[A/N] Hey, so my dog got knocked up. She had 6 pups, and to keep it brief, 3 passed and so did she about a week after.
Sorry for the two-two and a half month long hiatus, I'm still not over it obviously but I turned my emotional burnout into the final normal chapter before things go loco' and we don't see Liu for a while.
Thank you all for your patience, and please enjoy your chapter.
The following weekend was nice. M/n got his cast off, opted out of any extra work, spent time with his parents, and although he knew it was pointless he still took an interest in physical therapy. There were these hand grips his doctor had mentioned and once his appointment wrapped up he found himself at Walmart, begrudgingly buying a set. The grips and the stretches, within the span of a few hours, became subconscious little actions he'd do during any mindless activity. Which included finally getting his matching tattoo done with his mom.
She was so excited, hugging his torso tightly while he read off the appointment information from the parlors website. He always wondered why she was so adamant about matching tattoos, it's not like she'd even be able to see it considering how small the designs she picked out were, but it didn't matter as long as she was happy. The tattoos themselves were cute and sentimental. She called them "mature," and at the time he scoffed at the unintentionally targeted comment.
Now he sat on the floor with his back against his bed frame, sobbing into the sleeve of his hoodie while glancing occasionally at the little bandage on his index finger covering his newest piece.
It had been hours since their appointment wrapped up. They took pictures, had lunch, and parted ways. He was fine up until he got into his car alone, that was when he started thinking. And lately thinking's been getting him in a lot of trouble.
During the last few months he came off as pretty content, and on a good day he was in fleeting moments, but the thought of his mom and how she'd hold up once he's gone always ate away at him. One kid in prison and the other dead he was unable to put himself in her shoes. She was strong, she worked sixty-hour weeks to provide for them, she fought tooth and nail in court to get him back from foster care, and this is how he repaid her. By joining a gang and getting himself killed over some douchebag who never bothered writing back from prison.
It's days like these where he dissolved into a puddle of his own tears, loathing that piece of shit for extending his sentence and ruining their lives. He grew to hate him and once his sentence was up he would drive eight hours himself just to knock a couple teeth out.
After what felt like hours he finally pulled himself up off his floor, discarding his snotty tear stained hoodie into the pile of dirty clothes falling off the edge of his bed. Eying the hand grip on his dresser uneasily, he was having an emotional breakdown, did he really want to do this? Of course he didn't but he's a responsible adult so he will anyway.
With his grip in one hand and his phone in the other he made his way down the hall and into his living room. He knew he looked awful, his eyes red and puffy and his nose raw from wiping it, and he was much too exhausted to cook his own food so door dash it was. They might be unethical but they sure are convenient, and as he entered his living room and recognized Liu standing at his glass balcony doors he realized he should probably utilize the convenience of door dash a second time to add more food to his order now that he had company.
The doors were thrown open, as he tapped away at his phone, more violently than usual but it wasn't till Liu opened his mouth that M/n pieced together what was going on.
"Hey Jackass! What's this?!"
Oh great, it's Sully. M/n watched him point dramatically at his neck while his face fell at the reveal that his favorite hispanic twink wasn't here to have dinner with him.
"A tattoo,"
"Don't get smart with me, why are your initials on my fucking neck?"
"My initials are on Liu's neck because he asked me to put them there." He answered slowly, like he was explaining his thought process to a child, and that was not well received.
"You pompous asshole!" Sully had closed the space between them quickly, dodging the grip bars chucked at him, grabbing the front of his shirt, and slamming him into his front door. M/n seemingly disinterested in fighting back once his first attempt was thwarted.
"You don't get to–!" For as loud as he was yelling he piped down quick, instead squinting at his disheveled appearance the second he got close enough to look at his face. "To... have you been crying?"
M/n's red irritated face somehow grew more pink as he got embarrassed, looking away from Sully while he tried to compose himself. "No," it was just his luck for his voice to fail him as it came out hoarse and unconvincing.
