Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Ah, Lieutenant! There you are.” 

“You wanted to see me, General?” Jing Yuan asks as he trots up the steps leading to General Teng Xiao’s platform. The Seat of Divine Foresight is bustling with a little more activity than usual today. The General nods. 

“Yes, on a matter of no small importance.” He says. Jing Yuan straightens - it must be very important for Teng Xiao to call him here directly. “I had just finished my meeting with Diviner Shirong when I summoned you. He has seen an auspicious divination, and we must adjust accordingly.” 

Adjustments, he can work with adjustments. Jing Yuan makes a polite noise of assent and waits for the General to explain. 

“You see, we have already begun the process of altering our ship’s course through the XOU-178B system. It will take us close by Kalsas soon. Very close.”

Jing Yuan makes another noise of assent at his General, though now he tilts his head slightly. Where the General is going with this, he has not yet figured out. 

“...which has not just one moon, but two - which we will be passing very close to.” 

Oh. Oh . He swallows.

“Slowly,” Teng Xiao continues with a sigh, “as per the Kalsen orbital passage regulations.” 

“Of course, General.”

“And I need someone to take this news directly to the High Elder, as coming that close to a true moon can cause disruptions in their… equilibrium. See that you carry that out immediately.” Teng Xiao says. “And just in case the vidyadhara need more hands on deck for their preparations, I’m assigning you there for three days.” 

“Thank you, sir. I will see it done.” 

Jing Yuan is certain he hears Teng Xiao tiredly mutter “oh I’m sure you will” as he's dismissed, but he can't bring himself to care as he forces himself to walk calmly out of the Seat of Divine Foresight. It isn't until his boots land back in the languid Exalting Sanctum that he breaks into a fast jog, heading straight for the skiff shuttles. Excitement brims in his bones as he takes the short ride to the Artisanship Commission. Normally he would just make the walk, but time is of the essence. 

“Good afternoon, Master Xia Mei,” he greets, catching the Furnace Master in the lobby of the building. Truly, fortune is on his side today. 

“Lieutenant,” she greets, raising a prim eyebrow. Xia Mei is an elderly foxian, finally showing age lines on her forehead from how many times she's made this exact face over the years. “Surely you aren't here to steal my craftsman, are you? He's about to light the auxiliary furnace for me.” 

“We are passing by Kalsas tomorrow,” Jing Yuan informs her. Her questioning look slowly turns into a frown. 

“How many moons?” 

“Two.”

“Son of Lan,” she curses quietly, causing two nearby apprentices to look up. She spots them and ushers them over. 

“You two, congratulations,” She says, rubbing her face. “I've decided you've reached a new level in your apprenticeship. Get one of the junior artisans and take over the auxiliary forge for Master Yingxing.” 

Both of them bow with wide eyes. 

“Yes, Master!” 

“Follow them so he doesn't bite their heads off,” she scowls at him, as if he personally rerouted the ship. 

He might consider it, if he actually held that power. 

“Thank you, Master.” He bows and heads off.

“You get him for three days, no more!” She calls after him. “I don’t care what shape he's in!” 

“Thank you, Master,” he repeats, grinning wider. 

True to form, he does have to rescue the two stammering apprentices from his fiance's wrath, as they have no explanation to give for the sudden change. 

“What, is she pissed I wouldn't take the damn Tao commission?” He interrogates, looking extra fierce in the light of the kindling furnace. The two apprentices cower. 

“She- she didn't say-”

“But there was a Cloud Knight-” 

“I don't care if it was Teng Xiao himself, why would I-” Yingxing bites, and then he sees Jing Yuan. 

“Moons.” He says simply, his smile impossibly serene. “Two of them. Tonight .”

Yingxing stares at him for all of three seconds before he shoves his face guard into one of the apprentice's hands. 

“You two fuck this up and I'm putting you on iron breaking for a month. Go get Yu Jia to help you.” 

He grabs Jing Yuan by the wrist and yanks him down the hall. 

