“Ah, well… not exactly…”

Before Yue Qingyuan could stammer out some kind of perfunctory answer, the Qing Jing peak lord stood up quite abruptly, both hands clapping onto the table before he whirled across the room to loop one arm around the sect leader’s, fixing his shimei with a sharp glare.

“Shouldn’t Jiang-shimei be minding her own business?” he asked, tugging Yue Qingyuan close to her side.

Jiang Qingyue tilted her head, glancing from one to the other.

“I suppose I’d forgotten just how sensitive Shen-shixiong’s ears are,” she noted, with a slight twitch of her lip that could be either playful or annoyed… Shen Qingqiu wasn’t sure which, so he would just assume it was annoyance. Not that it really mattered either way.

“So what?” he asked.

“It’s nothing, but… you go from avoiding Zhangmen-shixiong at every chance you can to practically clinging to him inseparably. Can you really blame me for being curious?” Jiang Qingyue shrugged her shoulders, lightly twirling her belt tassel between her fingertips, rotating the beads back and forth. “Besides, it isn’t a bad thing— after all, Li-shijie and I are already—”

“It isn’t like that,” Yue Qingyuan interrupted her with a solemn shake of his head. “Qingqiu and I have simply known one another since our childhood. We had a disagreement once, but now we’ve made up. That’s all there is to it.”

Jiang Qingyue didn’t reply at first, and she didn’t seem entirely convinced either, but if Yue Qingyuan was going to deny it there wasn’t much she could do.

After all, it wasn’t like he was lying. There really wasn’t anything more than that… at least not in the way most often implied by “cultivation partners.”

They were just close, that was all.

They’d been close before.

If Shen Qingqiu had to think about how to describe it… Yue Qingyuan was more like his guard dog than anything else. Or maybe that was Shen Qingqiu? After all, he was the one who would do the protecting. Stupid, impulsive Qi-ge would just get himself killed otherwise. Still… Shen Qingqiu was definitely the one holding the leash.

It wasn’t easy to categorize, and it wasn’t any easier to explain, and yet it was still the most natural thing he’d felt in all of his years of playing Peak Lord.

Now, if only there weren’t any annoyances to ask questions about it and make things awkward.

“Zhangmen-shixiong,” Shen Qingqiu stated, giving a little tug on Yue Qingyuan’s sleeve.

“Yes?”

“I have some things to show you on Qing Jing Peak if we’re finished here.”

“Of course, Shidi. Pardon me, Jiang-shimei, but I must be going now.”

Without another word, Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu departed, with Shen Qingqiu’s arm still tightly hooked around Yue Qingyuan’s, practically tugging him along as though the sect leader were some precious thing that he could hardly bear to allow others to look upon.

Jiang Qingyue— and some of the others, too, who had grown curious after Shen Qingqiu’s sudden rising to his feet— could only watch as they went.

Since when had Shen Qingqiu of all people ever been one to hang off of someone else’s arm?

The situation was just too strange with those two.

Later on, back at Qing Jing Peak’s bamboo house, things had settled into a sense of normalcy as steam rose up from a warm bath, carrying with it the delicate floral fragrances of fine bath oils.

“I didn’t expect they would ask about it so abruptly,” Yue Qingyuan murmured as he carded through Shen Qingqiu’s long, silky hair, gently tugging loose any tangles without pulling at his scalp.

Shen Qingqiu, in the bath, tilted his head back, releasing a little huff of annoyance. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “They’ve always liked asking all sorts of questions about me, poking around when they’re not wanted.”

It had been a few months since he decided he actually wanted to be around Yue Qingyuan— since he’d started showing up at Qiong Ding Peak once in awhile, and a few times even sent for Yue Qingyuan himself to stop by his bamboo house for a cup of tea… and in the end, it had come to this.

Whatever “this” was.

The closeness they had once had when they were children had simply been transplanted onto their adult selves, and now Shen Qingqiu found himself getting annoyed any time Yue Qingyuan started to talk to someone or spend time with someone that wasn’t him. He held himself back quite a lot— he’d lasted a good incense time at least back in the meeting hall, until the topic of conversation had turned to their relationship.

That wasn’t anyone’s business to be asking about anyway.

Just because Shen Qingqiu enjoyed the feeling of Yue Qingyuan’s fingers running through his hair, or perhaps liked to lean up against him and tuck his chin over the sect leader’s shoulder from time to time watching him write out whatever messages he had to send or notes he had to take down, none of that meant that he wanted them to be cultivation partners!

It was… something else.

He tilted his head, letting it rest up against Yue Qingyuan’s arm.

“You should get into the bath as well,” he suggested.

“It isn’t large enough for both of us,” Yue Qingyuan replied.

That was true.

Shen Qingqiu sat himself up with a huff, wringing the water out of his hair.

“Then let’s just go to the springs, shall we?”

Yue Qingyuan smiled a little, wrapping a robe around his shoulders as he stood. “If that’s what Shidi wants.”

Afternoon was fading now, the sun dipping beneath the mountains and the sky turning hues of red and gold. Within the deeper reaches of the peak’s Qingshui Springs were a few secluded hot springs, tucked away in misty caverns. The fading sun entered in through a distant skylight, casting its reflective glow upon the glistening surface of the waters.

“What are we?” Shen Qingqiu asked after they’d spent awhile basking in the warmth of the springs. There was a little frown on his face. He’d wanted to ignore it, because it didn’t matter— but the question still poked at the back at his mind. “You and I… all of this…?”

Yue Qingyuan didn’t answer right away, seeming to ponder the question. “I haven’t thought much about it,” he admitted. “I suppose if we were being technical… then you would be my closest friend, or perhaps a brother?”

“Mn,” Shen Qingqiu replied. The answer didn’t satisfy him, though. It didn’t feel quite right.

Just like calling themselves cultivation partners wouldn’t be exactly accurate, nor did he have any real wish to get married like Jiang Qingyue and Li Qingxiao had, there was still that sense of wanting Yue Qingyuan all to himself that would make far more sense in that sort of framework… not to mention that if they weren’t cultivation partners, then Yue Qingyuan was technically available, and the last thing Shen Qingqiu wanted was for him to be available to anyone…

Yue Qingyuan’s fingers found his own beneath the water, and all of a sudden the sect leader had leaned in to press his forehead up against Shen Qingqiu’s.

“I don’t think it matters what we are, just that we are whatever that is. If you need something to call us, just call me yours,” he said. “I think it gets the point across, don’t you?”

Shen Qingqiu blinked, pulling back a little to meet his gaze. He was quiet for a few moments, then shook his head so quickly that water droplets flew from his hair.

“Stupid Qi-ge,” he said with a sigh. “You really don’t need to be so happy about this— why don’t you wipe that ridiculous-looking grin off your face?”

Despite all that, even he couldn’t deny that his own lips had curled into a smile as well.

Maybe Yue Qingyuan was right. In the end, he was Shen Qingqiu’s… and Shen Qingqiu was also his.