Comfort On New Years Eve (FengQing Oneshot)

Comfort on New Year’s Eve (FengQing oneshot)

Summary:

Mu Qing is sad that his mother isn't here to visit him for New Year's and laments it on the balcony. Feng Xin comes to take a breather but ends up comforting Mu Qing instead. They talk about their feelings and this ends in a kiss

Notes:

Lol I wrote this in the middle of the night and published it at like 3 am, so it's very bad compared to my other fic and I didn't beta read it cause I was too tired to. Enjoy tho. Constructive criticism welcome as always.

Btw, translations for the text messages in Cantonese will be provided at the end of the paragraph.

“Why did I ever agree to this?”

Mu Qing asks himself as he stares up into the night sky, the loud noise of people partying behind him echoing to where he was standing on the balcony.

Mu Qing sighs and takes out his phone, unlocking it and staring at all the messages that his mother had left him.

Mama

Mama: 我個乖仔點啊? 喺大學讀得開唔開心啊? 識咗新朋友未啊? (sent 11:27 pm, Hong Kong time)

Mama: 新年快樂啊! (sent 11:27 pm, Hong Kong time)

Mama: 媽咪今個新年離唔到英國探你真係對唔住啊, 我喺香港好忙, 連新年過嚟搵你嘅時間都無,但喺你生日嘅時候我一定嚟探你!媽咪應承你! 希望你可以你可以原諒媽咪啦! (Sent 11:28 pm, Hong Kong time)

(Translations:

Mama: How’s my good boy? Are you happy studying at the university? Make any new friends?

Mama: Happy New Year!

Mama: Mami is sorry she can’t come to England to see you this year, I’m very busy in Hong Kong, and can’t even make time to visit you on New Year’s, but I will come to visit on your birthday! Mami promises you she will! I hope you can forgive Mami!)

Mu Qing stares at the last message, his mom hadn’t made it to England to visit him for New Year’s this year, but she’d promised him that she’d make it for his birthday.

The thought that she isn’t there for him this New Year’s made Mu Qing feel… sad? Ever since he was born, Mu Qing always celebrated New Year’s with his mother, making niangao, going to the park to look at the lanterns at night, playing with fireworks at night, those were all the things that they did together, and though it wasn’t much, it made Mu Qing happy, and the fact that his mother was there with him made it ten times better.

But ever since he started college in London, he hasn’t been able to see his mother much, and while she still visits him for New Year’s, Christmas and his birthday every year, the fact that she isn’t here this year just made Mu Qing feel awful.

He wipes away some tears forming in his eyes and takes a deep breath.

It’s just one year, Mu Qing, she’ll be here for your birthday. He tells himself.

But that doesn’t make it any better.

Mu Qing tries to wipe away more tears forming in his eyes and looks towards the sky once again.

“Hey.”

A voice rings out from behind him. Mu Qing turns around to see Feng Xin, carrying two cups of what he assumes is tea and looking at him curiously.

“What are you doing out here?” Feng Xin asks.

“Could say the same for you.” Mu Qing responds, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible. “What are you doing here?”

Feng Xin sighs and leans on the railing of the balcony.

“It was too chaotic in there, had to come out to take a breather.”

“What? Can’t take a bit of noise?” Mu Qing teases him.

“Hey-” Feng Xin opens his mouth to protest, but stops himself when he sees that Mu Qing is shaking slightly.

“Hey, are you cold?”

“No.” Mu Qing says, voice trembling. “I’m fine.”

Feng Xin sighs. “No, I can see that you’re shivering.” he takes off his jacket and drapes it over Mu Qing.

“Hey, what are you-” Mu Qing flushes a bit when he feels the jacket being put on him. “I don’t need this.” he glowers at Feng Xin and hands the jacket back to him.

“No, you do.” Feng Xin puts the jacket back onto him and shoves the cup of tea in his hands. “You’re gonna catch a cold if you don’t cover up.”

“Quit mother-henning me.” Mu Qing rolls his eyes and takes a sip of the tea. The tea is warm, not too bitter, and warms him up the moment it touches his tongue, and he could feel the warmth spreading from his stomach to the tips of his fingers.

It reminds him of his mom.

Tears start forming in Mu Qing’s eyes again and he wipes them away.

“Hey, are you okay?” Feng Xin asks him, concerned.

“Of course I’m okay, what makes you think that I’m not okay?” Mu Qing says dryly, but there’s a tremble to his voice and Feng Xin notices that Mu Qing’s eyes are red and there are tear tracks running down his face.

“Yeah I’m not buying it.” Feng Xin says. “What’s going on?”

“I said I’m fine, don’t you have better things to do?” Mu Qing rolls his eyes, trying to appear as apathetic as possible.

“No, no I don't.” Feng Xin says and scoots closer to Mu Qing. “You can tell me what’s wrong.”

