Work Text:
The mid-day sun cut across the carpet of Lu Guang’s dorm room, casting a sharp, geometric block of gold across a desk piled high with open textbooks, scratched graphing calculators, and scrap paper covered in frantic, looping handwriting.
Cheng Xiaoshi groaned, dropping his forehead directly onto the open pages of his statistics book. The heavy thud of his skull against the paper seemed to vibrate the entire desk.
"If I have to calculate one more standard deviation, my brain is going to liquefy and leak out of my ears," Cheng Xiaoshi lamented, his voice muffled by the textbook binding. "Lu Guang. Guang-guang. Please tell me we can stop. It’s noon, we should be eating lunch right now. People don’t torture themselves with stats at this time of day." Cheng Xiaoshi whined. Lu Guang didn’t answer immediately. He was sitting perfectly upright in his desk chair, a blue ballpoint pen held loosely between his fingers.
He was staring blankly at a normal distribution curve, his left hand raised to his face. His thumb and forefinger were pinched together, disappearing slightly past his lips, buried into the side of his mouth. His jaw shifted minutely. A tiny, wet, clicking sound echoed in the quiet room.
Cheng Xiaoshi rolled his head to the side, his cheek pressed against the page, watching his tutor with sudden curiosity. "What are you doing…?”
Lu Guang flinched slightly, snapping his hand away from his mouth. His expression instantly smoothed out into his trademark look of cool, detached indifference, though a faint hint of pink dusted the tips of his ears. "Nothing. Keep reading. You got the third step of the hypothesis testing wrong."
"Oh, You're totally lying," Cheng Xiaoshi said, sitting up straight, his academic misery completely forgotten. He leaned across the narrow space between their chairs, squinting. "You’ve been messing with your mouth for the last half hour. Do you have a cavity or something? Did you bite your tongue?"
"No." Lu Guang picked up his pen and pointedly underlined a formula. "Focus."
"Lu Guangggggg." Cheng Xiaoshi reached out, his long fingers wrapping gently around Lu Guang’s wrist, pulling his hand away from the desk. Cheng Xiaoshi’s touch was warm, a stark contrast to Lu Guang’s perpetually cool skin. "Your jaw is literally twitching. If you're in pain, just tell me.”
When Lu Guang didn’t respond, Cheng Xiaoshi bleated more. “Pleeaaaseee???”
Lu Guang sighed, a long, defeated sound. If there was anything Lu Guang couldn’t resist, it was the pleading, pitiful desperation in Cheng Xiaoshi’s voice. He looked down at the statistics book, his eyelashes casting long shadows over his cheekbones. He looked uncharacteristically small in his oversized gray hoodie, his silver hair a bit messy from where he’d been resting his head in his hands earlier.
"It’s not a cavity," Lu Guang muttered, his voice dropping an octave, sounding deeply annoyed—mostly at himself.
"Then what is it?"
Lu Guang hesitated, his tongue visibly pushing against the inside of his left cheek, creating a small, rounded protrusion. "It’s... a canine."
Cheng Xiaoshi blinked, confused. "A canine? Like, it hurts? Did you chip it on a piece of hard candy or something?"
"No," Lu Guang said, the pink on his ears spreading to his cheeks. He refused to look Cheng Xiaoshi in the eye. "It’s loose."
Cheng Xiaoshi stared at him. Then, he let out a short, incredulous laugh. "Loose? Lu Guang, you’re in college. Teeth don't just get loose unless you have scurvy or you got punched in the face. Did you get into a fight without telling me?"
"I don't have scurvy, and I didn't get into a fight," Lu Guang snapped, though there was no real bite to it. He looked thoroughly embarrassed, his gaze fixed firmly on his own lap. "It’s a deciduous tooth."
Cheng Xiaoshi’s brain, already fried from standard deviations, took a solid five seconds to process the medical term. "A... a what?"
"A baby tooth," Lu Guang mumbled, the words coming out in a rushed, quiet blur. Lu Guang’s face flushed a dark shade of pink.
