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Something in Liyue smells off.
Gorou can’t quite put his finger on how. It’s not the salty tang of the ocean or the reek of the fish being sold in the Harbor; as a Watatsumi native, both are familiar. Still, it bothers him as he follows the Qixing’s ambassadors into Liuli Pavilion and does his best to represent Watatsumi well on the international stage.
The insulation of the restaurant dampens the pervasive fishy scent of the sea, and once they’re seated he places what he’s been agonizing over. Metallic. Slightly sweet. Could blend in with the fish if you don’t know what you’re looking for. His mouth goes dry, and he grips his seat as he swallows down a wave of panic.
His rut is starting early. It’s not Liyue that smells off, it’s him.
But it’s fine! This is fine. He doesn’t have his usual suppressants, but he’ll just go to a pharmacy and get some once lunch is over. It shouldn’t be too late, and they’ve been given the rest of the day off to settle in.
So he shoves it from his mind and focuses on presenting Watatsumi in a positive light to the Qixing. He dangles the possibility of trading Sango Pearls for seeds and bundles of rice that store well for extended periods and grow far better in Liyue than in Watatsumi’s poor soil. He stuffs himself on jiaozi and roast duck and some sort of lotus seed bun that hits the spot so perfectly that he’s considering trying to cultivate lotuses on Watatsumi, agricultural outlook be damned.
And when the meal is over, he catches the nicest-seeming member of the Qixing on her way out and bows apologetically. She’s a tall woman with the arms and back of an archer, with reddish-black horns swept back in her hair. Between their shared choice of weapon and her animal features, she feels, well...safe.
“Pardon me, Miss Ganyu, but could you direct me to the nearest pharmacy? I’ve left some essential herbs back in Inazuma.”
Her nostrils flare slightly, and he can feel his face flush with heat. Surely she knows why he needs them if she’s scenting him like that. But she nods politely and gestures down the street they’re on.
“Of course! You’re in luck; the nearest isn’t far at all, and it’s the best in Liyue. Head northwest past the lotus ponds, and then turn right at the end. Climb the stairs and you’ll be at Bubu Pharmacy. Just ask for Doctor Baizhu, he’ll get you whatever you need.”
“Thank you.”
She smiles, broad and sincere. “Not a problem at all! Lady Yae has written so much about you, it was a pleasure to finally meet you!”
He thinks he squeaks then, or makes some other sort of embarrassing noise, but it’s hard to tell because when he comes out of his panic-induced brain fog he’s left Ganyu behind and is already walking into the pharmacy.
Gorou thanks his lucky stars that it’s empty of customers, but unfortunately it also appears to be empty of workers.
Surely they wouldn’t leave the place unattended?
He steps up to the counter, intending to wait for an employee, and the strong scent of mist flowers hits his nose and makes him sneeze.
A high, slow, monotone voice speaks up. “Welcome to Bubu Pharmacy. Would you like a tissue?”
His vision slides down, down, down, until they rest upon the speaker, a young girl in traditional Liyuen attire with a comically large talisman hanging from her hat and covering one eye.
Adorable.
“N—no! No, I’m fine. Well, I’m not fine, or else I wouldn’t be here, but—” He trips over his words. He can’t tell a child about his mating cycle! “Are there any adults around I could talk to?”
She puts a finger to her lips and thinks for a moment. “Qiqi is licensed to provide common cures if you can provide a prescription.”
Well, this probably doesn’t count as a common condition, and that’s beside the point. “U...um, I really need an adult for this particular problem, though I’m sure your skills are more than adequate.”
Qiqi pauses to think again, and shakes her head slowly. “Qiqi is the only one here. Gui-xiansheng is visiting family today, but...hmm. Qiqi doesn’t remember. One moment.”
She pulls a small book from under the counter and thumbs through it, and Gorou watches curiously as she carefully writes something on a piece of parchment. She thrusts it at him with a flourish, her tiny arm barely closing the distance.
