Work Text:
The two of them were like glue, growing up.
Feng Xin still remembers the first day he saw the warmth of Xie Lian’s grin, the glowing rays streaming in through the window behind him and encasing him in a halo of light. He was the most beautiful thing that seven-year-old Feng Xin had ever seen.
Mu Qing joined them a few years later. His biting personality may have clashed with Feng Xin’s reckless one, forcing Xie Lian to play the mediator on more than one occasion, but they became quite the trio over the years.
Even still, Feng Xin’s feelings never wavered.
They’re in their twenties now, and it’s getting harder for the three of them to hang out, but Feng Xin still makes it a point to text Xie Lian every day and end each week with a video call. Sometimes he wonders if Xie Lian gets annoyed by him, but looking out for Xie Lian has been his job since he was a kid, and he’s not planning on stopping.
It’s been a few months since they’ve all been free at the same time, but after very specific planning and a few tweaks to their calendars, they were finally able to find a weekend that works for all of them. On Monday, Feng Xin receives a call from Xie Lian to confirm.
“Is seven okay for you?” Xie Lian asks.
Feng Xin smiles to himself as he holds his phone to his ear. “Seven is perfect.”
“Wonderful! I’ll tell Mu Qing to bring some snacks, and you’ll get the alcohol, right?”
He leans against his countertop and crosses his arms. “Yep, sounds good.”
“Okay,” Xie Lian says through a smile. “See you Saturday.”
Even after all these years, Feng Xin still gets butterflies. “See you Saturday.”
+
The week goes by mind-numbingly slowly. Feng Xin zones out in most of his classes and is so distracted at work that Pei Ming has to flick him on the head to get him to snap out of it.
“What’s got you in a daze, huh?” He asks, his usual nosy self.
Feng Xin sighs. Pei Ming knows he’s got it bad for Xie Lian, so he debates the consequences of telling him it’s something even remotely Xie Lian related, even though he definitely already knows.
“Nothing,” he decides on.
Pei Ming smiles knowingly. “Uh-huh, and does this “nothing” happen to have long brown hair and wear a lot of fluffy sweaters? And those God awful crocs?”
“Hey,” Feng Xin shoots back immediately, and Pei Ming raises his eyebrows.
“They’re kinda cute, okay?” He mumbles.
Pei Ming just laughs at him.
+
On Saturday he picks up the drinks in the middle of the day and calls Mu Qing to make sure he gets the right snacks. Mu Qing calls him a bitch and hangs up, and Feng Xin nods in acceptance.
Around 6:30 he calls a Didi over to Xie Lian’s and spends the entire car ride trying to tame his beating heart. It’s kind of embarrassing that he’s been friends with the guy for this long and he still reacts this way to seeing him. Mu Qing always teases him for his sweaty palms or when he stumbles over his words.
Mu Qing is walking into Xie Lian’s building when Feng Xin’s car pulls up, so he calls his name as he gets out.
“Hold the door for me if you’re not completely useless,” he says. Mu Qing rolls his eyes but does it anyway. They walk in together in silence, and he notices Mu Qing’s eyes on him when they’re waiting for the elevator.
“What? ”
“No ‘Nice to see you, Mu Qing’ ‘Wow, I really missed you, Mu Qing’? It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other y’know.”
Feng Xin scoffs. “Is it nice?”
Mu Qing punches him in the arm. “Fuck you.”
They pile in and press the button, and as the doors close on the first floor, Feng Xin says, “It’s nice to see you, Mu Qing.”
+
Feng Xin’s sure he died and went to heaven the second Xie Lian opens his door. He smiles so wide his eyes disappear into crescents, and he envelops Feng Xin and Mu Qing into his arms immediately.
“I missed you guys!” He laughs.
Feng Xin squeezes him tighter. “I missed you, too,” he whispers. He breathes in Xie Lian’s familiar scent and loses himself in the comfort of his embrace. Every night before he falls asleep he thinks about what it would be like to finish every day like this, in the arms of the person he considers home.
Mu Qing scoffs, ruining the moment. “Can we get drunk now?”
They settle on the floor around Xie Lian’s coffee table, which is piled full of bags of different snacks and an assortment of different drinks.
“Well,” Xie Lian starts, staring at the intimidating pile before him. “Shall we begin?”
Mu Qing cracks open a bottle of baijiu and starts a story about a coworker of his that is the current bane of his existence.
“And as soon as I got the paperwork all sorted, SHE SPILLED COFFEE ALL OVER THEM!”
He pauses to take a long sip, “Like if you’re going to be incompetent can you at least not do it all over my work.”
Feng Xin disguises a laugh behind a cough, then takes a sip of his beer. “Oh, you think this is funny?” Mu Qing starts, wielding back a handful of seeds.
