on your back, you won't,” Shen Qingqiu grumbled, but unsheathed Xiu Ya regardless, following Liu Qingge up into the air and onwards in the direction of the Liu Estate.
(He doesn’t fall on the way there, but he does notice Liu Qingge is careful to fly close enough to him that he’d be able to catch him if he did. Shen Qingqiu mostly forgave him for making him fly himself.)
---
The Liu Estate was far larger than anything Shen Qingqiu had been imagining. Not that he necessarily had a good grasp on what to expect for any sort of noble or cultivator estates in this world, but! Still! The little house Liu Qingge lived in on Bai Zhan could be fit many times over into just the courtyards alone here! Surely, that was a bit excessive…?
Except it wasn’t, as Shen Qingqiu quickly learned, because the Liu family itself was huge. In retrospect, of course it would be - the Lius were known to be a powerful family of cultivators, and given how long a single cultivator could live, an entire family of cultivators was bound to be large. It was probably a great thing for the nearby towns, to have the implicit protection of so many righteous cultivators.
For Shen Qingqiu, the large family meant having to hear some variation of ‘Qingge brought someone home?? Our Qingge??’ about ten times over in the span of a single afternoon.
Not that Shen Qingqiu didn’t get it! Liu Qingge was as stubborn and brusque as he was pretty, and to picture him romancing someone was - well, it was -
Shen Qingqiu very forcibly broke that thought off. The point was that, hey! He got it! Liu Qingge bringing someone home was surprising! Was it really surprising enough for this sort of scrutiny, though?! And, more concerningly, why did everyone seem to believe it?!
This humble peak lord had only just made peace with being used as the un-romanceable option, you know! You all could at least have the decency to act as expected!
Shen Qingqiu shifted a bit where he was sitting, pretending as if the very unnerving stares he was getting from about half the Liu family members attending dinner with them. Formal meals were, unfortunately, not a place where he could hide behind his fan to avoid attention, and right now he was absolutely regretting agreeing to stay for dinner. He wasn’t even hungry, he was just trying to be polite!!
As if reading his mind then, Liu Qingge leaned in closer to him, their shoulders brushing. “You should eat more. We didn’t stop to eat on the way here.”
Shen Qingqiu took a pointed bite of his food, elbowing Liu Qingge lightly. “We’re cultivators. We didn’t stop to eat because it wasn’t necessary.”
“You used to eat three meals a day, before,” Liu Qingge shot back, and Shen Qingqiu knew he was talking about the time before the Immortal Alliance Conference last year, not the time before they were cultivators.
“I was hungrier, before.”
Liu Qingge snorted, but said nothing else, and Shen Qingqiu was allowed to resume picking at his food and pretending the scrutiny of so many of his Shidi’s relatives didn’t make him somewhat queasy. Didn’t any of these people get the memo?! Liu Qingge had brought Shen Qingqiu along because no one was supposed to actually believe they were together!! There’s no need for any of these ‘are you good enough for my boy’ looks!
Everyone was polite, at least. Oddly intense in the way none of them would stop looking at Shen Qingqiu, but they had still invited them to both stay for dinner after reporting their success in the mission, and a few of them had made interesting conversation about the potential uses of the poison that could be harvested from the Bear-Cat. Still…
Shen Qingqiu sighed, putting down his chopsticks and turning to look at Liu Qingge’s mother, who was sitting nearby. She didn’t bother to hide that she’d already been looking at Shen Qingqiu with that same questioning look everyone had been pinning on him all afternoon.
“Madam Liu, is there something this humble peak lord can help you with?”
Beside Shen Qingqiu, Liu Qingge made a noise reminiscent of a disgruntled cat. “Ignore her. She’s just curious.”
“Is that any way to speak about your mother, ah?” Madam Liu shot her son a glare that made their blood relation very clear. “You can’t blame us for looking, Qing-er, we’ve all been curious what sort of token you’d present, if you ever made it this far.”
“Token?” Shen Qingqiu felt a rush of anxiety; had he accidentally ignored some sort of important etiquette by not having or presenting a token of appreciation to the hosts?
“If we’re already talking about it, show us!” A Liu elder called from further down the dining hall. “It has to be impressive, if Qingge presented it!”
Shen Qingqiu turned to look at Liu Qingge, trying to express ‘I have no idea what’s going on, you handle this,’ with his expression alone. Liu Qingge looked almost pained.
