Archive of Our Own

Xiao Zhan woke up to an empty bed, which was pretty unusual--he was normally the early riser of the two of them. But Yibo's schedule recently had been absolutely crazy, so maybe he'd woken up at ass o'clock. What time was it, anyway? Xiao Zhan grabbed his phone and looked--7:23. He sighed and heaved himself out of bed. He had three meetings and a commercial to film today starting at ten am, but it was still past time for him to get up.

He stumbled out of the bedroom and down the hall, making a beeline for the coffee maker, which he had had the foresight to set up the night before. He hit the "brew" button and turned around only when the coffee maker began sputtering to life.

Then he let out a scream.

"Hi!"

A small child--of four? Five?--was sitting on his couch with a phone in his hands, legs not even reaching the edge of the seat. He looked at Xiao Zhan with a smile.

"Why did you scream? Is there a monster?" the kid asked curiously.

Xiao Zhan, hand over his chest and breath still coming in hard, took a tentative step forward. "Uhm...hi? Hello. How did you get here?" He looked around for Yibo, who surely had to have an explanation for this, but couldn't see him. Maybe he was in the bathroom? Xiao Zhan gingerly walked past the sudden child in his house and down the hall. The door to the bathroom was open and it was dark. Just in case, he also checked out the guest room. Nothing. Yibo wasn't in the apartment at all.

"I woke up here," said a small voice behind him. Xiao Zhan jumped and turned around. The child had followed him, looking curious. He was actually a really cute kid. He had giant cheeks that one could probably see from the back, and bright, inquisitive eyes. He was wearing an oversized t-shirt that trailed past his knees.

Xiao Zhan narrowed his eyes. That was Yibo's t-shirt. What the hell was Yibo playing at?

Xiao Zhan realized he was looming over the kid and dropped down to his haunches. "You woke up here? Where are your mommy and daddy?"

The boy shrugged, looking strangely unconcerned. "Dunno. But that's okay, because you're here."

Xiao Zhan made a noise at the back of his throat, made to put a hand on the boy's shoulder, then snatched it back. "Hmm." He had to think. Yibo had to have an answer for this, otherwise Xiao Zhan was harboring someone else's child--someone who was probably going out of their mind with worry.

"Can you give me just a minute?" he asked, then rose and quickly made his way back to the bedroom. He grabbed his phone, looking for a message, or a call, or any sort of explanation, and finding none, scrolled over to his contacts and pressed Yibo's number.

Almost immediately, a song started playing somewhere inside his apartment--Yibo's ringtone. Well, fuck. He'd left his phone? Yibo was practically surgically attached to his phone; he never did this. Something must be...not quite right. Sweating, Xiao Zhan walked towards the sound. The little boy was looking at the phone, frowning. "I was playing a game," he said, looking up with huge eyes. "But then it did this." He held up the ringing phone. Xiao Zhan ended the call automatically. He was aware that he was staring, but he just--what the fuck was going on? The kid did look somewhat familiar, but whose was he? And how had he gotten into Xiao Zhan's apartment? And where the fuck was Yibo?

"I was trying to call..." His voice came out a bit high. "Do you know where the man who left it is?"

"What man?"

What--dear God. "Yibo!" Xiao Zhan yelled, finally snapping, as if Yibo was hiding in a closet somewhere and watching this all like it was a fun prank. "What the hell is going on?" He hadn't even had his coffee yet.

The boy took a step back, shuddering away from Xiao Zhan, and stopped when he hit the couch. "Why are you yelling at me?"

"What--oh, no, I'm so sorry." Xiao Zhan ran a hand through his hair. He dropped down again so he could be somewhat level with the boy. "I wasn't yelling at you, I'm sorry. I'm looking for my, uh, friend. He was here last night but I can't find him today."

"You yelled my name," the boy said quietly, phone clutched against his chest.

"I--what?" Xiao Zhan said, mind screeching to a halt.

"You yelled my name."

"I did? What's your name?" Xiao Zhan asked, now even more bewildered than before. Was he hallucinating? Still asleep? He had to be asleep, this had to be a dream. Who would have left him in charge of a child without so much as a note or a text?

In a patient voice like he was explaining to, well, a toddler, the kid said, "Yibo. I'm Yibo."

Xiao Zhan shut his mouth with a click. "What did you say?" His voice sounded strangled to his own ears.

The kid looked at him like he was slow. "I'm Yibo? You yelled my name and then you said you were looking for a friend and why are you yelling?" Xiao Zhan watched, with a dawning sense of horror, as the kid's lower lip began to wobble. "I thought you were my friend."

"I--"

"I want my mommy!" the kid--named Yibo?!--said and burst into tears.

Xiao Zhan's legs gave out and he fell backwards onto his ass. "Oh, God, no, don't--I'm so sorry, I'll never yell again, just don't--don't cry, please--" He reached out to try and comfort the boy, but the boy shuffled backwards next to the couch, phone still clutched in his chubby hands.

"You're mean, don't!" he wailed.

Xiao Zhan dropped his head into his hands and experienced the biggest urge to join him.

The waft of freshly brewed coffee insinuated itself in his nostrils and he lifted his head despite himself. He needed that coffee. Desperately.

Was he hallucinating? He pinched himself. Nothing about his situation changed. He was still sitting on his ass in front of a wailing child, completely at sea.

I'm Yibo.

It hit him all at once: the clothes. The phone. The eyes.

No. Oh, hell, no. No, no, no. It couldn't be. Xiao Zhan felt himself going utterly cold, as if he had ice in his veins. There was absolutely no way in hell that--

"Please stop crying," he begged, reaching forward and finally laying a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder, then, feeling reckless, reaching up and wiping a tear from his face with his thumb. "I promise, I am your friend, I'll never yell again, just please stop crying. I'll find your mommy and your daddy and it will be okay. I promise, okay? I promise." He had no idea what he was saying, all he knew was blinding panic and the edges of a headache starting to darken his vision.

The little boy squirmed away from his touch but he began to quiet down, wailing subsiding into sobs, subsiding into hiccups, until his tear-streaked cheeks and his bottom lip were wobbling but he was no longer crying. Xiao Zhan, feeling his own face crumpling in sympathy, sighed and settled himself more firmly on the floor as he crossed his legs.

"Good boy," he said. "Do you need a tissue?"

The boy shrugged, then wiped his runny nose with the back of his hand. He was clutching the phone to his chest like a teddy bear. Abruptly, Xiao Zhan thought he should give him an actual teddy bear for comfort. But tissue first. He reached over to the side table by the couch and plucked two out of the box.

"Here," he said, handing both to the boy. "Take them."

Looking at him mistrustfully, the boy grabbed the tissues and crumpled them in his hand before bringing them to his nose and smearing his snot around. Xiao Zhan sighed and reached over to pluck another tissue from the box.

"Do you mind if I do this?" he asked carefully, like the boy was going to bite him if he didn't. He just really, really didn't want a repeat of the crying.

The boy shrugged, still watching him with wary eyes. Another moment of utter disbelief--Yibo? No. Absolutely not. Xiao Zhan leaned forward and wiped the boy's face, starting with the tears and ending with the snot situation. He wiped him gently so as to not spook him. The boy gave a great big shudder and sigh but didn't say anything. "There," Xiao Zhan said once he was done. "Now, I'm going to go get something, and you just stay here, all right?"

"All right," the boy mumbled to his feet.

Xiao Zhan unfolded himself and quickly ran to the bedroom, where he picked out the softest, plushest stuffed animal he had--a grey bunny with a heart on its belly--and grabbed it. He returned to the living room to find the boy concentrating on his phone again, sounds of a game emanating from it.

Xiao Zhan dropped down and thrust the bunny at the boy. "Here. You want to play with this?"

The boy looked up and his eyes grew huge. "Can I?" he asked with awe in his voice. "What's his name?"

Xiao Zhan, who had no idea, said, "Of course you can. You can name him, too."

Phone forgotten, the boy reached out and grabbed the toy from him, burying his face in its plush fur. "I'm gonna name him Bunny," he mumbled and shut his eyes. His cheeks lifted in a smile.

Xiao Zhan, heart beating straight out of his chest, sagged down onto the couch. He knew that smile. He knew.

What. The fuck.

"Uh...Yibo?"

The boy lifted his face and the only thing remaining of his tears were the dried tracks on his cheeks. "He's so soft," he said. "You wanna touch him?"

Pulse still racing, Xiao Zhan reached out and petted where the boy--Yibo--was thrusting the bunny out for him. "He is," Xiao Zhan said helplessly. "He is soft."

"Do you have kids?" Yibo asked, tilting his head in a way that was achingly familiar.

"Huh?"

"Do you have kids?" he repeated, slower this time.

Xiao Zhan shook his head, thoughts racing. Did he now?! What the fuck was he going to do?

"Why do you have kid toys?" Yibo asked, looking at him suspiciously from under his eyebrows. "Are you a kid?"

Xiao Zhan couldn't help it--he laughed. He started laughing and couldn't stop, because this whole thing--this whole situation--was absolutely and totally absurd. Here was Yibo, as a kid. What the fuck?!

"Why are you laughing?" Yibo asked. "Why does this bunny smell like flowers? Where are my mom and dad?"

Abruptly, Xiao Zhan stopped laughing. He stared at Yibo as his gut churned, dread settling in. Oh, fuck. Yibo's parents were, obviously, in Luoyang. Hundreds of kilometers away from here. How in the world did one explain that to a kid looking for his parents? How in the world did one explain this to the parents of a grown-up Yibo?

Just as he thought this, Yibo's phone began to ring. Xiao Zhan swiped it from where Yibo had put it down on the couch and looked. Yibo's manager. Oh, fuck. Yibo was probably already late to something. Oh, God.

Xiao Zhan dropped his head in his hands and tried to think. Should he pick it up? Should he let it go to voicemail? Should he then listen to the voicemail, or was that too weird? The ringing stopped. Well, there went one choice.

"What was that?" Yibo asked, pulling Xiao Zhan's attention away from the phone. His eyes were still a tiny bit puffy from the tears and he was just. So cute. Despite the utter absurdity of the situation, Xiao Zhan couldn't stop himself from smiling. Little Yibo was adorable. The cheeks alone were to die for and Xiao Zhan desperately wanted to squish them. Which was probably weird.

Oh, God, this was Yibo. This was beyond weird. Suddenly remembering, he jumped up and ran into the bedroom, where he quickly hid the lube and condoms they'd left out the night before.

Fuck. He dropped down onto his bed and hid his face in his hands. What the fuck was he going to do?

Quiet footsteps alerted him to Yibo's presence. He looked up. Yibo was holding out the phone with one small hand, barely holding on, while hugging the bunny under his other arm. "This made a noise," he explained.

"Thank you," Xiao Zhan said automatically, accepting the phone. He stared at Yibo. He couldn't stop staring. The sleeves of his t-shirt reached almost all the way down to his wrists. Xiao Zhan was going to have to get him new clothes. Clothes that actually fit. Oh, God. He looked down at Yibo's phone. Sure enough, there was a voicemail. Xiao Zhan sighed and went to play it, hitting the speaker button.

"Yibo, hi, it's me. Where are you? You were supposed to call me with your decision on that toothpaste sponsorship, and we've got a Head & Shoulders meeting in fifteen minutes. Give me a call as soon as you can, please."

Xiao Zhan groaned and fell back onto the bed. Fuck. How could he forget about Yibo's mad schedule? That made him think about his own, and how he had to cancel every single one of his meetings. Right? He couldn't...he couldn't exactly bring Yibo with him. Could he? How would he even explain? Yes, hi, I accidentally kidnapped a child that I must now take care of indefinitely, but don't let it disturb us, how are you?

Indefinitely. God, how did this happen, and how would it end? Suddenly, he could picture it--Wang Yibo, growing up all over again. Day by day, month by month, year by year. Wang Yibo, disappearing from the public eye, nobody knowing what happened. Oh, God. Xiao Zhan could feel the panic returning, his breath speeding up.

Calm. Calm.

"Are you okay? You're being really weird," Yibo told him, when Xiao Zhan finally sat back up. "I'm hungry."

"Right," Xiao Zhan said, staring. "Okay. I can help with that."

They went into the kitchen--Xiao Zhan leading, Yibo trailing behind him, Bunny still clutched in his arms--and Xiao Zhan took a deep breath before pulling out a jar of rice. "Do you like congee?" he asked, unnecessarily, because that was what Yibo was getting.

"Mn. What's your name?"

Xiao Zhan froze with his measuring cup halfway into the rice. Something yoinked in his chest, a whine he suppressed with vicious effort. He swallowed and cleared his throat. "My name is Xiao Zhan. You...you can call me Zhan-ge."

"Zhan-ge." Yibo nodded, as if satisfied. "Zhan-ge, I don't want congee."

Xiao Zhan sighed, putting his measuring cup down. Adult Yibo liked congee. Adult Yibo largely ate anything you put in front of him. "What do you want, then?"

"A mantou. Orange juice," Yibo declared decisively.

Xiao Zhan cracked up. All right. "I can do that." He turned and went to rummage around in his freezer for some frozen buns to steam. He found a half-opened package at the very bottom and fished it out. By the time he turned around, Yibo had somehow managed to heave himself up onto a stool and was looking around curiously. Bunny was still clutched in his arms.

"Do you live by yourself? Where are your mom and dad?"

Xiao Zhan, hoping to steer the conversation away from parents of any kind, responded quickly, "I do live by myself."

"Don't you get bored?"

Where do you live? he wanted to ask. What do you know about your life?

