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Chapter Text

Luo Binghe is assigned to Shen Qingqiu’s pod at the start of the colder months. Their pod hadn’t had any members dedicated to defense prior to this, and the addition of Luo Binghe is meant to fill that role. He’ll keep Shen Qingqiu and the other Qing Jing researchers safe as they do their job, a necessary barrier between the softer sea folk in the research division and the dangers of the waters all around them.

Well, that’s what Shen Qingqiu had been told, at least.

The Qing Jing pod hadn’t been in need of a ‘defender,’ though. Besides the fact that the area they’ve been stationed in isn’t particularly dangerous, each and every one of them is competent enough to defend themselves in most scenarios. And, considering their pod works directly under the warrior pods to develop new tools for them, adding a new member to their pod was more of a liability and possible security issue than anything else. After all, if the sorts of things Qing Jing works on fell into the wrong hands - methods of increased survival in deeper waters, research on possible biological weaknesses Deep Sea mers posses that could be exploited in battle - it would turn out poorly for the entire region of Shallow Water mers.

No, Shen Qingqiu - along with his pod, who’d been similarly skeptical when they’d gotten the missive that Luo Binghe would be joining them - were well aware what sorts of reasons someone might be assigned to their pod, and none of them were ‘for defense.’ And for this particular merman, who arrived biting and snapping and poisoning the waters with a minor toxin produced by stress and aggression…

It’s quite obvious to everyone almost immediately that Luo Binghe had only been assigned to their pod because he’d been a liability in battle due to his volatile and overly aggressive attitude, and the warrior pod that had previously kept him wanted him out of the way. A small research based pod like Qing Jing, only indirectly contributing to the war against the Deep Water mers and often looked down on by most warrior pods? They’re a perfect spot to shove a liability like Luo Binghe.

Except! A liability in battle is also a liability in the lab!! Who was the asshole who thought sending a clearly volatile killing machine into a research pod in charge of delicate experiments would be a good idea, ah?! It took their pod ages to adjust to the pH levels here, so close to deep sea - if anyone got sick because someone sent them a toxin-leaking pretty boy, Shen Qingqiu would strangle those meatheads who sent Luo Binghe to them himself!

There were other things about Luo Binghe that stand out in Qing Jing’s waters, too, besides his literally poisonous attitude. Most obviously, he’s huge - though his upper body is only slightly larger than Shen Qingqiu’s own, his tail is over twice as long, the sort of size and proportions that are mostly unheard of in Shallow Water mers. And usually, the larger and more impressive the Shallow Water mer, the more decorative and colorful they are as well. Shen Qingqiu himself has scales that shine pearlescent green and delicate fins shaped almost like kelp, mesmerizing and impressive enough that Shen Qingqiu is totally, completely valid in his own proud appreciation of them.

Luo Binghe, though, has plain fins and scales so dark they seem almost black, and at the size that he is… Well, paired with his attitude, it’s almost reminiscent of a Deep Water mer rather than one that really belongs in shallower waters. He isn’t a Deep Water mer, since his skin and fat all sit nicely on him in the same water pressure that Shen Qingqiu and his pod live in, but the similarities to the mers from deeper waters stand out regardless. 

Still, Qing Jing welcomes him - albeit warily - and puts faith in Luo Binghe adapting to his new pod and settling in to at least the point of no longer being a danger to everyone. Qing Jing is used to getting somewhat unruly pups occasionally - If Luo Binghe’s compared to them, it’s not completely unusual for him to behave somewhat oddly (read: rudely) when settling into a new pod… Even if Luo Binghe is fully mature and shouldn’t need to be compared to disobedient pups.

So things will be totally, completely fine, and Shen Qingqiu will absolutely be able to stay out of mediating the situation!! 

…Ah, he wishes. Unfortunately, Luo Binghe doesn’t ‘settle’ into the pod as everyone had been hoping. After several days of tense waters, he does become easier to work with, but even that isn’t necessarily Luo Binghe himself becoming more comfortable in the pod. 

Their Qing Jing is comprised of researchers, after all - they spend their entire lives finding patterns and exploiting them to their benefit. So long as a behavior can be seen multiple times, surely a cause can be identified, and a solution can be thought of. Given that Luo Binghe had come to Qing Jing directly from the bloodier waters, Shen Qingqiu had personally been expecting the bouts of aggression to quickly fall under a pattern of defensive behavior, the sorts of habits that a warrior mer picks up when they can’t quite be certain that their pod is safe. His podmates likely assumed something similar, hence why the pattern is easily picked up by everyone.

Luo Binghe’s fins flare whenever he’s approached from behind, and he gets twitchy and agitated when night falls and the waters get too dark to see very far without a light. He’s less likely to snap if conversations are kept short and to the point, if he’s eaten recently, or if you are careful to keep your body language relaxed. These behaviors aren’t unmanageable - or even unreasonable, given Luo Binghe’s past on what was presumably a war-beaten pod - and even the mers who don’t even try to hide how irritated they are that Luo Binghe had been assigned to their pod make some sort of effort to accommodate them.

The problem - and the reason why Shen Qingqiu can’t just quietly let the problem resolve itself as Luo Binghe adjusts to his new pod -  is that there is one more pattern in Luo Binghe’s behavior that is far, far more concerning: He’s clearly terrified of Shen Qingqiu. 

Which is honestly a bit discouraging, you know! What did Shen Qingqiu ever do to you, ah?! This humble mer has honestly tried quite hard to help everyone feel comfortable together as a pod, so this sort of blatant aggression and instinctive defensive response to just seeing Shen Qingqiu’s face is -!

Shen Qingqiu blinks, his mental tirade coming to a sudden halt. 

…Who had been in charge of the warrior pod Luo Binghe had come from, again?

Was it possible that there had actually been just the slightest amount of reason behind assigning Luo Binghe to Qing Jing’s research focused pod, rather than one of the many other less delicate groups still taking orders from the warrior pods leading the effort to beat back the deep sea mers?

Shen Qingqiu pales, sinking down to the floor of the small cave he’s outfitted to be his personal home, deciding to allow himself to wallow in hopeless resignation. Fuck. They haven’t spoken in years, but Shen Qingqiu shares his courtesy name with his twin - a twin who, for the last decade or so, has been leading one of Cang Qiong’s warrior pods as a backhanded punishment for attacking one of the Bai Zhan pod’s best fighters.

If Shen Qingqiu is right about this… well, it wouldn’t be the first time some idiot had assumed he could handle whatever business his twin couldn’t (or refused to). Luo Binghe had likely been assigned to the Qing Jing pod under that assumption, thinking that Shen Qingqiu might be able to make Luo Binghe more ‘manageable’ so he could be sent back to his brother’s pod - or any proper warrior pod, really - to fight in the war again. 

Honestly, Shen Qingqiu had probably been a fool to think the warrior pods would really be okay permanently giving up a mer as clearly dangerous as Luo Binghe, that they didn’t have some stupid plan like ‘get Shen Qingqiu to clean up his brother’s mess and then take Luo Binghe back again.’ Ugh. Shen Qingqiu had definitely been a fool to think Luo Binghe had been assigned to his pod by chance, to think that Shen Qingqiu hadn’t been given his own role to play in this. Fuck. Fuck!

Shen Qingqiu blows a stream of bubbles up above him, refocusing his thoughts. Whether he wants to - or even is able to - take on his brother’s clearly failed pet project for himself, he does need to make sure that Luo Binghe is comfortable enough in their pod that he isn’t a danger to everyone. 

Unfortunately, he can’t just take the easy way out and make sure Luo Binghe never has to see his face from here on out - Shen Qingqiu is personally in charge of most of the projects their pod has ongoing. Even if he could… Well, Shen Qingqiu has always had a hard time balancing his admittedly complicated love for his brother and the moral divide in what they each think is ‘worth’ a result. Now that the thought has occurred to him, Shen Qingqiu doesn’t think he could sleep peacefully at night thinking about what his brother might have done to Luo Binghe to make the poor boy so clearly upset just at the sight of him.

Alright, then! This is fine! Shen Qingqiu has a plan of action: fix his brother’s mess! 

…This is, admittedly, not the most well developed plan of action, but it’s something.

Shen Qingqiu blows another stream of bubbles, pushing himself up off the sand to find someone to call Luo Binghe for him. Despite the pod learning to better work with Luo Binghe’s overly-defensive habits, no one has yet tried to tell him there’s no point in really acting as a defensive unit for the territory, so at the very least it’s easy to find him, agitatedly patrolling the borders of the pod’s waters. The pros and cons of this…

On the upside, Shen Qingqiu doesn’t have time to chicken out before Luo Binghe has been found and brought to his cave.

On the downside, Shen Qingqiu really doesn’t have time to chicken out before Luo Binghe has been found and brought to his cave!!

When he does arrive, Luo Binghe slinks into Shen Qingqiu’s home as if expecting to be attacked for it, hesitating near the mouth of the cave and only coming in further when Shen Qingqiu gestures for him to come up to the small table he’s laid out a few seagrass fruits on. 

“Luo Binghe,” Shen Qingqiu greets, trying to channel his years of being a perfectly respectable pod leader and not his many more years of being his brother’s sibling. “How are you finding our Qing Jing pod?”

Luo Binghe watches him, eyes slitted and wary, and says nothing. Shen Qingqiu feels his polite smile grow a bit strained.

“In the past, our new podmates were usually pups, or at least came from a similar research background as us, so if there is something we can do to make your own transition here easier…”

“Shen Qingqiu is doing enough already,” Luo Binghe finally speaks up, words clipped and agitated. 

What Shen Qingqiu has been doing these past few days in regards to Luo Binghe amounts to essentially nothing - just staying out of his way, watching him carefully when he can, trying to assess if there’s anything he needs to do to protect his podmates. For Luo Binghe to say that that’s enough… it’s more like saying ‘staying away from me is enough.’ Shen Qingqiu grimaces. He really isn’t going to be able to make any progress without directly confronting the issue, is he?

“The, ah, pod you were previously a part of… it didn’t happen to be led by my brother, did it?”

Luo Binghe’s hands flex at his sides. His claws are - jeez they look sharp, Shen Qingqiu knows he’s been raised to fight but - you don’t have to go around with claws that could gut a mer just because you can, ah!

“‘Shen Qingqiu’ is indeed a name shared between siblings, then?”

Shen Qingqiu nudges the snacks closer to Luo Binghe, feeling a bit nervous. He’d suspected as much before he called Luo Binghe here, but it really doesn’t feel great to have confirmation that his brother must have been in charge of this clearly skittish mer in the past!

“Mm. I apologize for not clarifying this with you previously.” Shen Qingqiu pauses, but Luo Binghe remains silent.

…That’s fine! Whatever! Shen Qingqiu doesn’t need his apology recognized!

“...Well, in anycase, it occurred to me that Luo Binghe has perhaps had some trouble identifying me as myself, rather than my brother.”

“I’m not blind,” Luo Binghe bites out, “Nor have I lost my sense of smell.”

“Of course not,” Shen Qingqiu placates, but doesn’t continue to push it. Already, his skin has started to prick with the telltale sign that there’s something dangerous in the water, and he shoots a (hopefully) subtle glance in the direction of the poisonous glands at the base of Luo Binghe’s fins. 

Luo Binghe’s fins flare, and Shen Qingqiu’s gills burn just slightly. Not subtle enough, then.

Shen Qingqiu uncurls his tail from under him to move away from the table, bringing a hand up to delicately hover his gills as he turns away from Luo Binghe. This poison nonsense really fucking hurts, damn it!

“Well, regardless of Luo Binghe’s own proficiency in identifying me, it’s been reminder enough that I look a bit too similar to my brother.” Shen Qingqiu collects the piece of sharp coral he’d left out earlier, then turns back to Luo Binghe, smiling as best he can while he still feels a bit like he’s suffocating in his own home. “I was hoping Luo Binghe might be able to assist?”

Luo Binghe’s eyes glance down to the sharp coral in Shen Qingqiu’s hands, then back up to his face. His expression doesn’t change, but neither does he seem any more at ease than he had before when he’d been actively flaring his fins at Shen Qingqiu.

