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The scrawny man stumbled back, his knife pointed out in front of him in fear. Xia Liuyi entering the room in that languid manner of his, sent electrifying snakes up his spine.
He wasn’t the only one whose anger and devotion to his gang trembled in the face of a myth—perhaps such a gang fight wasn’t worth it he questioned silently—his quivering gaze flickered down to his injured gang mates whose eyes had widened in horror.
Two sharp blades appeared within the gang leader’s grasp in a blink, there seemed to be no mercy in his eyes. At this stage any reasonable person would kowtow and beg for mercy—anything—but having sworn with their brothers they composed themselves and raised their weapons against The Dual Blade Asura.
A voice rattled through the man’s head reminding him that Xia Liuyi was still a human despite the stories and therefore vulnerable. Before the voice finished comforting the coward, a figure was already coming straight for him. The figure slashed with practiced ease and within 15 minutes the job was done. “Ugh I’ll be late for my date…” he mumbled under his breath, wiping the blood off his arm in disgust. He walked out of the room rolling his neck. “Maybe I need to go Father He for my stiff joints, let him know I’ll come tomorrow.”
With that order the man who’d been trailing behind him spouting praises took off, almost tripping over himself.
The sky was still a cornflower blue and the sun was touching the horizon. The dull warmth was contrasted by the occasional cool breeze of the evening.
As he continued walking down the alley, still quite smug with the victory of 8 v 1, he heard a soft cry behind a barrel in the alley. Hah one of them must’ve escaped. He slowly cornered the barrel ready to make it a 9 v 1, the dim lights of the dusty alley painted a faint shadow against the stone wall. A glimpse of a ragged red shirt peaked out of the corner. “You need to learn to hide better than that. Hiding like this you will only be caught and killed.” he chuckled, clearly amused with himself.
He reached behind the barrel grabbing the skinny body by the neck, like one would grab a cat. He almost dropped it when he saw the long hair and puffy eyes. It was a child. A child?!
“What are you doing here?!” he asked, baffled, still holding her in the air.
The small frame just cried harder, shaking with fright. He eventually found some sense to put the girl down. “What are you crying for?” he asked exasperated as the girl curled in on herself and went to hide behind the barrel again.
“I won’t hurt you.” he said trying to coax her to stop crying. Her shaky wails rang in his ears. His fingers desperately rummaged his jacket pocket for a familiar stem. Over the years, He Chusan had gotten into the habit of sneaking the sweet candy into his pockets, and he’d gotten used to finding it there. Now more than ever he had been grateful to feel it there.
He pulled it out and held it in front of her, “Here, take it, lollipop.”
The child quieted down, staring at the candy and then at the big man in leather—contemplating—quite hesitantly she reached for the candy, afraid what would happen if she didn’t. Would the man kill her? She slowly inched out of her hiding spot taking the candy.
Now that she wasn’t crying like a broken record, Xia Liuyi finally got to take her image in. Her hair was long, tangled and messy. Her bright red shirt was dirty, with holes scattering the bottom edge, she was wearing black tights that were dusted brown from kneeling in a corner. She looked no older than five.
Whatever, not my problem. “You should go home, otherwise the gangsters here won’t spare you.” he commented at her and turned to leave. He Chusan was going to punish him for being so late, he lamented to himself. But he didn’t have much time to think about his lover because he heard quiet footsteps behind him. He ignored it, maybe her house is the same way.
After what felt like a long 15 minutes, he felt a tug at the back of his jacket. “What?” he asked, almost annoyed.
“What?” she responded, ignoring him, her eyes focused on looking both ways on the street before crossing with him. “You can’t come with me, go home, your parents must be worried.”
“No.”
“Fine, tell me where you live, I'll take you back.” He rolled his eyes.
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘No’, you can’t come with me kid!” he countered already at his wit’s end.
She didn’t respond.
He Chusan was going to kill him, that was for sure now. “How about I drop you at the police station.” he stated rather than asked.
“I saw the fight.” She paid no regard to the man staring down at her and kept walking.
“What?”
“You’ll get in trouble.” She said dryly, eyes still focused on the path in front of her.
Wow, she really knows how to blackmail at such a young age. Wonder where she learned that, he thought. “Quite a clever one aren’t you,” he grumbled to no one in particular. They walked all the way to He Chusan’s apartment.
He Chusan opened the door to Xia Liuyi and before he could open his mouth to chide him he noticed a small figure tucked behind him. It’s always something with Xia Liuyi. He gave up and sighed, “Who is this?”
“A child.”
“I can see that.”
“Then why did you ask?” he said in that same dry tone, slipping past He Chusan.
