Innocence

He slept dreamlessly through the night.

Shi Qi stirred his eyelids, only then realizing a whole night had passed.

The curtains had been left with a narrow gap, and after the storm, sunlight came through that thin slit and spread a halo through the room.

Half-awake, Shi Qi did not want to open his eyes. He was deeply attached to the ease of this moment, as if he were lying in the clouds.

Ever since Differentiation, he had never slept this well. Even pinned in someone's arms, without the slightest bit of freedom, Shi Qi did not mind.

But pressed this close, before long, Shi Qi started to feel hot.

He tried giving a tentative shove, but the person holding him kept him locked down so tightly he could not budge him at all. Shi Qi's fingers slid lower, looking for a weaker point, but all he touched was hard muscle.

Growing impatient, Shi Qi let his hand slide straight down.

Hm?

Something was off.

He seemed to have touched the other person's...!

Still caught between sleeping and waking, Shi Qi vaguely felt he had done something wrong and snapped his eyes open.

He had meant to pull his hand back, but in his panic, he accidentally gave it a squeeze.

Fuck...?

Shi Qi cursed in despair under his breath.

With a faint grunt, the Alpha who had been asleep all this time finally stirred.

Shang Sui's lashes trembled. His pale eyes opened slightly, and from that half-dreaming state, he cast a sidelong look over.

That one look sent a numb chill down Shi Qi's spine and woke him completely. He apologized at once. 'Sorry, I didn't mean to. My hand moved faster than my brain!'

Shang Sui did not seem very awake either. Touched in such a sensitive place, he looked displeased, his brows and eyes full of aggression.

'What the hell...'

Shang Sui muttered it low, held Shi Qi's gaze for a moment, then actually flipped him over.

Shi Qi ended up lying on his side with his back to him, his narrow waist effortlessly pinned under the Alpha's palm.

What was this for?

Was he going to pinch him back? The position was wrong for that, wasn't it?

Before Shi Qi could react, there was a sharp smack, and something landed on his ass, not hard, not light.

It did not really hurt, but the psychological shock hit especially hard. Half of Shi Qi's body went numb. He was stunned for a full half minute.

He... he had just had his ass smacked by Shang Sui?

...What the hell. Even Shi An had never hit him like that.

Shi Qi kicked once against the bed. Angry and mortified, he felt like his whole body was about to catch fire.

But thinking of the sin he had just committed, he could only endure it and say, 'That should do it, right? We're even.'

With his back to Shang Sui, he twisted this way and that, but no matter what he could not break free, and his body could not help trembling slightly.

In disbelief, Shi Qi thought, Shang Sui was not going to hit him again, was he?

Shang Sui did not smack his ass again. Instead, he turned him over and pressed him facedown into the bed.

Shi Qi once again became aware of the vast difference in strength between them. More than that, he could feel Shang Sui lightly sniffing at his neck, as if checking whether his scent pleased him.

The Alpha's breath fell over his sensitive gland, and a flash of sharp teeth crossed Shi Qi's mind. One careless moment, and those pale tips would break skin and taste as they pleased.

Shi Qi's whole body tensed, and without thinking he blurted, 'Don't touch my neck.'

Shang Sui had slept badly through the first half of the night. When he had finally managed to fall asleep, being woken like this made him think he was still dreaming.

Hearing the protest, Shang Sui actually dragged a nail over his gland and, taking the dream for granted, said with reckless ease, 'Then where do you want me to touch?'

He did not sound as if he were humbly asking for instruction. His words and his movements were both oppressively forceful, loaded in a way that made the meaning under them impossible to miss.

It sounded strange on first hearing, but Shi Qi had no time to think about it. 'Nowhere. Get off me already!'

Shi Qi had not expected Shang Sui's morning temper to be this bad. Not only was his mood foul, but...

Feeling himself pinned by something impossible to ignore, Shi Qi's face burned red.

Worse, with all this rubbing so early in the morning, he had been affected too, whether he liked it or not.

Out of nerves, Shi Qi let out a trace of Pheromone, almost like a plea for help.

