THIEF OF THE NIGHT 3

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The next week flew by for Zhan. He'd been contacted by one of his clients wanting to expand their collection and had been creating a portfolio of art coming up on the market for them.

The installation of his new security system was well ahead of schedule, although he hadn't seen Yibo since he'd left that day.

It had been on a whim that he'd given Yibo his number, the other man had intrigued him somewhat with his free flowing opinions.

He shouldn't have been surprised to wake up one morning to find a message from Yibo received at 2:42 am.It just said:

'Hey',

Which Zhan wasn't surprised about. His reply of 'hello' wasn't replied to until midday, when the bleep of his phone made him jump as he'd been too engrossed in his work.

I'm free tomorrow, want to have a date?

Zhan read it a couple of times, thinking through his schedule for the next day. Was there anything important? Anything that couldn't be dropped?

"Xuan Lu?" Zhan pressed the button on his intercom to contact his PA. A couple of moments later, Xuan Lu came bustling in.

"Is it possible to clear my schedule for tomorrow?" Zhan asked.

Xuan  Lu hummed and flicked through the calendar on her tablet.

"Nothing that can't be moved. Any reason for this sudden day off?" she asked with a knowing look.

Zhan and Xuan Lu had been friends since their school days and Xuan Lu always knew when something was up with Zhan. This time, he'd noticed the stiffness in his shoulders and dusting of pink across his cheeks

"I have a date," Zhan replied. There wasn't any point in lying.

Xuan Lu's face lit up.

"Really? That's fantastic! I was just saying to Ji Yang the other day that I hoped you'd meet someone!"

Zhan let Xuan Lu ramble on about how good it was that Zhan had met someone. He was glad his closest friend was happy for him even though rearranging Zhan's meetings would be trouble for herself.

"What's he like?" Xuan Lu asked, knowing Zhan's preference is nothing new to her.

"who is he?"

"He's called Wang Yibo and he works for UNIQ Security," Zhan replied, glad for an easy question to answer and not 'what do you like about him?'.

He stopped himself from saying Wang Yibo was 'nice'.

He doubted he'd have given him his number if he had been just 'nice' -and yet Wang Yibo wasn't not nice.

"He's opinionated," he settled for.

"So are you," Xuan Lu laughed.

"Well, if he's caught your attention then he's deserving of it. I'm going to have to rearrange your lunch with Zuo Cheng. That's not going to be fun."

"Don't tell him I have a date. He'll want to come with us."

"That would be a problem!"

Zhan arrived early at the art gallery, He had no idea what Yibo's view of punctuality was, but he thought it very important.

It turned out Yibo didn't think it all that important as he sauntered up 15 minutes late.

Zhan, who had till that point been waiting half an hour, was less than impressed.

"Did your train break down?" he asked coolly.

"No, I overslept," Yibo replied with a yawn.

Shouting at your date for being late wasn't the done thing, but Zhan was feeling his days as captain of some school's Sport's Team bubbling to the surface. If only he could give out laps!

"Are you looking forward to viewing some art?" Yibo asked, smirking.

"You suggested the art gallery."

"Because you like art and I don't hate it. Next time, you suggest somewhere." Yibo shrugged, still looking infuriatingly smug.

"Come on, it's cold out here."

It wasn't that cold in Zhan's opinion, but his date was bouncing on his toes to keep warm and he thought it would be ungracious to keep him outdoors—no matter how long Yibo had kept him waiting.

As it was a weekday it wasn't all that busy in the gallery.

"Where do you want to look at first," Yibo asked, grabbing a map and unfolding it.

"There's an exhibition on                             The Impressionists,"

Zhan said without looking at the map. He'd done a lot of work for the gallery and knew the building very well.

"I bought us tickets."

"Nice," Yibo said vaguely, still looking over the map.

"What do you think about contemporary art?" Zhan made a face before he could stop himself and Yibo laughed.

"Impressionists it is."

Zhan had expected Yibo to start complaining about being bored, but he didn't.

Instead, he wandered from painting to painting, not reading any of the information plaques, but taking in the whole picture. It was distracting having someone so gorgeous next to him (when had he started to find him so attractive?), Zhan wanted to watch him instead of looking at the masterpieces in front of him.

