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Sun Xiang’s new neighbour was handsome. They’d met very briefly when he’d moved in, shook hands, introduced themselves and then moved on with their lives. The moment the other was out of sight, Sun Xiang retreated to his apartment and complained about the handsomeness of said neighbour to his roommate. He finally looked at Zhou Zekai after rambling about the other man for at least ten minutes and even though his friend didn’t say a word, Sun Xiang could see the judgement in his eyes. He scowled on reflex.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Zhou Zekai tilted his head to the side as he considered his next words.
“Ye Xiu.” Sun Xiang’s cheeks flared bright red at the reminder of the last crush he’d had, and he glared, pointing an accusatory finger at his friend.
“You promised to stop bringing that up.” Zhou Zekai merely raised one eyebrow prompting Sun Xiang to attempt to explain himself further. “It worked for you with Jiang Botao!”
“Penguin not raccoon.” Sun Xiang scowled again, more so from losing the argument as Zhou Zekai was right, a penguin showing up on your doorstep was cute if a little worrying. A raccoon showing up on your doorstep meant grabbing a broom and screaming. Or at least, that’s how Ye Xiu’s flatmate reacted. Sun Xiang winced at the reminder of the bruises. “Not again.”
Sun Xiang frowned, shifting smoothly into his second from in order to chitter at his friend from the other end of the sofa. Zhou Zekai huffed out a nearly inaudible sigh, knowing that Sun Xiang was likely not going to listen to his advice and attempt to seduce the new neighbour with his animal form as opposed to simply talking to him like a normal human being.
The next day Zhou Zekai bumped into Sun Xiang’s latest crush while he was collecting his post and he took the proffered handshake and introduced himself politely. The other man went to walk away but paused, seemingly debating something within himself before turning back to Zhou Zekai.
“Just a question, do you have problems with wildlife?” When Zhou Zekai simply tilted his head in confusion, Xiao Shiqin elaborated, pushing his glasses up his nose as he did so. “Last night I was woken up by something running around on my balcony, I think it might have been a cat?”
“We rarely have issues.” Xiao Shiqin frowned at the answer, nodding thoughtfully to himself before wandering off and Zhou Zekai returned to his apartment to find Sun Xiang staring pointedly at a book. Unwavering. Dedicated and utterly absorbed. Even though it was upside down.
“Xiao Shiqin says he has trouble with wildlife,” somehow, Sun Xiang managed to convey and sense of deliberately focusing on his book even harder after that. “He thinks it’s a cat.”
“I just wanted his attention.” Zhou Zekai stared quietly at his friend, waiting for him to come to the obvious solution by himself. When this didn’t happen, he deposited the post in his friend’s lap, vowing to stay out of the sure to come antics. Sun Xiang could get himself a boyfriend without Zhou Zekai interfering. He had full faith in him. Zhou Zekai was going to be bitterly disappointed in his friend’s abilities.
When Xiao Shiqin moved into his new apartment, finally moving out of his friend’s spare room, more for his own sanity than anything else, while he enjoyed Yu Wenzhou’s company, his hyperactive corgi shifter of a fiancé was difficult to live with. Both were currently visiting and sat on his new sofa. Well, Yu Wenzhou was sat on his new sofa, Huang Shaotian was sat on the arm of the sofa as he leant against his boyfriend and hummed contently.
“How are you finding your new home?” Yu Wenzhou sipped at his tea as Xiao Shiqin considered his answer.
“It’s been fine, the neighbours seem friendly, the location is good-“ he was cut off by Huang Shaotian’s voice, peering over at him from where he was lounging.
“What’s wrong, something’s wrong, I can hear it in your voice and if I can hear it, Wenzhou can definitely hear it and he’ll get it out of you eventually and it’s so much easier to just tell him, it’s like when I was trying to propose but Wenzhou knew something was up and eventually I ended up telling him what was going on and it ruined my romantic proposal but in the end it was okay so you should just tell us-“ Huang Shaotian was cut off by his fiancé covering his mouth and he immediately shifted into his other form to capitalise on his puppy eyes. And curl up in Yu Wenzhou’s lap like the shameless opportunist he was.
“I apologise, you were saying?” Xiao Shiqin smiled, when he no longer had to deal with them twenty-four hours a day, Huang Shaotian’s antics were endearing.
