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The moment Xuanyu passes through his table without sparing him as much as a glance, Jiang Cheng knows something is wrong.
Since they started dating in secret, out of fear their relationship wouldn’t work, they had this unspoken agreement they would always lock eyes when their paths crossed and give each other at least a tiny smile for reassurance.
So he looks, desperately, for what could be wrong there.
Then he sees the thing .
Xuanyu is wearing a skirt.
Jiang Cheng stares at him, confused. They have discussed their opinions on this kind of matter before and Jiang Cheng is sure he stated, quite heartily, that he doesn’t care at all about what people are wearing if they’re comfortable in their clothes.
So why couldn’t Xuanyu even look up?
Why would he keep staring at his desk like it is the only thing he could deal with looking at now?
Jiang Cheng frowns but averts his eyes as soon as he feels someone close to him. Although his biggest desire is to get up and go to him to ask what’s wrong, he still can’t bear breaking their agreement. What if Xuanyu got disappointed in him and thought Jiang Cheng was someone incapable of keeping his word?
“What are you looking at, Chengcheng?” Wuxian asks playfully, leaning on his shoulders to try to follow the motion his head did before. “Got your eyes on a pretty girl? Lemme know who she is, don’t be shy!”
“I’m not looking at anything, fuck off,” Jiang Cheng pushes him away of him, almost making his adoptive brother slip off on the ground too.
Huaisang’s laugh is loud at the sight and Wangji's disapproving look is just as noisy, though he doesn’t say anything. Wangji never needs to say anything to show his disapproval, all of his other emotions on the other hand…
Jiang Cheng is still worried out of his mind yet he only sighs and groans for Wuxian to get away from him the moment their teacher enters the room.
Huaisang hurries to his desk to avoid the possibility of a notification being sent to his brother, Wangji takes his sweet time, knowing too damn well how the teachers favors him. Wuxian flops on the desk right behind the teacher’s treasure and leans on the table to bother him too.
The whole class goes silent when the teacher starts his explanation and Jiang Cheng is glad most of it went without any kind of interruption (even when Huaisang had to ask something and he looked quite desperately at Wuxian to get the right answer. If the teacher saw it, she ignored it.).
The situation changes when a coordinator knocks on the door to speak with their teacher. The woman is frowning in discomfort with whatever she is listening to from the intruder and she carries the frown when she turns to the class and asks out loud, “Mo Xuanyu, could you please accompany Mister Wen to the principal’s office?”
Xuanyu doesn’t even hesitate to get up and follow right behind the said man. The slightly wobble of his lips gives away how hard he is trying not to cry, and that’s when Jiang Cheng knows Xuanyu knew he would be reprimanded for wearing that skirt.
Qishan High School never had a strict wearing code. If you are wearing the uniform, you can get in and watch all your classes without being bothered. Female uniform doesn’t include pants, male uniform doesn’t include skirts. However, both boys and girls are used to exchanging their uniforms with no problem.
Obviously, girls, more than boys, are used to wearing the said “male” uniform, since pants can be way more comfortable than skirts depending on the classes they would have.
To have a boy being called out simply for wearing an outfit people aren’t used to see boys wearing, to have Xuanyu being called out for such a stupid reason, Jiang Cheng feels his blood boil.
It’s stupid.
It’s rude.
But most of all, it’s humiliating for Xuanyu to be called in front of the whole class.
People didn’t even need to have all their brain cells working to understand why the guy was being called by the principal.
The chattering sound didn’t take long to start. Wuxian and Huaisang are both staring at the door in disbelief, Wangji, for once, looks equally shocked.
Jiang Cheng presses his fingers on his thighs until it hurts to control his screaming urge for getting up and running until he could find his boyfriend, until he could hold him tight and kiss all his face to reassure him that he is perfect just the way he is.
To reassure Xuanyu that he is perfect wearing his skirt, too.
…
“Are they out of their fucking minds?” Wuxian hisses in whispers, bent over the cafeteria’s table for Jiang Cheng and Huaisang to listen to him easily. “I can’t believe they had the guts to send Xuanyu to the school psychologist for wearing a damned skirt .”
“They shouldn’t,” Wangji agrees easy enough and Jiang Cheng is once again impressed by how indignant he sounds and looks . It’s the first time he has seen so many visible expressions on his face.
Jiang Cheng hates it.
He would prefer never seeing any of Wangji’s expressions if it would change the whole situation.
“I wear makeup daily and they never called me out on it,” Huaisang murmurs, pondering something none of them would be able to even try to understand. “Isn’t it weird they’re so fissured on Xuanyu?”