Shen Qingqiu hates this whole situation so much. He wishes he’d been given Luo Binghe when he was younger, when he hadn’t fully grown up yet - back then, Shen Qingqiu’s own instincts likely would have found the whole situation pitible more than anything else, and it would have been easy to simply carefully raise the mer up sweetly, to make up for what he’d experienced in the past. He’d have interpreted Luo Binghe’s aggression as simply sulking, and even the poison secretion could have been easily looked over if he’d been young and cute enough. Fully grown like he is now, though, Luo Binghe’s dangerous attitude grates at Shen Qingqiu’s instincts, and it’s more difficult to focus on how much Luo Binghe needs Shen Qingqiu’s help and care as his new pod leader, not his instinctual warriness.

…Shen Qingqiu really, really hates this whole situation, ah!

“It’ll be difficult to cut my hair on my own.” Shen Qingqiu continues, reaching out to extend the sharp coral to Luo Binghe. “Humor me, please?”

There’s a tense moment of unbroken eye contact between them, Luo Binghe clearly searching for something in Shen Qingqiu’s expression. Shen Qingqiu has to stop himself from nervously coiling his tail under the attention, focusing on maintaining at least some level of dignity. He may be feeling guilty from his brother’s mistakes and more than a bit uncomfortable in the situation, but -

But regardless of how he’s feeling, he’s still the pod leader! He’s still in charge of Luo Binghe’s safety and happiness for as long as he’s with Qing Jing, and he’s still competent and totally capable of being a good enough leader that he doesn’t need to be feeling so nervous right now! He can just take his instincts and shove them deep, deep down, and it’ll be fine!

He has things totally under control!

Luo Binghe’s gills flare, scenting the water. Shen Qingqiu would kill to be able to breathe that easily in the poisonous water right now. He would also, ideally, like to pretend that whatever scent Luo Binghe has picked up on, it isn’t Shen Qingqiu’s own nervousness. 

There’s a moment of tense silence, and then, quite suddenly, Luo Binghe’s expression shifts as some of his hesitancy slips away into something slightly more curious and confident. He caught the scent, then, which is - highly embarrassing, and something Shen Qingqiu would really like to pretend hasn’t happened considering his position as Luo Binghe’s pod leader. That’s mostly instinct, too, though - the need to be seen as infallible and unshakable in front of the mers he’s in charge of - and Shen Qingqiu can recognize that anything that makes Luo Binghe a bit more confident in front of him is likely a good thing. 

“If Shen Qingqiu wishes,” Luo Binghe demures, reaching out to take the sharp coral from Shen Qingqiu, and - ah. Ah, maybe not so much a good thing, or at least not something to be celebrated just yet, judging by the look in Luo Binghe’s eyes. 

‘Not being imminently afraid of someone’ is very different from ‘not hating someone,’ after all.

Shen Qingqiu forces himself to keep steady eye contact with Luo Binghe. He’s undeniably intimidating, and Shen Qingqiu can recognize that perhaps putting a knife in the hands of a poisonous mer who clearly doesn’t like him and has spent more days snapping at his new pod than not is not the brightest idea he’s had. Still, Shen Qingqiu is his pod leader right now, not some random rival mer that he can intimidate freely. 

Regardless of Shen Qingqiu’s nervous instincts, if Luo Binghe forgets his place in the pod, Shen Qingqiu will not hesitate to scold him appropriately. After all, if Shen Qingqiu had compared Luo Binghe to a pup who needed time and assistance to adjust to a new pod, it isn’t so much of a leap to compare him to a pup who needs a bit of chastisement.

Luo Binghe, sharp coral in hand, moves to circle around Shen Qingqiu, his tail uncoiling from under and around him as he moves. It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do, considering Shen Qingqiu didn’t move himself to present the back of his head (and therefore his hair) to Luo Binghe. Perfectly reasonable, Shen Qingqiu reminds himself, but his eyes still narrow at the way Luo Binghe’s long tail suddenly seems to encircle the entire cave, the filtered lighting here making his scales look almost red instead of black. 

Luo Binghe certainly knows how to take his time swimming into position like this.

Luo Binghe also, apparently, has very little respect for Shen Qingqiu’s space now that he’s decided Shen Qingqiu isn’t someone he needs to be horribly afraid of, considering how rude it’s generally considered to allow one’s tail to take up so much space in another mer’s territory.

“There are more polite ways to move behind me,” Shen Qingqiu says stiffly, and Luo Binghe hums. 

“Shen Qingqiu is so thoughtful, though, surely he doesn’t want this Luo Binghe to remain coiled up so tightly onto himself? Surely, Shen Qingqiu doesn’t want this Luo Binghe to be uncomfortable while he’s holding something so sharp to your neck?”

Shen Qingqiu, unable to help himself, lets out an irritated almost-growl. It’s horribly clear how aggressively Luo Binghe is posturing, right now. It’s a natural thing to do when you’ve lost your point of reference on where you stand with another mer, and Shen Qingqiu has dealt with his fair share of it over the years, often between other pod leaders mers. Luo Binghe, who had picked up on the way Shen Qingqiu is instinctively wary of his claws and poison and general dangerous attitude, realized that Shen Qingqiu isn’t an immediate threat to him and is trying to see what he is instead. A lesser threat, perhaps, like a stranger you can’t trust? Perhaps someone who’d only cower when pushed around…? 

Obviously not!! Luo Binghe, this mer in front of you is your new pod leader!! If you’ve decided you don’t have to be afraid of this humble pod leader, that’s excellent - so fall into line as any podmate should, no need for this posturing!!!

“Surely, Luo Binghe doesn’t want to be so unabashedly rude to the mer in charge of him for the foreseeable future?” Shen Qingqiu snaps, twisting to face Luo Binghe. He may not be as large or rough looking as Luo Binghe, but he hadn’t - he hadn’t been lying to himself earlier. Even if this is only meant to be a temporary assignment while Luo Binghe learns to behave himself, Shen Qingqiu is his pod leader. “Behave, or I’ll send you out to swim laps around Qing Jing’s territory.”

Luo Binghe looks at him for a long moment, expression frozen in the hungry, mocking sort of aggression he’d adopted the second he’d smelled Shen Qingqiu’s fear and started posturing. Shen Qingqiu wants to tug at his cheeks until the expression is wiped off his face - asshole, anyone would be a bit afraid if you started poisoning the waters of their own home!

“Swim laps,” Luo Binghe repeats, voice carefully neutral. Shen Qingqiu scowls, his fins flicking irritably.

“A lot of them,” he agrees. “Enough you’ll be too tired to be rude, and then maybe we could try this again.”

“Is swimming laps supposed to be a harsh punishment, then?” Luo Binghe asks, and Shen Qingqiu almost scolds him for not taking this seriously before he registers the tone of voice.

That - that had been a genuine question. Luo Binghe had honestly been asking, as if it didn’t make sense to him. 

“Isn’t it?” Shen Qingqiu replies, feeling a bit thrown off. It had always felt like a harsh punishment when he had netted it out in the past, at least. To swim the perimeter of the territory like that - isn’t it like announcing that you’re in trouble to everyone in the pod? That sort of ‘swim of shame’ had certainly worked well enough in disciplining the occasional pup Qing Jing would get for training.

Luo Binghe is… admittedly not a pup. But if he’s going to behave like one, he’ll be treated like one, so there!

Feeling reaffirmed in his own reasoning, Shen Qingqiu nods to himself. “It is a harsh punishment,” he says, “And don’t think you’ll talk me out of it just by questioning it!”

Luo Binghe eyes him for a moment longer before some of the tension in his shoulders eases out. He’s decided where he stands, then - unnecessary posturing complete, answer found. With any luck, he’s come to the reasonable conclusion that he should be obedient from here on out.

“Of course,” Luo Binghe says, and reaches out to nudge Shen Qingqiu into spinning back around. “How short was it that you wanted this Luo Binghe to cut your hair, again?”

Shen Qingqiu casts a pointed look around the cave, where Luo Binghe’s tail is still very much spread out quite rudely despite his scolding. “That’s it? You don’t have anything else to… do, about this matter?”

“That’s it,” Luo Binghe confirms, keeping his tail as-is. “How short do you want your hair?”

Shen Qingqiu sighs heavily, watching as the resulting bubbles travel up to the ceiling of the cave. Luo Binghe… very clearly had not taken the scolding to heart, and would likely remain as he is until he’d finished cutting Shen Qingqiu’s hair, regardless of what is proper.

Well, fine! Whatever! Whether Shen Qingqiu’s scolding and (very real!) threats of punishment had been effective or not in cowing Luo Binghe into behaving, they had stripped Shen Qingqiu of the trepidation he’d been feeling earlier from handing Luo Binghe some sharp coral to wield next to his neck. Luo Binghe’s a bit of a brat, so what? He’s still a brat that agreed to help out with this whole hair-cutting business, and he doesn’t seem to be actively poisoning the water anymore, so clearly he can be corralled into at least sort of behaving! If Luo Binghe came to the wrong conclusion after that unnecessary posturing early, Shen Qingqiu will set him straight over time, now that they can at least be in the same area of each other without both of their instincts going wild - Luo Binghe in fear, Shen Qingqiu wary of that fear and its natural defensive responses. Things may not be perfect today, but they’d get there!

Shen Qingqiu is going to be so good at this ‘clean up his brother’s mess’ thing!

---

Luo Binghe becomes significantly more friendly after that, if an acceptable definition of the word ‘friendly’ is ‘unlikely to actively harm or scare the pod as often.’ His eyes still track Shen Qingqiu with a single-minded attentiveness when he’s in the vicinity, but it seems more curious than nervous now. Shen Qingqiu catches more than one glance at his (now very short) hair, too, so clearly that change had helped Luo Binghe see Shen Qingqiu more separately from his brother despite his initial protests that he could see and smell Shen Qingqiu as his own person just fine.

Most importantly, of course, is that with Luo Binghe less on edge he can finally be allowed closer to Qing Jing’s main research site without fear of his poison responses disrupting their work. Luo Binghe himself does not seem as excited by this as Shen Qingqiu is, but! Luo Binghe! You have to humor this humble pod leader! 

Qing Jing hasn’t gotten any new pups since the warrior clans started directing their research efforts, you know! 

Shen Qingqiu really, really misses being able to watch mers learn to be excited about how fucking cool their ocean is!!

“It’s just another part of war,” Luo Binghe dismisses, when Shen Qingqiu wheedles him to abandon his useless ‘defense of the perimeter’ to come join the other Qing Jing mers and learn about what they’re doing. “You have your projects to assist the warrior pods’ fights, I have my assignment to protect your pod.”

Shen Qingqiu’s fins flare, offended despite himself. He tries so hard to not let these things get to him, but - ah! He’s really sick of Qing Jing being seen this way by the other pods!

“Do you know what it is, exactly, that Qing Jing is working on right now?” 

“Equipment suited to assist Shallow Water mers in Deep Sea attrition,” Luo Binghe recites, and Shen Qingqiu nods, satisfied.

“So you know perfectly well that we aren’t working on helping mers fight - we’re helping them survive.” Shen Qingqiu flicks the long, delicate tip of his tail against Luo Binghe’s, gently scolding him - he’s been making an active effort to treat Luo Binghe like a younger and more submissive podmate than he really is, to try and replace whatever impression Luo Binghe had gotten during his stupid posturing the other day. Luo Binghe startles at the contact, his entire tail moving behind him and out of Shen Qingqiu’s reach, as opposed to the lazy way it had twisted under him before. 

Shen Qingqiu almost rolls his eyes - for a mer who seems quite preoccupied with presenting himself as confident and aggressively large, he sure has no problem putting his tail away if someone dares to touch it!

“And anyway,” he continues, “I’m sure Luo Binghe is well aware that his assignment to our pod as a ‘defensive unit’ isn’t really necessary.”

Luo Binghe hums, looking faintly amused. “Clearly Shen Qingqiu thinks so,” he agrees, and Shen Qingqiu narrows his eyes at him. This brat!

