Chapter Text
Moving into a new house is, in fact, more difficult than it seems. Much less fun, and a lot more tiring. Hell, even searching for the right place to pick was trouble enough, now there’s a pile of exhausted bodies in the empty apartment just after heaving all the new furniture into the front door.
The helpers that have come to assist Jian and Zhengxi in moving consist of: Buzzcut, Mo, Zhengxi’s mother, ZiXi, and Xiao Hui, all of which are sat on the ground huffing.
Jian’s head taps against the wall behind him.
“Which room do we even start in?” He asks, not wanting to give up just yet.
Zhengxi looks around, knowing he’s pretty much the one in charge here. “If we paint all the rooms first… When we finish we can eat on the floor while it dries, then start unpacking.” He ponders out loud, slow as he thinks of the plan as he talks. “There’s seven of us and five rooms, so two people can do this room since it’s the biggest.” He runs his hand over the side of his neck. “Who wants to do what? ZiXi?”
The girl hums in thought, laying on her back on the ground, “Bathroom is the smallest room, I call dibs that one.”
“I can probably manage the hallway.” Xiao Hui adds on.
“Okay, who wants to do the bedroom… one of the bedrooms?”
“I wanna do the st… the bedroom to the left.” Jian raises his hand.
“I’ll do the other one, I like that paint colour the best.” Buzzcut follows with his stupid reasoning.
“I’ll do the kitchen for you then.” Zhengxi’s mother nods, feeling awkward to be the oldest there, playing with strands of her daughter's hair.
“Right, then me and Mo will do this room.” Zhengxi nods, glad everyone had a place to put themselves. “The tape and stuff is already down so it’s as simple as just slapping the paint on without making a mess.” He stands, and everyone follows with a chorus of groans and bones cracking.
The group gets started at 9am, and with all their efforts, they finish by 11:30.
The rooms were painted like so:
The living room was painted red with brown accented walls, the hallway the same way, the bedroom was painted brown, the studio (which Zhengxi and Jian agreed to call a second bedroom in front of the others) is black with brown stripes with one of the walls red.
The kitchen is grey and has one wall with the same wallpaper, and the bathroom is a very light blue with white accent walls.
After the two and a half hours, the group rejoice in the now painted living room, sitting back down with their hands covered in paint; especially Jian, who also got some on the apron Zhengxi provided, knowing if he hadn’t there would be a ruined shirt.
Zhengxi’s mom takes their food orders and starts making the call, and Jian rolls his neck and puts his head on Zhengxi’s shoulder.
“Having second thoughts?” XiXi asks, referring to Jian’s refusal of getting professional help with moving because ‘it would be more fun this way’.
The blonde glares with a pout, “It’s an experience! It hurts now but later we’ll think this was good fun together!” He explains.
Zhengxi rolls his eyes, pulling his sleeve over his hand to rub some paint off the boy's cheek.
Mo walks in a moment later, sighing in relief, “This idiot didn’t mess anything up, don’t worry.” He takes his place on the wooden fitted floor, and Buzzcut follows behind him in disbelief.
“You have no faith in me at all!” He complains, “Even Jian did a good job!”
“What’s that meant to mean…?” Jian raises a brow, and then Zhengxi’s mother comes back in as ZiXi chuckles at Jian’s expense.
“They said it’ll take around 40 minutes, did you boys bring anything we can do right now?” The lady asks, peeking through some of the smaller boxes.
“I got Uno, Twister, Guess Who, some puzzles… That’s it.” Jian says, standing and going to his box of things. He pulls out all the said things and plops them in the middle of the circle they’ve all subconsciously sat in.
After lunch, Zhengxi thinks of another plan; prioritise doing the ‘first bedroom’ and the living room, and have ZiXi put the bathroom things away after getting help taking a tall and thin cupboard in there for storage, and Xiao Hui and Zhengxi’s mom put the kitchen stuff away.
Overall, they manage to get the main rooms pretty much done by 10pm, with Jian and Zhengxi avoiding anyone trying to furnish the ‘second bedroom’ or wondering where the bed for that room is.
The house owners sacrifice their bedsheets to make a large square of fabric on the ground for everyone to sleep on, and they all wake the next day, practically crawling out the door early in the morning to leave Jian and Zhengxi to do the finishing touches.
