Work Text:
“This is stupid.” Lu Guang huffed as Cheng Xiaoshi pushed him onto the chair with a bit too much enthusiasm. “It’s not even Christmas. Why do you want to do this now?”
“Cheng Xiaoshi here said he could beat me in the toilet paper roll game.” Xu Shanshan said with a scoff, her face filling most of the screen.
“Because I can!” Cheng Xiaoshi argued, crossing his arms.
His phone was propped up, pointing toward the chair Lu Guang was sitting on. He stayed there, unamused, and three seconds away from smacking Cheng Xiaoshi in the head. Two rolls of toilet paper sat beside his feet. Brand new. Bought yesterday.
Xu Shanshan flipped her camera around to show their set-up, which was practically identical. Qiao Ling sat on a chair, with two rolls of toilet paper at her side. She looked annoyed, but if one looked closely, one would notice her lips twitching every now and then. She was just as childish.
“Okay. What are the rules?” Cheng Xiaoshi stood in front of the camera but not blocking Lu Guang.
Xu Shanshan rolled her eyes, though she wasn’t actually aggravated. The camera flipped once more and was propped up. “The person being wrapped has to stay seated while their partner rolls the toilet paper around them. You have to do it as fast as you can, but it also has to be neat.”
The phone picked up on Qiao Ling’s snort. “Cheng Xiaoshi? Neat? Why didn’t you guys have Lu Guang do the wrapping? He’s way better than you are,” she stuck her tongue out at Cheng Xiaoshi.
“Because!” Cheng Xiaoshi clicked his tongue; he was beginning to regret saying he was better than Xu Shanshan in everything. “The person we’re wrapping should be the shorter one. It makes it easier. And don’t complain, because you, Qiao Ling, are already way shorter than Lu Guang. You guys have such an advantage!”
At that, chaos erupted. They threw silly, stupid insults left and right, their voices steadily rising.
Lu Guang cleared his throat, loud enough to draw the gaze of all three of them. They paused, waiting for him to say something, but the sudden attention made him nervous.
He forced himself to speak. “Can we just get this over with? I have work to do.”
Cheng Xiaoshi crossed his arms and grinned at the camera. He tilted his head back slightly. “Prepare to lose, Xu Shanshan.”
“Don’t be so confident.” She spat back.
And so, the countdown began.
When they hit the last digit, Cheng Xiaoshi and Xu Shanshan dove for a roll and began wrapping their partner. The trick was to keep the wrapped person as still as possible, because too much movement could rip the toilet paper and make things harder.
Lu Guang stared blankly as Cheng Xiaoshi quickly rolled the toilet paper around his feet and legs. Since he was crouched down, trying to be both fast and neat, Lu Guang had a nice view of the phone, where he saw Xu Shanshan and Qiao Ling in similar positions. It was hard to tell who was ahead.
When Cheng Xiaoshi finished covering Lu Guang’s lower legs, he ran into a slight problem. The angle was awkward, and he couldn’t get the toilet paper underneath Lu Guang. Not to mention, the back of the chair hadn’t been addressed earlier. Did he need to wrap that too?
“Wait! Pause!” Cheng Xiaoshi shot up and approached his phone.
Xu Shanshan gave him a puzzled yet smug look. “Calling it quits?”
“As if-” he sighed, pointing at Lu Guang, whose feet and legs were fully covered in white. “What do we do about the back of the chair? Do we wrap that too?”
Surprised by how valid his question was, Xu Shanshan pondered for a moment. “Yeah, wrap that too. It’ll make things fun.”
“Fun for you…” Qiao Ling grumbled from behind.
The two rushed back to their partner, who looked more and more like a hostage. Wasn’t this supposed to be a silly Christmas game? This was getting a little bit weird.
“You good?” Cheng Xiaoshi checked up on Lu Guang, finishing his final round around his lower body.
Lu Guang nodded with uncertainty, sucking in a breath. This would be over soon.
At this point, Cheng Xiaoshi wasn’t crouching, but… really hunched over as he ran around Lu Guang to wrap more “efficiently”. They could hear Qiao Ling cackling from the phone, probably amused by Cheng Xiaoshi’s little theatrics.
Compared with Lu Guang’s cover, Qiao Ling’s was much neater, but that was to be expected.
Cheng Xiaoshi paused for a second, his first roll of toilet paper completely used up. He dropped the core and snatched the second roll. Lu Guang had to stop himself from chuckling at how serious Cheng Xiaoshi appeared.
But his moment to admire that rare expression was cut short when Cheng Xiaoshi shrieked that Xu Shanshan had already started on her second roll, and he wasn't about to lose. He gently tucked the end of the toilet paper under the paper wrapped around Lu Guang’s legs, then began running in circles again.
