Yan Xing honestly wanted to keep Icing Jiayi’s wound through the night but Jiayi insisted that he sleep instead and he iced it himself. He had to sleep while sitting up and Yan Xing sighed, he knew it was probably incredibly uncomfortable to sleep like that when there was a perfectly fine bed right there.

The night was long for both of them, Jiayi couldn’t quite sleep, and neither could Yan Xing as a result. 

It kind of made Yan Xing a little scared, realizing that Jiayi was still human and could still feel pain and get hurt like this.

—-

Yan Xing got some sleep by the end of the night and when he woke up Jiayi was already up, putting on a T-shirt. 

Yan Xing caught a glimpse of the bruise and it seemed to be healing… in the peculiar way that wounds do. It looked worse but Yan Xing had been to high school, he knew what healing bruises looked like.

“Are you going to try out breakfast again?” Jiayi asked, making Yan Xing jump a little when he realized that Jiayi knew he was awake.

He blushed and shook his head a little. Xu Meihua knew that Jiayi was here so she’d definitely do anything to see him often so Yan Xing wanted nothing to do with that.

“Alright, we should go on the next expedition together though, the rest of our group is going,” Jiayi said and walked over to Yan Xing’s side of the bed.

Yan Xing let out an uncertain sound and looked up at Jiayi, wondering why he was coming over.

Jiayi kissed him chastely before leaving him to continue sleeping.

Yan Xing didn’t actually go back to sleep after Jiayi left though, he was plagued by overthinking.

On one hand, he thought he should hide away from Meihua forever; on the other hand, he wondered why he was worried about a girl who was now significantly weaker than him. Sure she was kind of important because of her healing ability but she wasn’t that high on the pedestal.

He was tempted to push through his fear and walk down to the canteen for breakfast but he recalled that he’d have to eat human food while he was there and immediately decided that was the wrong move. He had yet to eat the food here but he was pretty sure it wouldn’t sit well with him. He was also more than full after all of yesterday’s events.

Yesterday’s events continued to remind him of how incredibly strange his relationship with Jiayi was. 

—

“Jiayi!” Yi Boqin called over when he noticed Jiayi.

Their whole group and Su Ling were sitting together. Jiayi walked over and Su Ling looked at him strangely.

“Still tired from yesterday, Ge?” Si Ling asked and Jiayi just nodded.

Su Ling was aware of Jiayi’s injury, he had been the one to do the inspection on him.

“Where’s Yan Xing?” Yi Boqin asked.

“He was feeling sick so he stayed in bed,” Jiayi explained and sat down.

“A-Xing and I are going on the next expedition, join if you feel ready for it,” Jiayi announced to the group. Wu Yanyu and Yi Boqin both seemed nervous to hear that but they both nodded.

“By the way…You know Xu Meihua?” Su Ling asked. He had noticed Meihua relentlessly following Jiayi after the expedition and her clearly obsessed expression, it was something that had been pointed to him until he actively started avoiding her.

“She went to the college I taught at,” Jiayi murmured.

“She seems to have a thing for you now.” Su Ling murmured, Wu YanYu’s eyes immediately snapped to him.

“I’m very much not interested,” Jiayi said and rolled his eyes a little.

Other than Su Ling and Hu Shi, none of them really knew who Xu Meihua was so they seemed a little confused.

“She’s engaged so she definitely shouldn’t be trying to get with other men…” Hu Shi murmured, furrowing his brow. It was the first time he heard about Xu Meihua being like this.

“Oh…? Well, I guess in the zombie apocalypse something like an engagement can fall apart pretty easily…” Su Ling murmured, he was saying that but his expression seemed a little disgusted.

“…She’s always been like that. Even before the apocalypse.” Jiayi murmured.

Everyone went silent. Wu Yanyu seemed quite pleased and continued eating.

—

“Professor Zhao!”

Jiayi kind of panicked when he heard that. He had just opened the door to his and Yan Xing’s room when he heard Xu Meihua call out to him. Yan Xing was actually already at the door when she said that.

Yan Xing panicked as well, he actually reached out to grab Jiayi, planning to pull him inside before realizing there was no point because Meihua now knew where their room was anyway and she could simply knock until they got annoyed.

So there they were… Xu MeiHua planning to sweet-talk Jiayi, and Yan Xing holding Jiayi’s arm to his chest. 