The girl came along, not letting her grip loosen on the leather for even a second. “I need to shower,” he stated loudly, hoping that would get the girl off of him. The dried blood was getting irritating, cracking against his skin. He Chusan sighed, closing the door behind him and observed the dramatics of the two.
Seeing no sign of the little cat letting go of him, he shrugged his jacket off for her to hold. This earned a whine from her, the one where kids oscillate their voice to express discontent while bouncing on their feet.
“I’m just going to shower, look let me introduce you to him.” he said in an attempt to distract her. “He is He Chusan. I live with him. He’s not a bad guy, also the lollipop you were eating was his.” This did not bring about any change in her demeanor.
“I’ll be done showering in 15 minutes I promise. Okay? So wait here.” Once he promised she finally relented and stood there silently waiting on the floor mat as he closed the door behind him.
He Chusan, catching the hint, held out another lollipop to her, “Want another one?”
The girl did not acknowledge him.
As the minutes passed, which felt like eons to the child who had no concept of how long 15 minutes was, she grew restless. She sat with her back against the door on the mat. He Chusan teetered over and sat next to her although a bit awkwardly. She made no effort to look at him, her eyes fixed on the brown leather jacket as though if she stared hard enough Xia Liuyi would materialize out of thin air in front of her.
“Have you eaten yet?” he tried again.
“What’s your name?”
“How old are you? Do you like drawing? Playing games?”
“Do you go to school?”
After a while he considered that he might be bombarding the potentially overwhelmed kid, and decided to give up and finally embrace the silence as they waited for Xia Liuyi to be done.
“Sanyi” a small voice comes from beside him,
He looks at her with confusion.
“My name is Sanyi.”
“My name is He Chusan…” he said enthusiastic at finally receiving a response”...as you know.” he added.
Another silence filled the room, the only sound being of the shower turning off.
The door squeaked open to two cute cats waiting at Xia Liuyi’s feet. Both turning their heads towards him in sync.
“You are unbelievably troublesome” he huffed, whether he means the kid or both of them no one cares to distinguish. The small cat quickly stood up and stapled her small fingers onto Liuyi’s pajama shirt. He Chusan went to plate the food and bring an extra set of utensils while the girl trailed after Liuyi to the kitchen. “Come on, lets wash your hands”
The girl did not let go of Xia Liuyi’s shirt.
“Otherwise the germs will go inside of you when you eat and then you’ll get sick.” As he explained, he set a mental reminder to get her in the shower after dinner.
At that, the girl finally listened and he helped her wash her hands properly. Making sure that she got every crevice. His passing gaze caught on the small cuts old and new on her hands as though her small hands often grazed broken glass. He didn’t say anything.
“Can you eat by yourself, Sanyi?” He Chusan asked as he handed her chopsticks at the table. Sanyi nodded. Xia Liuyi smiled to himself, impressed that He Chusan managed to get the little girl’s name in the short time they spent together.
As they ate, He Chusan watched as Xia Liuyi’s gaze remained fixed on the girl. She was fumbling with the food, not able to hold the chopsticks together with enough force to pick up the food. Once she dropped her head in defeat, Xia Liuyi moved. “Here.” She lifted her head to find a pair of chopsticks in front of her face, Liuyi had reached over from next to her to feed her. Dinner passed in near silence as Xia Liuyi fed the girl.
“Sanyi, shower time, you know how to shower right?” he asked. “I think you should know by now? How old are you?”
“Mhm, I’m 6” she nodded hurriedly.
“Okay, go to the bathroom. I'm coming.” He let out a soft sigh as he got up from his chair, still a bit tired from the one sided beat down earlier.
The girl waddled to the bathroom awkwardly standing there, waiting for Xia Liuyi to wash his hands, collect for her a towel and a change of clothes—which happened to be He Chusan’s shirt. “We'll have to get you some new clothes tomorrow but you can wear this for now” he said, hanging up the clothes on the towel bar.
He went over to the shower and turned it on, checking the temperature with his hand to make sure it wasn't too hot or too cold. Once that was set, he explained to her which bottle to use for her hair and which to use for her body. He mimicked rubbing the soap over his clothes just in case before he left. His mini shower tutorial was complete, hopefully she’d be able to figure it out.
As he closed the bathroom door behind him, he made eye contact with the bed and even as every bone in his body urged him to collapse on the soft mattress and pass out, he knew He Chusan deserved an explanation. So he begrudgingly dragged his feet to the kitchen where he was cleaning the dishes.
“I'm sorry…for uh missing our date.” Xia Liuyi said awkwardly, still in the doorway.
