Thread by @_stiricide_

Happy Birthday Lan Zhan! Have some cathartic m*rder!

#WangXian 🔞 modern au ft. m*rdererji, not Jiang family friendly, abuse and neglect, mild to moderate gore, getting together, #darklanwangji

~

“I’m so so so so so so so sorry, lz…” wy’s voice called through the phone,

miserable and broken as he took quick steps. "Madam Yu insisted and I tried to get out of it but then jc *and* jiejie showed up at my place under threat of death to get me and bodily dragged me out and-"

"It is fine, wy," lz said, trying to sound convincing. He was pretty sure

he succeeded, or that wy didn't hear the way his tone truly sounded out of self-preservation: heartbroken, angry, murderous. "We will celebrate my birthday another day."

"UGH!" wy cried, the click of a door sounded. "So stupid! I'm sure she knows it's your birthday,

and my siblings definitely do, and- fuck!"

lz listened to the springs on wy's old, worn out bed, older probably than wy himself, creak. lz had seen the bed, sat on the bed, questioned why wy's childhood bed was a crime against sanitary regulations, probably crawling with bugs

and mold and the remnants of childhood bed wettings, creeping and crawling and oozing with illness and mistreatment.

"We always spend the day together," wy whispered and lz shuddered at how heartbroken he sounded, a small sparkle in this otherwise miserable turn of events:

that wy's heart was breaking just as his was, because they couldn't be together on lz's birthday like they always were.

"Mn," he hummed, asking, "When will you be back?" while he tried and failed to blink images of his friend's abusive childhood out of his head. He could bring

it up again and hear the same things wy always said, the same excuses the other man always made for his adoptive family, hear the same anger in wy's voice when he told lz that lz just didn't understand.

"Not until Thursday..." wy sighed. "We can do something on the weekend,

I guess."

"Mn," lz hummed, glancing down at the expensive tickets to an art exhibit he had gotten them for tonight, an art exhibit that closed on Wednesday and he knew wy had wanted to see. He would need to find somewhere else for them to go, somewhere better, somewhere-

"WEI YING!" Madam Yu's voice howled from another room, loud enough to make it through the shitty speaker of wy's shitty old flip phone, a hand me down that his friend could replace (he had the money) but didn't because he knew his adoptive mother would scream at him for being

ungrateful, greedy, spoiled, all the while ensuring her other children always had the latest, greatest models.

"I gotta go," wy sighed, a sliver of fear slipping through his voice, lz's heart cracking open, the angry, vengeful blood he kept locked away inside seeping out into

his veins. "I'll talk to you later."

"Tonight," lz insisted, before wy could hang up. He needed to know his friend was okay, mentally, physically, before he could sleep.

"I'll try," wy whispered, a short, shuddering, "Goodbye," slipping from his lips before the call went dead.

A/N: I'm going to say this again: this includes physical and emotional abuse and neglect of wy, both as an adult (he's in his 20s) and a child, and revolves around lz m*rdering the Jiangs (probably all of them, but you never know, someone might survive) in order to protect him.

Also includes mentions of physical, emotional and sexual abuse of lz's mother at the hands of his father. lz and lh were never actively abused by the man but they did witness and hear things when they were little and that left its mark.

Also, wy making excuses for MY's abuse.

~

lz jolted upright from where he had been all but sleeping on his couch, book fallen across his lap as he tried to stay up waiting for wy's call. He glanced towards the sound that had woken him up, not his phone, as he had been expecting, but-

"wy," he said, confused and tried as

he pulled the door open to find his best friend standing nervously outside his house, shivering in the cold spring night and his thin, ratty tank top. "You're here," he added, stepping aside to let the other man inside, narrowing sleepy eyes at the ball cap pulled low

over his face.

"Yeah..." wy said, nervously shuffling his feet and refusing to look up at lz. "Madam Yu kicked me out," he added, laughing coldly as he rubbed his arms.

lz reached out towards them, hissing when his fingers pressed against frozen flesh. "wy," he gasped, quickly

ripping his sweater over his head to slide over the other man's head, pulling his cap off, wy's wide eye flying up to his as lz froze. "wy..." lz finally whispered after a thousand years, a single second of taking in wy's face. "What happened?"

"Ah..." wy breathed out,

hand rising up to tentatively touch the bruise across his cheek, black and brutal, the eye above it already swollen shut. "I- I made a mistake," he said, flinching and pulling his hand back when his fingers barely brushed against his skin.

"A mistake," lz stated coldly,

trying and failing to rein in the anger ripping though his stomach, churning and retching up his throat in words he couldn't actually say because wy would defend his adoptive mother until she slashed a knife across his throat and demanded he thank her for it, stomping and

screaming about how ungrateful he was when his severed vocal cords refused to move.

"Yeah," wy laughed, faux cheery and externally accepting. "I just, I wasn't polite, is all. You're supposed to be polite to your elders and I wasn't and, well..." he said, trailing off and

looking blankly into lz's bare chest.

"Raise your arms," lz said, rolling the shirt up around his hands and slipping it gently over wy's head, carefully avoiding the dark splat of blood across his face and wondering if anything was broken, if it needed a doctor and ambulance,

if years of being smacked across the face for the smallest slight had led to brain damage.

wy cringed as he pulled his arms through the hole and lz was immediately pulling his tank top up, wy simply sucking in a shuddering breath as the bruises cracking up his rips and stomach

leaked red across lz's eyes.

"wy," lz said said, kneeling and tugging down the waistband of his friend's sweats to reveal more bruises across his hip. "This isn't-"

"It's fine, lz," wy insisted, looking off into the distance of lz's living room, refusing to look down because it

was one thing to say it was fine to the furniture, it was another to say it was to a person, living and breathing and seething at your feet. "I fell, is all, and Madam Yu she, well- she isn't good at controlling her anger sometimes. I shouldn't have pissed her off or gotten in

her way."

lz growled as he stood. "You need an x-ray and to make a police report," he said, because this was ridiculous. It was one thing for wy to excuse Madam Yu's emotional abuse, simultaneously more permanent and more ignored by society than physical abuse, but this?

This was too much. This was bruises and swollen eye sockets and potential broken bones, bones that could have snapped in half and cut wy to pieces from the inside out, could have punctured lungs and hearts, could have sent tiny bone fragments running through his body and slicing

up veins and organs along the way.

Would his family have even called for an ambulance while he lay bleeding out from Madam Yu's kicks? Would they have risked the woman being put down where she belonged for her so called anger management issues? Or would they have tucked wy's

body into an unused room to rot and ferment, or buried him in the lake behind their house, tied up his legs and sank him to the bottom the way he had sank himself there when he was little and his baby brother had been drowning.

"The police?" wy cried, overdramatic and smiling

and laughing, even as his one good eye squeezed closed in pain. "There's no reason to talk to the police, lz! You're so silly," he teased, even as he leaned against the wall and cringed as he tried to get his shoes off because he couldn't bend that way without his back

threatening to give out under the pain from bruised muscles and organs screaming at him that no, actually he really should talk to the police.

lz sighed, lips pressed tight to keep the sour, rancid vomit of words swirling in his mouth from spewing out on his friend.

"Traumatized," he reminded himself. "wy is a traumatized child and children protect their parental figures until something clicks and they can't anymore. Children blame themselves because it's easier. Children don't hear you when lecture them on why their parents are pieces

of shit, all they hear are attacks on themselves and the people they love."

"wy may have broken something," he finally said, when he finally managed to swallow the words down to churn themselves into an ulcer inside him.

"I doubt it," wy said with such an air of confidence that

lz knew he had experience. If he got wy's medical history, what would it say? How many bones had he broken? How many trips to the emergency room had he made accompanied by jfm's kind, mindless smile and a handful of excuses about how he was clumsy and had tripped on his own feet?

How many times had the doctors called the cops because it was just too obvious that wy was being abused? How many times had the Jiang's status and money bought them off, because rich people didn't hit their kids? Because rich people could destroy you with lawsuits and lies if you

dared even suggest such a thing.

"Why did wy come here, instead of going home?" lz finally asked, when he was no longer in danger of striking out against his friend, rather than people who deserved to be stuck down.

"It-it's still your birthday," wy said, pouting at lz as he

rose, "or, it was... I'm not sure what time it is, I kinda forgot my phone there. But! But I said I'd call you and I can't without the phone and I knew you'd stay up and worry and-"

"It is almost midnight," lz said, interrupting what was sure to be a dramatic repetition of the

same few thoughts over and over and, as much as he normally enjoyed watching his friend spin his wheels a bit, it was late and everything was already too heavy and suffocating.

He reached out to gently cup wy's unbruised cheek. "I am glad I was able to see wy today,"

he said sincerely, his hand gliding up into wy's hair to pull them together, wy pressing himself into the crook of lz's neck, his entire body going limp. "wy will stay here tonight," he half-asked, mostly ordered, smiling when wy laughed quietly into him, warm, happy air floating

across his bare chest.

"Aiya! lz," wy teased, "don't make me laugh, I'm in a delicate condition!"

"Mn..." lz hummed, hand gently massaging the base of the other man's neck. A man who loved too much, who laughed at his silly non-jokes, who covered up pain with

children's bandaids and smiles and inappropriate jokes. A man who lz loved. A man who he would do anything to protect, whether wy wanted him to or not.

~

lz lay awake in bed, listening to the soft rustle of wy's breath against the cool bedroom air, memories from a lifetime ago

cracking through his brain.

"Sometimes," a man's light, sad voice said, "people can't protect themselves. Sometimes they need someone else to do it for them, before it's too late." The man turned away from lz, his shovel striking back into the moonlit, blood stained ground as he

continued burying their family's shame and violence and hatred into the black pit of earth and worms and bacteria.

"I waited too long," the man finally said, stomping down the earth before moving to pull the freshly installed turf back across the site of their sins.

(A/N: death of unborn child due to abuse)

"I waited too long and your mama, your baby sister were hurt, killed as a result."

The man turned back to lz, looking down at his small body, bare hands and feet covered in the blood of the man who had created him, the blood of the man

who had tormented his mother in more ways than his tiny brain could understand at the time. "I'm sorry I waited so long, Zhan-er. I'm sorry you won't get the be a big brother because I waited," he shook his head, eyes clamping closed before he was moving, gathering little lz up

into his arms and carrying him back into the house, stripping off their bloody pyjamas and dumping them into a black bag of death before pulling them into the shower.

"Your mama may not be happy, not at the beginning," the man told him, scrubbing between lz's ticklish toes to

remove all traces of blood, swept down the drain and into the festering sewage beneath their feet, fragments of lz's father melding into the shit and suds and sludge where he belonged. "She will accept that things are better this way though, eventually," he said, hands scrubbing

them clean of blood and then continuing to scrub and scrub as though they could get cleaner, clean of sins and violence and genetic material that tied them to an abusive husband, a r*pist, a child killer.

lz watched through sleepy, blinking eyes as their skin grew red and raw,

hot and burning under the man's desperate scrubbing and the hot, comforting heat of the shower. He reached out a tiny hand to place over the man's, their eyes shooting together. "Zhan-er understands. Zhan-er won't wait too long if he ever needs to protect someone, shushu."

lz would not wait too long to protect wy, he would not risk his friend vanishing into thin air the way his father had, still tucked away in the depths of earth two decades later under a wild, thriving flower garden at the house his mother still loved. lz would not get revenge on

the Jiangs for wy's death, he would stop them in their tracks and pick up the pieces of his friend when his so called family was gone.

His mother had laid in pieces after their father had disappeared, fragments of blame and regret, acceptance and relief all blurred together

(A/N: details of how lz's mother lost the baby)

to make a mess of a woman, happy and free one moment and sobbing with guilt the next, blaming herself for losing a child and driving her husband out of their lives. Blaming herself when it had been her husband who had tossed her

carelessly down the stairs because he had been late and dinner hadn't been warm enough.

lz didn't know what pieces wy would lay in, but he would pick them up and delicately press them back together the way his uncle had his mother, slipping into their house one night and never

leaving, tucking each of them safely into bed each night and filling their lives with the love and kindness his brother had barely managed on the best of days.

lz reached for his phone. 2 o'clock. He had been lying here, awake and stewing, for almost two hours. He titled his

head and looked over at his friend, sleeping soundly under the dim light of his phone, his hands tucked up in a little prayer of comfort under his good cheek as he curled in towards lz and lz wondered, how many times had he fallen asleep like this? Broken and sore and still

sleeping soundly because it was normal, because there was no point in worrying what hits and bites and scathing words awaited him tomorrow because they would come regardless of how well he slept.

lz reached out and pushed a stray hair out of wy's face, smiling slightly when the

other man murmured happily in his sleep. No, lz wouldn't wait too long, he would cut the Jiang family into tiny, bloody pieces before anything worse happened. He glanced back at his phone, wide awake and bubbling with white hot rage, and he couldn't see a reason not to start now.

~

The fish rots from the head down, or so they say, but things are much more difficult when the fish wears a crown held up by lawyers and cash and corrupt cops, each little pin holding it perfectly in place needing to be pulled away in order to topple it to the ground and

grind it into dust. Fortunately lz has found, through years of watching his uncle meticulously pull the pins from the crowns of corrupt businesspeople, that money is what keeps those crowns stable, what keeps lawyers and cops, even your so-called friends, tucked under it.

"What do you mean it's all gone?" wy asked blankly into lz's phone, borrowed to contact his siblings and see how everything was going now that he was no longer "souring their visit with his presence," or so wy said to his brother before jc had started yelling at him.

"I mean,

it's fucking gone, all of it!" jc screeched and lz almost wished he hadn't suggested wy put it on speaker so he could listen in from the kitchen. Almost.

"How did-" wy started, flinching visibly when jc cut him off, swearing and complaining about how fucking stupid wy was.

"How the fuck should I know? Just some fucker who decided to drain our accounts and take off," jc growled. "Fuck! Do you know how much money was in those accounts? All of mine and jie's trust fund cash, that's what!"

"You guys didn't spread it out between banks?" wy asked,

his eyes immediately growing wide as he slapped a hand across him mouth.

"Are you trying to tell us how to handle our money?" jc yelled into the phone. "You? Who has pennies compared to us?"

"No, A-Cheng..." wy said, pressing himself into lz's couch, trying to make himself

small and invisible. lz though, he was perpetually watching wy's every move, from the way his index fingers flexed a moment before they began speeding across his keyboard and his brain became unreachable until the words within to out spilled onto the screen, to the way he wiggled

his toes and turned his eyes towards lz when they were watching a show he'd already seen, just before every important moment, every love confession and every jump scare. To lz, wy could never make himself small enough to disappear from his sight or thoughts.

"Fuck, whatever.

Mom's on the phone with the bank chewing them out and I'm on my way back into the city to scream at them in person," jc said, a door slamming behind him.

"Oh! Are you just leaving now?" wy asked, perking up a bit as lz sliced up fruit for their breakfast. Well, wy's breakfast

and his mid-morning, post-workout snack.

"Yes," jc said, huffing slightly before what sounded like a car trunk closed, "I'm just about to leave."

"Oh! Oh!" wy cried, bouncing slightly on the couch, his beautiful pony tail swinging happily behind him. "Can you run back in and

grab my phone? Please, please, please? I forgot it there last night."

"Are you fucking kidding me right now, wy?" jc growled followed by what sounded suspiciously like him kicking his car. "I've just lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and you're worried about your piece of

shit phone? I'm not going all the way back upstairs because you aren't responsible. God, you're so fucking self-centred."

wy swallowed and folded himself back into his corner, curling his knees into himself and pressing his cheek into the couch, eyes fluttering shut as he

continued listening to his brother rant about how stupid he was. lz wondered if his fruit-phone care covered damage from throwing it out the window.

"You need to transfer me some money," jc finally said and lz almost sliced off a finger at the audacity of his friend's brother.

"Ten thousand should cover me for the rest of the month."

wy blinked wide eyes down at his phone. "I-I don't have that kind of cash lying around..."

"Don't fucking lie to me, wy!" jc said a moment before his phone flickered over to his car. "I know you've been saving up for

that... thing. Fuck, I don't remember what the fuck your latest obsession is, but I know you needed like 30 thousand and you said you were halfway there the other day."

"Yeah, but... most of that's in inv*stments. I can't just take it out that easily. There are penalties,

contracts, and if I take it out now I might even lose all my gains and-"

"Are you fucking kidding me? You're squabbling over a couple thousand in fees?" jc yelled, the sound of him screeching out of his parents multi-million dollar house screaming through the call. "Seriously,

how the fuck did you end up being so selfish?"

lz watched as wy's mouth pulled tight, his teeth grinding together in the way they did when their classmates said something particularly rude or stupid and he was holding himself back from telling them off. He wished wy would

(A/N: mention of someone victim blaming women who are assaulted)

just let go, scream at his brother and the classmate who had suggested women walking alone at night deserved whatever happened to them, scream at the people who deserved it instead of holding himself back because

they might smack him across the face, knock him down and bruise his bones and break his heart.

"Why don't you ask the parentals to loan you something?" wy asked after several long moments of hiding his anger and frustration back under his cloak of laughter and smiles.

"Because mom's got enough shit on her plate and I doubt dad even knows what banks they use, duh," jc said, adding, tone turning almost sickly sweet, "Are you seriously telling me you expect me to pay you back? Aren't you my big brother? Are you really not going to help me out?

I was counting on you, wy."

lz angrily tossed the food waste into the little white bin under his sink, wishing he could toss his friend's abusive, manipulative, shit stain of a brother in along with it. Grind him up into flesh and blood and send him off to become fertilizer,

at least that way he'd be able to offer something good to world, just like his father fed the flowers his mother plucked and plunked into vases to set across the table where they shared family dinners.

The first time she'd done it, years after the man had disappeared,

he and his uncle had shared a look across the table, little white and red flowers poking up between them, and burst into laughter, Huan-ge and mother looking at them like they had lost their minds. Now they joked every time the man's bloody flowers graced their table about how

wonderful it was that their entire family was together again and shared that same knowing, happy, free look across the table.

"I- I can try, jc," wy sighed, nose pressed into lz's couch. "Of course I'll try, for my sweet little brother, who I love so very much."

"Ugh, gag me,"

jc muttered before the call clicked off, the younger man not even deigning to bid the older brother he had just demanded 10 thousand dollars from goodbye.

lz watched from the corner of his eye and wy sucked in a shuddering breath, delicately rubbing over the blacked skin of his

cheek to wipe away a stray tear that had managed to sneak out of his swollen eye and he wanted to make jc cry, scream, beg for his life and not receive even a morsel of kindness or forgiveness for his trouble.

"wy," lz said as he set their plates down on the table, "breakfast."

"Mn..." wy hummed at him absentmindedly, his fingers flexing around the hem of the hoodie lwj had lent him, the one he only had because wy was bad at remembering to bring something warm, the one lz only wore after wy had already suffused it with his scent.

"I brought out the

Nutella," lz said lightly, eyes trained on his friend and smiling slightly when wy's good eye popped open at him.

"Yeah? I'm that broken and sad that lz broke out the inappropriate breakfast spreads?" wy asked, gingerly pushing himself up from the couch, flinching when he bent

too far to the left.

"Not broken," lz said sternly. Cracked, damaged, repairable. Never broken.

wy hummed disbelievingly at him as he took his seat, lz appearing by his side to help steady him. "Not broken, eh?" wy asked, trying to raise an eyebrow at him, his face shuddering

erratically under the strain.

"Not broken," lz repeated, pulling the Nutella towards wy and taking his seat. If his chair was a bit closer to wy today than most other days, well, wy wasn't in any condition to comment on it and they ate the majority of their

breakfast/post-workout snack in silence, only the soft crunch of the toast lz had barely even toasted for fear it would hurt wy escaping their mouths.

"He wasn't always like that..." wy finally said, pushing his plate aside to bring the entire jar of Nutella towards him,

accepting his favourite tiny spoon from lz with a wobbly smile and scooping a glob out, licking delicately at the chocolate and moaning quietly as he slipped the entire spoon into his mouth. lz wondered, if he put Nutella on his cock would wy lick it off just as enthusiastically?

"We used to be close," wy continued, popping the clean spoon from his cute, pouty mouth, "when we were little, when..."

"When your parents were still alive?" lz asked softly, reaching out a hand to smooth some of wy's hair behind his ear.

"Yeah..." wy sighed, taking another

scoop of Nutella. "I just- I just always thought we could go back to that, to being friends, to Madam Yu not being a fucking stick of dynamite between us. I thought maybe once we were both out of that house..." wy trailed off, reaching to rub a stray tear away and getting Nutella

in his hair. "Oh, fuck," he mumbled, pulling the hair in font of his face to grimace at it before breaking into soft, sad laughter. "Guess I needed to shower anyways."

"Mn," lz agreed gravely.

"Am I that stinky?" wy asked, teasing smile fragmented across his face and

only recognizable because lwj had spent hours analyzing that smile, the way wy's left eyebrow tilted, the way he shifted his chin down and to the right, the way he looked up at lz through his lashes.

"Very stinky," lz agreed, huffing quietly when wy laughed, even as he clenched

a hand across his bruised stomach. "Would wy like help?" he asked once wy's pained laughter had subsided.

wy's laughter was his favourite sound in the whole world and he relished the moments when that laughter was because of him, because of a bitchy comment or lame joke he made.

wy was the only person who laughed at his jokes, but now, when that laughter was causing pain to crack across wy's bruises? Even if it meant lz was boring and humourless, at that moment he quite wished that not a single person in existence found him funny.

"lz's gonna help be bath?" wy asked, blinking slowly at him.

"If wy would like," lz said, rising to clear their plates.

wy sadly handed him the tiny, Nutella spoon before smiling happily when lz took one more scoop and held out the spoon for him. His hands came up to clasp

around lz's wrist, holding his hand steady while he leaned in to wrap those luscious, full lips around the spoon, good eye falling closed as he moaned around it.

Sometimes lz wondered if wy wasn't as oblivious as he seemed to lz's interest in him, if he was just messing with him

at times like these, pulling at the threads of his control to see what would happen when he snapped. Sometimes he wondered if wy was just too afraid to change the status quo, too afraid to risk one of the only good relationships in his life. Sometimes he wondered if wy was just

(A/N: mentions of non-con)

testing him, was just waiting for lz to throw him down and force his cock into him, waiting for lz to show him that everyone was abusive, that everyone would eventually hurt him.

Joke was on wy, lz wanted his friend giggling and happy and consenting

when he fingered him open for the first time and finally slipped inside his warmth, finally slipped home, finally showed wy how much he was worth, how much he was loved.

wy let the spoon pop out his mouth, the hands around lz's wrist dropping back into his lap as lz turned to

finish cleaning up, wy's eye pins and needles across his back. "lz can help, if he wants," wy finally said, his chair scrapping harshly against the kitchen floor. "Guess I'll actually remember us showering together this time," he teased nervously before swishing out of the room

and hurrying down the hall.

"Mn..." lz hummed, sliding the Nutella back into the secret spot he kept it so wy wouldn't give himself a sugar headache when he tried to eat the whole container in a single sitting. "I suppose it will," he said before following after wy, the bathroom

door left ajar for him.

wy was leaning against the vanity, looking down at his feet, somehow more anxious than he had been the night before, somehow more nervous about this, showing lz the body he had already seen, than showing him the marks of his adoptive mother's love.

(A/N: Oops! Pretend Nutella is actually some lactose free alternative, lz also gave him some lactaid, or wy is a rare asian without lactose intolerance, I dunno. I'll fix it to something like that whenever the story is done and I clean it up.)

(A Note, about the next section: this next bit includes some stuff about wy engaging in self harm as a teenager, specifically cutting. lz sees the scars and, while there are no specifics from wy on how he did it, it does include a couple lines of lz thinking about it.

It also includes wy talking about the incident that happened before he started, which is the set up for why lz chooses to dispose of jc the way he does.

If you'd like to skip the scene: scroll to the next "~", where there will be a short summary. Take care of yourselves!)

"How did we do it the other times?" wy asked, scuffing his foot against the floor, his too long borrowed sweats slapping against the heated tile.

"The first time, I stripped wy first and he behaved until I was also naked, and then he decided we needed to play naked tag.

The second time, I blockaded the door and stripped first. Drunk wy was perfectly content to watch me strip without causing problems."

"Oops," wy laughed. "I've apologized for those times, right?"

"Mn," lz hummed, beginning to pull his clothes off. "Happy, drunk wy was fine,"

(A/N: mention of past vomit)

he said, nose scrunching up. "Much better than puke on his clothes and in need of a shower wy, and wy replaced the clothing he got dirty."

"Yeah... probably better to just not get so drunk my best friend has to force me into the shower," wy said,

eyes trained to lz's face as he dropped his pants and boxers, flipping them up with his foot and dropping them into the laundry basket.

"wy's turn," he said, reaching out his arms and waiting until his friend gained the courage to step into them.

"Did we talk about them?"

wy asked as lz gently maneuvered the hoodie off, pulling each of wy's arms out of the holes before throwing it into the laundry.

"No," he said, squatting down to slip his fingers under wy's waistbands, waiting until wy nodded to pull them down, eyes carefully steering clear of

his friend, his love's adorable, mouth watering cock and the scars that crisscrossed his upper thighs. "wy did not comment on them, at the time. I did not ask."

wy giggled as lz pulled off each wy's socks, purposefully running his finger gently over the bottom of his soles.

"lz!" wy objected, frowning seriously down at him and lz tried to not think about his own cock dangling between his knees, tried not to wonder if wy could see it, if he wanted to see it. "No tickling."

"Mn," lz hummed noncommittally, unable to help running his fingers over wy's

thighs and waist as he rose, smiling when wy laughed quietly and slapped his hand playfully against lz's chest. "Shall we?" lz asked, helping to steady the other man as he stepped over the edge of the tub, groaning quietly at the strain over his bruised muscles.

lz stepped in

after him, pulling the shower head out and turning on the water, waiting until hot water splattered across the white tile to put it back, warmth and comfort floating around them as steam began to rise.

Behind him, wy sucked in a shuddering breath, his forehead landing lightly on

lz's back. "Do you want to know why I started?" wy asked quietly. "You're always so curious, even if you almost never poke. You must want to know why I started cutting myself."

lz blinked up into the dim light of the bathroom, wy having dimmed the lights lz almost always kept

burning hot and stifling across his perfect, boring bathroom, the only colour splashing through it wy's laughter and the kids toothbrushes wy had jokingly bought them during a late night snack run. Batman and Robin, some gay joke mixed in between their bristles but never spoken.

(A/N: lz's thoughts on wy's cutting in the next few tweets, also... not a scar fetish, but lz thinking about loving wy's scars)

"I will always listen, if wy wishes to tell me, but I will not force it out of him, if he does not," lz said, eyes fluttering shut as he tried not to

imagine it, what horrible thing had made his precious, sweet wy drag a razor over his beautiful thighs, not that they weren't beautiful now. lz had dreamed about those thighs before he knew how much pain they had written across them and he had dreamed of them since.

He had dreamed of dragging his tongue over each little mark of pain and terror, of showering wy with enough love and kisses to burn away whatever fragments of that suffering still lingered under his skin until he was simply wy, happy and free and cherished.

He had dreamed of

going back in time, to whatever moments, whatever people, had caused wy such heartbreak that he would hurt himself in an attempt to drag those memories under his skin with blood and tears and self hatred. He had dreamed of burning those people into dust, tucking them away in a

box to bury at sea so no one could mourn them properly, so no one could offer them prayers and offering without giving to every other unfortunate, toxic soul who's body had been dropped into the depths.

"I- I was 15," wy whispered into the rush of water, into lz's heart.

"I- there was this teacher. They were nice and they knew how to handle me and my adhd," he laughed, a depressing reminder of how many teachers had failed wy, had locked him into detentions and punishments that did nothing but aggravate him and aggravate his loving mother into

even harsher punishments at home.

"I don't know how they knew, but somehow they knew that Madam Yu was- was not very nice to me," wy continued, ignoring or simply not noticing the way lz tensed under him, tensed because wy couldn't even say the words: that Madam Yu is abusive.

"They talked to me and I- I couldn't lie to them, not that day, not to them. I don't know who they talked to but the next thing I knew they were gone and Madam Yu was screaming at me for lying to a teacher about how she was-," wy broke off into a long silence, sniffling quietly

against lz's back.

"And she did something to you?" lz asked, once wy's breathing had evened out.

wy laughed coldly into his back. "Yeah, but that was nothing new. No, this was- this was the first time, only time really, where jc..." wy broke off into a gasping sob, lz twisting

around and wrapping his arms around the other man, pulling him into a gentle, suffocating hug.

"I just-" wy tried, voice cracking against lz's neck and heart, his own arms wrapping harshly around lz even though it must be a knife through his bruised chest, "I never thought that

he would- Madam Yu, she hits and screams but never- she's never actually tried to kill me."

lz froze, his heart stopping where it beat against wy's bruises, his breath stuttering to a halt. "jc tried to kill you?" he asked blankly, even his rage and fear fizzling into bubbles

that popped before they could grow too big, too shocked to feel anything over than overflowing with emotions he could name but not yet feel.

"I mean... I don't know if that was his plan, but... but it's just so easy to kill someone like that, that- that I don't know.

Maybe he did want to," wy said a moment before bursting into laughter. "He was definitely talking like he wanted me dead. Said I was trying to rip his family apart, send his mom to jail and they'd be better off without me."

lz swallowed around his ridiculously dry throat.

They were in a shower, surrounded by water and yet the world seemed dry and empty, the reality that wy could have died before they'd even met dragging itself through him, cold and dry and-

"What did he do?" lz asked quietly into the dampness of wy's hair. He ran his hands over

wy's body, cold because lz was the only one standing under the shower spray. Cold because life was unfair and harsh and how could you not be cold when your little brother had tried to kill you, had led you to cut your pain across your body so it wouldn't cut across your mind.

wy was quiet in the crook of lz's neck, mouth twitching against his skin as though he couldn't drag the words out of his lungs, couldn't drag it back out from the cuts he had hidden it under. "He tried to strangle me," wy finally said and lz all he saw was red.

