Hire a gardener for my grave (слэш)

Shi Wudu was a hard man to please, and a harder man to earn the heart. But slowly, steadily like the earth, the Earth Master dug his way through his defenses. It was hard to justify the feelings, really, they were much more a nick in his pride, as his distaste for the fellow elemental master was well known in the whole heavenly capital. He hated to like the Earth Master that way; hated he desired him that way.
Pride wouldn't allow for his haughty facade to drop, and face the possibility of rejection by the Earth Master would wound less than an actual rejection and the terrible gossip that would follow.
So, the flowers came.