Archive of Our Own

Dan Heng liked to think of himself as a man who knew how to say no.

His friends, March and Stelle particularly — mainly because they were especially persuasive in their whining and would not give up until he gave in — were the only exception.

Sighing, Dan Heng looked up and made eye contact with the menaces themselves, standing a few feet away by a wall and waving at him with matching shit-eating grins on their faces. Though a part of him was happy to see them so happy, the other, more rational side to him thought to himself that he really needed to learn how to refuse them.

After all, Dan Heng’s inability to say no to his friends led him to where he was now: standing in line amidst a gaggle of excited fans, all waiting for a chance to interact with one of the official cosplayers hired by Astral Hunters Games.

Being at a convention and being surrounded by cosplayers was nothing new to Dan Heng. Interacting with cosplayers was also something Dan Heng did on the regular, even if he was not a cosplayer himself. March and Stelle, after all, were well-known professional cosplayers who always dragged him along when they were contracted for work at conventions. Oftentimes, Dan Heng was the one to take pictures of them, standing next to the group of professional photographers and using his own camera to get the best angles of the two of them. (Both March and Stelle tended to prefer his pictures over the ones that the professional photographers took of them and were always happy to post his work on their pages.)

Doing this suited Dan Heng just fine; photography was his hobby, and he much preferred to be on the other side of the camera.

But now…

“Are you nervous, too?”

Dan Heng looked over to the side, where a man with long, gray hair with a plastic halo and angel wings attached to his head was speaking to him.

“A bit,” Dan Heng confessed, not usually one to speak about his feelings but willing to open up for the sake of polite small talk. “I've never done this before.”

“Neither have I,” the man said. “My name is Sunday, what’s yours?”

“Dan Heng.”

“It’s my pleasure to meet you, Dan Heng.” Sunday gestured to the small stage setting that was set up in front of them. “Which of the cosplayers are you signed up to interact with?”

“The cosplayer for Yingxing, from Revenge of the Furnace Master,” Dan Heng replied. Even admitting that felt a little too revealing, a little too vulnerable, but he tamped down the feeling. The two of them were both waiting in the cosplayer interaction line; clearly, Sunday was not going to judge him. 

Sunday made a soft noise of interest. “I haven’t played that one.”

Dan Heng crossed his arms and debated whether he wanted to launch into his spiel about the series. It was his favorite series for a reason, but he also wasn’t one to talk too much about the things he liked, either (except for when March and Stelle prompted him to get into it, and then he could get lost in his discussions for a long time).

Revenge of the Furnace Master had started as a self-published light novel series set in fantasy ancient China; the series was authored by a man who, at the time, had used the pen name Lightning Lord. It followed the main character, Yingxing, through his life of poverty and orphanhood all the way to his adult years, where he made a name for himself as a highly esteemed craftsman and military commander. Though the series had been rather niche at first — Dan Heng had been one of its original fans, though, following it since it only had three chapters published — it had quickly grown in notoriety as an interesting cast of characters known as the High Cloud Quintet were introduced and the plot thickened to reveal that not everything was as it seemed.

The first of the High Cloud Quintet to be introduced was Baiheng, the bubbly fox-hybrid bow user, then Jingliu, the swords master whose icy exterior could only be melted by a select few. After that came Jing Yuan, a prodigy under the tutelage of Jingliu who was later revealed to have been named after the author himself. Finally, there was Dan Feng, the leader of a draconic race of people who eventually became Yingxing’s closest confidant.

Of the main cast, Yingxing was undoubtedly Dan Heng’s favorite. His earnest yet stubborn personality was incredibly endearing, and though he had gone through a protagonist “corruption” arc, he had come out of it victorious, having defeated the authoritarian governmental faction that was threatening to take over his country with the help of his friends. For all that the series had its rough patches — the author, after all, had been posting each chapter as he finished writing and editing them — it had ended incredibly well, and it had the perfect amount of action, drama, introspection, and even splashes of romance that kept Dan Heng hooked.

Technically, the series had ended without any confirmed romance. But Dan Heng was convinced that Yingxing and Dan Feng had gotten married following the series’ end, considering the promises they had made to one another before heading off into that final battle. 

