Work Text:
From: Annoying client
Sent today at 17:03
Happy birthday Xia Fei! (づ๑•ᴗ•๑)づ🎂
Xia Fei swiped the text notification with a huff. Looking back at him from the screen was his own face, gleaming with sweat in the bright sunlight pouring through the gym's bay windows. The chat kept rolling on; gift donations, heart emojis, compliments and birthday wishes. He wasn't about to let that guy, who clearly never heard of professional boundaries, affect his mood during his own stream.
Shadows slowly grew longer under the July afternoon sun, and Xia Fei's muscles started to ache — a good, satisfying ache, akin to the rumble in his stomach that preceded the bliss of a well-earned dinner.
Talking about dinner —
SUPERCHAT
HURRY~
HUNGRY~
Xia Fei's heart dropped, and so did the weights at his sides. He hurriedly wrapped up the livestream and ran to shower and change. He was not about to make his boss wait for him, especially when Vein was treating him to dinner. He knew he was not a person who would allow him to be late, so he made sure to look as good as if this were a work meeting, and headed over to the restaurant.
The place was a popular hot pot place in Soho, famous for their superb food and traditional recipes that reminded him of home; it was perfect for a birthday dinner. Xia Fei walked inside and asked for Vein's booking. Of course, it was a private room, so he headed to the back of the restaurant to find the assigned room. He pushed aside the red beaded curtain and walked in.
"Hi, boss, sorry for making you w–" he stopped mid-sentence when he realised that his boss was not alone; his new headache of a client was sitting beside him.
"Hi, Xia Fei. Always a delight to meet you. Happy Birthday," said Liu Xiao with a friendly smile.
"I figure we'd join business and pleasure," Vein declared, already filling his own bowl with blood-soaked meat. "Surely you don't mind?"
Oh, he did mind, very much so. What was meant to be a dinner for two with Lao Ban suddenly introduced a third wheel, and one that tended to make Xia Fei's hair prickle on his neck, at that. But if Xia Fei was two things, it was: 1) grateful; 2) a professional performer. He sat down at the table and engaged in polite, yet reserved discussion with the two others.
And maybe it was the beer, or the heat from the hot pot, but after a while, Xia Fei found himself warming up. Both physically – his jacket thrown across the back of his seat and his shirt sleeves rolled up to his shoulders – and socially. Vein liked to tease and play riddles, Liu Xiao humoured him, adding some philosophical questions to the potluck of ideas. As for Xia Fei, who had been mostly nodding along all night, suddenly felt bold enough to contribute with his own thoughts.
"The idea of supernatural powers," he mused, twirling the light gold liquid in his glass. "It's not as far-fetched as you'd think. I'm a skeptic by nature, but there are some things that cannot be explained, or corroborated by the scientific method."
Liu Xiao peered over the rim of his glasses, a visible glint in his amethyst eyes. "Such as?"
"I don't know," Xia Fei admitted. "Some things. It's… It's hard to explain."
Because how did you explain the strong, indescribable feeling that you were not supposed to live past ten years old? That you lived to celebrate your twenty-first birthday when your very existence should have gone up in flames a long time ago? How did you explain that a certain someone swooped into your life like a red angel, to save you while you were already living on borrowed time?
Luckily, Liu Xiao picked up on Xia Fei's contemplative silence. "What would you say if I told you I possess supernatural powers myself?"
Vein laughed heartily at the notion. "That would make things considerably more interesting. What kind of 'powers' would that be?"
"Take a guess," Liu Xiao answered without skipping a beat. His gaze drilled into Xia Fei's eyes, making him shift uncomfortably.
"Not your fashion sense, that's for sure," Vein chuckled. "That hat and glasses combo is certainly a choice. A sixth sense for business deals, maybe?"
Liu Xiao turned to him with a good humoured smile, relieving Xia Fei from the eye contact. "I was just joking, no need to take it so seriously. Besides, I'm just a simple student, my fashion sense cannot compete with professionals such as yourselves."
For a while after that, Xia Fei reverted back to his quiet self, watching the evening unfold with a growing sense of unease. No, that wasn't quite right. It was like watching puzzle pieces clicking into place, that you never knew matched one another's shape, and of which you couldn't see the completed picture yet. It was a strange thing to witness Liu Xiao fit between Vein and Xia Fei like into a mould caved in his exact shape, yet Xia Fei couldn't bring himself to be upset by it.
Even after Vein left early after taking a work call (and thankfully paying the bill and, Xia Fei was certain of it, leaving a generous tip), the puzzle pieces didn't fall apart. In fact, Liu Xiao ended up being quite the enjoyable company – as if the two of them had always shared dinners and conversations. As if Xia Fei had always made Liu Xiao laugh and Liu Xiao had always made Xia Fei ponder.
