Chapter Text
When he was younger, Shen Yuan used to be jealous of his brother for being a deer while Shen Yuan was stuck taking after their grandfather.
Now?
Sure, Shen Jiu was elegance personified. Long, lean, trim, and with a great rack (the childish joke would never get old - it’s persistence was brotherly tradition at this point) of antlers.
But those antlers?
Ha! How could you still look elegant when scraping them desperately with exfoliating loofahs to relieve the itching velvet? Or when one antler shed seasonally before the other, leaving you lopsided?
No, Shen Yuan would take his stubby horns and smaller body gladly after catching Shen Jiu earlier that day miserably rubbing his fresh antlers on the cat tree at their parent’s house.
He was still lingering on that pleasant memory the entire trip back to his own apartment, smiling to himself every now and then as he remembered Shen Jiu’s poisonous expression and the fight to wrest Shen Yuan’s recording phone away from him.
Of course, Shen Yuan had lost.
Did anything about his scrawny Neet body scream ‘capable of physical tasks’?
No. No, it did not.
But what use were muscles in the modern world, ah? Even if he hadn't been born sickly and frail, he wouldn’t have become a muscle-head. He had all the strength needed in his index finger on his phone, calling deliveries and doing gacha pulls.
He wasn’t bitter at all about his joints aching with a walk that would have been normal for the average citizen! (Those lucky bastards.)
Leaving his cane at his house had been a tactical decision. It beat his siblings zeroing in on the fact that maaaybe he wasn’t doing as well as they all hoped after this last surgery. Some pain was worth the lessened coddling.
...Even if it was so cold he felt like he was being fossilized with every moment after getting off the train. He pinned his ears, annoyed that their short fur did little against the frigid night.
He took a few shortcuts on his way home. He wasn’t some oblivious scrub unaware of triggering flags by cutting through alleys, but this was one of the safest neighborhoods in the whole city. The entire ward was herbivore-only, and had pretty decent security.
Also, it was cold as shit! If Shen Yuan couldn’t feel his nose buried under a scarf, would there really be a malingerer lingering outside?
He cut through the alley alongside his apartment building, content in the knowledge that no one sane would be there.
And at first, he didn’t think there was. It was badly lit with just his phone’s flashlight, and Shen Yuan’s night vision wasn’t the best, but it did detect movement to his side.
If he made an embarrassing bleat and while jerking away, there was no evidence, and thus didn’t happen, no need to worry about it!
He swung his phone’s flashlight around, highlighting the person - because that was what it was. It was a man, curled up tight, wedged between a couple bags of garbage. His face was buried in his arms, but had tilted up to glare at him with dark eyes. There seemed to be bruises blooming along one side, and traces of a reddish brown smear (would blood or some goop from the trash be a less gross explanation here??) on his brow.
Shen Yuan wasn’t some brave protagonist with a bleeding heart and naivety as large as her ample bosom.
He mumbled an apology and fled.
Nope! No getting stabbed in an alley for him!!
He made it to the end, and for some reason his legs stopped without conscious input.
...
Had that man really looked so young, or was it the brevity of the glance? Those large black eyes were angry, yes, but something about them gave him a complicated feeling.
Shen Yuan dithered for a few minutes, before he cursed himself and walked back.
“Hey, you need me to call anyone for you?” He asked, awkwardly, because it was more polite than asking why he was snuggling trash bags in the dark.
The man glared up again. Shen Yuan felt his stomach squeeze with the prickles of fear(?).
“I need you to fuck off and leave me alone.” The man snapped. The bruise trailed all the way down his cheek, even stark against the cold-chapped skin. Now Shen Yuan could see all of his face, it looked young indeed. A few years younger than himself, perhaps late teens.
He was also, objectively, extremely beautiful.
Which was a really weird thing to notice! Especially in an abandoned alley at night!
Was Shen Yuan the creep in this scene??
“I won’t hurt you.” He said, flustered from the situation and uh, yeah. Then died a little inside from the cringe.
He hadn’t meant to say it out loud!
The stranger looked at him like he was crazy, and, fair. Shen Yuan was shutting up now.
“As if you could.” The other man sneered.
Even his sneer was pretty, like a villain in a cdrama. Even though his lips were tinged blue.
