37. When Lips Part

"Why are you torturing me? Thirty minutes is all I had asked for but you left! What if something were to happen to you again?"

"It makes me uncomfortable whenever you act as if you care for me. Don't do it anymore."

The two were walking on a lonely path towards Stan's parents home. Upon Stan's return, both Yeon and Niel had left and eventhough he may have stayed a little longer outside, he'd hoped Yeon would be happy to see his beloved Niel hence gave them more privacy time. It seemed to have been a terrible idea judging from Yeon's foul mood.

Additionally, Niel had given Yeon his sweater too. He must have known Yeon was scenting out as he did now. Even though that was a temporary solution that had worked before, Stan could still smell Niel's scent growing faint by the minute as Yeon's scent continued to overpower it.

"What happened between you two? When I left you weren't this moody, in fact you seemed rather happy." Stan couldn't hide his curiosity anymore. There was no way Niel's departure would have made him this grumpy. What had happened between them? Did Yeon finally confess to Niel and got rejected? What that it?

"You called him to come here. Stop playing innocent. It doesn't suit you. Besides, you don't need to worry. We can still go on the date you'd planned. I do not wish to be an inconvenience to your parents or anyone else."

Date? What was Yeon talking about? This must be his parents doing. Stan could smell their mischief woven around Yeon's words. He'd only told them about dinner but still, all was in Stan's favor to have brought Niel over to cheer him up. Though, at the moment it seemed like it had been a mistake.

"We can go tomorrow. If we are to go somewhere now, I won't be able to make dinner on time. Actually I left you two because I'd gone to buy groceries."

"You know I like Niel...I saw you, the way you looked at me while I was hugging him. Niel may be dense in not noticing but nothing skips you by." Yeon stopped and looked up at Stan. "We are fated yet we are both in love with other people. I will not act on my feelings for Niel not even in the future. However, I can't accept our current situation regardless. This is not an excuse to reject you or show lack of appreciation for what your parents have done for me but let's accept it. Nothing good will ever come from you and me being fated. Even if we abandon our feelings for the one we love and focus on getting along, we'll just end up breaking up and that will become a huge mess."

"Whatever gave you the idea that I liked someone else? Was it Niel that planted that idea in you? Or perhaps your sister..."

The mention of Mijin made Yeon feel triggered but he controlled himself. If he were to lose his temper, he'd just go into heat like last time and have Stan witness another embarrassing scene from him. How many times had he seen him naked and vulnerable already? Not to mention, cleaning him up afterwards? What about when he'd purposely provoked him and they almost...

"Yeon, your face is turning red...are you sure you feel okay? We aren't far from home so if we rush I can take you to my parent's clinic..."

"The photo of you and your girlfriend in your apartment...during my first heat with you." Yeon responded, unable to look at Stan in the eye. "Isn't she your girlfriend?"

Stan broke into laughter, relieved there weren't rumors Yeon had heard of him. "That was my aunt, my father's younger sister...dad Robin as you like to call him. She passed away a few years back and I've been keeping that picture with me ever since. We were almost age mates and used to get a long well... though I can't blame you for making that assumption. There have been others who thought the same." Stan responded with Elric in mind since he'd always assumed her aunt to be his girlfriend. Yeon had been the first Stan felt the need to clarify the misunderstanding to.

"Let's just go home..." Yeon said and immediately turned to leave, unable to hide his embarrassment. He was walking so fast that Stan couldn't help but smile at his flustered ears..

"So all this time, this is what you thought?" He shouted, pacing to keep up with Yeon who only increased his speed. "If you were perhaps jealous, you could have just asked me..."

"I'm not jealous! The picture was there in your room. Who else was I supposed to think she was? Your mother?"

"Hey Yeon wait up!" Stan called out and finally closed the gap between. He was tempted to stop Yeon by reaching to hold his hand but was afraid he might reject him like before. "If it makes you uncomfortable, I'll put it away!"

"You don't have to any favor for me..."

"It's not a favor, I just want to see you smile again."

"Enough with the flattery. We are not that familiar with each other."

Stan laughed again when he noticed Yeon getting more flustered. He concluded it was time he stopped teasing his fated further. His embaracced expression was more than enough to see for today or else he'd start avoiding him again.

Once they reached home, Yeon was tempted to keep his distance away from Stan but decided against it. He wasn't going to run away from him forever. They were living in the same place anyway hence were bound to run into each other more frequently. Reaching for the freezer, Yeon took out a bowl and served himself some ice cream.

Stan on the other hand was busy making plans for dinner. Yeon watched him as he silently prepared everything for a while, cutting onions and rubbing his eyes from the effect of it. He smiled but hid his view from Stan. He was tempted though to help him out but decided against it. From the way Stan looked, it appeared he was well conversant with his area around the kitchen just like his dads.

Occasionally, Stan would ask Yeon if he needed anything and he'd repeatedly assured him he was fine.

"Would you like to taste the stew? I'm not too confident about how much salt I was supposed to put in." Stan asked, extending a scoop of stew from a soupspoon and Yeon unconsciously reached out to taste it.

"It's spicy, but balances just fine." Yeon said and walked back to take his seat at the dining table.

"You know how to cook well...it's delicious. Often times, Niel and my sister are the ones who cooked."

Stan didn't miss the sudden change in Yeon's mood as he mentioned his sister and Niel and felt discouraged, wondering if ever he'll get to compete with Niel.

"You must really like him alot...huh. If being away from him hurts you this much, why don't you just tell him how you really feel? He doesn't seem like an unreasonable person so I'm sure he'll reject you politely."

"The heck! What makes you think he will reject me? I rejected him first!"

