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Li Ming’s a reasonable person.
He admits he has his moments of unnecessary anger, years of feeling incompetent along with pent-up hormones being a combination for inevitable outbursts. He’s gotten better at communicating it though, for himself. For Heart. He’d even go as far as to say he’s fairly proud of how he can’t remember the last time he teared up from frustration. And yet he feels like he’s on the brink of throwing a tantrum.
Over a cat.
Correction, their cat.
Their cat, currently curled up on Heart’s lap while the latter scrolls on his phone, a hand absentmindedly petting the small gray purring figure.
They’d found her while walking back to their apartment one evening, huddling together underneath an umbrella as the pouring rain became heavier by the minute. Heart was the one who noticed her near the stairs, Li Ming too caught up in wanting to get inside to take off his soaked shoes and barely dry socks. The taller had coaxed her inside while Li Ming was setting their groceries on the kitchen countertop, and he had turned around from putting milk in the fridge to find Heart holding her while waving at him with a tiny paw held gently in his grasp. They’d taken her to the nearby animal clinic in the morning, learning that she was four months old and healthy despite seeming unusually small. The building had a no pets policy, the landlord reiterated it countlessly when they had moved in. But Heart had always wanted a cat.
It’s been a month since she started living with them, since Heart’s been absolutely enamored by her.
A month since Li Ming met his arch-nemesis.
Dumpling.
It looks exactly like her.
Heart held up a dumpling next to the small gray ball of fur sitting in his lap, yawning as he poked her cheek gently.
The dumpling?
Li Ming has to bite back a laugh when the other nods vigorously, motioning from the feline’s cheeks to the dumpling threatening to drop from between his chopsticks.
He squints between the two as if he’s taking the comparison seriously, looking at his own dumpling before popping it into his mouth with a shake of his head.
I don’t see it. She’s not cute enough.
Heart gives him an incredulous look and pats the cat's head gently before signing at him firmly.
You take that back.
Alright, maybe she was cute enough. And maybe Li Ming shouldn’t be jealous, and over a cat of all things.
There are some mornings when Li Ming wakes up with Heart’s arm thrown haphazardly over his chest with an increasingly familiar weight on his legs. Somehow on the days Li Ming has a morning shift, Dumpling is always wide awake and waiting, ready to occupy Li Ming’s side of the bed once he kisses Heart’s forehead and goes to shower. She meows at Heart’s sleeping figure softly, wondering if he’s truly sleeping and not wanting to wake him if he is. A gentle headbutt against Heart’s shoulder with no response other than the lanky male murmuring something into the pillow settles it, and Li Ming comes out of the shower to find her looking at him while sitting beside Heart’s outstretched arm.
His fingers flex as if he’s searching for Li Ming’s missing figure, and the smaller is almost tempted to get back into bed.
Instead, he sends a playful glare to Dumpling before starting to get dressed, the latter simply tilting her head with a sniffle in return. A ridiculous fleeting wish of wanting to trade places with her so he could stay in bed with Heart all day enters Li Ming’s mind. It vanishes when he fills a bowl of cat food and sets it in the kitchen, a ball of gray fur appearing near his feet minutes later as he cracks an egg over the frying pan.
It wouldn’t be long until Heart appeared as well, the taller one never wanting to stay in an empty bed for too long. He wonders what he should bring home for dinner, pouring out a cup of coffee as Dumpling climbs onto the counter beside him. She’s gotten better at climbing the stools without knocking them over, barely makes a noise on the off chance she hops off the countertops. Li Ming remembers having burst into laughter in the beginning when she was learning, slipping into a seated Heart and causing him to drop water over both of them in the process.
Heart had scolded him while Li Ming had doubled over in tears at the way Dumpling looked up, wide-eyed and soaked.
It’s been a while since they ordered from the Indian place Li Ming likes down the street, but he remembers yesterday how Heart had mentioned wanting to try a new Vietnamese place that had opened near campus. He turns to look at Dumpling and sets down his cup, offering out his palms. Left for his choice and right for Heart’s. She looks at his hands and then up at him, responding to Li Ming’s raised eyebrow with a soft noise before putting a paw on his right palm.
He shakes his head and smiles in exasperation. He’s not even surprised at this point.
Familiar arms wrap around his waist as he’s washing his cup in the sink, and a noise escapes his lips when cold fingers trail under his shirt while Heart nuzzles his face against the crook of his neck. A kiss is dropped on his shoulder, and he can feel Heart smile against his skin as he turns to look at him, hands settling on Li Ming’s hips as Li Ming cradles his face with even colder fingers, laughing as Heart shivers at the touch.
“Good morning.”