Shen Yuan unraveled his scarf without thinking, and continued to not think as he knelt on the disgusting ground and wrapped it around the other’s neck and face.
...
He didn’t know who was more shocked, the other man for being treated like a child, or Shen Yuan for his body moving against his own, previously thought to be logical, brain.
But it was too late, so he might as well commit!
The man’s eyes were wide, soon the only visible part of his face as Shen Yuan bundled the scarf up over his mouth and nose, then pulled the sides up to cover where his own ears would have been. However, the slightest changing of shadows from the top of the stranger’s inky hair indicated his ears were higher up.
Shen Yuan tilted his head - he had popped his phone into his mouth in order to hold the light as he fussed over making sure the other was fully covered. It was still too dark to see them well, but the ears looked large, fluffy, and upright. Perhaps some sort of short-eared rabbit? Or fluffy donkey?
He was distracted from his wondering as his brain caught up to his instincts once more, and he blanched and spit his phone out.
Instinctively putting things into his mouth was in the top three most annoying traits about being a goat. If he was distracted for even a moment, he could snap out of it and see he was chewing on house keys, or food he’d been meaning to toss, or even on one memorable occasion; the end of his brother’s long hair.
It was no wonder he was always sick.
Thinking of all the germs that must be coating his phone made him want to throw himself into the sun!
Ah, beautiful stranger, stop staring with those big eyes!! He knew, he knew!
“It’s a cold night. You should dress more warmly.” Shen Yuan mumbled, flustered.
Then he fled, cheeks reddened by more than the cold.
Naive.
That was a word Shen Yuan had been called more than once. A life which alternated between being pampered by his rich family or being pampered by hospital staff. He’d only just been able to cut the apron strings enough to live on his own the previous year.
Naive. Sheltered.
Shen Yuan found those terms rather unfair. He’d had the internet the whole time! He was perfectly genre savvy, and had been traumatized by plenty of urban legends and creepypastas that slipped past censors.
He was aware enough about the police, and how calling them on a possibly homeless and injured person wouldn’t be a good call. They were the tools for the rich. Which... Was Shen Yuan, but was even more so the property managers of the ward.
Shen Yuan had never seen a homeless person, which was telling enough.
If this was a webnovel or manga, inviting him up into his apartment would begin either an urban-fantasy adventure, or a romantic subplot. However, Shen Yuan wasn’t an energetic, plucky teen or a buxom, plucky girl.
If he brought a complete stranger in off the street, it would probably end up being a slasher flick!
Which is what he told himself, as he stepped into his warm apartment.
And told himself as he ate (barely in date) yogurt.
And told himself as he brushed his teeth and cleaned his phone.
And told himself as he snuggled into bed, under soft, thick blankets.
...
And told himself as he tossed and turned. Again. And again.
He opened his phone and checked the weather.
Stared at the temperature number on the screen.
Closed it.
...
...
...
Honestly, getting rid of some of the blankets in his linen closet was a good thing. It wasn’t like he ever hosted guests as a hermit whose interactions were mostly online arguments. He was just freeing up space, really. And it would be better to go to someone instead of just the trash bin.
It was hard to navigate with the thick comforters bundled in his arms, and his hips ached, but he managed it. The night watch guard in the lobby gave him an odd look, but turned back to her magazine without comment.
It’d been around an hour, so the guy was probably gone by now, and he could just crawl back to his apartment and forget this whole mess.
Realistically, there was no way such an objectively handsome person wouldn’t have plenty of women falling all over themselves to house him! If anything, Shen Yuan was just going to be an inconvenient cock-block.
But... While he was waiting out there for one of his girlfriends, he should at least do it without freezing to death. Which was a large possibility tonight.
His heart clenched with what must have been anxiety when the weak light revealed the man, lying curled into a ball half-buried by trash bags. Was... Was he using them as a pseudo-bed?
Shen Yuan cleared his throat loudly.
He wasn’t sure what happened next.
One second the stranger was asleep, and the next the back of Shen Yuan’s head exploded in pain. His legs spasmed, and he would have fallen if he hadn’t been pinned against the wall. The thick blankets in his arms were like a shield, keeping him apart from his attacker, but also they held him up by the press of them against his entire torso.
His phone had clattered out of his hand and landed screen down, the flashlight illuminating the scene from below.
