Chapter Text
The ever present thrum of the now disfunctional spaceship had been the only companion Hua Yong had for the past three months.
When stuck in Enigma, he found that time moved differently than it did on planet earth.
There was no clear day or night. Time had lost it's meaning, and all Yong was left with was a broken digital clock that had survived the disastrous mission, and a paper calender that one of the crew members had left in the quarters.
The day the mission went wrong was still fresh in his mind, and there were weeks where Yong woke up everyday thinking that he too was going to perish like his crew mates. Their panicked screams still echoed through the walls as he picked on the rations in their kitchen.
He didn't know how he survived, but he did.
And while to be alive is a blessing, given his current predicament, where he was stuck in a planet alone, he wasn't quite sure.
Maybe he died, and this was hell.
And then, there was Shaoyou.
Sheng Shaoyou, the man who had kept Yong going through the loneliness. Even though he wasn't there, Yong thought of his friend- and the man he was in love with.
He thinks about the day he'd kissed Shaoyou, not knowing it was the biggest mistake he would commit, because he'd lost his best friend. Over what? Emotions that would have dimmed down over time?!
Yong thinks about the last call they'd had before the rocket had taken off nearly half a year ago.
Shaoyou had been upset. Yong didn't understand why, because didn't Shaoyou hate him?
Why was Yong still thinking about Shaoyou? Why hadn't his feelings gone away yet? Even if by some miracle, Yong made it back, Shaoyou wouldn't love him back. Yong had messed everything up beyond repair.
Maybe that's why, the universe was punishing him. Because he'd messed up something that was good. That's why, he was in the hellish planet, where there was no Shaoyou.
But even so, his heart ached with want.
He glances at the date on the calender, and lets out a sigh. It was the 11th of January.
His birthday.
Usually, Shaoyou and Yong would celebrate it together ever since they were kids. They had a tradition of having fruit cake, with a grape on top.
This would be the first year that Yong wouldn't celebrate it with Shaoyou. And it would also be the last year he would be celebrating his birthday, because he was running out of rations of food.
Maybe, once, Yong would have panicked. Once, he would have been afraid of dying.
But now, he had simply accepted it. Because there was no way he could change fate. There was no way he could reverse time and say no to this mission.
There was no way he could stop himself from kissing Shaoyou and ruining their friendship.
So, opening his last can of tuna, he closes his eyes and says a quiet thanks for the food, and wishes himself. "Happy birthday to me."
And driven by some childish thought, he also makes a wish.
I wish I could hear Shaoyou's voice one last time.
He pretends to blow on the non existent candle on his cake of tuna from the can. His last meal.
His vision blurs with tears, but he wipes them before they fall.
Shaoyou, I miss you so much. I wish I could see you one last time before I die-
"Hua Yong recieving? Hua Yong, do you copy?!"
Yong perks up, and blinks at the comms station.
It had been broken for ages, and Yong had given up on trying to fix it as his distress messages hadn't gotten a response.
He must be hallucinating. Yong missed Shaoyou so much his mind was making up the man's voice. Because there was no way-
"Hua Yong?! Do you copy?!"
Yong blinks at the screen, and realises that there was a blinking green light that wasn't there before.
He scrambles to get up and rushes towards the screen, and turns the system on. His hands shake as he speaks into the mic. "Hua Yong here. Receiving."
"Thank God. You're alive. Thank God."
It was Shaoyou's voice, unmistakable and clear. Yong wasn't hallucinating it.
"A-Yong, it's me. Shaoyou," Shaoyou says, and Yong hears other voices in the background. He chokes on his words as he replies, the feeling of talking to someone else after months of solitude- it was strange in a way Yong couldn't even explain.
"Shaoyou," Yong says, his voice shaking. "What- How?"
"I've come to get you. We'll be landing in twenty. I've been trying to get a signal for days," Shaoyou replies. Yong blinks at the screen, and notices that indeed, another rocket was being detected in close range to the planet, despite the comms system's fried gps. Shaoyou continues. "Can you give us your exact coordinates? We are seeing around.. five scattered. It's hard to say which one is yours."
Yong gulps, and reads out the numbers on the screen to Shaoyou, who repeats it to someone else. Then, "Are you.. alone?"
The question, after being Yong's lived experience for so long, hit harder than ever. He closes his eyes, recalling his crew mates who's lives were taken from them cruelly in a matter of seconds.
"Yes. Yes, I am," Yong says, silent tears falling more freely now. Shaoyou takes a second to reply.
"I'm so sorry," He says, sounding so sincerely apologetic that it moves Yong to even more tears. His knees give away, and he falls to the floor, grief mixing in with the utter relief that floods his whole body.
Yong had given up long time ago.
He'd talked himself to accept his fate, that he was going to die alone.
But now, there was a chance of him being saved- and Shaoyou was there.
Shaoyou had come to save him.
Despite what Yong had done, Shaoyou had still kept Yong going all this time with his memory. And now, he'd fulfilled Yong's birthday wish.
Did he even deserve this?
"Thank you," Yong says, his body shaking as he sobbed more openly. "Thank you for coming."
It takes one more hour for Shaoyou's and his crew to find a proper place to land.