Shang Sui caught that familiar scent, his fingers paused, and he finally woke as if from a dream.

He tentatively closed a hand around the Omega's slender neck. The feel beneath his palm was startlingly real.

'Hm...?' Shang Sui muttered a beat late. 'Not a dream.'

'Of course it isn't. Let me go already!' Shi Qi's struggling voice came from under his hand.

Shang Sui quickly let go and stopped pinning him down. Shi Qi turned back to glare at him, then swiftly shrank off to one side.

His pearl-white sleepwear had been tugged partly loose in the struggle, exposing a small stretch of smooth, lean back. In the morning light, the Omega's skin looked as fine and soft as milk tofu.

Shang Sui's throat shifted slightly. As memory slowly returned and he thought of what he had just done to Shi Qi while pinning him down, he felt, rarely, that he might have gone a little too far.

He quickly looked away and stopped looking at Shi Qi.

But the memory from before kept needling his nerves. Shang Sui dug his nails into his palm, forcing himself to stop.

The two of them lay on the bed with a tacit stretch of distance between them.

Shi Qi gradually calmed down. Shang Sui seemed to be going through the same thing, and neither of them spoke.

After a while, Shang Sui adjusted himself first and broke the silence. 'Actually, this is pretty normal, right?'

His voice still carried a trace of hoarseness, but he was so open about it that everything from just now suddenly seemed perfectly reasonable. 'If there was no reaction, that would be the real problem.'

Shi Qi had been intensely embarrassed by his own reaction, but with Shang Sui setting the tone, it started to seem like no big deal after all.

If he acted too bothered, it would only make him look like he was making a fuss and losing ground.

Shi Qi kept his eyes straight ahead. 'You don't need to tell me. I know this is normal.'

'Good.'

The two fell silent again for a moment, then Shang Sui said out of nowhere, 'Still, what was with you grabbing me first thing in the morning? Sexually harassing me?'

Shi Qi nearly failed to catch his breath. 'I sexually harassed you?'

Shang Sui deliberately twisted his meaning and put on a troubled look. 'That isn't very good, is it, Xiao Qi.'

'?'

'Sure, our Compatibility Index is high, so it's only human for you to have certain thoughts about me. But we Alphas care a lot about our chastity, especially someone like me who's still unmarried—'

In a burst of fury, Shi Qi snatched up a pillow and slammed it over his head.

Shang Sui cooperatively collapsed under the blow and even let out a cry, showing none of the force with which he had pinned Shi Qi with one hand earlier. He looked soft and easy to bully.

'Can you talk a little less? Even ghosts can't make shit up as well as you. Why don't you go ahead and say holding your hand means I have to marry you too?'

In the middle of the scuffle, Shi Qi stopped caring and climbed straight onto Shang Sui.

His sleepwear had never been properly fastened to begin with. Now both his clothes and his hair were especially disheveled, and there was still an angry flush on his face.

Busy dealing with Shang Sui, Shi Qi did not notice someone knocking at the door.

For safety's sake, Lin Yan and Shi Qi always kept an extra keycard for each other.

They had agreed to go skiing early that morning, but Lin Yan had waited and waited without hearing from Shi Qi. When knocking got no response, Lin Yan simply swiped open his door.

Lin Yan saw him sitting on the bed. 'Baby, you're up, so why didn't you— huh?!'

The moment he saw who else was on the bed, his voice changed abruptly.

Shi Qi had more shame than that, so in his panic he threw aside the pillow covering Shang Sui. Pinned under Shi Qi, Shang Sui only smiled and greeted Lin Yan after showing his face. 'Hi. We've been awake for a while.'

There was far too much family-member intimacy in the way Shang Sui said it. Combined with the scene in front of him, the emotional damage instantly doubled.

Lin Yan could no longer tell whether the two of them were fake dating or actually together, and in his daze he blurted out the truth in his heart:

'You two... were riding first thing in the morning?'

Chu Tao and Su Zhuo happened to be passing by just then. Chu Tao asked eagerly, 'Riding what? Where would a horse even come from in a hotel? ...Holy shit!! Oh my god!!!!'