Irritated, and with Luo Binghe’s tail out of reach of further scolding flicks, Shen Qingqiu reaches out to pull gently at Luo Binghe’s cheek. Luo Binghe freezes up at the contact, and Shen Qingqiu squishes his cheek for a moment longer before letting go and backing up. 

“That was a warning,” Shen Qingqiu sniffs, “for being a brat. I’ll pinch at both your cheeks next time - stop acting like an untrained pup, I’m already getting tired of scolding you like one.”

“Shen Qingqiu’s ‘scoldings’ are quite unique,” Luo Binghe says, and Shen Qingqiu almost snaps back a response about Luo Binghe’s attitude being unique, or something else equally appropriate for a proud and dignified pod leader to say, but - 

He’s reminded quite suddenly that Luo Binghe, who had come to Qing Jing’s research pod directly after spending time in the care of Shen Qingqiu’s brother, might really have gotten used to some horrible sorts of ‘scoldings.’

Ah, Shen Qingqiu hates it when he’s reminded that his brother isn’t always a very good person.

It’s fine, it’s fine! He’ll just carefully package those thoughts up to be reevaluated the next time he feels like having a bad day and not even think about thinking them until then!

In the meantime… perhaps Luo Binghe might appreciate a bit of positive reinforcement.

“Luo Binghe,” Shen Qingqiu starts, and then decides immediately that if he’s going to try and train Luo Binghe from a more positive-focused standpoint, he may as well go all the way! “Binghe. Tomorrow, you can do what you’d like, so at least for today - come join us on the research site.”

“Anything I’d like?” Luo Binghe asks, and Shen Qingqiu nods once.

“So long as you obediently let me teach you today, tomorrow you can do what you please.”

“Tomorrow, I’d like to leave,” Luo Binghe replies easily, and Shen Qingqiu wilts.

Well, he isn’t surprised. He’s been trying his best to fit Luo Binghe into this pod, fighting both his own instincts and Luo Binghe’s, but there’s really only so much that can be done. If Luo Binghe wants to leave so badly that he’s willing to ask outright for it, and immediately, there’s a nonzero chance that Luo Binghe would never settle properly into a pod. And to constantly be fighting instincts indefinitely like that… it wouldn’t be good for anyone in the pod, to say the least. 

Shen Qingqiu resolves himself. “Alright, then. Tomorrow, if you’d like, you can leave.”

“Really?” Luo Binghe asks, smiling sharply. “Allowing a mer to leave one of the pods the warrior mers control is a very dangerous business.”

“You were assigned as a defensive unit,” Shen Qingqiu sniffs, “So clearly, Qing Jing pod’s waters are a bit unsafe. It isn’t my fault if a mer assigned to me disappears under mysterious and probably dangerous circumstances.”

“If you hand in that report, you’ll probably end up with double the amount of concern for your lack of defenses,” Luo Binghe muses, though the sharp, curious expression he’d been wearing earlier has slipped into something more genuinely amused.

“Well, maybe one of the new ‘defensive units’ after you will be interested in Qing Jing’s research, and then I’ll have more little guppies to teach - hopefully with more manners.” Shen Qingqiu flicks his fins in mock dismissiveness, and Luo Binghe snorts.

“Fine. Lead the way, Laoshi. Today, I’ll ‘obediently let you teach me,’ as much as you’d like.”

Shen Qingqiu tries to not let it be too obvious how quickly the small fins on his ears flick up in excitement at this. He’s just - even if it’s only for a day, even if it’s teaching a mer who isn’t a part of the pod and never will be, even if it’s a mer as rude as Luo Binghe - even still, it’s been a long time since their pod has been allowed new pups, and he’s really, really missed teaching.

“Good! We’ve just recently been able to isolate which protein in a Bone Eater’s Fish’s mouth is responsible for decay acceleration, it’s - well, if we can work in reverse we’re hoping to find a way to slow decay for the food stores necessary in Deep Sea efforts…”

Shen Qingqiu rambles about their ongoing projects as he herds Luo Binghe towards their main research site, a large stone structure in the center of Qing Jing’s territory. Luo Binghe follows obediently, although certainly less enthusiastically, drifting to swim closer to Shen Qingqiu once they enter the site and the mers already there shoot them curious looks.

Despite Luo Binghe’s lack of enthusiasm, though, he doesn’t seem completely uninterested either. He watches what Shen Qingqiu and the other mers do with sharp eyes, and clearly listens closely as Shen Qingqiu explains what they’re doing and why and how, even though Shen Qingqiu is pretty sure it’s obvious that all he’s saying is a slightly more rambly, tangent-filled version of the notes he had shoved into Luo Binghe’s hands when they’d entered the site. Although, really, Luo Binghe hadn’t seemed to even look at the notes, which Shen Qingqiu resignedly admits is probably a sign that Luo Binghe’s attention has more to do with his natural wariness than his actual interest in the research.

Which is totally fine! Not like Shen Qingqiu cares if his one-day student enjoys his lessons or not! He doesn’t care even a little bit!!

Still, Shen Qingqiu nudges Luo Binghe towards where a few mers are removing the tongues from Bone Eater’s Fish to use later. Learning about something up close and personal is always more fun than just hearing about it, after all!

“Binghe, come -”

“Pod leader,” one of the other mers interrupts, “Please review the notes we submitted yesterday before playing around more.”

Ah…

Shen Qingqiu feels himself turn faintly pink, his tail coiling up a bit underneath himself in embarrassment. Ah, how can his own pod call him out like that, so cold hearted!!

“Sorry, Binghe,” he says, pretending like he isn’t still flushed with embarrassment and that half his pod isn’t watching him with clear amusement, “I’ve just suddenly remembered I had something I was meant to do before getting wrapped up in showing you around.”

“Pod leader is very good at remembering things all on his own without any reminders at all,” quips one of the other nearby mers, and Shen Qingqiu resolutely ignores her.

“Binghe should just stay here for a moment while I take care of this, it shouldn’t take long.” Shen Qingqiu pauses, catches the eye of the mer who had originally requested he get to work, and watches as she makes a noncommittal gesture. Ah. Perhaps… reviewing the notes might take a little bit more time than he’d like, then… He turns back to Luo Binghe, clearing his throat awkwardly. “Just in case it takes me a bit, though - Binghe can start experimenting on his own, so long as he follows these guidelines!”

Shen Qingqiu shoves a mass of knotted fibers into Luo Binghe’s hands to join the notes he’d given him earlier. Luo Binghe, in turn, looks at the mess in his hands with an unreadable expression.

“It’s just instructions on how to remove the parts we need,” Shen Qingqiu explains, gesturing again to where a few members of the pod are dissecting Bone Eater’s Fish. “Binghe will do fine, and I’ll be back shortly.”

Sending one more reassuring smile Luo Binghe’s way, Shen Qingqiu darts off before his pod could start teasing him again. The nerve of them, honestly - Shen Qingqiu is a perfectly respectable and proud pod leader, you know! Respectable and proud pod leaders don’t get teased in front of guests like that!! 

Shen Qingqiu is absolutely going to be assigning everyone extra gross clean up duty later, and it will be perfectly justified. 

Still, he finds himself reassured that his pod had felt comfortable enough to tease him in front of Luo Binghe, taking it as a sign that everyone else had also noticed the changes in Luo Binghe’s behavior and have stopped perceiving him as a threat quite as much. It’s with that reassurement that Shen Qingqiu feels comfortable taking the time to properly look over the notes his pod left or him from yesterday, leaving Luo Binghe to his own devices for long enough that he expects him to have experimented with dissections enough to have either gotten bored and wandered off or to have discovered he enjoyed it and joined the main group of mers working on dissections together.

Shen Qingqiu tries not to be too dismayed when he returns to find Luo Binghe has, instead, almost butchered the Bone Eater’s Fish specimen in front of him, and is watching the other researcher mers with a single minded intensity that came off just slightly as a glare.

While no one has noticed him - and therefore no one can judge him for it - Shen Qingqiu blows a small stream of irritated bubbles. 

“Binghe, ah - the purpose of leaving you with my notes was to let you follow them,” he says as he approaches, and Luo Binghe turns to fix his almost-glare on him, instead.

“Laoshi will have to forgive me,” he bites out, though Shen Qingqiu gets the feeling he was only talking as an excuse to bare his teeth at him. 

Shen Qingqiu frowns, glancing at the knotted twine that had been abandoned near where Luo Binghe had started work. It was still in good condition, the knots all perfectly legible, easy enough to read even from a bit further away. He looks back at the Bone Eater’s Fish Luo Binghe had been poking at, more carefully assessing the way it had been handled. It isn’t as bad as he’d first thought - Luo Binghe had clearly been following something, though it looked more like he’d just copied what he saw the other mers doing rather than that he understood exactly what the other mers were doing, which he could have learned from the notes.

…Shen Qingqiu shoots a disbelieving look at Luo Binghe. This… this might actually explain why his brother disdains the fact he’s been put in charge of a warrior pod as punishment??

“Binghe,” he starts, voice hushed, his eyes wide and fins flared in horror, “Do warrior mers not learn how to read?!”

It’s one thing to not learn any of the land-dweler’s written languages - most of what they wrote wouldn’t hold up well underwater long enough to learn it, really, not like their more durable language of knots - but Shen Qingqiu had thought it was only the land-dweler’s written languages that were only learned by researcher mers. 

“How did your pod budget?!” Shen Qingqiu continues, at this point mostly panicking to himself. How did Luo Binghe’s pod read cool stories?! “How did you - did you never have battle plans communicated between pods? Or -”

“Laoshi is making a lot of assumptions,” Luo Binghe snaps, stopping Shen Qingqiu in his tracks. 

He gives a pointed look at the abandoned notes and instructions beside them. Luo Binghe snaps his teeth at him, wordlessly, and Shen Qingqiu becomes suddenly very aware that they’re still in the middle of Qing Jing’s main research site, and half the pod is watching them very, very closely. Luo Binghe, who has made no intention of accepting Shen Qingqiu as a pod leader or even as someone ranking above him in any way, is not likely to play nice if things keep playing out here in front of others.

Carefully, Shen Qingqiu forcibly soothes his own bristled fins, collecting himself. The last thing he needs is for his pod to decide that Luo Binghe is a threat again; regardless of if Luo Binghe never enjoys the research Shen Qingqiu personally loves teaching, regardless of if Luo Binghe really does leave tomorrow, Shen Qingqiu will not tolerate the idea of causing his pod distress about Luo Binghe’s poison responses again.

“Binghe is right,” he says after he’s managed to collect himself, reaching over to pick up the abandoned notes. “An unwillingness to read some silly notes is not the inability to read at all. I apologize for making that sort of assumption.”

Luo Binghe snorts. His eyes are narrowed and his tail twists erratically in irritation, but Shen Qingqiu doesn’t feel the telltale sting of poison yet, and for as much as it moves, his tail is still carefully in his own space. 

Shen Qingqiu doesn’t think Luo Binghe had been ‘unwilling’ to read those notes, though. He could very easily have just not done anything, when Shen Qingqiu left. There wasn’t a need for him to try so hard, clearly watching the others and trying to replicate them, not when his ‘Laoshi’ wasn’t watching him.

“Let’s try something else,” he says, carefully neutral. “I haven’t shown Binghe the system we developed to safely store specimens, yet.”

Luo Binghe doesn’t look quite appeased by the suggestion, but he follows without protest when Shen Qingqiu leads him towards their storage area. Or, more to the point - when Shen Qingqiu leads him away from everyone else.

When they’re out of earshot of the rest of the pod, Shen Qingqiu clears his throat to catch Luo Binghe’s attention. 

“The, ah, very dangerous waters of the Qing Jing pod that you’ve come to protect us from - Binghe might meet an unfortunate fate any day with them. It doesn’t have to be tomorrow that Binghe makes his disappearance.”

“Laoshi thinks I’ve found the research here interesting enough that I'd want to stay?” Luo Binghe asks, perfectly innocent sounding if Shen Qingqiu hadn’t already glanced over his shoulder to say the mean look on his face.