Right at that moment, Yibo's phone went off again. Xiao Zhan rushed over to the couch and snatched it up. He took a deep breath and swiped it open. "Hello?"

"Uh...Yibo?" Yibo's manager--Zhai Meixiang--asked cautiously.

"No, sorry, he's. Uhm. It's." Their managers knew about them--they had to, to help keep things under wraps--but it was still strange to admit how close in each other's orbits they were. Xiao Zhan bit his lip and said, "This is Xiao Zhan."

"Oh. Hi there." A pause. "Is Yibo available?"

Xiao Zhan's throat closed up. He looked over at where little Yibo was watching him with curiosity and petting the bunny in his arms. "He...isn't."

"Oookaaay...do you know where he is? He's late for a meeting, and this isn't like him."

No, it wasn't. Yibo was the consummate professional, sacrificing his own well-being to make sure that he didn't make anybody wait for him. Xiao Zhan sagged down onto the couch. "I...I do know where he is."

"And?" Zhai Meixiang's voice sounded more urgent now.

"And we...may have a bit of a problem." He swallowed, then shut his eyes. "Can you come over?"

While waiting for Meixiang to hike over, Xiao Zhan steamed some buns, then poured Yibo a big glass of orange juice. Yibo drank a quarter all in one go, burped, then dug into his buns. His cheeks got impossibly bigger as he chewed with his mouth open and Xiao Zhan, breaking off his own bun one small piece at a time, found himself smiling helplessly. "Is it good?" he asked.

Yibo nodded, then swallowed. "Good." He demolished one and a half buns before pushing the plate away and sliding down the stool. "I'm bored. Let's play."

Xiao Zhan, who had not the first clue of how one entertained children, panicked. "Uhm. What do you want to play?"

"Do you have Lego?" Xiao Zhan shook his head. "Cars?" Another shake of the head. "Any games?" Xiao Zhan shrugged helplessly. Yibo let out a huffing breath. "What do you have?"

Xiao Zhan spread out his hands, uncertain where to even begin. Then he glanced over at the wall. "Television?"

Yibo, still looking exasperated at Xiao Zhan's lack of appropriate entertainment, sighed. "Okay. I like cartoons."

Which was what they were watching when Xiao Zhan's doorbell rang. He looked over to where Yibo was watching TV, his feet bouncing off the couch, Bunny perpetually clutched in his arms, and felt the earlier panic rising. How was he going to explain this to Yibo's manager?

He sighed as he heaved himself off the couch and went to the buzzer. "Meixiang?"

"It's me."

"Come on up." He buzzed her in, then stood propped up by the wall and watched Yibo watching TV. His face hid nothing--excitement, fear, awe. All of it showed up in the lift of his cheeks and the circle of his mouth. Xiao Zhan shook his head.

Yibo. What the fuck.

Soon enough, there was an urgent knock and Xiao Zhan steeled himself before carefully opening the door.

Zhai Meixiang was tiny, but fierce. She was exactly what Yibo needed in a manager: a no-nonsense go-getter and advocate who protected him from the world to the best of her not insubstantial abilities. She was kind of scary.

Xiao Zhan bowed and let her in. She was looking a bit ragged around the edges, wispy hair escaping from her carefully constructed bun and eyes a touch wild. "What's going on, Xiao Zhan? You scared me over the phone, is he okay?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. It's just...well." He walked out towards the living room, barely aware of her throwing her shoes off and following him in.

Yibo still sat with his eyes glued to the television and giggled to himself at something he was seeing. "Zhan-ge," he said, voice bright and clear, "you should come back, this is funny!"

Meixiang made a strangled noise behind Xiao Zhan and Yibo looked up.

"Hi! Who are you?" he asked.

"So, you're telling me...this is Yibo," Meixiang said not for the first time. Xiao Zhan had had to pour her a cup of coffee and force it into her hands before he could bring himself to explain, which was difficult, because he himself had zero explanations.

"Yes. I am 99% sure. This is Yibo."

"My Yibo. Your Yibo." A pause. "Our Yibo?"

Xiao Zhan nodded, taking a sip of his own coffee. It felt like he'd been waiting for this coffee his entire life. "Yes."

"And you just...found him. In your living room." She gulped. "Like this."

They both turned in silence to watch Yibo watching cartoons and laughing. At one point, he grabbed the bunny in his arms and turned him to face himself. "Bunny, this is really funny." Then he made the bunny nod and, seemingly satisfied, turned him back around.

"God, he's cute," Meixiang said. When Xiao Zhan looked over at her in some surprise, she was smiling. "Look at his cheeks."

Xiao Zhan couldn't stop himself smiling, either. "I know. He's adorable."

"Fuck."

"I know."

They drank their coffee in more silence, punctuated by the silly noises emanating from the television and Yibo's giggles.

"I have to cancel his appointments." She was starting to sound more like herself again, brusque business-like. It made something loosen in Xiao Zhan's chest. He found himself pathetically grateful that he didn't have to be in charge of this, at least. "I have to--I have to cancel tomorrow's, too. Don't I? I…" She trailed off. Then she straightened up, tugged on the hem of her jacket, and said, "Do you mind if I use another room? I have to make some calls."

While she did that, Xiao Zhan made his way back over to Yibo and sat down on the couch. Immediately, Yibo sidled up to him and leaned against his side, not taking his eyes off the television screen. Xiao Zhan swallowed. He looked down at Yibo's dark head, the small shoulders and chunky legs, and he wondered, suddenly, when Yibo last had the chance to just sit and watch television first thing in the morning. Tentatively, he put his arm around Yibo's shoulders and lost himself in the cartoon. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a chance to do this, either.

"Okay. That's been dealt with," Meixiang announced as she came back into the room, then stopped abruptly at the sight of them. It was too hard to read what was going through her mind. Then she took a deep sigh and said, "He's gonna need some clothes that fit. We'll have to take him shopping." She pursed her lips, as if considering. "Actually, you two stay here. I'm going to go and get him something. Then we'll figure out the next steps."

Xiao Zhan, pathetically grateful, said, "That would be amazing. Thank you."

She waved a hand. "Don't mention it. This is my mess as much as it is yours."

Yibo chose that moment to lean forward and ask, "Do you know my parents? Where are they?"

Meixiang's eyes took on a panicked look. "Uh...I think...they're...they went on a trip? They, uh, they left you in Xiao Zhan's care."

"Where did they go?" Yibo demanded.

"Luoyang," she responded immediately. "But they'll be back and they love you very much." She looked at Xiao Zhan. "Too much?"

He shrugged helplessly, like, how would I know? Yibo did not appear to be too upset...yet.

"Okay!" Yibo said and sat back, eyes back on the television screen.

Xiao Zhan breathed out and caught Meixiang doing the same. They exchanged a look.

"Okay," she said. "I'm going. I'll be back. Just...don't go anywhere."

Xiao Zhan nodded, arm still around Yibo's shoulders, and watched her leave. "Bye-bye," he said absently in English as the door shut behind her. He turned to Yibo. Wasn't it bad for children to spend too much time in front of screens? Was that a thing? He calculated it had been about an hour since they sat down to watch cartoons. He waffled, then realized he still had absolutely nothing for Yibo to do besides this, and settled back down.

Then his phone rang.

Oh, shit.

"Jiaying," he said as soon as he picked up. "I'm so sorry. I completely messed up."

"Xiao Zhan! What happened, where are you?"

Xiao Zhan looked around himself helplessly. It was one thing to pull Yibo's manager into it--she was personally involved--but was it wise to tell his own? Not that he didn't trust her, of course. She was wonderful, and had got him through more than one crisis. But this felt so...personal. So strange. "I'm...I'm at home," he told her. "Something's come up, an--an emergency, and I have to cancel."

"Emergency? Are you all right? What are you canceling?"

"Everything," he said. "Cancel everything today. I'm fine, but I can't--I can't make it today, I'm so sorry. Can we reschedule?"

"Reschedule?!"

Yeah, Xiao Zhan couldn't blame her. He couldn't remember the last time he asked to cancel or reschedule anything. In fact, he may never have done it before. "Yes. I'm so sorry."

"Xiao Zhan. We can't." She sounded dismayed. "This is the big one, today."

"Oh, fuck." He had forgotten. He had completely forgotten that one of his meetings was with Hunan TV. They were developing a romantic drama with him in mind as the lead. Two representatives had flown in from Changsha specifically for this meeting. There was absolutely no way he could miss it.

"Oh, fuck!" Yibo said cheerfully from beside him.

"Xiao Zhan? What was that?" Jiaying asked. "Do--is that a kid?"

"I--yes." He sagged back, cursing inwardly, lest little Yibo repeat that, too. "It's a kid. I'm...I'm taking care of a kid today."

"Whose kid?! What's going on?" She was beginning to sound on the verge of panic, which was scary in and of itself.

"It's really...really hard to explain." Xiao Zhan screwed up his eyes. He had to think. It was nearly impossible with Jiaying's voice in one ear and Yibo's loud cartoons in the other. His head was going to split open.

"Try me," Jiaying said, voice nearly hissing.

"It's. I." Xiao Zhan looked over at Yibo, who caught him staring as he looked back. Yibo grinned. Xiao Zhan smiled back and made a decision. "Okay. All right. Obviously, we can't cancel. But I have to bring him with me."

"The kid? Where are his parents?"

"Luoyang," Xiao Zhan answered. "I'm in charge of him now." He had wanted to say today, but something stopped him. He swallowed. "What time is the meeting?"

"Noon. But you've also got--"

"I know. I know. We have to reschedule that, I can't leave yet. I need to...I need to get him ready."

He needed to get himself ready. He was still wearing his sleep clothes, and Yibo was still swimming in his t-shirt. Xiao Zhan hadn't even brushed his teeth.

"I'll watch the kid, for crying out loud--"

"No!" Xiao Zhan stopped himself. He didn't know why the idea of anybody else taking care of Yibo had felt so wrong, but it did. "I mean...I'm sorry. I just feel like it should be me. But I'll be there for Hunan TV, I promise."

Jiaying's gusty sigh sounded through the phone. "Fine. Fine, I'll reschedule the other things, but you have to be there, Zhan-Zhan. It's non-negotiable."

"I will be. I promise."

"Okay. Good." A pause. "But you will tell me what's going on." Another pause. "I'll see you soon." Then the line went dead.

Xiao Zhan let the phone slide out of his grip onto the couch and dropped his head back. What a mess.

"Zhan-ge, you're not watching!" Yibo said and suddenly, damp fingers were taking hold of Xiao Zhan's chin and tipping it down. Xiao Zhan opened his eyes and saw Yibo's face close up and concentrating with moving his head where he wanted it. The expression was so familiar, it nearly sliced Xiao Zhan in half. Reeling, he allowed Yibo to maneuver him into place and pretended to watch--"I'm watching, I'm watching,"--while demons took over his brain.

Was this forever? No, Xiao Zhan couldn't contemplate the possibility. One day at a time. He would take it one day at a time. But what if Yibo, his Yibo, never returned? Where did that leave Yibo? Where did that leave Xiao Zhan? Where did that leave them? Xiao Zhan hadn't said it yet, but he knew that he loved Yibo. Was in love with him. Stupidly, maddeningly in love. And Yibo--most days, Xiao Zhan suspected that he felt much the same way. Now, he was a four-year old kid watching cartoons on Xiao Zhan's couch and cuddling up to him with not a care in the world. It made Xiao Zhan's chest ache to think about.

So he couldn't think about it. And wouldn't.

One day a time.

When his buzzer went off, he shot up off the couch, almost running towards the panel. "Meixiang?"

"Yes! Let me up."

Xiao Zhan pressed the button. She was pounding on his door in record time. "Did you find him clothes?" Xiao Zhan asked as soon as she was through the door.

She held up a full Carrefour bag in answer. "I hope I got the right sizes. I sort of guessed." She stopped short as Yibo came into view. "God, that's weird," she said in a low voice. "I was sort of hoping he'd, like...revert back."

Xiao Zhan simply sighed. "Let's just go get him changed." He paused. "Uh...did you get him underwear, too? Oh, and shoes?"

She gave him a look. "Obviously."

Xiao Zhan released a breath. "Okay. Good. Okay." Thank goodness she was back. Thank goodness for Meixiang. He walked into the living room. "Hey, Yibo?"

"Yeah?" Yibo asked without taking his eyes off the television.

"Meixiang got you some clothes. Why don't we go get you changed?"

Yibo looked over. "But I wanna watch cartoons?"

"I know, but you've watched a lot already," Xiao Zhan said, dropping down in front of him. "Why don't we take a break?"

Yibo's eyebrows drew together and he pulled Bunny more firmly onto his lap. "But I don't wanna."

Xiao Zhan, feeling a meltdown coming on and desperate to avoid it at all cost, decided to switch tacks. "If you do as I ask, I'll take you to the toy store for Legos."

Yibo's eyes grew huge. "Legos?" he whispered.

Xiao Zhan nodded, smiling. This was Yibo's Lego voice. Adult Yibo. To this day. "But you have to change first, because you can't go to the store dressed like that."

Yibo was up off the couch the next moment.

"Some things never change," Meixiang intoned behind them. "Uhm… Who should, like...help him...change…"

Xiao Zhan sighed. "I'll help. Come on, Yibo." He extended his hand and Yibo took it immediately, his sweaty little hand small in Xiao Zhan's grasp. Meixiang handed him the bag of clothes with a grateful look.

"I can put on my own clothes!" Yibo declared as he followed Xiao Zhan into the bedroom. "I'm a big boy."

