Chapter Text
“Remember when I asked if you were going to spoil her till college and you said no?” Xie Lian asks, leaning casually against Ban Yue’s closet, his laughing eyes tracking Hua Cheng as he rummages through their daughter’s room.
“Well, she’s not in college. Yet.” Hua Cheng frowns.
“She is graduating high school, so-”
“Still not in college!” Hua Cheng interrupts him, definitely not panicking. He drops on his knees to look under the bed.
“San Lang.” Xie Lian sighs. “We’re going to be late.”
“Just a second, gege,” Hua Cheng stands back up and starts shaking out Ban Yue’s blankets. “She said it was somewhere in her room, and it’s not a big room, so I’ll just-”
“San Lang, she could’ve lost it anywhere on her way to school, and we already went through her room twice.” Xie Lian said, keeping his voice calm. “The necklace is not here.”
Hua Cheng knows his husband is right, he does, but Ban Yue called him almost crying, asking to bring her favorite necklace to the ceremony and he’s not going to disappoint his girl on her big day.
“I promise you, she can graduate high school even if she’s not wearing her favorite jewelry.” Xie Lian sounds very amused for a person who has his favorite necklace secured around his neck. Hua Cheng doesn’t point it out.
“Do you think I should just run to the studio and make her a new one real quick?”
“No, I do not think so.” Xie Lian raises an eyebrow, now openly laughing at him. Hua Cheng fights an urge to kiss him and checks Ban Yue’s drawers for the third time.
“Should we just get her a real spider on our way to school, then?”
“Sure, if you want to take a walk with that spider,” Xie Lian says. “I’m not letting it into my car.”
“Gege.” Hua Cheng whines.
“San Lang.” Xie Lian steps closer and puts a hand on Hua Cheng’s waist. “She’s a big girl now. She can handle it.”
“Don’t say that.” Hua Cheng whines some more. “She’s not big at all. And I can’t just fail her like that. She wants her spider necklace.”
“Come on.” Xie Lian smiles. “Let’s check the car again.”
They do find the necklace in the car. Hua Cheng is so relieved he doesn’t even notice how they arrive at school. It feels like he blinks and suddenly they’re there, watching Ban Yue run towards them, face scrunched up in worry.
“Did you find it?” She asks. Her voice is so different now from what it was when she was a baby. Her face, too. She wears makeup, and her hair is cut in some new fashion that Hua Cheng pretends he understands, but really, really doesn’t. She’s still the sweetest kid in the world, even if she’s going to college soon and going to live alone, and probably date someone, and-
“San Lang?”
“Yes, love.” Hua Cheng shakes off the familiar feeling of dread and hurries to fix the necklace around Ban Yue’s neck. He doesn’t even have to bend much, now. She’s grown so tall. “Here.”
“Great!” Ban Yue pats the spider lightly and smiles a bright smile, just like when she was a kid. “Thank you.”
“Don’t worry, it’s going to go great.” Xie Lian says, kind and supportive, while Hua Cheng fights the burning in his eye.
“Hey, you promised not to cry!” Ban Yue says.
“He’s been at it the whole morning.” His husband – the absolute traitor – says, patting his back gently. “I’ve packed extra tissues.”
“Ah, San Lang.” Ban Yue sighs. “I had to grow up someday, didn’t I? That’s just how it works.”
Everything is suddenly so blurry. Hua Cheng wants to say something, wants to reassure her – she doesn’t need to worry about him on her big day.
He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.
Hua Cheng wakes up with a gasp.
The room is dark and quiet. Xie Lian is curled up next to him on the bed and Hua Cheng desperately tries to match his own breathing to his husband’s for several long minutes, but his heart is threatening to break out of his chest. His face is wet.
“Fuck.” He mumbles, sitting up. It wasn’t even a bad dream – and he gets lots of those, he’d know – but it was just so realistic.
It’s not like he doesn’t want Ban Yue to grow up – of course he does, and he can’t wait to see an amazing woman she’ll become one day – he’s just not ready yet.
Hua Cheng gets out of the bed as quietly as he can, not wanting to disturb Xie Lian, and creeps out of the room. He knows he won’t be able to fall back asleep, not until he sees Ban Yue. He finds his daughter sleeping peacefully, cuddling a toy to her chest and can’t suppress a sigh of relief. Still a baby.
He should go back to his room now, but something holds him back. Hua Cheng walks further into the room and kneels by the head of the bed. He carefully adjusts a blanket around his daughter and watches her sleep, letting his head rest on the edge of her bed.
He doesn’t notice falling asleep, but between one moment and another, there’s a small hand petting his head.
“Bad dream?” Ban Yue asks in a hushed voice.
“Not bad.” Hua Cheng replies in kind, reaching out to drop a kiss against her forehead. “Just a little scary.”
“Daddy says scary things in our dreams are not real. Our brain just likes to spook us a little, but we can spook it right back to show who’s the boss here.” Ban Yue says. “Would San Lang like a scary poem?”
“To spook the scary dream out of me?” He clarifies, impossibly fond.
“Yeah.”
“Alright.”
“First you gotta tell me about your dream.” Ban Yue insists. “I gotta know who I need to fight.”
Well, if there’s a person who can fight a passage of time it’s definitely his daughter.
“I dreamt that you were all grown up and leaving for college.”
“Oh.” Ban Yue blinks at him. “Was there math in college?”
Hua Cheng snorts.
“I don’t know.” He admits.
“Was the college on fire?”
“No.”
“Was I very pretty when I grew up?”
“Yes. The prettiest.”
“Then it’s not a scary dream at all, San Lang!” Ban Yue giggles. “You’re almost an adult now and I’m not scared at all!”
“You’re much braver than me, then.” Hua Cheng smiles. “Can I still get a poem?”
Ban Yue nods, a bit awkwardly, and is silent for a moment or two.
“If they study math in college,
I call my San Lang and he can help me,
I’ll fight the teacher if he says I can’t,
And daddy will get us two cookies.” Ban Yue looks very proud of herself, once she’s done.
Hua Cheng kisses her forehead again and murmurs his thanks.
“I didn’t know any college poems, so I wrote one just for you.” She says.
“I think it’s my favorite poem ever.” Hua Cheng admits.
“Good.” Ban Yue says. “Now you’re brave again. And I promise not to grow up overnight, so, no worries?”
“No worries.” Hua Cheng agrees.
***
Xie Lian wakes up alone. It’s not a situation he’s found himself in often ever since Hua Cheng moved in, so he’s appropriately confused. Luckily, it takes him no time at all to find his missing husband, and once he does he just has to run back to his bedroom to get his phone. Too adorable! Hua Cheng is curled up on the floor, next to Ban Yue’s bed, covered by one of her fluffy blankets. Ban Yue’s mostly on the bed, though on the very edge of it, one of the arms hanging down, so that her hand can rest on the top of Hua Cheng’s head. There’s definitely a story there, and Xie Lian is curious to hear it soon, but right now, he has a couple hundred pictures to take.