“It was originally a light novel series,” Dan Heng said, instead of any of the facts he had tucked away in his mind where he kept the rest of his important knowledge, “but Astral Hunters Games acquired the rights to turn it into story-based RPG.”

Around them, the people in the lines shifted as some of the booth employees came out through the side doors. Dan Heng glanced down at his phone and saw that they still had fifteen minutes until the cosplayers were scheduled to reveal themselves. The stage area itself, too, was a mystery: large curtains covered the booths where the cosplayer interactions were supposed to take place, so it was impossible to see how each booth was decorated.

“You must be excited, then, to see your favorite series in game form,” Sunday said, a small smile on his face.

Dan Heng nodded. “I didn’t sign up for this myself, though. My friends did.”

“Ah.” With a chuckle, Sunday shook his head. “I know the feeling. My sister signed me up for this.”

The two of them continued their conversation, Sunday revealing that he was set to meet the cosplayer for Welt Yang, the mentor figure in the mech-based anime and fighting game Arahato. Dan Heng had heard of the game, mostly from March and Stelle, but he hadn’t ever played or watched it. Sunday was so excited to describe the mechanics of the gameplay, raving on about how he was looking forward to the addition of a new playable character by the name of La Mancha that he wanted to obtain and start playing as soon as possible, and had nothing but praises for the music score, that Dan Heng couldn’t help but talk more about how much he loved Revenge of the Furnace Master, too, dipping into some of his thoughts about the worldbuilding and character arcs.

“I agree that Yingxing and Dan Feng likely got married after the series ended,” Sunday said, nodding so earnestly that the wings attached to his head bobbed up and down. “Why do you think the author didn’t make it explicit?”

Dan Heng shrugged. “If I were to guess, the author may just be inexperienced about romance,” Dan Heng replied, thinking about just how young the author was revealed to be. “There have been some rumors that he’s been working on a continuation or side stories to celebrate the release of the game, though, so maybe we will get more information about Yingxing and Dan Feng together soon.”

Sunday hummed. “I hope I can finish reading the novels before the side stories release, then.”

“If you do, please feel free to message me your thoughts.” Dan Heng never did this at conventions, but he pulled out his phone and asked Sunday to share his social media handle.

Sunday happily took Dan Heng’s phone and entered his username into the app. “And you regarding Arahato, as well!”

Naturally, their conversation drifted to other books, games, and series. They even shared some lighthearted teasing, after they noticed that they both tended to like the older male characters. Their discussion about their respective favorite pieces of media was so pleasant that Dan Heng knew that he planned to keep in touch, and he even offered to introduce him to March and Stelle later.

Dan Heng just finished typing in his own username into Sunday’s phone when the speakers on the side of the stage crackled to life.

“Everyone, welcome to the cosplayer interaction session arranged by Astral Hunters Games!” came the announcer through the speakers. “Our staff will now be checking that everyone in line has a confirmation email and a valid form of ID. From there, we will be arranging you all in the appropriate lines for you to meet the character that you are signed up for.”

Sunday took his phone back from Dan Heng’s hands as a staff member approached them. “It looks like we will be separated shortly,” he said. “Thank you for chatting with me, Dan Heng.”

Dan Heng nodded, and turned around when another staff member tapped him on the shoulder. After she checked his email and his driver’s license, she ushered him over to the leftmost line, where about seven people were already standing. Dan Heng could no longer see March, Stelle, or Sunday from where he was standing, so he scrolled on his phone as more people joined the line behind him and the other lines adjacent.

The staff contracted by Astral Hunters Games were incredibly efficient. Despite the huge throng of people that had been standing in the original line, the staff had all managed to wrangle everyone into a neat set of ten lines in front of each interaction area. Once everyone was organized, the staff went to stand in front of each of their respective lines.

“This line is for meeting with Yingxing from Revenge of the Furnace Master,” their assigned staff member said through her megaphone. “If anyone is not here to meet Yingxing, please kindly step up here and I will get you to where you need to go.”

When nobody got out of line, the staff member continued. “Good. We want everyone here to have fun, but there are some ground rules that we need to establish.”