“It's fine, I canceled the reservation and just made dinner when you didn't come back.” He did not meet his eyes let alone turn to acknowledge his presence.
Xia Liuyi shuffled over and gently tugged at He Chusan's arm, in an attempt at acting pitiful perhaps? He'd seen women ask for forgiveness in a coquettish manner, perhaps it would work for him too.
“I promise it won't happen again…” he cajoled as best he could.
“Liuyi can you really promise that now?” He asked with a deep sigh, finally meeting his eyes. At his firm tone Liuyi fell silent.
“So, where did you find her?” he continued.
“She refused to go home…I found her in the alley. She was alone…I didn't feel right leaving her out there either…”
“What about her parents?”
“Uhhh she didn't really respond or give me information about them.”
“What are you going to do?”
“…”
“You know you will have to go find her parents tomorrow? They must be looking for her.” He Chusan warned, meeting Xia Liuyi's eyes. He’d seen the way Xia Liuyi looked at the girl. He knew Liuyi saw himself in the abandoned child.
“Yeah, it's not like I'm planning on keeping her forever, ” he said, putting on an air of nonchalance.
He Chusan just silently stared back at him.
“...it's just for tonight” he finished, his eyes breaking away.
“Tonight?”
“Until we find someone…”
“And if we don't?"
“…”
“Liuyi.”
“ I don't know!” he cried out, frustrated.
Liuyi's stubbornness in this situation wasn't actually confidence. He's just completely out of his depth. He knew how to fight. He knew how to survive. He knew how to deal with adults. He did not necessarily know what to do with a child who's been abandoned. A child who mirrors the same fear that coursed through him as a kid.
Seeing his lover so distressed, He Chusan finally relented. He rinsed his hands and rested them against Liuyi’s arm, “Do you understand what you're taking responsibility for?” he asked as softly as he could.
Before Xia Liuyi could muster a response, they heard something—quiet crying, a sharp intake of breath, something falling.
Liuyi immediately turned with He Chusan at his heel, rushing to the bathroom to check, but Chusan stopped him before he barged in.
“Wait.” he said, trying to rationalize the situation.
“She's hurt!” Xia Liuyi barked back nearly out of his mind.
“We don't know that yet.” just as those words leave his lips they hear a quiet sob and a “It hurts.”
And that's enough for Liuyi.
Xia Liuyi burst through the door to be met with the sight of blood and injuries littering her small back. “Are you okay?!” he asked, his forehead wrinkled with concern as he sped towards her with a towel. He tried not to frighten her any further with the rising panic in him. He bundled her up and took her to the bed where He Chusan was waiting with the first aid kit.
As soon as the small cat landed on the bed he began disinfecting the recent wound that had opened up. The girl cried out, her nails digging into Xia Liuyi’s arms as he held her in place. He kept spewing frantic reassurances to her in an attempt to sooth her cries.
As the situation slowly sank into him his rambling went quiet. Once she eventually calmed down a frightening silence dug into his bones as he saw the bruises and cuts all over her small body. Something cold flickered in his eyes. Her soft childlike skin had been marred by the cruelty of god knows what, his mind desperately trying to understand how someone could have done that to an innocent child.
Chusan noticed immediately as he finished with the wound.
“Liuyi.”
No response.
“Sanyi, are you hurt anywhere else? Does anything still hurt?” He Chusan asked, wrapping her up again.
She shook her head. The other scars were already mostly healed.
“Do you know how you got hurt?” he continued
At this the little girl started choking back sobs. “He s-said n-n-not to tell any- anyone,” the child stuttered out fearfully.
Xia Liuyi pulled the little bundle into his arms, caressing her hair. “Shh it’s okay, you can tell us. We won’t let him know. Can you please tell me who it was?”
“My d-dad.”
At that Xia Liuyi’s vision went white. Visions came to him in a rapid blur. His sister in front of him, shielding him from his father. His sister…unable to get out of bed from the severity of the wounds. He remembered his dad’s big frame as he stepped over him. The kicking. The screaming. It made him hold Sanyi tighter as if he could hide her away.
“What about your mom?” He Chusan asked, how come a mother made no effort to protect her child?
Sanyi hesitated.
“You don't have to answer him.” Xia Liuyi whispered against her hair.
Chusan looked at him, his expression unreadable.
“She's scared.” he muttered as an explanation for a question He Chusan didn’t ask. That is the moment when the realization of how emotionally invested Liuyi was in this child dawned on him. Because Liuyi isn't normally the type of person who thinks about how his tone affects a frightened child. But now he's watching every word.
“Did someone else hurt you?” he tried again, any information that they could get out of the child would be crucial.