“Oh, yes, the only issue is that wildlife seems to congregate on my balcony at night, I think I saw a cat out there last night, it was shuffling around by my plants.” Yu Wenzhou frowned, glancing out of the window where they were a fair height off the ground and there was no fire escape nearby.
“How did a cat even get up so high? Was anything damaged?” Xiao Shiqin shook his head as he thought back, realising that everything was quite hazy in his memory given that it’d had been two in the morning.
“All my plants were untouched, the animal bolted when I switched on the light, maybe it escaped from one of the neighbours?” Huang Shaotian had given up contributing, rolling onto his back instead and letting out soft whines until Yu Wenzhou caved and started petting his tummy.
“Perhaps, if it happens again, you could ask around the neighbouring apartments, to check if anyone has lost their cat recently?” Xiao Shiqin nodded at the advice and the two continued chatting until Yu Wenzhou checked the time and realised it was getting late. Huang Shaotian however, seemed resistant to changing back and merely sat on the sofa, tail wagging expectantly.
Yu Wenzhou huffed out a sigh, aiming for stern but ending up settling on achingly fond as he scooped up his fiancé, willing to carry him back to their home. Huang Shaotian nuzzled into his neck, smugness radiating off him and Xiao Shiqin smiled at the sight.
“You spoil him,” he quipped and his friend’s besotted smile warmed his heart as Yu Wenzhou shrugged, shifting Huang Shaotian into a more comfortable position.
“Perhaps I indulge him too much,” however, Xiao Shiqin had heard his friend say this dozens of times and nothing had ever changed, Yu Wenzhou was always weak for Huang Shaotian, no matter what form he took.
CRASH
Xiao Shiqin was startled out of sleep by a loud clattering noise and he groaned as he dragged himself out of bed, switching on the light in the living room. It took a long moment for him to process what he was seeing but eventually his brain kicked into gear and he realised there was a raccoon sitting in the centre of his living room.
The two stared at each other for a long time before the raccoon was abruptly brought out of its trance and made a very loud panicked noise as it bolted for the open window, Xiao Shiqin merely watched in shock as the raccoon wriggled through the small gap, onto his balcony before vanishing into the night.
Despite the entire experience needing more thoughts dedicated to it, namely: how a raccoon managed to make it onto his balcony in the first place, it was also three in the morning, meaning Xiao Shiqin didn’t have the brainpower to think about the possibilities. He shuffled back to his bed and collapsed, falling asleep nearly as soon as his head hit the pillow. The strangest thing about the encounter, the last thought in his mind was that the raccoon’s eyes were bright blue. But the detail was soon lost to sleep.
Sun Xiang crawled back into his own apartment, heart still hammering in his chest as he realised he’d nearly been caught. He’d only wanted to see if he could fit through the window. He hadn’t meant to lose his footing and go tumbling into Xiao Shiqin’s apartment. The one good thing that came from the encounter was that it seemed that the new neighbour wasn’t afraid of raccoons. That or he was too tired to function properly.
“This will require more information.” Sun Xiang thought decisively, after all, Zhou Zekai had used him to learn about Jiang Botao before the two got together and he was well-aware that knowing about your prospective crush was important.
Sun Xiang got his opportunity to get closer with his new neighbour outside of his shifted form sooner than he expected as it turned out, Zhou Zekai knew some of Xiao Shiqin’s friends and had invited them over for a game night. The two entered and Sun Xiang’s face fell ever so slightly when he caught sight of Huang Shaotian.
Xiao Shiqin paused from where he was serving drinks, looking back and forth between the two, confusion in his eyes. Both shifters kept their eyes on each other, focused on glaring at one another. Yu Wenzhou nudged his fiancé, tried to get his attention but Huang Shaotian kept his eyes on Sun Xiang, fully focused on him.
“Do you know each other?” Xiao Shiqin broke the silence and Zhou Zekai sighed slightly, having expected them to have got over their feud by now.
“Senior Ye.” While this only confused Xiao Shiqin more, Yu Wenzhou’s eyes widened and he huffed out a laugh as the memory came back to him.
“When you two had puppy love crushes on senior Ye you were rivals, I remember.” This ended the staring match as Huang Shaotian turned to pout at his fiancé, seemingly forgetting about Sun Xiang entirely.
“Yu Wenzhou, now is not the time for puns! Just because it didn’t last long doesn’t mean you have to call it a puppy love crush, why not a short-lived crush? Just because I got over Ye Xiu doesn’t mean you should mock me for it!” Yu Wenzhou nodded apologetically, covering his mouth to hide his laughter as he mollified his partner who was pouting playfully.
