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A small bell chimes above, tinkling like a holiday song, dancing wildly from its spot affixed to the front door as though it shivers from the cold wind just as the two outsiders do, stepping beyond its high-pitched dance.
“Brr~!” The red-flushed, stiff-bodied, human popsicle that is Cheng Xiaoshi shivers. “It’s cold out there!”
Warm-blooded and cold-tongued Lu Guang steps up next to him, a flat glower in gray eyes. “Because you decided going out in the snow for boba without anything to cover your head was a good idea.”
“Hey, I have my scarf I’ll have you know.” Matter-of-factly, Cheng Xiaoshi speaks as though a simple scarf of aged green wool would be enough to combat the cold, wet chill of the falling snow outside.
Lu Guang does not humor him with a response—like with most of the half-brained remarks that come out of his partner’s mouth.
“Not like you’re any better off, Mr. Earmuffs.” Leaner, broader arms crossed over a chest puffed in pride.
“Better off than you—That counts for something.” Taking the bait, always without meaning to: Responding back even though he swears in his head he won’t.
“Hello!” A bright, hospitable voice chimes, just like the bell before.
Eyes of cedar brown—the rich bark of a tree trunk in summer—pull away from the gray-pooled eyes of his partner. “Ah, hello!” Cheng Xiaoshi greets.
Lu Guang nods out a quiet acknowledgement.
“Welcome in to Hiu-Ming’s! Just the two of you this afternoon?” The hostess’ honeyed voice asks; brown eyes just as bright and sweet as her voice.
“Yes, just us!” Cheng Xiaoshi affirms with a polite nod, green scarf shifting away from his neck ever so slightly.
Lu Guang looks at it for a beat, and a beat longer, as though he ruminates on reaching up to fix it himself. But he doesn’t. Breaks the beat. Focuses his eyes elsewhere—some poinsettias nestled snug on the left edge of the check-in podium.
“Booth or table?” Miss Honey-Voiced Hostess asks.
“Either is fine.” Lu Guang’s voice slides into the conversation while his eyes keep fixed to the red and green leaves.
“Ah- but a window seat would be nice!” Cheng Xiaoshi interjects before the final verdict.
“That’s fine~ If you would just follow me—”
She steps away from the podium, walking towards the left as her tightly-tied ponytail bounces from her stride. Cheng Xiaoshi follows suit—a puppy on heels—as his hand reaches back, grabbing hold of Lu Guang’s coat sleeve to tug him along.
Despite being perfectly capable of following on his own, Lu Guang allows himself to be pulled behind his partner by the sleeve of his brown coat. He had to give him some leniency, he supposed. This is supposed to be a date after all. They’ve needed it: A break from the shop… A break from the jobs… A break from the monotony of the day-to-day… a pause, a break, a day that’s all their own.
Though, why Cheng Xiaoshi wanted to go out to a fancy café for a boba milk tea in the snow, was a question Lu Guang couldn’t formulate an answer to. The milk tea is cold. It’s cold outside. He wanted to go out into the cold for an equally cold drink. His partner’s logic is… puzzling, at best.
…Better not to ruminate on it.
(He’d give himself a headache trying to think like his partner.)
“Here we are. I hope this seating is to your liking~” Miss Sweet-Voiced Hostess announces.
Somehow spacing out while walking forward, Lu Guang’s eyes refocus to catch the moment. True to word, the ponytailed hostess brought them right to a window-side seat. Basic wooden table—a two-seater, so on the smaller side. Small QR sticker on the right side: Online menu more than likely. Two bow-backed chairs of equal hue to the table on either side, north and south with the window itself nestled to the west. Snow adorns the ledges of the window outside, a thick dusting of white cramped on thin lines as the touch of its cold fogs the glass itself.
“Yes, this is perfect!” Cheng Xiaoshi chirps, tugging at Lu Guang’s coat sleeve in retrained enthusiasm. (In which Lu Guang wordlessly lets him.)
“Wonderful~” Honeyed Hostess beams, her professional smile ever bright. “We have our drink and snack menu online, so just scan that QR code on your table to look through them. Enjoy~” With her pleasantries—and her duty—done, she rounds her way back to the entrance to continue her routine.
“Thank you!” Cheng Xiaoshi calls to her receding form, ever polite, ever kind. “M’kay, let’s sit~” tugging on his coat sleeve again (as if he had somehow forgotten how to move on his own).
“Mm.” A hum blown out from his nose; wordless sound of agreement.
Lu Guang carefully occupies the north-faced seat; taking the time to push his coat-ends back so he doesn’t sit on them, adjusting minutely until he’s comfortable. His partner—in true opposite polarity—plops himself down on the south-faced seat, halfway sitting on his oversized sweater as he occupies as much space as the chair will let him.
“Hurry and figure out what you want, Guang-Guang, I’m parched for that boba milk tea!” Cheng Xiaoshi’s voice bounces and dips like a roller coaster: High for the hurry, low for the thirst.
“I already know.” Lu Guang coolly responds. “I looked at the menu online before we left.”
“Aww~ Aren’t you such a considerate partner?” A teasing little coo—pigeon-bright.