~

(A/N summary of above, in case you wanted/needed to skip it: wy and lz get in the shower, talking about how lz has showered wy twice while he was drunk, which wy knows about but doesn't remember.

wy asks if they talked about his scars from cutting during those times and lz says

no and wy tells him about the incident that led to him first cutting: a teacher asked 15 year old wy whether Madam Yu was abusing him and he said yes, the teacher told someone else (not mentioned, but it was a principle or something) and was fired (also not mentioned, but the

kids went to a private school, so the Jiangs would have just bought their silence). Madam Yu freaked out and jc tried to strangle him for trying to break up their family. wy isn't sure if jc was actually trying to kill him or not, but says jc talked like he was.

wy also says that Madam Yu never actively tried to kill him and this was the only time jc ever physically assaulted him.

Anyways, lz is not happy at the end and next time (ie tomorrow) he will finally get to start his revenge!! I gotta go research how to dispose of jc now.)

A/N: it's a murder! How tragic 😐

Okay, more seriously, this is where the gore tag picks up more, with descriptions of death and bodily fluids and whatnot. I'm probably going to write it moderately slowly, because it's heavy, fyi.

Also, lz sets this death up in a way that

makes it look like an (embarrassing) accident, but the Jiangs are going to cover it up from the public (as well as wy) as a suic*de for a large part of the remaining story. There will be some fingers pointed as to who "caused" the suic*de.

Again, take care of yourselves!

~

The thing about money is this: if you have enough you can buy almost anyone. You can convince a banker to drain accounts and disappear to an island of perpetual summer, just as you can convince a security officer to switch off an expensive alarm system and not disappear,

because that would be too suspicious.

The key, in most cases, is to already have these people on your payroll, to have already given them whatever they wanted, needed, with the promise that they'll help you out in the future, so says one lqr, who has a thousand men in his pocket

just waiting to be called upon. There's nothing more telling than a cashed cheque the day after someone helps you take down an empire, helps you snuff out a horrible, ugly human. But a year? A dozen? Between the moment you helped a random old man save his dying child's life,

helped pay for the unfair medical bills that were drowning his family and killing his child? One frayed thread of connection when the Lans help thousands of people every year, some with hidden conditions and many more without?

That is enough reasonable doubt. That is enough of a

security blanket. That is enough gratitude to keep an old man's mouth sealed shut, even if they happen to be caught.

Of course, lz had no intention of being caught, had no intention of making jc's death anything more than an embarrassing blip in the gossip rags, because as much

as he wished he could ring the life out of the pathetic, abusive man's throat with his own two hands, he wasn't stupid. A murder led to police, and too many murders within the same family could lead back to him, or worse, lead back to wy.

So, as lz slipped into jc's house that

evening, content with the knowledge that wy was tucked safely in beside nhs, nmj chomping at the bit for how the young man had shown up bruised black at his house, it wasn't with the intention to drag his hands or a knife across jc's throat. No, it was to drag a rope over it.

lz wrapped his gloved hand around the bedroom doorknob, slowly twisting it, waiting for a creak or crack or a startled scream. He supposed, that in the end, he was lucky this had happened when it did and there was no angry bark waiting for him. jc usually kept his dogs at

home but, with the impromptu visit to his parents and subsequent theft of his money, he had yet to pick the spoiled things up from doggy daycare. If they'd been home, sleeping alongside their master, drooling on his silk sheets, he would have had to deal with them, slip in early

to drug their food and knock them out for the night, perhaps. Fortunately, all he had had to deal with was not stepping on the millions of squeaky toys littering the halls. A hard task in the screaming silence of night.

He wondered, in passing, who would take the dogs now.

Not wy, obviously, with his paralyzingly fear of the things, and he doubted Madam Yu would tolerate them, ill-behaved as they were and already banned from each of her homes. Hopefully they would go to a good home, one where their new owners wouldn't just saturate them in love and

unending tolerance for nipping and growling at the smallest thing, but teach them proper manners and respect.

He blinked into the room, jc's laptop still open and spilling light across his bed despite his sweet slumber. What did the other man dream of, he wondered, as he took

slow steps into the room, not bothering to close the door behind himself. What were the last things the man would see before realizing he was about to die? Before he saw the mask of lz's anger hovering over him?

It only took the press of lz's hand to jc's hair for him to wake,

startled and blinking and slow, barely managing a scream before lz was skillfully spinning him, years of martial arts following through his movements, quick and sure, to subdue the man with perfect accuracy. Gag wrapped around his mouth, his arms pulled back and cuffed into

fuzzy, padded black handcuffs, because marks pressed into his skin from belts or ropes or welts burned around them as he struggled could give everything away.

"Hello, jc," lz said as he heaved the man back, careful to avoid wrenching on his arms. wy had a fondness of crime shows

and while lz was sure half the things in those shows were exaggerated or faked they were a good starting point for "what not to do when killing someone," and there were so many little bits of pain and pleasure that could mark a death as a homicide, and not the accident lz

intended for jc. "Did you sleep well?" he couldn't help but ask as he hauled jc back. What do you say to someone as you set up there death? Do you talk about why they're about to die? Why you've chosen the method of death you did?

lz smirked down at jc, struggling against his

bonds and gag as lz let him scrabble off the bed to follow his tugging, happily noting that he slept only in boxers. That would make things easier. "You did say," he said mildly, waiting for the man's wide eyes to meet his, "'gag me.'"

jc tried yelling at him through his gag,

always angry and fighting and lz had no tolerance for the man and his violence at the moment, simply returning to hauling him backwards, towards the closet doors, slipping a length of rope out from where he had tucked into the pocket of his coat, pre-tied and ready to wrap around

jc's neck.

"Kneel," he said harshly, gently pulling up on jc's arms and pressing a foot to the back of his knee when the man simply glared at him and continued yelling. "If you cooperate it will be over sooner," lz told him as he fell and the noose was slipped around his neck.

jc's struggles abruptly stopped as the rope settled around him, a heavy fabric chain of consequences. "No," he mumbled around his gag, desperately shaking his head as lz forced him down onto his stomach, pulling the other end of the rope until it was pulling jc up along with it,

the man already struggling to breath even as his abs wretched at themselves to pull back up, to pull out of the rope's strangling grasp.

"No, please," jc tried, twisted around to watch with wide eyes as lz tested the closet door for secureness before tying the rope around

the handle. "lz!" he cried, trying to get his feet under him to... to what? jc would know well enough that he couldn't take lz even on the best day let alone tied up and facing lz's suffocating rage.

lz placed a hand to his shoulder, forcing him back down as he pulled out a

pair of fabric scissors he had borrowed from nhs, no questions asked to why in the world he would need fabric scissors during an emergency meeting with his uncle at work. He kneeled down and with quick hands snipped off jc's boxers, nose crinkling as he balled them up and

tucked them into his pocket and pulled out a second piece of fabric, also swiped from nhs, that matched the one currently gagging his prey.

"What do you think?" lz asked conversationally, trying to distract himself from the disgust running through him as he wrapped the fabric

around the base of jc's cock and pulled it tight. "nhs said you had him order this for something special. I think this is pretty special."

jc growled at him through his gag, resuming his attempts to get free as lz rose and tugged him back by the rope just enough for him to

arch and easily overbalance when lz simultaneously let to rope loosen and pushed him back down, the rope pulling taut around his neck.

lz removed his hand, letting jc struggle to rise back up, sucking in heaving gasps. "You know," he said, "it isn't the lack of oxygen that makes

you pass out when you're being strangled." He waited for jc to catch his breath before pushing him back down. "It's actually pressure to your veins and arteries. That's why it only takes 8-18 seconds to pass out, even though you can hold your breath for much longer. That's not

a lot time," he added, watching with heavy eyes as jc struggled to pull himself up again, not that lz could blame him. Rising back up onto your knees from being almost flat on your stomach with a rope tugging the life out of you? jc was probably only succeeding due to adrenaline.

"Of course, at this angle, who knows if people will think you died because you were into strangling yourself or breath play. Very different things. I suppose, once you give in we'll find out how long and painful your death is going to be."

jc managed to pull himself up once more, arms straining behind him to try and get some momentum and accidentally sending himself flying forward again, legs kicking against the floor as he the rope cut into the flesh of his neck, the doorknob creaking ominously behind him.

It would be unfortunate if it broke, pulled free of the door and gave jc a moment of thinking he would be spared from lz's wrath and hatred, boiling over and spilling across the Jiangs. lz would just have to adjust and kill him another way, a more obvious way. Gut the man,

leaving his entrails spilled across the floor with the knife tucked into his pocket, a beautiful, grotesque tribute to the pathetic man. Perhaps the police would just assume it was a sex thing gone wrong. A lover's spat gone awry.

Police brought problems and question, though.

(A/N: not relevant to the story, but this is late because I had to go get groceries and cry over how much food costs. More relevant, gonna be a super short update cause my brain is not braining at the moment)

lz eyed up the doorknob for a moment before pressing his foot to jc's

upper back, not pushing, just holding him there. "You should be thanking me," he said as jc twisted, trying to pull his neck up just a bit to relieve the pressure. "When I kill your mother it is going to be slow and painful."

jc froze under lz's foot, a stupid child who perhaps

hadn't even considered that lz wasn't just going to wipe him but his entire, pathetic family line from the earth. jc mumbled around his gag, croaking and attempting to pull in oxygen, his movements under lz's foot becoming sluggish until they stopped and he pulled his foot away.

(A/N: not be*stiality, but implied that people could think jc was into that)

"Lucky indeed..." lz said, stepping away from jc towards his computer, finding it set to a screen show featuring jc and his dogs. Fitting. Someone would probably joke he had a thing for dogs,

had gotten hot and heavy looking at pictures of them and found another way to deal since the dogs were safely tucked away at doggy daycare. Perhaps they'd even use it to explain away the dogs behavioural issues. Poor little dogs, abused by their owner and acting out. A perfect,

disgusting end to-

lz's eyes shot back to his victim when the sound of jc moving struck through him. Alive, alive, alive. Had he been faking it? Waiting for lz to move away to-

lz watched with wide eyes as jc's body convulsed, legs and arms stretching taut, his head stretching

down into the floor and rope as though he were trying to die faster before suddenly the sound of jc's lungs reached lz's ears. Short gasps, pathetic and useless, jc's chest heaving against the floor in an attempt to bring in air he couldn't, breaths mangled in his throat while

his body attempted to survive and his brain ripped apart from the lack of blood and oxygen. Abusive neurones firing away screaming at jc's broken body to live, to breath like they hadn't once screamed at him to kill, to suffocate while jc's strangled his brother for trying to

protect himself.

lz tilted his head, watching the fascinating display of a body attempting to survive before giving up, jc's body only giving the occasional twitch and convulsion, though his chest still pumped against the floor failing to suck life back in. He imagined this was

why hangings had brought math in to make the deaths of criminals cold and calculated, a perfect formula to snap a neck, rather than strangle or decapitate.

This was disgusting and cruel and wrenched at lz's stomach until he was heaving along with jc, hatred and pleasure swirling

together into a vomit of laughter spewing past his lips, because this? This was what jc deserved. A horrifying, drawn out death that would make all the gossip rags and all the lips of the people he had always tried so, so hard to impress, never quite succeeding.

lz smiled darkly

at jc's slowly dying body, his arms seemingly trying to tighten and pull up jc's back, their way blocked by the fluffy handcuffs still shackling jc's now impossible survival. lz stepped back towards his body, releasing jc's arms and letting them fall to his sides, each arm

attempting to curl up under themselves, curl under his chest, trying and trying as jc's chest pumped until they flopped down, ever fibre of jc's body shifting, relaxing and turning into a soup of dying flesh as he chest gave another aborted pull and everything was silent.

lz blinked down at the man for several quiet minutes, jc's muscles still giving the occasion, morbid twitch as he soul slipped back into the ether, his body crumbling into an uninhabitable vessel that would rot and melt into the carpet before anyone found him.

"Goodbye, jc,"

lz said, giving the man one last look, one last thought before stepping around the corpse and slipping out of the room, the door clicking shut behind him.

~

"In other news, Jiang Corp. scion, jc, was found dead in his home late last night by his cleaner. According to sources,

he appears to have died several days ago from an apparent suicide. Our sources, who wish to remain anonymous as the investigation is ongoing, claim that he hung himself in the hours following the theft of his trust fund, for which there is also an ongoing investigation into the

banker who appears to have been responsible."

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Jiangs during this trying time. Sources within Jiang Corp. say the family has gathered together at their home to grieve privately with one another. In a statement, jc's mother, yzy said,

'We respectfully request that anyone not personally invited to our home please leave us to grieve. This is a family matter and everyone who's support is welcome and needed is already here with us.'"

Beside him, wy sucked in a harsh breath, his arms begining to shake as lz turned

the surprise news report off.

"wy," he tried turning concerned eyes on his friend, a swallow catching in his throat. "wy."

"Dead. Dead? lz... what?" wy asked unevenly, voice cracking as he smiled wobbly at the black tv screen. "That's not- that's not real, right? There must be

some sort of mistake because- because there's no way."

"wy-"

"There's no way!" wy cried, clambering up from the couch to stare, wide eyed and manic down at lz, hands scrambling through his hair, catching and snapping at knots that he didn't seem to notice. "There's no way

he's dead!" wy yelled, chest heaving as he pulled in air. "There's no way! Someone- someone would have told me, right? Someone would have told me if- if my didi- if he-"

lz grabbed wy by the hips, pulling him down into his lap and burying their bodies together. "wy,"

he said softly, arms tightening as a heart-wrenching sob exploded out of the other man. He knew this would happen, knew that wy would grieve until he accepted that this was better. He knew it would be hard but-

lz's jaw tensed as wy sobbed in his arms, a flood of grief for

his brother and confusion over why no one, not even his dear, beloved, eternally kind and passive and fawning sister, had bothered to tell him. He rocked them quietly from side to side, letting wy cry and his hatred seethe. Not a word, not even a text so wy wouldn't find out

this way. What is wy had been alone? Had been scrolling the internet and spotted an article and broken apart, forgotten, cast aside and unloved.

"One day," lz promised in his mind, scratched into the flesh of his heart, a permanent scar of pain and obligation and love.

"One day you will never feel unwanted, unloved again. One day soon, my love."

~

lz's hand scratched through wy's hair as he slept, still sniffling, tiny whimpers pressing into the skin of lz's neck where he was tucked safely away, his chest shuddering occasionally against lz's.

lz's phone buzzed in his pocket and, as he pulled it out, he quietly shushed wy when he mumbled at the movement. He glanced down at his phone, quickly shifting it onto silent as messages from his uncle came through.

Shushu: How is wy?
Shushu: I assume you both know?
Me: Yes.

Me: It was on the news.
Me: wy cried himself to sleep.
Shushu: The news?

lz's jaw tightened as he told his uncle that no one had informed wy of jc's death, that he had found out from a random woman who had gone from talking about an initiative to reopen a local trail to

mentioning jc's apparent suicide in passing.

Shushu: Apparent suicide indeed.
Me: Mn.
Shushu: Do you have a plan?
Me: Of a sort.
Shushu: Do you need anything?

lz smiled down at his phone, his heart stuttering against wy's chest as he pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead.

lqr had once hated wy, thought him too immature and chaotic, too out of the box and wild for his younger nephew. Somewhere along the road of their friendship his uncle had learned to love the younger man, had given him shelter and food more than once, tucked him into lz's old bed

even on nights lz wasn't there with him.

lqr had threatened more than once to confront yzy about her treatment of her adoptive son, but always stopped because they both knew that it would just make things worse. Now death was biting at the heels of the Jiangs and his uncle knew

lz was the one ripping them to pieces, had setup lz's alibi for the night jc's throat was crushed under lz's gentle hands. lqr knew what he was offering now: if lz needed him to kill someone to protect wy, to take some of the blood and burden and pleasure from lz's hands,

lz need only ask.

"You are so, so loved," lz whispered into wy's hair, messaging back to his uncle that he appreciated the offer and would let him know if he needed his assistance.

Shushu: Do you mind if I do my own thing?

lz's hand tensed around his phone.

He hadn't considered that his uncle would offer to do that, considered that his uncle would offer to do what he did best, especially not under the current public framing of jc's death as a suicide. It would seem cold and calculated and people would judge him for it.

Shushu: Do not worry about the backlash, I will handle it.

lz licked his lips and glanced at the time. According to the news, the Jiangs had known about jc's death for close to 24 hours. 24 hours to tell wy his brother was dead. 24 hours of failed, hateful silence.

Me: You'll wait until Monday?
Me: Hopefully by then they will have contacted wy.
Me: I want to see what they tell him, about how his brother died.
Shushu: Of course, Zhan-er.
Shushu: It wouldn't make sense to begin now and give them time to prepare.
Me: Mn...
Me: Shushu?

Shushu: Yes, Zhan-er?
Me: When the Jiangs don't tell wy the truth
Me: Rip them to shreds.
Shushu: With pleasure.

~

There was a phone, brief and stabbing, Sunday afternoon, days after the news of jc's death had ruptured wy's heart. He had tried to call his sister, but she had

not picked up, called the Jiang's landline and gotten a servant who had, in no uncertain terms, told him to fuck off and not call again.

nmj, who had come over with his brother to visit, had broken a glass listening to jyl speak to wy, nhs fussing about and cleaning up the blood

dripping from his brother's hand, staining the carpet with a permanent reminder of jyl's cruelty and malice.

"I heard that your last conversation with him didn't go well," jyl had said, voice drained of life and tinged with death and resentment. "That you didn't want to do him a

simple favour."

Beside him wy had sucked in a shuddering breath, days of lz trying to knock into him that there was no way this was his fault, that he had given jc the money he asked for and sent an apology text, knocked right back out.

"Eh~" nhs had piped up, even his

perpetually confused and naive voice splintering with annoyance at the woman as he wrapped one of lz's expensive towels around his brother's hand, "but I thought he borrowed the money from lz to help your brother out?"

lz had watched him, expression grim and hard, a delicate

mirror of his older brother's wrathful one.

"Anything you need," the tiny man had said to him later, rinsing his bloody hands in lz's sink, red splattering over the dirty dishes lz couldn't bring himself to wash while wy needed a hand permanently wrapped around him,

nmj's bandaged one currently pressed into his hair. "Anything you need, just ask."

lz had watched him, soft and innocent and frighteningly murderous, the image of a boy lz had almost forgotten slotting over nhs's figure, the imagine of a boy who had run an entire group of

(A/N: mentioned of bullying and s*icide)

bullies out of their school, had run at least a few into killing themselves with his vengeance.

"No one hurts my friend," nhs had said once, years later when lz had worked up the courage to ask him about it. nhs had smiled at him,

wide and cruel. "No one gets away with hurting the people I love."

"Of course," lz had said. No one hurt their friends.

"Maybe if you hadn't been so..." jyl had said, trailing off into an oblivion of unsaid words and accusations. There was no way she didn't know, no way she

wasn't aware that her brother hadn't actually killed himself. There was no way her mother would allow her to think for even the fraction of a moment, even of a sliver of existence, that there was something she could have done to help her brother.

Yet here she was, extending no

such courtesy to her brother, extending no helping hand to make sure she didn't lose a second sibling in a matter of days. "It's your fault our brother is dead," went unsaid but splattered through the room all the same, staining the walls with wy's guilt and regret and

pulling at the rage of every other person in the room.

lz had pulled out his phone as the line to wy's sister went dead, not even a goodbye to her little brother. How would she feel if wy killed himself and she got the same call, the same reminder of a final conversation?

Would she kill herself just the same? Would she let her mother convince her she'd done nothing wrong? Perhaps yzy would even convince her that she had done the right thing, that somehow her baby brother's supposed accidental death was still wy's fault. Perhaps she already had.

Perhaps jyl was simply following her mother's desires, a scared, broken child trying desperately to protect herself by hurting, killing the sibling her mother hated.

lz felt bad for her, fawning at a hateful woman in hopes the bitch's wrath wouldn't descend upon her, but she

also wasn't his problem, wasn't his to protect. She could find her own friends to kill for her, her own therapist to stitch her brain back together and fill in the spots that screamed at her to do evil in an attempt to avoid the shadows of her childhood. lz had wy to protect,

and jyl, with the cruel words she had dragged across wy's throat, had just made lz's hit list.

lz glanced at his phone, typing out a quick message to his uncle as he pulled wy's cracking, shuddering form in towards him.

Me: Burn them to the ground.
Shushu: With pleasure.

(A/N: Fawning! If you don't know, fawning is a trauma response that goes along with fight, flight and freeze, but people don't talk about it as much. It's basically acting in a way that makes your abuser like you in order to protect yourself.

People can, sadly, end up doing it

in their healthier relationships as well, as a way to feel safe. "If I'm useful or agreeable they won't hurt me or throw me away," kinda thing.

Anyways, it's an understandable response, especially for people with abusive parents, but it doesn't excuse their own harmful actions.)

~

"In a shocking turn of events, Gusu Lan Inc. has not only cut ties with Jiang Corp but also appears to have given the other companies that work with them both an ultimatum: choose. As you may remember, last week Jiang Corp heir, jc, was reported to have committed suicide.

The Jiang family spent the weekend mourning the loss of their son, with an official police report coming out late last night confirming the young man's death by hanging."

Beside him, wy's head swivled between him and the pretty young woman on the tv, explaining to her captive

evening audience how the Jiangs had gone from mourning to clean up mode in the span of 12 hours.

"lz... what-"

"Shh," lz said, shooting his friend a looking and adding, "Listen." From the corner of his eyes he saw wy swallow down his questions and fear and turn back to the tv,

always so willing to trust and keep silent.

"However," the woman continued, "early this morning credible accusations were made of a police coverup. Leaked documents from both the coroner's office, as well as records from the original responding officer, appear to confirm

the same thing: jc did not commit suicide, but accidentally died while engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation. In addition, records have also been released that suggest the Jiangs paid officials to change their reports, either to protect their son's private life or themselves,

however we are still confirming the authenticity of those documents."

"In a statement earlier today, Gusu Lan CEO, lqr, had this to say:"

A recording of his uncle standing in front of their company building appeared on the screen, lqr looking tired and upset in the dim

morning light, but firm in his decision.

"While I empathize with the Jiangs and am sorry for their loss, accusations of bribery are serious concerns. If they are willing to pay to cover up something as small as an admittedly embarrassing death, what else are they willing to

cover up? Who else do they have on their payroll? Until these accusations have been properly investigated and, let's be honest, we all know the chances of those documents being forged is extremely low, Gusu Lan will not be working with them or anyone who chooses to retain a

working relationship with them," lqr finished, the news shifting back to the young news reporter.

"So far a collection of companies that do business with both the Lans and the Jiangs have released their own statements, most in support of Gusu Lan. Several companies that work

solely with Jiang Corp. have also reported to ceasing doing business with them in what analysts are calling an attempt to gain a business relationship with Gusu Lan. In addition, Jiang Corp. CEO, and jc's mother, yzy, had this to say when reporters approached her at the Jiang

family home this afternoon:"

A video of yzy walking towards her car appeared, her heels clacking crisply against the expensive stone walkway.

"Jiang-furen!" multiple reports cried over each other, trying to get the angry woman to stop and talk to them. lz had to applaud

their bravery, even on a good day the woman was a snarling dog. "Do you have anything you'd like to say? Anything you'd like to tell the public? lqr?"

It was the mention of his uncle that made her stop, dagger eyes turning on the reporters as she took menacing steps

towards them.

"My family is in mourning," she said harshly, "and yet that man comes, with accusations and ultimatums to interrupt our grief with lies."

"So you're saying there's no truth to the accusations? That the leaked documents are forged?"

"Of course!" yzy bit out and

lz seriously had to question the woman's sanity. Did she truly believe she could cover up the truth after it had already come out?

"These accusations are entirely fabricated, probably initiated by Gusu Lan in an attempt to take us over, just like they've done time and time again

over the years."

"For those who don't know," the news woman said, her image appearing again, this time her older, male cohost appearing on the screen next to her, "Gusu Lan is known for it's hostile takeovers, usually of companies who's wrongdoings have become public knowledge."

"That's right," the cohost piped in. "Most recently they took over a company that was revealed to have knowingly let it's employees work in an asbestos filled factory."

"Yes, and as a result lqr, under whom the company began this practice, is often feared in the business world

and lauded by the public. Not only does he take over these companies with an almost supernatural lack of effort and fix their problems, but he also supports those hurt by those companies in ways that are near unheard of."

"The best example of that is probably from

Yao Industries, ten years ago," the man added, "who were found to have been knowingly accepting false ID to employee underage workers. While the teenagers harmed in this case were active participants in the fraud, and therefore ineligible for compensation, lqr stepped in to make

sure each of them received a proper education."

"It cost a small fortune, I imagine," the news woman sighed, "but it's worked out well for him. Not only does the general public love him and donate millions to his foundations but those he helped often return the favour,

including giving jobs to other people he's helped, and many of the teen workers from the Yao Industries incident, as well as other companies he's shut down for using child labour, have gone on to work for Gusu Lan Corp."

"Speaking of employees of Gusu Lan," the older man said,

glancing towards the woman, "the Jiang's adoptive son, wy, a child of jfm's deceased best friend, interned at Gusu Lan, didn't he?"

"Yes, he's believed to be a close friend of one of lqr's nephews."

"There have also been some allegations regarding his part in this whole affair,

hasn't there?" the man asked.

wy tensed beside lz, growing impossibly straighter under the strain of all this news. lz wondered how much he was actually absorbing, had he computed that his family had lied to him, that jyl had stabbed a rusty shiv through his heart when she had

implied he was responsible for his brother's death?

"That's correct, several hours ago a source from within the Jiang household contacted the station regarding wy. It seems that not only had he been actively left out of the family's private mourning, but allegedly during a call

between he and his adoptive sister she implied that he was responsible for his brother's now in question suicide."

Well, if wy hadn't put that together before he definitely did now, sucking in a series of ragged breaths beside him.

"wy?" lz asked, turning away from the news

people discussing how bad the optics to those allegations would be if jc's suicide turned out to be a lie. "wy?"

"Do you- do you think it's true, lz?" the other man asked, blinking at the tv as lz turned it off. "Did they really... just not tell me? Let me think that maybe I-"

"wy," lz said firmly, reaching out to gather his friend's hands in his own. "Even if you jc did kill himself, it was never your fault, however..." lz trailed off, glancing back at the dark screen of the tv. "I trust my uncle. If he thinks the documents are real-"

"Then they are," wy finished, lz's eyes shooting back to his and finding them oddly calm considering the circumstances. "That must be nice," wy said, smiling mildly at him, "to actually, you know, be able to trust your family."

lz had spent years split between hating wy's family

and not wanting to alienate his friend, not wanting to stab and saw at the forever fraying and never snapping thread of bondage between the Jiangs and wy. He had spent years waiting for a moment like this, a moment where wy had given up desperately trying to tied those worn out

threads back together even as others tore apart for the millionth time.

"Yes," lz said, squeezing wy's hands, "it is nice, and normal, to be able to trust your family not to lie to you"

"I never know..." wy admitted quietly. "Sometimes... sometimes I think jiejie doesn't have

the truth either, that Madam Yu lied to her too... but- but other times..."

"Other times you aren't sure if jyl is purposefully lying to you."

wy wiggled on the couch, feet pulling up under him as he turned towards lz. "Do you really think-" wy started, toes scrunching

nervously as he swallowed around the hollow, heavy words in his throat before he was laughing. "Fuck," he muttered, eyes squeezing shut. "I can't even find the words to ask what I want. It's just-"

"Too much," lz offered, eyes softening when the other man looked at him again.

"Yeah... too much," wy sighed, flopping forward into lz's lap and burying his nose between lz's thighs. If lz's cock kicked, would he notice? Perhaps wy wanted a distraction and sucking his cock could be that distraction and-

"Do you think she knew?" wy asked, voice muffled

and heavy.

lz ran his fingers through wy's hair, scratching his scalp, smiling down at him when he hummed happily. "I think that even if she didn't, implying you were responsible was extremely cruel. I think that even if she didn't, you should be able to trust what she says."

wy twisted his head and peeked up at lz, mouth hovering over where lz's cock would end, were there not pants rudely keeping them apart. "I think... that even if yzy also lied to her, you shouldn't have to listen to that woman's lies through your sister."

wy blinked up at him for

a moment before asking again, "But do you think she knew?"

lz blinked down at him, open and waiting for the truth. wy rarely asked for opinions like this, too aware that the answer wouldn't be one he liked, wouldn't be the one he wanted to believe. Too aware that his family was

toxic and volatile and not one of his friends thought much of them.

"Yes," lz finally breathed out, tensing slightly as he waited for wy to bite back, to defend his sister into she drove him to his own bloody death.

"Ok," wy said quietly, burying his face back into lz's lap.

"lz never lies to me," he mumbled, "so I'll trust you."

"Mn..." lz hummed after a long moment. "Would never lie to wy."

"Never?" wy asked, glaring up at him, a smile playing at his lips. "I seem to remember one time when you gave me a glass and told me it was alcohol when it

was water."

"Did not lie," lz insisted, amusement and contentment sparking through him as the wy who had been missing for days peeked out at him. "Did not correct wy's assumption that it was alcohol."

"You!" wy cried, popping up onto his knees to glare at lz. "You totally gave

me an 'Mn' that meant 'Mn, yes wy, my most aggravating acquaintance, this is indeed alcohol!'"

"Mn," lz hummed noncommittally. "I do not believe tone is admissible evidence," he said, trying to keep his smile locked behind a door of denial because he 100% had implied that cup

he had handed wy that night, a million years ago, had contained more alcohol that his then annoying classmate did not need unless he wanted a trip to get his stomach pumped. He had been surprised, a few days later, that wy had even remembered talking to him that night,

thanking lz and never again leaving his side, annoying and beautiful and ripping at the seams.

wy squinted at him, likely trying to replay all the hours of overdramatic courtroom shows they watched that melded had into the soup of knowledge in his head. "Probably depends on

where you live," he finally sighed, sweet, warm breath puffing out of him and blowing a lock of hair out of his face for a few seconds before it floated back down over his eyes.

lz reached forward and pushed the hair behind wy's ear. "Would never use an implying tone with wy

if it was important."