“Two moons, Yingxing,” Jing Yuan can't but babble excitedly. They're heading towards Yingxing's office, likely to grab his things before they head to the sea palace. “I got you three days off, by the way.”

“We might need four,” he grunts as he bursts in and proceeds to dig in his desk drawer. 

“She said no more than three.”

“Bah,” he huffs as he pulls out a small box. “Well. This speeds up my timeline but it’s fine. Here, open it.” 

Jing Yuan catches the box as Yingxing tosses it, hearing the tinkle of metal. He opens the lid, and after his mind makes sense of what he's seeing, his eyes go wide. 

“ A-Xing .” 

“We might need four,” Yingxing repeats. Jing Yuan gulps, closing the box again. 

“...we might need four.” 

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“Elder,” Yingxing says, as he enters the office of said High Elder, uninvited too, as the servant at the door tries to politely plead with him. Dan Feng looks to him and the servant, then dismisses her with a wave of his hand. 

“Elder, mm?” Dan Feng says as the door closes again. “You must be scheming something.” 

“I must be scheming something, to address my husband by his proper title?” 

“To say so in front of a servant that also reports to the Preceptors, yes. It’s odd behavior for you - behavior that means you either have something for me or want something of me. Or both, knowing you.” 

Yingxing merrily laughs at this as he goes to sit on the edge of the High Elder's ancient desk. 

“Maybe I am scheming something.”

“Do I get to be in on the scheming?” 

“You shall see its results tonight. I had to make some alterations, but I think you will enjoy it immensely.” 

Dan Feng eyes him suspiciously. 

“Is this something I need to excuse myself early for?” 

“Not at all. I think this will be a good example of patience for the brat.” Yingxing grins, a little cruel. He sees the flicker of lust in his husband's eyes. 

“...I see. Then I will join you at the normal time.” 

“Excellent,” Yingxing says. He leans over to give his husband a quick kiss. He stands to leave. 

“You'll be needing the full afternoon anyway to get your affairs in order for the next three days. Four if you can swing it.” 

“ Four ?” Dan Feng repeats, incredulous. “What on earth do you have planned?” 

“You'll feel what I mean soon enough.”

“Yingxing-” 

“We've been rerouted through Kalsas's orbit tonight.”Yingxing says, his cocky smile directed at Dan Feng himself this time. “It has two moons, my love.” 

Dan Feng opens his mouth, then closes it. Yingxing can’t help but laugh low in his throat. 

“See you tonight.” 

He makes his way back to Dan Feng's personal chambers, and finds Jing Yuan exactly where he'd left him. 

“Good boy,” he says, pleased at the visible shiver that runs through the younger man's body. 

“Is he coming now?”

“No, at his normal time.” 

Jing Yuan lets out a low groan of misery. 

“Cold?” Yingxing asks as he sits on the edge of the bed.

“A little.”

“Here.” He tosses a soft blanket over the other man, though he does also slip his hand underneath to give him a few more strokes. Jing Yuan hisses and his hips instinctually twitch, trying to chase it, but Yingxing's touch is light as he moves back up, drawing small circles on his stomach instead. 

“Surely A-Feng would want to do this himself.” Jing Yuan bargains, as he always does. 

“You think he'll be in a teasing mood when he gets here?” Yingxing asks. Jing Yuan shivers again, and the craftsman's eyes drink it up like a fine wine. He watches the man squirm, caught between Yingxing's hand on his stomach and the plug in his ass. “I expect it will take him a few rounds to calm down enough to even consider teasing you. So, be good and let me stretch you now. Think of his face, A-Yuan, when he sees you've prepped yourself for him - so he can just slide right in and take his fill immediately.” 

The noise he makes is caught somewhere between a whimper and a moan. Yingxing laughs, cruel and pleased. And he was right - he could smell it on him in the office. Sure, Yingxing as a human couldn't smell vidyadhara pheromones, but he could taste the subtle changing of ambient Cloudhymn in the air, rich in ozone and salt. Ruts tended to be sharp like this - heats smelt more like fresh petrichor and the softest hint of cool wintergreen. 

