After discussing for hours and ironing out the details, they finally left Master Kai's mansion. They were walking up the forested road back to the sect and Wei Xiang had long since materialized from Qinghe's shadow. The two lovers were now walking hand-in-hand, murmuring to each other every now and then.
After a long stretch of silence, Chen Xiande finally spoke, "Junior Brother, I'm afraid I've disappointed you. I do not feel like I gained much from this excursion. I wasn't even able to understand half of what you and that merchant talked about."
Qinghe chuckled and reassured, "Senior Brother, I did not expect you to gain anything but experience and familiarity with Master Kai. Knowledge can wait, it will eventually come with time. You need not worry about not understanding it for now."
Chen Xiande smiled wryly. It seemed his junior brother really had a good estimate of his 'student's' ability.
When they eventually reached the ancient arch at the front of their sect, they saw the twins waiting for them. Fei Jin and Fei Yin were staring intently at Qinghe and Wei Xiang's intertwined fingers, their gazes burning with a strange intensity.
"Jin-er, Yin-er, were you waiting for us?" Qinghe asked them.
The two nodded and greeted them cutely, "Welcome back Eldest Martial Brother, Senior Brother!"
Chen Xiande graced them with a small smile. Since he had been the one to find and bring them to the sect, the twins had always been respectful towards him no matter what others said. Of course, if he hadn't been bullying Qinghe, then maybe they would've been even nicer to him.
"Then excuse me, I will return first," Chen Xiande informed them and left.
Fei Jin and Fei Yin looked accusingly at Qinghe as Fei Jin vocalized, "Brother, who is this person with you? Why are you holding hands?"
Looking at their reproachful gazes, why did Qinghe feel like he was caught cheating?
Shaking these absurd thoughts away, he introduced them, "Jin-er, Yin-er, this is Sentinel Wei Xiang. He and I are lovers. Wei Xiang, you might already know my junior brothers, Fei Jin and Fei Yin."
Wei Xiang looked at the two pairs of burning eyes assessing him and smirked. "Your brats look displeased by your choice of lover," he said amusedly to Qinghe.
With a loud hmph, the twins rushed forward and pushed Wei Xiang away from their beloved senior brother and warned, "We won't let you have Brother! He's ours!" They immediately each clutched onto an arm as if to keep Wei Xiang away.
Qinghe felt exasperated. What was with this unexpected situation? Why were two seventeen-year-olds acting like they were five and their mother had brought home a stepdad?
"Jin-er, Yin-er, don't be like that. Your senior brother likes him very much. I hope you can like him too," Qinghe tried to act as a peacemaker.
But his junior brothers weren't having it. "No, no! We won't let him steal you away and keep you to himself!" they protested stubbornly.
Wei Xiang raised an eyebrow and said to Qinghe, "It seems you're having problems with your family. How about I go back to headquarters to deal with paperwork and you can slowly explain to them."
Looking harried at his junior brothers' willfulness, Qinghe nodded. It would be better if he took the time to convince them when they weren't agitated by his lover's presence.
But Qinghe and Wei Xiang would later understand that they had both truly underestimated the twins.
They returned to Qinghe's room and the twins poured him tea as they pouted at what they felt was their senior brother's betrayal.
Sipping from the cup, Qinghe tried in vain to convince them to give Wei Xiang a chance. In a way, Qinghe really did consider the twins as his family more than anyone else. That was why it was important to him that both his family and lover got along well with each other.
As Qinghe exhausted himself by trying to explain to this stubborn pair of brothers of his, he felt the room slightly spin. Holding the edge of the table for support, Qinghe blinked dazedly. What happened? Did he overexert himself?
The dizziness increased until Qinghe couldn't tell which way was up and which was down. He could feel his body going lax as his vision dimmed. Two pairs of hands wrapped around him as a voice whispered by his ear, "It's okay, Brother. We're only making sure you don't leave us."
And then Qinghe lost consciousness.
...
The first thing he noticed when he woke up was the slight chill brought on by the wind cooling his sweat-dampened skin. His upper body was bare and his hands were tied above his head to the bars of the bed's plain wooden headboard. His face had reverted to his true look since the appearance changing talisman had been removed.