Xiao Hui leaves to go get ready for college, Mo leaves to get ready for his evening shift, with Buzzcut following him along. ZiXi and Zhengxi’s mom leave last, hugging their goodbyes.
“Are you two sure you can handle getting the stuff for the second bedroom?” The woman asks, hugging her son tight as he stands and pats her back, assuming this must be an emotional step for her.
“We’ll be okay, thanks for your help already.” He comforts, and pats his sister's head where she’s hugging his side. Jian, for some reason, also hugs him from behind.
“Brother, can you come visit every now and then? It’ll be weird with you not home.” The smaller girl whines, but Zhengxi is still surprised how tall she’s grown.
“Maybe, but it’d make more sense for you to visit here. I’ll still come home for family gathering and whatever.”
She nods, and Zhengxi’s mother scoots to the side to also hug Jian, who flushes in awkwardness. While she does so, Zhengxi takes ZiXi to the door and gives her a proper hug, telling her to be good.
Eventually, they wave and leave until they can’t be seen down the hallway of the complex.
Zhengxi and Jian take in the silence and slowly back away to close the door, exhaling breaths they didn’t know they were holding.
They stand with their backs to it, and Zhengxi clears his throat to say anything, but he’s cut off when Jian pounces on him to give him a hug, making him stumble back a bit.
The blonde chuckles into his ear, a pure, joyful chuckle, one of his genuine ones that’s so contagious it brings a grin to Zhengxi’s face. Their faces tuck into each others necks, and Zhengxi sighs.
“We still have a bit to do, so don’t get too comfortable just yet.”
“I know, but it’s so nice.” Jian sways them a bit, “Should we get the studio over with this morning?”
“Mh, it shouldn’t take long. For food we should fix up something healthier though, we ate fast food trash all of yesterday.”
They seperate from the hug, Jian’s arm still around the other, “I agree, it’s nice at first but…” He shakes his head. “I’ll put the instruments away and try set the desk up, you can go grab groceries, and put the pictures up… and put the soundproof things up.”
Zhengxi rolls his eyes, “Alright, I’ll head out now, I’ll be like ten minutes or less. Don’t break the computer, okay?” The boy says, and with his friends hum, he’s grabbing his phone and slipping his sliders back on - he looks a mess, but who cares.
When he comes back, 8 minutes later (since the nearest shop is practically across the street), he can hear the sound of Jian humming in the other room, and Zhengxi feels a warmth. They’re really going to be living together. It suddenly feels real, standing in the hardly furnished room of their home, and putting their groceries in their kitchen.
Even though they’ve always been together… excluding that time they don’t talk about, it feels new and exciting. That’s how Zhengxi decides to label this exotic feeling in his heart.
He opens the box with all their pictures in it, neatly framed and ready to be hung up.
Majority of them consist of Zhengxi and Jian, some just Jian, some just Zhengxi, and there’s a scarce few of them with their other friends.
He smacks some pins into the wall after deciding a layout and starts hanging them up, reliving memories with every photo he brings out. 99% are from middle school, and a small, solemn cloud covers the sun for a moment at the ‘why’.
The brunette shakes his head and steps back a little to observe, and seeing it looks right, he goes to check on Jian.
The studio is on the smaller side, Zhengxi’s work station in the left corner while the microphone, guitar, and drums are in the right corner, with bookshelves lining up the walls surrounding the door (after they put them up).
Jian turns to him with a smile when he enters, just placing the curtains over the window in the centre.
“Nothing’s broken!”
“Yet.” Zhengxi huffs amusedly, and sets some photos on the new desk. He gives it a little wiggle with his hand to check its stability. It’s practically four white slabs of wood in a half rectangle shape, with some slabs in the corner for extra storage. Jian put it together well, thank god. “These are some things to hang in here, I’ve put down the rest but you can put these ones up.” He looks around the room. It’s perfect.
“Okay.” Jian nods, taking the frames and seeing which pictures XiXi decided. There’s three, all with just the two of them in middle school in the music club.
“I was thinking, when you do more music stuff you could make a collection of photos around them.” XiXi explains, looking at the wall to the right.
“I see! Like a progress thing.”
“Yeah, we’ve come a long way after all.” Zhengxi nods, and they both put the pictures up together, rays of sunlight leaking through the thin fabric that can’t contain them.
They really have come a long way. They’re young adults now, thus starts their journeys into the future; together.