“He's going to tear you apart. And you're going to love it.”

🌙🌙🌙

Ruts and heats used to be more common amongst vidyadhara, when they existed on their ancient homeworld. A single moon orbited that world, as the records and legends described. Large, beautiful white, pulling the tides of the ancient sea - and with it, the residual mating cycles of the vidyadhara who called that sea home. They were once a fertile species, and their bodies had not yet forgotten that drive, even if they could no longer produce results from such frenzied coupling. However, with the mass exodus to the Xianzhou ships with their artificial celestial bodies, this cyclical drive had largely disappeared amongst the vidyadhara with each hatching rebirth. The false moons of the Xianzhou, though able to use gravitational forces to shift the tides of the sea, were nonetheless ineffective at triggering biological cycles in the vidyadhara. Few still experienced mating cycles at all, these days - and those that did, generally did not experience them to the intensity described in ancient texts. 

Except, of course, for High Elders, who shared a stronger connection to their primordial ancestor Long, and therefore, could still experience quite intense ruts and heats when close enough to an actual moon. Yes, both - also a byproduct of their draconic connection. While most vidyadhara experienced either ruts or heats, the High Elders typically could experience either. 

And even if the building irritation and moodiness over the course of the afternoon hadn't been hints enough, Dan Feng knew he was long overdue for a rut anyway. His last two cycles - one and four years, respectively - had both been heats. His last rut had been almost seven years ago. Jing Yuan has only been present for his most recent cycle, and Dan Feng will admit the lieutenant did a very nice job of keeping him satisfied. 

“You are dismissed until you are called for,” Dan Feng says to the final two attendants that have trailed behind him to the entrance of his private quarters. 

“Does His Radiance wish for meals to be left by the entrance?” One asks, head bowed. Dan Feng pauses long enough, biting through the aggravating energy coiling under his skin as his tail slowly swishes back and forth behind him, anticipatory. 

“Yes. Knock once, do not enter, do not stay.” 

“Yes, High Elder.” Both bow and retreat. With that, this corridor is essentially on lockdown until further notice, under threat of the High Elder's rut-induced wrath. He was not his most agreeable during these times, and even the Preceptors knew better than to test him. He would deal with their rituals and discussions of ‘auspicious signs’ after he'd fucked his husband and fiance into mindless euphoria. 

He hears shuffling in the room before he enters the door, and his first sight is Yingxing folding a blanket to the side. He's still fully clothed, the bastard, and Dan Feng is growling in annoyance before he even realizes the sound is coming out of his throat. Yingxing laughs, and the growl deepens. 

“Don't make a face like that at me when I've brought you a gift,” he chuckles. 

“More like a sacrifice,” croaks Jing Yuan’s voice, and now Dan Feng can see him.

He feels himself start salivating. 

Jing Yuan lays bare on the bed, his legs pushed apart, the hilt of a toy just visible inside him. Mostly bare, anyway, for there are beautiful golden chains draping across his torso. One end links to another ring, fastened tight around his flushed and ignored cock, while the other end forks into a V, connecting to two nipple clamps. 

…those aren't clamps. Those are piercings . 

“Surprise.” Jing Yuan offers, grinning even as Dan Feng's predatory gaze rakes over his body, watching each nervous twitch and desperate squirm. He must look something fierce, judging by how Jing Yuan looks to Yingxing for help. Yingxing, of course, ‘helps’ by upping the anti instead. He nudges the base of the toy and Jing Yuan jolts, crying out as it touches deep inside him, and then the craftsman is slowly dragging it out of him, thrusting shallowly a few times before withdrawing entirely. Jing Yuan tries to close his legs, but Yingxing is between them. 

It's a testament to Dan Feng being fixated on those new piercings that he hasn't jumped them both yet. 