The rules were simple and par for the course: they had one minute, and no more, to interact with the cosplayer; they were allowed to interact physically with the cosplayer, but if the cosplayer did not initiate the contact or they wanted anything beyond a high-five, then they had to ask for consent first; and if they wanted photos or videos of their interaction, they would have to ask the person behind them in line for help.

Dan Heng hadn’t originally signed himself up for this interaction. But now that he was here, he was not going to let the moment go to waste without any photos.

“I’ll film you, no worries!” the person behind him in line said. His sandy blond hair was tied up in a messy ponytail, and he was dressed in blue hanfu with a badge of Jing Yuan pinned to the side and a foam sword attached to his hip. Overall, he seemed rather young; a quick glance at his youth badge confirmed Dan Heng’s suspicions that the boy must have been sixteen. “Do you have any requests?”

Technically, Dan Heng had many, since he could get a bit particular about his photography, but he shook his head. “Just please don’t drop my phone.”

The teenager beamed. “You got it!”

Dan Heng nodded his thanks, and the teenager turned away to chat with the girl behind him, who appeared to be cosplaying a member of the craftsman guild that Yingxing had become the leader of. The two teenagers were likely friends, given how quickly they devolved into bickering; Dan Heng turned back toward the stage and tuned them out.

The staff member in charge of their line said something into her handheld radio, nodded, then turned her megaphone back on.

“Alright, now that everyone has made arrangements for their photos and understands the rules…”

The lights in the booth dimmed. The soft instrumental music that had been playing throughout the entire waiting period grew louder.

“…please welcome our esteemed guests!”

Applause and screams echoed throughout the booth as the curtains lifted to reveal the cosplayers lined up on the stage.

The Revenge of the Furnace Master section of the stage, Dan Heng was pleased to note, had been thoughtfully decorated to make the space look as if it were Yingxing’s crafting workshop. Dan Heng was glad that the staff in charge of the decorating had taken care to create a scene that was relevant and specific to Yingxing's character, as they could have easily chosen to make his booth look like a generic xianxia setting. His gaze roamed over the decorations, taking in the lights that created a wonderful effect of a furnace's flickering flame; the assortment of prop tools set on the work table; the heavy overcoat, embroidered with intricate details, draped over the chair set off to the side; the incredibly handsome cosplayer standing right in the middle of it all, adjusting the bandages around his toned forearms—

Dan Heng paused, his cheeks bursting into flame.

The cosplayer they had hired for the role of Yingxing was…well built. Even though he was fully clothed with barely any skin showing — the sleeves of the craftsman uniform were rolled up, yes, but his arms were covered in white cloth bandages — it was clear from the way the fabric strained as he moved that the cosplayer had thick muscles underneath it all.

Quickly forcing himself to ignore the cosplayer’s build, Dan Heng took his time admiring the construction of the cosplay itself. The details in the uniform were clearly done with embroidery, not ironed-on vinyl details, and the wig was artfully styled with a convincingly realistic false hairline and wispy white strands that looked soft enough to touch, even though Dan Heng knew that they were likely stiff from layers and layers of hairspray. The cosplayer was on stage and it was a bit too far to see the finer details of the makeup applied to his face, but from what Dan Heng could see, the makeup artist had done an incredible job. The slant of his brows, the sharp cut of his jaw, and the striking periwinkle of his eyes made him look like a carbon copy of the Yingxing shown in every official artwork.

In other words: Dan Heng was in trouble.

Was it too late to make a run for it? Dan Heng looked around discreetly, attempting to see if there was any way to get out of line without making a scene, but it was far too crowded. If he tried to go now, then everyone would turn to look at him — the staff member at the front of the line might even point her megaphone at him and tell him to stay in place, misinterpreting his need to escape as a crazy urge to storm the stage — which would be even worse than having to spend a minute with his favorite character and biggest fictional crush.

Dan Heng sighed, inhaled deeply, and clenched his fists.

He was an adult, a perfectly well-adjusted and socially adept adult, and the cosplayer was a professional. All he needed to do was step up onto the interaction stage once it was his turn, get a few pictures with the cosplayer, and leave.

Dan Heng could do this. 

