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Lan Zhan is a big believer in nightly routines. Daily routines, too. Basically any time of the day that holds even a minimal amount of repetitiveness, Lan Zhan relishes in attaching a routine to it. It is calming to him - a way for his mind to relax while his body takes over.
That was why, when Lan Zhan’s routine on one drizzly Tuesday night in October is disrupted, he does not take it well.
He has had dinner (tofu, steamed vegetables, and rice) at his usual time. He has bathed in his usual bath oils (sandalwood with a hint of vanilla). He has donned his favourite pajamas (flannelette pants with hopping bunnies and a soft loose t-shirt with a cartoon white fluffy bunny and the caption ‘Hoppy Times’). He has completed his nightly skin care routine and pulled his hair into a loose braid for sleeping.
It is when he goes to top up his pet rabbit’s water and hay that he realises something is wrong. Something is very, extremely, unacceptably wrong.
He is out of hay.
Lan Zhan stares blankly at the large blue canvas bag tucked away in his closet. It is empty. He leans down to prod around at the very bottom of it. It is still empty. He tilts the bag side to side, trying to hear the telltale sound of hay swishing against canvas. Nothing.
Lan Zhan is a Lan, therefore he does not panic. His Uncle has taught many lessons on how to conduct oneself, and it has always been made clear that panic was the emotion of a person who did not plan well. Thus, panic was not something at all suitable for a Lan to experience.
Lans consider all possibilities, he had said to Lan Zhan when he was a child, and a Lan is never caught unaware.
As Lan Zhan stares down into the echoing emptiness of the blue canvas bag, he can feel the ghost of his Uncle’s disappointed glare on the back of his neck.
Lan Zhan panics.
Whirling around, he looks into the small pen set up in his apartment. Four tiny eyes stare back at him. Two bunnies sit, propped up on their hind legs, noses twitching in excitement in response to the familiar sound of the hay bag being rustled. They know that sound equates to being fed. They like their nightly routine, too, Lan Zhan thinks in dismay, and I have ruined it with my negligence.
He softly approaches the pen, bending down and letting the bunnies sniff at his fingers.
The small fluffy white one, Snowball, licks gently at his fingers and Lan Zhan’s heart melts. When he first picked her up from the shelter, she had spent months curled up in the most secluded corner of the pen in fear.
She had previously been a pet for a kindergarten class. The children had often poked and prodded her in her tiny metal cage - grabbing her by the ears, pushing and pulling her until she had eventually bitten back at them. The parents had been outraged, and Snowball was soon sent to a pound. She was 6 years old at the time - well past the age people would normally want to adopt a bunny.
Lan Zhan had gotten the call from the rabbit shelter he volunteered for. They heard a bunny was scheduled to be put down within the next two hours - rabbits had the shortest time window of all animals to be adopted, and were put down as soon as that window expired. Lan Zhan had arrived at the facility, took one look at her frightened red eyes staring back at him from the shoebox of a cage she was trembling in, and decided promptly that she was going to become the newest member of his family.
His landlord at the time had been less than thrilled by this new addition.
His other bunny, Soot, a black lop-eared dwarf, had come into his life in a different manner. He was half the size of Snowball, but was much more extroverted and energetic. If there was ever a strange noise in the house, Soot would stand tall onto his back legs and make loud thumping sounds to scare the threat off, while Snowball trembled, curled up behind him. Considering the ‘threat’ was always something along the lines of Lan Zhan accidentally dropping something, or the television being set to slightly too loud, it could be said that Soot was a very good protector, indeed.
He had gotten Soot from the same shelter he volunteered with. He had been found in a pet store, crammed into a plastic case on display with seven of his litter mates. There was one dirty water bottle between them all, only a few holes punched into the top of the case for air, and it had clearly not been cleaned for a long time.
A good samaritan had called animal services after seeing the poor conditions of the pets in the store, and soon, the shelter had seven more bunnies on their hands. Four had been adopted out, and two had been sent into different foster homes.
Lan Zhan agreed to take the last one in on a temporary basis - Soot was used to his litter mate’s company and needed another bunny to be kept with, and Lan Zhan had Snowball already in his apartment. It seemed like the obvious solution.
However, after a few days of cautious sniffing between Soot and Snowball, it became quite clear that they were besotted with each other. Soot seemed to help Snowball come out of her shell, and over time she gained a confidence that swelled Lan Zhan’s heart. Nowadays, it was rare to find them in any other position other than curled up together, Snowball’s large white body completely dwarfing Soot’s, purring away as they groomed one another. If Lan Zhan spent a few minutes of everyday smiling soppily at them, well, no one had to know.
He loves these bunnies. But the fact remains. He is out of hay.
His thoughts spiral. He is a bad bunny father. He has let them down.
This is an emergency. A complete crisis on his hands.
He stands back to full height and tosses one last frown over his shoulder to the empty bag. The bold white letters spelling ‘Bale Buddy’ glare back at him. Lies , Lan Zhan thinks bitterly, you are no buddy of mine .
He huffs and grabs his wallet and keys from the hallway table, pulls on some shoes, and wraps a thick coat over his pajamas.