Even in such an unflattering light angle, the other man looked unfairly attractive. Like some bad-boy in a film that all men felt their heart race at the thought of being.
Which, probably wasn’t the thing he should be focusing on when about to get shanked in an alley, but maybe he’d hit his head harder than he thought.
“You?” The man said. His weight loosened.
Shen Yuan fell, sliding down the wall. His stupid knees had given out.
The stranger swayed, as if dizzy, and crumpled onto his ass.
Shen Yuan was able to see his body more clearly for the first time. His clothing was tight but much too thin for the weather. It also had a less than artful rip that exposed his collarbones and part of his chest.
Completely inappropriate! How dedicated to fashion could one be to risk frostbitten nipples?
The man tracked his gaze. His lips drew thin and his eyes narrowed.
“Ah,” he said, voice low in a way that made the hairs on the back of Shen Yuan’s neck raise, “I see now what you want.”
...
Well, yes??
He should hope that carrying blankets outside would make it obvious he wanted the man to take them?
“If you know, then be a good boy.” Shen Yuan chided. This boy! Just like his sister when she tried to leave the house without a jacket in winter because it’d ‘ruin the look’.
He struggled with the blankets in his arms, and then engulfed the other with them.
Sure, he’d shoved him, and his head was smarting, but it hadn’t been his fault. Shen Yuan had startled him. Anyone would have been freaked out to wake up in that situation.
The boy let him burrito him, eyes wide and plump lips open in a little ‘o’ shape. Then he seemed to snap out of it, expression closing off and gaze pointedly traveling up and down. He looked appraising, and derisive.
Shen Yuan shifted, a little self conscious.
Not everyone was dedicated to fashion, young man! His pajamas were warm, and his heavy coat even hid the pokemon on his shirt. He adjusted his glasses, goat ears flicking with nerves.
The other tracked their movement.
Then the man smiled.
Shen Yuan shivered with a whole body twitch. There must have been a blast of cold air, though he felt strangely warm. Wasn’t there a thing where people with hypothermia started to feel hot and sweaty?
It was really too dangerous to stay out here.
“Oh course.” The man said. “Is your apartment near here?”
...
...!!
“Uh,” Shen Yuan said.
The other man stood, staggering a bit like he was dizzy. Shen Yuan struggled to his feet and caught him around his blanketed shoulders.
Then also swayed dangerously from mild ataxia.
What a silly site they must have been - like two drunk businessmen tipping back and forth like an awkward middleschooler’s slow dance.
“Be careful.” Shen Yuan said, hypocritically. He wrapped his arm around his shoulders and leaned in to counterbalance. They looked like the Chinese character for ‘human’ 人.
“Will it be a long walk?” The other asked.
...
“No. I live in this building.” Shen Yuan said.
Because-- Because WHAT WAS HE SUPPOSED TO SAY?? His social skills weren’t high enough to free him from this trap of expectation!
‘No, you have to stay on the street.’ How could he bring himself to say it now? And the way the boy heavily leaned on him, his face drawn pale like a doll’s with obvious signs of injury...
He couldn’t. He really, really, couldn’t just leave him outside.
So they made their way into the lobby, passed the guard who didn’t even look up. Each step was difficult, his hips aching fiercely. The other had turned out to be much bigger than him once they started moving, and his effort to help support felt like it had shifted more towards being supported. There was an arm around his waist, holding him tightly to the blanketed side.
Shen Yuan couldn’t get a good look from this angle, and had to focus on keeping his legs stiff and taking it one step at a time. Collapsing into a heap would have been a nightmare.
The reflection of the metal in the elevator didn’t reveal much aside from a large dark blur, and Shen Yuan couldn’t smell any distinguishing features like animal-type through the scent of garbage.
If he got robbed, he’d totally fail a police sketch artist.
‘Look for someone unreasonably beautiful’ probably wouldn’t cut it.
“You can shower first.” Shen Yuan said, once they’d made it into his apartment. He pointed towards the hall and teetered to the couch where he collapsed face first.
Stupid. Fucking. Body.
He grimaced and spent the next few minutes forcing his muscles to relax and doing his breathing exercises until the ataxia spell faded.