After another hour of attempting to connect the rockets, they finally find a way for Yong to get to their side safely.
Then, for twenty minutes, Yong gets checked up by the doctors on board, while Shaoyou stood by the side, watching attentively.
Yong couldn't look at him. He couldn't look at anyone.
Maybe he was dreaming. Maybe, Yong would wake up and discover that this didn't actually happen, but this was simply a product of his imagination.
But that doesn't happen.
By the time Shaoyou and Yong are alone again, it had been ten hours since Yong had been saved, and an hour since they'd taken off for good from Enigma.
"The weather conditions that day were not ideal," Yong explained to the other crew member, Mizhu, who listened with a somber expression on her face. "We were expecting a landing like today, but something happened. Then, it was chaos. The side where 4 of the crew members were broke off due to the wind. And since I was in the cockpit, I.. I somehow survived."
"We're glad," Mizhu says, glancing at Shaoyou. "We were all so worried when we lost connection. Especially Shaoyou. The moment we got your message, he immediately volunteered to come and get you. He was so worried, you know?"
Yong glances at Shaoyou, who was already looking at him. His expression was strange- a mixture of emotions that Yong wasn't sure he understood. Mizhu looks between them and stands up. "I'll leave you both to talk now."
Yong almost didn't want her to leave, as being alone with Shaoyou felt scarier than being alone all of a sudden.
But then, Shaoyou does something unexpected.
He gets close to where Yong was, and pulls him into a hug.
"You idiot," He says, nearly crushing Yong with how tight he was holding the male. "You are an idiot, you know that, right?"
Yong hesitantly holds Shaoyou back.
Was this another dream? Was Shaoyou actually in his arms?
If it was, Yong wished he would never wake up.
"I'm sorry," He says, burying his head in Shaoyou's shoulder, and breathes in the familiar scent. "For everything."
When he hears sniffles, he pulls back and looks at Shaoyou, who's eyes were filled with tears. Shaoyou immediately cups Yong's face. "I thought you were dead. Do you know how scared I was?"
"I'm sorry," Yong says, looking down in shame. Shaoyou shakes his head, and makes Yong look at him.
"I'm the one who's sorry," Shaoyou says, thumb wiping the lone tear that fell down Yong's cheek. "I'm sorry for being a coward. I should have never let you go. I'm sorry, Yong. I'm so sorry for hurting you that day. Im sorry that I never told you how I truly felt that day," Shaoyou goes on, and pauses for a second. "I'm sorry, because I was too afraid to tell you I love you, because I was afraid of losing everything else. Because I thought that was important. But now, Yong, I know. You're more important. You always have been more important than anything else. I'm sorry it took me this long to understand. I'm sorry I let you suffer alone without telling you that. That day was never a mistake. You could never be a mistake, when you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I'm sorry it took me nearly losing you to understand that."
For a second, time stops, and only Shaoyou existed with Yong. Everything else fades away.
Yong watches as Shaoyou chokes on a sob, pulling him closer yet again, wetting his shirt with tears. He holds Shaoyou, patting him gently as the man sobbed the months of fear and anxiety away.
And even though Yong doesn't cry over what had happened to him, the many months of being alone suddenly started to feel like a distant memory.
Shaoyou's presence was brighter than the darkness that Yong had accepted to be his fate.
You'll always be my star, Shaoyou.
"I missed you," Yong says, once Shaoyou calmed down. "So damn much."
Shaoyou runs his hands through Yong's hair and smiles sadly. "So did I. I missed you so much, A-Yong."
Then, Shaoyou perks up. "It's your birthday, isn't it?" He questions, and Yong nods. Shaoyou pulls himself off the hug and rushes to the food compartment and pulls something out.
"I wasn't sure if we'll make it on time, but I wanted to bring this anyway," Shaoyou says, showing Yong some space grade cake, with a grape.
"You didn't forget," Yong mutters, his heart feeling full after so long. Shaoyou smiles softly. "Never. You're my best friend, Yong. How can I forget something so important?"
"Even after what I did?" Yong asks, and Shaoyou steps closer, taking Yong's hand in his. His touch was gentle, and the way he looked at Yong had him feeling butterflies in his chest.
"Didn't you hear what I said before? I love you. As a friend, and a little more than a friend too," Shaoyou confesses, his tone taking on a softer edge that was uncharacteristic of him. "I was afraid to say it before, but not anymore. I love you, Hua Yong."
I love you, Hua Yong.
The words echo through the otherwise silent room, and Yong feels something warm burst in his chest, the warmth spreading through his body. He felt light, like he was floating even though the gravity system was on in the rocket.
He gets closer and pulls Shaoyou into a kiss- short and chaste. He feels Shaoyou smile against his lips, and God, was he in actually in heaven now?
When he pulls back, he's greeted by the sight of Shaoyou looking happier than ever, mirroring what Yong felt at that moment. Even though there was a lot of things to be said and work to be done, Yong knew that this would be the start of something new.
And because this was his best friend, he knew they would be alright.
How strange was life, because twenty four hours ago, Yong had given up on life, yet now, not only had he been saved, he was holding the love of his life- the brightest star in his universe in his arms.
His wish hadn't just come true, he'd gotten more than he'd wished for.
"Happy birthday, A-Yong."