Well, he was prepared for war, not… this .

This said being Xiao Zhan in an apron, cooking eggs in the non-stick pan, which he was pretty sure wasn't his. Or at least it wasn't there the last time he remembered. Then he turned his gaze to the many bags in his kitchen.

Dairies products, fresh milk, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, a loaf of french baguette, and meats. A lot of meats of all kinds. And brand new basic kitchen utilities like pots and pans and a set of knives.

"Did you rob a convenience store on your way here?" He eyed the groceries, then took a piece of freshly cut mango and popped it into his mouth.

"No, I never shop in convenience stores. I went to the market this morning." He answered in his calm voice, while continuing cooking.

He was an avid cook, and he enjoyed cooking and baking so much. For a rich man.

"Right." Yibo sat on the high chair. "Little wifey is not jealous, her husband went off early in the morning to cook something for his… ex ?"

Xiao Zhan did not answer. He put the food on a plate and put it in front of Yibo. It was a spanish omelette, his favourite breakfast menu made by Xiao Zhan. Five years ago.

"Eat first. Don't talk with your mouth full." He took a portion of fruit for himself. He never ate too much as long as Yibo knew him.

"So bossy, in other people's home of all places." He grumbled but ate his food. 

It was perfect.  

And it took him back to the first time he ate breakfast at his place, cooked by Xiao Zhan himself since he was a shitty cook.

It was the morning after their first stay-over, and Yibo was exhausted after the particularly vigorous love-making sessions the night before, when he was woken up by the smell of the most delicious thing he ever smelled.

He dragged himself out of bed, rumpled and naked, and found that Xiao Zhan had cooked breakfast in his tiny, inadequate kitchen.

"What are you doing?"

He hugged Xiao Zhan from behind and plopped his head on the shoulder, inhaling his fresh scent.

"Making you some nutritious breakfast." He kissed the tip of Yibo's nose. "I'm amazed by how you survived on instant ramen and energy drinks alone."

"Mm… it's because I'm young and full of vitality…" he nuzzled Xiao Zhan's neck. "And I don't have time, nor ability, to cook… old man."

"Rude," Xiao Zhan chuckled, "well, I guess I have to do it for you from now on…"

He never ate spanish omelette again after that.
Well, until now.

"You're still a very good cook. This thing is better now than the last time I ate it."

He tried to make a conversation, although it was more of an incoherent noise. But apparently Xiao Zhan heard it.

"The secret was I added extra garlic. And coriander. Your favorite."

Xiao Zhan looked at him while sipping a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, which he gave to Yibo too. 

He polished everything clean, took his dirty dishes and glass into the sink, and cleaned everything up.

"So, talk." He sat in front of Xiao Zhan, steeling himself from whatever shit he was about to throw. 

Xiao Zhan looked at him for a long time with undecipherable eyes. Then after a long uncomfortable silence, he said,

"I want to cook for you again."
 
Of all the things he expected to hear him say… this was the last thing that crossed his mind.

"... what?" 

He was so dumbfounded, his brain froze for a moment. So when Xiao Zhan touched his hand, he didn't react.

"I want us to... try again. I know we just saw each other, and maybe… maybe I'm not the one you remembered, and you're definitely not the young man that I remembered from back then. But I want to try again." He squeezed Yibo's now clammy hands. "I don't want to die with any regrets, especially when it's about you." He looked at him with clear eyes, showing him that he already made up his mind and he was resolute.
What?

"Are you saying that you're dying? Is this some kind of your sick plot to have me as your side dish while you pranced around with your wife? You know, gay little Yibo was only enough as a… kept man." He was vibrating with anger as he extracted his hand from Xiao Zhan's hold. He needed to get away from his touch, it made him unable to think clearly.

"I don't know how you have this sick little thought in your pretty head, but what makes you say that? You know I never once hide you from anyone." 

"Even from your wife? Did she know you're here? Did she consent to your sick little game here? Or maybe she's turned on by a threesome?" Yibo started to laugh hysterically. God he was a pathetic jealous bitch, even after all this time...

"Who said that I have a pretty little wife waiting for me at home?" There was steel in Xiao Zhan's voice, the one that he used when he dealt with his many employees. Yibo was familiar with it, and he only looked at Xiao Zhan petulantly.

Xiao Zhan took a step closer to him.

"Do you have any idea how long I've been searching for you? Do you know how shattered I was when I found out that you were… gone ?"

He stood up and walked to Yibo, until they were just inches away.

"Do you know how hard I have to control myself back then at the hotel, when I first saw you again? After all this time?"

Yibo's heart was almost on the verge of exploding when Xiao Zhan touched his face, so lightly, just like a ghost of it.

"I missed you so much, baobei…"

Yibo stopped breathing… then he felt the chill, and a sudden rise of anger.

"You're the one who broke up with me, saying that you were engaged to be married to some rich heiress…" he moved a step away from Xiao Zhan, not wanting his mind to be clouded, just like every time when they were this close.

"Which was arranged without my consent…" Xiao Zhan took another step closer. "And I did not break up with you, you just assumed that I did." 

"... you know that and yet you did nothing to correct me. Instead, you left without any explanation. Now tell me, what am I supposed to do? Begging you to stay? Whining like a… kept man?" If you only knew what I was about to do to make you stay...

"I told you I would take care of everything, before you disappeared on me… and left me with no fucking clue on how to find you!" Xiao Zhan's voice started to break. "You should've let me take care of you, of everything, instead of running away…" Xiao Zhan tried to touch Yibo's face but the latter slapped his hand away this time.

