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“Oh my god.”
Huang Shaotian nudged Yu Wenzhou, getting his captain’s attention. “I need to do something. I’ll be right back,” he said quickly before slipping into the crowd and disappearing.
Yu Wenzhou blinked twice before sighing and shaking his head. “Let’s go back to the bus first,” he said to the rest of his team.
They were attending the Glory Pro Alliance’s All-Stars tournament, and were about to board their bus back to their hotel. It had been a long day; the opening day was always the most exciting. Fans from all over the country would squeeze into this one venue to cheer for their favorite players, and pro players would put aside their rivalries and team up happily for once.
“How does he still have energy to run off?” Zheng Xuan complained as he threw his bag onto a random row and all but curled up into his seat.
“He’s always like that,” Lu Hanwen laughed. “Maybe one day we’ll see him run out of energy.”
“Unlikely,” Song Xiao waved his hand. “It’s been years and we haven’t seen him pass out from exhaustion before.”
A few minutes later, Huang Shaotian barged onto the bus, clutching something in his hands before spotting Yu Wenzhou near the front and sitting down next to him. “God, there are so many people outside!” He sighed, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.
The manager told the bus driver it was okay for them to leave now, and they left the busy venue behind. The lights and chatter slowly faded into a quiet atmosphere. After letting out a long sigh, Huang Shaotian stuffed something into Yu Wenzhou’s hands.
Yu Wenzhou looked down to see the rubber charm on his palm. It was a chibi version of Huang Shaotian’s in-game avatar, Troubling Rain. It came with a small thread strap that could easily be tied to a bag or a phone case as well.
“Hehe, I saw these when we were coming out of the venue,” Huang Shaotian said as he shook his own phone case in front of him, showing off the little Swoksaar that was attached to his phone. “I thought they’d be sold out when I got there… Luckily there were still some! Aren’t they cute?”
Of course it is, Huang Shaotian thought to himself as the Swoksaar charm dangled from his phone. They’re chibis! Not to mention they match — okay not really, they’re just the same art style, wait no isn’t that close enough to matching? That’s basically matching! They came in a set too, so that counts… right?
“They are,” Yu Wenzhou smiled as he curled his fingers around the charm. “Thank you, Shaotian.”
“Mhmm,” Huang Shaotian tilted his head onto Yu Wenzhou’s shoulder, bringing his phone up to scroll mindlessly through Weibo. “Ahh, you don’t know how quickly I had to move to not be recognized. Actually the girl selling the charms might’ve noticed but I left pretty quickly…”
-
To save on costs, they were put into rooms of two. Naturally, the captain and vice-captain were put together. The light in their room was on as they prepared to go to sleep; Huang Shaotian was laying on the bed while waiting for Yu Wenzhou to finish showering. Their room only had one shared bed, but it wasn’t anything unusual. Many rooms only had one bed, and Huang Shaotian obviously preferred a real bed to a couch bed. In addition, he didn’t think that Yu Wenzhou deserved to sleep on it either, so they usually ended up sharing the bed.
He rested his head on a pillow and lifted his phone up, the screen off as he focused his gaze on the charm, poking it with a finger. “It’s so cute…” he muttered to himself as he watched it turn slowly.
“Shaotian, I’m done using the bathroom,” Yu Wenzhou said as he opened the door, stepping out in a bathrobe.
“Okay,” Huang Shaotian tossed his phone onto the bed and got up, swinging his legs over the edge and pushing himself up.
“What’s happening tomorrow?” Huang Shaotian asked as he turned on the faucet and filled his cup.
“Should be team events, probably 3v3 or 4v4. I didn’t look too closely at the schedule, you can ask in the group later.”
“Mmkay.”
Yu Wenzhou took out the keychain Huang Shaotian gave him, putting it next to the one that was lying face up on the bed. When put next to each other, there was a sense of harmony. Troubling Rain was lunging with his sword out, while Swoksaar was summoning something with his staff in hand. They had each other’s back, never leaving an opening for their opponents to attack.
“Ahhh,” Huang Shaotian rolled onto the bed a few minutes later, after changing into pyjamas. “I don’t want to do anything tomorrow.”
“Tired?” Yu Wenzhou laughed softly.
“Mm…”
Since Yu Wenzhou wasn’t usually nominated for All Stars, he was able to watch them play from the audience. Huang Shaotian always nagged about how his captain should’ve been standing with him on the stage, but Yu Wenzhou always shook his head and reminded him that with his hand speed, he was unable to show off any individual skills. Some people like him only shone in team battles.
