Chapter Text
He was sinking.
Bai Lu was sinking, and he had no way of saving himself.
He couldn’t swim - while he liked to say that he was fairly unaffected by his childhood, he hadn’t willingly stepped foot into a body of water since he was fourteen. He couldn’t even take baths - if he needed to clean himself, he’d shower.
He hadn’t even originally wanted to come here - however, Liu Jiayi, the little girl who was like a sister to him, had wanted to learn how to fish, something she could do now that her sight was restored. They had taken Mu Ke’s father’s car out to Siren Lake, the famous body of water in Siren Town, China, known for containing extremely big fish that were easy to catch, perfect for a beginner. With his typical bad luck, it was only expected that he’d somehow manage to fall out of the boat they were on, and land in the water below when he couldn’t swim.
However, death wasn’t as scary as he imagined it to be. Rather than panicking meaninglessly and wasting the last of his oxygen, the main concern on Bai Lu’s mind was the fact that his death meant that he could no longer make any more money, which was something he found quite disappointing. Sure, he hated the boss at the internship he was currently at, but he had appreciated the weekly stipend he earned.
Closing his eyes, he braced for his approaching death, when suddenly, he felt someone grab him from under his armpits, hoisting him up. Opening his eyes, he was met with the most exquisite man he had ever seen, a muscled young man who looked to be a few years older than him with long white hair and glistening grey eyes. If Bai Lu was a more poetically inclined person, he might have described this man as his undoing, a siren in human form come to drag him into the depths of hell, just like the ones in the myths behind this lake. Even so, it was a trap he’d willingly follow the man into, just to be able to see such a beautiful face one last time, he thought, as his eyes fluttered shut.
Before he knew it, he was on the opposite shore’s harbor, and the other man’s mouth was on his as the man pumped his chest. Though he logically knew this was the man performing CPR on him, he couldn’t help but still think he didn’t particularly mind being “kissed” by such a handsome man.
By the time Mu Ke (who couldn’t swim due to his heart condition) and Lu Jiayi (who couldn’t swim due to her age and having just undergone eye surgery a few weeks back, courtesy of Mu Ke and his father) made it over to him with a lifeguard, Bai Lu had more air than water in his lungs. Even as the life guard questioned him as to what exactly happened, Bai Lu touched his hands to his lips, and couldn’t help but hope he would be able to see the white haired man who called himself Tawil again soon.
The next time Bai Lu runs into Tawil, it’s on a train, the four line. Sure, he never exactly sees the guy who swipes his wallet, causing him to run off of the train in chase of him - with Lu Yizhan hot on his heels - but somehow, something tells him it was Tawil anyway. That night, they (Bai Lu and Lu Yizhan) watch the news broadcast of the train’s explosion on TV, and Lu Yizhan comments that it really was such a coincidence that the guy who stole Bai Lu’s wallet happened to do it at that time, causing them to be the only survivors of that train wreck. Bai Lu quietly acquiesces, but as he rubs the siren amulet he found next to where his wallet was left on a dumpster, he thinks to himself that he doesn’t really think it was a coincidence at all.
He saved me again, Bai Lu thinks.
He is fourteen, and he is being punished by the dean for being a bad child again. It’s the usual, dunking his head in water to cleanse him of his sins. This time she’s really going far with it, though - she must be really upset after hearing that Bai Lu (6) was doing inappropriate, un-child like things with adults. Usually she would have left him up by now, but she continues to hold his head down, and Bai Lu (6) wonders if this is it. If this is the day she’ll finally kill him, his unforgivable sin, the crime that will finally crucify him like that statue of the god he doesn’t believe in that hangs in the front of the church he’s going to die in.
Suddenly, he hears a loud boom, and a voice starts speaking in a language he doesn’t understand. He briefly wonders if it’s Latin, but he doesn’t have much time to dwell on that, as the Dean is thrown across the room and flung against the wall. It doesn’t take much for him to realize she’s dead, and he decides to flee before the statue decides to make him its next victim. He doesn’t bother to look back, he highly doubts she would have done so if their positions were reversed.
He doesn’t bother saying thank you- he’s not that kind of person. However, he is aware that he know owes a literal god a big one, and he’s not quite sure how to pay that back.
Also, this might seem like a weird thing for him to say after nearly dying, but wasn’t that statue weirdly attractive? It had a sort of ethereal beauty, like a creature from out of this world-
Bai Lu sits up in bed rapidly, panting. What he’d just had was supposed to be a dream, but it felt like more than that… they felt like memories. And some of them were. He remembered the day he’d almost drowned, and the day of the train bombing… what he didn’t remember was that guy, whose face he was already rapidly forgetting.
All he could remember was that the man had been the most beautiful person he had ever seen since Mu Ke, which was the kind of beauty needed to attract Bai Lu, a man who was generally uninterested in people to begin with. As much as he tried, though, he couldn’t remember anything but the man’s name - Tawil - and his elegant splendor. Putting it off, Bai Lu goes to the bathroom to splash some water on his face, before returning to bed, careful not to wake his roommate and friend, Lu Yizhan.
He’ll worry about it tomorrow, he decides.