Xiao Zhan, somewhat relieved, nodded. "All right, since you're a big boy, here." He rooted around in the bag, coming up with a pack of underwear and ripping it open. He looked up to see Yibo struggling with the t-shirt, elbows attempting to push out of the fabric as only the top of his head showed. "Oyoyoy," he said, trying not to laugh. "Hang on, hang on." He stilled Yibo, then tugged at the bottom of the hem and slipped the shirt off of him. "Think you can get dressed by yourself?" Yibo gave him what could be construed as a dirty look. Xiao Zhan laughed and handed him his underwear.

After much huffing and puffing, Yibo was wearing underwear that fit him perfectly. It had stars on it. Thank goodness for Meixiang. "There!"

"Good job!" Xiao Zhan smiled, then grabbed a t-shirt and ripped off the label. "Now, put on this shirt."

Yibo was more successful this time around as he pulled it down over his head and tugged it over his belly. "And pants, please," he said politely.

Xiao Zhan handed him a pair of shorts. "Here."

Yibo pulled those on without incident, and as soon as they were in place, he crowed, "Legos! Lego store, Legos!"

Xiao Zhan should have expected it. "Yes, Legos." He checked the time. Ten am. They had two hours. He had to get moving. "The Lego store as soon as I'm ready, all right?"

Yibo frowned. "But I'm ready."

"I know, honey." The diminutive slipped out before he could stop it. "But I have to get ready, too. See? I'm still wearing pajamas."

Yibo grabbed Xiao Zhan's knees and pushed. "Then you should change! Now!"

"All right, all right," Xiao Zhan laughed and staggered up. "You go back to the living room with Auntie Meixiang, okay? I'll be out in a few minutes."

"How many minutes?"

Xiao Zhan groaned and looked up at the ceiling. "Give me fifteen."

"Okay! One...two…"

"That's minutes, not seconds." Xiao Zhan looked down at him. God, he was tiny. "Let Auntie Meixiang know it's fifteen minutes, she'll set a timer for you, okay?"

"Okay!" Yibo was already halfway out the door, yelling, "Auntie Meixiang! Auntie Meixiang! How long is fifteen minutes?"

Xiao Zhan had to get a move on. He legged it to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and took the world's quickest shower. Keeping in mind his later meeting, he dressed in slacks and a button-down, doing his best not to look at himself in the mirror. Despite that, he still caught his own gaze and sort of froze in place. He looked...freaked out. Which was appropriate, considering that he was, in fact, freaked out. Terrified. Completely out of his depth.

He turned away from the mirror as he buttoned his cuffs, made a perfunctory gesture towards making his bed, and walked out. "So, how did I do?"

"Twelve minutes and twenty seconds," Meixiang replied from her perch on the couch. Both she and Yibo were on their phones, not looking at one another. "Not bad."

Yibo hopped up. Bunny hung from his grasp. "Ready? Let's go!"

"I still have two minutes," Xiao Zhan reminded him and went to gather up his keys, wallet, phone, and mask. "Oh, uh...are you coming?" he asked Meixiang after pulling the mask on.

She wrinkled her nose. "I would, but I have to put out fires. You know, because of the whole…" She waved a hand around to, presumably, illustrate the Yibo turning into a four-year old and messing up everybody's business thing.

Xiao Zhan, heart hammering, nodded. "Of course. Sure. Okay. You'll be in touch?"

"You better believe it. I've got your WeChat."

He took a deep breath, let it out. "Good. Okay. Good." He looked down at Yibo and gently took his hand. "Are you ready, then?"

Yibo hopped up and down a couple of times. "Ready!"

Xiao Zhan laughed despite himself. "All right, then. Let's go."

He took Yibo to the biggest toy store he knew about. Wang Cheng, his bodyguard who asked no questions and took no crap, walked several paces behind them as Yibo gawked, looking all around himself. "Wow!" he exclaimed at the kid-sized toy train running down a railway above them. "Where are the Legos?"

Xiao Zhan cracked up. "I think they're through here. Let's go check it out."

The selection was even more than Xiao Zhan had been expecting. Yibo's eyes went huge as he tugged his hand out of Xiao Zhan's grasp and ran up to the displays. He looked at a box with a pirate ship on it, then a car, then a rocket, finally landing on a Lego motorcycle. "This one? Can I get this one?"

It was intricate, the sort of thing that adult Yibo could lose hours of his life to, but… "That seems a bit complicated," Xiao Zhan said as gently as possible. "How about this one?" It was the Minions from Despicable Me. Adult Yibo loved Minions.

"Who are they?" Yibo asked. "Why do they have glasses? This one has one eye."

"You've never seen the movie?" Xiao Zhan asked curiously, not for the first time wondering where, exactly, this Yibo was from. What memories he had.

Yibo shook his head. "But I like them," he decided and reached for the box.

Xiao Zhan grabbed it for him and tucked it under his own arm, then hesitated. "Would you...would you like to get another set?" Was that too much? Was he spoiling him? Then again, the idea of spoiling Yibo--even little Yibo--appealed so much, he decided he didn't care.

Yibo's eyes got impossibly bigger. "Can I?" he asked, awe in his voice.

Xiao Zhan smiled and reached for a yellow bucket filled with Lego pieces. "Yes. Absolutely. Sound good?"

"Yes!" Yibo grinned, cheeks lifting, then reached for Xiao Zhan's hand. "Can we go play now?"

Xiao Zhan looked at his watch. It was quarter to eleven. He dropped down to Yibo's level. "I tell you what. I have to go to a place where I will be talking to some people. You come with me and you can play with Legos while you wait, okay?"

"I get to play?" Yibo frowned.

Xiao Zhan nodded. "Mn."

Yibo's face cleared. "Okay!" He tugged on Xiao Zhan's hand. "Let's go!"

Xiao Zhan got up, Yibo's hand still in his, then did a double-take. "Don't forget Bunny." He indicated where Bunny was sitting on top of the motorcycle Lego set.

"Bunny!" Yibo grabbed him and clutched him to his chest. "Sorry, Bunny. I won't leave you, Bunny."

Xiao Zhan bit his lip and turned away. "Let's go," he sighed.

The store was a maze--Xiao Zhan suspected this was by design. Before they could find the cash registers, they had to walk past colorful displays of various games and toys and even kid bedding. Just as he spotted the exit signs, Xiao Zhan felt a tug on his hand and stopped, turning around. Yibo was looking somewhere beyond him, mouth open, eyes huge. Xiao Zhan twisted around and saw that he was looking at a kid riding what looked like a miniature motorcycle. Xiao Zhan bit back a laugh.

"You like that motorcycle?" he asked.

Without looking at him, Yibo nodded, then whispered, "Vroom vroom."

This time, Xiao Zhan couldn't stop himself from laughing. "Yeah, it's very vroom vroom." Oh, what the hell. He had to entertain him somehow, right? "You want it?" he asked, feeling the eyes of parents everywhere judging him from a distance.

Yibo craned his neck as he looked up at him. "Really?" His eyes were impossibly huge.

Xiao Zhan nodded, making himself look serious. Motorcycles were serious business. "Really."

"Yes." Yibo's small voice nearly broke him in half. Xiao Zhan would have given him ten motorcycles if he asked.

They wove their way towards the display. The little boy--who was, Xiao Zhan saw, older than Yibo, maybe seven--looked at Yibo and smiled. "You wanna try?"

"I can?"

The boy had the air of someone very old and very wise. "Sure. It's easy. Come here."

Yibo's hand slipped out of Xiao Zhan's grasp and he was by the boy's side the next moment. "Is it real?" he asked.

The boy shrugged. "It feels real. And it runs on motor oil."

It did? News to Xiao Zhan. Would he have to buy motor oil? He glanced back at Wang Cheng, who shrugged at him. Maybe he could get some from his driver.

"Cool," Yibo breathed.

The boy hopped off the motorcycle, then nodded at Yibo to sit down. "Here." Yibo, face awed, lifted his chubby leg and threw it over the bike, then scrambled sideways until he was seated. Xiao Zhan, not knowing what to do, just stared as Yibo grabbed the handlebars of the purring motorcycle. He looked tiny on it compared to the other boy, and he looked ecstatic. "What do I do?" he asked the boy, forgetting Xiao Zhan completely.

"I'll drive you around," the boy said magnanimously and, pressing a button and taking hold of one of the handlebars, began walking the motorcycle in circles around Xiao Zhan. Xiao Zhan wondered where the kid's parents might be, but he did seem pretty independent. "How is it?"

"So cool," Yibo breathed, then looked around until he spotted Xiao Zhan and smiled. "Look, Zhan-ge, I'm driving!"

"Well, I'm driving you," the other boy said seriously.

"But I'm on it!" Yibo argued, still grinning. "Vroom vroom!"

Helplessly charmed, Xiao Zhan just watched. There was no way they were leaving here without the damn motorcycle.

Then he looked at his watch and paled. "Oh, Yibo, I'm so sorry, but we have to go. We don't have much time."

"But I just started!" Yibo began to protest.

"I know, and you'll get to finish, I promise, but we have to go."

"What about--"

"We'll get the motorcycle," Xiao Zhan said decisively. "Uh...where…"

The little boy pointed towards a stack of giant boxes. "There. This one has to stay here, though. It's the display one."

Ignoring the fact that a seven-year old knew more about how these things worked than Xiao Zhan did, Xiao Zhan thanked him, then turned to Yibo and said, "Let's go pay for your Legos and we'll have the motorcycle delivered. All right?"

Yibo looked like he wanted to argue, but then sagged down and slowly made his way off the bike. "All right," he grumbled.

Purchases in hand and the promise of a delivery on a receipt, they left the store. Xiao Zhan's driver was already waiting outside.

They made it just in time. Yibo refused to let go of his bucket of Legos and held it out in front of him like a prize, with Bunny balanced precariously on top. Jiaying's eyes grew huge when she took him in, but luckily, she was even less of a kid person than Meixiang and didn't attempt to engage Yibo in conversation. Sweating, Xiao Zhan realized that if anyone were to ask him Yibo's name, he wasn't prepared to lie.

"Okay, sweetheart," he said as he leaned down. "This nice man will stay with you," he indicated Wang Cheng, "and I will be just through that door. Okay?"

Yibo's whole countenance changed in a moment. "You're leaving?" he asked, his eyebrows rising and making his face look tragic. It was the sort of look that Xiao Zhan found devastating on adult Yibo, never mind the four-year old version. Yibo's lip began to wobble dangerously. "But I don't like him," he whispered thickly. "I like you."

There was not a thing Xiao Zhan could deny him, was there? He looked at Jiaying's face and tried. "The thing is, this is a really important meeting, and you have Legos, so--"

"I wanna go with you, Zhan-ge! I'm with you!" And then the tears rolled in. Helplessly, Xiao Zhan gathered Yibo in his arms and attempted to soothe him, while sending Jiaying questioning looks. He mouthed, I can't leave him! just as she rolled her eyes, but then she appeared to relent, and Xiao Zhan gave a shuddering Yibo one last squeeze and pulled back. "Okay, honey, it's okay. You can come with me." He wiped Yibo's tear-stained cheeks. "Bring your Legos, all right?"

"A-all right," Yibo wailed, mouth quivering. "I can come with you?"

Xiao Zhan nodded. "You can come with me."

It was in that moment that the two producers from Hunan TV rounded the corner and were greeted with the scene of Xiao Zhan on his knees, looking utterly lost in front of a crying child. He looked to Jiaying for help, noticing Wang Cheng awkwardly shuffling from foot to foot, and then back to Yibo. "If I stand up, will you be okay?"

Yibo grabbed onto his finger and nodded. Xiao Zhan rose to his feet and put on his most professional, dazzling smile. "Hi, I'm so sorry about the unforeseen circumstance. A friend was in a bind," he lied, "and it was a bit of an emergency. You don't mind if he joins in, do you?"

The man and woman exchanged indulgent looks, then the woman looked down at Yibo. "Oh, he's adorable. What's your name?"

Yibo looked at her from under his eyebrows and suddenly grew mute. Xiao Zhan breathed out slowly and said, "Why don't we get started?"

The woman looked surprised, but let it go. Xiao Zhan caught Jiaying's questioning look and shook his head minutely. Now was definitely not the time to explain to anyone that famous idol Wang Yibo was amongst their company clutching a bucket of Legos and a stuffed bunny.

The meeting felt interminable. Xiao Zhan did his utmost to pay attention only to the adults in the room, but it was made somewhat difficult by the litany Yibo was letting out under his breath as he played with the Legos. "You go here," he was saying, "and you, blue, go here, but red, you're not allowed because you're not blue. Sorry, red, but you can go with yellow. Where can I go?" he said in a high voice, then in a gruff one, responded to himself, "You go where I tell you." And on and on it went, a continuous murmur beneath conversations of artistic visions and contract negotiations.

"Zhan-ge, I'm hungry," Yibo declared at one point and Xiao Zhan shut his eyes, attempting to find equilibrium. "Are you done yet?"

"Soon," he said through a forced smile. "So sorry. Please, continue."

Lin Hua looked at him kindly and said, "Of course, not a problem. He's very cute. And so talkative!"

It wasn't often that Yibo could be accused of being talkative. Xiao Zhan bit the inside of his cheek until it hurt, then smiled. "He's a very bright boy," he said in a choked voice. Jiaying gave him another questioning look and he resigned himself to having to come clean once the meeting was over. He couldn't hide Yibo from her forever.

The meeting wrapped up shortly after that and as the adults stood up, chairs rolling back from the table, Yibo hopped up and declared, "I have to pee!"

Xiao Zhan almost choked.

"We'll leave you to it," Lin Hua said with a tight smile and Xiao Zhan bowed as he shook her hand once more.

