Mo Ran still isn't used to life in Shisheng village after more than a year.
It's a good place, better than--before. (He tries not to think about before too much.)
He knows that he's lucky. Taken in by the head of the village, apprenticed to the village's famous inventor. He would have been lucky even if his uncle and aunt didn't love him, even if his teacher wasn't selfless and kind, even if he didn't have such good friends in his two co-apprentices.
Such good friends!
Today, one of them has something to show him. Does Mo Ran want to go out into the woods together? Shi Mei found something really interesting the other day, but he wants to get A-Ran's opinion before he tells Shizun about it!
Sure okay!!! Shi Mei's really nice, this is probably going to be really interesting, and even if it's not he can pretend.
So interesting.
It's about an hour's walk, which is fine. They can chat about their studies, Mo Ran's latest project ideas, Shizun's last lesson.
Eventually Shi Mei points out the shape of a roof appearing over the treetops.
Mo Ran cranes his neck. "Is that it?"
“Yes, it is! Some sort of abandoned palace, I think, it’s quite large.”
"Wow, neat. Do you think there's still cool stuff inside?"
“We should definitely look! It doesn’t look run down or anything. Maybe we’ll even something useful.”
He bounces. "I can't wait until we get back and can tell Shizun."
“He’ll be pleased!”
Finally they reach the clearing and can see the enormous palace up close. At the front entrance is a tall, dark gate. The left door is open just a crack.
Mo Ran pushes it open wider and sticks his head inside.
The entry hall is enormous, empty and unlit; all the windows have been covered.
“Do you see anything?”
He squints.
"Not really, but it's dark..."
He pushes the door the rest of the way open and steps inside.
The doors slam shut in a cold gust of wind.
He whirls around.
"Shi Mei! Are you okay?"
“Yes, A-Ran.”
He tries to open the door.
No, A-Ran.
"I can't get the door open again! Can you get it from your side?"
“I don’t think so.”
"Okay. Do you know where any other doors are?"
“Yes. But all the doors are locked, A-Ran.”
"What?"
“Don’t worry. I’ll go let Shizun know that you got stuck.”
"Shi Mei, what's going on?"
He's about to demand again when the wind picks up.
He has only a split second to notice the increased howling before the pain hits.
He doubles over as his body rebels in ways bodies aren't supposed to. His clothes tear as his bones shift, hair sprouting and claws extending from his fingertips.
By the time he collapses to the floor, passing out from the agony, the transformation is complete.
By the time he wakes up, he remembers none of this.
Shi Mei walks away.
Already he feels more peaceful, without Mo Ran babbling at his side. Gracefully handling such a clumsy and energetic kid exhausts Shi Mei, but Mo Ran won't pester him any longer. He certainly won't pester Shizun any longer.
Shizun will be upset, at first, but Shi Mei will be there to console him. In time, Chu Wanning will recover. He will find other things to make him smile the way Mo Ran so often did. (Sickeningly often).
The sun is setting by the time Shi Mei staggers through the village and falls against Chu Wanning's door, knocking frantically. He has become dirty and disheveled and his clothes are torn; blood oozes from multiple slashes on his arm. "Shizun! Shizun!"
Xue Meng opens the door, his eyes widening when he takes in Shi Mei's state.
"What happened?"
"There was - there was a terrible beast, in the woods - out of nowhere, and A-Ran -- oh, it's awful -- "
Xue Meng pales and runs to get Chu Wanning.
He rushes to Shi Mei. "What happened? Where are you hurt, where's Mo Ran?"
"I'm sorry, Shizun," he whimpers, clutching his arm and looking down at the floor. "A-Ran - A-Ran -
it killed him."
"No it didn't. What - what it are you talking about, speak clearly damn it -"
"It was a monster, Shizun," Shi Mei whispers. "Some huge wild beast in the forrest. It -- it -- one minute we were just walking, and then - it ripped A-Ran's neck."
"What?" Xue Meng demands disbelievingly, eyes wide.
"It killed him!" Shi Mei cries. "I beg you, don't make me say it anymore! The beast tore his throat and ran off with the body, I wasn't fast enough..."
"I'm faster. Tell me where he is, Shi Mingjing, I'll get him back."
"Shizun... he isn't there anymore. He isn't anywhere! I don't know if there will be a body left to recover." He gags on his own words and covers his face with trembling hands.
"There will be, and he will be there, he will be alive, don't talk back to me! Not recovering the body - how dare you suggest such a foul thing! Tell me where it happened!"
Shi Mei drops to his knees. "Shizun, please! Please, don't go out there, it's already getting dark - please, you'll get hurt!"
Xue Meng bolts out of Chu Wanning's house to go get his father.
Like fuck he'll get hurt. Like fuck he cares.
"Tell. Me. Where."
"Please, Shizun, I can't lose you too. We need you! Please..."
Wanning grabs his nearest contraption and hurls it across the room. It smashes loudly against the far wall; wood splinters and metal gears go flying.
He flinches.
nonononononononononononononono
Mo Ran
Xue Meng rushes back in, Xue Zhengyong in tow.
Xue Zhengyong wants to know EVERYTHING about the attack. They are definitely going to send search parties.
Shi Mei mournfully relays a location and some details about the struggle with the terrible monster. He wants to participate in the search parties! He feels guilty for letting the beast get away with his shidi's body.
Shi Mei will absolutely not be going on any search parties. He is going to tend to his wounds at once and rest and not injure himself any further.
Chu Wanning will be going on search parties.
Xue Zhengyong agrees with Chu Wanning, both about Shi Mei staying here and not exacerbating his injuries and about not being convinced that Mo Ran is dead. In the heat of such a moment, who knows what might really have happened? Memory can be so unreliable.
Both Xue Zhengyong and Chu Wanning go out with the search parties.
There are a lot of search parties.
They look for a very long time.
They don't find any trace of Mo Ran.
He doesn't speak to anyone. He stays out looking until his legs physically can't support him anymore, until his eyes burn and his head aches. Grief wracks his body so violently that he thinks it might kill him; he idly wishes it would. It hurts. The beats may have killed (no) Mo Ran (no), but its claws have sunk deep into Chu Wanning.
He goes home, moving slow and stiff as a board.
Shi Mei is there. Shi Mei has stayed put just like he was told.
"Shizun, you're alright! Did..... did you find..."
"I'm sorry," he whispers. "Shizun, you should sit down."
Why.
He doesn't remember how to move anymore, but why should he bother trying? There's nothing he can accomplish by moving. There's nothing he can accomplish by existing. He could not protect his own apprentice, and now he dishonors him by failing to bury a body.
