Liang Yu was supposed to check in by sundown. By 18:00, Liang Yu hadn't checked in.
By 18:07, Yin Yue had stared at the main gate for so long he was seeing ghosts in the dust.
"Radio's down again," Scar-Jaw said, fiddling with the broken comms tower. "Probably nothing."
"Nothing?" Yin Yue repeated, voice three times higher. "You call radio silence in zombie country meant nothing?"
Jiang leaned on a wall. "You've paced the same stretch of gravel twelve times."
"I'm maintaining emotional cardio."
"Sure."
"I'm not worried."
"Of course not."
"I'm just… monitoring the gate. For sport."
Jiang deadpanned, "Is that why you're holding his knife?"
Yin Yue looked down. Liang Yu's spare combat knife was clutched tight in his left hand.
He cleared his throat. "It's a prop. For my role."
"What role?"
"Doomed romantic lead."
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
⏱️ ML STATUS: ETA Overdue by 90 min
💘 Host Anxiety: 97%
🔪 Comfort Weapon: Acquired
Yin Yue didn't eat dinner, didn't even join the post-dusk watch rotation. He didn't speak much.
He just sat by the front entrance wrapped in a blanket, face buried in Liang Yu's hoodie.
"Maybe he's just slow," he mumbled.
"Maybe he got distracted by a lost puppy."
"Maybe he's unconscious and emotionally repressed in a ditch.. but fine!"
Eventually, Jiang crouched beside him.
"You want someone to take over gate-watching?"
Yin Yue shook his head.
"I'm not scared," he whispered.
"I believe you," she said. "You're just preparing your monologue for when he finally walks through that gate and you throw a can of soup at his head."
Yin Yue smiled. "He better catch it."
He fell asleep in the corner of the entryway with the blanket over his knees and his fingers still gripping the edge of that stupid black hoodie.
The gate stayed shut, but the night stayed calm and that had to mean something.
Just after sunrise, the gate creaks open at 06:14.
Yin Yue had just started to drift into a light doze on the bench near the wall when the sound jolted him upright.
Boots, dust, and a silhouette in the early light.
And then Liang Yu.
Alive and bit dirty. Bleeding again but still walking.
Carrying the last crate of medical packs like he hadn't just been two days late and silence-dead on the radio.
Yin Yue stood up. He didn't speak, didn't breathe. Just ran.
The crate hit the ground.
Liang Yu barely had time to react before Yin Yue crashed into him, fists tight in his jacket.
"Where were you?!" he shouted.
Liang Yu opened his mouth. Yin Yue punched him in the chest. Not too hard but just enough to feel something.
"Where were you?!" he said again, voice cracking this time.
Liang Yu caught his wrists. "We hit a storm. The road flooded. The tires gave out."
"You didn't call."
"The radio was.."
"I didn't sleep."
"You never sleep."
"I held your hoodie like a grieving spouse!"
Liang Yu stared at him then smiled. Yin Yue grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him hard, messy and desperate.
It tasted like two days of fear and dried lips and not enough words.
And when he pulled away, he muttered, "That's not a welcome. That's punishment."
Liang Yu blinked, dazed. "Noted."
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
💘 ML RETURNED: ✅
🫠 Host Emotional Volume: Max
📢 Public Witnesses: Everyone
Jiang leaned on the fence post.
"Is this foreplay?" she asked no one.
Scar-Jaw, sipping tea, muttered, "They're in love. It's disgusting."
Yin Yue turned toward the crowd. Face flushed. Voice sharp.
"I'm not crying."
Jiang: "Sure."
Yin Yue: "This is rage moisture."
Liang Yu put an arm around his shoulder. Yin Yue didn't shrug it off. Not this time.
By late afternoon, Yin Yue had declared himself emotionally recovered. Yin Yue insists he's fine now that Liang Yu's back. Completely fine, unbothered and functional.
To everyone. Twice.
He walked around the base with purpose. Cleaned things that didn't need cleaning. Spoke in a very normal tone of voice that definitely wasn't three times higher than usual.
"I'm fine," he told Jiang, who hadn't asked. "Functional. Mentally sound and perfectly regulated."
"Did you sleep at all while he was gone?" she asked.
"I dreamed vividly about soup-based revenge. That counts."
She gave him a look.
Yin Yue adjusted his boyfriend's hoodie like armor and walked off.
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
💘 ML STATUS: Back at Base
🫠 Host Emotion: Contained (Leaking Around the Edges)
🍲 Soup Forecast: Incoming
That night, Liang Yu brought him dinner. Didn't say anything. Just set a bowl in front of him and sat nearby. Yin Yue stared at it.
"Scented broth," he said dramatically. "This is a trap."
"It's ginger and chili. Good for stress."
Yin Yue sipped. Paused.
"…You remembered I like this."
Liang Yu didn't answer and just watched him eat.
After three spoonfuls in, Yin Yue blinked, then sniffed and then blinked again.
