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Liu Xiao tapped his pen against the desk in Vein’s office, from where he sat behind it. The clock ticked on the wall above his head. The only other sound was when the tapping stopped, and in its place, the pen took up a scratching sound instead.
Bridon’s rain was relentless in the past few days, splattering against the window much more harshly whenever the wind howled across the city. But that’s not what had Liu Xiao irritated.
A certain someone he’d crossed paths with more times than he should publicly admit kept crossing his mind. Some thoughts felt as though they were a memory he shouldn’t have, while others taunted him with the display at the airport.
The office door flying open snapped his attention from both his thoughts and the paper tower he was almost finished with. Liu Xiao placed his pen down, instead clasping his fingers together to tuck under his chin.
Xia Fei stomped through, throwing himself onto the sofa and crossing his arms over his chest with a solid pout on his face, accompanied by a scowl. His blond hair stuck to his head, his jacket completely soaked.
“I said I was sorry, Felix~,” Vein said in that sickly sweet tone he used with Xia Fei (at least when other people were around or they were in the public eye. Liu Xiao wasn’t close enough to know if that tone changed when the two were alone). “Please, forgive me~?”
Xia Fei merely huffed, and Vein shrugged.
The redhead tapped Liu Xiao on the shoulder, bending down to whisper in his ear. “A little joke that went too far, pay it no mind”. With that said, he left to disappear into another room.
Thus, leaving the two students alone together.
Liu Xiao’s eyes drifted to the window, watching the rain continue its brazen assault on the glass. The clock on the wall showed 5pm. He would have to leave soon to get himself dinner.
An itch made him slide his eyes over to Xia Fei, who was glowering at him as if his predicament was all Liu Xiao’s fault. He smirked. “Keep staring at me like that, and I may have to think about stealing that winning modelling career off you”.
“Go to Hell,” Xia Fei hissed, and Liu Xiao laughed.
“Is that perhaps my hint to leave the two of you alone so you can kiss and make up?” Liu Xiao rose from his seat, tucking his paper stack aside and leaving the pen on top. “Consider your request granted, Felix”.
“You don’t get to call me that outside a professional setting”.
Liu Xiao closed his eyes with a smile, suppressing a sigh. “Of course, special treatment for one”.
He could hear Xia Fei’s heartbeat grow anxious. No, impatient. It amused him how desperate he wanted his fox’s teeth and claws in him, as though Liu Xiao had no idea what happened behind these closed doors when he went home for the day.
As though Vein hadn’t let him know the nature of their relationship from day one.
He chuckled when the blond swatted his hand off his shoulder in passing and heard hurried footsteps darting off when the door closed behind him.
A simple soul was Xia Fei.
Liu Xiao would have to work a bit harder at winning him over, though.
He picked up his umbrella from the entryway, opening the door to the plummeting rain. The sky darker, filled with dark clouds and the night sky. No stars. Just the chill of the wind threatening to make him look akin to a soggy newspaper left in a gutter drain.
Lifting the umbrella as he stepped out and shutting the door behind him, Liu Xiao sucked in a breath of wet air, tasting the scent of rain on his tongue before he moved onto his journey home.
Well, his home in Bridon, at least.
Home was elsewhere. A destination he hadn’t set foot in for a few years now. Sometimes he wondered if anything more interesting was going on there rather than here.
Until he’d gone to pick Vein up from the airport, that was.
And just like that, as if his thoughts were the power to control fate itself, he saw him.
The other stood, slightly startled, on the street corner. His clothes were soaked to the bone, more evident as Liu Xiao approached. His white hair stuck to his skin, and Liu Xiao had the mental image of a wet cat in comparison.
“Lu Guang”.
“H…How do you know—”
“Let’s not play stupid games now, lest we want to start winning stupid prizes”.
Lu Guang faltered. His parted lips closed shut as he avoided Liu Xiao’s eyes. The dark-haired man could hear the telltale thump thump thump from inside his chest, however. A dead giveaway.
“Tell me, have we met before?” He decided to say, teasingly.
The way confusion spread across Lu Guang’s face, mixed with vulnerable fear, was very satisfying for Liu Xiao.
“…You know more than you should”.