"Once again, I am so sorry for the inconvenience."

"Please, Xiao Zhan," she said seriously, Ma Guangli nodding his head next to her. "We all have lives and emergencies. This just added a bit of a lively air to the proceedings, that's all."

With that, they were both gone and Xiao Zhan was left staring at an expectant Yibo, who was blinking up at him patiently. "Okay. Bathroom."

He walked Yibo down the hall, then hesitated. "Do you...are you okay to…"

"I'm a big boy!" Yibo declared and confidently strode through the door, leaving Xiao Zhan on the other side of it. At least it was a one-staller and he didn't have to worry too much. He waited just outside, tapping his foot. Yibo had been more or less fine in the meeting, if somewhat distracting. What if Xiao Zhan didn't cancel the commercial shoot? Surely, there would be plenty of people who could entertain a cute kid while Xiao Zhan worked. Maybe Yibo could nap. Kids napped, didn't they?

Oh God, Yibo had told him he was hungry. They had to figure out lunch.

The door opened and Yibo walked out, still tugging up his shorts. Xiao Zhan blinked. "Did you wash your hands?"

Yibo huffed, then sighed, and went back inside. Xiao Zhan propped open the door and made sure he did a thorough enough job. "Paper towels. Dry your hands." Yibo grumbled but hopped up to grab the paper towel from the dispenser, then managed to wipe his hands. "Good boy. Come on. We're going to get lunch."

"Yay, lunch!"

Back in the conference room, Xiao Zhan found that Jiaying had already picked up all of Yibo's Legos and put them back into the bucket. "Oh God, thank you," Xiao Zhan said, sagging down into one of the wheely chairs. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Zhan-Zhan," she said. "I have no idea what you're doing." She lowered her voice as Yibo walked up to them, Bunny in hand. "Where are his parents?" she hissed.

"It's a long story," Xiao Zhan said, because now was definitely not the time. "Yi--sweetheart," he said, nearly choking, "what do you want for lunch?"

"Noodles!"

Jiaying looked at Xiao Zhan, then sighed. "I'll go get us noodles. You better get ready to tell me everything."

"I will," Xiao Zhan said. "I promise."

"Where's my motorcycle?" Yibo asked, looking up at him with guileless eyes.

"It hasn't been delivered yet," Xiao Zhan explained, hoping they were not about to get into meltdown number three. "You'll have it tonight."

"Tonight?" Yibo asked, looking at him with somewhat unwarranted suspicion. "Do you promise?"

Xiao Zhan, pinning his hopes on a vaguely unreliable delivery service, said, "I do." Then inspiration struck. "It'll be a reward if you're a good boy and get through another adult thing with me."

"What thing?" Yibo asked, eyebrows already drawing together.

"I have to go do something that could last a bit, but you will be with me, okay? I won't be able to play with you, but you'll see me. What do you say?"

Still watching him warily, Yibo said, "I'll see you? You won't leave me?"

Xiao Zhan shook his head, then held out his hand. "Let's shake on it. I promise not to leave you."

Yibo took hold of his finger and squeezed. "Okay. But then, motorcycle?"

"Then motorcycle."

Fuck. He had to get motor oil.

"Noodles!" Jiaying announced as she walked back into the conference room, heels clicking on the floor. "I got us some, too, Zhan-Zhan, since you'll need the fuel." She slung the bag with take-out onto the table and began unpacking it. Three containers of soup, three spoons, three sets of chopsticks, and countless napkins filled up the table.

"What about Wang Cheng?" Xiao Zhan asked, craning his neck to see better out the door.

"He got himself a stirfry, don't worry," Jiaying reassured him. "Dig in."

They both looked at Yibo, who was standing between them, watching them silently.

"You need a chair!" Xiao Zhan realized. "Here, come here." He reached for Yibo unthinkingly and grabbed him under his arms, heaving him onto his lap. "Is this all right?" he asked.

Yibo squirmed, then settled back and nodded. "This is all right."

"Good." Xiao Zhan couldn't help smiling. It was cute. Yibo was cute. Before he could think better of it, Xiao Zhan extracted his phone from his pocket and opened up the camera, turning it to face them. "Say cheese!" he said and threw up a peace sign. Yibo grinned hugely into the camera, his eyes disappearing above his cheeks, and Xiao Zhan snapped a picture. "All right, let's get you fed."

Xiao Zhan pulled a bunch of napkins towards them, then tucked one into Yibo's t-shirt collar. He uncapped the smallest container of noodles. "Can you--you use spoons, right?"

"I'm a big boy," Yibo declared, taking one and dunking it into the soup. Xiao Zhan watched as he brought a spoonful to his lips, slurped it up, and then proceeded to yelp and drop the spoon directly into the container.

"What is it, what's wrong?"

"It's hot, I don't like hot!"

Xiao Zhan exchanged a helpless look with Jiaying, then gingerly dipped his fingers into Yibo's soup in an attempt to fish out his spoon. It didn't feel that hot. "It's not so bad," he tried. "Here, hang on." He took up a spoonful and blew over it the way his mom used to do for him when he was a kid. "Try it now."

Yibo shook his head, lips pressed together. "Mm-hmm."

Xiao Zhan sighed, still holding the spoon to his mouth. "Just a little. I promise, it's cool enough to drink now."

"No! It's hot!"

"It's not!"

"It is!"

Xiao Zhan took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Just give it a try. A sip. For me. Please."

Yibo shook his head again, and then said, in a small voice, "It hurts."

Xiao Zhan looked at Jiaying again. She was watching them, sort of riveted, as she shoveled noodles into her mouth. Whole lot of help she was. Xiao Zhan rolled his eyes in her direction, then squeezed Yibo tighter to himself. "I promise, this spoonful is cold." They'd been arguing long enough. "Please, just try it. You wanted noodles, didn't you?"

"Different noodles," Yibo said under his breath.

Xiao Zhan cocked his head to the side in an attempt to see Yibo better. "What sort of noodles did you want?"

"The other kind," he said. "With the stuff in it."

Xiao Zhan wracked his brain. "Oh, you mean instant noodles?"

Yibo nodded several times in a row.

"But these are better," Xiao Zhan tried. "Look, they're tasty." He dropped the spoon and picked up chopsticks, dunking them into Yibo's soup and grabbing a bunch of noodles to stuff in his mouth. "Mmmm, delicious," he said through a mouthful. "And not hot at all," he added after swallowing.

Yibo shook his head. "Instant noodles. I want instant noodles."

When Xiao Zhan looked at Jiaying, she was already getting up with a sigh. "I'm on it, don't worry."

Xiao Zhan ate Yibo's container of noodles as they waited, Yibo squirming out of his grasp midway through and going over to his Lego bucket. This was going to be the longest day in Xiao Zhan's entire existence. What the fuck was he supposed to do with a kid? With Yibo as a kid? And how was he going to tell Jiaying the truth with Yibo refusing to let go of him? He looked over to where Yibo was industriously connecting Lego pieces and once again, his chest constricted. Yibo.

He missed him. He missed him even as he was looking at a version of him. A tiny, stubborn, adorable version of him that Xiao Zhan had no idea what to do with.

Jiaying walked back into the room with a steaming container of Cup Noodles in her hands. "Here, is this what you wanted?" she asked. "Seriously, Xiao Zhan, what is this kid's name?"

"Cup Noodles!" Yibo crowed, then ran back up to the table, looking at Xiao Zhan expectantly. Xiao Zhan picked him up and settled him back onto his lap.

"All right, but these will be hot, you'll have to wait a bit, okay?" he warned.

Yibo nodded enthusiastically as he watched Jiaying place the soup in front of him. "Okay, now?"

Xiao Zhan laughed, then spooned a bit out. "Hang on." He blew across the spoon thoroughly. "Here, try it now."

Things went much more smoothly after that. When Yibo was halfway through his noodles and utterly absorbed, Xiao Zhan indicated for Jiaying to close the conference room door. "All right," he said. "This is going to freak you out, so promise me you won't react."

"It's your kid," she said immediately. "I knew it."

"What? No!" Xiao Zhan felt Yibo's ears perk up and forced himself to be quiet as he said, "No, it's not my kid. It's...a lot weirder than that."

"What is it, then? You're killing me!"

Xiao Zhan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "His name is Yibo."

"Well, that's a weird coincidence, but--"

"It's Yibo, Jiaying. It's him."

Jiaying stared at Xiao Zhan. And stared. And stared some more. Then her lips quirked in a sideways grin and she threw back her head. "Oh, good one, Xiao Zhan. What's got into you? Seriously, who is this kid?"

Xiao Zhan, who wasn't laughing, just stared at her, waiting her out. Finally, as she looked back at him, her laughter grew more strained until it was snuffed out completely.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

"Please don't swear in front of him," he said automatically. "Actually, I don't know if that's bad. I already did."

"Xiao Zhan." She was looking at him like he'd grown an extra head. "How is this even remotely possible?"

"I don't know!" he burst out. Quieter, he said, "I have no idea, but I promise I'm not lying. He was in my apartment this morning. I found him like this."

Jiaying leaned back, as if assessing the situation. "Does anybody else know?"

"Meixiang. I had to tell her."

"Good." She licked her lips. "How, uh. How long--"

"How the fu--hell should I know?" he nearly wailed. "I'm at my wit's end! I have no idea what I'm doing or how long this is going to last or, frankly, that I'm not just having a cheese nightmare."

"If you're having a cheese nightmare, then I'm having a cheese nightmare," she said, watching him with concerned eyes. "And I am very much awake and haven't had any cheese."

"All done!" Yibo--whom Xiao Zhan had almost forgotten in the fray, for all he was sitting on his lap--pushed back and started to squirm out of Xiao Zhan's grasp. "Can we go play now?"

"We're not done talking about this," Jiaying told him as Xiao Zhan's attention wandered back to Yibo. He caught her watching Yibo with a critical eye, as if assessing. Then she shook her head and said, "God, that's weird."

At least she believed him now.

"We can bring your Legos and Bunny, but we have to go do that adult thing I told you about, remember?"

"Oh. Right." Yibo sagged. "But after that, can we go to the playground?"

"Actually," Jiaying said, deceptively sweetly, "you can go to the playground now. The adult thing isn't for another three hours."

Xiao Zhan blinked. "You canceled the third meeting?"

"Zhan-Zhan. You asked me to."

"Oh. Right." Xiao Zhan looked from Jiaying to Yibo, who was watching him expectantly. "Playground, then? I guess?"

It turned out there was a playground close to Xiao Zhan's building. He donned his mask in the car, and then they piled out--himself, Yibo, Jiaying. Meixiang was already waiting for them at the playground, looking supremely uncomfortable in her suit and heels.

"So," she said after greeting Jiaying. "This is fun."

"Mmm," Jiaying responded.

"Swings!" Yibo yelled and took off, all but jumping into the swing and pushing off high from the get-go.

They watched him in silence for a while, then Jiaying said, "It really is him, isn't it," to no one in particular.

"Yep," said Xiao Zhan and Meixiang simultaneously.

They lapsed into another silence.

Yibo went from swings to the slide to something that spun really, really fast and made Xiao Zhan dizzy just looking at it. Finally, Meixiang said, "So, he should stay with you, right?"

"I don't think there's another option," Jiaying replied. "He wouldn't let go of him earlier. He's like a limpet."

Xiao Zhan squirmed. "I think he sort of. You know. Imprinted on me. This morning."

Meixiang made a noise in the back of her throat.

"I know." Xiao Zhan sank down onto a bench and buried his face in his hands. "I know."

He felt someone soothing his back. Jiaying, probably. "It's okay, Zhan-Zhan. We will... We will figure this out. Somehow."

Xiao Zhan would have kept sitting there with his head in his hands if he didn't hear a sudden cry coming from a by-now familiar voice. "Yibo!" He shot up and looked around. Yibo was lying on the ground by the slide, holding onto his knee and crying. All three of them rushed over, but Xiao Zhan got there faster--no heels. "Sweetheart, what happened? Let me see, let me see."

Yibo, tears streaming down his face, shook his head. "It hurts, I hurt it!" he wailed. Xiao Zhan could see red spreading behind his fingers and his stomach lurched. As gently as he could manage, he pried Yibo's hands away from his knees to see the bloody scrape.

"Oh, no, don't cry, please don't cry," he begged as he blew across Yibo's knees. "It's okay, it will be okay, I know it hurts."

Yibo, lip wobbling, looked at him with something close to betrayal in his eyes. "Make it stop hurting, Zhan-ge!"

"Do you have a first aid kit at home?" Meixiang asked from somewhere behind Xiao Zhan.

"In the car, I bet there's one there," said Jiaying. He heard the two women conferring quickly, then one of them taking off.

Yibo, still crying, sat up, then looked at his elbow, which was also scraped all to shit, but at least wasn't bleeding. Carefully, Xiao Zhan took hold of Yibo's elbow to look, then picked him up and set him on his lap. He knew he was getting his slacks dirty, but he was basically home. He could always change. "Does it still hurt?" he asked.

Yibo, lower lip in a devastating wobbly pout, rubbed his eyes and nodded. "Y-yes."

"Well, while we wait for some bandaids, why don't we see how quickly the pain goes away?" He had no idea what to do. Kids got hurt, sure--he himself got many a scrape and bruise as a boy--but this was Yibo and he was crying.

"It will never go away," Yibo said stubbornly. "It will hurt forever."

Xiao Zhan got the feeling the pain was already receding. "Hmm. And then what will you do?"

Taking in a shuddering breath, Yibo said, "Cry. A lot."

"Hmm. And then what?"

