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Chu Wanning opened his eyes after five long years to find himself in his shizun's bedroom.
His eyes felt heavy and he felt a little groggy, like he was waking up after not getting enough sleep, but once his vision focused he was finally able to take in his surroundings.
It made sense that he'd be here, after all the trouble his shizun had gone to to retrieve his souls from the Underworld, and yet something felt off. He just couldn't tell immediately what it was.
Only when he felt grounded enough to sit up and take a better look around, unconsciously sniffing the air, did he realize what was wrong: he was in his shizun's bedroom, but it didn't smell like his shizun at all. Instead of the fresh, cypress-like scent he'd expected to hit him in full force, never failing to make the fine hairs on his nape and forearms raise every time he smelled it, the room smelled like… nothing. Nothing but the muted scent of haitang that Chu Wanning had lived with for the last seventeen years.
As an alpha, it was unusual to have such a soft scent. If Chu Wanning were anyone else — less strict, softer, gentler — he would easily be mistaken for an omega. As it was, he was more often mistaken for a beta than anyone else. Only in the rare occasions anyone managed to get close enough to feel his scent did people realize he was actually an alpha.
It made sense for someone like Chu Wanning, though sometimes he wished he could just be a beta instead. At least then he wouldn't be so sensitive to other people's scents, and especially so his shizun's.
Chu Wanning had unconsciously followed Mo Ran's scent ever since he first met him, when he'd first moved on from Rufeng Sect and ended up in Sisheng Peak. Mo Ran's sharp scent had invaded his nostrils and made the hair on the back of his neck rise and Chu Wanning hadn't been able to stop looking at him since, strangely hooked on his scent.
There was something dizzying about it, something that made him want to follow after Mo Ran instead of fighting him and defending his territory like any typical alpha would, so Chu Wanning told himself he'd need to avoid the alpha from then on and stick to a different part of the sect. Mo Ran, on the other hand, decided he absolutely needed to have Chu Wanning as his disciple and had asked him to let him be his shizun for two weeks straight.
Eventually, Chu Wanning gave in; eventually, Mo Ran realized his disciple was not all he thought he would be and regretted his decision to chase him around. Still, Chu Wanning stayed, because even if it hurt to be around Mo Ran whilst knowing he despised him, it hurt even more to keep his distance.
It wasn't until a Heavenly Rift opened and Chu Wanning died whilst sealing it that something finally changed between them.
Mo Ran had somehow gathered all of his souls and followed him into the Underworld in order to bring him back to life, earnestly promising him he'd be a different shizun from then on. Chu Wanning wasn't sure there was any point in following him back — everyone had always seemed to be happier without him around — but eventually he did.
And now—
And now he was back, and apparently his shizun had given up his residence during however long it took Master Huaizui to bring him back, because there were no signs of him anywhere.
The first person to see a newly awakened Chu Wanning was Xue Zhengyong. The Sect Leader showed up right when Chu Wanning had managed to get up, legs still shaky and head dizzy. His body was completely healed, no traces of the injuries he remembered getting while repairing the Rift, but he felt strangely weak, like all his joints were rusty and he was no longer sure how to hold himself up right.
"Careful there, A-Ning," Xue Zhengyong told him, swooping in to help support him as he led him towards Mo Ran's living area. "You've been asleep for a long time, you can't just get moving all of a sudden."
"How long has it been?" Chu Wanning asked, curiously.
Xue Zhengyong ignored him. He was too busy pouring the tea he'd apparently been brewing, setting two small mugs on the round low table as he motioned for Chu Wanning to sit.
"We're having a little sect wide banquet tomorrow night," Xue Zhengyong told him, cheerfully sitting across from him as a blank faced Chu Wanning looked at him. "Master Huaizui told us you should practice inedia for today, which is good because it'll give your shizun a chance to arrive in time for the banquet."
At those words, Chu Wanning immediately perked up. "My shizun? Where is he?"
"Your shizun's been traveling ever since you entered seclusion," Xue Zhengyong explained, shaking his head fondly. "You know, he insisted Master Huaizui use the Red Lotus Pavilion to bring you back, and then he just went off on his own while he waited for you to wake up. He's been taking on all sorts of missions and jobs but he writes us every once in a while."
Chu Wanning's brows furrowed at Xue Zhengyong's choice of words. He writes us every once in a while made it seem like Mo Ran had been gone for a long time. How long, exactly, had he spent sleeping?
"Sect Leader—"
"And Meng-er! He's so excited to see you, I think he might actually barge in any second now—"
Someone did barge in then, but it wasn't Xue Meng. Chu Wanning didn't know who it was, but this disciple of Sisheng Peak, although dressed similarly to his shixiong, was older and taller, though not by much.
