Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

One particularly misty morning, Mo Ran is returning to Shisheng Peak after completing an assignment, he hears something rustling in the shrubbery. It makes him pause for a moment to see if the sound would come again or if it was just the normal sounds of nature playing tricks on his mind. But he hears it again before he can move on, the unmistakable, distinct mewl of a kitten.

Silently, Mo Ran makes his way towards the source of the sound and, when he manages to pinpoint the location of the noise, he carefully moves aside the shrubbery that was obscuring his view. There he saw it, pitifully curled beneath the bushes, a small, grumpy looking white kitten that was screaming its head off, by cat standards at least.

The poor thing is so preoccupied in calling for its mother that it takes a moment to register that someone had located its hiding spot underneath the bush. Its wide amber eyes harden as it scrambles up into a defensive stance, its back arched and tail fluffed in an attempt to appear more intimidating.

Mo Ran can’t help but chuckle at how similar this tiny cat seems to Chu Wanning. He slowly bends down and scoops the kitten into his arms, uncaring of how the little thing gnaws on his finger in a measly attempt to free itself from the clutches of the brutish man that has seized it. Mo Ran can’t take the cat seriously given that its mouth isn’t even large enough to fully bite the finger it was attacking with a vengeance.

“I already have one fussy cat in my life, why not have another?” Mo Ran murmurs to himself in amusement. He tries to calm the cat down to no avail before eventually giving up and continuing on his way home with cat in hand, ready to be presented to his very own resident white cat back at Shisheng Peak.

—

By the time they finally make it up all 3800-ish stairs, which quite frankly is ridiculous, the white cat has finally resigned itself to glaring up at its captor and letting an incessant stream of meows from the unyielding arms where it was being held prisoner. The trip would have been a whole lot shorter if Mo Ran had chosen to take the shortcut of just flying up with his sword but he doesn’t dare to further jostle the cat since it’s already in such a pissy mood. Mo Ran can’t really blame it though, he sure wouldn’t want to be scooped up by a giant hand and be moved away from the places he knew.

He doesn’t feel particularly bad about taking the cat though. It didn’t have any littermates nearby and it appeared to not have eaten a proper meal in a long time. Mo Ran can feel its little bones poking him when it squirms violently, indicating that the mother had not visited in quite some time, so there wasn’t really any family that would miss the cat as far as he could tell.

Mo Ran pities the poor thing, abandoned at such a young age. He suspects that it was around five weeks old or so. Mo Ran also pities that the poor cat is going to have to meet one of the most fearsome people it would ever encounter in its short life span in mere moments.

Mo Ran finally makes it back to the Red Lotus Pavilion, which he shares with his sole disciple. Apparently Chu Wanning couldn’t stand living in the disciple courters with his peers when he first arrived at Shisheng Peak and needed a more secluded space to focus properly on his cultivation.

He silently slips inside in hopes of surprising Chu Wanning with the little bundle of joy, or if he’s being completely honest, vengeance. Maybe he is subconsciously trying to do things to make up for his actions in their past life, who knows. Surprisingly, and somewhat unfortunately, he spots Chu Wanning the moment he enters.

It is a rare sight to see Chu Wanning outside of his domain unless it was for training or because of Mo Ran’s pestering to properly nourish his body on a regular basis, so Mo Ran was utterly astounded to just see him hanging out in the view of the doorway, working on one of his many projects. Mo Ran doesn’t know how Chu Wanning uses the house when he is away so he can’t be upset about it.

Thankfully, Chu Wanning appears to be too immersed in whatever he is working on to notice their silent entrance. But the cat, who obviously doesn’t know how to read a room, decides that it was the perfect moment to let out the loudest yowl it could muster, shattering the peaceful silence that enveloped the room.

Poor, unsuspecting Chu Wanning uncharacteristically startles and whips his head up to look for the source of the aggressively loud sound that the tiny animal somehow managed to produce. Mo Ran couldn’t fault him for it though, Chu Wanning is only fifteen after all and he can’t be expected to keep his cool at all times. It is just another little surprise from Chu Wanning today, Mo Ran supposes.

Mo Ran can;t really give himself credit for figuring out all of Chu Wanning’s quirks yet, but he has only been Mo Ran’s disciple for a short while in this lifetime so you can;t expect too much of the man. Especially since in his past life, he had never cared to know much about Chu Wanning. It was just a little shocking that a sudden noise would manage to spook Chu Wanning so badly that he almost dropped the item he was tweaking. The item which he now carefully set on the table in front of him.

Mo Ran sighs. As Chu Wanning’s eyes land on him standing in the entryway, he figures that this was the best time to introduce the squirming kitten to Chu Wanning.

“I got you something while I was out,” Mo Ran tells him, trying to keep it casual. For the record, it isn’t exactly easy to present someone with an animal when they don't seem to particularly enjoy your presence so Mo Ran is just doing his best at this point.

Chu Wanning eyes the animal suspiciously as Mo Ran approaches with the tiny thing.

“I don’t want it,” Chu Wanning announces in his usual prissy way of speaking. Mo Ran isn’t surprised though, he had already come up with his sales pitch on the way back to their shared living space. He carefully plops the cat down in front of Chu Wanning to relieve himself of having to hold it before beginning his spiel.

“I know you don’t want the responsibility of a cat thrust upon you, but come on, look at the little guy. Can’t you see how much it loves you already, A-Ning?” Mo Ran asks with his most winning smile, making sure to show off his dimples. Meanwhile, the fuzzy creature tries to scramble off the table to get away from its kidnapper and, apparently, its new, standoffish owner.

Mo Ran actively works on keeping it in place, getting more exasperated as time went on, until he just gives up struggling and places the kitten in Chu Wanning’s arms, who accepts it reluctantly. He holds it as far away from himself as he could manage without letting it wriggle out of his grasp. Mo Ran takes his distracted state as a chance to continue.

“I found it on the side of the road, in the bushes. Can’t you tell it has no mother, no one to take care of it? The cat delivery system is working its magic and now it has chosen us, or more accurately you, to be this poor baby’s caretaker.”

Before Mo Ran can continue, Chu Wanning huffs quietly and makes a declaration that absolutely floors Mo Ran.

“Fine. We can keep it.”

Not only is this a surprising show of empathy from Chu Wanning (in Mo Ran’s eyes at least), it is also shocking how easy it was to convince Chu Wanning to accept the cat. Even more startlingly, Chu Wanning carefully brings the small cat closer to himself and allows it to sniff him so he could pet it better.

The cat happily obliges. It stops squirming and rubs against Chu Wanning’s chest with a quiet, contented purr that Mo Ran can barely hear. Mo Ran is in utter disbelief that Chu Wanning had managed to tame the cat in mere seconds of gaining possession of it despite his usual tendency of warding off any animals within a twenty meter radius. Truly a match made in heaven.

“Have you given it a name yet?” Chu Wanning inquires flatly. Even though he is speaking to Mo Ran, his eyes remain glued on the cat in his hands. It was as though he refuses to admit that he is intrigued by the kitten.

“I thought I’d leave it up to you, but if you don’t have any ideas, I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“I suppose Bai Mao is a good enough name…” Chu Wanning muses. Mo Ran can’t help but snort at how Chu Wanning the name was. He doesn’t expect any less from the oddly cold and straightforward teenager under his tutelage. ‘White Cat.’ What a silly name.

The cat, now known as Bai Mao, seems to approve of its new name. It lets out a small mewl that almost sounds like it was agreeing with Chu Wanning. Chu Wanning brings his other hand up to scratch Bai Mao on the neck. Bai Mao happily melts into the gentle scratches it is receiving from its new owner.

Mo Ran raises his own hand to give the little cat a little love too, so it could acclimate better to its new home and all, but Bai Mao’s demeanor immediately shifts. It swats at him and hisses. As Chu Wanning tries to soothe the kitten, he glares up at Mo Ran.

Mo Ran just sighs and retracts his hand. He truly doesn’t know what he expected when he got his picky disciple an equally picky cat. He understands why the cat hated him already, but he was a little offended that somehow Chu Wanning, the most feared person on Shishen Peak by human and animal alike, had managed to get Bai Mao to love him in seconds of just holding it. Meanwhile it seemed predisposed to hate him.

—

In the few weeks following the initial adoption of Bai Mao, Mo Ran has learned something new. Chu Wanning loves cats. Like, loves cats. (He also learned that Bai Mao was a girl but that was unimportant)

Well… maybe not all cats, but he sure loves the cat he has become responsible for. In a matter of days, he has already devoted more time and energy into the cat’s comfort in its new home than he did in keeping himself alive most days. A similar devotion of time somehow keeps up until even years later when the cat was past its initial adjustment period.

Somehow, he has already managed to engineer a feeding device that produces a set amount of food at certain times throughout the day to accommodate the needs of Bai Mao. The only downside Mo Ran had noticed is that the food had to be prepped ahead of time and it couldn’t be prepared too far ahead of time, otherwise there was a chance of it spoiling. It was a small price to pay for the downright innovation of his disciple.

(A few years later, Chu Wanning formulated a pebble shaped type of food that gave the same amount of nutrition but could be left in the feeder much longer. TRuly a genius.)

Another device that he created to meet his child’s needs and keep her safe was a special collar. It is supposed to activate a small barrier around Bai Mao whenever it decides she has somehow gotten herself into a dangerous situation. Not only does it keep her from getting herself killed when she somehow escapes from the confines of the pavilion but it also saved them a lot of time since they no longer need to cat-proof the house.

This new cat had also brought a new habit out of Chu Wanning. Mo Ran had only witnessed it a few times but the more times it happens, the more frequent the instances have become. It was almost like Chu Wanning was becoming more comfortable with Mo Ran than he ever was in their past lifetime thanks to the cat’s presence in the Red Lotus Pavilion.

Now, this new habit seems somewhat out of Chu Wanning’s control sometimes. Who really has self control around an adorable fluffball like Bai Mao though, especially when she was at such a cute age where she was more fluff than actual body?

Sometimes, Mo Ran enters a room and just sees Chu Wanning motionless, pointing at Bai Mao for seemingly no reason. It was not like Bai Mao was doing anything particularly special or cute. She would just be laying in the sunlight or licking herself, but her mere existence seemed to have entranced Chu Wanning. Mo Ran couldn’t deny that she was adorable, he just doesn’t understand the appeal. The mind of a teenager was truly special.

He’s happy to see that Chu Wanning is finding joy in something and feeling comfortable expressing it outwardly, even if he doesn’t know that someone was witnessing the unbridled joy he seemed to get from Bai Mao simply existing.

But sometimes, Mo Ran wishes he could get Chu Wanning to be as interested in him, but Mo Ran had resolved himself to not be jealous of Bai Mao, a teeny tiny cat. He knew that it was selfish to wish for such a thing after all the terrible things he did, but following his recent revelations of his feelings for his disciple, he can’t help it.

After the frequency of this odd pointing ritual had turned almost daily, Mo Ran decided to just give in to the curiosity that has plagued him for so long. After one of these instances of excited pointing (that more recently has become accompanied with a little smile from Chu Wanning), Mo Ran asks one simple question.

“Why?”

And he is met with an equally simple answer.

“Cat.”

Mo Ran just chuckles at his dry tone. How very Chu Wanning. He somehow manages to occasionally answer questions in such silly ways. Mo Ran doesn’t know if Chu Wanning really means to do it but from the way he never makes jokes or sometimes misses certain more implied aspects of conversation, he supposes that it was an unintentional thing.

Chu Wanning huffs indignantly in response to his giggling and crouches to pick up the cat. She happily allows herself to be scooped up from where she was basking in the sunlight. Thankfully, after around a month of forced proximity with Mo Ran, Bai Mao had given up on her habit of scurrying out of whatever room he entered.

It benefits both Mo Ran and Chu Wanning because now Chu Wanning can carry her around when Mo Ran was in the room without her scrambling out of his arms, and Mo Ran gets to witness one of the most adorable sights he has ever seen.

Sadly, Bai Mao still won’t allow Mo Ran to pet her or really be within three meters of her without Chu Wanning supervising their interactions. Chu Wanning had started using that to his advantage though. Now he was carrying an increasingly antagonistic Bai Mao towards Mo Ran before unceremoniously, and gently of course, dumping her into his arms in retaliation for being laughed at.

Of course, Bai Mao squirms a little and bites Mo Ran like she did when he first grabbed him. This time, it was slightly worse due to her having a larger mouth and sharper teeth, given how fast she was growing. The proper nutrition she had been receiving under Chu Wanning’s careful doting definitely doesn’t help Mo Ran’s finger either.

Fortunately, Chu Wanning is kind to his furbaby and quickly retrieved her so she couldn't get too upset. As Chu Wanning retreats a little to let her chill out, she gives Mo Ran a glare that he could not describe other than being Chu Wanning. He still finds it amusing how right he was about them being similar by just glancing at the cat that very first time he laid his eyes on her.

Mo Ran is glad that their seemingly shared, mind you very large, brain cell has allowed Chu Wanning to properly read his furry child. He is fully confident that, even within such a short time, Chu Wanning can sense when Bai Mao was actually upset. So he doesn’t feel too worried about Bai Mao being in actual distress when Chu Wanning uses her as an attack dog. Well, attack cat, if you want to get technical.

