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Jian Yu came back from his errand in town fuming and muttering to himself. The fact that Yin Yu was on duty at the administrative pavilion when he came to sign back in should have improved his mood, but seeing him trying to hide a smile made his mood so much worse.
“Something funny?” he snapped, maybe a little sharper than he should have.
Yin Yu blushed, busied himself with some papers on the desk. “No,” he said firmly. “It’s just— sometimes the things you grumble about are just… silly.”
“Sometimes?” Jian Yu echoed teasingly, annoyance with his friend already extinguished by the sweet blushing and the soft voice.
“A lot of times,” Yin Yu amended, tone dry as he played along. “What happened?” he asked a moment later, sincere as he looked Jian Yu in the eye.
“Forget it,” he replied, burying his gratitude under sarcasm as he looked away, “it was just silly.”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Yin Yu watching him thoughtfully, so he stubbornly kept his gaze out the side window and tried not to feel like some kind of object on display. Then he tried to pretend he didn’t hear him when Yin Yu turned to a shimei and asked her to please cover for him so he could talk with his friend privately for a moment. He tried to pretend he didn’t notice how quickly she agreed to do so, how she urged him to take all the time he needed, that it was no trouble.
“Everyone’s so eager to help you,” he muttered as they left the pavilion together.
Yin Yu let out a little puff of a laugh. “It’s only because I ask nicely,” he said, throwing Jian Yu a pointed look.
“Yeah, sure, that’s gotta be the reason,” Jian Yu replied dryly.
He shook his head with a smile, either genuinely confused or just playing dumb. Not prepared for either conversation, Jian Yu simply walked alongside him in silence.
“So what happened? Were you able to complete your errand for shifu?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, the errand was no problem.” Glancing quickly over, he saw Yin Yu watching him patiently but expectantly. “All right, fine,” he barked, “I heard some people from a nearby sect talking shit about you. Happy?”
Yin Yu blinked at him. “What, that’s it? That’s what had you so upset?”
Jian Yu stared back. “Don’t you care what they said?”
“No,” he replied with a little laugh. “Should I?”
“You don’t care that they said you were hiding behind the sect’s reputation and wealth,” he said, voice rising and his heart pounding with indignation, “that you’re getting away with all kinds of things, that you don’t really deserve all the praise and that we’re exaggerating your accomplishments?”
“Oh, Yu-er, they’ll say those kinds of things about anyone.” He kept his voice hushed, shook his head. People were staring as they passed.
“Yeah, but I heard them say it about you!”
That finally got a decent reaction out of him. Touched, he threw Jian Yu a grateful smile. But then he ruined it by saying, “I’m surprised they’d waste their energy on someone like me.”
He really wished Yin Yu could have a little more pride. “One day,” he said, voice gone soft, “I’d like to see you really lose it on someone.”
Yin Yu pressed his lips together, forcing dimples in his cheeks that Jian Yu had to fight the urge to poke or run his fingers over. “I’m not sure that I’d like to see that,” he murmured. Then he gave Jian Yu a sharp look. “You didn’t start a fight with them, I hope.”
Jian Yu scoffed. “Of course not. Don’t confuse me with—”
He saw the warning look.
“—anyone. I can behave myself.”
Yin Yu’s grin turned doubtful.
“Shut up,” Jian Yu told him, as affectionately as he could. He watched him for a moment. “Don’t you ever get angry?” he asked.
“I have you for that,” Yin Yu replied with an easy smile.
Jian Yu snorted. “You can’t keep me around forever.”
“Why not? That was the plan.”
He stared at him again, speechless. How could he just say things like that? And with such a sincere look on his face, too. “All right, you’d better,” he grumbled, fighting the sensation fluttering between his head and his heart. “Since you’re obviously gonna need me.”
The satisfied look on Yin Yu’s face, as though he’d just won some kind of argument, made Jian Yu reconsider. Maybe he didn’t need more pride; a little humility would probably do him some good.