Yibo paused, as if thinking. Then he gave Xiao Zhan a look from under his eyebrows. "Cry some more."

"Mn." Xiao Zhan made a serious face. "What happens when the tears all go away?"

"That can't happen."

"Sure it can. If you just cry, cry, cry all the time, all the water in your body will go poof, and no more tears."

"I don't have water in my body," Yibo said, like Xiao Zhan was stupid.

"Then what are you crying right now?"

Yibo hiccupped, then touched his hands to his eyes. It occurred to Xiao Zhan that that was probably unhygienic, but too late.

“Tears.”

“And where do tears come from?” Xiao Zhan asked.

“My eyes.”

Okay, he had him there. Xiao Zhan laughed--he couldn't help it--then made himself look serious again when Yibo glared. "Well, if you want to cry forever, then I can't stop you," he said, watching Yibo's already drying eyes.

Then, with a hitching breath, Yibo asked, "Where's my motorcycle?"

Wow. It just never stopped. "It isn't here yet," he explained patiently. "But it's still early."

Yibo gave a great gusty sigh, then lay his head against Xiao Zhan's chest and sagged against him. Xiao Zhan, having been completely unprepared for this, held himself utterly still before slowly coming to rest his chin over the top of Yibo's head and his arm around his middle. One last sniffle, and Yibo was quiet, hands dirty with dust and blood, snot probably rolling down his face freely.

What a day. Forget Yibo, Xiao Zhan needed a nap.

Meixiang came around and crouched next to them, watching Yibo with apprehensive eyes. "Are you okay, Yibo?"

Yibo nodded, cuddling closer to Xiao Zhan. "'M okay. It still hurts."

"Yeah. I bet it does." She sighed and met Xiao Zhan's eye. He had been hoping that maybe she had found some way through this while they'd been gone, but in her gaze he found the same helplessness he was feeling.

"We'll be okay," he said, cradling Yibo's head in his hand. "You'll be okay."

It didn't take Jiaying long to come back and Xiao Zhan cleaned Yibo up as gently as he could.

"Ow, it stings!"

"I know it does, I know." He blew on the wound gently. "It will stop stinging in a minute, I promise." Then he grabbed a bandaid and finally covered up where the bleeding had been the worst.

"That's boring," Yibo mumbled.

"I'm sorry?"

"Your bandaid. It's boring."

Xiao Zhan stifled a laugh. "Yes, I'm sorry. We don't have fun bandaids." He wondered if it would be weird to kiss it better--his mom had always done that for him and it always somehow worked. Maybe he would have done it if it had just been the two of them, but with Meixiang and Jiaying hovering over them, it felt weird. So he didn't.

"And you don't have any games. Or toys."

Xiao Zhan nodded solemnly. "That's true. But I had Bunny, didn't I?"

"Bunny! Where's Bunny?"

Xiao Zhan shot their managers a panicked look. Jiaying rolled her eyes in as subtle a way as was possible. "I've got Bunny, don't you worry."

Xiao Zhan sagged back down. "Oh, thank God."

"Where is he? I want him." Yibo scrambled up, nailing Xiao Zhan in the spleen with his elbow in the process.

"He's in the car," Jiaying said. It was sort of hilarious how she didn't change her tone when talking to little Yibo. "Do you...want me to go get him?" she asked dubiously.

Yibo nodded several times in quick succession. "Yes, please!"

Meixiang sighed and straightened up. "All right. I think playground time is over. Yibo, how about we go back to Zhan-ge's for a while?"

That wasn't a bad idea. He didn't have to be at the commercial shoot for another two hours. Maybe they could coax a nap out of Yibo, who seemed pretty exhausted, now that Xiao Zhan was looking for it.

It took until Jiaying came back with Bunny in tow to convince Yibo to leave the playground, but finally, they were all four of them trudging down the hallway to Xiao Zhan's apartment. Jiaying let them in and it took all of Xiao Zhan's effort not to collapse right there on the floor.

The idea of leaving and going to work again seemed unfathomable. Maybe he could get a quick nap in.

"Hey, Yibo," he asked, watching as Yibo grabbed the Lego set box and began tearing into it. "How about a nap?"

Yibo looked up at him with something akin to horror in his eyes. "A nap? I'm a big boy!"

"Big boys nap," Xiao Zhan said in his most reasonable voice. "I nap."

Yibo looked at him like he was crazy. "Why? Napping's boring!"

Adult Yibo loved naps. He napped in snatches, whenever and wherever he could. Like a wind-up toy, he would be going and going until suddenly, he was done. This Yibo was still going, apparently.

"Well," Xiao Zhan said, stretching. "It's never boring to me. I'm going to go in the other room and sleep for a bit. All right?" He looked at Jiaying, who looked at him with some apprehension. Xiao Zhan shook his head, then indicated Yibo, who paused in the tearing of the box.

"You're going in the other room?" he asked and chewed on his lip. This, too, was achingly familiar, and Xiao Zhan felt suddenly, and horribly, alone. If only Yibo were here to help with… himself. Yibo wasn't good with kids--he found them largely boring--but at least he would have been here. They could have played Legos together.

"Mn." Xiao Zhan nodded and started to walk away, waving. "See you in an hour!"

"Wait! Zhan-ge, wait!" Yibo caught up with him in the hallway and grabbed onto his leg. "Can I play in your room?"

"Hmmm." Xiao Zhan pretended to think. "The only toys allowed in my room are quiet ones. Like Bunny."

"Bunny can be quiet."

"Are you sure? Because I really am very tired."

Yibo, yawning, said, "We can both be quiet."

"All right." Xiao Zhan petted the top of Yibo's head--God, that was weird--and gently extricated his leg. "Bring Bunny and you can play in my room."

Yibo was quick--Xiao Zhan didn't even have a chance to change. Cutting a glance at Yibo, he stripped down to his t-shirt, then grabbed a pair of shorts and went into the bathroom to change. No need to traumatize anyone. By the time he got back, Yibo was asleep on the floor, head pillowed on Bunny.

"Oh, no." It was too cute. He wondered if he could take a picture or if that would be weird. He decided that if it felt weird afterwards, he would delete it, and took one. Little Yibo slept the same way adult Yibo did--curled in on himself, arms crossed over his chest. This Yibo sucked his thumb. "God, why are you this cute?" he whispered, and crouched down. As gently as he could, he picked Yibo up and settled him onto the bed--onto Yibo's usual side. He took a deep breath as he stepped back, then pulled the covers over him. He grabbed his phone from where he'd left it on the floor, picked up Bunny, and laid him next to Yibo. Then he set an alarm, walked around, and crawled onto his own side of the bed. He fell asleep almost immediately.

"Okay, that's too adorable. Meixiang, look."

Xiao Zhan came to slowly, as if clawing his way through cobwebs. He blinked sleep from his eyes, then rubbed them with the heel of his hand as he yawned. "What's happening--"

"It's time to get up." Jiaying sounded almost sorry. "But the two of you are cute as hell, I won't lie."

Xiao Zhan woke up fully. He twisted around on the bed. Yibo was still asleep, thumb in mouth, but he was curled towards Xiao Zhan, not away from him, and he was much closer than he had been when Xiao Zhan had put him into bed. The hair on his forehead was sweaty, plastered against his skin. His cheeks were at rest. Xiao Zhan realized he was smiling and attempted to school his features into something less open. Too late for that, he supposed.

"What time is it? I set an alarm…"

"I know," Jiaying sighed. "It went off. And off, and off."

"Oh, shit." He shot up out of bed. "We're not late, are we?"

"Relax, I wouldn't let that happen. We've got twenty minutes to get ready. Go put on some pants."

Yibo was still asleep twenty minutes later. Xiao Zhan looked at the two women helplessly. "What do I do?"

"Well, we can't leave him. Wake him up," Jiaying offered.

"Do it gently, though, or he might cry." Xiao Zhan and Jiaying both looked at Meixiang. "What? My sister has told me stories about her kids. They're unpredictable."

Xiao Zhan sat down on the edge of the bed and slowly began to rub Yibo's back in circles. On circle number six, Yibo stirred and unfolded himself. Slowly, his eyes opened, then he looked around and frowned. "What's going on?"

"You have to wake up, buddy," Xiao Zhan said, wondering when he started referring to Yibo as buddy. "Remember that thing we had to go to? It's time."

"I don't wanna." Yibo stretched out on his back and kicked out his feet. "I don't wanna go." He was clearly gearing up for another terrific meltdown and Xiao Zhan, exhausted down to his bones, searched deep within his heart and found that he was not, in fact, above bribery.

"If you come with me, you'll get to play with the motorcycle for two whole hours."

Yibo stopped wriggling and sat up. "Is that long?"

"Mn. Very long." Xiao Zhan grabbed his hand and pulled. "Terrifically long. Exceptionally long."

Yibo came willingly enough, blinking sleep from his eyes. He grabbed Bunny and said, "Okay!" And hopped off the bed.

Meixiang raised an eyebrow. "I wish he were that easy under normal circumstances."

"This is easy?" Xiao Zhan shook his head. "You're a stronger woman than I."

"Yes," she agreed and left the room.

"Are you coming?" Yibo asked, halfway to the door.

"I'll be right there, I promise."

With no further tantrums, or even threats of them, they made it to the studio in one piece. Meixiang came with them this time, having pronounced that she had nowhere else to be, anyway, did she?

Xiao Zhan, after explaining to the staff about the child he was watching for friends, had Yibo installed where the filming would take place so he could see him. There was no shortage of young women clamoring to take care of Yibo. Yibo, for his part, seemed less than interested in the attention, which seemed exactly right to Xiao Zhan. Instead, he played with his Legos and occasionally wandered over to where Xiao Zhan was talking to the director and clung to his leg.

"Are you doooone yet?" he asked for the tenth time as Xiao Zhan, once again, gently extricated himself.

He dropped down to his haunches and took hold of Yibo's shoulders. "Soon. I promise. But I really, really have to do this. It's very important."

Yibo, lower lip protruding, said, "But the motorcycle is important."

Xiao Zhan bit his lip and made eye contact with Meixiang, who was standing off to the side and watching them. She shrugged. Xiao Zhan sighed. "I know. It is. It's very important. Give me another…" He looked up at the director, who was watching him with a somewhat indulgent air. "Half? An hour?" The director nodded. "And then I'll be done. Promise."

"How long is that?"

"It's just long enough for you to build something really cool with your Legos."

"Okay!" And Yibo bounded back over to where his Legos lay scattered all over the floor.

Yibo did end up building something, in the end. "Look, it's a car!" he said of the mass of Legos vaguely resembling a mountain, and then they were free to go.

"So," Jiaying asked as they walked to the car, Yibo's hand in Xiao Zhan's and a spring in his step as he chanted motorcycle, motorcycle, motorcycle under his breath. "Do you need me for the rest of the day?"

"I always need you," Xiao Zhan said automatically, then thought about it. He sighed. "No. I think we got this. But please cancel all of tomorrow, I don't think we can survive this again." He paused. "Okay, I don't think I can survive this again."

She cocked her head. "So you don't think he'll, like...return to normal tomorrow?"

Xiao Zhan stopped. The thought hadn't even occurred to him. He looked down at Yibo, who looked up at him. Xiao Zhan was almost used to looking down to see him with his head craned back and his mouth open. It was cute. "I--I'm not sure. But I guess...you can wait till morning? It's up to you," he sighed. "I can't make any more decisions, I think my head's gonna explode."

She made a sympathetic face. "I get it. All right. Just leave it to me, okay?"

He gave her a grateful look.

Meixiang was next. "Let me know if anything happens and I'll come back. I'm gonna figure out what to do with his schedule in the meantime." She hesitated, then looked down at Yibo before crouching in front of him. "You be good, okay?" Xiao Zhan saw a look in her eyes he'd never seen before. It was something close to tenderness. "You'll be okay, little man."

Yibo was looking at her like she was crazy. "I'll be okay?"

"Mn," she nodded. "Just listen to your Zhan-ge. And don't forget to brush your teeth."

Xiao Zhan paled. Oh God, did he have a kid toothbrush? Did Yibo not brush his teeth this morning? He could probably just have him use Yibo's regular toothbrush, right? Or was that bad for his kid teeth? She must have sensed his panic, because she got up and said, "I got him a kid toothbrush and some kid toothpaste. It's in your bathroom."

"Meixiang," he said, helplessly. "Thank you."

And after that, they were just the two of them again. Xiao Zhan thought ahead to the evening--playing, having to figure out dinner, bedtime. Did this Yibo have a bedtime? What was it? Should he call his parents and find out? It all unspooled in front of him like a nightmare and a promise. He realized that he simply didn't know where to land.

As soon as they were through the door, Yibo's first words were, "Motorcycle! Motorcycle!" Except there hadn't been a box outside of his apartment, and no delivery slip, either. Xiao Zhan frowned, then grabbed the receipt from his pocket. Delivery between 14:00 and 19:00 They still had time.

"How about putting together some Legos while we wait for the motorcycle?" he tried.

Yibo stopped dead in his tracks. "No motorcycle?" Uh-oh.

Xiao Zhan crouched in front of him. "Not yet. But there's still time." He looked around and noticed a mountain of age-appropriate games stacked in one corner. Oh, bless Meixiang. "Look how many games we have now," he tried.

"But...you said I could have a motorcycle. For two hours." The pout was coming out--the one with the upper lip over the lower, the kind of pout that adult Yibo sometimes whipped out unconsciously and made everybody want to do exactly as he asked. Uh-oh.

Xiao Zhan tried to choose his words very carefully. "The motorcycle isn't ready yet. It's making its way over to you, and when it does, you'll get to ride it as long as you want. I promise."