“Ahaha, calm down, Mu Qing. I don’t want to have to spend the rest of the night picking seeds out of my carpet, ah.”
Mu Qing rolls his eyes and puts the handful into his own mouth. His phone rings a few moments later, and he shuffles to pull it out of his pocket, “Hewlro?” He garbles.
Xie Lian and Feng Xin exchange a glance when Mu Qing’s eyes widen and he slams a fist down onto the table. “Bu have bot to be bidding me.”
It’s silent for a beat after he hangs up the phone. “Not good?” Xie Lian asks tentatively.
“No, it is not fucking good,” he says slowly.
As quickly as the night begins, Mu Qing ends up having to leave and go back to work— all because of the same coworker he was complaining about earlier, which will probably leave him pissed off for the next month. Feng Xin’s just glad they called before he got incomprehensibly drunk.
Xie Lian and Feng Xin stare at each other for a while after the door slams shut behind him. Eventually, Feng Xin finishes his beer and stands, “how about some music?”
Xie Lian smiles and replies, “that would be nice.”
Feng Xin lets out a breath and crosses the room to turn on the speaker. He doesn’t remember the last time the two of them were alone together, but he does remember the way the air always became charged with something every time they were.
He puts on a random pop playlist and decides he’s gonna have to be way drunker in order to get through this night.
He starts feeling less stiff after a few more beers and about a dozen more shots, and before he knows it he and Xie Lian are way closer on the floor than he remembers. Drunk Xie Lian is a sight to behold, with a loose tongue and even looser limbs, clinging on to Feng Xin’s arms and grasping at his hands.
“Feng Xin,” he slurs, looking up at Feng Xin from where his head is resting on his shoulder. “You’re my best friend in the world. I mean. Mu Qing is, too, but, you’re just. Hehe. Different.”
Feng Xin’s breath hitches, and he looks down at the odd angle Xie Lian is peering up at him from. “Different...how?”
“Well, I’ve never wanted to kiss Mu Qing before,” he says like he didn’t just completely tilt Feng Xin’s world on its axis.
He seems to leave this plane of existence for a while because a bang and a muttered “fuck” is what brings him back to his senses. He sees Xie Lian across the room, sitting on the floor next to an unopened bottle and cradling his foot in his hand.
“I’m— are you okay?”
Xie Lian giggles. “Just stubbed my toe. I barely even felt it though! What the fuck. That’s crazy! What the fuck.”
Feng Xin sighs and goes to collect him from the floor. “I think that’s enough for one night.”
Xie Lian pouts but allows himself to be pulled up, and Feng Xin grunts when Xie Lian leans all of his body weight on him. He remembers Xie Lian’s words from before, and a sudden flush spreads down the back of his neck.
He walks Xie Lian down the hall and into his bedroom. He doesn’t put up too much of a fight as Feng Xin manhandles him into his bed and under the covers, and he’s mostly asleep by the time his head hits the pillow. Feng Xin allows himself a second to stare at his face and tuck a stray lock of hair behind his ear before turning to leave.
He’s halted, though, by a hand that reaches out and seizes his wrist in a surprisingly tough grip for a person who is very close to being unconscious.
“You’re leavin?” He says quietly, and Feng Xin’s heart almost breaks at how small he sounds. He kneels beside the bed to reassure him, stroking his cheeks and brushing more hair off his face. “I’m just gonna clean up the living room. I’ll be right back.”
That seems to satisfy Xie Lian because he nods once before turning over and sighing contentedly. Feng Xin laughs, shaking his head a little, and finally leaves the room. Cleaning the living room gives him time to organize his thoughts and figure out what he’s going to do next.
Xie Lian said he...wants to kiss him? Well, he didn’t say it that plainly, but that’s pretty much what he meant, right? And he doesn’t want Feng Xin to leave, so what options does that leave him?
He can spend the night on the couch and talk to Xie Lian tomorrow morning, or he can never bring this up again and pretend it never happened if Xie Lian doesn’t remember. What if Xie Lian didn’t know what he was saying? What if he didn’t mean it at all?
He must be sobering up because his thoughts are fucking relentless, which only makes him want to sleep more. He heads back into Xie Lian’s room to tell him he’ll be on the couch if he needs him, but is pulled onto the bed with an 'oof ’ before he can even get a word out.
“I was waiting for you,” Xie Lian mumbles sleepily, cuddling into Feng Xin’s neck.
Feng Xin releases a breath, and the racing thoughts in his mind completely dissolve the second he looks down at Xie Lian’s slightly dozing form. Ever so slowly he wraps his arms around him in return, and Xie Lian’s only response is to cuddle in closer.
They’ll have a lot of things to talk about in the morning, but for right now, he is home.