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the distant sound of someone playing basketball on the campus courts outside the window. Cheng Xiaoshi’s jaw slowly dropped. He processed the information, visualizing it, and suddenly, a wave of pure, unadulterated affection washed over him so fast it made his chest ache.
"You... you still have a baby tooth?" Cheng Xiaoshi breathed, his eyes wide and shining. "Are you serious right now? A little kitty-cat baby tooth?"
"Stop calling it that," Lu Guang huffed, turning his face away, but the blush was now stark against his pale skin. "The dentist said it’s a rare dental anomaly. Sometimes the permanent tooth is impacted or delayed. Now mine’s finally coming down. That’s why this one is loose now.”
"Oh my god," Cheng Xiaoshi whispered, a massive, brilliant grin breaking across his face. He abandoned his chair entirely, dropping to his knees on the floor beside Lu Guang’s chair so he could look up into his face. "Let me see. Lu Guang, please, let me see it."
"No. It’s ridiculous."
"It’s not ridiculous! It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life!" Cheng Xiaoshi reached up, placing his hands on Lu Guang’s knees, shaking them slightly. "Come on. Show me. We’ve known each other for an eternity! I’ve seen you drop an entire bowl of noodles on the floor, and you won't show me your baby tooth?"
Lu Guang looked down at Cheng Xiaoshi. Cheng Xiaoshi’s dark eyes were wide, pleading, and entirely devoid of mockery. There was only a deep, soft warmth in them. Lu Guang’s shoulders slumped. He let out another soft sigh, acknowledging his complete inability to deny Cheng Xiaoshi anything when he looked at him like that.
"Fine," Lu Guang whispered. "Just... don't make a big deal out of it."
"I won't, I swear. Total professional," Cheng Xiaoshi promised, though his smile was still dazzling.
Lu Guang tilted his head back slightly against the headrest of his chair. He reached up with his thumb and forefinger, hooking them under his upper lip to lift it, exposing the left side of his upper jaw.
Cheng Xiaoshi leaned in close. Their faces were only inches apart now, close enough that Cheng Xiaoshi could feel the cool, steady puff of Lu Guang’s breath against his own lips. He focused on Lu Guang’s mouth. Sure enough, right there, the left upper canine was visibly smaller than the rest of his teeth. It was a little, sharp, pearlescent point, slightly out of alignment with the rest of his teeth.
"Can I..." Cheng Xiaoshi swallowed, his voice dropping to a soft murmur, suddenly acutely aware of how intimate this was. "Can I touch it?"
Lu Guang hesitated. Then gave a tiny, barely perceptible nod, his eyes fluttering shut, as if he couldn't bear to watch.
Cheng Xiaoshi carefully lifted his right hand. He rubbed his thumb against his pants to make sure it was warm and clean, then gently pressed the tip of his index finger against the tiny canine. He gave it a fractional, tentative push.
The tooth didn't just wiggle. It practically swung. It was hanging on by an absolute thread of tissue, completely detached from any solid root.
"Oh, wow," Cheng Xiaoshi murmured, his finger lingering inside the warmth of Lu Guang’s mouth. "Lu Guang, this thing is completely done. It’s barely even attached. How have you been eating?"
Lu Guang opened his eyes, looking down at him through hooded lids. "Carefully. On the right side."
"It must be driving you insane," Cheng Xiaoshi said. He rocked the tooth back and forth just a millimeter, watching how easily it moved. Lu Guang winced slightly, a tiny gasp catching in his throat, his hands tightening on the armrests of his chair.
"Does it hurt?" Cheng Xiaoshi asked softly, instantly stopping the movement.
"It doesn't hurt exactly," Lu Guang muttered around Cheng Xiaoshi’s finger. "It just... feels wrong. It’s irritating. Every time I swallow or speak, it moves."
Cheng Xiaoshi looked at the tiny tooth, then up at Lu Guang’s dark, expressive eyes. An idea, reckless and entirely typical of him, formed in his mind. "Let me take it out for you."