He leans forward to fetch it from her grasp and squints at the Liyuen characters. He’s more familiar with them than most Inazumans, Watatsumi’s script having been the least affected by the Shogunate’s writing reforms over the past few hundred years, but some Liyuen characters are rather archaic even on Watatsumi.
The first character is ‘pearl,’ he learned that one for trade agreements. And the second is...‘hairpin?’ The third he has no idea about, but it does seem to contain the component for ‘boat,’ so probably something nautical. But the next line is easy to read: ‘hidden flower.’
He looks up at Qiqi, ears quirking in confusion.
“Doctor Bai said that if Qiqi ever really needed him while he was gone, Qiqi could go to the Pearl Galley and ask for a hidden flower.”
Ah, so the book is similar to his directives from Her Excellency. This ‘Doctor Bai’ must have left her instructions for situations like this.
“The...Pearl Galley?”
She points vaguely to her left. “A ship. Someone on the docks can take you there.”
“Thank you so much, Miss Qiqi.” He hesitates, then pulls out a small pouch he’d kept on him through the negotiations, filled with Sango Pearls. He presses a pair into Qiqi’s hands. “Here. For your trouble. I think they match your outfit splendidly.”
“Thank you, Mister. Good luck!”
Thank you. I’m going to need it.
Admittedly, he procrastinates. It’s a necessary evil, but that doesn’t mean he’s happy with the prospect of talking to a stranger about his intense urge to hump the legs of half the people he sees, so he browses the various street stalls on his way through the harbor and stops by his hotel room to freshen up, hoping the buzz under his skin will die down, that maybe he was wrong about this. But he eventually has to face the truth so he checks the pharmacy again and, seeing nobody but Qiqi inside, sighs and makes his way to the southern wharf.
By the time Gorou finds someone to take him to the Pearl Galley, he’s so itchy and sweaty that he’s fairly certain the sweltering heat of Liyue is accelerating the pace of his rut. Perhaps that’s why it snuck up on him this time. Whatever the case, boarding the ship bombards him with an overwhelming assault of stimuli. Laughter and conversation, the clinking of glasses, the shuffling of cards. The bright lights of the lanterns, the last beams of daylight glinting off the sea. Perfume and cologne of plentiful varieties, blending with spicy snacks arrayed on the tables, and the tang of salt.
It’s a lot. And it’s also a strange place to look for a doctor.
Gorou tips the ferryman, and when he turns around he’s nearly startled into falling off the deck by a woman appearing directly behind him, silent even to his astute ears. In fairness, he’s a bit distracted.
“O—oh! I didn’t see you there. Hello!”
She giggles. “My apologies, it’s a bad habit. I’m Luoxia, the receptionist here on the Pearl Galley. May I have the pleasure of taking your name and invitation?”
“Invitation? I’m Gorou, a Watatsumi representative and a guest of the Qixing, but I’m afraid I don’t have an invitation. I was told by Qiqi at the Bubu Pharmacy that I needed to come here for a...hidden flower?...to take care of what I needed.” He realizes, belatedly, how absurd that sounds.
Luoxia raises an eyebrow. “A diplomat, hmm? We have many a diplomat here but few get a personal recommendation of that nature. You must have very, ah. Particular needs for Hidden Flower to have been recommended to you. But knowing that name, given to you by that person, is enough to get you in. I’ll take you.”
Gorou suddenly feels like something has gotten lost in communication, and he knows that as a diplomat he should probably try to correct any misunderstandings, but there are Snezhnayans glowering at him and an opera singer warbling onstage and an incredibly spicy roast pig that was just wheeled out, and it’s all rather a lot. So he simply nods and follows Luoxia into the bowels of the ship, taking the private opportunity of following behind her to surreptitiously adjust himself in his trousers because wow there were a lot of attractive people on the deck, and he really doesn’t want to embarrass himself in front of this doctor!
