The Emperor's Thief (mxm)

Chapter 13

"Shui-ge, I want my tether to be visible to anyone who looks at you. Not hidden behind a sleeve," Lian Zeishen said as he slowly pulled him forward by his wrist until he was sitting right up against the man's own crossed legs. 

He then dropped his hand and blurred forward, knocking Shui down onto his back before he could even blink. Little shocks of static began to zap his throat as the man leaning over him began to dig his thumbnails into his skin there, drawing a crackling line of blood from its center, around to either side. 

The pain wasn't bad, but the sudden jolts of frantic spiritual energy that were slipping through the cut skin had Shui's muscles quivering and his jaw clenching. 

He only noticed where exactly Lian Zeishen was carving the tether when he had finished, his thumbs joining at the back of Shui's nape. 

It's too high!

There was no way in hell he could ever hide it! 

"Lian Zeishen! Why the heck did you put it so high?" he growled as he shoved the stubborn man, who had begun licking the settling spell, off of him!

The guy allowed himself to be pushed off, flopping over to the side with an excited giggle that really didn't suit his personality... except, somehow, it did. Perfectly. 

"Shui-ge is mine!" he yelled as he grinned at Shui psychotically through a partial veil of messy hair that had fallen in front of his face. 

I feel like I've just put a harness on a dog, but it put a full collar and leash on me. 

It didn't seem like a fair trade, at all. 

"Yuen Shui, come here!" Lian Zeishen said as he stretched his arms open wide. 

At the same time, Shui felt an abrupt weight settle against him from the opposite direction, making it feel as if gravity suddenly pulled him toward Lian Zeishen, instead of downward toward the ground!

Before he could even try to stop it, he was flailing into the guy's arms!

Thankfully, the spell was completed the moment he touched the man's still-bare chest, allowing him to hurry away right before he could be caught in the tight hug that had been clearly waiting for him. 

The guy didn't seem to mind his abrupt escape, at least. He was way too excited about his new tether's ability. He was grinning like an idiot and giggling as he hugged himself and wiggled about on his side, eventually looking back up at Shui with too-wide eyes. 

This man is exhausting. 

Shaking his head, Shui moved back to the edge of the large bed, then grabbed the other complimentary robe and threw it right at Lian Zeishen's face. 

"Get dressed and get up, I'm fixing that terrible hair of yours," he said, truly at his wits ends with how poorly it looked when it could be absolutely gorgeous. 

Being hit with the light robe seemed to snap the man out of his revelry, because he immediately quieted as one dark pupil stared at him from between the folds of cloth and strands of long hair. 

God, that hair...

He wanted to say that it was wasted on such a person who refused to take care of it, but he knew that it wasn't likely all Lian Zeishen's fault. It was clear that he'd been spoiled, at least to some extent, since he was always traipsing around, doing as he wished with whomever he wished. He'd also had a very nice room at their last in, and servants who were clearly worried that he might run off again before they could return to wherever they were heading.