The way Heart looks at his lips when he speaks is something Li Ming will never get used to. It makes him want to hide in Heart’s chest but also fills him with so much adrenaline he could run a marathon.
Heart smiles as Li Ming runs a thumb across the apple of his cheek, leaning into his palm. He responds quietly, low and scratchy with sleep still laced in his voice. “Good morning.”
A noise draws both of their attentions to Dumpling who’s beside them, reaching out to Heart with both paws stretched out, threatening to slip off the counter in the process. Heart catches her before she can, pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose while she pats the taller’s face gently.
They look so alike, and Li Ming almost crumbles to the floor when Heart squishes his cheek against hers with a giggle. They both look at him with matching eye smiles, and if Li Ming doesn’t leave now he might never get to work at all. He shakes his head with a fond smile, starting to sign before Heart gets too enraptured with the tiny figure in his arms.
I’ll be working a bit late today, but I’ll bring dinner for us. From that new place near campus.
The way Heart’s eyes light up is so endearing, and he sets Dumpling down near their feet before responding.
Really? If you want I can meet you there once my lectures are over.
No, that’s okay, I won’t get off before 8 and don’t want to keep you waiting. We can sit and eat there on a day we’re both free. And besides, He looks down to where Dumpling’s looking up at them, tail switching from waving through the air and wrapping around Heart’s ankle. She always cries whenever you’re out late.
This causes Heart to laugh, pinching at Li Ming’s cheek with a grin as the other huffs.
You’re just jealous that she likes me more than you.
A playful eye roll is the smaller’s response as Heart bends down to pick up the gray ball plastered to his side, and Li Ming signs that he’s left breakfast for him in the microwave before grabbing the necessities. The clock on the wall lets him know that he’s gonna have to run a bit to catch the bus in time, and he’s slipping his shoes on at the door when the other two reappear.
He presses a kiss to Heart’s cheek and sticks his tongue out at Dumpling, who also sticks out a tiny tongue in response which has Li Ming laughing in disbelief. Heart waves at him with a paw in his grasp, and Li Ming runs to the bus stop wishing the day was already over so he could come back home.
Some days Li Ming wakes up to a tail curling around his wrist with the lingering feeling of a kiss on his forehead. The clock by their bedside, adorned with a sticky note that has ‘good morning :) be back at 6. i love you’ scribbled on it, lets him know that there’s still forty-two minutes left before his alarm goes off, but the sweltering mid-July heat and warm-bodied gray figure occupying Heart’s side of the bed makes him push the covers away.
He stretches out in search of a cold spot while Dumpling watches him, meowing with a tilt to her head when he ends up diagonal on the bed and pawing at his shoulder as if to ask if he’s alright. It makes him smile against the pillows, reaching out to pet her in reassurance before getting up to make the bed. He tells her to get off so he can fix the sheets in place, makes a gesture towards the living room when she just looks at him in response. She kneads into the mattress before plopping down next to Heart’s pillow with no intention of getting up.
“Dumpling.”
He places his hands on his hips and narrows his eyes playfully, grinning when she gives him the same look back. Heart’s been busy lately, with an internship on campus and another one with an engineering company downtown leaving Li Ming to wake up most days to an empty bed and arms wrapping around him once he’s already asleep at night. He couldn’t be prouder of Heart, but a tiny part of him is thankful one of those internships will wrap up in the coming fall.
He watches as Dumpling pushes her face against Heart’s pillow and sighs fondly. It’s mornings like this when he’s reminded that he’s not the only one feeling lonely sometimes.
Kneeling on the floor opposite of her, he makes a noise to catch her attention while placing his elbows on the bed and propping his chin up. She turns to look at him with a soft little sound, and Li Ming reaches out to hold one of her curled-up paws.
“I miss him too.”
She sniffles and puts her other paw on top of his hand, and it’s as if they’ve reached a mutual understanding amidst their subtle feud.
“He said he’ll be home early today though.”
His smile must get the message across because it gets her to crawl towards him, nuzzling against his cheek before hopping off the bed and going to the hall. Once he’s done fixing the bed he finds her in the living room, sitting next to an open textbook on the couch Heart was reading the night before. She follows him as he goes to the kitchen, sits on the countertop as Li Ming downs a cup of coffee, and trails after him when he goes to do the laundry.
It was as if a miniature Heart was following him throughout the day, and Li Ming admits he doesn’t feel as lonely now whenever the taller was away.
Eventually, they end up back on the couch, Li Ming typing away on an assignment while Dumpling rested on his legs. He closes the laptop once the screen won't stop blurring, setting it aside in favor of watching the small figure patting his knees. He reaches out a palm to her, and after a few blinks gets a paw in his palm in return. A raised palm gets him a high five, and he knows if Heart was here he’d be very proud of his little student. He remembers when Heart had first been successful in getting her to high-five, jumping around with her while Dumpling looked at Li Ming’s amused face for help. He can’t even imagine the utter chaos if Heart were to teach their future child sign language. The dreamy expression on his face when he does imagine it earns him a concerned meow and a swat on the arm.