"Meng-er!" Xue Zhengyong called out, waving the disciple closer.
"Y-Young master?" Chu Wanning asked, confused. "But—"
"Shidi!" the disciple called out, ecstatic, rushing over to the table. "Shidi, how are you? You look great! Like no time went by at all, it's so impressive! Have you heard already that I—"
At Chu Wanning's shocked face, the disciple slowly stopped talking. "Is he okay?" he asked, turning to the Sect Leader.
"Ah, Meng-er, I didn't have time to prepare your Chu-shidi," Xue Zhengyong lamented, even as he tried to hold in his laughter. "Chu Wanning…" he started, turning to face him fully. "It's been five years since you entered seclusion."
☁︎☁︎☁︎
After getting over the shock of having been sleeping for the past five years, Chu Wanning tried his best to catch up. Xue Zhengyong insisted he stay at the Red Lotus Pavilion at least until his shizun was back so he could rest more comfortably, and then he sent Xue Meng over to Wuchang Town to collect books on recent events so Chu Wanning could read and catch up.
Secretly, Chu Wanning was glad for the reprieve. Other than the Elders, most people were unrecognizable to him now, having changed so much in the course of only five short years. He needed time and space to process everything and, most importantly and perhaps more shamefully, he was glad to be able to do it in the Red Lotus Pavilion.
Even without his shizun's scent in the air, it was still his shizun's den; a place an alpha like Chu Wanning had no business feeling so comfortable in.
As it turned out, he'd missed both quite a bit and nothing at all at the same time. The cultivation world had remained relatively unchanged at large, but the ones closest to Chu Wanning had changed quite a bit. For one, Xue Meng had won the Spiritual Mountain Competition, besting even Chu Wanning's old shidi, Nangong Si; for two, Shi Mei had left Sisheng three months after the Heavenly Rift opened to study with Guyueye and hone his healing skills for a few years. Mo Ran, their shizun, had left Sisheng Peak even before that, going off to travel the country as Chu Wanning slept.
When Chu Wanning asked Xue Zhengyong why, the Sect Leader had looked a little sheepish. "Well, you know. Your shizun was a little shaken after… I think it was just hard for him," and that had been that.
Chu Wanning looked forward to asking his shizun himself, hopeful that he maintained the same friendlier attitude he'd had back in the underworld, but when the night of the banquet arrived Mo Ran was nowhere to be found.
He sat next to Shi Mei and Xue Meng the whole night, pretending not to watch the door of Mengpo Hall the entire time as they downed jar after jar of pear blossom wine together, but the person he most wanted to see was the only one to never arrive.
Unexpectedly, however, the sky lit up with fireworks near the end of the banquet, and everyone rushed outside to watch. Chu Wanning had been glad for it; a whole banquet had been thrown to welcome him back, but he despised having attention on him for so long and from so many people.
At least like this, everyone was so enthralled with the fireworks that they were no longer staring unashamedly at him, whispering between themselves about how he looked just the way he had before, half-wondering if he'd become an immortal or if he'd somehow come back wrong.
Until, of course, the fireworks changed to spell out the words 'SHIZUN MO RAN WELCOMES HIS DISCIPLE BACK FROM SECLUSION' — after that, all eyes were back on Chu Wanning, who quietly excused himself to go bathe at Melodic Springs before bed.
Shi Mei bade him goodbye quietly, hauling a drunk Xue Meng off towards the dorms, and Chu Wanning watched them go with a tight knot in his chest. Mo Ran hadn't come back in time for the banquet but he'd still thought about him, had still gone out of his way to welcome him back in a different way, and Chu Wanning felt hopelessly weak to it.
It didn't matter that Mo Ran hadn't arrived yet. Tonight, Chu Wanning would go back to his own room in the dorms, and tomorrow— tomorrow, he'd get to see his shizun again.
Unexpectedly, however, he ended up running into Mo Ran much sooner.
There'd only been one other person in the hot springs so late at night, and it was just his luck that it would be his shizun. His tall, broad-backed shizun, whose muscles were somehow bigger and whose skin was now tan and glistening with the fat droplets of water that were lucky enough to get to run down his chest.
Chu Wanning… was weak. So, so weak.
He tried to run but all that did was make him end up in his shizun's clothes, making a shiver run down his spine as he was finally enveloped in his shizun's strong, manly scent, managing to stumble all the way down to Naihe Bridge until Mo Ran finally caught up to him.
"A-Ning," he heard his shizun call out. Begrudgingly, Chu Wanning slowed his pace. He'd been asleep for five years and his shizun had kindly allowed him to spend those years locked up in his residence; the least he could do was be slightly obedient.