Mo Ran watches in increasing amusement as Chu Wanning tries to subtly compensate the poor baby for her good work with kisses all over her itty bitty face. He wishes Chu Wanning wouldn’t feel like he needs to hide his affection for the cat like it was some sort of weakness. It is absolutely adorable to see Chu Wanning expressing his love for Bai Mao, so there were no real complaints from Mo Ran even if he has to look a little harder to see it.

Chu Wanning breaks Mo Ran out of his thoughts, or, if we’re being realistic, swooning, with a brisk nod before exiting the room with Bai Mao still cradled in his arms.

—

Speaking of carrying Bai Mao, Mo Ran notices that Chu Wanning had somehow trained her to allow him to just scoop her up from whatever she was doing and just hold her. He has never seen her resist A-Ning’s welcoming arms which is honestly just another shock given how rare it was for cats to enjoy being held.

This love of being held that is displayed by Bai Mao seems to be mutually beneficial because Mo Ran has observed that Chu Wanning seems equally happy to be able to hold her at any time, anywhere.

One instance of this beautiful symbiotic relationship is a day when Mo Ran has forced Chu Wanning to stop being his typical moody teenager self and leave his room to drink some tea with Mo Ran. They do say that socializing cats was a good thing, no matter the life stage after all.

(Mo Ran has also noticed that Bai Mao has taken up the habit of spending a lot of her day with Chu Wanning in his room and sleeping there most nights too.)

While they were sitting at the table, Mo Ran caught a glimpse of Bai Mao entering the room out of the corner of his eye. It seems forcing one of his cats to leave their little cave has lured the other out.

Within seconds of entering the room, she spies Chu Wanning sitting at the table and starts rubbing against his leg affectionately. Obviously, like the good pet parent he is, Chu Wanning abandons the tea he is sipping to scoop up the cat who is silently requesting (demanding) uppies, for her short legs cannot propel her enough to get onto the table from the ground.

Mo Ran thinks back to when he witnessed her first and last attempt of getting up on the table to investigate what Chu Wanning was doing several weeks prior just after her arrival. She had jumped, bonked her poor little head on the edge of the table and promptly scampered out of the room.

It had taken several days of reintroduction to the table to reassure her that it was safe.

Now she relies on Chu Wanning to lift her places she can not reach so she could see what everyone is doing at all times. Of course, Chu Wanning eagerly obliges like all the times he had before, setting her gently on the table and giving her a little kiss on the head before releasing her to sniff around.

If you ask Mo Ran, he would say there’s nothing cuter than how A-Ning never failed to spoil his baby with love and kisses. At this time though, Mo Ran hadn’t realized that this was one of the quirks of Chu Wanning that just reinforced the ever growing adoration he felt and still feels for his sweet disciple.

Mo Ran watches silently as Bai Mao prances around the table before inevitably trying to stick her head into the cup of tea that sat before Chu Wanning. Though Chu Wanning endlessly indulges her, he gently redirects her from the beverage by lifting her onto his lap.

When she first arrived, like a responsible owner, Chu Wanning had researched everything cat. Including allergies. Mo Ran, of course, does not know any of this due to Chu Wanning's very reserved nature so he commented on the blatant denial of Bai Mao’s curiosity.

“I’ve never seen you stop her from doing anything before,” he says with a teasing grin. “I didn’t think it was possible.”

“It’s green tea. The caffeine content of it can cause severe allergic reactions in cats,” Chu Wanning replies like it was the most obvious thing ever. Like he can’t fathom not knowing every single thing a beloved pet could have a negative reaction to. He seems to severely overestimate how much Mo Ran actually likes the cat.

Mo Ran contemplates this revelation for a moment before performing what we like to call a pro gamer move.

“Hm… That’s really interesting. I haven’t done much reading on the allergies of cats. Would you care to enlighten me on some?”

Mo Ran doesn’t care much about the possible foods Bai Mao can react to, but if getting lectured by A-Ning means getting some attention from him, then it was surely worth it in the long run. Plus, the phrasing of his statement might help him wiggle out of the scolding he was going to receive for putting no time into learning how to properly care for a cat. After all, it sort of implies that he’s done some prior reading about the cat.

“Fine. Some foods that have negative effects on a cat’s body that aren’t always necessarily fatal are onions, garlic, chives, leeks, grapes, raisings…”

At that point, Mo Ran kind of just tunes out the actual words Chu Wanning was reciting to simply enjoy the way his voice sounds when he was mildly peeved with Mo Ran for not knowing something that he ought to. He won’t admit that he likes to annoy his disciple a little every now and then just to get to see the annoyance on his face when he tries to explain something to Mo Ran but he totally did.

He can’t think of anyone who would have been a more suitable owner than Red Lotus Pavilion’s own Chu Wanning. Mo Ran knows he made the right choice when he brought the cat back to Shisheng Peak.

—-

After many long, hard months of trying to win Bai Mao over, Mo Ran’s done it. He has come up with a permanent solution to get the ever resistant cat to love him.

In his mind, winning over the cat means winning over her owner as well. Thankfully, he knows just the thing that will guarantee her love.

Well, not really. But he is taking his best guess with his prior knowledge of dogs and the likes. The best way to an animal's heart was through its stomach.

In an attempt to get the ever petulant Bai Mao’s affection, Mo Ran has been trying to subtly sneak her scraps of food left over from his meals. Sometimes, he even goes out of his way to bring a plain piece of meat back to her from meals in Mengpo Hall.

Mo Ran has observed that not only was she like Chu Wanning in appearance and temperament but also in her taste in food. That is, for the most part.

Bai Mao always seems to gravitate towards the more plain meat he brought for her, while the spicy options he had offered her on occasion barely got a sniff before she walked away. The only big difference in her and Chu Wanning’s taste is their takes on sweets.

She never seems particularly receptive to them the few times he had tried them with her. At one point, after Chu Wanning had caught him in the act of trying to bribe the cat, he had explained that cats lacked the taste receptors to be able to taste sugar due to genetic mutation caused by their largely carnivorous diets.

Mo Ran hasn’t been able to tell if his method was working so far, but recently, Bai Mao has allowed him to give her the occasional scratch on the head or meows at him for food. The first time she talked to him, he was a little surprised since she originally seemed like a very quiet cat (besides when she was first kidnapped).

Only recently had she started talking more in his presence, something that Chu Wanning encouraged. Apparently, according to him, Bai Mao could be quite the talker when she wanted something, so her being comfortable enough to demand things from Mo Ran was an improvement. Mo Ran is finally getting a glimpse of this more talkative side of both his cats and he was really enjoying it.

Bai Mao’s increasingly talkative nature has brought its own benefits and drawbacks.

One such benefit is that Chu Wanning would usually talk back. If she meowed at him, he would meow right on back. Sometimes, Mo Ran would enter a room and just hear a stream of meows back and forth. After so many months of this behavior from Chu Wanning, he has honestly gotten pretty good at doing realistic meows.

But the downsides of Bai Mao’s constant demanding meows is that Chu Wanning was always aware when Mo Ran folds.

The first time it happened, Mo Ran had brought some food back to Red Lotus Pavilion. Predictably, Bai Mao sniffed it out and came demanding her cat tax. When he finally gave in to her incessant demands, Chu Wanning’s voice came from the other room, growing increasingly close as he spoke.

“What did you give her?”

That was the moment Mo Ran knew. He fucked up.

Somehow, miraculously, Chu Wanning heard Bai Mao yelling for food and, knowing his cat well, knew exactly what happened the second she went silent. No, she did not lose interest nor was she deterred. She had gotten exactly what she wanted.

When Chu Wanning finally made his way through the residence to where they were, Mo Ran noted that he didn’t look mad per se but definitely skeptical. A shame he (rightfully) didn’t trust Mo Ran to feed his precious daughter foods that were safe for her consumption.

“Jeez, you got here fast… but have a little faith. It’s just a little rice.”

Chu Wanning looks like he had something to say about that so Mo Ran adds.

“Unseasoned and untouched by sauce of any kind.”

He has endured enough lectures about how dangerous a majority of sauces were to Bai Mao’s weak stomach due to most containing onions, garlic, and high amounts of salt. Sometimes Mo Ran feels more like Chu Wanning’s disciple than he does his shizun.

“Good.”

That was all Mo Ran gets from him before he snatches up his fur baby and leaves the room with her tucked safely in his arms.

From that moment forward, Mo Ran resolves to always get permission from Chu Wanning to feed the kitten something so as to not suffer the interrogation that he was put through the first time. Of course, interrogation was a strong word for the singular question asked but who could blame him, under the intense gaze of Chu Wanning, it sure felt like it.

Obtaining permission wasn’t always convenient but given Bai Mao leaving the room would typically draw Chu Wanning with her, it doesn’t usually take long for him to arrive on the scene. Before Mo Ran could give in and feed her something he shouldn’t, at least.

—

Similarly to this previously mentioned new meowing thing the cat had brought about, her adoption has exemplified, or at least helps Mo Ran notice some other things Chu Wanning does.

To be very general, despite Chu Wanning’s very composed and calm nature, he seems to have a very hard time sitting completely still most of the time. Of course, in public, he appears to have trained himself to restrain any and all nervous or otherwise habits, but occasionally when Chu Wanning tolerates spending prolonged periods of time with just Mo Ran, he gets to see some of them.

Maybe Mo Ran was just never attentive enough to catch them or maybe Chu Wanning just never felt comfortable enough with him to show them, but now, the more Mo Ran notices, the more guilty he felt for not doing so in their past life.

The most common of these mannerisms is repetitive behaviors. Sometimes it is just Chu Wanning snapping quietly, which most of the time was done with his left hand from Mo Ran’s observations. Sometimes it was tapping his legs from right to left, back and forth.

The most minute of them though, and the one that took Mo Ran the longest to notice, was probably how Chu Wanning tensed the muscles in his calves or thighs at a steady rhythm. He has only noticed this a few times before due to the length of Chu Wanning’s robes and his overall propriety. So the few times he’s managed to lay eyes upon his disciple’s bare legs (which Mo Ran totally doesn’t fantasize about like a Victorian man thinks of a woman’s ankle), has he noticed this.

Some less consistent ones were still repetitive but they definitely only happened occasionally. These were mostly just tapping rhythms on tables or on the floor when he was sitting down. The rhythm seems to be more dependent on Chu Wanning’s mood than anything. As far as Mo Ran had seen, they don’t repeat as often as the other ones.

The least consistent of these idiosyncrasies though, was probably how he likes to repeat words. Mo Ran only has seen it rarely during this life and as far as he could recall, never in his past one. He doesn’t feel as bad about never noticing this one prior because it feels like something that was kind of hard to miss, so as far as he was concerned, it never happened in his presence.

Though these instances have been few and far between, Mo Ran could confidently say that there had been some that had been his favorites. One of these was a time when Chu Wanning was doing his typical meowing thing with Bai Mao but continued to repeat the word ‘meow’ under his breath in a monotone voice long after Bai Mao had quieted down. Another day when he was doing his adorable pointing thing, Mo Ran swore he heard him murmuring ‘cat’ repeatedly under his breath even when he had gone to pick up his furbaby.

All of the times Mo Ran has seen, or more accurately heard, Chu Wanning doing this, it’s been when Chu Wanning thought he didn't have anyone’s attention on him. Mo Ran hopes to one day gain enough trust from his disciple for him to feel comfortable displaying all his quirks around him.

There are only two habits that Mo Ran had noticed that he dislikes.

The first one is the way that Chu Wanning seems to incessantly pick at the skin around his nails until the skin around the tips of his fingers are raw. In a similar vein, Mo Ran has noticed that after cutting his nails, Chu Wanning picks less frequently, but his fingertips seem more sensitive, like he cut the skin around his nails as well.

Not only is it pretty surprising initially that someone who cares so little for themself would trim their nails religiously but it also seems, in Mo Ran’s opinion, that Chu Wanning likes to do it more frequently than necessary.

Obviously, to understand his A-Ning better and out of some level of concern, Mo Ran inquires about the matter.

The perfect opportunity struck when the pointer finger of Chu Wanning’s right hand started bleeding while he was playing his guqin for Bai Mao in the common area (because obviously the cat must be serenaded). Mid-song he abruptly stopped playing and carefully started wiping the strings.

“Shizun, can you get me some gauze?” Chu Wanning asked. He clearly didn’t want to disturb the cat who was lazily resting against his leg.

Of course, Mo Ran could not deny his wonderful disciple nor did he want Bai Mao to have to move for something someone else could do, so he got a roll of gauze (like the good dog he is). As soon as he returned, he assessed the cut and dressed it carefully.

“So, what happened?” Mo Ran asked tentatively.

“I don’t know. Something like this has only happened once before. I suppose it could be the way I cut my nails,” Chu Wanning informed him with a shrug. He was absentmindedly stroking Bai Mao’s fuzzy head with his free hand.

“How so?”

“Well… I cut the skin around my nails when I cut them,” he admitted hesitantly, almost as if he were embarrassed of what he was doing.

