Chapter 83 - The Wolf Is Gallant, The Fox Is Smug

Xiao Zai dumped the contents of the two pails into the tub, filling it up enough for the water to submerge a person.

He kept chancing Chu Yun looks from the corner of his eyes as he worked. He was sitting up in bed, a nest of mussed sheets pooling around his lap. His white tails curled around the side of his legs, his fox ears flattened in suspicion. Xiao Zai could see the barest hint of yellow from his narrowed eyes.

The sun was coming in into the room from the window behind Chu Yun. The oiled-paper panes diffused the light, enveloping him in a cold glow. His slender chest showed the marks of Xiao Zai's passion, a trail of finger-shaped bruises stood out starkly over the jut of his sharp hipbone.

He was breathtaking, but Xiao Zai didn't think he would appreciate it if he told him that.

It wasn't that Chu Yun was self-conscious about his looks, he was aware of his beauty but he treated it as a fact -- one it didn't bear remarking upon.

Xiao Zai wanted to remark upon it, and all the other things he liked about Chu Yun. He wanted to list them all and whisper them into Chu Yun's skin just to watch him flush with embarrassment.

"What are you looking at?" Chu Yun asked, bristly as ever, half of his face hidden in the crook of his elbow as he hugged his knees to his chest.

Done with the tub, Xiao Zai strode towards him. "Admiring my handiwork," he replied, before lifting Chu Yun into his arms from his nest of dirty sheets.

Predictably, Chu Yun didn't let himself be carried easily. Hissing, "put me down", and kicking Xiao Zai like an angry cat, all of his nine tails hitting him in the face.

Xiao Zai followed his wishes and put him down -- directly into the tub.

He broke the water's surface spitting and cursing, his yellow fox eyes glaring daggers at Xiao Zai. Grinning, Xiao Zai let his outer and inner robes slip to the floor and jumped in after him, splashing water on the wooden floor.

"You'll ruin the floors, stop moving around," Chu Yun complained.

Xiao Zai ignored him and sat down behind him, banding one arm around his waist and pulling him against his chest. 

Every scrap of affection had to be bitterly fought for when it came to Chu Yun and his unpredictable temper. But it was worth it every time when the fight finally left him and he allowed himself to relax into Xiao Zai's embrace.

For a while, Xiao Zai let himself enjoy their closeness. He nosed along Chu Yun's nape, where his fresh pine and orchid scent was strongest. He kissed the unmarred stretch of skin over his scent glands. 

He wanted so badly to mark him back. 

The bond mark Chu Yun had left on him thrummed with awareness, as if responding to Chu Yun's presence. Xiao Zai feared that his body would reject the claim, making him ill, but he didn't feel any different -- perhaps closer to Chu Yun. But that could be due to the mark as much as the sex.

"I can hear you smiling," Chu Yun said, turning to glare at Xiao Zai. "Stop being so smug just because we fucked."

Xiao Zai slid a hand up his chest and pinched his right nipple. "Can't I be happy?"

From behind, Xiao Zai could see Chu Yun's pale earlobes take on a decidedly red tint. "Happy about what?" he mumbled, adding, "embarrassing," under his breath.

If he didn't know it would probably result in his eminent castration, he might consider calling Chu Yun 'cute' when he was being difficult like this.

"Are you ever going to let me mark you?" Xiao Zai asked, returning his attentions to that sliver of unmarred skin. The fall of Chu Yun's hair around the column of his neck framed it in an eye-catching triangle of pale skin.

Chu Yun bumped the top of his head against Xiao Zai's chin, and then tilted his neck back to look up into his eyes, a small smirk playing at the corner of his red lips. "What are you willing to do for the privilege?"

Xiao Zai looked down into his yellow fox eyes, and smiled, "Whatever you tell me to."

Chu Yun let out a laugh, loud and delighted. He nuzzled into Xiao Zai's neck with a sigh. 

