Work Text:
Chi Cheng wakes up with the sun in his eyes. That would be insubstantial except for the fact that Wu Sou Wei hates to leave the blinds up at night, always saying that the sun in the city is too harsh compared to the sun in the countryside.
The body pressed against his is off too. The angles don't quite match with the body Cheng knows as well as his own at this point. The hair tickling his chin is too straight, the arm thrown over his waist doesn't feel right. Chi Cheng is on his back, which is weird enough by itself, he tends to sleep on his side, surrounding his beloved completely, and in the occasions he sleeps in his back, he usually wakes up with Suo Wei completely over him, his beautiful face buried in the crook of Cheng's neck, his wet breaths moistening Cheng's skin.
So — what's going on?
He opens his eyes and the ceiling that receives him is unfamiliar — except that is not. An old memory, almost forgotten, resurfaces in his brain unannounced, the ceiling he looked at for three years during college, the ceiling he lived under with Wang Shuo.
Cheng looks down, an dreadful feeling in his gut, to the face of his ex-boyfriend resting peacefully over his chest.
What the actual fuck?
Where is his wife? Where is his Wu Suo Wei?
He reaches blindly for the bedside table in search of his phone, turning it on and checking the date. It marks nine years in the past.
Fucking 2017. Cheng's last year of college, the year he believed his then boyfriend to have cheated on him with his best friend. The year his wife entered his own college education.
The last nine years of his life, the last three years living happily with the love of his life, have just disappeared.
That just can not be right, that can't be possible, to Chi Cheng to have to wait six entire, torturous years for the love of his life to appear in his life, brilliant and beautiful and scheming and bratty. Chi Cheng is not going to accept that easily.
Maybe this is just a nightmare, a lucid nightmare born from exhaustion and a row of sleepless nights. They have been expanding the company; it has taken a toll on both of them.
Yeah, a nightmare is more probable that an entire fucking accidental time travel.
Cheng decides to close his eyes again, let sleep take him and return him to his normal, placid life.
It doesn't happen. A hiss is heard outside the bedroom, something colliding with something else.
"Your child escaped her tank again," murmurs sleepily the man sleeping in his chest, "go check she doesn't break anything." Just like that, Wang Shuo rolls away from him, going back to sleep.
Cheng's chest constricts painfully, thinking about his Suo Wei again. Suo Wei would have gotten worried about the sound, about the integrity of their daughter (if the sound was made by Xiao Cu Bao, that's it, she is not the only snake Cheng has had, much less the only one he had while being with his ex). Sou Wei would have stood himself to go check on her, calling Cheng over his shoulder to come help him.
It has been maybe twenty minutes, and Cheng already misses him terribly.
He stands, anyway, because apparently this nightmare is not going to end anytime soon. And goes outside to check which one of his babies decided to escape their enclosure.
It's Xiao Cu Bao, who looks confused, almost angry in her restlessness. She is looking at the window, as if the environment around her was deeply unfamiliar and unsettlingly uncomfortable.
Cheng approaches her, hesitant and cautious, but Xiao Cu Bao looks at him immediately and hisses, slithering to him right away. Curling her entire body (she's smaller, she can only do a couple of turns around his wrist) around his forearm and nestling her head in his broad palm. She hisses again, a confused sound, and searches the air with her tongue.
Cheng doesn't understand what is happening to her, so he brings her to the bedroom, thinking that maybe, if this whole situation is not a nightmare, then his baby might want to see the man sleeping on the bed.
When he arrives at the bed he brings Xiao Cu Bao down besides Wang Shuo, but the snake just hisses, a high, angry sound that wakes the man up. He looks at the snake with cautious eyes.
"She has been angry since last night," says Wang Shuo. "You went to sleep earlier than usual, and I tried to feed her after feeding the rest of the snakes, but she tried to bite me."
Chi Cheng stops in his tracks. That doesn't sound quite right. During the time he and Wang Shuo were together, Xiao Cu Bao really liked him, loved him even. Just after the seven years they didn't see each other did Xiao Cu Bao decided she didn't like Wang Shuo anymore, and that only happened after the time Cheng gave her away and Suo Wei went to recuperate her from the Wang brothers' house.
Suo Wei, everything goes back to him.
Cu Bao slithers back to him, and again searches the air with her tongue, her movements more urgent now and Cheng wonders. He takes her back in his hands and looks at Wang Shup, who has a barely concealed envy look in his eyes, he never liked when someone else could do something that was not permitted to him, no matter who that someone was.
"I'm going to take her to the vet," lies Cheng easily. "Maybe she ate something that didn't agree with her and that's why she is like this."
Wang Shup gives him a smile that doesn't reach his eyes at all and waves to both of them.
Cheng enters the bathroom first, because he doesn't remember this day, nine years ago, and if he took a shower last night or not. And he wants to get outside, to breathe some fresh air and wonder what the hell is happening, maybe having a breakdown alone.
Wang Shuo knocks at the door maybe half an hour after, sounding somewhat hesitant. "Are you going to take another shower?" He asks, curious, after Cheng has spent so much time in the bathroom only looking at the tiles.