Sully thought for a second before finally retracting his hand from M/n's shirt. Watching him slump to the floor with such a sour look on his face made him feel bad, well worse, which was hard to accomplish. So with a small almost inaudible huff he found himself sitting on the floor across from him, legs crossed over one another just like in preschool.
"Alright, stud. What's your baggage?"
"Stud?" M/n scoffed.
"Don't dodge the question."
M/n thought for a second, brows furrowing. "I don't think you care."
"Maybe I do." He looked up and to the side, over dramatizing his thought process through his actions as he cocked his head and shrugged. "Maybe I don't. Look, I know I'm an old dick but I've never been the type to kick a puppy while it's down."
"You think I'm a puppy?"
"Depends, you like it better than stud?"
He managed to catch a small smile from M/n as he half scoffed-half grunted. "How old are you?"
"You're dodging, again."
"I'm getting liquidated soon."
"How soon?"
"Tomorrow night soon."
As the words left his mouth he felt his heart jump into his throat. Sully couldn't care less, which meant that was Liu. He could tell his handle on things, more specifically the meat machine, was slipping.
"I'm worried for my mom, kinda scared that it'll hurt, but it's mostly the mom part."
"It'll probably hurt."
"Thanks, you're so optimistic."
Sully laughed with a small shrug. "We've died a whopping two times, you're practically talking to an expert," he lazily gestured to himself with a grin, "and I'm taking inquiries."
"How old are you?" He asked again.
"I'm not taking inquiries anymore."
"You were right, you are a dick."
"At least I'm not a liar."
M/n waved him off in one short gesture. "Whatever, I'll figure it out eventually."
"What does that mean?"
He thought for a second, rolling the wrist of his dominant hand absentmindedly. "You're thirty-seven."
Sully scoffed, rolling his eyes at the thought. "I wish."
M/n squinted at him, "You're fifty-two."
"Jesus christ," Sully mumbled under his breath as his own brows furrowed slightly.
Late forties, if he was any younger he would've been more dramatic. M/n racked his brain for any other clues but considering this has been their only civil conversation he was shit out of luck.
"Forty-six." No response, "Forty-seven." No response, "Forty-eight." Sully leaned back against his hands, biting the inside of his mouth as his eyebrows raised slightly. Gotcha prick.
"Give up?"
"You're forty-eight, you old fart."
Sully scoffed, glaring at him before deciding to respond. "You're an asshole, you know that?" He sounded pretty genuine but he didn't waver under the look M/n shot in his direction.
"I don't take criticism from people who've had their hands around my throat."
"Maybe that's why you're single."
M/n's resolve crumbled, leaning over to grab a boot off the shoe rack next to him he chucked it, hitting Sully in his shoulder with the clunky reinforced steel toe.
"You suck, I want Liu back."
"That's offensive." Sully barked, massaging his bruised shoulder.
"You assaulted me." He shot back, resisting the urge to chuck another shoe at him.
"Fair enough, fine," he stood to stretch, popping his back a few times, before crouching back down just to hold onto M/n's jaw. "Just so you know, if you get out of this alive, I'm marking you." The way he spoke didn't feel like a threat, it was a warning he recited while running his thumb against M/n's bottom lip. Venom dripped from his words because it lived in his tone, not because he manufactured it for a monologue. "You shouldn't have expected to brand me with your initials and not get something in return. I'll be nice though. I'll let you pick out whether it's in ink or carved into you with a knife."
M/n nodded softly. Earning him a genuine grin from Sully as he condescendingly patted his cheek.
"Good boy. I'm out," he turned on his heel, took a few steps, and flopped back against M/n's cheap couch. Using a throw pillow to prop his neck up as he shut his eyes and got comfortable. "Liu should be here in a few minutes. Give it time... it's a process."
