Chapter Text
Sometimes Shen Qingqiu wished he was still reading trashy novels and huddled in his blanket, if he was he wouldn't have to think of horrifying shit like the fact that his limbs may be torn off in the future or that his white lotus will forever blacken because of him.
He could just turn off the lights, enter his fortress of warmth and boom! the outside world has ceased to exist. However, he couldn't do that right now, he couldn't ignore reality as he pleased.
He couldn't ignore that him and his disciple were surrounded by ever-promise flowers, newly mated and bonded.
He couldn't ignore the pain he felt at the side of his neck nor could he ignore the sight of Luo Binghe’s dimples as he touched his bite mark.
He was pleased, he realised as he felt himself pause inwardly. Why would he be so pleased? Didn’t he realise that his first bite mark, a mark that bonded two people to a strong relationship together, was given by his shizun? The guy soon to kick him off a deadly cliff cause of a shitty system.It wasn’t even a romantic one! It was platonic.
Oh, woe is he! Instead of the first one, he got from Qin Wanyue that was sexual and later turned romantic, he got a platonic one from his shizun!
Binghe presented earlier than he was supposed to (due to his healthier mental and physical state) that they had to stop by this field of blooming flowers as he needed a more calm surrounding to enter his orientation more smoothly.
It just so happened that there were blooming Ever-together flowers here.
The only reason he bit him was because of the damned flower, not a very original name by the way, airplane. This flower was one that forced two to mark each other, whether it was a sexual, romantic or platonic bond in nature. The point was that the pollen allowed people with strong relationships to mark each other using the classic bonding mark.
This was used for sworn sibling ceremonies, life partner ceremonies or even marriage ones. If Shen Qingqiu remembered correctly it was the reason why a Bai Zhan Peak cultivator entered the harem, the flower forced the protagonist and her together so she entered even though she previously renounced all romantic relationships. She entered due to the sexual and semi-platonic nature of the bond. It was one of the more interesting relationships to read, she was also his favourite because of this.
But right now wasn’t the time to ponder on why and how he had favourites! He and Luo Binghe just marked each other, it was for the first time for the white lotus while it was for the second time for him. The original goods had one already, it smelled like the sect leader’s scent: a hint of morning dew and lavender. It was almost faded so one could say it wasn’t a strong bond anyway.
His new bond smelled like lilies and orchids, it reminded him of home to him anyway. It felt like a sunset with different layers of home and comfort for him. Each just raising and lowering as his feeling of home changed minutely, though still resembled Luo Binghe. But curiously, he could smell lotus; perhaps his descriptions of a white lotus wasn’t off the mark.
“Shizun…this disciple promises to be worthy of you!” Luo Binghe said with his robes falling over, his cheeks the colour of cherries, his eyes misty while his fist was clenched like he was trying to pose like those shounen heroes but missed the genre completely. Shen Qingqiu felt like he was watching a yaoi bottom cosplay as a shounen hero in bed. It was very confusing and a little bit funny to watch.
In the end, he couldn’t watch anymore, so he lowered Binghe’s fist and put his clothes in place then held his hand as they walked away from the crime scene.
Later when the smells of lotus, lilies and orchids threaten to strangle him and overload his mind. He couldn’t help but want to hide once more in darkness while he read his guilty pleasure books again.
"Shizun didn't I tell you I'd be worthy of you?" a velvety voice said languidly. It reminded him of his bitemark felt newly bitten and itchy while blood leaked ceaselessly from his neck.
An alpha being surrounded by an omega's scent would be seen as making them your unofficial mate, an omega doing that to another omega would be seen as fighting them off. That is what Shen Qingqiu thought at first as he choked on the cloying scent.
But as he felt his bite mark dribble with blood recently drawn. He couldn't help but think that Luo Binghe saw him as a mate and wanted to change the bond from platonic to romantic from the start.
Perhaps he should have seen this affection coming but Shen Qingqiu was an omega and Luo Binghe was an omega, omegas being together was a rarely seen thing.
In the end, those thoughts evict him as the scent turns from cloying to sweet, from strangling to welcoming and his thoughts of Luo Binghe turned from fear-tinged platonic affection to romantic-based affections.
He felt a hand clutch his, intertwining their fingers together, "We'll be like vines that never grow apart, you'll never leave me alone,"
So helpless to the rush of lilies and orchids, to the scent that filled his brain and ruined his rational. He just nodded. What else could he do?