“There’s nothing to show,” he said, ears burning red. “I haven’t gotten that far, yet.”
Madam Liu gasped in a way that reminded Shen Qingqiu of the aunties that lived down the hall in his old life when they heard a particularly juicy piece of gossip. “Qing-er brought him home early?”
Shen Qingqiu glanced between her and Liu Qingge before solemnly reaching into his sleeve to pull out his fan and (sort of) subtly whack Liu Qingge with it. “Liu-Shidi will remember that I’m not a fan of conversations happening over my head,” he grumbled.
“I’ll explain later,” Liu Qingge said, in the same tone of voice he used to promise Mu Qingfang he’d absolutely stay on bed rest while his injury healed before never doing that. Shen Qingqiu narrowed his eyes.
“Madam Liu, I’m afraid your son seems too busy eating to fill this one in. If there is a token that should be present during my visit, perhaps Madam Liu could explain?”
Liu Qingge shot a betrayed look Shen Qingqiu’s way. Shen Qingqiu just barely resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at him.
Madam Liu, when Shen Qingqiu looked back at her, seemed to be going through all five stages of grief in rapid succession. “He doesn’t even know. Qing-er took him home so early he doesn’t even know.”
Liu Qingge’s father, next to Madam Liu, frowned. Er, frowned more - it seemed to be a hereditary issue that all Lius practiced frowning nine hours out of ten. “Perhaps there haven’t been any sightings of good things to hunt recently?”
“No. I’ve been tracking a Crystal Cut Snake, recently,” Liu Qingge said, expression turned down as if this was some sort of horribly embarrassing confession to make.
Old Uncle Liu grunted from where he was sitting. At this point, the entire dining hall was a part of whatever was happening. “That’s plenty good, my son proposed to his lady with the talon of a Red Poison Hawk - didn’t even think of what that talon could be fashioned into, that foolish boy! The scales of a Crystal Cut Snake will be far better.”
“Proposed?” Shen Qingqiu wheezed out, and Liu Qingge thumped at his back as if that could help him at all. This was a conversation about proposals? The whiplash from being worried he had made some sort of guest-etiquette mistake to being reminded that everyone present seemed to wholeheartedly believe in Liu Qingge’s supposed romantic relationship with Shen Qingqiu was far too much for him to keep a neutral face. This old man still hadn’t decided how he felt about that, you know, you could at least give a little warning before broaching the subject!!
“A Crystal Cut Snake is equally foolish! It’ll take far too long to work up to it, Qing-er will be courting for years before I can have grandchildren!” Madam Liu exclaimed before turning back to Liu Qingge. “How far along are you, at least?”
“A Great Blue Horned Tiger,” Liu Qingge replied, “And Mingyan said one of her friends saw a Demon-Hearted Crow near Cang Qiong that I will hunt down when we return.”
Madam Liu nodded, satisfied. “It isn’t so early after all, then, if you’re getting close.”
Liu Qingge grunted and turned back to his food. The rest of the hall more or less followed suit, and just like that it seemed like the conversation was over.
Shen Qingqiu stared down at his own bowl of food blankly. There was more meat in it than he remembered there being, the last time he’d looked.
Okay! Shen Qingqiu could figure out what was happening without anyone having the decency to explain it to him, fine! He was the Qing Jing Peak Lord for a reason, you know, and it wasn’t just that some awful System had decided to make him one, no matter what you think!!
The only part of that conversation that had made sense was the mention of the Great Blue Horned Tiger. Liu Qingge had dumped the body of one on his doorstep several days before they’d left to hunt the Yellow Tailed Bear-Cat together, before Shen Qingqiu had scolded him about the blood well enough Liu Qingge had brought him a bestiary the next time he visited instead of another dead creature. Shen Qingqiu hadn’t heard about the Demon-Hearted Crow sighting, which was a surprise, since Demon-Hearted Crows were even more dangerous than Great Blue Horned Tigers, and -
Shen Qingqiu stopped. Before the Great Blue Horned Tiger had been a Swallow Footed Pig, which was slightly less notorious for the fight it would put up than a Great Blue Horned Tiger. And before that, a slightly less horrifying Ten Toed Lion. He’d never made the connection before, but the beasts Liu Qingge would slay and gift to Shen Qingqiu were ever more dangerous, as time went on.