Shi Mei puts an arm around Chu Wanning's back and ushers him gently to the bedroom, murmuring apologies. He shepherds Shizun into bed and tucks him in. Chu Wanning barely reacts to being moved, and he doesn't seem to process any of Shi Mei's words. Which is understandable. And fine.
It seems that Shizun needs someone to look after him for the time being.
Objectively he does. Chu Wanning suffers from fever for the next week, brought on by exhaustion and emotional turmoil. He doesn't leave his bed. He doesn't move. He won't take any initiative to eat or drink or sleep.
Shi Mei tends to him through his fever. A lucid Shizun would never accept coddling of any sort, but a catatonic feverish Shizun sometimes doesn't seem to notice. When he can get away with it and his teacher is at his least responsive, Shi Mei likes to lean Wanning up against himself and feed him broth spoonful by spoonful. Sometimes his fingers brush against Chu Wanning's lips, which is only natural during such an intimate process.
He does not get away with helping him bathe, but he does get away with watching.
He gets to comb Shizun's hair afterwards. He saw Mo Ran do that once.
Xue Zhengyong takes Mo Ran's death very hard.
Before he had actually met the boy, he had already been Xue Zhengyong's last link to his dead older brother, and as he came to know him, he came to love the boy for himself.
Xue Zhengyong is significantly more functional than Chu Wanning. He does his best to support him, although he's incredibly grateful that young Shi Mei is doing most of the actual work and all Xue Zhengyong has to do is make sure the house regularly receives groceries and so on. But it's incredibly obvious to anyone who knows him that the death was a devastating blow.
Xue Meng's reaction is a little more complicated--they were a vitriolic sort of friends--but they were friends, and even if they weren't, he still wouldn't have wanted Mo Ran to die, and even if he hadn't given a crap about Mo Ran dying, he would still be affected by how it's affected everyone else.
He's...better at repressing his feelings than his father or his Shizun. But it sobers him.
Chu Wanning recovers from his fever. A month later, he starts to spend time out of bed again. He still takes zero care of himself and relies heavily on Shi Mei's support. He is still dazed and miserable and borderline unresponsive most of the time.
He endeavors to check on Xue Meng and Shi Mei as well. It would be inexcusable to fail his remaining students also, though it tears at his heart to see the two of them in his workshop without Mo Ran.
It tears at him to go anywhere and see anything without Mo Ran there, bringing warmth and brightness to his life.
Life goes on anyway, colorlessly. Chu Wanning goes back to work. He leaves his house, sometimes. He doesn't smile.
He doesn't remember much.
He knows that his name is Mo Ran, that he grew up on the streets with his mother and then in a brothel after his mother died. He also knows that he's significantly older than he was as of his last clear memory. He also knows that he was human as of his last clear memory.
He isn't human now.
He has no idea what happened, in the intervening years. There is nothing in this castle to give any clue. He can leave the front door, even leave the front gates, but if he tries to wander off into the forest the trees dump him right outside again before terribly long.
He isn't happy. Sometimes he takes his unhappiness out on the furniture. But the castle is magic; its gardens see that he never goes hungry. He knows very well that it could be worse.
Two years after Mo Ran’s disappearance, Shi Mei proposes to Chu Wanning.
Wanning — did not see this coming. At all. He didn’t expect any proposals, from anyone, let alone his own apprentice.
It’s his fault, of course, for leaning on Shi Mei so heavily when he was first grieving. Of course making someone tend to him personally for a year would give that person a sense of intimacy and invitation. Shi Mei was already practically part of his household.
But Chu Wanning feels sick to his stomach remembering how he required tending and how pathetic - visibly and outwardly pathetic - the whole affair had been. He cares deeply about Shi Mei as a teacher does a disciple, and maybe even as a friend, but nothing more. Even after they grew undeniably closer during Chu Wanning’s grieving, he still doesn’t feel like he fully knows Shi Mei.
Shi Mei is a beautiful and capable young man who any man or woman would be lucky to marry. Shi Mei should go find someone else young and beautiful who can make him happy. Chu Wanning turns him down.
Is Shizun aware that he is, in fact, very beautiful?
What! No! Don't bring up nonsense like that again!
Regardless of how he looks - that being definitively less beautiful than Shi Mei -- Shi Mei shouldn't waste his time on a bitter old widowed man!
Shizun isn't even thirty!
He will be thirty at some point! And that point will be considerably sooner than the point at which Shi Mei turns thirty!
That doesn't matter to him. Shizun's experience only makes him a more attractive marriage candidate.
That's enough. Chu Wanning isn't going to marry anyone and no one should want to marry him. If Shi Mei is deluded enough to consider Chu Wanning worth wedding, that sounds like a personal problem. This discussion is over.
It's not, though. Lots of people actually have their eye on Chu Wanning in the village. Apprehensive eyes, for the most part, but still appreciative ones. Everyone knows that Chu Wanning is beautiful and eligible. Most of the townsfolk find him intimidating and strange, so no one has been brave enough to approach him before, but Shi Mei sees the looks they give him. It's only a matter of time before other, more powerful men or women attempt to claim him. Shi Mei needs to protect his Shizun from all the cruel, greedy people out there.
He backs off, for a little while.
Seven months later, he asks again.
What? Still no!!
(Has he been doing something else to encourage Shi Mei during these months, something beyond the intimacy required for Chu Wanning's caretaking those years ago? Have there been other signals he's been giving out without realizing? Did keeping Shi Mei as his apprentice imply that he wanted the boy to try again? Chu Wanning has no idea how to tell.)
Okay :)
But Shi Mei doesn't back down the same way this time. He starts courting Chu Wanning in earnest: giving him flowers and stroking his hair and pressing lingering kisses to his fingertips. He gives him lots of pear blossom wine, Shizun's favorite. He likes to be there when Shizun drinks.
At night, he creeps into Chu Wanning's bedroom and watches him sleep. One time he is even bold enough to gently kiss him; Wanning frowns in his sleep but doesn't stir.
Shi Mei knows that Chu Wanning cannot resist him forever.
Shi Mei's original gambit, almost three years ago, to lure Mo Ran away, was a plausible one. The forest is large and full of interesting things.
People have been more cautious about the forest since the village head's nephew died at the claws of a wild beast. But all that means is that Xue Meng lets people know exactly where he's going before he leaves.
Xue Meng has lived near this forest his whole life. He's been exploring it since he was a small child. He knows it, and what's more, he knows to what extent he knows it. He shouldn't be able to get lost without deliberately straying.