“What do you mean?” Jiang Cheng questions. He isn’t one for gossip, but it’s his boyfriend they were talking about and Xuanyu never complained about anything linked to their school.
“Wen Chao nagged at him for his earrings, for that time he wore some lipstick and even for that other time he was wearing those light yellow shoes. He kept saying that Xuanyu was too girlish to deserve to be treated as a man and that he didn’t deserve to be treated as a human being because he was a lowly person, a scumbag.”
Wuxian opens and closes his mouth like a fish seeking for air. Wangji is so shocked he can’t move, his face now is really like one made of jade.
Jiang Cheng is furious. He needs to gaze around to remind himself he is in a school and no, he can’t just punch someone until their faces are black and blue only because they deserve this kind of treatment.
He needs to remind himself how much Xuanyu would hate it if he got hurt, too. Remind himself he couldn’t and shouldn’t disappoint that sweet guy right after all the shit he had to deal with.
“He didn’t tell me anything,” Jiang Cheng mumbles, distracted.
“Why would he? You’re not this close,” Wuxian butts in with a half smile, obviously made up to make the situation lighter than it is.
Jiang Cheng wants to scream and say how he has know idea of how close they are.
He doesn’t.
“Xuanyu is quite self conscious, I doubt he would’ve said anything to any of us,” Huaisang explains, like the explanation would be needed for both Wuxian and Jiang Cheng.
It isn’t for one of them, not that any of them would know it because Jiang Cheng doesn’t open his fucking mouth to just tell them that.
“He is also…,” Huaisang pauses, wondering if it isn’t something too personal to reveal. “He is really afraid of being a bother.”
They all stay silent at that.
Meaningful glances are exchanged between the four of them and the message is clear: they wouldn’t just let it be, they would do something about what happened.
…
“I won’t do it,” Meng Yao shakes his head, horrified.
“Are you sure?” Mingjue asks, mindlessly playing with his phone and not gracing anyone with as much as a glance to show he is really paying attention to what is being discussed. “Everyone else will, you know how guys treat people who chickens out.”
For that, Huaisang gives him a weird look. Of course his brother wouldn’t lose a chance of nagging at him.
“The plan is stupid!” Meng Yao gives back, gesturing to his pants like it’s obvious. “We can’t just all wear skirts too.”
“Why not?” Wuxian gives back, tilting his head to the side like he always does when he is trying to get on someone’s nerves and curving his lips into that provocative smile he masters. “Are you afraid people will question your masculinity?”
Meng Yao groans. Jiang Cheng would understand the feeling better if he wasn’t willing to do anything to reassure his lover that he is fine the way he is.
“Because we can’t buy a bunch of skirts and think the school won’t notice what we are planning to do, idiot!”
It is… painfully truthful.
The amount of skirts needed wouldn’t be easy to order and it would become rather clear what they were planning to do if so many boys ordered skirts in a row.
“I get it,” Huaisang smiles, his evil I-know-what-to-do kind of smile. “I know how to make the plan work, we will do this instead of buying a skirt for each.”
Huaisang grabs his phone, stops to check if everyone is paying attention to him, and calls someone.
“Hello, Li Na! I apologize for calling you out of nowhere, but do you happen to know what happened with Xuanyu today?”
Jiang Cheng frowns. Would they just gossip?
“Yeah, it’s really awful,” there’s something on his tone that hints on his exaggerated worry about the matter. No one dares to say anything. “The guys and I are planning to support Xuanyu and protest against the way he was treated by wearing skirts too and we don’t want the school to find it out, so would it trouble you if you lended me one of yours?”
Everyone can hear soft noises coming from the phone, probably Li Na’s voice.
Huaisang smiles, as thought the girl could see it, and shakes his head in agreement.
“Of course I will treat your skirt gently, thank you very much!”
He hangs up, lowers his phone and smiles mischievously at the other people in his room.
“This way, little grasshoppers, is how we will make it work.”
Everyone else stays silent, exchanging looks.
Surprising everyone, Meng Yao is the first one to fish his phone out of his pocket to call someone too.
“What?” He asks, tilting his chin up. “If we’re doing it, let’s at least do it right.”
Another pause, the person answers his call.
“Qin Su, good afternoon. Could I ask you a favor?”
…
Jiang Cheng feels exposed in all the wrong ways when he steps on his classroom.
His sister’s skirt is too short on him, his legs look too long. For what he knows, the color isn’t the best either. If he summed the color with the length, the result would be slutty.