A Crystal Cut Snake, while beautiful, was extremely dangerous, the size of a small dragon and usually found nesting in active volcanos, where the heat would cause their scales to harden and positively glow. If the same estimated jump in difficulty was to be assumed per hunt, Liu Qingge would probably be hunting the Crystal Cut Snake after two or three more other demonic beasts. At the rate Liu Qingge was going, that would probably happen in mid autumn, right after the Crystal Cut Snake’s major shedding season. The scales of the beast would be new and beautiful, when Liu Qingge killed it, and would make for a beautiful proposal gift.
Holy fuck. Liu Qingge had been dumping dead things on Shen Qingqiu’s doorstep for years, what the fuck. Liu Qingge hadn’t asked Shen Qingqiu to come along because he thought no one would believe they were romantically involved; he’d asked Shen Qingqiu because he’d been in the middle of a years-long courting process, and there was literally no on else he could take home without disrespecting that.
Except - the Yellow Tailed Bear-Cat was certainly far more difficult to hunt with only a single person, given the way it fought. But if anyone could have managed it, of course it would be Liu Qingge. Shen Qingqiu had seen him fight smart on his own before, using a nonspiritual weapon in his hand while controlling Cheng Luan as a separate entity, or simply being too terrifyingly quick and strong to let an opponent get away in the first place. It would have been difficult, but if it meant upholding the tradition of his family - and his own pride and modesty in the courtship, from the way the Liu family had reacted when they found out Liu Qingge had brought Shen Qingqiu home ‘early’ - Liu Qingge absolutely could have handled this mission request on his own.
But he’d been trying so hard, to get Shen Qingqiu off the peak, that he’d taken whatever opportunity he could. He’d wanted so badly to try and help Shen Qingqiu, regardless of how many times Shen Qingqiu shut him out, that he’d been happy to break that tradition for Shen Qingqiu.
Shen Qingqiu swallowed thickly. This Shidi of his…
Shen Qingqiu ate everything in his bowl, that meal. It wouldn’t do to make Liu Qingge worry more than he already had.
---
They took off back to Cang Qiong immediately after dinner. Shen Qingqiu had only prepared so many days of lessons for his disciples, after all, and Liu Qingge had promised they would return before they ran out. Shen Qingqiu waited until they stopped late that night to rest, quietly paying for their room at an inn and allowing Liu Qingge to get settled in the room before confronting him.
Er, well, before he tried to confront him; confrontation, especially of the emotional sort, was not Shen Qingqiu’s strong suit.
“The Crystal Cut Snake Liu-Shidi has been tracking…”
Liu Qingge looked up from where he’d been settling down to meditate. Shen Qingqiu flicked open his fan, hoping it would give him the courage to continue his thought. It didn’t.
After a long moment, Liu Qingge spoke up. “If you’d prefer something else, I’ll find it.”
“No! That’s not, ah, I wasn’t -” Shen Qingqiu forced his hand to still where he’d begun waving his fan a bit frantically. “Liu-Shidi certainly has good taste, picking that out.”
“...Then?”
“It’s only - Liu-Shidi, you didn’t say anything when you gave me all those dead things!”
“What should I have said?” Liu Qingge asked, and for one short, delirious moment, Shen Qingqiu considered telling him he should have been reciting poetry or something cheesy.
He managed to swallow the urge down into something reasonable. “A declaration of intent? At least?”
Liu Qingge frowns. “I did?”
“When?!” Shen Qingqiu tried to remember what the first creature Liu Qingge had hunted and dropped on Qing Jing had been. It had been a simple Golden Spider, he thought, and Liu Qingge had killed it and presented it to Shen Qingqiu when he had found it on Qing Jing, and Shen Qingqiu had given some sort of praise about how well Liu Qingge kept Cang Qiong safe, and - “Liu-Shidi!! Telling someone you’ll keep them safe is not a declaration of intent! I thought you meant generally, as a Sect sibling, the same way you’d keep any of us safe!”
Liu Qingge’s frown deepened. He looked… a bit nervous, if that was an emotion Shen Qingqiu could allow himself to be on the Bai Zhan War God’s face at all.
“You didn’t know?”
Shen Qingqiu shook his head only barely non-frantically.
“Then… Do you reject it? Now that you know properly.” Liu Qingge’s voice was unwavering, but at his sides, his fists were clenched tight. Shen Qingqiu didn’t really give himself time to think about it before responding.