He's lost now.
The trees are thicker and darker than they should be.
Eventually he comes out of the trees and into a clearing surrounding what appears to be an old palace.
Xue Meng knows that there used to be a noble family living in the area, before the whole family died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and that nobody could find their residence afterwards. They never had much contact with the village, but you hear about these kinds of things.
The hair on the back of his neck rises.
Going inside is probably a bad idea.
Xue Meng goes back into the creepy trees.
The creepy trees spit him back out in the clearing again.
Well, fuck.
He slowly makes his way in through the front gates, and knocks on the door. There is no answer. He opens it cautiously and peers inside.
New people arrive so rarely. Even more rarely do they end up staying. It happens, but not often. It is worth watching and waiting whenever a new face shows itself.
(This face looks familiar in a way none of the others have, but he cannot place it, no matter how he digs through his memory.)
When the young man has been sat down and looking around warily for long enough, he decides to show himself.
"Hello, trespasser," he half-purrs, half-growls, slinking around out of the shadows.
Well! This is not exactly on Xue Meng's list of things he thought would happen. But he wasn't dumb enough that he hadn't figured out that something would happen.
"Complain to the trees," he spits out. "They wouldn't let me go anywhere else."
(It isn't lost on him that when Shi Mei described the creature that killed his cousin, he called it a beast, a monster, not a wolf or any other ordinary predatory creature that could be found in these woods. But it also isn't lost that this person is wearing clothes and did not attack him out of nowhere.)
"I'm familiar with the phenomenon," the beast rumbles. "It seems you have no choice but to stay for a little while. And who knows? I may keep you longer. Company is so very rare, these days."
Xue Meng does not return to the village that night.
Absolutely fucking unacceptable.
Chu Wanning wastes no time and talks to no one. Even before the sun has fully set, he grabs a horse and rides at full speed in the direction Xue Meng had described.
It doesn't take long before he, too, is scooped up by suspicious spooky trees that definitely aren't supposed to be there.
Good. Fine. Whatever it takes to get to Xue Meng before something worse than spooky trees can happen to him.
He doesn't attempt to turn back.
He is soon spat out in front of a weird spooky castle!
The front gates loom open in a way that could be interpreted as inviting or menacing depending on one's attitude.
He dismounts. Doesn't bother tethering the horse; he has no idea what might come out of these trees, and the horse deserves a chance to run away if it can.
Chu Wanning stomps his way inside the spooky castle. He plans to keep stomping in all plausible directions until he finds his apprentice.
The inside of the castle is also dark and spooky!
The doors slam shut once he's inside.
"Well, well," a low, rumbly voice drawls. "Two guests in one day."
"What have you done with him."
"Nothing permanent. Don't get so excited."
In addition to his various chisels and hammers and other tools for woodworking and metalsmithing, Chu Wanning owns one small knife for cooking. He brought it with him; he draws it now. "Explain yourself."
He steps out of the shadows.
His form is something like a wolf crossed with a man. He isn't much taller than Chu Wanning, but he is significantly broader, and his clawed hand, when it comes to wrap around the wrist holding the knife, is very strong.
"No need for such things," he tsks. "I get lonely, that's all. Your friend is fine. I haven't touched him. You can see him, if you'd like."
"Yes."
The beast does not let go of his wrist. He draws him by it down a hallway and to a room, which he knocks on the door of.
Muffled swearing comes from within.
The beast chuckles and opens the door.
"Shizun!" Xue Meng exclaims when he sees him. He is, to all appearances, physically unharmed.
He rushes to his side. "Xue Meng, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," he says, glaring at the beast.
Wanning turns to glare at the beast also. "Let him go. He is my apprentice; I am responsible for him. If he has offended you by trespassing, I will answer for it."
The beast studies him for a long moment.
"Very well," he says. "He is free to leave."
"Shizun!" Xue Meng yelps.
"Don't be difficult," he snaps. "Go."
"I'm not leaving without you!"
"Yes you are! I'll be fine. He waited this long to hurt you, he won't hurt me right away. Just go."
Xue Meng makes an extremely conflicted face and leaves.
"A generous bargain," the beast observes. "You're much prettier than he is."
Chu Wanning flushes. "What business is that of yours!"
"Well, one of the features of company is that you look at them," he says reasonably. "Doesn't it make sense to prefer company that's pleasing to look upon? You're certainly lovelier than anyone else who's set foot in my home in the years I've been here."
“Don’t mock me,” he hisses. “Skip to the torture if that means you will stop saying such senseless things.”
"Why would I torture you? That would be such a waste," he says, bringing one claw up to skim lightly over Chu Wanning's cheekbone.
AAAAA WHAT THE FUCK
Why is the scary beast monster hot. Why is the scary beast monster FLIRTING WITH HIM and why is THAT hot. None of this should be hot. Chu Wanning is furious.
He struggles to breathe. “Is this room where you’ll keep me?”
"Would you prefer another?"
“I only want to know what to expect.”
He tips up Chu Wanning's chin. "What do you expect so far?"
a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a
Don’t ask if he’s going to sleep with you Don’t Ask If He’s Going To Sleep With You
“Nothing,” he manages, voice strangled. “From a beast who keeps children prisoner.”
The beast flinches at that, releasing Chu Wanning.
"He wasn't a child," he protests.
That's a confusing response. Chu Wanning doesn't know what to make of it at all. "He is still young.
You would object to keeping a small child?"
"I would keep a small child if they were running from something worse than me. I wouldn't trap a child."
"How many people live here?"
"Five."
"Willingly?"
"People who are completely unwilling get boring."
"I'm a very uninteresting person."
"Uninteresting people don't realize their students are missing, follow them that quickly, pull a knife on someone armed with who-knows-what, and demand to be exchanged as prisoners."
"Well, I've done all those things. But now I am just going to sit in this room indefinitely. How do you expect me to interest you?"
"Well, as I've said, you're very pretty."
"Are you planning to sleep with me?"
"Do you want me to?"
He chokes. "What! Of - of course not!"
"I suspect I will try very hard to seduce you," he says, one hand coming up to skim a claw down Chu Wanning's cheekbone again, "but I've never taken anyone by force and I don't intend to change that."
AAAAAAAA BEING SEDUCED IS WORSE
Claw on his cheek aAAAaaaaAaa??? He doesn't let himself shiver. "How long do I have to stay here?"
"I don't know yet. I suspect you're going to be very bad at being boring."
"How often will I see you?"
"Often, I expect."
"You'll come here? Or will I be summoned elsewhere."
"I'll find you. You can go wherever you wish."
