Hua Lin Yu lowered his head, feeling a bit bad that he had made Xin Lan think of all of this. If he hadn't said this the other day, then Xin Lan's mood would be better now. Even though he hadn't known, that didn't change the outcome. "I'm sorry."
Xin Lan shook his head and sighed. "There's no need to. You didn't know. Anyway, the way I reacted wasn't alright. At that moment, I just thought that if things were going to be like that, I might as well go for it. That was stupid of me." He reached over and brushed through Hua Lin Yu's hair, his expression pensive. "This doesn't have to do with you. So I shouldn't have done this either."
Hua Lin Yu nodded but he didn't blame him. Anyway, when he stopped Xin Lan, he had never persisted and just tried again later. It probably still couldn't be called great but it did show that Xin Lan cared about his opinion and wouldn't force him. They just had to work on their communication. Instead of just assuming things and basing their own decisions off that, it would definitely work better.
He inched closer and then grabbed Xin Lan's hands, giving him a smile. "In the future, promise me that you will just be open with me. There are so many things I don't know about you yet and there is no way to learn them in a short time. So there will be problems every now and then just based on this alone. And our relationship will not work out if you aren't honest with me and tell me such things."
Xin Lan nodded and then pulled Hua Lin Yu into his arms. Holding him on his lap, there was once again a pensive expression on his face. "Actually, what you said before isn't completely true. Because of this matter, I never thought that the customs of the dragon race applied to me.
"I have been sleeping with some people without ever having to take responsibility for it. It's not necessarily something I'm proud of but it just comes with the way my life has panned out. I'm not the same as them so the way I behave isn't either.
"I guess I just wanted to take it further. To me, doing this is the best way to get close to somebody." He brushed Hua Lin Yu's cheek with his fingertips, giving him a deep look. "It's not that I want to go back on my promise. I just … would like to take this further."
Hua Lin Yu reached up and grabbed his shoulders, giving him a deep look as well. "I can understand that. But … this is something that I won't budge on. It's not necessarily because of the customs of your race. The humans also have their customs. And I do want to keep to them. When we get back to the human realm, we'll have a real wedding ceremony just like it would be done in the human realm. And after that, we can do what the dragons do. Anyway, it would be our wedding night in the human realm. I want to wait until then. Can you do that?"
Xin Lan gave an unenthusiastic hum. "It's not like I can just say no, is it? If you don't want to, then I can't do it on my own. So since it's that important to you, let's wait. I promise I won't try again."
Hua Lin Yu gave a happy smile and leaned forward, kissing his lips. "Thank you. Anyway, there are other ways to get close to each other. And nobody says how long we have to travel. Anyway, I have already seen your place. Since you haven't been in your hometown for a long while, I don't necessarily need to see it now. You can show me later on as well. But I do think you won't get around showing us the dragon king's palace. Big brother seemed really interested in that."
Xin Lan nodded slowly. "That's true. In that case, do you want to continue on our journey? I can bring you right over. With my status, it is not a problem to get in."
Hua Lin Yu nodded and then reached up, brushing through Xin Lan's hair with his fingers just as he had always done to him. It was actually a really nice feeling. He could understand why Xin Lan liked to do this. He smiled and then kissed his cheek, feeling that they had gotten quite a bit closer today already. "Thank you for explaining that to me. I was actually curious about your status here. Anyway, it makes me feel that we aren't as distant anymore. If you continue like this, maybe you won't need to wait for too long."
Xin Lan gave a hum that already sounded quite a bit more pleased and then brushed Hua Lin Yu's thighs With his hands. "Well, there are a lot of things one can do with each other besides that. I guess I'll just have to see where the limits are, won't I?" He leaned forward and kissed Hua Lin Yu's cheeks, his voice dropping once again.
Hua Lin Yu shook his head at him and then got up from his lap, walking toward the building with his hands folded behind his back. "I think you should cool off on your own for a while. I'll go see how big brother is doing."
Xin Lan watched him leave and picked up the jar of wine again, a smile in his eyes. Actually, this wasn't too bad. He could get used to having somebody that he shared this kind of thing with. He knew it was a futile hope but just being able to indulge in it for a while would already be enough. At the very least, that was what he hoped for.