"Shizun," he greeted, turning to face Mo Ran while immediately dipping into a low bow. He didn't want to look at his shizun's face, at the eyes who always managed to get his attention without him even realizing it; he didn't think he was strong enough to take it. Instead, he kept his eyes low, though he couldn't help but notice his clothes looked… comically short on his shizun.
"Why would you run out so fast?" Mo Ran asked, a note of laughter in his voice, like he knew exactly why Chu Wanning was running. "This shizun hasn't seen his dear disciple in so long. Would you really rob me of such a reunion?"
"Of course not, shizun," he uttered, between gritted teeth. "This disciple is sorry. Perhaps tomorrow—"
"Hm?" Mo Ran interrupted, before a warm, large hand was impertinently settling on his chin, forcing him to look up at him. "Why are you still bowing, A-Ning? Won't you look at me?"
The challenge wasn't looking at Mo Ran; the challenge was looking at Mo Ran without feeling like his heart would beat out of his chest and leave a hole there with no chance of closing it back up.
"Shizun—"
"You look good in my clothes," Mo Ran said, suddenly. Chu Wanning's head snapped up to look at his shizun, red-rimmed phoenix eyes opening in shock as he looked at his shizun to find he was looking at him with something akin to fondness; an expression he hadn't seen on him since Chu Wanning had first told him to get lost years earlier, marking the beginning of his shizun placing more and more distance between them. "Come on, A-Ning. It's late," his shizun continued, oblivious to Chu Wanning's thoughts. "Wouldn't want you to get a cold so soon after returning."
"Y-Yes," Chu Wanning managed to stutter out, taking a step back even as Mo Ran took another step forward. Furrowing his brow, Chu Wanning tried to take a step to the side so he could move around his shizun and leave in the dorms' direction but Mo Ran moved with him, blocking his way. "Shizun?"
"Where are you going?" Mo Ran asked him, large hands settling on Chu Wanning's shoulders and squeezing, turning him around to face the opposite direction instead. "The Red Lotus Pavilion is this way."
"But I'm not going to the Red Lotus Pavilion," Chu Wanning said, confused, even as Mo Ran started leading them forward.
"Of course you are," Mo Ran said, naturally, like it was a follow up to some conversation they'd had and that Chu Wanning simply had forgotten about. "A-Ning, you're still recovering from your little trip to the underworld," he continued, like Chu Wanning had simply decided to run off and visit the underworld without permission. "Master Huaizui left me a letter with some recommendations for your recovery, and he said you shouldn't be alone for the first few months."
Chu Wanning immediately bristled at that, trying to stop in his steps but being reluctantly dragged off by a firm hand around his forearm. "There's people at the dorms," Chu Wanning pointed out.
"It's not the same, A-Ning," Mo Ran said, smoothly, as they finally neared the barrier around his residence. "Trust your shizun on this."
They walked into Mo Ran's pavilion together and Mo Ran immediately went off comfortably towards his bedroom, leaving Chu Wanning to stand awkwardly by the entrance, wondering where exactly his shizun intended for him to sleep. Before he could continue to wonder, however, his shizun returned, back to wearing fitted robes again instead of Chu Wanning's smaller ones, and back to his usual black ones.
"I've made up my bed in a different room," Mo Ran told him, holding out a change of sleeping robes towards Chu Wanning. "A-Ning, you can keep staying in my room. It's better like this."
"Shizun, of course not," he protested, feeling his ears heat up with embarrassment. What kind of disciple would he be if he took over his shizun's bed and made him sleep somewhere else? This was so ridiculous; his room was ready and waiting for him back at the dorms. There was no need for such coddling. "Shizun, this disciple thanks you for your consideration, however—"
"A-Ning," Mo Ran interrupted, silencing him with a heavy hand on his shoulder. His shizun was so touchy today; Chu Wanning hadn't ever realized how warm he was. "Let's go to sleep now. It's late. Okay?"
Mouth dry and tongue too heavy to respond, Chu Wanning limited himself to nodding as he followed after his shizun.
He'd stay for tonight. Just for tonight.
☁︎☁︎☁︎
Three months later, Chu Wanning still hadn't returned to the dorms. Every day, he waited for the inevitable moment in which his shizun would finally deem him ready to return to the dorms with a kind smile and a warm pat on the back. And every day Mo Ran would hold his hand and place two fingers on his wrist to check his spiritual energy, before nodding to himself and going off to prepare dinner for them.