Jiang Cheng looks like a slut wearing a short red skirt and he isn’t the person who would just rock it like Wuxian said he would. Wuxian, on the other hand, even bought a lollipop to look sexier.
He isn’t, by the way. Wuxian only looks weird as fuck sucking that lollipop in such a noisy way and it’s so far from sexy that the only thing stopping Jiang Cheng from smashing that stuff down his brother throat is his hands holding the skirt down to keep his underwear out of people’s sights.
It would be embarrassing as hell if anyone could spot it. Now he understands way better why girls usually prefer wearing pants. He prefers the pants, too.
And he admires Xuanyu even more for feeling so comfortable wearing this thing. It’s cool that the air can circulate everywhere but is all the worry really worth it?
They take their places on their desks. Well, most of them do. Wuxian is too occupied sitting on Wangji’s desk armrest and crossing his legs to make him see how much skin it showed if he moved his legs this or that way.
Jiang Cheng makes an annoying tap tap tap sound hitting his fingertips on his desk, way too nervous about what Xuanyu will think when he sees them.
Will he understand what is going on right away?
Will he think they are all making fun of him?
Will he be happy?
Will he be mad?
Will he-
Jiang Cheng bites his lips and shakes his head to shoo all those thoughts away. He learned the hard way that thinking too much never ends well, there’s no way to predict how people will react to unexpected situations.
This time, when Xuanyu enters the classroom, he doesn’t ignore their unspoken tradition. He stares right at Jiang Cheng’s eyes, blesses his day with a soft smile and then, to break their habit, stops to frown at him.
Xuanyu notices how nervous he is, of course. And it encourages him to check Jiang Cheng out to look for anything that could be wrong.
Jiang Cheng knows exactly when his boyfriend notices the skirt because Xuanyu inhales so sharply it makes a strange noise, just like a tea kettle.
Xuanyu’s eyes frantically move between the skirt and Jiang Cheng’s face like staring would make everything more understandable.
“What happened yesterday shouldn’t have happened,” Jiang Cheng starts for the reason that someone needed to do so. “I- We decided to support you by wearing them too. To make the school, you know, understand it’s not something incorrect or abnormal.”
Xuanyu takes a step closer, his eyes so full of that naked hope that Jiang Cheng's heart squeezes in his chest. How could he never notice how fragile is the heart he holds between his hands?
How could he never show his support so clearly before?
“You are fine the way you are,” he goes on, grasping the soft fabric of the skirt. “I’m proud of how brave you were yesterday, how brave you are daily.”
Jiang Cheng is painfully aware of everyone staring at them, paying close attention to whatever they are saying and doing. If it’s out of curiosity or not, he would never know.
He would bet it is, though.
“I-,” Jiang Cheng gulps, getting up. His hands are trembling so much he tightens his hold on his cloth to try to make them stop. “I love you.”
It’s the boldest he has been lately and it could turn out so bad his biggest wish is to close his eyes to be able to ignore that he is being so open in front of so many people.
None of them are really fond of public displays of affection. Jiang Cheng still believes Xuanyu could need this kind of reassurance, that he could need to know that Jiang Cheng would never be ashamed of him.
Xuanyu stares at him in pure disbelief, his mouth agape while he processes exactly what has been said to him and where it happened.
It doesn’t take long for him to jump on Jiang Cheng, trusting the older guy will be able to hold him up.
He is, of course, but he still stumbles a little on his feet. How could he not when the hug took him by surprise?!
Xuanyu clings on him like he is a baby koala, Jiang Cheng couldn’t be less bothered by it.
“I love you too, I love you so fucking much,” it’s the answer he gets.
Jiang Cheng smiles and hides his face in his boyfriend’s neck. For once that day, he even forgets about the absurdly short skirt he is wearing.
“Aren’t you afraid anymore?” He asks in a whisper.
Aren’t you afraid we will break up soon? He doesn’t ask.
“No,” Xuanyu shakes his head, his voice all choked up. “I’m never afraid when I’m with you.”
His arms tighten around the body he is holding so close to him and he notices for the first time that he, too, is never afraid of anything when he is with that guy.
Jiang Cheng isn’t afraid of being himself, isn’t afraid of not being enough.
For Xuanyu, he knows he will always be.
It’s awesome to know that he could be seen as good enough for at least one of the people he loved so dearly.
Xuanyu, though, doesn’t see him as good enough.
No, he sees him as the best .
And Jiang Cheng would be lying if he said he doesn’t see Xuanyu as the best for him, too.