Good things come to those who...

The Keychain

Shao Fei returned home with a heavy heart that day, still remembering the touch of Tang Yi's lips to his own and the warm press of their hands together.

Tang Yi's house felt even bigger and empty without the presence of the man. Even Hong Ye was more subdued in her teasing than usual, both silently acknowledging their own equal pain in being away from a man they loved so dearly.

The evening, Shao Fei found himself wondering into Tang Yi's office. His hand traced the back of his desk chair before he sat down, taking in the menial possessions he kept on his desk. Pens, documents, folders were neatly positioned in small piles, but what caught Shao Fei's eyes was a familiar plastic decoration.
The keychain.

Smiling fondly, he unhooked it from where it was hung and let it fall into his palm, snorting at the memory of flashing it at an unsuspecting Tang Yi.

'Dead Face' is what he'd called him then, a time that felt a millennium ago, causing him to snort slightly. He wished he could go back and tell his past self how very wrong he was about Tang Yi.

It didn't take long for Shao Fei to realise Tang Yi's expressionless face was a means of protection, a mask to guard himself from getting hurt. And once Shao Fei had broken through that façade, he realised just how much Tang Yi had been holding in throughout the years. All that pain came flooding out in a space of a few days, and it broke Shao Fei's heart to see the man he loved be hurting so much.

He felt himself well up slightly and frowned at the skeleton keychain still in his hand.

'Look what you've done to me! Getting all emotional about a goddamn piece of plastic!' He scolded the object, poking the skeleton's 'cheek' as if it were Tang Yi's own.

He sighed and placed the keychain back on the desk before getting up to leave.

He'd almost reached the door until he found himself walking back and pocketing the keychain.

The keychain was, after all, quite a lot like Tang Yi...