“Well? He's all ready for you, love,” Yingxing says as he moves out of the way, giving the youngest man a sharp look that says to keep his legs open. Jing Yuan must be either nervous, or excited, or both, because he obeys. 

“Feel free to be a little rough with them,” his husband goads, moving behind him to slip his outer robe off. The vidyadhara’s swishing tail caresses his leg. “They're nice and healed. Apparently he cashed in a favor with one of your apprentice healers to speed up the process, little slut.” 

Jing Yuan trembles at the accusation but doesn't deny it. He looks up at the vidyadhara and shifts his legs a little wider. 

“A-Feng,” he says, and the thin thread of the Elder’s forbearance snaps as something more primal settles over him, hazy like the morning fog.

Jing Yuan cries his name again as Dan Feng surges forward, capturing his lips in a feverish, mauling kiss. His canines are more pronounced, and he knows his eyes are sharper, his features more taunt. It's not just a tease that Yingxing opened him beforehand, it’s a needed preparation - Dan Feng won’t be able to will his claws away to prep the man himself. His lovely husband, so thoughtful and well planned. He will certainly fill him full later, until that cocky grin turns so desperate and pleading and tears stream from his lavender eyes. 

But, he needs to breed Jing Yuan first, especially after Yingxing went to the trouble of laying him out like a fully dressed meal. He's going to devour them both, and then he's going to pump them full of eggs. Sure, they won't take, but they really won't know until they try, right? And try, and try, and try… 

He breathes against Jing Yuan's neck for a moment, fighting to steady himself. Jing Yuan's never been through one of your ruts before, the logical and considerate part of his brain insists through the lusty haze. Don't scare him. Don't hurt him.

“A-Feng,” Jing Yuan sighs, leaning into each touch. Yingxing has moved away, messing around with something in the background, but he hasn't left, so no instinctual ‘where did my mate go’ alarm bells are ringing. “Did you like my surprise?” 

“Did you get these just for us, A-Yuan?” he growls, and it is a growl - he can't keep the trill out of his voice. Jing Yuan’s body responds so beautifully to each rough syllable. “That's a very committed mark.” 

“I'm a very committed man,” he laughs softly, breathlessly. “You know, if you think about… it means there's a part of you both inside me all the time now. Metaphorically.” 

“Fuck the metaphors, I made that jewelry, and Dan Feng's scales are the ‘gems.’ That is us inside you.” 

Dan Feng had agreed to the scale ‘gems’. It was a particularly old fashioned tradition, giving a scale or two in the form of jewelry to a partner. But he had also been under the impression they'd be going on clamps. It seems Yingxing, who liked to pretend he wasn't as much of a schemer as Jing Yuan, had been conniving with the youngest man early on.

He should have expected no less. 

“Jing Yuan,” he mouths against his skin. “ Jing Yuan .” 

“I’m here, A-Feng, I'm not going anywhere.”

He certainly isn't, with the pretty cuffs around his wrists hooked through a slot in the headboard. They both certainly have a penchant for tying Jing Yuan up - it's a good thing the man likes it so much. Yingxing will put up with it, but Jing Yuan will ask for it.  

“No, you aren't,” he rumbles, sliding down his skin. A claw hooks into the chain on his chest and lightly tugs. He feels Jing Yuan clench under him, and even sees the movement of the chain with the flex of his muscles, the squirm of his body against his bindings, against the pleasure. Blood roars in his ears like a storm - or maybe that's his own growling he’s hearing. No matter. 

Dan Feng drags his claws down Jing Yuan’s stomach, letting them catch and pull on the chain as he descends, until they can wrap under his thighs and lift. He watches his entrance spasm as the lieutenant shudders at being lifted and spread open, fully displayed. Yingxing reappears around them, holding the same toy as before and a bottle. Belatedly Dan Feng realizes he’d been wiping it down. 

“Need a hand?” He asks, cheeky, as he squeezes a little more lube directly onto Jing Yuan’s hole. 