Lu Guang’s eyes widened. He pulled back slightly, forcing Cheng Xiaoshi’s hand out of his mouth.
"What? No. Absolutely not."
"Think about it!" Cheng Xiaoshi insisted, leaning forward again, his hands moving from Lu Guang’s knees to the armrests of the chair, effectively trapping the older boy in place. "It’s literally hanging by a thread, Lu Guang. If you go to a dentist, they’re going to charge you a co-pay just to pull on it for one second. Let me just do it. One quick pull. You won't even feel it!”
"You are not a medical professional, Cheng Xiaoshi. You’re a statistics student who is currently failing hypothesis testing."
"That’s totally unrelated and unfair," Cheng Xiaoshi argued, pouting. "Come on. Trust me. I used to pull my own teeth out all the time when I was a kid. And Qiao Ling's too, when she was too scared to do it! I have a gentle touch.”
Lu Guang stared at him, skeptical. However, the sheer annoyance of the dangling tooth was starting to override his logic. Every time his tongue brushed against it, there was a sharp, dull ache. He wanted it out. And, despite his protests, there was no one in the world he trusted more with his physical safety than the idiot currently kneeling in front of him.
"...Are your hands clean?" Lu Guang asked quietly.
Cheng Xiaoshi’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. "I’ll go wash them right now!”
He scrambled to his feet, practically sprinting to Lu Guang’s sink. Lu Guang sat alone in the quiet room, the mid-day sun warming his shoulders, feeling incredibly absurd. He reached up, touching the loose tooth again. It really was barely there.
A minute later, Cheng Xiaoshi burst back into the room, smelling strongly of the cheap, lavender soap. He held his hands out like a surgeon entering an operating theater, his palms damp but clean. He grabbed a clean tissue from the box on Lu Guang’s nightstand and tore off a small square.
"Alright," Cheng Xiaoshi said, his voice dropping into a soft, soothing register as he knelt back down. All the frantic, hyperactive energy from a moment ago had vanished, replaced by an intense, focused gentleness. "Sit up a bit. Lean your head back against the wall."
Lu Guang complied, his heart beating a little faster against his ribs. He hated being vulnerable, hated feeling like he wasn't in complete control of his own body, but Cheng Xiaoshi’s presence was like a heavy, warm blanket.
Cheng Xiaoshi leaned in, his thighs brushing against Lu Guang’s shins. He used his left hand to gently cup Lu Guang’s jaw, his thumb resting against Lu Guang’s cheekbone, holding him steady. The warmth of Cheng Xiaoshi’s palm against his face made Lu Guang’s eyes flutter shut for a moment.
"Open up, Guang-Guang," Cheng Xiaoshi whispered.
Lu Guang parted his lips, opening his mouth slightly.
Cheng Xiaoshi used the tissue-wrapped fingers of his right hand to grip the tiny, loose canine. He didn't pull immediately. He just held it, getting a firm grip, his knuckles brushing against Lu Guang’s lower lip.
"Don't tense up," Cheng Xiaoshi murmured, his eyes locked on Lu Guang’s face. "On three, okay? One..”
Twist. Pop.
Cheng Xiaoshi didn't even count to two. Before Lu Guang could register the deception, there was a sharp, localized pinch, a tiny sound of tearing tissue, and a sudden, overwhelming rush of emptiness on the left side of his mouth.
Lu Guang gasped, his eyes flying open. A sharp, hot ache bloomed along his gumline, accompanied by the distinct, metallic taste of copper.
"Got it. See? I told you!" Cheng Xiaoshi cheered, though he kept his voice low and gentle so as not to startle him. He held up the tissue. Nestled in the center of the white paper was a tiny, pristine white tooth, its root completely absorbed, looking incredibly small and delicate. "Look at it. It’s so tiny. You’re literally a kitten."
Lu Guang groaned, his tongue immediately darting into the newly formed vacancy. It felt massive. The empty socket was oozing a small amount of blood, the raw nerve endings reacting to the sudden exposure to air with a dull, throbbing ache.
