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Yuletide 2020
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Published:
2020-12-21
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2,032
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slow dance, speed it up

Summary:

Tang Fan needs some help blocking out some positions for his latest novel.

Notes:

  • For .

happy yuletide xiu! your prompts were SO fun, i hope you enjoy this!!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Sui Zhou is just considering getting out of bed and snuffing the lamp across the room when Tang Fan bursts in. Well – the bursting is more metaphorical, when compared with how Sui Zhou would expect anyone to enter his room this late at night (not at all). If Tang Fan entered any other room this way, at any other time, Sui Zhou would be more likely to describe it as "creeping" or "cautiously sneaking." He's slid the door open and his head has leaned in, along with one foot and the corner of his robes.

"Oh, thank goodness you're awake. I saw the light on but I wasn't sure if you had just fallen asleep with it lit or what," Tang Fan says as soon he spots Sui Zhou. His posture goes maybe two or three times more relaxed, and he strides over to the bed where Sui Zhou sits propped up against the headboard.

This makes Sui Zhou wonder how many other times in the past Tang Fan has checked in on him while he actually has been asleep, and whether he falls asleep with the light on often. He doesn't think he does, but as long as it's out when he wakes up, he supposes he wouldn't know.

"I need your help." Tang Fan perches on the edge of the bed and looks beseechingly at Sui Zhou. He's able to make his eyes very large and very pleading.

Sui Zhou clears his throat and puts his book aside. "With what?"

"Can you -" And then Tang Fan crawls right up onto the bed and straddles Sui Zhou's legs. This is not how Sui Zhou expected his evening to go. Tang Fan puts one hand on Sui Zhou's shoulder, and then after appearing to deliberate for a few seconds, places his other hand on Sui Zhou's hip. His thumb strokes a small arc there, seemingly unconsciously.

"It's for my manuscript," Tang Fan explains when Sui Zhou's eyebrows climb high enough that their question is unmistakable.

"You need to accost me in my bed for your manuscript?"

"Guangchuan! There's no accosting, I'm being very gentle. Mei Changsu is very considerate in bed."

"Ah," Sui Zhou says. The pieces are resolving into a very clear picture in his head. "And who am I?"

"Xiao Jingyan, his long-lost lover," Tang Fan says. "Can you flip me over onto my back if we're sitting like this?"

Sui Zhou surveys their positions, looking at Tang Fan's knees pinning the bedclothes down on either side of Sui Zhou's hips. "Not while I'm under the blankets, I can't."

There's a flurry of motion as Tang Fan whirls off the bed, throws the blankets down to the end of the bed, and then arranges himself back in his previous position. Sui Zhou is very glad he's wearing pants.

"Okay, can you do it now?" He blinks down at Sui Zhou, making those doe eyes again.

"Yes," Sui Zhou says. His feet are getting cold. The heel of Tang Fan's hand is digging sharply into his shoulder, and Tang Fan's thighs feel wiry even through the multiple layers of his robes. Never before has Sui Zhou so strongly wanted to bundle someone into his kitchen and not let them leave until they put some meat on their bones.

"Well?" Tang Fan asks, and Sui Zhou realizes it had been a request, not a yes or no question.

He moves his book further out of the way so it won't get crumpled, then flips Tang Fan onto his back. The move puts him crouched on one knee over Tang Fan, staring down at his flushed face and disheveled hair. Tang Fan's hand is still on his shoulder.

"Oh wow, ah," Tang Fan says, giddily. "That was – ah, you're so strong, I'm dizzy." He giggles.

"Did that help?" Sui Zhou asks once Tang Fan has calmed down and is just staring up at him, eyes sparkling in the low light.

"I think so, wait," Tang Fan says, and rolls out from under Sui Zhou into the rumpled part of the bed where Sui Zhou had been lying. Sui Zhou settles back on his heels and watches as Tang Fan puts himself first in one pose, then another, moving through them as if he's doing a very slow, horizontal dance. His arms are held out from his body, like maybe he's imagining another body there.

"This is for your manuscript?" Sui Zhou asks. He needs to say something to break up the unbearable tension of watching a tousled, unkempt Tang Fan roll around in his bed, but he knows the kind of books Tang Fan writes. Maybe that was a bad question, in the circumstances.

"Yeah," Tang Fan says. He's on his side, facing away from Sui Zhou. He appears to be mapping the number of finger widths between the bottom of his ribs and the dip of his waist. "The printer wants the manuscript tomorrow or they won't be able to print it until after the next run, which is ages from now, so I'm trying to finish it - I just have one scene left! - but it's tricky because I've never exactly written this kind of thing before. It's harder than I thought. Can you flip me again, but starting from lying down?"

Sui Zhou blinks, then lies down on his back. "Like this?"

"Good, good." Tang Fan clambers on top of him, slotting their legs together and bracing his elbows around Sui Zhou's head. A lock of his loose hair swings down and tickles Sui Zhou's neck, where his sleep shirt is open.

"What do you want me to do with my hands?" Sui Zhou asks, instead of any of the other questions he might pose here.

"You can – hm. If you were my lover, what would you do?"

"That depends on what we're doing. Are we fucking? Making out?"

Tang Fan's face does something very interesting when Sui Zhou says fucking. "They're just kissing. Mei Changsu just came to Xiao Jingyan's tent after he thought he'd never see him again; they're reuniting."