“I told you already, there’s nothing wrong-”

“Mu Qing I will literally not let you leave this balcony unless you tell me what’s wrong, right now.” Feng Xin says firmly, and locks Mu Qing’s wrist in a tight grip.

“What the- let me go!” Mu Qing tries to yank his arm out of Feng Xin’s grip, but to no avail.

“I told you, I’m not letting you go until you tell me what’s wrong.”

Mu Qing struggles to get out of Feng Xin’s grip, and he tries and tries for a long time but to no avail. He eventually gives up and just sighs.

“Alright, fine.” he sighs in defeat. “I’ll tell you.”

“Hm.” Feng Xin says, satisfied, and lets go of Mu Qing.

Mu Qing takes a deep breath. “You know how my mom always comes visit me on New Year’s Eve?”

“Yeah, I know, she won’t stop fussing over us.” Feng Xin sighs fondly, reminiscing about Mrs Mu’s last visit to their campus, where she fussed over how Feng Xin and Mu Qing kept their dorm room and cleaned and reorganized everything.

“Yeah well, she didn’t come to visit this year.” Mu Qing hangs his head low, trying to not let Feng Xin see the tears in his eyes. “She promised that she would come on my birthday, but I’m still kinda bummed that she didn’t come for New Year. She always comes to visit, yet this year, she didn’t come. I know it’s silly and kind of stupid, but I haven't seen her in so long and I miss her, you know what I mean?” he sniffs and wipes the tears away. He uses a moment to muster up the courage to look at Feng Xin, fully expecting him to laugh at him or otherwise be weirded out, but once he raises his head, Feng Xin’s expression is unreadable.

“Don’t, I already know what you're thinking.” Mu Qing turns to the side, expecting Feng Xin to burst out laughing.

But what he didn’t expect was for Feng Xin to wrap his arms around him and envelope him in a tight hug.

Mu Qing is startled at first, but eventually melts into the hug and wraps his arms around Feng Xin’s waist.

“Mu Qing, it’s okay to miss your mom.” Feng Xin says as he rubs circles on his back. “It’s completely fine to be sad about your mom not coming to visit you on New Year’s. You can talk to us about it. Xie Lian, Shi QingXuan, me… We’d all listen.”

Tears spill out of Mu Qing’s eyes and he cries into Feng Xin’s shirt, but his mouth can’t stop morphing into a smile as he cries, and once he faces Feng Xin, he’s fully smiling.

That sight makes Feng Xin’s heart leap.

“I-I know, thanks.” Mu Qing wipes the tears away and looks down. “Feng Xin, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Feng Xin’s breath hitches. “What is it?”

Mu Qing takes a deep breath. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but since we’ve known eachother long enough, I might as well tell you..”

“10!”

“What do you mean?” Feng Xin asks nervously.

“It’s kind of stupid, and you might hate me for it.”

“9!”

“But,” Mu Qing prepares himself. “I think it’d be better to just tell you instead of hiding it.”

“8!”

“Feng Xin,” Mu Qing begins, staring into Feng Xin’s eyes.

“7!”

“I have a crush on you.”

That takes Feng Xin by surprise, and he is frozen for a split second. “W-what?” he says weakly.

“6!”

“It means that I like you, romantically.”

“5!”

“And I would like you to be my boyfriend.”

“4!”

Feng Xin has to pinch himself a few times just to make sure he isn’t dreaming. “You’re serious?”

“Yes.”

“3!”

“Well then,” Feng Xin puts a hand on Mu Qing’s cheek. “I’d like to.” he says as he stares into his eyes.

“Oh.” a pretty blush floods Mu Qing’s face. “Well then would you want to-”

“Yes.”

“2!”

Mu Qing raises a hand to caress Feng Xin’s cheek, and takes a deep breath. He dives in, lips fitting onto each other perfectly, and touching as soon as the crowd chanted 1.

“Happy New Year, Feng Xin.” Mu Qing smiles as he presses his and Feng Xin’s foreheads together, fireworks going off in the background.

“Happy New Year, Mu Qing.” Feng Xin says before diving in for another kiss from his boyfriend.

Notes:

Thanks for reading this train wreck of a oneshot! It's definitely not as good compared to the other one I have and I think I'll rewrite it one day to fix the mistakes, but for now, happy new year and I hope 2023 will not be as bad as the previous 3 years (I do not have high hopes tho.)

Link to OG on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43982388

Happy New Year!!! 🥳 🎉 🎉 🎉

Thor finishes his meal at a small cafe and the elderly waitress approaches him to clean the table. She puts the dishes on a tray and sets them aside, picks up Mjolnir, wipes the table with a damp cloth, then puts the hammer back down. “Have a good evening, dear.” she says, and returns to work.

Rings, Ice and Everything Nice (FengQing Christmas Oneshot)

Summary:

“Huh?” Feng Xin lifts his head to see Xie Lian standing in front of the kitchen counter, right opposite him. Mu Qing is out at the moment so it’s only the two of them right now.