He grins and takes her paws and makes them clap together, leaning forward to butt their heads together gently.
“You’ll probably get jealous when that happens huh?”
She sniffles with a tiny nod like she knows exactly what he’s asking. He hums and sticks his tongue out at her, smiling more when she does it back. “Doesn’t feel good, does it?”
She swats at his arm again and makes Li Ming burst into laughter, meowing so offensively he tears up. Heart finds them like that later, pushing against each other on the couch with playful glares. Upon seeing him Li Ming turns her around and points at the taller, which immediately gets the riled-up feline to freeze before meowing at him innocently. Li Ming takes her paws and makes a silly little motion in the air that makes Heart giggle.
She said we missed you.
Dumpling meows in protest as Heart falls on top of them.
Then there are those early mornings when Li Ming wakes up to lips pressed against his collarbone and entangled feet beneath the sheets. It’s not a rare occurrence, but it’s not nearly as common as Li Ming would like, having Heart in his arms when the sun is still struggling to peak through their curtains. Neither of them have lectures till the evening, and the realization that they can stay in bed past their morning alarms makes him practically giddy. A kiss to the hollow of his throat has Li Ming tangling his fingers in bedridden hair, Heart tilting his head up with puckered lips and innocent eyes that make it impossible not to kiss him.
He kisses Heart slowly, as if they have all the time in the world. Nimble fingers grasp at his sides, trailing underneath his shirt to splay across his back as Heart holds him closer, kissing back languidly but with a hint of firmness. As if he’s assuring Li Ming that they really do have all the time in the world. For once it seems like they do. A bite to his bottom lip makes Li Ming mewl and press closer, sliding a leg over the other’s hips and shifting to be on top of him. The feeling of Heart underneath him makes any lingering haze of sleepiness in his mind disappear, and the way Heart looks up at him when Li Ming leans back to breathe leaves him dizzy.
Heart’s chest is warm despite the freezing cold of the December morning, his smile even warmer when Li Ming leans back down to press their foreheads together with a murmured good morning against his lips.
“Good morning, love.”
The blush that graces Li Ming’s face is instantaneous, and he hates how Heart knows how much his voice affects him. His traitorous brain supplies that he actually loves it very much and stores every word that Heart ever speaks in every corner of his mind. It’s both a blessing and a curse how he has these snippets of Heart’s voice to think about whenever he wants.
His moment of weakness doesn't go unnoticed, and Heart takes the opportunity to kiss him again, fingers tightening around Li Ming’s waist in a way that has the smaller practically melt on top of him. Heart’s tongue sweeps across the seam of his bottom lip, asking for entry despite knowing that Li Ming would never deny him.
Fingers brushing over his chest make him gasp, and he takes one of Heart’s hands and trails it down his torso, skimming down his stomach to where he wants him. Needs him to touch before Li Ming slowly starts to lose his mind.
Heart’s fingers dip below the waistband of his shorts and Li Ming feels him moan before he hears it, trails kisses down his jaw so he can hear it again.
He loves every noise that Heart lets him hear, from his laughter to the way he whimpers when Li Ming leaves a kiss beneath his ear.
He’s about to kiss him again when he hears a noise that makes him pause, foreign against the way Heart pants against him. A scratching sound against the door, followed by a muffled meow. The way Li Ming sits up a bit to hear the noise better makes Heart pause, eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he lets go of the smaller to sign.
What’s wrong?
The meowing stops momentarily as Dumpling registers that the pair on the other side of the door have quieted down, and Li Ming has to bite back a laugh when she starts to meow even louder as if to make sure they haven’t gone back to bed. He decides it’s best to open the door before she burrows her way through.
He looks back down at Heart’s confusion with amused fondness.
Dumpling’s hungry. We should go feed her.
Heart blinks before pouting, squeezing at Li Ming’s hips while the other smiles.
But I’m hungry too.
Li Ming responds with a roll of his eyes and incredulous laughter, giving the other a pat on the chest before moving to get off him.
Poor baby, I’ll give you food too then.
He climbs off the bed before Heart can grab him and opens the door to look at the gray troublemaker looking up at him, a glint in her eye as if she knows all too well about what she just stopped. He picks her up and turns to look at Heart splayed across the bed like a starfish in distress, taking a paw in his hand and waving at the taller once he looks at them.
Heart glares at Dumpling before sticking his tongue out at her, and she does the same before Li Ming turns to run as Heart lunges at them.