Work Text:
March 7th makes her way across the Administrative District, ready to do the job assigned to her by Regin-- the guy at the Goethe Hotel who started suddenly investigating Warp Trotters. The Trailblazer asked March and Dan Heng to help out, because there was something or other the Trailblazer had to do. March hadn't bothered to find out more after she saw "trash cans" in the group text asking them to fill in temporarily.
A few days ago, she and Dan Heng had gone with the Trailblazer to see what the job entailed, and it was actually pretty easy. All March has to do is search for anything strange around an area Regin specifies.
Dan Heng had gone yesterday, so now it's March's turn. She'd asked him how it had gone, but he'd been pretty tight lipped about it. Actually, he was acting a bit strangely. She couldn't really put her finger on it though, so she'd been worried yesterday. She hadn't seen him at all before she left this morning too, which is also worrying, since he's pretty early-to-bed-early-to-rise.
She'd just talked to Regin about the assignment, and he said that there hadn't been any issues yesterday. Now there's nothing to do but hope for the best.
Regin instructed she go near Eversummer Florist, either inside the shop or the area surrounding it.
Alrighty! She--
...Is that Dan Heng?
March walks closer to the figure sitting on the bench outside the flower shop, and lo and behold: it totally is him! He tracks her movement as she approaches, eyes never once leaving her.
"Oh hey Dan Heng, what are you doing here?" She asks, confused.
He doesn't answer, which is a little in character, a little not. She'd thought he was at least close enough with her to give a greeting-- at least a little nod?! He's normally polite enough to do that.
Yeah, actually, now that she thinks about it... It's a little weird for him to just do nothing at all in reaction. Is he mad or something? Was he mad at her yesterday too? She can't remember doing anything. She didn't, right? Right?
Uh... well she recently drank all the juice. Pom Pom was a little annoyed by that because he just replenished it-- but Dan Heng doesn't even like juice.
Then, she might have pushed some of her chores off to him... But he normally does it with just a sigh. She doesn't think he really hates her for it, otherwise he'd let her know, right? He's the type of person to not bother with things he doesn't want to do, so... That can't be it... Though maybe she should do her chores more often...
She'd also been keeping him up recently by knocking on his door late at night when she couldn't fall asleep, just to hang out. Though the only reason Dan Heng would be up too is because he also couldn't fall asleep. Otherwise, everyone knows he has the sleep schedule of an old man, he goes to sleep super early; it's either early or late, there's no in-between. So it's not like she's keeping him up exactly... And again, he'd kick her out if he really wanted her gone. He's done it before, like during some of her first days on the train, but not once recently!
Ughhhh. She can't think of anything, and the suspense is killing her. She decides she's just going to ask him. "Dan Heng! Are you mad at me? What did I do?"
He just looks on.
Oh, so it's the silent treatment? He's supposed to be the mature one, can't they talk out their differences? It seems like a reasonable Dan Heng thing to do. But no, he's chosen today to be childish, for some reason. Something really must be going on.
"Are you okay?"
Nope! He's still silent!
Fine, two can play at that game. She crosses her arms and huffs, glaring, and then engages in a staring contest with him.
...
Staring into Dan Heng's eyes... She's never really held eye contact with him for this long before... It's sort of strange.
...
Now that she's looking, she's realizing his eyes are really pretty. She's only ever noticed it in passing before, because everything about Dan Heng is pretty; it made her a bit jealous, honestly. Not that she isn't cute herself, just that every hot person she sees makes her slightly salty when she compares herself to them. Especially when it comes to Dan Heng, considering she's pretty sure he doesn't even have any sort of skincare routine. He uses a 3-in-1 soap, for crying out loud.
...
She'd take a picture, if she could. She wants to capture this moment and pin it to her wall so she can look into the depths of Dan Heng's eyes again. They require close inspection and examination, a photo analysis of what exactly makes them so pretty. Is it the symmetry? Is it the form? Color? But something about this moment feels like if she so much as breathes wrong, it'll end.
...