"I'm not crying," he said quickly.
"I didn't say you were."
"It's just..spicy."
"Sure."
"The ginger is very emotionally evocative."
"Right."
"And the warmth reminds me of that time we kissed behind a diner next to a tree growing through a table."
Liang Yu finally smiled.
"You're impossible," he murmured.
"And you're a soup-making menace," Yin Yue snapped, dabbing his eyes.
"You could just admit you missed me."
"I will not."
"You could thank me for surviving."
"I'll consider a thank-you letter. Written by someone else. Possibly Jiang."
Liang Yu nudged the bowl closer. Yin Yue sipped again. Then leaned lightly against his shoulder.
"...I hate you," he whispered.
"I know."
> 💘 ML Affection: Steady
💬 Host Love Language: Denial with a side of chili oil
🍲 Relationship Nourishment: Literal
It was a clear morning. Crisp air, soft wind, the smell of slightly burnt toast and hard-won peace.
Yin Yue sat at the table with a cup of hot water and one of those sad ration biscuits that claimed to be lemon-flavored.
Liang Yu sat across from him, casually wiping down his gear like nothing was wrong.
Yin Yue chewed his toast and swallowed.
Then said, "Next time you disappear for forty-eight hours without warning, I'm breaking up with you."
Liang Yu looked up.
"From the afterlife," Yin Yue clarified. "I will learn necromancy, summon your ghost and dump you, again."
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
⚠️ Threat Level: Romantic and Petty
💘 ML Affection: Stable
🫠 Host Emotional Strategy: Fear Masked as Sass
Liang Yu set down the cloth.
"Understood."
"Because the thing is," Yin Yue continued, waving his biscuit, "you cannot just vanish and then show up looking like a tragic war novel character and expect me to act normal."
"You didn't act normal."
"You showed up bleeding with emotional gravitas. That's illegal."
"You kissed me."
"Out of panic."
"You cried."
"From chili oil."
Liang Yu said nothing. Yin Yue glanced down at his cup then added, softer, "I thought I'd lost you."
Liang Yu reached across the table. Laced their fingers together and squeezed.
"You didn't."
"Next time, I might."
"There won't be a next time."
Yin Yue looked at him. "You can't promise that."
Liang Yu met his eyes. "I will anyway."
> 💬 SYSTEM 520:
🫶 PROMISE COUNT: 2
💘 BOND STRENGTH: Max Reinforced
🧠 Host Mental Status: Very Soft, Slightly Leaking
Yin Yue swallowed thickly.
Then muttered, "If you die, I'm stealing your pillow."
Liang Yu didn't blink. "Fair."
Yin Yue squeezed his hand back, just once. Then started eating again like everything was normal. Because somehow now it kind of was.
The morning was warm in a way that felt like permission.
For the first time in weeks, Yin Yue woke up without clutching his frying pan.
No screaming and no alerts. Just sunlight and gloves?
He blinked at the pair of gardening gloves laid out on the foot of his bunk. They were small. His size and suspiciously new.
Also: seed packets.
There is four of them, tomatoes, radishes, chili peppers and mint.
"What in the Pinterest apocalypse is this?" he muttered.
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
🌱 New Base Project: Greenhouse Initiative
💘 ML Participation: Voluntary (For You)
🎁 Host Status: Gifted Gardening Duty (Affection-Based Assignment)
He stumbled out into the courtyard, hoodie half-zipped, hair chaotic, looking for answers and possibly revenge.
Found them in the form of Liang Yu, already digging into a marked plot of dirt with terrifying efficiency.
Yin Yue stood there for a full ten seconds.
"Explain yourself," he said finally.
Liang Yu didn't pause. "You said you missed fresh mint."
"That was a complaint, not a life plan."
"You also said if you had to eat one more protein bar, you'd scream."
"I scream about lots of things. That's not legally binding."
"You said vegetables would make you feel human again."
"Now you're just quoting me verbatim!"
Liang Yu dropped the shovel, turned, and pointed to a second one resting neatly beside the gloves.
"You're helping."
Yin Yue blinked at him then at the shovel then at the gloves.
Then muttered, "So we're gardening now. This is our life, from blood and bullets to basil."
Liang Yu handed him a trowel.
"You want the mint on the east side or west?"
Yin Yue took it.
Muttered, "This is emotional manipulation."
Then knelt in the dirt and started planting.
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
💘 ML Love Language: Acts of Agricultural Service
🫠 Host Mood: Softly Sabotaged
🌱 Relationship Growth Status: Literal
After the first row of chili seedlings, Yin Yue looked up.
"You know you're insufferable, right?"
Liang Yu nodded. "You picked the mint first."
Yin Yue scowled but the corners of his mouth twitched and didn't stop twitching even as he buried the seeds.
Even as Liang Yu's hand brushed lightly against his while reaching for the watering can.
Even as the wind carried the faintest promise of spring.