"Except outside."
"You can go outside. You can even go into the forest. You won't get very far. I can't make the trees let someone go, but I can make them not let someone go."
"How do you know the trees will let Xue Meng go? What will you do if they don't?"
"If they don't let him go he'll come storming back in and I'll tell him to try again in an hour. The only person the trees never let go is me."
"Hm.
Do you know why?"
"No. I don't remember much from before it was like this."
“Hm.”
"If you had any insights, I would be happy to hear them. I would much rather be free to come and go myself than keep prisoners."
“None so far. But I’ll keep that in mind.”
For some reason, he feels as though this person might actually have a chance.
"I would be eternally in your debt," he says, taking one of the man's hands and pressing a kiss to the knuckles.
“Nonsense!” Chu Wanning gasps, outraged and flustered. His cheeks burn. “I’m here as your prisoner!”
"Can one not have gratitude towards a prisoner?"
“No!”
"I don't see why not. Well, if I ever get out of here, you won't be a prisoner anymore."
“ - Very well.”
He smiles.
It shouldn't be possible to smile like that, but apparently it is.
It should be terrifying. It should not be cute at all.
“Do you need anything of me right now?”
"No. I shall leave you to rest," he says, and bows, and leaves.
Wanning sets down his knife and takes a look around.
The room is less dilapidated than the outside of the castle would suggest. Everything is fresh and clean and in good repair. The room is less fancy than one might expect for the kind of person who lives in a castle, but nicer than one would expect of servants' quarters.
Does it contain a writing desk?
It does.
He sits down; pulls out paper and ink. He writes a letter that will never be read to Xue Meng, reassuring him and instructing him on how to study independently.
He writes a letter that will never be read to Mo Ran.
Xue Meng finds Shizun's horse. He had gone into the forest on foot, but he takes the horse out.
It is just past sunset when he makes it into the village, pale and sweating.
He intends to go home, to his father, but he happens to run into Shi Mei first.
“Xue Meng, what’s wrong?”
"There's a creepy castle in the forest and some kind of creature living there and it's got Shizun!"
“It’s what?”
"There was this weird patch of trees that were wrong and they spat me out in front of this creepy castle and I decided fuck it and left but it just spat me out in the same place and I went inside and the creature said I was a trespasser and he was going to keep me there and then Shizun showed up and offered to stay in my place and it said yes!"
What the FUCK.
This was not supposed to happen. This is entirely the opposite of what was supposed to happen.
Shi Mei gapes at Xue Meng, pale and horrified. (He's furious.) "We need - we need to tell your father right now."
"I know, I was on my way there." He gets down off the horse so he can walk beside Shi Mei to his house; it couldn't go at full speed through the village anyway.
Shi Mei is quite tall and can walk very quickly when he wants to. They rush to Xue Zhengyong's house and pound on the door.
Xue Zhengyong opens the door. He sees the youngsters' faces and pales.
"What's wrong?" he asks.
"There's a creature in a castle in the woods and it's got Shizun!" Xue Meng blurts.
"--What?" Xue Zhengyong gapes.
Xue Meng explains what happened. Xue Zhengyong still looks mostly flummoxed.
"We need to go rescue him! Xue Meng can lead us there. We should leave right away."
"--Yes, of course," Xue Zhengyong says. "Only--you're sure that's really what happened? It sounds so bizarre."
"I'm sure!" Xue Meng snaps.
Xue Zhengyong rounds up a posse, who receive less implausible detail, and they head off into the forest.
Shi Mei splits off early from the group and rushes ahead, knowing the route and its shortcuts better than Xue Meng. Ideally he will get the castle and the forest to expel Chu Wanning before the search party has a chance to get a closer look and be drawn into investigating.
The spooky trees rustle menacingly at him.
And???
And nothing. No Chu Wannings emerge.
What the fuck.
What the fuck!
That is deeply concerning on multiple levels and should not be happening and Shi Mei does not have time to figure it out now. He doubles back and rejoins the group.
The group is completely failing to find the castle and the forest, which would probably say bad things about their competence if the castle and the forest weren't already known to have spooky navigation-related magic.
Xue Meng is still extremely frustrated. And worried about Shizun!!!
Shi Mei is also very upset!!! He returns home in a very bad mood.
A few hours after the beast leaves Chu Wanning alone in his room, there is a soft, polite knock at the door.
"Enter."
The door opens.
The girl on the other side is dressed like a servant, and holding a tray of food.
She is also made of metal, looking in some ways more like one of Chu Wanning's inventions than like a human being.
She sets the tray down somewhere not on top of any papers and bows.
"Do you speak?"
"I do, sir."
"What's your name?"
"I'm called A-Fei, sir."
"Does the beast of this palace treat you well?"
"Very well, sir. I like it here."
"Mm.
Why do you stay here?"
"I did not like the treatment I was getting at home, so I ran away. I found myself here, quite without meaning to. But it's a fine place to run to. The Beast doesn't beat us, or scream at us. There's always enough to eat, if you still have to. And," she raises her hands and flexes fingers jointed like gauntlets, "I like this body."
He peers at her finger joints. Impressive. "This is the Beast's work?"
"Yes. It was created by magic, not in a forge, but he still had to design it."
"I see. Did he send you to summon me?"
"No, sir, just to bring you supper."
"Thank you. Do you know if the food is safe?"
"...I suppose he could have poisoned it, but he's never done so before that I know of..."
He supposes either way he has agreed to stay here in the Beast's domain, subject to the Beast's whims. If the Beast chooses to drug Chu Wanning, he is hardly in a position to resist.
He sits down in front of the food. "Where is he now?"
"The last I saw he was in the garden, but he might have left by now."
"Where does he spend most of his time?"
"The garden. Or the library. Or his room."
"Have you been in his room?"
"No. I've seen it through the open door a few times, but I've never gone inside."
"Hm.
Thank you. You may leave." If he is about to drug himself, he would rather not do so before an audience.
She bows again and leaves, shutting the door behind herself.
He folds his legs neatly and begins to eat.
The food contains 0% drugs! Either that or the drugs are subtle enough that he doesn't notice them from the inside.
Well. This appears to be good news.
He picks up the emptied tray and carries it from the room; he can explore while he tries to find the kitchen.
It's a large castle.
Some rooms are apparently storage rooms; some are completely empty; some have a clear purpose, like this one that has several different kinds of musical instrument set up in it.
It would be very easy to get lost.
He assumes the Beast will be able to locate him if needed. Getting lost doesn't worry him; he wants to investigate as thoroughly as possible. If he encounters more of the Beast's creations, so much the better.