There’s more to the ship than he would have expected, and he begins to notice labels on some of the doors he’s led past. He can’t read them all in the time it takes for him to move past them, but near the entrance of the ship they start with common words like “Storage” and rapidly shift into more poetic, sometimes even archaic, phrases that make no sense to him. White Jade, Brilliant Feathers, something Rain. Lights are on behind some of the doors, and the scent of fine tea wafts beneath them, soothing his overtaxed nose.
Finally, they reach the end of the corridor, and Luoxia raps her knuckles against a door elegantly labeled ‘Hidden Flower’ before turning to Gorou.
“Rouran will see you now. Not a word of his identity to anyone, or the boss will take care of you himself, and believe me, he has hidden thorns under his petals. But dire threats aside, I do hope your needs are satisfied.”
What?
She opens the door.
“Gorou, Watatsumi Island diplomat, in need of your services, sir. Do have fun, you two.” And with that she winks, sweeps Gorou inside, and leaves him standing in a room that contains the most gorgeous person he’s ever laid eyes on.
Rouran, or Hidden Flower, or Doctor Baizhu, or whatever his real name is, is the sort of ambiguously gendered beautiful that makes Gorou wish he was as comfortable in his Yae-appointed Ms. Hina cosplay as this person seems to be in his extravagant layers of traditional Liyuen robes. Purples, greens, and blues are faded artfully together on the topmost layer, with accents of gold and white flowers in the embroidery and accessories. His striking green hair is half-pinned in a bun with an elegant hairpin, the other half loosely braided with actual flowers in it and spilling behind his back, almost glowing in the soft light of the lamp.
Gorou suddenly understands what people mean when they use words like ‘ethereal’ and ‘otherworldly’ to describe Her Excellency.
Piercing yellow-orange eyes glance at him over the rim of delicate half-glasses, the man’s lips quirking in a sly smile as he beckons Gorou closer, and Gorou nearly whimpers as he follows the suggestion instinctively. His cock is throbbing in his pants now, there’s no helping it.
Unfortunately, his companion notices almost immediately and lets out a tinkling laugh. “Come now, don’t be shy. We both know why you’re here, there’s no need to be hesitant about it now that you’ve made it to this point.”
Why he’s...here? Right. His rut. But this person couldn’t have known that, so what—
Oh. Oh.
This isn’t a doctor at all. He was sent to a prostitute.
A nervous giggle wrenches its way from his throat, and he faints.
He wakes with a hand across his forehead, cool and soft as it brushes his bangs to the side, and he almost wishes he could faint again to save himself the embarrassment of a conversation. The man’s scent hovers in Gorou’s nostrils, light traces of soap overlaid with rich floral notes that Gorou can’t identify, and Gorou nuzzles instinctively into the touch before realizing what he’s done and jerking away.
“M-my apologies! I don’t know what came over me!”
The man lets out a tsk of disappointment and moves to touch his forehead again. “A mating cycle of some sort, I’d presume, given how hot you are.”
Gorou viciously tramples the part of him that wants to respond with a nervous ‘Haha, you think I’m hot?’
“Yes? How, um. How did you know?” Something about this guy makes it hard to keep his cool, and biology isn’t helping.
(Crap. He still has a hard-on, too.)
The man’s hand moves to his wrist as he gives an amused chuckle. “I’m a doctor. You may as well call me Baizhu rather than Rouran, though. I prefer to keep my profession and identities distinct from each other. Less complicated that way. Now then, one moment for me to take your pulse.”
Gorou has so many questions. Why does this guy have at least three different names? Why is a doctor moonlighting as a prostitute? Why does he own both a pharmacy and a pleasure ship located just outside of Liyue’s borders? But he holds his tongue because these are the kinds of questions that get you disappeared if you start asking them without good reason and plenty of backup. And Qiqi is the only person that might have any idea where he is right now—if she remembers him at all.
“Dear me, your pulse is quite high and erratic, but very strong. You must have been putting off satisfaction for quite some time, no?” Baizhu gives the tent in his pants a pointed look, and it’s all Gorou can do to not whimper with embarrassment as he nods.