“I think if Binghe’s going to call me ‘Laoshi,’ I may as well teach him something.”

Luo Binghe makes a small clicking noise in the back of his throat - a broken off warning noise. Shen Qingqiu is reminded for perhaps the fifth time that day that regardless of how Luo Binghe has become less volatile and defensive since Shen Qingqiu cut his hair and addressed the ‘I’m not my brother’ issue, he has by no means become friendly or obedient. 

Shen Qingqiu comes to a stop, turning to face Luo Binghe. Luo Binghe watches him warily, swimming in a long, slow circle around Shen Qingqiu rather than stopping entirely to match him, and it lets his tail form a loose loop around Shen Qingqiu, the same way it had in his home the other night. Posturing, still - a warning this time.

Shen Qingqiu narrows his eyes. “If you’re good,” he says, with a pointed look to Luo Binghe’s tail, “You might as well let me teach you how to read before leaving.”

Luo Binghe’s expression splits into a nasty smile. “Hadn’t Laoshi just apologized for making the assumption that this Binghe couldn’t read?”

Shen Qingqiu tilts his head, but says nothing. He’d apologized for making the assumption that all warrior mers didn’t learn to read, not for making the assumption about Luo Binghe specifically.

It might have been a long time since Qing Jing had any new pups join them, but not long enough that Shen Qingqiu forgot to pick up on signs like those.

Luo Binghe watches him for a moment longer, expression intense. After a tense silence, he turns away and leaves, swimming away and out of the research site fast enough Shen Qingqiu wouldn’t have tried to follow even if he’d wanted to.

“That brat,” he mutters to himself, shaking his head even though he feels mostly relieved - Luo Binghe hadn’t outright denied it, either his illiteracy or his potential desire to learn. That sort of silent retreat… Shen Qingqiu has no doubt that Luo Binghe will show up tomorrow, that Luo Binghe won’t be leaving just yet. 

Shen Qingqiu is a bit giddy with it, honestly. Luo Binghe might be mean, but he wants to learn just the same as any other mer who’s been denied the chance. In Shen Qingqiu’s eyes, having been denied the chance to teach anyone recently, that makes Luo Binghe perfect, mean streak and clear disobedience to the pod hierarchy be damned.

Ah, little guppy, he thinks to himself, This Laoshi of yours will be taking care of you from here on, whether you want me to or not!

---

Luo Binghe does, in fact, stick around. He doesn’t come back to the research site, instead returning to his silent patrols at the perimeter of the territory, for all intents and purposes a perfectly obedient defensive unit. 

In the evenings, though, once Shen Qingqiu has returned to his home for the night, Luo Binghe lurks outside his cave, waiting to be acknowledged. Shen Qingqiu will invite him in, Luo Binghe will make some show of not wanting to be there, Shen Qingqiu will appease him until he reluctantly slinks inside… Honestly, the whole production is a bit cute in Shen Qingqiu’s opinion. He knows exactly the sort of mer Luo Binghe is - defensive and cautious and absolutely not willing to admit he wants help with something, especially if it could be perceived as a weakness or blindspot as big as being illiterate. 

Shen Qingqiu is unfortunately very, very weak to these sorts of things, so he plays along with Luo Binghe’s act of being forced into these private lessons. It reminds him of the thought he’d had earlier, about wishing Luo Binghe had been just a pup when he’d been assigned to Qing Jing’s pod - over time, Shen Qingqiu’s instincts are learning that Luo Binghe isn’t an active threat even if he is rude, and he’s slowly reaching that point he’d suspected himself capable of with a younger Luo Binghe. Even grown up, Luo Binghe really is a bit pitiable and cute, once you look past the way he could probably kill you in fifty different ways in the span of a few seconds. 

Shen Qingqiu suspects that mostly, this change of viewpoint is due to finally being able to teach again. He’s always been helpless against developing fond feelings for his students.

“Binghe learns quite quickly,” he comments idly one evening, looking over Luo Binghe’s hesitant knots he’d made in mimicry of Shen Qingqiu’s study guide. “You’ll be able to leave before you know it.”

Luo Binghe’s tail flicks, a jolty sort of movement Shen Qingqiu recognizes as a sort of overstimulation response. Not quite a negative emotion, just… an uncertainty of emotion, or too much of one. Luo Binghe seems to always get this, when Shen Qingqiu praises him.

Shen Qingqiu pulls out a spool of unused twined fibers to replace the ones Luo Binghe has used. “Here, Laoshi will reward you for your hard work, hm? Choose something you’d like to learn how to write, we’ll do that instead of the normal copy practice.”

Luo Binghe snorts, snatching the twine from Shen Qingqiu. “What would I want to learn - it’s Laoshi that’s insisting on these lessons unnecessarily anyway.”

“Hm. Sure, right,” Shen Qingqiu agrees, resisting the urge to grin at Luo Binghe and pet his hair like he’s a stubborn, sulking pup. “I don’t think we’ve done more personal letterings yet - we can do some simple things with those for now, until you think of a different reward. I can make a guess on the spelling of your given name, but do you know where ‘Luo’ comes from?”

“The Luo Basin,” Luo Binghe replies, sounding a bit reluctant. Not unjustly so, considering he’d just told a mer he doesn’t even see as a podmate that he’d been named after a poor, middle-of-nowhere basin.

Shen Qingqiu pauses from where he’d been in the middle of carefully wrapping up Luo Binghe’s previous practice efforts. It’s not necessarily unusual for a mer to be named after their home territory if they didn’t have a family to otherwise inherit a name from, but the Luo Basin specifically… Something about it makes Shen Qingqiu feel like he should have already known that information, though he isn’t completely sure why. The Luo Basin is right on the edge of Deep Sea, and those sorts of places are never well cared for. Not an extremely notable place outside of that, really, except -

Except years ago, his brother had told Shen Qingqiu that he’d been assigned a half-breed to his squad, and had been planning on turning the mer into a proper asset. The half-breed had come from the Luo Basin. 

Suddenly, the thoughts that Shen Qingqiu had upon first meeting Luo Binghe - that his tail is far longer than any other mer’s he’d seen, that his dark coloring is unusual for such a large Shallow Water mer, that his poison glands were something he’d never even heard of in Shallow Water - it all comes rushing back with far, far less doubt. There’s no mistaking it: Luo Binghe must be the mer that his brother had mentioned picking up those years ago, he must be the half-breed.

Shen Qingqiu nearly reels back at the revelation. He’d - he’d known about Luo Binghe for years, he’d known his brother had been in charge of him and he’d had some wary half-thoughts about the way his brother must have - towards that half-breed, towards Luo Binghe - 

He forces himself to take several long moments to count the grooves in the rock wall beside him. He’d suspected back then how his brother might have mistreated the half-breed that had been put under his ‘loving’ care; half-breeds notoriously made both pure Shallow and Deep Sea mers uneasy due to their drastic evolutionary differences, and that was before the war started and they became formal ‘enemies’ of one another. His brother’s caustic personality wouldn’t have helped the situation, certainly - Shen Qingqiu had known all that. 

The fact that he knows Luo Binghe personally now doesn’t change that - Shen Qingqiu had known his brother had taken in a half-breed, had suspected his brother wouldn’t treat the mer well, and hadn’t done a single fucking thing about it for years. Now here he is playing the good guy, wishing that Luo Binghe had been sent to him when he was younger, telling himself that he’d treat Luo Binghe well to make up for his brother’s treatment of him… and all the while, he could have simply put a stop to it, he could have made it so that Luo Binghe had been assigned to him earlier, if only he hadn’t been turning a blind eye to his brother’s likely misdeeds.

Shen Qingqiu feels a bit nauseous.

Okay! This is fine! He’s toed the line of living with his brother’s casual ruthlessness alongside his own more rigid morals all his life, no big deal! He can just - he’ll just - 

Before he can help himself, Shen Qingqiu finds himself drifting closer to curl his tail around Luo Binghe’s, an instinctual, comforting touch. Luo Binghe goes still at the touch, but doesn’t flinch back like the last time Shen Qingqiu had touched him. Shen Qingqiu idly wonders if these sorts of casual touches - tails against tails, curling, flicking, just reaching out to touch your podmate when you swim nearby - aren’t things instinctual to Luo Binghe the way they are to most Shallow Water mers.

Or perhaps they’re just as important to Deep Sea mers, but Luo Binghe himself has simply been missing them for a long, long time now.

“Ah, little guppy, little guppy,” Shen Qingqiu murmurs, his hands reaching out to hover awkwardly over Luo Binghe’s hair, his pinchable cheeks, the delicate fins on his arms, not quite touching but wanting to. “I’ll take care of you now, I’m sorry, Laoshi will take care of you now.”

“The Luo Basin is so pitiful to Laoshi that he has this sort of reaction?” Luo Binghe asks stiffly. He’s still barely moving, but Shen Qingqiu catches the way the fin of his tail has flared out, as if ready to bolt.

Shen Qingqiu lets his hands settle in Luo Binghe’s hair. He… can’t tell Luo Binghe that he had known he existed, that he knew how his brother had probably been treating him for years now but hadn’t interfered in any meaningful way. He can only hope to do better now.

Shen Qingqiu kneads at Luo Binghe’s hair anxiously. The thought of confronting his brother the next time he has this sort of suspicion, the thought of trying to protect both his own Qing Jing pod and his brother’s as well - to protect his brother’s pod from his brother, if it becomes necessary - it does not help the twisting, miserable feeling in his gut. 

“...Laoshi?” Luo Binghe calls, clearly aware of Shen Qingqiu’s distress, despite the way he’s tried to carefully keep his expression neutral. Shen Qingqiu forces his hands to still, but doesn’t move away - his nerves feel too frayed at the moment, the part of his mind that usually lights up when he needs to protect his pod itching in a way that demands action.

…Ah. Perhaps Shen Qingqiu never should have tried to have Luo Binghe fill the student-shaped void in his heart, not when he knew Luo Binghe didn’t want to stick around. This sort of instinctual, protective response… Shen Qingqiu clearly already sees Luo Binghe as a part of the pod, as a real podmate and not just someone he’s been assigned to look after. If he really does leave after this, it won’t be fun for Shen Qingqiu to convince himself that everything is totally fine and he hadn’t just inexcusably lost one of his podmates.

Oh, fuck, Shen Qingqiu is going to be miserable when it happens, and there’s not a single thing he can do about it now that his instincts have latched on to Luo Binghe like this.

“Binghe,” he calls softly, forcing himself away from that train of thought. “Our pod is, ah, uniquely suited to taking care of you if you need it, given the sorts of things we research and therefore the supplies we often need.”

Luo Binghe blinks at him, one set of eyelids and then the other. Shen Qingqiu feels monumentally stupid for not having realized that Luo Binghe must have had Deep Sea blood in him this whole time.

He clears his throat, clarifying, “That is, I haven’t personally worked with anyone with Deep Sea blood before, so if Binghe needs -”

Before he can finish, Luo Binghe has jerked violently away from him, his fins all flaring out in an aggressive show of strength and his lips pulling back in a snarl fierce enough it suddenly becomes very clear to Shen Qingqiu that Luo Binghe’s previous shows of hostility and posturing had been quite tame.

“Laoshi will not speak of this,” he snarls, and Shen Qingqiu’s hindbrain shuts down as it suffers a war between two instincts: 

Shit, fuck, he’s going to eat me, he’s -

He’s my precious podmate!!! He needs help!! Help him!! 

Shen Qingqiu starts to feel the familiar burn of poisoned waters, and - ah, fuck, he really has let his instincts run away with themselves, because even this doesn’t quite spark the same sort of irritation and nerves it had back before he’d started spending time with Luo Binghe. Now, all Shen Qingqiu can think is that his podmate isn’t just upset and lashing out, he’s scared, enough so that he’s reverted back to this instinctual defensive system, and if Shen Qingqiu doesn’t find a way to help him he’s probably going to go insane. 

