Wan Xue was so out of sorts from the whole matter that he went back and checked that the door was locked several times before finally removing his clothing behind the screen and sinking down into the steaming hot water. He didn't own a tub, so he had taken few true baths in his life, and now he leaned his head back, his hair floating across the water, as he enjoyed the warmth.
He wasn't sure how long he stayed like that before he even bothered to wash himself, but by the time he was finished, the water had cooled considerably. It was still warm, just not steaming the way it had been. If Meng Yuan wanted to bathe...Wan Xue thought to himself that it would most certainly be the first time he'd ever needed to use someone else's bath water.
He dried off with a towel, ignoring the bruises that still littered his body, and began to dress himself again in the same clothes he'd been wearing before. That was when he realized that the money pouch was missing. The papers were still in the pocket where he had left them, but...
Frantically, he searched through the clothes, then the rest of the room and even his pack before dressing hurriedly and yanking the door open in a panic.
Meng Yuan, who was standing just to the right of the door, looked up in surprise, startled by the abrupt motion, but still opening his mouth to speak anyway. Wan Xue's skin was barely dry, his clothes sticking to him and his hair dripping with water, and Meng Yuan forgot what he was about to say. Wan Xue ignored him, looking both ways down the hall, but his money pouch was nowhere to be found.
His breaths grew shorter, and to his horror, he found there were tears burning at the back of his eyes.
"What's the matter?" Meng Yuan asked. He was holding a pastry in one hand, and he used the other take Wan Xue by the arm and pull him back into the room and out of the hallway in case anyone else walked out at that moment. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, setting the food down on the table after closing the door. When he turned back, Wan Xue had his arms wrapped around himself, his eyes closed, and a tear leaked out past one eyelid, tracing its way down his cheek.
Still wet, his hair clung to his face on one side, and Meng Yuan thoughtlessly pushed it away from his face and tucked it behind his ear. Wan Xue didn't react, surprisingly, so he also wiped the tear from his cheek. When nothing succeeded in making him open his eyes, Meng Yuan turned back to retrieve the pastry, prying one of Wan Xue's hands from around his torso and placing the food in his palm.
"I asked for this downstairs. I thought you'd like it. I added it to the bill. I hope that's okay."
How could it possibly be okay, Wan Xue thought, when I no longer have the money to pay for anything? He didn't even open his eyes to see what it was Meng Yuan had placed in his hand.
"Oh, and you dropped these earlier," Meng Yuan continued. "I didn't get a chance to give them back before you pushed me out the door." Since it had worked the first time, he pulled Wan Xue's other hand away from where he was hugging himself and placed the key to the room there along with his money pouch.
Wan Xue's eyes flew open then, when he felt the smooth fabric of the pouch that had been given to him and heard the slight jingle of the money within. He felt as if someone had just stopped the world from collapsing, and he closed his fist around both of the items that had been returned to him and pressed them to his chest.
Meng Yuan had opened the pouch, of course, and seen all the money there, which meant that Wan Xue had lied the night before when he agreed that he didn't have the money for more than one room. It didn't make sense to him why he would have lied, why they couldn't have had more than one room and he couldn't have slept on a bed, but his thoughts on that were long gone, as was his intention of asking about his reason for doing so.
By the look of relief on Wan Xue's face, Meng Yuan guessed that...
"That's why you were upset?" he asked. But Wan Xue was still trembling all over and didn't even nod. Meng Yuan walked away briefly and retrieved the towel Wan Xue had dropped on the floor. "Silly," he said when he came back. "I was trying to give them back to you."
He called him silly, but his tone wasn't unkind, and as he stood facing him once more, Meng Yuan reached behind Wan Xue and gathered up his hair, pressing it between both sides of the towel. "You'll get sick if you go out with your hair like this."
Wan Xue didn't respond, still trying to calm the pounding of his heart. It wasn't as if he hadn't lived without money before. But he left behind everything because of the man in front of him, and that pouch of money was his one reassurance that he'd be alright, that he'd be able to make it alone in an unfamiliar place and start his life over.
In truth, having been handed that sum of money was the single most beneficial thing that had ever happened to him.
Meng Yuan had finished drying the length of his hair and had moved onto the top of his head before Wan Xue came to his senses. What in the world are you doing? He wasn't entirely sure whether this question was directed toward Meng Yuan or himself.
Aren't you...angry that I lied to you? That I made you sleep on the floor for no reason when I'm wealthy instead of destitute like you imagined?
Of course he had no way of voicing such questions, nor would he have done so had he been capable anyway.
"You don't have to hold onto it like that," Meng Yuan said, tapping the back of his hand with one finger. "It's not going anywhere now. Just put it away."
At last, Wan Xue was able to look irritated, his brow furrowing in the scowl to which Meng Yuan had already become accustomed. Unfortunately, this incited a similar reaction in Meng Yuan as it had back in the city. He managed to hide his amusement slightly better than last time – not that it escaped Wan Xue's notice. Was there something funny about someone being angry with you? In any case, Meng Yuan seemed to think so.