Surely he should have been fine by now? Chu Wanning didn't feel any different than before, and yet he stayed anyway. Getting a second opinion from Tanlang Elder was out of the question, and Chu Wanning wasn't in any particular hurry to go back to his room in the dorms. It was smaller and noisier, with all the other disciples around and, more importantly, it didn't have his shizun's scent everywhere.
So time kept passing and Chu Wanning didn't say anything either, letting Mo Ran's silence dictate their living situation. Chu Wanning busied his time with training and, at one point, a weeks-long job—with Mo Ran in tow—in Yuliang Village to help with their crops.
During that mission, he'd thought that was it. These were the last few weeks he'd be allowed to spend so close to his shizun, guiltily breathing in lungfuls of his sharp scent like he had any right or reason to it, in complete contrast to his alpha instincts. Except, by the time they returned to Sisheng Peak, Chu Wanning had started to feel… strange.
"Strange," Mo Ran had echoed, eyes glinting as he examined Chu Wanning's wrist upon their arrival to Sisheng Peak. "Your energy is more disturbed than usual, A-Ning. Let's go home; shizun will make you a balancing tea."
And yet, the tea hadn't helped. In fact, it just seemed to make it worse.
Chu Wanning didn't know how to describe the way he felt. He'd never felt anything like it; like millions of tiny, minuscule ants were going about their day inside his body, crawling under his skin and making him itch with the need to do… something. He just didn't know what it was, though.
He felt restless, similar to the way he felt when he had his first rut but different. When he'd had his first—and only—rut, back when he'd been only fourteen and newly arrived to Rufeng Sect, he'd felt the need to train and train and train. He'd trained until his fingers bled and his feet ached from being in constant movement all day, and no matter what he did he couldn't seem to shake the feeling that he needed to do more of it.
His first rut had lasted two days, and Chu Wanning never cared to have one again. Since then, he'd been on strong rut suppressants, and he'd gone back to them the day after waking up from his five year seclusion too.
This time, however, everything felt different. His energy was low despite the way his heart beat fast in his chest and energy thrummed through his veins, and all he wanted was to lie down in bed and curl up into a ball, but every time he tried everything felt wrong and he didn't know what to do about it.
The pillows were placed exactly the same way as they always were, the way they'd been when Chu Wanning had woken up five years after his death, and his sheets were clean and carrying the faintest scent of Mo Ran since he'd washed them just that morning and made the bed neatly with them.
Somehow, Chu Wanning still felt like something was missing.
From there, things simply got worse. His spiritual energy was still unstable, his bed still didn't feel right, even after Chu Wanning added more pillows and even a blanket, and he felt more and more tired every day.
Unsurprisingly, Mo Ran never told him to go back to the dorms, more worried with feeding him even more and checking on him a lot more often than a shizun should concern himself with one of his disciples. He forbade Chu Wanning from going to eat at Mengpo Hall altogether at one point, taking on the responsibility of providing him with meals at all times, and he started to spend more time at the Red Lotus Pavilion than outside of it.
"I'm worried about you, A-Ning," Mo Ran said, every day, throwing him a concerned look as he inspected his wrist. "Let your shizun make you some balancing tea."
A few days later, however, Chu Wanning got even worse.
One morning, he woke up with a fever.
He seemed to have been feverish for a while, going by the way his robes stuck to his skin, and Chu Wanning had gone so far as to half kick the sheets off himself, leaving only one of his legs messily entangled on the sheet and blanket.
There was a sweet, cloying scent in the air, thick and nauseatingly floral, making his nose burn and his head ache. With a start, Chu Wanning realized that scent was his. That was his usual haitang scent, but it was fifty times stronger and much sweeter than it had ever been.
Wearily, Chu Wanning dragged himself out of bed, slipping an outer robe around his shoulders just in case he ran into his shizun. Realistically, he should be alone: the sun was high up in the sky, much higher than it usually was when Chu Wanning typically woke, and around this time Mo Ran should already be busying himself with overseeing classes for the younger disciples before training one on one with Xue Meng.
Chu Wanning was also supposed to be overseeing some of those classes, but clearly he'd overslept. He was also clearly in no state to do something like that.
As he made his way out of his shizun's room — his own, temporarily —, Chu Wanning had every intention to go into the main room to make himself some tea before going back to bed for rest. Truly. The problem was, as he stepped out into the small hallway that opened up into the main room, his senses were assaulted by none other than Mo Ran's scent, making his brain draw a blank.
It was coming from his shizun's temporary bedroom.
Hesitantly, Chu Wanning stopped in his tracks. Since waking, his nose had been filled with nothing but his own scent, so intense it was making him nauseous. Now that he'd smelled Mo Ran's scent, however, he could feel the burning in his nose recede and the fog start to clear from his mind.