“Binghe,” he calls, though it sounds a bit strangled - belatedly, he realizes he’s started making careful, reassuring clicks in the back of his throat, and there’s no way he’s going to be able to cut off that instinct until Luo Binghe has calmed somewhat. He’s just… going to pretend like he’s not doing that right now, thank you very much!! “It’s - this Laoshi of yours is perfectly capable of a bit of discretion, if you don’t wish for the others to know about your heritage, but -”

“Laoshi sure sounds very discrete right now,” Luo Binghe seethes, “Barely even able to speak through his fear. Some pod leader you are, hm?”

Shen Qingqiu blinks, taking a moment to process Luo Binghe’s taunt. Then, all at once, the distress he’d been trying to carefully repress earlier - about his brother, about Luo Binghe, about the horrible feeling he knows he’s going to have to experience when someone he’s decided is a podmate leaves him - comes undone in a mess of emotion, and he becomes overwhelmed with it. The overstimulation of emotion makes him feel irritated on top of it all, and he finds himself lashing out without meaning to. 

“You -! I’ve been doing my best, alright! I’ve let you keep to yourself, and I’ve said you can leave when you want to, and you certainly haven’t been forced to attend these lessons! But while you remain here, you are part of this pod, whether you like it or not, whether you think that makes me a ‘decent pod leader’ or not!” Shen Qingqiu punctuates this with a snap of his teeth, just as deadly as Luo Binghe’s even if he doesn’t have Deep Sea blood in him, and perfectly useful for this sort of scolding. “If you don’t want me to be scared for you, go be distressed somewhere I can’t see it!”

He turns abruptly to swim away and out of the cave - he can recognize, even if he doesn’t like it, that his own hindbrain that has latched on to Luo Binghe as a podmate does not match Luo Binghe’s own feelings, and it would be best to let his instincts settle somewhere away from the other mer. Before he can make it far, though, Luo Binghe’s tail curls in around him, corralling him away from the mouth of the cave and back towards Luo Binghe. Shen Qingqiu feels a burst of irritation - he’s told this disobedient brat how many times to keep his tail to himself, to not let it circle out around Shen Qingqiu and his space like this, it’s rude -!

“Laoshi said he was scared for me, just now.” 

Shen Qingqiu shoots a glare at Luo Binghe over his shoulder, then tries to dart around Luo Binghe’s tail to the exit. Luo Binghe doesn’t let him, moving faster than Shen Qingqiu had anticipated to loop back around Shen Qingqiu, positioning himself directly in front of him before he can reach the cave mouth. 

“Laoshi,” Luo Binghe rumbles, a warning to not try and run off again, but his expression has been wiped almost completely clear of the fury from before. “Laoshi would be an idiot to think of me as a pod member.”

Shen Qingqiu snaps his teeth at Luo Binghe again, frustrated and insulted and more than a little embarrassed that he’d exploded like that and then hadn’t even been allowed to go retreat until he could muster a respectably calm attitude again. 

“Binghe might not think much of me,” he warns, “but Binghe has stayed here for weeks, and lets me teach him, and calls me Laoshi, and eats the food I provide for him. Until you leave, you’re a part of Qing Jing’s pod.” 

Shen Qingqiu feels the waters shift as Luo Binghe pulls his tail in to loop closely around Shen Qingqiu, not close enough to touch him but enough to make it clear that Luo Binghe wants him to stay right where he is, directly in front of him. Shen Qingqiu frowns, moving his own tail to flick out at Luo Binghe’s scoldingly, but Luo Binghe barely reacts.

“Laoshi already knows I have Deep Sea blood,” he hedges, then repeats, “You’d be an idiot to think of me as a pod member.”

Shen Qingqiu spends about half a beat continuing to glare at Luo Binghe before the implication there catches up to him, and all his fins flare out at once, absolutely insulted.

“You - Binghe, Shallow Water mers are only fighting this hard against the Deep Sea mers for territory, for the Deep Sea corral and the shipwrecks and the space to grow our own pods out into. It’s petty, not morally driven; if Shallow Water mers seem afraid of Deep Sea mers, it’s only because they’re used to thinking of them as an enemy, and they see Deep Sea evolution in that light rather than thinking about the perfectly hostile environment that shaped that evolution. It shouldn’t prevent pod bonds!”

Luo Binghe watches Shen Qingqiu carefully, eyes wide and intense and - oh, Shen Qingqiu is going to skin his brother alive when he sees him next, if he’s the one who inspired these sort of feelings in Luo Binghe!

Before he say anything else, though, Luo Binghe moves again: his tail coils around Shen Qingqiu tighter, making contact with Shen Qingqiu’s own. This, unlike the way Luo Binghe had spread out around Shen Qingqiu’s space before, is not posturing - it’s the affectionate touch of two podmates greeting each other, and instinctively Shen Qingqiu returns the gesture, gently curling the tip of his tail around the thick coil of Luo Binghe’s. Luo Binghe shivers at the touch, and then, slowly and clearly deliberately, he settles the fins on his ears back against his head, similarly relaxing the small fins on his arms and hips that had been flared through his anger.

Shen Qingqiu, cursing his traitorous little hindbrain and the relief he instantly feels at seeing Luo Binghe relax a bit, mimics him. 

“Oh,” Luo Binghe murmurs, “Oh, you really do think I’m a part of your pod.”

“And it won’t be fun for me when you decide you finally want to leave, so you better be appreciating these lessons,” Shen Qingqiu grumbles, embarrassed and irritated and still feeling a bit emotionally shot from the overwhelming failure to repress everything earlier. 

Luo Binghe makes a soft trilling noise, and then quite suddenly Shen Qingqiu has several hundred pounds of mer on him, curled around him tight and with his face squished into the crook of Shen Qingqiu’s neck, pressing up uncomfortably against his gills. Shen Qingqiu grunts, bringing his arms up around Luo Binghe to rest his hands on his shoulders, and Luo Binghe squishes himself up closer against him.

“Ah, what is this,” Shen Qingqiu mumbles, vision almost entirely obscured by Luo Binghe’s long curls, all drifting up and around his head from the mer’s sudden movement into Shen Qingqiu. “There’s no need for this, anyone would happily think of Binghe as a pod member after all this time, it’s nothing special.”

Well, maybe Shen Qingqiu had been more resigned than happy when he realized he’d begun thinking of Luo Binghe as part of his pod, but - you can’t blame him, okay!! No one wants to start thinking of a mer as a podmate when they’ve made it so explicitly clear that they want to get the hell out of your territory and therefore have no plans of reciprocating those sweet sweet family feelings!!

“Won’t leave,” Luo Binghe gets out between short trills, muffled into Shen Qingqiu’s skin and clearly pleased. “Laoshi - for me - this Binghe wouldn’t leave now.” Luo Binghe pauses, then adds smugly, “Poor Laoshi probably wouldn’t be able to take it if a member of his pod left him, I really have no choice but to stay.”

Without Shen Qingqiu having any say in the matter, some of the tension in his shoulders relaxes. “Well, that’s good then,” he sighs, pretending like he’s not overwhelmed with relief that he won’t really have to deal with all the messy instincts involved when losing a podmate. “Laoshi will teach you lots while you’re here, okay?”

Laoshi will treat you well enough to make up for the years I didn’t think to look for you and protect you from my brother, he thinks. 

Luo Binghe hums, and Shen Qingqiu feels it vibrating through him from where their chests are pressed together. “As Laoshi says,” he agrees easily, but makes absolutely no move to unwind himself from around Shen Qingqiu. Ah, sticky, sticky…

Shen Qingqiu lets himself relax further into the embrace. A bit of stickiness is probably to be expected, honestly - this poor little guppy of his, when was the last time he’d had someone he could think of as family? He’ll have to work hard for Luo Binghe, to be a proper pod leader for him. Hopefully, it will be easier now that Luo Binghe plans on staying, and has clearly become receptive to Shen Qingqiu’s instinctual casual touches.

…Much, much more than just ‘receptive,’ given that this embrace is starting to feel a bit like Shen Qingqiu has been caught in a patch of Red Strangler Weeds. Shen Qingqiu resigns himself to waking up with a stiff tail tomorrow.

If nothing else, hopefully Luo Binghe becomes more obedient after this.

Chapter Text

Luo Binghe does not, in fact, become more obedient after deciding he’s happy to be a part of Qing Jing’s pod.

Oh, sure, he acts like he has! Every other word out his mouth is ‘yes, Laoshi,’ or ‘of course, Laoshi,’ and he follows Shen Qingqiu closely each day now instead of lurking at the edges of Qing Jing’s territory. He even starts actively contributing to the pod’s food stores, though he gets a bit obstinate when someone other than Shen Qingqiu tries to touch any of Luo Binghe’s catches.

However!! This brat!! Is completely, unrepentantly, just doing whatever the heck he wants!!

Sure, he follows Shen Qingqiu around, but only when Shen Qingqiu lets him swim lazy circles around him, their tails brushing up against each other occasionally in shows of affection that are truly unfit for a pod leader and their student! Sure, he amicably lets Shen Qingqiu guide him through Qing Jing’s research and rules and customs, but if he doesn’t get a head pat or a brush of Shen Qingqiu’s tail against his or a similar praise after, he’ll become a downright menace until he does!!

“Laoshi doesn’t think this Binghe did a good job?” He’ll ask, his eyes wide and innocent and horrible for Shen Qingqiu’s self restraint even when they both know he’s putting on an act. “This Binghe is only just now learning to be a part of a pod, Laoshi, please forgive him for not meeting Laoshi’s expectations…”

“Oh, you -!” Shen Qingqiu will start to scold, and then Luo Binghe will do something completely unfair like pout and Shen Qingqiu will cave almost immediately, reaching out to pet him and praise him.

Still, a Luo Binghe who is all trouble but willingly recognizes himself as part of Qing Jing’s pod is far and away better than a Luo Binghe who is all trouble and wants to leave. At least this way, when Luo Binghe grins at him with sharp teeth or tries to rile him up enough to wrestle around with him or otherwise acts like a spoiled brat, Shen Qingqiu can soothe his own ruffled instincts by taking care of Luo Binghe, a relaxant unique to Shen Qingqiu’s instincts as pod leader. Being able to treat Luo Binghe like any other member of his pod soothes something deep in his gut.

(“Luo Binghe gets the best treatment, ah - Pod Leader never obsessively puts cute little braids in my hair,” bemoans one of Shen Qingqiu’s pod mates, not having realized that Shen Qingqiu is within earshot. “Or casually lets me hang out in his little cave every morning and evening.”

“Oh, hush, if he catches you teasing and has to recognize what’s going on with actual thoughts it’ll be over before it really starts,” scolds another mer, and Shen Qingqiu feels himself flush.

He has no idea what they’re talking about, of course. Obviously.

Luo Binghe, beside him, preens and shoots him a smug look. The handful of little braids Shen Qingqiu had worked into Luo Binghe’s hair that morning stands out amidst the rest of his curls, pretty bits of shell and colored fibers worked into them and drawing the eye. Shen Qingqiu stubbornly looks away.

No idea whatsoever, no clue at all about anything he’s done that might be a bit out of line for normal pod leader behavior!)

Luo Binghe does have moments where he isn’t quite so sticky. In the afternoons, after he’d followed Shen Qingqiu into Qing Jing’s main research site - and inevitably been kicked out for unrepentantly hindering Shen Qingqiu’s work by curling up around him or hanging off his shoulders or just generally being a distraction - Luo Binghe makes his way back to the edge of Qing Jing’s territory and trains. 

Shen Qingqiu isn’t sure what he thinks he’s training for, really - Luo Binghe’s certainly been in Qing Jing’s territory long enough to confirm that a defensive unit in the pod isn’t really necessary. When he lets himself watch Luo Binghe go through his forms, tucked away and out of sight so he won’t get caught snooping and have to deal with that embarrassment, it looks mostly like Luo Binghe is just moving out of habit, going through the training sets Shen Qingqiu supposes are from his time in the warrior pod. At first, this concerns Shen Qingqiu a completely normal amount - does this mean Luo Binghe feels unsafe here? That he feels like he’s in danger, and needs to be ready to defend himself?

