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“I get the sneaking suspicion that your companion dislikes me for reasons that go a bit beyond bringing you home tipsy, a little late.” One man of two spoke as soon as their other two companions left them to a moment of silence.
“I was five strides past shitfaced, and it was almost sunrise,” the other, Zhou Zishu, nearly rolled his eyes, only resisting out of trained politeness. He tilted his head, eyes following as the subject of the discussion left for the concession stand with Wu Xi. Jing Beiyuan, either a bit too aloof or a bit too cheeky, liked to prod the vinegar pot that was Zhou Zishu’s eccentric husband and then pretend to wonder why Wen Kexing would give him a shifty eye anytime he came within any distance of Zhou Zishu.
“I brought you back, safe and sound and in one marginally untouched piece.”
“You say it like that, and then wonder why he thinks you’re a trickster spirit…” he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t think this is going to work at all.”
“How can it not? A movie is the perfect apology.”
“You sit in a room and ignore each other for several hours, how is that an apology? It’s just you making a gesture without saying anything so you can skirt around the fact that you’re not sorry at all.”
“Of course I’m not, but your partner doesn’t like me and I feel that’s a bit tragic. I don’t recall being particularly unsightly.”
“You haven’t been, anything more than usual, but it’s just how he is about you being around me.”
Jing Beiyuan made a soft, amused snort and tapped his chin, thinking. “He couldn’t really think I would take you from him? Ah, Zishu we really are too high maintenance for each other.”
Zhou Zishu shook his head in response, watching Wen Kexing in the distance, casting glances their way—as if anything inappropriate could happen just standing next to Jing Beiyuan. While Jing Beiyuan had a magnetism for troublesome situations, he hardly imagined he could really stir the pot in any significant way in a handful of minutes.
“I always figured you’d find yourself a nice, shy, pretty thing. Instead, you became the pretty thing, what a turnaround,” Jing Beiyuan commented idly, and Zhou Zishu’s face screwed up a bit; he nearly punched him in the arm for it—a rude habit he’d picked up from his time spent with Wen Kexing.
His intended motion halted, anyway—before he could even strain to resist—when he happened to glance down and catch movement in the pocket of Jing Beiyuan’s hoodie. This friend of his held his head high and gave a sophisticated impression at first, but then drowned himself in clothes that likely were his partner’s and probably didn’t make an extended effort to do anything physical unless absolutely required. An extra large pull over suited him, while also apparently hiding secret stowaways?
“Beiyuan, is that a weasel in your pocket?” He hissed, reaching to hook a finger in the front pocket to pull and peek in. The rustle of movement returned and Beiyuan patted it down, leaning to smile in a mischievous way.
“I’m simply happy to see you, my dearest friend.”
“You—,” Zhou Zishu started, but promptly had his words severed by the reappearance of their partners, with Wen Kexing looking at their close postures with a jealous eye.
“What’s going on here?” He asked, mouth tight in a straight line. If he were trying to hide his discontent, he did a terrible job showing it.
“Nothing,” Zhou Zishu answered, casting one last quick glance to Beiyuan’s pocket before letting it go. “Did you get everything?”
“Drinks and snacks,” Wu Xi held up the drinks, and Wen Kexing had an arm full of various foods.
“Wonderful, let’s go, it should be starting any time now,” Jing Beiyian swiftly diverted the subject elsewhere, and started to wander before Zhou Zishu could inquire again about what the hell he had tucked in his pocket. He definitely saw some kind of weasel. That wasn’t a cat, for sure. A ferret maybe? But also,
Why?
He had questions to ask but Jing Beiyuan slipped away with a smile and feigned innocence—he couldn’t possibly be unaware of the rustling creature he patted down. He could look someone straight in the face and tell them his eyes were blue, knowing full well they were not, and have enough charm to make them believe it. To act like nothing was amiss was practically child’s play.
Wen Kexing sidled over to Zhou Zishu and nearly glued himself to his husband’s side. Zhou Zishu sucked down the sigh and left it stuck in his throat. He glanced toward Wen Kexing, feeling entirely unimpressed for the whole walk down the hall and into the dark theater room.
“What’s the matter with you?” Zhou Zishu hissed, pinching his arm—though only lightly.
“Ah-Xu, he’s…he’s,” he stumbled, flicking his eyes back and forth from Jing Beiyuan back to Zhou Zishu.
“Not a threat, stop with the vinegar. There’s nothing to get so fussy about, Wu Xi wouldn’t have it if he were really misbehaving.”
“You came back missing half your clothes and too drunk to say your name,” Wen Kexing countered, halfway between annoyed and whining—an obnoxious combination really.