"And keeping me from getting alcohol poisoning wasn't important?" wy teased pulling at lz's arm until he lz lifted it and let him snuggle into his side, warm and safe.

"Mn... good point," lz agreed, pulling wy in as close as he could. He would sew their

skin, their souls, together, if he could, if it wouldn't leave his friend a broken shell of lost freedom. "Would only use an implying tone with wy if it was important."

"lz," wy said coldly, glaring up at him again.

"Yes, wy?"

wy blinked up at him for a moment before tilting

his nose back down into lz's neck. "Nothing, you're just silly and I love you, more than all the fish in the sea," wy sighed, breath warm and calm against lz's skin.

"I love you too, wy," lz said, pressing his lips to wy's hair. "I love you more than all the stars in the sky."

~

lz knew that wy's pleasant acceptance of the situation wouldn't last and the next morning his friend was a walking shell of himself. From the few words lz managed to drag out of the other man's throat he was able to confirm that wy still knew his sister had likely lied to him

and he still knew that wasn't cool, but otherwise wy was horrifically silent, walking from room to room like a corpse, flicking through tv shows and books at such a rate that lz doubted he even knew what he was looking at.

Near noon, nhs appeared, groggy and baring treats

from a local bakery. wy had taken one look at him, sleepy and up a good three hours earlier than usual, and laughed, sunshine cracking through his chest for a moment before it hid back within wy's heavy clouds of sadness. Still, he'd managed to avoid returning to corpse mode and

and instead dragged nhs into lz's bedroom, where they had been sharing glorious, cruel snuggles every night for a week now.

When lz stuck his nose in, barely ten minutes later, they were both asleep, tucked against one another, foreheads pressed close and hands clasped tight

like small children who had been sharing secrets at a sleepover.

When wy slipped out of the room several hours later to pee and bring more messy, forbidden snacks to bed he brought lz back with him, making himself into a friendship sandwich between nhs and lz's warm love as they

snacked and nhs turned on trashy movies, although he seemed to immediately pass back into sleep.

That was how lz's brother and nmj had found them, take out bags in hand as lh broke into lz's apartment using his emergency key. lh had cooed over the three younger men and

talked nmj into joining them before snapping a picture and going to gather plates and chopsticks for their dinner and sliding in behind lz himself. Which was how lqr found them, hours more after that, his own emergency key still in his hand as lh giggled, "Come in~" when he

knocked on lz's bedroom door.

lqr pushed the door open and blinked at all five men tucked into lz's queen size bed, each older brother caging in their baby ones, wy smushed into the center.

"Hello," lqr said, taking slow steps into the room. "How are you?"

"Hot," lz said,

blinking blearily up at his uncle. He was so fucking hot.

"I will get you some water," his uncle said, swishing out of the room before zooming back in and snapping a few photos of them, wwx and lh smiling and posing while lz and nmj glared and nhs somehow still slept.

"Didn't know your uncle was coming," wy yawned twisting around to snuggle into lz's chest and peek up at him.

"Mn, did not know either," lz said before elbowing his brother when lh tried to turn him into the little spoon again. "Personal space, ge," he said sternly.

"But didi~ I'm almost falling off the bed~" lh pouted, hands slipping over lz's waist and almost purposefully ticking him.

"Then go lay on the couch," lz hissed, trying to bump his brother off the bed while wy laughed against his chest.

"Didi is so mean~" his brother sighed,

swinging his leg over lz's to hold him still. "Why can't you be like nhs? Letting his dage snuggle him so calmly?"

"nhs is asleep," lz pointed out, continuing his attempts to push his brother to the floor, free hand slapping backwards at his annoying brother.

"Boys,"

lqr scolded mildly as he reappeared, a collection of water bottle in his arms, now free from his winter coat and suit jacket. "Behave."

"lz won't let me snuggle with him though," lh complained, accepting one of the water bottles and returning lz's freedom as he pushed himself up

to drink.

"lz does not wish to be snuggled," lz growled as he pulled wy's giggling form up with him to accept their own bottles.

"You seem perfectly content to snuggle with wy!"

"What are you? Five?"

"But I want to snuggle you too~ didi~"

"Well I don't want to snuggle

with you."

"Why not? Didi is so mean to his dear, old gege! One day I'll be gone and you'll regret not enjoying my snuggles while you could."

"I'm sure I'll survive."

"So cold! I am an unloved older brother! Such a cruel world I have been born into! To have all this love for

my dear, sweet did and to have it not be returned."

"I'll love you from afar, thanks."

lqr sighed as he handed a snickering nmj both his and his brother's water. "Boys, really? You were better behaved than this as children."

"Mn," lz hummed, taking a long sip of his water.

"Grew up and learned about boundaries."

"Who dared to teach you about those!" lh gasped, smile tugging at his lips as he leaned forward to wrap his lips around lz's straw.

"GE!" lz yelled, whipping the bottle away and almost smacking wy in the head. "What are you- hey!"

lz struggled as lh climbed on top of him, snuggling into the crook of lz's neck and humming contently. "Shushu! Get him off me!" lz said, frowning at his uncle as he took his brother's spot on the bed.

"I'm afraid I'm too old and frail to pull him off you," lqr said tonelessly,

settling onto the bed. "You will have to endure."

lz glared between all the occupants of his bed, laughing and snuggling and ignoring his plight.

"So, what brings you here, shushu?" his brother asked, warm breath caressing lz's neck.

"I wanted to talk to wy, make sure he was

alright after yesterday and today," his uncle said, dark eyes focused on wy, who had tensed slightly beside lz.

"Today?" wy asked, blinking at lqr. "Did- did something else happen?"

"We have not been tracking the news today," lz added, arm pulling wy in close, the lovely spot

on his lap rudely taken by his clingy, childish brother.

lqr watched them for a moment before quietly telling them what had happened or, more specifically, what had been said.

"jfm was caught by reporters this afternoon, the things he told them..." lqr said, blinking away from

wy to a traditional ink painting on lz's wall that wy had bought him of two bunnies playing in a field. "I wanted to make sure you knew that they weren't true."

"What- what did he say?" wy asked quietly, heart beating hard enough that it pressed through lz's rips.

lqr's eyes shifted over the men on the bed, everyone silent as they waited for him to speak. "Here?" he asked, wy nodding easily in reply.

"Yeah," wy said, licking his lips and pushing himself further into lz's heat. "Whatever was said... ah, everyone should know it

wasn't true?" he asked, peeking up at lz for confirmation that that was the correct thing to do, his confidence in himself having been shaken by the earthquake of events over the last week.

"I think that is a good idea, wy," lz agreed mildly, turning back to his uncle to hear

his side of a story none of them knew.

lqr swallowed, nervous in a way lz rarely saw him, fingers squeezing around nothing as he collected his words, even though he had had hours to write himself a speech of an explanation. "You know I knew your parents, yes?" he finally asked,

wy blinking up at him before nodding slightly.

"Of course," wy said, his free arm searching over lh's body to find lz's hand, lh humming softly into his neck and snuggling in closer, like a leach that figured because it's host was giving it stolen blood it was a welcome guest.

"You've told me stories about them," wy continued, biting his lip and adding, tone more bitter than lz generally heard it, "More stories than fa- than jfm ever told me."

"Seriously?" nmj muttered under his breath, flip flopping in the bed and poking at his sleeping brother as

lqr continued.

"Mn... I told you many stories, however, there were stories that I purposefully did not tell you, because I did not wish to taint the memory of your parents," lqr said, hands squeezing so tightly that lz wouldn't be surprised if he were bleeding, little drops

speckling across his expensive dress pants when he released his tension and words. "Things that are... difficult for me to speak of."

"Okay..."

"I'm sure you've heard rumours that jfm had feelings for your parents? One of them, both," his uncle said, sighing when wy released an

empty laugh.

"Yeah, sure, who hasn't? I'm pretty sure that's why yzy hates me so much," wy said, shrugging slightly as he laughed. It was old news and had nothing to do with lqr, which meant...

"Have you heard the rumours that your parents had a third partner?"

wy's laugher froze, ice flooding over the room as he took that information in. "No..." he said slowly. "I've never heard that one before..."

"Mn," lqr hummed, shifting on the bed. "There were rumours, until you were born, of someone else being involved with them. They mostly

flittered out after you came along."

wy blinked at lqr for several long moments, eyes accessing the way they were when he read mystery books and video games, a million notes laid out before him as he deciphered the story. Finally he softly asking, "You?"

lz sucked in a breath,

his brother pulling back from his chest to gape at their uncle.

"Shushu?" lh asked. "Were you really..."

"Yes," lqr admitted softly. "I loved them both very much, however when wy's mother fell pregnant... that was- it was not planned and I was not ready to be a parent,

especially not with our complicated, secret relationship." lqr turned his eyes back to wy, firm and filled with sadness and perhaps regret. "I was afraid and your parents wanted to keep you so I stepped aside. I did not wish for them to have to choose between you and I."

wy's mouth opened and closed a few times before he released a long breath of complicated, unsaid words. "Are you- could you be-" wy started only for lqr to cut him off.

"No," he said firmly. "You are undeniably your father's, A-Ze's, and even if you were biologically mine,

he is your father, even if he is no longer here." lqr blinked away, tears threatening at his eyes, both lz and his brother gaping at him. Their uncle didn't cry! Or have relationships! Or sex! What weird alternate universe had they fallen into!?

lh was just opening his mouth to

say something to their uncle when he was unceremoniously pushed back into lz's chest as wy clamoured over them and into their uncle's lap.

"I miss them too," wy said, he and lqr blinking at each other before they were pulling together, arms wrapped tightly around each other as

they shook, soft sniffles and sobs escaping them. "I'd like to hear them, one day," wy mumbled wetly into lqr's neck. "The stories of you guys together," wy said, laughing and adding, "Not the sex ones though. I don't need to know how that worked.'

"I'd like that," the older

man said, fingers digging into the fabric of wy's shirt. "I have so many and I'd love to share them with you, wy."

wy hummed into lqr's neck, the two of them rocking slightly from side to side for a moment more before wy pulled back. "So, what did jfm say that was so bad?"

"He-"

"OH MY GOD! WHO THE FUCK KEEPS TEXTING ME!?" nhs sobbed, all dramatics and over exaggeration as he popped up from his sprawl across the pillows and yanked him phone out of his pocket, everyone, safe wy, looking at him with wide, startled eyes. "It's late! Don't people know

it's time to sleep?"

"It's only like 9 or 10," nmj said blandly, forcing nhs's bottle of water into his hands and giving him his patented 'you had better fucking drink that' look, which lz he also seen him shoot at wy before.

"Too early," nhs sighed, thin eyebrows scrunching

together as he read over his messages, phone releasing a constant beat of vibrations in his hand as more and more came through. "Do you know someone named Xue Yang?" he asked, glancing at wy.

"Uhm, yeah? Like, in passing? He's like... my mom's adoptive brother's kinda-friend,

kinda-fuckbuddy, kinda-stalker?" wy said nervously. "Why?" he asked tightly, an unpleasant smile cut across his face.

"I know him as well," lqr added, blinking watery, red eyes at nhs who didn't seem at all surprised the older man had been crying or that wy was still in his lap.

"He was a child we helped remove from a foster home several years ago."

lh pushed himself back up from lz's chest, raising an eyebrow at his uncle. "Several years? Shushu, I'm pretty sure that was at least a decade ago now, maybe even close to two."

lqr blinked at him

before shrugging. "I'm old," he said mildly, a teasing smile tugging at his lips, "and time begins to mean either nothing or everything once who reach a certain point in your life."

"Why do you ask?" lz asked nhs, who glanced at him looking even more uncomfortable and putout

than he usually did, fake lines of confusion and naivety flooded over in true worry and fear.

"People keep sending me a video he posted online," nhs said, looking back down at the phone and skimming through the messages. "They're asking if 'this dude' is the one who was hurting

my friend," he continued, peeking up at wy and adding, "You, I'm guessing."

lz felt a razor of ice run up his spine, tickling and lingering as nhs flipped open one of the message. "nhs-" he started to say, trying to bring the frozen words out of his stomach to tell the man

to stop, that this wasn't a good idea, that something was wrong.

"Oh," nhs said deadly, eyes blanked over as something appeared on his screen.

"Oh?" nmj asked, leaning towards his brother to peek over his shoulder. "Oh," he repeated, nose scrunching as he looked at the screen.

"Oh?" wy asked, swaying on lqr's lap as though he couldn't decide between staying in the older man's protective grasp or going over to look at the phone as well. "What oh?"

"Oh... I think Xue Yang might have killed jfm," nhs said, looking back up at his friend and adding,

"and shared a video of it online."

lz had never noticed how his uncle and wy shared nearly identical looks of shock, possibly because it was a rare look for them both, possibly because he'd never known to look for any similarity. Now, looking at them, faces frozen even as their

arms tightened around one another, his uncle's forearms flexing under his rolled up cuffs as he pulled wy back towards him, wy's hand curling around the collar of lqr's expensive shirt, he could see it.

Had one of wy's parents shared that look of shock, face nearly blank but for

a small gaping mouth before it clenched and they licked their lips, swallowed and bit down on the lower one. Had the men picked up their masks of shock from a long dead loved one? What other masks and habits had they picked up from people lz would never know but through their

stories and love? What other fragments of irrevocable love would lz find, stitching two of the men he loved most in the world together in a way that was theirs alone?

A bubble of laughter rippled out of wy as he looked back at lqr. "Seriously? What in the world did jfm say?"

"He- he implied that I was trying to replace your parents with you," lqr said blankly, lz choking on his spit while wy's face twisted into a confused pout.

"Replace my parents- Oh! Oh oh oh!" wy cried, cheeks heating up as he returned to swaying on lqr's lap and seemingly

debating between getting off or staying close to the man, his movements freezing when even lqr's cheeks heated up.

"Well," nhs piped up, eyes pinned to his phone as soft sound filtered through it, "if you're gonna have a sugar daddy, might as well have a rich one, and who knows?

Maybe the knowledge he has of what your parents liked will help him get you off- Ow! Dage! Why did you hit me?"

lz's eyes shot back to the Nie brothers, nhs rubbing the back of his head as he continued watching his phone. "Are you really watching that?"

"Sure," nhs said,

shrugging disinterestedly. "Why not? Shit'll be all over social media and the news soon enough."

"I don't think they'll put an actual snuff film on the news," nmj said darkly, although he was also watching his brother's phone, albeit with a much more disgusted look on his face

that his baby brother's blankly curious one. People always assumed nmj was the tough one in the family, with his height and physique and gruff manner, but lz would bet he'd lose his lunch over gore and death long before hi brother did.

"How did he..." wy began to ask,

trailing off as he glanced down at lqr's lap and lz very much hoped he was just looking down and not looking down at something poking him. lz was going to have to make sure his uncle knew wy was off limits. He didn't think it needed to be said, but apparently he knew nothing

about his uncle's escapades and wasn't going to take any risks. wy desired love and acceptance and obviously had both mommy and daddy issues, and if anyone was going to be wy's daddy it was going to be him, not his cradle robbing, threesome having uncle. wy was his and his alone.

"Hit 'im with a truck," nhs said, smashing through lz's admittedly off the rails train of thought. "Looks like he stole one of those big trucks they use to transport stuff and just BOOM!" nhs smacked his hands together and, were he talking about a movie or a sporting event and

not a murder, if would have been energetic in the way wy loved, always one for seeing things with his own eyes or at least experience the most entertaining and interactive retelling. As it was though-

"OW!" nhs cried, hand flying to the back of his head. "Dage! Why do you keep

hitting me?"

"Because somehow I raised an insensitive little twit for a brother and I feel responsible," nmj muttered, swiping the phone away from his brother and turning it off.

lz blinked at the older man, his little brother ranting about how if he was responsible he should

be hitting himself and not his poor, innocent baby brother who had been raised to be insensitive, before turning his eyes to his own older brother, lh's arms tensing around lz's neck as he buried his hot face against lz's cheek. Oh, apparently he wasn't the only one with

an unspoken, potentially unrequited crush.

"If he stole a truck," lqr asked slowly, eyes twitching between nhs and wy, "how do you know he's actually dead?"

"He got out at the end to check," nmj said, cutting off his brother's inevitably, if unintentionally, cruel explanation.

"I doubt anyone could have survived... that."

"Oh..." wy sighed, blinking into the nothingness of lqr's stomach. "Do you think they'll blame me for this too?" he asked, voice somewhere between bitter and amused, everyone's eyes startling towards lz when he growled.

"Didi!"

lh gasped, pulling back and gaping at him. "Did you just growl?"

"Yes," he spit out, rage at the reality that the Jiangs probably would try to make someone else's actions because jfm had made horrible allegations against lqr wy's fault bubbling through his throat.

"It is a possibility," his uncle said tightly, lips pressed together and, lz imagined, were he not holding onto wy with some death grip, he would have been stroking his beard in thought. "What happened to Xue Yang?"

"It looked like he might have taken off on foot? The truck

he stole, ah-" nhs glanced towards his brother, hand rising up behind his head to protect himself should another smack come his way.

"It looked like the trailer of the truck overturned," nmj said, reaching out to pull his brother's hand away and gently rub the back of his head,

his large hand scratching into nhs's scalp as he practically purred into the touch. "I doubt the thing could be driven."

"Has he been caught yet?" lqr asked, waiting patiently as nhs searched the internet for any sign Xue Yang had been taken into custody.

"Not that I can see."

"Hmm..." lqr hummed turning back to wy. "Do you mind if I take control of the situation? It will turn the focus of the news onto me and make the Jiangs look ridiculous, should they choose to come after you."

wy blinked at him. "You- you don't have to-"

"No, I don't,"

lqr agreed, blinking once again watery eyes at the younger man. lz had barely ever seen his uncle cry, and yet here he was crying twice in one day! Not even just one day, in less than one hour! Was this going to become a pattern? Was his uncle going to be bursting into

heart wrenching sobs every time he and wy shared a moment?

"But, at the same time, I do. I-" the older man pulled in a strangled breath. "We grew apart, once you were born, your parents and I. Combined with my brother's disappearance it wasn't until after you were already with

the Jiangs that I found out about their deaths."

wy tilted his head to the side, wide eyes watching lqr as if he was the only thing that existed in the universe and lz felt a twinge of vile jealously in his stomach, churning and gnawing at his flesh as he tried to burn it away

with acid and love. He wanted to be the only one wy looked at like that and, were it anyone else, he might consider taking them out of the picture.

"Okay..." wy said softly after lqr had sat in silence for too long, the air stretching around them until wy's patience snapped

a bit, whipping the other man's throat back into movement.

"I would have taken you," lqr whispered. "Had I known before they got you I would have brought you home, given you the love you deserved. Had I known they-" lqr cut off, a stabbing sob cracking through his body and into

everyone else, both lh and nmj pulling their baby brother's into suffocating hugs as lqr reached up to touch one of the bruises across wy's cheek, now a fading and gruesome green. lqr sucked in a loud breath, trying to steady himself. "I didn't, couldn't, protect you then. Let me

protect you now, please?" the older man practically begged, eyes rapidly blinking back against the flood of tears and regret and loss pressing against his lashes. "Let me give you the protection, the love, the home you never had. Let me make it up to you, and your parents-"

lqr cut off as wy buried himself back into the old man's arms, softly sniffled racking through his body as lqr's hand came to rest in his hair.

"There's nothing for you to make up, but- but okay," wy whispered, shuddering into lqr's neck, "shushu can protect me now and maybe,

if you want, you- you could give me a home too?"

lqr's fingers tightened in wy's hair. "I would love to."

~

A/N: have I ever put a top of thread into this? Ah well, seems a good time to put one in, in case anyone new comes along or anyone wants to share it 👀

Top of Thread

https://twitter.com/_stiricide_/status/1617751403086376969

"No, I do not regret my decision to fund Xue Yang's legal counsel," lqr said firmly from the stage, bright lights stabbing down onto him as his voice and conviction echoed through the room and onto millions of televisions around the country. Perhaps other countries as well.

The murder of jfm by Xue Yang, and the video that had spread in morbid fire across the internet of the man's last moments, had become something of an international sensation, with news channels across the globe playing segments on the Tragedies of the Jiang Family.

lz and wy sat

in the front row of the conference hall, once again tucked together between lh and the Nie brother's, a wall of Lan and Nie employees sitting in silent, ominous strength behind them as reporters rose and asked his uncle more questions about the Xue Yang situation.

"Do you not

think that helping Xue Yang will give the impression that the Lan's support his actions?" a young woman from a smaller magazine, who nhs had personally added to the list of approved reporters, asked, waiting silently by the microphone as lqr answered.

"I think that even if I did

not help Xue Yang people would be inclined to think I supported his actions. The reality of the situation is jfm made heinous accusations against me and my family and that the Jiangs deeply hurt someone very important to me."

"You are referring to the Jiang's adoptive son, wy?"

the reporter clarified.

"Yes. Not only is wy a dear friend of both my nephews but his parents were very dear to me and I deeply regret not taking him out of that house sooner," lqr said, glancing towards wy, although lz was sure the lights made it impossible for his uncle to

actually see the audience.

"That house?" the woman asked. She truly was as good an actress as nhs had told him she would be, her prearranged questions with lqr hidden behind curiosity and uncertainty. "That sounds as though you are alleging something untoward occurred."

"I am not alleging," lqr said and wy tensed beside lz, turning into the arm he had already wrapped around wy's shoulders. "This afternoon I, and my nephews, walked wy into the police to make a formal complaint of abuse against the Jiang family, specifically, against yzy."

Around them the crowd broke out, half of them yelling while the others sat in stiff silence, breaths caught in their throats at the abrupt announcement.

"lqr! Do you have evidence to back up your claims!?" one man that lz knew for his respectful, well researched stories,

tried to ask over the cacophony of the hall.

"You think making these accusations will make things better!" another reporter who was known for favouring the Jiang family in his stories yelled. "This is slander! You're going to be fucked when the truth comes out!"

lqr stood on

the stage, politely waiting for the hall to calm, security officers striding through the aisles to give some of the louder reporters harsh looks and gentle threats that they would be bodily removed if they didn't control themselves.

"That is quite the accusation," the woman who

still stood at the microphone noted, once the hall had quieted into a rustle of whispers and growls. "Do you not think that bringing accusations of child abuse up now, when their adoptive son is fully grown and no longer in their house, will be helpful to anyone?"

lqr blinked at her. "Child abuse? Well, from what I have heard there was a significant amount of both physical and emotional abuse in that house, but that was not directly what we went to the police for."

"No?"

"No, it was the assault of wy by his adoptive mother, several days

before his younger brother, jc, killed himself, that we reported to the police," lqr said, once again falling silent as the room rioted at his words.

"So recently?" an almost obscenely young reporter seated nearby asked, voice shaky as he glanced over at where he and wy sat.

"That's- that's horrible... to be still abusing your child once they're an adult... how bad must it have been when he was small," he said and lz had to agree, wy was older now and able to potentially defend himself, find friends and support elsewhere. How horrible had his

childhood been when he had no one to turn to?

"You have proof?" the Jiang favouring reporter sneered at lqr, the hall immediately falling into silence once the words had been spoken. "If it was just last week, you must have proof?" he asked, glaring over at wy, lz narrowing his

eyes at him and wondering if adding a random Jiang loving reporter to his hit list was a bit much.

"Of course," lqr replied calmly, "however, I believe it is inappropriate to discuss the specifics of the evidence we supplied to the police before their investigation is complete.

Perhaps we should return to the original intention of this gathering, to discuss the Xue Yang situation. Let me remind the people here, and those watching, that Xue Yang is a troubled young man and his actions were not those of someone in their right mind."

"I would also like to

remind everyone," lqr said seriously, eyes snapping to the camera pointed at him and away from the sea of reporters and employees, "that Xue Yang was also the victim of severe childhood abuse. We may never understand what he went through then or what triggered his murder of jfm,

however I hope everyone remembers that regardless of how horrible his actions he is still a profoundedly damaged young man and deserves our sympathy."

"That's why you have chosen to fund his legal counsel? Out of sympathy?"

lqr sighed, weary in a way lz knew to be something of

a fabrication, his uncle had spent years learning how to ground himself and let the stress of the world slip over him, it was part of why seeing him sob against wy had been so shocking. "I must admit, I blame myself," lqr said softly, a rustle of confusion sweeping though

the crowd. "I was responsible for the removal of Xue Yang from an abusive foster system. We had all the children undergo some amount of therapy, but it obviously wasn't enough." He shook his head regretfully, eyes fluttering shut, the entire audience growing stiff as they waited

for the great lqr to steady himself.

lqr coughed through the breathless silence of the room, eyes sliding back open as he said, "I have ordered a full review of all the people Gusu Lan has ever helped, adults and children alike, and will be offering free counselling services to

anyone who finds themselves in need of help."

"That is very kind of you, lqr..." the young reporter who had seemed shocked by wy's recently assault said, a murmur of agreement running through the crowd even as lz's uncle shook his head.

"It is the least we can do," lqr sighed.

He shifted his eyes towards wy, blinking a silent question at him that lz didn't understand until wy pulled away from him and rose, circling to the the stairs that led up onto the stage, the crowd hissing and beginning to make a racket again.

"What are they doing?" his brother

leaned in the ask, peeking around lz to see if nhs had answers when lz shook his head in confusion. nhs shrugged, a look of legitimate curiosity on his face as lqr stepped aside to let the younger man talk.

"Hi, I'm wy, ah~ I guess you already know a bunch about me," he laughed,

unused to standing in front of cameras and reporters, unlike the rest of his so called family. He had been excluded from all that too, unwelcome as an official member of the Jiang Dynasty. wy awkwardly pushed back a piece of hair, the still yellow bruise across his cheek becoming

visible and a shudder of shock cracking through the crowd as wy tensed and looked back at lqr who nodded encouragingly to him.

"Shushu, ah, lqr," wy continued, waiting another moment for the mutters about wy referring to lqr so familiarly to snuff out.

"lqr has graciously allowed me to come up here to announce another program Gusu Lan is beginning the initial consultations for," he said, lz turning to look at his brother who simply shook his head. "Starting today, Gusu Lan will begin designing a program to support children in

abusive homes, with a focus on those who have been adopted and fostered but open to everyone. As- as a child who grew- grew up..." wy cut off and blinked watery eyes away from the bright lights and cameras, lqr setting a gentle hand on his back and rubbing soothingly, his mouth

moving as he whispered something to wy, who simply shook his head and smiled at lz's uncle before turning back to the microphone.

"As a child who grew up in an abusive home, who was told I should be grateful I had anything and accept what I was given, hand me downs and slaps

across the face, being told to get worse grades than my siblings so I didn't embarrass the Jiang's 'real' children, being pushed down the stairs and breaking two ribs and losing a tooth, then being yelled at for the cost of my medical bills..." wy sucked in a deep breath,

lqr watching him carefully for signs he needed to step in or offer the younger man support. "I tried to get help once and was almost killed because of it," wy said, turning to smile softly at lqr. "With Gusu Lan's help I hope we can design a program to make sure kids who ask for

help never have to worry they won't be believed or that the person trying to help them will be fired."

"I don't even know what happened to him," wy said sadly, looking down at the little podium in front of him, "the person who tried to help me. He was fired and disappeared..."

wy sucked in a shuddering breath and smiled as warmly as he could probably manage up at the cameras, eyes fluttering as he likely held back a wave of tears. "As of this moment, Gusu Lan has opened up a website, available on both the Gusu Lan website as well as

[innocuous website address], for people in unsafe situations. This website will appear to be an online store to anyone who views it, but the contact information will allow you to reach one of our support staff. If you or someone you know is in need of help please reach out!

There is also a form on the Gusu Lan website for people who are in or who have been in abusive situations to fill out. We want the finished system we design to work for everyone and are therefore looking for feedback from as many people as possible. Whether you were abused

this morning, a year or decades ago, we would greatly appreciate your story and opinions on what could have helped you."

wy released a shaky breath, lqr stepping up to wrap a supportive arm around him and to lz and his brother's shock, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead,

a murmur of similar shock rocketing through the room.

"Thank you for you time today," lqr said, leaning in towards the microphone. "If you have any further questions you can-"

~

wy practically collapsed into lz's arms once they were together again, he and lqr having exited at

the back of the stage and leaving lz, and the other three men, to shuffle their way through the crowd of reports chatting about the day's chaos of information and trying to quickly type out articles in equal measure.

"I thought you were going to let shushu take the pressure

off you? Protect you?" lz asked into his friend's hair as wy turned into a puddle against him, all his weight and life pressing into lz like a security blanket, a lovely reminder that wy was here, alive, breathing.

"Yeah..." wy sighed before laughing quietly as himself.

"I guess I just... I couldn't let him take all the heat, you know?" he whispered into lz's neck, all wet heat and echoing pain. "So I just... I asked him to protect me while I do this instead?"

"Mn..." lz hummed, rocking them slightly as he heaved the other man up, a hand

slipped under his butt to lift him off the ground as he began walking them towards one of the private rooms. He tensed for a moment when wy's legs wrapped around his hips.

"This okay?" wy asked quietly into lz's neck, a shiver twisting through him as he hummed and

began walking again, Gusu Lan employees easily moving out of their way until they reached the room lz wanted.

He shifted wy's weight to push the door open, turning to lock the door behind them before heading towards the couch, barely visible in the dim light of the room.

He eased wy down, smiling slightly when his friend didn't let go. "wy," he said into his friend's hair.

"Mhm?" wy asked, his tone somewhere between teasing and sleepy.

"If you do not let go I will need to lie down on you," lz told him, already feeling the awkwardness of the

position pulling through his muscles and skin.

"That's fine..." wy mumbled into his neck, a sleepy, likely stress induced yawn shuddering through him.

"Mn..." lwj hummed before kneeing his way onto the couch and settling between wy's thighs. Just a little movement, just a

little less self-restraint, a little less clothing and they'd be against each other, their cocks and chests and hearts pressed close and twining together, lz tucked away inside wy's mouth, throat, body and soul, forever connected in sweet, lovely-

"lz?" wy mumbled sleepily.

