egelantier (ao3)
Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei, trapped in the darkness under the mountain together while investigating a dangerous case, finally share some secrets and reach a new understanding.
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Zhao Yunlan was angry with him.
Well, no, not quite. Zhao Yunlan was blindingly, scorchingly, tremendously furious with him, and had been radiating that fury with every cell of his body ever since he caught Shen Wei in his kitchen with that knife.
It was, of course, Shen Wei's fault. He should have been more careful - he should've left for his own apartment the moment he put the freshly healed Zhao Yunlan into bed. Zhao Yunlan's bright white energy had begun pulsing in Shen Wei's veins from the moment of healing, burning pathways through his blood vessels, scraping his nerves. While there was fierce, pleasing joy in this agony, in knowing what it was the price of, what it would be the price of, Shen Wei had known he'd need to deal with it, sooner or later - and so he should have left, and closed his door, and carved himself up in peace.
But just as Kunlun had done back then, Zhao Yunlan had always rendered him too weak for common sense or logic, and so Shen Wei had lingered. Watching Zhao Yunlan sleep, watching the rise and fall of his chest: unencumbered, peaceful, free of pain, free of worry. Shen Wei had stayed, and when the pain that rose in him became unbearable, he had gambled on being able to deal with it quickly and cleanly - and got caught.
He winced at the memory of the scene, at Zhao Yunlan's shock, at his insistence that his life had no value. Shen Wei's attempts to reason with the man only made it worse, and he didn't know how to fix it.
There was a price for every indulgence, and he was paying it now, hiking up the mountain path with Zhao Yunlan in miserable, tense silence.
Giving Zhao Yunlan some space to calm down might have worked out better, but the very next day the SID had gotten a case concerning a clearly Dixing suspect causing some trouble in Dragon City - a series of explosions in several department stores in a row. Luckily the damage was small enough that there were no deaths, but there were wounded, and such matters tended to escalate quickly.
Lao Chu and Guo Changcheng were still canvassing the witnesses and trying to find any information on their unknown suspects. Lin Jing found some chatter on the web that mentioned strange sightings in the caves around this region, concurrent with their suspect's use of energy, and they hoped to either apprehend the criminal there or find some further clues.
Shen Wei had a feeling Zhao Yunlan would've preferred going to check out the leads they had collected alone, but that was out of the question. Shen Wei had made it known that he would follow behind if he wasn't invited along, and so there they were.
They had to leave the car in the valley below since it was unsuitable for the narrow mountain trail, and Shen Wei couldn't teleport them to an unknown destination. It left them with around an hour to climb.
Shen Wei let Zhao Yunlan take the lead, to spare himself the indignity of wondering whether the man was staring at his back in rage or avoiding him altogether. It left him with an unobstructed view of Zhao Yunlan's tense, angry back, and the uncomfortable churn of warring energies in his blood, and his heavy, miserable thoughts.
He couldn't, try as he might, figure out the reason for Zhao Yunlan's rage. He had lied, of course, but Zhao Yunlan did not know the extent of this lie. What he had figured out was so small - he'd forgiven Shen Wei much heavier transgressions before - that it made no sense. Could Zhao Yunlan truly be worried about being beholden to him? Did he expect Shen Wei to demand some steep price, to call in the favor Zhao Yunlan would not want to deliver?