"I don't need you to take care of everything for me." His gaze turned to frost. "You do realize that you never talk to me like I'm your equal? Even now? You saw me, then you came barging and demanding to start again? To continue from where we left off? Bad news, mister, there's nothing left from back then." He walked away from Xiao Zhan to the fridge, to pour himself a cold drink, before he continued. "True, maybe you loved me, and you cared about me, and you wanted to take care of me, but in your head I'm just a pretty little plaything that got away, not much different than a fucking pet." Yibo threw the glass and it shattered on the floor, which gave him a temporary relief from all the anger. 

"The last thing I had back then, was my dignity, and I wasn't above to throw it all away too when you left. But then I thought, what would be left of my worth if I gave the last shred of myself to someone who didn't seem to appreciate it? So, I left. With my heart broken, but my dignity intact."

Xiao Zhan was about to refute when Yibo put his hand out.

"You know what? I had enough of this shit. I am my own man now, I don't need you to fucking support me or begging you to love me like I did back then. And if you really want to fucking start again? Then prove it. Talk to me. Talk with me. I ain't taking shit from anyone ever again, even if it's from you. I have my own life and I'm as happy as I could..." Without you. 

Yibo felt oddly calm when he said those words to Xiao Zhan.

"So, unless you start treating me as your equal, don't bother to come again and say crap like you never stop loving me, or you want to start again, shit like that. I'm a man of action , not empty words." 

This is it. This is the 'take it or leave it' moment. 

And he bet with his life that Xiao Zhan would take it. 
He was never the one to shy away from any challenge but Xiao Zhan was way worse. 

Whichever way this went, he had nothing to lose.

Xiao Zhan quietly walked up to pick the remains of the glass on the floor. He was stunned with the depth of Yibo's anger, but after a minute of picking the broken glass in silence, he laughed so hard at the fierceness of this little lion. His little lion. 

Oh he should know better than to poke the sleeping lion, and after all this time, the little cub of a lion had grown up to be a fierce King of the jungle, and he never felt this much love overflowed for the man in front of him. In a way, he felt that something heavy was lifted from his heart and he felt lighter than ever.
This man was worth so much more than everything he ever had, and damn if he would let him go again without any fight.

"Are you fucking laughing at me?" Yibo was miffed because Xiao Zhan's expression was going from stunned to laughing his ass off.

"Yes… I mean no! I'm not laughing at you… well, yeah because you look so… cute while being angry, and no, I don't mean to belittle you… well, fuck, screw this…"
Xiao Zhan took a step forward, then two steps, until he crowded Yibo's personal space.

"What are you doing?"

Despite all the bravado he showed to the man in front of him, his heart didn't seem to see any reason to be calm and collected, instead it was beating so hard he afraid Xiao Zhan could hear it.

Traitor.

He willed his heart to slow down, but it's hard when the object of your desire was standing a mere inch away from him. It was just the opposite of his speech just now, how his body seemed to melt under this man's mere presence.

Then he saw that Xiao Zhan's hand was bleeding from the glass that he threw a minute ago.

"You're bleeding." He pointed it out, making Xiao Zhan surprised by the change of the atmosphere.

"It's fine, it's just a scratch." He waved it off dismissively.

"No, it's not. I'm gonna find some first aid kit, you go wash that hand." He moved away to find the kit, while Xiao Zhan looked at him incredulously. But he finally shrugged and walked to the sink to wash his bloody hand.

Yibo was sitting on the chair with the first aid kit on the table in front of him when he turned around. 
He pointed at the chair in front of him and told him to sit, then proceed to clean his wound with alcohol.

"Ow..!" He hissed when Yibo pressed the alcohol gauze onto his wound. 

"Baby much?" Yibo smirked at him.

"You did that on purpose." He accused him.

"Well, of course, I did throw the glass in my fit of rage, but you're the one who picked it up on purpose, and had this tiny wound, on purpose, in which I put too much alcohol just to see you wince in pain, on purpose? In that case, yeah I did it on purpose." He slapped the hand with anti-bacterial cream, then put a bandage on it. 

"There, it's done." 

" Cheeky bastard ." Xiao Zhan murmured under his breath, but it seemed Yibo heard it.

"Oh? You want to bite the hand that just saved you? Please do… after all the care I did to make you good as new…" 

They both became quiet while Yibo cleaned up the left over of the first aid kit away.

"So… does this mean that I get a chance?" Xiao Zhan started to speak, but it's hard when there's a lump in his throat threatening to burst over.

"… let's call it a trial period. You have three months to prove yourself to me, before I hire you permanently. It's the same with all my new bartenders." Yibo tried to put his sternest face and voice.

"Oh? So I get to be your new bartender? What's the pay then?" He grinned.

"You get to cook for me. Take it or leave it."

"...I'll take it. I'll take any chance that you'll give me." Then he tried to move closer to kiss Yibo.

"What are you doing?" Yibo took a step back.

"Seal the deal?" Xiao Zhan blinked his doe eyes innocently.

"I said cook, not kiss." He poked Xiao Zhan's chest. "You're not earning that privilege… yet."

Xiao Zhan chuckled, and moved away from Yibo's intoxicating warmth, and the sinful lips, which he might or might not spend more time watching as it moved in the last few minutes.

"Not a harm in trying, I guess. I'll be seeing you soon then."

Xiao Zhan walked to the front door and opened it. But before he went out, he turned around and looked straight into Yibo's eyes. 

"And by the way, you never have to beg for anyone's love. You're worth it and so much more, and I already gave mine to you a long time ago."