Eventually he comes across an old man whose body appears to have been carved of stone, going over some papers.
He approaches. "Who are you?"
He looks up.
"I'm Old Liu. You must be the new...guest."
"Prisoner."
He shrugs. "Fair enough. I'm sorry, for what it's worth."
"I wasn't holding it against you. Have you always been made of stone?"
"No. All of us change, who choose to become bound to the castle. A-Fei is the most enthusiastic about it, but none of us mind it enough that we didn't choose to stay anyway."
"Is it painful?"
"No. I don't feel pain at all, anymore."
"How did he bind you to the castle?"
"I don't think even he understands how the magic of this place works, or how it is that he can do what he can do, or why he can do some things and not others."
Hrm. That's not very promising. But there still must be other clues to how the Beast was first bound here if he looks closely enough at these other "guests" and the Beast's magic.
"How long have you been here?"
"A little over two years now, I think. What's the date?"
He provides the date of his arrival.
"Yes, two years and a bit less than a month."
"Do you know how long the Beast has been here?"
"The summer before I arrived. He doesn't remember anything from immediately before then."
"And no one was here before him?"
"He was alone when he woke up. There might have been people here who left before then."
"Hm.
Do you know where he is right now?"
"No. But I know how to find him."
"What does that mean?"
"The beast has a magic mirror that will show you whatever you tell it to show you. He created it with the intention of alleviating some of the effects of being trapped here, but its use for that purpose proved limited, as he couldn't remember very many places to tell it. I have standing permission to use it to locate him."
Interesting.
"No need, right now. I would accept directions to the kitchen."
He provides directions.
Wanning takes his tray to the kitchen.
He doesn't run into anybody on the way to the kitchen.
On the way out of the kitchen, he finds the doorway blocked by the beast, curled up like a large, obnoxious, overdressed dog.
That is -
NOT cute. At all. This is alarming and worrisome and inconvenient and not adorable! At all!!!
Chu Wanning clears his throat. "Sir. You're in my way."
"Oh, am I?"
He uncurls and stretches and yawns, revealing an objectively alarming number of teeth, and stands up off to the side where he isn't blocking the doorway.
Yes. Alarming. That number of teeth is objectively alarming and Chu Wanning is very alarmed and Nothing Else.
He frowns disapprovingly. "Don't you have a bedroom?"
"Yes. So?"
"So sleep there instead of blocking the way for everyone! You don't use a bed?"
He grins at Wanning in a way that can only be disqualified from being called a leer by dint of its sheer honest good cheer.
"I'd be happy to."
He flushes vividly. "That is not what I meant."
"Are you sure?" he teases.
"Yes!!!"
"What a pity."
Chu Wanning glowers at him in Brimming Panic Fury.
The beast grins.
"How do you like the castle?"
"It's serviceable."
"It is that. Is there anything you'd like to see?"
"I met A-Fei and Old Liu. I want to meet everyone in the palace and investigate them until I figure out the palace binding."
"Ahhh." He sets off down a hallway, assuming Chu Wanning will keep up. "What did you think of them?"
"They seem happier than I would expect. They claim to be treated well. A-Fei was under the impression that you had not drugged my meal."
He laughs. "Why would I do that?"
“A number of reasons!”
They reach the door to a room, which is apparently their destination since the beast pushes it open.
"If I were going to drug you for nefarious purposes, I would do it myself, not send A-Fei to do it."
“So you consider that a possibility!” He stomps through the doorway.
This may have been a tactical mistake since the room is very obviously the beast's bedroom. Mostly because it's a bedroom with a large bed and a non-zero amount of shed hairs.
"It doesn't seem likely. I can't think of anything I could get from drugging you that I wouldn't rather have from you sober."
"You would rather have me sober than willing."
"I told you, I don't use force. I think I can have both."
Don't look at the bed don't look at the bed don't look at the bed Don't Think About The Bed.
"You are presumptuous and foul!!"
The beast tips his chin up and kisses him.
It seems like it shouldn't be possible for someone whose face is shaped like that to kiss well. And yet.
Chu Wanning has never been kissed before.
Kissing a creature like this shouldn't be able to form a positive first impression. And yet.
It takes him about twenty seconds to process what is happening (and how much he likes it) and remember to be deeply insulted by it. Wanning makes a muffled furious noise and punches the Beast in the shoulder.
He breaks off the kiss and grins at him.
Spluttering!!! "You dare!"
"You're cute when you're flustered."
Now the Beast is just trying to make fun of him. Chu Wanning huffs and stomps back towards the door.
"Hang on," he says, and scoops up the magic mirror before following him.
"Show me Zhao Naisi."
The mirror's surface ripples and clears, showing a girl made of what looks like woven plants, sitting in a bedroom and frowning at a book.
"Show me Chen Daiyu."
The mirror's surface ripples again, showing a woman covered in what looks like an insect's exoskeleton in brilliantly jeweled colors, working in the garden.
"...Thank you."
He hesitates. "Where did you get that mirror?"
"I made it. Or the castle made it, after I coaxed it long enough."
"Have you always been able to affect the castle? Can anyone else?"
"It took me months from when I first woke up to get it to do anything on purpose. The others try, sometimes, but none of them have succeeded."
"Hm."
He leaves.
The beast watches him go (damn, what an ass).
Chu Wanning doesn't feel comfortable going to anyone else's bedroom. He seeks out the garden to find Chen Daiyu.
She's still right where she was in the mirror, wrangling a thorny bush of some kind. She stops and looks up when she hears him approach.
"Chen Daiyu?"
"That's me. Do you want something?"
"No. How long have you lived here?"
"Um, it's late spring now, so...between six and eight months, I think."
"Do you reside here willingly?"
"Mmhm. If I wasn't willing, I'd still have normal skin. The beast doesn't bind anyone to the castle who isn't willing, he says there's no way it wouldn't be more trouble than it's worth in the long run."
"Why did you stay?"
"I didn't have anything to not stay for, really. All my relatives are idiots and there wasn't anybody who wanted to marry me who constituted a significant enough improvement to be worthwhile. Here I can do what I want, except when Beast wants something, which is rare enough to give me plenty of time to myself, and when I don't want to be by myself Old Liu and A-Fei and Naisi and even the beast are decent company."
"What did the binding feel like?"
"...There was a wind," she says thoughtfully, "and then it sort of wrapped around me, and sank into me--it was cold, but it was a good cold."
"Did the wind come from the Beast or the palace? Could you tell the direction?"