“You free this Christmas?” Xie Lian repeats, propping his elbow on the counter and resting his chin in his palm. “There’s a Christmas Market in town. San Lang and I were going to go but something sudden came up and now we can’t,'' Xie Lian rubs his neck, embarrassed. ”So we’re asking if anyone would want to go in our place. It’d be awful to waste that ticket.”

“Uh, I think so?” Feng Xin answers. He doesn’t have much to do on the 25th, so he might as well go to that Christmas market, could be fun.

Feng Xin invites Mu Qing out for a day at the Christmas market, it goes... pretty damn well. ___________________________________________________________________

Please note that I type some stuff in Cantonese in this fic and translations will be given after the paragraph.

Notes:

Hello, people. This is my first OFFICIAL fic on AO3, and it's a oneshot about our two favourite rival dumbasses at a Christmas Market. Since Christmas was rolling around and I really wanted to write something, I wrote it.

This was partially inspired by "Perfectly Warm" by thekeyholder on AO3, their oneshot is so good and so cute. Go check it out.

Please note that I did not beta read this and any spelling and grammatical errors shall be fixed when I feel like it... which is never.

And with that being said, I give you: THIS NON BETA READ MONSTROSITY THAT I POSTED A DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS, I MEAN WTF?

Rings, Ice and Everything Nice:

“You free this Christmas?”

“Huh?” Feng Xin lifts his head to see Xie Lian standing in front of the kitchen counter, right opposite him. Mu Qing is out at the moment so it’s only the two of them right now.

“You free this Christmas?” Xie Lian repeats, propping his elbow on the counter and resting his chin in his palm. “There’s a Christmas Market in town. San Lang and I were going to go but something sudden came up and now we can’t,'' Xie Lian rubs his neck, embarrassed. ”So we’re asking if anyone would want to go in our place. It’d be awful to waste that ticket.”

“Uh, I think so?” Feng Xin answers. He doesn’t have much to do on the 25th, so he might as well go to that Christmas market, could be fun.

“Great!” Xie Lian claps his hands together and pulls out his phone. “Thanks so much. Oh, by the way, that ticket is for two, so you might want to get another person to go with you.”

“Oh.” Feng Xin says. He rubs the back of his neck, clearly a bit troubled. Who would bother to come with him to a Christmas market at such a moment's notice? It was already the 23rd, everyone he knew already had plans for Christmas. Who would wanna go with him?

Xie Lian immediately notices that he’s a bit troubled. “What’s wrong?” he asks, concerned for his friend.

“Well, everyone we know already has plans for Christmas, so I don’t know if…” he trails off, deciding not to finish that sentence. Xie Lian seemed so happy to have someone to use those tickets, but if he didn’t have a plus one, then…

Xie Lian catches on immediately.

“Oh,” he says, face slightly falling. But then his face lights up again. “Why don’t you bring Mu Qing then?”

“Huh?” Feng Xin seems bewildered by the suggestion.

“Yeah!” Xie Lian smiles. “It’d be a great opportunity for you two to bond. Plus maybe you can get closer to him…” he adds that last part in a mischievous tone and a wink.

“W-what?” Feng Xin’s face starts becoming warm. Fuck, he caught on.

Xie Lian sighs. “Come on, Feng Xin. I know about your crush on Mu Qing. I just think that you should tell him.”

“What? No the fuck I shouldn’t!” Feng Xin “Also, why would he wanna come? He’d hate to go to the Market with me.”

Xie Lian sighs deeply. “No, he wouldn’t. Believe me. I’d know.”

“But-”

“Feng Xin,” Xie Lian holds up a hand. “I have known you and Mu Qing for most of my life, and I know how he feels about most things. I’m sure he’d want to go to the Christmas market with you.”

“But-”

“End. Of. Discussion.” Xie Lian says sternly, his tone hardens and his eyes narrow slightly. To anyone else, they wouldn’t notice much difference from Regular Xie Lian, but Feng Xin knows to stop arguing when Xie Lian uses that tone.

“Alright, alright. I’ll ask him.” Feng Xin says in defeat.

“Great!” Xie Lian goes back to his regular smiley self. “I’ll give you the ticket via Whatsapp. It’s digital so you just have to show it to the staff at the entrance and you’re good to go.” he picks up his phone and types something. Within seconds, Feng Xin feels a buzz in his pocket and he knows immediately that Xie Lian just sent him the ticket.

“Well,” Xie Lian pockets his phone. “I better get going, San Lang is waiting.” he picks up his bag and opens the front door. “You guys have fun at the Market!” and with that, he steps out and shuts the door.

And now Feng Xin is alone in the kitchen.

“Ugh…” he picks up his phone and dials Mu Qing’s number, his finger hovers over the dial button for a minute. He finally relents and presses the button. Mu Qing answers within seconds.