Their drinks were empty, their stomachs full and the sun low over the Bridon skyline when the two of them stepped out of the restaurant.
"My bus stop is that way," Xia Fei announced, pointing in a direction.
"Ah!" Liu Xiao snapped his fingers. "Hold on. I almost forgot."
He fished something out of his deep jacket pocket and handed it to Xia Fei: a small, square box with a bow on it. "I hope this time you will accept my birthday gift?"
Before he could think better of it, Xia Fei's curiosity got the best of him. He loosened the bow and opened the box with the appropriate reserve and gratitude, only to find—
"…A tamagotchi?"
Sure enough, the yellow plastic toy sat in the center of the box like a bright egg in its nest.
"No way, I had one of those when I was a kid! I used to love that thing! I lost it when—"
He cut himself abruptly, unwilling to finish that thought. The memory of that fire, hazy as it was, had been stored and locked away in the confines of his brain; now was not the appropriate time to retrieve it. (The appropriate time was never.)
"So did I," Liu Xiao answered, gracefully leaving Xia Fei's sudden silence unaddressed. "I guess you could say I was feeling nostalgic."
Nostalgic was the right word – Xia Fei was beginning to feel it too. Although to him, happy or sorrowful memories, it didn't make a difference. They were stored in a compartment out of sight and out of mind all the same.
Xia Fei cleared his throat, hoping the spark of emotion that started to clutch his voice would pass for a laugh.
"Not to sound ungrateful, but have you ever been told you're a bit weird? That's an odd present to give someone."
Liu Xiao only answered with a laugh. Bright and sincere, his eyes like moon crescents behind his round glasses.
"I suppose I am. By the way, you didn't answer my question earlier. If I had supernatural powers, what do you think they would be?"
Xia Fei gave it some serious thought for a moment, as he was fiddling with the small buttons on the plastic toy.
"I'd say, maybe telepathy? I could see you trying to read minds like the creep you are."
Liu Xiao tilted his head with an amused smile, expression dipping in the shade of the brim of his hat.
"Good thing is I don't need that kind of power to read you. You're like an open book, after all."
Xia Fei's fingers froze. You're like an open book. Liu Xiao had told him those words before – why did it sound different, now?
"See? That face you're making. That's what I'm talking about."
Xia Fei didn't know, nor did he want to know, what face Liu Xiao was seeing. Eager to change the subject, he composed his expression and pocketed the tamagotchi, promising that he would take good care of the little guy.
Now the sun was touching the horizon, throwing golden and orange hues all around. Xia Fei thanked Liu Xiao again for the present and bid his goodbye before turning on his heels. He stopped and turned after a few steps. Liu Xiao hadn't moved, still standing in the same spot with his hands in his pockets, smiling contently.
"So, you're not gonna tell me what's your superpower?" Xia Fei asked. "After all that fuss you made about it?"
"Let's not reveal all my cards just yet, shall we?"
Memories – both a blessing and a curse.
Memories of a boy who was far from home, who met another boy who was just like him.
"I'm Xia Fei," said the boy, unprompted, smile spread across his cheeks and lighting up like the sun. "I'm in Mr Cheng maths' class too. Do you like maths?"
Liu Xiao was only ten and had just crossed half the planet, though he was equally lonely on either side of it. He didn't know how to speak to other children who were not his bully of an older brother.
"Not particularly," he said with a shrug.
"No? What do you like, then?"
When Liu Xiao only stayed silent, unsure of what to say, the other boy pointed at the toy in Liu Xiao's hands.
"You like Tamagotchis? I have one of those too! Wanna play together?"
That day, Xia Fei had been the first one to show him kindness, and he had remained kind as the years went on. Liu Xiao heard his heartbeat grow slower and stronger, but he heard it get troubled too, swayed by ranges of emotions that Xie Fei could never hide, even if he wanted to. His heart drummed to a whole new rhythm when Vein became a fixture in his life. That much was obvious to anyone with eyes to see, not just to those who could read your heart.
But Liu Xiao was content, regardless. This life went on as it was meant to – until it didn't.
Until someone flipped the hourglass on its head, and suddenly, all was undone.
Liu Xiao shouldn't have known. He shouldn't have memories from a different timeline that no longer existed, but he did.
He shouldn't have the mind of a twenty-one year old man in the body of a small boy, but he did.
He shouldn't know a school where he had never studied, its teachers, its classes and corridors, its pupils – his friends – because that school burnt down to ashes before Liu Xiao was even old enough to attend it, but he did.
What could be more cruel than to remember a life that did not remember you?
But Liu Xiao had made up his mind a long time ago. He'd chase those loose threads of time and tie them back together. He'd turn uncertainties into one certainty: that he'd meet his friend from the beginning once more, and he'd never be alone again.