"Good boy," he whispered, reaching backwards to run the fingers of one hand over Xiao Zai's wet hair.

His skin still felt hot to the touch, an aftereffect of his rut. Xiao Zai brought his arms around his waist and held him closer in the water.

---

Chu Yun couldn't spend his entire day lazing around in the bath with Xiao Zai. First because the water went cold fast in the winter, second, because he had other things to do.

He had to admit, though, that he felt amazingly relaxed and content. He still didn't understand why his rut had come in so soon, but he was glad that it had. Despite the soreness in his muscles, he felt more clearheaded. 

He knew just what to do with Chu Hean for now. He couldn't keep him at the inn indefinitely, but he also didn't want to bring him home. He suspected that telling him to return to Xin wouldn't work well either.

He could feel Xiao Zai's gaze on him as he got dressed, heavy and heated as Chu Yun covered his body under layers of thick silk. The attention gratified him, he liked knowing how much Xiao Zai desired him.

A kiss fell on the side of his neck as he combed his fingers through his hair. "I'm going to visit my dam, do you want to come?"

So that Gu Wei could take one look at them and know they fucked? No thank you. He would let Xiao Zai handle that himself.

He turned around in Xiao Zai's arms and adjusted the collar of his robes, covering the angry red of the bond mark. "Keep this out of sight for now."

Xiao Zai's smile fell. "Why?"

Something warm and sweet settled on the pit of Chu Yun's stomach. Xiao Zai was proud that Chu Yun had marked him and wanted everyone to see it, the little fool.

"Just for a while, just outside," Chu Yun said, smoothing the fall of his robes. "You can tell your dam about it."

That dispelled some of Xiao Zai's annoyance. "Wear a thick cloak," he warned, tightening Chu Yun's collar around his throat. "It's snowing."

Chu Yun smirked. "Finally, the snow you've been promising me is here."

---

The blanket of white covering the courtyard almost blinded Chu Yun once he stepped out of the pavilion. It only snowed in Xin at high altitudes, and Chu Yun had never seen so much of it in one place.

The tiny snowflakes rained down on him like tiny flowers being blown by the wind. Chu Yun raised his hands to catch them in his palm.

Xiao Zai watched him with a smile. He came up behind him and kissed the side of his head. "I'll be going now, see you later."

He slid his hand from Chu Yun's shoulder down his arm, wrapping around his fingers for a moment before letting go.

Chu Yun watched him walk away with a fond smile of his own. They had sex once and already Xiao Zai was suffering from separation anxiety.

"What could have happened to put such a big smile on his Grace's face?" A sudden voice to his left startled him into retracting his gaze from Xiao Zai's figure.

He turned to Hua Nanyi with a scowl. "Whatever it was your presence just ruined it."

She chuckled, delighted at having annoyed him. "Well, the other servants will not shut up about the interesting noises coming out of his Grace's room all of last night," her smirk widened when Chu Yun hummed in annoyance, "everyone noticed too, when early this morning his Highness personally carried a tub into his Grace's rooms, and the pails of hot water to fill it with."

Chu Yun sometimes questioned the wisdom of paying her a salary to mock him relentlessly. He supposed it kept him humble.

"Could it be that his Highness didn't want even the lowly servants to see the state he had reduced his Grace to?"

With great dignity, Chu Yun reached for the snow-covered railing on his right and closed his hand around a mound of snow which he promptly threw in Hua Nanyi's face.

The shock robbed her of words for a moment.

"I don't know, you tell me," Chu Yun said, tone pleasant, already closing his cold fingers around another handful of snow.

Hua Nanyi expected the second faceful of snow even less than the first, but she managed to duck the third one, scrambling to return Chu Yun's attacks with ones of her own.

In minutes the two of them were chasing each other around the courtyard viciously pelting each other with snowballs. Attracted by the noise some of the other servants came out to watch them.. People from warm places all became children again the moment they saw snow.