"You never told him how you feel so that's not rejection Yeon..."

"Then what is rejection oh wise one?" Yeon asked mockingly and watched Stan move away from the kitchen counter and walk towards him, his face wearing a sinister look.

"I like you a lot Yeon, I think of you all the time. If I were to tell you now how much I want to seduce you right now what would you say?"

"What?" Yeon's eyes grew wide, his ears burning again as he felt blood rushing to his cheeks once more. Leaning back to keep his distance from Stan, he suddenly started to feel his heart thudding louder and louder. Stan wasn't letting out any scent yet somehow, it felt like he was provoking him.

"I like it when your face becomes flustered like now, your big luminous red eyes always makes it feel like you're staring right into my soul. I like it whenever you smile when you have a taste of ice cream and the look of satisfaction on your face afterwards. You seem full of mischief and moody while in actuality, you are just utterly honest and quite sincere. You are shy, lonely and think that love or dating is just a passing delusion...a waste of time, yet, you yearn for someone to love you or recognize your feelings. You're courageous, unwilling to lower your head to hide your lovely eyes just so people would be comfortable whenever they look at you, not to mention your resilience in your courage despite the trauma you went through. For now, those are some of the reasons why I like you Yeon so... are they enough to convince you to go out with me?"

"You're...you're too close..." Yeon stuttered, hating the sound of his own voice.

"I'm trying to show you what rejection is Yeon. I was expecting you to refuse me."

"What?" Yeon could feel Stan's words clouding his reasoning. He desired to believe he was being swayed by Stan yet he couldn't smell any scent from him.

He could feel his chest stiffen every time Stan called out his name in that low tone and a tingling warmth had already begun to circulate his body. Despite hearing those cheesy words, Yeon felt his cheeks and ears become irritatingly hot.

"You're not rejecting me Yeon and my explanation is loosing purpose...it makes me want to kiss you." Stan advanced forward towards Yeon, staring at his lips and added, "It appears you don't seem to mind that I'm about to kiss you, then let me fully indulge myself..."

Stan swallowed whatever words Yeon had wanted to say to him as he gently landed on his fated's lips, pushing him further...He remembered this kiss and how it felt, in fact, they'd kissed a number of times before but this time it felt different. The fact that Yeon didn't push him away made Stan excited and when Yeon began to respond, kissing him back, Stan let out a low moan. He held onto Yeon's fist that was planted on his chest, as if he'd wanted to fight him but had given up midway and to feel Yeon's body loosening up in his arms gave Stan hope that maybe Yeon didn't despise him that much...or maybe he didn't hate him at all yet, even if he did, wasn't hate a strong emotion just like love.

Love...

Pulling himself away, Stan fought the temptation to greed for more. If he made a mistake, Yeon might push him away again and he didn't want that especially now that there was this enormous progress in their relationship.

"You didn't reject me Yeon. Does that mean that I can be greedy with you?"

"I...can't...I can't do this with you." Yeon said, pushing Stan away but he wouldn't budge. "Please...this doesn't feel right...between us."

Yeon was trembling...out of fear or from the kiss, Stan couldn't tell. However, it was obvious their kissing had definitely done something to him for he started letting out a different scent, one that Stan hadn't perceived before.

"What a nice time to come home! The smell of a delicious meal cooked by our Stannie and a lovely scent from Yeon!"

Both Yeon and Stan were startled by Stan's dads. Upon realizing they had been standing at the entrance for a while, they felt even more embarrassed. Stan was the first to walk away from his fated to greet his parents...or not.

"I thought you two were to come later..." He whispered to them, his face cross, though Yeon had heard him.

"We didn't have a lot of patients today so we closed early," Dad Joss said. "Are you perhaps disappointed to see us two at such an opportune time, or you two wish to continue where you left off?"

"It's fine!" Yeon exclaimed, unable to take it anymore. "Welcome home..."

"Thank you Yeon, and Stannie, learn some manners from your fated, hmm?" Dad Robin said meekly, walking to the kitchen counter and happily scanning the food that Stan had prepared.

"Lovely!" He said excitedly then glanced at Yeon, a broad smile on his face. "Congratulations Yeon. You've just manipulated your second scent! It was a good decision to have brought you here."

"I agree honey," Dad Joss added in. "After your completion of marking with Stan, you'll manipulate even more scents. Who knows, you might even imprint on Stan..."

"Hey dads, that's a bit too much to hope for..."

"Actually Stannie, we have great news for you two. You had said Yeon imprinted briefly on you. We've been doing research on that and discovered something new. Yeon may still be able to imprint on you fully since you subconsciously put him to sleep with your scent when you had found him so, there is a possibility you'd found him at the onset of his marking or imprint. We'd sent information regarding Yeon's diagnosis to doctors that specialize on Yeon's case and we got the feedback today afternoon." Dad Robin replied then turned his attention on Yeon. "Turns out, you are stuck in transition mode. That would explain why you have no control over how much scent you let out and why you've only been having one particular scent however, you getting intimate with Stannie seems to bear positive results so since I can't perceive Stan's scent on you, then it only means you've began to accept him as your fated without provocation from him."

"I don't understand you..." Yeon was feeling overwhelmed with information.

Walking towards Yeon, dad Robin held his hand gently, a look of contentment on his face and said, "It means you are lucky to have met your fated at that time. He is the only one who can cure you Yeon."

Dad Joss nodded in agreement when Yeon looked at him. He turned to face an astonished Stan and said, "Stan, you may have a chance to mark your fated once more. However, it has to be soon, otherwise, your fated will loose his eyesight permanently."