The story tumbles out of him in a rush. “I left my suppressants in Inazuma so I went to the pharmacy, but there was only a child there and I couldn’t talk to her about this so she sent me here, only I didn’t really know what here meant, and I put it off all afternoon because I was hoping it would go away on its own—”
Baizhu nods sympathetically. “You poor thing.” He tilts his head, clearly thinking, and the chain of his glasses glints as it swings in the lamplight. “I do know how to make suppressants, but they’re for adepti, and I’m uncertain if they would act similarly for you. Many of the ingredients are rare, so I don’t have them in my emergency bag—and the next ferry to the mainland won’t be until morning at this point.”
Gorou groans. “So I’m trapped here like this? I should have just come earlier—”
Baizhu laughs. “Yes, I daresay ‘coming’ earlier would have saved you quite a deal of trouble. But I imagine my other profession is quite obvious, and I don’t mind assisting you with your condition via those means if you wish it.”
Gorou’s mouth goes dry.
Sex. Baizhu is offering sex. With him. And gods does he want to take him up on that offer, because his dick feels like it’s going to explode and his skin is itching everywhere with the urge to mate. And he has money, even! Lots of it! Her Excellency sent him with quite a lot of mora to grease palms with. But even her most thorough field directives don’t cover this situation, and he doesn’t know how much a prostitute costs, what would be offensively little, or too much, and he doesn’t want to selfishly spend Watatsumi’s hard-earned money on sex, and—
Baizhu’s hand covers his own, and he nearly jumps out of his skin, heart pounding and mind spinning. When he speaks his voice is soothing, like a trickle of cool water down Gorou’s sweat-soaked back.
“I can practically hear you over-thinking, you know. How about this: I’ll help you relieve your problem, no mora required, if you’ll allow me to try the adeptus suppressants on you once we’re back to the mainland. You get instant relief, and I get a valuable opportunity to study a species we don’t see often in these parts. Oh, the research papers I could write...” He trails off with a sigh, a blissful, beatific expression on his face.
Gorou has reservations about being a test subject, of course. But they’re essentially the same medications he was looking for when he boarded this ship in the first place, right? He makes up his mind and nods, a quick jerk of the head, letting out a half-whispered, half-whimpered “please.” It’s rapidly becoming hard to think straight, and if he doesn’t accept he’s going to have to ask Baizhu to lock him in a room for the night and hope the other passengers don’t object to the howling.
Baizhu laughs again, low and brief, as if he finds Gorou’s struggles amusing. But his thumb strokes softly over the sensitive webbing between Gorou’s thumb and forefinger, soothing him. “I’m glad we could reach an agreement. Now then, first things first. A few questions. Is it your first time?”
Gorou swallows. “For s-sex? Or my first rut? I’ve gone without suppressants once before.” It had been a low point in the war when Watatsumi was having trouble producing or importing supplies, and he’d had to take a brief leave of absence that he still feels guilty about, biology or no. “And as for sex, um. Also no. But I’m not...particularly experienced. I’m disease-free, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Baizhu nods approvingly. “That was going to be my next question. And I can assure you I’m clean as well. Despite what you might assume about this profession, we’re rather exclusive about our clientèle here. Being a doctor allows me to personally ensure that every worker on this ship is kept safe and healthy. Now, is there anything I should know before we begin?”
Gorou blushes and averts his gaze, struggling to get his words out clearly instead of muttering them. “I, um. When I come, I’m going to knot. Knotting is when—”
“Oh, believe me, I know what knotting is, and I’ve been aching to experience it for myself.” Baizhu’s eyes glimmer under his glasses, almost seeming to sparkle with enthusiasm. “If you’re worried, don’t be. You are more than welcome to knot me. We’ll consider it part of the, mmm. Research opportunity package, if you will.”
“Are you sure? It can be rather large, and—”
He’s distracted as Baizhu loosens his robes and reaches behind himself, arching his back with a gasp, and pulls out a—a—
Gods. This man is trying to kill him.