Motor oil! Oh, fuck.

"As long as I want?"

"Mn," Xiao Zhan confirmed even as he was starting to feel on the edge of panic. He'd have to ask someone for the motor oil. He hated having to do that, but this was an emergency. "Why don't you go see what games we've got, and I'll go change?"

In the bedroom, he quickly dialed his driver's number. "Changming," he said, trying not to sound too desperate and failing. "Is there a chance you can get me some motor oil?"

Promise of motor oil extracted, Xiao Zhan changed out of his slacks and button-down. It felt good to put on a loose t-shirt and shorts. "Wish you were here," he said under his breath, and hopped up and down, cracking his neck, before heading back out.

Yibo--little Yibo--was busy tearing into his Lego box from the wrong end. "Here, let me help." Xiao Zhan rushed over, and then experienced a strange moment of realization that it was totally fine that Yibo was tearing the box. Who cared about the box? Why did adults care about boxes so much? He shook his head and helped Yibo take out the plastic bags filled with Lego pieces.

"So, Minions, then?"

It was Minions. Xiao Zhan looked at the instructions. Yibo did not. Xiao Zhan built his Minion slowly, piece by piece. Yibo created towers and arches, disregarding the Minion entirely. All throughout, he kept up commentary on what he was doing under his breath, talking to himself, while Xiao Zhan did his best not to laugh. But he couldn't help it. Yibo was so cute.

He'd never wondered before what Yibo had been like as a kid. He'd had no occasion to. He loved Yibo now, the adult version. The version that loved motorcycles and Lego with the same fervor, that could goof off until it was time to work and then would snap into professional mode, serious and unrelenting. The version that could wring the deepest pleasure out of Xiao Zhan and leave him wanting more. The kind that couldn't stop dancing under any circumstances because it was ingrained in him so deeply. Yibo. He missed Yibo.

"Zhan-ge!" Yibo interrupted his useless train of thought with a pat to his knee. "Look!" He presented his Lego structure. It made absolutely no sense, but was definitely made up of Minion colors.

"That looks great!" He paused. "What is it?"

"A Minion?" Yibo said in a tone that definitely questioned Xiao Zhan's intelligence. "It's yellow, see? And it has glasses."

Well, sort of. If you squinted. But it was good enough for Xiao Zhan.

For the next hour, they broke into every single game that Meixiang had gotten them, Yibo's attention span not lasting more than ten minutes for a single activity. Xiao Zhan attempted to follow the rules while Yibo went into destructo mode and barreled ahead without bothering to find out what the game was about. It was exhausting. And hilarious. And absolutely exhausting.

"Zhan-ge!" Yibo yelled from where he was crouched over a game of tangrams. "I'm hungry!"

Oh, shit, it was dinner time. Then, heart hammering, Xiao Zhan looked at his watch. They had twenty minutes left in the delivery window. Just as he looked, his buzzer went off and the sigh of relief he let out was very gusty. "Who is it?" he asked after pressing the button.

"Changming, sir." Oh. Okay. It wasn't time to panic yet. Xiao Zhan buzzed him in. He accepted the motor oil solemnly and gratefully, asking that Changming bill him, then went back to Yibo.

"What do you want to eat?" he asked.

"Noodles!"

Xiao Zhan was smarter now. "What kind of noodles?"

"Cup noodles!" Yibo yelled, hands full of Lego pieces.

Xiao Zhan did not have cup noodles. "How about I show you what I have and you can tell me if it looks good," he tried.

"Cup noodles!" Then, "Where's the motorcycle?"

"It's on its way," Xiao Zhan said, praying this was true. "Now, I have instant noodles." Somewhere, in the back of his cupboard. Should he be feeding him something more nutritious? Probably, right? But how did you get a kid who wanted nothing but noodles to eat something other than noodles? "Wanna see?"

Yibo shrugged, then hopped up, not letting go of the Lego pieces. "Okay."

The noodles Xiao Zhan had were deemed acceptable--a victory of sorts. He himself ordered delivery, adding some steamed vegetables to his order of Pad Thai, just in case.

Yibo was distracted as he ate, but so was Xiao Zhan. The delivery window was getting narrower and narrower just as the unease in his gut was growing by the minute. At two minutes of seven, Xiao Zhan was close to full-on panic, and it was then that Yibo remembered once again.

"Motorcycle, Zhan-ge?"

Xiao Zhan bit his lip. "We're still waiting for it, sweetheart. I promise, it will get here at some point."

"But when?"

Sat amidst the chaos of Legos and games, Xiao Zhan spread his hands out helplessly. "I don't know," he answered. "I'm sorry."

Oh God. The lip was beginning to wobble. And his cheeks were turning pink. His eyebrows climbed to meet in the middle, and then the first wail began. "But I want it now! You said I could h-have it, and I d-don't!"

Xiao Zhan rushed over to him, taking hold of his shaking shoulders. "I know, sweetheart, I know, but it hasn't been delivered yet, it's out of my hands!"

"But where is it? Why can't I have it? I've been--I've been--I've been a good boooy!"

Something inside Xiao Zhan broke. "You have," he said fervently, fighting down panic. "You've been a very good and patient boy." And, the thing of it was, he had been. He'd had his moments, but Yibo was a sweet kid. Nothing bothered him for too long, and he got through every boring ordeal that Xiao Zhan had put him through. If the fucking motorcycle wasn't going to get here tonight, Xiao Zhan would have broken his promise. And he hated breaking promises.

"Then where is the motorcycle!" Yibo wailed, tears only increasing. He stomped, once, twice, then three times. "I want my motorcycle!"

It wasn't pretty. Xiao Zhan, having no means of making it better, could only stammer out platitudes as Yibo cried, snot running down his face. He shrieked when Xiao Zhan tried to comfort with words and pushed him away when he tried to hold him. Helpless, Xiao Zhan wondered how long this meltdown could possibly last and learned that Yibo had endurance. He shrieked and stomped and beat the floor with his little fists for the longest half hour of Xiao Zhan's life, until Xiao Zhan himself was nearly crying next to him, unable to soothe him even a little bit. He swung from sorrow to annoyance to exasperation back to sadness and the see-saw of emotion was making his head hurt.

"Yibo, Yibo, Yibo, baby, please," he repeated, swallowing back his own tears. "I promise it will get here, just maybe not today, but you will get to play," he said, over and over. It occurred to him that, if Yibo were to revert back to his normal self in the morning, Xiao Zhan would have broken a promise to a little boy who simply wanted to ride a motorcycle. The thought sat sour in his stomach.

The screaming began to abate into exhaustion. Hiccupping, Yibo stopped stomping and beating the floor. He sat on his butt and he took in huge gulping breaths, tears still streaming down his face. When Xiao Zhan tentatively reached over, Yibo didn't bat him away, but he didn't lean into him, either. He simply sat there, heartbroken, and allowed Xiao Zhan to soothe him with a hand to his back, until he exhausted all of his tears.

Xiao Zhan picked him up and sat him on his lap. He himself was completely wrung out, and his dinner hadn't even gotten there yet. Yibo sniffled and then--Xiao Zhan's heart fluttered inside his chest--put his arms around Xiao Zhan's neck and clung to him, utterly exhausted. Xiao Zhan closed his eyes, kissed the top of his head, and they sat there just like that for what felt like a very long time.

The motorcycle never came.

Eventually, Xiao Zhan's food did, and he left it in the kitchen, unable to even think about eating. Yibo eyed him, then grabbed a few Lego pieces. "Can I still play?"

"Of course," Xiao Zhan said, confused. "Why wouldn't you?"

"Because I cried," Yibo replied, hanging his head. "And good boys don't cry."

Xiao Zhan's heart yoinked in his chest and he dropped down to the floor, taking a hold of Yibo's shoulders. "Listen to me. It is okay to cry. You were sad and disappointed. Am I sad you cried? Of course. But you're allowed to cry, okay?" Don't ever listen to anyone who tells you otherwise, he wanted to say, but he didn't know who that would be. He remembered being told as a kid not to cry so much, to learn to live with disappointment, but Yibo was, what, four? He had plenty of time to learn to cope. Adult Yibo certainly knew how--but he cried, also. So did Xiao Zhan. "Crying is good for you," he added fiercely. "Don't you feel better now?"

Yibo drew his eyebrows together, clearly thinking hard. "I do," he said finally. "Why?"

"Because," Xiao Zhan said, drawing him close, "you cried. Crying always makes you feel a bit better."

"Oh," Yibo said, nodding. "Then...I'm not in trouble?" he whispered.

Xiao Zhan shook his head, adamant. "No. Never."

Yibo bit his lip and then, like the skies parting, a small smile lifted his cheeks, eyes growing impish. "Never?"

"Well," Xiao Zhan hastened to add, "not for this."

"Okay." A shrug of his shoulders. He was still clutching Lego pieces in his hands. "Will you play with me?"

Xiao Zhan's stomach growled. "Tell you what, you play by yourself for now, and I'll sit here and eat, is that okay?"

It was okay. Xiao Zhan sat on the floor with his Pad Thai and slowly demolished it as he zoned out on watching Yibo sticking Lego bricks together and tearing them apart. There seemed to be a method to his madness, though what it was, Xiao Zhan still couldn't tell.

It was half an hour later that Yibo gave a great big yawn. Xiao Zhan glanced at the clock. It was eight o'clock. Yibo had expended a lot of energy on his tantrum. Maybe it was time to call it a day. "Hey, Yibo," he chanced. "How about starting to put the toys away and getting ready for bed?"

"Bed?" Yibo froze. "But I'm not tired."

"Hmm. I think it's time for bed," Xiao Zhan decided. "But you have to help me clean up first."

"Why?"

"Because we both made a mess, and if you make a mess, you have to clean it up," he explained, hoping against hope that this didn't result in yet another tantrum.

Yibo looked around himself, at the strewn pieces of Legos, the torn boxes, and the various games scattered around the floor, then back at Xiao Zhan. In fairness, Xiao Zhan was also feeling overwhelmed by the task in front of them. "But I don't want to," Yibo said carefully, watching Xiao Zhan from under his eyebrows.

Xiao Zhan shrugged, affecting a serious air. "But you have to." Then, "I'll help."

Yibo chewed on his lip, but eventually complied. It wasn't easy, cleaning up with a distractible four-year old, but eventually, the last Lego piece was thrown into a plastic bag, and the game boxes once more lined up against the wall, only slightly battered.

"Bed," Xiao Zhan announced, then got up and extended his hand.

Frowning, Yibo took it. "Can...can Bunny come to bed with me?"

"Of course. What are Bunnies for if not to keep you company?" Then he began to panic. Bunny. Bunny. Where was Bunny?

"Zhan-ge?"

"One second!" he squeaked, then took his hand back and legged it to the hallway. Bunny sat on the little table under the mirror, slightly slumped to one side. The relief was possibly greater than any Xiao Zhan had experienced to date. "Here!" he announced in triumph as he returned with Bunny and handed him to Yibo. "Now it's bedtime." Then he froze. "Uh...do you...should we give you a bath?" Oh God. That felt weird. He really, really didn't want to do that.

"A bath?" Yibo's face was horrified. "No bath! No, no, no--"

"Okay, okay, okay." Xiao Zhan forestalled the tantrum before it could take root. "No bath." Another relief. "But we're brushing your teeth."

Yibo relented enough to do that. In her infinite wisdom, Meixiang had also bought him Spider-Man pajamas, and Xiao Zhan helped him change, Yibo's exhaustion translating into heavy and uncoordinated limbs. "Climb in," he said, and Yibo scrambled up onto his side of the bed. Xiao Zhan supposed he could have put him in the guest room, but then he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on him. Just in case.

He tucked Yibo in, pulling the blanket up to his chin.

"Zhan-ge?" Yibo asked, blinking slowly, as he pressed Bunny to his chest. "Will you read me a story?"

Oh. Xiao Zhan didn't have any kids' books. For a moment, he panicked, and then inspiration struck. "How about I tell you a story, instead?"

Another slow blink. "Okay." A yawn. "Tell me a story."

"Once upon a time, there lived a young boy named Wei Wuxian. He was a cultivator…"

Yibo didn't make it to Cloud Recesses. Xiao Zhan watched him in the low light of the lamp and couldn't help running his fingers through his hair, a slow and gentle caress. He looked utterly unbothered, Bunny clutched in his arms, mouth dropped open and drooling a little bit. Xiao Zhan swallowed, then rose, turned off the lamp, and slowly made his way out of the room, leaving the door ajar.

He was halfway through an episode of Happy Camp when a wail startled him up off the couch.

"Yibo?" He ran to the bedroom, eyes slowly adjusting to the dark. "Yibo, what's wrong?"

"It's d-dark! It's dark, Zhan-ge, I'm scared!"

Oh. Oh, no, Xiao Zhan was an idiot. Of course Yibo was afraid of the dark. Hell, adult Yibo only managed to sleep with the light off when there was somebody there with him. Xiao Zhan lit the bedside lamp and knelt by the bed, attempting to soothe him. Yibo's hair was sweaty at the forehead. "I'm sorry I left you in the dark, baby. I'll leave this light on, all right?"

"Will you stay with me?" Yibo managed through his sobbing.

Xiao Zhan swallowed. "Yeah, baby. I'll stay with you."

It was nearing ten, with Xiao Zhan dropping off every few seconds on the couch, when the buzzer went. Xiao Zhan shot up off the couch before he even knew what was happening and jogged up to the intercom before it could go off again. "Yes?"

"Delivery," said a lazy drawl.

Oh, for-- "Come on up." He pressed the button.

