Title: Chasing Sweetness
Fandom: The Mystic Nine
Pairing: Ba Ye/Lt. Zhang
Rating: T
Word count: 638
Summary: The candied fruit was an excellent, yet also absolutely terrible idea.
Prompt: Law/lore. If you squint. >.>



The candied fruit, Zhang Rishan decided, had been both an excellent idea and an absolutely terrible one. It had been delicious on its own, a sweet treat he didn't often indulge in, but now there were were traces of sugar on Ba Ye's lips and public decency dictated he not shove the other man up against the nearest wall and chase the sweetness from his lips into his mouth. That couldn't stop him staring, or prevent the bitten off whimper as Ba Ye licked the sugar off his lips, twirling the now empty bamboo stick between his fingers as he did so.

Ba Ye looked startled for a moment, taking in both whimper and stare blankly before confusion turned into looking supremely pleased with himself. It was an expression both appealing and infuriating and Zhang Rishan needed to do something about it right now, before he could no longer be held accountable for his actions and had his way with Ba Ye right here and now on a public street. Fo Ye would understand, surely: after all, he was the one who taught Rishan that the best way to deal with Ba Ye was through direct action.

Though, direct action in the form of seducing one of his General's oldest and best friends - especially in public - was probably not what Fo Ye had had in mind when imparting that particular lesson, granted.

"Do you have any plans for the rest of the day, Lieutenant?" Ba Ye asked, all innocence as he idly tapped the bamboo stick against his mouth and it took all of Zhang Rishan's considerable willpower not to stare. Or at least, not anymore than he had been already.

"I'm free this afternoon," he managed, striving for casual and nonchalant. "No particular plans, though."

"Come over to mine for some tea, then," Ba Ye offered, waving his empty hand down the street in invitation.

"I'd be happy to, thank you."

They just about made it to the private quarters of Ba Ye's place before Zhang Rishan gave in and pushed Ba Ye up against that wall, chasing the sweet remnants of candied mandarin in his mouth, hands coming to rest on Ba Ye's waist, holding him in place as Ba Ye sank back against the wall.

"You are a menace," Ba Ye gasped, when they paused a moment to pull in some air. "You can't just look at people like that, Zhang Rishan!"

"Like what?" he asked absently, attention fixed on kiss-swollen lips before flickering over dark, blown out pupils and mussed hair that his fingers itched to mess up even more.

"Aiya! Like that." Ba Ye scowled at him, though it was a half-hearted attempt at best given his current state of general disarray. "Like you want to devour what you're looking at and smirk about it afterwards."

He blinked. "I do?"

"You do."

"Oh."

"'Oh?'" Ba Ye repeated incredulously. "You didn't know?"

"How would I know?" he protested, pouting a bit when Ba Ye flapped a hand at him dismissively.

"Have you taken a look in the mirror recently?"

"I'm not going to look at myself that way, am I?"

"You. You-" Ba Ye trailed off, then raked his hand through Rishan's hair, getting a good handful as he pulled him closer into a kiss that sent sparks down his spine, Ba Ye's close cut nails scraping against his scalp a delicious counterpoint that left him groaning into the kiss. "You're impossible."

Zhang Rishan bit Ba Ye's bottom lip for that blatant hypocrisy, smirking at the hiss it elicited. "I'm impossible?"

"Yes. Absolutely impossible; totally, unrepentantly, aggravatingly- mfph!"

Having food shoved in his mouth might not shut Ba Ye up, Zhang Rishan thought, sliding his hands beneath the split of Ba Ye's changshan, but you couldn't argue with the results of kissing.