Maybe… a little more wouldn't hurt.
Chu Wanning took a step closer to Mo Ran's bedroom, before stopping in his tracks again. Mo Ran would know. If Chu Wanning went into his room smelling like this, there was no way Mo Ran wouldn't be able to smell him later, even if he wasn't due to return for hours.
Did it matter, though…? Couldn't he just say he'd woken up feeling feverish and had gone to look for his shizun before realizing he wasn't home?
And besides, he reasoned, taking yet another step forward, and then another, and another, wasn't he feeling so much better with every step he took closer to Mo Ran's scent?
He'd be quick. He was quick.
He'd slip into Mo Ran's room, take a long whiff of his scent, and then dart back to his bedroom. Easy. Quick. Mo Ran would never be none the wiser.
In reality, Chu Wanning did slip into Mo Ran's room and he did take a long whiff of his scent; the difference was, when he darted back to his bedroom he was carrying one of Mo Ran's robes with him, black ones that Mo Ran had been wearing the previous day and which he'd carefully folded and tucked into a corner of the room, smelling heavily of him and making something throb between Chu Wanning's legs.
Not something—Chu Wanning was perfectly aware of what it was. He was hard under his robes, shamefully so, and he was only getting harder as he slipped back into bed, holding his shizun's robes up to his nose as he breathed in lungfuls of his scent.
Aaah. This was exactly what he needed.
His lower back ached, his stomach was cramping and his brain was still somewhat foggy, but his shizun's scent was mixing with his own, creating a pleasant aroma in Chu Wanning's room, and all of his discomfort was swiftly pushed to the back of his mind.
He felt vaguely out of control, like his mind was there and he could also feel his body but these two weren't connected at all. He wanted to lie there and breathe in his shizun's scent as he drifted off to sleep, but his body wanted something completely different, and before he knew it his hands were pushing open his robes and his hips were rutting against the bed, rubbing his clothed erection against the sheets in an effort to alleviate the ache inside of him.
This was how his shizun found him.
Chu Wanning didn't even hear him come in, and he didn't know how many hours had passed either. All he knew was that one moment he'd been crying, nose buried in Mo Ran's robes as he weakly chased after the orgasm he'd never been able to have, and the next he was looking on with horror as his shizun stood at the doorway, watching with wide eyes as his disciple rubbed himself against his clothes.
"A-Ning?" he heard, distantly, but his brain didn't really process it. "What's—"
Of course Chu Wanning wasn’t stupid; he knew exactly what the low fire in his belly and the stickiness between his legs meant, even if it didn’t make any sense. He was an alpha. And yet, when suddenly faced with his shizun, whose pheromones always made Chu Wanning’s instincts go haywire and now even more, all he could do was let out a shameful whimper, “Shizun, it hurts.”
His shizun stood rooted at the spot in front of him, eyes dark and wild as he took in his disheveled appearance. “Where does it hurt, A-Ning?” he asked, his voice hoarse. Just the sound of his deep voice made Chu Wanning’s throat dry up, to the point Mo Ran needed to repeat his question. “A-Ning?” Mo Ran asked, advancing further towards him. “Where does it hurt?”
☁︎☁︎☁︎
After Chu Wanning’s death in this lifetime, Mo Ran had spent a long time reconciling the truth about his disciple in his head.
After having misunderstood him for so long, committing atrocities and humiliating him in such a violent and despicable way, all Mo Ran wanted was to make sure he would never misunderstand Chu Wanning again. Most importantly, he was determined to cherish and protect him, and make sure he had the opportunity to grow and hone his skills in a way he hadn’t truly had a chance to do in the last lifetime, after destroying his own core in an attempt to stop Mo Ran’s destruction.
Mo Ran couldn’t bring himself to understand what he’d been thinking, back then. How a single, tiny misunderstanding could have grown and festered into Taxian Jun. How Chu Wanning had just laid there and taken it.
He couldn’t go back and change the past, and yet he’d been given a second chance at life. As the Red Lotus Pavilion was sealed, leaving only Master Huaizui and Chu Wanning inside for five agonizing years, prompting Mo Ran to disappear and travel around the country the entire time, Mo Ran decided that once Chu Wanning woke, he would make sure to cherish and respect him. Make sure that he would never be lonely and misunderstood ever again.
He’d also make sure Chu Wanning wouldn’t die again.
Chu Wanning was his. No one else's.
The urge to sink his teeth into Chu Wanning's throat and take what he wanted grew bounds and leaps day by day, and only a few weeks into the cohabitation he'd talked Chu Wanning into with a little white lie, he'd made his peace with the fact that, in both lifetimes, he needed to make Chu Wanning his.