“I’m not the only one, am I? Fate has a funny way of doing things, you know. You can’t defy fate, superpowers or not. That’s just how the world works”.
“Only if you believe in such a thing. Things change; I’ve seen the evidence. You’re one part of that evidence”.
You have no idea how hard this is for me, my dear. The pain of wanting the very person you’re not supposed to like. Far more complicated than on the surface. That whole enemies-to-lovers charade won’t work on us.
At least, not in this timeline.
“I’m flattered,” Liu Xiao said with a polite smile. He could hear his own heartbeat overpowering Lu Guang’s. It hurt, in a wickedly delightful sort of way. Liu Xiao was insane to admit even to himself that he liked this little game of cat-and-mouse. “Walk with me?”
“Didn’t anyone tell you not to trust strangers blindly?”
“And if we did that, there’d be no such thing as friends, would there? Don’t you trust Xia Fei? Your own friend seems to trust him quite a bit, don’t you think?”
Lu Guang was rolling words around on his tongue, thinking before he spoke. “You know why I trust Xia Fei more than I would ever trust you or Vein”.
Despite his defensive behaviour, he fell into step with Liu Xiao, and the latter shifted the umbrella’s coverage to conceal them both from the rain. They didn’t meet each other’s eyes.
“I do wonder,” Liu Xiao said slowly, “If there is such a timeline where you and I do become friends. Close friends. …More than friends~”
“Don’t get more delusional than you already are. It’s not a good look on you”.
“Naw, are we jealous?”
“Jealous?”
“Of the others. Xia Fei—”
“Who hates you”.
“—and Vein?”
The second name made Lu Guang shudder.
Liu Xiao’s smirk widened across his face. “Ah~ So, there is some history between the two of you. How interesting~”
“You would know exactly why that is. You’re probably the reason he even—”
“Ah, ah, mind that lashing tongue of yours, or you might just speak something regrettable into existence”.
“What, you mean like you? Whatever dragged you into existence probably has some insane levels of deep regret we couldn’t even begin to comprehend”.
Liu Xiao laughed as they continued down the street. “Perhaps they do, though I’m pretty certain I’ve landed myself a position that puts that regrettable blame onto a certain someone else in the bloodline”.
“Your brother”.
“Well, look at you! You already know your future family history. Well done, Lu Guang~”
“My future fami… Ew. That’s disgusting. Why the hell would I ever imagine such a thing?”
“Ah, but you did once upon a time~ I have quite the clear little memory of it, no doubt you do as well. Your heartbeat also gave you away, in case you were getting ready to deny that adorable little blush on your face.” Liu Xiao reached out with his free hand, brushing his cold rings across Lu Guang’s cheek and making him flinch, putting a bit of distance between them.
“Stop that. The reading people’s hearts thing, as well as everything else. We shouldn’t even be talking, especially like this!”
“And yet you’re the one who keeps messing with things he shouldn’t. Why is that? Missing me too much from whatever parting we have in the future, and set out to find me earlier and earlier than our destined meeting each time? What a sweet boy~”
“Grrr, knock it off already!” Lu Guang stepped away from the shelter of the umbrella, stuffing his hands deep into his pockets and hunching his shoulders. “That’s not what this is. I came for Vein, not you”.
“…And yet here you are with me, anyhow. Besides, Vein’s a little…preoccupied right now. Xia Fei can be such a needy little thing, and I don’t want to end up on Vein’s hitlist just yet”.
“Pity,” Lu Guang spat. “He’d be doing the world a much-needed favour”.
They reached the turning point, and Liu Xiao would continue to head home, but Lu Guang halted at the corner, which made him turn. “Not coming any further? That’s a shame~” he purred, teasingly.
“I have somewhere more important I need to be”.
Well, Liu Xiao supposed he was lucky enough to get him this far. Better not push his luck, for now. After all, they’d run into each other again.
“Alright…,” he said slowly, just enough to see that glimmer of hope beginning to shine in Lu Guang’s eyes. He chuckled, and it quickly diminished. “But as you know, you can never get rid of me that easily, my dear. The red string of fate has its own grand plans for you and me~”
And unfortunately, that’s why I stick to the shadows when I can. Heartbeats and invisible strings tangled up together in one neat, little ball of chaos.
If only things could be different, hm?