One by one, the people in line before him stepped up for their turn. Yingxing — no, no, bad Dan Heng, the cosplayer for Yingxing, he was not actually Yingxing! — greeted them all differently based on the subtle cues in their body language. It was fascinating to watch: for the first girl who stepped up, Yingxing took her hand in his and escorted her to the stage, acting like the charismatic gentleman he was. For the second girl, Yingxing slung his arm over her shoulder and treated her like an old friend, smiling brightly as she took a selfie with him holding her Jingliu plush doll. The third person who stepped up was a man who asked for and subsequently received a hug, and after that, Yingxing posed with him for several pictures, pretending to teach the fan how to properly hold a forging hammer.

Soon enough, Dan Heng was set to go up next. Yingxing had just finished waving goodbye to the person who had gone before him — Dan Heng hadn’t been asked to take her photos as she had wanted to use her phone to film a “POV” video — and was now “resetting” himself on the interaction stage.

“Are you ready?” the staff member asked him. “Don’t forget, if you want pictures, you’ll need to ask the person behind you.”

Dan Heng handed his phone to the teenager behind him with a quiet thanks (“Of course! I’ve got you covered!”) and nodded. “I’m ready.”

The staff member flashed a thumbs up to the cosplayer, and then he was descending down the steps with all the self-assured confidence that defined Yingxing as a character.

Something close to panic took over Dan Heng’s senses, his heart racing and his blood rushing in his ears, keeping him rooted to the floor and stiff as a board. Did he have anything on his face? Was his hair okay? Were his clothes appropriate for the occasion?

Long white hair fluttering behind him, Yingxing stepped up to Dan Heng, and with a small smirk, took Dan Heng’s hand in his.

Up close, Yingxing was even more handsome than Dan Heng could have ever imagined. Just one look into his eyes had Dan Heng feeling like a particularly skittish lizard, like the ones that ran as fast as their little legs could take them across the sidewalk to hide in the bushes whenever anyone came within a few feet of them.

Too bad Dan Heng couldn’t run now, especially with Yingxing’s warm and calloused hand holding his own.

“Don’t be nervous,” Yingxing said, and oh, fuck, his voice was so smooth and silkily deep that Dan Heng couldn’t help but gulp. “Just follow my lead, hm?”

Alarm bells rang in his head, reminding him that he only had one minute to interact with the Yingxing cosplayer, so Dan Heng forced his legs not to wobble as he was escorted to the interaction stage.

The other guests before him had come prepared. Dan Heng had watched them pull the Yingxing cosplayer in for a variety of poses, smiling for the camera and making the minute pass by in a blink. However, Dan Heng was still a bit frozen, overcome by nerves at having Yingxing so close to him.

“Has anyone ever told you that you would make a wonderful Dan Feng?” the Yingxing cosplayer said, crossing his arms and tilting his head in the exact same way he was described as doing in the novel. 

Dan Heng flushed. That was probably one of the pre-approved lines that the company had given the cosplayer to say.

“I’ve never been told that, no,” Dan Heng replied, mentally patting himself on the back for how steady his voice sounded.

Yingxing chuckled and placed his hand on Dan Heng’s cheek. Dan Heng’s face instantly turned bright pink. Distantly, Dan Heng registered a squeal rising up from the somewhere in the audience.

“Well, perhaps next time we meet, you’ll be Dan Feng,” Yingxing said with a teasing lilt to his voice. “Every Yingxing needs his Dan Feng, after all.”

Dan Heng hoped that his phone camera wouldn’t capture just how red his face was.

“Twenty seconds left!” the staff member shouted in warning. 

Heart still pounding furiously behind his ribcage, Dan Heng asked, “If it’s okay, could you pose with this plush?”

Yingxing nodded, his eyes crinkling in the corners. “Of course.”

Dan Heng concentrated on keeping his hands steady as he unclipped the Yingxing plush doll hanging from his belt. Although Dan Heng hadn’t known that he was signed up for the interaction until earlier that day, when March and Stelle had cheerfully told him, he had coincidentally come to the convention with the Yingxing plush doll. (He came to most conventions carrying his Yingxing plush doll, really.)

Carefully, the Yingxing cosplayer took the doll from Dan Heng's hands. The two of them turned toward the camera together, and after a few seconds, Dan Heng felt Yingxing press the plush doll against the still-warm skin of his face.