So, he did shower last night, that's amazing.
"I want to brush my teeth," Cheng says softly, cautious of the echo of this bathroom and how it can affect his child nestled against his chest.
Wang Shuo laughs outside, free and content, and Cheng asks himself if in this exact moment he is already thinking about destroying Cheng's life and his oldest friendship.
"Alright," is the easy answer from the other side of the door. "I have to get going, so I'll see you at lunch, right?"
"Yeah, right, of course." Cheng says absent-mindedly. Before he reculates and speak. "Thinking of it, it's possible I have to go see my father this afternoon, so I will text you if we'll see at lunch, alright?"
The silence from the other side lasts too long and Cheng starts to worry.
A sigh and the bonk of a forehead against the door's wood. "He's still bothering you, isn't he? He will never approve of who you love."
A lump lodges itself in Cheng's throat.
"You're wrong," is what he wants to say, he wants to say it so badly. "My dad approves the love of my life, they have lunch twice a week to catch up and my mother loves him as if he was her own son, and my nephew is always asking for him in every visit and every call. And my sister believes he is the funniest, most creative person she has ever met. It's you they didn't approve of, not him, not me, not anymore." He wants to say it, but he cannot.
It's not even true right now, his father most definitely does not approve of him right now.
"Always," is what he says instead, with teary eyes and a persistent pressure in his chest.
"Alright, call me if you need anything," his ex-boyfriend’s voice sounds weaker as he walks away from the bathroom door. "Love you!" It's the yell Cheng hears as Wang Shuo leaves.
He doesn't say anything, he cannot. He wants to be hugged by his loved one, smelling his cologne, hearing his voice rant about all and nothing at the same time. He misses his wife so much is already killing him.
He looks down and sees Cu Bao looking at him and having his tongue outside her mouth searching for something, or better say for someone, someone that is not here, that was never here, in this apartment, in the first place. She is not the only one looking for Suo Wei.
"You're also looking for him, aren't you, pretty? You're looking for Suo Wei," Cheng whispers softly, looking attentively as his daughter moves back and forth at Suo Wei's name. ”I'm looking for him too. I miss him so much, Xiao Cu Bao, it hasn't been one hour since I woke up and I already feel like I'm dying, like I missed a limb, like I'm walking half dead."
Xiao Cu Bao nestles closer to him and coos, sad and small.
Chi Cheng gets out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth, walks to the kitchen in auto mode and lefts Cu Bao in the kitchen counter. Starts the coffee machine absently and looks outside the window to the now unfamiliar view of this part of the city.
Just exactly what is he going to do?
He searches for his phone, founding it back in the bedside table. He looks inside, swiping up through his contacts looking for a name that could help him right now. He sees Guo Cheng Yu’s contact, but he can’t take the risk of contact his best friend right now, when he doesn’t understand what is going on and is not quite sure how he should behave.
Gang Zi contact looks right at him and Cheng smiles maybe for the first time that morning.
“I need to make a check up on someone,” Cheng writes up in the message box, then thinks, writes ‘Wu Suo Wei’ and stops, right now that’s not his beloved’s name. “Name is Wu Qi Qiong.”
Gang Zi
Understood.
Cheng sighs content, one step closer to his Suo Wei than before and arranges himself a cup of coffee, hears Cu Bao hiss and turns around.
There is a woman in his living room. Well, not exactly a woman, Cheng thinks, while rearranging the cup of coffee in his hands after almost dropping it on the floor. The woman, the creature, look hauntingly pale, translucent, and in a closer inspection, Cheng notices she doesn’t quite have legs, floating in the space as if normal. A ghost?
“Chi Cheng,” says the woman in a very ethereal voice, the sound reverberating weirdly against the walls.
“Who are you?”
“That doesn’t matter,” says her. “What matter is where your beloved is.”
Cheng straights immediately.
“Do you know what is going on?” He asks the most pressing matter right away, anxious and restless.
“Yeah, you have be sent back to the past.”
“But why?”
“Don’t you remember?” She asks and sounds almost kind in her inquire. “You two made a wish the night before, you both said you wished you have met earlier than you did, to prevent the mistakes you made.”
Cheng remembers, it had been a wistful conversation, full of giggles and kisses.
“How do you think things would have gone down have we meet earlier?” Sou Wei had asked suddenly, perched in his lap, phone in his hand, head over Cheng’s shoulder.
“Don’t know, have never think about it, honestly. Why?” Cheng had been curious about his love train of thought, a little bit worried too but he wasn’t sure why.
“Humour me, ge, think about it for a moment,” his love had insisted. “What do you think would have happened?”
Cheng thought about it and talked to his wife. “I think I would have been enamoured with you since the start.” Sou Wei made an incredulous sound at that and Cheng laughed. “I know what you’re thinking, about the photos Cheng Yu showed me of you while you were dating Yue Yue, but when I saw them I thought immediately that you were the cutest thing in the world, that I wanted to bite your cheeks and hear your squeaks, and love you to the hell and back.”