The more Shen Qingqiu watches, though, those concerns fade. Luo Binghe doesn’t look distressed, or determined, or driven by anything else similarly concerning. He just looks pleased to be moving, the same way he grins with all his sharp teeth at Shen Qingqiu when he returns from hunting for food. 

Hm. Maybe, for a mer who grew up moving and fighting and constantly active and aggressive, the largely sedentary life that Qing Jing pod leads is too peaceful. Shen Qingqiu will have to look into finding Luo Binghe a playmate, or something. Maybe he could plan their next excursion to get supplies somewhere a further swim away than usual? Or in slightly more dangerous waters? Nothing too dangerous, obviously, but it has to be a completely normal thing for a pod leader to change up their pod’s schedule a bit to get one of their podmates some important enrichment! 

Completely normal!!

Well, there is at least one thing he can do for Luo Binghe without disrupting Qing Jing’s usual plans: once a year, each pod in the area is expected to send a mer to represent them in the Annual Hunt. Usually, Qing Jing sends off whoever draws the short straw, not really expecting to win an event meant for warrior mers to show off and attempt to be recruited into the best warrior pods. However, with Luo Binghe…

“Binghe,” Shen Qingqiu calls, catching Luo Binghe’s attention from where he’d been quietly watching him go through his training forms. 

Luo Binghe lights up, darting over to Shen Qingqiu and swimming a quick loop around him so he could curl his tail around Shen Qingqiu’s. Shen Qingqiu absently curls the tip of his tail to briefly brush against Luo Binghe’s, even as he leans his body away a bit from the other mer. Luo Binghe, you really need to learn not to put your face so close to this thin-faced Laoshi of yours, ah!

“Laoshi,” Luo Binghe trills, always embarrassingly pleased to see Shen Qingqiu, “Is it dinner already?”

“In a bit. Before then, I was hoping to talk to Binghe about the Annual Hunt?”

Some of Luo Binghe’s good mood falls, his ear fins pressing back against his head and his smile turning a bit sharp. “What about it?” 

“I had wondered if Binghe may wish to represent our pod this year,” Shen Qingqiu begins, wary of Luo Binghe’s sudden mood, “But it isn’t a requirement.”

Luo Binghe hums, his smile falling away into a more thoughtful expression. His tail curls tighter around Shen Qingqiu, too, and Shen Qingqiu huffs but doesn’t push him away. Not that he couldn’t! He’s just - well, clearly, when Luo Binghe is feeling a bit out of sorts like he is now, it’s best to let him get away with some things, right?

“I’d rather not see another warrior mer ever again,” Luo Binghe says eventually, though Shen Qingqiu can’t quite tell what the emotion is in his voice. Luo Binghe pauses, then adds: “They’ve been so cruel to your Binghe, Laoshi, none of them ever took as good a care of me as you do.”

Ah. Well, that tone is clearly a teasing, cajoling one. Shen Qingqiu has heard enough of that tone from Luo Binghe to recognize it from a mile away.

“You’d be lucky to find another pod leader who lets your lack of boundaries and troublesome behavior go unpunished,” Shen Qingqiu grumbles, and Luo Binghe puts on that purposefully innocent look he knows Shen Qingqiu is weak to.

“Laoshi, so mean! This Binghe has only ever been obedient and good!”

Shen Qingqiu levels him with a flat look, and Luo Binghe grins, snaking around Shen Qingqiu so he’s hanging off him from behind rather than floating in front of him. Whether he meant this as a way to stop Shen Qingqiu from being able to read his expressions through this conversation or as a way to get within playful biting distance of Shen Qingqiu’s ear fins is unclear, but either way Shen Qingqiu reaches up to pinch scoldingly at one of the arms draped over his shoulders.

“So mean to Binghe, hm? So mean that I even let Binghe crawl all over me like this?” 

“If Laoshi was kinder to me, he’d be the one crawling all over me,” Luo Binghe sniffs, and Shen Qingqiu snorts, amused despite himself. 

“Ah, now I see - very mean to Binghe indeed, not using him as a piece of playground equipment.” Shen Qingqiu pinches at Luo Binghe’s arm again, and Luo Binghe leans in to bite down playfully on one of his ear fins in retaliation. Shen Qingqiu, who had seen this coming from a mile away, only flicks the fin to shake him off. “In any case: I’ll keep your name out of the pot when we select someone to go to the Annual Hunt, but keep quiet about it, hm? I can’t be found guilty of favoritism.”

“Everyone already knows I’m Laoshi’s favorite anyway,” Luo Binghe says gleefully, “But Laoshi doesn’t have to bother. I didn’t say I wouldn’t go.”

“If you think this Laoshi of yours is letting you go anywhere near mers that have treated you poorly in the past after you’ve explicitly said you don’t want to, you are sorely mistaken,” Shen Qingqiu scolds, flicking his ear fin again in the hopes it would smack into Luo Binghe’s face in a perfectly reasonable reprimand. “Knowing you won’t like who’s there, what would going do for you but make you upset?”

“I’d be showing everyone I have a pod I belong in, now.” Luo Binghe shifts one of his arms from where it had been slung over Shen Qingqiu’s shoulder, reaching up to idly play with Shen Qingqiu’s hair. Sometimes, it seems very much like Luo Binghe wished he hadn’t cut Shen Qingqiu’s hair so short, so that he could braid little bobbles into it like Shen Qingqiu does with his. “I wasn’t ever allowed to volunteer to attend the Annual Hunt, before. If Laoshi thinks I’m suited to represent his pod, how could I pass up on that chance?”

Shen Qingqiu twists around to face Luo Binghe, pushing him back slightly and disentangling their tails so they could be floating face to face properly. Sorry little guppy, but this Laoshi of yours actually thinks it’s quite important to see your expression right now!!

“Binghe is a part of this pod regardless of if others know. And besides - there are other ways to represent Qing Jing if it’s important to you, like presenting research results when we conference with the other pods.”

“Laoshi, this Binghe of yours likes learning from you very much,” Luo Binghe starts, and Shen Qingqiu eyes him warily. That tone of voice certainly suggests a ‘but’ coming, ah… “But begging his forgiveness, the work Qing Jing does isn’t something I can claim to represent.”

“You could, if you tried working with us instead of distracting me,” Shen Qingqiu huffs, “You’re clever, and you learn quickly. You’d be the best at whatever you tried, if only you tried it.”

Luo Binghe preens a bit at the praise, but still shakes his head. Shen Qingqiu wonders if things would be different for him if he’d come to Qing Jing ten years ago, when he’d still been a pup and the war with the Deep Water mers hadn’t started yet. Back then, Qing Jing had so much more freedom in what they could do - pups could study strategy, or exploration, or land-dwelers, or - anything, really, so long as they enjoyed it. Shen Qingqiu could see Luo Binghe having fun being a scholar, given the way he absorbs knowledge like a sponge in their evening lessons. Luo Binghe seems like the sort of mer that would have fun with anything, so long as he’s good at it and gets praised enough for it.

As it is though, despite Shen Qingqiu’s attempts to frame it differently, he knows Luo Binghe still thinks of Qing Jing’s current projects as war efforts more than anything else. Shen Qingqiu can’t really blame him for wanting to stay away from that, after the years he spent in a pod where he couldn’t get away from it. 

…Shen Qingqiu moves ‘find Luo Binghe a new physically demanding hobby’ up his mental to-do list. Even if Luo Binghe seems to like his little training habit well enough, he should have more options that let him get those violent enrichment points without reminding him too much of his past experiences.

“Well, whatever,” Shen Qingqiu grumbles, “I’ll just find Binghe something else he can do to represent our pod. No need for you to force yourself to go to the Annual Hunt.”

“Laoshi, it really is fine.” Luo Binghe drifts closer, trying to be sneaky about curling his tail back around Shen Qingqiu’s. This sticky thing, ah! “Hunting is something I’m good at - I can represent Qing Jing well. And besides, won’t Laoshi be going with the representative? If Laoshi is there with me, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Well - yes,” Shen Qingqiu admits, “But still, you - you’d represent our Qing Jing well at anything Binghe, why does it have to be an event full of people who you don’t want to be around?” 

Luo Binghe watches Shen Qingqiu for a long moment, seemingly memorizing whatever expression he has on his face at the moment. Nothing dignified, he’s sure - Luo Binghe has a special talent for making Shen Qingqiu feel particularly protective.

After the silence between them has started to grow a bit uncomfortable, Luo Binghe smiles, more genuinely than he has since Shen Qingqiu first brought up the Annual Hunt. “It’s because Laoshi is like this that it’ll be fine.”

“Binghe, don’t be stubborn -”

“And anyway,” Luo Binghe interrupts, his smile turning mischievous, “Doesn’t Laoshi want to watch me win?”

Shen Qingqiu squints at him. Luo Binghe playfully postures a bit, his fins flaring the way Shen Qingqiu has seen cocky competitors do every Annual Hunt he’s attended, promising to be ruthless until victory. It… suits Luo Binghe perhaps a bit too well.

“If you’re sure,” Shen Qingqiu allows at last, and Luo Binghe nods. Shen Qingqiu gives him one last assessing look, then turns away, huffing. “Well, fine - you better do your best, then! If you lose too badly after talking so big, I’ll scold you mercilessly!”

Luo Binghe leans into Shen Qingqiu’s space, making him impossible to ignore even though Shen Qingqiu had turned away from him. 

“Laoshi, I think you’ll find that your Binghe won’t be too discouraged by a punishment like that,” he sing-songs. “Laoshi’s scoldings are -”

Shen Qingqiu shoots a hand out to cover Luo Binghe’s mouth before he can finish. “No,” he says sternly, and Luo Binghe looks at him gleefully and with no intention of stopping. “No,” Shen Qingqiu repeats, firmer, and tries not to think about what Luo Binghe could possibly have wanted to say about getting scolded that implied some level of enjoyment.

Luo Binghe shifts enough to be able to bite playfully at Shen Qingqiu’s fingers, and he yanks his hand back quickly, glaring at Luo Binghe and ignoring the way his cheeks feel a bit warm. Luo Binghe looks at him innocently.

“This Binghe is only trying to give Laoshi some advice,” he says, letting himself drift downwards in the water a bit so he can look up at Shen Qingqiu through his stupidly long lashes. “If Laoshi wants to really motivate his Binghe, shouldn’t he try offering a reward instead?”

Shen Qingqiu looks at him suspiciously. “Like what?”

“I’ll ask Laoshi after I win,” Luo Binghe says simply, and Shen Qingqiu sighs, his gills flaring.

“Binghe better back up all this talk,” he warns, reaching out to pinch scoldingly at Luo Binghe’s cheek.

Luo Binghe, this disobedient little guppy, leans into the touch as if it’s affectionate rather than an admonishment.

“So long as Laoshi is worrying about him, this Binghe will do just fine.” 

---

The next couple weeks leading up to the Annual Hunt are uneventful. Their Qing Jing pod is used to putting up with their pod leader and the unlucky hunt participant going missing for a time, so the preparations for it aren’t in any way unfamiliar to them. A few members of the pod slap Luo Binghe on the back and grin at him, excited for Qing Jing to have a representative that actually has a chance of winning this year. Luo Binghe takes to this treatment with gleeful relish, just as thrilled at being treated like part of the pod as he is to later cajole Shen Qingqiu into petting him with teasing words like ‘everyone else gave me a pat on the back,’ and ‘Laoshi’s touch would mean the most, can’t he give this poor Binghe just a little encouragement?’

They leave for the hunt itself late - despite Luo Binghe’s reassurances, Shen Qingqiu still doesn’t want him to have to be there longer than he has to, so they arrive on the hunting grounds the morning of the hunt rather than in one of the days prior as most pods do. By that point, the hunting grounds are buzzing with energy and anticipation, with only minimal politicking going on around them, and Shen Qingqiu finds himself idly wondering if he could get away with showing up this late to every Annual Hunt. 

