Guiying looked at him.

"Don’t you have work?" he said.

Liuxian said nothing.

"Go away," Guiying said. "You have been bothering me since yesterday. I need peace." He leaned back as far as the lap situation allowed. "And I am not kissing your smelly morning mouth."

Liuxian looked at him.

A pause.

"I am hurt," he said, with complete composure. "Fine. I will go to work."

He lifted Guiying off his lap and set him on the bed beside him, stood up, and walked toward the bathroom without looking back.

Guiying sat on the bed and stared at the wall.

"He said he was hurt," he said out loud.

He replayed it. The composure, the pause, the fine. The way he had set him down and walked away without looking back.

"It was a joke," he said. "He was joking."

He sat with that for a moment.

"Was he joking?"

He pressed his lips together.

"He said fine and left. People do not just say fine and leave when they are joking." He stood up. "But he is always composed. That is just how he is. It does not mean anything." He sat back down. "Except he said he was hurt. He specifically said that."

He looked at the door.

"What if he comes home tonight and he is quiet. Not his usual quiet." His frown deepened. "What if I spend the whole evening trying to figure out if he is upset and I get it wrong and make it worse and then it becomes a whole thing and—"

He was already at the door before he finished the sentence.

He went into the corridor and stood outside Liuxian’s door, then sat down against the wall beside it with his knees drawn up.

"I am a rational person," he said quietly, to his knees. "I do not spiral over morning kisses."

He sat there for considerably longer than a moment.

The door opened.

Liuxian stepped out in his full work suit, tie in hand, and nearly stepped on him.

He stopped.

He looked down at Guiying, who was sitting against the wall outside his door with his knees drawn up and his expression completely blank, apparently so deep inside his own head that he had not registered the door opening or the person now standing directly above him.

Liuxian looked at him for a moment.

Then he turned to the mirror on the wall opposite and began working on his tie, because the mirror was there and the tie needed doing and Guiying was clearly somewhere that was going to require a different approach.

"What are you doing down there?" he said.

Guiying did not respond.

Liuxian looked at his reflection for a moment.

Then he crouched down, lowering himself to Guiying’s level, and reached out and took his chin gently, turning his face toward him.

Guiying’s eyes focused slowly, the way eyes did when someone had been very far away and was being called back.

"Guiying," Liuxian said quietly. "What is wrong?"

Guiying looked at him.

"I am sorry," he said. His voice came out small. "Please do not be mad."

Liuxian looked at him.

"What?"

"I am sorry," Guiying said again. "I will kiss you. So do not be angry. I should not have said your mouth was smelly, I did not mean it, I was just—"

"Guiying."

"I will kiss you every morning properly, just please do not—"

"Guiying." Liuxian’s thumb moved gently at his jaw, stilling him. He looked at him for a long moment, something working quietly behind his eyes.

Then he frowned.

Not at Guiying.

At something else, something he was putting together piece by piece.

He stood, reached down, and picked Guiying up off the floor in one motion, settling him on his feet.

"I am not angry," he said. His voice was even and clear and left no room for misinterpretation. "I was not angry. I am sorry if it looked that way." He held Guiying’s gaze steadily. "You do not have to apologize for that. You do not have to apologize for any of that."

Guiying looked at him.

"You do not have to read into everything so deeply," Liuxian said quietly. "Not with me."

He put his hand briefly at the back of Guiying’s head, warm and unhurried, and then let go and picked his tie back up.

"Now," he said, working the tie with the same unhurried efficiency he brought to everything, eyes on his reflection. "If a kiss will stop you from sitting outside people’s doors talking to your knees, come here and get it over with."

Guiying stared at the back of his head.

"I was not talking to my knees," he said.

"I heard you from inside the room," Liuxian said.

Guiying’s ears went red.

Liuxian finished the tie, straightened it once, and turned around. He looked at Guiying with that quiet, warm expression and waited.

Guiying looked at him.

Then he stepped forward, went up on his toes, and kissed him.

Liuxian’s hand came to rest at his waist for the duration of it, light and unhurried, and when Guiying stepped back his expression had settled into something considerably less complicated than it had been five minutes ago.

"Better?" Liuxian said.

Guiying looked away.

"Go to work," he said.

Liuxian smiled, picked up his briefcase, and left.

"Have breakfast," Liuxian said, pausing at the top of the stairs. "And do not think too much." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Then he was gone.

Guiying stood in the corridor for a moment, then went back to his room and changed into his indoor clothes.

He was reaching for his phone when he realized it had been vibrating consistently for the past several minutes.

He picked it up and looked at the screen.

A group chat.

He had been added to a group chat.

He looked at the title.

Omega Rights Foundation — Core Members.

His lips twitched.

There was also a second chat.

The main forum, significantly larger, significantly louder.

He looked at the core members’ chat again.

How had he become a core member?