Work Text:
Cheng Xiaoshi was a baby.
At least to Qiao Ling, when he arrived at her house. The ends of his shorts were torn from friction, and his knees were bloodied and bruised, clear evidence of struggle while he was dragged here by the neighbours next door. Over the hot, salty tears that pooled down on his chin and dripped down on his dirtied shirt (he must've been on the ground during his tantrum outside), and the hoarseness of his voice after screaming for so long, that was what Qiao Ling had thought.
What a baby. After all, what's the big deal? What's got him crying like that? Usually, he's all happy-go-lucky.
Until she heard the conversations of the grownups.
"Poor kid."
"Both parents are gone, nowhere to go."
"What a shame, if this is the amount of damage done to a singular family from the earthquake, imagine the pain of everyone else who suffered."
Her breathing stopped. Earthquake? She glanced back at Cheng Xiaoshi, who had overheard their talking.
"Shut up! My parents aren't dead! They'll come back, they're just away right now!"
All the adults turn to him, each having a solemn look on their faces. Cheng Xiaoshi, of course, notices, and fires back tenfold.
"I don't need your pity. Stop looking at me! They're alive, okay?" Qiao Ling could hear his voice tremble. "Stop it!" He ran out of the living room and fled into Qiao Ling's bedroom, leaving a trail of sniffles and shaky sobs that only got louder once he slammed the door.
The grownups once again conversed.
“Poor child."
”It’s going to take him a while to accept the reality.”
One of the neighbours, a middle-aged man, scoffed. “The kid needs to stop being a crybaby and toughen up.”
Qiao Ling, who couldn’t stand the man’s insensitivity, balled up her tiny fists. She shot a glare at him. “He just lost his parents!” She raised her voice and reached the highest octave possible. “What do you know, have you ever lost your mom and dad when you were little?”
The man fell completely silent, before talking back. “Hah! Some nerve you got there. Qiao Ling, this is a conversation for adults only.”
”I don’t care! Don’t talk about Cheng Xiaoshi like that!” With all her might, she brought her fist back and punched the man in the stomach.
“Ouch!” He let out a shriek and clutched onto his abdomen. ”Why, you--!” The little girl had run off into her room where Cheng Xiaoshi was before the neighbour could do anything.
—
This had happened a second time but with other children in the neighbourhood. Surrounding Cheng Xiaoshi in the front of his house, pointing their stubby little fingers at him, they spoke.
"Hey, didn't your parents die?"
"They did! From that earthquake right?"
"So it's true?"
Of course, like how he reacted with the adults, he reacted the same with them. Clenching both hands, he shook his head aggressively and his lips turned squiggly. "They're not dead, stop saying that! They're alive! Go away!" Thinking that he'd get more violent, the kids left swiftly.
Only Qiao Ling, who had been watching everything, remained. She had just come back from the convenience store across the street with a twin popsicle in hand to cheer up Cheng Xiaoshi, something that she had been trying to do for the past month or so. New toys, snacks, getting him a new video game (Qiao Ling got him Super Smash Bros, but he barely smiled a centimeter.) --- nothing was able to cheer him up. Qiao Ling's parents had tried their very best to get Cheng Xiaoshi back to his regular self, buying anything that Qiao Ling suggested, along with hiring a therapist who could speak to him about the events that had occurred. Again, not a single inch of progress. Qiao Ling's parents were people with jobs and other responsibilities, they couldn't just spend their whole life finding the cure to help the boy. So, they left everything to Qiao Ling, and their acts of aid and help slowly decreased.
However, as she saw Cheng Xiaoshi repeat those words for the probably thousandth time since he had come here, Qiao Ling realized that unfortunately, the only way to cheer him up was to validate his claims for now.
She walked towards him, and the boy lifted his head from his lap to the direction of where the sound was coming from. Qiao Ling noticed the freshly bloodshot red in his eyes from just crying and his shorts which were now drenched in his tears. He glared at her.
"What? Are you going to say that my parents are dead too? Huh?"
Qiao Ling, trying her best not to give him the regular look of pity Cheng Xiaoshi had been receiving the whole time (he hated it when people looked at him like that), smiled.
"They'll come back."
He paused. "What?"
"Are you deaf, silly? I said they'll come back. They're probably just away." She held out the orange popsicle stick in front of him and broke it into two. "Here, I got your favourite flavour."