“This better be good, I won’t be back for another hour.” he hears Mu Qing’s voice ring out from the opposite end.

“Hey, Xie Lian gave me a ticket to the Christmas Market downtown. He said that he and Crimson Rain were planning to go together but they had something to take care of so they gave the thing to me.”

“Okay? So go by yourself. What does this have to do with me?” he can practically feel Mu Qing’s eyeroll through the phone.

“The ticket covers two people, so I need a plus one to go to the market, and since no one else is free, I thought that you were the next best option.” Feng Xin takes a deep breath. “So, wanna go with me?”

There is a long moment of silence between them when he says that.

“Alright. What time are you free?” Mu Qing finally says. “I have time around 7 on the 25th.”

Feng Xin’s heart does some sort of somersault when Mu Qing says that. “Oh, uh. Same.”

“Then it’s settled.” Mu Qing says coolly. “I’ll be back by 5. Don’t forget to vacuum the place and defrost the chicken.”

‘Alright, geez.” Feng Xin says. “See ya.”

“Bye.” he hears Mu Qing say on the other end, then he hangs up. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When the 25th rolls around, Feng Xin gets a lot more excited about the Market date, (Is it a date? He asks himself.) much to his own dismay and joy at the same time. He lies awake in bed the night prior, trying to fall asleep, but the excitement is killing him. At last, he falls asleep around midnight, after a nice session of trying his damndest to not think about the Market date but failing and at last falling asleep due to the built up exhaustion from all the work he did in the week.

When he wakes up, Mu Qing tells him that he’ll be out for most of the day, but will be back to go to the market with him. And that he should get ready before he gets back as it’s a long walk to the Christmas market. Feng Xin does not protest against this, and simply gives a nod at Mu Qing before he heads out.

The rest of the day, Feng Xin goes about his regular routine. Since it’s Christmas, it means that he had the day off from work, and the fact that it would be Saturday right after Christmas Day, makes it even better. He tries not to think about Mu Qing and the Market tonight, but also wonders at the same time why Mu Qing keeps going out of the house so frequently these past few days. Eventually, he gets the thoughts of Mu Qing out of his head, and settles down on the couch to binge some movies before Mu Qing comes back. He turns on the TV and puts the box of snacks on the coffee table, and before he even knows it, he drifts off.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!”

Feng Xin jolts awake, he rubs his eyes and sees a fuming Mu Qing at the front door, he kicks off his shoes and puts the paper bag he has in his hands on the kitchen counter before walking towards Feng Xin.

“Do you even know what time it is?’ he yanks his roommate off the couch and shoves his phone in his face. 6:27 pm, it reads.

Feng Xin blinks a few times before realizing what’s happening and thinks. Oh no.

“Oh fuck!” he untangles himself from the blanket and makes a dash for his room for a change of clothes. It would take them a solid 30 minutes to walk to the Christmas market, and he just wasted a lot of time.

“I told you to get ready before I came home, and did you?” He hears Mu Qing scolding him through the bedroom door. “Oh my god we’re gonna be so late.”

“Says the guy who came home at 6:27 pm! You wasted just as much time as I did!” Feng Xin fires back at him.

“I expected you to be ready by the time i came back and we could head out as soon as I came back, god!” Mu Qing yells.

“Ugh!” Feng Xin yells in frustration as he ruffles through his drawers for something that would look remotely decent outside, but would still shield him from the winter cold.

At last, after ten minutes of non stop arguing and Feng Xin trying to dress himself in the nicest thing he owns (for the occasion, not to impress Mu Qing!), he steps out of the room and rushes towards the front door.

“Took ya long enough!” Mu Qing huffs, showing him the time on his phone, which now read 6:37. “Let’s go!”

Both of them ran out of their apartment at full speed. Only now did Feng Xin appreciate the fact that their apartment was on the 2nd floor and not the 15th, as he had originally hoped. Mu Qing insisted on the one on the 2nd, saying it would “allow for more natural light!” and “a faster trip downstairs.”

They were in such a hurry that they didn’t even have time to admire the beautiful Christmas lights that hung all around the city.

By the time they got to the location where the Christmas market was, Mu Qing’s phone already read 6:58 pm. They’d gotten there faster than they had expected.

The guard at the entrance scanned the ticket on Feng Xin’s phone and looked at both of them and chuckled. “You know, this Christmas market is really popular with couples.”

Feng Xin tensed up and he could feel the heat rising from his neck. He looked over at Mu Qing, who had frozen in shock.

The guard chuckled again and handed them two wristbands. “These’ll give you access to all of the attractions in the park, just show it to the staff and they’ll let you in. You kids have fun!”

Feng Xin took the wristbands and handed one to Mu Qing. They both wrapped them around their wrists and waved goodbye to the security guard before stepping into the winter wonderland that was the Christmas market.