“And why is that?” Mo Ran prompted when he refused to continue along that train of thought. He finished wrapping the small cut that had supposedly torn open and let go of Chu Wanning’s hand. He had been careful to bandage it in a way that would allow him to continue playing with ease.

Chu Wanning continued to be uncharacteristically hesitant with his answers. He answered the question after pausing to consider the phrasing. “I dislike the feeling of dry or hardened skin around my nails. I cut those parts off my fingers rather than pick them off because it causes less long-term discomfort and damage to my fingers overall.”

“Okay. Just make sure you’re careful so you don’t make yourself bleed again,” Mo Ran replied, stating the obvious. Though Mo Ran knew he really should discourage his disciple from purposefully doing things that harm himself, whether that was the purpose of them or not, he didn’t. He didn’t want to say anything that would make Chu Wanning less likely to tell him things like that in the future.

After that, Mo Ran tried to be more conscious about Chu Wanning’s hands, even if it was a little creepy. He took almost any opportunity that presented itself to ‘subtly’ check the state of his precious disciples fingertips. Even if it sometimes meant causing his poor A-Ning to flush red and stutter indignantly from the embarrassment of having his hands captured in Mo Ran’s larger ones.

The other habit that Mo Ran isn’t too fond of is one he is still hypothesising about, one that he has a hard time explaining. It’s the way Chu Wanning sits. Or, more accurately, the ways.

Mo Ran doesn’t want to be picky or police his disciple about the way he sits but the longer he observes him, the more he can tell that it isn’t a particularly comfortable position for him. Now, how can he prove this? He can’t. But he often notices that when Chu Wanning is relaxing away from the prying eyes of his peers, he doesn’t seem… well, relaxed. Though his posture in private is far different from his usual straight-backed manner, he seems to be constantly tense.

He often appears to be sitting in positions that don’t seem all too comfortable. The longer Mo Ran observes him sitting like that, the more he notices him shifting back and forth like he is in a state of discomfort. The thing that solidified this belief in Mo Ran’s mind was how after a long while of watching Chu Wanning shift around, he saw a small flash of surprise on Chu Wanning’s face before he changed his entire posture.

Sometimes, he even ‘catches’ Chu Wanning rubbing the ankle he was sitting back on or the wrist he was using to bear his weight once he had moved into a more comfortable position.

Mo Ran is sure that Chu Wanning doesn’t put himself into a state of discomfort on purpose, but it still made him a little sad to see him antsy and in a stiff state, no matter how mild.

But since everything goes back to the cat, this topic must as well. She seems to take great joy in sitting atop Chu Wanning’s lap when he is sitting in an unconventional way, and when he starts getting uncomfortable, she just refuses to move. Of course, Chu Wanning doesn’t want to move because he loves her a lot. So he just has to suffer until she eventually gets bored of tormenting him. That’s cats for you.

Sometimes, when Mo Ran judges that this madness has gone on for too long, he takes a gamble and snatches Bai Mao up. The gamble is what Mo Ran likes to call ‘will my hands get demolished by a flurry of claws and teeth or is the little angel relaxed enough to get scooped without having to risk life and limb to save his A-Ning from tingly limbs’ (the name was a bit of a work in progress).

Chu Wanning does not seem to appreciate having his cat snatched though. He’s never said anything about it but Mo Ran can tell from the look in his eye that he’d rather be uncomfortable than surrender his baby to the clutches of his villainous shizun. Anything for that silly cat Mo Ran supposes.

—

Now that most of the simping over literally everything Chu Wanning does is out of Mo Ran’s system, we can get back to the cat.

Not only does Chu Wanning have some silly habits, but the cat does too.

Once Bai Mao starts getting talkative, there is no stopping her. If Mo Ran gave her a scratch behind the ear, she would make a cute noise that sounded rather birdlike. If Chu Wanning turned his attention away from a project to give her a kiss, the same sweet bird noise.

Mo Ran has only been able to witness this second example thanks to Bai Mao managing to lure Chu Wanning to hang out in the common areas more often. Supposedly so he can have more time with her and totally not because he feels more at home in the Red Lotus Pavilion.

Another observation Mo Ran has made about both his disciple and cat, from glimpsing their presence in the shared spaces, is that they both have the innate ability to sit down, or flop in the case of Bai Mao, and look like they’ve been there for hours.

He has seen with his own two eyes that Bai Mao struts into a room, chooses a random spot on the floor, flops down, and somehow seems like she hadn’t moved for a considerable period of time. She just rolls onto her back, exposes her large, fluffy belly to absorb sunlight as if she was recharging like one of Chu Wanning’s many devices, and stays there until she inevitably is startled by a loud noise.

The same goes for Chu Wanning, in consideration to both being startled by loud noises and being able to get absorbed in his own world anywhere. Sometimes while Mo Ran is cleaning the house or doing other miscellaneous housework, Chu Wanning comes into the room or one of the adjacent rooms, sits down, and in mere seconds gets so engrossed in something that it seemed like he’d been doing it since before Mo Ran got there.

Mo Ran likes to theorize that he is able to do this as a defense mechanism to prevent people from bothering him. Like he is trying to make others feel bad for interrupting him when he looks so deep in whatever he is doing. The potential motive for this behavior is to avoid talking to others at all costs.

Similarly, both owner and cat are incredibly curious when you watch them closely enough. Well, if you watch Chu Wanning closely enough. It is very easy to tell when Bai Mao is curious about something.

Bai Mao seems particularly inquisitive about the water that is populated by red lotuses which give Red Lotus Pavilion its name. Though her curiosity is quite cute, it led to a single yet incredibly catastrophic event that thankfully Mo Ran was able to bear witness to.

It was a nice warm day right before the Duanwu Festival and Chu Wanning decided it was a good idea to let Bai Mao explore a little bit of the exterior of the Red Lotus Pavilion. In her prior exploits to the world outside of the pavilion, she had stayed near the house and soon she became trusted enough to roam with supervision.

Of course, Chu Wanning still set up a little barrier around the area she was permitted to explore and checked over her collar a few times to make sure it was fully operational before letting her have free rein of the porch. It wasn’t enough though.

Mo Ran had come outside to give him some red bean paste zongzi, per the traditions of the Duanwu Festival, just in time to witness the catastrophe that was about to occur in a matter of moments. He had made sure to open the door loud enough for Chu Wanning to be aware of his presence before setting down the zongzi next to where he was sitting and watching Bai Mao.

Chu Wanning murmured a quiet thanks and patted the spot next to him to indicate that Mo Ran was permitted to join him. Obviously, Mo Ran would never give up a chance to spend some quality time with his disciple since most of the time Chu Wanning was absorbed in personal projects and his fur child outside of the very limited training Mo Ran was able to give him. He sat down and turned his attention to Bai Mao as well.

She was seemingly very interested in the water that surrounded the pavilion and was sniffing around the now scentless lotuses that would soon be releasing their fragrant aroma when they started blooming. Her little neck wasn’t long enough to reach the lotus before her so she had to stretch a little to properly bite it.

Chu Wanning, in his eternally overprotective nature, got up with an exasperated sigh to try to remove the bits of lotus flower that she was chewing. He reached down to pick her up like he did almost every day but when his hand brushed Bai Mao’s back, she startled.

Startled so hard that she slipped into the water, since her balance had already been compromised by the stretching. The collar specifically meant to protect her couldn’t do anything to save her.

Chu Wanning’s demeanor immediately shifted from mildly amused at her antics to utterly distressed. All Mo Ran could do was watch in slow motion as Bai Mao tried desperately to stay afloat in the water. Chu Wanning immediately scrambled onto his knees to hoist her back out of the pond.

When she was safely in his arms, Chu Wanning just sat there with his back to Mo Ran with Bai Mao clutched to his chest like he was afraid she would disappear. He could see that his disciple’s shoulders were trembling a little from the adrenaline that the fear of Bai Mao drowning provided. The fear that he was about to lose one of the only people, or animals in this case, that actually loved him.

Mo Ran felt lost at that moment. He couldn’t do anything to help Bai Mao or Chu Wanning. Even though the event had only lasted a matter of seconds, he knew that Bai Mao was beyond traumatized. This was her first experience with large amounts of water and it had been a horrible one.

Mo Ran also (correctly) predicted that Chu Wanning wasn’t going to let her outside of the house for a while after this just in case something similar were to occur. He was nearly positive that Chu Wanning knew that Bai Mao wasn’t in danger of actually drowning considering her humans were so nearby and the water is pretty shallow.

But any event that threatens a loved one’s life could very easily shake up the people around them. Chu Wanning was especially susceptible to being shaken by something like this, considering how young he is, no matter how much he experienced before coming to Shisheng.

The only thing Mo Ran could think to do was go inside and get a towel to dry the cat off. So he did.

When he returned, Chu Wanning was still seated where he had been previously, quietly whispering to Bai Mao and giving her kisses on the head to calm her down. Mo Ran just set the towel down next to him without a word to let Chu Wanning have a moment to himself with the cat.

He didn’t want to impose upon this moment they were having because he was absolutely certain that they were both shaken up. Mo Ran still couldn’t resist giving Chu Wanning a gentle pat on the shoulder just to let him know that he was there to help, whether that meant pampering Bai Mao as an apology for their negligence or trying to reintroduce her to water properly.

Chu Wanning ignored him in favor of standing up to take the shivering kitten inside. Mo Ran followed him after grabbing the towel from the ground, which he handed to Chu Wanning after he had settled somewhere more convenient and not by the water so he could safely dry Bai Mao off.

He took the towel and started patting her down with a little appreciative nod in Mo Ran’s direction. He hadn’t looked Mo Ran in the eye since Bai Mao slipped, which wasn’t a long time ago to be fair, but he hadn’t when he was given the towel or when he had gotten up from where he was originally seated. It was almost like he couldn’t bear having to look Mo Ran in the eye when he was so vulnerable. So shaken up.

Mo Ran took it as his queue to leave the two alone. He went back outside to collect the food that was long forgotten by Chu Wanning at this point and brought it back to the kitchen in case Chu Wanning wanted to eat it later, after he and Bai Mao fully calmed down.

After that day, they never really talked about it, though Chu Wanning still tried to get the cat to be more accepting of water. His sheer determination alone seemed to be enough to get her to be at least a little less freaked out around it.

Despite her accident, Bai Mao still often fell back into her curious ways, she was a lot more cautious when she was exploring new things. Rather than diving head first into everything, she looks up at Chu Wanning and meows to see if everything is alright before deciding to sniff around or eat something new.

A few years after ‘the incident’ as Mo Ran likes to call it in his mind, he actually notices Bai Mao’s curiosity about water returning little by little.

Following her initial reintroduction to the wet substance that she feared so, she has become more open to being around it. Chu Wanning has told him that she really likes watching the rain, from the safety of indoors of course.

Her interest in rain had also seemingly transferred to Chu Wanning as well.

Several times, Mo Ran has gone to Chu Wanning’s room to get him for dinner and seen them watching the rain together.

Today is a good example of that. He knocks on the door to alert his disciple that he is coming in and opens it since he doesn’t hear any yelling about staying out or anything similar. He obviously values his disciple’s privacy and all but he wouldn’t really mind if he walked in on Chu Wanning doing typical ‘teenage boy things’.

It had never happened before but let a man dream. A pervy, slightly creepy dream but a dream nonetheless.

When he fully opens the door, rather than being met with the sight of Chu Wanning reading or working on something or playing with Bai Mao, he is seated by the window with her on his lap. They are both just staring into the downpour, looking perfectly content just getting to see nature at work.

Mo Ran watches them for a minute before interrupting the sweet moment that was occurring before his eyes with a quiet cough to alert them of his presence.

“It’s almost time for dinner, A-Ning.”

“Mh. Give me a moment.”

Chu Wanning remains staring out the window for a moment longer before gently shooing Bai Mao off his lap. She meows indignantly and headbutts his leg in retaliation for so rudely moving her from her spot. She stomps over to Mo Ran surprisingly loudly for a five kilogram cat and headbutts him too.

Somehow, she always seems to know that anything she doesn’t like is Mo Ran’s fault.

Mo Ran steps aside to allow Bai Mao out of the room since it is just about time for her feeder to supply her meal. He follows her towards the front of the abode once he sees that Chu Wanning has gotten up and crossed the room to follow them out.

They left together for dinner after Chu Wanning had confirmed that Bai Mao had received her dinner.

Mo Ran loves rain to this day because it has always given him an excuse to get closer to Chu Wanning under an umbrella.

That night they had also huddled under the umbrella together and shared an uneventful dinner in Mengpo Hall. It was something Mo Ran had continuously made an effort to do following his revelations about Chu Wanning from so long ago.

—

Finally, after years of shameless flirting and shameful nights spent getting off to his disciple, Mo Ran had finally confessed. And he had actually reciprocated his feelings.

Mo Ran’s life was going absolutely wonderfully considering the five years without Chu Wanning he had suffered through. He has a wonderful, amazing, gorgeous, sweet boyfriend and an adorable little cat. The perfect little family.

Except for one thing.

The first night that he and Chu Wanning had agreed to make love in their own home, it happened.