Baizhu pulls out a thick jade plug that shimmers with oil, and rests it on the nearby tea tray.
“Size won’t be an issue.” He pushes Gorou flat against the floor and straddles him, already reaching for the ties of his pants.
Gorou tries desperately to control his breathing but fails spectacularly as Baizhu’s long, slim fingers draw out his aching cock. “I can...I can see that.”
“Now. One last thing. No marks, understood?”
Gorou nods, dizzy at the sight of the gorgeous man lifting up his robes atop him.
“Good boy. Are you ready?”
Yes. No. Gods, will he ever be ready to stick his dick in someone so beautiful? He should be properly courting an elegant man like this, not rutting with him on a ship floor as part of an experiment. But Baizhu wants this too. He wants to know what it’s like when...when Gorou knots him like a bitch in heat.
Fuck.
Gorou nods again and whimpers, tail thrashing with anticipation where it curls out from under him and around his leg, and Baizhu eases his slick hole down against Gorou’s cock.
It’s all Gorou can do not to come as Baizhu opens up and sinks down on him with torturous slowness, plush heat gripping him like a vice. His fingers scrabble at the floorboards, desperate for something to hold on to so he doesn’t lose his cool and rip Baizhu’s gorgeous, expensive robes, but once he gains some leverage he can’t help but nudge himself deeper, drawing a long moan out of Baizhu.
“Mmmm, please do excuse me if I seem a tad bit overeager but I—” Baizhu lifts himself up and drops, forcing himself down at a faster pace, biting his lip. “It’s been some time. And if I’m not mistaken, you’re not going to hold out long yourself.”
Gorou’s cock throbs inside of Baizhu at the words, and he bites his own lip as he nods in embarrassed agreement. He can already feel the ache at the base that means his knot will start expanding soon, though he may be able to last a bit longer until it fully inflates. And now that he’s experienced some relief simply by getting his cock wet, he finds himself wanting to hold out as long as he can, to make sure Baizhu is taken care of as well. He may be in rut, but he’s also a gentleman—or would very much like to be, for someone so ethereal.
Baizhu’s hips rise and fall, rise and fall, setting a hypnotic rhythm. Even more hypnotic is the way he looks in the low light; with his robes only partially undone and splayed out over Gorou’s lap the lamplight catches on the golden embroidery of his outer layer, on the rim and chain of his glasses, on his serpentine eyes. The very tip of his cock peeks out from under the silks as it rubs against Gorou’s belly, weighed down by the fabric, and leaks precum in a maddening trail across his stomach.
Gods. Gorou regrets that they couldn’t take this slowly, that he didn’t get a taste of that taunting thing sliding in and out of sight before jumping to the main activity.
It’s only when Baizhu begins breathing hard that Gorou realizes how useless he’s been throughout this whole ordeal. He anchors his hands on Baizhu’s hips and is surprised by just how thin and light he is. Frail, even. But Baizhu shakes his head and peels Gorou’s hands away, leaning down to pin them to the floor.
“Don’t worry about me, little one. Worry about whether you can handle me.”
He can’t, and he knows it. Baizhu is soft, warm, gorgeous. Overwhelming. Baizhu’s braid falls from his back to his front on a particularly enthusiastic roll of his hips, and Gorou nuzzles his face against it and tries to memorize the scent of those flowers as a handful of petals showers down.
Baizhu pauses to flip his braid back, and the movement causes his robes to slide off his shoulders the barest bit. Gorou’s angle grants him the barest glimpse of peaked, puffy nipples as they’re uncovered by the slip, and he whines as his cock throbs, the urge to suckle on them overwhelming.
Baizhu’s perfectly-plucked eyebrows raise as he grinds Gorou’s growing knot against his entrance. “Well now, that is rather large,” he mutters, almost to himself. He takes a deep breath and sinks slowly, oh so slowly, down until the knot pops fully inside.
Gorou whimpers.
“—but not large enough to stop me,” finishes Baizhu, triumphant.