Now. It was coming now? Xiao Zhan padded over to the open doorway of his bedroom, listening. Yibo was fast asleep, his breathing soft and even. He tip-toed away again and stood at his door, keeping an ear out. Finally, the squeaking of a trolley--he opened the door and waited for the guy to show up. Xiao Zhan must have given him the stink eye, because the guy blew a bubble with his gum and shrugged. "Traffic."

"Mn." Xiao Zhan had him roll the box in, then thanked him and shut the door.

Finally.

As quietly as he could manage, he unpacked the fucking motorcycle. By the time he was done, he was rumpled and sweaty. It sat in front of him, a blue throne, responsible for many a tear. At least he had it now. On a roll, he uncapped the motor oil and poured it into the valve, hissing when it overflowed onto the rug. Ugh, fuck it. He didn't care. He blotted at the stain with some soap and water half-heartedly, then gathered up all the cardboard and trash and stuffed them all in a corner. That was for future Xiao Zhan to worry about.

He left the motorcycle sitting in the middle of the room, a battle horse without a rider.

He brushed his teeth. He changed his clothes. He collapsed into bed, turned over, and then he was asleep.

"Zhan-ge, Zhan-ge, Zhan-ge." Something soft was touching Xiao Zhan's face, a tickle against his nose and lips. Xiao Zhan blinked and came to awareness. Bunny's butt was stuffed up against his face.

"Mhhrh?" He blinked some more, raising himself up on his hands. Yibo's grinning face came swimming into view. Yibo's four-year old face. Xiao Zhan swallowed. So he hadn't reverted back. He didn't know if what he was feeling was relief or disappointment. Maybe it was some strange combination of both that forced his heart to beat a little faster and his stomach to churn.

"You're awake!" Yibo jumped and landed on his stomach. Xiao Zhan coughed, doubling over.

"Ah, careful," he managed.

"Get up, get up, get up! I'm hungry!" Yibo wriggled around on his stomach, Bunny still clutched in one hand.

"Okay, okay, okay." Xiao Zhan thanked everything that he could cancel all of today. It was going to be a long day. "Have you brushed your teeth?" Then he remembered what was waiting for Yibo in the living room.

Yibo wrinkled his nose. "Yes?" he said slowly.

Xiao Zhan raised an eyebrow. "Are you lying right now?"

Yibo lowered his head. "Yes."

"Hmm. Is that what good boys do?"

A quiet, "No," was the response.

"Ah, come here." Xiao Zhan pulled Yibo into his lap and gave him a kiss on the crown of his head. "Let's go brush your teeth and wash your face, okay?" He almost said and then there will be a surprise for you, but realized just in time that maybe he should wait until after the toothbrushing.

Yibo made faces at himself in the mirror as he brushed his teeth, making Xiao Zhan laugh, then grinned as he spit into the sink. Yibo did always like making him laugh. Another ache that he forced himself to ignore. "Okay, wipe your face. And your hands. Good. Now." Xiao Zhan crouched down. "Are you ready for a surprise?"

Yibo's eyes went huge. "A surprise?" he whispered, voice awed.

"Mn. Come on." Xiao Zhan rose to his feet and extended his hand in a way that was becoming automatic, familiar. "Let's see what it is."

They rounded the corner into the living room and Yibo stopped dead in his tracks. His hand went slack in Xiao Zhan's grip and his eyes were unblinking as he took it in. "Motorcycle," he whispered. Xiao Zhan bit his lip and tried not to grin too much. He'd worried, as he had been unpacking the beast, that the motorcycle had taken on such mythic proportions that the reality could not possibly live up to the expectation. Now he knew that he needn't have worried. Yibo was stunned.

"Can I--can I go and touch it?" he asked, craning his neck up to look Xiao Zhan in the face.

"Mn. You can, but you also have to promise to eat breakfast. Will you do that?"

Yibo nodded quickly. "Can I? Can I?"

Xiao Zhan laughed and let go of his hand. Yibo took off like a shot. He ran all around the thing, petting it all over, then sitting down and going, "Vroom vroom!" for about five minutes before remembering that it could go vroom vroom all on its own. "Zhan-ge! How do we make it go?"

That was an excellent question. Xiao Zhan hauled out the instruction manual he'd completely ignored yesterday and looked. Okay, it appeared to be simple enough. Gently, he shooed Yibo off the motorcycle, then looked for the pulley, which he was supposed to rev a few times. It felt like there should be more to it. He went to rev it, putting one foot on the seat of the bike for leverage. One, two, three. Nothing happened. He frowned, then tried again. Nothing. He glanced over at Yibo, who was also frowning at the lever, as if frowning alone could make it go.

If, after all that, this thing didn't fucking work-- Xiao Zhan yanked on the lever and suddenly, the motorcycle revved to life, exhaust coming out of the pipe. It occurred to him then that, perhaps, this was not an indoor toy.

"Yay!" Yibo jumped up and down, clapping. "Let me on, let me on, let me on!"

Xiao Zhan looked between Yibo and the motorcycle, the motorcycle and Yibo, and relented. "Okay," he said, still holding onto the motorcycle, "you can play while I make you breakfast, but then you have to eat, all right?"

Yibo, plainly not listening, climbed aboard. Xiao Zhan realized he didn't know if he should let go or help him steer. Was it safe to leave a small child with what was essentially a fully functional kid-sized vehicle, for all it was small and squat?

Just then, Yibo's stomach growled and the choice was made. "Okay, let's turn it off, and you're going to have breakfast. Then," he said, overriding Yibo's beginning objections, "we will take it for a spin outside. How is that?"

Get a load of him, being all parental. What was happening to him? He had no idea where these instincts were coming from, but he experienced a strong desire to call his mother and apologize for everything he may have ever done wrong as a child. Possibly, also, as an adult.

Yibo looked on the verge of arguing when something he must have seen on Xiao Zhan's face made him pause and say, "Okay. Congee?"

Xiao Zhan turned off the motorcycle. "Are you sure not a mantou?"

"Congee!"

Of course. Yibo climbed back onto a stool with Bunny and watched as Xiao Zhan made him breakfast, brewing coffee for himself at the same time. His phone went off just as he was spooning the congee into Yibo's bowl.

"Jiaying," he said by way of greeting.

"So. Everyone survive the night?" she asked in a careful, neutral sort of tone.

"Yeah," he sighed.

"And...how is he?"

Xiao Zhan glanced over to where Yibo was blowing on his congee before slurping it into his mouth. He realized he was smiling. "The same."

"Damn. I'd been hoping…"

"I know." Xiao Zhan leaned against the counter and shut his eyes. "Me, too."

"Have you talked to Meixiang?"

"No, not yet."

"All right, I'll call her. You just hang in there. You've got the day off--might as well enjoy it."

She wasn’t wrong. It was rare to have a random day off in the middle of the week, so why not try and relax? Of course, relaxing was a lot easier without a hyperactive four-year old in the picture.

“Don’t go too far! Yibo! Yi—“ Xiao Zhan ran after Yibo towards the playground, bypassing moms with strollers and dog walkers, feeling like an absolute idiot. Who let a four-year old drive off on a motorcycle? Xiao Zhan, apparently, that was who.

Luckily, the motorcycle did move at a somewhat glacial pace--it was just that you couldn't take your eye off of the kid for even a second. Xiao Zhan caught up with him soon enough, grabbing a hold of the handlebars to slow him down.

"But Zhan-ge--"

"Slow down a bit, okay?" Xiao Zhan looked at the controls on the thing--ah, there was a speed control. He lowered the speed so that if Yibo needed to put his feet on the ground, he wouldn't hurt himself in the process. When he looked at him, Yibo was pouting. "Just a bit slower, that's all. Okay," he said, letting go. "Off you go."

And so they meandered, Xiao Zhan in his mask walking at the same speed as Yibo, who was making little vroom vroom sounds under his breath.

Xiao Zhan missed being on Yibo's bike. They didn't ride together often--schedule conflicts and Xiao Zhan's general healthy fear of the motorcycle being what they were. But occasionally, when the mood struck, Yibo would take him for a ride.

Now, he was a four-year old, riding a toy motorcycle and Xiao Zhan, walking next to him, had maybe too much time to think. To think about what would happen if Yibo didn't come back to him. If Yibo came back but weeks, months later. If, if, if. He tried to squash that line of thought as much as possible.

And, it turned out, spending time with a four-year old Yibo was fun. He got tired of the motorcycle after forty minutes, and whined only a little on the way back that he was tired and wanted to play Legos. He was also hungry, he wanted a drink of water, and he wanted to draw. All of that apparently at the same time.

"So, which will it be?" Xiao Zhan asked once they were back, the motorcycle safely stowed in the corner of the living room.

"Water! And lunch. Do you have more noodles?"

It occurred to Xiao Zhan that he would need to go grocery shopping sooner rather than later. He also remembered the steamed veggies he hadn't gotten around to plying Yibo with last night.

"If you want noodles, you'll have to eat your veggies first," he chanced, waiting for an uproar.

Yibo shrugged. "Okay. I like pea shoots."

Xiao Zhan's mouth shut with a click.

More Legos after lunch--a must. Fifteen minutes in, Yibo began listing to the side, eyelashes fluttering. Xiao Zhan caught him and laughed. "Maybe naptime, buddy?"

"Not tired," Yibo yawned.

"I think it might be naptime, though."

"No."

Somehow, they got through that tantrum largely unscathed, even if Yibo did fall asleep with tear tracks on his cheeks. Xiao Zhan collapsed next to the bed and sighed.

He would need to go back to work eventually. Soon, in fact. Probably tomorrow. He would have to, what, find a babysitter? Sign him up for daycare? What right did he have to Yibo like this? He would, eventually, have to involve Yibo's parents--two people who had already raised him once. Would this Yibo, if given the chance, want the same things the old Yibo wanted? Would he start dance lessons, fall in love, and go on to become an idol all over again? What if, by looking after him now, Xiao Zhan was changing the course of his entire life?

Okay, okay. He needed to slow down. He just needed to get through the day.

Slowly, he rose to his feet, then realized that he had nothing to do. He could clean up from lunch, but why the rush? He could answer his backlog of emails. He looked back at Yibo, fast asleep, thumb firmly back in mouth. He remembered how, when he was a kid, he would always ask his mom to stay with him so he could wake up from his nap with her still in the room. She never was--she was too busy, and, he realized now, too in need of her own time. What if Yibo was the same? And just this once… He went and grabbed his laptop, then came back to the bedroom and climbed onto the bed.

He answered emails to the soft sounds of Yibo sleeping, then grabbed his headphones and watched videos that had accumulated over time. Silly things friends had linked him to, stuff he had come across on his breaks from work that he never got around to watching. Xiao Zhan found himself...relaxing. And then he nodded off to sleep.

Once again, he woke up with a stuffed bunny butt up his nose and Yibo's giggle in his ear. He blinked open his eyes. What time was it?

"Hey," he croaked, then sat slowly up. Yibo was half on him already, Bunny still tickling Xiao Zhan's face. "Okay, okay." He pushed Bunny gently away, then took a look at Yibo. His hair was half plastered up against his face, cheeks lifted in a grin. "Sleep okay?" Xiao Zhan asked before hauling Yibo all the way on top of him and tickling his sides.

Yibo giggled harder, squirming away. "Let's play now, I'm bored!"

Xiao Zhan sighed and settled him back onto the bed. "Okay, Yibo. Let's play."

They played games. Lots. And lots. Of games. Games whose rules Xiao Zhan could barely understand on the third read-through but ones that Yibo kept winning continuously. "How do you even know this, you've never played it before!" Yibo just giggled in response.

At some point, Xiao Zhan gave up trying to follow Yibo's trains of thought, because none of it made any sense whatsoever--unless you were Yibo.

"If we connect this train track with this--" Yibo pulled out a bit of string from a different game, "--then this ball can go have ice cream with grandma! Do you have ice cream?"

"What's round and has three eyes? Poop!"

"Have you ever seen a shark? I saw a butterfly and then I rode a bicycle, it had four wheels."

And on and on it went as Xiao Zhan, largely a passive observer to the chaos, smiled indulgently and allowed himself to be pulled into this activity or that for the few minutes Yibo demonstrated interest in him until getting absorbed in his own play once again.

At around four, Xiao Zhan's phone rang. It was Meixiang. "How is our little Yibo?" she asked, sounding only half sarcastic.

Xiao Zhan, watching him crouched on the floor with blocks, said, "As well as can be expected."

A short silence, then, "And you?"

That was harder to answer. "I...don't know what to do. What if--" Here, his voice cracked. He cleared his throat and pulled himself together, pretending he was on set. She probably hadn't missed it, though. "What if he never comes back? What do we do then?"

So far, it was their secret, something they could cope with. Soon enough, it would grow into a complicated monster of a problem.

"Then we'll deal with it," Meixiang said, sounding so certain, Xiao Zhan almost believed her. "You just hang in there." She hesitated. "Do you need me to come over, relieve you for a bit?"

He thought about it. "No. I'm good, I promise. He's…" He felt himself smiling as Yibo stacked block on block until the entire tower collapsed at his feet. "He's not too much to handle. I've got this."

Before he knew it, it was dinnertime. "How about we clean up before we eat, huh?"

Yibo huffed and half-heartedly began to chuck things vaguely into the correct containers while Xiao Zhan picked up around him. Still, it was a victory of sorts that Yibo hadn't fought him. Xiao Zhan would take it.

"Zhan-ge," Yibo said while Xiao Zhan prepared him his requisite instant noodles. Seriously, if this was going to continue, he would have to feed him some proper food eventually. "Where are my mom and dad?"