Things were just getting hot and heavy, spectacular. They had just made their way into the bedroom that had served as only Mo Ran’s up until recently (since Chu Wanning refuses to defile his own) and there she is. Bai Mao.

She is just staring at them from where she’s curled up on the large bed. Chu Wanning was the first to notice her and he immediately pushes Mo Ran off of him. Of course, Mo Ran isn’t too put off by this until he also notices Bai Mao laying smack dab in the middle of the bed.

The bed that they were about to use for less than cat-friendly things.

He can’t believe that his number one wingman would betray him like this. She was blatantly cockblocking him at such a crucial moment in their relationship. The worst part is that she doesn’t even like to hang out in Mo Ran’s room unless Chu Wanning is in there with him.

So why did she choose specifically tonight to get in their way? It’s almost like she knew exactly what she was doing when she chose there to be her napping spot.

Chu Wanning grabs Bai Mao and gently places her outside the room because he doesn’t want to traumatize the poor baby. She’s seen enough for today, after all, and she looks thoroughly disturbed by the little bit of the physical aspect of their relationship that she witnessed.

Now that they have removed the problem from the room, they obviously try to get back to where they were because the show must go on. But as soon as Chu Wanning had started feeling it again, Bai Mao started scratching at the door. That damned cat.

Ye Wangxi was definitely getting promoted to Mo Ran’s most trusted wingman after today.

Bai Mao is ruining the moment yet again because she has gotten so utterly and thoroughly spoiled by her dad. She always gets to go wherever she wants in the house and the moment she doesn’t, she starts taking it out on Mo Ran’s sanity (and dick).

Now the mood was officially ruined. Yay!

Chu Wanning seems nearly as exasperated as Mo Ran feels. He lets out a little sigh and opens the door to allow Bai Mao back into the room, ignoring the disheveled state of his clothing and hair in favor of letting her have her way. She prances back into the room with the smuggest look on her face and flops back down where she had been laying prior to her temporary eviction.

Safe to say that they did not continue after that nor did they ever go any further than some very light making out at the Red Lotus Pavilion after that day.

According to Chu Wanning, the day after the incident, “We cannot traumatize my daughter.”

“But-”

“No, we are not… having sex here.”

The last part came out as an embarrassed mumble through gritted teeth. Chu Wanning has still not adapted to using such “vulgar” language despite now being in his twenties. Mo Ran laughs quietly. He takes both of Chu Wanning’s hands in his own and kisses them gently just to fluster him a little more since he looks so cute, all flushed and embarrassed.

“Fine, fine. Whatever you want, Wanning. But you seem to be forgetting that she’s my daughter too now,” Mo Ran jokes. Chu Wanning snatches his hands away huffily.

“No. She’s mine, not yours,” he insists stubbornly just to spite Mo Ran.

This man was going to be the death of him. Chu Wanning’s just so cute when he’s annoyed that Mo Ran could drop dead any day now from heart palpitations because of his beautiful boyfriend.

—

As much as Bai Mao likes to ruin Mo Ran’s sex life, she also enjoys bringing things from her exploits in the real world to Chu Wanning.

Eventually, years after ‘the incident’, Chu Wanning finally started letting her explore the outdoors alone, unsupervised. Bai Mao obviously loves this new part of her life since it means she gets to indulge her wild instincts on the regular.

One of these instincts is obviously hunting. Though she has gotten exercise when Chu Wanning plays with her using toys that he made specifically for her, she seems to enjoy hunting a whole lot more. Her new interest in hunting means that she’s lost some of the weight that she gained from her time cooped up in the house. But it also means that Chu Wanning is often presented with souvenirs from her hunts.

Often this means small things like tree sparrows or small lizards that live around their home. Of course Chu Wanning always gives Bai Mao pets and love as a thanks for the ‘food’ but he always forces Mo Ran to put it in the trash once she’s no longer paying attention to it. Mo Ran always complies after making fun of Chu Wanning for being prissy.

Chu Wanning, being all-knowing on all things cats, likes to complain about being presented with wild animals.

One day, after he’s brought with a small mouse, he grumbles to Mo Ran. “She must think I don't know how to hunt for myself. You know, cats bring their young dead animals to teach them the mechanics of hunting.”

“Maybe she just wants to provide for you,” Mo Ran suggests in an attempt to comfort him. He carefully picks up the mouse from where it’s been deposited on the floor and throws it away once Bai Mao is distracted by Chu Wanning.

“I am aware, but she never brings you anything. Therefore she must think I cannot provide for myself while you can,” he pouts. Mo Ran is so enamoured by this man that he just has to kiss that adorable pout off his face.

“I think she’s just concerned that you can barely cook yourself anything. Also, she just doesn’t love me as much as you.”

Bai Mao makes a little noise in agreement from where she’s snuggled in Chu Wanning’s arms. Her siding against him only makes Chu Wanning glare at Mo Ran like it’s his fault.

“You’re the one who insists on cooking for me all the time, I just never had a chance to learn,” Chu Wanning states, kissing the top of Bai Mao’s head in annoyance. Though his message gets across, he looks far too cute for Mo Ran to take him seriously.

Again, since Mo Ran loves taking advantage of his boyfriend privileges, he kisses Chu Wanning the way he does the cat. Just a few quick little pecks on the top of his head to convey how much he loves simply getting to have these sweet conversations with his Wanning.

“I know, I’m just teasing. I’m sure she’d bring me stuff too if you’d share your baby,” Mo Ran suggests. He carefully wraps his arms around Chu Wanning’s waist, careful not to squish Bai Mao, who remains purring contentedly between them.

“Ha ha, not happening.”

Chu Wanning doesn’t even give Mo Ran the honor of hearing his laughter, instead simply saying the words ‘ha ha’. He knows damn well how much Mo Ran enjoys his laugh so he obviously chooses violence and deprives his boyfriend of the beautiful sound.

Mo Ran just pouts at how he’s being denied the dopamine that he gets from Chu Wanning’s tittering. He buries his head in the crook of Chu Wanning’s neck to sulk, pressing a few light kisses there just to fluster him a little as revenge.

“I bet Bai Mao would love it if she could spend more time with me…” Mo Ran grumbles. He carefully removes one of his hands from Chu Wanning’s waist to give Bai Mao scratches in hopes of winning her over. She grabs his hand almost immediately and starts chewing on one of his fingers.

“If you insist,” Chu Wanning replies, amusement seeping into his voice. He maneuvers one of his hands to free Mo Ran’s finger from the jaws of the fearsome cat that is gnawing on it.

—

Bai Mao’s exploits eventually bring something particularly interesting home one day.

It’s mid-spring, right around Mo Ran’s birthday, and like any other day, Bai Mao comes prancing home with something in her jaws. Chu Wanning gets up from where he’s seated, working on a project, to go greet his baby and see what she’s brought with her. Mo Ran obviously trails him since he knows he’ll be required to dispose of the corpse.

As they approach, Chu Wanning sees the thing in her mouth squirming weakly.

“She must have brought us something alive this time,” he comments to Mo Ran with a little grimace. A live animal being brought back usually means that Bai Mao will inevitably drop it on Chu Wanning’s shoes, which isn’t a particularly pleasant experience for anyone.

Chu Wanning always freaks out a little when a live animal is placed on him, the poor thing ends up getting kicked away, and Bai Mao sulks at being rejected. So no one wins.

The closer they get to the fluffy cat, the more obvious it gets that she’s caught something quite large.

“Oh my god, she kidnapped a puppy,” Mo Ran comments in surprise.

Now that they’re close enough, they can see that Bai Mao is struggling to carry the puppy. It looks around the same age as Bai Mao when she was adopted and appears extremely skinny. Great, it seems like they soon will have another orphaned animal under their care.

When they finally reach her, Chu Wanning doesn’t even let her drop the puppy for him to inspect. He just gently pries it from her jaws since puppies aren’t exactly meant to be carried around by their scruffs. He hands it to Mo Ran before scooping up Bai Mao to praise her a little for being good (even if she brought something home that she probably shouldn’t have).

“So what are we going to do with it, Wanning?” Mo Ran asks after a moment. He’s honestly unsure of what he’s supposed to do with the puppy that’s been thrust into his arms. Maybe this is what Chu Wanning felt like when he was first given Bai Mao against his will.

“I believe that we should at least nurse it back to health even if we don’t keep it,” Chu Wanning replies. Though he doesn’t explicitly state it, he’s letting Mo Ran make the decision. If he were firm about not wanting it around, he would definitely let him know so his vague answer leaves room for Mo Ran to decide whether or not they should keep it.

He takes that moment to take a closer look at the puppy. It appears to be a husky around four to five weeks of age. Mo Ran can only guess the breed though since he’s only seen dogs like this traveling with merchants from the colder northeast where a thicker coat is necessary for survival.

In light of the revelation that this puppy probably isn’t even supposed to live this far south naturally, there’s a very small chance that any of its family will be anywhere nearby.

“Hm, well, you don’t exactly share Bai Mao so maybe I need a furry companion of my own. Besides, it’ll be a challenge to even try to find this little guy’s owner, if it has one, so it would be better to just keep it,” Mo Ran decides after a long pause to think it over.

“Okay. What should we name it?”

“I think we should go for something more fun this time, white cat is a little basic. Oh! How about Taxian-jun?” Mo Ran suggests with a laugh. This seems like the perfect opportunity to redeem the name that still haunts him via an adorable little husky puppy taking over its horrible legacy. The little husky looks up at him with watery eyes and tries to stretch up to lick his face.

Chu Wanning just stares at them in mild annoyance and disbelief. It’s almost like he can’t believe that Mo Ran would insult his name choice and suggest something that ridiculous in the same breath. The look on his face honestly just makes him laugh harder which in turn annoys Chu Wanning more

“Really? ‘Lord Who Treads on Immortals’? You’re ridiculous!”

Mo Ran moves to kiss Chu Wanning in an attempt to win him over. He dodges before the kiss is able to land so Mo Ran tries to argue.

"But you named our last pet. It’s my turn!”

“Fine! Taxian-jun it is…” Chu Wanning finally concedes in exasperation. Now that the pets are closer together, they start sniffing each other. Taxian-jun licks Bai Mao and she recoils in disgust that another animal would dare lick her, despite having just carried it in her mouth for who knows how long.

Mo Ran looks down fondly at the tiny husky in his arms and says, “Welcome to our family, Taxian-jun.”

Chapter Text

Taxian-jun has been a part of Chu Wanning’s little family for four months now and, not to be rude to the little thing, has already proven to be quite the problem child in his very short time with them. Though Chu Wanning doesn’t have any siblings or claim to have a grasp on sibling dynamics, he knows that Taxian-jun is the epitome of little brother energy.

In the short time he’s been with them, the husky has grown to a whopping 12 kilograms and compared to their objectively large cat, he is massive. Now, that wouldn’t really be a problem if Taxian-jun didn’t use the fact that he’s more than double the weight of Bai Mao to harass her constantly.

The poor cat hasn’t had a day of rest since she first brought him home.

From day one, Taxian-jun was incredibly interested in everything Bai Mao did (which is probably how he got kidnapped in the first place). While he was first adjusting to the environment, he would just follow the fluffy cat around the entire house and generally making an effort to invade her personal space.

Feeding time? He’s all up in her business. Cuddling with Chu Wanning? He’s messing with her tail or staring up at them longingly like he wanted to join the cuddle. Not a moment of Bai Mao’s day is spent by herself between Chu Wanning’s cat addiction and Taxian-jun’s obvious interest in her. She can’t even be spared when she sleeps because Taxian-jun loves to lay down on top of her, which has presented more and more of an issue with his rapidly increasing size.

The husky’s devotion, so to speak, to his kidnapper turned older sister has even led him to actually learning Bai Mao’s name before his own. During the time period where Mo Ran tried to tame the pup, Taxian-jun would more often reply to a mention of Bai Mao’s name than his own, perking up and looking around.

At first, Chu Wanning found it really sweet that their new dog was getting along with his daughter but now, every time he says her name, Taxian-jun immediately starts looking around for her. Sweet, right? Wrong. Because when he finally locates the original puffball of the house, he immediately approaches her and starts trying to bother and play with her.

It’s nice that he tries to include her in his games but Bai Mao is getting older and spends most of her energy is spent adventuring outdoors. She still always plays with him but it’s usually not enough for the energetic dog.

Unfortunately for Taxian-jun though, he isn’t able to accompany her on her escapades to burn energy since Chu Wanning insists that he doesn’t get to roam free because of his lack of outdoor experience. Chu Wanning worries that he won’t be able to keep himself safe since as far as any of them know, he’s never spent any significant periods outdoors alone.

Of course, Chu Wanning also made the husky a collar to protect him as well and his feeder is coming along but Taxian-jun has proven many a time to be kind of… well to put it nicely, silly. He constantly trips over his own paws and runs into things which gives Chu Wanning very little faith that he’ll be able to survive outside of their care.

Obviously, Mo Ran argued that Taxian-jun should be able to roam like Bai Mao. Obviously, Chu Wanning disagreed.