“Wow…” Feng Xin said in astonishment of the Christmas market. Stalls were absolutely everywhere in the giant park that the market was set up in. Lights shimmered and the laughter of the children echoed throughout the park, and the falling snow that quickly coated the rooftops of the buildings nearby made the area look like something straight out of a fairytale.

“Don’t just stand there, you look like an idiot.” a voice beside him snaps him out of his trance. Mu Qing smiles teasingly at him. “Cmon, we came here to enjoy the attractions, not to gawk at the lights and stuff.”

“Hey, it looks beautiful here, can you blame me?” Feng Xin asks in defense, and Mu Qing rolls his eyes, but a small smile dances on his lips, and his eyes visibly soften when he looks at Feng Xin.

That sight made Feng Xin want to kiss him so bad.

“So uh… about what the security guard back there said,” he begins. “You know, about us looking like a couple.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess we do kind of look like a couple, huh?” Mu Qing answers him sheepishly, averting eye contact.

The two of them stand there in awkward silence for a while before Mu Qing finally breaks the silence.

“Cmon.” Mu Qing grabs his arm and pulls him over to one of the stalls. “I didn’t come here to do nothing.”

“The stall he had pulled Feng Xin to was a game stall, the girl manning the stall looked at their wristbands and gave them a rundown of how the game there worked. It was a very basic ring toss game. The more rings you land on the bottles, the bigger the prize you get. She gave them a bucket of rings and went to the side.

Feng Xin picks up one of the rings and aims for one of the bottles, he could feel Mu Qing staring at him behind him. He takes a deep breath, and throws.

The ring lands perfectly on one of the bottles.

“Holy shit.” he hears the girl whisper from the side, and Mu Qing seems to be gazing at him.

“My turn.” Mu Qing comes forward and takes a ring from the bucket and throws it at the bottles. It doesn’t land on any of them, instead, it hits the side of one of them and falls to the floor with a loud clang!

Feng Xin chuckles and Mu Qing glares at him. “You think this is funny?”

“Yeah, kinda.” Feng Xin admits, but before Mu Qing can get a word out, he steps forward and grabs another ring and shoves it in Mu Qing’s hand. He then goes up behind Mu Qing and holds up his arm to a certain height. This sudden close contact makes Mu Qing tense up. “You wanna make sure that a bottle is within your line of sight and make a decision on which bottle you want to throw the ring at. Next, take aim,” he raises Mu Qing’s other arm - the one that isn’t holding the ring, and puts it in front of him, making sure his index finger is pointing at a bottle through the ring. “And… throw!”

This time, the ring lands perfectly on a bottle, and Mu Qing is astonished by this. “Whoa…” he says.

Feng Xin smiles and picks up another ring. He throws it at the bottles, for it to land on one of them perfectly, as expected from the guy who got gold in all of his archery tournaments back in high school. They continue the game until the bucket of rings run out, joking around and teasing each other the whole time, with a majority of the rings landing on bottles and just a couple missed ones, it was no surprise that they’d won a pretty big prize.

“Here you go.” the stall girl says as she hands Feng Xin a giant black cat plush. “I’d recommend you give that to your boyfriend,” she points at Mu Qing behind him. “Gives off the same vibe.”

Feng Xin’s cheeks go red at this. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Oh really? Could’ve reckoned you two were dating, by the way he looks at you.” The stall girl comments, surprised. Mu Qing’s cheeks also heat up at this comment and he pulls his hood over his head.

“Uh, yeah okay. Thanks for the plush.” Feng Xin manages to say to the girl, who looks at him weirdly before shrugging and waving them goodbye. Feng Xin stuffs the plush

“Well that’s the second time we’ve been mistaken to be a couple.” He jokes to Mu Qing once they’ve walked away.

“Yeah, I know.” Mu Qing says, the red on his cheeks still not disappearing.

They stay like that for a moment, with Mu Qing not talking and Feng Xin looking at him while holding a giant cat plush.

“Well, uh, where do you wanna go next?” Feng Xin asks him to lessen the awkwardness.

“I don’t know, you pick.” Mu Qing answers him.

“Uhhh…” Feng Xin looks around them, there were a lot of attractions all over the park, but none of them really caught his interest, except for-

“You wanna go ice-skating?” He asks.

“What?” Mu Qing raises his head and looks in the direction Feng Xin is pointing in. Sure enough, there was an ice-skating rink smack dab in the middle of the park.

“Sure, why not?” He agrees and walks over.

They borrow ice skates from the staff working at the rink, and get on the ice within minutes, but there was one problem: Feng Xin didn’t know how to skate.

“Pfft,” Mu Qing tries to stifle a giggle when he sees his friend repeatedly trying and failing to get up from the ice once he slips.

Feng Xin sighs and gives up. “Little help here?” He asks Mu Qing.

“Nope, you got yourself into this, you get yourself out.” He says teasingly. “Alright, alright, I’ll help you.” He finally relents when Feng Xin glares at him. He leans down to grab his hand, but Feng Xin falls forward at him once he gets up again.