"Mn?" lz hummed, willing his already half hard cock to behave.

"How do you know if you're only feeling something because of stress and sadness and desperation?"

lz blinked into the darkness of the room before letting his eyes flutter shut. "Did you feel it before?"

"Yeah..."

wy sighed, his lips twitching against lz's neck for a moment before he added, "but I've been all those things for a long time. I just... I just never thought to act on my feelings until now, when things are worse than- worse than they usually are."

lz hummed quietly,

nose brushing into his friend's hair. "Why now?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because it seems like the right time... and the wrong time too," wy whispered into him, the words somehow slotting themselves into lz's soul as he pulled back to look down at wy, gazing up at him like

he never did.

"What does wy want?" lz asked quietly, letting his instincts take over as he shifted slightly, relishing in the little gasp that slipped through wy's lips as his rapidly hardening cock pressed into the thick flesh of wy's thigh. "What does wy want?" he asked again.

wy blinked up at him, the legs still around his hips tightening, pulling lz's hips and erection closer as if the other man were trying to convince himself that it was real and not just a figment of flesh imagined in a haze of stress and overstimulation. wy gasped, eyes widening

into giant, blown out blackness as lz's cock twitched against him.

"What does wy want?" lz asked again, blinking down in what he hoped was a seductive way, heavy and convincing and filled with all the desire and love he felt for the man below him.

"Want- want lz," wy whispered,

his chest shuttering under lz's as he sucked in a nervous, pained breath.

"You have me," lz whispered back, lowering his head just enough to bump his nose against his friend's, his... his maybe something more's. "You have always had me, wy. Always had me. Always will have me."

wy released a sobbing breath, arms flailing as he slid his hands into lz's hair and pulled him all the way down into a kiss, immediately wet and needy. "lz-" wy moaned between kisses, his own hips rising up to press his growing erection against lz's.

"wy," lz sighed back at him

before twisting his head and sliding his tongue into the other man. "What does wy want?" he asked breathily as he pulled back to gaze down at the man he loved so much it threatened to crack his ribs apart, open his chest up to wrap a cage of bone and flesh and overflowing,

gruesome, possessive, murderous love around him.

"You," wy breathed up at him, looking wrecked, his lips shiny with spit. "Anything, lz. I just- I want to just not think about anything but you right now. Can you- anything, lz. Anything you want."

"Mark your words," lz growled.

He surged back down lick into wy's mouth, to savour the taste of this place before he bit into another, biting and nipping at the other man's lips and tongue before pulling back and pushing his legs away from his waist.

"lz?" wy half-whined, half-asked, tone and eyes unsure as

(A/N: mentions and descriptions of the cutting scars on wy's thighs)

lz shifted down on the couch until-

"Oh..." wy breathed out as lz tugged at the buttons of his pants. "lz you don't-"

"Does wy not want me to?" lz asked, eyes snapping away from where his apparently

not-completely-platonic friend's cock was trying to bust out of his pants to said friend's wide eyes.

"I- you just-" wy tried to say, his chaotic thoughts spinning around them as he tried to find his words. "You don't have to," he whispered, glancing away. "I know I'm not-

I'm not really pretty... down there because of my-"

lz growled as he shook his head, resuming his removal of wy's pants. He had only been intending to pull wy's dick out to suck him off, but now? Now, when wy was still looking away, so nervous and uncomfortable about lz's mouth

being so close to his scars? "Unacceptable," lz muttered as he pulled up, shifting wy's legs to pull his pants and underwear fully off and throw them across the room. "wy is beautiful," he scolded the other man, eyes focused on the other man's face as he reached out to rub his

thumbs over the rough, raised lines than crisscrossed wy's upper thighs. "wy is beautiful," he repeated again and then again and again, thumbs continuing to harass the scars until the other man finally glared up at him.

"You gonna blow me or not?" he asked, pouting up at lz.

lz blinked down at him, a smirk twitching at his lips. "Will wy accept that I think he is beautiful."

wy's pout pinched further as he glared up at lz, blowing cool air at him when he apparently decided lz wasn't going to budge. "wy will admit that lz is cray cray and

thinks this-" he motioned haphazardly at his thighs "-is somehow beautiful."

lz hummed, leaning back in to press a light kiss to the other man's unimpressed frown. It wasn't great but acceptable, at least for the moment. He would fight wy on just how beautiful and strong and

smart he was later, when the man's gorgeous cock wasn't lying wet and waiting for him.

"Has wy ever done this before?" he asked as he pulled back, wondering if he could find a condom on such short notice if wy wasn't sure he was clean and cursing himself for not carrying an

emergency "what if wy ever decides he wants to fuck me?" condom with him at all times. He was always so prepared! Why was this the one thing he wasn't prepared for!?

"Yeah, right," wy huffed, crossing his arms uncomfortably over his chest. "I don't show people."

"Mn..." lz hummed darkly, licking his lips as he looked down at the other man, beautiful and pouty, a stunning mess of nudity and clothing, of lust and annoyance. "No one but me," he growled, startling the frown off wy's face as he shifted back to position himself between wy's

thick thighs, heaving those lovely, biteable legs over his shoulders and sucking on their sensitive inner skin.

"Y-yeah..." wy mumbled, eyes wide as he watched lz lick and nip at his thighs. "No one but lz- lz! Stop teasing!" he whined, never one for patience or drawn out

moments or lz's undying, yearning, suffocating love for him and his body.

"Mn, I have also never done this before," lz told him quietly, eyes fixed on wy's as he reached out his tongue to give the base of wy's cock a kitten lick. "wy will need to tell me how I am doing."

wy squeaked and mumbled something about how he was sure lz would be a natural, just like he was in everything he did, as lz eased himself upwards, licking a long line up wy's cock and smiling when it twitched up against him.

"Eager," he said quietly, earning him another squeak

from the other man before he wrapped his mouth around the tip of wy's cock.

Delicious, that was the only word lwj could think of as he lapped at the liquid leaking out of wy, warm and salty and so, so much. He could live here, he realized as he began to sink down.

He could live here, drinking up wy's essence and doing his best to drown out all of the horrible, broken thoughts that stomped around in both of their brains, use his mouth to drag them into heavy, horny, thoughtless bliss.

wy gasped, arching back against the couch, more precum

spurting into lz's mouth as he pulled back up from where he had worked himself about halfway down wy's cock. "lz!" wy cried, his knees rising up around lz's ears just as his hands fell into lz's hair, tugging and pushing on his head in equal measure as he moaned.

Internally lz preened, stomach fluttering because he was the reason wy was losing himself, losing control of his body and voice and-

lz startled why hot cum splattered across the inside of his mouth. "That was fast," he thought as he sucked gently on wy's dick until the other

man was moaning with over sensitivity and pulling at his hair more seriously.

"lz!" wy whined, turning a watery glare on him as he pulled off, letting wy's softening cock fall back onto his stomach. "Too good," wy complained. "You were too good I barely even got to enjoy it!"

"Mn," lz hummed, too pleased with his apparent skill to mourn the shortness of his first blow job. He was just beginning to pull himself off the couch to go find some wipes when wy caught his hand.

"What- what about you?" he asked, glancing nervously at lz's pants and the cock

that was straining against the fabric there before looking away, vibrant red life dusting beautifully over his cheeks. "I could do... something," he offered vaguely, briefly shifting his eyes back up to lz's before glances off to the side.

"Mn..." lz hummed, running his hands up

wy's squishy thighs and over the flat plains of his stomach, smiling slightly when they shook under his fingers. "What would wy like to do?"

"Dunno..." wy mumbled. "Something, anything... whatever you want."

lz hummed contemplatively before digging his fingers into the other

man's waist and tugging him down the couch a bit.

"lz!" wy cried, looking up at him from where his head now lay mostly on the couch itself and not the pillow pressed against the arm rest. "What are you doing?" he asked, watching with wide eyes as lz moved himself up the couch,

moving wy's arms so he could plant his knees on either side of his chest.

"Whatever I want," he said lightly as he unclasped his belt and popped the button of his pants open, adding, "as long as wy has no objections?"

The other man blinked up at him, mouth gaping slightly as

though he were already ready and eager for what lz was going to do him, for what lz was going to put in him. "wy- wy has no objections," he said rather tonelessly, eyes moving back to where lz was slowly pulling down his zipper.

He rose slightly and pushed his pants and

underwear down just enough to-

"Wow~" wy breathed out, eyes growing impossibly wider as lz's cock popped out of his pants, the weight of it pulling it down towards wy's chest. "lz you're- you're-"

"Mn, I know," lz said simply, giving himself a slow tug while wy laughed.

"You know you're hung like a horse?" he teased, biting his bottom lip as he eyed up lz's sizeable member. "Uhm... lz? I don't think that's gonna fit inside my mouth... or my butt."

"Mn," lz agreed as he kneed himself a be closer to wy's mouth, just enough that the tip of

his dick rested against his lower lip. wy's flicked his tongue out to lick it, looking almost surprised that he had done so. "Does not need to fit, not right now, at least," lz said as he began to stroke himself off, precum slipping out of him and into wy's waiting mouth.

"lz!" wy mumbled, trying to keep his mouth open to accept lz's offeringss as he jerked off to the sight of wy's beautiful, wrecked face. "So dirty! Why does this feel like it's dirtier than actual sex!?" wy whined, cheeks growing redder as more precum filled up his mouth.

lz's lips twitched when the other man tried to lift his head, tried to get his mouth around the tip of the cock in front of him. "Greedy," he noted as his strokes sped up, his hand twisted almost brutally as he slipped his other hand under wy's head to pull him closer and-

wy moaned around lz's cock as cum splattered through him mouth, his eyes squeezing closed in what lz could only imagine was pure, joy and freedom, not having to think of anything but being good for him.

"Beautiful," lz murmured, letting the other man suckle on his tip for a few

moments before pulling back, smiling softly when wy whined in complaint, arms rising up to try to pull lz back. "Beautiful and greedy," he said as he let himself be hauled back in, wy drawing him back into his mouth as he softened. lz reached his hand back down and gently

scritched behind wy's ear. "Cute."

wy glared up at him before his lips twitched and his suckling turned to outright sucking, lz's still sensitive dick giving a violent kick as pain and pleasure shot through him.

"wy," he scolded gently, pulling wy's hands off him to pull away.

wy grumbled at him as he wiggled back down the couch, sighing as he collapsed back onto the other man. "lz?" wy asked after a moment.

"Mn?"

"Did you really not even bother to put your cock away before laying down?"

"Mhm," lz hummed, shifting his hips so their softening penises

rubbed together, his cock giving a little kick at the pleasant sensation of wy pressed so close to it.

wy laughed at him, his arms rising to wrap around lz's back and pull him tight against his chest. "You're silly," wy breathed out into his ear. "You're silly and great and

I like you so much..." he trailed off, voice fading into uncertainty.

"Like wy too," lz said seriously, shifting around so he could look up at the other man from his chest pillow. "Like wy too much."

wy's lips twisted between a frown and a smile. "The fuck does that mean?"

he asked, blinking down at lz in confusion, eyes dancing like he was slotting pieces of the puzzle of lz's love into place.

lz hummed but didn't give wy an answer. "What does wy want?" he asked instead, watching as wy pulled himself out of his puzzle to answer his question.

wy's eyes searched his for a long moment. "You," he finally breathed out, the words pressing hot and heavy against lz's skin, seeping through his flesh into his core, already so suffused with wy, wy, wy-

"You have me," lz told him again, hand reaching up to thumb at wy's cheek.

"You have me, in whatever way you want."

"Friend?" wy asked, lips twitching as he teased lz, wy's favourite pastime and lz's favourite wy-ism, even though now, during this moment of tender tension it made his heart to stutter against his ribs, the bones grinding tight against

his skin and clenching around his organs in fear that this would be it. wy only wanted him as a friend, would only ever want him as a friend. A friend to fuck on occasion, someone to force his thoughts out of his head with a cock he could trust.

"Yes," lz replied nonetheless,

swallowing hollowly around his pain and heartache, flexing against him in a tidal wave of want and regret and what else could I have done's.

"Fuck buddy?" wy asked, eye darkening slightly, the pupils blowing out in arousal while his soft dick gave a tiny kick between them.

"Yes," lz said, turning his nose slightly in towards wy's chest and breathing in the scent of him, soft and salty with cum and sweat. If this was all he ever got, the gentle intimacy of friends who shared pleasure and orgasms, who allowed themselves to be open and vulnerable with

each other in the quiet of night and secret meetings, he would accept it. He would always take whatever scraps of love he could get from the other man, even if they burned his soul under the pressure of wanting more, more, more.

"Hmm~" wy hummed, as though he didn't know what

came next, what word, what title, existed between husbands and fuck buddies, what word of want was etched into lz's soul because even he knew jumping straight into marriage was insane, even if he also knew he and wy would be perfect as husband, would complete each other,

protect each other, support each other in perfect harmony and love.

"Bestest friends?" wy asked, crackling when lz growled at him and shifted until he was hovering over wy and glaring down at the horrible man he had fallen in love with so, so long ago.

"wy," he said firmly,

"be serious."

"Am I ever serious, lz?" wy teased, waggling his eyebrows up at him. "You know, if you want to date someone like me you've gotta be prepared to deal with my perpetual silliness."

"Want to date wy," lz said firmly, watching as wy's posture, expression, very soul

softened under him.

"Yeah?" wy asked quietly. "Perfect, serious lz really wants someone like me?"

"Yes," lz breathed out with such intensity and truth that wy shivered slightly under him. "Yes."

"Okay," wy said, smiling softly, tentatively up at him. "Okay, boyfriend."

~

Amazingly, things had been quite for the entirety of the following week. The Jiangs had been largely silent after his uncle and wy's press conference, save for a single announcement saying that yzy and jyl had gone to one of their summer homes to mourn in peace. It had been so

quiet, so wonderfully perfect, that lz had almost forgotten about the terror of the Jiangs.

wy, who had practically been living at lz's since his birthday, had effectively moved in. lxc and nmj had helped to move the majority of wy's things out of his apartment, with nhs acting

as director because he was "too delicate to lift anything and this outfit cost more than everything in this apartment combined," and into lz's, his minimalist home now stuffed full of wy's colourful personality.

Books lay in piles next to lz's bookcase, already stuffed full in

what wy swore was perfectly regular organization and lz insisted was pure chaos. Their combined teacups, varying from wy's stacking boob and butt mugs to the horde of bunny mugs lz had (mostly gifts from wy) was entirely too much.

The only place that currently wasn't overflowing

was lz's closet, the combination of their clothing having been a source of much teasing.

"lz..."

"Do not."

"But-"

"But nothing," lz had mumbled as he hung up more of wy's clothes.

"But-" wy had tried again as he stared into the near emptiness of lz's closet, slowly being

filled with wy's clothing.

"No," lz had said firmly, hanging up the last of wy's black plaids and pressing the doors closed.

"We could go shopping, you know," wy had offered as lz pushed him bodily out of the room. "Buy you a few more white pants, maybe add a cream sweater to

your wardrobe."

"Out."

"But lz!" wy had laughed, swishing around to wrap his arms around lz's neck. "It's my room now, too. Are you really gonna kick me out?" he'd asked, laughing and turning to eye up the bed. "But there are so many fun things for us to do in here..."

lz, as he had discovered time and time again over the last week, was incredibly weak to wy, not that he hadn't already known this from years of friendship, but it was a million times worse now! All wy had to do was look at lz a certain way, press himself close to lz, lean over

and flash his glorious, full ass at lz and he would immediately do whatever wy wished. Thankfully, what wy wished was usually to be railed into the mattress... or the couch... or the kitchen counter...

lz shook off the thoughts of his cock buried inside wy and glared back down

at the first press release from the Jiangs in the week. Things had been so great that he had forgotten that all was not great in the world outside their tiny, blissful bubble. There were still people out there wishing to harm wy and making active, concrete attempts to do so.

At first it was little things. Prank phone calls, takeout they hadn't ordered showing up at their door, a visit from a noise bylaw officer.

But slowly, as the second week of their lives together passed into the third, it got worse and worse. wy's tires were spiked, lz's phone

service was cut off, someone showed up at wy's job to ask about an allegation of him driving drunk.

"It's weird though, right?" wy asked after sending off an email containing records from the auto shop that his car had still been in the shop when he was supposedly driving drunk.

"Like... why report it as I was in my car when I couldn't have been? Why not say I was driving yours?"

lz blinked at him as he pulled wy's computer away and set their dinner down at the table. "I do not know. Perhaps they are not very smart."

"Maybe..." wy sighed,

eyeing up his food with ravenous eyes. "I dunno... it feels, like... too stupid though? Like either the person really just wants to be a pain in the ass and not do any actual damage or like more than one person is responsible?"

lz hummed as he sat beside wy, hand slipping into

his lap. "I would like to get you security."

"lz," wy said sternly, shooting his hand and then his face a look. "No."

lz's hand tightened on the lovely, thick thigh under his hand. "wy, please."

wy made a rude, unintelligible grumble as he picked up his chopsticks. "lz, I-"

"Please," lz said, turning the pouty eyes wy always referred to as 'patently unfair' on him, his lower lip jutting out just enough to make him look even more sympathetic.

"Don't you turn that thing on me!" wy cried, waving his chopsticks and the red hot carrot they were holding

wildly through the air before dropping the piece of food into his mouth. "I do not need security," he said around his food, nodding firmly, as though he thought lz would just accept that, as if he didn't know lz at all.

lz blinked at him for a moment, taking in the firm set to

his shoulders and eyes. "Alright."

wy's chopsticks halted on their way back to his food, his eyes narrowing suspiciously at lz. "You're gonna get me secret security, aren't you?"

"Yes," lz said easily, picking up his own chopstick as wy complained to him about freedom and

horrible, possessive, overprotective boyfriends, his lips twitching as he picked up a piece of lightly spiced tofu. He would never stop smiling when the B-word came up, especially not when it fell so easily from the other man's lips, as though he had rolled the feeling of it

through his mind and soul long before they were a thing, before they were boyfriends. "wy," he said as the other man had to break from his rant to take a grounding breath. "I do not wish to spend all day worrying for your safety."

"lz-"

"No, listen to me. Whoever is doing this,

whether a single person or many, is escalating," lz said, giving wy a heavy, serious look. "You may not feel like you are in danger but that does not mean you are not. Please," he said, reaching out to catch his boyfriend's free hand, "let me keep you safe. Please, wy."

wy opened and closed his mouth a few times before collapsing into his chair, his neck a long, lovely line as it hung over the back of the chair while he groaned. "lz~" he whined. "Not fair."

"Mn..." lz hummed in agreement. "Will not be fair where wy's safety is concerned."

wy peeked up at him, eyes hard before he popped back up and began digging into his food. "You're gonna have to make it up to me," he said, nodding seriously to himself. "Gonna make you do something hard... like give me a massage everyday or something. Help take away the strain

I'm gonna have from having someone watching me all day."

lz blinked slowly at his boyfriend, watching the way his forearms flexed as he opened and closed his chopsticks, the way his lips slowly tinted redder and redder as he ate his toxic food. "Who says," he said slowly,

lifting another piece of food towards his lips, "that I would not be perfectly inclined to spend all day touching wy, pressing the tension out of him... inside and out."

wy blinked into the middle distance, eyebrows scrunched in thought for a moment before he squeaked,

turning wide, scandalized eyes on lz. "lz!" he cried, red dusting adorably across his cheeks. "You can't just- you- you- you!"

"Mn," he hummed, "would be perfectly happy to give wy a happy ending massage." He smiled softly as wy began to rant at him about how secretly horny

he was.

"You hide behind those fancy white clothes," the other man complained, huffing and pounding his fist against the table, "but you're really just a giant pervert underneath! Aiya! And I have no one to protect me from your horny ways!" wy swayed dramatically from side to

side before freezing, an ominous smile crackling across his face. "Ah~ but then again," he sighed, leaning into lz's space, his breath tinted with spice and cruel intentions, "shushu did say to call him if I need anything~"

lz froze, turning his own wide eyes at his boyfriend.

"wy," he said, voice and eyes growing strained, "no."

"I dunno~" wy teased, leaning so far into lz's space that their noses brushed together. "I, very unfortunately, do not have anyone to give you a shovel talk." wy sighed dramatically as he pulled back into his seat,

tapping his nose in thought. "I think my parents would approve of shushu giving you a shovel talk. You know," wy said, smiling evilly at lz, "shushu hasn't even given me a shovel talk for you. Your brother kinda did? I mean, I think that's what he was doing when he pulled me

aside during the move, but eh~ mixed performance." wy laughed, eyes glazing over with memories of whatever pathetic shovel talk his brother had given him.

"wy-" lz tried to say, tried to interrupt this awful, horrible idea.

"Do you think shushu will do better?" wy asked

seriously, cocking his head at lz as though he weren't unknowingly setting lz's murderer uncle on him. His uncle wouldn't hurt him... probably. lz still wasn't completely convinced the older man wasn't a cradle robber interesting in swiping up wy, although he was quite sure those

thoughts were unfounded... probably.

lz sucked in a deep breath, the air squeezing through his anxious lungs. "I think shushu will give a very effective shovel talk," he finally said, glaring harder when wy's smile broadened.

"That's great!" wy cheered. "I'm in need of someone

to give a shovel talk right now. I do hope my lovely boyfriend will survive and still want to date me afterwards, hopefully with a bit more self-control and less overprotectiveness."

"Mn..." lz hummed as they began to eat again, stuffing food into his mouth in an attempt to keep

his smile down. "I'm sure he will survive and be just as in love with you as before the shovel talk."

Beside him wy choked on his poisonous food.

~

"Nooooooo~" wy whined as he sat across from lz's uncle. "This is NOT what I wanted when I called you!" he cried, wiggling in

his chair. "Seriously? What is with you Lans and your overprotective ways? Is it bred into you? Can you not control yourselves at all?"

"I was bred into us by an abusive father and brother," neither lz nor his uncle said.

lqr sipped easily at his tea as he left wy rant

and complain. "wy's safety is important," he repeated for the third or fourth time that afternoon.

"lz~" wy sighed, turning wide, watery eyes onto him instead. "Your uncle is bullying me! You're supposed to be protecting me from your mean relatives."

lz hummed noncommittally

around his own tea, fighting down the smirk that threatened to cross his lips. wy had been too caught up in the moment last night to think his actions through. lqr might be willing to give his nephew a shovel talk about treating wy kindly, but when it came to wy's safety...

"I do not need an armoured car AND a driver AND a bodyguard!" wy cried, burying his face in his hands as lz and his uncle smiled at each other over the tops of their cups.

"A-Ying needs to be protected," lqr said simply, blinking innocently, in a way lz knew meant he was about

to say something particularly mean, at wy when he glared up at him. "I need to protect you now to make up for not protecting you when you were younger."

wy opened his mouth to object, to say lqr wasn't responsible for what had happened to him, an argument that lz had witnessed

occur a half dozen times in the last few weeks, but stopped short when lqr raised his hand.

"I will never be able to face your parents, to accept their love anew, in the next life if I fail you again," the older man said, turning pouty eyes on lz's boyfriend,

who gasped dramatically.

"YOU! AND YOU!" wy cried, bursting up from his chair to point between lz and his uncle. "You and your horrible Lan protectiveness and horrible, mean pouts! You- you- you!!" wy huffed and stomped a foot before nearly jumping out of his skin when a knock

sounded at the door.

"Come in," lqr called, alert eyes turning towards the door as his assistant entered.

"The car and personnel you requested have arrived," the young woman said. "Where would you like them, sir?"

"Nowhere," wy said, tone oddly happy as he took quick steps

towards the assistant. "I'll be leaving now, so I'll just take them with me, thank you."

lz narrowed his eyes at the other man's suspicious change of direction on the security front. "wy-"

"Ah~ I'm afraid I can't stay lz," wy sighed dramatically as he turned back to look at him

with half-sad, half-gleeful eyes. "I'm just too worried that your uncle's pout has the same intent that yours always does!" he cried, a smile rippling at his mouth as lz froze, opening his mouth in slow motion to try and stop wy from-

"I'm sorry, shushu. I'm just not interested

in being bent over your desk, which is how I always end up when lz pouts at me, and he pouts so, so much! I do hope the car you got for me has soft seats," wy sighed, looking despondently down as he scuffed his foot against the floor. "I'm afraid I just can't take any more Lans

down there."

lz gaped as wy turned, bid them a cheerful goodbye and tugged the door closed behind him, a solid click shutting lz, his burning cheeks and his uncle alone together.

They sat in silence for a long, tense moment before lqr finally, broke, saying,

to lz general horror, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."

"I do not," lz bit out, blood bursting across his face and chest, "need to know that you also have a large sex drive."

His uncle blinked at him in what appeared to be shock before bursting into laughter, an extremely

rare occurrence. "Ah~" lqr sighed between laughs. "You really are mine aren't you, in all the ways that truly matter, including-" lqr snorted, snorted! "-sex drive." lqr burst into more rude and amused laughter while lz frowned at him.

What in the world was so funny! His uncle

had said he wasn't surprised that lz was always... doing things to his boyfriend's butt! lz had just been trying to end the conversation there!

"You look confused," the older man noted as his laughter subsided.

"Mn..." lz hummed unhappily. He did not enjoy begging laughed at

and he was quite sure that was what was happening here.

"Well, you see, dear nephew," his uncle teased, "what I meant is that I am not surprised A-Ying is so much like his mother. Always teasing and poking. Always stirring up trouble and then disappearing before the explosion.

I was not referring to our mutual sex drive problem."

There were very few instances where lz had ever wished for the ground to open and swallow him whole: an incident in 6th grade where he had grievously misunderstood an assignment, in university when another student had shown

a pornographic video in art class (a gay video that had resulted in an erection and several weeks of gay panic as he had come to terms with learning why he had never liked girls the way the other boys did), and now this: accidentally outing his substantial sex drive to his uncle.

"Well," lz sighed, head collapsing into his hands, "this has been a thoroughly unenjoyable conversation."

"Oh?" his uncle said, fingers tapping an abstract rhythm across his desk. "I thought it was rather pleasant."

lz peeked out of his hands to glare at his horrible uncle.

The man had always had a secret, perverse enjoyment for teasing his nephews, but they had both gained a thicker skin over the years. Unfortunately, lqr seemed to have realized he could tease them about sex, which was objectively horrible and-

lz tensed when he saw a look of pure

mischief that rivalled even wy's, perhaps another trait they had both acquired from one of wy's parents, cross his uncle's face.

"I don't suppose it can be that surprising though, that my sex drive is also large," the older man said, completely ignoring lz's growing

look of horror. Damn his propensity to freeze in moments of emotional stress and embarrassment! He needed to be able to yell and tell his uncle to shut the fuck up!!

"After all," his uncle continued, pulling his cup of tea back to his lips, "I did once have two very sexual,

very easy partners who I took great pleasure in satisfying."

lz buried his face back into his hands and screamed, blearily registering his uncles laughter.

"Every time," lqr added once lz was finished emptying his feeling into the palms of his hands, "I have to hear about your

sex life I will share a piece of mine, Zhan-er. I do hope you will treat A-Ying's... bottom better from now on. If you need any advice or lube recommendations-"

"No! No! No!" lz cried, leaning over to bury his face into the arms of the chair. "No, I- No."

"Are you sure?

It's been some time since I gave you The Talk, and I didn't want to point out you were gay at the time so gave you a rather generic one and-"

"You knew?" lz asked curiously, peeking up at his uncle from his hiding spot.

His uncle huffed at him. "Not for sure, but I suspected."

lqr smiled gently at him. "Sometimes you can tell these things, especially about the people most important to you, even before they themselves know." lqr smiled a true, warm and happy smile at him, his eyes crinkling across his aging skin. "I am happy you found yourself, Zhan-er,

now if only your brother could relax into what he wants as well."

"Ge-"

"Is in love with nmj?" lqr finished, tone heavy with frustration but still lightly amused. "Yes, I am aware," he said as he looked down and began shifting through the papers on his desk, a method of

distraction lz had noticed when he was still a small child, hiding under his uncle's desk to escape the terrors of the world, namely his brother's teasing and hugs, although he was rarely sure what exactly his uncle was trying to distract himself from.

"You do not approve?"

lqr's hands halted, his breathing a small, terrible thing of concentration before he said, "I do not disapprove, but I do not think they are entirely compatible. I think that should the two of them find themselves involved they will find their relationship lacking and strained."

lz tossed the words around in his head for a moment, the implication sinking into his nerves and stretching across his knowledge and imagination and-

"Shushu!" lz cried, blood that had just managed to rescinded from his cheeks bursting back across the fine vessels.

"Your brother is too soft, too malleable. nmj is too rough, too set in his ways," lqr said easily. "They need someone to balance them."

"Not everyone wants to have a... three person relationship," lz huffed, collapsing his perfect, rigid posture into a sloppy, melted slouch in

an attempt to sink further into his chair and leave this unending sequences of topics behind.

"That is true," lqr said, lips twitching as he added, "Some people are better suited to relationships involving even more people."

lz groaned. He desperately needed to escape

this conversation, thank you!

"Who do you think is behind the pranks we have been suffering?" he asked. If his uncle refused to let the topic of sex drop he was going to have to force them into something else.

lqr glanced up at him, raising a traitorously amused eyebrow at him.

"I do not know," the older man said after a moment more of amusement at lz's expense. "It does not seem to be the most coordinated effort," he noted, nodding when lwj quietly agreed with this train of thought. "It is possible that Jiang Corp allies, partners and shareholders are

behind it, upset at their business being disrupted. It is possible some is yzy or her daughter."

lz cringed. He was not a fan of jyl, but to think of her as an active participant in her adoptive brother's abuse now and not just a simpering observer, protecting herself from her

mother's wrath with gaslighting and nudges to accept the love of their mother's fist...