"Not really...I say it wrapped around me but it was always going in a circle around me, it's just that it got tighter and tighter."
"Always?"
"When the wind started, it was going in a circle, there wasn't always wind."
"I see. Has the Beast ever killed someone, that you know of?"
"Not that I know of. I don't think he'd do it without a really compelling reason, his bark is way worse than his bite."
This is completely neutral information. Chu Wanning is completely uninterested in how the beast bites. She wasn't even talking about how the beast literally bites, and he isn't thinking about it either!! At all!!
"I see. May I find you here again if I have more questions?"
"I won't always be here but I don't mind answering questions wherever."
"Thank you."
He'll attempt to return to his room now; he still isn't interested in bothering Zhao Naisi in hers.
His room is pretty close to the entrance; if he circles around he can get there without getting turned around at all.
Good.
He tidies his letters into the drawer of the writing table, and then climbs into bed. There is nothing left to do with himself for now but let thoughts spin around in his head, stitching together new questions and designs and experiments.
When he attempts to leave his room the next morning he finds the situation with the kitchen replicated.
That's alarming!! Chu Wanning panics; he's so strongly inclined to kick the Beast that he has to slam the door shut instead.
He leans against it, breathing hard. What's wrong with this creature? Flaunting his own bed to Chu Wanning only to completely neglect it in favor of the floor! What was he doing here, did he think Wanning might run? Had he wanted to watch Wanning sleep? Chu Wanning can't think of a single motivation that would excuse such absurd behavior.
He might have woken the Beast already by shutting the door so violently, but Chu Wanning is now determined not to acknowledge this problem at all. He'll write at his desk until the Beast leaves. That's a perfectly acceptable plan.
Slightly less than an hour later, there is a knock on the door.
"What!"
"--I brought breakfast?" A-Fei's voice replies, startled.
Oops.
He opens the door sharply, scowling, and scans the hallway for any signs of Beast. "Come in."
No beast is present.
"Are you alright?" A-Fei asks, sidling past him and setting the breakfast tray down on a convenient surface.
"Fine. Why doesn't your Beast sleep in his own damn room?"
"He...does? Generally? As far as I know?"
Clearly not!!!
"Nevermind," he says crossly. "When he bound you to the palace, did wind swirl around you?"
"--Yes."
"Did you notice anything else? Where did the metal come from?"
"It didn't really come from anywhere, one moment I was made of flesh and then the next moment there was nice clean metal there instead."
This is unhelpful. He frowns. "That's all."
"I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Uh, the wind seemed to sort of flow into my body, and it felt very cold, and that's when the change happened?"
He pulls out some paper to jot this down. "When did you stop feeling cold?"
"I felt cold for the last few moments I was in my flesh body and then when the change happened the cold stopped."
He writes that down as well. "Thank you. Do you know where I can find Zhao Naisi?"
"At this time of day she's probably in the library or one of the music rooms, trying to teach herself something."
"Thank you. That's all."
She bows and leaves.
He eats his breakfast.
When he finishes, he takes his tray to the kitchen again. If he encounters nothing else, he'll proceed to seek out Zhao Naisi.
Zhao Naisi is in the library, staring at a book with brow-furrowed concentration.
"Miss Zhao?"
She looks up, startled.
"Yes, hello," she says, shutting her book and setting it to the side.
"I want to ask you questions about your transformation. How long have you lived here?"
"I came here last winter. We don't really keep track of the date."
"Describe the binding process for me. When you chose to stay here."
"Um, I...wasn't paying that much attention to the process specifically, at the time, but--there was wind, and I guess I briefly felt really cold, and then suddenly I was," she gestures at herself, "like this. It felt like--" she holds up a hand; the tendrils that make up her fingers unweave into a loose frond of a thousand filaments "--like something inside me that had been tied tightly had come undone, and suddenly I could move my body in ways that just hadn't been there before." The strands re-weave themselves, and she puts he hand down.
"Does it feel natural to you?"
"Yes, very much so."
"Thank you for your time."
He leaves to look for the Beast again, frowning in thought.
The beast is, at this time, in his bedroom again.
He knocks on the door.
The beast opens the door and smiles, apparently sincerely delighted to see him.
That makes Chu Wanning abruptly more annoyed. He glowers.
"What were you doing outside my room this morning?"
--His grin drops abruptly.
"You saw that?"
Oh no come back. "Was I to never leave my room?!"
"I--thought I would be gone before you woke up."
"Why were you there in the first place!"
"I don't know."
"I wanted to. I just don't know why I wanted to. To be near you like that."
"It is that lonely for you here? I'm not good company."
"You're plenty good company," he protests.
"Hardly! And no company at all when I'm sleeping."
"Just being near someone is different from being alone, even if you're not interacting with them. And I like interacting with you."
"Then you are more moronic than I'd assumed."
--He laughs.
???
"No one's had the nerve to insult me to my face for a long time."
He frowns. "Are you going to punish me for it?"
"Of course not. I like you."
This is a very frustrating conversation. Chu Wanning scoffs. "I've been asking your residents about their transformations, and the binding. Did you also experience cold wind? Do you remember being bound?"
"No. I don't remember anything for several years before I woke up here, already in this shape."
"Does the shape feel natural to you?"
"Hmm." He inspects one of his clawed, furred hands. "It's hard to say. It's so difficult to separate the shape from the circumstances I find myself in. On the one hand, I despise being trapped. On the other hand, nobody in this castle ever goes hungry. I know better than to take that for granted." He flexes his hand. "I suppose I do. I don't always like it. But it's not distracting, when I'm thinking about something else."
"Do you sense or possess any of the castle's magic? It sounds as though you were involved with the others' bindings."
"I can ask the castle to do things, including binding others to it. I can't directly sense anything, or I wouldn't need to use the mirror to find the others. I can't tell the difference between when the castle does or doesn't do what I ask besides in seeing the effects."
"Hm." It's difficult to know where to begin, searching for the castle's magic let alone unraveling it. He frowns. "I will attempt to examine further."
His smile softens. "Thank you."
"Inform me of anything else useful to do in the meantime."
His lips curve mischievously. "Useful like how?"
Affronted spluttering. "N - nothing like that you pervert."
He tries very hard not to imagine the Beast ordering him into bed. He tries very hard not to enjoy imagining the Beast ordering him into the bed. He tries SO HARD to ignore how hot it would be if the Beast did that.
"Did I say anything?" he asks, grinning.
"You implied something! You thought something! Bastard!"
He laughs. "If you're going to take me to task for thinking things you might have to use stronger words than that." His eyes sweep up and down Chu Wanning's body.
