First Time For Everything [WangXian FF]

33

 
 
Cheng had walked into the waiting room to find the three still huddled together, talking. He went ahead and sat at a chair in another corner of the room. His mind was still completely occupied by thoughts of Sang in a coma.
"Xi, Yao, you guys should head back.” Mingjue looked at his best friends. “It's fine. Xi, you have to go to the court this morning, right? The drug case? And Yao, you have the recital coming up in a few days isn’t it?" 
"Well, yeah, but.." Xichen tried to protest.
"No buts, Xi, we'll be fine. Right Cheng?" He forced a smile for Xichen, who looked straight through his facade, but said nothing.
"Okay then, I'll be back after court. Yao, would you please do me a favour and drop me home?"

“Sure, Xi-ge.” Yao replied and then turned towards Mingjue. “You will be OK, right? Do not forget to call if you need us.”

Xichen kissed Mingjue lightly, before him and Yao left.
 
 
Jiang Cheng was deep in thought when someone gave him a box of noodles and a cup of hot coffee.
"You should eat. We don’t know how long we might have to wait."
Mingjue sat beside him, and attempted to eat, although he had no appetite at all.
"So, Cheng, how's your school? Architecture right?" Ming tried to open a conversation with his brother's best friend, and it was really awkward because they almost never had to interact in this kind of environment before. He knew his brother liked Jiang Cheng, but he had never felt the need to interfere.
I need to be more involved in Sang's life.
He knew, although his brother was sometimes annoying as hell, but, he had the heart of gold, and a capability to love as vast as the ocean. Too bad his object of affection seemed to be indifferent about his little brother's feelings.
But now, he thought differently.
Maybe, maybe they will have their chance.
Please God, let them have their chance to feel love.
He thought back to Xichen, and how lucky he was to have him as his partner. He would make sure to show Xichen how much he appreciated the other after this was all over.
 
Jiang Cheng on the other hand, had his thoughts delved into the darker edge of his already frayed mind.
He held his coffee cup tight, almost to the point of crushing it. He wanted to scream his lungs out. He wanted to break something. He wanted to hit someone so bad. But in the end he just swallowed his bitterness, and prayed he would have the second chance to make everything right with Sang. With the only man he had ever loved.
Then he remembered that Mingjue asked him a question.
"It's fine, ge." 
And that was all he could manage to say, before he wallowed in his helplessness.
---
 

After leaving the hospital, Xichen had gone home to change. He had work to do and even though he wanted, more than anything else, to stay beside his boyfriend, he had a very important lead to chase in a drug case that was going nowhere for the last one month.
He had felt distressed when he heard about Sang's accident. He knew that Ming would be affected very much by this. After all, Sang is his only brother.
He felt helpless when he could not do anything more for his boyfriend, not unless you negotiated with the gods to spare Sang's life, and that's the one thing he was good at. Negotiate. But this time it was useless. His skill was more fitting somewhere else. He had to do something.
So he did the other thing he excelled at. Investigate. He had vast contacts with the detectives at the precinct, so that was his first move. He pulled out his phone and started to dial a number.
 
-----
 
“Why are we here?”
“Why do you think?”
“Why do you always answer my questions with questions?”
“Why do you always ask so many questions?”
“Arrrghhh!!!! You’re incorrigible!”
“In a sexy way?”
“Get lost!”
“Would you come with me so that we can get lost together?”
“Oh my God!”
 
This made the other chuckle as he unlocked the metal gates, typing in the security code to disarm the alarm system.
Wei Wuxian knew what Lan Wangji was trying to do. He was trying to take his mind off of the horrible news they had received 6 hours ago. And Wuxian admitted that it was working.
It was almost morning, the sky changing hue from the inky blackness of the night to the pastel colours of sunrise. The air smelled of jasmine and dew drops and it would have been romantic had they not just come from the hospital.
“What is this place?”
“It’s my garage. Come, I will show you around.”
Wangji held Wuxian’s hand as he led him through the main door. He switched the lights on and immediately the large space was bathed in the yellow lights from the bulbs overhead.
“Wow! This… this is… are all of these yours?”
“Yeah.. Well I like tinkering with bikes, so I keep buying them and assembling them as per my requirements. I do sell off a few if someone asks to buy them once in a while. Why are you interested?”
“Me and bikes? Oh hell no! I don’t even know how to ride a bicycle.”
“Are you serious? You never learned?”
“Nope.”
“Good, then don't."
"... why?" Wuxian was astonished with the casualness of the other's tone.
"Because I don't want you to ride by yourself." Wangji looked at him with his intense gaze. "I want you to ride only with me."
"Jesus, Lan Zhan, are you jealous of the bike?" Wuxian's face blushed slightly.
"Is it wrong if I say yes?"
Wuxian did not know how to answer that, although he felt flattered by the jealousy.
God, am I that petty already?
Not 6 hours ago, the both of them were locked in a sensual embrace and had they not been interrupted, he was sure they would have ended up in tangled sheets. That thought alone made him blush.
Wangji noticed the change in his boyfriend’s expression from curiosity to lust in mere seconds. The blush that spread on the other man’s cheek made Wangji want to kiss him till he dropped. But he knew the worry still lingered in the back of Wuxian’s mind so he didn’t act on it. Rather, he decided he would wait until his boyfriend made a move.
“Come, I want to show you the bike I am working on right now,” he led Wuxian through a few more bikes in various states of dismantlement and finally reached a black and green sports bike, partly to take his mind off his friend's unfortunate luck.
“Wow it looks like a beast.”
“It feels like one too.” Wangji said, excitedly.
“When I am done re-engineering it, I will take you out on it for a ride.”
“Sure,” Wuxian agreed.
“Come, I will take you home now. You look tired and instead of letting you rest, I brought you here.” He turned to leave then but Wuxian caught his arm.
“Lan Zhan…”
“Mn?”
“Is it OK if I stay here? I mean, if I am not imposing that is. I don’t want to go home.” Wuxian looked up almost pleading. “I am scared.”
Wangji’s eyes softened as he heard the plea. “Of course, Wei Ying. Stay here as long as you want. We can sleep here on the couch, just let me go get you a pillow.”
“... we?" Wuxian thought he heard wrong.
"Yes, we. This couch is big enough for the two of us, and I often stay here if I'm too tired to go back home." Wangji walked to the corner of the garage, where he stored the blanket and pillows for the nights when he had to stay over.
Wuxian didn't know how to respond. Surely they are boyfriends now, but weren’t they taking things too fast?
 