Sun Xiang took the opportunity to sit as far away from Huang Shaotian as possible, putting both Zhou Zekai and Xiao Shiqin between them. He didn’t have to bother, Huang Shaotian remained fully besotted by Yu Wenzhou the entire night but at the very least, Sun Xiang got the opportunity to sit beside his crush.
The night continued as the cards came out and the group began to relax around one another, laughing when Huang Shaotian’s enthusiasm for a game was entirely because he liked to watch his fiancé’s face scrunch up with concentration. The calm Sun Xiang was feeling soon dissipated when Yu Wenzhou spoke.
“Ah Shiqin, did you find out who the cat belonged to?” Sun Xiang went very still, focusing intently on his cards as Xiao Shiqin laughed slightly.
“It wasn’t a cat in the end, it’s a raccoon and I think it’s still visiting, I often hear rustling out on the balcony.” Huang Shaotian’s head whipped around to stare at Sun Xiang, a smug smirk crossing his face as he kept his eyes on the other shifter who was starting to flush red.
“A raccoon did you say? How would a raccoon get so high up do you think?” When Xiao Shiqin simply shrugged helplessly Huang Shaotian pressed a little further, “Sun Xiang, have you ever had trouble with the local wildlife since you’ve lived here?” Everyone’s eyes turned to focus on him, two pairs curious, two pairs judgemental and Xiao Shiqin watched in fascination as Sun Xiang’s cheeks turned bright red and he refused to meet their eyes.
“How should I know?! Do I look like an animal expert to you Huang Shaotian?” Both Xiao Shiqin and Yu Wenzhou were certain they were missing something important as Huang Shaotian’s smile only widened.
“I thought you used to like raccoons?” Sun Xiang choked on his own spit as he tried to muster up an answer that wouldn’t result in Xiao Shiqin finding out that he was the mysterious raccoon.
“Ah, Sun Xiang, you’re bright red, would you like a glass of water?” The shifter nodded eagerly, taking the opportunity to escape Huang Shaotian’s smug smile and gratefully grabbed the glass, hoping the cold water would cool his cheeks. “Do you really never have issues with the wildlife?”
Xiao Shiqin had to admit that his new neighbour was very pretty when he was flustered, cheeks red and eyes wide. Despite the other’s height advantage, Xiao Shiqin found it quite easy to pin Sun Xiang under his gaze as his neighbour stumbled over his words, hands tight around the glass.
“We’ve- never had an issue, outside of birds.” Sun Xiang was aware he was behaving strangely but having Xiao Shiqin’s inquisitive eyes fixed on his own was too much for him to handle and his grip tightened around the glass.
“Hey, careful,” the noise he made when Xiao Shiqin’s hands covered his own to loosen his grip was suspiciously close to a whine which made the other glance up in surprise. Sun Xiang’s eyes were wide with shock and embarrassment which he resolved by retreating back into the living room before Xiao Shiqin could finish forming his question.
Xiao Shiqin blinked in surprise. Sun Xiang had been on edge ever since Yu Wenzhou had brought up the animal that kept showing up around his apartment. Huang Shaotian had been needling at his neighbour ever since Xiao Shiqin had mentioned that the animal was a raccoon and the raccoon he’d seen did have strange coloured eyes- bright blue.
The realisation came to him all at once and Xiao Shiqin huffed out a disbelieving laugh. The raccoon and his neighbour were one and the same if he was right, Sun Xiang was the raccoon. The only question was: what Sun Xiang hoped to achieve by spending time out on his balcony.
Xiao Shiqin kept mulling the question over and over in his head even as he said goodbye to his guests and eventually he came to the conclusion he’d have to catch the other man in the act if he wanted to confirm his suspicions. The trap was easy enough to set, a net on a hair trigger before Xiao Shiqin went to bed. After a few months of wondering what the raccoon wanted, tonight he’d find out.
Sun Xiang shrieked when the trap went off, tangling his limbs in the net as he struggled to get free before Xiao Shiqin saw him-! He hung his head in defeat when he spotted his neighbour, opening the balcony door to bring him inside and while he wondered about acting like a feral animal, if Xiao Shiqin had set a trap then it was likely that he had his suspicions and he was only going to look stupid if he pretended to be an actual animal.