Not that he really cared about being on the stage, either. He liked being able to watch Huang Shaotian without feeling bad about it. The other was always so bright when he smiled; it was nice to see him enjoying doing something that he loved.
He reached out to put his charm on the bedside table. “Sleep early, then,” Yu Wenzhou turned off the lamp on his side of the bed. “You still have a long day tomorrow.”
“Ugh,” Huang Shaotian complained as he set an alarm on his phone before placing his phone on the other side and switched the light off. “They act like we have boundless energy or something. Maybe if they tried playing-”
Yu Wenzhou touched the tips of Huang Shaotian’s hair, effectively shutting the other up. “Save your energy for tomorrow.”
Huang Shaotian pouted in the dark but relaxed his muscles, turning over in the sheets to face Yu Wenzhou. The latter exuded warmth, and as he fell asleep, Huang Shaotian unconsciously shuffled closer to him. The avatar charm is cute and all… but the real one’s better.
-
The next day was full of activities as well, from morning all the way into the night. During the afternoon, one of the reporters decided to interview some of the All Star players. In the middle of her interview with Huang Shaotian, her sharp eyes caught onto something.
“Oh, is that a charm on your phone case?” She asked curiously, not particularly expecting him to respond.
But Huang Shaotian was a person who talked a lot whenever he was cued, so he immediately took out his phone and showed off the Swoksaar charm that was attached to it. “Yeah!” His eyes lit up. “Yesterday I saw someone selling these cute avatar charms so I bought one for me and captain! Captain has my Troubling Rain avatar, and I have his Swoksaar one.”
“Why did you not keep the Troubling Rain one for yourself?”
“Do I seem like that narcissistic of a person? I see Troubling Rain enough on my computer screen! If I ever really wanted to look at him I could just open Glory or something.”
Isn’t Glory a first person POV game? The reporter thought to herself as Huang Shaotian continued to talk, slightly confused. Theoretically speaking, wouldn’t he be seeing Swoksaar more often than Troubling Rain…?
In the end, she didn’t voice her doubts as she smoothly cut Huang Shaotian off before ending the interview. She waved to let him out, sighing slightly with relief as he left. “Interviewing him never changes…” she muttered to herself as she prepared for her next interview.
On the other hand, Huang Shaotian showed off his charm to everyone who would pay attention. Well, it wasn’t exactly showing it off, but his constant movements made the charm fly around, which was quite eye-catching.
“Your charm is so cute,” Su Mucheng commented, stretching out her hands to take a closer look.
“Right?” Huang Shaotian passed his phone over so she could hold it. “I’m matching with captain!”
“Oh, really?” Su Mucheng had a knowing smile as she handed his phone back to him.
“Yeah,” Huang Shaotian responded, oblivious. “You should buy one of those charms too, they’re really cute! I bet your Dancing Rain would be blasting someone with a cannon, like, pew pew !”
Su Mucheng laughed, shaking her head. “I don’t have space to put charms anywhere. Maybe next time.”
Huang Shaotian shrugged, changing the topic as they waited for their time to go on stage.
-
Yu Wenzhou looked at the charm in his hand before looking up at the stage where Huang Shaotian was sitting. He smiled softly, tucking it back into his pocket. Below him, people were cheering as they watched their favorite pro players compete in minigames and tournaments, their screaming filling the venue.
The rest of the team watched as Huang Shaotian went against Zhang Xinjie in something similar to tennis. It was always fun to watch the players embarrass themselves trying to play something they were unfamiliar with. In the end, Huang Shaotian won by a very small margin, and he shook hands with Zhang Xinjie while grinning after.
A few minutes after leaving the stage, Huang Shaotian appeared in team Blue Rain’s section, standing next to Yu Wenzhou. He quickly sat down and laughed. “Did you see me?”
“I did,” Yu Wenzhou answered.
“I barely won that! It was all thanks to my lucky charm,” he said, pulling out the chibi keychain.
“Lucky charm?” Yu Wenzhou tilted his head, slightly confused. Wasn’t it just a normal keychain?
“I decided that it would be my lucky charm,” Huang Shaotian said, undisturbed. “Since it’s your avatar and you always help me make the best decisions- ah, I mean…”
Huang Shaotian stumbled over his words as he tried to explain himself, a fond smile tugging at the edge of Yu Wenzhou’s lips.
“Is that so…” Yu Wenzhou felt the edge of the Troubling Rain charm in his pocket. Then, this will be my lucky charm too.