“Oh, uh, sorry.” Feng Xin apologises to him once he realises how closely their bodies are pressed together, and tries to distance himself from Mu Qing, but with no avail, as when he tries to get back from him on the ice, he just ends up falling against Mu Qing again.

“Oh my god, just stop.” Mu Qing gives up, and just lets Feng Xin lean against him for now. “Follow my lead.” He grabs Feng Xin’s hands and guides him across the ice, trying his best not to let him fall again, and throughout this entire process, Feng Xin is just mesmerised by how pretty Mu Qing looks in the multicoloured lighting of the rink.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could skate.” Feng Xin remarks. “You're really good.”

“Thanks.” Mu Qing looks away for a quick second. When did all the fighting between him and Feng Xin suddenly turn into playful banter and jokes and suddenly now, basically flirting? Unbeknownst to him, Feng Xin was thinking the same.

Mu Qing takes a deep breath. “Feng Xin, I have something to tell you…”

“Y-yeah?” Feng Xin’s breath hitches and they skate to a stop.

Mu Qing turns around to face him, eyes softer than usual and the way his hair reflects the lights around them just makes him look… ethereal. (Yeah, Feng Xin can’t take the bi panic.)“Listen, I’ve kind of liked-”

RIIIIIINNNGGGG!!!!!!!

A bell rings in the distance and a staff member comes out.

“Alright, everyone, rink’ll be closing in ten for cleaning and maintenance! So everyone who’s still in here, please leave the rink before we force you out!”

“Oh! Seems like we have to get out of here.” Mu Qing says awkwardly, separating his body from Feng Xin’s and grabbing his date(?)’s arm and leading him away from the rink.

Once they’re out of there, Feng Xin thinks about what just happened.

So basically, Mu Qing and him got really close, like, really really close, he just guided him through skating and holy fuck that last part…

That last part.

“Are ya deaf?” Mu Qing’s voice rings through the air, cool and calm, but there was definitely a mischievous undertone to it.

“Huh, sorry what?” Feng Xin snaps out of his thoughts. “Yeah sorry I couldn’t hear you.”

“I asked where you wanted to go next, dummy.” Mu Qing rolls his eyes, but Feng Xin knows it’s only in a teasing manner. “I’ve been asking you for the past minute, and you didn’t respond, almost like you were deaf or something.”

“Uh,” Feng XIn scans the area around them for something interesting to go to. “Wanna go there?” he points at a very dark building in the distance, but it was already pretty obvious what it was.

“Ugh, there?” Mu Qing rolls his eyes again. “I swear, that place is the least frightening place I've ever seen.” he says, obviously trying to cover up the fact that he was creeped out by the house.

“Still looks fun though.” Feng Xin smiles. “What? Is Xiao Qing-er scared?” he adds teasingly.

“I literally just told you that that is the least frightening place I’ve ever seen.” Mu Qing says dryly.

“Then on second thought, no.” Feng Xin decides. That haunted house really did look a bit scary once he looked at it a bit clearer.

Mu Qing notices him looking a little creeped out and smirks.

“做乜啊?阿信係唔係驚咗啊?” he asks, trying to get a rise out of Feng Xin.

(Translation: What? Is A-Xin scared?)

“No, of course not!” Feng Xin says defensively. “Come on.'' He grabs Mu Qing’s arm and drags him towards the haunted house.

That sudden touch makes Mu Qing’s breath hitch and his body tense up, and he follows Feng Xin to the haunted house.

There were only a few people waiting at the haunted house, and for good reason. Now that Feng Xin got a way better look at the haunted house, he could tell that those people who worked there were not coming to play. The house wasn’t over the top looking like other haunted houses they’ve been to, the place looked like bad news, and if it weren’t for the fact that it was a park attraction, Feng Xin and Mu Qing would’ve avoided it like the plague, or COVID.

Once it’s their turn to step into the haunted house, Mu Qing tenses up even more, he grabs Feng Xin’s arm and yanks him closer to himself. This makes Feng Xin’s heart start breakdancing and doing somersaults in his chest, all the while singing corny Christmas carols.

The inside of the haunted house looked like something straight out of a murder crime scene, and from what research that Feng Xin had done on haunted houses, this was something good. It reminded him of the Winchester Mystery house he visited last summer and the McKamey Manor, only with less torture and death.

Mu Qing squeezes his arm tighter, trying to keep his head down so that he doesn’t see anything too scary.

“Ha, look who’s scared now.” Feng Xin teases in an attempt to get Mu Qing to calm down.

“Does A-Xin want to fucking die?’ Feng Xin can feel the glare, even though he can’t see it.

“No, but I’m pretty sure you’re gonna cut off my circulation with how hard you’re gripping my arm. “ Feng Xin says.