It is 8.59pm on a Tuesday night, and Lan Zhan is leaving the house.
---
He arrives at a nearby pet store that he knows is open until late, rushing into the store as much as a Lan would ever allow. He doesn’t usually buy his rabbits’ hay from a store, finding the packed bags to be both overpriced and of lesser quality than he likes to give them.
Lan Huan often joked that Lan Zhan spoils his bunnies with high quality hay and treats. Lan Zhan disagrees with this implication - he is just giving them what they deserve, after all.
However, on this drizzly Tuesday night in October, now 9.16pm, Lan Zhan thinks an overpriced store bought bag of hay will do until he can organise a farm fresh bale to be dropped off. This is an emergency situation, after all. He had lost his bunny father rights to be picky.
He reaches the hay aisle and hesitates a little when he sees it already occupied by someone. The man seems to be staring intently at the different types of hay with all the scrutiny of an inspector overseeing a production line. Feeling his social anxiety surge, Lan Zhan takes a deep breath, wraps his coat around him a little tighter and heads over.
This close, Lan Zhan can see that the man is young - about his age, wearing a black hoodie under a leather jacket, black ripped jeans and big stompy boots. His long hair is pulled into a ponytail high on his head and is secured by a red ribbon, the crimson standing out starkly against the sea of black. Under the messy wisps of hair flying around his face and neck, Lan Zhan can see there’s not a single space on his ears that aren’t pierced.
Lan Zhan feels his throat dry up for some inexplicable reason, and clears his throat awkwardly. “Excuse me,” he says softly and reaches around to grab a bag of hay off the shelf.
The man startles out of a daze and turns around to face him, apologies on his lips, “Oh, I’m so sorry! I’ll get out of your way-” he stops abruptly and seems to do a double take, eyes wide as he looks up at Lan Zhan. “Oh, wow. Hello.”
Lan Zhan stares back, his brain stuttering to a halt. Ah, he’s handsome, he thinks, and immediately admonishes himself for the thought. The stranger is handsome, but there is absolutely no reason that should bring even more interruptions to his already disrupted Tuesday evening.
“Hello,” he deadpans back with absolutely no inflection. His throat was still dry. “No need to apologise,” and he grabs another bag of hay - he had two rabbits after all.
“Bunnies,” comes a strangled gasp from the man, and Lan Zhan looks back at him with curiosity in his eyes. A red glow is starting to spread over the stranger’s face.
“Bunnies?”
“Oh! Ahhhh! Just- your pants. There are… bunnies.”
Lan Zhan looks down and remembers, with a jolt, that he is still wearing his bunny pajamas under his coat. He feels his ears heat up.
“Pajamas.” he blurts out, feeling the shame of the Lan family weighing down his back. “My trip here is… last minute.”
“A last minute dash to the store for hay, huh?” The man tilts his head to the side slightly before his face lights up in excitement, “Wait…. Bunny Man. Do you… have a pet rabbit, then?”
Lan Zhan has no idea how to respond to being referred to as ‘Bunny Man,’ so he stays silent, and instead just nods cautiously, not knowing if he was being made fun of.
The man looks like all his wishes have come true and claps his hands together in delight. “Please. Please tell me your rabbit’s name. I will beg you in the middle of this store if I have to. Also, just so you know, if it’s a normal human name like ‘Jeff’ or something, I will absolutely lose it right here and now.”
Lan Zhan is more than slightly alarmed.
“I mean,” the man continues, “sorry, I mean, you really don’t have to tell me any of this, I’m sure I’m just bothering you, I just couldn’t help but-”
“Two.” Lan Zhan interrupts, self consciously adjusting the bags of hay under his arms. “I have two rabbits. Snowball and Soot.”
An almost pained expressed crosses the other man’s face, “oh. Oh no. That’s so adorable, what the fuck. What the fuck? You can’t just be looking like that,” he gestures wildly to Lan Zhan’s face and down to his flannelette pants,” and say you’ve named your pet bunnies Snowball and Soot. Oh my god.”
The man clutches dramatically at his chest and Lan Zhan wonders if an ambulance call is going to be the next Tuesday disturbance.
“Are you alright?”
“Yep,” the man chokes out, thumping a little at his chest, “yep, I’m just peachy. Snowball. Soot. Got it. Wow. Love it. Ten outta ten.”
Lan Zhan frowns, and is now sure he’s being made fun of. Huffing lightly, he turns to leave.
“Nooo, Bunny Man. Please don’t go yet. I need to ask you for your name.”
“...”
“Oh come on, please. I’m sorry for kinda losing it - just,” again, the man makes a wild gesture towards Lan Zhan as if that explains his strange behaviour, “I mean, come on. Look at you. Besides, I can’t keep calling you Bunny Man, can I?”
Lan Zhan frowns, “No one is forcing you to call me Bunny Man.”
“Hey~” he whines, “that’s just how you are in my head right now! But... if I had a name to put with the face….” The man trails off, wiggling his eyebrows a little. “How am I meant to sleep tonight without knowing your name, huh?”