"Do you have a favourite?" Yibo asked after a while.

"I'm fond of Monet," he took Yibo's arm and lead him across the room to a large canvas.

"Particularly the water lilies."

"I like Van Gogh, so I'm not going to laugh at your cliché choice." Yibo replied.

"It is pretty though."

It wasn't good form to correct your date about Van Gogh not being an impressionist, so he let it be. Zhan supposed that was as good a compliment as the painting was going to get. He thought it was beautiful.

Yibo gave the painting a last look before walking on and Zhan followed him.

"It's nice seeing art on display in public," Yibo mused.

"No offense."

"None taken."

"I normally see it behind closed doors, locked in safes and stuff."

"Yes, I must admit I don't see art in public very often. I have bought on behalf of museums though, especially this one."

"Your community service." Yibo smirked.

"They do pay me."

Yibo gently punched his arm and smiled his pretty smile.

He'd make a masterpiece, Zhan thought, but it would take a master to capture him properly. Without quite realising what he was doing, Zhan reached out and stroked Yibo's hair. It was silky and soft and Yibo gave him an odd, confused look before grinning and leaning into the touch.

"Come on, there's more art to look at," Yibo grabbed his hand and tugged him along.

"I don't get why you hate contemporary art," Yibo said once they'd finished looking around the exhibition.

"It's interesting."

"I'm afraid my art tastes are more conservative," Zhan replied, not feeling at all regretful.

Why should he feel bad about liking a nice landscape?

"I think you're just an art snob," Yibo said.

If it was meant to be an insult, it sounded more like a teasing barb.

"I am not." Zhan took the bait.

"I'm sure there's some modern art I'd like."

"Yeah, yeah." Yibo snorted.

"You're definitely an art snob."

The gallery was deserted, all the visitors more interested in the other art offered in the museum.

"Art snob," Yibo repeated when he saw the face Zhan made when he looked at a picture of faint pencil lines in a grid.

"A 5 year old could create that," Zhan said,

"You can't even compare it to what we've just seen."

"Art snob."

"I am not!"

Yibo was drawing closer to him now, looking up at him through his eyelashes.

 "Art snob," he said again, brushing his hands lightly against Zhan's.

The whisper of skin against skin sent goosebumps up Zhan's arms. His heart fluttered against his chest as though it was trying to break free.

"I'm not," he repeated, his voice catching slightly in his throat.

Yibo hummed as though Zhan had said something completely ridiculous, a smirk twisting onto the corners of his mouth.

He was so close now, Zhan just had to lean down slightly and their lips could brush together. They were going to kiss, Zhan realised, his body tensing slightly.

He wanted it though. Wanted to be kissed in the gallery full of art Zhan considered worthless.

And then, Yibo was gone, flitting off across the gallery to pretend to look at a large canvas covered in green dots. His heart still thumping out of control, Zhan followed him rather unenthusiastically.

 He was usually against grand public displays of affection, but he felt like he'd just been rejected.

"Do you want to know what I think?" Yibo asked as Zhan reached him.

"What?" Zhan replied rather moodily.

"That this stuff is rubbish," Yibo confessed, looking up at Zhan with a grin.

"And I want to kiss you."

That was... straightforward. Zhan felt the blood rush to his cheeks and he nodded.

Yibo drew closer, sliding his hands onto Zhan's shoulders. Zhan swallowed thickly as his hands went to Yibo's waist.

They were both as red as each other now and Yibo opened his mouth, probably to joke about it, but Zhan leant down, closing the distance and pressing their lips together.

As first kisses went it wasn't magical. No choirs of angels sung nor orchestras played and the world didn't melt away.

But that didn't stop it being nice, a soft press of lips and Yibo sighing into him.

Yibo's eyes fluttered open as they pulled apart and he smiled. "You're all stiff."

They were in public, setting off all his anxiety alarms. He often wished he wasn't like this, wished he was easy in public.

"I'm not used to kissing in public," he replied, not meeting Yibo's eyes.

Yibo laughed softly in reply.

"I can help with that. If you want."

"Not right now." Zhan hoped beyond hope that there would be a later.

"Come on. Let's go look at someukiyo-e, they're more your style," Yibo said, taking Zhan's arm and pulling him towards the gallery door.