He really was extra rob-able. Shen Yuan wouldn’t have even blamed Binghe (for that was his name, they’d exchanged them in the awkward silence of the elevator) for it.
‘Here is my apartment with all my valuables, and I’m just going to go lay down with my eyes closed, unable to move!’ Like putting a slab of meat in front of a starving dog!
It was good that Binghe seemed to be a good child.
He could hear the running water of the shower. In the meantime, Shen Yuan hastily cleaned up a bit.
He had a maid service drop by once a week, but novels, manga, and empty convenience store food packages tended to get scattered around.
His apartment already looked a little odd, with some furniture that looked like cat-trees yet much sturdier and bigger among the more normal furniture, and his living room had a rock-climbing wall with a deep pool of foam below.
Even unathletic and prone to fainting, Shen Yuan was still a goat with annoying goat instincts.
He went into the kitchen to begin preparing tea, and his nerves had him hopping up onto the counter as it steeped. It felt safer up high, and he was starting to freak out a little.
He brought a random man home.
He brought a random, injured, very large man home!!
Shen Yuan made a sound not unlike the whistling of his teapot.
His brothers could NEVER know! He’d be trussed up and dragged back to the family home to live before he could even blink.
Shen Yuan was just plating a tea set onto a tray when he heard the sound of the bathroom door opening. He placed the last cup (he’d had to hastily rinse away the dust of neglect) down, and then turned.
Luo Binghe!
Had Come Out!
Only!
Wearing!
A Towel!
Slung!
Low!
On His!
Hips!
Shen Yuan might have bleated again in shock.
Unconcerned, Luo Binghe approached, as if walking near naked in a stranger’s home was a normal thing to do. This man! This man had worse survival instincts than his own!
Shen Yuan wanted to say something, but his brain was stuck in the equivalent of a keysmash. Water droplets from Luo Binghe’s long hair trailed down obvious dips of muscle, running down perfect pecs and abs any hot-blooded male would be excited to see on pathways towards --
“You’ll catch a cold!” Shen Yuan said. For some annoying reason his voice was high and breathy. Maybe he was already catching something from being out in this weather.
“Oh?” Luo Binghe said.
He was, wow, he was really getting too close. Shen Yuan tipped his head back to keep his eyes on the other’s face as if his life depended on it.
“Gege will have to warm me up then.” Luo Binghe purred, mere inches away.
“Oh!” Shen Yuan said.
He was being such a bad host! Of course Binghe couldn’t wear clothes: Shen Yuan had forgotten to put some out for him!
Luo Binghe must be miserably cold. Even with heating, his apartment was still nippley -uh- nippy. The fact he felt the need to instinctively draw closer for body-heat made Shen Yuan’s heart hurt.
He ducked around Luo Binghe, bustling to his guest room. There was no way in hell anything he owned would fit the other, but his older brothers left a couple sets at his place in case they came over unexpectedly.
Luo Binghe followed him into the room, and sat down on the bed.
“I’m clean, if you were worried.” He said, for some reason.
Shen Yuan could very much see that fact already! Especially in the way Luo Binghe was reclining, so much flesh on display, and uhh wow, his towels really weren't big enough to -- that HAD to be a large fold of fabric right??
“Okay.” Shen Yuan said. Said, not squeaked. It wasn’t a squeak.
He threw the biggest outfit he could find in the dresser towards that peak form of masculinity, and rushed out of the room.
Luo Binghe still hadn’t put clothes on by the time Shen Yuan bustled back, but he had sat up and had his feet on the floor. His eyebrows were drawn down, like he was confused.
“Your hair is still wet.” Shen Yuan explained, and tossed the towel he’d brought in over the other’s head. He had some experience with long hair, with Jiu-Ge having it, and Shen Yuan’s own Chuunibyou phase when he was younger.
Luo Binghe’s hair was thicker and more luxurious than anything he’d handled. Shen Yuan gently squeezed and patted, tutting like how his mom used to when he’d gotten too lazy to dry his hair after showers. The large fluffy ears moved under the towel, so Shen Yuan was extra careful with them - he knew how sensitive they could be.
Luo Binghe made a low approving sound. It was enough like a growl that Shen Yuan’s stomach tightened with nerves.
There was so much hair. To get the long strands down his back, Shen Yuan moved closer without thought, and only realized he was standing between Luo Binghe’s open legs when he felt hands settled on his hips.