Dan Heng turned his head to the side to look and received a face full of the doll, right on his lips.

“A little kiss, from little me,” Yingxing said, laughing, his eyes sparkling under the bright stage lighting. 

Thankfully, it was impossible for Dan Heng to blush any more than he already was. Fainting was technically still on the table, but if Dan Heng fainted right then and there in front of everyone, he figured that he might as well go ahead and pass onto the next life from mortification. 

“Time’s up!”

Disappointment and relief battled for dominance in Dan Heng's heart; he didn't want to part from Yingxing, but he also needed to go sit in a corner and stare at a wall for a bit.

On autopilot, Dan Heng bowed at the waist toward the cosplayer.

“Thank you for your hard work today,” Dan Heng said, staring down at the cosplayer’s shoes. The costumer had done a great job with those, too.

A gentle hand nudged Dan Heng’s chin upward, and those periwinkle eyes bore directly into Dan Heng’s soul.

“The pleasure was all mine.” Yingxing’s smile this time was soft, amused. “Let me escort you down.”

Yingxing placed his hand on Dan Heng’s back, offering a steadying presence as Dan Heng did his best to walk down the steps without stumbling. Just as Dan Heng was about to reach out to retrieve his phone, Yingxing grabbed his arm.

Bringing Dan Heng’s hand up to his face, Yingxing said, “Until next time, A-Feng,” before pressing an air kiss just an inch above the back of Dan Heng’s hand.

It was a good thing that Dan Heng really wasn’t prone to fainting, because he hardly could find the energy to keep himself steady as Yingxing dropped his hand and bowed slightly to him.

Only once Yingxing returned to the stage did Dan Heng remember himself, and he hurried to apologize and take his phone back from the clearly fanboying teenager.

"I got a video of him kissing the back of your hand!" the teenager exclaimed proudly, his eyes shining. "I did my best not to scream too loudly, too!"

Heart threatening to pound right out of his chest, Dan Heng could only manage a weak thank you. 

The next few moments passed by in a blur, but somehow Dan Heng made his way out of the audience and toward March and Stelle, who were both jumping up and down and squealing loud enough to get people looking their way.

“Holy. Fucking. Moly!” Stelle grabbed Dan Heng’s shoulders and shook him furiously. “That guy was totally flirting with you!”

“He was flirting with me, because he was paid to do so," Dan Heng said reasonably, because he was a reasonable guy with reasonable thoughts who knew reasonably that the cosplayer didn't have any particular feelings toward him, specifically, because that would be unreasonable, and Dan Heng was not an unreasonable person. 

“Nuh uh!” March chimed in, mercifully not joining Stelle in her mission to rattle the last few brain cells Dan Heng had left after most of them fled in sheer embarrassment. “Yes, he’s a professional, but trust us, Dan Heng, he didn’t have to do all that! He was definitely into you!”

But no matter how much March and Stelle tried to insist that the Yingxing cosplayer had been interested in Dan Heng and was flirting with him — within the boundaries of professional cosplayer conduct, of course — Dan Heng refused to believe them.

Dan Heng was an adult.

A perfectly well-adjusted and socially adept adult.

Dan Heng was not going to fall for the parasocial marketing tactics that some big gaming corporation was using to get him to buy the game.

(It didn’t matter that Dan Heng had already preordered the deluxe version of the game, plus the game-release special edition of Revenge of the Furnace Master’s first volume, and thus did not need any parasocial marketing tactics to get him to open his wallet. It was the principle of the matter.)

That night, Dan Heng lied in bed staring up at his ceiling and wrestling with his first existential crisis in years.

In all his twenty-seven years of life, Dan Heng had never been too concerned with romance. Sure, he had accepted a few invitations to go on dates here and there, had even dated a boy in his Medieval Literature class for a few months after the semester ended, but he hadn’t really cared much for the entire concept of dating. March and Stelle had even convinced him to make a dating app a few years back but had, understandably, dropped it when he told them he was receiving an unprecedented amount of unsolicited genitalia pictures.

Dating just wasn’t for him, and Dan Heng was okay with that. Quite frankly, though Dan Heng enjoyed reading about well-done romances in novels, he himself did not really picture a cliché “happily ever after” for himself. As long as he had his friends by his side and people who would check on him if he didn't contact them for a while, Dan Heng didn’t mind spending the rest of his life single.

