TIAN GUAN CI FU Fan fic stories

LET RUIN END HERE

Hua Cheng is hiding in a toilet stall which is covered in phosphorescent graffiti. Music throbs through the floor. He shouldn't, he thinks, his thumb hovering over Xie Lian's number. It's a bad idea for a thousand reasons. He's drunk. He's high. He's somewhere he isn't supposed to be. And yet, what else can he do? He Xuan fucking ditched him. Yin Yu isn't picking up. The only responsible adult he knows, the only one who won't fucking deck him or call the cops, is Xie Lian. Perfect Xie Lian who will be so disappointed in him. Who won't say, "You know better than to take random pills He Xuan hands you," but he'll be thinking it.

He has no choice. He can't go home. He can't stay here. He calls Xie Lian.

"San Lang?" Xie Lian asks after two rings.

"Hey, gege."

"Is something wrong?"

Hua Cheng runs a hand down his face. "I need help. I'm — yeah." He doesn't need to say it. Xie Lian knows. This isn't the first time. It won't be the last.

He can hear rustling on the other end, imagines Xie Lian already climbing out of bed, pulling on his pants. "Where are you? I'll come get you."

The room is spinning. The glowing graffiti pops off the walls and floats around, laughing at him. He rattles off what he thinks is the name of the club. They went to a few. Just an hour ago, he was grinding against some thin, pretty thing with chestnut hair.

"I'll be there soon," Xie Lian promises.

"Gege?"

"Yes, San Lang?"

"I'm sorry."

When Hua Cheng was ten, he moved in next door to Xie Lian, seventeen. Xie Lian was everything Hua Cheng wanted to be, and later, everything he wanted. He was the only one who noticed the bruises, which Hua Cheng tried hard to hide under his clothes and beneath his shaggy hair. But nothing could get past Xie Lian.

"When it gets bad," Xie Lian said, handing Hua Cheng a key, "you can let yourself in. You'll always be safe here."

Hua Cheng's parents barely noticed his absence. Xie Lian's parents were rarely home, but the kitchen always had food. There was a TV to watch, video games to play, books to read. A quiet place to study and work on his homework. He was there more often than he wasn't. Xie Lian was busy usually. Active social life. Ton of extracurriculars. Sports. But it was fine. The attention he could afford to give Hua Cheng was more than he deserved.

One night, it did get bad. Hua Cheng's eye was swollen shut, side of his face throbbing. He couldn't even remember what he'd done to piss his father off. He stumbled over to Xie Lian's house and, as quietly as he could, let himself in. It was dark, but by then he knew the layout well, knew what floorboards to avoid. He hesitated outside Xie Lian's bedroom door. The light was on beneath it. Up late studying, probably. He knocked lightly and a moment later Xie Lian opened the door.

"San Lang," he said, squatting down, looking at Hua Cheng's battered face in the light. "Does it hurt?"

Hua Cheng shook his head. Pain was pain. It didn't matter.

"Come on, let's get the swelling down."

In the kitchen, he sat on the counter, a bag of frozen peas against his face while Xie Lian scooped a couple of ice cream sundaes. Hua Cheng hadn't eaten dinner, so he ate his own and over half of Xie Lian's, and by the time he was done, he was full and sleepy. Xie Lian invited Hua Cheng to stay the night, laid out some blankets on the floor beside his bed.

Hua Cheng will never forget that night — Xie Lian's face peeking out over the side of the bed to check on him, long hair falling down, close enough to touch.