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 Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2024 1:08 am
It had, fortunately, not been too long of a walk to get back to Shuangxu's townhouse. Or at least, it hadn't felt long, not with vibrant, chatty Kaifeng, who had done a lot to make Lanting feel more at ease.
Maybe his experience with Dunnottar really was an outlier. Maybe Lanting of Ida could make friends, even if Shuangxu Feng was really, really bad at it. After all, Lanting had gotten on well with Murikabushi, and Demeter, and now Kaifeng, so maybe it wasn't all hopeless. Maybe he could...actually make friends. That was already a positive prospect, if he was honest.
And there, not-quite-looming, was his townhouse, and though he was loathe to admit it (especially because it would mean being Shuangxu, which was never an exciting prospect) he couldn't justify keeping Kaifeng for much longer, especially not when he had someone to go home to.
"Uh, we're here," he said, and he dusted off his skirt, and then Lanting melted into Shuangxu, in a cute long-sleeved dress that fell to his knees, pink and covered in floral patterns. "Thanks for making sure I got home okay, gege."
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Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2024 11:39 pm
The walk back toward Lanting’s place had overall been a pleasant experience, now that he was well enough to get back home. He was a really sweet young guy, eager and bright. Maybe he’d gotten a little over-eager with Lete the Living Nightmare tonight, but Kaifeng could respect where the spirit had come from and what Lanting had been attempting to do. Most important things tonight were: A., Lanting had recovered from Lete’s magic and was going to get home safe; and B., he was going to learn an important lesson from this misadventure about respecting his limits and not expecting too much from himself.
The closer they got to Lanting’s place, though, the more familiar the streets and buildings around them felt……which was odd? Not in a bad way, exactly? Simply a confusing one. Had Liánlí hooked up with somebody who lived around here before Huan-ge had arrived on Earth? Humming softly as they walked, Kaifeng kept trying to place it and coming up with more vague ideas than anything (it didn’t help that the townhouses around here all had very similar exterior dimensions and appearances).…… Maybe Lanting happened to live near someone Liánlí had done some collab work with on the youtubes? That might have explained the sense of familiarity around here.
Or, as Kaifeng saw when Lanting powered down, the answer might have been considerably simpler than that.
“……Xu-er? It—are you—”
Having made a similar mistake with Selenga before—back before Ming-er had even powered up into Selenga—and freaked him out quite a lot, Kaifeng powered down into Liánlí right away. Instead of the long, red dress and waistcoat, he stood before Shuangxu in a black-and-purple plaid dress with a skater skirt, over top of a long-sleeved t-shirt and black leggings that folded into a pair of Liánlí’s chunky-soled black boots, with a hoodie over top because……well. Liánlí couldn’t steal Huan-ge’s body heat all the time.
With a bit of a laugh, Liánlí smiled down at Xu-didi. “You’re in the magical life too, huh?”
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Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2024 11:49 pm
Oh. Well. Of all the things Shuangxu had expected, the fact that he knew Kaifeng, underneath the glamor, and he was, in fact, one of the few people Shuangxu felt comfortable saying might actually be a friend, in his ordinary life? Or something close, at least?
Well. That was something very special, and it made Shuangxu light up.
"Liánlí! I had no idea, wow, that magical glamor really is powerful," he said, and just from this knowledge, he immediately felt better about....a lot of things, really. "Yeah, I am, but I haven't been for very long, and uh, as you saw, I'm....only so-so at it." He smiled in a way that was distinctly apologetic, but as he thought about the whole situation more, something hit him all at once.
"Wait, when I was talking to Murikabushi, he mentioned you," something that Shuangxu was pretty sure needed zero context anyway, "and he said you had an alien partner? Someone from outer space who was all...in a thing? With your past life?" He made a swirly hand gesture, as if that explained anything at all. "So....the gorgeous guy from your selfies? He is literally out of this world hot?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2024 1:41 am
Grinning brightly, Liánlí let himself have another laugh. Not that anything was particularly funny about the situation, but sometimes, it was nice to just laugh because you were happy. And finding out that Lanting of Ida and Feng Shuangxu were the same person? That very definitely counted as something worth being happy about.