“Oh.” Mu Qing lets go of his arm and goes silent at his side.

Well that was kind of unexpected. Feng Xin’s arm feels cold without Mu Qing clinging to him like a koala.

They go through the haunted house slowly, with none of them saying a word, but Feng Xin can feel something was wrong, almost like someone was following him. He looks at Mu Qing, who by now has regained his composure and is walking steadily, but he can tell that he’s still a bit on edge.

Feng Xin looks behind him, but there was nothing there. He turns to Mu Qing. “Hey, you feel anything following us?” he jokes in an effort to get Mu Qing to stop being so quiet.

“I don’t know, maybe you’re just freaked out?” Mu Qing dryly, but he looks grossed out by the fake bloody handprints on the walls and looks over his shoulder.

“Hmm.” Feng Xin hums. “Maybe you are too?” he teases.

Mu Qing rolls his eyes.

They walk through the haunted house, everything’s uneventful for a bit, but Feng Xin’s weird feeling that someone is following them is getting stronger.

“You wanna get out of here?” he asks Mu Qing.

“The exit’s that way, dumbass.” Mu Qing points at a door labelled “Exit”.

“Yeah okay, let’s go.” Feng Xin grabs Mu Qing’s arm and walks towards the door, but before he can open it, a figure comes up behind them and raises a knife behind their heads.

“痴孖筋!” Feng Xin curses and Mu Qing raises his fist, only for the figure to raise their hands over their head, and that’s when Feng XIn and Mu Qing realise: This is an actor for the haunted house.

(Translation for 痴孖筋: it’s a curse in Cantonese, and it means “FUCKING SHIT!” in this particular context, but its base meaning is basically just an insult for someone who’s acting insane.)

“Oh my god…” Feng Xin facepalms and Mu Qing rolls his eyes and opens the door to reveal the outside.

“Oh my god, you looked so freaked out back there.” Mu Qing teases Feng Xin once they’re a considerable distance away from the haunted house.

“Says you.” Feng Xin fires back. “You were gripping my arm so hard that it felt like you were going to rip it off.”

“Ugh.” Mu Qing groans, a bit of pink dusting his pale cheeks. “That was actually pretty fun, I won’t lie.”

“Yes, because us being stalked by what looks like a killer and being attacked by said killer is fun.” Feng Xin says.

“Awwwww, poor A-Xin, so scared of a fake killer?” Mu Qing says in a baby voice and throws his head back. “That’s fucking hilarious.”

Feng Xin sticks his tongue out at him.

“Seriously?” Mu Qing rolls his eyes. “Sticking out your tongue? That’s grade school level shit.”

“Speaking of grade school level shit…” Feng Xin says mischievously, raising a hand behind Mu Qing’s back.

“What the f-”

“I HIDE, YOU SEEK!” Feng Xin yells before taking off.

“Oh it’s on!” Mu Qing runs after him into the crowds.

They run for a while, uncaring of all the people staring at the fact that two grown men are running through the crowds like six year olds, and Feng Xin sees a gap between two stalls. Nice place to hide. He thinks to himself. He makes a dive for that gap, but Mu Qing is faster, as he yanks Feng Xin out of his hiding place before he’s even halfway in.

“Gotcha!” Mu Qing laughs and gets off of Feng Xin.

“Yeah, yeah. You got me.” Feng Xin rolls his eyes and smiles at his companion.

“Come on, I wanna go see the ice sculptures.” Mu Qing lifts himself and Feng Xin off the ground. “And I don’t want to be stared at by a bunch of strangers.” he adds under his breath, glaring at all the people staring at them.

They head for the ice sculpture building, and the queue progresses quickly, maybe due to the late time, but both Feng Xin and mu QIng don’t really notice the time. Instead, they are thrusted into a kingdom of ice and snow.

“Whoa…” Feng Xin says, brushing his hand against one of the ice sculptures that was shaped like a penguin. “These look so real.”

“Yeah, they do.” Mu Qing agrees with him. “Hey.”

“Huh?”

“Take a look at this.” Mu Qing points at an ice sculpture of two people in extravagant ancient Chinese robes. Their lips were pressed together and the one with a bun was dipping the one who had longer hair, flowing freely from his head.

“Holy shit, that’s beautiful.” Feng Xin says in astonishment.

“Yeah. I know right.” Mu Qing holds up his hand to brush against the face of the one with the bun.

“You want a photo with this?” Feng Xin asks him.

“Huh? Yeah sure.” Mu Qing goes silent for a moment. “But you have to be in it as well.” he tells Feng Xin.

“What?”

“You heard me.” Mu Qing shrugs, then turns to another visitor of the building. “Excuse me, would you mind taking a photo of us?” he asks the teenager next to him, over the sound of Feng Xin’s protests.

“Sure, why not?” The teenager agrees and Mu Qing hands them his phone.

“Why did you ask-” Feng Xin begins.