“I lost my jacket and left my shoes in the cab, that’s hardly missing half my clothes. We were perfectly safe. Nothing except drinking, reminiscing, and occasionally playing cards. He’s trying to apologize for our apparent misdeeds.” Zhou Zishu felt the disbelief wafting off of Wen Kexing, because he also felt that Beiyuan’s apology was fake as shit, but he had to try for the sake of smoothing his ruffled feathers down. Jing Beiyuan never did anything particularly wrong, other than having a peculiar aura and being too pretty.
Zhou Zishu wasn’t stupid, he knew Wen Kexing’s hang ups came from a double knotted thread of Jing Beiyuan being a close personal friend of Zhou Zishu’s—who knew all sorts of secret things—and also being way too damn physically beautiful. The only person who seemed to be marginally unaware of the effect his face had on people was Jing Beiyuan himself; to which he instead let his personality fill in for it. Poor Wu Xi had been the victim of both of these aspects.
“I just don’t like it, Ah-Xu,” he frowned and circled his arm through Zhou Zishu’s, behaving like a scandalized wife. Ridiculous.
“He’s harmless, you’ll get used to it. Come, let’s go before we miss the movie,” he whispered and ushered him along, following right behind Wu Xi and Jing Beiyuan.
The four of them took a middle row of seats, with Wu Xi claiming the far side and Wen Kexing on the other. Jing Beiyuan and Zhou Zishu sitting together between them earned a side eye from Wen Kexing—being prickly for no damn reason, really—but Zhou Zishu patted his knee and settled him down. If Jing Beiyuan ever tried anything seriously, Wu Xi would probably just kill him and then himself, for how possessive he could be.
Between the four of them, they managed to arrange the food and drinks, and settle down before the film started. Zhou Zishu didn’t really even know what movie they were there to see, but a few hours of staring at a screen couldn’t be too bad—even though he quickly checked out in favor of diverting his attention to Wen Kexing’s hands wandering up his knee and gripping his thigh. He rolled his eyes to himself in the dark, because being touchy feely in a movie theater when they weren’t alone wouldn’t get him anything. Now, alone would have been a different story. He’d never ever confirm Wen Kexing’s claim to late movie night shenanigans in an empty movie theater, but…
…Being around this man influenced him in increasingly unsightly ways. Jing Beiyuan asked him where all of his classiness disappeared off to since he eloped with Wen Kexing and he had no answer but to shrug and do shots with him like they weren’t both troublesome in the same way.
After elbowing Wen Kexing lightly, he reached around to find the button to recline the nice fancy theater seats back a little and get comfortable. If he did get bored enough with the movie, maybe he could just sleep. Though, when he actually tuned into it, he found the movie to be bland, but not unwatchable. Maybe halfway into the movie he sat up a bit to find the snacks and unintentionally shifted in the theater seat to lean on Wen Kexing’s arm; who then took the whole field after being given a step. His overly affectionate partner wrapped his arm around him and nearly dragged him on to his chest. In the dark, Zhou Zishu could accept this unsightly behavior, while not being forced to act affronted by it outwardly.
Only when he reached peak comfort, did he feel Wen Kexing jump and whisper an expletive in the dark. “What the fuck—,” he grunted and withdrew his hand a bit.
“What?”
“I think he bit me—,” Wen Kexing hissed and in the flashes of movie light, he could see him glare over the front of him in Jing Beiyuan’s direction.
“No he did not,” he flicked at him, “now you’re being ridiculous.”
“I am not, something bit me—you didn’t, did you?”
“Of course not, stop your madness and settle the hell down,” he batted his hand back down and moved back into his seat a little straighter, but not completely denying Wen Kexing from looping his arm around him again. Peace lasted for another few minutes, and he almost forgot Wen Kexing’s odd moment.
Until it happened again and Wen Kexing withdrew his arm and hissed, leaning over the front of him like a man trying to catch a criminal.
“Lao Wen—.”
“Ah-Xu, he bit me and he better have an explanation for why—,” he barked, a bit louder—loud enough to earn a sharp “shhh” from the people a few rows behind them.
This commotion did attract Jing Beiyuan’s attention and he tilted his head at them. “Zishu, to misbehave in a public place in such a way, is so unlike you.”
“Excuse me—.”
“You! What is your issue with me?” Wen Kexing covered over half of Zhou Zishu’s lap in order to keep from yelling, which only served to be more annoying.
“Issue?” With confusion, he regarded his friend to translate this accusation. “Zishu…?”
“He says you bit him, I told you he’s being ridiculous.”
“I wouldn’t do such a t….” He closed his mouth and Zhou Zishu watched the turning of thoughts happening from the faint outlines of his face in the dark room. He drew the long sleeves of his hoodie back and then patted around the front pocket—the pocket Zhou Zishu recalled seeing move earlier.
Oh, well that makes sense.
“Hm,” Jing Beiyuan grunted simply.