Lan Zhan huffs, “why would knowing my name affect your sleeping cycle?”
The man stares back blankly. “It - it just.” he takes a deep breath, “look, I’ll be honest with you, I’m hitting on you.”
Lan Zhan felt his heart jolt. The dryness in his throat was back. This was not how his Tuesday was supposed to go. It was 9.23pm now. He was meant to be asleep. Instead, he is in a poorly lit store, hair loose, wearing his favourite pajamas, bringing shame to his family name, and this devastatingly handsome man has the audacity to pull a prank on him?
He frowns, angry now, “If you are done with your jokes,” he grits out between his teeth, “I have two bunnies to return to.” He turns on his heel, upset with himself for lingering there in the first place.
A hand tightens around his arm before immediately letting go. Lan Zhan turns back to see the man holding both his hands up apologetically.
“Sorry! I shouldn’t have grabbed you, I just.” The man winces, “I was really, actually, hitting on you.”
“Unlikely,” Lan Zhan shoots back without missing a beat.
“What, why?” The man’s head tilt was back.
Lan Zhan looks down and waves a hand at his outfit. “I am not unaware of my current state of disarray.” Lan Zhan was well aware he was currently breaking all of his Uncle’s teachings on appropriate attire.
The man’s eyes widen and he blurts out, “you are the best thing I’ve seen today. This year. My life, maybe?” He flushes a little, seeming to surprise himself with his own intensity. “Look at you? I mean, look at you. I’m still trying to convince myself I haven’t just dreamed you up or something?”
“You…” Lan Zhan is sure his ears are a bright red. “I look ridiculous.”
“You look perfect,” the man breathes, still flushing furiously.
“I-” Lan Zhan has never felt this flustered in his life. There’s a beat of silence, and then-
“Lan Zhan.”
The man looks up into Lan Zhan’s eyes, hopeful.
Lan Zhan clears his throat, “my name. It’s Lan Zhan.”
The man’s eyes brighten, a grin growing over his entire face. He mouths the words, testing them out on his tongue. “Lan Zhan, huh?”
Lan Zhan tries to ignore the fluttering in his belly at the sound of his name on the man’s lips.
“It suits you. I love it.” he cocks a grin in Lan Zhan’s direction, “I’m Wei Ying, by the way. I’m so glad I got to meet you tonight.”
Lan Zhan’s ears are burning, but he pushes on regardless.
“Then, Wei Ying… have a good night.”
Lan Zhan turns to leave, suddenly desperate to just go so he can at least try to school his features back to their usual stoic apathy.
“Wait!” The man - Wei Ying - darts around in front of him, “sorry, sorry, I’m the worst I know - I’m being super annoying right now. But- just- can I- can I just get your number? I really want to see you again.”
Lan Zhan studies his face carefully, “you are…. Serious?” He is baffled by the mere concept.
“Completely.” Wei Ying is breathless, looking at him with a shine of vulnerability in his eyes. Lan Zhan feels as if his heart is about to beat out of his chest.
“...”
Lan Zhan takes a deep breath. He cannot believe he’s about to do this. This is why Lan members sleep at 9 , he thinks, we clearly lose our minds at such a late hour .
“Ok.”
Wei Ying lights up like a little puppy, grin spreading wide across his face and his pretty eyes crinkling into devastating crescents. Lan Zhan suddenly, hopelessly, thinks it is the best thing he’s ever seen in his life.
Wei Ying fumbles in his haste to get his phone out, almost dropping it before handing it over to Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan silently enters his details and hits save.
After handing it back, Wei Ying fiddles with his phone for a second before Lan Zhan hears a ping come from his own pocket.
“There, now you have my number too!”
Lan Zhan just nods, throat dry. “I should…” he gestures towards the counter at the front of the store and the bags of hay he’s been holding throughout this entire surreal exchange.
“Oh! Oh yeah, gotta get that hay to the bunnies, huh? Snowball and Soot should not be kept waiting!”
“Mn,” Lan Zhan turns to leave - for real, this time, but before he does, he turns back to ask, “do you….. Also? Have bunnies?” He looks pointedly at the hay in front of Wei Ying.
Wei Ying blinks and laughs nervously, scratching the back of his head. “Oh. Haha, no. Actually… I’m kiiiinda organising a scarecrow for this Haunted House my friends and I are making? We need more hay...” he trails off weakly.
Lan Zhan blinks back at him. That had… not been the answer he was expecting. He’s starting to think that maybe that was just the effect Wei Ying had on people.
“I see. Then, enjoy your spooky endeavours.”
On that note, he finally heads towards the counter to pay for his precious, bunny-saving hay, leaving Wei Ying alone in the aisle mouthing ‘spooky endeavours’ to himself in absolute baffled delight.
---
Once he pulls into his driveway at home, he hears his phone ping again in his pocket and pulls it out.
9.43pm:
Hellllooooo, Bunny Man! !!!!
Very happy to have run into you today!!!!!!! (*^▽^*)
Hope we can meet soon?
Lan Zhan finds himself smiling down at the small screen as he types back.
9.44pm:
Yes.