After the previous fighting, Yunlan can feel something is changing. Now he can feel that Shen Wei is looking at him more intensely than before (which is already a lot!). This got him thinking if he's done something wrong or something right. Either way it's not what he wants. Yunlan doesn't want Shen Wei to pay attention to him because when he's close, for some unknown reason it's becoming more difficult to push him away. If only he could ask Shen Wei to completely ignore him.
Like that could happen! Right?
On the opposite side, Shen Wei is enjoying this mission very much. He gets to be close and see Yunlan in action. And unlike last time that he could only watch from afar, this time he can even help him with the fights with demons that can come popping up out of nowhere. Moreover, he finally sees the rumored white tiger with his own eyes. At this point, Shen Wei imagines how soft those white furs would feel if he were to hug Yunlan in his tiger form. Just thinking of it already makes his heart beat faster.
'I admire him a lot for a very long long time so it's normal that my heart would beat so fast just being near him.' Shen Wei tells himself inwardly while looking at Yunlan's back in which he's been caught staring many times by the man himself making it hard for Shen Wei to calm his heart.
After traveling for who knows how long, Yunlan notices that Da Qing is exhausted; half of it from the traveling and the other half from having to deal with the teasing Ye Zun. With his heart fill with sympathy for his dear friend, Yunlan calls for a break to replenish their strength. They search for a spot that would be suitable for their rest and easy to flee if anything decides to suddenly attack.
Da Qing looks around for a comfortable spot in which he's knock out cold the moment that he lies down.
"Oh, Da Da is exhausted that he instantly fall asleep? I didn't notice." Ye Zun is surprise at what he saw.
"Well, half of his exhaustion is from your teasing Ye Zun. Remember that he's a mortal being of the mortal realm. He's not as tolerant like us. So lessen the teasing a bit, will you?" Yunlan reminds Ye Zun the situation of our little kitty friend.
"I'll be more careful. Uh ... do we need to take turns to be on guards?" Ye Zun asks as he looks around whether all of them could sleep at the same time.
"We don't need to do that." Shen Wei tells his didi while searching for something in his stoarge space.
"We don't?" Ye Zun asks again making sure that he didn't hear it wrong while Yunlan arch his brow in question as well.
"....... I found it .... " Shen Wei pulls out a small pentagram box from his storage space and shows it to the other 2.
"The Emperor actually gives this to you?" Yunlan asks as he takes the box.
"Yes, he said that it should come in handy for our mission." Shen Wei relays the words that the Emperor told him.
"What is it?" Ye Zun asks as he closely observe the box in Yunlan's hand.
"It's the Emperor's protection barrier. It'll protect the people inside from everything and anything in all directions. So no guarding is require if you're in this barrier." Yunlan explains as he's been inside this barrier a few times.
"Whoa! And the Emperor gave it to gege just like that?"
"He said that it's the least he can do."
While the twins are talking, Yunlan activate the barrier box and also input his energy into it as well. Then a light blue barrier is form from the box and expands farther out with the radius of about 5 meter.
"You need to input your energy into the barrier as well? I don't remember the Emperor telling me to." Shen Wei asks Yunlan who activate it differently from what the Emperor has told him.
"No, you can just open the box to activate it. I input my energy so that the barrier could be more than just simple protection." Yunlan explains.
"Then what will happen?"
"Any demons that touch the barrier will be burn to ashes."
After setting up the barrier, Ye Zun decides to sleep near Da Qing leaving Yunlan and Shen Wei still standing awkwardly together. For a second, Yunlan thinks of leaving and continuing to the demon realm alone like his original plan. However, he's unsure if Shen Wei and the rest could leave this place safely.
While Yunlan is having his internal conflict, Shen Wei is looking into his storage space and pulls out a roll of mat that is use for sleeping. He neatly lay out the mat onto the smooth ground nearby.
"Um .... Master Zhao?" Shen Wei interrupts bringing Yunlan back to reality. "I believe that you didn't bring any sleeping necessities. So .. um ... if you don't mind, you could use mine. I have laid it out for you already."
It's true that Yunlan don't normally carry unnecessary stuff like Shen Wei has mentioned, but he also doesn't expect someone to do something like this for him outside of the heaven realm where there are maids responsible for it. Despite his initial thoughts, he somewhat accept the offer.
"Thank you ... and what about you? Where's your sleeping mat?" Yunlan asks since he sees only one mat that's laid out. He wonders if Shen Wei laid his own mat somewhere else.