"Perhaps," his uncle said carefully, turning back to his paperwork again, "it would be ideal to use the presence of A-Ying's new bodyguards to take some time for yourself."

lz shifted in

his seat, pulling his uncle's words inside himself, spreading like a tiny wave of wrath and curiosity through him as he digested them and transformed them into the unsaid words: go find the truth and take care of it. "Yes," he said, blinking darkly at his uncle. "I do think some

time to... take care of things would be good."

lqr hummed lowly and began scratching his pen over some report or other while lz finished his tea, tossing over ideas on how to find the truth and relieve the tiny ball of stress churning inside him, sucking in all his frustration

and resentment, slowly becoming a cancerous mass of rage and destruction and bloody cruelty.

"Be safe," his uncle said as lz rose and bid a quiet goodbye. The older man looked up briefly, something between pride and concern and love flashing through his eyes. "Do what you need

to do and do not hesitate to ask for help."

"Mn," lz hummed, smiling slightly at his uncle as he grasped the door handle, saying, "Thank you uncle, I know," before pulling the door open and stepping out into the assistant's domain.

"From your friend," the woman said as lz

closed the door quietly behind him. She handed over a note, folded into a small, intricate design to keep the contents secret.

"Thank you," he said, giving her a polite nod as he turned towards the elevators and pulled the note open.

"lz," the note read in wy's beautiful,

imperfect script, "I do hope this message reaches you and you and shushu did not kill each other in a mass of awkward sex talk! I have taken my new servants and turned towards the hills, specifically those that house nhs's summer house! Do not look for me... be do send love...

and maybe some cookies?" Below, wy had signed the note, "Much love and amusement at your expense, your wy!"

lz shook his head as he read the note again. Silly, lovable man. He pulled out his phone, searching for some place near nhs's summer home that delivered sweets and placing

an order to be delivered later that night when the two men would have arrived and-

lz's phone binged with a text from nhs as he stepped into the elevator. He pressed the button for the parking garage and opened the text.

nhs: you're welcome
nhs: file attachment

nhs: you have a week
nhs: i'll take care of him
nhs: you take care of this

lz hesitated for a moment before opening the file, eyes flying over the contents as the ball of stress inside him exploded into rancid, molten hatred.

lz: thank you
lz: see you soon
nhs: good luck

~

The beauty of the situation the Jiangs had created, the chaos and disgust, every eye in the world watching for strikes between Jiang Corp and Gusu Lan, was that everyone was waiting for the next ball to drop, the next body to splatter across the fronts of newspapers the

world round. People had been shocked when jc's body had slumped through the news, enthralled when Xue Yang had run jfm down and stained the internet with evidence of his death. People had simply grabbed popcorn to watch the show of strength and patience between Jiang Corp and

Gusu Lan in the subsequent weeks and they would barely bat an eye when the incident occurred and then grab their phone to offer their most insincerest condolences and wait for the next spatter of of news.

Everyone was so on edge, waiting, tight and strung out and sleepless,

that when a story leaked that yzy and her daughter had been spotted back in the city, having allegedly stuck past the paparazzi stationed in perpetual sight outside their summer home, pictures appearing showing the pair in mourning clothes visiting jc's empty, lonely,

breathless home, no one had questioned it.

No one would risking missing this story: the first escape from seculusion in weeks, the first true public mourning of a broken, scandalized family.

So off every vile, toxic reporters went, chasing stories and death and suffering like

the vultures they were, picking at the flesh of their prey until nothing but bones remained and then fashioning themselves a throne of fame from those as well.

lz imagined, that for yzy and jyl, they thought practically nothing of their newly freed home, exhausted and no longer

prisoners to the poison of news and obsession with the pain of others. He imagined, as he slipped through the dark cover of trees and gardens, meticulously created by yzy through the knowledge of nameless, abused and exploited gardeners and designers, that they were breathing

easily for the first time in weeks, not realizing the death and destruction that seeped down around them, twisting in malice and rage until it pressed against the skin of that ruthless, unrepentant woman's flesh. He imagined that they slept easily that night, too tired to fear.

To tired to hear him coming.

As lz looked down on the worn out body of yzy, relaxed and aged in a way she never was in public, with her ramrod posture and harsh makeup and eyes, sleeping like the fearless, empty souled woman she was, he couldn't help but imagine, for the barest

of seconds, how she came to be this way. Had it been a mess of genetics, twisted together to form an equally twisted woman? Had her own childhood been one filled with such brutal abuse that had burnt her soul into a shadow of crisp hatred?

It didn't matter, how his boyfriend's

(A/N: mentions of syringe/needles/drugs)

adoptive mother had be the way she was, not in the end, and as lz slipped the syringe out of his pocket he simply blinked the thoughts away and squeezed a spurt of the toxic paralytic from the needle. Killing the noxious woman with an

air embolism was not the plan, was too good for her, too quick, too painless.

lz pressed the needle into her skin, quickly pressing the plunger lest the prick wake her, before pulling it back. Asleep and fearless, yzy slept on, oblivious of her now unavoidable, inescapable fate.

lz tugged on her arm, watching with fascinated eyes as her eyes popped wide. "Hello, yzy," he said as he slung her limp body over his shoulder and turned back the way he had come.

~

lz watched as yzy came back to herself, her fingers and arms beginning to twitch as she regained

control of her body. He had been worried, following the last dose of the drug he had secured from a doctor friend, that it had killed her, always a risk with paralytics, even ones that did not normally effect lungs and hearts and everything else that let bodies and souls coexist.

lz watched her for moment more, blinking coldly into her hard, tenderly terrified eyes, before turning back to his supplies, more drugs and items secured from Dr. Wen.

Wen Qing was one of his rare childhood friends, a member of the now collapsed Wen Dynasty, the woman had

ferociously fought back against public stigma and distrust of the remains of her family and now had a lucrative medical practice and a side business supplying illicit drugs to people in need.

(A/N: mentions of abuse, murder, suic*de)

A drug here to slip into an abusive spouses drink, difficult to trace and easily mistaken by a coroner as a natural death. Another, hard to get through official channels because of the control the government held over its distribution, to ease the brutal effects of

neurodegenerative diseases. Another popular one, she often said, a soft, morbid smile set across her lips, was one to gently help a person end their life when disease crackled through their body and the system had left them to go out painfully, inconsistently, or risk of long,

windingly slow and torturous death.

wq knew wy, liked him even, in her prickly way, lz thought. She had also heard lz's stories and complaints and thoughts on his relationship with the Jiangs long before jc's death, and when he had shown up at her office, shortly after closing,

a requested a few select items she had simply raised an eyebrow at him and handed over what he needed.

"You need any help?" she had asked when she heard his plan, her voice taking on the curious, obsessive tone that he knew well from her days as a student and later a researcher.

A/N: I'm debating putting part of the next bit of the story into a separate thread because it'll be a bit brutal and will take a few updates so be difficult to skip. I'd write it in the other thread and then put a summary here. So, poll time!

Where should the gore/torture go?

A/N: gonna be a bit before the gore and I potentially move the thread, depending on the results of the poll. The next bit includes mentions of wrh's crimes, nothing explicit, but he's implied to be a serial killer or abuser, so murder, r*pe, various forms of child abuse (vague).

lz had blinked at his friend slowly, taking in the cold energy emanating from his friend. She never talked about her childhood, about the things her uncle had done, had made her and the other children in her family do, but it wasn't a secret either. It couldn't be a secret,

not when the details had inspired movies and books and documentaries.

There had been a time, when they had been teenagers, the stories of the women wrh had hurt, r*aped, killed, piling up at the feet of journalists. You could hardly turn a corner without finding someone talking

about it, whispering about the horrible things he had gotten away with since he was a teenager himself. The news had been obsessed, especially when the police who had covered up for him started turning up dead. Bookstores had been stuffed full with book after book, proclaiming:

The Sinister Secrets of the Wen Dynasty

How to Break a Dynasty: Serial Killer Brings Down Ancient Family

The Chained Women of Wen Ruohan: How a Philanthropic Billionaire Tricked the World into Ignoring His Prisoners

Tiny Killers: The Disturbed Children of the Wen

wq had jokingly, painfully given him the last book for his birthday that year. "You should read this," she'd said easily, tossing the unwrapped book at him as though it were nothing but an amusing, sensationalized book. "You should know what they're saying and why you should stop

being our friend."

"I won't," he had said seriously while nhs had turned the book over in his hands.

He remembered it well, that day of secrets. They had been sitting on his bed and he could still feel the smooth duvet under his fingers, could still hear the game they had

been playing on the console nhs had gotten him that year. lz was sure nhs had chosen it more because nmj was always taking his away when his grades fell too far than because he thought lz would enjoy it.

Shockingly, despite his general disinterest in video game he had been

rather skilled at the platformer and nhs had been complaining, moments before the Wen siblings arrival, about how it was unfair lz was so good at video games when he never played. wy had made similar complaints when they had played together, years later.

"You don't know that,"

wq had said, her brother tucked shyly behind her.

"I do."

"And if it says I killed someone? What if there are witnesses?" the teenage girl had asked, menace and strength and lz had no doubt she had killed someone, no doubt she had watched a thousand crimes at her uncle's hands.

A/N: there was something weird going on with all my threads earlier, with various missing tweets. It has sorted itself out for me, but if something was or is still missing for you it should fix itself eventually? Hopefully?

"Who in this room hasn't killed someone?" nhs had innocently piped up, in that simultaneously naive and knowing voice that only he seemed capable of. "Birds of a feather, and all that." He had glanced up from the book and blinked innocently at the siblings. "'course, us?"

he had said easily, nodding his head in lz's direction. "We had a bit more... malice behind our kills."

wq had watched them for a moment, her brother poking his head out curiously from behind her now before her lips twitched and she had sneered, "Who says mine wasn't malicious?"

"Did you ever read the books," lz asked as he turned back toward yzy, who was just beginning to twitch more of her limbs as her brain reconnected to her muscles, nerves reactivating to let her tug at her bindings, "about what wrh did to his children? To his nieces and nephews?"

A/N: the poll was like 79-21 to keep the content here in the main thread, so I'm going to continue here. There will still be warnings along the way though!

More talk of wrh and his crimes and what he made his relatives do in this next bit!

yzy simply glared at him, a series of attempted words leaving her mouth, her tongue still too heavy in her mouth to do more than splutter and slur.

"I'll take that as a no," lz said as he stepped forward to check her bonds, an unnecessary action as he had checked and rechecked

them, but the idea of the woman escaping his wrath was unacceptable. "He was a serial killer, you know that much, of course. Kidnapped women from all over the country to torture, r*pe and murder them." He pulled on one of the ties around yzy's wrists, stretched taut to her sides

while her legs were spread apart under her forcing her into an X-like shape.

yzy moaned as lz pulled the bond tighter and tighter, blearily shaking her head as the thick, course threads dug harshly into her flesh. She tried again to spit hatred at him, her words becoming

clearer and clearer as the minutes inched on. "You're going to regret this," she seemed to say.

"Most news stations," lz continued as he stepped back to his little table of supplies, "did not mention the children, there are laws to protect their privacy. A few books and articles

were put out, however, by less than reputable sources." lz lifted one of the scalpels that wq had brought before turning back to his boyfriend's horrible adoptive mother and watching her eyes pop wide. Interesting that she hadn't realized lz was going to do more than just

kidnap her. Interesting and naive. "Rumour has it he rarely ever hurt anyone himself, instead he made his young relatives kill and r*pe for him."

"~Lies~" yzy slurred, eyes squeezing shut as she concentrated on control her mouth. "Jus~t lies~"

"Hm..." lz hummed consideringly,

glancing towards the doorway of the cold windowless room, the concrete walls and the ancient carpet stained with splotches of dark, ominous brown. "What do you think? Are the rumours all lies?"

"Some are lies," an icy voice called, wq stepping out of the darkness into view.

"Some," she continued as she took slow steps towards them, "are rather true, I'm afraid." She stopped before yzy, watching her with the morbid curiosity of a cat watching prey as they crowded it into a corner. "My cousins and I have a bet, you know. About whether our current

inclinations are the result of genetics or the things we saw and were made to do when we were children." Without removing her eyes from yzy, wq reached a hand back and accepted the scalpel from lz, who handed it over easily before leaning back against the little torture table.

"Personally, I'm inclined to believe it's genetics," she continued, beginning to pace a slow, chilling circle around the bound woman, who's tongue seemed to have been tied as she realized the predicament she as in. "Mostly because of my didi. Despite seeing and experiencing the

(A/N: blood and the beginnings of torture, which will be bloody and painful)

same things my cousins and I did he is still the sweetest little angel."

lz watched with cold, ecstatic eyes as wq reached out and swiped a quick, shallow cut across the miserable woman's eyebrow.

yzy gasped as blood began to leak from the wound, her eye squeezing closed as it was quickly overwhelmed by the bloody waterfall. "Bitch!" she snarled, the pain and blood apparently reactivating the muscles of her tongue and vitriol of her brain. "You're going to regret this!"

"Unlikely," wq said mildly as she examined the bloody blade. It sparkled beneath the flickering lights above them, several of the bulbs a moment away from crackling out after a lifetime of disuse. "lz?"

"Mn?"

"I believe you had some things to ask our guest?" wq asked,

turning her gaze back to him, "before I get started."

"Eerie," he thought as he watched her. He could still remember the look in his uncle's eyes, that night decades earlier when the older man had killed his abusive older brother. Those eyes, watching lz carefully for signs of

distress, signs that he would tell someone what his uncle had done, had been dead but accepting, heartbroken that things had ended with a death, a body buried under the dirt of their garden, but anxious, impatient, eager for the future he had carved for them. wq's eyes, however,

shone with an odd mix of disinterest in the situation and cruel obsession and desire.

"I may not be able to control myself," wq had said when lz had agreed to accept her help with yzy. The woman had turned her normally bland, unenthusiastic eyes on him and said, "I may make a

mess and I will enjoy it. If that is a problem-"

"It's not," lz had assured her, nodding his most earnest of nods. "I cannot-" he had cut off and glanced away to the room's anatomical model of the human form, used to explain to patients what exactly was happening,

or going to happen soon, within their body. It was detailed, disturbingly so, with textured muscles and bones and gruesome slabs of yellow fat. Its organs, all perfectly healthy examples, slide out but lz knew one of the drawers nearby held a collection of diseased examples:

lungs with cancerous growths, livers that had grown grotesque and irreversibly damaged from alcohol abuse. wq enjoyed bringing them out to show the people who left their lives in her hands just have much their abuse of their body was destroying it. "I want her to suffer,"

he had said after a long silence, "but I cannot manage the amount of suffering I wish her to experience by myself."

She had been watching him closely when he had turned his eyes back to her, her own eyes shifting curious and intense over him as though searching for something.

After a moment a small smile had twitched at her lips. "Perhaps you would you like a lesson?" she asked. "On how to truly make a person suffer? On how to draw out their pain?"

"Yes," lz had said without a moment of thought. Even if he hoped to never have need for whatever his

friend planned to teach him, knowledge was power and he could easily imagine the process of using yzy as a teaching device would make the whole thing a million times worse for her.

"I do indeed have some questions for her," lz said, blinking himself back into the present moment.

"As if I'll tell you anything," the woman in question spit out, barring her teeth at in a particularly unattractive grimace, blood continuing to leak wet and sticky down her face and into her mouth.

wq hummed absently as she stepped around lz and began pulling together an IV and

(A/N: more needles and drugging someone)

a collection of needles and vials. She began methodically pulling the drugs into the syringes, placing them into a neat little line of torture and intoxication. She softly directed lz to hang the IV on a hook behind yzy as she grabbed the

needle that would be slipped into their guest's hand to keep her drugged via the IV.

"My uncle," wq said darkly as she grabbed a piece of tape to secure the needle and turned back to yzy, "was very interested in extending the visits of his guests." She pulled a little rolling

tray out from beside the table, placing each of her items, several needles, including the one for the IV, tubing, an elastic band and tape, neatly onto it and pushing it closer to yzy. She grabbed one of the needles and injected it's contents quickly into yzy's upper arm.

"To numb her muscles for a moment," wq told lz from where he stood watching intently. She reached up and releasing the strap around yzy's wrist, letting the arm flop uselessly down.

"What did you do!?" the woman screeched, her other arm tensing as she tried to pull it free of

the bindings to push the doctor away.

"It's easier to insert the IV while her arm is useless," wq continued, tying the elastic band tightly around the woman's motionless arm. "The last thing you want is to be hit by a difficult patient."

"I'm not a patient you bitch!"

wq and lz continued to ignore her as wq explained to him how to insert the needle, flicking at yzy's wrist and bending it this way and that to find the vein. "While there are pros to starving or dehydrating the person before you begin it can make finding the vein very difficult."

lz hummed slightly as he watched wq insert the needle, the chamber of the needle filling up with blood to show that wq had successfully hit the vein. She quickly removed the elastic and began the process of removing and attaching various pieces to the needle before secured it

with the tape. She fiddled with it a moment more, explaining to lz about flushing the blood out before laughing slightly.

"You might have to do it a few times to remember all the steps," she said as she connected the extension tubing to the IV's, letting the undrugged saline

drip down the tubing.

"Mn," lz agreed, trying to internalize as much of her instructions as he could. "What are you going to give her?"

"Some things to loosen her tongue, others to keep her conscious, other to keep for her dying of shock," wq said as she began dosing the IV.

"I thought truth serum was a myth?" lz asked as he watched the slow drip— drip— drip— of the IV. "Should her arm be strapped back up?"

"In a moment," wq replied as she squeezed another drug into the IV. "The numbing agent will last a bit longer and it's more effective to let the

drugs into her system this way."

"Mn..." lwj hummed as he continued to watch, eyes averted from yzy's spitting and hissing, keeping a careful distance from her. She hadn't actually spit at him yet, but he wasn't discounting the possibility.

"True truth serum doesn't exist,"

wq explained as she injected a final dose of something directly into their guest, tugging down the fabric of her pants to stick the needle into the flesh of her ass.

yzy squawked indignantly, apparently drawing a line at being stripped. Too bad for her the plan for the night,

or even the next few days depending on how she fared, involved stripping her of more than just her clothing.

"However," the doctor explained as she stepped back and began disposing of the used needles into a small biohazard bin near the torture table her doctor habits breaking

through the odd situation, although perhaps her uncle had drummed these habits into her long before her career choice had, "there are enough drugs out there to lower your inhibitions and make a person's mind foggy. The difficulty," she added as she stripped off pale gloves lz had

only just noticed she was wearing and dumped them into the bin as well, "was finding the correct combination and dosage. My uncle experimented on many of his own patients to find the perfect dosage."

"I AM NOT A PATIENT!" yzy screeched again as wq reached into a small box and

pulled out another set of gloves, pushing a box of bigger gloves towards lwj.

"For safety," she said seriously as she snapped her gloves on. "God knows what diseases this woman is carrying."

The woman behind them growled and tugged at her bindings, her free arm giving the most

minute of twitches.

"The other problem," wq added as she turned back to yzy, eyes scanning over her still struggling form, although her movements appeared to be turning more sluggish and erratic as the second ticked on and the drugs began to seep through her organs, "is that the

drugs can skew a person's perception of what is real, especially if they have already been convincing themself of a lie. For instance-" wq cut off and stepped confidently towards their horrible guest, yzy's head lolling heavily forward before she attempted to pull back up.

wq stepped back around yzy, throwing two straps over her shoulders and quickly stepping back around. "You need to be careful of bites," she told lz as she pushed yzy's head back up and tugged the straps around her forehead to keep her head stationary. "The scar on my brother's

arm came from a particularly vicious and hard to drug woman."

"Was that was how they tied the crimes to your uncle?" lz asked, vague articles about how dental records and eye witness testimony from "additional victims of whr's abuse" had led to a conviction.

"Yes,"

wq said simply as she pulled on the bindings to test their strength. "yzy?" she asked, waiting for the woman to open her eyes to ask, "Did you abuse your adoptive son, wy?"

"Never," yzy slurred, like her tongue was too heavy, her mouth falling open as she blinked fucked out eyes

at them.

"She seems over drugged," lz noted as he watched his boyfriend's adoptive mother slowly lose control of her body. He wondered if she would lose control of her bowels and bladder, nose crinkling as he tried to not imagine the clean up and smell.

"She'll get over it,"

wq said sharply, unimpressed that her skills were being question, lz assumed. "yzy?" wq once again waited until the woman looked at her, a bleary half-glare. "Did you ever beat your adoptive son, wy?"

"Yes," the woman said, a smile tugging at her lips. "All the time."

"Why?"

"He deserved it."

"Why?"

yzy's eyebrows scrunched together in what appeared to be intense thought before she tried to shake her head. "Don't know. His mother? His- how he is?" yzy's head twitched in another attempted shake.

"The problem," wq said, turning away from her

victim to look at lz.

lz nodded slowly. "Her answers are contradictory and confused."

"Yup. She's convinced herself of a truth and her answers reflect that and-" she looked sharply at him "- if you push it too hard the contradictions she's been ignoring may trigger a

mental break."

lz didn't particularly care if the woman's mind broke apart, however he didn't want her so broken she wouldn't experience the consequences for her actions. "Advice?"

"Go slow," wq said, turning back to pull their guest's arm back up, securing the bindings again.

"My uncle once told us, 'Treat our guests like children. Would you be upset with a baby for not knowing themself? We are all fragments of humanity and dissecting someone to find out what makes they tick, where there are gaps and holes in their soul, is the true joy of our work.'"

lz blinked at his friend. She had likely been barely a child herself when she had been told those words, had them engraved into her mind by a sadistic man who enjoyed experimenting on the bodies and psyches of both his young relatives and any woman he could convince to follow his

beauty and charm. Even hearing the man's words through his abused and broken and impossibly strong niece lz couldn't help but imagine himself falling into that man's thrall. The man had a knack for dragging the most horrific and creative parts of humanity out of a person.

"Do you ever miss him?" he suddenly asked, morbidly curious as to how much his friend missed this being way she spent her weekends, covered in truth and lies and blood.

wq raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you really believe you want to know, lz? Do you really want to know what

horrors creep like an infestation of bugs through my heart? What kind of monster you have befriended? Trusted? Loved?"

A shudder of something knowing and obscene crackled up lz's spine as he stepped past his friend towards yzy, her eyes slowly becoming slightly clearer as

her body acclimated to the drugs sneaking through her veins, just as wq had said she would. "There are ways," he said quietly, peeking over his shoulder at the doctor, watching his with forcibly emotionless eyes, "for you to enjoy yourself, like this. If you really wanted to."

She blinked slowly at him, her fingers fiddling with a knife he hadn't seen her pick up. "Are you going to find me victims, lz? Are you going to accept that blood into your hands? That risk?"

lz turned away again, eyes returning to the atrocious bundle of flesh and hatred tied

up before him. "There are always people," he said, a blade of anger sliding through his voice, "who deserve to die horrible, cruel and painful deaths, who will only be missed by other people who deserve to die, who deserve to suffer"

"jyl deserves to die?" wq asked curiously,

beginning to tap her knife against the metal edge of the torture table in a odd, syncopated rhythm that rippled through lz's body like a song of death. Ugly and beautiful all at once, unexpected and yet unescapable. A melody that no one could escape, not matte how hard or fast

they ran.

"No!" yzy cried, eyes flying wide with shock. "She's done nothing wrong!"

"No?" lz asked, tilting his hand at the older woman. "When did your daughter find out her brother had killed himself?"

"Immediately," their guest snapped, eyes instantly filling with regret.

"It was-" the woman cut off, eyes turning up to the flickering light the hung above the table of medical and torture instruments behind wq, her large, drugged out pupils struggling to close as she seemingly tried to burn the words her body was trying to force out of her out

of her.

"What was it?" lz asked, watching her attempts at silence curiously. Realistically, her silence was enough to condemn her daughter, the unspoken words filling a gaping expanse that screamed 'she is as guilty as I am' even if lz never managed to drag the words from

her restraint.

The woman continued to stare at the light, her lips pressing together in a physical force of will to stay quiet. She was silent for a long moment before the light began flickering from side to side behind lz, likely wq's doing, and words bubbled unbidden from

her mouth. "It was her idea."

The world around lz froze, icy emptiness overtaking the anger he felt at the woman in front of him. "What was her idea?" he asked slowly, his brain too cold and motionless to even run through the possible things his boyfriend's adoptive mother

could mean.

"To tell him that..." yzy said, blinking rapidly as tears began filling her eyes, still erratically trying to follow the swaying light.

"To tell wy that his brother killed himself?" wq piped up from behind him, apparently deciding that despite their agreement that

lz would do the majority of the interrogation he was in no position to do so until his brain started back up and he could feel anything other than shock.

He didn't like jyl, that wasn't a secret, but he had always seen her as a victim of her mother's violence as well,

simpering to protect herself at the expense of her adoptive brother. To think her an active participant in the abuse, to be volunteering ideas on how to hurt her brother more...

"Yes," yzy swallowed out, her eyes momentarily clenching closed as she attempted to right herself

under the strain of the situation and the toxic drugs raging through her.

"Was it also her idea to blame wy for his supposed suicide?" the doctor asked, one of her gloved hands landing at the base of lz's back and startling him back into breathing, the world swaying around him

as he sucked in a breath he hadn't realizing he was holding. Air burned through his lungs and muscles and brain, the words of the two women cracking through him as he hauled in lungfuls of air.

"Yes."

"Did you want her to?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"In case the truth came out."

yzy sucked in a deep breath, letting it out almost painfully slow. "Stupid."

"Your daughter?"

The woman remained silent, once again trying to keep her mouth shut through force of will, breathing in long, almost meditative breaths.

"Corporate retreats," lz said suddenly,

meeting wq's eyes when she glanced back at him as he added, "wy once mentioned that the Jiangs put on corporate retreats. They often included yoga and meditation. I commented once that it didn't seem like something she would be into." He nodded towards their guest, her breathing

shockingly even now that she was focusing, as much as someone who had been kidnapped, tied up and drugged could. "wy said she was actually a fan of meditation and often used it to regulate stress."

wq huffed. "Yeah, she's got a lot of stress, I imagine. Family, business,

keeping lies about how she's not abusing someone straight in her head." wq turned back to yzy, clicking her tongue. "So, she's trying to use that to manage the drugs and stress now. Smart... and annoying."

"Can you stop her?"

wq turned to smile cruelly at him. "Oh yeah,

I can stop her. I could drug her a bit more, but that could mess up her mind and then we'd have to wait until the drugs were out of her system to do more to her." wq hummed for a moment before stepping forward and raising the scalpel she was still fiddling with to yzy's face.

"Best option, I think, even if it's gonna fuck with our schedule a bit, is to start the next part a bit early. Only the best yogi's in the world could possibly ignore this kind of pain." wq shot him a grin over her shoulder, her black hair, pulled back into a low bun to keep it

out of the way rubbing over her other shoulder as her head twisted so far as to be almost nauseating.

yzy's breathing stuttered slightly as wq pressed the blade to the edge of her hairline, the cold, harsh steel digging into her skin, before she resumed her breathing exercise.

A/N: blood, slowly beginning more torture

Spoiler: yzy is about to get flayed over the course of the next bunch of updates. I honestly don't know how many though. Anyways, proceed with caution 🫡

~

In 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6...
Hold 1... 2... 3...
Out 1... 2... 3... 4... 5—

To her dubious credit, yzy did not scream when wq pierced her skin with the blade, the knife sliding in a short, shallow line across a portion of her face, perhaps an inch wide. No, the woman

simply gasped and tried to restrain herself, lips quivering as she continued her breathing. lz had to admit, her concentration was impressive. The small cut likely hadn't hurt that much, but to almost completely ignore it, under mind altering drugs no less, was quite impressive.

Too bad she had simply used it for stress relief and it anger management. Perhaps if she had kept her fists and words to herself she wouldn't be in this predicament.

"You have to make small, swallow cuts," wq told him seriously, motioning for him to step forward to watch

her lesson. "You only want to go through the skin, not the muscle. Often, you start with the face, as it is the least likely to make a person pass out, but still extremely painful. Of course, with all the drugs running through her system it is unlikely that she will be able

to go into either shock or pass out no matter where we started." wq shot him a look, a small smile pulling at her lips. "It is also traditional to start with the face."

wq adjusted her blade, pressing it to the edge of the cut she had made a moment earlier, a small amount of

blood leaking down the side of yzy's face to her chin, reminding lz of a child who had made a mess while eating some red fruit or another. wq hummed for a moment, considering, before turning back to lz. "Do you want to try for big pieces? Takes more skill."

lz raised on eyebrow

at his friend. Her expression reminded him of an overachieving student, intent on showing off their skills. "What will you do with the skin?" he asked, eyes shifting to yzy when her eyebrows scrunched together slightly. Apparently, although she was meditating quite well, she was

unable to block out their conversation. Part of torture, perhaps the most effective and terrifying part, he thought, as he opened his mouth to ask, "What did your uncle do with the skin he peeled off of his women?", was the psychological part.

yzy's eyes popped open in horror.

"You- no..." she said, returning to her attempts at gaining freedom, even if she must know it was lost cause, the straps of her binding pulling, likely painfully, into her skin. "You're insane you- what are you doing!?" the woman screeched when wq reached out to pull her eyelids

further open and peer into her eyes.

"Hm... she's more lucid than expected," wq said, more to herself than lz. She turned back to her drugs, preparing several more needles of the drugs and injecting them into the IV, ignoring yzy's screaming as though she couldn't even hear it.

"Some people are harder to drug than others." She shot lz a smile, adding in a half-academic, half-disturbing tone, "Some people are practically impossible to drug. My uncle love those ones. He had to find new and horrible ways to get the information he wanted out of them."

lz had heard, many years ago, that wrh had claimed he was trying to get important information from the women he tortured, although he had never revealed exactly what it was that he wanted to learn. He had never asked the Wen siblings about it, although perhaps now wq would–

"What did he want to learn?" he found himself asking, curiosity overflowing into the odd circumstances. If you could share in murder with someone, it seemed to him that you could share most everything else as well.

"This and that~" the doctor teased, her voice a singsong that

neither suited her or the atmosphere, although perhaps he were wrong. Perhaps here, in this room, where dozens, if not hundreds, of women had died at the hands of wrh and his family, many likely by wq's hands, was where wq was finally able to feel like herself again, like the

cheerful child he had known, so many years ago. Like the woman he caught glimpses of, in the brief moments where she was able to relax and let go of whatever pain and destruction hide inside her.