"Here, bite on this," Cheng Xiaoshi said quickly, discarding the tooth on the desk and grabbing a fresh, clean piece of tissue, folding it into a tight, neat square. He gently pulled Lu Guang’s hand away from his face and guided the cottony square into the gap, placing it directly over the bleeding socket.
"Bite down. Gently."
Obediently, Lu Guang bit down. The dull ache sharpened for a second before settling into a manageable, throbbing heat. He looked at Cheng Xiaoshi, his eyes slightly watery from the sudden sting, looking thoroughly disgruntled and deeply embarrassed.
Cheng Xiaoshi didn't laugh. He didn't tease. He just stayed there, kneeling between Lu Guang’s legs, his left hand still cupping Lu Guang’s jaw, his thumb wiping away a tiny stray drop of saliva from the corner of Lu Guang’s lip with absolute tenderness.
"Let me see it," Cheng Xiaoshi murmured, leaning closer.
Lu Guang eased his bite slightly, parting his lips just enough for Cheng Xiaoshi to look.
With the tissue absorbing the blood, the gap was fully visible. Right there was a clean, empty space.
Cheng Xiaoshi stared at the gap, and his chest felt so full he thought it might split wide open. Without the tooth, Lu Guang looked younger, softer, stripped of his usual impenetrable armor. The tiny asymmetry of his smile made him look human, real, and heartbreakingly endearing.
"It’s so cute," Cheng Xiaoshi whispered, his voice thick with an affection so profound it bordered on reverence. "Lu Guang, you look incredibly cute."
Lu Guang, unable to speak clearly around the tissue, let out a muffled, irritated sound through his nose, his cheeks flaring a brilliant crimson. He tried to turn his head away, but Cheng Xiaoshi’s hand on his jaw tightened just enough to keep him in place.
"I'm serious," Cheng Xiaoshi said, his gaze shifting from the gap in Lu Guang’s teeth up to his dark, swirling eyes. "Don't hide it. I like it."
Lu Guang’s eyelids drooped, his defensive walls completely crumbling under the sheer weight of Cheng Xiaoshi’s sincerity. He let his shoulders relax, sinking back into the chair, allowing Cheng Xiaoshi to hold him.
Cheng Xiaoshi leaned in the rest of the way. He tilted his head, closing the small distance between them, and pressed his lips gently against Lu Guang’s cheek, right over the spot where the ache was throbbing. The kiss was soft, lingering, the heat of Cheng Xiaoshi’s skin transferring to his own.
Then, Cheng Xiaoshi shifted, his lips brushing against the corner of Lu Guang’s mouth, avoiding the bleeding side but remaining close enough that Lu Guang could taste the faint hint of mint from Cheng Xiaoshi’s breath.
"Does it hurt a lot?" Cheng Xiaoshi murmured against his skin.
Lu Guang shook his head slightly. The tissue was doing its job, the bleeding already slowing down, the ache turning into a numb, heavy sensation. He reached up, his cool fingers wrapping around Cheng Xiaoshi’s wrist, not to push him away, but to hold him there.
Cheng Xiaoshi smiled against his lips, a soft, breathless sound. He pressed another kiss to the center of Lu Guang’s forehead, then to the bridge of his nose, being incredibly gentle, as if Lu Guang were made of spun glass.
"You're going to have a lisp for a few days," Cheng Xiaoshi teased softly, his thumb tracing Lu Guang’s cheekbone. "You're going to say 'statistics' and it’s going to sound like 'thtatithtith'."
Lu Guang narrowed his eyes, a faint, muffled "Shut up" vibrating against the tissue in his mouth.
Cheng Xiaoshi laughed, a rich, warm sound that filled the sunlit dorm room. He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against Lu Guang’s, closing his eyes. "Alright, alright. No more statistics today. I'll go down to the campus convenience store and get you some ice cream. Soft food only for the patient."
Lu Guang didn't object. He just closed his eyes, listening to the steady sound of Cheng Xiaoshi’s breathing, the slight throbbing in his jaw completely eclipsed by the steady, overwhelming warmth in his chest.