“Mo Ran, to put it plainly, your dog is clumsy. If we let him out, he’s going to trip over something and crack his skull open on a rock or something in the first five minutes,” Chu Wanning states. The dog in question stares at him with his big, blue, pleading eyes. Chu Wanning glares at his husband and then at the puppy just to emphasize his point.

Taxian-jun tilts his head in confusion as if he doesn’t know why he is being prohibited from roaming outside.

“He’s my dog now? I didn’t know that we were calling him my dog when we’re arguing about him,” the older man replies with a chuckle. That only makes Chu Wanning glare harder because he knows that at any moment, Mo Ran is going to pull something underhanded to try to win him over.

Just as he predicted, Mo Ran immediately puts his arms around Chu Wanning's waist and gives him a peck on the cheek. Chu Wanning resolves that he will not give in to his lover’s ‘subtle’ attempts at bribery so he continues on bargaining without trying to mind how beautiful Mo Ran looks so close up. He’s never going to get used to this level of intimacy, is he?

“Yes, he is. Maybe we can reconsider when he’s more mature but for now, he will only be taking supervised trips outside. That’s better compared to what Bai Mao got when she was his age.”

“Well, if he’s mine when we’re arguing, that means I have executive power over this decision,” Mo Ran reasons with a smug look on his face that Chu Wanning absolutely despises. Well, he only despises it during arguments since it makes him want to kiss him so badly that it’s not even funny.

Chu Wanning just huffs at him quietly in lieu of actually making a rebuttal. He knows that Mo Ran won’t actually go against him over something like this, he’s just messing with Chu Wanning for the fun of it. If he’s going to mess with him, he doesn’t deserve a proper answer.

Mo Ran, seeming to notice that Chu Wanning has caught on, returns to the point at hand. “Fine. He can experience nature under supervision. He’s just going to be so disappointed that he can’t follow his sister everywhere, we shouldn’t tease him like this.”

“He’ll have to deal with it, I’m sure it won’t pose too much of a problem.”

Chu Wanning can see in Mo Ran’s face that he’s realized that he isn’t winning this one so that’s where the discussion ends for now. He releases Chu Wanning and bends down to pet Taxian-jun.

“Sorry, little guy… I don’t think your dad is going to budge on this one,” he stage whispers to the puppy, who just looks incredibly confused about being directly addressed. Chu Wanning gently smacks the back of his head in a warning that he won’t get away with any guilt tripping today.

Chu Wanning does feel a little bad for restricting the husky so much but he knows it’s for the best. Bai Mao only gained the privilege of having free reign of her comings and goings because she earned enough trust after… the incident. He supposes that he may still be a little paranoid about the safety of his animals even years later but he’d rather not dwell on that.

“Mo Ran, don’t try to turn him against me,” Chu Wanning jokes with a small smile. He tries to keep up the facade of mild annoyance that their discussion caused but he can’t. Not when they’re both so silly. Maybe this is how Mo Ran feels watching him and Bai Mao interact.

Taxian-jun is truly Mo Ran’s dog.

—

Apparently, Taxian-jun is not Mo Ran’s dog. He’s proven himself to be Chu Wanning’s.

The older he’s gotten, the more protective he is becoming of Chu Wanning. When he was a tiny puppy with a cute little bark it was totally fine, adorable even, but like with how he harasses Bai Mao, becoming bigger has made it far less cute. Sometimes it’s a little funny, but his protectiveness can be incredibly inconvenient at times.

As a little puppy, the way he would yip at Mo Ran whenever he did something that upset or flustered Chu Wanning really helped improve Chu Wanning’s mood most of the time. He would even chuckle a little when Taxian-jun would tug on Mo Ran’s pant leg when he got a little bit too touchy with Chu Wanning for the pup’s liking.

The older he got, the more of a problem he presented. Both of them had expected him to mellow out, but no, of course he only got more and more defensive of his white clad father.

Taxian-jun being bothered by these things in isolation wouldn’t even be that bad if Mo Ran didn’t usually try to calm his lover down by giving him physical affection and words of affirmation. Meaning Taxian-jun gets two things to get upset about when they’re having a heated discussion or when Chu Wanning is in a mood. Oh joy!

One night, when Chu Wanning was already in a pretty foul mood after a number of things went wrong during his day and disturbed his routine, Mo Ran had done god knows what that made him snap at him. First his nails were bothering him throughout the day and now he was mildly annoyed with his wonderful partner, a combination that brings true disaster in their household. Something not even Bai Mao’s cuddles can fix.

Of course, being lovely as always, Mo Ran tried to soothe him by undoing his hair from its style and running a hand through it, alleviating the tension that the style causes when left in too long. Chu Wanning is always eternally grateful that he’s so wonderful to him. He doesn’t know how he managed to get a man who understands him so well to love him.

As soon as Mo Ran had judged that he’d calmed down enough to allow Mo Ran to touch him more, he pulled him closer and started pressing little kisses into his neck and shoulders. He knew all too well what to do to get Chu Wanning back into a more tranquil state and of course he used his knowledge with perfect timing.

But then, Taxian-jun ruined it and started vocalizing his opinion on this. When he was a puppy with a quieter voice, it was always okay but his vocal chords grew with him. Now most of his noises are incredibly loud, from Chu Wanning’s perspective, and honestly, when Chu Wanning is in a mood like this, it’s a little overwhelming.

He immediately started trying to squirm away from Mo Ran. Mo Ran let him. Chu Wanning covered his ears to block out the dog’s protests as he left the room to search for Bai Mao, who went scrambling as soon as Taxian-jun started voicing his thoughts on their closeness. Listening to any more of it would surely make him snap at the puppy.

He was glad at least his cat agreed that the husky was far too loud. He just wished she wouldn’t flee within the blink of an eye because he wouldn't lie to himself, he needed her right now. Chu Wanning wished that Mo Ran could put him at ease more in these situations but it was his job to get Taxian-jun to stop being noisy so he couldn’t contribute anything more to Chu Wanning’s overwhelmed state. He wished that he would stop overreacting to something so little but everything that built up over the day was just making everything suck.

Chu Wanning quickly found Bai Mao huddled in her cat bed that lay near the end of Mo Ran and his bed. She was still tense, as if she were ready to hide again if Taxian-jun kept being loud. Chu Wanning supposed he probably would too.

He immediately grabbed his white fluff ball and flopped down onto his bed with her in his arms. He buried his face in her fur and inhaled to soothe himself. It took a moment for Chu Wanning to realize that his eyes were watering a little. If he didn’t know before, he knew now: he was in a mood. He was overwhelmed and ever so slightly overstimulated.

He didn’t want to remove his face from where he was hiding. Everything was too bright, his clothes were bothering him, and he was getting a headache. Just lying here had brought his discomfort to the forefront of his mind and now he couldn’t stop thinking about how everything was bothering him and how he needed to rip his skin off.

Chu Wanning was so, so glad that Bai Mao is such a sweet, agreeable cat because he knew that a normal cat definitely wouldn’t let him do something like this. He was also glad that his hair was down already since having it styled when he’s developing a headache made everything so much worse.

When Mo Ran finally entered the room to check on him after a while, Chu Wanning forced himself to remove his face from Bai Mao’s soft coat. He squinted a little at the light that was ever so slightly too bright but still met Mo Ran’s gaze. Then let his head fall back down in defeat.

Tonight was probably going to be one of those nights where he hid in their room for a while under the covers until he felt okay enough to function like a normal human.

Mo Ran seemed to understand. He moved towards one of the windows and drew the blinds closed before repeating the same process with all the other windows in the room. Then, he sat down next to Chu Wanning on the bed and started stroking his back methodically.

Chu Wanning closed his eyes again and finally released Bai Mao, who stood up and moved to his side to curl up next to him.

They ultimately spent the rest of their night in the dark room. Chu Wanning eventually gave Mo Ran the go ahead to light a candle and he also eventually agreed to eat something before they went to sleep.

Taxian-jun was allowed into the room once Chu Wanning finally felt like he was one hundred percent okay again to hear any noises the dog may make. Thankfully, nothing else agitated the sensitive dog for the rest of the night, even when Chu Wanning and Mo Ran started properly cuddling.

Luckily, most of the time Taxian-jun’s highly vocal nature doesn’t have such dire consequences. Usually his huffy attitude is met with brief, reassuring head pats or an annoyed eye roll from at least one person he is complaining to.

Now, Chu Wanning knows he’s already stated what gets Taxian-jun so riled up, but there are some specific examples that get flagged by the dog every single time. Chu Wanning doesn’t even want to get into it because, to be frank, it's quite embarrassing to admit that the dog hates when he’s unable to enter a room that one of his dads goes into.

It’s great that Mo Ran is getting included in the husky’s protective nature, but it’s not really too pleasant when they’re trying to say, use the bathroom or get ready to go out… or have sex. Chu Wanning cringes every single time he thinks about it.

Privacy has become practically obsolete in their household.

The inconvenience with these first two scenarios is just because Taxian-jun likes to be nosey and tries to get in everyone's business whenever they’re trying to do anything. The third scenario however, has led to many uncomfortable situations for all the parties involved, other than the clueless husky who was being the problem.

There had been a peaceful six months or so before he had arrived when Bai Mao had gotten used to her parents needing private time. She would just retreat to the furthest corner of the house she could find and let them do their thing.

Sadly, Taxian-jun could not take a play from her book this time. They had tried setting him up in a room far away from the main bedroom with everything he needed to keep himself occupied. They tried waiting until he was asleep. Nothing worked. The dog would start howling as soon as he was left alone for too long or, in cases when they would wait for him to slumber, his sharp ears would pick up the abnormal noises and would wake up to investigate.

So this means that the only times anything can happen in their home that shouldn’t be viewed by the young husky is when he’s having outside time (with Chu Wanning’s barriers set up) or when someone else, namely Xue Meng or Ye Wangxi, is taking care of him for brief periods of time just to give both of them a break from the needy dog.

First the cat interferes with their sex life and now the dog does the same. Chu Wanning’s year is going amazing. He doesn’t want to be ungrateful for his silly pets but he can’t catch a break after finally getting into a relationship with the man he had been crushing on for years.

Well, at least it means a change in scenery during most of their frequent instances of intimacy, there’s no chance it’ll get boring anytime soon.

—

Both animals seem to enjoy making life a whole lot harder for both Mo Ran and Chu Wanning.

When Bai Mao was an only child, she was a lot more chill. She would laze around all day and sleep as much as her heart desired but now she has a playmate that loves to mess with her when she’s trying to keep to herself.

Most of the time when Taxian-jun starts bothering the cat, she takes it upon herself to swipe at him or play wrestle with the large dog. The odds are stacked against her a majority of the time but that doesn’t stop the stubborn little cat from trying her darndest to defend herself against her baby brother.

Honestly, it’s quite enjoyable to watch the two goof around. It makes Bai Mao seem much younger than she is since it’s finally giving her the chances that she didn’t have in her youth to have someone else who will play with her the way her humans can’t. But there have been several times where their little games have brought mild accidents or, if you want to get dramatic like Mo Ran, disasters.

Taxian-jun is a big fan of getting to chase and be chased by Bai Mao. This either means things get knocked over or one of their owners gets woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of pounding footsteps. A majority of the time, they’re Bai Mao’s steps. Despite her lean state, her genetics make her frame very large and her footsteps very loud.

When she jumps from elevated objects onto the ground, it genuinely sounds like a grown man is jumping off a chair. Her simply roaming the halls is sometimes louder than when either Chu Wanning or Mo Ran is walking around, despite the fact that they are many times heavier than her.

Chu Wanning doesn't understand how she manages to catch the prey that she often drags home for his viewing pleasure with all the noise that makes simply moving through a space.

Taxian-jun isn’t much better. Since he’s still pretty young, he hasn’t fully outgrown his clumsy puppy nature. The husky’s running can usually be heard from several rooms away.

Safe to say that their little games of tag aren’t Chu Wanning’s favorite.

If they have one while he’s in a place where he can put down what he’s doing, he usually goes outside to avoid having to hear the animals playing, especially since if given enough time with that game, they start talking to each other. Loudly.

Oh, Chu Wanning misses when he thought that the animals talking to each other was always going to be absolutely adorable and completely harmless. To be fair, their conversations are harmless but they do bother Chu Wanning quite a bit when he’s not having a good day. Back when Bai Mao was the only pet, he would even meow back at her since she didn’t have a friend to converse with.

Well, Taxian-jun’s presence hasn’t actually stopped him from doing that but ever since Mo Ran commented on it, he’s been a little embarrassed to do it in his presence. Of course, he still talks to his cat but he tries to be a little more subtle and shuts up immediately if Mo Ran enters the room despite the fact that he thought it was cute that Chu Wanning did it in the first place.

Even if the meowing has stopped for the most part, Chu Wanning still likes to actually talk to Bai Mao with words and such even if she doesn’t understand. The only time where her not understanding him makes him sad is when she refuses to meow back at him after he tells her that he loves her.

If she doesn’t respond to a few ‘I love you’s, he turns to Mo Ran and complains about how she doesn't love him anymore.

Chu Wanning realizes that he’s gotten off track on his original point. Thankfully, it’s never too late to get back on it.

