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Comfort on New Year's Eve (Fengqing oneshot)
“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.
originally posted on AO3 under the name of "ikixingyii".
the original fic on AO3