Yan Xing was wearing his hoodie so he was pretty covered up. That paired with the way Jiayi dragged him away yesterday and the way Yan Xing was holding his arm…made this look like the kind of scenario where two women would begin to fight over one man.

Yan Xing was a little scared to speak, especially when it became clear that Xu Meihua was aware of him.

He glanced at Jiayi who seemed concerned over how this would play out and then at the sign next to their door. Unlike the Doors of the people who had been here longer, their door wasn’t labeled with their names or abilities yet. This made Yan Xing feel relieved. As long as he stayed quiet and kept his head down he could probably get through this without Xu Meihua recognizing him.

Jiayi followed his gaze to the door and then understood.

“Good morning, Miss Xu.”  Jiayi pulled Yan Xing closer as he flashed a smile at Meihua.

“I- Uh…who is this?” Xu Meihua asked.

“Ah..sorry they’re a bit sh—“

Yan Xing wasn’t sure if this was the smartest move but it was certainly the first thing that came to mind to get Xu Meihua to leave. He pulled Jiayi’s head down to kiss him. Jiayi was not expecting it at all so he was a bit flustered.

He didn’t stop smiling though, he pulled away from Yan Xing and chuckled, “Sorry Miss Xu, we’ll have to talk later.”

Xu Meihua just stood there as the door closed behind them. She was completely shell shocked.

Jiayi chuckled and watched Yan Xing’s blood-red cheeks.

“That was a smart move, A-Xing.” Jiayi laughed and slipped Yan Xing’s hood down to see how his face and ears were turning redder by the minute.

“I-I just didn’t want to see her anymore..” Yan Xing whispered, looking away.

“You’ll have to see her again but I think you’ve managed to shut her up. At least for now… she doesn’t know that it’s you though…” Jiayi said and stroked Yan Xing’s hair.

Yan Xing seemed upset to hear that but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Xu Meihua probably would’ve thrown a bigger fit if she knew it was him.

Yan Xing looked down a little, feeling a bit apologetic.

“S-Sorry if she spreads rumors and stuff when she finds out it’s me…It.. It was just the first thing I thought of doing…”  Yan Xing murmured.

Jiayi chuckled a little, “It’s perfectly fine, A-xing. I don’t mind rumors.” He leaned in and pecked Yan Xing’s lips.

“She’ll probably find out tomorrow on the expedition…but just stick close to me and it’ll all be fine I promise,” Jiayi said and walked to the bed.

He kind of tried to relax for now. The expeditions were every other day and things seemed pretty peaceful around the camp so he could actually let himself rest and heal from his injury.

He iced It himself while sitting on the bed until Yan Xing slipped in bed next to him.

“You should sleep, Ge.” Yan Xing murmured and started icing it for Jiayi.

Jiayi quietly thanked him and his fatigue caught up with him completely. Yan Xing was actually shocked by how quickly Jiayi fell asleep.

He watched him for a while, it was nice to see Jiayi not so stiff and on edge all the time.

—

“You should sleep.” 

Jiayi was confused when Yan suddenly said that to him. They had been on an expedition together and they decided to sit down for a while. For some reason, normal zombies weren’t coming to them and there weren’t any mutants around so they really had nothing to do but to watch the clouds float by as the others in their group looked for things from the surrounding buildings.

“No, I'm fine..” Jiayi murmured.

“Liar. Just sleep, You’ll wake up when zombies show up out of instinct so it’s fine isn’t it?” Yan said and yanked Jiayi down so he’d rest his head on his lap.

Jiayi wanted to get up but he kind of felt all his fatigue hit him at once as he rested his head on Yan’s lap. He fell asleep almost instantly.

It was vague but somewhere in his sleep, or maybe in his dreams, he heard Yan speaking to someone.

“Why are you toying with him like this? Aren’t I all you need?”

Yan laughed.

“I’m playing with him because that’s what I want to do, that’s all there is to it.” 

Jiayi kind of spooked himself awake when that memory came to him. He was racking his brain to try and remember who Yan was speaking to.  It hadn’t been a dream, it was Yan actually talking to someone while Jiayi slept. It was kind of the first hint that Yan wasn’t exactly who he seemed to be. Not that those hints helped.

The voice actually seemed incredibly familiar now that he thought about it but he just couldn’t recall the face of the person who Yan might’ve been talking to. Or their name for that matter.

Jiayi knew they’d met before though… Outside of that moment in his memory.