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“Truth,” Nie Huaisang says downing the burning alcohol in the shot glass.
“Who was your first crush?” Wei Wuxian asks, grinning from ear to ear.
Jiang Wanyin rolls his eyes. This game was childish if they asked him, but they didn’t so here he was drinking liquor with his brother and his best friend alone in their dorm. Well, not Huaisang’s dorm, he lived in his own apartment off-campus, though he stays over enough that it might as well be his dorm too.
Huaisang flushes and looks away from both of them. “I don’t know. I couldn’t… I really don’t know.”
Wuxian stares, “You remember everything! How do you not remember your first crush?!”
Huaisang flutters his fan in front of his face still mumbling about how he can’t recall.
“It’s one of us isn’t it!” Wuxian exclaims.
That jolts Wanyin back into the conversation. Huaisang looks extraordinarily uncomfortable. His face is red, and his fan is fluttering in front of him as if no matter how hard he tries he can’t cool himself off.
“Well, which one of us is it?” Wanyin demands.
Huaisang pours himself another shot and downs it. There aren’t enough shots in the world to give him the confidence to admit who his childhood crush was in front of him.
“Wanyin, we know it’s one of us. That’s good enough,” Wuxian says, waving his hand as he notices the panic in Huaisang’s face.
Huaisang’s breathing finally slows. “Thank you, Wuxian…”
“Truth or dare, Wanyin,” Wuxian says, imitating Huaisang by fanning himself with a sheet of folded notebook paper.
“Dare,” Wanyin says without hesitation.
“Kiss Nie Huaisang,” Wuxian says, but Huaisang shoves his shoulder.
“We are not doing that,” Huaisang says, “Besides I choose the dare.”
“You don’t want me to kiss you?” Wanyin scoffs.
Huaisang blushes. “I’m not opposed, but I choose the dare.”
Wanyin shrugs and leans back while Huaisang thinks of a suitable dare.
“I dare you to chug a beer--” Huaisang says.
“That’s not that…” Wuxian starts, but Huaisang smiles mischievously.
“Out of Wuxian’s boot.”
Wuxian looks delighted as he passes Jiang Wanyin his rainboot. There is mud on the bottom of it, and Wanyin cringes away from it. “I hate both of you,” he says as Wuxian hands him one of the cheap beers from the fridge.
Wanyin closes his eyes and turns the boot over his mouth. Most of the beer dribbles down his chin and stains his shirt. He coughs and sputters and the boot is drained.
“That was truly disgusting,” Huaisang says shaking his head.
“It was your idea!” Wanyin exclaims, he huffs. “Anyway, truth or dare, Huaisang.”
Huaisang frowns for a moment. “Dare,” he says tentatively.
“I dare you to kiss one of us,” Wanyin says.
“Wanyin!” Huaisang exclaims covering his face with his fan as if he means to cover his blush.
“Huaisang, you’ve got to,” Wuxian says.
“I don’t want to play this anymore,” he mumbles, putting his fan on the table and looking between the two other young men. He sighs and places a quick peck on Wuxian’s cheek since he’s the closer of the two.
“That’s a copout!” Wanyin exclaims. He’s upset but he’s unsure why. It’s definitely not because Huaisang did such a chaste kiss.
“Is not! You didn’t say how to kiss!” His fan is waving wildly now, “Maybe you wish I kissed you instead!”
“No! I--”
Wuxian is rolling on the floor. “My turn! My turn!”
“I don’t want to play anymore,” Wanyin says standing up and taking the rest of the alcohol with him.
“Coward!” Wuxian exclaims, but Wanyin is already on his side of the dorm changing out of his beer-soaked shirt.
Huaisang watches behind his fan. His stupid fan. Why did he even carry it? Wanyin thinks.
“I guess, I should go back to my apartment,” Huaisang sighs, grabbing his bag.
“You can’t drive back! You’re drunk!” Wuxian exclaims.
“I didn’t drive here? I was going to just call an uber,” Huaisang says, rolling his eyes.
“No, Wanyin will walk you home,” Wuxian says.
Wanyin glares at his brother. “I’m--”
“It’s fine. It really is.” That damn fan again.
“No, he’s right. There are corpses out.” Stupid Wuxian…
Wanyin checks his watch. He should be able to get Huaisang home and head back in time to make it back to the dorm before curfew as long as they don’t encounter any corpses. They shouldn’t, but if it’s too late, he can just get Wuxian to distract their annoying RA while he sneaks in.
Wanyin has Zidian on just in case the corpses are particularly fierce tonight, and he and Huaisang head out. They pass Lan Wangji in the halls, and he warns Wanyin about curfew. The air outside is colder than expected, and Wanyin wishes he grabbed a jacket.
“You and Wuxian really have the strictest RA on campus,” Huaisang says.
“He’s annoying. I know a lot of students he’s reported for breaking curfew even for things like being bothered by corpses. As if we can control whether or not corpses attack us,” Wanyin spits.
“If it’s too late you can stay at my apartment,” Huaisang says softly, “Wuxian mentioned you’re on your third strike.”
It was tempting. Huaisang owned the softest couch and he had so many plush blankets draping the back of it.