Regardless, still irritated, he did put the pouch back into his inner pocket with the letter, along with the key.
The key?! Meng Yuan had the key all along?!
At that thought, Wan Xue looked up at him, eyes wide, his eyebrows raised in surprise and no longer showing a trace of annoyance in the midst of his shock. He could've walked in at any time while he was bathing? He shuddered at the horrifying thought, and Meng Yuan merely watched these myriad reactions with no understanding of his thoughts whatsoever. It did make him curious, however – more curious, that is – about what in the world went on inside this expressive man's head.
With a couple of friendly pats bestowed upon Wan Xue's shoulder, Meng Yuan walked away toward the screen. "Eat your breakfast; I won't be long."
Wan Xue did, in fact, eat his breakfast, sitting cross-legged on the bed, and Meng Yuan, in fact, did not take long in the bath, considering the water was all but cold by this point. The latter felt like maybe he should have been annoyed by this, as if perhaps he deserved better than using someone's old bathwater after it had gone cold, but he couldn't actually bring himself to care given the situation.
Conversely, Wan Xue, who'd felt that the emperor deserved his fate of a cold bath, felt strangely guilty when Meng Yuan emerged, shivering, from behind the screen. He was just finishing the last bite of the pastry Meng Yuan had given him and looked away from him as he licked the crumbs from his fingers.
Meng Yuan hadn't washed his hair – understandably so, given the water temperature – tying it back instead, and it made him look more like he had upon their first meeting. He looked gentler somehow with his hair down.
"How is it?" Meng Yuan asked, standing squarely in front of him. "Do you like it?"
Wan Xue blinked at him a moment before realizing he meant the pastry he'd just finished. Having been contemplating his appearance, he'd thought at first that his question was also regarding that. Once he realized his mistake, Wan Xue nodded without even thinking. Meng Yuan smiled and Wan Xue scowled in response. Damn it. I'm not trying to make him happy.
His irritation, however, seemed never to touch the other man whatsoever, and Meng Yuan went ahead and kept on smiling. Seeing how it had no effect anyway, Wan Xue allowed his face to return to a neutral expression. Better to keep his emotions hidden anyway.
Meng Yuan flopped down beside him on the bed, his actions always some strange combination of poised and careless. "Will we continue on today?" he asked, to which Wan Xue nodded. "Any idea of where, specifically, we're headed to?"
I thought I was off to meet my wife for our wedding, Wan Xue thought wryly, but shook his head all the same.
"Alright," Meng Yuan said with gusto. "Either way, the day's almost halfway gone as it is. Should we go?" At Wan Xue's nod, Meng Yuan lightly slapped his palm against the other man's knee that was closest to him. "Let's go then."
Not expecting the sudden pain that came with the contact, Wan Xue flinched involuntarily. He felt he could handle a standard amount of pain with little to no reaction, but Meng Yuan had caught him off guard with his sudden movement.
"What's wrong with your knee?" Meng Yuan demanded. "You hurt it when you tripped, didn't you?"
Wan Xue shook his head, denying it and unfolding his legs from beneath him. Having barely made it to his feet, he was surprised to find that Meng Yuan was already kneeling on the ground, his hands reaching for Wan Xue's clothing.
Wan Xue's mind blanked. The situation was nothing like that time, and Meng Yuan as he was now clearly held no ill will toward Wan Xue. Not to mention that the man was kneeling on the ground instead of forcefully asserting his dominance over him. Even still, his mouth went dry and he froze momentarily.
That moment was long enough that Meng Yuan had already pulled up the fabric of his pants and had one of his palms cupped around the back of his bare leg, scrutinizing the scrapes and bruises on his knee.
In a panic, Wan Xue tried to take a step back, only to find that the leg in Meng Yuan's grip did not follow along with him. Losing his balance, he nearly toppled over backwards, and would have had Meng Yuan's reflexes not reacted faster than Wan Xue's clumsy fall could finish playing out.
Wan Xue found himself suddenly stabilized by a hand at his waist and looked down to find that Meng Yuan had sat up on his knees to catch him, one hand still behind his knee, the other at his waist, or rather on his hip, the edges of his long fingers reaching lower in the back than they had any right to.
"Careful," Meng Yuan cautioned him, though the warning could have applied to his situation as well. Luckily for him, he let go just before Wan Xue had taken all he could and was about punch him in the face.
Seeing the murderous intent on Wan Xue's face, he also let go of his knee and stood up, the former's pant leg falling back in place when he did.
"We should buy something to treat your injury with," he suggested, but Wan Xue merely shrugged, about to turn and walk away. Meng Yuan abruptly leaned closer, as if Wan Xue's murderous aura bothered him not in the slightest. "It's not like you don't have the money for it," he whispered in his ear, backing up just enough that Wan Xue could see the mirth in his eyes, as though he were teasing him.
Even after Wan Xue shoved him hard in the chest and he stumbled backwards, he was still smiling. With a laugh, he followed behind his benefactor as they collected their things and left the room behind.
[I missed a week but it's okay ~
'Cause no one reads it anyway]