Work Text:
“I need to work.”
Dan Heng’s words are laced with a hint of exhaustion that implies he’s said them already, because he had. Twice. Both times, his minor protestations had fallen on deaf ears covered in snow white hair. Moonlit strands so soft that, despite his words, Dan Heng can’t help but find himself running his fingers through them absentmindedly.
A low, sleepy chuckle sounds to his left, and the body heat against Dan Heng’s own smaller frame heightens as Jing Yuan presses closer to him, throwing his arms across Dan Heng’s shoulders and burying his face in the crook of his neck.
“I can’t request we just… stay like this a while longer?” There’s a playful lilt to the general’s somewhat muffled voice as he snuggles in even more. “I am but a guest here aboard the Cloudstrider’s vessel, after all.”
Dan Heng rolls his eyes, tries and fails to ignore the slight upturn at the corners of his lips at the answering laugh.
“You said that twenty minutes ago,” he points out. “And, in any case… I don’t think you’re much of a guest anymore given how often you’re here.”
“Oh? Is that so…?”
Jing Yuan’s brows raise in surprise, though Dan Heng knows him well enough by now to recognize that mischievous glint to Jing Yuan’s golden eyes as he lifts his head to look up at the Vidyadharan wanderer. “Ah, how unfortunate.” Jing Yuan sighs, his tone one of almost comical dejection, with the very wisps of his hair seeming to droop, and Dan Heng would roll his eyes once more if he didn’t find the whole display so oddly endearing. “If my privileges were merely temporary, you should have warned me sooner.”
“Would that have even stopped you?”
There’s silence then that’s an answer in itself, the slight sound of shuffling ringing lightly in Dan Heng’s ears as Jing Yuan turns a bit in his arms.
“Don’t tell me…,” he starts, voice low as he all but pouts at the man in his arms, his hold around Dan Heng’s neck loosening the slightest bit, “…have I already outstayed my welcome?”
He knows the answer, knows long before the blanket of scarlet reaches Dan Heng’s cheeks and the warmth of a hand reaches the nape of Jing Yuan’s neck, pulling him closer.
Dan Heng begins to open his mouth but stops abruptly, clears his throat, tries again. “Just… Five minutes, Jing Yuan, really, and then we have to get up,” he finally manages to mutter. “Five. That’s all.”
He’s seen the grin that now threatens to cover the general’s entire face countless times, but it somehow still feels new to him.
“Of course,” Jing Yuan says in a voice soft enough for only Dan Heng to hear, leaning forward to press his forehead to his lover’s as his eyes begin to fall shut.
“Just five minutes more.”