“Hm?”
“He seems to have woken up.”
“Who?” Zhou Zishu eyed him with immense suspicion. “The rodent you had in your pocket?”
“Sable, but yes.”
“You did have an animal in your pocket?! But why?” He nearly raised his voice but then strangled it lower, now wondering where the half feral beast went if it wasn’t in his pocket anymore. If Jing Beiyuan was implying he had an empty pocket, when it bit Wen Kexing it was already running loose.
The answer came faster than he expected and Wen Kexing jumped out of his seat, nearly dragging Zhou Zishu with him. Unfortunately, his disruption was unavoidable, but on the brighter side he had successfully caught a wiggling sable in his hand and had it flailing around by its scruff—looking like a wiggly weasel cat.
“Oh good, he’s alright.”
“Beiyuan, did you bring the sable with you?” Wu Xi had then caught on to the whole situation and regarded Jing Beiyuan with the blandest, most unimpressed expression his face could muster.
“Not intentionally, I forgot he was in there.”
“Wu Xi, why does he have a sable, that’s just shy of a wild animal,” Zhou Zishu hissed and waved his hands to take the damn thing from Wen Kexing and huck it back into Jing Beiyuan’s arms, so he could tug his partner back down and reduce the level of their disruption.
“He bought it for me, because I thought it was neat.”
Zhou Zishu stared blankly at Jing Beiyuan for nearly thirty second before he could form words. This man, an adult, a relatively collected and respectable—on most occasions—adult, really said he had a wild animal because he thought it was neat.
“I somewhat expected you to leave it at home, Beiyuan,” Wu Xi sighed audibly, mouth in a straight line.
“You let me take it to the grocery store.”
“Somewhat different—.”
“You have a live snake in your sleeve but I can’t have a—.”
Any protesting Jing Beiyuan started, hushed when a light flashed over them and he had to scramble to cram the sable back into his pocket to avoid being seen. Zhou Zishu made eye contact with the theater attendant first and offered his hands to show he conceded defeat already. “We’re leaving, don’t worry. We’ll leave right now.”
Wordlessly, Zhou Zishu ushered Wen Kexing up and out of the theater, leaving the other two to follow a few minutes after. When they exited the theater, Zhou Zishu reached out to take Wen Kexing’s hand and inspect for creature teeth marks, only really finding a few faint outlines and no actual lasting damage. “Wild animal must have been protecting my honor,” he teased, hoping to lighten the mood.
“Ah-Xu,” Wen Kexing whined at him and quickly wiggled his arms around him to hold him in a tight embrace.
“Don’t be so fussy, come on, Wife Wen, you don’t have to feel scandalized. A feral weasel isn’t going to change anything. None of us even know what was happening in the movie anyway,” he shook the whole event off and softly pinched his cheek. “How about next time we drink, you and Wu Xi just join us and we’ll all get terribly trashed together. Surely you can’t be upset about that?”
“What a wonderful idea, Zishu,” Jing Beiyuan interjected, wandering up to them with the furry offender perched across his arm casually—like he didn’t bring a whole animal to a no animals allowed kind of place. “Strip poker is much more entertaining with more participants.”
“What—.”
“Beiyuan, honestly,” Zhou Zishu batted Wen Kexing down from his possessive and sudden cling. “There was no strip poker, Wu Xi would kill me.”
“I would,” he nodded in agreement.
“See, he would, you can relax now.” He exhaled and took his hand between his.
Jing Beiyuan’s attention diverted to petting down the soft fluff of his sable’s winter coat, and removing his attention to their public displays of affection. However, his interest definitely remained, and he smiled up at them in that way that left Wen Kexing constantly suspicious of him. “Well, plans have been ruined, why don’t we continue this elsewhere over drinks, surely a bit of good wine can make friends of the hardest people?” He eyed Wen Kexing for this sentiment and Zhou Zishu narrowed his eyes on him in exchange.
There was no way he planned this.
Was there?
He watched Beiyuan effortlessly redirect their attention, and he suddenly understood Wen Kexing’s weariness. Of course a shameless gremlin would be suspicious of a fellow shameless gremlin. It would only be a matter of time before they themselves would recognize their similar traits. At which, Zhou Zishu might run off to the mountains for a single moment of peace.
In the meantime he followed them out, listening to Wu Xi lay down the liquor limitation that would absolutely never be followed. And for him to put away his exotic pet instead of keeping it tucked in his damn clothes. Wen Kexing simply watched them, and seemed to be realizing these two were actually ideal for each other. His Ah-Xu remained unthreatened and all his to claim.
Zhou Zishu found his hand being dragged up to Wen Kexing’s lips, and he felt an urge to bop him for his nonsense.
Ridiculous.
He smiled.
Simply ridiculous.