This is really unfair. Really. His eyes are mesmerizing. A shade of washed out blue green she wants to swim in. She wants to be carried away by the waves of his eyes, to get lost in the forest of his pupils. It would be nice to travel to the worlds hidden in them-- eyes are the windows to the soul-- to take the Astral Express and blaze a trail in his mind. She wants to know what he's thinking. His eyes give away nothing but serenity, nothing but the cool water of the sea and the shade of the trees in the forest.
...
Okay! That's enough thinking!!! She can feel the heat of her face turning red.
...
Oh right! She's supposed to be having an angry stare off; her glare had slid off her face at some point. Maybe she should just concede; this has been going on for a while now. Just her and Dan Heng, staring at each other... Uh...
...
But no! No.
...
Aghhh. His eyes feel like they're boring into her. His gaze is so serious, she feels like she's going to die. No one has ever stared at her with this type of intensity before. Seriously, it feels like too much. They've been staring at each other for too long. She shifts in place.
...
You know what?
March slowly starts to pull her hands up to snap in front of his face in order to make him lose their little impromptu staring contest, but then out of the corner of her eye she sees Dan Heng's hand start to move.
She's about to call him a cheater, nevermind what she was going to do, but then his hand lands on her cheek. It's warm, it feels like it's searing, even though her face is already flaming from embarrassment.
His lips part, and March waits with bated breath. For what, she isn't sure.
"Red," he finally says, and, what a weird word to open with...
Wait. Is he talking about... Did he notice her cheeks are red? Gahhhh. She can feel herself blushing even harder at the thought. She's absolutely moritifed--- this staring contest has to stop right now.
She goes through with her snapping motion, and Dan Heng startles, blinking and leaning back-- wait when had they started leaning closer together?! March leans back too, sharply, and notices the expression on Dan Heng's face. Why is he so terrified? She's never seen that look on his face before, it's panic inducing.
"Dan Heng, wha--"
A cloud of smoke erupts from where Dan Heng sits, and March coughs. Oh no, don't tell me it's one of Sampo's smoke bombs! What is he doing here? Was Dan Heng afraid of him?
But when the smoke clears, there's nothing but... A Warp Trotter.
Oh my Aeons, did Sampo just kidnap Dan Heng and replace him with a Warp Trotter?!
No no, wait. Warp Trotters also have this same smoke when they disappear and reappear all over the place. The Trailblazer mentioned something about a Trotter turning into a person. Was this Warp Trotter disguised as Dan Heng the whole time?
Oh Aeons. How embarrassing. At least it's just a harmless Warp Trotter that is unable to speak about the way March was just standing there, staring into Dan Heng's eyes.
The Warp Trotter makes an anxious squeaking noise, looking like it wants to make its escape. Oh, right! She quickly remembers the job she's supposed to be doing, and leaps at it, ready to capture the Trotter that will surely aggro some nearby enemies as a distraction so that it can escape.
Once she beats the Warp Trotter, she messages Regin.
M: I found the anamoly!
M: [PomPom_sticker_happy]
R: Great!! Did you have any trouble?
March stares at the screen for a long time before answering, face red. Admiring-- no. Staring at fake Dan Heng's face for a couple minutes doesn't really count as trouble. It's still embarrassing though.
R: You still there?
R: Hello?
M: Yep! It was no trouble.
R: ...Alright then. If you're sure. Thanks for filling in for the Trailblazer. Here's your compensation.
M: Hey... Is it possible for Trotters to also disguise themselves as people...
R: It has been observed doing so, yes. Why? Was the Trotter a person this time?
M: Yeah. Haha.
R: Wow! I'll note that one down! Thanks for the hard work, again.
M: No problem!
When she clicks out of Regin's conversation, her eyes immediately go to Dan Heng's name as the other person she most recently contacted. His name is saved as "🗿🪨🩵Dan Heng🖤🍵📚". Ugh. Maybe she should put less emojis. Should she delete them all? No, but she has emojis on other people's names too, just not as many. Maybe delete two then? Wait those hearts are so... She doesn't have hearts next to anyone else's name-- she should delete those, right now. Or no, she should add hearts to other contacts...? She groans.
The next time she sees Dan Heng, she immediately goes red and avoids him. Luckily for her, Dan Heng doesn't question it. Probably because he's also too busy avoiding her.
He also ran into a Warp Trotter the other day, after all.