Chu Tao covered Su Zhuo's eyes. 'Susu, don't look. These two are too wild!'

Su Zhuo was frantic. 'Little Peach Sister, let go already! Why aren't you covering your own eyes? I really want to look!'

Faced with the total chaos, Shi Qi instead became unnaturally calm under the pressure and signaled to Lin Yan. 'Close the door first.'

Lin Yan said, 'Close it so you can keep going, right? Please, don't let me stop you.'

Before the door shut, Chu Tao offered sincere praise. 'Darling, you are the bravest Omega I have ever seen.'

'...'

'This is bad now,' Shang Sui said, looking at Shi Qi, who was trying to act composed on top of him, and fanning the flames again. 'Do you think they'll believe you abuse me at home?'

There was laughter at the corner of Shang Sui's eyes, and his gaze was absurdly tender.

It was not a nice phrase, but coming from his mouth, it sounded like flirting.

This man was plainly the type who loved trouble as long as it was not his. Only then did Shi Qi realize he had been sitting on the Alpha's firm, powerful waist and abdomen the whole time.

His ass lit up at once. Shi Qi jumped away as if launched, putting distance between them at top speed.

Shang Sui smiled even more brightly. 'Oh? So Xiao Qi cares that much about his reputation?'

'Hurry up and leave.' Shi Qi looked at him, feeling overheated everywhere, and said stiffly, 'Or I don't mind making that charge real.'

'Really?' Shang Sui said. 'Then do it.'

'...' Lunatic.

Having had his fill of fooling around, Shang Sui slowly got out of bed and pulled his coat on over his sleepwear.

Before leaving, he seemed to remember something and turned back to look at Shi Qi.

'Thanks for sleeping with me,' Shang Sui said naturally. 'I want to come again next time.'

Chaotic as this morning had been, Shi Qi had not felt this refreshed on waking in many years, as if even his body had gone lighter. Otherwise he would not have had the strength to fight three hundred rounds with Shang Sui the moment he opened his eyes.

If not for this morning's accident, that sleep would have been perfect.

In the end, Shi Qi said with reserve, 'I'll think about it.'

After washing up, Shi Qi went downstairs to meet Lin Yan.

Before skiing, it was best to eat more. Shi Qi was still sunk in the afterglow of a full night's sleep and found everything unusually pleasing to the eye. He even ate an extra piece of strawberry chocolate cake.

'What exactly is going on with you and Shang Sui?' Lin Yan had finally come back to himself. 'Are you really together? I've had a vague feeling this day would come, but I didn't expect it this fast.'

'No. It's not like that.'

Shi Qi had meant to say that Shang Sui was afraid of Thunderstorm Day, and that was why they had slept together. But on second thought, perhaps Shang Sui did not want anyone else to know that.

Shi Qi changed tack. 'I asked him to sleep with me. Didn't you say before that sleeping beside an Alpha with a high Compatibility Index feels really comfortable? I haven't been sleeping well lately, so I wanted to try it.'

Lin Yan remembered that too and looked enlightened. 'What a pity.'

Shi Qi said, '?' What are you pitying?

But Lin Yan soon felt something was still off. 'Then what were you two doing this morning...?'

Shi Qi cut it down to essentials. 'When we woke up, I grabbed him once, and he hit me once. Then it turned into that.'

Remembering the scene from this morning, Shi Qi's fingers twitched slightly.

Why did it feel like one hand might not even be enough...?

Fuck, are all Alphas this insane? Or was Shang Sui insane?

From Shi Qi's description, it sounded like grade-school kids fighting. Lin Yan felt there was something off, but could not put his finger on it, so in the end he could only ask, 'Then did it work? Did you sleep well?'

Shi Qi put away his mess of thoughts. 'If Shang Sui weren't a living person but something like a scented body pillow, that would be ideal.'

Lin Yan froze. 'Why?'

In front of Lin Yan, Shi Qi dropped all reserve and told the truth. 'I'd hold him and sleep every single day.'