Luo Binghe sticks close to Shen Qingqiu as they head over to where participants are waiting to start, though he refrains from swimming playful loops around Shen Qingqiu or brushing their tails together constantly as Shen Qingqiu has gotten used to when swimming near him. Instead, Luo Binghe watches the mers around them with sharp eyes, swimming with purposefully sure strokes of his tail. When they reach the drop off point for contestants, Shen Qingqiu reaches out to tug gently at one of Luo Binghe’s curls, catching his attention and waiting for him to stop and turn to face him.

“Laoshi,” Luo Binghe acknowledges, but his eyes are still darting around them, not quite paying attention to Shen Qingqiu. “I’ll win, just wait.”

Shen Qingqiu hums, drifting closer to briefly curl the tip of his tail to brush against Luo Binghe’s. Luo Binghe finally looks at him properly at the touch, and Shen Qingqiu rewards him with a small smile and a brief head pat. 

“You don’t have to win,” he says, and Luo Binghe’s face pinches. Shen Qingqiu brings the hand that had been petting his hair down to pinch his nose instead. “Just have fun - Qing Jing never places at these events anyway.”

The line of Luo Binghe’s shoulders untenses slightly, and he presses his face forward into Shen Qingqiu’s hand. “I’ll win anyway,” he says, sounding more confident now despite the odd nasally tone of his voice from having his nose pinched at. “And then I’ll ask Laoshi for my reward.”

Shen Qingqiu snorts. “Greedy,” he says, but releases Luo Binghe’s nose and backs off slightly. 

He looks Luo Binghe up and down, watching as he flares his fins under Shen Qingqiu’s gaze, the same way he had back when he’d first agreed to attend the Annual Hunt and had puffed up like a cocky warrior mer. Shen Qingqiu nods once, and then turns and leaves Luo Binghe with the rest of the competitors. 

His brother, thank fuck, doesn’t attend these hunts despite still sending representatives from his pod - a pursposeful decision meant to let everyone know exactly what he thought of being put in charge of a warrior pod instead of his preferred spot on a research pod like his brother. Shen Qingqiu had always rolled his eyes at his brother’s absence before, but now he’s hopelessly grateful he doesn’t have to see him when his mind is full of concern for Luo Binghe. Instead, he can just quietly slip into the small group of pod leaders from the Cang Qiong area, waving off their pointed comments about his late appearance and focusing on watching the hunting grounds from his spectator spot.

Admittedly, there isn’t much the spectators can really… spectate. The hunting grounds stretch far from the spectator area, dipping down into an expansive grotto where more difficult prey lie. Several mers act as go-betweens, swimming back and forth between the competition site and the spectator site to give approximate updates on how well notable participants are doing, but there isn’t really a way to know for sure until the competitors all come back and lay out their kills. 

Normally, the best kills would be the ones that could feed a pod the longest, or the ones that had some sort of unique property - in Qing Jing’s pod, for example, hunting down a Bone Eater’s Fish has been the top catch in recent months of research. Here, though, it’s the difficulty of the catch that means the most. In the end, after all, the Annual Hunt is an event most important for warrior mers and those aspiring to be warrior mers, showing off what talent they have. 

Luo Binghe is never mentioned as one of the prospective winners during these updates, but Shen Qingqiu isn’t worried about how he’s doing. After all, before he became friendly with Luo Binghe, he knew best the sort of dangerous creature Luo Binghe is. Particularly in a grotto, dark and deep and much like the Deep Sea waters Luo Binghe’s inheritance makes him physically well suited for hunting in, not to mention Luo Binghe’s learned attentiveness to any mer that comes near him… Well, Shen Qingqiu can only imagine Luo Binghe’s doing just fine, even as the quickest mers start returning from the hunting grounds with their final catches and Luo Binghe still remains unseen.

“Pod Leader Shen brought his brother’s pet project with him this time, I noticed.”

Shen Qingqiu startles, his fins flaring out briefly before he regathers his composure and turns to face the mer who’d approached him - the pod leader of Huan Hua’s main warrior pod force, an irritating old man who Shen Qingqiu has never liked very much. The way he referred to Luo Binghe only tanks his opinion of him further.

“Luo Binghe, yes,” Shen Qingqiu replies carefully. “We’ve been happy to have him as part of our pod since my brother’s pod turned out not to be a good fit for him.”

Lao Gongzhu laughs unkindly. “Pod Leader Shen always remembers to speak with much sweeter words than his brother. Isn’t it that the half-breed was assigned to your pod for rehabilitation, rather than simply not being a ‘good fit’ in the elder Shen’s pod?”

Around Shen Qingqiu, the other Cang Qiong pod leaders shift uneasily. Shen Qingqiu’s favorite allies are missing, today - Liu Qingge always participates in the hunt himself, pod leader status be damned, and Mu Qingfang is down at the edge of the spectator area, ready and waiting in case one of the go-between reporters discovers a mer that needs medical attention. Yue Qingyuan would usually be considered the most reliable of those who are by his side currently, but in this situation…

“Unfortunately, I have to ask that Lao Gongzhu refrain from commenting on the personal matters of mers within the Cang Qiong region. Both Pod Leader Shens are quite capable in their own ways.”

…in this situation, Yue Qingyuan really can’t be trusted to say anything without also wanting to say something to defend Shen Qingqiu’s brother!

Shen Qingqiu shoots Yue Qingyuan a glare, but doesn’t say anything in rebuttal. Regardless of his irritation - and quite honestly, his feelings that his brother hadn’t been capable of the issue in question, which when it came down to the way Luo Binghe had been treated was basic fucking decency - it isn’t the sort of thing to argue in front of others. As it is, Lao Gongzhu’s smile already looks far too slimy without being given that sort of ammunition.

“Forgive me - it’s only that considering the younger Pod Leader Shen has brought the half-breed to the Annual Hunt, and the way you say he is capable… can it be assumed that he’s been corrected well enough that he could be reassigned to a warrior pod?”

Shen Qingqiu suddenly wishes very, very badly that he hadn’t even considered having Luo Binghe represent their pod during the Annual Hunt. He’d - he’d been so preoccupied, thinking about what he could do for Luo Binghe to make his every day life happier, that he’d completely forgotten all his previous concerns and predictions from back when he’d first joined their pod.

Namely, Shen Qingqiu had forgotten that one day, the warrior mers that had originally ditched Luo Binghe for being volatile and dangerous to have in their frontlines would want him back, as soon as he seems useful again.

“Luo Binghe has a pod he’s currently adjusted well to,” Shen Qingqiu says, voice carefully even and putting an exhausting amount of effort into making sure his fins were all held in neutral positions, “There is no need for a reassignment.”

“Perhaps within Cang Qiong’s pods,” Lao Gongzhu admits, “Given how inadequately they made use of him previously. Our Huan Hua would be willing to take him on, though -”

“Lao Gongzhu,” Shen Qingqiu interrupts, voice icy, but before he can continue Yue Qingyuan stops him with a firm hand on his shoulder. 

“Apologies, but once more I must remind Lao Gongzhu that the affairs of Cang Qiong pod assignments are private.” Yue Qingyuan’s smile is pulled tight at the corners; his expression is always ugliest like this when he’s been reminded that his favorite Shen sibling isn’t morally pure. The longer they spend talking around the reality of Luo Binghe’s treatment in that pod, the uglier that expression will get, Shen Qingqiu imagines.

“Perhaps,” Lao Gongzhu says, turning back to watch the border of hunting grounds, “But the affairs of skilled warriors that are being held back from properly contributing to the war we are all suffering from… it’s well established that issues like that are of public concern.”

At the edge of the hunting grounds, Luo Binghe appears. He’s dragging along several fresh kills, all difficult catches and all killed cleanly in a way that speaks of expertise. 

As the scoreboard is updated, it becomes very clear that Luo Binghe looks very much like a skilled warrior indeed.

Ahahahahaha, Shen Qingqiu thinks, only feeling a little bit hysterical, fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, he continues to think, as he watches Luo Binghe swim a lazy, show-boating circle around the scoreboard - with his own name in first place, now, though the competition isn’t over until everyone has come back and presented their catches - and Lao Gongzhu’s smile never wavers once.

Super ultra mega fuck, he thinks extra loud, as Luo Binghe makes his way to the spectator area to present his catches to his pod leader as is custom before joining the rest of the spectators until the event is finished.

“Laoshi,” Luo Binghe calls, as soon as he’s close, and Shen Qingqiu takes in the sight of him: clearly pleased with himself, arms full with his winnings and all the pretty baubles Shen Qingqiu had braided into his hair catching the light prettily. 

It’s a very good sight. Lao Gongzhu is looking too, though, with a gaze too hungry to be anything Shen Qingqiu is comfortable with, and before he can stop himself Shen Qingqiu has closed the distance between him and Luo Binghe. It feels suddenly very necessary to do this, so he can meet Luo Binghe just slightly further away from where Lao Gongzhu is waiting and watching. 

“Laoshi, your Binghe has won, just like he promised.”

Shen Qingqiu reaches out to cuff him over the head. “You haven’t won anything yet - there’s plenty of mers in there who haven’t come out to present their final catches.”

Luo Binghe sniffs, making it very clear what he thinks about that, but lets it slide. Instead, he starts shuffling around the kills in his arms. “I got Laoshi something while I was hunting,” he explains, and Shen Qingqiu snorts.

“It looks like you got plenty of ‘somethings,’” he says wryly, but Luo Binghe shakes his head.

“Of course these are all caught in Laoshi’s name, but -” Luo Binghe pauses, finally rebalancing his load in a way that lets him hold out the catch he’d been looking for. It’s a smaller fish, perfectly easy to catch considering it had no special characteristics about it, nothing that made it dangerous like the Poison Coral-Red Eel or the Venomous Sword Sea-Snake that Luo Binghe had nearly dropped to get to it. In a competition like this, this small, weak thing wouldn’t have earned Luo Binghe even a single point to his name.

Truly, the only thing notable about this fish is that it’s one of Shen Qingqiu’s favorite meals. It’s also clearly the freshest of Luo Binghe’s kills, presented at a time perfect for eating, and Shen Qingqiu is nearly overcome with fond exasperation at the thought of Luo Binghe having completed his hunt but remaining on the hunting grounds just to catch something like this.

Shen Qingqiu is careful not to look up at Luo Binghe’s face, not quite sure he could handle whatever expression he has on right now, presenting this sort of thing. Behind him, he can feel Lao Gongzhu’s eyes on him. Looking at Luo Binghe’s catch, at Luo Binghe’s folly he’d chased after just to give his Laoshi a tasty snack, Shen Qingqiu can’t bear to think of the way that Lao Gongzhu won’t be the only mer who tries to get their claws on this little guppy, not now that he’s demonstrated both capability and a lack of dangerous behavior. It is wartime, and so much of their lives have been disrupted by it already, deciding what sorts of research Qing Jing can do and assigning Shen Qingqiu’s brother to lead a warrior pod and dictating when they can and can’t recruit new pups into their pods. If outsiders take an interest in Luo Binghe, it really will become quite troublesome for Cang Qiong to not place him back on the frontlines of battle.

There’s really only one sort of thing that could properly shut down those issues, but that…

Luo Binghe holds the fish out more insistently to Shen Qingqiu, and he suppresses the urge to sigh.

He is about to make a very, very stupid decision.

Shen Qingqiu keeps his hands down at his sides, instead darting in to take a bite from the fish directly out of Luo Binghe’s hands. Luo Binghe’s expression goes a bit slack, watching him eat with wide eyes and almost immediately dropping all his other kills, and Shen Qingqiu feels himself flush. He pulls back after taking a substantial bite, bringing a hand up to hover over his mouth as he chews, embarrassed even as he curls his tail around Luo Binghe’s. 

In front of everyone like this, it is an incredibly shameless display, and it makes Shen Qingqiu want to repress the way he’d been acting with Luo Binghe back home so badly. Shit, fuck, why is this so embarassing, why had no one called him out for letting Luo Binghe act so shameless with him in front of their whole pod!! It isn’t - they aren’t - 

Well. For the purposes of this, they sure are.

