Work Text:
1.
Vaccaria sweeps across the stage with unpredictable movements like the churning tides of a stormy sea, abruptly twisting and turning and tumbling, leaving his opponents disorientated and utterly defeated in his wake. Tian Sen watches and learns what it feels like to drown on dry land.
2.
After a disappointing early exit in playoffs the previous season, Royal Style's first match of season three is against Tiny Herb, the very team that had knocked them out of contention for the championship the previous year.
Tiny Herb’s new captain is young, unknown, untested. With Vaccaria under a new and untested controller, most commentators had expected this to be Royal Style’s chance at avenging their loss against Tiny Herb. Instead, Royal Style finds itself the first victim of a fledgling god, dragged out to sea by the riptide currents of Vaccaria's new playstyle.
The fall of Peaceful Hermit in the group challenge to the new controller of Vaccaria is heralded by the chants of Tiny Herb fans as they welcome their new god. Tian Sen, brought along to the match observe and cheer on Royal Style as they avenge their previous loss, instead bears witnesses the birth of The Magician.
When Tian Sen sleeps that night, he dreams of The Magician as he weaves his way around the field before crashing down on his opponents like an unstoppable tidal wave.
3.
A year later and Tian Sen finally has the chance to fight The Magician for the first time. Despite his preparations, coming face-to-face with The Magician is nothing like he had expected.
Even in a team match rather than one-on-one, The Magician is an overwhelming tempest. Trying to fight The Magician is like sailing a ship in stormy weather, full of desperate attempts at wrestling back some semblance of control over the course of the match; Tian Sen can only fling out his talismans in a desperate attempt to invoke the protection of any listening god to provide a safe harbour from the storm.
It isn’t much of a match. Tian Sen’s own personal style depends on a firm and steady base which is rendered completely impossible under the onslaught. The Magician has, if anything, become more unpredictable with the year of additional professional experience. Tian Sen is helpless, dragged under and away much too quickly.
Only after defeat flashes up on screen does Tian Sen remember how to breathe properly, slow and steady. It takes another few seconds to find a way to stand up without his legs shaking.
As he walks out to shake his opponent’s hand, Tian Sen has the chance to meet Wang Jiexi for the first time. For such a large presence in game, Wang Jiexi is almost an unassuming presence outside of the game. His eyes are dark and unfathomable, though his hand is unexpectedly warm, grasp firm through the handshake.
When Tian Sen sleeps that night, he dreams of The Magician as he sweeps across the dreamscape like a storm front. When The Magician draws close enough, Tian Sen can recognise Wang Jiexi’s eyes, the colour of deep and still water, as they impassively watch him struggle to stay afloat.
4.
The next time Tian Sen meets Wang Jiexi is at the All Stars competition. They bump into each other backstage, fifteen minutes before the event is due to start. Even away from the stage, Wang Jiexi is still sharp and attentive, eyes continuously tracking and observing the room. They barely have time to exchange greetings before Tian Sen is pulled away to catch up with the rest of the newly termed Golden Generation.
Throughout the multi-day event, Tian Sen finds his attention drawn again and again back to Wang Jiexi. Tian Sen finds himself studying the angles of Wang Jiexi’s face, searching for something to explain his restlessness at Wang Jiexi’s presence. There are times where Wang Jiexi looks perfectly human, wearing a faint frown of annoyance or a crinkle of amusement. Then there are the times when the stage lights hit at just the right angle, bringing Wang Jiexi’s face into sharp relief and transforming it into something more.
Every now and then their eyes will meet, and Tian Sen can never tell if it is the piercing gaze of The Magician or Wang Jiexi which is watching him back. Wang Jiexi’s calm exterior is a world away from the barely controlled chaos of The Magician, but somehow just as inscrutable at times. His words are plain and few but Tian Sen is helpless against the way Wang Jiexi’s mouth curves around the syllables of his name whenever Wang Jiexi greets him, an pull to dive deep into unknown waters.
5.
Wang Jiexi makes his way through the sponsors and investors at the Glory Pro Alliance post-season networking event, looking almost like a typical business professional in a dark green suit the colour of sea algae. He is a steady presence on the edge of Tian Sen’s perception, the constant quiet rumbling of a distant ocean that becomes almost part of the background noise.
This is Wang Jiexi performing not as The Magician but as the captain of a Glory team, calm and dutiful, just as Tian Sen also performs the same role. Wang Jiexi smiles as their eyes meet from across the room, a moment of shared understanding before they dive back into the business of business. The ebb and flow of the room carry them closer then apart, then closer again until they are finally together.
Tian Sen blames the two glasses of alcohol he has consumed for the heady feeling as they converse, for the laughter that bubbles up at Wang Jiexi’s dry sense of humour. Even though Wang Jiexi is nothing like the tempest that tears down everything in his path during competition, he still has the ability to drag people into his implacable currents to get them to where he wants them to be. Tian Sen, unresisting, lets himself be swept along.
6.
It is a hot and humid day in late July, the type of day with dark clouds gathering in the sky that threaten to become a thunderstorm. All Tian Sen can concentrate on is the way that Wang Jiexi’s hair curls around his ears and sticks with sweat to the nape of his neck, longer than Wang Jiexi ever keeps it during the season. Tian Sen wants so badly to reach out and brush his hands through Wang Jiexi’s hair, to tangle his fingers and see if that will help ground him.
Wang Jiexi must see something in his expression because he smiles, a small lopsided curve of his mouth. Tian Sen’s attention is thus helplessly drawn to the way that Wang Jiexi’s slightly lopsided eyes curve into balance with his smile. There is a shadow of The Magician in the smile - a dangerous edge that heralds a tempest, the electric charge in the air before the storm. But more than that, there is something uniquely Wang Jiexi in the smile and Tian Sen feels as though if something has finally shifted into place – a quiet but infinite promise, like the boundless ocean which stretches all the way to the horizon.
7.
Wang Jiexi leans in, slowly and deliberately and telegraphing every movement, until their lips meet and his tongue presses into Tian Sen’s mouth like the waves gently lapping at a sandy shore. Tian Sen closes his eyes and once again experiences what it feels like to drown on dry land.