"Um ... actually ... I only brought one with me. But I can sleep just anywhere. You don't have to worry." Shen Wei quickly tries to excuse himself fearing that Yunlan wouldn't use his sleeping mat.
"Wait ... But this is yours, so you should be using it, not me." Yunlan reminds him of the fact.
"No, it's alright. I want you to use it."
"Then ... would it be alright to share?" Yunlan sighs as his ask this question to Shen Wei.
"Huh?" Shen Wei is dumbstruck by this question.
"Would you mind sharing this sleeping mat with me? We can sleep on it together." This is actually the last option that Yunlan would consider using. But judging by the back and forth conversation just now, he believes that it would just go on for eternity if he doesn't propose this solution.
"I ... I don't mind .. Thank you." Shen Wei whispers while his cheeks are blushing pink.
Yunlan finds this quite cute. "Why are you thanking me? It's yours, so I should be the one thanking you."
On the other side in the nearby area, Ye Zun was listening to the whole thing from the beginning in which he almost bit his tongue when he heard what his gege is saying. Back at home, they have tons of these mats!! What's more is the fact that the always well prepared Shen Wei often carries an extra of every thing in his extremely large storage space. So how could it possibly be that this time he has only 1 mat with him?
'Did gege forgot? No way! This is Shen Wei. There's no way he could forget.' Ye Zun is thinking really hard about his gege acting strange like this until he makes an unbelievable guess. 'Was this intentional? To get closer to Zhao Yunlan? Would people do this to the person they admired?'
In the end, Ye Zun couldn't understand or conclude anything so he push this topic to the back of his mind and goes to sleep next to Da Qing.
Luckily, the mat that Yunlan shares with Shen Wei is big enough for 2 adults to sleep on. Yunlan is lying on his back with his hand behind his head listening to Shen Wei's unsteady breathing which somewhat indicates that he's having trouble falling asleep. It was a long while before his breathing becomes more constant. So Yunlan slightly glances over and finds that Shen Wei finally falls asleep.
Some time during Yunlan's sleep, he feels something unusual. When he opens his eyes and looks to his left as a hand is tugging at his left sleeve. The owner of such hand continues to move closer and clings onto Yunlan's left arm. Then an idea pops up in Yunlan's mind. First he pulls out his left arm from Shen Wei's gasp and turn onto his side to face him. Yunlan is curious on what the sleeping Shen Wei would do next.
Now both of them is lying on their sides facing each other; one asleep while the other one watches. After some time, Shen Wei's hand starts to feel around like trying to find something. The current distance between them is only about an arm length. So when he reaches out, he touches Yunlan's chest.
The moment when the delicate hand touches, Yunlan feels his heart skip a beat. He tells himself to be strong while he remains still allowing the beautiful hands to feel around. Yet, Yunlan wouldn't budge at all when Shen Wei tugs to pull him forward a few times. This makes the sleeping Shen Wei's brows knit together. All these cute things are somehow making Yunlan smile despite his own effort to stop his lips from curving upward.
Since pulling doesn't work, Shen Wei moves himself instead. With his eyes close, he clumsily crawls over and props himself down right in Yunlan's open arms.
Wait! ..... Open arms is not what you think.
When Shen Wei suddenly gets up to crawl, Yunlan is afraid that he'll fall so he unconsciously opens his arms just in case. Not that he's welcoming Shen Wei. Are we clear?
Anyway, all of the aforementioned resulted in Shen Wei cuddling into Yunlan's neck and his arms circle around Yunlan's waist hugging him tight. Once settled, Shen Wei lets out a long comfortable sigh while Yunlan is dumbstruck at the turns of the event and chuckles to himself.
'How did it come to this?' Yunlan thinks to himself before looking down at the beauty in his arms. The close proximity allows Yunlan to have a close look at Shen Wei for the first time. But suddenly Yunlan sees a quick flashback of a boy sleeping in his arms just like how Shen Wei is. When he tries to recall it, nothing comes up. So he goes back to observing the sleeping beauty.
"Why are you making it hard for me not to like you Shen Wei - the silver dragon?" Yunlan asks the sleeping Shen Wei while pinching the tip of his nose making him scrunch it up to get rid of whatever is on his nose.
'Wait ..... Shen Wei, the ..... silver dragon? But this is the first time I met him and I'm sure I've never seen him in his other form .... right?' Yunlan starts to have doubts in his mind and feels as if he has forgotten something important. But like before, nothing comes up. So he decides to just let it go and goes back to sleep.