“A-Xing!” Jing Yuan gasps at the cool lube sliding slowly down his entrance. It flexes again, drawing some inside. Dan Feng is momentarily entranced. 

“You won’t be complaining in a moment when he slides in.” Yingxing says as he helps Dan Feng untie his pants without ripping them. His cock springs free - his main cock, anyway. The secondary phallus is still inside his slit, but given that this is a rut, it will likely make an appearance soon - usually he can only coax it out if he’s rutting or been very aroused for a long period. He remembers blearily that this might be Jing Yuan’s first time seeing it. It is similar enough in appearance to the first, tinged blue like his scales, but with more bumps that aided in keeping him inside, as well as just being slightly larger in general. Unlike the primary appendage, whose main purpose is insemination, the second’s purpose is egg depositing. Eggs, if they came at all, would be small, underdeveloped, and unable to be fertilized, doomed to be expelled a few hours or day after their laying. 

But that didn’t stop Dan Feng’s lust-addled brain from wanting to try anyway. Jing Yuan would look so beautiful, his toned stomach bulging round with his clutch. With that in mind, Dan Feng plunges into him, letting out a guttural noise as heat envelopes his cock. His teeth press against Jing Yuan's throat as fingers find his hair, kneading and pleasurable. 

“Tell him how much you want it, Yuan-er,” Yingxing goads behind him as the vidyadhara rocks shallowly in and out of him, tail coiling and uncoiling behind him. “Tell him he can claim you.” 

On Yingxing's neck, a crescent mark reflects almost silver in the low light, beautiful thin scar tissue. 

Dan Feng's teeth flex as the word ‘claim’ bounces around in his skull, but even in a state like this, he won't put a claiming mark on his love without consent. Even if it's not quite the same, even if it won't ‘take’ like it would on a vidyadhara's scent glands, it still would mean something to them. Jing Yuan's symbolic acceptance of him would mean something , more than a biological phenomenon could ever hope to mean. But still, he won't force it. A mark is a mark, and though they've discussed it before, he would not argue it if Jing Yuan were to change his mind at this moment. 

“Please,” Jing Yuan gasps. He uses the cuff chain to pull himself up, to create more canvas space in the crook of his shoulder for Dan Feng. “Please, A-Feng, I want it- I want it .” 

That would do it. 

He breaks skin, and he can feel Jing Yuan’s thrumming pulse under his teeth as he tastes the iron of his blood. The youngest man’s gasp turns into a sharp cry as Dan Feng snaps his hips up hard, grinding into his heat as he digs his teeth in. Jing Yuan comes suddenly, seizing up around him. A growl rips through Dan Feng’s throat as he fucks him through it. He wants to milk every drop from him, and he wants to dig his teeth deeper until he’s sure the scar will take. There will be no Cloudhymn healing for this bite. No, he needs to let it scar. Even if his scent won’t change from it, it will still be there - a mark that he is Dan Feng’s . 

“That’s it, good boy,” He hears Yingxing says, and he can tell he’s petting the younger man’s hair. “Take it all for him. Take everything he gives you.”

Very suddenly he understands Yingxing's penchant for what Jing Yuan calls “dirty talk” in a new light. He'd found it interesting before, even a little endearing. Now, it appeals to a deeper possessiveness in him. Yes, Jing Yuan is taking everything he has to give him so beautifully. He wants to give his all to him, both of them - he wants to crawl down their throats and live in their chests, drinking in their essence and warmth. He wants the reverse too. He would hollow out his ribcage and tuck them both inside, nourish them on Permanence and his own gluttony. He would take them deep to the ancestral waters, tuck them into his egg and carry them into the next life. Maybe they could grow together. Maybe they could become a single entity, never separated even by the space of being individuals. 

Errant thoughts, as he gorges himself on Jing Yuan's blood and heat, jostling him with the force of his thrusts until he erupts inside of him, claws digging into his sweet flesh while Yingxing talks Jing Yuan through it. 