"My uncle wanted to know what they had done," wq said suddenly, long after lz had

accepted that she was going to remain silent on the matter. "What evils they had committed, what good they had done. He kept detailed records," she said, tilting her head towards an ancient, rusty filing cabinet on the edge of the room, "of all the things he learned about those

women: what made them tick, what made their brains and bodies different." She smiled at him, a ghostly mask of acceptance and perhaps even awe. "Why do you think he was such a good therapist? He studied people, every way he could, to learn how to fix them, and how to break them."

wq looked back to yzy, her struggling once again waning under the oppressive drugs. "Just like how I'm going to break you, no matter how hard you fight. No matter what tricks you pull out of your soul. I will break you. Resisting will only prolong your torture, and, believe me,

I will enjoy every moment of it, even if you take days to die. I will enjoy it, immensely." She raised her knife back up, pressing it to the edge of her previous cut, sliding it softly into the thin skin before pulling it up into another inch long arch.

On and on she went,

yzy mumbling broken threats and bribes between her whimpering moans. Slowly, the little arches of red along the woman's hairline formed into a long arch, stretching from one edge of the strap holding her head stationary to the other, which was high enough to leave her

eyes visible but her eyebrows hidden under it. "Hmm..." the doctor hummed. "Nah~ screw a single piece, you're too unpredictable and hostile."

The was all the warning lz or yzy received before wq was pulling the blade along the long, upper edge of the strap, turning the bloody

arch into a crimson half-moon. "This is the hard part," wq told him academically as she slipped the edge of the scalpel under part of the gruesome half-moon, moving it in an almost sawing motion while yzy screamed, her arms and legs tensing in her bindings. "The skin should pull

away easily, but it requires a bit of delicacy, and a gentle start. Don't want to pull the muscle away, just the skin, to leave the nerves exposed and cause more pain to your patient."

"No, no, no," yzy mumbled quietly as wq put the scalpel down and picked up a pair of tweezers.

lz had thought he was prepared for the blood and gore and screaming that would be involved in torturing his boyfriend's pathetic excuse for an adoptive mother. wq had told him what to expect, but words were mere bubbles of reality, cute and delicate pops of colour that could

never compare to actually witnessing wq meticulously flay her patient. wq pulled the skin of yzy's forehead away from her head, leaving behind a grotesque view of the muscles that were so often screwed up in anger and frustration, and lz felt his stomach violently roll over.

He swallowed and refused to look away. He knew he could, knew he could walk out the door and leave wq to her work, to her playtime. She would never judge him for not being able to stomach this brutality, no matter how much he knew the monstrous woman deserved it, but he could not

leave them. This was, in the end, his doing and if he left he would always wonder: what had his decision to kill this woman resulted in? What horrors had his friend inflicted on her at his bidding? He could not let such a void of knowledge haunt him.

"You okay?" the doctor asked

as she dropped the thin, half-moon of skin into the odd cabinet next to the table.

He had wonder what it was for, the strange, tall piece of furniture. It was probably almost 5 feet tall and nearly 4 feet long and at least 3 feet deep, with perhaps 50 rows of shallow drawers.

Some of the drawers spanned the whole 4 feet, while others were smaller, allowing for up to four separate drawers in some of the rows. wq gently lay the skin into one of the drawers, moving long arms that were connected to the edges of the drawer to cover the edge of the skin.

She fiddled with the arms for a moment, lowering them down to press into the skin and hold it taut and he realized what it was for, another roll of nausea swirling through his stomach: holding and drying the flesh of her victims, and of her uncle's victims so many years ago.

"What are– what are you going to do with that?" lz asked about the veritable serial killer behaviour.

"Oh~ this and that," wq replied as she turned back to him, raising an eyebrow at his as she added, "I'm sure that whatever horrible things you're going to be imagining won't

even graze the surface for the things we've done with their bodies."

lz's heart squeezed violently in his chest, a rain of fear and a twinge of regret falling through him as he wondered what, exactly, he had unleashed onto the world. Had his anger and hatred for yzy led him to

free a monster from it's cage?

"Only people who deserve it," he said sternly, explaining when wq tilted her head in confusion at him, "You are only allowed to do this to people who deserve it."

wq blinked at him before bursting into laughter while yzy moaned out behind him.

"What did I do?" she asked in a sandpaper rough voice that grated against his tender heart. "I didn't do anything to deserve this!"

lz's face dropped as he turned back to her, eyes hard as steel as he looked over her grotesque form. The bloody mess of muscles in her forehead

twitching as the air rubbed painfully against it; yzy looked about ready to bit a hole through her lip as she tried and failed to bring her ragged breathing under control.

"June 17th, 2003."

yzy's lungs froze and the world stalled around them. wq's laughter ceased, the seconds

ticked on, and lz felt the sparks of doubt he had had that nhs's information had been inaccurate, or outright lies, fizzle out of existence.

"Tell me," lz asked, stepping towards the abomination of a woman laid out before him like a disgusting, fattening meal of hatred and rage

and malice, "was he supposed to die too? Were they all supposed to die that day?"

A laughter bubbled up out of yzy's mouth, blood from her destroyed lip splattering out of her mouth as she glared up at him. "Yes," she said weakly, voice trembling and nose scrunching as though

unsure of why she had admitted it before more words, more confessions already spewing from her mouth. "They were all supposed to die that day. It's too bad I missed one. Should have killed him once I got him." yzy broke out into malicious laughter, a fitting state for a woman who

was quite obviously deranged.

"Who'd she kill?" wq asked as she popped up beside lz, leaning her head against his shoulder for a moment before looking up at him.

He blinked down at his friend, blearily contemplating how such a tiny woman could be so terrifying. Despite asking

for her help he hadn't told her of the exact details of the information he had gotten from nhs, the information that had set him on a path not just for her death but also her prolonged suffering. He had wanted to keep her objective, to be able to give her opinion on–

"You think she's tell the truth?" he asked over their guest's crazed laughter.

"Oh yeah," wq said, shaking her head. "This kind of reaction–" she waved to the woman and her clearly deteriorating mental state "–only happens if someone has been denying the truth of something for a

long, long time."

lz nodded, the last knot of uncertainty loosening and falling away into the abyss of the night.

"So," wq asked again, "who'd she kill?"

"On June 17th, 2003, she hired someone to track down a couple on the streets of Yiling and mug them, with instructions to

kill them in the process."

Beside him wq's entire body lit up in tense, fiery anger. "Did she now?" she asked, voice a line of rage through the cold room.

"Mn," lz hummed mildly. "She paid over a million dollars for someone to kill wy's parents, and apparently him as well."

"Who- who would have thought," yzy muttered between her laughs, "that that piece of shit man would be have been able to kill the man I'd hired." She looked up at him, some kind of acceptance in her eyes. Knowledge, that she was dead, no matter whaat she said or did and was

trying to–

She smiled up at him, her mouth a disgusting mess of blood and spit. "Did you know your uncle was fucking them? Before that brat came along?" She broke off into a cough, more blood splattering across the floor and forcing lz and wq to step out of range.

"Fengmian, that pathetic excuse for a man, wanted to be your uncle," she continued once her breathing had evened out. She peeked back up at him, all knowledge and acceptance and malice as she added, "It's too bad Xue Yang killed him. If he were still alive maybe I could have

gotten out of here by telling you that he had considered having your uncle killed at one point too."

"Everyone in your family is a monster, huh?" wq said, smiling innocently up at lz when he raised on eyebrow at her. "Hey, at least we knew we were monsters," she commented

mildly, shrugging slightly. "Suppose it's a good thing we're going to wipe you from the earth."

yzy blinked up at them. "Leave A-Li out of this."

"Why should we?" lz asked darkly, rage rumbling through him at the mention of his boyfriend's dear, beloved, abusive sister.

"From what you've said, she is just as much a monster as the rest of you are."

"Because- because–" the woman broke off, eyes clenching closed as she tried to rack her brain for a way to save her remaining child, the last person on this earth who would love and mourn her.

lz grimaced slightly as the exposed muscles on her forehead shifting and dancing across her face. Distrusting and fitting that, in the last moments of her life, the woman was finally being forced to reveal the thoughts and feeling and twitches that crawled under her skin.

"My fault," she finally swallowed out. "It's my fault she ended up this way. Take out- take out your anger at her on me, then take him away. Take wy away from her." Her eyes flittered back open, empty and yet somehow desperate, the pupils blown out in pain and suffering.

lz thought about it. What she said was true. It was her fault that her children had ended up the broken, abusive people they had. She was the one primarily responsible for creating an environment where such behaviour was not only accepted but encouraged. And yet...

"She is

an adult," he said, beginning to walk slow circles around the cruel, and yet somehow still loving, woman. "She has had the chance to make herself a better person, and yet–" he reached up and tugged on the straps holding yzy's arms still, pulling them even more harshly into

her skin, making her gasp through gritted teeth. "And yet," he continued as he moved to the next strap and the next, wondering how tight he would have to make them for the blood to cut off and the flesh begin to rot and die, to stink and fester and send a thousand horrible things

spreading through her anger and hatred filled body. He pulled the third strap, the one over her right bicep, tighter and tighter and tighter, only stopping when he could not tighten it further, the material burning against his palm from pulling it so taut that the fat around it

bulged grotesquely. "And yet, it seems as though your daughter has become an even worse person over the years."

"She'll get better," yzy practically whined, blinking back tears from the pain no doubt radiating up her shoulder, somehow worse than even her stripped away skin was.

"With-without me around," she said, sniffing as her nose began to run, snot dribbling down her face and making her all the more pathetic. "Without me, she'll get better. Please, please... just give her– give her another chance."

lz tossed it around in his head. It was possible

that, without the influence of her mother, the young woman would be able to find happiness, empathy and a decent personality. It was equally possible that, given the loss of her entire family, she would fall even deeper into a pit of blame and rage, all directed at her

adoptive brother. "Six months," he said, blinking coldly at the woman. "I will give jyl six months to become this 'better person.' If she has not managed by then, if she is still causing wy stress and harm and spreading your hatred then I will remove her from his life."

yzy breathed a sad, whimpering sigh, an almost laughing flowing through the air before lz continued, and her lungs freezing with icy fear.

"However," lz added, turning and accepting the blade from wq, shifting it in his gloved hand experimentally, getting a feel for how the cold

metal felt and shifted in his hand, "if she even so much as breaths a whisper of an allegation that wy was responsible for the death of anyone of you three... to him," lz turned back to her, eyes sharp as the scalpel in his hand, "to anyone else... I will kill her, in an even

worse way than we are going to kill you."

yzy watched him with wide, fearful eyes and he knew he had won, knew he had hit the nail on the head. jyl might become a better person, eventually, but it was likely to take years of growing and therapy to do so. She might even choose to

cut her adoptive brother out of her life of her own free will, but such a decision would be based on her blaming him for what had happened to her family, for spreading blame to a victim who was never actively involved in the destruction of the Jiang family.

"No," she muttered,

trying to shake her head before releasing a sob as the skin on her forehead pulled against the exposed muscles of her face. "You can't."

"I can," lz said simply, motioning for wq to come closer, "and I will. I will do anything to protect wy from the nightmare that is

your family."

"As if yours is any better," his boyfriend's adoptive mother spit out between sobs. "Either of yours. We're all monsters here," she snarled, baring bloody teeth at her two captors, her tear stained cheeks pulling into wrinkles that she would soon be rid of.

"Perhaps," wq said, a twinkle of laughter in her voice, "but thankfully, we're not the one tied up at the moment." She glanced away from yzy to lz, a small frown flashing on her face. "Why are you gonna kill jyl worse than this bitch though?"

"Because wy loves her,"

lz said simply, smiling when wq hummed in understanding even as yzy hissed more threats and insults at them.

"The fuck does that mean, you little shit?" yzy asked, her anger flying wildly around them as the pain and fear and drugs mashed together insider her. "Shouldn't that

mean you'll let her live? So you don't hurt your precious wy?"

"Every day that she is alive your daughter hurts wy," he said darkly, stepping forward to begin dragging the blade along the edge of the woman's jaw.

"A little gentler," wq said as she leaned in to check his work.

The doctor laughed slightly. "Pretty good though. Guess you're a natural at this as much as basically everything else."

lz hummed noncommittally as he removed the blade and shook his arm out, trying to get the muscles that had contracted into tight balls of frustration to relax.

"You can't do gentle work unless you're relaxed, Zhanzhan~" his mother's voice cooed at a smaller version of him. She smiled warmly at him as she guided his hands in trimming the flower stems to make an arrangement. "You need to be patient, my sweet little boy. Nothing beautiful

or worthy of your effort will come quickly, my little love."

"This," he thought as he breathed a deep breath and willed his muscles to unfold within him, the little knots of tension to shift back into gentle existence. "This will be worth it. Regardless of what comes. This,

removing this woman from the world, will be worth it."

He lifted his arm again, pressing the scalpel more gently into the woman's skin. It sliced through her skin with only the barest of pulls, the sharp blade sliding easily through the thin skin. Once, near the tip of her chin,

the blade shifted a bit too deep, bumping against her jaw bone and making her groan, her jaw flexing in an attempt to get away from lz's cuts.

"Start again on the other side," wq said as she inspected the wound. "We'll leave this bit for last, cut it away while we pull."

(A/N: starting the more gory part 🫡

General warning for more gore, blood, pain, torture etc etc)

Blood leaked down yzy's face as lz cut, dragging the blade down the opposite side of her face.

Press into the flesh at the bottom of her temple, just below where the strap cuts

into her forehead.

Drag the blade down. Gentle. Easier to cut again than deal with muscle coming loose.

Reach the jaw bone and pivot. Remember, short cuts.

Press and slice. Pull back.

Press and cut. Pull the blade out.

Along her jaw. Watch the bump this time.

"She is noisy," lz noted as he lifted the blade away from the tip of her chin, his nose crinkling at the amount of noise the woman was making. It was going to give him a headache. He paused for a moment, inspecting his work. He had done better this time, the crimson line he had

left behind a nearly perfect cut.

wq laughed lightly, rolling her eyes at him as she planted her hands on her hips. "Of course she's noisy, that's part of the whole, you know, torture part?" She twisted, stepping back towards the table of instruments and medications.

"We can chat her up a bit though, if you like."

lz blinked away from where he had been contemplating how to cut the next line into yzy's miserable face to look at the doctor. "How?"

wq hummed, looking through the items on the table. "Couple options. We could freeze her

vocal cords, although that would mean if you remember you have something else to ask her later we'll have to wait for it to wear off..."

His friend pulled a drawer open, pushing through the items inside it which,

(A/N: mentions of gags, many of which are sexual in nature)

upon stepping closer to take a better look, lz could see were a collection of gags, varying from ball gags to ring gags to what, after doing a double take, appeared to be a penis gag. He squinted at them for a moment before his eyes shifted back to their guest and the odd metal

rings that were attached to either side of the head rest. Rings to attach gags to, he realized as wq pulled a few of the gags out of the drawer.

"Gagging her might be best, for a couple reasons," she said, her voice a near whisper as she shifted the gags in her hands. "For one,

it'll make it so she can't bite her tongue off and bleed out. She may not have tried yet, but she's drugged as fuck, eventually she might think of it. For another, if we want to get all the skin on her face we'll need to remove that forehead strap eventually."

"Which one?" he asked, eyeing up the gags in wq's hands.

"Depends," she said, waving the items are her. "You want her drooling? Gagging? Embarrassed because her last moments are gonna be sucking a plastic cock?"

lz glanced away, hot heat lighting up his ear. "Sure," he said,

why not make the woman's last moments in this world both as mortifying and painful as possible, even if the idea of using a penis gag on her was rather... cringy. "We need to finish this first, yes?" he asked, instead of dwelling on the gag.

"Yup!" wq practically cheered.

"Not sure how to do it?" she asked, setting the gags down as she stepped forward to guide lz through the remaining cuts. "This skin here," she said, pointing to the skin under yzy's eyes, "is really delicate and thin, especially the older you get. It can come off pretty easily,

but cutting it risks hitting the eye, so for a beginner it's easier to just leave it be."

lz hummed as he brought the blade back up, starting back at the corner of yzy's temple and making short slices into her skin.

Around the eye. Not too close.

Gentle over the bridge of the nose.

Start again at the other side.

"And, now you pull," wq said, reaching out to guide lz's hand in slicing under the skin enough to get a good hold on it. She let her hands drop, stepping back to let lz do the nauseating, fascinating job of

pulling the lower half of yzy's face away. "Just like that. You'll need the knife again there, yeah, just cut that bit of muscle."

lz wrinkled up his nose as the skin came fully free into his hand, wet and thin and delicate. He turned, momentarily avoiding looking at the result,

and offered it to his friend who dutifully took it and set it into her skin morbid skin drying contraption.

"And, with that, your flaying virginity is gone!" wq snickered quietly as she turned and grabbed the penis gag. "You wanna help?" she asked as she stepped forward,

her tone already implying that she knew lz would refuse. She slipped one side of gag's strap through its ring, loosely securing it before letting it hang as she grabbed another tool. "To force her mouth open," wq explained, eyeing up the way their guest had firmly clamped her

mouth shut, or had tired to. Every ten seconds or so her eyes would flutter, like a blast of dizziness from the pain or drugs was crackling through her, and her mouth would gape for a second or two before she was blinking back into a more solid existence and clamping it

closed again.

wq waited for yzy's mouth to gape before forcing the tool into her mouth and squeezing the handle to force her mouth open. The woman struggled, a series of choking, moaning noises leaving her mouth as wq forced the penis gag into her mouth and pulled the tool free.

The doctor quickly pulled the other side of the strap through the metal ring, adjusting each side until they were taut, summarily ignoring the way yzy screamed, as much as one could when they had a gag forced into their mouth. Around the straps, the exposed muscles of her face

spasmed, her jaw trying to stretch open further although she could somehow spit the gag out and blood dripped down to her chin, falling in a hypnotic rhythm.

Drip.

"Well," wq was saying, her voice oddly muffled in lz's ears, like he had been pulled under the water by his

brother during their visits to the Nie summer home, like he was a child being dragged into a game he did not wish to be part of, a suddenly unwilling participant in this game of torture, wq unlatching the strap across yzy's forehead, voice casual as she continued, "we cut do this

part now. Then we can move on to another limb."

Drip.

"Do you want to or should I–"

"You may do it," he said, eyes absently following the next drop of blood. It hit the floor, a tiny puddle forming, little spattering drops bursting out of the puddle as each drop landed to form

(A/N: vomit)

more puddles, more death, more dying, more pain, more–

"Hey, if you're gonna hurl, there's a bathroom over there," wq said sternly, pointing to a door on the far side of the room. "If you do it here she'll get an infection pretty fucking fast."

"Okay," lz said

before beelining for the bathroom, suddenly aware of the heavy gurgle of guilt and pain and blood in his stomach, churning and rolling and then he was pushing the door open and barely making it to the disgusting, rusted toilet and emptying his stomach into the dirty bowl.

lz's eyes squeezed closed as he heaved, the memory of yzy's muscles and blood and skin being pulling away as he stomach clenched and emptied. The sound of skin being torn off of muscles, the splatter of blood across a floor covered in the blood of hundreds of nameless women

swirling through his mind as he pressed the flusher, evidence of his weakness swirling away into the depths of the sewers as his brain continued to swirl in a tsunami of thoughts and emotions and disgust.

He twisted, plopping down onto the toilet seat, unconcerned with getting

his clothing dirty. It wasn't like the clothes weren't going to be sent up in flames, evidence of his sins burned away, perhaps along with–

The long, shuddering breaths that lz had been sucking in, trying to calm himself, broke off abruptly into what was, for him at least,

deranged laughter. Giggles burbled out of him, erratic and uncontrollable as he pressed his palms to his eyes, his mouth burning of acid and hatred and torture and–

"What's so funny?" wq asked, leaning against the doorframe as she watched him. She raised an eyebrow at him when

he looked up at her. She was beautiful, in a horrible sort of way. Classic Wen features that were pulled into strictness and sarcasm. A scary, beautiful murderer that lz loved and would do anything for, just like he knew she would for him. A scary, beautiful friend, who happened

to enjoy skinning and murdering people.

Another laugh bubbled out of him before he was shaking his head, willing his body to behave through sheer force of will and pushing himself up. He nodded in thanks as the doctor handed him a bottle of water to rinse his mouth. "I do not

like this, and yet I want it to happen. No. I need it to happen."

"Contradicting thoughts sending you into fits of giggles now?" wq asked, her tone somewhere between concerned and amused at his mismatched feelings. "Rinse," she ordered him, waiting until he had rinsed again and

again to peek into his eyes, the little flashlight she pulled out of her pocket going side side up down up as she looked for something.

"No," he said as she clicked the light off. "The fact that I hate it and yet still have more ideas for torturing her was making me laugh."

wq watched him for a moment more before huffing and turning back towards the other room. "The human brain is quite something, isn't it? It can make you vomit from disgust one minute and then imagine something worse, something better in the next."

"Do you ever feel disgust?"

lz couldn't help but ask, curiosity at his friend's psyche rattling through him as he watched his friend's back, tall and straight, confident and deadly.

wq peeked back at him, quirking an eyebrow as she smiled. "Every single time."

"Then why–"

"Why do I keep doing it? Why do

I keep going?" she finished for him, looking away again. She flexed her hands, her fingers curling into tight little fists before flexing out into malicious stars of tension. "If you tried to stop yourself from killing yzy, could you?" she asked quietly, her words still managing

to echo quietly through the tiny, hellhole of a bathroom. "Could you stop your brain from thinking about killing her, now that the thought has taken hold? Or, if you ignored it, would it haunt you forever?"

lz didn't even have to think before the words were slipping out of

his mouth, "They would haunt me forever."

She twisted around to look at him again, her hands clasped behind her back like a tiny, vicious child as she walked backwards into the torture chamber. Had he done this as a child as well, he wondered. Had she been as cute and deadly for

uncle as she was now? Had he been the one to encourage to behaviour? Perhaps to unnerve the women he brought here, the women who's lives and souls he stole?

"Even more than a decade on," wq sighed, her voice melancholic and amused, "the ones who got away still haunt me.

Everyday. I cannot escape their spectres and I never want to add another phantom ghost to the pile of people I did not manage to kill." She stopped, glancing back toward yzy for a moment before returning her eyes to him. "So? What's was the idea your brain foisted upon you?"

~

Cut after cut after cut they made. Long slits that stretched from yzy's wrists to her shoulder. Cuts that circled around wrist bones and fingers and triceps. Skin pulled away and leaving the woman with a tank top of flesh, her arms a bright, stunning red of ribbed muscles

and tendons.

"The stomach is the worst," wq had said as they skipped over their victim's torso in favour of stripping her legs of skin. First the calves and shins, then the thighs, each long stretch of skin diligently tucked away into the drying racks. "It's too easy to cut a

bit too deep, they you get the smell of piss and shit running through the air. Plus, your patient will become septic and die faster."

lz had hummed in response, kneeling down to adjust the straps on her leg so they could more easily reach the thick, fattier part of her calf.

"Why has she not relieved herself?" he had asked, his nose scrunching up as he unwrapped the woman's leg.

"Gave her some drugs to stop it," wq had said, shrugging from the stool where she sat, sipping leisurely at a coffee while she watched lz work. She had offered to take over,

following his bathroom visit, but the idea of leaving her completely responsible for destroying the woman had felt unfair, even if he knew wq would enjoy it. Not that he thought she wasn't enjoy watching him work.

"We're lucky," wq had muttered as she accepted the slab of flesh

from him. "Sometimes those meds don't work to stop the person from pissing and shitting. Then it's just a mess and more work." She had laughed, at the face he made, a ringing sound that flowed through the room, a hollow reminder of the sunshine laughter of the man he loved.

lz missed him, his heart ached and stretched out towards the other man. Was he having fun? Was nhs taking good care of him? Had jyl contacted him, asking if he had heard from their beloved mother? Would his first conversation with wy be filling with silently plans for killing his

boyfriend's toxic, manipulative big sister?

"Guess that's it for the limbs," wq said as she accepted another slab of thigh from lz.

He blinked absently up at her, already turning to her drying rack, the skin slapping wetly into the contraption as she adjusted the arms to hold

it flat. When had he gotten so far along into stripping her of her skin? When had making tiny, light cuts into her aging, decaying skin become so meditative that it had stolen time from him?

His eyes shifted up to the last of her limbs, the arm that he had tightened the

straps around. The skin had long since turned purple with stagnant, rotting blood, and they had chosen to leave the skin intact, to see how grotesque the limb would become as they cut away the rest of her. Eventually, they would release the bindings and send a torrent of clotted,

poisonous blood plummeting through her system. At least, that had been their original plan, if a strap pulled taut in the spur of the moment could be considered a plan. Now wild thoughts burned through his brain of all the horrid, painful things they could inflict on the woman

(A/N: mention of wy's self-harm cutting)

before her inevitable death. More pain to soothe the ache that cracked through lz's heart when he thought of wy, bruised and broken and slicing into his legs to stymie the pain inflicted on his by the people who were supposed to

protect him. Who were supposed to love him. More pain to send with the woman into her next life. Perhaps she would be a better person, a better more loving mother there. Or, perhaps the universe had learned its lesson and would never allow her the joy of children again.

"What's next?" he asked as he pushed himself up to standing. For the briefest of seconds he met yzy's eyes, blurry and barely conscious anymore. If not for the soft moans that sill occasionally left her mouth, the flinches that echoed through her fingers when the knife touched

her again, lz would have assumed she had checked out, her mind fleeing into a dark, painless place where death could silently wrap itself around her. The pain, however, combined with the drugs wq administered every once in a while, seemed to have made doing so impossible.

"Depends," wq sighed, turning heavy, curious eyes back to their victim. "We could flay the rest of her, or release that binding and let her blood fuck its way back through her system, or–" she turned a malicious, heartbreaking smile back at him, her eyes pressed over with a haze

of crazy that made lz's back pull a little straighter "–I've always wanted to see someone bur–" The doctor cut off, eyes narrowing at yzy for a moment before she shook her head out. "Killed in that way your lovely little brain thought of. Don't want to spoil the surprise for

our patient."

yzy mumbled something around her gag, drool sliding down around it to her chin. It hung there for a moment before plopping down onto the ground to mix with the blood and sweat and tears already pooling there.

"Mn..." lz hummed, shifting uneasily. "We must choose?"

"I mean... we don't have to, but there's a pretty good chance releasing her arm is going to cause crush syndrome. See how her muscles are swelling? Pretty good sign that there's a build up of shit in that arm from muscle death, might not be enough to kill her outright,

since it's just a strap and it hasn't been there that long but..." wq shrugged as she trailed off, eyes staring into the middle distance as though searching for some thought or memory that was sampling through the nerves of her brain. After a moment she blinked back to life,

her eyes regaining the laser sharp focus they usually had as she added, "Once we start cutting into her torso it's more likely she'll die, even with all those drugs running through her system, it's just... more traumatic to strip flesh that's closer to her organs away."

The doctor broke off, rolling her shoulders, pressing her elbow over her mouth to yawn into it. "Plus," she mouthed around her yawn, "if we want to get the skin on her back we'll have to deal with moving her around and, well, not so easy with her arm."

wq fiddled idly with a

metal bar that lz had been unable to determine the use of, it looked heavy though, and whenever his friend set it down it clanged loudly against the metal torture table, sending a shudder through yzy while a small, knowing look would pass through his friend's eyes. At this point,

it felt as though all of this were staged, as though he were an actor in the midst of a play that he knew only the basics about and yet fit perfectly into. wq knew exactly what to do, exactly how to direct the scene and he had to force down thoughts of how she knew, of whether

she were copying what her uncle had done, directing his small relatives into torturing women, or if all of this were her: if this was how she alone wanted this scene to play out.

"Do you have a plan?" he asked quietly, shifting towards her to drop his scalpel onto the table.

"A bit," wq said, clanging her metal bar against the table and dragging a flinch out of his boyfriend's mother, who moaned as her straps and the air itself bit into her exposed muscles and nerves. "There's a room, but I've never actually used it." She shot him a smile as she

pushed herself up. "I'll go test it out though, just in case. Don't want anyone calling the cops on us if the system isn't working anymore."

"Mn..." lz hummed, blinking absently into space.

"Sleepy?" wq asked, as she pressed her elbow to her mouth to cover another yawn.

"Don't worry, we'll be done soon. Plus, not like we're gonna have much to deal with once she's dead anyways." The doctor twisted in a circle, her coat floating out around her like a child's dress might, her hair whipping around her. "That!" she declared, stopping to peek up at

yzy, whose eyes were clamped shut in pain or avoidance or because of the drugs coursing through her. His friend reached up pressing a cruel hand directly to the woman's forehead and dragging a muffled scream out of her, her eyes flying wide in something between pain and rage.

"That," wq continued over yzy's soft screams, "it the best thing about the little plan your brain concocted." She smiled back at him, lazily dragging her gloved nails through the other woman's muscles and completely ignoring the way her limbs flexed in renewed attempts to escape.

Or perhaps in an attempt to die faster: raise the pain, the pressure the tearing high enough to override the drugs wq had forced into her and die, pass out, leave this world and its pain behind.

wq, however, clearly had other plans. She shifted cold, accessing eyes back to yzy,

humming a quiet melody that sent a shudder up lz's back for how beautiful it was in the horror of the moment, before hopping back over to the torture table and grabbing a few more needles of drugs to dose her with. "Sorry," she said, tone faux-cheerful as she pressed the drugs

into their victim's IV, "not quite time for you to die yet." She stepped back, throwing both the needle and her dirty gloves into a biohazard bin before saying to lz, "I'll be back in a bit. Try not to snap and off her while I'm gone."

lz stared sleepily at her before rolling

his shoulders and neck, the bones cracking and popping inside him. "Too much work," he said, lips twitching when his friend laughed as she left the room, the door slamming behind her as she disappeared and then lz and yzy were alone.