“Of course not!” As if I’d be stupid enough to turn down someone as good as you!
“But you’re upset,” Liu Qingge observed, not looking any less tense than he had a moment ago.
“You’ve been courting me for years and I didn’t know, of course I’m upset! How was I supposed to know the Liu family courts like this!” Shen Qingqiu snapped his fan shut, then flicked it back open again, nervous. He closed it again, landing it across his palm, and leveled his best ‘I’m very disappointed in you’ look at Liu Qingge. He had a feeling it didn’t come across very well, with how warm his face felt. “You should have told me! I found out because your mom thought we were getting married! ”
“I warned you before you agreed to visit the estate with me,” Liu Qingge reminded him, and Shen Qingqiu huffed.
“Yes, but I thought -” Shen Qingqiu cut that thought short. Even he had a limit to how badly he was willing to embarrass himself here, and admitting he’d thought the whole thing was some sort of weird ploy to bring someone home in a way that wouldn’t mean anything was far beyond his, at that point.
Liu Qingge stood up, closing half the distance between them. He looked less on edge, now, but there was still an uncertain look in his eye that Shen Qingqiu felt uncomfortable seeing on someone usually so firm.
“If you don’t reject it, but you’re still upset -”
“For good reason!”
“- What would you have changed, if you’d known?”
“I would have courted you back, obviously!” Shen Qingqiu snaps, and then goes stock still with mortification.
Liu Qingge, a few steps away from him, has gone bright, bright red. Shen Qingqiu suspects he’s not any better.
“Oh,” Liu Qingge said after a long moment, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. “Then, you -”
“Let’s go on a date!” Shen Qingqiu interrupts.
“What?”
“A - an outing together with, ah, with romantic intentions!”
Liu Qingge blinks. “A hunt?” He asks, and Shen Qingqiu is torn between scowling and telling him to take this seriously and laughing, because that probably was Liu Qingge taking this seriously, this ridiculous battle-obsessed man of his.
“A play, or a nice dinner out, or - or a hunt, if you prefer,” Shen Qingqiu tacks on. “If we’re going through all your family’s traditions, we’ll go through mine, too.”
The last of the tension that had remained in Liu Qingge’s shoulders was released, then, and Liu Qingge sent Shen Qingqiu a fond look. Shen Qingqiu flushed brighter, knowing that he was reading that look exactly the correct way, now, and feeling almost overwhelmed from it.
“Okay,” Liu Qingge said, stepping closer, moving into Shen Qingqiu’s space. Shen Qingqiu’s breath hitched, but he made no move to step back. “We’ll do both, then. Anything else?”
“And it - it will have to be a small wedding! Your family is too large, compared to mine -”
Liu Qingge snorts. “Your peak of children would disagree.”
“Better to treat them as family than the nonsense you get away with, Liu-Shidi, honestly!” Shen Qingqiu lifts a hand to hit weakly at Liu Qingge’s chest. It’s a very firm chest. Shen Qingqiu is so, so red.
“Okay,” Liu Qingge says, even though Shen Qingqiu knows he doesn’t really agree, and then leans down slightly to press a kiss to Shen Qingqiu’s cheek.
Shen Qingqiu all but squawks. “Liu-Shidi! Isn’t that skipping a few steps?! What happened to the token, and your family’s tradition, and the dates!!”
Liu Qingge shrugged. He looks very, very pleased with himself. “I took you to my family home already, we’re out of order anyway.”
That -! Shen Qingqiu bristles, darting in to press his own chaste kiss to Liu Qingge’s cheek, too. Take that, you stupidly pretty man!
“It’s time to sleep!” Shen Qingqiu declared, whirling away from Liu Qingge and diving into one of the beds in the room before he could see how Liu Qingge reacted. “Goodnight, Liu-Shidi!”
There’s an amused huff from where Liu-Qingge was still standing in the middle of the room. Shen Qingqiu pulled the sheets up further over his head.
“Goodnight,” Liu Qingge replied, soft and indulgent.
Shen Qingqiu got the feeling he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep for a long, long time, listening to his heartbeat race in his ears. He could mostly forgive his Shidi for that, though, he supposed.
He got the feeling Liu Qingge would be careful to take care of him in the morning if he was tired, after all. He got the feeling Liu Qingge would be careful to take care of him regardless.
Shen Qingqiu’s chest squeezed. His Shidi was really the best, after all.