It's harder to breathe with Tang Fan's weight pressing him down like this, but Sui Zhou thinks he likes it. His face is very pretty and very pink, and Sui Zhou thinks it would be soft if he touched it. His hair looks soft too. If Sui Zhou were meeting a long-lost lover who looked like Tang Fan right now, he'd probably want to bury a hand in his soft hair, let the other hand skim down his back until it landed in the dip where his sash rests, use it to hold him close, feel him move over Sui Zhou.

After a moment's consideration – is this too much? No, Tang Fan asked for it – Sui Zhou places his hands in Tang Fan's hair and at his back. Tang Fan sighs and his eyes flutter half-shut for a moment. His lower lip looks extremely plush.

"Okay, now can you flip me over from here?"

Sui Zhou gets a foot under himself for leverage, then flips their positions. Again, he ends up propped up over Tang Fan, their faces a hand's breadth apart. Tang Fan is grinning and breathing hard.

"Oh that's so – I would never have written it right without this, thank you."

One of Sui Zhou's hands had cradled Tang Fan's head against landing too hard on the matress, and is trapped under its warm weight now. It feels shockingly intimate to hold him like this. Even if it's just for a book.

"It's two men?" Sui Zhou asks.

Tang Fan nods up at him, making no effort to move. "Yeah, and I've never, um, done anything like this, so I want to make sure I don't describe it all wrong."

They're really very close together. The longer they stay like this without moving, the more Sui Zhou is aware of Tang Fan's body beneath his. "You write erotic novels all the time. You haven't worried about this before?"

Tang Fan lets out a short breath that sounds like the start of a giggle. "It's different when it's a man and a woman! There are all these standard metaphors; you can just say 'And then he pulled her into his arms and their passion carried them away' and your audience fills in the rest - but with this I may have written myself into a bit of a corner?"

"And you're stuck because you've never done anything like this before?" Sui Zhou doesn't usually ask questions like this. Somehow he can't stop.

"Ah, well, something a little like this, but not – not really like this, no."

With some effort, Sui Zhou forces himself not to picture a younger Tang Fan and the things he could have gotten up to with a fellow scholar in an alley on the way home from a late night of studies.

"Do you need any other help?" Sui Zhou asks.

"This was it, really," Tang Fan says. He licks his lips and Sui Zhou's eyes follow the motion of their own accord.

"That's all they do?" Sui Zhou can't tear his eyes away from Tang Fan's red mouth. "They just roll over and - stop?"

"Uh-huh," Tang Fan says, a little breathless. He doesn't sound very sure.

"Xiao Jingyan doesn't do this?" Sui Zhou shifts slightly, rocking his thigh between Tang Fan's legs. Tang Fan lets out a shuddery breath. "Or this?" Sui Zhou lowers his head, giving plenty of warning in case Tang Fan wants to squirm away. Tang Fan stays where he is, and Sui Zhou has just long enough to consider that maybe he should have moved away, that surely there was a reason that they've never done this before, and then his lips are sliding softly against Tang Fan's, Tang Fan gasping and arching underneath him.

They kiss for long moments, Tang Fan's lips parting under Sui Zhou's as he turns the kiss dirty and heated. The slide of his tongue is - it's -

Sui Zhou gets a hand in Tang Fan's hair again and feels like he's holding something incredibly precious between his hands. Tang Fan moans and arches again, still devouring Sui Zhou's mouth, and it seems only natural to grind against him, settling more of his weight onto him. If he could, Sui Zhou would press Tang Fan right into the bed, keep him here for days. Having him here like this feels so natural, it feels like coming home.

With a whine, Tang Fan turns his head to the side, breaking their kiss. He squirms until Sui Zhou lets him up, then scoots back to the headboard, panting. If he looked unkempt before, now he looks utterly wrecked. "Guangchuan," he says, his voice dragging in a way that makes something flare hot in Sui Zhou's chest.

"You stopped," Sui Zhou says. He means, I want to keep going, he means Don't ever stop again.

"The deadline." Tang Fan looks stricken. There's a definite bulge in his robes where Sui Zhou had been grinding against him. "I really can't - Guangchuan, if I had any more time, believe me, I would stay -"

"Okay," Sui Zhou says.

Tang Fan blinks. "Okay?"

"Go write your book," Sui Zhou clarifies. "I'll be here."

Tang Fan surges forward and kisses Sui Zhou again, deep and filthy, then rips himself away with effort. "Okay," he says, already scrambling across the bed, like if he stayed in Sui Zhou's presence a moment longer he wouldn't be able to control his actions. "I'll write the ending so fast and then as soon as I'm done we can continue this. I promise."

Sui Zhou watches him go with a lightness in his chest that he's realizing now is a mixture of amusement and terrible, terrible fondness. "You can come write in here if you want," he offers. It would be soothing, he thinks, and then he won't need to stay up wondering when Tang Fan might come back. He'll already be right here. "I could use someone to snuff the lantern if I fall asleep with it lit."

The expression that fills Tang Fan's face is like the rising sun. Sui Zhou thinks he might be smiling, too.

Notes:

- tang fan: augh no you'll distract me!
sui zhou: i'll probably be asleep
tang fan: ok as long as you don't sleep distractingly
sui zhou: "...."

- big thanks to SerenadeStrong for the beta!

- now i want to read tang fan's nirvana in fire fanfiction. played myself.