Cheng Xiaoshi stared at the popsicle in Qiao Ling's face, then looked back at Qiao Ling. Looking away in embarrassment, he swiped half of the popsicle stick and started eating it. "You know I like mango?" He asked.
Qiao Ling grinned, not that she had gotten his favourite flavour correct, but the fact that this was the first sentence Cheng Xiaoshi had spoken other than "My parents are still alive." and "Stop it." She laughed. "Hah! Of course, you dummy! You always get mango everything. Mango ice cream, biscuits with the mango cream filling..." Cheng Xiaoshi scoffed.
"I'm not a dummy, I cant count to a hundred!"
She rolled her eyes. "I can count to a thousand."
"Liar!" Cheng Xiaoshi chomped on his popsicle, hissing from the pure ice hitting his bottom teeth. Once he finished the icy treat, he climbed to the top of the stairs and pointed at Qiao Ling. "Okay, we'll have a counting contest, right here right now!"
She snickered. "Okay, I'll win anyway."
--
She didn’t remember exactly how he had scrambled and squeezed into their lives, but when Lu Guang had arrived, Qiao Ling could have sworn it was an answer to all problems — a blessing from the heavens themselves.
He was awkward at first — quiet and cold, but he was quite caught off guard when Qiao Ling invited him to renovate Cheng Xiaoshi’s house. In fact, Qiao Ling was even more surprised when Lu Guang said yes, she had fully expected him to walk away. After hours of countless sweat and hard work from painting, they both sat down on the couch, exhausted and attempting to catch their breath. A few minutes later, Qiao Ling spoke first.
”Say, Lu Guang, what made you take a liking to Cheng Xiaoshi?” Thinking to herself, she smirked. “Was it because of his good looks?”
Qiao Ling noticed Lu Guang jump slightly in shock from the abruptness of the question, and he scoffed. “Hmph, don’t say such nonsense.” He relaxed back into the sofa and after half a moment of silence, spoke again. “It’s because… he’s genuine?” Qiao Ling smiled, which she saw Lu Guang seemed to notice, muttering a small, “I’ve said too much.” He swiftly stood back up and was heading for the door, however Qiao Ling stopped him.
“Want to stay for dinner? As a thanks for helping us out, we kind of dragged you into this.”
Considering the pros of getting free food, Lu Guang agreed. “Nothing unhealthy.”
Qiao Ling giggled. ”Oh, you’re a health nut, aren’t you? Complete opposite of Cheng Xiaoshi. Don’t worry, don’t worry, we’re not slobs.”
—
“So, how did you and Lu Guang meet?”
When she asked him about Lu Guang, Qiao Ling observed the immense change in Cheng Xiaoshi’s behaviour. She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she definitely had seen that slight pink blush that slowly crept up his ears. His breathing turned slightly erratic and she noticed the huge gulp he had taken.
“We met in, uh, basketball. The basketball court. In high school — I invited him to play with me and some other guys.”
”Oh? And did he say yes?”
”Uh, yeah he did play with us after,” Cheng Xiaoshi looked up at the ceiling.
Qiao Ling placed her face on her chin. “He looks like the type of guy to reject an invite like that… wow.”
The male shook his head. “No. He’s not like that. I mean.” He paused. “I guess he looks pretty unapproachable at first, yeah… but Lu Guang isn’t like that. Sure he’s awkward at first but most people are like that, how much is there to speak to a stranger about?” After a minute of silence, he spoke again.
”When you do get to know him, he’s a really genuine and unique person. You get to see his sarcastic side, Let me tell you, he uses a lot of sarcasm. He’s a serious student, not only about his work but mine too.” Cheng Xiaoshi sighed in annoyance. “Constantly reminding me about my assignments… it’s my degree and college experience and I get to decide how I spend time!”
Unable to contain herself any longer, Qiao Ling asked the burning question.
“Is he special to you?”
Like a deer in headlights, he paused his movement. “Huh?” Thinking for a long minute about what he had been asked, a small glow lit up in his eyes, and his lips upturned. Qiao Ling noticed the same blush reappear in his ears, which now seeped into his face.
”Yeah, I guess so. He’s a great guy.” Cheng Xiaoshi’s smile while talking about Lu Guang grew even larger and that lovestruck look in his eyes only got fuzzier.
And that was all Qiao Ling needed to hear and see.