He giggled as he got to covering Lu Guang’s abdomen, making a passing comment that he looked like he was kidnapped.
His words rang in Lu Guang’s ears, and suddenly, this wasn’t such a silly game anymore.
The position he was in, bound to a chair and tied up, was too similar to the time he was held hostage and tortured by Li Tianchen. He hadn’t thought about that whole thing in a while; it was honestly beginning to bury itself in the back of his mind.
But that comment. That comment brought the memories crashing back.
He knew he was looking at Cheng Xiaoshi’s phone, where he could see Qiao Ling and Xu Shanshan laughing while trying to win, but his vision was distorting.
The edges of his sight darkened, and he instantly became a hundred times more aware of the toilet paper hugging his body and the chair. Distantly, he acknowledged that it was just toilet paper, something that rips with even the smallest amount of force, but that knowledge didn’t calm him down.
Cheng Xiaoshi hadn’t noticed his panicked face because he finished running around Lu Guang’s torso and lightly went around his neck once.
“Time for the head, Guang-Guang!” He sang, standing behind his partner so Qiao Ling and Xu Shanshan could see Lu Guang well.
He wanted to shout. His heart beat so fast he could hear it pounding in his ears.
Cheng Xiaoshi spun the toilet paper over Lu Guang’s mouth a couple of times, and that act alone brought even more memories of his time with Li Tianchen. He was getting scarily close to his eyes, and he didn’t know what he’d do once he was blindfolded.
Lu Guang couldn’t move, not only because he didn’t want to mess up Cheng Xiaoshi’s “hard” work, but also because he was petrified. His body didn’t know whether or not he was in actual danger.
He sucked in a heavier breath before Cheng Xiaoshi scolded him for almost breaking the toilet paper around his lips. Being ordered to do something while tied to a chair sent shivers down his spine. He couldn’t do this- he couldn’t do this-
But they were almost done. He could survive another few minutes, right? Besides, he didn’t want to ruin the fun; everyone else was giggling.
They reached the final stretch when Cheng Xiaoshi started covering Lu Guang’s eyes. Little by little, he lost his vision, and Cheng Xiaoshi was cruel enough to go over his eyes a few times, which only made it darker. The texture of the toilet paper was different but similar to the blindfold he'd been given back then. He could feel himself trembling in his spot, his body urging him to jump out of the seat and break free.
Just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse, he swore he heard Li Tianchen whisper in his ear. He reacted without a second thought, and Cheng Xiaoshi whined that he'd ruined his work.
Fine. Fine.
He could do this. They were almost done. They would decide on the winner soon enough, and then he could rip all of the toilet paper off him and go calm down in the sunroom.
“Oh my god,” Cheng Xiaoshi at last backed away. “You actually look like you got kidnapped, and I wrapped you up in toilet paper.”
Although it was meant to be a stupid joke, Lu Guang grew more scared.
On the other side of the phone, Xu Shanshan exclaimed. “Qiao Ling looks way neater than Lu Guang! You didn’t do him justice.”
“What do you mean?!” Cheng Xiaoshi argued, showing off his amazing wrapping skills.
As the two bickered back and forth, Lu Guang’s breathing quickened. He couldn’t see a thing; he was tied to a chair, and he wasn’t allowed to speak unless given permission. Everything was exactly like how things were when he was being held hostage—minus the stab wound that Li Tianchen couldn’t keep his hands off of.
Speaking of which, his lower abdomen ached, like it remembered a type of pain he wished to forget.
Cheng Xiaoshi and Xu Shanshan continued debating whose was better, extending Lu Guang’s suffering.
How much longer?
Please, let him go-
He couldn’t do this again-
“Qiao Ling’s feet are literally peeking!” Cheng Xiaoshi pointed out, causing Xu Shanshan to whip her head around. Qiao Ling tried to speak, but she didn’t want to break anything.
“Oh, yeah? Well, Lu Guang’s—Lu Guang’s…?” Xu Shanshan’s voice tapered off in confusion before she began laughing. “Is Lu Guang even alive? He’s so still-!”
“Huh?” Cheng Xiaoshi raised a brow and studied his partner.
… He was oddly still, but he did ask him not to move as much. He was probably just doing what he was told. Not to mention, he could see Lu Guang’s chest expanding and retracting. Maybe a little too much.
Cheng Xiaoshi walked away from his phone and inched closer to his partner. “Lu Guang?”
No response. Not a sign of acknowledgement.