He'd taken what he wanted by force in the past; now, he thought he knew Chu Wanning a little bit better, could read his emotions much more easily than ever before, and sometimes he swore he could see a little hint of something in the way Chu Wanning looked at him.
It wasn't until he found the little perfumed sachet hidden away in his robes, holding nothing but the intertwined locks of hair they'd cut off each other years earlier in Butterfly Town, that the idea that Chu Wanning — his precious little A-Ning, the disciple he didn't deserve — might possibly return his feelings, was finally allowed to form in his mind.
After that, it was difficult to let it go. The prospect of having Chu Wanning in his arms again was tantalizing, but underneath it all was a layer of terror and concern he hadn't quite been able to shake since his A-Ning had died five years earlier.
Having him again wasn't enough; he needed more. He needed to claim him, lay his claim on him and make sure they were properly bonded. His mating bite had never quite taken in their previous lifetime, with Mo Ran having to renew it over and over again, trying to force Chu Wanning's alpha body to accept an unnatural claim.
This time around, he knew better.
This time around, Mo Ran was a little more patient.
Every day, he cooked for Chu Wanning, making meals for himself and his disciple and asking Chu Wanning to eat at the Red Lotus Pavilion with him instead of going to Mengpo Hall. Every day, he looked on contentedly as Chu Wanning let himself be fed by him without any complaints, even looking on expectantly after the dishes were cleared to see if Mo Ran had also happened to make dessert. And, every day, Mo Ran swapped out Chu Wanning's rut suppressants for heat inducers and fed him sweets imbued with a potion he'd bought covertly at Rainbell Isle, wondering to himself when Chu Wanning would notice something was different.
In the end, Chu Wanning never seemed to notice. If he did, he didn't say anything about it, going on with his life completely unaware that his scent was sweeter and stronger every day.
And now, he was in heat.
Chu Wanning was an omega, and he had finally gone into heat.
"Shizun," Chu Wanning whimpered again, looking at him from between tear-soaked eyelashes, his eyes red-rimmed with pain and frustration, "it hurts everywhere."
"My poor A-Ning," he crooned, walking towards the bed without ever taking his eyes off Chu Wanning. He didn't want to miss a single second of this, of the way Chu Wanning already looked so wrecked as his scent permeated the room and made every instinct in Mo Ran's body stand to attention, telling him to claim take protect bite fuck claim rip bite gnaw take take take take take—
The bed dipped under their combined weight as Mo Ran leaned over Chu Wanning, placing one knee on the outside of one leg, another knee on the other, before caging his little disciple in with his arms next to his head.
"You smell so good, A-Ning," he rasped out, bending his head so he could press his nose right over Chu Wanning's scent gland, the scent of haitang filling his senses. "You've always smelled good but now— fuck, A-Ning—"
"Shizun," Chu Wanning mewled out. "I don't… understand…"
"I know," Mo Ran cooed, using one of his hands to gently stroke over his face, leaning back down to abruptly suck on Chu Wanning's scent gland, "you must be so confused. Your body's changing so much."
"But how?" Chu Wanning whispered, sobbing brokenly as Mo Ran moved one of his knees to press it onto his clothed erection, making him let out a choked moan. His scent gland was oozing oil steadily, and Mo Ran took a moment to lap it all up eagerly as Chu Wanning stuttered out, "Doesn't— any sense—"
"Your shizun was greedy," Mo Ran said, not at all apologetically. "I'm sorry."
What could Mo Ran say? There was so much he could say, so much he could do, and yet everything faded to black when faced with the sweet delicacy in front of him. He'd taken Chu Wanning more times than he could count in a different life, had bent him over every corner of the Red Lotus Pavilion and then some and had drugged him with aphrodisiacs more times than he could count as a way to get his stone faced disciple to react to him. But this? This Chu Wanning, red faced and eyes glazed, erect cock standing to attention and twitching against Mo Ran's knee, begging him for something he couldn't even name? This was a Chu Wanning he had yet to see, and he liked it.
Truly, he'd made the right decision. Chu Wanning was made to be an omega; more importantly, Chu Wanning was made to be fucked by him.
Chu Wanning let out a broken groan when Mo Ran slowly pulled his pants down, eyes glinting as he watched the way the fabric stubbornly clung to his skin, refusing to part with Chu Wanning's sticky pre cum. Before Chu Wanning could try to close his legs and hide from him Mo Ran was already there, two large hands keeping Chu Wanning's trembling thighs apart, eyes honed in on his pretty red cock and the even prettier hole twitching down below, glistening with Chu Wanning's sweet slick.
