They waited around for a while but Yan Xing began to wonder if he really wanted to wait here as more and more people started coming through the lobby. Even more so when Zhang Zimo was radio’d over to meet with the major and had to leave him alone.

He perked up when he could smell Jiayi coming close and quickly smiled.

He saw Jiayi and was going to immediately run up to him but he completely froze when he saw an all too familiar face following him.

“Mr. Zhao—“

“Let’s go.” Jiayi said and grabbed Yan Xing as soon as he saw him. 

Xu Meihua was incredibly confused as Jiayi pretty much disappeared from her sight in a second, and so did the hooded person who seemed to have been waiting for him.

She had been trying to talk to him since she realized he was in the expedition and in the camp in general but Jiayi had a knack for disappearing.

—-

Yan Xing felt a little pouty as he suddenly found himself back in their room. He wanted to ask Jiayi why he didn’t even tell him that he was going to the expedition and to whine about how he was kind of worried but he then saw Jiayi removing his shirt and his face went from pouty to embarrassed to very worried.

Jiayi had a large bruise spanning over the left side of his abdomen and particularly near his ribs.

“G-Ge...Are you okay?” Yan Xing asked, worriedly watching how Jiayi was actually breathing in a forced kind of way.

Jiayi nodded quickly but then he kind of turned to Yan Xing and smiled a little, he noticed Jiayi had called him Ge. He wanted to laugh but it actually hurt quite a bit.

“Just a broken rib or two, it’ll be fine. It’s happened a million times.” Jiayi murmured.

“…It looks really bad though…” Yan Xing murmured.

Jiayi stayed quiet, he got the full force of the mutated Zombie’s swing so he was in a lot of pain but he didn’t want to freak Yan Xing out by explaining what happened.

“It’ll be fine, I just need some ice.” Jiayi murmured.

Yan Xing looked around, a little panicked, ‘where would I find ice?’

Jiayi wanted to laugh again but he just sat on the bed, keeping himself upright.

“Don’t worry about looking for ice.” Jiayi said and showed his hand which glowed white as he placed it on the bruise on his side.

Yan Xing looked amazed. He sat beside Jiayi and watched.

“How can you use so many different abilities? Is it because of your mark?” Yan Xing asked, glancing at the star shaped mark on Jiayi’s side.

“No, I’m sure you can do it too…. I don’t know about everyone else but I’m sure you can.” Jiayi said and touched Yan Xing’s face with his free hand. He was speaking slowly, the ice helped but he could still mildly feel the pain.

“R-Really?” Yan Xing asked, a little embarrassed by how Jiayi was stroking his cheek. 

Jiayi stopped using the ice ability and  grabbed Yan Xing’s hand. He placed Yan Xing’s hand over his injured side. It stung a little now that the ice was no longer there but he didn’t show it.

“Imagine you’re touching an ice block. A dry and hard kind of cold feeling on your palm. Just like how you imagine fire normally with your own ability.” Jiayi whispered.

Yan Xing gulped a little, the ice ability actually sparked very quickly. It was easy to imagine something cold and hard on his hand…since he was already touching the hard muscle on Jiayi’s abdomen that was pretty cold from how Jiayi had already been icing it.

Jiayi let out a soft groan and Yan Xing almost pulled his hand away, partially from embarrassment and partially because he was scared he had injured him. Jiayi held his hand in place though.

“I-Is it working?” Yan Xing asked, embarrassed.

“Yeah…” Jiayi said and tilted his head back, closing his eyes. It was much more comfortable to have someone else Ice it for him than to Ice it himself, especially after he’d used so much power already. He’d given energy to Yan Xing and then used a lot of energy to fight the mutated zombie and a bunch of normal zombies.

Yan Xing wanted to close his eyes too, he felt too embarrassed to continue looking at Jiayi’s bare chest. He worried that he’d break his concentration if he didn’t look at it though.

“Ge?” 

Jiayi hummed a little, “Hmm?”

“My pain stopped suddenly a few hours ago… I don’t know why though.”

“Oh that’s because I killed it.” Jiayi decided to come clean, even if Yan Xing could connect the dots to how he got injured, it’d be better for him to know what that feeling was rather than for him to be in the dark about it. 

“Huh?”

“That pain…or rather, Discomfort. Was the feeling of a mutated zombie being around. That’s a zombie with powers like us but with no sense of control. Even other zombies avoid mutated zombies because they  destroy everything in their path.” Jiayi explained.

Jiayi could tell that Yan Xing was connecting the dots about his injury.

“Oh that’s right.” Jiayi suddenly remembered something and sat up a little, making Yan Xing have to move his hand so he wasn't touching a less than appropriate place on Jiayi’s body. Not that Jiayi minded.

Jiayi pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to Yan Xing.

A glowing yellow sphere that looked almost like glass.

Yan Xing didn’t quite know what it was.

“It’s the core from the mutated zombie. It’ll make your power stronger.” Jiayi offered the core to Yan Xing who didn’t look like he was particularly interested.

“…I don’t know if it’s because I’m a zombie but I’d really rather not.” Yan Xing murmured and grimaced.

Jiayi kind of laughed a little, “So picky.”

Jiayi used some of his powers on the core to make it significantly smaller.

“I don’t particularly like these either but...”  Jiayi examined the orb and then popped it in his mouth. Yan Xing figured that was the end of that and that Jiayi would just absorb it for himself but Jiayi softly pulled Yan Xing’s head over, holding him still with one hand on the nape of his neck before pulling him into a kiss.

Jiayi slipped the core into Yan Xing’s mouth and Yan Xing swallowed it without even thinking about it.  Jiayi’s saliva was covering it and as a result Yan Xing’s body reacted accordingly.

Yan Xing was incredibly embarrassed by his body’s reaction. He could actually feel himself getting stronger though.

“Dial down the ice… it just got a lot colder.” Jiayi separated from Yan Xing briefly as he felt the cold increase on his side. He then went right back to kissing him, honestly just for fun at this point.

Yan Xing barely managed to reel in his power enough, but it was only when Jiayi finally pulled away that he managed to really get the ice back to the perfect amount.

“You could probably go on for hours…” Jiayi murmured, noting that Yan Xing likely had a lot of energy left right now, “but you should stop now, I can’t make myself an ice pack after I shower… Zimo brought the water right?”

“Y-Yeah…” Yan Xing murmured.

He didn’t want to really admit it but he felt a little “uncomfortable” after kissing for so long. Jiayi luckily went to the bathroom first and Yan Xing had time to relax and calm himself down… mentally at least. He was too embarrassed to attempt anything else.