Chapter Text
Gaming never imagined spending one-on-one time with his father would be this excruciatingly awkward. He knew it would be awkward, sure, but not like this.
Years had passed since their last real talk, and so few of those conversations were pleasant ones. Yet here they are, hanging out together of their own free wills. No Traveler or Paimon forcing the interactions, no strange scheming from Xianyun and Shenhe to manufacture quality father-son time. Just the two of them, alone together by choice.
It's like walking through a minefield, where even the most innocuous comment risked detonating and flinging them back into petty avoidance and brooding self-pity over old wounds.
The walk through the woods had helped to dispel the stifling tension at first, the peaceful silence serving as a welcome reprieve from forced small talk. But then his father's foot had caught on an exposed root, nearly sending him tumbling before Gaming reached out to steady him before he could fall. In that split second of contact, he was struck by just how much his dad has aged since their falling out. His brown hair is dulled by all the silvery gray, and his skin was alarmingly taut and thin with far too many wrinkles for a man his age.
"I'm alright, son," the older man had reassured him gruffly, giving Gaming's shoulders a firm 'dad squeeze'. "Just getting up there in years, is all. Not as limber as I used to be."
The words were meant to be a casual brush-off of his son's concern, maybe even a bit of self deprecating humor, but they only succeeded in making the lingering distance between them more pronounced, now thrown into the undeniable reality of his father's growing fragility.
It's been awkward ever since. Any chance at natural conversation between them has been squashed. Yip Tak doesn't need or want to be coddled, and Gaming certainly doesn't want to see the man who had raised him as something weak and feeble. Despite that, Gaming had subconsciously slowed his gait to match his father's gradually slackening pace and led them to their destination.
So here they are, seated across from each other around a stone table filled with enough snacks for five people and a pot of piping hot tea, trapped in the limbo of not knowing what to do or say.
How do they keep ending up in these situations? Gaming's leg bounces restlessly under the table. He almost wishes a geovishap would burst out of the nearby shrubbery, or a band of treasure hoarders would attempt to rob them... literally anything to break this insufferable silence stretching between them as they eat and take in the scenery. At least then he'll have something to focus on other than the way his father studies his every move with a strange intensity.
It wasn't this hard before. Just a few weeks ago they were walking around Liyue harbor during lantern rite, chatting and catching up with each other like they had never been separated at all. But then Gaming got called away for his job, and Yip Tak disappeared into his own work obligations, and they simply... drifted back to their corners of the earth. Two separate people with two separate lives and not a word to say to one another. That's the reason why they're here now, to fix that issue permanently, but that doesn't mean it's easy on him.
"So..."
The sound of his father's voice makes him jump. Looking up to find Yip Tak regarding him with an oddly content smile, munching away on a small pastry without a care in the world, Gaming notices that he's… Happy. None of that awkward tension has affected him at all.
"Not a bad spot we've stumbled onto, eh son?" His father's voice is warm with paternal affection as he speaks around his stuffed cheeks. He swallows heavily, chasing the bite with a pleased hum. "How have things been for you since we last had a chance to catch up?"
The simplicity of the question shouldn't floor Gaming the way it does, but the open sincerity in his father's expression and voice, the genuine desire to reconnect and hear about his son's life once more, after so long of assuming the best their relationship would ever get is coexistence...
The realization hits Gaming like a punch to the gut — this unbearable, stifling awkwardness is entirely in his own head, isn't it? Front the others perspective, there's nothing Yip Tak wants more than to be in his life.
Cheeks flushing with a mixture of affection and embarrassment, Gaming ducks his head and rubs at the back of his neck self-consciously.
"Ah, you know... same stuff, different day," he mumbles, suddenly feeling like the world's most ungrateful child. "But I'm glad we could do this. Catch up a bit, I mean. It's... it's really good to see you, Dad."
The words feel clumsy and insufficient on his tongue, but the way his father's eyes light up with joy makes them worthwhile all the same.