“You could stand a little more considering yourself.” A cold jab on the outside, but with the faint uptick of his lips, the warmth of a familiar chide resides: intimate banter for their respective Yin and Yang.
“Tch!” Cheng Xiaoshi clicks his tongue gently against his front teeth, very much pretending to be offended. But the warmth radiating from the rich cedars of his eyes mirrors his partner’s playfulness.
“How I’ve fallen from my Guang-Guang’s favor—a tragedy!” Dramatically splaying his hands over his chest, obscuring the adorable polar bear face sewn into his sweater.
Lu Guang’s mouth moves to make a retort, joke back, but he keeps the words behind his teeth and swallows them when their waiter appears table-side.
“Afternoon, gentlemen,” He greets. Not as bright as Honey-Hostess, but polite and welcoming all the same. “What can I get started for you today?”
“Boba milk tea for me, please!” Cheng Xiaoshi chirps once more.
(Impressive energy for such a cold day.)
“Boba milk tea, gotcha…” Scribbling in a notepad with a faded blue pencil. “And for you?” Brown eyes meet with Lu Guang’s.
“Coffee: Decaf, add cinnamon.” Direct but polite.
“Decaf… add cinnamon… Alright, anything else for you?”
“That’s it,”
“All good here~”
Both of them chime in unison, one chipper pitch and one smoother pitch creating a brief harmony.
“Alright, I’ll get those drinks in.” The waiter smiles politely before taking leave.
Cheng Xiaoshi’s eyes drift to the snow-laden window, the brightness of the falling flakes highlighting his irises like a camera’s lens. “Still snowing away out there…” He mentions with a wistful lull.
Lu Guang’s eyes take to the window as well. Though he doesn’t look out at the snow, or the cars and buildings and streets sprinkled in cold confetti… His eyes take to their returned reflections: The warm lights of the café bleeding into their images—how much warmer and real it makes them feel. He stares at his partner’s reflection without worry (of being called out for staring, that is). Takes in every roll and shift of his eyes, how his hair moves with every breath, and even down to the creases and folds in his sweater and the dips and peaks of the scarf around his neck.
September long past—He brought him to winter.
In the warmth, in the silence. In the peaceful mundanity of a snowy winter’s afternoon. Together. They’re here in winter together.
A smile reminiscent of a bright crescent moon overtakes Cheng Xiaoshi’s face. He brings up his index finger to the glass, and with two squeaking, arcing motions, draws a big heart. Eyes glance back, towards him, and his smile somehow finds a way to grow even wider. Finger sqk sqwk sqwwks against the glass as he writes his name inside the heart, the condensation as his ink. Then below that, he sqwk sqwwk sqwks Lu Guang’s name into the heart. Those cedar eyes stare at him; warmly expecting.
No words are said, no jokes are made, but Lu Guang blushes all the same; tugging at the collar of his turtleneck sweater as though he overheard something indecent. Must be the expression his partner had been gunning for, as his smile turns vocal with an exhaled giggle.
“Alrighty~” The waiter returns with a slightly louder voice, announcing his arrival in a playful, well-mannered way that pulls them away from the window, away from the musing.
“One boba milk tea—” set in front of Cheng Xiaoshi (whose eyes light up exponentially bright at the sight). “—and a decaf coffee, add cinnamon.” Set in front of Lu Guang. “Can I get you guys anything else?”
“No, thank you, this is fine.” Lu Guang smiles with his eyes.
“Yup, we’re good!”
“Alright then, enjoy.” The waiter courteously smiles before taking another leave.
“…Man I almost said ‘you too’.” Cheng Xiaoshi sheepishly laughs when the waiter is out of earshot.
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Lu Guang acknowledges, swirling the stick of cinnamon in his coffee around in a lax fashion. “Won’t be the last, either.” He adds, unable to resist getting a chance to rib at him.
Because as much as Cheng Xiaoshi likes to tease him, Lu Guang likes to tease him back just as much—in his own dry, sarcastic way, of course.
“Oh that’s just mean.” A pout that nothing but playful.
A gentle smile in return.
“Y’know, the other day, didn’t you also nearly tell someone ‘you—”
“I thought you were parched for the boba. Don’t let it get soggy, now.”
Always knowing just how to distract him, Lu Guang steers the conversation away from a similar mistake he made sometime last week. The squint in those brown eyes though tells him that this won’t be the last he’ll be hearing about this. No matter. Something to look forward to, silly as it sounds. Because moments like these used to be far and fleeting.
But here in this winter, beyond the cruelty of blood-soaked September, he has nothing but time to listen to his partner point out his mistakes, to rib him back. Nothing but time…
It’s funny.
Time used to be an unbeatable race…
…Now it’s a leisured friend.
“Lu Guang~ you gonna stir your coffee all day or are you gonna drink it?” Cheng Xiaoshi mentions, thick straw already chewed flat from his teeth.
“Depends—are you going to drink your milk tea or eat your straw?”
He’s frowned and huffed at for that. But he just smiles in response—a smile that lights his eyes and nearly displays his teeth. An action that receives an equal reaction; he’s given a loving smile back.