“No…He said my mom is in heaven, it’s my fault…”
Eventually they are able to establish that her father—an alcoholic—regularly abused her and tonight happened to be the night he left her outside to fend for herself in a fit of rage. It seemed to be an attempt at getting rid of the girl despite his promises to sell her to a brothel.
Xia Liuyi’s jaw tightened. The small girl did not even know what a brothel was, she was only waiting for the fulfillment of that promise in hopes that it would be better than her life under her father’s roof. Disgust flared within Xia Liuyi like someone spilt gasoline all over his organs.
Though she tried her best to appease her dad, it seemed she was only ever a nuisance to him. The poor girl never understood why her father hated her so much. She never understood how her being born was in exchange for her mother’s life. How that too was her father’s fault with the receipt of the blame pushed against her at birth. He Chusan's stomach churned.
Her small lungs found a break to calm down in the silence of the older men processing her situation. He Chusan met the other man’s smoldering gaze, the room suffocated on the fumes of their fury, both pairs of eyes burning with a rage that rivalled the gods.
After a while, thinking that she’d finally fallen asleep in Xia Liuyi’s arms, He Chusan spoke up.
“We need to find her father.”
“No.”
“Liuyi.” He Chusan pressed his lips together. His gaze tried to convince Xia Liuyi that he wasn’t trying to rile him up but rather be logical about the situation.
“He left her injured in the streets. God knows what would’ve happened to a little girl wandering alone at night!” he whispered back.
Anger welled up inside him, but it wasn’t really just rage. Beneath it was fear—the kind that settled deep in his chest and refused to let go.
“We still need to know where he is.”
“Why?”
“Because she's a child.”
“He abandoned her.”
“I know.”
“He hurt her.”
“I know.”
“Then why are we looking for him?!” He mumbled frustrated now.
“We need to legally establish what happened with Sanyi so we can take further steps. We can’t just keep her here without any documentation. It could be considered kidnapping,” he explained gently, careful not to provoke the other in any way.
“Are you going to give me back to him?” A meek voice came from Xia Liuyi’s lap, her voice breaking halfway through the question.
Liuyi’s answer was immediate.
“No.”
She shifted in his lap, turning her head up to look at him. “No?”
“No,” he confirmed.
He Chusan gave Liuyi a look, but said nothing. He understood what Liuyi was trying to communicate.
“Come on, let’s get you dressed for bed.”
And in that firm resolve, He Chusan understood. Liuyi might not know how to deal with a traumatized seven-year-old, but it would be nearly impossible now to convince him that she wasn’t his problem.
He watched as Xia Liuyi helped her slip into the oversized shirt, the hem reaching all the way to her knees. Then he watched as she stood on the little stool in the bathroom, facing the mirror while Liuyi gently worked a brush through her tangled hair.
And for a moment, everything seemed to fall quietly into place.
He had never really thought Liuyi would be interested in raising children, so he had never quite let himself hope for much. But with the sight before him, he found himself pushing aside his doubts and concerns, helplessly letting a smile melt across his features. The technicalities could wait for another day.
Xia Liuyi looked good taking care of kids.
As much as he wanted Liuyi all to himself, he had to admit–this wasn’t a bad sight either.
It took some convincing to get Sanyi into bed.
She stood beside the mattress for a long moment, clutching the hem of her oversized shirt, looking uncertainly between Liuyi, then at He Chusan in the kitchen doorway, and the unfamiliar room.
“You can sleep here,” Liuyi told her, patting the space beside him at her hesitance.
He Chusan watched, expecting another refusal, but after a moment she quietly climbed onto the bed. Xia Liuyi pulled the blanket over her and settled back against the pillow. For a while, neither of them said anything.
“Are you going to sleep?” Sanyi asked eventually.
“Mm.”
“You won’t leave?”
Liuyi opened his eyes again.
“No.” And that seemed to be enough for her. Sanyi slowly curled into herself beneath the blanket, the tension gradually leaving her small shoulders. Liuyi reached over to pull the blanket higher around her before closing his eyes again.
From the doorway, He Chusan watched them. He had expected Liuyi to be awkward. Maybe impatient. Instead, there was pure instinct in the way he adjusted the blanket, checked that she was comfortable, and stayed exactly where he had promised he would.
Chusan smiled faintly back at Xia Liuyi when he looked up at him in confusion.
He really was in trouble now.
He Chusan took an extra pillow and headed for the couch. Sanyi still wasn’t entirely comfortable around him, and Liuyi had always been one to move around in his sleep.
When he woke at the break of dawn the next morning, he glanced toward the bed and found both Sanyi and Liuyi sprawled across it, taking up every inch of space.
He silently thanked his past self for choosing the couch.