"You're so wet," Mo Ran breathed out, ignoring Chu Wanning's protests as he leaned in and licked a hot stripe over his hole, moaning at the way the tight little hole twitched under his touch. "A-Ning, you're so sweet," he added, feeling like a parched man on the desert as he promptly leaned in for more, closing his lips around Chu Wanning's hole and sucking in an attempt to drink more of his slick.
He stayed there for a long time, licking and sucking and laughing breathlessly every time Chu Wanning managed to reach for his hair and tug in an attempt to make him stop. Chu Wanning's slick was a rare delicacy for him, a priceless treat that only a shameless dog like him could coax out, the sweetest syrup that Mo Ran would make sure only he would get to taste for as long as they lived. It was hard to stop, but Chu Wanning was crying openly now, his cock red and angry and looking downright painful as Chu Wanning feebly tried to stroke himself to completion only to end up looking frustrated instead.
"Does A-Ning not know how to touch himself?" Mo Ran asked, gently pushing Chu Wanning's hand away so he could take over, starting to slowly pump his cock the way he himself liked it. "Does he need shizun's help?"
"I don't need your help," Chu Wanning let out, pridefully, not managing to trick Mo Ran in the slightest.
"Is that so?" he asked, letting out a low chuckle. Then, crooking his wrist, digging his thumb into the slit on Chu Wanning's head as Chu Wanning let out a loud moan, "Have you ever touched yourself before, A-Ning?"
Chu Wanning panted under him, looking redder by the minute. It was clear he didn't want to answer, too embarrassed and repressed to ever admit to anything like that, but a well timed flick of Mo Ran's wrist made him shudder from head to toe and shake his head with reluctance, eyes brimming with tears. "I've never—" he started, before firmly shutting his mouth again, but that was enough for Mo Ran.
His A-Ning… so inexperienced, so sheltered. Chu Wanning's firsts were Mo Ran's to take in both lifetimes, albeit in entirely different circumstances. This time around, he hoped, Chu Wanning's feelings for him were untainted by Mo Ran's tyranny.
Mo Ran was quick to stroke Chu Wanning to completion after that, eager to get him to come so he could slip a first finger inside, the slide made easy by the copious amounts of slick running down his eager hole.
"Look at you," Mo Ran breathed out, staring in wonderment at the holy place between Chu Wanning's legs, "you're taking me so well, A-Ning. You were made for this, weren't you?"
He could hear a moan but the noise was faint, drowned out by the loud squelching every time Mo Ran thrust his fingers into Chu Wanning, letting out a moan as Chu Wanning's walls greedily clenched tight around his fingers, begging them not to go.
Chu Wanning was tight and untouched, but it wasn't long before Mo Ran had three fingers in him, stretching him impossibly as Mo Ran tried to prepare him for the main event. Three fingers were a lot, but they were nothing compared to his cock, and this time around, he wanted to make sure Chu Wanning liked it.
"Shizun, please," Chu Wanning mewled out, clawing at his back in an attempt to get him to stop, wriggling away, "please, enough— e—"
"No more?" Mo Ran questioned, stilling his fingers as he waited for his A-Ning's reaction. As he expected, Chu Wanning looked deeply uncomfortable, clearly needing more but not wanting to ask for it with his thin face. Mo Ran knew him so well now; how could he ever have seen things differently from what they were?
"That's not what I said," Chu Wanning said smartly, predictably dancing around the subject.
"You said 'enough'," Mo Ran teased, slipping his fingers out entirely and watching greedily as Chu Wanning's hole clenched around nothing, fluttering sadly as it longed to be filled again. "This shizun would never overstep."
Chu Wanning gave him an incredulous look, a silent 'really?' given the fact that he was only in heat and feeling this way because Mo Ran had overstepped, but Mo Ran ignored him.
"Shizun already did," Chu Wanning pointed out. Then, turning his face to the side so Mo Ran couldn't see all of him, closing his eyes as if he would somehow get Mo Ran not to see him at all anymore, "Just get on with it."
Like the filthy dog he was, Mo Ran's cock twitched with excitement at his A-Ning's words. "Get on with it?" he echoed, happily, leaning down to suck on Chu Wanning's scent gland again, wondering if he should just get it over with and mark him already. "Are you giving me permission, A-Ning?" he asked, not yet satisfied with Chu Wanning's answer. "Is that what this is?"
"I will not repeat myself," Chu Wanning said, reopening his eyes just so he could glare primly at Mo Ran, managing only a weak glare in his current condition.