"Slow down your perverted mind, bunny." Wangji seemed to have read his panicking mind. "We're just going to sleep, nothing else. I know you're tired, I can see the shadows under your eyes." He sat on one of the edges of the pulled out couch and patted the place next to him.
"Come here."
Wuxian's mind seemed to wander somewhere else whereas his body obeyed the command.
Traitor.
But he snuggled close to Wangji's warmth, and boy was he warm enough to make him purr with satisfaction.
He felt Wangji's hand surrounded him like a warm blanket, and not a minute later he fell into a contented sleep. 
 
 
-----
 
"Why are you just standing there and staring at space, boy? Do you want to get paid this week or not?"
He was startled by the loud voice and immediately got to work. He did not like his boss, but this is the only job he could have, with the shortest distance to his home and the odd hours to make him always available for his brothers.
But last night changed his life.

He saw the young man get out of the store after buying flowers and snacks, and he saw the black car swerved and hit him. It stunned him to the core, because never in his 16 years of life, had he witnessed an accident, especially in this close proximity. But the worse thing was that he saw the person behind the wheel. 
It happened so fast, he could not believe what he saw, until the people inside the car argued, and not a minute later they pulled back and left the scene. 
He processed the whole thing for another minute before he grabbed the phone and dialed the ambulance.

After giving them the location, he ran outside to look for the man, and found out that he was actually still breathing, although shallow and there was blood everywhere.
He was scared. But then, the man must be more scared than he was. So he stayed, and talked to him in a low voice, letting him know that everything would be alright. 
He stayed like that for the whole 15 minutes the ambulance took to reach the place. But as soon as the paramedic arrived. He retreated back into the store. He had helped as much as good but getting involved in police proceedings was not something he was comfortable with. So he kept his eyes glued to the glass window as the paramedics wheeled the man away on a stretcher.
Later after he finished his shift, he felt restless and scared. He wanted to know if the man was OK, if he survived.
He had overheard the paramedics say they were taking him to Yunmeng Hospital and thankfully he could go there on foot since it wasn't that far.

"H-Hi, uh there was a hit-and-run victim who was rushed here tonight. Is he.. is he OK?"
That was the first thing he had asked the receptionist at the huge desk near the entrance of the hospital.
"Please give me a moment, sir." The receptionist paused and then said, "He's still in surgery. Are you a friend?"
"Uh, y-yes.." the boy stuttered. 
"His family and friends are waiting in the waiting room near the operating room on the second floor. You can take the elevator up and then follow the red line."
"Thank you…"
 
He walked slowly to the elevator, still wondering whether he should be there or not, or if he would impose on his family. The ding of the elevator told him that he was at the second floor already, so he quietly walked out following the red line on the floor. He saw the crowd in the waiting room.
The boy had grown up with very little. He had no toys and he had to work two jobs to make ends meet. He made himself so insignificant that he could usually fade into the background so that no one even noticed he was there. So he had developed a habit to observe people as a means to pass time. Right now, he was looking at a group of people who looked like family but he was sure they were not.
All of them looked gloomy and on the verge of tears. They were in varied degrees of despair and sadness and it made him wonder. The boy wondered what kind of person the man was to have so many people worried for him. His lips curved up in a smile as he thought about how nice it would be to have such a great support system. At that moment, he wished he knew them, he wished he was part of that group.
He looked at them, then at the small splatters of blood on his shirt that he forgot to change. He decided that maybe this wasn't such a good time after all. The man was surrounded by so many people who loved him already, so he didn't think that his presence would matter much.
He turned around and walked out. He would come visit again later but for now, he was already late and he had to get back home before he got into trouble.
 
 
---
 
It was now early morning, the sky was still changing colours. He had only gotten a few hours of sleep before he had to get to his second job. He would go visit the man in the hospital today again and this time maybe he would introduce himself to him and his family and friends. 
He had to tell them what he saw last night. With that determination in place, he snapped out of his mood and got to work.