M/n stood with a sigh, watching him lay there peacefully for a minute before going about his business. He wanted to strangle him, he really, really did, but it's Liu's body too unfortunately.
Instead he shut his balcony doors and cleared off his small dining room table for the food he ordered. It was delivered soon after and in between setting up the styrofoam boxes and pulling a beer from his fridge he'd occasionally shoot a glance in Liu's direction. He felt hyper aware or at the very least overly anxious of every little move he made for the next thirty minutes.
He didn't know how it progressed, but sometime during that half hour he went from silently watching over him from the opposite side of the room, to sitting on the couch holding his hand while he stirred. He'd flinch occasionally, every thirty seconds he'd have these little spasms, it was hard to do nothing even though he knew it was inappropriate to touch him while he was incapacitated. So he settled for almost doing nothing. Caressing Liu's knuckles with his thumb as he finally came too, blinking the irritation from his eyes with a sharp inhale.
"Hey, pretty boy, welcome back to ground control." He used two knuckles to caress his cheek, smiling softly as Liu's green eyes focused on his face. His own hands came up to rub at his eyes with less grace than usual, pushing M/n's hands out of the way.
"Tomorrow?" He phrased the word as a question, running his hands through the hair that fell into his face while he watched as M/n's expression fell. "It's tomorrow?
"Yeah, tomorrow."
"Are you sure?"
"I haven't been wrong yet, we can place bets if you want though." He tried smiling again but Liu wasn't in the mood.
"Don't try to make it light hearted, dude." He said, pulling the pillow out from behind him just to toss it into M/n's Lap as he sat straight up and adjusted himself on the couch so he was facing him. He propped his head up with his hand, elbow against the top of the backboard. "I'm gonna miss you."
His other hand came up to cress his jaw and wipe away the little rolled together clothes fuzz resting against his cheek before letting it fall back into his lap.
M/n dropped the pillow behind him on the other end of the couch before resting his arm next to Liu's over the back and lightly holding his wrist, thumbing the skin of his palm affectionately. "I know you will. It'll be alright."
"It won't, you know that." He was quiet, but still matter-of-fact.
"You'll find something new eventually." He knew he battled with his years of borderline solitude, but more importantly he knew he was a determined little man.
"None like you."
"There's millions of people like me."
"No there isn't. Not to me." He absentmindedly pulled his hand away to trace his fingers over the ink on his neck.
They sat in silence for a moment, the only noise being the hum of the refrigerator and the carbonation of M/n's half drank beer on the coffee table in front of them. Refusing to look each other in the eyes as they both submerged themselves in their own thoughts, Liu was the first one to speak. Sighing through his nose, he got M/n's attention but something kept him from meeting his gaze.
"I'm not gonna see you again after tonight."
M/n shook his head slowly. "No, you're not. I'm sorry."
Liu thought for a second, finally looking M/n in the eyes for half a second before glancing at his lips. "I wanna do something really selfish." He said almost breathlessly.
"Oh yeah?" He had an idea as to what he was alluding to, but instead of taking initiative he decided to wait.
"I do, but you don't need that–"
He just didn't wait for very long.
Liu was cut off as M/n's hand held onto the back of his head, his thumb caressing his cheek as he pressed his lips against his own. It was brief, and soft, and it wasn't quite enough.
Pulling away with a small smile he said softly, "I think I might need it as much as you do."
Liu stared at him with wide eyes, lips parted as he struggled to comprehend what was happening. It clicked eventually and his hands found themselves resting against either side of his face, pulling him in again. Their teeth clicked together awkwardly before they much less awkwardly melted into one another, chests pressed flush against each other and M/n's hands holding onto his small waist. It was warm and inviting, and it was the first time Liu had experienced it for himself. It didn't take a lot of nudging or guiding before Liu was laying with his back flat against the cushions as he tugged M/n's shirt off.
They'd eat later, much later, but at the time ending that chapter of each other's lives on the right note took precedence over stale fries.