Unfortunately, the noise definitely isn’t the worst part of the animal’s games. Far too many objects around the house have been broken as collateral damage for the sound to be the thing that disturbs the peace the most. They’ve never managed to destroy something truly important that couldn’t be fixed but it is quite inconvenient to have to mend items every few weeks.

One night, or maybe morning, who knows what time it was when it was still dark outside, both Chu Wanning and Mo Ran were awoken by the sound of something shattering in another room. Then, the sound of pounding feet could be heard running up and down the hallway outside of their room.

The animals were at it again because of course they were. Of course it had to be when it was still dark out when their pets chose to cause chaos in the house.

Chu Wanning would love to go back to sleep but he had to check what broke just to make sure neither of the animals accidentally cut themselves on it or something. He tried to get out of bed but Mo Ran clung to his waist like he didn’t want him to go. Chu Wanning turned to face him with a yawn and patted him on the head like he would Taxian-jun. Mo Ran released him after a moment to get up as well.

“I can handle it on my own, you can go back to sleep,” Chu Wanning informed him. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before fully standing up and heading for the door. He expected Mo Ran to agree with his suggestion since no one really wanted to wake up to see some noisy, trouble-making animals.

Sadly he was wrong. Mo Ran lit a candle to give them a little more light, despite being able to use his spiritual energy to ignite a flame in his palm. It honestly just made everything feel so much more domestic to Chu Wanning.

“Won’t you need someone to herd them into another room while you clean up?” Mo Ran asked the question even though he knew the answer. He knew that Chu Wanning could probably handle it since they’ve done this before many times, but now that Taxian-jun’s separation anxiety had gotten worse, he couldn’t exactly get put in a room without one of his humans to accompany him.

Mo Ran followed Chu Wanning out the door of their bedroom to investigate the broken object by the weak light coming from the flickering candle. They carefully made their way down the hallway in the direction the sound first came from and where they could still hear the animals playing around.

They entered the kitchen to see that one of their decorative bowls patterned with haitang blossoms had been knocked onto the ground. It wasn’t fully shattered into dozens and dozens of pieces but it looked like it was going to be a pain to fix. There were large shards scattered across the floor right in front of where the animals were wrestling with each other.

Bai Mao, seemingly noticing their entrance, removed herself from the tussle and jumped onto one of the counters to get closer to Chu Wanning without having to traverse the porcelain covered floor. She meows at Chu Wanning expectantly once she’s gotten close enough for him to pet her like she didn’t know that she had done something bad. Like she didn’t just break one of their nice decorations.

Chu Wanning still picks her up and gives her a few kisses, despite her transgressions.

Taxian-jun also decided to come say hello to his parents once he had recovered from their scuffling. Sadly, he had a much harder time getting to them, considering he didn’t have the ability to take a route towards them that didn’t involve risking cutting his paws on shards of porcelain.

Mo Ran noticed immediately and set down the candle on a nearby surface. He easily crossed the danger zone without stepping on a single one of the ceramic pieces so the husky didn’t have to risk treading on anything and injuring himself.

Taxian-jun got scooped up in Mo Ran’s arms and he made his way back across the treacherous terrain. Chu Wanning didn’t understand how he made it look so effortless and graceful when he had a 23 kilogram dog weighing him down.

Chu Wanning might be a little biased when he says that Mo Ran looked utterly amazing like this. His hair was mussed from sleep and there were faint bags under his eyes but Chu Wanning couldn’t find the man any hotter. Sleep deprivation may have been setting in if he was thinking like this at that ungodly hour while they were trying to prevent their pets from accidentally hurting themselves or each other.

Once Mo Ran had returned to his side, he kissed Chu Wanning’s cheek with a knowing chuckle like he could almost see the thoughts flowing through his mind. Chu Wanning knew he probably had a look on his face right now but he was so tired that he was not fully in control of his facial features. He most likely had the stupid little lovestruck smile on his face that Mo Ran loved to tease him about every now and then.

Chu Wanning was too exhausted to care so instead of making an attempt at seeming dignified, he just leaned into the affection. He’s careful not to squish either of the animals between them but as always, Taxian-jun took the opportunity to bother his sister. He started licking her as Bai Mao tried to wiggle away.

Chu Wanning supposed that this was their cue to stop being lovey dovey and put the animals in a room so they could clean up. So obviously, he backed away from Mo Ran to head to their bedroom for a swift animal deposition. Hopefully, he would also be able to trick Mo Ran into staying with them so he went back to sleep.

His little ploy didn’t work though. He should have known that it wouldn’t with how annoyingly (and adorably) clingy his husband could get, especially when he was sleepy.

They went back to their room and the animals settled onto the bed with minimal resistance to being carried the whole way, seemingly done with their little midnight burst of energy.

Bai Mao obviously decided to claim a spot smack dab in the middle of the bed as her spot so her owners couldn’t comfortably sleep. If she slept like Chu Wanning preferred, curled up in a ball, it wouldn’t have been too big of an obstacle, but she took after Mo Ran in that field, stretching herself out and taking up as much space as her little body could.

Taxian-jun, however, curled himself around Bai Mao protectively. He also did things like Mo Ran, shielding his white cat from the cold, though in a far less romantic way and in a more of, ‘I have decided to be close to you at all times because I am fascinated by you’ way.

It would be absolutely adorable if not for the fact that between the large, fluffy cat and the long dog, it was incredibly hard to move either of them to the foot of the bed so their humans would have room, especially when they looked so cute together.

Chu Wanning was broken out of his thoughts about his sweet babies when Mo Ran said, “Now that they’re settled, I’ll go clean up the broken dish.”

He tried to slip back out of the room before Chu Wanning could protest. It was almost like he was trying to use Chu Wanning’s typical trick against him. He should have known that when Mo Ran came so willingly instead of dallying to give him more affection that he was also plotting.

Chu Wanning grabbed Mo Ran’s wrist and dragged him back into the room. He forced his husband to sit down on the bed with their pets and crossed his arms just to try to make himself seem more firm. Then, he argued his case for why Mo Ran was the one who should stay with the animals.

“We’ve done this song and dance before, you cleaned up last time, it’s my turn. Let me do something for you for once and go back to sleep. It won’t take me long and we can cuddle when I return.”

He made it straight forward and tried not to leave any room for argument. Mo Ran, however, seemed to have other plans than letting his beloved do anything for himself. He simply wrapped his arms around Chu Wanning’s waist and presented his case, “Or… we could cuddle now and clean up in the morning. The animals won’t be able to endanger themselves if we just keep them in here with us, plus they know how to be careful.”

“Bai Mao is going to throw a fit if we keep her in here a second past her regular feeding time. She knows her schedule and if it’s interrupted, we will have to endure her wrath.”

Both of them grimaced at the reminder of the time they had accidentally trapped her in their room overnight when she was a kitten. Of course, to awaken her owners, she had plopped herself right on Mo Ran’s face. Safe to say that when he jolted awake from the sudden weight on his head, she had scratched up his face.

The cat was truly obsessed with food, to the point that she would even try to steal Taxian-jun’s food when she ran out just for the sake of it. Being a reasonable owner, Chu Wanning added a mechanism to their collars that activated their feeders when they came close to it after the time their food was designated to dispense to prevent the animals from stealing from each other.

This did not fail to deter the cat though. She still attempted to steal from Taxian-jun by sticking her head into his bowl while he was actively eating which of course, earned her the nickname ‘gluttonous pig’ (courtesy of her least favorite father).

“Come on, baobei. We both wake up plenty early, we can just let her out since she doesn’t get access to her food until a while after we’re already going about our days,” Mo Ran pleaded. Chu Wanning knew he wasn’t going to let him have peace until he agreed to at least give him a little affection.

Obviously, Chu Wanning knew how to appease his beautiful partner and appease he did. He planted an embarrassed kiss on Mo Ran’s forehead before trying to escape both to calm down from the embarrassment of having to do such things just to get things done and so he could finally sweep up the shards for potential fixing.

And Mo Ran obviously didn’t let him. He seemed to take great joy in getting Chu Wanning embarrassed and blushing like a maiden so he tightened his arms around his beloved’s waist. Mo Ran didn’t make any moves to do anything besides keep snuggling his midsection like he was already suggesting they spent the night doing, rather than being responsible adults.

“Maybe it’ll be fine this time…” Chu Wanning finally conceded. Then he realized that he couldn't give in this easily or it would give Mo Ran the impression that he could get these things easily. “Don’t get used to it though.”

“Of course I won’t, Wanning. I could never take something like this for granted,” Mo Ran replied smoothly. He knew exactly what to say to keep Chu Wanning happy even when he was doing something that he didn't want to do.

Chu Wanning decided it would be easier for them to get comfortably positioned if he chose his spot first and Mo Ran would have to adjust in accordance to his choice. He scooped up Bai Mao out of the center of their bed and placed her onto her own bed without any resistance from the cat, knowing that Taxian-jun would most likely follow. The husky did of course move, in favor of sitting with his best friend rather than being stuck between his lovey dovey owners.

With both of the animals out of the way, Chu Wanning finally took his usual spot on the bed and started settling himself, not unlike how a cat would. Once he had finally settled on a comfortable position after a good fifteen seconds, Mo Ran took his chance to snuggle up next to him, subsequently trapping him there for the rest of the night.

Chu Wanning was obviously incredibly tired so once Mo Ran’s warmth had fully enveloped his body, he fell asleep almost immediately. It only took being in his lover’s arms for him to immediately fall into a deep slumber that coincidentally made it so they would wake up much later than they usually did, to the sound of the aggrieved meows of Bai Mao.

Well actually, Chu Wanning woke up later than usual to the sound of his cat’s yowling and Mo Ran staring at him with hearts in his eyes, still cuddled up next to him comfortably.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Chu Wanning asked immediately, getting up to attend to his cat before she could take any drastic measures to obtain her food.

“Wow, no ‘hey’, ‘hello’, ‘good morning’? I’m hurt. I wanted to let you sleep since you seemed so peaceful and cozy, curled up next to me. Besides, I know you haven’t been sleeping anywhere close to enough recently so I didn’t think it could hurt,” Mo Ran informed him with a sweet, dopey grin. He got up as well to trail Chu Wanning out to the kitchen.

Chu Wanning felt like something was up when he entered the room but it didn’t immediately occur to him what it was. Finally, after Bai Mao had already started digging into her food, did he realize what had changed.

“You already cleaned up the broken dish.”

“Mhm. I thought you’d like to wake up to a clean house,” his husband replied, pecking him on the cheek in hopes of receiving a reward for being a good spouse even though it was something he did a majority of the time.

Chu Wanning looked at him skeptically. “If it were already clean, why not let Bai Mao out to roam?”

“Well, I thought you wouldn’t like it if I were the one to wake you up, so I decided to leave that up to someone who you’re far less likely to get mad at,” Mo Ran explained sheepishly. He scratched the top of the fluffy animal’s head in thanks for unknowingly being his fall guy.

Bai Mao made a little noise at him in protest of being disrupted during her meal. She even took a little time out of her day to glare at her least favorite father just to be the petty little animal she was raised to be.

“Yes, I know you don’t like being interrupted, I’m sorry,” Mo Ran murmured to her and placed a little kiss on her head. She made another disgruntled noise before returning to her food.

Chu Wanning watched them interact in silence. He was really happy that Mo Ran made an effort to get the cat to love him every day. Mo Ran had told him many times of the ‘saga’ of winning her favor just to get Chu Wanning’s love as well, so many times in fact that he could basically recite the epic tale from memory.

“I wouldn’t have been mad…” he conceded after a moment. Mo Ran gave him a slightly confused look so he continued to add a little more context to his statement. “If you woke me up. I’d actually prefer it if you didn’t let me sleep in.”

“I know… you just look so cute when you’re asleep,” his silly husband admitted, placing a similar kiss to the one he gave Bai Mao on Chu Wanning’s forehead. Chu Wanning shooed him away so he could also give Bai Mao some affection as well since he didn’t get to give her any pets this morning.

He scratched from Bai Mao’s neck down to the base of her tail, which she flicked back and forth in quick succession. She loved getting scratches from Chu Wanning, even when she was eating. Mo Ran had always been jealous that there were things that Bai Mao only tolerated if it was Chu Wanning doing it. Once again, Chu Wanning swooned at how much his lover tried to get their cat to love him.

Bai Mao just continued her meal in peace, blissfully unaware of how hard her father fights for her affection every day.

—

Speaking of Bai Mao eating, the cat will eat anything she can get her paws on.

Now, we already know how much of a problem this has caused with ‘the incident’ since she only slipped because she was trying to consume a lotus and how her gluttonous behavior required Chu Wanning’s genius to prevent her from eating her brother’s food. But the holidays cause quite the issue in their household with the cat’s greedy ways.

Specifically Chunjie, new year.

She’s never really been a problem before since the couple had celebrated with the Xues in years past, but this is their first year celebrating just the two of them in their marital home.

The house had already been thoroughly cleaned and decorated with red everything to bring in good fortune for the new year before the beginning of the festival. Finally, the day arrives for the festival to begin so of course, Chu Wanning and Mo Ran are stuck in the kitchen all day.