Chu Wanning cannot take the Beast to task for anything right this moment because he is abruptly too busy Asphyxiating.
aa aA AA Aaaaa
The Beast scoops him up and kisses him again.
!!!!
One of Beast's hands slides into Chu Wanning's robes, pinching a nipple and rolling it between two fingers.
SQUEAK
He carries Wanning over to the bed and sits down with him in his lap.
It seems that there are other parts of him besides his height and hands that are larger than human-usual.
Oh fuck.
All the blood rushes to Chu Wanning's head. He wheezes, flapping his hands at the Beast's shoulders and fighting for breath. "Wh - you -- "
The beast takes his chin in the hand not currently molesting his chest and kisses him again.
"I have senses better than a human's, in this form." Kiss. "I can tell, when someone reacts to me." Kiss. "I think there are things that you want, but can't let yourself have. And I want to give them to you." Kiss.
Chu Wanning's heart hammers; his face burns and he gasps speechlessly. He is going to explode, he is going to kill the beast for his audacity, he is going to --
-- he wants --
He is melting. He wants.
The beast removes Chu Wanning's clothes, taking his time as he interrupts the task occasionally to do things that feel much nicer than they really have any right to to his chest or his ass or any other extremely molestable body parts he can get his hands on.
Chu Wanning whimpers and gasps. His whole body trembles and jerks to and fro, pent up. On one particularly intense pulse of arousal, he panics and slaps the beast across his jaw.
The beast chuckles and presses a kiss to the palm of that hand before continuing.
When all of Wanning's clothes are off, the beast wraps his oversized hand around him and gives him a few strokes.
“Nngh-”
Beast is much faster getting his own clothes off.
And then--
Nobody else has ever touched Chu Wanning there before.
Ah.
It feels too intense and too pleasurable and it's too gentle, he feels - ashamed. Complicit in something so tender and indulgent. Chu Wanning flails. He needs to keep struggling; receiving this pleasure is unacceptable unless he struggles.
Fortunately for both of them, his struggles do absolutely nothing to deter the Beast. He works him open carefully, and then--
It feels even bigger inside than it did when Chu Wanning was just on his lap.
Chu Wanning loses track of the noises he makes and how loudly he makes them. (They are, in fact: very loud.) He falls limp and keens high in his throat, breathless and overwhelmed,
The beast makes it very, very good.
It is definitely not too gentle.
He fights, and he cries out, and he melts in pleasure all over the Beast's bed.
He wishes it didn't feel so good. It feels so good that everything else in the world fades away.
The Beast makes him come several times before he finally withdraws and snuggles down into the bed with him.
Chu Wanning snuggles back. He's too exhausted to speak.
Beast is VERY FLUFFY. It's extremely snuggable. He doesn't make any attempt to say anything either, just holds him close.
Chu Wanning falls asleep on the very fluffy snuggly beast.
ADORABLE. Beast curls up around him and takes a nap himself.
Eventually he wakes up.
He supposes it doesn't feel all that different, having become A Whore. His body is sore and sleepy, but his mind remains clear.
He feels... disgusted by himself. He had wanted too much. He had fought too little. How can he be so lonely and desperate, to have enjoyed this?
It would be absurd to mourn his damaged marriageability. Chu Wanning was never going to marry anyone. No one was ever going to want to marry him. (Besides Shi Me. Wanning certainly does not mind if Shi Mei now find him less desirable.) Nothing is different. People in the town already avoided him. Having been deflowered by a literal beast might not have any impact on his social life at all. He was always going to be alone.
It's fine.
Wanning needs to get some fresh air. He attempt to quietly extricate himself from the sleeping beast.
The beast grumbles a little in his sleep but relinquishes his hold on him easily enough.
Chu Wanning picks up his clothes from the floor and dresses quickly. He slips from the room.
Slips from the palace, if he can. Out into the woods, where he can think.
The forest is quiet and still and peaceful and very conducive to thinking.
(For now.)
(Perhaps too quiet?)
Quiet is fine. He just wants to think.
He doesn't have to tell anyone, really. No one has to know, unless that person were going to marry him, and no one is going to marry him anymore. So it's fine.
This has in no way changed his future, certainly in no way more than being imprisoned by the beast in the first place. Nobody has to know and nothing is going to change and Chu Wanning is going to be alone forever as he was already aware. It's fine.
After some suitable interval of musing, his thoughts are rudely interrupted by the growl of a wolf ahead and to his left.
The fuck.
Chu Wanning looks up sharply.
There is a wolf where he heard the sound from.
There is also another wolf, off to the right, and another, farther back, directly ahead of him.
They are approaching slowly.
He backs away just as slowly, reaching for - for - a stick, anything, any useless thing.
There are sticks lying around!
There are also more wolves behind him.
He reaches very slowly for a stick. The stick is absolutely not going to save him.
The Beast wakes.
He is alone in the bed. The sheets are cold.
He's disappointed, but not really surprised.
He reaches out for the mirror, hesitates, then picks it up and says, "Show me Chu Wanning."
He forgets all his privacy concerns in an instant, dropping the mirror on the bed and tearing out of the room without another thought.
Chu Wanning holds the stick high and prepares - to swing it, to feel teeth in his throat.
The wolf lunges.
The Beast bursts through the trees and tackles the wolf out of mid-air.
The other wolves are suddenly VERY DISTRACTED from Chu Wanning.
If Chu Wanning had any doubts about whether the beast's claws and fangs were capable of inflicting serious damage, those doubts can now be laid permanently to rest.
Chu Wanning stumbles back against a tree, staring. Breathing returns to him in unsteady gasps.
The Beast fights all the wolves at once.
Then he fights all the wolves except the ones he has already killed.
Then he fights only a few wolves while surrounded by wolf carcasses.
Eventually all the wolves are dead, and he stands, breathing hard and bleeding from any number of wolf-inflicted injuries (his clothes are definitely a lost cause).
"Are you alright?"
"You're bleeding."
He shakes himself; drops of blood fly in all directions. "I'll be alright. Were you hurt?"
He recoils away from the blood droplets. "No!"
"Sorry," he says slightly sheepishly of the blood, and relaxes fractionally. "When I woke up and you weren't there, I looked for you in the mirror. I saw the wolves. I was afraid I wouldn't get here in time."
"Why on earth would you ever be concerned about that! You just almost killed yourself, fool!"
"Well I couldn't let you die!"
"Why not!"
"I don't know!"
"I just couldn't."