Xiao Shiqin wondered if he’d lost his mind as he stared at the raccoon in the middle of his living room once more. He was certain that when he first saw the raccoon tangled in the net, the animal had an air of resignation surrounding it but Sun Xiang, if it was Sun Xiang, hadn’t transformed back and was just staring at him blankly.
“I know you’re not a raccoon.” Xiao Shiqin startled himself with his words but the raccoon merely chittered to itself as it brushed its fingers through it’s tail, refusing to meet his eyes. “You aren’t a raccoon, you’re Sun Xiang, aren’t you?” When he still didn’t get an answer he sighed, retreating into his bedroom to make a call. Yu Wenzhou picked up just before the ringing stopped, staring with bleary eyes at the screen.
“Shiqin, what do you want?” While he did feel guilty about waking his friend up, this was important.
“Wenzhou, when Shaotian is refusing to shift back, how do you make him turn back?”
“…” The pointed silence from the other end of the line had Xiao Shiqin suspecting that the next time he saw Yu Wenzhou he’d have to beg forgiveness.
“I scratch at his ears until he gets distracted enough that he shifts back. Goodnight.” Xiao Shiqin began planning what he could get his friend to make up for the late night call but he was already moving back into the living room, scooping up the raccoon before it could bolt.
Xiao Shiqin cradled the animal against his chest, one arm keeping it tucked securely against him and with the other he began to scratch below the animal’s chin, keeping the touch light and gentle. For a long moment the raccoon was deathly still until it decided it liked the affection and began to purr, a deep rumble escaping from deep in its chest and Xiao Shiqin took this as an opportunity to keep scratching.
“He’s very good at this.” Was the only thought that was floating through Sun Xiang’s mind. Logically, he knew he should be attempting to escape in order to prevent him being exposed as the raccoon that kept showing up but when his ears were being scratched like that, all he could really do was purr and eventually he slipped off into sleep.
“Heavy-“ Xiao Shiqin’s eyes cracked open as the weight on his chest was becoming suffocating. He started in shock when he found that the weight was none other than Sun Xiang.
“You were the raccoon!” Sun Xiang was startled awake and promptly fell off the sofa and stared up at Xiao Shiqin, cheeks bright red and eyes wide as he began stammering his way through an explanation.
“I just thought you were handsome!” Xiao Shiqin blinked in surprise at this revelation, confusion clear in his eyes and Sun Xiang tried to explain further. “I- I wanted to see if you could stand raccoons before I tried to date you! Because if you didn’t like raccoons then it would be awkward- so I thought that I could find out subtly-“
“You could have just asked me out.” Sun Xiang apparently wasn’t listening as he continued to ramble on.
“-and the last time I tried to date someone they didn’t like raccoons at all and that was uncomfortable and- wait- what?” Xiao Shiqin slid off the sofa to kneel beside Sun Xiang on the floor and he was enjoying the way the shifter seemed so flustered by just his presence.
“I said you could have just asked me out. You’re very pretty and I would have said yes.”
“I- you- I thought-“ Xiao Shiqin smiled sweetly as Sun Xiang struggled to find his words and he shuffled a little closer, caging the shifter in with the sofa at his back.
“Can I kiss you?” He didn’t think Sun Xiang could go any redder but the tips of his ears were tinted red as he nodded quickly, seemingly unable to summon up any words.
Sun Xiang couldn’t believe his luck. Not only had the handsome neighbour not chucked him out of his apartment, he was now perched in Sun Xiang’s lap and tilting his head up to catch his lips in a gentle kiss. He arched up into the kiss, mind blissfully blank with pleasure and satisfaction, blank enough that he completely forgot that he’d have to explain this to his friends later.
“Please stop looking at me like that.” While Zhou Zekai hadn’t made a single noise throughout his entire story, Jiang Botao was in hysterics, wheezing for breath as Sun Xiang recounted the past few weeks.
“He caught you in a net-!” Was all Jiang Botao managed to get out before dissolving back into laughter. Sun Xiang sent Zhou Zekai a pleading glare but his roommate simply raised one eyebrow, meaning clear. He deserved it.
Sun Xiang pouted, (glared, I don’t pout Shiqin) at the continuing mockery but a quick nudge from Xiao Shiqin brought a soft smile to his lips as his boyfriend tucked himself against his side, even as Jiang Botao continued to howl with laughter.
“I guess if I got Shiqin in the end, it’s not so bad,” Sun Xiang mused to himself, content to watch the way his boyfriend’s lips moved as he spoke. “Not bad at all.”