Mo Ran has been a teeny tiny bit distracted today though, since he loves being allowed to openly ogle Chu Wanning. And ogle he does because the fifteen days of Chunjie celebrations means fifteen days of Chu Wanning in red rather than his signature all white outfits. He’s always been obsessed with how his husband looks in red.

His distracted state has led to quite a few cooking mishaps for the two of them. First, while Mo Ran was scoring the fish they were to eat that night, he gets a little bit too absorbed in staring at how the slightly different collar on Chu Wanning’s outfit moves as he folds wontons and accidentally cuts his finger.

“How did you even manage to cut that deep?” Chu Wanning asks in exasperation while he’s wrapping Mo Ran’s bloodied finger in gauze.

Mo Ran, seemingly not having learned his lesson, continues to be fixated on the slight change in Chu Wanning’s collar’s cut. Chu Wanning gives him a light smack on the head to get him to return his focus to the topic at hand. “Well, you look so gorgeous in red and that collar is really doing something for me…”

“Shameless!”

Chu Wanning yanks his hands away from Mo Ran to fiddle with his collar, leaving the bandage incomplete and slowly unraveling. Mo Ran uses his uninjured hand to finish wrapping his finger before securing it in place with a little bit of struggle.

Meanwhile, Chu Wanning tries to pull his collar up because the difference in collar being pointed out is quite embarrassing since it was already bothering him but knowing that someone else noticed is even worse. He wishes he had time to tailor it a little to match his normal collar length so it wouldn’t feel so odd compared to his regular clothing.

He can tolerate having to wear a different color for a couple days since it’s only odd when he looks down at himself, but having to actually feel the difference is a whole different ball game, especially since he already fidgets with his collar all the time.

Like Chu Wanning stated before, he would usually have fixed his clothing to feel like they normally did since he did that almost every year in the past, but this year he had decided to make the animal’s little costumes. Bai Mao has her own little lion costume while Taxian-jun gets to be a dragon. Unfortunately he can’t rewear anything from years past even though they already fit properly because new clothes are a must have for the new year.

So he's stuck in clothes that are bothering him and now Mo Ran is pointing it out. Safe to say, he’s a little agitated.

“I’m sorry, but it’s the truth! You look so-” Mo Ran is cut off by the hand that Chu Wanning clamps over his mouth.

“Don’t even finish that thought. Get back in the kitchen and work.”

Of course, Mo Ran can’t deny his husband and heads back into the kitchen to continue his work. Chu Wanning follows him back in to return to his signature wontons that he was folding since they’re basically the only food he’s able to make confidently. They don’t want a repeat of the last time he tried to leave his comfort zone.

Not only did Mo Ran get food poisoning after eating the attempt at something new, but Chu Wanning also had to quit halfway through because he got far too frustrated with his inability to do something he had never done before perfectly. He had sulked in their room (not that he would admit that to Mo Ran though), petting the cat for a few hours before he returned to the kitchen to keep trying his luck.

They both quickly get back into the zone, Mo Ran now focusing on his work rather than on how amazing his husband looks in red. That is, until Bai Mao makes an appearance.

She prances into the room, proudly dropping a small mouse at Chu Wanning feet and meows at him. That pulls both of them from their concentration. Mo Ran removes the mouse from Chu Wanning’s vicinity like he’s supposed to and washes his hands again.

While he’s abandoned his station, Bai Mao takes it as a chance to try to steal that food he was preparing. Chu Wanning had already returned to folding wontons when she jumped onto the counter and began chowing down. Of course, she capitalized on how focused Chu Wanning gets on things when he’s doing tasks like these because he’s too distracted to hear the munching sounds the cat produces.

When Mo Ran reenters the room, he immediately tries to shoo her away from devouring their meal. The stubborn puffball doesn’t listen to him so he has to grab her and carry her away from the fish. He takes it as a chance to scold her, “You gluttonous pig! How could you! That’s not for you!”

“She’s just a baby, don’t call her that,” Chu Wanning retorts on his cat’s behalf, clearly not paying attention to what actually happened. Then he sees the gaping hole that she left in the fish, “You gluttonous pig!”

“If I can’t call her that, you can’t either!” Mo Ran exclaims in exasperation, given how often he’s scolded for calling her the rude nickname. Chu Wanning abandons what he’s doing for the second time in the last fifteen minutes to grab Bai Mao from where Mo Ran placed her.

Once she has been scooped up again, Chu Wanning starts scolding the baby, completely ignoring Mo Ran’s complaint, “You’re not allowed to eat that, kitty. If we had marinated it with garlic instead of ginger you would be puking your guts up so you better believe that you got lucky. Also, you have your own food so you should be eating that!”

Bai Mao just stares up at him before meowing innocently, like she doesn't know the atrocities she’s committed. Normally, they would have included garlic in the mixture that the fish had been marinated in but she got incredibly lucky that they didn't have enough to add marinade. It would really suck if they had a sick cat on the first day of Chunjie, since sickness during the first few days of the new year is a sign of bad luck to come.

Of course, being the king of good timing, Taxian-jun saunters into the room while the cat is getting told off. He takes his dads’ distracted state to try to steal some food off the counter like his sister did, as if he doesn’t have enough to eat either. Well, he might not, given that he allows Bai Mao to steal from him even after Chu Wanning put the anti-sharing method of feeding into place.

The dog, in an all too similar manner to his other father, goes straight for the wontons Chu Wanning was making. He seems to like them just as much as Mo Ran does so he jumps on the chance to steal them, even if they’re not cooked or fully put together for that matter.

Mo Ran, having free hands and all, rushes over to pry the partially assembled wontons out of the dog's maw.

“You’re a gluttonous pig too! I can’t believe we’ve raised such greedy animals!” he exclaims in the same exasperated tone he had taken on after Chu Wanning scolded him for calling his baby the same name he had just called Taxian-jun.

“It’s your fault they’re both so greedy, you feed them scraps all the time so don’t blame me for the consequences of your actions,” Chu Wanning counters, trying to stifle a laugh as he watches his husband wrestle with their large, majestic, silly dog with their equally silly cat trapped in his arms.

“I’m glad you’re not like your dad and brother… so obsessed with wontons,” he whispers to Bai Mao jokingly.

Mo Ran whips his head around to look at them as he continues to struggle with Taxian-jun, “I can hear you, you know. Have a little respect!”

Their conversation pauses there as Mo Ran finally pries the wonton from the greedy dog’s mouth and throws it in the trash once Chu Wanning has moved to protect them from any future onslaught of attacks. Bai Mao gets set free again so she can roam once more but Chu Wanning decides that it’s best to kick Taxian-jun out of the kitchen for the rest of the day.

After all, they can’t afford to restart any dishes today since they’re already in a bit of a time crunch considering they don’t have the manpower typically needed to prepare the number of dishes that are customary for celebrations to ring in the new year.

Sometimes, Chu Wanning wishes they had more family. He loves the little family they're building on the mountain they call home, but he still misses Madam Wang and Xue Zhengyong. He's sure Mo Ran feels the exact same way he does about their absence. While they weren't actually family, they always treated him like he belonged and he loves them for it.

Chu Wanning even misses Huaizui sometimes despite not having seen him for years following their messy falling out and his eventual death. He doesn't dare dwell on these thoughts though even though holidays like Chunjie and others centered around family bring these thoughts to the forefront of his mind.

Just him and Mo Ran preparing a feast that requires the work of at least double the hands must really be a sad sight to behold.

Chu Wanning is broken out of his little bout of gloom when he feels Mo Ran gently nudge him.

"What are you thinking about?” his husband asks gently. Chu Wanning can already tell from his voice that he knows everything that's going on in Chu Wanning's mind right now. He doesn't like it, doesn't like how well Mo Ran knows him sometimes. He can't even be gloomy in peace without getting bombarded with questions.

That thought alone makes Chu Wanning realize that he's put himself into a mood again. Even so, he answers the question snappily, he can’t stop himself, "Nothing that concerns you.”

Mo Ran gives him a small smile, he definitely knows what's going on with Chu Wanning. "Anything that my Wanning worries about is my concern,” he states before proposing something to help Chu Wanning out of his mood, "Do you want to take a break for a little while?”

“If you're getting tired, we can break a bit,” Chu Wanning agrees reluctantly. He's well aware that he should just be straightforward and admit that he needs a break but he's also aware that Mo Ran won't give him much pushback for twisting the whole meaning of his offer.

Though Mo Ran knows that Chu Wanning’s statement means that he wants Mo Ran to agree to a break so he doesn’t have to be the one to ask for one, he still redirects the conversation. He wants to know what exactly Chu Wanning wants straight from his mouth. “I’m not getting tired, but this isn’t about what I want. This is about what you want to do.”

Chu Wanning huffs in annoyance at the ‘subtle’ callout of his aversion to expressing what he wants. “Fine! I want to take a break,” he announces shyly, finishing folding the wonton he’s currently working on. He doesn’t know why he’s still always so nervous to tell the love of his life what he wants, especially regarding such trivial matters.

“Great! I was just getting a little tired,” Mo Ran replies with a smug little grin on his face. He knows exactly what he just did, exposing that he lied to Chu Wanning about not being tired.

Now that Chu Wanning’s suspicions have been confirmed concerning Mo Ran’s lies, he retaliates by gently batting the back of his lovely (and occasionally manipulative) husband’s head.

“You’re so harsh! Remember who cooks for you, I’m sure they won’t hesitate to spit in your food!” Mo Ran threatens, looking even more amused by the second.

Chu Wanning sulks, burying his face in Mo Ran’s shoulder and absolutely not taking Mo Ran’s threats seriously. He can’t believe that he was tricked into admitting that he, the powerful Beidou Immortal, had upset himself after he got lost in his own mind for a little too long.

While Chu Wanning broods, Mo Ran moves them away from the kitchen (securing the food from any nosey animals’ meddling first, of course) and towards their bedroom so Chu Wanning can relax better.

He obviously already had noticed Chu Wanning’s mood, which is why he interrupted their work, but he seems to have also noticed that he requires a little more than just sitting in their dining room together quietly. Mo Ran is well aware that sometimes Chu Wanning can’t stand sitting on hard surfaces when there’s something going on in his mind. Though it’s not usually obvious what type of mood he’s in, Mo Ran doesn’t take a gamble with it and goes straight for a much more comfortable option, especially since Chu Wanning’s never rejected it before.

Chu Wanning shuffles down the hall after him, holding onto the edge of Mo Ran’s sleeve. He doesn’t want to be touched right now (despite having just been cuddled up next to Mo Ran). He still wants something to hold onto and ground himself with though, hence their situation.

It’s not like he’s having a panic attack or anything, he just doesn’t want to slip back into the incredibly negative direction his mind was taking him before Mo Ran pulled him out of his depressing thoughts.

Though Chu Wanning had just been complaining to himself about how much he dislikes the extent of Mo Ran's knowledge about him, he’s so grateful for it right now. He’s sure he would have just plopped himself down on the kitchen floor and curled up into a ball if he had been alone.

But he wasn’t.

He had the love of his life with him and that helped a lot. The mere reminder of Mo Ran’s presence was enough to get him back to a much more neutral mood. Knowing that Mo Ran knows exactly how to take care of him when he’s feeling these types of ways makes him feel so loved.

Once they’ve finally entered their room after what feels like a great odyssey rather than something that took less than a minute, Chu Wanning wants to faceplant on the bed. Whenever he starts feeling like this, everything just feels like so much more work than it actually is. Sadly, the animals are blocking the way.

As always, they’ve settled themselves in the most inconvenient place they could, the direct middle of the large bed. Chu Wanning doesn’t shoo them away though, he just flops down next to them as carefully as he can manage.

He’s glad that he’s getting everything out of his system now since it’ll be a lot better if it were during time that they had some wiggle room than if something important were happening. Chu Wanning curls around the animals and buries his hands in Taxian-jun’s fluff.

Though he’s not looking, Chu Wanning can tell which animal he’s grabbed due to the husky’s fur being much coarser and shorter than Bai Mao’s. Bai Mao gets up to greet him from where she’s curled up. She rubs against his face lovingly as a hello and moves around him to lay down against his back.

Taxian-jun leaves him alone though. Rather than getting incredibly excited at the sight of his owner, he lays there like a good boy, not doing anything that could potentially overwhelm Chu Wanning. This was one of the only things Mo Ran could actually teach him to do when he was in training, to know when he needs to let his owners relax.

After Chu Wanning has been laying in this cuddle puddle, as Mo Ran often calls it, for a while, he hears the door open and close again. He’s pretty sure that the man in question has left them for the time being to go back to cooking now that he’s sure Chu Wanning is settled properly.

Chu Wanning gives himself until he doesn’t feel worried about returning to a dark train of thought before he removes himself from where he’s been wedged between the two animals. It only takes about fifteen minutes, which isn’t horrible.

When he gets up, Bai Mao follows him back to the kitchen. Chu Wanning supposes that the cat is probably trying to snag some of the food that they were making before he had to take a break. He doesn’t care though because it just means more time with his baby. Of course, he’d love it if Taxian-jun came too but he’s much more of a danger to their kitchen than Bai Mao is.