“He’s a little bit too good at this kidnapped-hostage-thing.” Xu Shanshan joked, but Cheng Xiaoshi didn’t react. He was fixated on Lu Guang now.
Why was he frozen? He knew Cheng Xiaoshi wasn’t being serious when he told him not to move at all, right? Lu Guang always took things too literally…
“Hey, Lu Guang,” he tried again. “You good?”
But all he heard was a sharp gasp of air. Cheng Xiaoshi’s eyes widened in alarm, and he carefully ripped the toilet paper off of Lu Guang’s face. The sight he was greeted with was horrifying, and he could hear Xu Shanshan and eventually Qiao Ling asking him what was wrong.
He rushed to his phone, greeted by a perplexed yet concerned Xu Shanshan. “Sorry- I’ll get back to you-!” he ended the call before she could say anything.
Having dealt with that, he returned to Lu Guang’s side and wondered what was wrong. But Lu Guang couldn’t get a word out. He just shook his head over and over, eyes locked on something behind Cheng Xiaoshi. When he turned around and saw nothing, he looked at Lu Guang with worry.
“Come on, man,” Cheng Xiaoshi frowned, gently ridding Lu Guang of the toilet paper that covered him from head to toe. “What’s happening?” He carefully placed a hand on top of Lu Guang’s, praying he wouldn’t make things worse.
At first, Lu Guang flinched at the movement but didn’t try to create distance between them. His breathing, however, was still too fast—he was bordering on hyperventilating.
“You need to breathe, Lu Guang-” Cheng Xiaoshi muttered shakily; he knew he was stating the obvious, but he wasn’t an expert at this! “It’s okay- you’re okay-”
Lu Guang shook his head again and again until he finally covered his eyes with his palms. Cheng Xiaoshi stood nearby with his hands uselessly hovering over his partner, watching in case he began to hurt himself. For now, it just seemed like another attempt at self-soothing.
For the next few minutes, Lu Guang tried to steady his breath, his hands now on his lap as he sat on the loveseat. Cheng Xiaoshi had a feeling the chair wasn’t helping his situation.
Neither of them spoke. Lu Guang muttered something under his breath, but it was too hushed to catch. Cheng Xiaoshi sat on the other side of the sofa, eyeing him attentively as he tried to piece together what had happened. What could have triggered a response like that? Last he checked, Lu Guang wasn’t claustrophobic, and he didn’t think he was actually suffocating from the toilet paper.
Then his eyes landed on Lu Guang’s abdomen; he had a hunch whatever it was had something to do with that.
But what?
Lu Guang didn’t normally act this way about his scar from being stabbed, but while he was panicking on the chair earlier, he kept patting that area as if he were checking if it was still bleeding. Thinking back on that whole ordeal sickened Cheng Xiaoshi. He didn’t even want to start imagining what Lu Guang had to endure for his stab wound to worsen like that.
That damn Li Tianchen. Cheng Xiaoshi could never forgive him for the torture he subjected Lu Guang to.
Wait.
Oh, fuck.
The kidnapping, him being a hostage.
It was coming together, bit by bit. It made Cheng Xiaoshi sick to consider that he'd probably triggered Lu Guang by making comments like that.
“You actually look like you got kidnapped-“
What was he thinking, joking about that kind of stuff when Lu Guang was still recovering mentally from that period—even if he never admitted it to anyone? How could he be so inconsiderate? He really needed to think before speaking.
Overwhelmed with guilt, Cheng Xiaoshi stayed seated near Lu Guang, brainstorming ways to make up for his mistakes.
When Lu Guang had stopped shaking, Cheng Xiaoshi muttered under his breath. “You good?” his eyes drooped slightly, remorse swirling about.
“Yeah-” Lu Guang responded hoarsely, refusing to make eye contact. “I’m fine. Sorry about—”
“If you apologize, I will spend all of our extra money on video games.”
Lu Guang shut his mouth without a second thought. Even though he really, really wanted to apologize for creating such a scene and ruining their little game, he obliged.
Cheng Xiaoshi shuffled closer on the loveseat. “Wanna talk about what happened?” He tested his luck.
As expected, Lu Guang shook his head, saying there was nothing to talk about.
His refusal of support made Cheng Xiaoshi’s heart ache, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Lu Guang had always been quite secretive about what bothered him, choosing to carry every burden alone. Maybe he learned it from his childhood, or maybe he was like this from the very beginning. Whenever it started, it was etched into Lu Guang’s stubborn mind.
Although Cheng Xiaoshi wished to help his partner navigate these memories and feelings, he backed off. He didn’t push. He just stared at Lu Guang with sad eyes as he subconsciously placed his hand over his scar again.