“A-Feng,” he croaks as Dan Feng pulls back to examine his work, letting out a pleased rumble at the bloody impression. He drags his tongue over it, lapping up the excess. “A-Feng… A-Xing.” 

A-Xing. Yes, yes, Yingxing. His other mate. He shouldn't neglect his other mate. He's still not quite ready to breed them both, but it's coming. He can fuck Yingxing at least once before it's time. Yes, he should do that - get both his mates’ bodies warmed up for him. He turns in time to see Yingxing pulling the toy out of himself with a groan. The realization that Yingxing was prepping himself all while Dan Feng was fucking Jing Yuan makes something in his groin coil, and he pounces, knocking the craftsman onto his back with an exhale. Yingxing laughs at him breathlessly, and for it he earns teeth at his throat. He obviously doesn't mind, even as his body tenses in anticipation. 

Next to them, Jing Yuan shifts in his chains, rolling onto his side to try to get more comfortable. 

“I could also ‘lend a hand’ if one of you would let me go…” he suggests, batting his pretty, wet lashes. 

“No,” Dan Feng and Yingxing say in unison. Yingxing adds, “A-Feng, I don’t think you fucked him well enough, he’s still talking.” 

“Are you going to just take that from him, A-Feng?” Jing Yuan gasps.

Yingxing is right about one thing - he hasn’t fucked either of them enough it seems. He’ll fix that - he has three days after all. They won’t be nearly as cocky when they’re up to their throats in his eggs. So, he sets to work on Yingxing just as he had with Jing Yuan. Yingxing craves a rougher hand, he always has, so Dan Feng has no issue with immediately sliding in and setting his own pace, eating up the strained hiss that results. Yingxing curses at him, but he also groans and shudders with each snap of his hips. 

“Say it.” 

“Fucking- aah –” 

“ Say it. ” Dan Feng growls. Yingxing has done this before, and he knows exactly what Dan Feng wants to hear. His pace starts to slow - if he wants to come, he’ll have to follow Dan Feng’s lead tonight. 

“Ahh- fuck don’t stop–” the craftsman gasps, desperate. “Fine. Please– please , A-Feng, give me your eggs.” 

Even Jing Yuan is silent, his eyes heavy with lust and wonder as he watches from the side, his cock already filling again. 

“You’ll get them.” He says, snapping his hips harshly, drawing another keen out of his husband. “Both of you will get them. You’ll be round from my eggs. Mine .” 

Yingxing releases with several spurts of white across their chests, and Dan Feng unloads inside of him. Not eggs, not yet, but soon. In the delicious aftermath, he can feel it. So can Yingxing too, bumping against his leg as Dan Feng pulls out. Jing Yuan chokes on his own spit at the sight. Dan Feng, for his part, reaches down and strokes his lower cock, the one which will push eggs deep inside of his mates. 

“Which one of you shall I breed first?” he murmurs, mostly to himself, but Yingxing takes it as an invitation to offer his two strales, as per usual. 

“It’s Jing Yuan’s first time. I think he should get the honors.” Yingxing chuckles, breathless and red-faced from their coupling. His dark, gray-streaked hair is fanned beautifully around him. 

“As much as I would normally take A-Xing up on his generosity, I think I should like him to show me how it’s done first, if A-Feng allows it.” Jing Yuan retorts. When Dan Feng’s gaze slides from Yingxing back over to him, he smiles, conspiratorial and mischievous. “And… gege is still very sensitive right now, A-Feng.” 

This is why Jing Yuan makes a good tactician. Dan Feng knows he’s being played by the youngest man, falling right into his obvious goading. But Jing Yuan is doing such a good job playing on his own primal desires that he doesn’t care, easily turning his attention back to Yingxing, who lets out a mock-offended noise that Jing Yuan’s suggestion was chosen over his. 

