It wasn't necessarily good or bad; he dreamed of himself walking alone underwater. Around him was the abyss, with huge monsters lurking, eyeing him menacingly.
He moved forward, but there was no turning back.
The cylindrical pillar beneath Lu Yan kept rising, while the monsters knelt at his feet, emitting noisy and meaningless cries.
Lu Yan didn't know the outcome of this dream because he was woken up halfway through.
They called it a kiss, but it felt somewhat rough. The tongue with thorns pried open his teeth, and oxygen entered his lungs mouthful by mouthful.
Lu Yan's eyelids felt heavy, unable to lift them.
His hand touched Tang Xunan's wing roots, which were covered in soft fur. Feeling reassured, Lu Yan let the other person kiss him fervently.
"The task audit was approved this afternoon. Headquarters couldn't reach you on the phone, so they checked your location and accidentally called Tang Xunan, asking him to help find you."
"After searching for a while with no luck, they finally found you lying at the bottom of the water, like a corpse, not breathing and unresponsive. Everyone was terrified."
Tang Xunan thought Lu Yan had drowned.
His bone density was high, causing him to sink as soon as he entered the water.
He managed to stay afloat, propelled by the wings behind him, slicing through the water like thick paste.
Two heads emerged from the water's surface, Tang Xunan holding him tightly as they soared into the sky.
Lu Yan opened his eyes and pinched Tang Xunan's neck lightly. "I'm fine."
He brushed aside his own hair, lowered his head, and showed Tang Xunan his gills. "I can breathe underwater. The mutation favors aquatic creatures; I won't drown."
Usually, these gills were hidden beneath his hair, inconspicuous.
Tang Xunan looked startled. "...I forgot."
When he was young, with long limbs, teachers at the youth palace suggested he learn to swim. However, he nearly drowned on the first day, ending up in the hospital for half a day.
Since then, Tang Xunan had always harbored an inexplicable fear of the deep sea.
But he had overcome this fear. After all these years, there were times when missions required him to go underwater.
Today, when Tang Xunan saw Lu Yan lying quietly at the bottom of the sea, he instantly recalled his primal fear of water.
Water could steal one's breath, not just his own.
Lu Yan pondered for a moment. "Just forgot? I thought you were trying to take advantage and kiss me."
Tang Xunan's wings behind him trembled for a moment, then he looked into Lu Yan's eyes abruptly.
With the other nestled in his arms, his face, soaked through, lacked its usual coldness and sharpness, resembling a stray cat seeking shelter from the rain.
But Lu Yan and a cat had no connection. Even if he were a member of the feline family, he would probably be an elegant predator standing atop the food chain, like a lion or a tiger.
Hesitantly, Tang Xunan lowered his head. "Is it okay?"
Was it okay to kiss him?
He heard his own rapid heartbeat, but the reason for his palpitations was different this time.
The system began screaming in Lu Yan's mind: [No!!!]
Lu Yan: "Shut up."
And so, the system fell silent.
Glancing at his attire, Lu Yan realized he was wearing nothing but swim trunks, ending just above his knees, with skin so fair it seemed to glow. The exposed merman line narrowed down his abdomen, the muscles sleek and beautiful.
Even Tang Xunan couldn't resist a fleeting thought about Lu Yan's body.
Lu Yan was puzzled. "With things like this... how can it not be okay?"
"Wouldn't your colleagues from the Special Operations Department do the same? Hug and kiss, even share a bed?"
Before Lu Yan could finish his sentence, he was kissed again.
This time, the kiss was particularly intense. Suspended in mid-air with no focal point, Tang Xunan's wings enveloped him entirely, and they fell to the ground together.
"Lu Yan, Lu Yan, Yan Yan," Tang Xunan called out nasally, repeatedly kissing Lu Yan's face. His tail, uncontrollably, flicked out from under him, arcing in mid-air, "Does Yan Yan like me too?"
Lu Yan felt he had been quite obvious.
But judging by Tang Xunan's expression, it seemed not quite so straightforward.
Lu Yan recalled that since they met, except for a few times when Tang Xunan lost control due to excessive use of his talent, he had always been silent and reserved in front of him.
Tang Xunan's emotions were like the sea's surface, calm and windless, but underneath, there were hidden currents.
Like Lu Yan, Tang Xunan didn't fall in love. But unlike Lu Yan, he knew who he loved; he just didn't know how to love.
But fortunately, love was an instinct carved into their genes.
This instinct drove him to possess, to intrude, yet it also restrained and contained him.
It was just this fragile balance that unexpectedly collapsed due to Lu Yan's inadvertent probing or, one might say, a bit of initiative.
The containment to let go.
He wanted to establish a bond within Lu Yan's body.
Lu Yan felt Tang Xunan's technique in kissing had improved a lot, at least it didn't feel like a dog gnawing on him anymore. It even caused him to have some physiological reactions.
Tang Xunan asked him if he liked him.
Many times, Lu Yan didn't really understand what liking someone meant.
After pondering for a moment, Lu Yan ultimately followed his heart and uttered a nasal sound from his nose, "Hmm."
In that instant, Tang Xunan's hand tightened, controlling the trembling caused by joy.
In this moment, he remembered some things that might happen in the future. These things had once held him back.
But now, it didn't matter.
No matter how rough the future might be, they at least shared the present together.
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