Qinghe felt disoriented, his grip over the wind element feeling sloppy and chaotic. It would be inadvisable to use it in this state. He at least recognized this as his own room.
He felt like he was burning from the inside out, his skin stretched too tight. There was a strange and warm tension running through his body. The area between his legs felt stiff and uncomfortable. His throat was parched. Lightly licking his dry lips, Qinghe wished he could have some cool tea.
Ah, the tea… it was drugged?
The gears in his brain seemed slow and rusty as they turned, trying to make sense of the situation. The only thing he'd consumed besides recovery pills was the tea prepared by the twins.
Were they pulling a joke on him? But still, drugging him was going a bit too far. Especially with an aphrodisiac… Where did those brats even get this? His mind feeling hazy, his sense of danger seemed blunted. No matter what, he would never believe that those clingy children could harm him. They must just be pranking him.
As Qinghe's mind went in circles while trying to find a reasonable explanation, the door to his room slowly creaked open. The twins entered and closed the door behind them, firmly locking it. They wore strange little smiles as they strode purposefully towards the bed.
"Senior Brother, you're awake. Are you uncomfortable anywhere?" Fei Jin asked.
Qinghe just blinked blearily. These brats… they already knew just what kind of drug they gave him and still had the nerve to pretend!
Not waiting for his answer, the twins climbed onto the bed on either side of him.
Fei Jin's cool palm skimmed over the heated skin of Qinghe's stomach, his short claws lightly scraping him. "Senior Brother, if you wanted a lover, why didn't you tell us?" he said as he looked at him with an earnest and pained gaze.
Leaning down, Fei Yin ran his hand over Qinghe's chest, his soft voice whispering in his ear, "Senior Brother, we will be whatever you want, give you anything you need. So you're not allowed to abandon us. I won't allow you to leave."
"…" If these two weren't the children he'd brought up himself, Qinghe would've been so creeped out by now.
Opening his lips, Qinghe spoke hoarsely, "Fei Jin, Fei Yin, you two get off me right now and untie me. I have some words to say to you."
The twins' expression darkened.
"Brother," Fei Yin cooed, "It seems you don't understand the situation yet. We're not letting you go." His roaming hand brushed lightly over one of the small buds on Qinghe's chest that had perked up due to the drug. Qinghe forced down his own abnormal reaction, trying to work past the drug's effects.
Fei Jin framed his senior brother's face with his palms, sighing into his face, "Brother, why are you like this? Why can't you only belong to us? Are we not enough?"
Qinghe frowned, frustrated. He already couldn't think clearly due to the drug, and with the twins stimulating his fevered skin even more, his mind was an unclear mess incapable of thought.
Seeing his unfocused eyes, as if by tacit agreement, the pair of brothers started moving their hands. Maybe if they convinced their senior brother that they could be better lovers than that Wei-whatever, he'd stay with them forever. It would be a small price to pay to keep him in their lives.
Fei Jin lowered his head and lightly swept the tip of his tongue against one of the buds on Qinghe's chest. The muscles under Qinghe's skin tightened in tension, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed down his moans. This aphrodisiac seemed really powerful. When this darned situation was finally over and done with, he'd lecture these brats' ears off for giving it to him!
Fei Yin was not as kind as his twin. His fingertips ruthlessly pinched and twisted the other delicate point, causing Qinghe to almost leap out of his skin. Sadistic pleasure glowed in Fei Yin's eyes at having his senior brother at his mercy. On the other side, Fei Jin's tongue had gotten bolder, scraping and laving generously at the stiff bud in his mouth, his little fangs grazed the point lightly.
Smooth hands roved over his overheated skin, skimming warm trails. Hot lips trailed over his chest and collarbones, sucking and licking along the way. The insistent burn of arousal throbbed under his skin as his breathing deepened.
Qinghe wanted to die and preferably take these two with him.
Soon, soft gasps issued out of his mouth against his will and his body writhed on its own. He could feel the rough rope chafing against his wrist, but the slight pain was ignored under the onslaught of heated pleasure.