“I’ll remember this,” he half-heartedly complains, his groaning cut off with a weak keen as Dan Feng roughly rips the lube bottle cap off with his claws. He lathers his second cock, pressing it to his husband’s entrance. His own seed is there, seeping out, and he pushes it back in with that cock as he slides in. 

“You’ll remember this ,’ he growls, grinding against him as his other cock slides against his balls, slick and still erect. Jing Yuan curses under his breath - Yingxing curses loudly. One of his strong, craftsman’s hands comes to fist one of Dan Feng’s horns, and truly, things begin to blur for Dan Feng. He fucks Yingxing as the other man groans underneath him, pawing at him like a drowning man. Dan Feng would drown them, if he could. He would drown them and fill their lungs with the water of the ancient sea, until they could ‘breathe’ it just like him. He would cradle them in the waters that are as much an extension of himself as his own hands - hands that leave bruising impressions on his husband’s hips as he mercilessly fucks into him. 

Yingxing, the stupid mortal, goads him. 

“Harder,” he chokes, beautiful head tossed back, his strong thick neck on display. Dan Feng sees the offered feast and bites, remarking his claim on the side. “Fuck, harder!”

“Mrphh…” Jing Yuan pants next to them, hard again. Oh Dan Feng can’t wait to fill him too. But first, but first .

His first cock is where he ejaculates. It spurts across their chests, mixing with Yingxing’s own seed. This, however, is just the precursor, the announcement. On its heels comes pressure in his abdomen, then his pelvis. He growls so loudly his chest vibrates with it, his tail lashing. It finds Jing Yuan’s curled leg and clings to it, shivering as the first egg passes through him. 

“A-Feng, A-Feng ,” Yingxing sobs into the pillow. It is so rare for his husband to show such abandon. He gorges himself on the sight and sound and feeling, even as his body unloads another small egg into him. 

“Wow,” Jing Yuan murmurs. A glance shows his golden eyes wide with wonder and dark with lust. “This is a good look on you, gege .” 

“You- oh, ohh !”

Three more eggs pass quickly into him before Dan Feng pulls reluctantly out. Yingxing swats at him as he reaches down to tenderly pet his hole, the positively romantic gesture completely lost on the oaf. Dan Feng scowls for all of three seconds before Yingxing points. He's pointing at Jing Yuan. Yes, he should- 

“No, my lovely rut-brained husband,” Yingxing growls. He doesn't really have the vocal cords to do so like Dan Feng, but still manages all the same. Dan Feng likes it. No, he's pointing at the bedside table next to Jing Yuan. 

“We forgot something,” he says, gesturing. Dan Feng really, really just wants to get back to fucking. But Yingxing's stomach is slightly rounder with eggs, his eggs, and the rush of fuzzy pleased feelings that creates (and the way ‘mate, mate, mate’ echoes in his head) makes him particularly agreeable to this small demand, and he opens the drawer.

Ah, his husband is a genius indeed. 

“Did you forget, or did you just want to see me put it on him?” Dan Feng asks as he lifts the collar out of the drawer. Jing Yuan recognizes it and visibly bites back a whimper, already lifting his head for Dan Feng to slip it on. The bell is attached, good. He doesn't know that his clawed fingers could maneuver the clasp, but he can handle a snap buckle - not as aesthetically pleasing, Yingxing had admitted, but much better if they needed to get it off Jing Yuan quickly. 

Said lieutenant seemed to physically melt into the bed as the familiar leather slid home around his neck. 

“Both, honestly. I meant to remind you before you actually fucked him, but I suppose I was distracted.”

“Does A-Xing like seeing me in all his pretty jewelry?” He grins, cheeks flush, hair rustled, looking every part the alluring and debauched youth. Yingxing rolls onto his side to pet his cheek. It almost looks sweet. 

“Roll him on his stomach and straddle his legs,” Yingxing instructs. The cuffs have enough length on them to comfortably allow this. “I want the brat to feel every inch.” 

Again, Yingxing is a genius. 

