Title: Hard Limits
Fandom: Guardian
Rating: Teen
Length: ~1800
Author's note: Thanks for beta to runningondreams! Also using this for whumptober (uh, prompts 2, 3, 11, 12) and my hc_bingo  card (possession).
Summary: It wasn't Zhao Yunlan looking at Shen Wei through his eyes.


On Monday, a wife shot her loving husband. On Tuesday, a teenage kid broke the neck of his teacher during class. On Wednesday, a nurse strangled a patient in ER.

On Thursday, the SID was called in, because two officers from different teams shared the laughable excuses provided by the culprits and found that they were exactly, to the word, the same: I didn't do it. I don't know what happened. Someone grabbed my wrist when I was going there. I thought I was asleep. I couldn't control my body at all; it seemed like a nightmare. They quickly found one more testimony like that and immediately dumped the case on another department.

Which left Zhao Yunlan pouring over the case files with Shen Wei.

"Any ideas?"

"Some kind of hypnotic powers." Shen Wei frowned. "That, or—possession."

Zhao Yunlan gave him an unimpressed look. "You're kidding, right."

"I don't mean ghosts, Zhao Yunlan. It's the physical touch element that makes me think of it—I have heard of Dixing powers that would let the Dixingren move their consciousness into another person's body." Shen Wei felt his frown deepening. Zhang Shi was the obvious candidate to ask for more information here—Shen Wei wasn't familiar with his power other than the general description, and definitely did not want to learn it, but he also hadn't heard of other people using a power like this before.

The issue was that, of course, asking Zhang Shi meant asking Zhao Xinci. Shen Wei didn't want to subject Zhao Yunlan to that, but he'd already tried meeting Zhao Xinci in secret once and did not want to repeat that argument, either.

Mind control powers were easier: they were simpler to detect and to counteract. But the touch wouldn't be necessary, at least in the powers that Shen Wei knew.

"Let's say that's it." Zhao Yunlan twirled the lollipop in his mouth. Shen Wei tried not to get distracted. "Then what happened to the person—or different people—who touched our culprits?" He winced. "Or victims, in this case."

"Good question."

"Lin Jing!" Zhao Yunlan called. "Do you have CCTV from where the people claimed to have lost control over themselves?"

"Just the first one for now, boss!"

"Am I really paying you to be this slow?" Zhao Yunlan shouted back. He looked at Shen Wei. "It'd help if it were one person, but when have we ever been that lucky?"

Well, they were lucky now, as it turned out once Lin Jing found all the recordings. Every affected Haixingren had run into the same nondescript middle-aged man.

An accomplice, carrying the Dixingren with the possession power around, or . . . Shen Wei wondered if it were possible for a Dixingren to divide their consciousness between two bodies. The amount of focus required would be immense, but maybe if they only maintained the minimum level of control over the second body, just enough to get to safety and uphold the vital body functions.

Either way, they had to find him.

***

"Remember not to touch him." They were in front of an abandoned building to which they had traced the man. Shen Wei would've really preferred to apprehend him on his own.

Zhao Yunlan sighed loudly. "You only reminded me about it ten times, Professor Shen. Do your students get the lab safety talk just as often or am I special?" He wiggled his gloved hands at Shen Wei. The only visible part of his skin was his face.

"You are," Shen Wei said, with feeling, unable not to. Maybe if Zhao Yunlan understood, he'd stop risking himself.

It was unlikely, but Shen Wei could hope.

Zhao Yunlan tried the main door; it opened easily. It used to be a one-storey residential building, abandoned because of structural issues. It shouldn't fall down on them once they went inside, but the landlord hadn't wanted to be open to lawsuits if it did when he'd had tenants inside, and so everyone had been forced to move out. There were four flats inside, two on each floor. They thought the culprit would be hiding on the ground floor, mostly because the stairs were reported to be in the worst condition, but they weren't actually sure.

Zhao Yunlan gestured at the door on the left as he approached the one on the right. Shen Wei preferred not to get separated, but they'd had that talk already, and Zhao Yunlan was capable.

Shen Wei walked into the flat. It was dark inside—no electricity, and the windows had been boarded up. It didn't bother him and it wouldn't bother any Dixingren. He stepped quietly, ready to call his glaive, carefully looking around. There was almost no furniture left, only falling apart cupboards. Old newspapers and broken bottles on the ground. Even the bathroom was stripped bare.

He sped up to check the last room, his pulse picking up, but it only confirmed what he'd known already: the flat was empty, which made it very possible that the one Zhao Yunlan was in wasn't.

He turned around to find him, but that was when Zhao Yunlan walked in.

"Empty," he said. "Let's go, then?"

They still had the first floor to look through, which Zhao Yunlan would know, but that wasn't how Shen Wei immediately recognised that even though the body was his, it wasn't Zhao Yunlan looking at him through his eyes. Zhao Yunlan always had a warmth to him, even when they argued. His face now was cold as ice.