“Shut up, the kid’s already starting to take the photos.” Mu Qing hisses at him and pulls him closer. He flings Feng Xin’s arm over his shoulder and wraps his own around Feng Xin’s waist.

A minute or so passes, and the kid finally stops taking photos. “Thanks.” Mu Qing says as the teenager gives the phone back to him.

‘You two make such a great couple, ya know?” the teen tells them.

“Oh, uh. Thanks, I guess?” Feng Xin says, embarrassed, while Mu Qing hides his face in his hands.

“Yeah. See ya ‘round.” the teenager gives them a salute and walks away with their mother.

“Well that’s the-” Feng Xin begins.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Mu Qing says, cheeks pink. He pockets his phone and blows some hot air onto his hands. “Let’s get outta here, I’m freezing.”

“But we’ve barely even-”

Mu Qing is nearly out the door.

“哎呀⋯⋯" Feng Xin runs after him.

(哎呀 basically means: Aiya… and that punctuation mark after it is the Chinese equivalent to this: …)

______________________________________________________________

They continue walking through the Christmas market for a while, it was already pretty late, nearing 9 pm.

“So uh, what do you wanna do next?” Feng Xin asks the black haired man walking beside him.

“I dunno.” Mu Qing shrugs.

“Well…” Feng XIn scratches his head. “Wanna go see them light up the Christmas tree?”

“What?”

“Yeah!” Feng Xin says. “Xie Lian told me about it yesterday, he told me that they’re gonna light up the Christmas tree at the center of the park.”

“Well, alright.” Mu Qing nods. “What time?”

“9 pm.”

“Oh shit, it’s already 8:45.” Mu Qing pulls out his phone. “Well, if you wanna go see the tree light up then we better get going.”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

______________________________________________________________

“You wanna get something to drink before we see the lights?” Feng Xin asks.

“Okay.” Mu Qing says. “Whatcha want?”

“Nothing too much. Maybe some tea or hot chocolate, you?”

“Yeah same.” Mu Qing says, then he notices a small stall in the distance. “That stall seems to be selling drinks, wanna go check it out?”

“Okay, let’s go.”

A few minutes later, both of them are holding hot chocolate and sitting on a bench, right in front of the Christmas tree in the center of the park.

“Hey, thanks for coming with me to this Christmas market.” Feng Xin smiles.

“Hm.” Mu Qing takes a sip of his hot chocolate. “I’m glad I came.” he says quietly.

“I’m glad you came too.” Feng Xin smiles and wraps an arm around Mu Qing’s shoulder. Mu Qing tenses up at first, but soon relaxes into the warmth of his companion.

They sit in silence for a while, just staring at the unlit Christmas tree, and the snow lightly falling from the sky.

“Feng Xin, why did you ask me to come?”

“I told you already, Xie Lian and Crimson Rain couldn’t make it, so they gave the ticket to me and since no one else was free, i asked you.”

“Oh…”

More silence.

“Feng Xin, is this a date?” he asks him, eyes wide with hope.

“I mean, if you want it to be.” Feng Xin whispers, staring into those beautiful black eyes, reflecting the Christmas lights around them.

“Yeah, yeah i do.” Mu Qing moves in, and the lights around them softly illuminate him, reflecting off his silky black hair and making him look even prettier than he did at the ice rink.

“Then uh… wanna-”

He doesn’t even have to finish that sentence before Mu Qing dives in.

Feng Xin’s brain short circuits at that. He’d’ve never imagined that this would happen, much less for Mu Qing to initiate the kiss. He ia frozen in shock for a few seconds, but relaxes and melts into the kiss.

When they finally break apart, Mu Qing’s face is red as a beet and Feng Xin is at a loss for words.

“Wow…” Feng Xin says. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Mu Qing mutters, trying to get rid of the deep red blush that’s taking over his face. “That wasn’t so bad.” he gives up on trying to get the blush to disappear and just smiles at Feng Xin.

That sight makes Feng Xin’s heart do somersaults.

“Hey Mu Qing.”

“Hm?”

“I’m so glad that you agreed to come with me tonight,” he takes a deep breath. “So, would you like to be my boyfriend?”

Mu Qing’s breath hitches and it takes him a couple moments before he answers.

“Yes, yes I would.”

Feng Xin dives in for another kiss, and the Christmas tree lights up behind them.

End notes:

Feng Xin, calling Xie Lian after the Christmas Market: holy shit. I went to the Market with Mu Qing and we did a lot of cool stuff and we kissed and I asked him to be my boyfriend and I think I love him?

Xie Lian, who has known for years and gave him the ticket to the Christmas Market just to get him and Mu Qing on a date:

______________________________________________________________

Hey, folks. Thanks for reading this fic of mine, and I hope y'all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Errors will be fixed when I feel like it... eventually, which is never.

Link to the AO3 fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43860684

meant to post this yesterday but hERE WE GO