Jing Yuan lets out a noise, somewhere between surprise and pure lust, as Dan Feng easily manhandles him around. Both of these big men find his deceptive strength incredibly attractive. He can't lie - he also very much likes having these two fold to him, bend whatever way he moves them, stay as he desires. The power trip is delectable, especially as hormones flow through his system, pushing his inhibitions on the back burner as everything primal in his body comes to the forefront. 

He presses more slowly into Jing Yuan, easing in, and judging by his response, the lieutenant definitely ‘feels every inch.’

“Oh Lan, oh Lan —” 

“My name!” Dan Feng hisses, his teeth to the back of the youngest man's throat. “ You say my name when I'm fucking you! ”

Jing Yuan comes with the vidyadhara's name on his lips as he bottoms out, hips pressed to his ass and clawed hands pushing the small of his back into an arch against the bed. 

“Do you feel it?” Yingxing says, lying right beside Jing Yuan’s face. His hand rests on his own bulging stomach. Dan Feng snaps his hips harder as Jing Yuan sobs. “I bet you feel it up in your stomach, don't you? You definitely will in a minute. So full… you're going to feel it for days, even after you pass them. You'll ache and be ready to beg him to fill you again.”

Yingxing's ‘again’ might come sooner if he keeps talking like that. 

“But that's why we have three days, isn't it, Yuan-er?” he says, reaching up to push his sweaty hair away, so he and Dan Feng can both see how red and tear-stricken his cheeks are. 

“Dan Feng,” he repeats, saying the vidyadhara's name over and over like a mantra, or perhaps a prayer. “Dan Feng, Dan Feng-” 

“That's right. Tell him who you belong to. Now tell him what you want. You want it right?”

“Yes,” he says, gnawing on the pillow beneath him as he's held fast, forced to take the full force of each thrust. He comes again, babbling. “Your eggs, A-Feng…” 

“Mine,” Dan Feng growls, mouthing the back of his neck around the collar. “Mine. Both of you, mine .” 

🌙🌙🌙

Dan Feng isn’t sure how many times he beds them over the next three days. He knows at certain points he heals the worst of their soreness so they can sleep comfortably - and so he can fuck them with abandon when they wake (or when the burning need to mate them becomes irresistible). He vaguely remembers bathing them with Cloudhymn - and then also bathing them in his tub at Jing Yuan’s insistence. Dan Feng’s claws feel nice in his hair, he had explained. Dan Feng is sure they felt nice on his sides as he ended up taking Jing Yuan in the tub too, bouncing him on his cock. 

On the evening of day two, Jing Yuan began to pass his eggs. He had been fucked the longest and the loosest, and his strong abdominal muscles also helped. It was a conflicting process as usual, for Dan Feng. On one hand, his mates clenching and straining and panting around anything of his was a cause of arousal. On the other hand, the dragon in him felt unfulfilled seeing unviable egg after unviable egg slip out of him. But it was nothing he wasn’t already accustomed to. It had been the same for Yingxing when he’d passed his late in the night, groaning and shuddering. 

Dan Feng was forced to acknowledge this had been a particularly… bountiful rut, as far as egg production went. He wasn’t sure if it was because he had both partners with him for the first time, or just a fluctuation in his cycles. And despite the fruitlessness of the effort, there was still a part of his primal draconic soul that smugly noted how many eggs he’d produced, even if none of them were viable. 

“So…” Jing Yuan starts as they all curl into bed together on the night of the third day. Dan Feng is absently tracing his nipples, again. The little studs in them have quickly become a fixation of his. He likes twisting them around slowly, watching Jing Yuan twitch and squirm at the attention - like now, as his voice becomes breathier. Yingxing is determinedly lying on his side with his back to them, allowing Jing Yuan to cuddle against him but firmly putting his foot down on more sex or even light fondling. 

“How often do you have ruts again?” He asks hopefully. Yingxing slaps them both across the face with a pillow. 

They do end up needing the fourth day.