He tilted his head back, staring at the

depressing ceiling of the torture room. Cobwebs and grime covered it, along with splatters of blood from a decade or more ago. Secret. Secluded. Private. Those were the words wq had used to describe the building her uncle had built for torturing the women whose lives he stole,

for making monsters out of his young relatives. For over a decade investigators and internet sleuths had searched for this place. As much as wrh had been found guilty of so many gruesome murders and assaults, there were still so many he was simply suspected of having committed.

Investigators had offered money and leniency to wrh's relatives for any information on the location of this place, but no one had ever caved. The children that wrh had deformed with his own toxic curiosity never talked, and, as far as lz knew, he was the only person who had ever

been trusted enough to be allowed access, knowledge of this place. It was an odd privilege that, much like many other horrible, twisted things about his life, he would take to his grave.

He huffed as he looked back at his boyfriend's mother, barely recognizable now that she

had been stripped down to a torso of flesh and bloody limbs. "Amazing..." he thought dreamily as he watched her face contort in pain, "even without skin and wrinkles and humanity I can still tell what emotion is shifting through your skin..."

It wasn't until yzy glared bleary

eyes up at him a moment later that he realized he had said the words aloud, the adrenaline that had been driving him forward since he had snatched the woman out of her bed giving way to sleep deprivation.

"Do you regret any of it?" he asked sleepily, yawning rudely into the air

because he was too lazy to drag an arm up to cover it. He knew she couldn't answer, not with the gag pushed deep into her throat, drool still dripping down her chin in long, pink tinged lines that dripped onto the floor. Would wq be cleaning all this up? Would she expect him to?

He very much hoped not, his stomach was still occasionally rolling over inside him when he looked too closely at the messy picture of the woman in front of him. He sucked in a deep breath, the metallic taste of blood and the rot of near death floating into his mouth and

making his nose scrunch up in distaste.

He really couldn't wait to get out of here, to be done with this woman and never have to see her face again, never have to worry what she was going to say or do to wy next. He rolled his neck, letting his eyes flutter shut for a moment,

letting thoughts of wy's smile slip through him. wy's sunshine smile, his soft, perpetually tangled and bouncy hair, and toned body, still hanging on to a bit of youthful chub that lz loved to bite and suck. wy hated it: it tickled and made him giggle and try to push lz's mouth

away until lz would let his hand drift lower to wrap around his boyfriend's cock. Then wy loved it, loved the pleasure-pain of it. wy, he had discovered, liked both obnoxiously soft and gentle sex and being absolutely wrecked. wy liked having his hair pulled, bites and hickey's

(A/N: reference to wy's cutting scars)

pressed into him, nails dragged down his back and especially across the scared flesh of his thighs.

"It's like.. I get to choose this kind of pain?" wy had mused when lz had brought it up. "I didn't get to choose being hurt by Madam Yu,

or feeling so shitty about... everything that I'd cut myself. This~" wy had sighed, reaching out an exhausted, sweaty and bite covered arm to wipe lz's own damp hair away. "You? What you do to me? I get to choose that, and if I just want you to do whatever you want?"

wy had smiled sleepily up at him, letting lz easily shift them around until they were tucked warmly against one another. "I get to choose to let you hurt me too, and I know you'll stop if I ask."

"Mn," lz had agreed darkly, making wy laugh quietly into him. "Will always stop."

lz's favourite thing, however, was burying the man in his love. Soft caresses throughout the day, gifts slipped into his bags and pockets, texts of everything and anything that made lz think of wy. lz relished in pressing his love and kindness into the man, intent on making up

for the lack of it from the family that was supposed to love him and had failed so miserably. wy complained when lz praised him. wy moaned and tried to push lz off more when he was being gentle and soft than he did when lz was brutally fucking him. wy sobbed when lz whispered

how much he loved him while filling him up with evidence of his affection. wy watched him with blearily, watery eyes, his hand running through lz's hair when lz pressed kisses into the broken, beautiful scars across his boyfriend's thighs.

"So strong," lz would whisper into

the skin, making sure that every inch of wy knew how much he loved it. "I am sorry you exist, but you make wy beautiful just as much as any other part of him."

"lz~" wy would whine, a little pout on his lips no matter how many time they repeated this same ritual of love.

"Need you to stop being stupidly nice to my fucking cutting scars and fuck me now," he'd say, tugging on lz's hair until he acquiesced and flipped his boyfriend over, fucking his mind, his worries, his fears into the empty, mindless, affection filled oblivion of an orgasm.

"Hmm~" wq's voice cut through his soft, floating memories and thoughts. "Never took you for that kinda guy."

lz's eyes startled open, blinking rapidly at his friend, who he had not heard return. Too sleepy, too intent on imagining wy's warmth, too horny—

lz's thoughts screeched

to a halt as he glanced down at where his pants were tenting, his ears rapidly heating up under his hair. "Was thinking about wy," he said, glancing away from the doctor's amused smirk.

"If you say so," she said, turning to inspect yzy, who's breathing was quickly slowing.

"How did things look? Everything working?" lz asked, as he adjusted himself, willing his body to chill out. This wasn't the kind of situation he wanted to accidentally wire his brain to become aroused by, thank you.

"Seemed fine," wq said as she circled behind yzy. "Come here."

lz followed slowly, his eyes squeezing closed for a moment as he yawned again.

"Awww~" wq cooed at him, laughing when he glared at her before pointing and at the base of the device yzy was bound to. "There are wheels here. We're gonna pop 'em down and then roll her out of here."

lz blinked drowsily at the wheels he had not previously noticed, along with tiny markings at the base of the contraption that looked out of place. Too odd to be part of the design, to perfect to be accidental scratches. "What are those?" he asked, squatting down to inspect the

odd lines, which upon further inspection, appeared to be—

"A tracker," wq said, squatting down beside lz to pop the wheels out of their pockets. "To count how many people have died on this thing. Takes a bit to make them, since it's made of metal and all, but it can be done."

lz counted the strikes across the metal, marks of 5, 10, 35, 75... on and on it went until he was looking around, looking for evidence of the terrifying number of women who had lost their lives in this room. How many remained as nothing more than a spot of blood on the floor?

How many had families still looking for even the smallest hint of what had happened to them?

lz's stomach rolled over inside him again as he continued staring at the marks. So many, so many more than even the highest estimates of wrh's victim count were.

"You okay?" wq asked,

pushing herself back up to standing. "You're looking a little green again."

"Mn..." lz hummed, the sound unconvincing even to his own ears. Thankfully, his friend seemed to take the sound to mean he didn't want to talk about it and simply hummed her own unconvincing sound.

"You ready?" wq asked, motioning for lz to mirror her as she braced her hands on one side of the device holding yzy hostage, pressing her foot into the base to over balance its weight onto the wheels. "We're gonna roll her to the elevator."

lz glanced over at her,

raising an eyebrow. "There's an elevator?"

~

As it turned out, the basement that they had been keeping yzy in was not actually the lowest level of the secret Wen estate. To the left of the stairs that led back upstairs was a long corridor, leading past a laundry facility,

which was even more decrepit and bloody than the torture chamber had been, and what lz assumed was a furnace room, ancient and ominous noises screaming out of it that sounded like a machine behind tortured. The entire wall down the hallways sent a perpetual wave of shudders up

lz's back, but these rooms simply added to his discomfort. The worst thing about the hallways was the walls, which were somehow even more off putting than the ones covered in death. The entire length of it was covered in hideous, almost psychedelic wallpaper that made lz's eyes

and brain burn even more than they already were. It wasn't until the end of the hallway, when they seemingly came to a dead end, that he learned that the wallpaper had a purpose: to hide more of the house's secrets in their depraved curls and colours.

He and wq pushed yzy's

torture rack to standing again, wq moving a chair that stood near them a little to the right before hoping up on it to pull at a portion of the wall.

"The joys of being short," she sighed, hopping back down as the hidden door popped open, bumping into the legs of the chair.

She pushed the chair back to the place it had been before and lz had to ask, "Why bother closing it?" wq had known they would be back within a few minutes, and it wasn't like anyone who shouldn't know about the secret door was around to catch sight of it. Plus—

"Just in case the

cops show up," wq said, shrugging as she pulled the door the rest of the way open and came to stand beside him again. "You never know when you might be raided."

lz shot her an incredulous look, his eyes shifting between her and yzy. "Down there is more incriminating than this?"

he asked, trying to keep the nerves out of his voice and failing miserably, his voice warbling slightly as he eyed up the entrance to a small room where dim elevator lights flickered. An old, gated elevator, his mind noted with increasing discomfort. Lovely and claustrophobic.

He glanced away from the doorway, willing himself to not let his imagination run wild into either "stuck in an elevator that no one knew they are in" scenarios, or "what the fuck horrible thing is hiding down there" ones. He only partially succeeded, his mind pushing at him

to wonder: What in the world was down there that could possibly be worse than their half-flayed kidnap victim?

"Oh yeah," wq sighed, amusement colouring her voice. "Way worse." She grabbed the rack again, pressing her foot against the base to leverage it back onto the wheels

again before freezing and looking over at lz. "You gonna help or just stare at the floor all day? What are you looking at anyways?" she asked, turning back towards the chair, her eyebrows knitting in such confusion that a laugh slipped past lz's lips. She turned a frown at him.

"Seriously, what are you looking at?"

lz bit his lip, trying to keep from smiling or laughing as the effects of stress and sleep deprivation raged through him. "The floor."

"Yeah?" wq said, her voice growing increasingly annoyed with every passing second. "What about it?

lz looked up from floor to his friend's highly annoyed face, her lips and eyebrows pinched together as she glared at him, although underneath the annoyance he could see the tint of concern and it occurred to him that she might very well think he was losing it, that he was

hallucinating. He wasn't hallucinating... probably. "It's funny," he said quietly, his lips twitching as her expression edged closer to concern for his state of mind.

"What is?" she asked, her voice holding an edge of delicacy, as though worried she might see off some sort of

psychotic break if her tone were too harsh, and lz wanted to smile and hug his friend and make her even more sure he was beginning to lose his mind to the mayhem and blood just to mess with her. If they weren't running out of them, every second wasted on this silliness another

moment where yzy may die a simple, easy death when something much more exciting was waiting for her below their feet.

"The things we don't see, because they are too normal, because we see them all the time." He reached out a hand, pointing again to the floor and to the—

He could see it, the moment wq saw what he was seeing now that she was making note to look with fresh, vibrant, searching eyes. She blinked down at the floor once, twice, thrice before breaking into nearly hysterical, peeling laughter.

"Fucking hell!" she laughed as she

curled over, her hands braced on her stomach as she laughed. "How fucking long do you think those have been there?"

lz stepped forward, squatting down to inspect the marks across the floor, the marks the chair had made from years of being pulled back and forth to access the

secret lock. "Unless you've been using this place more than you implied since your uncle was captured, I would guess they have been here since at least a few years before he was caught." He reached out, running a finger over the deep, telling grooves.

"Fuck..." wq managed to say

once her laughter had calmed. "If this place ever gets raided, it'll be pretty fucking obvious there's something weird going on here, won't it?"

"Yes," lz said, straightening back up and returning to help wq move yzy. "I would not count on the secret door being secret for long."

"Wow..." wq sighed as she overbalanced the rack again and they began pulling yzy through the doorway towards the elevator. "So, all those years of closing this damn door every time we went in and out wasted. Fuck, that's annoying."

The elevator creaked ominously as they stepped

on and lz squeezed his eyes shut as they stepped further inside, the car giving a little bounce as the weight of the rack slipped in as well. "When was the last time this had any maintenance done on it?" he asked, even though his heart already knew what the answer would be.

(A/N: mention of a sui*cide)

"One of my aunts maintained it, at least for the last few years..." wq's face scrunched up in thought for a moment before they were once again righting yzy's rack. "Someone else did it before that, no idea who though. I was too young, I guess,"

she mused as she stepped back around the rack to tug on the metal grate doors, which would offer exactly no protection from fingers being sliced off or smushed on the ride down, until they clattered shut. "She offed herself a few days after my uncle was caught though."

"Mn..."

lz hummed as wq pulled on a lever that controlled the floor the elevator was on. It was currently set to the middle level, apparently also going up to the floor above and, despite his increasing panic at the closed space, lz made a mental note to see if he could figure out where

the upper entrance was hidden. The elevator dropped a foot, sending lz's heart racing in his chest as the elevator began groaning and creaking before slowly beginning to slide downwards. "I believe," he said, trying to distract himself from the way his heart threatened to beat

out of his chest from the fear pounding through him, "that the newspapers reported that she killed herself out of shame for what he had done?" He sucked in a shuddering breath as the elevator jumped slightly under his feet before continuing its slow descent. He very much did not

(A/N: mention of previous vomiting)

want to die in this horrible little elevator just because his friend had liked the perverse idea that had split through his brain shortly after voiding his stomach and insisted they follow through with it. He did not want to leave

his wonderful, freshly acquired boyfriend wondering where he had gone, if he had abandoned him just a few weeks into their relationship.

"That is indeed the story the newspapers printed," wq laughed, either at the mistake the news had made or lz's rather obvious discomfort.

"In a way, I suppose it was true though."

lz made an inquiring sound, grimacing as the elevator slowed it's already impossibly slow trek. There was no way they were at the lower level yet, not when the previous floor was still visible behind the metal grate door. Only four or so

inches were visible now, the glow from the dim hallway lights shining through the still ajar door, wq having never bothered closing it. If the police did somehow find this place, although wq had assured him that was quite unlikely as they had ditched all of their electronics and

switched into an older, apparently 'untraceable' car, the police would quickly find the secret lower level. Even with the scraps across the floor it would have taken them a bit to find the elevator had they bothered to close the door and, as lz wondered if there was another exit

somewhere or if this horrible little vehicle was the only way in and out, he sorely regretted not having told his friend to close it.

"Well~" wq sighed, tapping her foot impatiently before, to lz's great horror, she squatted slightly and jumped, the stalling elevator giving a

little scream of annoyance and dropping a few more inches before continuing at its previous, painfully slow pace. She laughed as she turned to look at him, likely amused by the way his eyes had grown impossibly large and his hand was grasped across his poor, traumatized heart.

(A/N: past death of a child)

"Just a little sticky," she said, peeking around to look at yzy, a smile breaking across her face. "Looks like you aren't the only one freaked out by our ride," she teased as she pulled back. "Don't worry, the only person to ever die because of this

thing was one of my cousins. Dumbass decided to play underneath it and got smushed. Anyways, I'm pretty sure my aunt did kill herself from shame, but it was more because she was ashamed my uncle was so stupid. Falling in love with one of his victims and letting her go. Stupid."

"Mn," lz agreed as his eyes shifted to the ground. Falling in love with an intended victim did seem incredibly stupid. Letting them go doubly so, but he supposed love made you do stupid things. Case in point: he was currently in the midst of a murder spree of his boyfriend's

(A/N: mention of su*cide)

abusive family members. "What happened to her?" he asked, intent on keeping his friend talking during their slow descent into what he could only assume was a bloody, gory hell.

"The lady he let go?"

"Mn."

"I think she killed herself a few months

after my uncle was sentenced. Did you know she didn't testify at his trial? He almost got off because she refused to talk, but then they found a bit of evidence because of her initial statements to the police."

lz wiggled his toes in his shoes. He liked these shoes, a lot,

but they would have to be destroyed after this, the tops speckled with blood and evidence of their crimes. "Why didn't she testify?"

"Officially, the story was she was too traumatized from the experience to face him in court. Honestly though? Having met the woman while she

was here? She was pretty far under my uncle's influence. I remember having the impression that she both wanted to leave and wanted to stay, and I don't think she would have gone to the police by herself. Se'd been missing for a months though, so they obviously needed to get

her story." wq shrugged as the lower floor began to peek through from under the door, slowly becoming more visible as the seconds ticked on. "I think she didn't want to tell on him, and I think she killed herself because she felt bad that he was sent to jail for the rest of

his life, maybe even felt bad that she couldn't be with him again." The doctor shot him a self-deprecating smile, adding, "It's hard, losing the people who form your life and personality, no matter how horrible you know they were, or how much they fucked you up with their shit."

lz's mouth tensed. He knew that what he was doing would hurt wy, even if this was better for him in the end, just like it had been better for his mother to be rid of his father. His mother had survived, wq and wn and all their cousins had survived, but sometimes people didn't.

(A/N: growing panic attack, mention of su*cide and wy's self harm)

Sometimes, living without your abuser was harder than living with them. What if what he was doing permanently, irreparably hurt wy? What if his attempts to protect the man he loved left him so broken he could

not function? Or led him to follow the same path a wrh's freed victim and he took his own life because of his attachment to the people who had made his life miserable, painful, full of blood and bruises, cuts and blades sliced over his thighs and—

"Hey!" wq snapped, literally,

reaching out a hand to snap her fingers in front of his face. "Whatever you're thinking about, stop. I need you functioning. We can deal with whatever thoughts are making you panic later."

"Panic?" lz wheezed out. Oh. When had his chest become so tight he could barely breath?

"Breath," wq told him sternly. "Follow me," she said as she began to suck in a slow breath, lz automatically following her breathing with his own. Their breaths stopped, held at the top for what lz swore was an eternity before they were letting it out slowly and holding it at

the bottom until lz thought he might pass out.

In, out. Repeat.

In, out. Repeat.

In, out. Repeat.

In, out. Repeat.

"You ready to move this bitch out of here?" wq asked, startling lz back into the present, his most recent breath catching in his throat.

He blinked rapidly

at her, wondering when he had let his eyes drift closed. He rolled his shoulders and neck, wiggling his fingers and toes, just the way the internet had told him to after he'd looked up how to deal with his occasional panic attacks in high school. It had been so long since the

last one, half a decade at least, that he'd forgotten to breath, forgotten to pay attention to his body and how it was reacting to the stimuli of the overwhelming world around him. He'd messed up, and if wq hadn't been there to help—

"Stop apologizing," his friend snapped as

she tugged the metal grate door open, the clanging and scratching rattling through lz's already overstimulated body. "You're tired and stressed and this is all very, very gross to you. You don't need to apologize for not realizing you're having a panic attack. Fuck!" she said,

twisting back to humorously glare at him, a small smile gracing her face. "You know, most people don't even have the sense to realize they're panicking at the best of times, let along in a situation like this. Relax. It's fine. It won't be fine if you panic because you missed

that you were panicking though. That will annoy me."

lz smiled weakly at her, muttering a soft, intentional, "Sorry," just to see her wrinkle her nose at him. Sometimes, when he teased her, he thought she was a moment away from sticking her tongue out at him, but she never did.

"Whatever," she muttered, giving him an assessing look before placing her foot at the base of yzy's torture rack.

lz rolled his shoulders once more before dutifully grabbing onto his side of the rack as wq overbalanced their victim again. yzy groaned slightly as the rack bounced

over the ledge of the elevator, her IV bag swaying as they entered the secret basement. lz blinked into the oddly lit room as they pushed forward over the carpeted floor, the rack's wheels resisting as they moved. He squinted, trying to take in through his tired, blurry eyes what

(A/N: tf do I even warn for? Past mutilation and amputation? Serial killer trophies? General gore? Nausea?)

it was he was looking at.

lz's stomach lurched and he regretted looking. He should have kept his eyes down, kept them focused on his feet. One in front of the other.

Left. Right. Don't look up, don't look for evidence of the monsters that live in the dark, that tuck themselves away inside your friends and family. Don't look. Never look. Don't be curious. Don't be nosy.

"Gross, ain't it?" wq asked as they continued pushing yzy through the

horrifying museum. "Fascinating too. Some of these have been here longer than either of us have been alive."

lz hummed as he resolutely tried to ignore the illuminated jars of eyes that were stacked around them. Eyes and limbs, most stripped of their skin. Brains in jars and

even the occasional full head, their eyes sewn open, mouths sewn shut, hair floating around them in whatever eternally preserving liquid wrh had stuck them into, their horror and death permanent and unending. No burial. No end. No family to mourn them in this bloody hell.

"Oh," wq laughed, her tone sounding somewhere between amused and put out to lz's ear, as they continued down the long rows of gore filled shelves, coming to stand before a large, metal door, "guess you're gonna find out about that anyways. I did want to spare you, you know?"

lz's eyebrows knitted together as he stared straight ahead. Don't look. Just keep staring at the door. Just—

lz looked and, as he had expected, immediately regretted his curiosity and lack of self control. Personally, he was inclined to blame the lack of sleep for his current

inability to control himself. Usually, he was wonderful at controlling his thoughts and actions and especially his eyes. He had spent years not looking at wy's beautiful ass, at not letting his eyes linger on wy's smile or hands or knees too long. He prided himself on being

extremely skilled at not looking. Currently, his inability to keep his eyes to himself was rolling his stomach and mind over, masses of flesh and muscle burning and churning as his gaze shifted over row upon row of books.

Handmade books.

Books that were made of human flesh.

Books that his friend had had a hand in creating, through cutting the flesh off the victims, drying their skin, cutting, snipping, sewing it all back together. Were they made of the same, single person? Or a dozen women forced to live side by side for years to come, unable to

escape the press of their skin against another's, one final abuse of their skin long after they had passed.

lz had seen the books wq made in her free time, the normal ones, made of, what he hoped, was normal leather and paper. The pages stained, embossed, beautiful and perfect.

"It's just something I learned as a child," she had said once, pushing a needle through the layers of material to bind the book, which lz had given to his uncle as a gift, together with a thin blue ribbon. lz remembered thinking, at the time, that it was an oddly out of place

hobby for his friend. She was meticulous enough for the time consuming process of designing and assembling the handmade books, yes, but he had never particularly considered her artistic. Creative in the ways she treated patients and the world, yes, but creative enough to active

seek out a place for her unique skills to flourish? No.

Now he knew where she had learned the skill, why. He would really rather have not known why the doctor was capable of making such beautiful works of art, many of which lz had taken to use as journals or gifted to everyone

he knew and loved.

He loved his journals.

He wasn't sure he'd ever be able to look at them again without imagining they were pieces of a woman's flesh, sewn together with bloody red and deathly black leather, leather he supposed could be dyed fragments of someone and

not regular strips from an animal.

"You okay?" wq asked as she reached out a hand to hit a button, leaving lz to support most of the rack's weight. The door in front of them whirred and hissed and began to slowly slide open, revealing another room, constructed entirely of metal.

“Mn…” lz hummed somewhat distantly as they pushed yzy through the room to another set of thick metal doors, the wheels of the rack scratching and clinking against the metal of the floor. wq hit another button to open these doors, a loud, warning buzz sounding before the same

whirring and hissing noise that had opened the other door vibrated beneath their feet and the doors began to slid slowly open.

lz glanced around the cold, mostly empty room as they waited for the door to open. Beside the door was a thick glass window, looking in to the empty

room behind the door. Below it were a collection of buttons and levers, while a long row of chairs sat behind it, giving anyone who would have sat there a first rate view into the room.

The doors clicked open, the whirring and hissing stopped, and they continued moving forward.

"Right about here is the best place for her," wq said, gently tugging the rack further to the right and wiggling it about until she seemed happy with its placement. They tilted it to standing and stepped back, wq circling around it, her hands on her hips as she nodded seriously.

"You wanna let those straps go before we get this party started?" she asked, nodding towards yzy's still bound arm, laughing when lz wrinkled his nose at her wording. "What? Parties have pretty lights and screaming."

lz shook his head as he too stepped around her, tilting his

head in thought as he eyed up yzys's gag. "She won't be able to scream like that," he noted, unsure of whether her forced silence was a good or bad thing, his body and mind too unsure of whether to enjoy her prolonged suffering or reject witnessing it as much as possible.

He wasn't the serial killer here, after all.

"No, I suppose she won't be able to," wq agreed, stepping forward to undo the gag, the straps sticking to yzy's exposed skin and tearing at the tiny muscle fibres as they were pulled away.

The woman's body tensed and she made

a terrifying sound that lz was sure would be haunting his dreams for months to come as the previously stripped flesh was exposed to the air one more. She mumbled something that lz imagined were words, probably pleas to just kill her, let her die, or promises of pain they would

face for their actions. It didn't matter, anything the woman had to say was meaningless. No one would know what had happened to her, who had done it. After tonight, she would only exist as pages in a book and nightmares in the minds of those who had the misfortune to know her.

"Will it kill her, if we unstrap her arm?" he asked as wq dropped the gag to the ground. Apparently they would not be taking it with them.

"Maybe, maybe not," wq leaned in to look at the arm. "I can probably give some stuff to keep her alive a bit longer, at though. I didn't

bring anything with me, though. I'd have to go back up to get it."

lz hummed noncommittally, hoping his friend would take the decision out of his hands and feeling a wave of relief when she simply huffed and started towards the door.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," she said

as she stepped out of the room. "You can say your goodbyes."

"Ah!" he called out as she disappeared from sight.

She leaned back into sight, raising an eyebrow at him. "Yeah?"

He swallowed, willing himself not to blush. It wasn't an embarrassing question, but somehow it felt

like it should be. "Is there another way out of here? If you don't come back, or... something happens?"

wq blinked at him before twisting to stare at the ceiling, her mouth twisted in thought. "Huh..." she said after a long moment. "I mean, there must be? No idea where it would

be though."

lz blinked at her, wishing he hadn't asked. He very much did not want to die in this horrible museum of death.

"lz," wq said sharply, dragging his eyes back to hers. "It'll be fine. I'm sure there's an exit somewhere. My uncle might have done a few stupid things,

but I doubt he was stupid enough to built this place with only one way in or out. There's probably a secret tunnel r staircase somewhere."

He made an impressed noise as he watched her leave, trying to shake off the nerves of claustrophobia beginning to seep through his blood.

lz released a long, slow breath before turning back to yzy, startling slightly when he found her watching him through barely open eyes. "yzy," he said almost tonelessly. He was tired and done with this woman. If wq weren't looking forward to this last torture he likely would have

simply killed the woman and tried to never think of her again. He wanted to be clean. He wanted to sleep. I did not want to be stuck with this woman, who had spent her life making the world a more miserable, disgusting place, a moment longer.

yzy's mouth twisted like she were

trying to speak, the fibres of her jaw twitching but seemingly frozen in place, either from the pain or the fact that the gag had held it open for so long.

He huffed quietly, turning away from her again. He didn't want to hear whatever hateful thing she had to say anyways.

A/N: I return \o/

If you didn't see my tweet from Thursday, I had a really awful headache the last few days and have basically been holed up in bed since Wednesday night. I am now feeling mostly better though 🫡

"n't–re–re–gret..."

A shudder ran up lz's spine as the woman's pained voice met his ears, sinking into his brain like a worm he doubted he would ever escape. He would be hearing the voice, scratchy and weak but still somehow holding all the power of the woman yzy had been for

the majority of her life, for the rest of his life. It would haunt him, one last vestige of his boyfriend's pathetic excuse for a mother figure that he would never be able to escape. He turned back to her, nose wrinkling as he watched her eyes roll and blink like she was trying

to orient herself to the bright, metallic world around her. "You regret your actions?" he asked, stepping slowly towards her. "It is a little late."

The muscles in yzy's face pulled, stretched, flexed as blood continued to drip down her chin and splatter across the floor.

Something almost like a laugh slipped out of her mouth, hoarse and broken and holding all the malice he knew the woman to hold inside her. Her muscles pulled and pulled until a mask of horrific, depraved amusement settled across her face. It must hurt, the stretch of her

exposed nerves, to the point that this action, this emotion was something she was purposefully spitting out into the world to haunt him, like the horror movies nhs loved to torment him with. One last echo of her destruction to leave across his mind before her soul burned away

into nothingness.

"S-sorry?" she asked, laughter that seemed so out of place with her current state of existence echoing through her voice and making the nerves throughout lz's body light up in fear. "No—" she broke off into a heaving breath, her blood streaked teeth gritting

against the pain the movement must be causing her. "No," she tried again, smiling wobbling, muscles vibrating with effort as she resisted screaming out in agony. "No, little boy," she said, voice still carrying malicious amusement as though she were the one torturing him.

"I–I regret nothing. N–nothing that you would want m–me to regret." She blinked slowly at him, her bloody mask falling into one of empty acceptance for a moment before her eyes fluttered back open, eyelids the barest bits of skin left on her face. "I s–suppose if you want

something I–I regret though," she added, mouth crooking back into a smile. "I regret not killing th–that boy the moment he was b–brought into my home." yzy broke off into a laugh, gritting her teeth through the pain as she began explaining to lz how she would have killed him,

had she had the foresight to know the ruin and destruction he would bring down on her family. Fed him to her son's dogs, drowned him, slowly cut him to pieces like lz was doing to her. On and on she went, her voice high and strained as words tumbled out of her mouth like a

mad woman, raving unstoppably in the moments before death finally dragged her down to hell. She was describing in gruesome detail how, had she thought of it, she should have sliced the young wy up and used him to fertilize her plants when lz cut her off.

"Human bodies do make

quite good fertilizer," he said evenly, blinking sleepily as her eyes shot wide in shock. "My father has been helping to grow flowers in my mother's back yard for 20 years."

"You—" the woman growled.

"Am too tired to be bated into ending your life early," lz finished,

yawning into his elbow. He may not having bloody gloves on anymore, but he felt like he needed to bathe in acid and burn away all drips and phantom blood splatter from his body before he dared put a hand anywhere near his mouth. "wq would be disappointed if I killed you now."

"Damn right I would be!" wq half-cheered, half-growled as she reappeared at the doorway, the case she used to carry her drugs tucked under her arm. "I'm looking forward to this. My uncle rarely wanted to end someone this way, or they'd already kicked it by the time this would

have been considered an option. My uncle was good with drugs, but I'm better," she added, smiling sweetly at their captive. "You're faring much better than his patients ever did, much more lucid and likely in a lot more pain. Props to you for not bursting our eardrums with your

screams right now."

wq hummed a short tune that lz couldn't quite place, although he was sure he had heard it before, as she set her case on a little rolling table that was tucked into the outer room and pushed it towards yzy's IV, asking, "This bitch trying to bait you into

killing her early?" She pulled her case open, grabbing a collection of vials, filling syringe after syringe with her own personal torture cocktail before plunging them into the little section at the bottom of the tube meant to allow the drugs immediate access to her drug stream—

lz had immediately forgotten the word for it when his friend had told him while she set the IV up earlier.