Gorou loses track of time then. Of himself. The urge to breed that’s been simmering under his skin all day rises to the surface, and he wraps his arms around Baizhu, holding him tight and rutting up into him. He can’t move far, not with the knot inside—they’re not proper thrusts, anymore. But the pressure is all he needs now that Baizhu’s taken his knot. Pressure, and the sweat-damp encouragement of the beautiful man plastered against him and moaning out choked-off, broken noises as Gorou fucks up into his tight, wet hole.
It could be a minute, it could be an hour—it’s hard to tell. All Gorou knows for one brief, shining moment of his life is soft groans, silken robes, and flowers. The trail of precum against his stomach, the full-body press of weight against his front, and the vice-grip of velvet heat around his cock. But that moment ends long before he’s ready for it to be over, his knot fattening even further as he tumbles over the edge of orgasm and works rope after rope of warm cum deep into Baizhu, gritting his teeth to prevent himself from biting the man’s shoulder or neck.
Baizhu isn’t far behind, despite Gorou nearly forgetting about his pleasure in his rut-driven haze. He sways his hips and drags the curve of Gorou’s still-hard cock against his prostate with lewd squelches until he squirts sticky cum across Gorou’s stomach and over his own fine silks, and grinds through the aftershocks until the fabric is all but ruined.
His weight drops in satisfied slow motion against Gorou, blanketing him in even, comforting pressure. Gorou pets at his hair absentmindedly, wondering where the hairpins that had been securing his bun wound up.
He’s not sure how long they rest in comfortable silence before Baizhu breaks it.
“Mmm, that was a treat for the senses. If we hadn’t worked out an alternate arrangement, I’d almost argue I should be paying you for the encounter.”
Gorou laughs nervously. “I, ah. I barely did anything, you sort of took the reins there—”
Baizhu chuckles, his breath tickling the hairs on Gorou’s neck. “Yes, well. I prefer to be in charge, but that hardly means you didn’t provide me with a novel experience. It’s going to be a pain trying to commission a toy that can emulate that, you know. Liyue has many artisans that could sculpt a knot, but I will admit the steady stream of cum is a core part of the—oh, would you look at that, there’s another gush of it! Just what I was talking about.” He shakes his head. “Tsk tsk. Ruining me for others and running back to Inazuma, how uncouth.”
Gorou’s face heats up, his ears twitching back in embarrassment. “I’m sorry? It’s not like I’d mind doing this again if I was in Liyue.” He can’t make any promises, but if he does well here, Her Excellency might send him back at some point. “Oh and, uh. If you came to Inazuma, of course.” He’s not sure what Baizhu’s actual deal is, and it might be hard to travel as the owner of two businesses, but he might want to expand to Inazuma someday. People like this are kind of a mystery to him, and he has no idea how he wound up with his dick literally stuck in one for the next half hour.
Fuck. He didn’t even warn Baizhu about the tie, did he?
“Um, I meant to say this earlier but you distracted me. So. We’re...going to be stuck together for the next half hour or so. If it’s more comfortable for you, we can turn on our sides or something? This wasn’t actually the best position, taking the knot into account...”
Baizhu shifts on top of him, ass clenching down around his still-hard cock.
“Hmm. Well, I’m not mad. I did have an inkling this would happen. But tell me, is this—” he grinds down again, and Gorou nearly moans. “Going to be hard and leaking the entire time?”
Gorou nods, his face hot. “Yeah, that’s...that’s how it works, I’m afraid. Sorry.”
Baizhu chuckles, mischievous and dark. “Sorry for what, exactly? Since we’re stuck like this regardless, you wouldn’t mind if I took advantage of the situation, would you?” His hips drop low against Gorou again, leaving no doubt as to his meaning.
Gorou looks up at the man, still beautiful even in all his sweaty, fabric-crumpled, hair-frizzed disarray, and his cock twitches in interest.
He smiles and laces his fingers with Baizhu’s again.
“Of course I wouldn’t.”