However, Yunlan normally doesn't sleep much so he wakes up before the rest of them including Shen Wei who is still glue to him. Sleeping in the same position for so long makes Yunlan ache, so he tries to stretch with the smallest movement. Despite his careful movement, Shen Wei is somewhat stir from his sleep. At this point, he does notice that he's hugging someone and believe his whole heart that the person is Ye Zun.
Yunlan just continue to watch if Shen Wei is going to continue sleeping or will he be seeing some cute reactions. At some point, the half opened eye Shen Wei finally meets Yunlan's. At first, Shen Wei just blinks at him a few times then goes back to snuggling.
'Oh, it's not Ye Zun. I didn't know that Zhao Yunlan can be so warm ... maybe it's because he's a fire based clan .... huh? ...... Zhao Yunlan ...... ZHAO YUNLAN!!!' Shen Wei screams in his head before his eyes snap opens again to meet Yunlan's for the second time.
The surprise makes Shen Wei instantly spring backwards away from Yunlan who is equally as surprise at the fast movement in a split of a second.
"Nice reflex." Yunlan couldn't help but praise.
"T-thank you." Shen Wei really doesn't know how to respond in this kind of situation so he just thank him while blushing.
"Did you enjoy your sleep?" Yunlan asks in an intentionally teasing tone.
The way the question sounds make Shen Wei goes another shade of red as he recalls what he might have done last night and whispers his reply honestly. "Y-yes ..... very much."
Such cute reaction is making it hard for Yunlan to suppress his smile but one corner of his mouth seems to move up against his will resulting in quite a weird expression. So he decides to change the topic instead. "Good. We still have a long way to go. Let's get moving." Yunlan tries to toughen his tone.
Since Shen Wei has jumped out of the mat, Yunlan tries to roll the mat back but gets stop by Shen Wei who immediately jumps back landing next to him. So Yunlan goes to wake up the other 2 instead.
Upon seeing Ye Zun and Da Qing cuddling together with no signs of waking up, Yunlan thinks that he should have bring a camera and take this shot which he would use it to blackmail Da Qing later on. But this isn't the time for that so he lightly kicks the sleeping Da Qing.
"Oi, fat cat. How long are you gonna sleep?"
Da Qing just reach to brush away Yunlan's foot that's kicking him implying 'Don't disturb my sleep'.
"If you don't get up, I'm gonna leave you here." Yunlan threatens.
"I'll get up when you get up Lao-Zhao."
"I am."
"You're what?"
"I already got up."
Then Da Qing starts to notice that Yunlan's voice isn't coming from the one next to him but from the direction behind him. So he perks his head up and looks behind. Yunlan is standing behind him and most importantly he's smirking at him.
'If Lao-Zhao is there, then who's here?' Da Qing asks inwardly before turning back to see who is he cuddling with. The instant that Da Qing sees Ye Zun, he screams so loud that even Yunlan has to close his ears fearing that he'll go deaf.
"What? What? What? What happened?" Ye Zun is startle out of his sleep from the loud noise and ready to attack even when he doesn't know what's going on.
"You pervert, what did you do to me?" Da Qing demands explanation from Ye Zun while using his hands to cover himself up.
"Huh? I didn't do anything." The still confuse Ye Zun answers the angry boy.
"Yeah right! You were hugging me when I woke up. So who knows what else you might have done!"
"Me? Hugging you? Were you dreaming or something? Why would I do that?"
"Who knows? You've been pestering me around since we met. You might have done something when I was asleep!"
"I'm just curious of the creatures in the mortal realm. I'm not interested in you!"
"Like I'll fall for that!"
Yunlan could only roll his eyes in disbelief. He has to ask himself, why did he need to listen to all of these nonsense. So he looks around for the trail of dust. Once he finds it, he just leave with Shen Wei right behind him as expected.
"Are you intending to leave them here?" Shen Wei innocently asks out of concern cause one of them is his didi.
"If 2 don't stop bickering, I'm really going to leave you here. In this forest, if you can't catch up you might end up in another dimension." Yunlan shouts back making Da Qing and Ye Zun realizes that they're being left behind which both hurriedly run to catch up.
"Is it true about the other dimension thing?" Shen Wei asks out of curiosity as he looks around himself.
"I don't know. I just made it up." Yunlan truly admits.
But when Yunlan turns back instead of seeing the 2 boys hurrying to catch up, he sees a stupefy Shen Wei looking cute while tilting his head to one side.
He's so cute that Yunlan's knees and resolution to not like him goes all weak.
*********************
A/N
Yunlan seems to be getting softer with Shen Wei ..... or not? 😏