7 Dates

Hot Neighbor

Jiang Cheng throw himself on the bed as soon as he returned. He can't help but admit today was one of the best days till now . Thinking back when Lan Xichen first asked him out , he really thought that his neighbor grew two heads on his neck. Who would want to go out with a person like him? But today felt so genuine and warm. At first he was just doing it for now but now he really wants to give it a try. After all , he also deserves a happy healthy relationship.

~~Flashback Yesterday~~

On nights that insomnia or nightmares didn't plague him, Jiang Cheng slept like the dead. 4AM was usually the time that tiredness slammed into him like a pickup truck skidding over black ice, and he would stumble to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth before shucking off his pants and slithering into his bed, pulling his weighted blanket over his body and his fluffy covers over his face. "G'night Louis, lucky," he'd mumble to his cat and dog, and then he'd close his eyes and be dead to the world.

If he were lucky enough, he'd sleep through the whole night, emerging out of his cocoon the next mid-morning to early-afternoon. As he kissed his babies he would try to remember if he'd had dinner or worry that the reason he was so fucking hungry right now was that he'd finally contracted a tapeworm and it was eating his insides.

It was rare for him to get a full seven to eight hours, so he was always rather proud of himself when he managed, and last night since he'd gone to bed at 3AM instead of 4AM, he'd thought rather smugly that he might even manage 9 hours tonight! He didn't have any client meetings in the morning or early afternoon, and he was actually doing pretty well with all of his various design deadlines, so he could afford another hour or two of sleep. Maybe he'd even go down to the cafe he liked when he woke up and sit on their cute patio and eat a sandwich and drink a coffee and just...doodle. Doodle whatever he wanted, draw whatever he saw that inspired him.

So when Louis pounced onto his face (thank god his face was still under his covers) at who-knows-what-time in the morning, startling him awake, and Jiang Cheng gradually became aware of his phone buzzing on his nightstand and someone knocking frantically at his door, he decided he hated the world. Well, he always did.

"Louis-no-get off." He gently rolled Louis into a mini blanket burrito as he sat up and scratched his fingers through his tangled hair. "Ugh, what the fuck," he moaned.

The phone was still buzzing, the sound as jarring as a room full of bees. He glanced at the screen and saw a blurry ID that he couldn't read from this distance with his sleepy eyes.

Louis wrangled himself free from the blankets, leaping from the bed gracefully and giving Jiang Cheng a dirty look as he darted through the bedroom doorway into the living room. Lucky was not in the small dog tower in the corner, so Jiang Cheng could only assume he was out there somewhere with his friend.

Probably they were at the door, ready to judge whoever was knocking on it whenever Jiang Cheng opened it.

He stood and brought his phone closer to his face as he trudged to the front door, the way partially illuminated by the weak, silvery light filtering in through his blinds. The thought of finding pants to put on came across his mind, but he decided he would just look through the peephole to see who it was before taking further action. It was 7:48AM.

He squinted at his phone. "Hot Neighbor, Lan Xichen," he read aloud, blinking. Processing. The gears of his mind turned slowly, then clicked. "Hot neighbor!" He dropped the phone like it was on fire, and it clattered to the floor. He winced.

The phone's screen went black. It stopped buzzing.

"Hello!" came someone's voice at the door. Both Louis and Lucky were standing in the hallway by Jiang Cheng's shoes. "Hello? Are you okay?"