Tonight, You're Kissing Someone Better, GB

[Control freak x anxious attachment]

Jiang Lai was adopted. Min Xing knew it, and Jiang Lai knew it, too.

He was as quiet as a shadow, doing his best to make himself inconspicuous, clumsily imitating everything around him as he tried to fit into this "family" to which he was not related by blood. He was especially careful around Min Xing.

But his very existence reminded Min Xing that her parents had placed their unspoken longings in this unfamiliar child, and that the already scarce warmth in their home would be divided once more.

Jiang Lai's clumsy attempts to be kind, his silent concessions, even his damp eyes, always tinged with fear, only irritated Min Xing.

The neighbors' gossip would sometimes reach Min Xing's ears. "...They adopted him. He's got all sorts of schemes. A rotten little thing. He won't think twice about fighting you for what's yours..."

Min Xing was used to watching coldly as he clumsily tried to get close to her, bringing her peeled fruit or quietly tidying the desk she'd deliberately messed up.

A deliberate shove left Jiang Lai's fingers caught in the door, swollen and alarmingly red. Min Xing crouched in front of him and watched his eyes fill with tears he didn't dare shed. A trace of malice, unfamiliar even to herself, swept through her heart.

"You won't tell Mom, right?" He bit his lower lip and nodded frantically. At last, his tears fell, splashing onto the back of Min Xing's hand, so hot they startled her.

At that moment, a voice in Min Xing's heart echoed the neighbors' whispers: Rotten thing. She didn't know whether it meant him or herself.

Later, Min Xing got her wish and walked out of the family home, shutting the door for good on the eyes behind her that had always unsettled her.

On the rare occasions when they had to cross paths, Jiang Lai had shed the boyish timidity of his youth. He had grown taller, lean and straight, with the fresh, awkward air of someone between boyhood and manhood, like a green papaya on the verge of ripening, its skin smooth and firm, its inside hiding a certain astringent juice.

His gaze still followed Min Xing, but the fear of his childhood had given way to a nearly serene, gentle attentiveness.

Min Xing watched him coldly, observing how he played innocent without seeming to, how his fingertips lingered briefly when he handed her water, how he leaned subtly toward her in conversation, and how his collar revealed the faint outline of his collarbones rising and falling with each breath.

Rotten thing.

She still sneered inwardly, but now with a hint of scrutiny and interest she hadn't even noticed in herself.

She knew her younger brother had always been clever, but she hadn't known he was so skilled at seduction, too.

Jiang Lai was no longer the fragile little thing who could only nod through his tears.

He had learned a more sophisticated way to hunt, patiently and discreetly tempting his accomplice with his youthful, innocent appearance and his silent, obedient manner.

In the adult world, this unspoken understanding was a prelude to consent.

Min Xing indulged his gradual approach.

Until the light turned suggestive and his white cotton T-shirt was lifted, bunched above Jiang Lai's taut abdomen, his body stretching into the dimness, youthful and clean, ready for the taking.

Watching him swallow a cry of pain, Min Xing leaned over, rolled up the hem of his T-shirt, and tucked it between his clenched teeth.

The pure white fabric was instantly dampened with saliva, clinging tightly to his lips and tongue, muffling any sound that might escape.

He was forced to tilt his head back, his moist eyes like glazed glass veiled in mist in the dim light.

Sweat slid along his lean collarbone. Min Xing brushed it away with her fingertip, her voice unconsciously lowering, just as it had that afternoon years ago.

"You won't tell Mom, right?"

[Still self-indulgent writing. Maybe one day I'll get a sudden, overwhelming urge to write smut and impulsively start this story. Orz]

Theme: The gale will pass us by