Work Text:
It all started with a very simple request. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, Qiao Ling had requested chocolate covered strawberries.
Cheng Xiaoshi had given immediate pushback - the idea was too simple, food doesn’t last like a memento would, couldn’t she make it more elaborate? He had to at least outdo her last birthday, couldn’t she give him more ideas?
Lu Guang had just huffed in amusement. Cheng Xiaoshi would’ve rejected any request she made, for he did this every year.
But Cheng Xiaoshi was never one to back down from a challenge. If Qiao Ling wanted chocolate covered strawberries, she would damn well get them. So, naturally, Qiao Ling would now be having a whole chocolate fountain and fruit buffet for her birthday.
Cheng Xiaoshi managed to rent out a chocolate fountain machine from a party hire company, and he enlisted Lu Guang to help him set it up. Lu Guang refused to put it in the living room, because he knew that would lead to the inevitable destruction of their furniture, so they put it in the darkroom, where the floor was easier to clean.
Once set up, they stepped back to look at it with pride, before a look of horror crossed Cheng Xiaoshi’s face. He had spent so long planning what other foods they could dip in chocolate that he’d forgotten to buy the most critical ingredient - the strawberries themselves. And thus, Lu Guang made his critical mistake; he left Cheng Xiaoshi alone to fill it with chocolate while he ducked out to buy strawberries.
The moment Lu Guang reentered the photo studio he heard a large crash and a yelp coming from the darkroom. He frowned, setting down the punnet of strawberries on the counter, and opened the door to the darkroom.
Cheng Xiaoshi lay on the floor. A puddle of his own blood surrounded him. The whole room was cast in red, by the darkroom’s safelight. Blood was everywhere, staining his lips, his hands, his clothes. One hand clutched feebly at his side.
Lu Guang knew this scene. He’d seen it a dozen times, both in and out of nightmares.
Lu Guang cried out in dismay, falling to his knees beside Cheng Xiaoshi. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry-“ he whispered, a pained mantra that escaped from his lips. Why had Vein come early? In March, no less, and not in the dead of night? What could he have done to shift the timeline so drastically? Questions and confusion circled in Lu Guang’s mind as his hand reached out to clutch Cheng Xiaoshi’s own. Cheng Xiaoshi could do nothing but cough, violently, blood seeping from his lips at death’s final rattle.
The sheer unexpected timing of this timeline’s death shook Lu Guang to the core. Cheng Xiaoshi’s death had not become commonplace to him; it never could. But usually he had time to prepare, to miserably hope he could prevent it each time. He knew its destined time and place as intuitively as his phone passcode.
But here, it was too late to prevent any of this. Cheng Xiaoshi had already been shot. Vein had come and gone without him. The only thing Lu Guang could do was thank any higher power he could bring himself to believe in that he’d managed to come back in time. So Cheng Xiaoshi wouldn’t die alone. Wouldn’t die in vain.
His hand trembled in Cheng Xiaoshi’s warm grip, anticipating the feeling of it growing slowly colder as the life leeched out of him. His memories emerged full force to remind him how this always went. He listened to the coughing sound that shook Cheng Xiaoshi’s shoulders, the bone-rattling ache, which… sounded… like laughter?
Lu Guang blinked, trying to clear some of the tears from his vision in order to see clearly. Cheng Xiaoshi looked up at him from the ground, a grin fixed on his face, as the laughter subsided into giggles.
“Lu Guang!” He said, and his voice was amused. “I’ve never seen you so dramatic.”
“Wh-what?” Lu Guang managed, heart still tripping over itself.
Cheng Xiaoshi used their handhold to haul himself up to a sitting position, before dropping it. Lu Guang immediately missed the indication of warmth. Cheng Xiaoshi’s other hand reached back to pat his hair, and it came away wet. Dark red. Blood stained. He was dying. There was so much blood, too much-
“Eugh, my hair’s all sticky. And it’s gonna be so horrid trying to get all this chocolate out of my clothes.”
Wait… chocolate?
Lu Guang finally let his brain catch up with his racing heart. Cheng Xiaoshi was behaving fine, or at least, certainly not like someone who had just sustained a life ending gunshot wound. Then where did all the blood come from? Lu Guang cast his eyes about, and finally saw beside him an object he didn’t recognise from the myriad other times he’d witnessed this scene.
The chocolate fountain, knocked to the floor, its contents spilled out across the tiles.
“I was literally just trying to walk past it and bumped into it with my side.” Cheng Xiaoshi grumbled. “It brought me down with it, of course.”
Lu Guang stood abruptly, reaching by the door to flick the red safelight off. That plunged the darkroom into darkness, and Cheng Xiaoshi squawked his indignation, but Lu Guang ignored him. The light from the main room was enough to see the definite brown colour to the pool.
“You’re an idiot.” Lu Guang said, trying to play it off. Relief, genuine and saccharine, spread through his chest. He made a show of a face palm, surreptitiously wiping his eyes. “How you keep getting yourself into dumb messes like this is beyond me.”
“Hey, you’re gonna help me clean up, right?” Cheng Xiaoshi pleaded. “We have to fix this before Qiao Ling finds out.”
“As if I have any other choice.” Lu Guang sighed deeply, then smiled down at him. “I will always help you, Cheng Xiaoshi.”