Entering the kitchen, Chu Wanning tries to sneak up on Mo Ran. For once, he’s actually successful, no cat that alerts his husband of his presence, squeaky floorboards, or Mo Ran turning around right when he’s about to actually catch him by surprise this time.

He rests his head on Mo Ran’s shoulder with a quiet sigh. Chu Wanning doesn’t intend on saying anything, he doesn’t want to have to think of something to say to Mo Ran. Even though he’s feeling decent enough, he’s still too mentally exhausted to be social on his own accord.

“You have a nice rest?” Mo Ran asks gently. He doesn’t turn to look at Chu Wanning, he just keeps working on the dish he had started in the time Chu Wanning was flopped in their room. Bai Mao jumps up onto the counter next to where Mo Ran’s working.

“Mhm…”

“I see you’ve become a man of few words again,” his lover teases, a certain tenderness bleeding into his voice. Mo Ran doesn’t push, he just leaves room for Chu Wanning to talk if he really wants to.

Chu Wanning doesn’t say anything, but he remains pressed against Mo Ran contentedly. A couple minutes pass before he peels himself off his husband to get back to work. They remain working in a comfortable silence for a while.

Chu Wanning still tries to help with what he can even after he’s finished making his signature dish, if you could call it that. Mo Ran wordlessly passes him any vegetables he needs chopped and lets him do any of the more simplistic yet time consuming tasks since he’s aware that Chu Wanning would much rather work on smaller, easier things to save time than on the final dishes.

Finally, after hours of work, when the sun is setting, they finish the meal they’ve been working on for so many hours. Well, Mo Ran’s been working on for so many hours, but Chu Wanning still wants a little credit for his contributions.

(Half of said contributions were staring at his husband cooking. Chu Wanning hates to admit it but Mo Ran is so attractive when he’s doing mundane domestic things like cooking and cleaning.)

Once all the dishes are spread out over the table, they settle into their seats and start eating. Half of the dishes are suited for Chu Wanning’s taste, something he is eternally grateful for, given how much Mo Ran loves his spicy food, aka one of the only things Chu Wanning can’t handle under any circumstance.

He finds it pathetic that someone with such great renown can’t stomach spicy food, Mo Ran finds it cute.

Despite how much he’s been teased over his preference of mild and sweet food, Chu Wanning finds it incredibly sweet that Mo Ran is willing to accommodate his dietary needs despite their clashing palates. Especially since sometimes Mo Ran would sacrifice the pleasure he receives from spicy food to eat the same meal as Chu Wanning without having to prepare a separate set of dishes.

Chu Wanning, yet again, is interrupted in the middle of his train of thought that is slowly becoming simply swooning by a question.

“Are you enjoying your meal, Wanning?” Mo Ran asks. He seems quite pleased that Chu Wanning has received all of the food well since sometimes it’s a hit or miss with some of the dishes. Of course, there are foods that Chu Wanning would never reject, but occasionally he will refuse something that he’s always liked in the past because it’s bothering him on that specific day for whatever reason.

Most of the time, it’s on a day where Chu Wanning needs a break from existing, like today. But to both of their surprises, there’s nothing about the food that is making Chu Wanning not want to eat it. Mo Ran had been unsure about a few of them since he hadn’t made them in a while and in turn, Chu Wanning hadn’t eaten them in a while, so he didn’t know what the reaction would be. Turns out, his gamble paid off.

It takes a moment for Chu Wanning to respond. He finishes chewing before he answers his lover’s inquiry, “It’s really good. Thank you for making all of this, I wish I could have helped more.”

“I don’t mind doing all the work if it means you’re happy,” Mo Ran replies proudly, obviously basking in the knowledge that he’s made his husband happy. Usually this multitude of dishes means at least one gets rejected so he seems particularly delighted that Chu Wanning is fully satisfied with the assortment of food.

“Of course it makes me happy, anything you do does that,” Chu Wanning mumbles, incredibly embarrassed to admit it, but he does. He knows Mo Ran is aware of this information already, but he’s sure that it won’t hurt to let his husband know for certain how happy he makes Chu Wanning.

Mo Ran chuckles quietly at his words. A quiet ‘mhm’ is the only response Chu Wanning’s declaration receives. Mo Ran just keeps getting more and more smug as the night continues, and of course, Chu Wanning refuses to feed his ego any more than he already has.

Neither of them say any more for the rest of dinner. Chu Wanning is far too absorbed in how amazing the food tastes and without him noticing, Mo Ran is too busy watching his reactions to each bite of food to try to make any conversation.

Once they’ve finished their meal and returned the dishes to the kitchen, not actually cleaning up but rather putting them away so as to not clean away their bad luck for the new year. No matter how much it bothers Chu Wanning, these are the sacrifices he makes for the sake of tradition. Besides, they’ll be able to clean up tomorrow since it’s only the first day they can’t clean.

Now, it’s time for the fun part. As Chu Wanning previously mentioned, he made costumes for the animals. Just for the fun of it, he didn’t tell Mo Ran about these costumes, so it’s time for the big reveal and impending struggle that comes with getting animals into clothes.

“Mo Ran, I have something to show you,” Chu Wanning blurts out once the final plate has been returned to the kitchen. He’s a little nervous about presenting his handiwork to Mo Ran since this is one of his first times actually making clothing from scratch, and for animals of all things. Safe to say, there will most likely be some mistakes in the fit of the clothes or something in a similar vein.

“Oh? Something for me?” Mo Ran asks curiously, letting himself be led to their bedroom. He doesn’t seem like he knows what to expect, so Chu Wanning gathers that he thankfully hadn’t found out about the costumes and simply hadn’t mentioned it to spare Chu Wanning’s feelings.

Chu Wanning starts rummaging through their closet to reach his hiding spot. “No. It’s for the animals, I want to know what you think about it.”

Mo Ran makes a noise in acknowledgement of his statement. Chu Wanning is glad can’t see his husband’s face, just in case he looks disappointed that he’s not receiving something from Chu Wanning. He knows Mo Ran isn’t the type to be like that but he’s still unreasonably nervous.

He holds up the red costume inspired by those worn by individuals who participate in lion dance meant for Bai Mao to wear. He hands it to Mo Ran so he can also pull out Taxian-jun’s dragon inspired one.

“Oh my god, it’s so cute!” Mo Ran commends Chu Wanning, turning the costume to examine it from as many angles as he can. Chu Wanning holds up the other costume for Mo Ran to inspect as well. He has the same reaction to this one as the other, ooo-ing and awww-ing at Chu Wanning’s work.

“Thank you…” Chu Wanning replies shyly. He’s so happy that Mo Ran likes his work. He feels he must pivot before he gets too flustered by his husband’s praise. “We should get them on the animals before they get too tired to appreciate them.”

Mo Ran agrees and they quickly head to locate the animals. Of course, they find Bai Mao on the counter, licking one of their plates with smug satisfaction on her face as she looks down at poor Taxian-jun who’s unable to reach anything sustainable. He’s staring up sadly at his older sister who appears to be gloating at her success.

The two divide and conquer with the animals. Chu Wanning takes Bai Mao and Mo Ran takes Taxian-jun.

The cat struggles against Chu Wanning’s attempts to clothe the animal who’s never worn anything more than a collar before. Sadly, he only recently had this idea so she never got to adjust to wearing anything in her youth while Taxian-jun is much more willing to wear his costume since he’s still young and receptive to new things.

Once he finally wrestles the costume onto Bai Mao, she flops down on the floor and sulks. Chu Wanning feels horrible for his baby since this is the most he’s ever manhandled the cat, especially since Mo Ran got it onto Taxian-jun much more easily. Now the dog is happily frolicking around in his new outfit while his sister pouts.

“I regret everything,” Chu Wanning informs Mo Ran sadly.

Mo Ran places a reassuring kiss on the corner of his mouth. “She’ll get used to it eventually. At least she isn’t screaming her head off like when you first fitted her with her collar.”

“I guess you’re right. She just looks so sad. Maybe we should take it off,” Chu Wanning suggests with a sigh. He knows she’ll acclimate eventually, but right now, flopped out on the floor, she looks so depressed. Chu Wanning returns the kiss to distract himself from his melodramatic cat, pressing a quick kiss on Mo Ran’s cheek.

Thankfully, Taxian-jun saves Chu Wanning from feeling bad by bothering Bai Mao. She immediately returns to her normal demeanor and bats at Taxian-jun’s face playfully. Soon, they’re chasing each other around, their flowy costumes creating quite the sight.

Chu Wanning watches them closely, trying to see if either of their costumes are breaking during their roughhousing. Surprisingly, his handiwork holds up well and neither of them are hindered by the extra fabric that’s draped over their bodies for the celebration.

“You were right, it was worth it to leave the costumes on,” Chu Wanning murmurs to Mo Ran while they watch their animals play.

Mo Ran grins at him, his gorgeous dimples showing. “Have a little more faith in me. I’ve known Bai Mao as long as you have, I understand her just as well as you do,” he teases. Chu Wanning just rolls his eyes at his husband’s playful, overexaggerated cockiness and goes back to observing their pets.

After a long day of being adorable nuisances, they tucker themselves out pretty quickly. Before they can lay down and fall asleep in their costumes, Chu Wanning frees them from their fabric restraints. He picks up Bai Mao and brings her back to the bedroom, knowing that Mo Ran and the husky will follow them.

“We need to get the animals settled before we do firecrackers,” Chu Wanning says absentmindedly. Mo Ran hums in agreement. Animals being afraid of loud noises is common knowledge so having the pets asleep or at least in a comfortable space paired with a soundproofing barrier helps the anxiety they get from loud sounds.

Chu Wanning is glad they’re skipping out on some of the traditional Chunjie activities like burning incense, considering both of them dislike the smell of incense for different reasons. Mo Ran because of the memories it brings up and Chu Wanning for that reason but additionally his overall disliking of strong scents.

Unfortunately, firecrackers are not one of the traditions they’re skipping. Chu Wanning knows he should have broached the subject of skipping it, but he knows he can tough it out. At least Chu Wanning enjoys watching the colors bloom and covering his ears is always an option since it’s just the two of them. Plus, they’re only lighting a few firecrackers so they can get back to their pets quickly.

They head outside and light the firecrackers Mo Ran got from the neighboring town. The vibrant colors bloom in the dark night sky and Chu Wanning has to admit, this is definitely worth it. Even if it means having to muffle the sound of the firecrackers with his hands.

Mo Ran returns to his seat next to Chu Wanning once the firecrackers are successfully up and running since it was his job to light them. Chu Wanning takes the opportunity to lean against his shoulder and Mo Ran returns the affection by placing a kiss on the top of Chu Wanning’s head.

They sit together in contented silence. Chu Wanning can confidently say that this is the perfect start to the new year.

—

It’s been two and a half weeks. She’s usually back within three days. Her longest time away has been nine days. It’s been two and a half weeks.

She’s gone.

And Chu Wanning hates to admit it. He knows he has to if he wants to move on but he can’t. He knows he can always get another cat, that Taxian-jun is enough of an animal for their household, but he can’t. He’s trying but he really can’t. Not when she’s the first person he’s felt like ever unconditionally loved him. Not when she’s the thing that took him out of some of his biggest slumps.

Not when she’s his baby. His Bai Mao.

Chu Wanning even had a fail safe for something like this, but nothing is ever enough for that silly cat. The collar was the first thing he did to protect her but Taxian-jun’s presence in their home made him even more secure in the belief that she wouldn’t go missing.

When they had first obtained the husky puppy, Mo Ran had handled a majority of his failed training, but Chu Wanning had taken time to teach him just one thing. To find Bai Mao. To track her scent and bring her home when she was out for too long.

It always worked. Always worked until it didn’t. And now, Chu Wanning feels so empty without the cat he hadn’t thought made such a big impact on his life.

Chu Wanning wasn’t worried when he had given Taxian-jun his command to find the cat once her full week of freedom was up and he needed to bury his face in her fur again. He wasn’t even worried when Taxian-jun came home empty handed. But every day, he’s lost more and more hope in his cat returning.

He can’t imagine what could have happened to her. Hypothetically, her collar should protect her from anything that would put her in harm’s way but hypotheticals aren’t always correct. No matter how much time someone puts into something, there are just things that can’t be avoided.

No matter how hard he tries to protect his animals, he can’t. He can’t and he’s so frustrated with himself for not trying harder to keep her safe, so mad at Bai Mao for not coming home, so sad he’ll never see her again.

There are millions of ways he could have protected her but he didn’t. He couldn’t. Even after all the scenarios he ran through in his mind of how she could injure or kill herself, he couldn’t save her.

Death was always a thing on Chu Wanning’s mind in relation to his cat, especially as she aged, but somehow he had never thought it would happen so suddenly. He had hoped she would live into her old age and die peacefully surrounded by her family, but no, he couldn’t have that. More importantly, she couldn’t have that. Couldn’t die in a way that left no room for questions, no ‘what if’s, no anxiety over if she was still out there.

Chu Wanning feels like he’s in a nightmare that’s never going to end, yet somehow, he doesn’t really feel anything at all besides an empty ache in his chest.