Xiao Zhan paused, then set the kettle down carefully back onto the counter. "They're...away," he said.

"Where?"

Xiao Zhan looked up at Yibo. "There is a place called Luoyang. That's where they are."

"When are they coming back?" Yibo didn't sound upset as much as curious, which somehow made it even worse.

Over the lump in his throat, Xiao Zhan lied. "Soon. Very soon." And maybe it wasn't so much of a lie. Yibo would have to see his parents eventually if he was going to continue being a little kid. Xiao Zhan couldn't keep him.

"Okay!" Yibo said brightly, then stuffed Bunny in between the counter and his body, and reached for the instant noodles.

"Careful, they're not ready yet, they're too hot." Xiao Zhan kept a hold on the container with one hand while dunking the spoon into the soup and blowing on it before extending it to Yibo. Yibo drank his soup and slurped his noodles and Xiao Zhan wondered at himself for not feeling hungry. He would have to eat eventually.

"What are we gonna do now?" Yibo asked once he was filled to the brim with noodles. Xiao Zhan's gaze fell on the Minion he'd made out of Lego the day before.

"Do you want to watch a movie?" He didn't know if Despicable Me was age-appropriate, but it sure was entertaining. Adult Yibo had enjoyed it, anyway.

"Yay!" Yibo clapped and hopped around. "A movie, a movie!"

Xiao Zhan grinned, then surprised himself by thinking ahead. "How about we get you into pajamas first?"

They settled on the couch next to each other and Xiao Zhan turned on the movie. Little Yibo found it just as hilarious as older Yibo, apparently. He giggled into Bunny when he first heard the Minions, he fell into Xiao Zhan's lap at Gru blowing up the entire game just to get the fluffy unicorn, he kicked his feet in glee at the picture of Gru on the toilet. In an embarrassing twist, Xiao Zhan woke up when the credits began to roll, to Yibo's prodding. "Zhan-ge! Wake up!"

Xiao Zhan made a sleepy noise, then jerked awake. "Oh, fu--did I fall asleep?"

Yibo giggled, still prodding him in the thigh. "And I didn't. I told you I'm not tired. I win!"

Xiao Zhan looked over at him. At his giant cheeks and hair that was standing on end over his forehead, his laughing eyes. "You're right," he said with a smile. "You win." He stretched and yawned, feeling joints popping in a satisfying way. He felt--he didn't know. Strangely rested.

"What do I win?"

Xiao Zhan glanced at the clock. "Uh...bedtime, my friend. You win bedtime." It was past eight pm. It was time for four-year olds to be asleep.

"Noooooo," Yibo whined, slouching against the couch. "I'm not tired."

"If you go to bed now, I'll tell you a story," Xiao Zhan tried without much hope of success.

"Is it the same story from last night?"

Xiao Zhan nodded, unsure if that was a good thing.

"But I've heard that story," Yibo said. "Tell me another."

"You heard the very beginning, silly. You don't know how it ends."

"Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji become friends," Yibo said with confidence, and all the hair on Xiao Zhan's neck stood on end.

"What did you say?"

Yibo rolled his eyes. "Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji become friends," he repeated patiently. "I told you, I know this story."

"Yibo, how--"

Yibo shrugged. "I dunno. Tell me another!"

Xiao Zhan licked his suddenly dry lips. "What else do you know?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"Yibo, what do you remember?" he asked, voice urgent, heart pounding.

Yibo frowned. "What do I remember about what?"

"Before--before we met. Before yesterday."

Yibo frowned harder, this time like he was thinking hard. "My mom and dad."

"And what else?"

"I don't know... I remember you."

Xiao Zhan's heart thundered in his chest. "What do you remember?" His voice was hoarse.

Yibo shrugged. "That you're my friend. That's why I'm not scared," he added confidently. "You're my friend."

Xiao Zhan felt his lip quiver and bit it, swallowing past the lump in his throat. "I am," he said. "I am your friend." It was useless to prod him further. He was still four.

But he remembered.

"I think it's time for bed," Xiao Zhan said quietly, and reached out his hand. Yibo took it and hopped off the couch.

"I can take Bunny with me?"

"Of course," Xiao Zhan said, still reeling. "But let's brush your teeth and get you into pajamas first."

Things went smoothly enough. Yibo, probably remembering his earlier success, made Xiao Zhan laugh as he pulled faces at himself in the mirror, mugging as if for a camera. Xiao Zhan made sure he washed his face thoroughly, then crouched down and said, "Hop up." Yibo wrapped his arms around his neck and Xiao Zhan picked him up and carried him to the bedroom. By the time he lay him down, Yibo's eyes were blinking sleepily. He caught Xiao Zhan's hand. "Zhan-ge, you can tell me that story again."

Xiao Zhan took a deep breath. "Which story?" he asked, knowing full well the answer.

"The one about Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji," Yibo mumbled.

Xiao Zhan swallowed and, settling Bunny into Yibo's arms, crouched down beside the bed. "All right, I will. Close your eyes, okay?"

Yibo blinked and obeyed, eyelashes leaving shadows over his cheeks.

"Once upon a time, there lived a boy named Wei Wuxian…"

Xiao Zhan jerked awake, uncertain what woke him. The light in the room was diffuse, a pre-dawn sort of glow that would become daylight soon enough. He looked over at the clock. 5:37. He turned his head and sucked in his breath. Then he forgot to breathe altogether.

Yibo was watching him. His Yibo. He had his head pillowed on his hand and he was watching Xiao Zhan with an unreadable expression on his face. Xiao Zhan's heartbeat sped up.

"Yibo," he croaked.

"Zhan-ge."

Xiao Zhan was kissing him the next moment. Their lips pressed against each other, opened. Xiao Zhan slid their tongues together as Yibo made a soft noise against him. Xiao Zhan rolled him over onto his back as Yibo wrapped his arms around Xiao Zhan's middle and brought them closer together. Xiao Zhan kissed him breathless in the hazy light. He tangled their legs together and kissed him until it became imperative to breathe, and then he only separated enough to say his name again.

"Zhan-ge." Yibo swiped his thumb over Xiao Zhan's cheek. "Don't cry."

"I'm not crying," Xiao Zhan said, voice thick.

"Okay," Yibo said seriously. "Zhan-ge, tell me what happened."

Xiao Zhan shut his eyes and took a deep breath. He rolled off of Yibo, but didn't go too far, their legs still tangled, Yibo's shoulder touching his chest. "What do you remember?" he asked. He couldn't take his eyes off of him. Yibo.

Yibo frowned, thinking. "Impressions. You. Meixiang. Your manager, I think?"

Xiao Zhan was nodding along, riveted.

"Why can't I remember? How long was I out of it?"

"Yibo."

"What?"

"Babe, you weren't out of it. You…" Xiao Zhan paused, gathering words. "You turned into a kid."

Yibo blinked at him. When he opened his mouth, nothing came out. Then he shut it. "What do you...you mean, I was acting like a kid? That's weird--"

"No," Xiao Zhan said, lifting up and putting his head on his hand. "You were a kid. Like. A four-year old." A thought occurred to him and he lifted the blanket, letting in cold air. Yibo yelped. He was naked.

"Weird," Xiao Zhan said. "You were definitely wearing pajamas when I put you to bed last night."

"When you--"

"Put you to bed," Xiao Zhan said, pulling the blanket back over them. "And told you a bedtime story." Now that he had him back, Xiao Zhan could almost laugh at the situation, even if a part of him was expecting to see Yibo--little Yibo--walk into the room and demand to be played with. A part of Xiao Zhan missed him.

"Xiao Zhan, please stop fucking with me. What happened?" Yibo sounded urgent now, and Xiao Zhan put a hand on his waist, looking him in the eye.

"I swear, I'm not fucking with you. Call Meixiang, call Jiaying. I couldn't believe it, either, but. There's no other explanation. That kid was you."

Yibo rolled over onto his back, rubbing his face with his hands, then dropped them and frowned. "What--" He rolled back onto his side and patted the bed behind him. His hand came up with Bunny. "Is--"

"That's my bunny. It became your bunny," Xiao Zhan told him, attempting to be serious for Yibo's sake. He was experiencing the strangest urge to laugh, relief flowing through him like a cool river. "You named him Bunny."

Yibo, still staring at the stuffed bunny clutched in his big hand, snorted. "Inventive." He chewed on his lip. "Why the hell would I…why?"

Xiao Zhan spread his free hand. "Yibo, I have no idea why." He paused, thinking. He'd been asking himself this question since waking up to a four-year old Yibo on his couch. "Maybe," he said, a slow realization dawning, "you just needed to have a few good tantrums. Let things out a bit."

Yibo gaped at him, then cracked up. "Oh my God, shut up. I can't believe--what did you even do when it happened?"

"When you turned into a four-year old or had tantrums?"

Yibo groaned, slapping his hand over his eyes. "When I turned into a four-year old."

"I freaked out and called your manager," Xiao Zhan told him. "Well...she called you, first. But you were busy playing a game." He could feel his lips twitching. "And I needed help."

"You called Meixiang and Jiaying to help with a four-year old?" Yibo said, dropping his hand. He sounded disbelieving about that, too, which was fair.

"Well, we do have busy schedules, and they are the keepers," Xiao Zhan explained. "It was pretty funny to see Jiaying attempt to interact with you, I have to say."

Yibo's lips quirked in a sideways smile. Maybe he was beginning to believe. "Man, that's weird. Super weird."

"You have no idea," Xiao Zhan said fervently. "But...it was cute. You were a really cute kid," he said softly. "Funny, too."

Yibo looked pleased, bordering on smug. "I know. I've seen pictures."

"Pictures... Pictures!" Xiao Zhan scrambled backwards until he could grab his phone from the nightstand. He swiped it open. "I took pictures, look…" He swiped over to the selfie first. There they were, little Yibo grinning for the camera, cheeks almost taking over the shot, with Xiao Zhan behind him.

"Oh, wow." Yibo took the phone from him, staring at the screen. "Zhan-ge, this is…this is really me."

"I know. It's weird, but...it was sort of nice, you know?" He thought back to the previous day and falling asleep on the couch to Despicable Me, little Yibo warm and giggling by his side.

Yibo met his gaze, a small smile playing on his lips. "Can I see more?"

"There's just one other one. Swipe." Xiao Zhan watched Yibo find the picture and look at it before craning his neck to join him. "You fell asleep in, like, two seconds. I was gone for maybe a minute."

"Is that--"

"The bunny. Yes. It was cute as hell."

Yibo was silent for a long time, looking at the picture. Xiao Zhan had a feeling he needed the silence to process what was now undeniable proof. Finally, he looked up, unreadable gaze meeting Xiao Zhan's.

Xiao Zhan took the phone from him and laid it carefully back on the nightstand. "I'm just...so glad you're back. How do you feel?"

Yibo frowned, then stretched, making a pleased noise. "Good. I feel really good, actually. Like...rested. Really rested."

"Really? Because you were going as a kid."

"I think…" Yibo closed his eyes. "I think I remember. I remember impressions, you know? It was fun. And you…" He opened his eyes and pinned Xiao Zhan with his gaze once more. "You took care of me."

Xiao Zhan swallowed, then moved a little closer. He found Yibo's hand and interlaced their fingers together. "Of course I did. It was you."

"Zhan-ge…" Yibo leaned in and kissed him, eyes closing. Xiao Zhan couldn't close his eyes. He had to keep looking at him. Yibo was so beautiful up close like that, with his eyelashes fluttering as he kissed him. Xiao Zhan swallowed and kissed him back.

Yibo broke off. "So what did you do with me? I mean, what do you even do with a kid all day?"

Xiao Zhan pursed his lips against a laugh. "You wanna see?" Yibo nodded. "All right, come on." Somewhat reluctantly, he pulled back from Yibo and got out of bed. Yibo did the same, seemingly unbothered by his own nudity. Xiao Zhan wasn't exactly bothered, either. Fuck, it was good to see him.

He walked around the bed, took Yibo's hand, and led him out into the living room. "This is a bit different than the last time you saw it." He surveyed the boxes of games stacked up against the TV stand.

Yibo's eyes went to the motorcycle sitting in the corner. Then his mouth parted in a slow, lazy grin. "You didn't."

"I did," Xiao Zhan sighed. "I mean...you wanted it. I had to get it."

"You probably shouldn't have kids, if that's what you do when a kid wants something." Yibo cut him a glance. "You're a total softie."

"For you," Xiao Zhan said quietly.

"Zhan-ge…" Yibo turned towards him and kissed him again. Xiao Zhan touched him everywhere he could, hands landing in Yibo's hair and over his ass. Yibo pressed closer and wrapped his arms around him. "Thank you. For taking care of me." He paused. "And for not involving more people. I mean, this is pretty embarrassing."

"It was sort of really adorable," Xiao Zhan said. "I mean, I was freaked out the entire time, don't get me wrong. I almost called your parents."

"You--"

"I mean, what would I have done if you hadn't come back? I'm not...qualified to raise you. It would have been too weird."

Yibo's eyes were laughing. "You're something else," he breathed, slowly running his hand up and down Xiao Zhan's back. Then, "Thank you. For what you did. I will do my best not to do that again."

"Please," Xiao Zhan said with fervor. "I would appreciate that."

Yibo cracked up, then slid a hand around until it was resting on Xiao Zhan's chest. "I want to hear everything in detail. And I should probably call Meixiang. I'm guessing she's still freaking out."

Xiao Zhan took his hand and squeezed. "You should. But not just yet." Their eyes met.

"No," Yibo said, "not just yet," and led him back to the bedroom.