Universal Love - Scenes of YuZhou

Turnabout is Fair Play

(A/N: A kind soul pointed out I missed transferring this scene from Soompi. This is from after JingYu performed at a charity concert.)

"Damn. I'm beat," JingYu huffed as he flopped down on the bed next to WeiZhou, who sat leaning against the headboard as he flipped through post after post about JingYu's performance on his phone. JingYu rolled over and lay his head on WeiZhou's leg, eyes half closed. "Why does it feel like I ran a marathon?"

WeiZhou set his phone on the bedside table before running his fingers through the still damp hair in his lap.

"You might as well have. It's the adrenaline rush of performing on stage."

JingYu cocked his head to look up at WeiZhou, a slight grin etching his face.

"Kind of cool, right?"

WeiZhou let out a soft hum of agreement and nodded his head.

JingYu reached back and grabbed the hand in his hair, pulling it to his lips before lacing their fingers together and holding them to his chest.

"What's that look for? Music is your business, not mine. I'm not getting any crazy ideas about becoming a singer, you know."

WeiZhou squeezed the hand that held his. His free hand smoothed wisps of drying hair from JingYu's forehead before he leaned over to place a lingering kiss on the skin wrinkled in concern. He sat back up, dejection written on his face.

"I understand now. I really understand now. I thought I did before, but I didn't. I'm sorry."

JingYu rolled over, pushing himself up on his elbows. He opened his mouth to question WeiZhou, but was stopped before anything came out.

"How you must have felt every time I performed and you weren't able to be there. Wanting to be right off stage where I could look over and see you. Or even just being in the back row, being able to see it live, and knowing that I knew you were there. As much as I wanted you to be able to be there, now I know how much worse it is not being able to be there."

The only response WeiZhou received was a sudden tightening of the grip that held his hand. He had been looking down at his own stomach as he spoke, afraid to see JingYu's expression, but now he tentatively raised his eyes towards JingYu's face. Eyes flashed at him even though the rest of the face remained still.

"I guess we're even then."

It was WeiZhou's turn to wrinkle his brow in confusion before JingYu continued.

"I've never quite understood your insistence about what you wore on stage. I mean, I understood that you felt it was important, but I didn't "get" it. Not completely. But you're right. Just knowing that I was wearing something we chose together. Even if no one else in the world put two and two together, we know. And, somehow, in some strange way, it did make it feel like you were right there with me."

JingYu pushed himself up just as WeiZhou leaned down until their lips met. What could have been the beginning of a night of unbridled passion, was instead a quiet kiss of shared understanding and renewed acceptance of each other. WeiZhou reached to turn off the lamp beside him, then scooted himself to lay down, JingYu placing his head on WeiZhou's chest, the gentle 'badump, badump, badump' of WeiZhou's heartbeat in his ear.

"Sing for me, Zhou?"

"Need a lullaby?" A chuckle softly reverberated in time with the heartbeat.

"I want to fall asleep to your voice. Sing anything."

WeiZhou smoothed his hand over tense back muscles, feeling them slowly giving way to his fingertips, while he hummed a soft tune as he tried to decide what to sing. He couldn't think of any song that adequately spoke for him in that moment. No words were good enough for how he felt just then. So he continued to hum, a new tune that floated from within him, until JingYu's breathing became steady in sleep and his own eyes drifted closed. He hoped he could remember the tune in the morning. It would make a wonderful ballad for JingYu to sing the next time he went on stage.