Later when Xingqiu woke up, he realized soemthing very crucial.
He left his only semi-clean pair of his regular clothes at Chongyun's.
And therefore could not leave his house.
He pulls Chongyun's pants back on and heads to the door, planning on taking a detour to get to Chongyun's house without being seen, when someone comes knocking at the door.
He opens it cautiously, and his brain immediately stops working when he sees what he does.
"Sorry, I realized I gave you my only clean pair of my usual clothes and was too tired to notice..." Chongyun mumbles, his face a cherry red. "I wore yours over since I didn't have anything else, but I didn't realize how...tight your clothing is."
It clearly was a sight to behold, since Chongyun rarely wore tight or restricting clothing himself. He continues to pull at the hem of Xingqiu's shorts on his body, willing them to grow longer while Xingqiu tries not to blush harder.
"W-we can change back right now if you'd like. You can come up to my room." Xingqiu says before quickly turning his back to avoid blushing too hard.
"He's not cute he's not cute he is NOT cute in my clothes!" Xingqiu yells at himself internally.
"Xingqiu looks cute in my clothes." Chongyun thinks to himself.
Once they're upstairs in Xingqiu's room, the blood drains from his face when he realizes that there's no good way of doing this since they both have to take off their clothes.
Chongyun, however, didn't seem to care, and started undressing.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Xingqiu asks him.
"I'm giving you your clothes. Are you not comfortable with me undressing in front of you?" He asks, the overcoat hanging off his shoulders and making Xingqiu blush even harder than he wanted to.
"No, I was just a little surprised. You just caught me off guard for a second." He laughs nervously.
He undoes the buttons on the sweatshirt before passing it off to him and quickly pulling on his shirt and overcoat. He impatiently stares down at his socks while he holds his pants in his arms, standing and waiting for Chongyun to give him his shorts back.
When he does he quickly pulls them on and tries to relax at the familiarity - but that's before he realizes that the clothes now smell like him because he was wearing them.
"There is no way I'm going to survive being friends with this boy." He thinks to himself dismally.
"I've gotta get going. I'm supposed to meet my Auntie Shenhe for some training." Chongyun says, pivoting on his heel and grabbing the doorknob.
He hesitates in opening the door though, and slowly turns around to face Xingqiu while his face dusts pink from embarrassment.
"Um, is it okay if I give you a hug before I go? It was really nice last night, and..." he trails off.
"Huh? O-oh! Sure! That's fine." Xingqiu smiles awkwardly, holding his arms out. He couldn't believe Chongyun liked contact from him that much, but a little part of him was secretly happy he got to be closer to him.
Chongyun gives him a tight hug that was quickly reciprocated, resting his head on his shoulder and relaxing at his touch.
They stay like that for a bit longer than would be expected, and Xingqiu pats him awkwardly on the back to signal it.
"Sorry, am I doing this wrong? I don't really know how to properly give hugs or anything like that..." he apologizes while stepping away from him.
"There's no correct way to hug someone I guess. Just usually some hugs are shorter. But if you like to give them for longer, then..." he allows a shy smile to creep up on his face. "I don't mind."
"Really? Thanks, I appreciate it!"
Chongyun leaves Xingqiu to stand alone in his room, a torrent of butterflies swarming in his stomach.
"Maybe I should get out of the house for a while..."
-
After a bit of contemplation, he decides to go see Xiangling. His feelings about her were unwavering, and that helped him not to worry - she was his friend. Chongyun on the other hand...
He shoos the thought away and goes up to the window to say hello.
"Oh hi Xingqiu! No Chongyun today?" She asks, propping her elbows up on the counter.
"Afraid not. He had something else to do." He explains.
"Alright then. I was just a little surprised since you two are so close!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" He looks at her skeptically while that all too familiar feeling of blushing comes around.
"You two have a thing for each other. That what it's supposed to mean." She shrugs.
"Chongyun does not have a thing for me! And I don't have a thing for him! What does that even mean anyways?" He defends himself quickly.
"It means that you liiiike hiiiiim~" she giggles, pushing away from the counter.
"Like him? I don't like him. Besides I-" he looks away and shifts his weight around. "I can't."
"So you do like him!"
"What? No I don't!"
"I'm not dumb Xingqiu." She narrows her eyes at him before poking him in the chest, suddenly growing serious. "You. Have. A. Crush."
For some reason, saying that he 'liked him' felt like an understatement. Almost like it was too vague of a description.
...but saying he has a crush on him?
Shit.
"S-so what if I do? It doesn't matter and it shouldn't change our relationship with one another." He mumbles.
"It matters because if you don't tell him, then you're not gonna wake up from that stupid curse!" She hisses.
"That doesn't matter if he's not my 'true love'. He doesn't like me the same way, so it wouldn't wake me up anyways."
"Even if he doesn't right now, at the rate you two are going, he's not gonna be oblivious for much longer." She sighs.
"If I were you, I'd hurry up and tell him before it's too late."
"It's so much more complicated than that though..."
"Whatever you decide to do, just know that if you fall asleep, then I will tell him. Because it would be pretty different without you around, Xingqiu. And I'm confident Chongyun feels the same way."
"I know..." He sighs.
They wrap up their conversation and Xingqiu heads off to his house to find a book to distract himself with, the day not even half over with.
While he's thumbing through the pages of an adventure novel, he eyes the edge of his bed and slowly reaches for a book with a blue cover with a picture of a girl fast asleep with a rose in her hands.
He'd liked the book ever since he was young because the princess in the story had a curse similar to him, and it brought him comfort that it would be broken one day.
His mood improves while he reads it, and after a while he has a little revelation.
He has no doubt that he's been acting off around Chongyun and that he has noticed it, and he didn't want to fall asleep with Chongyun thinking he flat out didn't like him at all anymore.
So why not, he proposes, shower him with as much of his love and affection as possible within reason? It sure beats moping around while his birthday looms over his head.
He smiles to himself at this better alternative.
Maybe, for just a few months, he'll indulge his little crush. He'd fallen hard for him anyways, why bother getting back up? After all, maybe there was a slim chance Chongyun could fall for him too.
It's too bad Chongyun watches his step.
**********************************************
I'm getting on a plane soon so I posted this a lot earlier than I usually would. Hope you guys enjoyed!
Written: June 10th. 2023
Finished/Published: July 25th, 2023
(Word Count: 1,325)