Sou Wei laughed, delighted and soft. “I was different before her, you know?” He asked whispering. “I always was a slim child, too tall and too skinny, mom used to grow worried at winter because of it, I only gained so much weight being with her, having a sedentary life and being generally unhappy apparently does that to a person, shifu said.”
Cheng hummed thoughtfully. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, before her or during her, I’m quite sure you would have caught my attention, I would have done anything to have you for myself.”
“Even if it wouldn’t matter, would you prefer meeting me after or during her, in this hypothetical?”
“Before”, said Cheng at last. “I believe that being with her would make my approach more difficult, maybe before her your ideas about what sexuality you should be and how you should live your sexual life wouldn’t have been so entrenched, maybe you would have been a little bit less stubborn on that matter.”
“Ah, I see how it is,” Sou Wei said teasingly, “so you would prefer having me virgin and inexperienced and hanging of your every act. So I would think at eighteen that you were the most handsome fella I have ever met”
Cheng laughed heartily at that. “Baby,” he started, mischievous and handsome, just a Suo Wei said, “I already had you virgin and inexperienced and hanging of my every act, and thinking I am the most handsome fella you have ever met, that’s how our first time went, don’t you remember?”
“Maybe I need a remainder,” said Sou Wei lowly. His heated eyes already hooded.
Cheng smirked, predatory, and held his beloved by his delicious waist, standing and starting to walk to their bedroom.
“But on a more serious note,” Cheng said, after depositing his precious cargo on the bed sheets and hovering over him, “would you have thought that, at eighteen? That I was the most handsome fella?”
Suo Wei giggles softly. “Yes, I would have,” he said slowly. “It would have been easier, too, at that age I remember I wasn’t so against the idea of finding a man attractive, I was a little bit more open, a little bit less convinced of my own heterosexuality. As I grew, I convinced myself that it was youth ideas, that I was as straight as you can be. But alas.” He made a move between their bodies, signalling the current situation they were in.
“But alas,” Cheng conceded and reached down to kiss his wife square in the mouth.
I would have love you since the start, Cheng remembers thinking, I would have found you, no matter what, and I would have prove to you that you have always been lovable, that you are the most special, amazing person in the world.
After that, there hadn’t been much thinking at all.
Yes, Chi Cheng remembers, but that was a hypothetical, a made-up situation to reassure his love that he would always been the love of Cheng’s life. Not matter the time they were in.
“That was not…” Cheng stops, to gulp through the lump in his throat and continue. “That was not a wish, that was a conversation between lovers, I didn’t ask for this.”
The woman looks at him with pity eyes. “What has been done cannot been undone. I’m sorry. It was interpreted as a wish.”
Cheng breathes deeply, tries to organize his thoughts and tries again. “You said it was a wish made by the two of us, does that mean that he was send to the past with me?” It’s the only hope left for Chi Cheng, for his love to be in the same confusing, disorienting situation as he is.
The woman looks even sadder. “He’s not,” she says quickly. “Only one of you could be sent, especially this far in the past.”
Another moment of panic goes through Cheng.
“So my Suo Wei, the one I have lived with for three years, is all alone now?”
The woman laughs softly. “He’s not,” she soothes easily.
It doesn’t reassure Chi Cheng. “So is he with someone else?”
“No,” says the woman, “he’s not. He’s with you.”
“I’m here”
“Of course, you silly,” the woman is not making any sense. “How do you think time travel works? Do you think a complete universe was going to be destroyed because two men made a wish?” The woman laughs again. “Obviously not. You’re here, and you’re there. And for that version of you nothing happened, but for you did. Do you understand now?” Se asks very, very slowly.
Cheng feels very stupid right now, his mind incapable of making any sense of the situation at hand. But he nods, equally slowly, just to do something.
“Marvellous,” she says cheerfully, a little bit mischievous too. “So now you have all the information, you must do what you must. Good luck!” She cheers and disappears.
Cheng is dumbfounded, there in the middle of his kitchen with a coffee cup getting colder by the second, thinking that maybe he did die and this is the purgatory, condemning him to pay for all his sins in life.
A buzz comes from his phone and Cheng looks at the message. Is a file with a very special name.
Gang Zi
Wu_Qi_Qiong_Profile.pdf
Me
Never mention this to anyone.
Gang Zi takes a second too long to answer.
Gang Zi
Understood.
Cheng smiles, if this is truly a time travel, if this is a nightmare, if this is the purgatory, it doesn’t matter in the end. Hadn’t he said so to Wu Suo Wei? He’s going to find his love and charm him again. Nothing is going to stop Cheng to have his wife back at his side as soon as possible.
He opens the file and the first thing he sees is a direction he is all too familiar with besides a current photo of his beloved. Oh well, this time around he’s going to have the opportunity to spend more time with his mother-in-law. Cheng need to see the positive side of all this.
Also, he’s going to get the opportunity to be the only one romantic partner in Suo Wei’s life, and that is something that fills him with giddiness and expectation.
He needs to get going, he has a man to make fall in love with him again.
He also has a current partner to let fake cheat on him, but that will come when it comes, it doesn’t concern Chi Cheng at all.