"Let him go," Shen Wei ordered, cold on the surface and absolutely incandescent with rage underneath it, "and I will show you mercy."

The man wearing Zhao Yunlan's face laughed at him. "What can you possibly do to me?"

Shen Wei's fingers itched for his blade, but he couldn't fight the Dixingren as they were now or he'd hurt Zhao Yunlan and that was fully unacceptable. If touch was how the Dixingren took over his victims, then Shen Wei had to touch Zhao Yunlan and force the Dixingren out.

He let his power wash over him to summon his robes.

The Dixingren's laugh cut off.

"Let him go," Shen Wei repeated. He took a step forward.

Zhao Yunlan pulled his gun on him.

They were almost close enough that it'd be a point blank shot. Shen Wei wasn't certain if he could block a bullet coming from this gun.

He would risk it without a second thought for Zhao Yunlan, but right now, it wouldn't help him.

He hated the thought of using his powers against Zhao Yunlan, but it seemed like he didn't have a choice. He settled for the basic paralysis power—

"Why am I even hesitating?" the Dixingren asked in Zhao Yunlan's voice. "Dixing will thank me!"

His finger inched towards the trigger.

"No!"

Before Shen Wei could cast his power, Zhao Yunlan dropped his gun and grabbed himself by the throat. "You won't hurt him!"

Shen Wei jumped towards him and pressed his hand against Zhao Yunlan's forehead. Out, he ordered with his dark energy.

Zhao Yunlan fell to the floor.

***

Zhao Yunlan was still unconscious.

Shen Wei had found and restrained the other man without any issues and then dropped him into a SID cell because he definitely had not had the time to drop him into Dixing when Zhao Yunlan could be hurt.

They were in Zhao Yunlan's flat now, and Shen Wei held Zhao Yunlan's wrist in a loose grasp. He should be all right—he had to be all right—but Shen Wei hated that dark energy had once again been used on him.

Hated that he couldn't have kept him safe.

"You can tell me I told you so," Zhao Yunlan muttered.

Shen Wei moved to hold his hand instead. "Yunlan? How are you feeling?"

Zhao Yunlan covered his eyes with his other hand. "A killer of a headache."

There were other ways to heal that, but Shen Wei opted to press a kiss to Zhao Yunlan's forehead, spreading a cool, healing energy through him.

Zhao Yunlan peeked at him from between his fingers. "That's better. I'm sorry."

"I should've been quicker," Shen Wei said. "It's my fault."

Zhao Yunlan stared at him incredulously. "Wait, let me go." He freed his hand and sat up. "I can't have an argument with you while holding your hand, it just doesn't work."

Shen Wei blinked at him. "I'm not arguing with you."

"Well, I am arguing with you!" Zhao Yunlan pointed his finger at him. "What the hell, xiao-Wei? I pointed my damn gun at you and you're apologising?"

Shen Wei stared back at him. "You didn't."

"I might as well have! What if—I almost shot you! And you said we shouldn't separate, so—"

"You're not blaming any of the other people for their actions," Shen Wei stated. "You don't get to blame yourself. Chen Rong was made to shoot her husband. You wrestled control of yourself back. It's admirable. And if I'd been quicker, it wouldn't have been necessary."

"They didn't know what was—" Zhao Yunlan stopped himself. "Yeah, all right. I won't blame myself if you won't blame yourself."

"I'm—"

"Nuh-uh, Shen Wei. Nope."

Shen Wei looked at him, frustrated.

"I'm not going to listen to any apology if you won't," Zhao Yunlan said.

"Zhao Yunlan."

"Shen Wei."

Shen Wei sighed. "Fine. It wasn't anyone's fault." Even if he didn't agree with Zhao Yunlan's judgment on the matter at hand, he was relieved that he was really unharmed.

Zhao Yunlan grinned. "Right! So glad you think that way!" But then he looked down. "I could see it, you know. What I—what he was doing with my body. I was so scared for you."

Shen Wei reached for him. "Can I hold your hand now?"

That startled a laugh of Zhao Yunlan, and then, when Shen Wei touched him again, he pulled Shen Wei towards himself. Shen Wei didn't fight it; let himself fall on the bed next to Zhao Yunlan and wrapped his arms securely around him.

"He couldn't have hurt me," he whispered against Zhao Yunlan's neck, a promise. "I wouldn't have let him do that to you."

"It'd make me feel better if you were worried for your own well-being here, xiao-Wei." His breath tickled the skin on Shen Wei's head.

"I will if you will."

Zhao Yunlan huffed a laugh. "Of course you'd use it against me. Guess we'll have to disagree here."

"We can agree on that," Shen Wei said solemnly.

"Mm. Right. Come up here and kiss me."

Shen Wei happily obeyed.