“Hey, don’t worry about only being so-so when you’re just starting out,” Liánlí told his youtube didi with a gentle smile. “Everybody has to make mistakes when we’re starting out; it’s part of how we learn better. When I just started out, I wound up with three bruised ribs and needed this really great senshi to help patch them up with magic. Made the mistake of challenging this Negaverse Captain who was taller, heavier, and better-armed than me. As a Page, I only had a folding fan to work with, and I, like……”
Sighing in mild exasperation with his own antics, Liánlí shrugged. “My bestie, Hayden? He’s been telling me since we were in undergrad ‘Cardio and meditation are great, but you’re going to regret not doing strength-resistance work.’ And he meant more in a ‘balance for taking care of myself’ way? But then I Awakened, and learned really fast that the way I approached being a Knight? I did need to listen to him after all.”
Which still sucked to admit, even if Liánlí could mostly stay in good spirits about it.
And it also sucked because it made him remember that fight with Selenga about how Kaifeng had told the story in a very self-deprecating way, and Selenga hadn’t found it funny.
Fortunately, Shuangxu had handed Liánlí an opportunity to talk about something else: “But! Huan-ge is indeed out of this world beautiful,” he said, pulling out his phone. As he scrolled through the Huan-ge 🤍💜🧡 folder in his photos, Liánlí explained, “So, Huan-ge has a little magical device that helps him pass for human. Most people on Earth don’t know that aliens exist, after all, and it might make a huge mess if people became aware of it en masse. So, when we take photos together that end up on social media, he has to wear it. But when we’re just at home, though……”
Liánlí angled his phone so Shuangxu could see a photo of Huan-ge in his natural state, sitting on one of the pillows in the living room. Liánlí sat on one of the pillows beside him, and Táotáo was curled up on the other. Both Liánlí and Huanxi had their guitars out, in their laps, and Huanxi smiled fondly as the Liánlí in the photo explained one of the chord progressions they were working on learning.
“My cousin was over that day,” he said, by way of clearing up how the photo existed. “She took the picture. And……y’know, I meant it? I used to think maybe I was broken, or I’d never get to be in love like this? But it turned out that all along, my zhiyin was real; he just wasn’t on this planet yet.”
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2024 1:53 am
It was sort of reassuring to hear that Kaifeng, too, had a rough time when he started out. And at least Shuangxcu hadn't been seriously injure,d or anything--bruised ribs sounded awful.
"I'm glad you were okay," he said, and he meant it. "It seems a little unfair, that we get these....not very helpful weapons, first? But I guess it was probably different, a thousand years ago. That would make sense." Not that Shuangxu had any context to be making that kind of guess, but it seemed to fit, all things considered. "But you got away, and you got help, and that's what's important."
And, anyway, Shuangxu was way, way more interested in Liánlí talking about his ridiculously gorgeous boyfriend. Shuangxu was already a little jealous, in the way one could be without being an a*****e about it, but finding out that he was some kind of fated soulmate who had come from beyond the stars? And also that he was somehow even more gorgeous without being glamored up as a human--the tail and horns really added something undefinable to the General Hotness Factor? Unfair. Liánlí was the luckiest person Shuangxu knew.
"I....wish I could find someone like that. Ridiculously hot guy from outer space who adores me." It wasn't in the cards for Shuangxu, obviously, because he wasn't the type of person who got nice things like that, but he could dream. "You're really lucky, Li-ge. Huanxi sounds really incredible, and I'm glad he makes you so happy."
He paused, briefly.
"Do you want to come inside? Or do you need to get back to your zhiyin?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2024 2:28 am
Liánlí pouted sympathetically, listening to Shuangxu sound so wistful and yet pessimistic about his own chances. “Hey, there’s a guy for you out there somewhere, didi,” he said, both genuinely believing that and hoping that it would prove true sooner rather than later. “I don’t know if he will be from space or not? Because nobody knows what’s going to happen for sure? But hey, maybe he will be from space. Maybe he’ll get here soon, and when he does, he’ll be so happy to be with you, it’ll make your head spin.”
Repocketing his phone, Liánlí gently squeezed Shuangxu’s shoulder. “I do need to get back to Huan-ge tonight,” he said. “We split up to cover more ground on patrol; we’ll need to reconvene soon. But don’t be a stranger, okay? I still need some time to cool down before I can go up to my Wonder again, but if you ever want, I’d love to take you sometime. Or to go see yours, if you ever feel like sharing.”
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