Still, giving his father a vague "things are good" doesn't feel like it's enough anymore. Not now that Yip Tak is getting older and frailer, and is clearly overjoyed to be spending time with his only son again after so much emotional distance between them. He deserves more than some half-hearted platitude. But what else can he really share? How much is safe to reveal without inviting probing questions or ridicule? How does he go about re-inviting his father into his private life after keeping him at arm's length for so long?
...Oh!
Maybe that could work... Well, that and he'll never not take the chance to gush about his boyfriend.
"Actually, there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a while now."
Yip Tak instantly stills, studying him with a slight frown of concern. "Is everything alright?"
"Everything's fine," Gaming reassures him with a smile. "It's just... well, I've sort of been seeing someone recently. Pretty serious, too — we've been together about five months now."
"Oh?" Something uncertain flickers in his eyes as he picks up his teacup to take a sip. "And who might this someone be, if you don't mind me asking?"
"His name is Xingqiu—"
The reaction is instantaneous and explosive.
Yip Tak's eyes blow wide as saucers, a violent, full-body coughing fit overtaking him as he chokes on a mouthful of tea. Brown liquid sprays everywhere — across the table and all over Gaming's clothes — as the cup slips from his grip and shatters loudly on the floor.
"Dad!"
Gaming is on his feet in an instant, pounding his father's back as the poor man hacks and wheezes, clutching the edge of the table for support. For one heart stopping moment he's convinced he's made a mistake, or said the wrong thing, or accidentally triggered an undiagnosed heart condition and his father's having a heart attack. But eventually, mercifully, the wracking coughs subside and his father manages to catch his breath with a few gasps.
"Dad..? Are you—"
"You're dating WHO!?"
The shout makes Gaming freeze, stomach plummeting as Yip Tak raises a disbelieving stare to meet his own wide-eyed look of confusion. He swallows hard against the lump forming in his throat, his earlier confidence crumbling beneath the weight of Yip Tak’s stunned reaction.
This... may have been a mistake after all.
"Xingqiu," Gaming tries and fails to steady his voice. "He's... Um, do you know Xingqiu?"
"Know him? Everyone knows of Xingqiu!" his father snaps at him, but he doesn't seem angry. Just really, really shocked. Gaming will take that as a win. "One of the youngest and brightest in all of Liyue — practically a child prodigy! His father is the master of the Feiyun commerce guild!"
"I know that!" Gaming snaps back at him, sharper than he intended. Yip Tak frowns at him, and he can't help but flinch. Lowering his voice, he continues. "I know, but don't you think you're taking this a little hard? Do you even know him, or know of him?"
"Of course I don't know the boy personally!" Yip Tak retorts, looking almost offended by the implication. "I'm surprised you do! And how in the world did you of all people wind up getting involved with—"
Yip Tak snaps his mouth shut. Instead of continuing to berate Gaming, he just rubs a weary hand over his face and sighs deeply, shoulders heaving with evident exhaustion.
"Just... Sit down, boy," he commands in that tone which brooks no argument. Gaming immediately drops into his seat as if his strings have been cut, hands folded in his lap.
"Explain everything to me. Now."
Uh... right. That sure does make a lot of sense.
Where would he even begin? And what level of detail is his dad expecting by demanding for 'everything' exactly?
Should he start from the very beginning — like that first glimpse of Xingqiu walking down the stairs of the Wanwen Bookstore looking particularly excited, while his blue-haired companion lugged a mountain of books with an expression of long-suffering exasperation?
Or maybe he should jump straight to the more recent 'beginning' — that disastrous love confession Xingqiu had thrust upon him, where he had written a letter confessing his love for him. At least, that's what Gaming was told it was. He had never actually got around to reading it. Not for lack of trying, of course, the thing was genuinely illegible. He still treasures that unintelligible ink-splotched mess, if only because teasing Xingqiu about his calligraphy is one of the few things that can fluster the normally infallible boy. Cute.
"I... I guess I could do that?" Gaming doesn't mean for the statement to sound more like a question, but that's how it leaves his mouth anyway. From his father's flat look, this is going to be a long morning...