Laughing, Mo Ran leaned down to kiss Chu Wanning again, slowly and deliberate, running his hands up and down his feverish skin. "Don't worry, A-Ning," he whispered, tongue darting out to lick the shell of Chu Wanning's ear before moving down to bite at his earlobe, the one he'd bitten so many times before and that never failed to make Chu Wanning shudder against him, "shizun will take care of you. I'll make sure you feel really good, okay?"
Chu Wanning nodded, a tiny, almost imperceptible thing, and Mo Ran took his hard-earned assent to heart as he lined himself up, rubbing the head of his cock a few times against Chu Wanning's slick hole before finally starting to push in. Despite all the prep he'd done Chu Wanning was tight, his walls clamping down against Mo Ran, scalding hot around his cock.
It felt so good Mo Ran just wanted to slide all the way in and make himself a home inside Chu Wanning, fuck into him the way he'd wanted to from the start and make him his in every way that counted. Instead, Mo Ran reminded himself Chu Wanning could actually break and that he'd vowed to cherish and respect him — even if he still wanted to defile him in a way that was very much improper between shizun and disciple —, and practiced patience in a way he never had before as he waited for Chu Wanning to adjust to his size, feeding him his cock slowly but surely.
"A-Ning," he panted out, cupping Chu Wanning's cheek with one hand as he pressed their lips together, lacking any sort of finesse as he tried to devour Chu Wanning in every way he could, "A-Ning, you feel so good. So good—"
Mo Ran fucked him slowly at first, letting him get used to his size, but when Chu Wanning let out a loud moan and dug the heels of his feet into his cheeks in an attempt to get him to fuck him deeper all thoughts about taking it slow and cherishing him flew promptly out of his head, replaced with the animalistic need to take and claim and all the things he'd always felt about Chu Wanning in both lifetimes.
Chu Wanning cried out under him, just as gone as Mo Ran was, the peak of his heat making itself known as he stopped trying to hold in his sounds and started moaning freely, letting out little cries of shizun! as Mo Ran fucked into him faster and faster.
When Chu Wanning was pushed over the edge for the first time, cumming all over his own stomach, Mo Ran took that as permission to do whatever else he wanted with him and manhandled him onto his hands and knees, filled with the urge to get him into proper mating position and have Chu Wanning present himself.
He was glorious like this; hole loose and filled with Mo Ran's cum, a mix of Mo Ran's cum and his own slick running down his inner thighs, pooling down on the sheets below him as Chu Wanning panted out onto the pillow. He was so weak from his heat and post orgasm haze that his arms gave out almost immediately, and Mo Ran took no small amount of pleasure in positioning himself behind him, one hand pushing his nape down as he forced him into submission while the other took hold of his hip as he lined himself up again, cock slipping in with ease.
That day, Mo Ran fucked him in every possible position, making sure to draw out Chu Wanning's pleasure as much as he could. He fucked him on his hands and knees and then on his stomach, pressed flat against the mattress, and then he turned him onto his back again so he could watch his face and kiss him to his heart's content as he folded him in half and fucked him deeper than he'd been fucking him before.
It had been mid morning when he'd come across him in heat, rutting desperately against the sheets as he clung onto Mo Ran's robes, and by the time Mo Ran had Chu Wanning on his lap, face buried in his neck as he finally sank his fangs onto his omega's scent gland and marked him, it was already night. His knot locked them into place for the foreseeable future, and Chu Wanning's heat finally started to abate after the nth orgasm of the night.
Chu Wanning was his now.
It was like a piece had finally slotted into place, making him feel close to Chu Wanning in a way he'd never managed to before. He'd marked Chu Wanning as his, had bonded them together, and nothing would ever tear their bond apart. Not even death.
"A-Ning," he murmured, licking away the last remnants of Chu Wanning's blood off his neck, gently soothing the sting with his tongue, "are you okay?"
There was no response. Chu Wanning was a heavy weight against him, weight fully supported by Mo Ran's arms. Clearly, he'd passed out during his orgasm, exhausted as he was. Mo Ran couldn't help but smile fondly, fingers delicately running through Chu Wanning's long hair.
Chu Wanning would be fine. Mo Ran would draw a bath for them once his knot deflated so they could clean up before bed, and then he'd take him into his makeshift bed in the other room so they could sleep together. Ideally, Chu Wanning should sleep in his own nest after being in heat, but he hadn't quite managed to get one together in the days before his heat, not having any idea of what he needed to do.
His poor A-Ning. He must have been so confused, so restless, not knowing his body was going through such a change.
Everything would be fine though, Mo Ran thought, as his hand slipped down to Chu Wanning's naked stomach, absentmindedly stroking over the bloated skin there. He was Mo Ran's now, and Mo Ran would make sure Chu Wanning had all he could ever need… and more.