“Maybe,” Wanyin says, “but Wuxian and I have a system. If I’m back late he distracts Lan Wangji and I sneak inside.”
“How does he distract Lan Wangji?” asks Huaisang curiously.
“I don’t ask.”
A corpse passes a few feet from them, and Wanyin drags them into an alley so that it doesn’t notice them. Huaisang’s breathing stutters. They’re very close. Wanyin watches as the corpse walks off slowly then lets out a long sigh.
“Sorry,” he says getting out of Huaisang’s space.
Huaisang flutters his fan in front of his face. “No, thank you,” he says.
They continue to walk towards Huaisang’s apartment. They are only stopped by a couple more corpses before they reach it. It is too late to head back to his dorm, and Wanyin is tired. He takes Huaisang’s couch and quickly falls asleep.
The next morning he wakes up to the smell of cooking. Huaisang is attempting to make breakfast, but it smells like he’s burned something. His quiet cursing drifts into the living room.
“What’s cooking?” Wanyin asks getting up.
Huaisang blushes and fans himself with one of the oven mitts closest to him. “I burned it…”
Wanyin comes over to look at whatever Huaisang was cooking, and it’s burnt. It’s so burnt he doesn’t even know what it was supposed to be. He sighs. “How?”
Huaisang looks away. “I forgot to turn on the timer…”
Of course, he did. He’s always so careless.
“What’re you doing today?” Wanyin asks.
“I need to work on some homework…” His eyes light up. “It’s in a class we both have. Can I copy?”
Wanyin shakes his head and laughs. “Sure, I’ll text Wuxian to bring my bag. We can order food,” he says.
Huaisang’s face falls, but he smiles again after composing himself. “Sounds fun.”
Wanyin texts Wuxian to bring him his bag and come over (ignoring a million texts he got last night asking if he was alive), but Wuxian texts him back and says he can’t stay because he has a performance to practice for. Which is bullshit. Wuxian never practices…
He arrives at Huaisang’s apartment a few minutes later and drops off Wanyin’s bag before disappearing to “practice”. Wanyin and Huaisang set up on the floor, their laptops out and pillows surrounding them.
“Did you not do this one?” Huaisang asks pointing at Wanyin’s screen. He’s in Wanyin’s space, but Wanyin doesn’t mind.
“The Professor said to skip it,” Wanyin replies.
“Must have slept through that,” Huaisang giggles.
Where is the fan? Wanyin wonders as Huaisang looks over the rest of his answers and exclaims that he wants to take a break. As he watches Huaisang collapse on the couch he realizes that he still didn’t know which of he and Wuxian was Huaisang’s first crush.
“Who was your first crush?” Wanyin asks.
Huaisang snaps to look at him. He’s bright red. “I don’t know. I really don’t!”
“Was it me?” Wanyin asks.
“Why are you asking?” Huaisang grumbles, “It’s embarrassing enough…”
“You chose to kiss Wuxian instead of me last night,” Wanyin says frowning, “So was it him?”
“I really only kissed him because he was closer!” Huaisang exclaims.
“Why is it so hard to answer? It’s not like you’re still into him,” Wanyin says shaking his head.
“You’re nosey,” Huaisang sighs and drags the blanket on the back of the couch over him. He lays and stares at the roof for a few minutes then rolls to face Wanyin. “Truth or dare.”
“What?”
“Truth or dare,” Huaisang insists drawing closer to Wanyin the blanket still wrapped around his shoulders.
“Truth,” Wanyin says warily.
“Are you into me?”
Wanyin’s throat is dry. “No…” he lies. Huaisang looks deflated for a moment so Wanyin quickly adds, “Truth or dare.”
“Truth,” Huaisang says softly, not looking in Wanyin’s eyes.
“Are you into me?”
“Yes,” Huaisang says, unable to look into Wanyin’s eyes.
Wanyin surges forward and kisses Huaisang. He falls backward into the couch and Wanyin tumbles with him.
“I thought you weren’t into me,” Huaisang whines before laughing quietly.
“I lied,” Wanyin says avoiding his eyes. His face is red.
“I know,” Huaisang says leaning on his shoulder, “but get off me, you’re squishing me.”
Wanyin settles beside him and he leans his head on Wanyin’s shoulder. “So, I was your first crush, right?”
Huaisang blushes and looks away. “No,” he mumbles, “which is why I didn’t want to say anything. It’s so embarrassing.”
Wanyin snaps to stare at Huaisang. “You had a crush on my brother?!”
“When I was young!” Huaisang exclaims.
Wanyin settles back beside Huaisang and crosses his arms. “It’s still horrible. You don’t still have a crush on him?”
“Of course not,” Huaisang says laughing, “plus you’re much more handsome.” He cuddles against Wanyin’s side and leans his head on his shoulder.
“Does this mean we’re dating?” Wanyin asks.
Huaisang covers his face with his hands. “If you want to.”
Wanyin turns to look at Huaisang, he takes his hands in his and kisses him softly. “Yeah, it sounds nice,” he says softly.
Huaisang smiles sweetly and Wanyin thinks he’s the most handsome man in the world.