Shen Qingqiu cuts a glance over to Lao Gongzhu, eyes skating over the handful of other mers watching, including Yue Qingyuan. Good. Word will travel fast, then, and hopefully mean Luo Binghe will be left alone.

“It’s like this, between us,” he says aloud, trying not to let his voice shake from the pure shamelessness of it all. Luo Binghe makes a short, pleased trilling noise that does not help matters. “Regardless of where Luo Binghe’s skills might be the best fit, to remove him from an active - an active, ah, -”

“It goes against every custom we have as mers to remove someone from an active courtship,” Luo Binghe finishes for him easily, despite not having all the context. He sounds far, far too pleased with the way he curls the word ‘courtship’ around in his mouth, and already Shen Qingqiu can feel him shifting to curl his tail around Shen Qingqiu’s in easy reciprocation of the affectionate gesture. Damn it, Shen Qingqiu is going to burst into flames here, the water all around them be damned!

“Oh,” Yue Qingyuan says intelligently, clearly going through a midlife crisis. Lao Gongzhu looks a bit like someone has spat in his eye. A few of the other observers, having come over when the current first-place competitor had arrived, lose interest.

Thank fuck. It worked, then - no matter the circumstances, there really isn’t anyone willing to push apart a courtship bond. 

Which -!

Shen Qingqiu twists back around to face Luo Binghe, who looks like every holiday has come at once. Shen Qingqiu’s face is bright, bright red, his ear fins pressed up against the sides of his head in mortifying embarrassment. 

“We - have to go,” Shen Qingqiu manages to get out, unable to take his eyes off the way Luo Binghe’s smile grows predatory even as he addresses Yue Qingyuan and the others. “We’ll be right back, just have to - have to debrief, privately, completely normal stuff.”

Yue Qingyuan, when Shen Qingqiu risks a glance back at him, looks like his crisis has progressed to a terminal stage.

Before he can lose his resolve, Shen Qingqiu untangles himself from Luo Binghe and starts tugging him away, moving out of sight and earshot of the spectators. Luo Binghe follows, but he doesn’t make it easy - every movement he makes is clearly done with the purpose of getting closer to Shen Qingqiu and wrapping himself around him rather than just obediently following along, and by the time they’ve reached an out of the way rock outcropping Shen Qingqiu has given up on untangling the two of them and is all but dragging Luo Binghe along.

Finally safe from prying eyes, Shen Qingqiu takes a moment to steel himself. To be so bold in public like that -! To pantomime such an intimate thing as courting, without even having the permission of the other party -! 

“Laoshi,” Luo Binghe rumbles, his chest still pressed close up against Shen Qingqiu’s back, and Shen Qingqiu shivers at the way the words vibrate through him and then just - keep vibrating, oh fucking shit god damn it Luo Binghe has started purring -!

“Binghe,” he manages to get out, sounding only mildly strangled, “Back there, I was out of line. I -”

“If Laoshi tries to apologize to me, I will make it my life’s mission to be as disobedient as possible until he takes it back.” Luo Binghe’s claws flex against Shen Qingqiu’s waist, somewhere between a threat and an instinctual, comforting kneading motion. 

“But to do such a thing, Binghe, I -!”

“Isn’t it only that Laoshi is finally being a bit nicer to his Binghe?” Luo Binghe asks sweetly, leaning in over Shen Qingqiu’s shoulder so he can put his mouth up against Shen Qingqiu’s cheek. It seems very, very much like he wants to bite at that cheek, and is only just barely resisting the urge. “Hadn’t this Binghe said before that if Laoshi really wanted to be nice to him, he’d be the one climbing all over his Binghe?”

“That - you were just teasing -”

“I assure you,” Luo Binghe interrupts, voice still low and rumbling and horribly distracting, “I was being quite sincere.”

Somehow, Shen Qingqiu thinks he manages to flush darker. It’s about the only thing registering with him right then, outside of way Luo Binghe’s body is pressed so close to his, outside of the way their tails are tangled together and yet it isn’t uncomfortable or too difficult to remain floating above the rock beneath them because fuck, shit, Shen Qingqiu really had been letting Luo Binghe act this way for weeks now, oh my god, he’s already used to it to this extent -

“Laoshi, don’t you want to hear what this Binghe wanted to ask for as a reward for winning?”

“You - you really didn’t win yet, Liu Qingge hadn’t finished yet when you came out -”

Luo Binghe bites down on Shen Qingqiu’s cheek, just firmly enough that it comes across as a bit irritated rather than completely playful. After a several long seconds of Shen Qingqiu listening only to his own breathing - more ragged than it should be, fuck, he needs to get ahold of himself - Luo Binghe pulls back slightly, releasing the bite to lick at his cheek soothingly instead.

“Laoshi shouldn’t mention other people while I have him like this,” Luo Binghe says simply, after licking at Shen Qingqiu’s cheek enough he can feel the clear sensation of saliva sitting there instead of the familiar ocean water. “I was competing for Laoshi, so of course I won.”

“Ah,” Shen Qingqiu says intelligently, and Luo Binghe hums, smug. The vibration of it barely registers over the soft rumbling purr that Luo Binghe hasn’t let up on once since the start of this all.

“Laoshi, this Binghe of yours is going to ask for his reward now,” Luo Binghe says simply, and then uncoils his tail from around Shen Qingqiu just enough so he can shift, moving around Shen Qingqiu to face him, and - 

Shen Qingqiu’s fins flare out, and he only barely manages to push down the instinct to swipe at Luo Binghe - is he trying to eat him?? Why is there so much tongue and teeth involved in this - this - can it even be called a kiss?!! Noses bumping together, Luo Binghe’s sharp teeth scraping painfully against Shen Qingqiu’s lips, a pressing heat that should not be this pleasant given the lack of skill involved here!!

He pushes Luo Binghe back, intending to scold him, but the look he gives him is - well it - it’s just - 

…It’s probably just as fine to just show Luo Binghe how it’s really meant to be done instead of giving him a proper scolding, right?

Against his better judgment, Shen Qingqiu pulls Luo Binghe back in, keeping his hands firmly on both Luo Binghe’s cheeks so he can force him to move in slower, more gently than he had before, angling their heads together so their faces fit better when so close together.

“Like this,” he murmurs against Luo Binghe’s lips, and then pushes in the last bit of distance. 

And ah, this - this is a proper kiss, though still too needy and forceful by half, and Shen Qingqiu lets himself sink into it. He can feel himself start purring too, embarrassingly loud, but Luo Binghe only presses himself closer when he notices, trying to lick into Shen Qingqiu’s mouth. That’s - that’s a bit too far for him, right then, and Shen Qingqiu pulls back abruptly, bringing a hand up over his mouth, looking everywhere but at Luo Binghe. 

It is very difficult to look at something that isn’t Luo Binghe, when Luo Binghe is inches in front of his face and has just kissed him and looks very much like he wants to again.

“Hm,” Luo Binghe hums, his fingers pressing firmly - possessively - into Shen Qingqiu’s skin, “I suppose that will do for now.”

Shen Qingqiu can’t help but shoot him a glare. “You -! Kissing your pod leader so boldly like that, and then acting like you’ll get more later -!”

“As I recall, it was Laoshi who kissed me just now,” Luo Binghe points out smugly, and Shen Qingqiu wants to melt into the rock below them and die. “And Laoshi who ate from my hands, and declared us to be courting in front of half the pod leaders in the region, and -”

“Alright! I - I get it, stop!” Shen Qingqiu brings both his hands up to bury his face in them, and in the brief moment that his hand lifts up from his mouth to move into that position, Luo Binghe darts in and presses another quick kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Luo Binghe, you -!!”

“Me,” Luo Binghe sing-songs, far too cheeky for his own good, and Shen Qingqiu does not peek out from behind his fingers to see the grin on his face. “It’s alright, Laoshi, I’ll get the rest of my reward once the results of the hunt are confirmed.”

“You’re awful,” Shen Qingqiu despairs, and Luo Binghe lets out a trilling laugh. 

“And now that there’s an official courtship, I’m all yours,” Luo Binghe says smugly. “Or - has it been longer than that? What was it that Laoshi told those nosy little onlookers, implying that we’d been so far along in a courtship? Laoshi -” Luo Binghe gasps, overdramatic and clearly having the time of his life, “Laoshi, have we been secret lovers this whole time?!”

Shen Qingqiu finally takes his hands down from his face to whack Luo Binghe over the head. “I was just trying to help you, you know! How is this the thanks I get?!”

“Of course, of course,” Luo Binghe laughs, “Laoshi is right - we were never secret lovers at all. The whole Qing Jing pod watched Laoshi let me curl up around him every day, so it could hardly be a secret.”

Shen Qingqiu whacks Luo Binghe again, who laughs but doesn’t say anything else teasing, just quietly holding Shen Qingqiu as he recollects himself and violently shoves down the mortifyingly obvious blush on his cheeks. It’s horribly easy to start feeling relaxed again, with Luo Binghe still purring happily up against him. 

Oh, damn it all, he’s really in it for the long haul with this troublesome guppy of his, isn’t he? How embarrassing, ah…!

Eventually, Luo Binghe speaks up again, briefly nuzzling into Shen Qingqiu’s cheek beforehand as if coaxing him to take part in conversation again. 

“Laoshi said he’d been trying to help me, back there? If there’s something wrong, let Binghe help.”

Shen Qingqiu sighs. “It’s fine now. They were all just jealous Binghe is a part of my pod and not theirs, is all, but they won’t try to move you around now that - well. They won’t, anymore.”

“Because Laoshi told them all we’re courting,” Luo Binghe concludes, pleased. “For Laoshi to want me to stay in his pod so badly that he did something bold like that - it makes me really happy.”

Shen Qingqiu huffs, trying to hide how warm and satisfied that makes him to hear. “Well, good, then. It better have, for all the face I gave up back there!”

“Laoshi should have seen their faces,” Luo Binghe says gleefully, “Laoshi, let’s go back now, I want to let them watch us court some more.”

“Absolutely not!” Shen Qingqiu makes a half-hearted attempt to wiggle out of Luo Binghe’s embrace, more for show than anything. Luo Binghe, smug as anything, pulls him back in close.

“Doesn’t Laoshi want to go back and see the results, though? Doesn’t he have to represent Qing Jing pod well by being there for the conclusion of the Annual Hunt?”

“No,” Shen Qingqiu grumbles, even as he makes a proper attempt to untangle himself from Luo Binghe so they can start heading back. He does need to return, however much he’s dreading it.

“Don’t worry, Laoshi - your prospective mate just showed everyone how capable he is, no one will dare bother you.” 

“Prospective -!” Shen Qingqiu swats at Luo Binghe, and finally Luo Binghe releases him to dart away and out of reach, grinning all the while. “Presumptuous!”

“No,” Luo Binghe says simply, “Just confident.”

Shen Qingqiu huffs, turning to start swimming back to the rest of the spectators. Most of the competitors should have finished by now, and final scores will be announced soon. Despite his scolding, a part of him is almost entirely certain that Luo Binghe really will end up winning the whole thing. His confidence is easy to believe, easy to want to believe.

Shen Qingqiu thinks he’d really like to believe in that confidence, even when it’s shameless and presumptuous and about courtship and mating. 

At the thought, he flushes and swims away faster, Luo Binghe catching up easily from behind him. He doesn’t latch on like an octopus this time, but he does brush their tails together as they move, and Shen Qingqiu thinks he might still hear the phantom rumble of a pleased purr, too. Ah, this guppy of his… Shen Qingqiu really likes him too much.

(I really like him, far, far too much, he thinks again, when the results are finalized and Luo Binghe really has won everything but comes to Shen Qingqiu for his chosen prize instead of collecting the real prize being offered by the warrior mers hosting the event. 

I like him so much there’s simply no hope of going back, he thinks, as he burns with embarrassment but does absolutely nothing to stop Luo Binghe from claiming his chosen prize despite the shamelessness of it, despite the way he knows there are others watching even as they pretend not to. 

Ah, oh well - at least he feels the same, he thinks, and indulges in Luo Binghe’s victory, purring and pleased and curled close, looking very much like a prospective mate indeed.)