But despite being physically out of control, Qinghe's mind was still trying to reason out this incomprehensible situation.
His junior brothers had no romantic affections for him, of that he was sure. He had observed them from when they were small vulnerable bundles suspicious of everything around them, to when they grew up into mischievous and confident cultivators. They showed strong attachment to him, that was true, but never in a romantic sense.
So what was the real reason behind all this? It was obviously because they though Qinghe having a lover would mean he would withdraw from them. He was a large part of their world, they couldn't afford to lose him.
Qinghe sighed at his junior brothers' misunderstanding. Even if they did misconstrue his intentions, just how in the world did they come to the conclusion that all would be fixed if they drugged him and tied him down like this? The minds of these kids were unfathomable.
Fei Yin's hand suddenly went down yonder and gripped the uncomfortably throbbing part between Qinghe's legs. Squeezing hard with his claws digging in, he whispered sinisterly, "Brother, just where is your mind wandering off to?"
Qinghe hissed at the sudden sharp pain shooting up from the sensitive area. The discomfort cleared his head a little, giving him the presence of mind to gasp out, "Fei Yin, you're hurting me."
Two pairs of eyes immediately looked at him with worry. Their hands and lips paused whatever they were doing, concerned about causing him pain.
Qinghe breathed a sigh of relief. There was only so much of this embarrassing situation he could block out. "You both, free me now. We can discuss this between us and clear any misunderstanding, alright?"
Fei Jin looked hesitant, but Fei Yin's eyes had hardened into cold ice. His hands crept over to Qinghe's neck, tenderly encircling it. "Brother," he said softly, "If you keep going on like this unrepentantly, we'll have no choice but to put a collar on you and chain you to us."
Qinghe stiffened.
A collar…
His mind flashed back to his time at the orphanage, when he had been collared so that he couldn't use his cultivation against his captors. But of course, at that time he hadn't even remembered what cultivation was. Without that spirit-suppressing collar, would he have remembered and been spared all that torment?
He could almost feel the cold heaviness of the low-grade spirit-suppressing collar closing around his neck, taking the place of Fei Yin's fingers. He could even feel the abrasion of the rough metal surface against his skin.
Turning his head away, Qinghe closed his eyes. Even the effects of the strong drug couldn't surmount the trauma of his childhood. Maybe nothing ever could.
For a moment, Qinghe felt the heavy weight of his past pressing down on his mind. If he let it take over, the weight would crush him.
Taking a deep breath, Qinghe pushed those thoughts back down.
"Fei Jin, Fei Yin, that's enough." Though his voice was husky from the drug's effects, the command in his tone was unmistakable.
The twins immediately realized that they were dangerously close to crossing their senior brother's bottom line. They wordlessly got up and untied him before sitting a little distance away.
They had screwed up, their senior brother would surely scold them. He might never want to see them again.
They huddled together as if to comfort each other, their heads bowed and shoulders curved as if waiting for a blow.
Qinghe pushed himself up on wobbly arms and sat up on his bed. His eyes were unsmiling as he rubbed his wrists to induce blood circulation again.
The silence in the room was suffocating.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" Qinghe's voice was without the slightest ripple.
-----------------------
Bonus Scene:
This is what happened after the twins knocked Qinghe out—
Fei Jin: Now that we have Senior Brother tied down, what do we do? What do we dooooo?! *frantically flipping through pages and pages of porn*
Fei Yin: Aphrodisiac.
Fei Jin: Oh, yes. But still... we don't really see Senior Brother that way. Do you think this'll still work out?
Fei Yin: *nods* Or he will be taken away.
Fei Jin: You're right! I've never even seen Senior Brother hanging out with that stupid Sentinel before, so Senior Brother couldn't possibly have time to develop romantic feelings for that guy. Which only means that what Senior Brother wants is…physical satisfaction?
Fei Yin: Seems about right.
Fei Jin: Then as long as we give Senior Brother that, he won't leave us.
Fei Yin: *nods again*
Fei Jin: Then let's do this!
And so, until Qinghe woke up, the twins studiously researched from various 'educational' books as if preparing for an exam where Qinghe would be the question :P