"Yes," he told her, giving a short summary of all the ways the woman had described killing his boyfriend, the child she had been responsible for caring for.

"You know, I don't get it," wq said, staring up at the ceiling for a moment. It was deformed, lz realized as he glanced up at it. The center crinkled and creased, unlike the sides and floor which were perfect metal plates, save one large dent near the back of the room and

scratches zigzagging across the floors from, lz supposed, racks holding victims being wheeled in and empty ones wheeled out.

"Why'd you even bother letting him come live with you?" wq asked, frowning at yzy, who was blinking rapidly as the new drugs twisted through her body.

"If you hated his parents so much that you'd have them killed, at great risk to yourself, I imagine, that you abused their son and now wish you'd killed him too. Seems rather silly to me, not to mention a massive waste of energy."

yzy gazed blearily at the doctor, eyes blinking

so slowly lz was sure at any moment they would fall closed and never open again. "Why–why do you kill and t–torture?" she asked, her voice heavy with drugs and thin with death. She smiled slightly, letting her eyes fluttered closed as she sucked in a broken, shuddering breath.

"Some p–people n–need an outlet, for the anger and hatred inside them."

lz could tell that she was once again attempting to pull herself under the stillness of mediation, something about the situation, whether it was her impending death or the new drugs drifting through her,

allowing her to fall into a space between conscious and floating.

"I knew I w–would eventually abuse someone, so why n–not abuse a child who deserved it, who had escaped death, rather than one of my own s–sweet, innocent children?" yzy sighed, her face appearing almost content.

wq raised an eyebrow at the woman before scoffing and grabbing lz's arm. "So desperate to die you're willing to lie."

"Not lying," yzy spit out, blood splattering across the floor near their feet and sending both of them stumbling several steps back out of reach.

"Yeah,"

wq insisted as she began dragging lz out of the room, "you are." She turned back as they stopped on the other side of the door. "My guess? It was your husband. He wanted wy and threatened to leave your sorry ass if you'd refused to take him in. From what I've heard of the man,

he probably would have turned into a deadbeat dad for your kids if he left, so you agreed. Too bad he didn't have the balls to leave or even find a better home for wy when you were beating the shit out of him, or when your son tried to strangle him, which I'm sure you both knew

all about." She turned away from the woman again, stepping towards the buttons and levers that controlled the rooms. "What a pathetic excuse for a human being," she said as she pressed a button, the mechanisms of the doorway beginning to whir as the door began to slide closed.

"I mean, both of you are pretty despicable," she continued over the noise of the door, "but to leave a child you allegedly cared about to be a punching bag for your wife and kids? jfm should be grateful Xue Yang ran him off the road. What I'd do him would have been far worse."

lz blinked sleepily as the door slammed shut, locking yzy and her hatred inside. He almost felt like that should be it, that leaving the woman to slowly die from dehydration or shock and toxins burning through her blood should be how she died. Boring, painful, prolonged.

Instead, he stepped towards the viewing area, eyes landing once again on his boyfriend's adoptive mother as he approached the window that looked into the room. She looked smaller, somehow, like the life and fire that had had her biting at him and his friend only moments ago was

quickly fading out of her. Her eyes shot over to him from where they had been lingering on the door, an almost panicked sheen to them as she was left wondering what it was that they were going to do to her.

"She's afraid," he said quietly as wq stepped up beside him to fiddle

with the buttons of the panel below the window. They were old: thick and worn out, the colour on several of them worn down to practically nothing. The cover of one button had completely broken off, leaving only the switch that would normally exist beneath it behind.

"Would you like to do the honour?" wq asked as she continued pressing buttons. The ceiling above them began to hiss, the floor beneath them vibrating slightly, the seats behind them jingling quietly as they bumped together. "It's this one here," she said, stepping back and

pointing to one of the more rubbed down buttons.

lz could see that the underside was still a bright red, but the top edges had faded into a bleak pink tone while the very center was worn down to metal, metal from all the people who had been killed down here. He was once again

(A/N: bad police and families)

reminded of the fact that no one knew for sure how many people wrh had killed. There were guesses, but no one knew for sure. The man was rich and had travelled extensively and women went missing all the time. Women went missing and no one bothered

to look for them. They ran away from society and obligations, they were homeless, they were troublemakers and whores and families were better off without them and the police didn't think them worth looking for. Investigations were botched from the very start and, when wrh's

crimes had come to light, detectives and journalists had found so many empty case files that dozens of departments and decorated officers had to be investigated for negligence. Eventually, some victims were tracked back to him while others would never be more than people who

probably lost their lives to his destructive hobby. A few dozen yeses and more than likelys. Hundreds more were question marks, people who had disappeared at the right time, when wrh was in town, but couldn't be connected to the man enough to point the finger at him.

lz looked down at the button though, reaching out to brush his fingers against the cool metal, and thought this was too worn down for the estimates. This was old, this entire place was. Old things lasted longer, usually, but here was this button, worn down at degrading and

he pressed his lips tight in thought, his stomach rolling over with nausea and curiosity.

He shouldn't ask, he already regretted the things he had learned in this house about his friend and her family. Unfortunately, curiosity had always been highly encouraged in his family.

"Your uncle was not the first to use this place, was he?" he asked, eyes shifting up to lock on yzy's.

wq laughed and stepped back, falling down into one of the seats and gracefully crossing her legs. "Nope," she said with a tiny pop before covering a yawn. "What gave it away?"

lz shook his head, more to shake off the sleep threatening at his eyes and mind. "The button. The age of this place." His lips tilted into a tiny smile as he added, "The genetic inclination towards torture."

Behind him, wq laughed almost happily, joking about how

generational trauma and how they had been raised could also be a cause of that particular family trait, before saying that there was also new research that suggested the way your genes were being read by your body could also be passed down to children. "It's not like your

actually genes changed," she said seriously, her voice holding a flavour of boundless curiosity that lz always found soothing, "it's just the way your body reads them, the genes bending a folding and hiding certain parts away in the creases. It's really fascinating.

I can send you some articles, if you're interested."

lz hummed, smiling softly back at his friend. She reminded him so much of wy— or, he reminded him of her. He'd known wq far longer than wy, and had he been straight, and the Wens didn't have enough baggage to make the

match impossible, he would have been inclined to date her, despite the homocidal tendencies. When they were younger, people had on occasion mistaken them for a couple, especially when lz had tricked her into attending event with him. Usually, the person's eyes would grow confused

when nhs would pop cheerfully in between them, his arms slipping into each of theirs as he pressed up onto his tiptoes to kiss each of their cheeks. His uncle had once called him to his office to ask if he was in a relationship with wq and nhs, which, given the recent revelation

of his uncle's relationship with wy's parents, made somewhat more sense. His uncle had spoken more of the social ramifications of being involved with wq and lz had left the conversation feeling like his uncle had been hiding something, namely, his formerly adventurous sex life.

He tapped his fingers against the button, ignoring his friend when she asked, "Too nervous? If you're gonna lose your lunch again, warn me, so I can get out of range."

He watched yzy for another long moment and she watched him back and he wondered what her last thoughts were.

Was she thinking of her daughter, left alone in the world and likely to be killed just as horribly in the near future? Of the husband and son she would be joining in hell? Thinking back to the horrible decision she had made, decades ago, to kill wy's parents and wishing she had

killed her own, wannabe cheater husband instead? Then again, she had said she regretted nothing but not killing wy when he was younger, when he was a newly orphaned child with no one to protect him. lz's heart tightened at the idea of wy being gone from this world, at never

having met him, never having loved him. At the toll his death would have inevitably have had on his uncle when news reached him. His uncle already blamed himself for the abuse wy had suffered at the hands of the Jiangs, if they had killed him... lz doubted his uncle would have

survived such a thing and he felt ice sizzle through his veins. This woman, her hatred and self-centredness had cost so many people their lives, and had nearly cost more.

"Goodbye, yzy," he said, his voice empty to his own ears despite the hatred crashing through him.

"May you burn in hell for all eternity," he added as he pressed the button, the floor of the chamber grinding and shaking as metal slide against metal and four holes opened around the base of the woman's rack.

"Bye bitch," wq said cheerily from behind him as metal tubes

rumbled out of the holes, pointed towards yzy.

The tubes sputtered, the walls shook harder and lz wondered if the glass jars in the museum of horrors outside the room ever broke during this part, the room feeling like it was about to crack apart as the machine came to life.

The machine continued hissing and sputtering, sparks of red spitting irregularly out of the tubes as the ancient machine struggled to move, to heat up, to kill.

yzy's eyes widened in horror as flames began to form at the ends of the tubes, hot and red and her struggles resuming,

human instinct to fear fire, to get away no matter the cost, forcing her to move and pull against her bindings even as the pain from doing so likely torn through her mind, even as it was a useless cause. There would be no escape for her, only a fiery death before she settled into

the flames of hell with every other terrible, destructive member of her family.

The flames that erupted from the tubes were surprisingly weak, although as lz settled down beside wq to watch the fireworks as the horror that was yzy melted away, he supposed it made sense.

This place had been designed to torture, after all, not burn away evidence or skin and flesh. A slow burn to watch, a slow burn to cause pain and suffering. A slow burn to fall asleep to.

"lz~" wy's voice laughed through a dream, his smile sunshine and happiness and freedom as

he pulled lz out of the flames of hatred and into the sunlight, warm and perfect and filled with wy, wy, wy. "Come on!" his boyfriend cheered as he began to run, their feet disappearing from the ground as they began to run through the clouds. "It's this way!"

"What's this way?"

lz asked, trying to pull the other man to a stop. He looked down, his stomach turning over at the sight below him: distance and flames, the entire world burning away while they danced among the clouds, wy twirling him around, dipping him low, the clouds around them swirling and—

"Yo, sleepyhead, wakey wakey~" lz bolted upright, a piece of paper sticking uncomfortably to his cheek as he blinked, bleary eyed and confused into the shockingly bright room. He squinted at the light beaming in through the window, a slight breeze swishing through the room and

rustling the paper still stuck to him, but not enough to dislodge it. A hand appeared in front of his face, gently pulling the paper off, its owner's sunshine laughter filling the world around them.

"Man, lz~" wy sighed as he set the paper back into the pile lz had fallen asleep

on and looked down at him from where he was leaning against the edge of lz's desk. "You've been so run down since my vacation. I'm so rested I just have boundless energy and you're so tired I have no one to spend it with," he complained, shoulder's deflating as his gaze shifted

in faux sadness to the floor, a smile he couldn't quite suppress tugging at his lips. He peeked back up a lz a little, smirking pout plastered across his face before he burst into laughter and waggled his eyebrows at lz. "You know," he said, rolling lz's chair back so he could

climb into his lap and wrap his arms around his neck, "I bet if you asked, nhs would take you on a vacation too. It was so fun— or! We could go on one together. I can practically guarantee shushu would give you some time off if I asked."

lz hummed, reaching up to push a piece of

hair out of his boyfriend's face. "wy always has boundless energy," he commented, smiling softly when the man burst into more happy laughter.

"Not always~" wy teased, leaning in to nudge his nose against lz's. "You're the one with the monster refractory period, not me."

lz hummed as he slipped his hands around his beautiful boyfriend's waist and pulled him closer. wy moaned and rocked his hips as lz's already filling cock pressed against his ass. He leaned in, nosing his way to wy's ear and whispered, "How could I ever be sated when I have wy's

ready and willing hole at my disposal?"

wy shuddered, a little whimper falling out of his mouth as he rocked forward again. "lz..." he moaned, pulling back to glare at lz with already teary eyes. "My poor hole can't take it! You're gonna break it!"

lz hummed in mild

(A/N: mention of wy's cutting scars)

consideration, his fingers slipping under the short shorts wy had taken to wearing around the house, the ones that left his ass half hanging out and his scars on display for lz to idly drag his fingers across any time he liked.

The first time wy had worn them, shortly after effectively (and now officially) moving in with lz, he had blushed and repeatedly pulled pillows into his lap, tucked his hands over the long scars, hid himself nervously behind anything he could. lz had eventually fallen to his

knees while wy sat on the couch, a pillow reading "Stuffed Full of Something Something" covering his lap, and ripped the pillow away from him before torturing him with his mouth, his tongue dragging over the scars and wy's clothed cock until he had come, painting the inside of

the tiny little shorts white. lz had stood up, jerking off to the sight of his sated, fucked out boyfriend, and splattered wy's scars with his cum.

wy had grown more comfortable and confident with his body and needs, even if just around lz and their friends, in the last months.

lz had loved wy before he had been able to more truly be himself, had thought it impossible to love him more. He had been wrong. The wy of now was so soft and open, so loving in return. lz's heart swelled until it threatened to burst from his chest and paint the floor red at just

the thought of his boyfriend. Like this though? wy whimpering quietly against him as he slipped his fingers into his boyfriend's already loose, wet hole? lz wanted to crawl inside him, tear his ribs apart and make a home for himself there. Sew wy back up so he could go about his

life with lz tucked inside him, warm and safe, ready to rip himself free should the slightest reason arise. Ready to break apart anyone who dared cross his beloved, burn them to dust and scatter their bones across the ground for birds to make their own homes out of. Humanity had

no use for people who would dare say a word against the beautiful kindness that was wy; the least they could do was offer sustenance and security to the rest of the world in death.

"lz~" wy whined, nipping at his ear before dragging his tongue along it. "Come on~" he pouted.

"Stop teasing my hole and actually do something!" He pulled back and pouted at lz, trying to rock his hips back to take more of lz's fingers inside him.

lz hummed, his free hand rising up to tug harshly on the other man's hair. wy arched back beautifully, his long neck exposing

for lz to bite, sucking a dark mark into the tanned skin. He shifted his other hand, plunging one too many fingers into wy's hole and resolutely ignoring the way he complained about it being too much, even as he couldn't keep himself from continuing to rock back into lz's hand.

wy was easy and compliant as lwj pushed him up and spun him, the hand on his back forcing him over the desk. He shifted, sighing in anticipation as he rested his head on his arms. lz pulled his shorts down, just enough that they pressed tight around wy's thick thighs and held his

legs together. wy wiggled his ass at lz, biting his lip as he smirked back at him. "You gonna wreck me down, lz?" he asked, giggling when lwj pinched his ass.

"Yes," lz said, rolling his chair forward to bite his boyfriend's beautiful bottom. He dragged his teeth over the

sensitive flesh, debating if he wanted to bury his face between those gorgeous cheeks. No, he decided, what he wanted was his cock buried deep inside wy's loving, soft hole. He tugged roughly on his belt, the material snapping soundly and sending a little shudder through wy.

"Ah..." he said, running a hand over wwx's ass like he was soothing a startled horse. "Sorry."

wy shot him a withering look. "I'm not so delicate I can't even hear a belt snap without getting flashbacks of yzy snapping hers against my ass," he sniffed rather unconvincingly.

lz smiled softly at him, continuing to run his hand over the ticklish skin as he pushed his boxers down just enough to free his cock. He had learned, shortly after the first time he and wy had had quick and messy sex over the kitchen table, that he quite liked the perversity of

them being partially clothed while fucking. He especially liked it when his boyfriend was stripped bare while he pounded into him with only his cock out... He fingered the fabric of the other man's loose, worn out shirt before tugging him up and summarily ripping it over

his head.

wy laughed, the previously tense reminder of his abusive adoptive mother forgotten as he gave lz a knowing look and wiggled back down onto the desk. "Wreck me, boyfriend," he said, smiling coyly over his shoulder at lz, his hips swaying seductively from side to side.

(A/N: past consensual somnophilia)

lz lined himself up with his boyfriend's hole, still wet and sloppy from their lazy, early morning sex— wy half asleep as he willingly offered his ass for lz's use, perfectly content to be fucked into while he dozed. Perfectly content to have

lz come inside him while he drifted back to sleep, his own penis soft with sleep between his legs.

lz loved fucking his boyfriend while he slept— their different sleep schedules effectively required that if he didn't want to fuck his morning erection into his fist wy would need

to either wake up or allow lz to use his hole while he slept. While lz had initially been content to slip out of bed and masturbate in the shower— or occasionally beside wy, watching him sleep softly —when wy had found out what he was doing he had insisted lz was free to initiate

sex while he slept, as long as lz was fine with wy falling back asleep. While originally nervous about sex with a less-than-conscious wy, lz had discovered there was something soft and intimate about someone trusting you so deeply they would allow you free reign over their body.

"lz~" wy whined, his hips gently thrusting back onto lz's tip, trying to take the cock into his hole without risking lz grabbing his hips to control him movements, which—

lz wrapped his hands firmly around his boyfriend's hips as he slid home— and this was home. This was where

he belonged. If he could live here, keep wy sitting on his cock all day long. he would. "wy is not allowed to move," lz said darkly, grinding his hips into the other man's ass, his eyes fluttering shut as he sighed. "wy is mine to move, mine to do with as I like."

(A/N: like... some general dom/sub kink?)

Beneath him, wy moaned, mumbling a soft stream of yeses, because this was more something that his boyfriend wanted than lz usually did: to be taken control of, to willing offer himself for lz to move and love as he liked. lz could easily

have gone without such play in their sex, but he loved wy like this. Loved him happy in the freedom that losing control seemed to give him. Loved him when he was soft and compliant, when he was biting and snarky.

lz loved wy no matter what he wanted or how he wanted it.

lz had killed for his boyfriend, because he would do anything to make the man happy, and fucking wy like he was just an object for lz to use for his own pleasure was no burden despite he overall disinterest in it.

"wy feels good," he murmured, his thumbs rubbing circles into

the soft flesh of wy's hips, pressing along to edge of his hip bones. "So good for me, such a good little hole for my cock," he added, cheeks burning at his words.

"lz~" wy whined again, trying more seriously to thrust back onto lz's cock now. "Come on~ Please? I wanna be

wrecked now~"

lz hummed, his eyes fluttering back open to watch his cock slide back out of wy's hole. He halted as just the very tip of his cock remained inside the man's hole. "wy needs to behave," he said as wy continued trying to thrust back on him— only stopped by lz's grip.

"Oh, yeah?" wy asked, still trying to wiggle his ass slightly. "And what, exactly, are you gonna do if I refuse?"

"Hold you here, with just the tip of my cock inside you, until you do behave," lz threatened, although he was not entirely convinced he would succeed in resisting

fucking his boyfriend into tomorrow if he continued his misbehaviour.

Luckily, the other man simply released a long sigh of acceptance— apparently either too tired or horny to push against lz more —and let himself relax further onto the desk, his body becoming practically limp

under lz's hands. "Okay, boyfriend," wy said quietly, shoulders rolling as he further relaxed, "have your way with me."

"wy."

"lz."

"wy," lz repeated, shaking his head at the body laying on his desk.

"What? I don't get to enjoy you using me when I'm asleep! Gotta improvise!"

wy smiled slightly back at him before letting his eyes flutter shut just in time to miss the way lz rolled his eyes at the silly man's antics. Pretending to be asleep— no, this was more than acting as though he were asleep. This was more like he was dead...

lz's eyes narrowed.

Think he could pretend he could be a dead fish, did he? lz would see how long that lasted when he—

wy screamed as lz dragged he horrible, adorable little boyfriend back onto his cock, punctuating the movement with own hips.

"Ah~ seems you aren't dead after all," he sighed

dramatically as he continued pounding into the other man. "Too bad~" he added, a slight tease to his voice. "You were much quieter and easier to control before you reanimated.

"lz..." wy whined. "This can't– can't be how you usually f–fuck me in the mornings!" he complained as

he began trying to push himself off the desk. "So mean! Not letting me live my inanimate toy fantasies!"

"Mn..." lz hummed noncommittally. "Not presently," he said, his voice breathy even to his own ears. "I imagine this," he added, thrusting harsh and rough into his boyfriend

and forcing him back down onto the desk, "covers a few of your other fantasies."

wy stifled a moan, his hands flexing against lz's desk a moment more before he was tentatively bringing towards lz, offering them for him to gather up and hold firm against his boyfriend's back.

lz hummed as he pulled wy's hands together, squeezing just hard enough to earn him a gasp from his boyfriend before pulling them into a position he knew would be at least a little uncomfortable for the man— not too much, just enough that his shoulders would ache for a few hours.

wy loved walking around with reminders of lz's love— hickeys and bite marks, sore muscles and lines where he had been bound. He loved leaving little marks on lz just as much— scratches down his back, little hearts drawn on his hands when they would be apart the whole day.

lz's eyes turned towards the little heart and star currently doodled across the base of his thumb.

"So you'll always be able to carry be with you!" wy had declared the first time he had drawn on lz, shortly after their reunion following wy's vacation with nhs and his own

murder mission.

He had practically collapsed into his boyfriend, mumbling about how much he had missed him and how he was never letting wy out of his sight again. wy had simply giggled and complained that lz was heavy before reaching to grab a pen on the living room table.

"This way," wy had laughed, biting his lip in concentration as he drew a heart and then a star across lz's hand. Then he had abruptly bounced up and yelled at him to stay right there before bolting out of room. He had returned a few minutes— and few crashes and curses —later with

a collection of pens and never managed to complete his thought. Not until later, after he had spent the rest of the afternoon doodling over lwj's body. He had taken a few photos of the more detailed ones— a dragon wrapping around his wrist, a fox pressed against his ribs

—while telling lz that he was actually pretty proud of his artwork. "Bits of my mind to keep with you even when we must, tragically, be apart!"

lz was even considering—

"lz~" wy complained as he pulled ineffectually at his captured wrist. "Where'd you go? Come back~"

"that even then, there was nowhere I'd rather be than with you." He nudged his nose against lz's, their lips gently brushing as he dragged his hands over the thin fabric of lz's pants.

"wy..." lz said, his hands catching his boyfriend's. "We cannot fuck in my mother's garden."

"lz?" wy called, likely not for the first time given the way he was leaning in so close, peeking up at him through his bangs. "Did you hear me?"

"No... sorry," lz admitted, blinking down at his boyfriend when he laughed.

"I said," the other man sighed, leaning in closer to lz,

usually open to anyone who showed up —so he could confirm that her rabbits were being cared for more properly now. Given the amount of research wy seemed to have done on the topic, he imagined they were both capable of helping her create a more enriching home for them, and—

wy's birthday— which he knew the other man took very seriously —to have been ruined because his lightweight friend had decided to go and steal someone's pets. He had to admit, he was now curious if his boyfriend had any additional information on this woman– his parties were

back on lz, a little crinkle of confusion between his eyes.

"So, you should have been enjoying the evening, not..."

"Chasing your adorable ass through the streets?" wy finished, a teasing smile flashing tentatively across his face.

"Mn..." lz agreed. It was not fair for

"My apartment?" lz asked. He had wondered how he had managed to make it home that night, but at the time had been too embarrassed to ask anyone for details. "It was your birthday," he added when his boyfriend made an inquiring sound at him.

"So?" wy asked, finally looking fully

"So anyways," wy continued, still fidgeting and refusing to look at lz for more than a few moments, "you dragged me around town for a while, but luckily your sense of direction when drunk is pretty bad. Eventually, I was able to get you back to your apartment and—"

what a proper bunny habitat looked like. You somehow got her address and the next thing I knew you were taking off! Trying to go and 'liberate the bunbuns,' or so you said."

lz felt his ears lighting up, the burn of embarrassment spreading down his neck and chest. That...

and urgent need for facts of that evening, nothing came to him.

"Uh... yeah... so, one of the girls at the party started talking about how she had these bunnies, and she was going around showing everyone pictures of them and well... you had a surprising amount of knowledge on

He blinked slowly at wy, who laughed awkwardly as lz told him such.

"So, uhm... you kinda tried to ah... steal some bunnies that night."

"I... what?" lz asked, trying to will his brain to remember even the smallest details from that night. Unfortunately, despite his newfound

lz, indeed, did not remember much from that night. He and alcohol did not agree with each other. The few times he had consumed any had been an accident. A cake with coffee liquor in the icing, spiked punch, and— in the case of wy's party— grabbing the wrong cup and downing it.

he complained, throwing his hands into the air like having to explain was the worst thing he possibly could have to do. "You remember my birthday a few years ago? The one where you accidentally drank some alcohol, and well... I supposed maybe you don't remember it much."

when he was trying to deflect a conversation: make the person ask him to repeat himself and then change the subject.

"When did I tell you?" lz asked, narrowing his eyes when wy cringed, realizing he couldn't escape the conversation as easily as he had hoped.

"Aiya! Fine!"

although he knew wy hated all dogs, so they were obviously off the table as a potential pet. He had an especially soft heart for bunnies, however...

"You did..." wy admitted, his voice a mumble that lz was sure he hadn't been meant to make out. It was a common tactic of the man

frowning and contemplating who else would have told him about his mostly secret love of bunnies— half the people on wy's list didn't even know about it, or his general love for almost all small animals. Cats and ferrets and sables were also cute. Some dog breeds as well,

anything about it— which, actually, I should kinda complain about! How dare he keep such adorable facts about his baby brother from me!? Wait! Who else knew! Did shushu? Your mom? nhs? wq? wn? Has everyone been trying to keep this a secret from me?"

"wy..." lz sighed,

gossipy older brother was, probably just waiting to hide behind their mother and use her as a shield from the consequences of his nosy, talkative, troublemaking—

"No!" wy squeaked, grabbing lz's arm as he began to rise, already set on becoming an only child. "Huan-ge didn't say

"Why bunnies?" lz asked as wy began extolling the virtues of different breeds.

"Oh... ah, well..." The man glanced away, avoiding lz's very suspicious gaze.

"Did my brother say something?" he asked darkly, already looking back towards the house where his horrible,

lz smiled softly down at the pictures his boyfriend was showing him. Fluffy bunnies, fat bunnies, bunnies that fit in the palm of their owner's hands when they were young. wy flipped through more photos and videos— bunny runs and fancy toys and bunnies zooming around yards and—

of research, and bunnies need to have at least one friend— they get lonely, just like humans! And— oh wait! Let me show you some pictures—"

Bunnies. wy wanted bunny babies. lz released the breath that had caught in his chest. Bunnies. Bunnies would be fine. Bunnies he could do.

least a child or two. A future child or two! Not a "we've been dating for a few months" child! They weren't ready! lz wasn't ready! He— they—!

"Little hopping baby buns!" wy cheered, already wiggling as he tried to extract his phone from his pocket. "Eh... I've been doing a bit

less sex because they would be exhausted. Stress and toys and cleaning up mess after mess after mess. wy already left a whirlwind behind him! They didn't need a bigger mess at the moment— but, if wy wanted to buy a forever home, that meant they should buy one with room for at

be our babies! Cared for since they were wee little saplings and— Oooh!" wy squeaked, bolting upright from where he had been slowly slouching further and further into lz's warmth. "We need babies!"

lz's mind froze. Babies? Little bouncing babies? Cute but diapers and messes and

his mother's dinner boiling on the stove —surrounded them. People talked and laughed and loved all around them, and yet to lz, all that existed was wy— smiling, happy, loving wy who was just as crazy as he was, already dreaming of a future for them.

"No way, lz. These are gonna

behind his ear.

wy turned into his hand, a soft smile spreading over his face as a breeze shifted over them. Nearby, chimes twinkled through the air and the chatter of birds was carried to them from who knew where, a thousand little sounds and smells— flowers, vegetables,

grow though— that's why mama decided she didn't want any —so we'll have to choose the perfect home, so we can stay there a long, long time."

"We may also find a house that already has established fruit trees," lz pointed out as he reached out to gently push the other man's hair

his expressions shifting into one of faux seriousness. "This one is just the trial run. The one I design for us will be perfect, and we'll make sure to have tons of those weird and horribly health veggies you like— Oh! And fruit trees! I need fruit trees! They take forever to

wy laughed, his head thrown back as a drop of sweat slipped down his neck, slow and beautiful, and lz— despite his best, more sincerest efforts to resist —leaned forward, his tongue running over the for once unmarked skin.

"I can't see your mother with hickies and bite marks

all over me!" wy had complained, several days before their visit, physicality pushing lz away from the tender skin of his neck... and thighs... and stomach. "We could go to the pool!" wy had insisted, laughter filling his voice as lz had growled in frustration at being denied his

(A/N: wy's scars) right to mark his boyfriend up. The irony that the man was now comfortable enough in his own skin to show glimpses of his scars in public places and that this was now interfering with lz's ability to mark them with his love had not been lost on him.

wy also enjoyed teasing him about this little fact, going on and on about how lz had made him too confident in his body and scars and it was now biting him in the butt. This had been followed by wy laughing at his joke and lz literally biting his butt, leaving hickies and

imprints of his teeth over the skin before eating the man out. Even if it was interfering with his ability to love his boyfriend the way he most wanted to, lz wouldn’t have it any other way, although…

lz leaned in, pressed his lips to wy’s ear— soft and sweet before leaving a

sharp nip, just the way the other man liked it —before shifting down and—

“lz!” wy half-moaned, half-laughed as lz sucked a mark just behind his ear. “Shameless! Leaving little marks that everyone’ll be able to see on me!”

“Mn,” lz agreed as he sucked another and another,

enjoying the way wy squirmed and moaned, his hands finding a home in lz’s hair and tugging him away and closer in equal parts.

“lz… everyone’s gonna know when we go back in–inside that you—” wy cut off when lz’s hand settled over his hardening cock, giving it a light squeeze as

he sucked another mark and—

lz let go of both wy’s neck and his dick with a pop, quickly shifting up and backwards and twisting back towards the house.

“L–Lan Zhan??” wy asked, his voice fucked out and blurry. “Where are you going?”

“Back inside,” he said simply, pushing the

gate open and stepping out, letting it clang gently shut behind him. “You should hurry in. Mama is waiting for the vegetables to she can make dinner.”

“lz~” wy whined, flopping over and kicking his feet against the ground. “Not fair! You can’t get me all riled up and then leave

me in this state! And! And! Even if you say mama is waiting, it’s not like I can go inside like this!” he groaned, motioning to the very obvious tent in his pants— a tent that lz realized he was also sporting, doing his best to readjust himself and will his cock to soften up.