Which was why the Yingxing cosplayer was throwing him off so, so much.

Because no one, absolutely no one, had ever made Dan Heng feel as flustered and giddy and downright crazy as the Yingxing cosplayer had.

The way he had treated Dan Heng so sweetly, holding his hand and teasing him with the plush doll and even air-kissing his hand... Under Yingxing's careful attention, Dan Heng had felt special. Like the Yingxing cosplayer saw him as himself, Dan Heng, and not just as another fan.

But that was impossible. The interactions that the cosplayer had with the people who came before Dan Heng in line reminded Dan Heng that he was just another nameless person to the cosplayer, but at the same time, nobody before him had gotten such flirtatious interactions. Yes, some of them had also gotten their hand held, but Dan Heng been watching each of them closely, and Yingxing had not come nearly as close to kissing any of them as he had Dan Heng. 

Perhaps the cosplayer had sensed that Dan Heng was especially susceptible to such flirtatious tactics? After all, most of the other people had seemed pretty confident interacting with the cosplayer. Dan Heng, on the other hand, had frozen up. And who knows — maybe the Yingxing cosplayer had gone on and given the people in line after Dan Heng the same treatment, and Dan Heng had only been the first person that day to be professionally flirted with. 

This is the power of parasocial marketing that gaming companies are taking advantage of, Dan Heng thought to himself as he scrolled through the pictures that the teenager had taken of his interaction. They were surprisingly really good pictures, even though they had been taken while filming a video. Realistically, Dan Heng should just be watching the video since it captured everything, but he wasn’t sure if his heart was strong enough to hear the cosplayer’s voice again.

Just as Dan Heng was considering the pros and cons of making the photo of the cosplayer pressing the Yingxing doll’s face against his cheek his lock screen photo (pro: get to see the photo often; con: March and Stelle would never let him hear the end of their teasing), a text notification popped up at the top of his screen.

Stelle: soooooooo don’t kill me

That was already not a good sign. Before Dan Heng could type out a reply, though, more messages came through.

Stelle: i texted a few of my coser friends to see if anyone knew the guy who cosed yx

Stelle: and yknow my friend kafka

Ah. Yes. Kafka, a professional sewist and wigmaker who had won countless awards in contests and had been in the cosplay scene since its humble beginnings. At one of the first conventions that Dan Heng had gone to with March and Stelle, Kafka had noticed Stelle, complimented her on her cosplay of human-form Akivili from the Trailblazers franchise, and, through her connections, had gotten Stelle her first ever cosplay modeling job. Kafka was the main reason Stelle had been able to quit her job as a restaurant server and pursue cosplay content creation full-time; Dan Heng had never seen the woman in person after that first convention interaction, but if he ever did, he would have to express his thanks to her somehow.

Stelle: the guy who cosed yx is her friend

It was quite cool to see just how far Stelle’s cosplay network extended. Dan Heng felt proud every time he was reminded of just how far his friends had come in their cosplay journeys.

Stelle: so anywayyyyyyyyy expect a dm from him soon ;)

Dan Heng’s heart stopped. As if on cue, a notification popped up on his screen.

User qianyeren has requested to follow you.

I should just ignore it. I don’t accept follow requests from anyone I don’t know, Dan Heng thought, but something told him to check the profile first before blocking the man outright.

And there, in the pictures posted, was the same familiarly handsome eyes and arrogant smirk that Dan Heng could not get out of his mind.

Dan Heng had heard before from March and Stelle that some people, upon discovering the social media accounts of the cosplayers who portrayed their favorite characters, felt like the illusion was broken. Professional cosplayers dressed up as a variety of characters and had their own private lives, after all, so any fans who went into an interaction thinking of the cosplayer as solely one character would probably feel less immersed in the experience if they saw the same cosplayer dressed as another character later. 

But for Dan Heng, seeing the man underneath the Yingxing cosplay just made his heart beat faster. 

The man’s eyes were a different color than they had been earlier that day, of course; the periwinkle had been the result of incredible contact lenses. But the shape of the man’s striking amber eyes, plus the tilt of his lips… those were unmistakable. 