Chu Wanning doesn’t know what to say to that. He doesn’t want to say anything at all. He wants the Beast to throw him over his shoulder and drag him back to the castle and lock him away and crush him against another mattress before he has time to think about any of this.
“You need bandages,” he forces out at last, eyes trained on the ground.
"I suppose I do," he says wryly. He gives Chu Wanning a lopsided grin and then picks him up, tosses him over his shoulder, and lopes back to the castle at a pace that does a lot to explain how he got there in time.
!!!
Chu Wanning yelps and claws at the Beast's shoulder, blushing violently.
He sets him down once they're inside the castle and the doors closed.
"Sorry. I just wanted to not find out if the wolves had any more friends." He brushes off Chu Wanning's shoulder unnecessarily.
Incoherent horny fuming.
He tips Wanning's chin up and kisses him before loping off to fetch cloth and clean water.
Chu Wanning thinks he needs to sit down. He leans against the nearest wall and closes his eyes.
The beast returns with the supplies and tries to see to Wanning's little scratches first.
Chu Wanning bats him away. “See you yourself first, what’s wrong with you!”
"I can't reach most of my own injuries ," he points out.
Chu Wanning exhales sharply through his nose and snatches the supplies away. "Then say that!" he snaps. "Let me see your back."
The beast sheds the tattered remains of his clothes unselfconsciously and turns around.
(His back is also unfairly attractive, broad and muscled under the fur.)
No It's Not Fuck You.
The beast's back is not attractive at all! Chu Wanning is not attracted to it at all. He is perfectly calm and not overcome with lust in the slightest.
He moves forward calmly to begin cleaning and bandaging the deepest claw marks. (The beast really is........ so muscled. And so much larger than Chu Wanning. Fuck.)
The Beast makes small noises of ambiguous valence when the cuts are agitated by being washed.
Chu Wanning is indifferent to any noises the beast may or may not make, but he tries to be gentle.
"Does the magic of this place heal you quickly?"
"I think so," he says, "but not instantly, and I haven't had a lot of opportunity to test it...I haven't been in the most scientific mood when I've been hurt, in the past."
He scowls. "Do you charge off to get hurt like this every time someone gets attacked by wolves in the area?"
"It doesn't generally happen. Those of us bound to the castle don't really smell like food, I imagine--stone and metal and plants and bugs aren't really things that wolves eat, and I'm fairly sure I smell like a threat. You're the first guest who's ever been attacked. I would try to rescue anyone who was attacked by wolves, but--you're special. I don't know all the reasons why, yet, but you are. I can feel it."
He applies bandages in silence for a while.
Finally: "There's no reason for that."
"You don't know that. I don't know that. I can't remember so much of my life before I came here...maybe we had some small interaction, when I was a child, that you forgot but I treasured forever. Until it was lost to me."
"If you were a child, I only would have frightened you." Bandage bandage. "Are there cuts on your arms? Let me see them."
He holds out his arms. "I wouldn't have been a small child; I retained almost all of that. My memories cut off when I was about twelve."
He gently parts fur with his fingers to get a better look at the injuries. "You remember where you grew up, then?"
There are a whole bunch of bite wounds on his arms. "Yes, why?"
"I could try to get a letter to your family, if you know their names. If you want them to know."
"I don't have any living family," he says quietly.
"-I apologize." Bandage bandage.
"It's alright." He is quiet for a few moments. "It was only ever me and my mother, and then there was a famine..."
“I remember. Many suffered.”
"She gave me everything she could get. She died so that I could survive."
He places the last bandage. "Are there wounds I missed?"
"I don't think so. Let me check you, now."
“Unnecessary.” He makes a shooing motion.
"It's not unnecessary," he says, turning around (he has not put any clothes on). "Let me see." He grasps Chu Wanning's arm where a welt is raised on the skin.
Chu Wanning’s cock throbs. He hisses and slaps the Beast’s hand as hard as he can. “Unhand me!”
"Your injuries aren't unimportant just because they aren't as bad as mine." He starts cleaning the scratch firmly, ignoring Wanning's protest.
Chu Wanning throws a contained fit throughout this process, scowling fiercely and tugging his arm again and again.
The beast finishes cleaning the scratch, and finally lets go of his arm.
"Thank you. For taking care of my wounds. For caring about them."
"Who said I cared?"
He grins. "Actions speak louder than words, sometimes."
How about the action of Stomping Away.
He catches him by the wrist and pulls him into another kiss.
FURIOUS STRANGLED NOISE.
He lets go after a moment.
"I meant it when I said I won't use force," he murmurs. "But I also meant it when I said I can smell when you want me."
He stays rooted to the spot, breathing heavily.
The Beast kisses him again.
He doesn't resist, this time. He doesn't kiss back. He smells very aroused.
The Beast picks him up, still kissing him, and starts walking.
"You're so beautiful," he murmurs between kisses. "You smell so good."
"Don't," he gasps. "Stop - talking."
"Alright," he says, and continues to kiss him without saying anything.
He doesn't say anything all the way back to his room, through laying Chu Wanning out and undressing him, although he does give him plenty of room to verbally protest if he decides to.
Chu Wanning doesn't want room to verbally protest!!! Why is the beast so insistent on humiliating him!!! Chu Wanning claws impatiently at the beast's shoulders, avoiding the bandages; he wants this to go faster. He wants to stop being able to think already.
And then the Beast presses him to the mattress and makes him stop thinking.
Ah.
Ah.
Chu Wanning melts quickly. His eyes flutter shut and his mouth hangs open, leaking a constant stream of quiet, aching noises.
Gorgeous. Amazing.
It seems that the superhuman characteristics of this beastly form that gave him such astonishing speed do something for his stamina, too.
This is very useful for purposes of Chu Wanning not being able to think. He goes limp after he comes for the second time.
Eventually, after an interminable period of time, there are More Snuggles. So many snuggles.
Eventually he comes back to himself like this, soft and sated with pleasure in the beast's arms.
He cannot remember ever in his life feeling so relaxed, or so ruined. He is probably ruined forever, now. It is harder to care about that now than it was this morning. He tries to care more.
He snuggles the beast.
The Beast snuggles him back, soft and affectionate, petting his hair gently.
He is going to be alone and unmarried for the rest of his life, now, but - maybe not entirely alone. If he stays here. If he lets the Beast keep him.
"How are your injuries?"
"Better," he says. "I heal more quickly than I remember from when I was a child."
"Do you remember getting hurt a lot?"
...He shrugs.
"I don't know how much is a lot."
"How do you remember getting hurt?"
"My mother was a dancer. Sometimes people were unkind. I tried to help."