Shen Yuan flinched in surprise, and pulled away before Luo Binghe could shove him for invading his space.
“Tea will warm you up.” He said, pulling the ripped pieces of his composure together. “I’ll go pour you a cup.” He fled the scene. Calmly.
Shen Yuan brought the tea tray into his living room and placed it on the small table, taking the light novels riddled with color-coded sticky notes out of the way and hiding them under the couch.
When Luo Binghe finally followed, he was still only wearing pants.
Rather tight pants.
For some reason, instead of the chair opposite, he sat directly next to Shen Yuan. Close enough for their thighs to press against one another.
Binghe, if you were still cold, then put the shirt on? Shen Yuan wasn’t a good source of heat!
He looked over to say as much, but froze as he finally noticed something he really should have before.
Around Binghe’s neck was a shock collar.
The kind predator shifters were mandated by law to wear.
It was big, metal, and obvious.
To be fair, he’d been distracted by, uh, all the other stuff!
Externally, he remained calm, while internally he lit a candle for himself.
It wasn’t like... All predators were bad. Or anything.
They were just kept more... Separate in the areas Shen Yuan had grown up in.
He was just surprised. But Shen Yuan wasn’t a bigot or prejudiced! In fact, he got into arguments defending predatorxprey pairings in fiction all the time from stupid people.
It wasn’t near the full moon, so their animal natures wouldn’t really come into play. People were just people, no matter what they turned into for a couple days during ‘their time of the month’.
Surreptitiously, he breathed in deep to get Binghe’s scent now he was clean from the garbage stench. It tingled spots in his goat hindbrain, sharp and red and a little prickly.
He’d never smelt anything exactly like it before, but it was dog-ish? He peeked at the large upright ears near the top of the other’s head, then at the long fluffy tail resting on Binghe’s other side. He could feel his own short tail standing stiffly straight up in nerves, thankfully hidden by the cushions.
Dogs were... Dogs were fine! They did cute things in online videos all the time.
For something to do with his hands, Shen Yuan sipped his tea.
Full animal dogs really didn’t care about personal space, did they? So maybe shifters were the same? Because Binghe was pressed right up against his side now, arm over the back of the couch where he was sitting.
Yeah, this was probably just normal behavior. Like how if people bent over, Shen Yuan couldn’t help but headbutt them in the ass sometimes.
Embarrassing instincts and all that.
It wasn’t weird for dogs to drape over people.
Luo Binghe was really...big. Shen Yuan felt completely pinned between the high arm of the couch and his solidly built body.
Girls would fall all over themselves if he went to the beach. Though they’d fall all over themselves anywhere anyway, because one would have to be blind to miss the level 100 boss charisma. It was like he’d rolled nat 20s in all his appearance slots while getting his set stats for reincarnation.
Did Binghe cause traffic accidents when taking walks?
Shen Yuan wondered what he’d look like jogging. Probably would have peak form, with athletic clothes that stretched tight and snug along his broad chest and trim waist and fit thighs. Hair in a high ponytail, sweat beading down his neck. Throwing his head back to gulp down water from a bottle, throat bobbing...
“What are you thinking about?” Luo Binghe asked. Shen Yuan felt fingers under his chin and then his head was being turned and tilted up.
Binghe’s face was really close. Shen Yuan could count each of Binghe’s thick eyelashes as he peered into his eyes with his own half-lidded.
If Shen Yuan HAD been a shoujo protagonist, this would have been the panel where cherry blossoms exploded and the sfx went doki-doki-doki in bold.
What a waste it was used on this tired hermit instead!
The look in Binghe’s eyes, a dark, dark red nearly black, sent frissons of electricity up and down his nerves. It must be a prey’s fear.
“Binghe,” he said, and swallowed hard as the other’s gaze fell to his lips.
“Binghe,” he tried again, “are you hungry?”
“Starving.” Luo Binghe said, voice low and husky. He leaned even closer.
“I’ll order some delivery!” Shen Yuan launched himself out of his seat.
He was really failing as a host. And Luo Binghe seemed hungry enough to lose himself a little; like he wanted to grab a bite of Shen Yuan. How long had it been since he’d eaten a good meal?
Chevon wasn’t tasty, Binghe!