It certainly didn’t hurt, either, that the man — Blade, apparently, according to the name section in the bio of his profile — had posted a few full-body photos of himself, and Dan Heng recognized his build, the set of his shoulders and the taper of his waist.

Blade wasn’t inhumanly muscular or anything, but as Dan Heng scrolled through the profile, it was easy to see that the Yingxing cosplay had done a great job at…ahem…concealing Blade’s more muscular form. 

There were other, more domestic photos, too, that made Dan Heng feel even more endeared toward Blade. The social media page definitely looked curated, which made sense if he was a professional cosplayer, but some of the posts revealed more about Blade’s personality: there were posts of him working on prop swords, pictures of him with Kafka and some other girls that must have been his friends, and even a picture of Blade holding a black cat tenderly in his arms.

Dan Heng’s fingers moved by habit. It wasn’t until the heart icon popped up on his screen that he realized that he had committed a grave sin: that of liking a photo from years past.

Well. There was no going back now.

As soon as Dan Heng accepted the man’s follow request and followed him back, a message appeared in his inbox. Pushing past his natural instinct to let the message sit there for a few days at the very least, Dan Heng opened up the conversation.

qianyeren: Do you think we could get along, or am I too arrogant and you too proud?

Dan Heng stared down at the message for several moments, biting his lip in concentration. What should he say? What could he say?

Admittedly, it made Dan Heng happy to see that the Yingxing cosplayer — Blade, his name was Blade — seemed to actually be a fan of Revenge of the Furnace Master. His message referenced one of the most famous lines describing Yingxing and Dan Feng’s relationship, though it was also not an often-referenced line outside of the fandom, since it was not too relevant to the plot at large. Blade knowing the line showed that he likely read the light novels, at the very least, and was perhaps even part of the fandom himself.

However, Blade was not Yingxing. Blade had simply been cosplaying Yingxing. And Dan Heng knew that, no matter how in-character Yingxing had felt at the time, Blade was a real human being, not a fictional character. He had his own personality, likes, and wants.

Did Dan Heng want to get to know Blade?

Looking down at the message and scrolling through the man's feed, Dan Heng found that he did. 

Even if Blade had started their conversation with a reference to their earlier interaction, Dan Heng wanted to show Blade that he didn’t just see Blade as a replacement or “real-life” version of Yingxing; Dan Heng wanted to make it clear that he respected Blade as a person, separate from his cosplays.

But, if Blade wanted someone to talk to about Revenge of the Furnace Master, and after they could move onto other topics…

Emboldened and ready to take a leap of faith, Dan Heng started to type out his response.

qianyeren A brief moment of my life spent by your side is worth more than any treasure I could ever be offered.

Thankfully, our moments together will never be brief; I promise to stay by your side until my dying days.

Whether in costume or out, I am blessed to have found someone who loves me for myself. 

[Image 1 description: A Yingxing cosplayer kneels before a Dan Feng cosplayer, whose face is covered by his hands. The Yingxing cosplayer holds an open ring box in his hands.]

[Image 2 description: A man with messy, dark hair presses a kiss on the cheek of the short-haired man with green-gray eyes beside him. The short-haired man is showing off the simple gold band on his ring finger to the camera.]

[Image 3 description: The same Yingxing cosplayer from the first image bows slightly to the same short-haired man from the second image. The image is slightly blurry, as if taken from farther away or as a screenshot in a video.]

5:20 PM | August 28, XXXX | 131.4K likes

yinyue_danheng ❤︎⁠

kafkacoser Congratulations, Bladie, Dan Heng. :) I look forward to the invitation in my mailbox.

leveling_solo happy for you guys or whatever

sundaysnomondays Congratulations to you both! You are truly living the dream for fans all around the world, Dan Heng. I hope we can catch up soon!

xmarch7x CONGRATS!!!

ultimateswordmaster123 omg omg omg I took the video of you guys years ago at the first coser interaction!!! My gf and I thought you two would make a great couple!!! This is crazy!!! Congrats!!!

garbageraccooncosplays delulu is the solulu. you too can marry your favorite fictional character. don’t believe me? it happened to my buddy dan heng